Dash

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Mario dashing in Melee

Mario dashing in Brawl

"Run" redirects here. For information on the CPU mode in Brawl, see Evade.

Dashing is a form of ground movement faster than walking. It is performed by tapping sideways on the control stick. The player's character enters his or her initial dash animation, in which they change directions with very little lag, and then proceeds to his or her running animation. In Brawl, a character attempting to dash can trip instead. While dashing, characters can also perform their dash attack, shield or jump. The Bunny Hood item increases a character's running speed. The concept of the initial dash is vital to many forms of ground movement, such as dash-dancing, Fox-trotting, and pivoting.

Other terminology

The initial dash is the first part of a character's dash during which a character can change directions with only 1 frame lag—much less than during run, where this lag can be as high as 51 frames (Marth in Melee). The concept of the initial dash is vital to many forms of ground movement, such as dash-dancing, fox-trotting, and pivoting.

A stutter step is the term for when a character begins to dash but stops almost immediately, often used for positioning and mindgames. Along with merely stopping, characters can also Dash cancel via a variety of other methods.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Initial dash

Because the initial dash animation translates into the running animation much later than in Brawl, it is a vital tool for movement in general and dash-dancing in particular. During the initial dash, the following actions can be used:

• Altering the speed of the dash with the control stick, most notably backwards to Moonwalk.
• Turning around by mashing the control stick in the opposite direction. Turning around takes one frame during which the character is standing and can do all ground attacks except neutral B. If the control stick stays in a neutral position after this pivot frame, the character will keep standing.
• Pressing A or C-Stick forward/backward during the first 3 frames to do a small step forward smash. This is only possible after dashing forward, not backward.
• Pressing A after the first 3 frames to do a dash attack.
• Pressing L or R to shield. During the first two frames of a forward dash, L/R always trigger a roll. On frame 3, they trigger the shield, but with 1 frame delay.
• Pressing L+A, R+A or Z to do a dash grab.
• Jumping and jump cancelling.
• Using forward special.

Run

During the run—the later part of the dash—different options are available:

• Pressing down to crouch. (Spending 1 frame in the RunBrake animation is necessary before the crouch can start.)
• Turning around by mashing or pushing the control stick in the opposite direction. Turning around takes very long, up to 51 frames (Marth). During the turnaround animation, only jump can interrupt it.
• Pressing A or C-Stick forward/backward during the first 3 frames to do a small step forward smash. This is only possible after dashing forward, not backward.
• Pressing A to do a dash attack.
• Pressing L or R to shield.
• Pressing L+A, R+A or Z to do a dash grab.
• Jumping and jump cancelling.
• Using special moves.

Running speed

Running speed is the rate at which a character can run.

Super Smash Bros. rankings

Rank	Character	Running speed
1	Captain Falcon	70
2	Fox	60
3	Pikachu	55
4	Samus	54
5	Yoshi	50
6-7	Donkey Kong and Kirby	48
8	Mario	44
9-10	Link and Jigglypuff	42
11-12	Luigi and Ness	40

Taken from Antdgar's Frame Data

Super Smash Bros. Melee rankings

Rank	Character	Speed
1	Captain Falcon	2.3
2	Fox	2.2
3-5	Marth, Sheik, and Pikachu	1.8
6	Pichu	1.72
7	Roy	1.61
8-10	Young Link, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong	1.6
11-15	Falco, Dr. Mario, Mario, Mr. Game & Watch, and Bowser	1.5
16-20	Samus, Kirby, Mewtwo, Ice Climbers, and Ness	1.4
21	Ganondorf	1.35
22	Luigi	1.34
23-24	Link and Peach	1.3
25-26	Jigglypuff and Zelda	1.1

Source

Super Smash Bros. Brawl rankings

Rank	Character	Speed
1	Sonic	3.5
2	Captain Falcon	2.18
3	Fox	2.08
4	Zero Suit Samus	1.93
5	Sheik	1.92
6	Meta Knight	1.847
7	Charizard	1.8
8	Pikachu	1.765
9	Diddy Kong	1.721
10	Marth	1.7
11	Yoshi	1.68
12	Toon Link	1.65
13	Donkey Kong	1.622
14	Pit	1.583
15	Mr. Game & Watch	1.553
16	Bowser	1.527
17-20	Ivysaur, Lucas, Mario, and R.O.B.	1.5
21	Samus	1.445
22	Falco	1.432
23	Lucario	1.414
24-25	Olimar and Wolf	1.4
26	Ness	1.393
27	Ice Climbers	1.388
28-29	Ike and Kirby	1.371
30	Squirtle	1.37
31-33	Peach, Snake, and Wario	1.35
34	Luigi	1.34
35	Link	1.328
36	Zelda	1.224
37	King Dedede	1.22
38	Ganondorf	1.16
39	Jigglypuff	1.1

Note that several slow runners can use their dash attack to travel a far distance quicker, and some characters have a DACUS to increase mobility. The most notable case of this is Snake, whose DACUS gives him much more stage control and ability to evade opponents.

Super Smash Bros. 4 rankings

Currently, this data is sourced from experimentation documented in this this SmashBoards post, and is not yet confirmed via data extraction.

Rank	Character	Speed
1	Sonic
2	Captain Falcon
3	Little Mac
4	Fox
5	Zero Suit Samus
6	Greninja
7	Sheik
8	Charizard
9	Meta Knight
10	Palutena
11-12	Pikachu
11-12	Yoshi
13	Diddy Kong
14-16	Bowser
14-16	Lucina
14-16	Marth
17	Toon Link
18	Donkey Kong
19	Wii Fit Trainer
20-21	Dark Pit
20-21	Pit
22	Rosalina & Luma
23	Duck Hunt
24	Mario
25	R.O.B.
26-28	Mr. Game & Watch
26-28	Pac-Man
26-28	Shulk
29	Samus
30-33	Ike
30-33	Kirby
30-33	Luigi
30-33	Wario
34	Lucario
35-37	Falco
35-37	Ness
35-37	Olimar
38	Mega Man
39	Bowser Jr.
40	Peach
41	Link
42	King Dedede
43	Dr. Mario
44	Zelda
45	Villager
46	Ganondorf
47-48	Jigglypuff
47-48	Robin

See also

• Dash-dancing
• Dash-canceling
• Pivoting

Trivia

• Despite generally having faster dashing speed than Mario in the Mario games, Luigi has a slower dashing speed than Mario in each Smash game to date.