Team Attack, or Friendly Fire in the Smash Bros. games, is an optional feature for team matches, which causes players on the same team to damage each other.
On the surface, Team Attack has no advantages and is simply a hindrance (for example, teammates must get out of the way of projectiles). However, it does give rise to some new strategies:
- Teammates can be healed by using an energy projectile and PSI Magnet, or can use Oil Panic to capture friendly projectiles.
- Teammates can be used as ammunition when thrown or spit, and their neutral special can be copied by a friendly Kirby.
- Teammates can attack recovering friendlies to allow the re-use of a triple jump.
- Teammates can attack each other to replenish their attacks.
Official tournaments for all three games require that Team Attack be turned on. This forces extra co-ordination and makes it much more difficult to do two-on-one combos.
In most one-player modes, Team Attack is turned off so enemies such as the Alloys cannot hit each other. This also applies to the player team in co-op Target Tests and the like.
Some attacks can damage players on the same team regardless of whether Team Attack is on or off, such as Galaxia Darkness. Attacks that can damage the user such as item explosions will also damage teammates regardless.
Team Attack does not affect the operation of the Team Healer.