Stop (effect)

"Flinchless" redirects here. For the hitbox flag of the same name, see Windbox.

Stop (unofficially referred to as flinchless in Brawl and Smash 4) is an attack effect in the Super Smash Bros. series that debuted in Super Smash Bros. Brawl but went unused until Super Smash Bros. 4. In Brawl, a character hit by a stop attack doesn't experience flinching, knockback, or hitlag. Starting in Smash 4, characters will instead be momentarily stopped in place in a similar, yet distinct way to hitlag.

Upon being hit (in Smash 4 onwards), the character will have all of their movement halted and will later resume as if they weren't hit by anything. Attack hitboxes will still be active and be able to deal damage, while attacks that create projectiles (such as Fire Breath) will stop creating more projectiles for the duration. The duration of the stop is equal to the attack's base knockback in frames—for example, a base knockback of 5 results in 5 frames (1/12th of a second) of frozen movement. Similar to hitlag, the duration is multiplied by 0.67× if the hit character is crouching.

The stop effect is not to be confused with flinchless attacks like Fox's Blaster or the 1 card of Mr. Game & Watch's Judge, despite the effect's unofficial name of "flinchless", as these moves have zero knockback (and thus cause no flinching), rather than using this attack effect to remove the knockback. Likewise it should not be confused with the hitbox flag commonly referred to as "flinchless", which is often found on windboxes.

List of stop attacks

Character	Move(s)	Duration	Games
Mega Man	Crash Bomber (stick)	5 frames
Sephiroth	Supernova (stun and sleep only)	0 frames