Young Link (Super Smash Flash)

This article is about Young Link's appearance in Super Smash Flash. For the character in other contexts, see Young Link.

Young Link is a playable veteran unlockable character in Super Smash Flash, coming from The Legend of Zelda universe. He is a clone character of Link, having the same moves with slightly different properties applied to them. This said, Young Link's sprites were also made by SemiJuggalo, who also sprited Link, in a Mega Man Zero-like style as well.

Young Link is ranked at 23rd on the current tier list. Young Link has two solid projectiles and fairly good range, as well as high jumps. Despite this, he's fairly slow, and he has some of the worst horizontal movement in the air. His projectiles are also slow, and this leads to problems approaching characters. However, due to his smaller hurtbox and less ending lag on many attacks, he is one place higher than Link on the tier list.

Moveset

Attack	Description	Damage
Standard attack	Young Link takes out his Bow and shoots a single arrow lit on fire (which is merely cosmetic as flame effects are not present in SSF) that travels in a horizontal trajectory. As with Link, Young Link can continuously shoot arrows in a row by holding the attack button.	3%
Side attack	Young Link slashes thrice with the Kokiri Sword. The first two hits are horizontal slashes, with the first one having a rather small hitbox compared to the second returning slash. The final is an arched slash that encircles Young Link's head, and its hitbox is considerably larger and has the most range out of the three cuts; consequently, it deals more damage and knockback than the two early slashes.	3%
Up attack	Link thrusts the Kokiri Sword upwards, damaging opponents directly above him; by attacking while jumping, the attack is more reminiscent to its original source.	4%
Down attack	Young Link throws a Boomerang that travels across the floor and then returns through the air, which makes it possible to hit not only opponents on the ground but also airborne opponents. The returning trait of the boomerang is unique among other projectiles, though Young Link is unable to catch it back. The move cannot be used indefinitely by holding the attack button unless an item is holded, so if the player wishes to use another boomerang right after throwing the previous one, they will have to press the attack button again; doing this, though, cancels the first boomerang and neglects its returning property.	3%
Down aerial	Young Link thrusts the Kokiri Sword downwards, damaging opponents directly below him.	4%

Differences from Link

Attributes

He has a much faster attack rate (20 → 15).
He has a better slow modifier (0.3 → 0.5), allowing him to move faster when attacking.
- This also gives him a weaker momentum cancel.
He accelerates very slightly slower (0.6 → 0.58).
His down augmented attacks are 2% weaker (5% → 3% per frame), making them completely useless.

Standard attack

The arrow behaves differently from Link's.
- It comes out 3 frames slower (8 → 11).
- It moves about 40% slower.
  - This allows it to deal more damage overall due to overlapping the opponent for more frames.
  - It can also combo into itself at low percents, making it good for damage racking and early edgeguards.
- It lasts 18 frames longer (19 → 37).
- It travels a much longer distance.
The arrows appear to be on fire, though it is just a cosmetic change.
Young Link's hurtbox is slightly wider, but shorter.

Side attack

Young Link does three slashes instead of two.
The attack's hitbox is wider, but slightly shorter.
Young Link's hurtbox is a bit thinner overall.
Young Link's hurtbox is slightly taller than Link's shortest hurtbox, but slightly shorter than Link's tallest hurtbox.
Young Link's disjoint is larger than Link's and exists for one more frame overall (10/15 → 11/15).
- His disjoint begins at the very beginning of the move.
- He also has a slight disjoint behind him during the latter half of the move.
- Young Link's disjointed hitbox frames are spread out more evenly between his non-disjointed frames, giving him shorter windows to hit his opponent without getting punished.

Up attack

The move lasts 1 frame shorter (11 → 10).
- This also causes Young Link's attacking animation to auto-transition into his falling animation 1 frame earlier (12 → 11).
The attack's hitbox is slightly thinner and notably shorter, giving Young Link a weaker disjoint.
His hurtbox is thinner during the initial crouch and notably shorter during the stab.
- However, his stab hurtbox is more centered, giving him no horizontal range whatsoever.

Down attack

The move does 2% less damage per frame (5% → 3%).
The boomerang comes out 2 frames slower (3 → 5).
Young Link's hurtbox is smaller overall.

Down aerial

The attack's hitbox is thinner and is positioned higher, giving Young Link a worse disjoint, especially beneath him.
- However, it does give him better coverage.
Young Link's hurtbox is a bit smaller.

Other animations

Young Link's standing hurtbox is noticeably smaller.
His crouching hurtbox is thinner.
His running hurtbox is a bit shorter.
His jumping hurtbox is thinner during the initial crouch and shorter during the jump itself.
His falling hurtbox is shorter and notably thinner.
His getting hit hurtbox is shorter.