Ampharos

The electric sheep Pokémon gets the SSL upgrade and now has a far more fleshed out moveset. Now a designated zoner with projectiles and long range moves but still with the same tail glow gimmick and light screen platform as before.

Ampharos is a ground based zoner who gains more meter the further away from the opponent it is when it starts attacks. Once enough electricity has been stored in the tail the tail lights up and Ampharos enters an empowered state where its moves do a small amount of extra damage, including specials, and the Strongs become significantly more powerful. However, while the tail is lit up, each time you use a move it drains meter, so use it wisely! Also FStrong will completely drain the meter in one go.

This move is very similar to Project+ Charizard Thunder Punch. Performed on the ground it is a burst movement option that allows Ampharos to travel forwards. When performed in the air however it becomes a diagonally downwards move that goes all the way until it hits the ground. The aerial version can be shield cancelled if it misses after a certain period of time. Is more powerful with a lit up tail.

Ampharos charges up a large ball of energy and sends it flying towards the opponent. This is a very fast projectile that clears the stage quickly though does come with the caveat of it being on a cooldown and also has a small hi lockout afterwards, leaving this as a projectile designed more for long range engagement. When performed in the air the electro ball will travel diagonally downwards instead making this a lot more potent on the ground. Does more damage and knockback if the tail is lit up.

Ampharos enhances it’s Light capabilities in its tail to produce a transparent platform for it to stand on.

Ampharos’ specials have a gimmick to them where the ground versions will always go straight forward and the aerial versions will go diagonally down. This ties in with the Up Special, Light Screen, which allows Ampharos to use the grounded versions of its specials in the air if the platform is placed well.

The enhanced version of Light Screen will see the platform move upwards while standing on it. If the platform is jumped on again after Ampharos jumps off it, it will gradually sink downwards.

Ampharos’ second projectile is a slow moving projectile that on contact with the opponent will stop in place and electrocute them multiple times. This is one of Ampharos’ best moves for building meter but due to how much it hits the opponent each hit only gives half the usual gain. Again this projectile goes downwards if used in the air and is more powerful if the tail is lit.

Other things to note, Utilt and Fair have sweet spots on the tail top

Hope you enjoy this character. Pokémon was a large part of what got me into play video games in the first place, its kind of an understatement to say that without this series I wouldn’t be doing this today.

Check out the Abyss Rune M on this character that applies full Pokémon type matchups. The character is hard coded to check for type matchups against nearly 1000 Workshop characters and not just Pokémon ones too! All of base cast is supported in this type matchup Abyss Rune.

The character was built using Sandbert with Custom AI as a template though the AI has been tweaked to work with Ampharos’ moveset specifically.

Moveset design, spriting and coding by Aperson
Playtesting by ATalksToSelf
J4C and others for feedback on spriting and animation during develpoment.

Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Creatures, Game Freak and the Pokémon Company. This is a fan-made not for profit project.