Super Smash Bros: Pyra and Mythra fighters’ guide

Smash Bros has once again smashed it out of the park (Nice – Ed.) with its newest addition to the ever-growing roster — the one and only Pyra and Mythra. While they are technically one character, players can actively switch between the two at will and there are numerous reasons that you will want to do so when playing them. 

Throughout this piece, I will be diving into what makes these wonderful ladies unique and exactly how to go about playing them. As usual with these fighting game character guides, I will try to mention the overall game plan alongside some of the specific scenarios when it comes to certain attacks. 

Introduction to my new mains: the legendary Aegis

For those of you who don’t know, Pyra and Mythra are the main “Blade” from the game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch — phenomenal game, go play it.

In the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there are “Drivers” and “Blades“. Blades are essentially weaponised lifeforms that form a bond upon awakening with their Driver. Drivers are the owners of these Blades and receive the immense power that blades produce.

The primary consciousness, Mythra, is known as the Aegis — a legendary Blade that can grant immense amounts of power to her driver. Due to events that caused tremendous destruction 500 years ago, Mythra sealed herself away and created a secondary consciousness within herself named Pyra. While they share body and mind, they are individual characters who share similarities — but also have many differences. 

Unlike Mythra, Pyra is much more gentle, caring, and tolerant towards others. Pyra is great at cooking, unlike Mythra, and she doesn’t share Mythra’s awful sleeping habits. While Pyra constantly reminds us that her power is nothing compared to Mythra’s, she is still incredibly powerful. The relationship between these two is honestly wonderful and they are two of my absolute favourite characters from any RPG. 

Game plan: Mythra

You as the player have the ability to actively switch between both of these Aegis forms throughout the match, so the most important thing is to understand what each form specialises in and when to use them. 

We’re going to start with Mythra as she will be the form you will spend a large amount of time in, at least until you can get the opponent into killing range. Just like her elemental affinity with light, Mythra is insanely fast — not just on her feet, but the frame data on her attacks is incredible as well. This speed is something you want to make as much use of as possible as it grants you access to things that Pyra can’t possibly attain. 

As soon as the round starts you want to try to pressure the opponent. Mythra’s aerial attacks are incredible pressure tools and her dash attack is one of the fastest in the game. Alongside this, Mythra’s grab is just as quick, so there are numerous ways to slam the foot on the gas immediately and start dishing out damage. 

The main thing you need to remember as Mythra is that, quite literally, everything she has combos into something. Her aerial attacks will send the opponent flying at a low angle allowing her to quickly follow-up with more attacks and all of her tilt attacks can link into one another. The second most important thing to remember is that Mythra has a hard time actually finishing the opponent off — makes sense really, a character can’t be this good at combo’ing and have killing power. 

Mythra key attacks

All Tilt attacks: All of Mythra’s tilt attacks combo into one another at the lower to medium percentages. They can also be followed up with other attacks such as her aerials and dash attack. Specific tilts, such as down tilt, will even combo into unique attacks — namely her Lightning Buster.

Aerials: Similar to her tilts, you can attain some incredible combos and pressure from Mythra’s quick and safe aerial attacks. Her back-air is her main attack when it comes to combo length as this sends the opponent at such an angle that allows for easy follow-ups. 

Up-Smash: Mythra’s smash attacks are fairly standard, but it is important to know that her up-smash is a great option for punishing an opponent when they hit your shield. This attack has a very fast start-up, so it might just net you some good damage.

Side-Special: Side-B or Photon Edge is an attack that hits numerous times, in which Mythra will dash across the screen multiple times. While this does good damage and covers a massive horizontal range, if the opponent blocks it, you might just get knocked out.

Up-Special: The main thing to remember about this is that just pressing up+B will make Mythra attack as she jumps, then fires a single shot that will almost always hit. If you hold the B button, she will fire a volley of shots instead, so this option is better when you’re trying to stop the opponent from getting back on stage. 

Neutral Special: When pressing the B button, Mythra will perform her Lightning Buster. A powerful multi-hitting attack that can be charged in order to increase the number of hits and damage. This is quite situational, as it can be hard to land, but it is one of Mythra’s only killing moves. 

Down-Special: Pyra

This is where all of your kill power lies — if Mythra is the speed, then Pyra is the power. All of the tilts and aerial attacks for Pyra are the same as her faster half, however, they are much slower and most of them will leave you in a punishable state. The trade-off is that almost every attack Pyra has can kill very easily. 

The main area where Pyra differs from Mythra is in her special attacks. Similar to most of Pyra’s attacks, her special deals a lot more damage but they also offer different advantages than the moves of Mythra. One of the things to consider when playing these two is that most people will become more defensive once they see Pyra come on screen because they know you want to try and land a killing attack. 

There are numerous situations throughout a match that may call for a Pyra switch, and this way your opponent will have to adapt differently. Using the momentum and pressure that Mythra offers can set up amazing situations for Pyra to suddenly appear and shine. 

Pyra key attacks

Side-Special: Side-B is an attack where Pyra will throw her sword out in front of her, the sword will set on fire and spin in place for a few seconds. This attack can be thrown at 2 set distances that are dependent on whether you tilt the control lightly or smash it harder. This attack is amazing for ledge guarding the opponent as they try to get back on stage. 

Down-Air: I mentioned previously that most of Pyra’s normal attacks are the same as Mythra’s, but down-air requires a special mention as it has some special traits. When the opponent is around 60-70%, Pyra’s down-air will ground bounce the opponent and link into an up-smash or up-air in order to kill. This is very similar to the way Arsene’s down-air works. 

Neutral-Special: Pyra creates a wheel of fire around her that then explodes. Similar to Mythra’s, this attack can be quite hard to land, but it most certainly has its uses. For example, if the opponent is on the ledge of the stage, Pyra’s neutral-special will hit the opponent if they try to roll past you onto the stage. It can also change up Pyra’s momentum when in the air, so if you have a good read on your opponent you might be able to land this. 

Up-Special: Pyra quickly launches into the air, then comes plummeting down and creates a massive geyser of fire. This is much faster than the up-B of Mythra and is just as good to use out of shield. Considering the speed that this attack comes plummeting down, you can sometimes catch your opponent off guard when they try to pressure you. 

Check out our Smash guide on the infamous One-Winged Angel, Sephiroth!

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