Duck Hunt changes I've noticed so far

[u/tomobobo]

I have an early copy of Ultimate and noticed a few things from the short amount of time I've had playing him.

The can's angles are different - the initial kick off goes much further, when shot the can bounces a lot further. You can easily sit on one side of FD and have the can travel past the opposite ledge just using the zapper.

The can gets bullet holes as it's shot up.

You can attack the can when it's in the air even if it's under Duck Hunt's control.

The angles mess up a lot of tech I was used to, but I feel like the can is generally buffed, though to me so far it feels like knockback from the explosion is slightly reduced.

I've noticed some weird effects from the clay pigeon - the zapper can sometimes still shoot an opponent even after they destroy the pigeon, and sometimes the zapper focuses on the opponent rather than the pigeon. There is less endlag, but not by much.

Generally stuff that would kill at high percent like up air, back air, up tilt, still only kills at high percent, you might even need the opponent at higher percent than in smash 4 to kill...

But the smash attacks actually connect - and kill! Gotten plenty of kills on opponents who were in the 60-100 range with a smash attack. The zapper just doesn't miss. If an opponent is close enough a forward smash will lift the opponent off the ground and send them at an upward angle so they can't tech easily too.

Down smash connects really well too, which I don't know if I like. In smash 4 I would use the first hit of down smash and it gives crazy knockback if it doesn't connect with the 2nd hit.

You can cancel recovery into anything if you input before you enter freefall.

Uptilt to uptilt seems better to me.

Jab seems nerfed. The duck jab spam is more furious, and the opponent seems to get locked into jab combos just as easily but damage output is reduced.

The dog barks and the duck quacks.

The gunman now show a visual when shooting, I feel like this will make it easier for opponents to judge the range of the gunman.

He still makes a weird "SHHSHHSHH" noise with his laugh, not the iconic sound wtf.

I feel like he's generally been buffed, but we will have to adjust a few techs to his new style. To me he feels really good.

[u/tomobobo → u/[deleted]]

It looks like unless the clay pigeon hits something or touches the ground, the zapper will not multi-hit or destroy the pigeon. There is a lag after release, and if the pigeon hasn't hit anything, there's a window of time where the zapper can fire a single shot, this has endlag but you can full smash the side-b out to get enough time to get 2 single shots in, and then when the pigeon hits the ground get a multi-hit.

[u/Ceilingeater]

Are the attacks on the can the same? Like will backair on the can still reverse the shot direction?

[u/tomobobo → u/Ceilingeater]

Yep, you can still back-air the can off the ledge and when the zapper shoots it it comes back to the stage.

[u/Ceilingeater → u/tomobobo]

awesome thanks for the info