Villager burying Mario and Bowser in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

There are a few attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series that cause the bury effect. Characters hit by such attacks will be embedded in the ground. If the target is not on the ground, they will take regular knockback. If the target is already buried, the length of the effect will not be increased or reset. It is not uncommon for burying attacks to meteor smash airborne opponents, often giving them good edgeguarding abilities, though this is merely a design convention and not a property of the effect itself. A prone opponent cannot be buried in Melee and SSB4 but they can in Brawl, and an opponent who has been tripped can also be buried.

List of burying attacks

By characters

Character Move(s) Games
Bowser Jr. Grounding Dash  
Charizard Sinking Skull
Donkey Kong Headbutt     
Jumping Headbutt  
Stubborn Headbutt
Ganondorf Beast Ganon (initial stomp)   
Giga Bowser Down tilt (first hit; grounded opponents)
Dash attack
Down throw (on bystanders)
Inkling Splat Roller  
King Dedede Super Dedede Jump (descent)  
Quick Dedede Jump (falldown before landing)
Kirby Grounding Stone
Little Mac Grounding Blow
Lucas Down throw (all but last hit)
Luigi Burial Header
Mii Brawler Head-On Assault   
Olimar End of Day (the ship as it appears)   
Pac-Man Meteor Trampoline  
R.O.B. Down throw  
Sonic Hammer Spin Dash  
Villager Down smash   
Wario Burying Bike  
Wii Fit Trainer Neutral attack (third hit)   
Zero Suit Samus Flip Jump
Low Flip  

By items

Item Attack Games
Assist Trophies Waluigi: stomps    
Poké Ball Pokémon Metagross: Earthquake
Togepi: Metronome (Magnitude)    

By enemies and bosses

Enemy/Boss Attack(s) Games
Bulborb Jumping backwards, rump-first  
Crazy Hand Fake-out slap   
Master Hand
Galleom Stomp attack  
Ticken Falling attack

By stages

Enemy/Boss Attack(s) Games
WarioWare, Inc. "Crack Down" and "Sole Man" microgames   
PictoChat 2 The "boots" transformation buries players it steps on  

Plunge

The plunge effect is similar to the bury effect, and in most situations, it acts exactly the same. The main difference is that, if the target is standing on a soft platform, they will be hit down through the platform after the "being buried" animation has finished instead of popping back up.

The only attack to use the plunge effect is that of the Pitfall.

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