The Man of Steel, one of the most well-known superheroes of all time. Superman appears in MultiVersus as a tank-class fighter. He’s not quite as powerful as usual: he can normally throw airplanes around and shrug off gunshots, but in MultiVersus he has trouble facing a hippie and a basketball player at the same time. Even so, he’s extremely durable – second only to the Iron Giant – and has a collection of tricks that can quickly shut down enemies who step out of line. Here are Superman’s best moves in MultiVersus.
Superman Moveset Overview
Superman MultiVersus standard attacks are as basic as the man himself. He hits hard and slow, and most of his attacks are just variations on a big punch. Oftentimes, though, that’s all you need. Many of his grounded attacks give him temporary armor. Combined with his weight, he can trade favorably against many enemy attacks.
- Neutral Ground Attack: The big punch. It hits very hard, can be charged, and has a hit’s worth of armor. A good kill move, especially against aggressive enemies.
- Side Ground Attack: A multi-hit combo, starting with a one-two punch and leading into a storm of rapid punches, ending in one final, strong hit. There’s a lot of risk and reward associated with this move. The flurry of punches does a ton of damage and locks the opponent in place, but it locks Superman in place as well. You can’t cancel out of the flurry. It can be better to throw the first two punches and follow up with an armored move instead of the flurry.
- Up Ground Attack: The big punch, upward version. It’s shorter range than the neutral punch, but works well against enemies attacking from above. Even powerful dunks like Iron Giant’s cannonball have to respect your armor.
- Down Ground Attack: A downward slamming fist that breaks enemy armor. It’s not as useful as his other grounded attacks, since it’s short-range and unarmored. It’s best used as a combo ender or against an enemy who’s about to apply armor.
- Neutral Air Attack: A flurry of midair punches. It’s quicker than Superman’s ground flurry, and can be used while moving forward through the air. An effective method of trapping an enemy in an advancing hitbox.
- Side Air Attack: A charged punch. Not armored, like his grounded punch, but more mobile. Makes a great midair kill option against offstage enemies.
- Up Air Attack: An upward charged punch. It’s an effective upward kill move, but its range is short and won’t easily beat enemies with larger hitboxes. Superman’s upward special is more reliable.
- Down Air Attack: A downward charged punch. This is Superman’s basic dunk, not as lethal as other characters’, but worth throwing out against struggling enemies.
Superman’s special moves are where his kit starts to get weird. Superman MultiVersus moves:
- Neutral Special: A breath of fresh air. Hold special to keep blowing. This is an awkward move to use, since it’s slow to activate, does very little damage, and doesn’t stun the enemy. Anyone can slap you right out of it. It has a variety of interesting effects, though. Its main effect is to rapidly stack an ice debuff on the enemy, which slows them down and will eventually freeze them solid. There’s also a slight pushback, so you can stay out of retribution range if you’re careful. If you breathe on your teammate, their next melee strike will inflict ice as well, so it’s strongest when icing a target your ally is already beating on. It can also stop enemy projectiles in midair, freezing them into throwable ice chunks. One last, rare use: ice breath can extinguish enemy pillars of fire. The move behaves the same when used in the air.
- Side Special: An aimable teleport punch. Holding the button makes a movable cursor appear, and releasing the button warps Superman to its location, where he does a two-hit punch. The punch is surprisingly strong, and can kill off the side. It’s also one of the sneakier moves in Superman’s arsenal, since it activates quickly and has some armor on the second punch. It’s not too fast to react to, though. The farther your target, the longer the move takes to trigger due to the cursor’s travel time. It also ends early if the cursor would take Superman into the ground. Try to aim the cursor upward, and a little in front of your target.
- Side Air Special: Superman extends his arm forward and soars through the air. It’s pretty slow for a guy who’s supposed to be faster than a speeding bullet, but it makes a great recovery move. It lasts so long that Superman can easily use it to return from the farthest corners of the stage… as long as no one interferes. Also, striking an enemy with the outstretched fist grabs them, ignoring armor, and punches them with enough force to kill at high damage. If you can guess your opponent’s offstage trajectory, you can grab them when they’re trying to recover for an early kill.
- Up Special: Superman crouches for a moment, gaining armor, then leaps into the air. His descent isn’t armored, but it hits enemies in his path, and he lands with a powerful strike that knocks his targets away. Despite its lengthy windup, the attack is not very good. It’s extremely slow, only partially armored, fairly short-range, and has trouble scoring kills even at high damage. It could work in conjunction with a teammate, but is best avoided.
- Up Air Special: Superman’s signature kill move. He flies a short distance upward, grabbing the first enemy he contacts. Once someone is grabbed, pressing a direction throws the victim in that direction. The throw distance is pretty good, and if you can grab someone near the edge – especially at the top of the screen, since it aims upward – you can claim an easy low-damage kill. It can also be used as a reversal. If you’re near the bottom edge and at risk of being spiked from above, try to grab upward. If you hit, you’re guaranteed to kill your target.
- Down Special: Superman shoots lasers from his eyes! It’s not as deadly as it ought to be, though. He shoots along the ground, and enemies are hit by the exploding ground instead of the laser. It’s a decent explosion, with kill potential at high damage. When used on the ground, Superman gains armor during the laser, but he only shoots the area close to him, so the range is poor. It could be worth using to end a string of attacks. In the air, however, Superman aims diagonally downward and hits a wide stretch of terrain. Moving forward while lasering extends the affected area, potentially covering an entire platform. Since it only hits the ground, it’s easy to avoid by jumping, but it’s good damage if you can catch someone. Plus, the blast knocks the enemy straight up. With the right timing, Superman can hit with air lasers, then catch the enemy on their way up with an upward special for a cheap kill off the top. Be aware that this attack has a brief cooldown, so you can’t spam it.
It’s also worth noting that Superman has a high jump compared to the rest of the cast, and can also dodge upward from the ground. This makes chasing enemies off the top much easier.
How to Win 2v2 Battles as Superman MultiVersus
For a paragon of self-sacrifice, Superman doesn’t have many dedicated support abilities. His ice breath gives a minor buff to his teammate, but that’s about it. Superman can survive much longer than most characters, but that won’t help if your partner dies quickly while you’re flying around. Because of this, his team gameplay should be based around getting in the way of the enemy team and taking the hits that he can survive but his teammate can’t.
Throwing an armored punch into a brawl is an effective way of saving your teammate. It’s also possible to do a “strafing run”, covering the ground with laser explosions while your partner advances. Don’t forget to chase down enemies your teammate knocks offstage – your grabs and recovery let you pursue them at any distance.
How to Win 1v1 Battles as Superman MultiVersus
Superman’s low speed and short range make one-on-one confrontations difficult. The flip side is that he can live a long time, and can punish careless opponents with early deaths. Play carefully, and exploit openings as they come. Use your armor to punish, but be aware that everyone has some form of armor break, and will easily counter you if your moves are predictable. Shake them up with quick attacks like an advancing neutral air before striking with a well-placed teleport punch or armored neutral.
Superman MultiVersus Best Perks
Superman MultiVersus best signature perk is Sniper Punch, which increases the range and potency of his teleport. It weakens the move at close range, but he has other attacks that work better close-up anyway. This perk makes his teleport into another lethal option to punish characters trying to recover.
More importantly, his other signature perks are bad. Flaming Reentry adds a minor effect to his grounded up special, but that move is too slow to be worth using. Break The Ice, which increases damage against frosted targets, used to have a few perk setups to raise its potency. Since ice was nerfed, that setup is less effective. Its main use now is to combo with Superman’s ice breath, which is already difficult to connect safely.
For his minor perks, Last Stand is always a good option. Since Superman can easily survive past 100 damage, he can reliably take advantage of the Last Stand power boost. Pairing this with perks that further increase survivability, such as the powerful Tasmanian Trigonometry, can make the effect even more potent. Lastly, Triple Jump is a solid option to secure Superman’s offstage potential, allowing for easier pursuit of airborne enemies.
