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 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.

It is circumstantial as to whether high or low air friction is good or bad. 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

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Super Smash Bros. 4

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

* Ryu is a special case. In most circumstances, his air friction is a standard 0.015. However, when he jumps, his air friction is 0, meaning he will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate.