Velma Dinkley is a Fighter from the Scooby-DooUniverse in MultiVersus. She was teased on the official Twitter account on March 4th, 2022[1] and was fully revealed on May 16th, 2022.
Velma Dinkley is one of the core members of Mystery Inc., the amateurish crime-solving group of friends from the Scooby-Doo franchise. She's a very intelligent, sarcastic, and sharp-witted teenager with a thing for solving mysteries. Velma's considered the smartest member of Mystery Inc., as she's often the first one to decipher the clues and find the culprit's true identity.
According to the main lead writer for MultiVersus, Velma's portrayal in the game comes from an unknown cancelled Scooby-Doo reboot from the 2000's.[2] Some of in-game Velma's personality traits also match with those of her depiction's from the 2010 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated animated show, though whether this is intentional or not remains to be seen.
Official Biography[]
Jinkies! We've got a mystery to solve!
Velma has been solving mysteries since most people were still in diapers. With her insatiable appetite for answers and expert nose for knowledge, she’s the perfect mystery-solving machine. These days, she’s the undisputed super sleuth of Mystery, Inc., traveling with her friends to uncover criminals and bust hoaxes wherever she goes. She can sometimes get in over her head when she forgets to take her nose out of her books, but don’t underestimate her - Velma Dinkley can still kick some serious butt when she needs to.[3]
Default Variant[]
Velma's default appearance is largely based on her general look used in Scooby-Doo media, with a few tweaks here-and-there to match with her design from the 2020 animated movie SCOOB!.
Velma's Official Artwork from the Scooby-Doo franchise.
Velma's Official Artwork from SCOOB!.
Gameplay[]
Velma is a Support-type character who specializes in heavy zoning and poking while offering various effects that can aid allies and cripple enemies. Her Neutral Attack launches speech bubble projectiles that, once hitting an enemy/ally, will set them as targeted, causing subsequent bubbles to lock-on to them; only one enemy or ally can be targeted at a time. Almost all of Velma's attacks have disjointed hitboxes, for instance, in her Side Air Attack, she pulls a flashlight and flashes it at her enemies, dealing a fantastic poke.
Her main Passive Ability revolves around collecting clues, which will spawn randomly around the Map, but also have a chance to appear when hitting enemies with certain attacks, namely her Air Side Attack, Up Attack (both ground and air), Ground Down Attack, Neutral Special and Up Air Special. Collecting enough evidence and filling the gauge unlocks a temporary new Ground Down Special for Velma, where she summons the Mystery Machine to pursue the closest enemy; if it catches them, they'll be incapacitated temporarily, and the vehicle will attempt to fall off the blast zone, taking their victim with it. Enemies inside the Mystery Machine can be damaged. The Mystery Machine can be destroyed by enemy attacks. If Velma is ringed out, her evidence meter will reset.
Velma's Neutral Special has Velma pulling a megaphone and delivering a speech in the form a very long ranged beam, which can hit enemies and allies alike, dealing damage and healing, respectively. The final hit of the beam applies targeted and one stack of weakened to enemies, while if it hits an ally, it'll create an additional beam that deals more damage and knockback. This attack is notable as it only goes on cooldown if Velma fully channels it. This ability halts Velma's momentum in the air, being a great mix-up when recovering.
Her Ground Up Special is e decent stage control ability, while its aerial version not only can break armor and spike, but can also be comboed out of her Down Air Attack and Up Air Attack against low percentage enemies, being a fantastic combo starter. Her Grounded Side Special can catch enemies by surprise if properly used, while the aerial version can aid her recovery. Lastly, Down Special is unique as it reduces Velma's and her ally's cooldowns, at the expense of the ability having a very long cooldown itself.
Velma's fantastic utility is offset by her dependency on cooldowns, as well as her frailty. Despite her many disjointed hitboxes, she has limited options against rushdown characters, that can prevent her from using her many ranged abilities. In addition, some of her attacks are very situational since they're telegraphed or slow, giving enemies plenty of time to react, such as her Ground Side Special, which takes very long to charge, being hard to use effectively in 1v1, while being even easier to intercept in 2v2. Lastly, her Ground Side Attack, while being a powerful zoning tool, has a bit of lag between the second and third hits, allowing enemies to dodge away.
For 2v2 fights, Velma is at her best with allies that can provide a solid frontline, to allow her to spam her abilities and speech bubbles safely. Iron Giant and Superman are formidable at that, and the latter has great synergy with Velma thanks to his Ground Up Special to quickly build-up stacks of ice and freeze enemies. Given her Down Special being able to reduce cooldowns, she pairs extremely well with other heavy-cooldown users, such as Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry. One of her most formidable pairings is Morty, who can cause havoc in the battlefield with his grenades while possessing a powerful and versatile kit that synergizes with Velma's, in addition to also being cooldown dependent. Because of her many cooldowns, Velma greatly benefits from Perks that grant cooldown reduction, such as Coffeezilla.
JINKIES! Velma trips while shouting a word bubble.
NEUTRAL J
SUPPORTIVE WORDS Velma CHARGES a motivational speech beam PROJECTILE that hits enemies. When it overlaps an ally, a bubble forms around the ally before detonating shortly afterwards.
SUPPORTIVE WORDS Same as ground.
SIDE 🡆 + J
QUIP MASTER A COMBO of quips.
LIGHT 'EM UP Velma CHARGES a flashlight flash. Has a chance to spawn EVIDENCE on hit.
UP 🡅 + J
BRIGHT IDEA Velma CHARGES an idea light bulb. Has a chance to spawn EVIDENCE on hit.
BRIGHT AIR-DEA Similar to ground, without CHARGE.
DOWN 🡇 + J
CALCULATED VICTORY Velma CHARGES a calculation PROJECTILE that hits enemies forward. Applies ARMOR to all allies hit. Has a chance to spawn EVIDENCE on hit.
MY GLASSES! Velma CHARGES before briefly dropping her glasses, knocking enemies downward.
SPECIALS
GROUND
AIR
NEUTRAL K
MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER Velma delivers a motivational speech beam PROJECTILE that repeatedly hits enemies and HEALS overlapping allies. The final hit of the beam applies TARGETED. If the final hit lands on an ally, they are HEALED and they will fire an additional beam. Velma can aim the beam up or down. Has a chance to spawn EVIDENCE on hit. COOLDOWN applies.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER Same as ground.
SIDE 🡆 + K
FAST THINKER Velma CHARGES a sprint forward. CHARGING increases the speed of the sprint. Allies can hop into Velma's arms for the sprint, increasing the attack's power and giving Velma and her ally ARMOR and GRAY HEALTH. Enemies will be GRABBED by Velma and thrown upwards at the end of the sprint. COOLDOWN applies.
HIT THE BOOKS Velma opens up a textbook that knocks enemies backward and propels her forward.
UP 🡅 + K
TOXIC CONCOCTION Velma spills a toxic goop HAZARD on the ground and jumps upward. Enemies standing in the goop will receive continuous STACKS of ICE, before eventually FREEZING.
SHUTTERBUG Velma snaps a picture downward with a camera that sends her and enemies upwards, BREAKING ARMOR. Has a chance to spawn EVIDENCE on hit.
DOWN 🡇 + K
SPREAD THE KNOWLEDGE Velma throws a book PROJECTILE that homes onto her ally. Velma and her ally CLEANSE all debuffs and receive EDUCATED if the book hits them, reducing the duration of their COOLDOWNS. COOLDOWN applies.
SPREAD THE KNOWLEDGE Same as ground.
PASSIVE ABILITIESSNOOPIN' During the match, EVIDENCE will appear, either at random or when Velma uses certain moves. Velma and her ally can pick up EVIDENCE to fill up her EVIDENCE METER. When the meter is full, Velma can call the MYSTERY MACHINE. The MYSTERY MACHINE will seek out the nearest enemy, DISABLE them, and attempt to drive off the map. Enemies must STRUGGLE to escape the MYSTERY MACHINE. Enemies can attack the MYSTERY MACHINE to try and release their teammate.
When Velma uses her ground neutral dodge, she will briefly spawn a barrier that BLOCKS incoming PROJECTILES.
Fixed several issues where Velma's speech bubbles would be destroyed when they shouldn't be.
~ Aerial/Grounded Neutral Special
Megaphone is now classified as a projectile. Early hits are Light projectile hits, Final hit counts as a Normal projectile hit.
Megaphone now applies projectile perks
Megaphone is more reliably blocked by other projectiles and projectile-blocking effects
Megaphone will ignore invulnerable fighters including those with a projectile sidestep buff
- Aeriel Up Attack
Has 2 less active frames at the start of the hit frame.
- Grounded Side Special
Added 12 seconds of cooldown
Velma's Side Special is commonly used as a quick “pitstop” tool that serves as a means to supply her allies with constant gray health and armor when engaging enemy teams. Providing Velma's Side Special with cooldown allows us to provide a gate so that Velma players aren't able to consistently “micro armor” their allies (and self). This adjustment to Velma's Side Special will ideally still allow Velma players and their allies to more mindfully strategize around this move.
It was an oversight on our part that Velma is one of the heaviest characters in the game. This change should bring her more in-line with where we originally envisioned her.
