Fast fall

Not to be confused with falling speed, which measures how fast a character falls naturally.

Differences with fast falling: the Samus on the left uses the technique, while the Samus on the right does not.

A fast fall (急降下, Nosedive) is the act of falling more quickly than usual in mid-air. It is performed by tapping down on the control stick while falling, as long as the character is not tumbling. The character will continue to fast fall until landing on a platform, sustaining knockback, or jumping. Gravity is ignored once a fast fall is begun; the character's downward velocity is simply set to their fast falling speed without accelerating. Fast falling is a technique commonly used to speed up a character's game, especially after a short hop. It is a part of SHFFLing in Melee, an advanced technique.

Stall-then-fall aerials have an effect similar to fast falling, though the move is an attack, and most of the time cannot be stopped or slowed.

If the player taps down on the control stick while hanging from a ledge, their character will begin to fast fall right after letting go of it, whereas if simply tilted down or in the opposite direction of the ledge, they will merely let go of it. This also works with down specials, except for ones that slow down falling or gain height, such as Fox's Reflector or Luigi's Luigi Cyclone.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee, characters with normal double jumps are able to fast fall twice after double jumping. Characters with delayed double jumps, such as Peach, Yoshi, Ness and Mewtwo, characters with multiple double jumps such as Jigglypuff and Kirby, as well as Ice Climbers for whatever reason are unable to perform a double fast fall.

In Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. 4, the character will flash and a white star will appear at their torso when fast falling (in Smash 4, the stars can appear in several places, but all are still located near the fast-falling character's midsection). In Super Smash Bros. Melee, a "whoosh" sound will be heard when fast falling, but there is no visual indicator, making it harder to pick up on, especially with other surrounding sound effects. There is no indicator in Super Smash Bros. Brawl whatsoever. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, fast falling is indicated by a small flashing blue-purplish star appearing next to the character for a brief moment, similar to Smash 4.

In Smash 4 and Ultimate, characters can cancel a fast fall by using an aerial attack. This will set their falling speed to the normal maximum.

Super Smash Bros.

JPN

Rank	Character	Regular Falling Speed	Fast Falling Speed	Speed Increase
1	Link	64	102	59.38%
2	Captain Falcon	60	100	66.7%
N/A	Giant Donkey Kong	72	100	38.89%
3	Fox	60	96	60.0%
4	Donkey Kong	56	89	58.9%
5	Ness	55	88.25	60.45%
6	Yoshi	55	88	60.0%
7	Pikachu	52	83	59.6%
8	Kirby	48	76	58.3%
9	Mario	44	70	59.09%
N/A	Metal Mario	100	70	-30%
10	Luigi	42	67.5	60.7%
11	Samus	42	67	59.5%
12	Jigglypuff	38	60.5	59.21%

NA

Rank	Character	Regular Falling Speed	Fast Falling Speed	Speed Increase
1	Link	64	102	59.38%
2	Captain Falcon	66	100	51.5%
N/A	Giant Donkey Kong	72	100	38.89%
3	Fox	60	96	60.0%
4	Donkey Kong	56	89	58.9%
5	Ness	55	88.25	60.45%
6	Yoshi	58	88	51.72%
7	Pikachu	52	83	59.6%
8	Kirby	48	76	58.3%
9	Mario	44	70	59.09%
N/A	Metal Mario	100	70	-30%
10	Luigi	42	67.5	60.7%
11	Samus	42	67	59.5%
12	Jigglypuff	38	60.5	59.21%

EUR/AUS

Rank	Character	Regular Falling Speed	Fast Falling Speed	Speed Increase
1	Link	64	110	71.72%
2	Captain Falcon	66	100	51.5%
N/A	Giant Donkey Kong	72	100	38.89%
3	Fox	60	96	60.0%
4	Donkey Kong	56	89	58.9%
5	Ness	55	88.25	60.45%
6	Yoshi	58	88	51.72%
7	Pikachu	52	83	59.6%
8	Kirby	48	76	58.3%
9	Mario	44	70	59.09%
N/A	Metal Mario	100	70	-60%
10	Luigi	42	67.5	60.7%
11	Samus	42	67	59.5%
12	Jigglypuff	38	60.5	59.21%

Notes

• Oddly enough, Metal Mario's fast falling speed (70) is lower than his regular falling speed (100). This means that he would actually slow down by fastfalling.

Version differences

PAL

• Link fast fall (102 → 110)

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Rank	Character	Regular Falling Speed	Fast Falling Speed	Speed Increase
1-2	Falco	3.1	3.5	12.9%
	Captain Falcon	2.9		20.7%
3	Fox	2.8	3.4	21.4%
4-5	Link	2.13	3	40.8%
	Sheik
6	Donkey Kong	2.4	2.96	23.3%
7	Yoshi	1.93	2.93	51.8%
8	Roy	2.4	2.9	20.8%
9	Pikachu	1.9	2.7	42.1%
10	Ganondorf	2	2.6	30.0%
11-12	Marth	2.2	2.5	13.6%
	Pichu	1.9		31.6%
13	Bowser	1.9	2.4	26.3%
14-18	Mario	1.7	2.3	35.3%
	Dr. Mario
	Mr. Game & Watch
	Mewtwo	1.5		53.3%
	Samus	1.4		64.3%
19-20	Young Link	2.13	2.2	3.3%
	Ness	1.83		20.2%
21-24	Luigi	1.6	2	25.0%
	Kirby
	Ice Climbers
	Peach	1.5		33.3%
25	Zelda	1.4	1.85	32.1%
26	Jigglypuff	1.3	1.6	23.1%

Notes

• Giga Bowser and the Fighting Wire Frames have fast falling speeds that equal their regular falling speeds. Because of this, fast falling with them does not have any effect except for slightly increasing how fast they reach their regular falling speed.
• Young Link's unusually low speed change is not only the lowest in Melee, but also the entire series. It is the only change lower than 10%, other than Wolf in Brawl.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Rank	Character	Regular Falling Speed	Fast Falling Speed	Speed Increase
N/A	Giga Bowser	2.5	3.5	40.0%
N/A	Wario-Man	2.2	3.08	40.0%
1	King Dedede	1.95	2.73	40.0%
2	Link	1.6	2.666	66.625%
3	Captain Falcon	1.837	2.5718	40.0%
4	Fox	1.831	2.5634	40.0%
5	Snake	1.73	2.422	40.0%
6	Falco	1.708	2.3912	40.0%
7	Pikachu	1.5	2.379	58.6%
8-9	Ganondorf	1.65	2.31	40.0%
	Ike
10-11	Donkey Kong	1.58	2.212	40.0%
	Sheik
12-13	Marth	1.5	2.1	40.0%
	Squirtle	1.3		61.5%
14-15	Diddy Kong	1.43	2.002	40.0%
	Zero Suit Samus
16	Sonic	1.45	2	37.9%
17	Pit	1.42	1.988	40.0%
18	Wario	1.4	1.96	40.0%
19-20	Bowser	1.39	1.946	40.0%
	Meta Knight
21	Lucas	1.37	1.918	40.0%
22-24	Wolf	1.8	1.9	5.556%
	Toon Link	1.28		48.4375%
	Kirby	1.2		58.3%
25-26	Ivysaur	1.35	1.89	40.0%
	Charizard
27	Ness	1.31	1.834	40.0%
28	Olimar	1.3	1.82	40.0%
29	Yoshi	1.29	1.806	40.0%
30	Mario	1.28	1.792	40.0%
31	Mr. Game & Watch	1.24	1.736	40.0%
32	Luigi	1.22	1.708	40.0%
33-35	Lucario	1.2	1.68	40.0%
	Ice Climbers
	R.O.B.
36	Zelda	1.13	1.582	40.0%
37	Samus	1.07	1.498	40.0%
38	Peach	1.05	1.47	40.0%
39	Jigglypuff	0.98	1.372	40.0%

Notes

• Most characters in Brawl have a 40% speed increase ratio. The only characters not to have this are Wolf, Sonic, Toon Link, Kirby, Pikachu, Squirtle, and Link.

Super Smash Bros. 4

Rank	Character	Regular Falling Speed	Fast Falling Speed	Speed Increase
N/A	Giga Bowser	2.5	4	60%
N/A	Giga Mac	2.2	3.52	60%
1	Fox	2.05	3.28	60%
2	King Dedede	1.95	3.12	60%
N/A	Wario-Man	2.2	3.08	40%
3	Link	1.6	3.04	90%
4	Greninja	1.85	2.96	60%
5	Captain Falcon	1.837	2.9392	60%
6	Roy	1.8	2.9	61.11111%
7-9	Falco	1.8	2.88	60%
	Little Mac
	Mega Man
10	Bayonetta	1.77	2.832	60%
11-12	Sheik	1.75	2.8	60%
	Diddy Kong
13-14	Zero Suit Samus	1.7	2.72	60%
	Mii Brawler	1.7	2.72	60%
15-16	Lucario	1.68	2.688	60%
	Cloud	1.68	2.688	60%
17	Meta Knight	1.66	2.656	60%
18-22	Bowser Jr.	1.65	2.64	60%
	Corrin
	Duck Hunt
	Ganondorf
	Ike
23	Donkey Kong	1.63	2.608	60%
24	Wario	1.61	2.576	60%
25	R.O.B.	1.6	2.56	60%
26	Mii Swordfighter	1.6	2.56	60%
27-28	Marth	1.58	2.528	60%
	Lucina
N/A	Mega Lucario	1.56	2.496	60%
29	Pikachu	1.55	2.48	60%
30-34	Mario	1.5	2.4	60%