Air friction

Air friction is a measure of how long it takes for a character to stop moving from a sideways force when in midair. It is the aerial equivalent to traction, which only applies when grounded. Air friction is measured in negative units/frame². There is also falling friction, which applies in some circumstances when a character is falling faster than their maximum fall speed.
Air friction only applies when the player is not holding the Control Stick in a horizontal direction (or the input is being ignored, such as when in hitstun). If the player is attempting to slow down, air acceleration applies instead, and air friction is ignored. This allows characters to be designed with several properties:
*High acceleration and high friction means a character will change velocity quickly in all situations.
*High acceleration and low friction means a character will respond quickly to the player's controls, but be very slow to decelerate if the player lets go.
*Low acceleration and high friction means a character will respond slowly to the player's controls, but be very quick to decelerate if the player lets go. This would lead to an unintuitive situation where a player trying to slow down will take longer than simply allowing friction to take over.
*Low acceleration and low friction means a character will change velocity slowly in all situations.
Air friction also determines how far a character travels when they are aerial grab released (along with gravity in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl). A character with low air friction will travel a long horizontal distance whereas characters with high air friction will not travel far at all. This is because air friction acts as a force against the momentum granted by the aerial grab release. This results in characters with higher air friction being left in a more vulnerable position after being aerial grab released. This is especially significant in Brawl, due to the long amount of time the grab released opponent cannot act. Characters with high air friction in Brawl are much more vulnerable to aerial grab release followups (unless they have extremely high gravity to compensate), especially if they can be forced into an aerial grab release from the ground. This is the reason why 's aerial grab release in Brawl sends him nowhere horizontally, making him extremely vulnerable to followups.
Falling friction applies when a character is falling faster than their maximum fall speed, but is not currently fast falling, or is fast falling but falling faster than their fast fall speed. This can occur if a status increasing a character's fall speed wears off, or starting in Brawl if a character air dodges while fast falling, which ends the fast falling status, although starting in Super Smash Bros. 4, using an aerial during a fast fall will instantly bring a character back down to their regular fall speed, bypassing this stat. It can also apply due to the downwards velocity applied by stall-then-fall aerials, however most of these suppress a fighter's horizontal and falling friction for the duration of the move, and thus they won't begin to slow down until the move ends. Finally, in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, if a character's fall speed during vertical knockback is higher than their base fall speed, this stat will be applied to slow their descent once hitstun ends.
It is circumstantial as to whether high or low air friction is good or bad and it is also game dependent (as with the aforementioned Brawl aerial grab release example). Low air friction means a character will not slow down as much if the player attempts to use a neutral aerial when moving, and will cause them to travel a bit further during combos. But on the other hand, high air friction helps resist being KO'd to a degree, and it may be beneficial in some cases to slow to a stop quicker without providing directional input.
==Air friction values==
===Super Smash Bros.===
Rank	Character	Air friction
1 	 	1
2 	 	0.5
3 	 	0.45
4-5 	 	0.4
4-5 	 	0.4
6-8 	 	0.3
6-8 	 	0.3
6-8 	 	0.3
9-10	 	0.2
9-10	 	0.2
11 	 	0.15
12 	 	0
===Super Smash Bros. Melee===
Rank 	Character 	Air friction
1 	 	0.05
2 	 	0.04
3 	 	0.03
4-9 	 	0.02
4-9 	 	0.02
4-9 	 	0.02
4-9 	 	0.02
4-9 	 	0.02
4-9 	 	0.02
N/A 	Male Wire Frame 	0.02
10-13	 	0.016
10-13	 	0.016
10-13	 	0.016
10-13	 	0.016
14 	 	0.013
15-20	 	0.01
15-20	 	0.01
15-20	 	0.01
15-20	 	0.01
15-20	 	0.01
15-20	 	0.01
N/A 	 	0.01
21-26	 	0.005
21-26	 	0.005
21-26	 	0.005
21-26	 	0.005
21-26	 	0.005
21-26	 	0.005
N/A 	Female Wire Frame	0.005
N/A 	Sandbag 	0.001
===Super Smash Bros. Brawl===
Rank 	Character 	Air friction	Falling friction
1 	 	0.08 	0.006
N/A 	Wario-Man 	0.08 	0.006
2 	 	0.0375 	0.0375
3 	 	0.0225 	0.0225
4 	 	0.021 	0.03
5 	 	0.018 	0.018
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-12 	 	0.015 	0.015
13-14	 	0.014 	0.014
13-14	 	0.014 	0.0225
15 	 	0.013 	0.013
16 	 	0.012 	0.012
17-21	 	0.01 	0.016
17-21	 	0.01 	0.01
17-21	 	0.01 	0.01
17-21	 	0.01 	0.01
17-21	 	0.01 	0.01
N/A 	Fighting Alloy Team	0.01 	
22 	 	0.00975 	0.00975
23 	 	0.009 	0.009
24-26	 	0.008 	0.008
24-26	 	0.008 	0.008
24-26	 	0.008 	0.5
27-31	 	0.0075 	0.0075
27-31	 	0.0075 	0.0075
27-31	 	0.0075 	0.0075
27-31	 	0.0075 	0.0075
27-31	 	0.0075 	0.0075
N/A 	 	0.0075 	0.0075
32-33	 	0.006 	0.006
32-33	 	0.006 	0.006
34-35	 	0.005 	0.005
34-35	 	0.005 	0.005
36-37	 	0.004 	0.02
36-37	 	0.004 	0.01
38 	 	0.0038 	0.0038
39 	 	0.00375 	0.00375
===Super Smash Bros. 4===
Rank 	Character 	Air friction	Falling friction
N/A 	Wario-Man 	0.08 	0.006
1 	 	0.05 	0.01
2 	 	0.04 	0.006
3 	 	0.0375 	0.0375
4 	 	0.0225 	0.0225
5 	 	0.016 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.02
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.03
6-19 	 	0.015 	0.015
N/A 	Giga Mac 	0.015 	0.0075
20 	 	0.014 	0.023
21 	 	 	0.015
22-23	 	0.012 	0.015
22-23	 	0.012 	0.012
24-32	 	0.01 	0.013
24-32	 	0.01 	0.015
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
24-32	 	0.01 	0.01
33-36	 	0.009 	0.009
33-36	 	0.009 	0.009
33-36	 	0.009 	0.009
33-36	 	0.009 	0.009
37-42	 	0.008 	0.015
37-42	 	0.008 	0.008
37-42	 	0.008 	0.008
37-42	 	0.008 	0.016
37-42	 	0.008 	0.008
37-42	 	0.008 	0.5
N/A 	 	0.008 	0.0075
43-48	 	0.0075 	0.0075
43-48	 	0.0075 	0.0075
43-48	 	0.0075 	0.0075
43-48	 	0.0075 	0.0075
43-48	 	0.0075 	0.0075
43-48	 	0.0075 	0.0075
49 	 	0.007 	0.00375
50-51	 	0.006 	0.006
50-51	 	0.006 	0.006
52-54	 	0.005 	0.005
52-54	 	0.005 	0.00375
52-54	 	0.005 	0.00975
N/A 	Mega Lucario	0.005 	0.005
55-56	 	0.0038 	0.0038
55-56	 	0.0038 	0.0038
57-58	 	0.00375 	0.00375
57-58	 	0.00375 	0.00375
Ryu is a special case thanks to his fighter ability. If Ryu jumps, his air friction is 0, meaning he will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate. If Ryu becomes airborne through other means, his air friction is a standard 0.015.
===Super Smash Bros. Ultimate===
Rank 	Character	Air friction	Falling friction
1 	 	0.05 	0.01
2 	 	0.04 	0.006
3 	 	0.0375 	0.038
4 	 	0.0225 	0.023
5-6 	 	0.02 	0.015
5-6 	 	0.02 	0.015
7 	 	0.018 	0.018
8 	 	0.016 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.03
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.02
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.008
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
9-29 	 	0.015 	0.015
30-32	 	0.014 	0.014
30-32	 	0.014 	0.023
30-32	 	0.014 	0.014
33-38	 	0.012 	0.012
33-38	 	0.012 	0.015
33-38	 	0.012 	0.015
33-38	 	0.012 	0.015
33-38	 	0.012 	0.015
33-38	 	0.012 	0.014
39 	 	 	0.015
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.013
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.01
40-51	 	0.01 	0.015
40-51	 	0.01 	0.015
52-56	 	0.009 	0.009
52-56	 	0.009 	0.009
52-56	 	0.009 	0.009
52-56	 	0.009 	0.009
52-56	 	0.009 	0.009
57-66	 	0.008 	0.008
57-66	 	0.008 	0.008
57-66	 	0.008 	0.2
57-66	 	0.008 	0.008
57-66	 	0.008 	0.016
57-66	 	0.008 	0.015
57-66	 	0.008 	0.015
57-66	 	0.008 	0.015
57-66	 	0.008 	0.004
57-66	 	 	
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.008
67-75	 	0.0075 	0.015
76 	 	0.007 	0.004
77-78	 	0.006 	0.006
77-78	 	0.006 	0.006
79-82	 	0.005 	0.01
79-82	 	0.005 	0.004
79-82	 	0.005 	0.004
79-82	 	0.005 	0.005
83-84	 	0.004 	0.005
83-84	 	0.004 	0.01
85-86	 	0.0038 	0.004
85-86	 	0.0038 	0.004
87-89	 	0.00375 	0.004
87-89	 	0.00375 	0.004
87-89	 	0.00375 	0.004
Ryu and Ken are a special case thanks to their fighter ability. If Ryu/Ken jumps, their air friction is 0, meaning they will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate. If Ryu/Ken become airborne through other means, their air friction is a standard 0.015.
==Trivia==
*In every game she appears in, Zero Suit Samus has by far and away the highest falling friction, to the point of being an anomaly, slowing down to her base fall speed almost instantly after her down air animation ends. The reason for this is unknown.
Category:Game physics
Category:Character attributes