Multi-Man mode

Ness in the 100-Man Melee.

Multi-Man mode (組み手 Kumi-te, Group Combat) is a Stadium sub-mode appearing in Super Smash Bros. Melee as Multi-Man Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl as Multi-Man Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. 4 as Multi-Man Smash. This sub-mode pits the player against multiple consecutive foes, challenging them to defeat as many as possible under various pretenses, while additionally allowing for more characters to be on-screen than allowed under normal circumstances. Though the player has only one stock, the enemy team often sustains high knockback, has a low artificial intelligence level, and lacks the ability to perform special moves or grab ledges, making them generally easy to KO.

List of Multi-Man modes

Mario and Sonic in Co-op 3-Minute Brawl.

Ryu and his Rival in Rival Smash in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

Seven Multi-Man modes are available, with Rival mode replacing 15-Minute mode in SSB4.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, as with any Stadium sub-mode, players are not allowed to use customizations, preventing players from using equipment to augment their characters' power or bypass the game mode's restrictions. As such, excluding the Mii Fighters, fighters are only allowed to use their default special moves.

• 10-Man - challenges the player to defeat ten opponents. This is the shortest of all Multi-Man challenges, usually taking between 10 and 20 seconds to complete for an amateur player, though world records are all within roughly 6 and 7 seconds.
• 100-Man - challenges the player to defeat 100 opponents, which get tougher as the mode continues. This usually takes a few minutes for players to clear, and can get quite difficult towards the end of the mode. The final Wire Frame to be fought will always sustain noticeably less knockback than the others.
• 3-Minute - challenges the player to survive for 3 minutes, defeating as many opponents as possible.
• 15-Minute (Melee and Brawl only) - challenges the player to survive for 15 minutes, defeating as many opponents as possible. Foes get stronger as time passes by. Despite the need for endurance, simple strategies such as spamming a certain move or evading the opponents altogether will generally suffice.
• Rival (SSB4 only) - challenges one player to defeat more opponents than their Rival (an AI clone of their character) before they are themselves defeated in an otherwise endless match. Rivals respawn after being KO'd. The player's final score is equal to the difference of number of opponents they and their Rival defeated. This mode replaces 15-Minute mode in SSB4.
• Endless - challenges the player to defeat as many opponents as possible before being KO'd themselves. It has no time limit nor enemy KO limit, and as such can go on for an indefinite amount of time. Some records have reached in the hundreds.
• Cruel - challenges the player to defeat as many opponents as possible before being KO'd themselves, like Endless mode, but the opponents now have extremely high handicaps, increased aggressiveness, and a high AI level. Additionally, a high knockback modifier is applied to the player and no items will appear. This is unarguably the most difficult Multi-Man challenge, as the opponents faced are immensely harder than those who appear in the other modes.

Game	Max local players	Max online players	Max enemies on-screen
	1	—	5
	2	2	5
	2 (1 in Rival mode)	—	4 (1P), 3 (Multiplayer/Rival mode)
	4 (1 in Rival mode)	—	5 (1P), 4 (Multiplayer/Rival mode)

List of Multi-Man enemy teams

Each game in the series features different enemy teams to fight against in Multi-Man modes: in Melee the Fighting Wire Frames, in Brawl the Fighting Alloy Team, and in SSB4 the Fighting Mii Team.

• Fighting Wire Frames (Melee) - purple-colored male and female wireframe humanoids. Male Wire Frames are based on Captain Falcon, while the Female Wire Frames are based on Zelda. They cannot charge smash attacks, and despite being based on Captain Falcon and Zelda, their attacks also have no fire, electric, or magic effects.
• Fighting Alloy Team (Brawl) - metallic fighters based on four characters in the game. Red alloys are based on Captain Falcon, Blue Alloys are based on Zelda and Zero Suit Samus, Yellow Alloys are based on Mario, and Green Alloys are based on Kirby and Jigglypuff. Despite being based on Zelda, Blue Alloys lack magic and fire attack effects. They cannot grab items nor receive giant, tiny or flower status effects. Every 25th opponent fought is spawned as a character, and the final opponent is a palette swap of the player's character.
• Fighting Mii Team (SSB4) - Mii Fighters wearing black jumpsuits with a white "M" letter printed on its anterior and two white "i" letters around their limbs. Their skin and facial appearances cull from Miis saved on the player's console, or from pre-loaded/guest Miis if there aren't enough. Despite this, their height and weight are all uniform. They can recover by footstool jumping off each other despite not being able to attack each other otherwise. Every 50th opponent fought is spawned as a giant character, and the final opponent in 100-Man Smash is a giant version of the player's character.

Items

For balancing reasons, certain items do not spawn in Multi-Man Melee and Multi-Man Brawl, and only a select few appear in Multi-Man Smash. Additionally, no items will spawn at all in Cruel mode.

• Multi-Man Melee - Food, Maxim Tomatoes, Heart Containers, Hammers, Barrels, Crates, and Party Balls do not spawn. Additionally, Capsules are always explosive and Poké Balls cannot spawn Legendary Pokémon.
• Multi-Man Brawl - Food, Maxim Tomatoes, Heart Containers, Hammers, Barrels, Crates, Party Balls, Rolling Crates, Sandbag, Golden Hammers, Dragoon Parts, Team Healers, and Smash Balls do not spawn. Capsules are always explosive and Poké Balls cannot spawn Legendary Pokémon.
• Multi-Man Smash - in the following set order, these select items float by on a platform every 30 seconds: POW Blocks, Ray Guns, Smart Bombs and Killer Eyes. No other items spawn outside of these.

Other Multi-Man scenarios

Ness prepares to fight the Fighting Polygon Team in Stage 10 of 1P Game.

• In Super Smash Bros., Stage 10 of the 1P Game is a battle on Battlefield versus 30 Fighting Polygons, which are purple polyhedrons modeled after the 12 characters in the game. They cannot grab or use special moves, and have reduced power, weight, and tendencies for shielding and dodging attacks, all of which change with the set difficulty level. This existed prior to the "Multi-Man" moniker that is applied retroactively to this scenario due to the similarity between the two.
• Classic Mode features certain stages with Multi-Man battles versus clones of a certain character.
• The Yoshi Team appears in Stage 2 in 1P Game as a group of 18 in Super Smash Bros. In Melee, 10 Yoshis appear in Stage 1 of Adventure Mode and 29 Yoshis plus a giant Yoshi in Event 24: The Yoshi Herd. In Brawl, six Yoshis appear in Event 11: Yoshi's Rainbow and 50 Yoshis in Co-Op Event 5: The Yoshi Team of 50.
• The Kirby Team appears in Stage 7 of 1P Game in Super Smash Bros., featuring seven Kirbys with Copy Abilities plus either one without a Copy Ability or a secret character. In Melee, 15 Kirbys with Copy Abilities appear in the second part of Stage 5 of Adventure Mode, 15 Kirbys with Copy Abilities in Event 28: Puffballs Unite!, and 10 Kirbys that can only be defeated by Warp Stars in Event 16: Kirby's Air-raid.
• In Melee, the first part in Stage 11 of Adventure Mode is a Multi-Man match with reduced gravity versus 15 giant Fighting Wire Frames.
• In Melee, the final stage of All-Star Mode is a battle against 25 Mr. Game & Watches.
• In Melee, Event 22: Super Mario 128 is a battle against 128 mini Marios.
• In Melee, Event 37: Legendary Pokémon is a match versus four giant Fighting Wire Frames and a red Jigglypuff. Poké Balls are the only items that appear, holding Legendary Pokémon or Wobbuffet.
• In Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, a Multi-Man match is one of possible Final Battles in Smash Run, where the Fighting Miis along with metal and giant metal versions of the player character appear.

Strategies

While being one of the least-played gamemodes of the series, it is rather unique as most strategies don't apply to this mode.

General Information to Note

• Some multi-hit moves don't land all hits because of the rather high handicaps the CPUs have (save Cruel smash). Take Captain Falcon's up smash, the first hit is already enough to send the CPUs flying (but not enough to kill), and usually the following hits will be useless. Not all multi-hit moves apply to this oddity, it is mainly the ones that do diagonal or vertical knockback.
• Constantly moving is a good strategy, and allows for you to bait the mob of CPUs into a potentially powerful attack.
• While the common CPUs are rather dumb (with the exception of Cruel Smash), they can jab spam you to rack damage up fast. This can lead to your death if you are being careless, and particularly if there are normal/giant characters (only Brawl and SSB4).
• Try to shield more often instead of sidesteping because the CPUs will sometimes sit for a while and bait out a sidestep. Air dodges still works since most of the CPUs go for one aerial attack on you and not much more.

The Best Character(s)

Generally, you should play your main when starting this mode for the first time. Since you know your main better than most characters, you can work from there to establish strategies on Multi-Man Smash.

• Know your character's kill moves, and know when to use them. A poorly timed smash attack may just be free damage for the CPU army.
• Make use of long-lasting hitboxes and attacks, such as R.O.B.'s Arm Rotor which will knock aside enemies like a train.
• Characters that lack kill moves outside of smash attacks, such as Mr. Game & Watch are not suitable for this mode, but may still do fairly well if aerials and tilts are used properly.
• Don't rely on reflectors to save you. Most CPUs will try to jab or attack you with tilts.
• Damage is key in this mode, especially in endless. Arguably the best character for this mode is Robin because of his powerful smash attacks and aerials, and most importantly he can lower his damage with Nosferatu.

The Good Moves, The Bad Moves, and The Off-Limit Ones

What makes multi-man smash so unique is the lack of combos, since it is basically you (or maybe up to three of your friends) fighting an endless army. Learning combos isn't a bad thing, since not every move can kill. However, going for combos can be risky if you ignore the other CPUs who are not being comboed at the moment.

• Chargeable projectiles such as Samus' Charge Shot or Robin's Thunder are not very practical since to avoid being mobbed by the CPUs you need to stay moving.
• Smash attacks are the way to go, since even uncharged they can kill. There are very few exceptions to this general rule of thumb. Unique smash attacks such as Palutena's up smash will hit a lot of opponents, and others such as Cloud's forward smash have long range and are multi-hit, allowing for more enemies being hit.
• Grabs should not be your way of killing, since you grab one CPU and kill them with a throw. They are easily punishable, and damage is something to avoid when playing this mode.
• Tilt attack's kill power and usefulness vary per character. For example, Villager's down tilt is a good kill move since it has a large hitbox and deals high damage and knockback. On the other hand, Ganondorf's up tilt is rather risky to use since it has longer startup lag than a smash attack, but guarantees a kill within the large blast radius.
• Specials also vary per character. As stated above, R.O.B.'s Arm Rotor is great for clearing out crowds. Also stated above, chargeable projectiles aren't the best idea since Moves such as Ike's Eruption are practically worthless since if you get hit once your charge is interrupted and likely you'll be jab spammed and take lots of damage.
• Counters are not a very reliable way of attacking, since the CPUs will bait it out after a couple of untriggered counters.
• Wind moves such as Greninja's Hydro Pump can still deal fairly high knockback, and since the CPUs never use their recovery moves, it may be useful in desperate situations.

Items

Note: Items don't appear in Cruel Smash.

• You are not alone! Items will periodically appear on platforms that traverse from the horizontal ends of the stage.
• The POW Blocks are especially useful, since they can KO anyone assuming they are on the stage.
• Having a Ray Gun makes you have a little time to breath, since you can just attack from a long distance and KO anyone who goes into the line of fire.
• Using the Smart Bomb is risky, since CPUs may hit the bomb before you grab it and it'll explode in your face. It also can be poorly thrown, and you may be knocked into the large explosion.

Trivia

Egg Lay glitch

• Each member of the enemy teams in all Multi-Man modes weigh the same as Mario, except for the Female Wire Frame in Melee, who weighs the same as Zelda.
• Clearing 100-Man mode for the first time gives the player the opportunity to unlock a character: Falco in Melee and Brawl and Wario in SSB4.
• The Fighting Mii Team cannot wear hats even if the Miis their appearances are based on wear them. They also do not change their facial expressions in battle.
• The Fighting Mii Team can have varied head shapes, so when inflicted with the flower ailment, it sprouts from the back of their necks rather than from their heads.
• Prior to version 1.0.4, a glitch in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS allowed players to use Egg Lay repeatedly to increase the size of giant opponents.
• The final boss of the eShop game Kirby Fighters Deluxe, Team DDD, is modeled after Multi-Man mode, consisting of 61 Mini Dededes, two medium-sized Combo Dededes, and King Dedede himself.