Falling speed

From SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. wiki

Not to be confused withgravity.

Piranha Plant falling inUltimate.

Falling speed is the rate at which a character can move downward in mid-air. A character's falling speed can greatly impact the fighting style - for instance,Fox, a fast-faller, uses his aerial speed to perform attacks out of a short hop and fast fall very quickly afterwards, whereasJigglypuff, a floaty character, uses its low falling speed to attack multiple times in mid-air. Falling speed is measured inunits perframe.

While falling speed's main effect is determining how quickly a character can drop downwards, it also affects the physics ofknockback. After a character is launched, theirgravity still applies, slowing their vertical ascent until the reduction equals their falling speed; as a result, characters with higher falling speed have their vertical knockback reduced for longer, improving their vertical endurance while also hampering their ability to recover from horizontal blows. However,weight is still the main factor in how much knockback is sustained in the first place, and the two factors are independent - a fast-falling character is not necessarily heavy, and vice versa. Samus and Fox are notable examples of this.

The itemsBunny Hood andMetal Box increase the user's falling speed. Some stages can also affect a character's falling speed, such as the flying-type portion ofPokémon Stadium 2 and the falling portion ofSummit.

InSuper Smash Bros. 4, theequipment bonus effects, Thistle Jump and Anchor Jump, can be used to alter a character's falling speed, with Thistle Jump decreasing it, while Anchor Jump increases it. However, both bonus effects also alter a character'sgravity.

InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, moves that launch at angles between 70° and 110° now instead cause characters' falling speeds to be homogenized to a set value of 1.8 untilhitstun ends, making falling speed no longer play a major factor on vertical survivability; however, it still plays a factor on moves outside of this range, as well as moves which deal weight-independent knockback, as they ignore this effect.

All characters can alsofast fall at any time during a descent to increase falling speed, so long as they are not intumble.

Categories of falling speed[edit]

Characters are generally put into one of two groups of falling speed: floaty and fast-faller, each of which has certain advantages and disadvantages depending on playstyle.

Fast-faller[edit]

Fast-faller is a name that refers to characters with a fast falling speed. Fox, Captain Falcon, and King Dedede are prominent examples of fast-fallers, with Fox being unusually light (except inSmash 64) for how quickly he falls.

Fast-fallers enjoy increased speed in the air and, inMelee, fasterSHFFL'd approaches; however, they suffer from shorterrecoveries. They are also susceptible to differentcombos fromfloaty characters. For instance,Captain Falcon canchain grab floaty characters with hisdown throw, but cannot do so against fast-fallers. On the other hand, he cantech-chase fast-fallers (or chain grab them given the right percents) with up throw, which he cannot do against floaty characters. Generally, fast fallers are more vulnerable tochain grabs andcombos (althoughweight and character size are other factors as well); for instance, inMelee,Marth can chain hisup throw on the space animals repeatedly and ultimately finish them off with aforward smash, but this combo is substantially less effective on a floaty character such as Peach or Jigglypuff (although, notably, this chaingrab does not work on fast-faller Captain Falcon, as he is too heavy).

Floaty[edit]

Floaty is a name that describes characters with a slow falling speed. Jigglypuff, Peach, and Samus are prominent examples of floaty characters, with Samus being unusually floaty for howheavy she is.

Floaty characters have great benefits in terms of performingaerial attacks, since one would able to perform multiple aerial attacks in succession (such asJigglypuff's slow falling speed and multiple mid-air jumps allowing it to do thewall of pain) and easier recoveries due to slow falling speeds allowing easier maneuvering. Downsides include vulnerability to beingjuggled, having easily predictable recoveries, or being KO'd vertically easily. On the flip side, floaty characters tend to be less vulnerable to chain grabs and combos.

Super Smash Bros.[edit]

JPN
Rank	Character	Falling Speed
N/A	Metal Mario	100
N/A	Giant Donkey Kong	72
1	Link	64
2-3	Fox	60
2-3	Captain Falcon	60
4	Donkey Kong	56
5-6	Yoshi	55
5-6	Ness	55
7	Pikachu	52
8	Kirby	48
9	Mario	44
10-11	Samus	42
10-11	Luigi	42
12	Jigglypuff	38

NA/PAL
Rank	Character	Falling Speed
N/A	Metal Mario	100
N/A	Giant Donkey Kong	72
1	Captain Falcon	66
2	Link	64
3	Fox	60
4	Yoshi	58
5	Donkey Kong	56
6	Ness	55
7	Pikachu	52
8	Kirby	48
9	Mario	44
10-11	Samus	42
10-11	Luigi	42
12	Jigglypuff	38

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

Rank	Character	Falling Speed
1	Falco	3.1
2	Captain Falcon	2.9
3	Fox	2.8
4-5	Donkey Kong	2.4
4-5	Roy	2.4
N/A	Giga Bowser	2.4
6	Marth	2.2
7-9	Link	2.13
	Sheik
	Young Link
10	Ganondorf	2
N/A	Fighting Wire Frame (Male)	2
11	Yoshi	1.93
12-14	Pikachu	1.9
	Bowser
	Pichu
15	Ness	1.83
N/A	Fighting Wire Frame (Female)	1.8
16-18	Mario	1.7
	Dr. Mario
	Mr. Game & Watch
19-21	Kirby	1.6
	Luigi
	Ice Climbers
N/A	Sandbag	1.6
22-23	Peach	1.5
22-23	Mewtwo	1.5
24-25	Samus	1.4
24-25	Zelda	1.4
26	Jigglypuff	1.3

Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

Rank	Character	Falling Speed
N/A	Giga Bowser	2.5
N/A	Wario-Man	2.2
1	King Dedede	1.95
2	Captain Falcon	1.837
3	Fox	1.831
4	Wolf	1.8
5	Snake	1.73
6	Falco	1.708
7-8	Ganondorf	1.65
7-8	Ike	1.65
9	Link	1.6
10-11	Donkey Kong	1.58
10-11	Sheik	1.58
12-13	Pikachu	1.5
12-13	Marth	1.5
14	Sonic	1.45
15-16	Zero Suit Samus	1.43
15-16	Diddy Kong	1.43
17	Pit	1.42
18	Wario	1.4
19-20	Bowser	1.39
19-20	Meta Knight	1.39
21	Lucas	1.37
22-23	Ivysaur	1.35
22-23	Charizard	1.35
24	Ness	1.31
25-26	Squirtle	1.3
25-26	Olimar	1.3
27	Yoshi	1.29
28-29	Mario	1.28
28-29	Toon Link	1.28
N/A	Fighting Alloy Team	1.28
30	Mr. Game & Watch	1.24
31	Luigi	1.22
32-35	Kirby	1.2
	Ice Climbers
	Lucario
	R.O.B.
36	Zelda	1.13
37	Samus	1.07
38	Peach	1.05
39	Jigglypuff	0.98

Notes[edit]

Excluding Giga Bowser and Wario-Man, no character inBrawl can surpass a falling speed of 2 withoutfast falling. King Dedede comes the closest, falling slightly faster than Yoshi inMelee, with a maximum fall speed of 1.95.
Falco received the largest decrease to his falling speed in the transition fromMelee toBrawl, going from 3.1 to 1.708, a difference of 1.392 units. Conversely, Zelda received the smallest decrease, going from 1.4 to 1.13, a difference of just 0.27 units.

Super Smash Bros. 4[edit]

Rank	Character	Falling Speed
N/A	Giga Bowser	2.5
N/A	Wario-Man	2.2
N/A	Giga Mac	2.2
1	Fox	2.05
2	King Dedede	1.95
3	Greninja	1.85
4	Captain Falcon	1.837
5-8	Little Mac	1.8
	Falco
	Mega Man
	Roy
9	Bayonetta	1.77
10-11	Diddy Kong	1.75
10-11	Sheik	1.75
12-13	Zero Suit Samus	1.7
12-13	Mii Brawler	1.7
14-15	Lucario	1.68
14-15	Cloud	1.68
16	Meta Knight	1.66
17-21	Bowser Jr.	1.65
	Ganondorf
	Ike
	Duck Hunt
	Corrin
22	Donkey Kong	1.63
23	Wario	1.61
24-27	Link	1.6
	R.O.B.
	Ryu
	Mii Swordfighter	1.6
28-29	Marth	1.58
28-29	Lucina	1.58
N/A	Mega Lucario	1.56
30	Pikachu	1.55
31-35	Mario	1.5
	Robin
	Shulk
	Dr. Mario
	Mewtwo
36-37	Pit	1.48
36-37	Dark Pit	1.48
38-39	Sonic	1.45
38-39	Mii Gunner	1.45
40-41	Palutena	1.4
40-41	Charizard	1.4
42	Bowser	1.39
43	Lucas	1.37
44-46	Zelda	1.35
	Olimar
	Pac-Man
47	Villager	1.32
48	Ness	1.31
49-50	Samus	1.3
49-50	Wii Fit Trainer	1.3
51	Yoshi	1.29
52	Toon Link	1.28
53	Luigi	1.25
54	Mr. Game & Watch	1.24
55	Kirby	1.23
56	Rosalina & Luma	1.2
57	Peach	1.15
58	Jigglypuff	0.98

Update history[edit]

1.1.3[edit]

Lucario's falling speed: 1.56 → 1.68

1.1.5[edit]

Samus's falling speed: 1.25 → 1.3

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

When launched at anangle between 70° and just under 110°, all characters use a falling speed of 1.8 until thehitstun ends. This doesn't apply to weight-independent knockback, however.

Rank	Character	Falling Speed
N/A	Giga Bowser	2.2
1	Fox	2.1
2-4	King Dedede	1.95
	Little Mac
	Piranha Plant
5	Mii Brawler	1.92
6	Pichu	1.9
7	Mythra	1.87
8	Captain Falcon	1.865
9-11	Greninja	1.85
	Simon
	Richter
12	Sephiroth	1.84
13-18	Falco	1.8
	Young Link
	Roy
	Chrom
	Wolf
	Mega Man
19	Ridley	1.78
20-21	Bowser	1.77
20-21	Bayonetta	1.77
22-23	Incineroar	1.76
22-23	Banjo & Kazooie	1.76
24-25	Sheik	1.75
24-25	Diddy Kong	1.75
26	Snake	1.73
27-29	Zero Suit Samus	1.7
	King K. Rool
	Kazuya
30-31	Lucario	1.68
30-31	Cloud	1.68
32	Meta Knight	1.66
33-38	Ganondorf	1.65
	Ike
	Sonic
	Bowser Jr.
	Duck Hunt
	Corrin
39-40	Donkey Kong	1.63
39-40	Joker	1.63
41	Pyra	1.62
42	Wario	1.61
43-47	Link	1.6
	R.O.B.
	Ryu
	Ken
	Byleth
48-51	Marth	1.58
	Lucina
	Inkling
	Shulk	1.58
52	Hero	1.57
53-56	Palutena	1.55
	Pikachu
	Mewtwo
	Mii Swordfighter
57-58	Charizard	1.52
57-58	Min Min	1.52
59-61	Mario	1.5
	Dr. Mario
	Robin
62-64	Pit	1.48
	Dark Pit
	Terry
65	Mii Gunner	1.45
66	Sora	1.44
67	Steve	1.42
68-69	Ivysaur	1.38
68-69	Toon Link	1.38
70	Lucas	1.37
71-74	Zelda	1.35
	Squirtle
	Olimar
	Pac-Man
75-76	Samus	1.33
75-76	Dark Samus	1.33
77-78	Luigi	1.32
77-78	Villager	1.32
79	Ness	1.31
80-82	Ice Climbers	1.3
	Isabelle	1.3
	Wii Fit Trainer	1.3
83	Yoshi	1.29
84	Mr. Game & Watch	1.24
85	Kirby	1.23
86	Rosalina & Luma	1.2
87-88	Peach	1.19
87-88	Daisy	1.19
89	Jigglypuff	0.98