- Not to be confused with teching, which is officially known as "breaking your fall" in Smash 4 and "fall break" in Ultimate.
Fall Break is an attribute present in certain moves that makes a character briefly cancel fall momentum to stop in midair or even cause them to bounce upward. All of these special moves can be used multiple times in the air, but have this effect only once even if hit afterward (with a few exceptions). This is refreshed when landing on the ground. Most often these are used as mix up tools for recovering, approaching, landing, etc.
Moves with Fall Breaks
| Character | Move |
|---|---|
| All applicable characters | Counterattacks |
| Tether Recoveries (excluding Z-airs and aerials) | |
| Mario | Cape |
| Samus | Bomb |
| Dark Samus | Bomb |
| Yoshi | Egg Throw   
|
| Kirby | Any neutral special move listed here through copy ability |
| Fox | Reflector |
| Ness | PK Flash |
| PSI Magnet | |
| Zelda | Nayru's Love |
| Din's Fire | |
| Dr. Mario | Super Sheet |
| Mewtwo | Confusion |
| Disable | |
| Mr. Game & Watch | Oil Panic |
| Lucas | PK Freeze |
| PSI Magnet | |
| Lucario | Down Air |
| Wolf | Reflector |
| Greninja | Water Shuriken |
| Pac-Man | Fire Hydrant |
| Ryu | Focus Attack |
| Ken | Focus Attack |
| Cloud | Blade Beam |
| Cross Slash | |
| Bayonetta | Forward Air |
| Bullet Climax | |
| Simon | Cross |
| Richter | Cross |
| Incineroar | Darkest Lariat |
| Piranha Plant | Ptooie |
| Poison Breath | |
| Long-Stem Strike | |
| Joker | Gun |
| Hero | Kafrizz |
| Kazap | |
| Banjo & Kazooie | Rear Egg |
| Terry | Power Wave |
| Byleth | Areadbhar |
Pseudo Fall Breaks
There are some moves that have similar properties of a fall break, but not officially recognized due to the technical details of the move. Pseudo fall breaks consist of the following:
- All Special Moves that travel in a set trajectory such as Sheik's Bouncing Fish, Fox's Fox Illusion, or Bayonetta's Witch Twist and After Burner Kick, to name a few examples.
- All Special Moves that lead to free fall.
- Some Special Moves cancel some or all momentum, such as Ness up special, Meta Knight neutral special and Wii Fit Trainer side special, but are moves that:
- Make the stall serve a purpose in the animation.
- Are meant to lead into another action.
- Themselves can only be used once until landing.
- Cause free fall.
Trivia
- In Melee, the first hit of Marth’s Dancing Blade is a crucial recovering tool, as it causes a fall break that stalls to improve his horizontal distance.
- In Brawl, Fox’s Reflector had no limit to how many times the move would cancel falling, making it notorious for its uses in landing and stalling.