Alexis
Alexis Claire Wickson, an original character of mine from a project I call Memento Magi, joins the fray in Rivals of Aether! A college sophomore who one day finds herself thrust into the conspiracy of a lifetime, Alexis uses the opposing disciplines of both magic and technology to fight. Together, she wields them as one in an all-rounder playstyle with a heavy focus on setups.
Alexis’ DSpecial and USpecial are two very versatile stage control tools– and some of the most complex moves in her kit. The two things they share in common is that they can both be controlled remotely with their respective input, and that they both have their own offensive function that can be performed by pressing ATTACK, SPECIAL, or STRONG while controlling it. When controlling either of your gadgets, you can press PARRY to stop and control Alexis again.
Alexis rides a makeshift hoverboard by propelling herself with a burst of magic, ascending high into the air before falling back down. Landing or pressing PARRY while falling will turn the scrapboard into a platform. The platform can then be remote controlled if Alexis inputs USpecial again from the ground.
While controlling the board, hold left or right and press ATTACK or SPECIAL, or input left or right STRONG to flip it sideways! While it’s flipping, anyone standing on it (including Alexis herself) will be catapulted off. While your board is flipped, it can block projectiles and be wall jumped off of, and opponents that are hit into it will bounce off of it.
Alexis places down a small robot in her likeness. The robot passively takes the time to find things for you, which grant Alexis a brief buff when picked up. When controlled, the robot moves like a player character, but cannot dash, double jump, or perform any defensive options.
Normally, your robot takes a bit of time to find something, but when you control it remotely, you can scan opponents by pressing ATTACK, SPECIAL, or STRONG– which makes it find an item instantly on hit! Be careful, however, as controlling your robot makes it vulnerable to attack. When your robot already has something, it will instead throw its currently held item as a projectile. Even though the robot can’t be hit on standby, opponents can still scare it into dropping its item by attacking it or running/wavedashing past it. When it gets startled, it loses a point of health.
There are 5 goodies your robot can find in total: 2 common "Items", which are highlighted in white; and three rarer "Trinkets", which are highlighted in gold. Though what it finds is semi-random, it never finds the same thing twice in a row and searches in a specific order by rarity: Item -> Item -> Trinket -> repeat. Items provide simpler buffs for a shorter time, and are found by your robot faster; Trinkets last longer and affect Alexis’ moveset in more complex ways.
– Boosts the damage of your physical attacks (i.e. all strongs, DTilt, Jab 1 & 2) by 20%.
– Boosts the knockback of your physical attacks.
– Boosts the damage of your magical attacks (i.e. Jab 3, NSpecial, all aerials) by 20%.
– Adds extra hitpause to your magical attacks as a slight stunning effect, enabling stronger combos.
– Chargeable moves (NSpecial and all strongs) charge twice as fast. Also grants you the ability to charge your gun attacks (FTilt, UTilt, NAir, FAir, FSpecial).
– Removes the sourspots from any magic attacks that have them (FTilt, DAttack, NAir, BAir, DAir). Also increases the priority of USpecial’s magic sweetspot, making it easier to land.
+ Gadget Guard
– Reduces damage taken from all incoming attacks by 33%. Also slightly improves all knockback-related stats (knockback adjustment, hitstun gravity, and air friction in hitstun only).
– Interacting with your gadgets (standing on/wall jumping off your scrapboard, scanning yourself with your automaton) gives you a shield that can block up to 9% of damage. This shield lingers for 5 seconds even after the buff ends.
A chargeable spell that has Alexis cast a bolt of thunder magic as a projectile. When fully charged, the projectile becomes much larger and can be steered slightly. Pressing PARRY can cancel the charge, but will not store it.
Try using this move on your scrapboard while it’s flipped!
Alexis fires a blinding flash of light from the camera part attached to her pistol. This stuns opponents on the ground, the stun time scaling with percentage– good for securing kills. On aerial opponents, this is instead a high-hitstun/low-knockback hit, which can be used to force tech chases. Be warned, as this attack doesn’t work on opponents facing away from you.
This move can also be used on your robot to “reroll” an item you don’t want from it, causing it to swap it out for a different item of the same rarity.
Jab 3 can be used to fix your gadgets if they are damaged.
Alexis’ gunshot aerials (FAir, NAir) have a bit of recoil, giving her a small vertical boost– this boost is increased if these moves are charged via the Hyper Battery. Holding DOWN or PARRY during these moves prevents the boost from happening.
Alexis’ strong attacks have her use other machines: her FStrong, the Scrapslinger, is a shotgun-like device that hits the hardest point-blank. Conversely, her UStrong, Rocket Punch, has a “tipper” sweetspot on the outer part of the move where the flame is. Her DStrong, Drill, can dig through platforms if you hold down while using it, causing her to fall through and plummet downwards.
Alexis also has a special taunt that can be performed by pressing PARRY + TAUNT.
JH – character concept, art, programming, trailer
Delta Parallax – magic hitsounds, Fspecial vfx, Dspecial common item hfx
hyuponia – preview word art, CSS alt selection template
SupersonicNK – article hit code template, coding help + polish
accentaigoo – victory theme, trailer music
sirsamgrace – character voice
The rest of the All-Star Heroines team – for being awesome
