Swimming
Swimming is an action in Super Smash Bros. Brawl that lets a player swim in water, instead of falling right through it like in its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee. The time in which players can continue to swim is determined by how much damage has been received. The more damage one has accumulated results in shorter time the character can stay afloat before drowning. Drowning causes the character to sink through the water while immobile and be KO'd, and cannot be prevented once begun. The game keeps track of how many times you are KO'd by drowning. All characters have the same base swim time and can drown, regardless of swimming ability or underwater survivability in their own games.
One can visually tell how long one has left to swim. When they still have plenty of time left, the character will casually tread water and swim around well. But as time begins to run out, the character will begin to panic, disabling their ability to move through the water easily.
Swim times are only reset by landing on dry land; simply jumping out of the water momentarily will not give you any extra time (although it will stall the amount of time). However, it does reset it to the "panic" stage. You can continue jumping out of and back into the water infinitely and never drown, provided you don't wait over the normal "panic" limit. Even characters with 999% damage have a few seconds before drowning, requiring extreme edge guarding to successfully cause someone to drown on purpose.
Apart from moving, characters can only jump when swimming.
Interestingly, swimming times are unaffected by transformations; a metal character can swim just as long as a normal character. That said, a metal character will sink further before surfacing. (This trick is used once in the Subspace Emissary in a secret room.)
A character hit downwards towards water (such as by a Meteor Smash or the Pirate Ship) may be KO'd outright if their downwards speed is too fast for them to swim to the surface.
Only Olimar's Blue Pikmin can swim, and the rest will drown after a few seconds in deep water if not called back. Red Pikmin die immediately.
If Wario is riding his bike, he will fall right through the water. Letting go of the bike will cause him to swim and his bike to sink.
Characters using Final Smashes (including some transformations such as Giga Bowser) will fall through water as if it weren't there. The exception is Mr. Game & Watch's Final Smash, who instead of falling through, he will be able to float permanently on top of the water and be unaffected by currents during the entirety of Octopus, including those on Jungle Japes. This is probably because octopi are natural aquatic creatures.
If a character is using a longer Tether Recovery, he or she will pass through the water like it's not there, until the character lets go of the edge.
In the Subspace Emissary, If P2 sinks directly through the water after he/she panics, this will trigger an automatic Space Jump.
Stages in Brawl that support Swimming
- Delfino Plaza (at certain stops)
- The Summit (swimming too long will cause a fish to eat you)
- Pirate Ship (swimming directly in front of the ship will cause it to spike you downward, resulting in an immediate KO)
- Jungle Japes (a swift current will take you off screen if you swim even for a short time)
- Some stages in the Subspace Emissary, such as The Ruined Zoo. Characters can swim longer than usual here. Enemies cannot swim, they simply fall and die through the water. Ironically, enemies that can always levitate in air die immediately.
Hanenbow, Final Destination, and Lylat System: Corneria have water, but swimming is not possible there.
Gallery
Squirtle, drowning at the Pirate Ship
