Crouch cancel: Difference between revisions

'''Crouch cancel''' (or '''CC''') is a term in the ''{{b|Super Smash Bros.|series}}'' series which refers to the affect crouching has on getting hit. When a crouching character gets hit by an attack, they will suffer from less [[hitlag]], as well as [[knockback]] in all games except ''Brawl'', compared to any other action (besides [[shield]]ing).

While crouch canceling can be useful in certain situations, it is not an incredibly potent technique overall. While it does allow characters to live longer, characters may have better solutions in certain situations, such as shielding or counter attacking. As mentioned before, crouch canceling can be detrimental against certain moves allowing otherwise impossible combos and KO confirms to work against crouch canceling. Crouch canceling can also be beaten by grabs, as grabs get the opponent out of their crouching state, making it impossible to crouch cancel throws. {{SSB|Kirby}} and Jigglypuff can crouch under some grabs although this is separate from crouch canceling. Multi hits are also effective at being crouch canceling as while the first hit of a multi hit will be crouch canceled, any following hits will function normally, making crouch canceling ineffective against multi hits.  

When a player lands while in non-tumble hitstun in ''Melee'', the player will go into their normal animation, regardless of how long they have been in hitstun. This means that a move which would normally have 30 frames of hitstun can have as little as 4 frames of effective lag (for most characters, depending on the length of their landing animation). ''Melee'' also introduced traditional [[DI]] and when the player crouch cancels, they naturally DI downwards (as long as they are still holding down after hitlag ends). Both of these factors combined result in crouch canceling being incredibly potent. When the player crouch cancels a move which does not put them into tumble (and lifts them off the ground), they land as soon as they are no longer in hitlag as long as they are still holding down after hitlag ends, even for moves with a 90° launch angle. Even with weaker tumble knockback, the opponent will still immediately land on the ground. Because of this (at least for non-tumble knockback), most characters will only have 4 frames of lag from the attack rather than however much hitstun the opponent would normally have if they did not land on the ground. This also works in tandem with the game's higher tumble threshold, going up from 60 units to 80 units of knockback. In the context of crouch canceling, this means that the opponent can crouch cancel moves and stay out of tumble for considerably longer. In the most extreme examples, moves which can have 46 frames of hitstun with no crouch canceling and 30 frames with crouch canceling will have as little as 4 frames of lag when crouch canceled and DI'd down. This is naturally extremely potent.

In ''Super Smash Bros. 4'', crouch canceling not only still deals 0.67x hitlag to the opponent but notably, it once again reduces the amount of knockback the opponent takes, although not to the same extent as the first two games. The opponent's knockback is reduced to 0.85x. While this does make crouch canceling worse for survival than in ''Smash 64'' and ''Melee'', it does still allow the player to survive attacks for longer. For example, Mario's sweetspot forward smash KOs another Mario at 98% in the middle of {{SSB4|Final Destination}} (with no DI) but if the opponent Mario crouch cancels, it does not KO until 124%. While this can be useful, shielding is generally the better option in KO situations, especially if the player performs a [[powershield]]. The lower hitlag received from crouch canceling can also be more beneficial against various attacks, as various attacks have higher hitlag multipliers than in ''Brawl'', sometimes significantly so, although this is attack dependent.  

In terms of utilising crouch canceling to make attacks less safe on hit, it can still be done but it is nowhere near as effective as in ''Melee'' or ''Smash 64''. The lower difference in knockback makes it less effective than in ''Smash 64'', while this along with various universal changes (the removal of DI for non-tumble moves, characters no longer going into a landing animation after landing during non-tumble hitstun among other changes) makes it considerably less effective than in ''Melee'', especially since the player has access to shielding. Nevertheless, it can still be done and there are specific cases where it may be more optimal over shielding.

Overall, crouch canceling is more effective than in ''Brawl'' although it still remains a situational technique overall. In cases where crouch canceling can be useful, shielding is generally the better option overall outside of specific cases although the technique can be utilised and be useful in more situations than in ''Brawl''.

In ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', crouch cancelling mostly functions the same as the previous game with attacks dealing 0.85x as much knockback and 0.67x as much hitlag. However, the attacker's hitlag is now also reduced by 0.67x. This overall reduces the effectiveness of crouch canceling as in most cases, the opponent no longer enters hitstun while the attacker is still in hitlag, reducing the additional frame advantage the opponent receives. With weaker attacks, this reduces the amount of extra time the opponent has to punish the attacker while with slightly stronger attacks, it gives the attacker more time to followup into a potential KO confirm. Additionally, many attacks in ''Ultimate'' generally have much higher base knockback than in previous games (especially ''Smash 64'' and ''Melee''), reducing the amount of moves that are unsafe on hit in the first place, heavily reducing one of its key uses in the past.  

Crouch canceling still overall has the same uses as the previous game but it is less applicable when it comes to punishing moves or avoiding followups due to the attacker's lower hitlag. Characters who possess constantly active passive armor ({{SSBU|Bowser}} and newcomer {{SSBU|Kazuya}}) can utilise crouch canceling to allow them to armor slightly stronger attacks. Bowser can utilise crouch canceling for longer in this context due to his greater weight and higher armor threshold but Kazuya has access to a variety of attacks that can only be used while crouching, allowing him to make use of crouch cancelling (even without his Tough Body armor), more often than most other characters.  

Overall, crouch canceling is an even more situational technique in ''Ultimate'' than the previous game, with shielding still generally being the superior option in situations where crouch canceling is useful. Crouch canceling can still be situationally useful however, especially for specific characters.