Invincibility
Invincibility is a state during which a character cannot be attacked or damaged. Attacks will hit (so the attacker takes hitlag), but will not deal damage, knockback, or hitstun. Characters who are invincible can still be affected by certain windboxes, as well as Master Giant's grab attack in Smash 4.
Invincibility's negative aspect is that on the Planet Zebes, Brinstar, and Norfair stages, characters will fall straight through the stage's lower hazard, rather than sustaining damage and bouncing back up. They may occasionally also be KO'd if they are standing on the track on Port Town Aero Dive, and both the Melee Mute City and the Smash 3DS Mute City.
In Super Smash Bros. Melee's debug menu, invincibility is displayed by affected hurtboxes changing from their usual yellow color to a green color during the invincibility period. A similar feature is present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Training Mode via an invincibility toggle, which causes invincible parts of characters to acquire a green tint.
Invincibility should not be confused with intangibility. In invincibility, all knockback and damage is canceled when the character is hit. In intangibility, however, the character cannot be affected by either knockback or damage in the first place.
Examples
- Bowser's shell during his up smash, shell during his back aerial (Melee and Brawl), feet during his forward smash (Smash 4 and Ultimate), falling after his up special, and fist during his up aerial (Smash 4 and Ultimate).
- Mr. Game & Watch's head, right arm and right foot (Smash 4) and his whole body (Ultimate) during his up smash.
- Palutena's shield during her dash attack and back aerial.
- Characters using a Super Star.
- 8 frames of a character about to perform a throw. In Smash 64, the amount of invincibility highly varies depending on the throw and in Ultimate, the invincibility lasts for the entire throw.
- The 2 seconds (120 frames) after dismounting a revival platform.
- The secondary Ice Climber for a second when Belay is used.
- The start of Ness's PK Thunder 2 (Smash 64).
- The entire duration of Squirtle's Withdraw (different from other examples, as instead of bright "bubbles" appearing when an attack lands and a blunt sound effect being heard, one can both hear and see the attack's visual effects as if there were no invincibility frames at all)
- Ike's Counter.
- Yoshi's pre-shielding animation (Smash 64 and Melee).
- Pit's Wings of Icarus for a few frames.
- Frames of Wii Fit Trainer's Up Smash
- Banjo & Kazooie's Wonderwing, for the entire duration that the hitboxes are active (Frames 18-53). Unlike other forms of invincibility, this move can be beaten by grabs, including command grabs, in which the opponent takes 0.25x damage.
- Luigi's Luigi Cyclone, frames 4-8 while grounded and frames 1-7 while airborne (Ultimate).