Intangibility

Kirby successfully avoiding a Teal Coupe in Onett with his sidestep.

Intangibility is a state in which characters will not be hit by attacks. This is different from invincibility because, instead of attacks' damage and knockback simply being cancelled, it won't hit at all. For example, a projectile will travel right through them. Intangibility is often attributed to dodges, techs, edge-grabbing, get-up attacks and animations, and certain body parts during certain moves. Since the character is not hit, a long-lasting attack (or very short intangibility time) may still hit the character once it ends.

Intangibility's negative aspect is that on the Planet Zebes, Brinstar, and Norfair stages, 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, Mute City and Mute City. Also in Smash 4, Master Giant's "glowing hands" attack completely ignores any form of intangibility (including air dodges, rolls etc.) and invincibility (including respawn) for some reason. So should the player attempt to perform any dodges or dismount off the revival platform (after losing a stock), they will still be grabbed.

Examples

• Marth's Counter, only 1 frame.
• Roy's Counter, only 1 frame.
• Fox's Fox Illusion, only 1 frame.
• Fox's Reflector, first attack frame.
• Falco's Falco Phantasm, only 1 frame.
• Falco's legs at the start of his down smash. (Melee)
• Falco's head during his up smash. (Melee)
• Wolf's Reflector, first 6 frames.
• Mario's head during his up smash.
• Luigi's head during his up smash.
• Dr. Mario's head during his up smash.
• Mario's Super Jump Punch, frames 5–8.
• Luigi's Super Jump Punch, frames 5–8.
• Zero Suit Samus' Flip Jump, only 1 frame.
• Marth's Dolphin Slash, first 5 frames (5th frame is also hit frame, Brawl only).
• Mr. Game & Watch's Fire, frame 9 until frame 13.
• Kirby's up tilt (foot) and up smash, only his feet.
• Sonic's up smash before the hitbox comes out.
• Pikachu's Thunder, beginning frames when Thunder strikes Pikachu.
• Zelda's Farore's Wind right before Zelda teleports.
• Sheik's Vanish right before Sheik teleports.
• Lucario's Double Team, during all the counter frames as well as the counter attack. Since it has true invincibility frames, it can protect Lucario from Final Smashes unlike other counters (though it still can't counter them).
• Jigglypuff's Rest, for approximately 20 frames in Super Smash Bros. 64, exactly 26 frames in Melee, and exactly 27 frames in Brawl and SSB4 after it's used, while its eyes are closing. This covers the hitbox entirely, but is of little use due to the move's extreme ending lag.
• Villager's Pocket, frames 5-23 (begins just before the hitbox for absorbing projectiles opens).
• Little Mac's Jolt Haymaker, for the first few frames when he starts to leap (grounded version only).
• Shulk's Monado Arts, frames 1-14 if he stays idle & doesn't interrupt his pose while shouting the Art. Otherwise, acting immediately out of the pose on the 6th frame still makes you intangible frames 1-5.
• Pac-Man's head during his up tilt, during frames 6-10.
• Mega Man's Mega Upper, during frames 5-7.
• All Final Smashes contain invincibility frames at one point during the move, if not for the entire final smash.