Invincibility

Pac-Man demonstrates invincibility due to the Super Star.

Invincibility is a state where a hurtbox cannot be attacked or damaged. Attacks will connect, but will not deal damage, knockback, or hitstun, though the attacker will still experience hitlag. Invincibility should not be confused with intangibility or armor, as all three are different mechanics with different effects.

Overview

There are many ways to achieve invincibility in game. The most common way is to respawn, where the player is invincible for a certain amount of time after leaving the revival platform. Certain attacks also have invincibility, some covering the whole body and others only covering certian hitboxes. If a player attacks an opponent while they are invincible, they will receive the normal amount of hitlag, but the opponent will otherwise be unaffected. Characters who are invincible can still be affected by certain windboxes, as well as Master Giant's grab attack in Smash 4. This can be incredibly useful for the opponent, as they can capitalize on the opponent still being in hitlag and punish them or bait a certain reaction by using an attack with invincibility.

Invincibility does have a somewhat niche downside in that on the Planet Zebes, Brinstar, and Norfair stages, invincible characters will fall straight through the stage's lower hazard, rather than sustaining damage and bouncing back up. They may occasionally also be KO'd if they are standing on the track on Port Town Aero Dive, and both the Melee Mute City and the Smash 3DS Mute City.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee's debug menu, invincibility is displayed by affected hurtboxes changing from their usual yellow color to a green color during the invincibility period. A similar feature is present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Training Mode via an invincibility toggle, which causes invincible parts of characters to acquire a green tint.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is actually possible to hit an opponent normally out of invincibility. If an attack connects while the opponent is invincible and then the invincibility ends while the attacker is still in hitlag, the attack will actually hit the opponent when they become vulnerable due to the hitlag extending the duration of the hitbox. This is only the case in Brawl however as in every other game, the attack will not connect against the opponent once they become vulnerable.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate introduced Sora, who posesses a Counter that staggers any opponent that connects an attack. This can even stagger fully invincible characters, forcing them out of invincibility.

While the differences are seemingly minor, invincibility is different from both intangibility and armor. Intangibility is where a character cannot be hit at all, not even triggering hitlag. Armor is where a character sustains damage, but not knockback. Armor can also sometimes be broken with regular attacks outside of the Sora example.

List of invincible attacks

This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Item invincibility from past games, custom special moves, stage elements, and moves from past Smash Bros. games with undocumented invincibility

• Smash attacks in this table are not charged.
• All attacks from Smash 4 and Ultimate display invincibility values as of their latest updates.

User/Item	Move	Part of Character	Invincibility Frames	Notes
By Characters
All characters	Throws	Entire body	Varies 1-8 1-18	*Invincibility lasts until the opponent is thrown
	Respawn		120	*Commences the moment the character dismounts from the Revival Platform **The amount of invincibility frames decreases the longer it takes to dismount from the Revival Platform
Banjo & Kazooie	Wonderwing	Entire body	18-53	*Vulnerable to grabs
Bowser	Back aerial	Shell	3-15
	Forward smash	Feet	20-25
	Up smash	Shell	14-27
Fox	Fire Fox	Entire body	29-42	*Only grants invincibility in the NTSC-J version
Hero	Forward tilt	Left arm and leg	9-11	*Grants invincibility on just the left arm for frames 10-11
	Kaclang	Entire body	15-314	*Only vulnerable to another Hero using Metal Slash
	Hocus Pocus	Entire body	Until the duration ends	Invincibility is one of the effects of Hocus Pocus, giving an effect similar to that of a Super Star.
Ice Climbers	Belay	Partner	16-33
Ike	Counter	Entire body	11-16 (startup), 1-6 (counterattack) 9-16 (startup); 1-5 (counterattack)
Incineroar	Darkest Lariat	Entire body	5-57	*Applies invincibility to: **Entire body on frames 5-6 **Head and arms on frame 7 **Arms on frames 8-57
Lucas	Up smash	Entire body	1-4 1-7
Luigi	Luigi Cyclone	Entire body	4-8 (ground), 1-7 (midair)
Mii Brawler	Flashing Mach Punch	Entire body	11-66	*Only if the attack lands
Mr. Game & Watch	Up smash	Head, arm, and foot Entire body	4-25 21-25	*The arm and foot which are intangible depends on the direction Mr. Game & Watch is facing.
Ness	PK Thunder	Entire body	1-9 1-17(NTSC-J)	*Applies to PK Thunder 2 only
Palutena	Dash attack	Upper body	4-15 5-16	*After frame 6, invincibility applies to her left arm
	Back aerial		3-10 7-10	*After frame 7, invincibility applies to her left arm
Ridley	Skewer	Entire body	4-47	*When sweetspotted
R.O.B.	Diffusion Beam	Entire body	1~	*Lasts while the beam is active
Rosalina & Luma	Luma Shot	Luma	4-20	*Only when fully charged
Samus	Screw Attack	Entire body	1-5 (ground) 1-11 (NTSC-J ground) 1-3 (midair)
Snake	Covering Fire	Entire body	1~	*Lasts until Snake gets up from his kneeling posture
Sonic	Super Sonic	Entire body	1~	*Lasts for the entire duration
Squirtle	Withdraw	Entire body	20~ 22~	*Unlike other instances of invincibility, instead of collision "bubbles" appearing when an attack lands and a blunt sound effect being heard, one can both hear and see the attack's visual effects as if there were no invincibility frames at all
Yoshi	Shield	Entire body	1-3 (activation) 1-6 (activation)	* Starting from frame 3, Yoshi is considered to be in shield so he will shield attacks from this point onwards.
By Items
Dragoon		Entire body	1-119	*After the attack, while descending back to the stage
Golden Hammer		Entire body	1	*Also affects the opponent *Lasts until hitstun ends
Hammer
Super Star		Entire body	1-600	*
By Pokémon
Ditto		Varies	Varies	*When performing any move or action that grants invincibility
By Stage Element
Mushroom Kingdom (SSB) (Warp Pipes)		Entire body	1-49	*When emerging from a pipe
PictoChat 2 (Pipes)		Entire body	1-51	*When emerging from a pipe

Trivia

• If the Shadow Assist Trophy freezes a character while invincible, the character will remain invincible until being unfrozen. This offers some niche competitive strategies where an affected character can achieve invincibility before being frozen and get several seconds where they are unable to receive damage.