Neutral Air: Blitz Blast
For his NAir, Ratchet whips out his very first shotgun from Going Commando and immediately fires it in front of him, creating a vibrant firecracker-like streak in an instant flash of light. Enemies hit by this take varying amounts of damage and are pushed away from Ratchet; the gun fires quickly and has very impressive reach for a Neutral Air, but since it is a shotgun most of its power is at the center. Observe:
As you can see, The Blitz Gun’s strength is most potent for those who make contact with the inner burst. Foes will be met with considerable damage and knockback here as they’re launched a solid distance, while those who make contact as the blast begins to branch out receive far less pain and are only nudged gently. The outermost branches cause almost no damage, but the pellets at the end do create hitstun, making this NAir disruptive for those at the tip. The hitstun is just a minor flinch, but no doubt annoying for opponents. Not to mention, this attack perforates foes, allowing multiple targets to be hit in a straight line.
This NAir shares similarities with Mega Man’s and has a wide enough spread to make approaching Ratchet from the front dangerous, but unlike almost all other NAirs Ratchet’s only protecting his front, meaning every other side of Ratchet is exposed and many should take advantage of that fact. Also, many of Ratchet’s attacks run on a move limit that’s more extensive than Robin’s in the form of Self-Replenishing Ammo, so he can only use this and many others a limited time before it’s temporarily disabled. He’ll have to rely on other Attack Inputs and contend with those individual ammo capacities as well, but for simplicity’s sake, Ratchet can use his NAir about 4 times in a row before it depletes. Also, this can be Reflected, Collected and Absorbed.
Ratchet has one more trick up his sleeve with his NAir. Observe:
If you tap the A Button while airborne Ratchet will fire the gun directly in front of him, but if you hold the button and tilt the Control Stick Up or Down, he’ll angle the gun slightly in those directions and the gun will fire repeatedly until you let go. This is useful for those who are slightly above and below, but holding the Button means you’re firing faster and thus depleting it sooner. Also, the gun’s spread is different each time fired; above are just 2 examples.
This attack is GREAT for halting approaches, decent for Crowd Control and good for Edge-Guarding, but has limited usage (like 66% of Ratchet’s moves), only protects the front and has killing power at the start of the blast but nowhere else. Done digitally. Ratchet is Sony’s, Smash is Nintendo’s.