Falling speed

Not to be confused with gravity.

Piranha Plant falling in Ultimate.

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, whereas Jigglypuff, a floaty character, uses its low falling speed to attack multiple times in mid-air. Falling speed is measured in units per frame.

While falling speed's main effect is determining how quickly a character can drop downwards, it also affects the physics of knockback. After a character is launched, their gravity 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 items Bunny Hood and Metal Box increase the user's falling speed. Some stages can also affect a character's falling speed, such as the flying-type portion of Pokémon Stadium 2 and the falling portion of Summit.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, the equipment 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's gravity.

In Super 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 until hitstun 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 also fast fall at any time during a descent to increase falling speed, so long as they are not in tumble.

Categories of falling speed

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

Fast-faller

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 for how quickly he falls.

Fast-fallers enjoy increased speed in the air and, in Melee, faster SHFFL'd approaches; however, they suffer from shorter recoveries. They are also susceptible to different combos from floaty characters. For instance, Captain Falcon can chain grab floaty characters with his down throw, but cannot do so against fast-fallers. On the other hand, he can tech-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 to chain grabs and combos (although weight and character size are other factors as well); for instance, in Melee, Marth can chain his up throw on the space animals repeatedly and ultimately finish them off with a forward 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

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 how heavy she is.

Floaty characters have great benefits in terms of performing aerial attacks, since one would able to perform multiple aerial attacks in succession (such as Jigglypuff's slow falling speed and multiple mid-air jumps allowing it to do the wall of pain) and easier recoveries due to slow falling speeds allowing easier maneuvering. Downsides include vulnerability to being juggled, 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.

JPN

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

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Rank	Character	Falling Speed
1	Falco	3.1
2	Captain Falcon	2.9
3	Fox	2.8
4-5	Donkey Kong	2.4
	Roy
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
	Mewtwo
24-25	Samus	1.4
	Zelda
26	Jigglypuff	1.3

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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
	Ike
9	Link	1.6
10-11	Donkey Kong	1.58
	Sheik
12-13	Pikachu	1.5
	Marth
14	Sonic	1.45
15-16	Zero Suit Samus	1.43
	Diddy Kong
17	Pit	1.42
18	Wario	1.4
19-20	Bowser	1.39
	Meta Knight
21	Lucas	1.37
22-23	Ivysaur	1.35
	Charizard
24	Ness	1.31
25-26	Squirtle	1.3
	Olimar
27	Yoshi	1.29
28-29	Mario	1.28
	Toon Link
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

• Excluding Giga Bowser and Wario-Man, no character in Brawl can surpass a falling speed of 2 without fast falling. King Dedede comes the closest, falling slightly faster than Yoshi in Melee, with a maximum fall speed of 1.95.
• Falco received the largest decrease to his falling speed in the transition from Melee to Brawl, 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

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
	Sheik
12-13	Zero Suit Samus	1.7
	Mii Brawler	1.7
14-15	Lucario	1.68
	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
	Lucina
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
	Dark Pit
38-39	Sonic	1.45
	Mii Gunner	1.45
40-41	Palutena	1.4
	Charizard
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
	Wii Fit Trainer
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

1.1.3

• Lucario's falling speed: 1.56 → 1.68

1.1.5

• Samus's falling speed: 1.25 → 1.3

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

When launched at an angle between 70° and 110°, all characters use a falling speed of 1.8 until the hitstun 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
	Bayonetta
22-23	Incineroar	1.76
	Banjo & Kazooie
24-25	Sheik	1.75
	Diddy Kong
26	Snake	1.73
27-29	Zero Suit Samus	1.7
	King K. Rool
	Kazuya
30-31	Lucario	1.68
	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
	Joker
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	1.55
	Mewtwo
	Mii Swordfighter
57	Charizard	1.52
58-61	Mario	1.5
	Dr. Mario
	Robin
	Min Min
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
	Toon Link
70	Lucas	1.37
71-74	Zelda	1.35
	Squirtle
	Olimar
	Pac-Man
75-76	Samus	1.33
	Dark Samus
77-78	Luigi	1.32
	Villager
79	Ness	1.31
80-82	Ice Climbers	1.3
	Isabelle
	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
	Daisy
89	Jigglypuff	0.98

Update history

3.1.0

• Mii Brawler's falling speed: 1.92 → 1.7

4.0.0

• Mii Brawler's falling speed: 1.7 → 1.92

See also

• Air speed
• Fast-falling
• Weight
• Gravity