Ledgestall

Options that can be triggered with the control stick when hanging on the righthand ledge.

A ledgestall is an advanced technique in Super Smash Bros. Melee that allows a character to refresh their ledge intangibility infinitely. There are three different ways to do this, not all of which work with every character.

Explanation

As soon as a character grabs the ledge, they will enter the CliffCatch animation that lasts 7 frames (3 for Link) and will have complete intangibility that lasts 30 frames longer than the CliffCatch animation. On the last frame of CliffCatch, they will be able to perform all ledge options except for letting go (ledge attack, ledge roll, ledge climb, or ledge jump). If they don't perform any of these, they will enter the CliffWait animation during which they can also let go of the ledge. To do this, they will need to move either the control stick or the C-stick from the neutral position to either a downward or a backward input.

The character now has 29 frames of intangibility left that can be used freely. As soon as they drop from the ledge, the "Disabled Regrab Period" (DRP) countdown timer starts at 29 frames (a character must wait ~half a second between letting go of an edge and grabbing it again). Thus, maintaining continuous intangibility requires dropping from the ledge on the first frame it is possible – otherwise, there would be at least one frame without intangibility on which the DRP timer was still active.

Exceptions from this rule are Sheik's and Mewtwo's up special ledgestalls – their up special moves themselves have intangibility early on so they don't depend on the ledge intangibility as much.

Up special ledgestall

Zelda, Sheik, Fox, Falco, Yoshi, Mewtwo, Dr. Mario and Pikachu can ledgestall with their up specials.

• Sheik's fully intangible ledgestall is the easiest to perform among the whole cast. There are two main variations of the technique:
  • The Shino stall, named after Japanese Sheik player Shino, is easier to perform, and involves regrabbing the ledge after the explosion of her Vanish. Along with full intangibility, the explosion's hitbox grants additional protection on the ledge, but the ledgestall can be interrupted if the opponent grabs the ledge with good timing.
  • The other major technique is known as the Sami stall (after Georgia Sheik player DruggedFox), or less commonly as the Sung stall (after SoCal Sheik player Sung). It requires the player to aim for and grab the ledge during Vanish before the explosion hitbox activates. Although the timing window is more precise than the Shino stall, it has its advantages, namely that the Sami stall is much faster, allowing the player to act more quickly after a stall cycle. It is therefore much more difficult for opponents to steal the ledge using the Sami stall, and should an opponent successfully steal the ledge, it's possible for the player to react quickly enough to teleport on stage instead of falling to their death. Its lack of a hitbox can also have advantages when edgeguarding, to avoid knocking recovering opponents out of a helpless state.
• Dr. Mario's up special cancel can be used to grab the ledge from directly next to it.
• Fox and Falco can both perform fully intangible ledgestalls with their up specials. Although a fully intangible ledgestall (involving dropping from the ledge at frame 9) must be frame perfect, both characters have a 14 frame window to input the up special after dropping from the ledge while still gaining full intangibility. Thus, even their semi-intangible ledgestalls are performable at the human level and widely used in competitive play. Both characters can also perform a double jump or Shine jump cancel during their ledgestalls.
  • Falco must double jump in order to perform his up special ledgestall.
  • Fox does not need to double jump to ledgestall. As his up special produces hitboxes during charge-up, he can prevent the hitboxes from appearing by double jumping, and then inputting the up special at least 9 frames after dropping from the ledge; this can be useful during edgeguarding, to avoid knocking opponents out of a helpless state.

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  Fox's shine-firestall, 1/4x playback speed, debug mode: collision and environment visibility on

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  Falco's firestall, 1x speed, earliest possible inputs

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  Falco's firestall, 1/6-1/60x speed, debug mode: collision and environment visibility on, object texture visibility off, earliest possible inputs

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  Falco's firestall, 1x speed, latest possible inputs

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  Falco's firestall, 1/6-1/60x speed, debug mode: collision and environment visibility on, object texture visibility off, latest possible inputs

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  Sheik's Shino Stall, 20% playback speed, debug mode: collision visibility on, object texture visibility off

Ledgehopstall

This ledgestall is only possible with Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Link, Roy and Bowser. By dropping from the ledge and immediately holding down to fastfall, these characters can abuse their high falling acceleration and low second jump height to reach the ledge and start falling again within 29 frames after having dropped from the ledge.

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  Captain Falcon, 1/4x speed, latest possible second jump

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  Ganondorf, 1/4x speed, latest possible second jump

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  Link, 1/4x speed, latest possible second jump

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  Roy, 1/4x speed, latest possible second jump

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  Bowser, 1/4x speed, latest possible second jump

It's also possible to jump immediately after dropping from the ledge and fastfall after the peak of the jump. This is considered technically harder because holding down too long will prevent the ledgegrab.

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  Captain Falcon, 1/4x speed, early second jump

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  Ganondorf, 1/4x speed, earliest possible second jump

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  Link, 1/4x speed, earliest possible second jump

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  Roy, 1/4x speed, earliest possible second jump

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  Bowser, 1/4x speed, earliest possible second jump

Haxdash

This fully intangible ledgestalling technique is sometimes in competitive play, despite the high amount of precision necessary and the risk of losing the stock if even one input is slightly off. The technique is named after Hax, due to his mastery and implementation of the technique.

By letting go of the ledge, jumping towards it and wavelanding away from it, the ledgegrab box overlaps the ledge again just when the ledge intangibility has ended for most of the cast. Some characters, like Marth, need to fastfall in order to get down far enough in time before the intangibility has run out while others, like Captain Falcon need to waste a few frames so they don't fall below the stage before the intangibility ends.

Most characters in the game can perform a Haxdash, but its practicality and number of intangible frames vary among the cast. Captain Falcon and Ganondorf are the only characters who can perform fully intangible Haxdashes at a reasonable human level; other characters can perform fully intangible Haxdashes that require multiple frame perfect TAS-level inputs. As such, the technique is most frequently used by Captain Falcon and Ganondorf players. Link, Marth, Roy, Samus, Young Link, and Zelda have useful Haxdashes that, when performed at the human level, grant significant intangilibility but still leave the characters vulnerable for a few frames. Other characters, including Ice Climbers, and Jigglypuff, and Kirby can perform practical Haxdashes, but generally have better ledge options, or in the case of the Ice Climbers, leaves Nana heavily vulnerable.

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  Marth performs the ledgedashstall with fastfall.

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  Captain Falcon starts the ledgedashstall as quickly has possible. If he did fastfall, he would not grab the ledge.

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  Captain Falcon uses his airdodge as late as possible while still staying invincible. If he did not fastfall, he would be vulnerable for a few frames.

See also

• Planking

External links

• All characters performing a fully intangible ledgestall