Golden Hammer

The Golden Hammer (, Golden Hammer) is an item from.

Origin
The Golden Hammer made its appearance in  as a stronger, golden variation of a normal hammer. It can be acquired by swinging the player's hammer a number of times, adding the stage number, dividing it by eight and then leaving a remainder of one. When used, it allows the player to swing faster, easily demolish walls with a single hit, and attack enemies and send them to the bottom of the screen. When it appears, it is accompanied by a short tune. When it is acquired, it is accompanied by a unique power-up theme.

Contrary to its depiction in the Super Smash Bros. series, the Golden Hammer cannot act "squeaky" in this game, nor can it otherwise malfunction.

As an item
The Golden Hammer debuted as a duration/battering item in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

When the Golden Hammer spawns, only its podium will appear before the actual hammer itself grows from it. It cannot be picked up until it is fully grown from the podium. When picked up, it forces the player's fighter to constantly swing the weapon back and forth, much like the standard Hammer. Unlike the Hammer, the fighter swings it twice as fast, and it also has considerably higher knockback, hitlag, and damage output. The knockback is also diagonal, as opposed to the Hammer's vertical knockback. While the fighters cannot use any attacks while swinging it, constantly tapping the jump button will cause the player to float in midair, for a limited time.

Like the Hammer, getting hit by attacks that inflict knockback can cause the wielder to drop the Golden Hammer. In addition, it is impossible to manually let go of the Golden Hammer unless the wielder is tumbling. If the Golden Hammer is dropped by its user, however, it will immediately disappear upon hitting the ground. Golden Hammers that are dropped can be grabbed by air-dodging players.

Similar to how the Hammer can lose its head, the Golden Hammer also has the chance to backfire on its wielder. In one case, the Golden Hammer will become the Golden Squeaky Hammer (, Golden Squeaky Hammer), which allows the fighters to float, but it does not inflict any damage or knockback to opponents; instead, it produces a squeaking noise upon striking them. Unusually, counters can still activate if hit by the Golden Squeaky Hammer, and in Smash 4, Golden Squeaky Hammers that are dropped and recaught have a chance of turning into regular ones.

In Challenges
Unlocking specific challenges will give players access to Golden Hammers to break other Challenge boxes. Each Golden Hammer can only be used once, and in the 3DS version of Smash 4, they can only be used on the grid section they have been unlocked on. Using the Golden Hammer allows the player to attain any rewards from the box without having to meet (or do) its unlock criteria for the two boxes next to it as usual. When a Golden Hammer is used once on a challenge, it's permanently erased from the player's Golden Hammer total and can't be unlocked again. Challenges cleared with a Golden Hammer are marked with a hammer symbol, which is removed when and if the unlock condition is eventually met in normal play.

In Brawl, some challenges cannot be broken with the Golden Hammers, particularly those that involve plot elements from the Subspace Emissary. In the PAL version of Brawl, this does not apply, and instead, Golden Hammers can unlock all challenges (without having to meet its unlock criteria).

In Ultimate, new Golden Hammers are unlocked as challenges are completed. They still cannot break some challenges related to Adventure Mode: World of Light, or the more difficult challengers on the other challenge pages.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Golden Hammer Trophy can be obtained by hitting a combined distance of 15,000m/45,000 ft with all fighters' Home-Run Contest records.

Trivia

 * The special animations for when certain characters pick up a Hammer also apply to the Golden Hammer.
 * A Golden Hammer will, until hitting someone with it, flash gold while the user swings it around. The Golden Squeaky Hammer will instead flash white.
 * In SSB4, if Villager pockets a Golden Hammer, picks up another item, then uses Pocket to swap out the Golden Hammer with the item, he will use the Golden Hammer as normal, but the music will not play.
 * The Golden Hammer lasts long enough just to hear the first portion of the "Power-Up Music" track. However, by increasing the amount of time it remains active, such as by pausing or through hitstun, the rest of the song can be heard.
 * The Golden Hammer is one of three items that will change the music being played on the stage temporarily, the other two being the normal Hammer and the Super Star. Incidentally, all three come from Mario and its sub-universes.