Knockback

Knockback is the measure of how far an attack sends its target. For most attacks, knockback increases as damage on a character increases. An example of an attack with high knockback is Groudon's forward smash; it launches opponents very far, so far that at high damages it's more powerful than a Home-Run Bat's smash attack. Pikachu's neutral attack, on the other hand, has very low knockback - it hardly sends opponents anywhere, even at ludicrous damages. Attacks with relatively low knockback tend to be good for combos Like Falco's Up tilt.

## Basic Physics

The knockback of almost every attack works in tandem with the target's damage - it increases as the target's damage gets higher. It is also affected by the target's weight, gravity, and a few other conditions (such as type effectiveness). While not the primary factor, the damage dealt by an attack is a significant factor in how much knockback it deals - this is the reason stale moves have less knockback than fresh ones, and the reason smash attacks deal significantly more knockback when fully charged.

Each hitbox of a move has two knockback values: a base knockback and a knockback scaling (also known as knockback growth). Base knockback is the minimum amount of knockback the attack can deliver under normal circumstances, and knockback scaling is a factor that controls how much the knockback increases as damage increases.

Moves with high base knockback can deal high knockback (such as performing a forward smash with the Home-Run Bat), even against fighters who haven't taken much damage, and tend to be more effective at KOing when fighters can easily be sent flying at low damage percentages (such as against lighter fighters, when near the edge of the stage, or when a fighter is handicapped to sustain more knockback). Tiny-sized fighters are usually the most vulnerable to getting KO'd by high base knockback attacks, due to having reduced weight, and an increased knockback taken multiplier.

On the other hand, moves with high knockback scaling can reach KO potential more quickly (such as Luigi's forward smash), especially if they have a high damage output, and tend to be more effective at KOing when fighters need to take greater knockback than what a high base knockback attack can deliver on its own (such as against heavier fighters, when far away from a stage's blast line, or when a fighter is handicapped to sustain less knockback). Advanced techniques to extend survival, such as DI and momentum canceling, are also less effective the stronger a move's knockback scaling is.

In Melee, the highest knockback delivered and received by each character is given in a match's results screen, labeled as "Fastest Pitch" and "Top Speed" respectively, though the numbers lack meaning. In Brawl, the velocity applied (in units per 1000 frames) is provided instead of the knockback value (though it's simply knockback divided by 0.03). The unit is given as "mph"; while this would presumably mean "miles per hour", this is obviously not the case, as a 1,000 mph hit would barely send characters anywhere. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, knockback units are again shown without a meaning, while in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, they are measured in "mph" as in Brawl, though in a lower scale. Strangely enough, knockback for a same move between the two games is actually shown in different scales: Ganondorf's Warlock Punch, for instance, scores 102 units of knockback against Mario at 0% damage (without other modifiers) in Smash 3DS, while scoring 53 mph under the same conditions in Smash U. Despite these differences among games, they all internally use the same knockback measurement units in accordance to the knockback formula, as evidenced by moves with unchanged damage and knockback values throughout them (such as Jigglypuff's back throw from Melee to Smash 4) keeping their knockback identical.

As the damage meter goes up, so does the knockback of most moves, as seen here with Mario's forward smash on Link.
Knockback is the measure of how far an attack sends its target. For most attacks, knockback increases as damage on a character increases. An example of an attack with high knockback is Bowser's forward smash; it launches opponents very far, so far that at high damages it's more powerful than a Home-Run Bat's smash attack. Pikachu's neutral attack, on the other hand, has very low knockback - it hardly sends opponents anywhere, even at ludicrous damages. Attacks with relatively low knockback tend to be good for combos.

The knockback of almost every attack works in tandem with the target's damage - it increases as the target's damage gets higher. It is also affected by the target's weight, gravity, and a few other conditions (such as type effectiveness). While not the primary factor, the damage dealt by an attack is a significant factor in how much knockback it deals - this is the reason stale moves have less knockback than fresh ones, and the reason smash attacks deal significantly more knockback when fully charged.

Each hitbox of a move has two knockback values: a base knockback and a knockback scaling (also known as knockback growth). Base knockback is the minimum amount of knockback the attack can deliver under normal circumstances, and knockback scaling is a factor that controls how much the knockback increases as damage increases.

Moves with high base knockback can deal high knockback (such as performing a forward smash with the Home-Run Bat), even against fighters who haven't taken much damage, and tend to be more effective at KOing when fighters can easily be sent flying at low damage percentages (such as against lighter fighters, when near the edge of the stage, or when a fighter is handicapped to sustain more knockback). Tiny-sized fighters are usually the most vulnerable to getting KO'd by high base knockback attacks, due to having reduced weight, and an increased knockback taken multiplier.

On the other hand, moves with high knockback scaling can reach KO potential more quickly (such as Luigi's forward smash), especially if they have a high damage output, and tend to be more effective at KOing when fighters need to take greater knockback than what a high base knockback attack can deliver on its own (such as against heavier fighters, when far away from a stage's blast line, or when a fighter is handicapped to sustain less knockback). Advanced techniques to extend survival, such as DI and momentum canceling, are also less effective the stronger a move's knockback scaling is.

In Melee, the highest knockback delivered and received by each character is given in a match's results screen, labeled as "Fastest Pitch" and "Top Speed" respectively, though the numbers lack meaning. In Brawl, the velocity applied (in units per 1000 frames) is provided instead of the knockback value (though it's simply knockback divided by 0.03). The unit is given as "mph"; while this would presumably mean "miles per hour", this is obviously not the case, as a 1,000 mph hit would barely send characters anywhere. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, knockback units are again shown without a meaning, while in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, they are measured in "mph" as in Brawl, though in a lower scale. Strangely enough, knockback for a same move between the two games is actually shown in different scales: Ganondorf's Warlock Punch, for instance, scores 102 units of knockback against Mario at 0% damage (without other modifiers) in Smash 3DS, while scoring 53 mph under the same conditions in Smash U. Despite these differences among games, they all internally use the same knockback measurement units in accordance to the knockback formula, as evidenced by moves with unchanged damage and knockback values throughout them (such as Jigglypuff's back throw from Melee to Smash 4) keeping their knockback identical.

The following table gives an idea of various knockback strengths:

To determine how far a character is launched away, the numerical amount of knockback caused is multiplied by 0.03 to calculate launch speed, and the initial value then decays by 0.051 every frame, so that the character eventually loses all momentum from the knockback. During this time, character-specific attributes such as air friction are disabled; however, falling speed still takes effect when the character is close to stopping, giving fast fallers slightly better endurance against vertical knockback than others of their weight.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, when knockback is high enough to cause tumbling, it possesses a new effect that increases the usual launch speed and decay by an amount proportional to the knockback inflicted. As a result, when characters take particularly high knockback (such as enough amounts for them to get KO'd), they are launched away very quickly, then come to a stop almost immediately, effectively causing the launch to execute much faster. Hitstun is also affected by this change, becoming shorter at higher damage percentages compared to previous games. According to director Masahiro Sakurai, this effect was implemented to increase the overall speed of the game, by reducing the time during which launched characters are incapacitated. The visual and mechanical differences this effect causes on knockback are notorious enough that it is often dubbed "balloon knockback" by the community, as it has similar physics to hitting a balloon in real life. Moves with fixed knockback retain traditional knockback physics.

## Angle Indicator

Appearing in all games to date, visual effects known as angle indicators show when a hitbox collides with an opponent; as its name suggests, the angle indicator shows the angle of said hitboxes. In Brawl, angle indicators show different colors depending on who or what they hit. For player one, the angle indicator is red, with the second player's indicator being blue, and so forth. Computer-controlled opponents and objects like Sandbag have white angle indicators. Angle indicators appear in Super Smash Bros. as small "bubbles" appearing in the direction of the angle. In Smash 4, angle indicators appear as colorful, stylized "debris" flying off of an impact.

Smoke trails also indicate the angle at which a character is knocked away, but only appear when a character has taken a lot of damage, and are thus much less useful. In Smash 4, said smoke trails at higher knockback values are accompanied by thick light trails, colored depending on the player that dealt the knockback.

## Formula

### Melee and Onwards

The result of this formula increases vertical launch speed if the target enters tumble. As a result, characters with higher gravity get launched faster than those with lower gravity, depending on how vertical the angle is, resulting in fighters with higher gravity stats having worsened vertical survivability. In Ultimate, the formula is no longer applied to angles between 70 and 110. This mechanic is seemingly an attempt to normalize the effect of combos and multi-hit moves on characters of differing gravity. This formula is also applied to moves that launch opponents downwards, though since vertical launch speed is negative in this case, the result of the formula effectively decreases it slightly instead, reducing the effectiveness of meteor smashes on fast fallers.

### Variables

* p is the percentage of the target, counted after the attack's damage is added.
* d is the damage the attack dealt.
	+ In SSB and Melee, it is the full damage without counting stale-move negation, except for projectiles, which use the stale damage.
	+ In Brawl, it is the damage including the staleness or the freshness bonus.
	+ In Smash 4, it is the damage including 0.7x of the staleness or freshness bonus.
	+ In Smash Ultimate, The Damage can change depending on Player's defence value like Tobais's Side Smash would do 15% so the D would be 15% but if Opponentt has 0.97 Defence then The D would be 15\*0.97=14.55%. Or If Defence is 1.1 then it would do 16.5%.
* w is the weight of the target. It is set to 100 if the attack is weight independent. Note that in SSB, heavier characters have a lower weight value than lighter ones, in accordance with the formula.
	+ In SSBU the Weight of all attack have been set to 96 but if the attack is weight based then the weight value will be the Character's weight.
* s is the attack's knockback scaling (also known as knockback growth) divided by 100 (so a scaling of 110 is input as 1.1).
* b is the attack's base knockback.
* r is a series of ratios based on a number of factors, including:
	+ Difficulty
	+ Handicap (in SSB and Melee)
	+ Single-player mode conditions (e.g. in Melee's Event 24: The Yoshi Herd, all Yoshis give x0.5 knockback while taking x3.7 knockback)
	+ Launch rate (between x0.5 and x2.0)
	+ Crouching penalty/Crouch cancel factor (x0.67 in SSB and Melee, and x0.85 in Smash 4)
	+ Smash charge interruption bonus (x1.2, Melee onwards, applied if the opponent was charging a smash attack when hit)
	+ Type effectiveness (x1.1 for super effective, x0.9 for not very effective, specific to Charizard, Ivysaur, and Squirtle in Brawl)
	+ Size changes made by the Super Mushroom, Poison Mushroom, and Lightning Bolt (less knockback is dealt to giant-sized fighters, while tiny fighters take more knockback than normal)
	+ Stale-move negation (knockback dealt is typically affected by stale moves, causing attacks to deal less knockback than normal)
	+ Rage (between x1 and x1.15 in Smash 4 and between x1 and x1.1 in Ultimate)
	+ The Resistance to Launching Effects Like Ash has defence of one but has a resistance to launch of 1.45 so The Knockbakc will be 1.45 times more. Basically it is: The Knockback\*Resistance to launch of Character. But on Weight Based Attacks, This Value is Ignored.

The total amount of knockback dealt can also be subtracted by the target's knockback resistance, which is applied after all the other calculations have been made. However, hitboxes that have the bury effect can ignore the knockback resistance.

If the move has a fixed knockback value set, then d is set to that value, and p is always 10. As a result, the knockback dealt is independent of current damage, damage dealt, and ignores stale-move negation's knockback modifiers. However, it still remains dependent on other factors.

## THE RED THING

The vibrant "Deadly Blow" effect will appear if an attack does enough knockback to KO the victim.