Current Meta (Together Mode)

Despite its age, Kid Icarus: Uprising is still enjoyed as a multiplayer experience. Although the weapons were designed with balance in mind, players have preferences over certain weapon types due to trends in playing styles. On this page, the current multiplayer trends for weapons, powers and tactics are described.

DISCLAIMER: This Meta assessment primarily applies for Free For All, but does also account for Light Vs Dark.

Weapons and Weapon Types
Weapons are the most dynamically changing factor of the meta, due to the abundance of them and the vast array of play-styles they harbor.

Weapon Types:
Historically, the Claws have been the most popular weapon type with players, due to their speed perks, fire rate and melee damage. This results in an aggressive and quick play-style, which when presented to unsuspecting Cannon or Staff users, can be formidable.

However, over time, weapon use has became quite balanced, with a few weapon types seeing the most use.

1. Claws still reign supreme due to their speed and agility.

2. Clubs have gained popularity thanks to their devastating melee attacks and powerful charge shots – the latter of which can pass through walls (depending on the weapon), and serve as effective crowd control for players occupied in close-range battles.

3. Staffs, despite originally being scrutinised for their slow speed and lack of homing, have gained usage thanks to their devastating charge shots and range. Users can kill foes in a single hit, and still maneuver at good speeds when coupled with movement powers.

4. Blades were created as a balanced weapon type to serve as a starting weapon for new players. However, it has garnered use from more experienced players thanks to its superiority in mid-to-close-range combat.

5. Bows serve as a bridge between Staffs and Blades – long range coupled with bursts of homing shots. Because of this, match-ups of Staffs against Bows are common, and lead to very heated duels.

6. Cannons fire bouncing projectiles which are hard to dodge, making them perfect for crowd control and cornering. Users of this weapon type usually fire from safe distances in open spaces, or try to overwhelm players in indoor environments.

7. Palms garnered popularity early on into the game's life cycle, due to their unhindered movement and homing ranged attacks. However, this mid-range weapon has decreased in importance due to strict short-range and strict long-range weapons becoming more widely used.

8. Orbitars have remained unpopular for most of the game's lifespan due to its similarities to the Palms, and its promise of double damage being compromised by lower fire rate.

9. Arms, despite being quite powerful weapons, Arms are rarely seen in multiplayer due to Clubs and Cannons carrying out its purpose more effectively.

Individual Weapons:
Despite the overall Weapon Type Meta, certain weapons defy it, whilst others are responsible for carrying their weapon type to the top.

WARNING: Due to the 108 weapons available and their unqiue characteristics, this meta is most likely to change and may do so quickly, especially if the muliplayer mode gains traction.

1. Aurum Blade

 The Aurum Blade showcases a high fire rate and DPS, quick yet powerful charge shots and strong homing, allowing it to currently dominate in Together Mode.

2. '''Crusader Blade

Similar to the Aurum Blade, the DPS of the Crusader Blade allows it to easily overpower enemies. It's melee attack is also incredibly powerful.

3. '''Flintlock Staff

Despite its lack of homing, the Flintlock Staff succeeds thanks to its highly powerful charge shots, which gain damage with range. Opponents from long distances can be killed with just one hit. However, it is the weakest weapon in the game in terms of melee attack power, leaving users stuck in close-range attacks unless powers are heavily used.

4. '''Black Club

The Black Club fires charge shots consisting of large metallic balls or a pyramid-like cubic shape, depending on the type of shot fired. These objects travel slowly, but are large and home in on opponents, making even one-on-one ranged battles against the weapon prove a challenge.

5. Beam Claws 

The Beam Claws fire a beam that consistently deals damage, making it a great weapon for establishing pressure on other players. Its movement speed is incredibly fast, and its melee attacks can freeze opponents, making it a popular weapon for aggressive players.

6. Bear Claws 

With the most devastating melee attacks of any weapon, the Bear Claws are incredibly powerful, and can kill foes in seconds.

7. Guardian Orbitars 

The orbitar class is the most underused in the game, but the Guardian Orbitars are an exception. Recently, it has become incredibly popular due to its charge shot consisting of a large shield, that recharges by the time it falls. This allows its users to push aggressively on attacking players and become almost impenetrable.

8. Hawkeye Bow 

This bow is viewed as a direct competitor to Staffs, thanks to its superiority at long range. In contrast to the Staff, however, its shots are quick and can cancel incoming attacks, making it a reveered weapon.

9. Babel Club 

This weapon's strengths are similar to that of the Black Club, but its shots lack homing capability. However, the storm it unleashes can deal consecutive damage to opponents, thus knocking them off their feet and halting their attacks.

10. Ball Cannon 

This weapon fires large cannonballs, which bounce towards opponents. When a player is preoccupied, littered Ball Cannon fire can create a great hinderence to the player and inevitably lead to their demise.

Powers
Contrary to their lack of use early into Together Mode's life cycle, Powers have became an integral part of Kid Icarus: Uprising's multiplayer gameplay.

Originally, buff powers (such as Tirelessness, Impact Amplifier and Lightweight) were by far the most used, and were normally activated after spawning to enhance Fighter abilities such as speed, stamina and strength.

Currently, buff powers are not as heavily used, but still popular. This is due to players who spam buff powers after spawn being easy targets for other players.

The Mega Laser is by far the top tier power, and is absolutely essential for power sets. They can put pressure on players and cause a lot of damage, as well as trap them or cause them to move to weaker positions.

Movement powers have become incredibly popular only recently, due to the discovery of greater agility thanks to them.

The Jump Glide is proving itself as the highest tier movement power thanks to its granting of height advantage to the player, and fast movement without expense of stamina. This allows players to reposition themselves quicker, or disorientate their opponent. Because of the added glide effect, the Sky Jump has been commonly deemed as inferior.

The Rocket Jump supports this, as it is identical to the Sky Jump except the fact that it deals splash damage to surrounding players, making it perfect for evasive maneuvers.

The Angellic Missile has become more commonly used due to its combination of movement and attack. combined with the item "Jump Bomb", this power can allow its user to cover a large distance or travel outside of the field of view of opponents.

Items
Items spawn across the map and aid the player similarly to powers. They can be categorised into Throwing Items and Status-Effecting Items.

Throwing Items:
Currently, the most sought-after Offensive Item is the Smart Bomb. It is similar in effect to the Mega Laser, except rather than damage being dealt through a beam it is dealt in a slowly expanding sphere. Although the item's effect only lasts for a short time, it can lower the HP of a crowd considerably or even defeat fighters who already have little HP.

Poison Cloud also deals damage within a sphere, except it does not grow and has a poisonous effect. The size of the sphere is much larger than that of the Smart Bomb, however. It is usually used to put pressure on the opposition rather than as a direct attack, because its damage output is a slower rate to that of the Smart Bomb. However, the poisonous effect it has on enemies persists even when they are able to escape the area. It is not heavily sought after but is effective within battle.

The Jump Bomb is one of the only multi-purpose items in the game. The bomb can be used for both stunting enemies' evasive manoeuvres and as a method for gaining height advantage. The effectiveness of this second use is debated however, because it leaves players hanging midair for a considerable amount of time before they can escape the updraft onto a higher platform.

Similar to the Jump Bomb, the Cyclone also traps players through use of an updraft, but it will not benefit the player if they choose to walk into it. Fighters who find themselves pulled into a Cyclone receive damage as they orbit in the air. This rids control of both movement and the reticle, making the Cyclone very obtrusive and hard to counter.

Status-Effecting Items:
Happy Trigger is the most common Status-effecting Item. Once collected, it shortens the cool-down time for charged shots, allowing players to achieve a high DPS. However, due to this item being activated upon collection (and having a limited time of use), the player is forced to try and force damage onto their opponent immediately, regardless of the scenario, rather than waiting for a time where they are vulnerable. this makes the effectiveness of this item limited.

This list will be updated in the future to accommodate the changes of Kid Icarus: Uprising's multiplayer scene.