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Summon: Chrom

As the Echo Fighter of Roy, Chrom's moveset and animations are primarily based on those of Roy, and his attributes are identical as well, with excellent yet polarized overall mobility (very fast dashing, air, and falling speeds, alongside a very effective dash dance, but a slightly above-average walking speed, slow air acceleration and a low midair jump) and good frame data for a weapon user. As a result, Chrom shares an almost similar gameplan: he is mainly a rushdown character, who aims to overwhelm his enemy by closing the distance quickly with fast movement. However, Chrom's primary difference is his sword's lack of a sweetspot and sourspot, making him more oriented towards spacing out his opponents at the cost of having lower damage output and knockback up close, compared to Roy (who focuses more on getting up close to his opponent for very hard hits). Chrom also notably lacks any of Roy's distinctive flame effects and reverse-gripped animations, and his forward tilt moves him slightly forward. Finally, Chrom's up special is completely different compared to Roy's, as Soaring Slash functions much like Aether compared to Blazer, and is more effective at racking up damage than KOing while onstage; it can even act as a niche sacrificial KO at extremely low percents out of a forward aerial, and otherwise acts as a deterrent for edge-guarding that Roy lacks. However, this is only effective if Chrom has a stock lead since he is usually KOed first.

Since Chrom's lack of a sweetspot makes his unique attribute similar to his daughter Lucina (who acts as the non-sweetspot/sourspot equivalent of Marth), Chrom's benefits are also somewhat identical to hers: they both share the trait of having the weighted average of their original fighter's damage numbers. As a result, they have more consistent combos, edgeguarding and KO potential than their base characters, and their attacks are significantly safer on shield and on hit than Marth and Roy's sourspots, at the cost of losing out on stronger sweetspots that can end stocks early. However, as Roy's sweetspots and sourspots are extremely polarized in power, Chrom's damage and knockback averages end up being higher-than-average, giving him an overall powerful offense. Additionally, he arguably benefits more from his balanced blade than Lucina does, since Roy's weaknesses are his reliance on getting extremely close and extremely ineffective sourspots; as a result, Chrom suffers less from Roy's main flaws, allowing him to both space and fight up close very effectively. In terms of general capabilities compared to Lucina directly, Chrom possesses faster overall speed and stronger grounded attacks, in exchange for lower jump height, faster falling speed, and weaker aerials. This makes him more capable than Lucina while on or moving along the ground, but drastically less versatile in the air and especially off-stage (mirroring the differences between Roy and Marth, respectively).

Despite his array of strengths, Chrom also has very polarized weaknesses. While Chrom's retention of Roy's high air speed grants him decent survivability with his second jump, his overall recovery and off-stage endurance is notoriously weak, even when compared to Roy, as Soaring Slash grants almost no horizontal distance and only snaps to ledge once he begins the downward slash, making it susceptible to counterattacks and sufficiently long hitboxes. This, combined with Chrom's low jump height and fast falling speed, results in him having one of the worst recoveries in the game, and also one of the most easily affected by semi-spikes and gimps. His poor recovery is only somewhat remedied by his aforementioned high air speed and the presence of his air dodge, which combined with his second jump, allows him to return to stage surprisingly frequently without the need for Soaring Slash. Despite this, Chrom's air dodge remains unsafe even though he relies on it more than other characters for survival. Additionally, he shares similar flaws with Roy: his excellent mobility is offset by a complete lack of projectile-denying tools, making him vulnerable to camping from a handful of characters, and his fast falling speed and low air acceleration makes him vulnerable to combos and juggles (though he has some good tools for escaping such combos, such as neutral aerial and falling up aerial).

Overall, Chrom is a very accessible and effective character and provides for a completely different playstyle from Roy despite their shared attributes and moves. His aim is to strike a balance between aggression and patience, as he has the mobility, range, and damage necessary to switch between gameplans on the fly. However, his very weak recovery mandates that players avoid being thrown off-stage and maintain stage control at all times, as not only is he vulnerable to getting edgeguarded and gimped, but can sometimes also end up in a spot where he is unable to recover at all.

All in all, Chrom's strengths outweigh his weaknesses. He has been viewed extremely positively in the early competitive scene since the release of Ultimate, has multiple dedicated mains such as Rivers and Mr.R who represent him in tournaments, and is a popular secondary pick for many high-level players.

Different from Roy

As mentioned above, the main difference between Chrom and Roy is that Chrom's attacks lack Roy's inverse tipper sweetspots, instead dealing consistent damage across the entire blade. This gives Chrom the ability to space effectively with his sword and makes him more consistent, but in turn doesn’t allow him to secure stocks quite as early as Roy. Regardless though, he can still net some fairly early KOs due to his kill power still being above-average . Additionally, Chrom has altered animations for his neutral attack, forward tilt and up tilt where he holds his sword properly instead of holding it in a reverse grip, and his up smash, down aerial and special moves do not use the flame effect either.

Unlike Lucina, whose only other major difference from Marth is that her up tilt has a timing-based sweetspot, Chrom's additional differences are much more pronounced. His up special is Soaring Slash, a move resembling Aether, which makes Chrom's recovery much less safe than Roy's, but also allows him to perform a sacrificial KO. His forward tilt moves him forward slightly, giving it more range. His neutral aerial uses weight-independent knockback on its first hit (like Marth and Lucina) rather than on its second hit. Chrom's Counter deals less knockback against weaker attacks, but more knockback against stronger attacks. Lastly, his Final Smash, Awakening Aether, is completely different from Roy's, being closer in function to Marth and Lucina's Critical Hit instead.

Because Chrom's lack of Roy's sweetspots and flame-based attacks spreads across his entire moveset, and his up special makes his off-stage presence much less safe for both Chrom and his opponent(s), Chrom is generally considered to be one of the most unique Echo Fighters, alongside Ken and Lucina. As such, these three are not expected to share a spot on the tier list, and are expected to be allowed to be used with their base fighters in Squad Strike.

When this Final Smash is used, Chrom will dash forward while shouting "Anything can change!", "Now I'm mad!" or "Your end has come!" and strike forward with his sword, and any opponent that he hits with it will be stunned. If all of his opponents are hit, the camera angle changes to resemble that of attacks in Fire Emblem Awakening. Chrom then back flips away, then dashes forward while attacking the stunned opponents again with a more powerful strike, sending them flying.