Pivoting

Marth pivoting a forward smash in Melee.

Pivoting, or DA Dashing, is a technique in Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4 that lets a character use attacks out of a dash. The tactic was originally discovered in Melee by Philly Billy. The technique is not present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

How to perform

Pivoting is relatively simple to achieve. Simply tap the control stick in one direction, then tap it in the other direction as quickly as possible. If done correctly, the character will stop dead in their tracks and turn around. There are several techniques to perform a pivot, all involving the most comfortable and optimal way to manipulate the control stick.

How it works

While a character is running, their moveset is severely limited compared to standing still or slowly walking. However, there is a brief animation where the character speeds up into a run called the initial dash. Prior to Ultimate, there is a small window of frames where the player is able to cancel the intitial dash to turn around instead. Since the running animation technically did not activate, all momentum is halted and any normal ground options are available as if the character were standing still—smash attacks, grabs and tilts can occur here without the lag that usually comes from using these attacks after a dash. Normal pivoting is primarily used so that a character can quickly change the direction they are facing while not suffering the usual turnaround lag that would occur when doing so. This can allow characters to improve the utility of various moves in certain situations.

Applications

One use of pivoting is to dash a short distance away from an approaching opponent and then turn around to attack them with a forward tilt, forward smash, grab, or aerial. This is particularly useful for characters with disjointed attacks or far-reaching grabs. Pivoting can also be used to quickly put the player in a position to punish rolls and techs, as pictured. One specific use of this technique is for Marth's forward throw into forward smash in Melee. Typically the Marth would forward throw, wavedash, and then forward smash. With pivoting instead of wavedashing, the player can bypass Marth's jumpsquat frames and landing frames, allowing Marth to use his forward smash much more quickly than if he were to use wavedashing.

In Smash 64, pivoting off platforms makes it possible for characters to grab the ledge and proceed to edgeguard. This is known as a pivot ledgegrab. This is especially useful for Captain Falcon and Fox due to their long dash animations and fast falling speeds, though other characters are also able to use this technique. Captain Falcon, and to an extent other characters, can also make use of pivots in combos by comboing a forward throw into a pivot up aerial resulting in low percentage kills due to how powerful the semi-spike hitbox is. Outside of helping with combos, multiple characters have very useful pivots otherwise as part of their neutral game. A prime example of this is with Kirby, where pivoting is used to fully exploit his up tilt hitbox.

In Brawl, random tripping makes pivoting, like most other dashing-related techniques, riskier to perform.

A similar technique in Smash 64, the teleport, requires similar movement as pivoting.

It is also possible to perform a pivot without attacking, causing the character to simply stop and turn around without any lag. This is known among SSB4 players as a perfect pivot. A perfect pivot is borderline frame-perfect, so it is extremely difficult to do, especially with the flat analog stick on the 3DS. However, if a player can perform perfect pivots with consistency, the perfect pivot has potential use as a spacing move in competitive play. By performing a perfect pivot, a character will end up having moved backwards while still facing the same direction, and being able to attack right out of the perfect pivot. The distance the character covers depends on the character being used. The perfect pivot also exists in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although unless performed on ice, a character will not slide, making the pivot cover a very small distance.

Pivoting with most attacks in Brawl and SSB4 is generally less forgiving than in 64 or Melee, as initial dashes are universally shorter between all characters, and most characters do not have good enough interruptibility on their initial dash to turn around afterwards for a pseudo-pivot. However, in Brawl and SSB4, pivot grabs can be done at any point in the run, and results in a grab with longer reach and more endlag than usual. Such pivot grabs can also be performed in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where pivoting otherwise does not exist. In SSB4, pivot forward tilts and forward smashes can be performed out of a full run after the initial dash has ceased, and they will also slide a large distance during their execution; these can also be performed in Ultimate as well, despite the aforementioned absence of pivoting.

Pivoting lengths

This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: there's a lot missing here. pivot lengths are dependent on player input in all relevant games (including smash 4), and what would be ideal is a consistent method of measurement and to list the maximum pivot lengths for all games, on top of miis and dlc being absent from the existing list.

SSB4

The length of a character's pivot is dependent on both the length of their initial dash animation and their traction; the longer the initial dash and the lower the traction, the longer the pivot. Note: the pivot lengths are measured using the grass cubes on the Ω form of Windy Hill Zone.

Rank	Character	Pivot length
1	Captain Falcon	6
2-3	Luigi & Little Mac	5.5
3-6	Fox, Greninja, Meta Knight, & Sonic	5
7-11	Dark Pit, Duck Hunt, Lucina, Pikachu, & Sheik	4.5
12-16	Diddy Kong, Mario, Pit, Yoshi, & Zero Suit Samus	4
17-27	Donkey Kong, Falco, King Dedede, Kirby, Marth, Palutena, R.O.B, Samus, Toon Link, Wii Fit Trainer, & Zelda	3.5
28-39	Bowser, Bowser Jr., Charizard, Dr. Mario, Ike, Lucario, Mega Man, Mr. Game & Watch, Ness, Olimar, Pac-Man, & Peach	3
40-43	Ganondorf, Link, Robin, Rosalina & Luma, & Villager	2.5
44	Jigglypuff	2

Resources

• In-depth explanation of pivoting by Rishi
• Pivoting in Melee by PewPewU
• a demonstration of pivoting in smash 64