Magnifying-Glass Damage

File:NessMeleeMagnifyingGlass.png

Ness in the Magnifying Glass in Melee.

Hoop damage, also known as Magnifying-Glass Damage, is the damage that a character receives when they are out of the camera's boundaries but not past the blast line. The character is still shown, but only inside a small "hoop" at the edge of the camera boundary, known as the Magnifying Glass in Melee's Lost In Space bonus and Smash 4's Magnifying-Glass Damage tip. Hoop damage is present in Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate, but it was not given an official name until a 14 April 2008 Smash Bros. DOJO!! post.

Hoop damage is applied at a rate of 1% per second (1.2% per second in Ultimate), as to dissuade players from camping at the edges of stages. It stops occurring when the character has accrued 150% damage.

Hoop damage occurs in all stages in every mode, with some exceptions; Training Mode disables hoop damage, and the All-Star Rest Areas in Melee and Brawl also disable hoop damage if players leave the arenas. Furthermore, Charizard, Meta Knight and Kirby have up throws that send them above the upper blast line with the accompanying Magnifying Glass, but they will not take hoop damage.

In the Subspace Emissary, if Player 2 is in a situation that would usually trigger hoop damage, they will often instead Space Jump.

Trivia

• In all four games, status effects such as being buried or frozen are not rendered in the magnifying glass.
  • In Melee, characters in the Magnifying Glass have a blockier, lower-resolution model compared to ordinary gameplay. These models cannot properly emulate some animations, such as blinking, and the use of some moves or attacks can result in unusual visual behaviour. These models are also used to simulate the reflections seen on Fountain of Dreams.