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Ness absorbing Charizard's Flamethrower in Brawl.
Mr. Game & Watch absorbing Bowser's Fire Breath and counter-attacking in Brawl.
"Energy-based attack" redirects here. For the attack type, see Energy.
For the technique referred to as "absorbing damage" by the Twinkle Toes bonus in Super Smash Bros. Melee, see tech.

Absorption is the process of using a particular down special move to "capture" an "energy-based" projectile (or just a general hitbox in rare cases). It then provides a benefit to the character absorbing it based on the damage output of the absorbed attack. What constitutes an absorbable attack other than being labeled as energy-based is not consistent throughout the Smash series, and has no relation with move types or effects. Super Smash Bros. 4 added some explosive-type attacks that were not able to be absorbed in previous games, yet did not include all of them.

Only four characters in the Super Smash Bros. series have special moves that can absorb specific attacks, namely Ness, Lucas, Mii Gunner, and Mr. Game & Watch. Ness and Lucas' absorbing special move is PSI Magnet, Mr. Game & Watch's is Oil Panic, and the Mii Gunner's is Absorbing Vortex. PSI Magnet and Absorbing Vortex heal the user based on the absorbed attack's power, while Oil Panic stores the strength of up to three projectiles for unleashing a single attack later. Absorption is not to be confused with the likes of Villager's Pocket or any other form of collecting items.

In The Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Floows are also capable of absorbing attacks, though they do not appear to do anything with the absorbed energy. In Smash Run in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, Chandelure appears to be capable of absorbing flame and darkness attacks to power up its own attacks, but absorbs all attacks with these effects, including non-projectile attacks.

As of version 1.1.3 in Smash 4, absorbed attack power from fellow teammates during Team Battles with Friendly Fire turned on is halved.

List of absorbable attacks

By Characters[1]
User/Item Move Part of Move Games
Bowser (Giga Bowser) Fire Breath Entire move

       

Charizard Flamethrower Entire move

     

Flare Blitz Explosion[2]

   

Cloud Blade Beam Entire move

   

Corrin Dragon Fang Shot Energy Shot

   

Daisy Toad Spores

 

Dark Pit Silver Bow Entire move

   

Dark Samus Bomb Explosion

 

Charge Shot Entire move

 

Diddy Kong Rocketbarrel Boost Explosion[3]

 

Dr. Mario Megavitamin Entire move

 

Duck Hunt Trick Shot Explosion

   

Clay Shooting Explosion (from reticle shots)

   

Falco Blaster Entire move

       

Fox Blaster Entire move

         

Ice Climbers Blizzard Entire move

     

Ice Shot Ice block

 

Inkling Splattershot Entire move

 

Splat Bomb Explosion

 

Jigglypuff Wakie Wakie Entire move

 

Joker Eiha/Eigaon Entire move

 

Ken Hadoken Entire move

 

King Dedede Super Dedede Jump Stars

     

Waddle Dee Toss Waddle Doo's beam attack

 

Kirby Copy Ability Some neutral special moves[4]

         

Final Cutter Wave

         

Link Bomb Entire move

 

Remote Bomb Entire move

 

Forward smash Sword Beam

 

Lucario Aura Sphere Entire move

     

Force Palm Aura burst

     

Lucas PK Fire Entire move

     

PK Freeze Entire move

     

PK Thunder Projectile only

     

Luigi Fireball Entire move

         

Mario Fireball Entire move

         

Mega Man Crash Bomber Explosion

   

Hyper Bomb Explosion  
Danger Wrap Explosion  
Forward smash Entire move

   

Forward tilt Entire move

   

Neutral attack Shots

   

Neutral aerial Shots

   

Mewtwo Forward throw Shots

     

Shadow Ball Entire Move

     

Mii Gunner Forward aerial Entire move

   

Charge Blast Entire Move

   

Laser Blaze Entire Move

   

Grenade Launch Explosion

   

Flame Pillar Entire Move

   

Stealth Burst Entire Move

   

Lunar Launch Entire Move

   

Bomb Drop Explosion

   

Mr. Game & Watch Chef Sausages

 

Forward aerial Bomb

 

Ness PK Fire Bolt only (SSB), entire move (Melee onwards)

         

PK Flash Entire move

       

PK Thunder Projectile only

         

Pac-Man Dire Hydrant Explosion  
Palutena Autoreticle Shots

   

Explosive Flame Entire move

 

Peach Toad Spores

       

Pichu Thunder Bolt

   

Thunder Jolt Entire move

   

Pikachu Thunder Bolt

       

Thunder Jolt Entire move

         

Pit Palutena's Bow Entire move

     

R.O.B. Robo Beam Entire move

     

Richter Holy Water Entire move

 

Ridley Plasma Breath Entire move

 

Robin Arcfire Entire move

   

Elwind Entire move

   

Thunder Entire move

   

Rosalina Floaty Star Bit Entire move

 

Shooting Star Bit Entire Move

 

Ryu Hadoken Entire move

   

Samus Bomb Explosion

   

Charge Shot Entire Move

         

Sheik Burst Grenade Explosion

   

Vanish Entire move

   

Simon Holy Water Entire move

 

Snake Grenade Entire move

 

Remote Missile Missile

 

C4 Explosion

 

Forward smash Entire move

 

Up smash Shell

 

Toon Link Bomb Entire move

   

Villager Lloid Rocket Explosion

   

Wii Fit Trainer Sun Salutation Entire move

   

Volatile Breathing Entire move

 

Wolf Blaster Shot

   

Yoshi Yoshi Bomb Stars

         

Young Link Bomb Entire move

 

Zelda Din's Fire Entire move

       

Zero Suit Samus Down smash Entire move

     

Paralyzer Entire move

     

By Items
Blast Box Explosion

   

Bob-omb Explosion

   

Bombchu Explosion

   

Fire Flower Flames

         

Gooey Bomb Explosion

   

Lip's Stick Spores

       

Motion-Sensor Bomb Explosion

   

Rage Blaster Shots

 

Ray Gun Shots

         

Staff Shots

 

Star Rod Stars

         

Steel Diver Shots

   

Super Scope Shots

       

Superspicy Curry Flames

     

By Pokémon
Charizard Flamethrower Flames

   

Cyndaquil Flamethrower Flames

 

Electrode Self-Destruct Explosion

   

Fennekin Incinertate Non-grounded fireball

   

Genesect Techno Blast Beam

 

Meowth Pay Day Coins

 

Starmie Swift Stars

 

Staryu Swift Stars

       

Vulpix Fire Spin Fireball

 

By Stage Hazards
Corneria Shots fired from Arwings and Wolfens

     

Shots fired from Great Fox

       

Pyrosphere FG-II Graham Unit shots

 

Saffron City Electrode Self-Destruct  
Charmander Flamethrower

 

Venusaur Razor Leaf

 

Sector Z Shots fired from Arwings

 

Venom Shots fired from Arwings and Wolfens

 

Wily Castle Yellow Devil's shots

   

By Enemies and Bosses
Armank Energy Shot

 

Chandelure Fire Spin, Will-o-Wisp

 

Duon Scattershot

 

Galeem Fireballs from Tri-Eye Attack

 

Gamyga Lasers

 

Magikoopa Spells

 

Monoeye Energy Shot

 

Master Edges Sword projectiles

 

Master Hand Finger bullets

     

Puppit Lasers

 

R.O.B. Blaster Beams

 

Scope Primid Shots

 

Spaak Electric ball

 

Lightning bolt

 

Starman PK Beam

   

  1. ^ For playable characters, if an attack has only one hitbox, the Part of the Move section is defined as the "Entire move" for this list. An example are certain bomb attacks in Smash 4; the explosion is indeed what is absorbable, but it is the only hitbox of the move and hence is not listed as "Explosion". If a move has multiple parts that are all able to be absorbed, it is noted as the entire move.
  2. ^ Must strike the stage or a different opponent first. An active hitbox will connect otherwise.
  3. ^ Either when the barrels are free-roaming and crash into the stage, or if Diddy rams directly into the stage. The barrels have active hitboxes before it explodes.
  4. ^ Kirby's version of Chef in Brawl can be absorbed while the original version cannot.

Trivia

  • Every Super Smash Bros. game prior to Ultimate debuts one character with an absorption move: Ness in Super Smash Bros., Mr. Game & Watch in Melee, Lucas in Brawl, and Mii Gunner in SSB4.