Paper Niko

Paper Niko
Paper NikoPaper Okin Paper Niko's render for The Wiki Camp 2

This article is about the cringy af seal from the Paper Niko series and his appearance in The Wiki Camp 2. For the musician, see Seal.

Paper Niko (ペーパーニコ, Pēpā Niko) is a character in The Wiki Camp 2. Alongside Paper Okin (ペーパーコニ, Pēpā Koni), an alternate costume, he was announced as a newcomer on August 27, 2022. Despite some similarities to Niko, Paper Niko functions as a pseudo-clone and is therefore not considered an Echo Fighter.

While Paper Niko has sometimes been portrayed with bitcrushed Niko voice clips in his home series, he does not have a voice actor in The Wiki Camp 2 and instead uses realistic paper crumpling sounds. Paper Okin shares these sound effects, albeit lower pitched.

Gameplay

Strengths

A character of extremes, Paper Niko is the lightest and smallest character in the camp's roster. He possesses by a wide margin the fastest air speed and lowest falling speed, as well as to the ability to air dash—with almost no compensation to his above-average ground mobility.

Despite their generally subpar kill power, Paper Niko's aerials are unmatched in speed, combo ability, and overall versatility. Up and neutral aerial able combo to into themselves at low percents, and down and forward aerial serve as potent combo extenders and finishers. Back aerial is a sex kick that, while only capable of KO'ing middleweights from the center of Final Destination past ~130%, is difficult to contest. All of these aerials can easily gimp recovering opponents.

His up special, Baikal Breeze, briefly grants him the ability to glide after the initial jump, improving his already excellent horizontal mobility. Super Oomfie Attack, a counter, inflicts devastating status effects upon opponents when activated. The rest of Paper Niko's specials are derived from Niko with significant changes. Chief among them is Paper Niko's version of Cement Bag, which temporarily enhances his moveset's offensive capabilities in exchange for increased weight and falling speed (alongside other changes). The sheer amount of kill power this special provides to Paper Niko cements Cement Bag as his best tool.

Weaknesses

On the downside, his stubby attack range, lack of a projectile and abysmal survivability as the camp's lightest character make approaching a huge commitment. His kill power without Cement Bag is severely lacking; aside from his smash attacks, nearly all of his grounded normals struggle to kill at realistic percents. Nerpa on the Prowl's faster startup does little to offset its endlag or its weaker damage and kill power compared to Niko's version. Also worth noting is that water-based attacks deal 1.1x damage to Paper Niko—while there exist few matchups where this mechanic applies, and even fewer where it actually matters, it nonetheless remains a liability.

Although Cement Bag improves his survivability and kill power, it introduces its own slew of problems. A combination of slower movement, lower jumps, laggier attacks, and heavier weight make escaping combos difficult. Likewise, Paper Niko's recovery is worse; Baikal Breeze, for example, covers less vertical distance and eschews gliding in favor of an aimable, but predictable downward slam. Most crucially, Paper Niko is forced to commit to these changes once Cement Bag is activated, as they cannot be cancelled at any point in their 30-second duration.

Summary

Overall, Paper Niko is swift and evasive character who can easily weave in and out of disadvantage. When given the chance to get in, his rapidfire aerials enable him to rack up massive amounts of damage to opponents before finishing them off by either using the augmented kill power provided by Cement Bag, or simply gimping them with his aerials. However, his poor range and light weight heavily restrict his approach; especially against characters with projectiles or disjoints, even the smallest hiccup can result in Paper Niko losing a stock. These attributes, combined with his general reliance on Cement Bag—a move littered with its own flaws—to secure a kill, can make for a linear and increasingly easy to counter playstyle at higher levels of play. Those looking to pick up Paper Niko should incorporate a mix of rushdown and hit-and-run tactics into their gameplan to get the most out of this character.

Role in Story Mode

Challenge 1

While Paper Niko himself does not make an appearance in Challenge 1, the character page created for him contains a picture of his render.

Trivia

• Paper Niko's inclusion makes him the camp's second character from the Toba Aquarium universe (after Niko) and the sole representative of the Paper Niko sub-universe.
  • However, due to Niko's removal from the roster in the Day 1 Patch, Paper Niko is currently the only playable Toba Aquarium character.
  • This also applies to their respective alternate costumes, Okin and Paper Okin—the latter now being the only playable Toba Aquarium antagonist.
• Paper Niko's in-game weakness to water attacks is most likely a nod to the fact that he is made out of paper.