Absorption

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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 the 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
Charizard	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
Dark Samus	Charge Shot	Entire move
Diddy Kong	Rocketbarrel Boost	Explosion^[3]
Dr. Mario	Megavitamin	Entire move
Duck Hunt	Trick Shot	Explosion
Duck Hunt	Clay Shooting	Explosion (from reticle shots)
Falco	Blaster	Entire move
Fox	Blaster	Entire move
Ice Climbers	Blizzard	Entire move
Ice Climbers	Ice Shot	Ice block
Inkling	Splattershot	Entire move
Inkling	Splat Bomb	Explosion
Jigglypuff	Wakie Wakie	Entire move
Ken	Hadoken	Entire move
King Dedede	Super Dedede Jump	Stars
King Dedede	Waddle Dee Toss	Waddle Doo's beam attack
Kirby	Copy Ability	Some neutral special moves^[4]
Kirby	Final Cutter	Wave
Link	Bomb	Entire move
	Remote Bomb	Entire move
	Forward smash	Sword Beam
Lucario	Aura Sphere	Entire move
Lucario	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
Mewtwo	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
Mr. Game & Watch	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
Palutena	Explosive Flame	Entire move
Peach	Toad	Spores
Pichu	Thunder	Bolt
Pichu	Thunder Jolt	Entire move
Pikachu	Thunder	Bolt
Pikachu	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
Rosalina	Shooting Star Bit	Entire Move
Ryu	Hadoken	Entire move
Samus	Bomb	Explosion
Samus	Charge Shot	Entire Move
Sheik	Burst Grenade	Explosion
Sheik	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
Wii Fit Trainer	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
Zero Suit Samus	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
Corneria		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
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
Spaak		Lightning bolt
Starman		PK Beam

^ 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.
^ Must strike the stage or a different opponent first. An active hitbox will connect otherwise.
^ 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.
^ 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.

[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.

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