Handicap

A handicap, in the Super Smash Bros. series, is a feature that helps to provide balance in matches between human players of different skill levels. Handicap options for each player can be set individually to ON, OFF, or AUTO (determined by the computer).

In Super Smash Bros. and Melee

In the first two games of the series, handicap affects the knockback done by attacks, but has no effect on the characters' damage percentages.

When the option is set to ON, each player's handicap can be set to a value between 1 and 9, with 5 being normal. A character with a handicap of 1 will have drastically weakened attacks in terms of knockback, and suffer much more knockback from opponents' attacks. At the other end of the spectrum, a character with a handicap of 9 will do substantially more knockback than usual, and take very little knockback from opponents.

When the option is set to AUTO, each player's handicap is initially set to the same value (5) and cannot be manually adjusted. Instead, the values are automatically adjusted based on the results of each match played. When a player wins a match, her handicap is lowered by 1, thereby making her easier to knock off the stage in the next match. Conversely, the handicap of the player who loses the match will be raised by 1. Note that in matches with more than two players, only the handicaps of the first- and last-place players will be adjusted.

In Brawl

In Brawl, unlike its predecessors, the handicap feature does not affect knockback. Instead, handicaps now solely determine the initial damage percentage with which each character begins matches (and respawns after a KO). Rather than using a scale of 1 to 9, each player's desired percentage can be chosen from a menu, in 10% increments. However, the exact range of possible handicaps using this feature is unknown. Players may, as always, begin the match with 0%, but the upper limit has not been revealed.