Rex & Pyra

This time they can finally fight together again!

Rex & Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 join Rivals of Aether!

Rex has big range and can make use of good spacing and combo tools to rack up damage rapidly.
Pyra acts as an assist in the back, providing Rex with small buffs and has strong stage control potential.
Pair their strengths together to form a scary duo to fight against.

Check out their homestages here:
Gormott (made by ATalksToSelf)
Argentum – (made by GTypeGaming)

Affinity gage

Staying near Pyra or dealing damage will cause the duo to gain affinity, and lose it if they are far away, hit or parried. Depending on how much affinity you have, Rex’s stats will be altered.
You can gain additional affinity if Pyra hits enemies or if Dspecial is held.

Level 1: Rex will see his tilts and aerials damage reduced, but will enjoy a boost of air and ground speed when moving towards Pyra.

Level 2: This is the base level, Rex sees no stat changes.

Level 3: In this empowered state, Rex gains mobility in the form of air speed and dash speed, his airdodge and wavedash are also buffed. His strong attacks will enjoy a boost in knockback, but be aware, Rex will lose even more affinity when getting hit in this level.
Additionally, Pyra will see her blade meter fill up passively.

Pyra will automatically follow Rex around and try to maintain him in affinity range.

Blade meter

Pyra’s blade meter can be gained by hitting opponents or be passively accumulated when affinity is high.
This meter is a resource that is used when Pyra maintains Flame Nova.
Pyra will naturally cancel flame nova when the meter is empty.

Neutral special – Fire slash
Rex shoots fire slash in front of him, struck enemies will be sent towards Rex.
If this move is charged all the way, the slash will be larger, slower and will drag foes along its path.
The charged aerial version has stronger ejection instead.

Forward special – Anchor shot
Rex shoots his anchor and reels enemies in, or drags himself to them if the button is held.
When the anchor collides with terrain, Rex will automatically get pulled towards the point of impact.
It is worth noting that if the anchor latches onto something, you can cancel the move into a jump or any normals.

Up special – Rising Aegis
Rex jumps high while holding his sword in front of him. This move is a simple muti-hit recovery.

Down special – Blade actions
This move is how Rex triggers Pyra’s actions.
Holding the button will make the blade meter fill up slowly, but this is the less important part.

-Release to let Pyra perform Flame Nova after a brief delay.
-Point left or right to move Pyra around.
-Press parry/roll to teleport her to Rex.
-Press attack to have Flame Nova start immediately, but also consume 50% of the blade meter instantly.

-Dash attack can convert into any aerial if done right after it.
-Forward air has a sweet spot on the edge of the swing.
-Back air has a long startup but can hit both sides. (back tip has a tipper on the first few frames, and the frontal hit is a combo tool).
-Try to hold down + taunt for a little while (if you played Xenoblade Chronicles 2, you’ll understand :D)
-Try out Xenoblade!

-Nintendo wii stage (made by ATalksToSelf)

-Rex & Pyra are characters made by MonolithSoft.
-Mod code and sprites made by DoomyWoomy.
-Sounds and voice-acting are taken from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
-Preview title made by my friend @danielbryantdesign on instagram!
-Every single person who supported this project and gave feedback. This helped a lot to improve the mod!

Rex & Pyra are my first rivals mod.
The character may feel clumsy, but I hope you like them!
Any constructive feedback is highly appreciated to make this duo feel as good as possible!

Look forward to more xenoblade fighters in the future!