Air friction

Air friction is a measure of how long it takes for a character to stop moving from a sideways force when in midair. It is the aerial equivalent to traction, which only applies when grounded. Air friction is measured in negative units/frame². There is also vertical air friction, which applies in some circumstances when a character is falling faster than their maximum fall speed.

Air friction only applies when the player is not holding the Control Stick in a horizontal direction (or the input is being ignored, such as when in hitstun). If the player is attempting to slow down, air acceleration applies instead, and air friction is ignored. This allows characters to be designed with several properties:

• High acceleration and high friction means a character will change velocity quickly in all situations.
• High acceleration and low friction means a character will respond quickly to the player's controls, but be very slow to decelerate if the player lets go.
• Low acceleration and high friction means a character will respond slowly to the player's controls, but be very quick to decelerate if the player lets go. This would lead to an unintuitive situation where a player trying to slow down will take longer than simply allowing friction to take over.
• Low acceleration and low friction means a character will change velocity slowly in all situations.

Air friction also determines how far a character travels when they are aerial grab released (along with gravity in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl). A character with low air friction will travel a long horizontal distance whereas characters with high air friction will not travel far at all. This is because air friction acts as a force against the momentum granted by the aerial grab release. This results in characters with higher air friction being left in a more vulnerable position after being aerial grab released. This is especially significant in Brawl, due to the long amount of time the grab released opponent cannot act. Characters with high air friction in Brawl are much more vulnerable to aerial grab release followups (unless they have extremely high gravity to compensate), especially if they can be forced into an aerial grab release from the ground. This is the reason why Wario's aerial grab release in Brawl sends him nowhere horizontally, making him extremely vulnerable to followups.

Vertical air friction applies when a character is falling faster than their maximum fall speed, but is not currently fast falling, or is fast falling, but falling faster than their fast fall speed. This can occur if a status increasing a character's fall speed wears off, or starting in Brawl if a character air dodges while fast falling, which ends the fast falling status, although starting in Super Smash Bros. 4, using an aerial during a fast fall will instantly bring a character back down to their regular fall speed, bypassing this stat. It can also apply due to the downwards velocity applied by stall-then-fall aerials, however most of these suppress a fighter's horizontal and vertical air friction for the duration of the move, and thus they won't begin to slow down until the move ends. Finally, in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, if a character's fall speed during vertical knockback is higher than their base fall speed, this stat will be applied to slow their descent once hitstun ends.

It is circumstantial as to whether high or low air friction is good or bad and it is also game dependent (as with the aforementioned Brawl aerial grab release example). Low air friction means a character will not slow down as much if the player attempts to use a neutral aerial when moving, and will cause them to travel a bit further during combos. But on the other hand, high air friction helps resist being KO'd to a degree, and it may be beneficial in some cases to slow to a stop quicker without providing directional input.

Air friction values

This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Vertical air friction values for other games

Super Smash Bros.

This article or section may require additional technical data. The editor who added this tag elaborates: only JPN/NA values here; check for potential EUR/AUS changes You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Jigglypuff	1
2	Kirby	0.5
3	Pikachu	0.45
4-5	Ness	0.4
	Yoshi
6-8	Donkey Kong	0.3
	Fox
	Samus
9-10	Captain Falcon	0.2
	Mario
11	Luigi	0.15
12	Link	0

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Jigglypuff	0.05
2	Sheik	0.04
3	Ness	0.03
4-9	Donkey Kong	0.02
	Falco
	Fox
	Ganondorf
	Ice Climbers
	Kirby
N/A	Male Wire Frame	0.02
10-13	Dr. Mario	0.016
	Mario
	Mewtwo
	Mr. Game & Watch
14	Yoshi	0.013
15-20	Bowser	0.01
	Captain Falcon
	Luigi
	Pichu
	Pikachu
	Samus
N/A	Giga Bowser	0.01
21-26	Link	0.005
	Marth
	Peach
	Roy
	Young Link
	Zelda
N/A	Female Wire Frame	0.005
N/A	Sandbag	0.001

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Wario	0.08
N/A	Wario-Man	0.08
2	Jigglypuff	0.0375
3	Ness	0.0225
4	Sheik	0.021
5	Squirtle	0.018
6-12	Donkey Kong	0.015
	Fox
	Ganondorf
	Ice Climbers
	Kirby
	Meta Knight
	Olimar
13-14	Ivysaur	0.014
	Lucas
15	Falco	0.013
16	Mr. Game & Watch	0.012
17-21	Diddy Kong	0.01
	Mario
	Peach
	Sonic
	Toon Link
N/A	Fighting Alloy Team	0.01
22	Yoshi	0.00975
23	Ike	0.009
24-26	Charizard	0.008
	Pit
	Zero Suit Samus
27-31	Bowser	0.0075
	Captain Falcon
	Luigi
	Pikachu
	Samus
N/A	Giga Bowser	0.0075
32-33	King Dedede	0.006
	Zelda
34-35	Lucario	0.005
	Snake
36-37	R.O.B.	0.004
	Wolf
38	Link	0.0038
39	Marth	0.00375

Super Smash Bros. 4

Rank	Character	Air friction
N/A	Wario-Man	0.08
1	Mega Man	0.05
2	Wario	0.04
3	Jigglypuff	0.0375
4	Ness	0.0225
5	Mewtwo	0.016
6-19	Bowser Jr.	0.015
	Donkey Kong
	Duck Hunt
	Fox
	Ganondorf
	Greninja
	Kirby
	Mario
	Mii Brawler
	Olimar
	Pac-Man
	R.O.B.
	Sheik
	Ryu	0.015*
N/A	Giga Mac	0.015
20	Lucas	0.014
21	Dr. Mario	0.01212
22-23	Meta Knight	0.012
	Mr. Game & Watch
24-32	Falco	0.01
	Mii Gunner
	Palutena
	Peach
	Rosalina & Luma
	Sonic
	Toon Link
	Villager
	Wii Fit Trainer
33-36	Cloud	0.009
	Corrin
	Ike
	Shulk
37-42	Bayonetta	0.008
	Charizard
	Dark Pit
	Diddy Kong
	Pit
	Zero Suit Samus
N/A	Giga Bowser	0.008
43-48	Bowser	0.0075
	Captain Falcon
	Little Mac
	Luigi
	Pikachu
	Samus
49	Robin	0.007
50-51	King Dedede	0.006
	Zelda
52-54	Lucario	0.005
	Roy
	Yoshi
N/A	Mega Lucario	0.005
55-56	Link	0.0038
	Mii Swordfighter
57-58	Lucina	0.00375
	Marth

* Ryu is a special case thanks to his Fighter ability. If Ryu jumps, his air friction is 0, meaning he will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate. If Ryu becomes airborne through other means, his air friction is a standard 0.015.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Rank	Character	Air friction	Vertical air friction
1	Mega Man	0.05	0.01
2	Wario	0.04	0.006
3	Jigglypuff	0.0375	0.038
4	Ness	0.0225	0.023
5-6	Simon	0.02	0.015
	Richter
7	Squirtle	0.018	0.018
8	Mewtwo	0.016	0.015
9-29	Mario	0.015
	Donkey Kong
	Kirby
	Fox
	Ice Climbers
	Sheik		0.03
	Ganondorf		0.015
	Olimar
	R.O.B.		0.02
	Greninja		0.015
	Mii Brawler
	Pac-Man
	Bowser Jr.
	Duck Hunt
	Inkling
	Ridley
	King K. Rool		0.008
	Incineroar		0.015
	Min Min
	Ryu	0.015*
	Ken
30-32	Ivysaur	0.014	0.014
	Lucas		0.023
	Banjo & Kazooie		0.014
33-38	Mr. Game & Watch	0.012	0.012
	Meta Knight		0.015
	Mii Gunner
	Terry
	Mythra
	Sora		0.014
39	Dr. Mario	0.011472	0.015
40-51	Peach	0.01	0.01
	Daisy
	Falco		0.013
	Sonic		0.01
	Toon Link
	Villager
	Wii Fit Trainer
	Rosalina & Luma
	Palutena
	Isabelle
	Joker		0.015
	Kazuya
52-56	Ike	0.009	0.009
	Shulk
	Cloud
	Corrin
	Pyra
57-66	Pit	0.008	0.008
	Dark Pit
	Zero Suit Samus		0.2
	Charizard		0.008
	Diddy Kong		0.016
	Bayonetta		0.015
	Piranha Plant
	Hero
	Byleth		0.004
	Sephiroth	0.008	0.009
67-75	Samus	0.0075	0.008
	Dark Samus
	Pikachu
	Luigi
	Captain Falcon
	Bowser
	Pichu
	Little Mac
	Steve		0.015
76	Robin	0.007	0.004
77-78	Zelda	0.006	0.006
	King Dedede
79-82	Yoshi	0.005	0.01
	Roy		0.004
	Chrom
	Snake		0.005
83-84	Lucario	0.004
	Wolf		0.01
85-86	Link	0.0038	0.004
	Mii Swordfighter
87-89	Marth	0.00375
	Lucina
	Young Link

* Ryu and Ken are a special case thanks to their Fighter ability. If Ryu/Ken jumps, their air friction is 0, meaning they will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate. If Ryu/Ken become airborne through other means, their air friction is a standard 0.015.