Super Smash Bros. series

One-hit KO

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The editor who added this tag elaborates: Needs some more info from Ultimate
This article is about attacks with enough knockback to KO in one hit. For KOs that occur instantly and bypass all knockback, see Instant KO.
For the smasher OHKO, see Okoru.

A one-hit KO, commonly abbreviated as OHKO (also referred to as an Instant KO in Melee), is an attack in the Super Smash Bros. games with such high base knockback that it KOs an opponent at 0%. Such attacks currently exist in every installment of the series.

In general, a move is considered a one-hit KO if:

  • It is capable of KOing Mario at 0% through sheer knockback alone from the middle of the respective game's Final Destination.
  • It is not a meteor smash unless the hitboxes are also capable of OHKOing onstage (meteor smashes like those Beast Ganon are therefore OHKOs, while Luigi's down taunt is not).
  • It deals damage and/or does not cause a KO by forcibly re-positioning the opponent (such as push effects and dragging Final Smashes. There are some exceptions, such as Jigglypuff's Puff Up in Brawl which has both sheer OHKO power and an extreme push effect, and Samus' Zero Laser in the same game, which has dragging hits before the final hit).
  • It is not extremely situational (such as the first hit of Roy's Blazer against Jigglypuff in Melee, or Jigglypuff's uncommonly high shield jump).

Another common standard is to compare the move's knockback to the smash attack of the Home-Run Bat, one of the few moves intended to be the quintessential OHKO by the developers.

Moves with the potential to OHKO are not necessarily guaranteed to do so, and may fail to OHKO under the following circumstances:

  • The opponent techs, DIs, utilizes momentum cancelling, and/or crouch cancels to reduce the knockback or alter the trajectory of the attack.
  • The opponent is flung into a wall, which absorbs enough knockback to prevent the OHKO, or successfully executes a wall tech.
  • The move's sweetspot does not land (particularly evident for Roy’s Flare Blade in every game featuring him).
  • The move requires more hitboxes to land but some of them fail (for example, Lugia’s Aeroblast in Melee, which can whiff if the character is hit on the edge and escapes; in Brawl it deals a single, immensely powerful hit which always OHKOs, but suffers from a smaller hitbox).
  • The stage is extremely large (e.g. Temple, New Pork City, and 75m), or the opponent is at the far edge of a stage.
  • The move was weakened previously due to stale-move negation.
  • Opponents are under an effect that makes them more resilient (such as being giant, metal, or in an event that reduces the knockback they sustain), or the player is weakened (such as being tiny or given a lower handicap).
  • The launch rate is lower than standard, reducing knockback.
  • The opponent's gravity is affected via equipment.

List of One-Hit KOs

This page lists the moves that can OHKO within the rules mentioned above.

Certain moves and situations are not considered to meet the definition of one-"hit" KO's:

Some stage hazards or enemies are capable of OHKOing on their respective stages, and will be listed below.

In Super Smash Bros.

Moves that KO at 0% were almost nonexistent in the original Smash. In fact, aside from the Home-Run Bat, only one move in the game is able to OHKO, under uncommon conditions:

Items

  • A smash attack with the Home-Run Bat.
  • If Fox uses Reflector on a walking Bob-omb, he (as well as any character caught in the blast radius) will be OHKO'd.
  • If 2 Foxes use Reflector on a Green Shell, it will eventually gain OHKO power after 3-4 reflects.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Unlike in Smash 64, there are multiple moves that can OHKO in Melee. They still remain rare, however.

Playable characters' moves

  • Roy's almost fully charged or fully charged Flare Blade (sweetspot).
  • Mr. Game & Watch's fully loaded Oil Panic after absorbing three strong projectiles (such as three PK Flashes).
  • Roy's Counter upon countering an extremely powerful attack (sweetspot); a hitbox that deals around 35% damage will result in an OHKO if countered (such as a smash thrown Bob-omb).

Items/Enemies

  • A smash attack with the Home-Run Bat.
  • Touching Moltres.
  • Getting caught in Lugia's Aeroblast (if most hits connect). Unlike Brawl, Aeroblast requires more hits to KO at 0%, but its hitbox is very large. Touching Lugia’s body can also lead to a OHKO if multiple hits chain.
  • Articuno’s Sheer Cold (sweetspot).
  • A thrown Polar Bear (sweetspot).

Marill can push players past the side blast line, but as it inflicts no conventional knockback it is not considered a one-hit KO.

Stage hazards

  • Corneria’s laser beams.
  • Banzai Bill's explosion on Princess Peach's Castle (if all hits connect).
  • On Flat Zone, if a falling tool is launched at enough speed (after either being hit by an extremely powerful attack such as a Home-Run Bat swing, or being launched after receiving enough damage), it will OHKO anyone it slams into.

Bosses

The following will usually cause a OHKO on Very Hard difficulty only:

  • Master Hand’s Finger Drill (if all hits connect) and Flying Slap.
  • Crazy Hand’s Fake-Out Slap and Power Punch.
  • Master Hand and Crazy Hand’s Crush (if all hits connect), Flying Punch (sweetspot), and Jetstream (sweetspot).
  • Combined Master Hand’s and Crazy Hand’s Applause (if all hits connect) and Sandwich Punch.

Others

In Cruel Melee, several attacks of the Fighting Wire Frames are powered so much that they can easily OHKO every character. These moves include, for example, forward smash and up smash, but also punches and kicks. The same strengthening, if not even more, will be seen again in Brawl.

Video

The following video demonstrates nearly all the moves and hazards that KO at 0% in Melee:

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Brawl continued the trend of adding several OHKOs into the game, resulting in a huge number of them (especially in The Subspace Emissary). However, the majority are Final Smashes, items (mainly Pokéballs), stage hazards, enemy and boss attacks, with relatively few being standard moves of playable characters. In higher difficulties of The Subspace Emissary (often Very Hard or Intense), several enemy attacks are invariable OHKOs, as well as many boss attacks. Also, most of Tabuu's moves are guaranteed OHKOs in every situation, some of them even in the higher difficulties of Boss Battle (where the player has only one life).

Playable characters' standard moves

  • Ike's stage 8 Eruption. If Ike gets inhaled by Kirby, the latter's stage 8 Eruption loses its OHKO power (except when reversed or used in midair).
  • Mr. Game & Watch's fully loaded Oil Panic after absorbing three strong projectiles (such as three PK Flashes) or a very strong one.
  • The following counterattacks:
    • Ike's Counter (sword and body hitboxes) upon countering a hitbox that deals at least ~40% damage.
    • Marth's Counter (sword and body hitboxes) upon countering a hitbox that deals at least ~45% damage.

Contrary to common belief, Mr. Game & Watch's Judge #9 is not a OHKO, having very high knockback but not quite enough to qualify under the required conditions (it usually KOs Mario starting from 10%). The same applies to Ike's stage 7 Eruption, which can KO Charizard as low as 8% but doesn't respect the general definition.

Final Smashes

Items

  • The Dragoon.
  • A smash attack with the Home-Run Bat.
  • Touching Moltres.
  • Lugia's Aeroblast. Unlike Melee, a single hit will OHKO the character (without trapping them), but the attack suffers a smaller hitbox. Touching Lugia’s body can also lead to a OHKO if multiple hits chain.
  • Articuno’s Sheer Cold (sweetspot).
  • Suicune's Aurora Beam. The beam will not freeze at 0%, but still deals more than enough knockback to OHKO regardless.
  • Deoxys's Hyper Beam or touching Deoxys, both the initial hit and the following multi-hitting laser.
  • A thrown Bonsly (sweetspot).
  • Electrode's Explosion or after being smash thrown.
  • Wobbuffet’s Counter when countering a OHKO attack or an hitbox that deals at least ~35% damage.
  • Metagross' Earthquake if all hitboxes land (bury, stomp and upward smash). It also has a powerful meteor smash capable to OHKO nearby midair characters.
  • Dr. Wright’s highest skyscraper.
  • Knuckle Joe's Vulcan Jab to Rising Break attack.
  • Lyn’s slash (sweetspot).
  • Waluigi's Racket Smash, sweetspotted, if all hitboxes land (bury, multiple stomps and finishing kick or blow). It can also OHKO characters by meteor smash.
  • Five Smart Bombs, Bob-ombs or Blast Boxes exploding at the same time.
  • If Wario runs over a buried Pitfall while riding on his Wario Bike, he will be sent flying at OHKO power.
    • If a Pitfall is thrown on a flying character, he will be meteor smashmeteor smashed with a OHKO potential if he is midair.
  • When an Hothead reaches its full power for the last seconds (emitting sparks), any contact will be a OHKO. If an uncharged Hothead is hit by a flame-based hitbox that deals over 30% damage (such as Ike’s stage 7-9 Eruption), it will OHKO when smash thrown. Any sparks it gives off while traversing the stage at this strength will also OHKO.
  • If a Soccer Ball is launched at enough speed (after either being hit by an extremely powerful attack such as forward smash, a Home Run bat swing, or being launched after receiving enough damage), it will OHKO anyone it slams into.

Kyogre and Piplup can push players past the side blast line, but as they inflict no conventional knockback they are not considered one-hit KOs.

Stage hazards

The Subspace Army (enemies and clones)

The following will usually cause a OHKO on Intense difficulty only:

The following will cause a OHKO on both Very Hard and Intense difficulties:

  • Armank's main attack.
  • Autolance's slash.
  • Touching a Bombed.
  • Floow's mind attack (if most hits connect or at full health).
  • Giant Bytan's full power charge (at low health).
  • Greap's axe.
  • Every Nagagog's martial attack (at low health or the last form).
  • Roader's charge.
  • Every Shaydas' double slash.
  • Touching Jyk (all the three forms).

The following will cause a OHKO on Normal or higher difficulties:

The following will cause a OHKO on every difficulty:

  • Multiple Floows' combined mind attack (together, if most hits connect or at full health).
  • Scope Primid's most powerful projectile.

Touching a Trowlon on every difficulty is not a OHKO in conventional terms, since it simply carries the player beyond the top blast line, KOing regardless of damage.

Many other enemies and several Shadow Clones are also capable of OHKOs.

The Subspace Army (bosses)

The following will usually cause a OHKO on Intense difficulty only:

  • Several of Rayquaza's moves at low health (25% or less):
    • Blast.
    • Extremespeed if all hits connect (sweetspot).
    • Lightning Strike if most hits connect.
  • Porky Minch's Lightning (if most hits connect).
  • Ridley's Background Ram (sweetspot) and Slamming Rush.
  • Duon's Jump Crash and Vacuum Spin (if most hits connect).
  • Galleom's Shockwave (first hit only) and Uppercut.
  • Tabuu's Explosive Teleport (random blue bursts; red ones KO at 20% or slightly lower), Electrical Shield (contact), Ghost Projection, Shuriken Boomerang (both hits) and Shark Blade.

The following will cause a OHKO on both Very Hard and Intense difficulties:

  • Porky Minch's Dash.
  • Touching the Porky Bots sent out by Porky Minch.
  • Duon's Sword Blast (the hit itself, not the shockwave).
  • Meta Ridley’s Mega Fire Ball.
  • Galleom's Tank Rush and Slam (only used by Tank Galleom at very low health), Falling Body Slam and Tornado Spin (if most hits connect).
  • Tabuu's Pinpoint Explosion and Bullet Rain (second attack).

The following will cause a OHKO on Hard or higher difficulties:

  • Several of Tabuu's moves:
    • Golden Bracket. Due to perfectly horizontal knockback, this attack will also cause a guaranteed KO for poor recovery characters even on Easy difficulty.
    • Chain of Light. If against two players, Tabuu will attempt to smash them together with the Chain, resulting in a potential double OHKO.
    • Dragon Laser.

The following will cause a OHKO on every difficulty:

  • Porky Minch's Energy Laser if most hits connect or Porky has low health (25% or less).
  • Meta Ridley’s Falcon Flyer Smash and Falcon Flyer Stamp.
  • Several of Tabuu's moves:
    • Rapid Chop if most hits connect (always need the last slash to land for a KO).
    • Off Waves (sweetspot or contact with Winged Tabuu). Even the sourspot always OHKOs on Normal difficulty and above.

Meta Ridley's Falcon Flyer Pull on every difficulty is not a OHKO in conventional terms, since it simply pulls the player beyond the bottom blast line, KOing regardless of damage. The only way to survive it is jumping.

Tabuu's Bullet Rain is always a KO on every difficulty if the player is hit both by the first (high-damaging bullets) and the second attack (explosive sphere). However, since the two attacks are separated by a two-seconds interval when the player is free to move, this move can't be considered a OHKO on all difficulties. The same applies to Tabuu's Electrical Shield: on lower difficulties only, when the players touch Tabuu's body they will simply flinch, although they can be sucked in repeatedly by the attack.

Other bosses' attacks are also capable of OHKOs.

Classic Mode (bosses)

The following will usually cause a OHKO on Intense difficulty only:

  • Master Hand’s Finger Drill (if most hits connect) and Flying Slap.
  • Crazy Hand’s Fake-Out Slap and Power Punch.
  • Master Hand and Crazy Hand’s Crush (if most hits connect), Flying Punch (sweetspot), Jetstream (sweetspot) and Sandwich Punch (guaranteed).

The following will cause a OHKO on both Very Hard and Intense difficulties:

  • Combined Master Hand’s and Crazy Hand’s Applause (if most hits connect) and Sandwich Punch (sweetspot).

Boss Battles (bosses)

The following will usually cause a OHKO on Intense difficulty only:

  • Porky Minch's Dash (sweetspot).
  • Duon's Sword Blast (sweetspot; the hit itself, not the shockwave).
  • Meta Ridley’s Mega Fire Ball (sweetspot).
  • Galleom's Tank Rush and Slam (sweetspot; only used by Tank Galleom at very low health), Falling Body Slam (sweetspot) and Tornado Spin (if most hits connect).
  • Several of Tabuu's moves:
    • Chain of Light. If against two players, Tabuu will attempt to smash them together with the Chain, resulting in a potential double OHKO.
    • Shark Blade (sweetspot), Electrical Shield (contact, sweetspot), Pinpoint Explosion and Bullet Rain (second attack).

The following will cause a OHKO on both Very Hard and Intense difficulties:

  • Porky Minch's Energy Laser if most hits connect or Porky has low health (25% or less).
  • Several of Tabuu's moves:
    • Golden Bracket. Due to perfectly horizontal knockback, this attack will also cause a guaranteed KO for poor recovery characters even on Normal difficulty.
    • Dragon Laser.

The following will cause a OHKO on Normal or higher difficulties:

  • Several of Tabuu's moves:
    • Rapid Chop if most hits connect (always need the last slash to land for a KO).
    • Off Waves (sweetspot or contact with Winged Tabuu). Even the sourspot always OHKOs on Hard difficulty and above.

The following will cause a OHKO on every difficulty:

  • Meta Ridley’s Falcon Flyer Smash and Falcon Flyer Stamp.

Meta Ridley's Falcon Flyer Pull on every difficulty is not a OHKO in conventional terms, since it simply pulls the player beyond the bottom blast line, KOing regardless of damage. The only way to survive it is jumping.

Tabuu's Bullet Rain is always a KO on every difficulty if the player is hit both by the first (high-damaging bullets) and the second attack (explosive sphere). However, since the two attacks are separated by a two-seconds interval when the player is free to move, this move can't be considered a OHKO on all difficulties. The same applies to Tabuu's Electrical Shield: on lower difficulties only, when the player touches Tabuu's body they will simply flinch, although they can be sucked in repeatedly by the attack.

Other bosses' attacks are also capable of OHKOs.

Others

  • In the Subspace Emissary, touching very powerful flames or red reactors is a guaranteed OHKO on every difficulty. Blue reactors deal an Instant KO instead.
  • In Cruel Brawl, several attacks of the Fighting Alloy Team are powered so much that they can easily OHKO every character. These moves include, for example, forward smash and up smash, but also punches and kicks. Each of the Alloys have more powerful specific attacks, such as kicks for the Blue Alloy or punches for the Red Alloy, which are both a guaranteed OHKO from the center of the stage even for Bowser. A similar type of strengthening was seen in Melee.

Video

The following video demonstrates some moves and hazards that KO at 0% in Brawl:

This video shows some other OHKOs, including more boss attacks.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Like Brawl, SSB4 continues to add OHKOs to the game.

Playable characters' standard moves

Contrary to its name and intention, Little Mac's KO Uppercut does not KO until above about 30% damage. At 0%, it falls short of the necessary amount of knockback, even to a character as light as Jigglypuff, KOing it only at 12%.

Playable characters' moves (with Rage applied)

While the following moves do not, under normal circumstances, guarantee an OHKO state, with Rage they can perform an OHKO:

Final Smashes

Items/Enemies

  • The Daybreak (sweetspot).
  • The Dragoon.
  • A smash attack with the Home-Run Bat.
  • Electrode's Explosion after being smash thrown.
  • If the Hothead is powered up significantly by a flame-based hitbox (30% total or higher), it will gain OHKO power. Unlike Brawl, Hotheads don't reach full OHKO power automatically for the last seconds.
  • If a Soccer Ball is launched at enough speed (after either being hit by an extremely powerful attack such as a Home-Run Bat, or being launched after receiving enough damage), it will OHKO anyone it slams into.
  • Smash attacks when boosted by the Black Knight item from Smash Tour, which occasionally turns smash attacks into OHKOs.

The Beetle, Boss Galaga items and Oshawott can carry players past the blast lines, but as they inflict no conventional knockback they are not considered one-hit KOs. The first two can also be easily escaped by button mashing at 0%.

Stage hazards

Other

While it isn't accessible in regular battles, the bomb used in the Target Blast stage apparently has more than enough power to OHKO under normal conditions.

Bosses

The following will usually cause a OHKO on 8.0 or higher difficulties:

  • Master Core's Blast Waves if the player does not defeat it in time (about 45 seconds).
  • Master Core’s final explosion after unleashing the Waves (sweetspot). However, it can never truly defeat the players as they have already won by the time the hitbox lands.

Video

The following video demonstrates all the moves and attacks that KO at 0% in “Smash 4”:

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Like SSB4, Ultimate continues to add OHKOs to the game. Several characters also gain the ability to instant KO through Final Smashes or special moves; these do not count as OHKOs and belong in its respective page.

Playable characters' moves

Playable characters' moves (with Rage applied)

Final Smashes

Items/Enemies

Stage hazards

Bosses

The following will usually cause a OHKO on Hard difficulty only:

  • Galeem's Lens Flare with weaker or no spirits (sweetspot; not guaranteed).

Other

While inaccessible in a regular fashion without hacking, the gun found on the Free the Spirit screen's stage is programmed in as its own usable item, inflicting 25% damage with OHKO power. This situation is similar to Smash 4's Target Blast bomb.

Video

The following video demonstrates several of the moves and hazards in Ultimate that inflict enough knockback to KO at 0%, alongside some powerful moves that don't. However, it also includes a few moves and hazards that do not inflict any knockback:

Trivia

  • Brawl alone features much more guaranteed OHKOs than all the other four games combined together: more than double.
  • The Home-Run Bat is the only item (and by extension, the only attack) able to perform a guaranteed OHKO in every Smash game, at least on its sweetspot.
  • Roy’s Flare Blade and Counter are the only moves to maintain their OHKO power in every installment.
  • Marth's Critical Hit is the only Final Smash to maintain its OHKO power in every installment. Throughout all games, it is also the most powerful attack of any character's standard moveset (in terms of knockback) without any exterior factors or buffs, being impossible to survive if in sight of a blast line even on the largest stages of each game. In Brawl it’s strenght is even higher.
  • While majority of OHKOs will fail to work on characters under the effects of a Super Mushroom or Metal Box, a few attacks have such high knockback that it will still OHKO under these circumstances. Examples (in Brawl only) include Suicune's Aurora Beam, Lugia's Aeroblast, Marth’s Critical Hit, the Ultimate Chimera's bite and several enemy and boss attacks.
    • These attacks in Brawl have such immense knockback that it is possible for the main victim(s) to OHKO other opponents by simply knocking into them.
    • Starting from Smash 4, a few Final Smashes have hitboxes that negate the effects of such buffs, such as Marth's Critical Hit.
  • Tabuu on Intense difficulty in the Subspace Emissary has more OHKOs than every other boss or enemy in all the Smash games, with 13. His OHKOs are reduced to 10 on Intense difficulty in Boss Battles, with 2 of them needing sweetspots to OHKO. In particular, Explosive Teleport loses its OHKO power because blue bursts are removed (but the red bursts still KO well below 30%).
    • Considering Tabuu has only 16 attacks, potential OHKOs are the 82%.
    • All the others Tabuu's attacks are still very powerful, with Diving Slash being an invariable KO as low as 20% on higher difficulties and Eye Lasers below 50%. Normal Teleport doesn’t affect the player.
  • Other bosses that have a notable amount of OHKO moves include Galleom in Brawl (with 5), and both Master Hand and Crazy Hand in both Melee and Brawl (with 5 each plus 2 combined).
    • Combined Master Hand and Crazy Hand have access to 12 potential OHKO moves on the highest difficulty of Melee and Brawl, although most of them need sweetspots or multiple hits to connect to KO at 0%. This also results in their combined attacks occasionally being two OHKO moves.
  • The most powerful boss-related moves in the Smash series are Tabuu's Off Waves (waves and contact with his body) on Intense difficulty in the Subspace Emissary and Boss Battles, and the Ultimate Chimera's bite in Brawl. All these attacks deal 100%-200% and immense knockback. Off Waves are so strong that it OHKOs even on the lower difficulties of the Subspace Emissary (Easy) and Boss Battles (Normal).
  • Brawl introduced the trend of "final bosses" having extremely powerful attacks that feature waves in some form, and are usually a OHKO (on higher difficulties only, except for Tabuu). These include Winged Tabuu’s Off Waves, Master Core's Blast Waves and Galeem's Lens Flare.
  • Master Core’s final explosion is the only OHKO that never KOs the player, since the battle is already won before the hitboxes land.
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