Swimming
Swimming is an action in Super Smash Bros. Brawl that lets a player swim in water, instead of falling right through it like in its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee. The time in which players can continue to swim is determined by how much damage has been received. The more damage one has accumulated results in shorter time the character can stay afloat before drowning.
One can visually tell how long one has left to swim. When they still have plenty of time left, the character will casually tread water and swim around well. But as time begins to run out, the character will begin to panic, disabling their ability to move through the water.
Swim times are only reset by landing on dry land; simply jumping out of the water momentarily will not give you any extra time (although it will stall the amount of time). The game keeps track of how many times you KO by drowning.
Although it is very hard to tell, characters that are good swimmers in their own universe (like Squirtle and Dedede) can swim for longer before drowning as compared to bad swimmers (like Sonic and Charizard). All characters can drown, regardless of underwater survivability in their own games. Good swimmers can also swim at higher percentages than worse swimmers (for example: Squirtle can take over 100% damage before he immediately starts drowning). However, even the worst swimmers at 999% damage have a few seconds before drowning, requiring extreme edge guarding to successfully cause someone to drown on purpose.
Apart from moving, characters can only jump when swimming.
Interestingly, swimming times are unaffected by transformations; a metal character can swim just as long as a normal character. That said, a metal character will sink further before surfacing. (This trick is used once in the Subspace Emissary in a secret room.)
Only Olimar's Blue Pikmin can swim, and the rest will drown after a few seconds in deep water. Red Pikmin die immediately.
If Wario uses his bike, he will fall right through the water. Letting go of the bike will cause him to swim and his bike to sink. Also, characters using Final Smashes will fall through the water as if it wasn't there.
Drowning
If a character is left for too long in the water, they will stop struggling and sink straight out of the screen. The player can do nothing to prevent this.
Stages in Brawl that support Swimming
- Delfino Plaza
- The Summit (Swimming too long will cause a fish to eat you)
- Pirate Ship (Swimming directly in front of the ship will cause it to spike you downward, resulting in an immediate KO)
- Jungle Japes (A swift current will take you off screen if you swim even a short time)
- Some stages in the Subspace Emissary. Characters can swim longer than usual here. Enemies cannot swim, they simply fall and die through the water. Feyeshes die immediately.
Hanenbow and Lylat System: Corneria have water, but swimming is not possible there.
