A picture of Duck Hunt, a Smash Bros character

Wild Gunman

External Resources

Wild Gunman's SSBWiki Entry
Duck Hunt's UltimateFrameData Page

Summary

Wild Gunman is Duck Hunt's down special, which summons one of five different gunman in front of the user that fires a raycast bullet horizontally after a set amount of time before despawning.

Each of the five gunmen have different firing heights, damage, knockback angles, and health. The gunmen are summoned from a randomized bag, meaning all five must appear before they are shuffled and drawn again.

After receiving enough damage, the gunmen will be 'defeated', leaving them in a stationary 'shocked state' or knocking them over; this causes them to despawn after a longer period of time.

Because only one gunman may be active at a time, this effectively delays Duck Hunt's ability to summon subsequent gunmen.

Additional Notes

  • The gunman can be used as a light defensive shield, which is particularly effective against weak attacks. This can also stuff certain attack-based recoveries such as PK Thunder.
  • The gunman is effective at covering horizontal space, which is useful for conditioning shield, briefly covering ledge options, or long distance pressure.
  • Because of the long and reactable startup time, Gunman is not usually used in neutral to hit the opponent but rather cover space and force them to either shield or relocate.
  • If gunman is triggered at the edge of a ledge, it will fall slowly until it fires or touches the ground as if it were summoned midair.
  • Common counterplay to a grounded gunman includes runup attacks and grabs, which generally can defeat the gunman pre-fire or be performed outside of its threat range.
  • An opponent hitting a gunman with an attack has hitstun, meaning it can be used to extend the length of incoming attack's frames. You can take advantage of this to punish certain attacks, such as falling aerials.
  • 'Gunman Break': The gunman's shot will interrupt a grab or attack (e.g. jab) by either player. For Duck Hunt, this can potentially lead into followup attacks based on the position of the opponent during the throw's animation. [demo]
  • 'Rapid Jab Lock': Fastfallers hit by a Skinny gunman's Gunman Break can be hit by the rear hitbox of Duck Hunt's rapid jab and be locked in a near-infinite jab string. [demo, 3:31]
  • You can use Gunman's hurtbox to as a means of hitbox extension, similar to Wario's Bike.
  • The black gunman shoots over the can on level ground, while all other gunman hit the can.
  • Gunmen shots will hit projectiles in front of them.
  • The distance of a gunman's shot travels to the lesser of its maximum length and the distance to the closest object in its firing line; it does not pass through objects.
  • The sombrero gunman's shot has fire element.
  • A reflected gunman bullet will usually travel near or just past the center of their own body, which is often just barely long enough to hit Duck Hunt from the summoning position.