Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt
The Lightning Bolt as an item in Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Universe	Mario
Appears in	Brawl SSB4 Ultimate
Item class	Status
Article on Super Mario Wiki	Lightning

The Lightning Bolt (サンダー, Thunder) is an item from the Mario Kart series that appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 4, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Origin

Mii is struck by Lightning in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, shrinking him in the process.

The Lightning Bolt's primary effect comes from the Mario Kart series. The Lightning Bolt first appeared in Super Mario Kart. Racers at the back of a race have a chance of acquiring a Lightning Bolt (sometimes named Thunderbolt or Lightning), which upon use instantly strikes all other racers, spins them out, and causes them to shrink. Shrunk racers have lowered top speed and can be easily knocked around or even flattened when getting run over. Since Mario Kart DS, the length of the shrinking time depends on what place each opponent was in when the item was used, with those at the back regrowing near-instantly and those in the front staying shrunk for much longer. In Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, tiny players can get flattened by normal-sized players. The item cannot backfire as it does in Brawl. It also serves as the logo for the Lightning Cup since Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

Overview

The Lightning Bolt in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

The Lightning Bolt appears as an item in Brawl, Smash 4 and Ultimate. When used, it will shrink every other character to Poison Mushroom size, reduce their attack power to 0.7x, make them lighter, and increase the amount of knockback that they take, similar to its function in the Mario Kart series. However, the item can backfire as well, shrinking the player who picked it up or making the other characters' sizes increase (much like collecting a Super Mushroom, only the size-altering effects are amplified even further, causing fighters to grow to 2.4x their normal size, and their direct attacks will deal 1.84x their normal damage). These effects stack with Mega/Mini mode in Special Smash. Touching a Super or Poison Mushroom will cancel Lightning’s effects.

Unlike most other items, the Lightning Bolt requires a character to simply make contact with it in order to gain its effect. Any character affected by knockback while being struck by the Lightning Bolt is still affected by knockback after the shrink/growth occurs. Similar phenomena occur with the Super Mushroom and Poison Mushroom.

Damage Multipliers

The table below displays the damage multipliers that are used whenever players are turned tiny or giant by the Lightning Bolt. These values primarily apply to Super Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate.

Size	Standard Smash	Giant Special Smash	Tiny Special Smash
Tiny	0.7	0.94	0.505
Giant	1.84	3.64	0.904

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Trophies

Trophy in Brawl.

An item that goes off the moment you touch it. It may shrink every other character on the screen. Tiny players suffer a reduction in their attack power and become easier to send flying. After a set amount of time, all the characters will return to their normal sizes. In the Mario Kart series, all players but the item user shrunk, and got flattened when run over.

• Super Mario Kart (1992)
• Mario Kart 64 (1997)

Sticker

Name	Game	Effect	Characters
Lightning	Mario Kart DS	AttackElectric+004 Attack +4	All characters

Lightning (Mario Kart DS)

Transform glitch

In Brawl, if a character uses the Lightning Bolt on Zelda or Sheik and either character Transforms, this glitch makes the size of the Lightning Bolt user permanent until either Zelda or Sheik gets KO'd or picks up another size-changing item. The same glitch does not occur for Charizard, Ivysaur, or Squirtle.

Super Smash Bros. 4

Trophies

Trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

Trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Lightning

If there is one thing I've learned from Mario Kart, it's that lightning can strike without a cloud in the sky. Picking this up will hit your foes with a character-shrinking blast of lightning, making them really easy to launch into the distance. If you get struck, you'd best run until the fight is fair again.

Don't let sunny weather fool you! Lightning can strike at any time. This mighty force of nature can make you feel small...and actually make you small, too. In this state, you'll be quite weak and easily launched, so just try to stay out of everyone's way until you go back to normal. THEN you can get your own back!

: Super Mario Kart (09/1992)

: Mario Kart 8 (05/2014)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The Lightning Bolt returns as an item, retaining the same damage multipliers from Smash 4.

Spirit

While the Lightning Bolt itself doesn't appear as a spirit, its backfire effect appears as an ability on the Max Brass support spirit. The ability activates when the player is above 85% damage or below 35% health, but only once per match.

No.	Image	Name	Type	Class	Cost	Ability	Series
1,420		Max Brass		★★★★	3	Critical Super Giant	ARMS

Gallery

• 

  Lightning Bolt artwork from Brawl.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	サンダー, Thunder	—
English	Lightning	—
French	Éclair	Lightning
German	Blitz	Lightning
Italian	Fulmine	Lightning
Spanish	Rayo	Lightning
Chinese (Simplified)	闪电	Lightning
Chinese (Traditional)	閃電	Lightning
Korean	번개	Lightning
Dutch	Bliksemschicht	Lightning Bolt
Russian	Молния	Lightning

Trivia

• The Lightning Bolt is the only item that doesn't spawn normally on two different stages: The Great Cave Offensive and Garden of Hope.
• Although being mini reduces one's ability to recover, certain up specials which are affected by a fighter's gravity stat will actually go higher as a result of the reduced gravity applied by being tiny.
• The largest a character can be under normal circumstances is in Mega Smash, after lightning backfires. In this state, all size-altering effects are at their strongest, including character voices and sound effects being even deeper than collecting a Super Mushroom in Mega Smash, or after lightning backfires in a normal match.
  • This could be visually amplified even further with Mario’s size-altering taunt prior to Ultimate.
• In Brawl, Pikmin Throw uniquely won’t change pitch upon growing or shrinking.
• In SSB4, although Pikmin grow and shrink with Olimar, the pitch of Pikmin depends on what size they were when plucked, and this pitch persists even after further size changes.
• If a character grows bigger in-size while getting struck by Lightning during Mini Smash, the character's pitch will sound normal, despite being slightly smaller than their base-size.