Chomp


 * "Chomp" may also refer to the Chain Chomp, an enemy from the universe, which appears as a trophy and a sticker in Brawl, and as an Assist Trophy in SSB4 and Ultimate.

Chomp (, Wario Snapping Bite) is Wario's neutral special move.

Overview
When the special move button is pressed, Wario leans forward and opens his mouth, then bites. The bite itself is non-damaging, except against enemies in the Subspace Emissary; instead, Wario's open mouth acts as a grab, trapping the first opponent that comes in range. Wario can also keep his mouth open for longer by holding the special button, extending the grab's duration. When an opponent is caught, he can bite them repeatedly by pressing the attack or special move buttons, dealing a small amount of damage each time, then spits them forward. The higher the opponent's damage, the more times Wario can bite them before they are spat. Additionally, Wario's head is briefly granted intangibility when he opens his mouth, allowing him to capture an opponent more safely without getting hit by an attack inbetween.

Chomp also has item-swallowing capabilities, allowing Wario to eat items or projectiles in range, with up to four at a time. Eating a heavy item, such as a Crate, takes longer to swallow and leaves Wario more vulnerable. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, eating standard items has no effect other than removing them from play. In Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, however, each item eaten heals Wario by 1%, and adds 90 frames (1.5 seconds) of charge to his Wario Waft. This improves the move's utility against characters that can use items (such as Peach's Vegetable), and also allows Wario himself to obtain these benefits by eating his own Wario Bike. Using Chomp on other types of items has different effects:
 * Eating a status or recovery item, such as a Superspicy Curry or Heart Container, immediately grants Wario its effect. Additionally, from Smash 4 onward, Chomping a food item increases its heal amount by 1.5×. For example, while a Heart Container will still heal Wario by 100% if Chomped, a Maxim Tomato will heal him by 75% instead of 50%.
 * Eating an explosive item, such as a Bob-omb or any of the Links' s, causes it to explode in his belly, inflicting some recoil damage (6% in Brawl, 5% in Smash 4, and 3% in Ultimate), but also hitting any opponents in range. In Smash 4 and Ultimate, this does not add any charge to Wario Waft.
 * From Smash 4 onward, Chomp also works against opponents' projectiles. This does not heal Wario in Smash 4, nor does it add any charge to Wario Waft; however, it can still function as a valuable defensive technique, as it works regardless of the projectile's power or absorbability. In Ultimate, this has improved utility, as Wario is now healed by 0.2× of the damage the projectile would have dealt otherwise.

In Ultimate, Chomp was further improved. Each bite on a caught opponent heals Wario by 0.6%, and the spit deals considerably more knockback, allowing it to KO reliably near edges at high percentages. Additionally, in battles with more than two players, each bite deals slightly more damage; from three to eight players total, the bite's base damage of 2% is multiplied by 1.2×, 1.3×, 1.4×, 1.5×, 1.6×, and 1.7×, respectively, for a maximum of 3.4% damage per bite with eight players. However, the move has also been slightly nerfed, as it no longer grants intangibility on Wario's head when initiated, making it less safe for capturing opponents in the middle of an attack, and instead encouraging its use against defensive options such as shields or spot dodges.

Technical specifics
When Chomp is used on an opponent, the amount of time they are caught before Wario spits them is equal to  in frames, where p is the opponent's damage percent when caught. Button mashing reduces this time by 10 frames per input; in Smash 4 and Ultimate, this is increased to 18 frames for button inputs, but they cannot be registered as quickly as stick inputs. As for Wario himself, he automatically starts biting the opponent when they are caught, with each bite lasting 39 frames (discounting hitlag); however, by pressing either an attack or special move button, the bites are sped up by 4× for 5 frames, effectively shortening their duration to a minimum of 9 frames, and allowing Wario to bite the opponent much faster. Because of this, mashing both buttons is optimal to continuously apply this 5-frame speed-up effect and keep the bites at their fastest speed, maximizing the move's damage output.

After an opponent is released from Chomp, Wario cannot use the move again for a short period of time, which lasts 15 frames in Brawl, and 50 frames in Smash 4 and Ultimate.

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Chomp: Default.
 * 2) Inhaling Chomp (known as Inhale and Chomp in the PAL version): Wario can suck opponents and items in from a farther range, but he can't bite as quickly as with the default Chomp, dealing less damage overall. It can also be held longer than the standard version, but Wario needs to hold his mouth open for a second before he can stop the move, making it much more punishable on whiff. It resembles the Hyper Suction move from Wario World.
 * 3) Garlic Breath: Wario breathes noxious fumes that stun close range opponents and trip distant ones if they're on the ground. However, he can't eat enemies or items, and the move has a longer start-up duration than the other Chomp variants, which can leave Wario highly vulnerable to punishment.

Origin
Besides Wario's love of eating in general, the move is very loosely inspired by the microgame from  where Wario has to finish chomping on a long hotdog to win the game.

The Inhaling Chomp customization seems to be inspired by one of Wario's abilities in ,, where he opens up his mouth and inhales to suck in s.

Garlic Breath is inspired by Wario's love of.

Trivia

 * If Wario is under the effect of a Super Mushroom and performs Chomp, the opponent will spin in his mouth.
 * Characters trapped in Wario's mouth appear to have the upper halves of their models shrunk down significantly, presumably so that even large characters can fit inside Wario's mouth despite his rather small stature.
 * Chomping on the healing items in SSB4's All-Star Rest Area does not give Wario the 1.5x healing bonus.