Editing Damage

[[File:damagepercent.jpg|thumb|{{SSBB|Mario}} damaging {{SSBB|Link}} in ''Brawl''.]]

'''Damage''' is the basic measure of how vulnerable a [[character]] is to the [[knockback]] of attacks. At low damages, the character cannot be knocked back very far, and can only be thrown off-stage by the game's most powerful attacks. However, at high damages, attacks deliver  considerably more knockback, increasing the risks of severely damaged characters to be [[KO]]'d.

Damage is represented by a numerical percentage that starts at 0% and can rise all the way up to 999%. Despite this formatting, getting to 100% does not mean a character is doomed — the number itself is somewhat arbitrary. This value is displayed as an integer in every game prior to ''Ultimate'', though is only actually measured as such in the original game. In ''Melee'', ''Brawl'', and ''Smash 4'', it is actually a decimal value that is shown as a truncated integer. In ''Ultimate'', the value is displayed to one decimal place (with the damage cap rendered as 999.0%).

Each attack deals a set amount of damage, which is then modified by things such as [[stale-move negation]] before the target is launched. An attack that does no damage will not cause targets to [[flinch]] and not produce a regular hit sound, although it will still cause knockback. The damage an attack deals is a significant factor in how much knockback it causes.

*Knockback – As a character gets more damage, they fly further when hit. Certain attacks have [[set knockback]], and don't apply damage to the knockback formula.

*Status time – Generally, characters with higher damage are vulnerable for longer from a status effect (such as sleeping). The exception is being [[stun]]ned through a [[shield]] [[Shield break|breaking]] – the more damage a stunned character has, the faster they can recover.

*[[Ledge recovery]] – Before ''Smash 4'', a character's ledge animations change at 100% or more, becoming more sluggish and providing more invincibility frames. The slower attack also deals more damage (in all games this applies to, [[Captain Falcon]]'s is the sole exception).

*[[Magnifying-Glass Damage]] – Characters will not accumulate hoop damage at 150% damage or higher.  

*[[Lucario]]'s attack power – The more damage Lucario has, the more damage its [[Aura|aura-based]] attacks do. In ''Brawl'', the power is at its base level when Lucario is at 75%, while it stops decreasing at 20% and caps at 170%.

**The [[Fairy Bottle]]'s behavior – it heals a character only if they have 100% or more damage; otherwise, it acts as a Throwable item.

**A [[Team Healer]]'s healing power – The more damage the target has, the more damage the item heals.

*[[Swimming|Swim time]] – Highly-damaged characters have less time to swim before panicking, with characters at 96% or higher damage having the shortest swim time.

*[[Donkey Kong]]'s [[forward throw]] – The more damage the grabbed character has, the longer they can be carried, similar to the grab time function.

*[[Instant KO]]s – Many potential Instant KOs, such as [[Danger Zone]]s, [[Giga Bowser Punch]], [[Infernal Climax]], [[Plasma Scream]], [[Triforce of Wisdom]], [[All-Out Attack]], [[Whack]], [[Thwack]], [[Sealing the Keyhole]], and [[Death's Scythe]], will fail to obliterate a character with less than a certain amount of damage and instead cause damage and knockback.