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The Skill Design of S-17

3K View2021-10-29

Hey there Party players, it's TGIF again! Are ya planning for a whole weekend of Party battlin'?

We recently shared about S-17’s hero design here, and now we’d like to cover her skill design to round off our thoughts about her development. A masterpiece made by one of our senior designers, she has both stunning visual features and is also created as one of the most powerful heroes in aerial attacks (thus far!).

Though S-17's an android, we wanted to make her appear more human-like by designing her skills to look more natural, as opposed to being stiff and rigid like a robot.

S17’s weapon is her most outstanding feature. The shield with an attached chain is also the secret to her excellent aerial attacks and interception capabilities. Hence, she has two types of skills when using her shield: She can either focus her attack on a single spot, or launch a mid-range attack by spinning her shield.

(Attacks on a single spot)(Mid-ranged attacks with her shield)

S-17 can also throw a flying axe into the air by using Neutral Special. The axe flies diagonally upward and knocks out the opponent upon impact. While the axe doesn’t fly very fast, it can still deal a considerable KO score. Meanwhile, her long attack range can effectively limit the possibility of the opponent’s return to the stage. When her opponent is knocked out of the stage, use this skill and aim to knock them out again, or to stop your opponent from edge clinging. Either way, their options to come back to the stage become very limited. (Psst, can you guess where she hides this axe? It’s right there between her shield and arm!)

On the other hand, S-17’s Down Special is a defensive skill that also acts as a counterattack, similar to Sophia’s Down Special [Home Base Comeback] and Alice’s Neutral Special (Sticker) [Kudos to You]. The difference is that we can drag the joystick to adjust her position when in midair, or even lift her up slightly when using Down Special. Hence, it allows her to counter the opponent. For example, when your opponent moves towards you with an attack (e.g. Sophia’s Side Special), S-17 can use this skill to directly attack the incoming opponent. However, do note that this skill has a longer ending lag compared to Alice’s and Sophia’s skills mentioned above. Therefore, getting the timing right is more critical.

S-17 can also throw her fast-moving shield like a yo-yo by using Down Attack, dragging the opponent back and then knocking them out. As most of her skills focus on aerial range attack, she has less advantage in close-up combat. However, her Down Attack can cause considerable damage to the opponent in front of her, because of the excellent attack range and the ability to drag her opponent back in front of her. As follow-up attacks, you can chain other moves depending on how high their KO Score is, and decide whether to knock out the opponent again or to force them into midair, where S-17 is most powerful.

(Using Down Attack as the first move in a combo)

(Using Down Attack against the opponent clinging on the edge)

There ya go! We hope this article can help you better understand our new hero S-17 and her skills. What do you think is most eye-catching about S-17? If you have interesting ideas or suggestions about her skill design, do feel free to share them in the comment section below!

Have a lovely weekend ahead~

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