Hitlag

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Not to be confused with hitstun.

An example of hitlag in the first hitbox of Wolf's forward tilt.

Hitlag (also known as hitstop or freeze frames, and officially known as hitstun) is a phenomenon that appears in all games of the Super Smash Bros. series whereby a character will freeze for a period of time after connecting with an attack.

If successful with most attacks, both the attacker and target are frozen in time for a number of frames. This causes the attack to get "stuck" out longer than it would if it had not hit anything, while the target has a short time to react before the knockback occurs. This is most easily noticed in multi-hit attacks such as Yoshi's down aerial; the attack takes less time to finish if it does not hit anything.

Once the hitlag has passed, both sides resume action. During hitlag, defending characters are capable of performing smash directional influence to get out of combos or multi-hit moves, or to increase their chance for survival.

In several other fighting games, the amount of hitlag frames often dictate the attack level of connecting attacks, ranging from light-to-heavy; the more frames there are, the heavier the attack in question is (factors often completely independent of damage inflicted). Hitlag often times allows for a window to transition into another attack via cancel if there exists such a window, or at least plan the next action both in the attacker's case (though as aforementioned solely in the case Smash, smash DI is an action the victim can utilize).

Hitlag serves two primary functions. The first is a visual indicator that an attack connects. The brief moment where both fighters freeze allows both players to plan their next moves. The second is to sell the impact of a move whenever it connects. Strong attacks with high hitlag feel like they have weight and power behind them when the freeze happens.

Formula

The formula for calculating the number of frames of hitlag experienced by both the attacker and victim has been different for most of the games:

• In Super Smash Bros. Melee, it is (d/3 + 3) * m.
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, it is (d * 0.3846154 + 4) * m
• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it is (d * 0.65 + 6) * m.

For all these cases, the final result is rounded down. d is the amount of damage an attack would deal rounded down, while m is a series of multipliers based on certain factors, including:

• Electric effect (1.5× for the victim only in Melee, and for both the attacker and victim in every other game)
• Crouch canceling (0.666667× in Melee and 0.67× in Brawl onward, applied to the victim only in all games)
• In Melee, the intermediate result is rounded down before applying the electric modifier and before applying the crouch cancel modifier. If both modifiers apply, the electric modifier is applied first.
  • Similarly in Ultimate, the intermediate result isn't rounded down but gets rounded down after applying each modifier.
• From Brawl onward, every hitbox has its own hitlag multiplier, with the default being 1×. For example, the majority of Marth's attacks have a hitlag multiplier of 1.25× if the tipper connects, and 0.7× otherwise. These multipliers apply to both the attacker and victim.
  • In Brawl and Smash 4 prior to version 1.1.0, shielding opponents were not affected by these hitlag multipliers; therefore, moves with below-average multipliers were safer on shield, while those with above-average multipliers were less safe, as the attacker experienced less or more hitlag (respectively) than the shield user. Beginning in version 1.1.0 of Smash 4, shields are properly affected by hitlag multipliers, therefore removing the difference in shield safety caused by them.
    • In Smash 4, starting in version 1.1.0, if the hitlag multiplier of a move is higher than 1×, it is multiplied by 0.8× if it hits a shield, though without dropping below 1×. For example, the 1.25× hitlag multiplier of Marth's tippers is reduced to 1× if they are shielded. This applies only to the attacker in 1.1.0, and to both the attacker and victim from 1.1.1 onward. As a result, in the former case, moves with above-average hitlag are effectively safer on shield, while in the latter case, shielding them merely reduces the usual hitlag period.
• Some moves are coded to deal no hitlag at all, either by being given a hitlag multiplier of 0×, or using a special parameter that disables hitlag when turned on. Examples of such moves are Bowser Bomb in Brawl and Falco's Reflector in Smash 4.
• In Ultimate, if Spirits are turned on in the Rules, regardless of if any spirits are used in the match, hitlag growth beyond 15 frames is reduced to about a third of its usual rate (0.65→~0.2‎), likely to prevent moves from dealing excessive hitlag due to damage increases.
• In Ultimate, if a move is shielded, hitlag is multiplied by 0.67× for both the attacker and victim, and the move's hitlag multiplier is ignored if it is lower than 1×. This is especially noticeable for moves such as Cloud's Limit Cross Slash, which normally uses a hitlag multiplier of 0.3× for its linking hits; the move's hits transition considerably slower if it hits a shield. Additionally, in battles with more than two players, there is another multiplier that reduces all hitlag proportionally to the amount of players:

Players (Ultimate)	Multiplier
2	1.0
3	0.925
4	0.862
5	0.8116
6	0.77464
7	0.752464
8	0.75

As shown by the formulas, the general amount of hitlag on moves is at its lowest in Melee, and has since increased throughout the series, with Ultimate having the most hitlag. In all games, hitlag is higher the more damage a move deals. For example, weak attacks such as Mario's jab have minimal hitlag, but the hitlag of strong or sweetspoted attacks can last much longer; up to a maximum of 20 frames in Melee, and 30 frames from Brawl onward. In addition, Brawl introduced the mechanic of hitlag modifiers, causing variance in the hitlag duration of attacks; this is in contrast to Melee and Smash 64, where the duration of hitlag was predictable.

Hitlag only affects the object that deals the damage; all other game elements (including, interestingly enough, any particle effects the attack generated) are uninterrupted. For example, both Captain Falcon and his opponent sustain hitlag upon a sweetspotted Knee Smash, while Samus' movement is not interrupted by a Charge Shot hitting someone, since it is a projectile not attached to her. Hitlag affects the attacker as long as the attack connects, even if it deals no damage as a result of hitting opponents with invincibility. Hitlag is also exaggerated if two attacks clash, or if an attack is perfect shielded; in the latter case, the attacker suffers from hitlag while the defender receives none. Additionally, if an attack deals no knockback, the target does not experience any hitlag.

Attacks with the electric effect are unique in that they increase the amount of hitlag, multiplying the number of frames by 1.5 (rounded down), which stacks with the hitlag multiplier that the move otherwise has (for example, an electric attack with a hitlag multiplier of 1.2 deals 1.8 times the amount of hitlag). Interestingly, in Smash 4 if a character is hit by an electric attack from another, and either character is affected by slowdown (such as the Timer item), then the target receives additional hitlag, while the attacker does not. This phenomenon does not occur with non-electric attacks, even those that have a hitlag multiplier.

External links

• "Thinking About Hitstop", an article translated by SourceGaming from Masahiro Sakurai's Famitsu column, Volume 490-1