Grab


 * This article is for the attack move grab. For the Smasher, see Smasher:Grab.



A grab is an attack all characters possess which causes them to hold an opponent in place, usually in preparation for a throw or some other followup attack.

All characters possess a grab as part of their standard moveset, which can be performed by pressing the shield and attack buttons simultaneously on any controller. They can also be used with a specific grab button, which behaves like a simultaneous shield and attack input (thus, it can be used for other actions involving shield or attack inputs when grabs aren't possible), and is by default:
 * the R button on the N64 controller
 * the Z button on the GameCube controller
 * a horizontal d-pad input with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk
 * the minus button on a standalone Wii Remote
 * the ZL or ZR button on the Classic Controller, Wii U Pro Controller, and Wii U GamePad
 * the L button on the Nintendo 3DS, or, on New 3DS models only, the ZR button
 * the L or R button on the Switch Pro Controller and dual Joy-Cons
 * the SL button on a standalone Joy-Con

Depending on the game, there are different variations of each character's grab:
 * Standing grab (known as Catch internally), which is the default type used when standing still or walking. They have the fastest startup and the lowest ending lag, but they usually have the shortest range. In the original Super Smash Bros., they are the only type of grab, so they can be used even while dashing.
 * Dash grab (known as CatchDash internally), introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee, which is used by grabbing while dashing. Fighters move forward during the grab to give it longer range, but generally they have slightly more startup and are heavier on ending lag, making them easier to punish than other grab types if they miss.
 * Pivot grab (known as CatchTurn internally), introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is used by grabbing immediately after a pivot. This results in the character turning around and performing a grab with even longer range than the other grab types, allowing it to be used as an approach mixup. Pivot grabs tend to have more startup than both standing and dash grabs, and more ending lag than standing grabs but less than dash grabs.

Grabs cannot be shielded, and are thus an easy way to open up a hole in an opponent's defense. Upon a successful grab, the opponent is immobilized for a certain period, and the grabbing character has access to five possible attacks: a pummel by pressing an attack or grab button (except in Smash 64), which racks up damage while keeping the opponent grabbed, or any of four throws (forward, back, up, or down; only forward and back in Smash 64) by tilting the control stick in the respective direction, which launches the opponent and ends the grab. Characters can only be grabbed for a certain period of time, after which they break free in a phenomenon known as a grab release, so the idea is that the grabber can throw them before this happens. This grab period is extended as the victim's damage percentage increases, but can be decreased by button mashing from their part.

Several special moves are similarly able to grab and then throw opponents, which are similarly unblockable and put opponents in a unique state compared to normal grabs. These types of attacks are often referred to as command grabs.

Properties
An important property of grabs is that they cannot be shielded, completely ignoring a opponent's shield and grabbing them out of it; in comparison to other unblockable attacks, grabs are available to the entirety of the cast in all Smash games, preventing foes from overusing their shields against any character. This, along with grabs' generally fast startup, their ability to easily punish out of shield, and most throws allowing the player to execute diverse combos and chains, causes them to be used very prominently in competitive play, constituting the neutral game of characters as a triangle where grabs beat shields, but are beaten by attacks as they are outranged by them. Grabs also ignore moves that conceptually block attacks, such as those that provide armor and most counterattacks, though they do not work against foes knocked down on the floor (with the only exception being in the original Super Smash Bros.).

In Smash 64, grabs are notoriously fast, with more powerful throws than in other games. However, pummels, up throws, and down throws did not exist, nor did grab releases (aside from Donkey Kong's forward throw). Instead, pressing the A button or holding a grabbed opponent for more than one second automatically triggers a forward throw. Since Melee, the speed and power of most characters' grabs and throws have been toned down, and the other grab mechanics introduced have since been widely understood as the series' standard. Ultimate further nerfed grabs by giving them more ending lag, and halving grabbox sizes against airborne opponents, increasing their risk of use.

Limits on grabbing
In all games, most characters cannot be grabbed by less central parts of their bodies, such as lower arms, legs, or tails, which can lead to some unusual results against characters with extreme proportions. This varies depending on character; for example, in Melee, all of Kirby's hurtboxes can be grabbed, but only Jigglypuff's body is grabbable, while its hands, feet, and hair curl are not. From Brawl onward, ungrabbable limbs tend to be only arms, with a few exceptions. Furthermore, from Brawl onward, characters cannot grab opponents behind them, even if the grab hitboxes connect with a grabbable part of their body that extends in front of them; this is unlike in Melee, where not only this is possible, but certain dash grabs have some grabboxes intentionally placed behind the user.

A particular character can grab only one opponent at once, and similarly, neither the user nor the victim can be grabbed by another character before the grab ends. Prior to Ultimate, the Ice Climbers are able to grab two opponents at once, with each climber grabbing one opponent. In Melee, Nana becomes CPU-controlled when grabbing an opponent, whereas in Brawl, she can be controlled by the player during the grab, enabling zero-to-death combos as each Ice Climber regrabs the opponent immediately after the partner's throw. In Ultimate, Nana cannot grab at all, nor act while Popo is grabbing and throwing an opponent.

Characters cannot use their grabs while holding an item; attempting to input one will cause them to drop or throw the item first. In Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, characters gain invulnerability to grabs for around one second after being released from them (70 and 60 frames, respectively), preventing chaingrabs and team wobbles. In Ultimate, this is indicated by the released character flashing yellow while the grab invulnerability is active.

While non-playable characters such as Metal Mario (in Smash 64) and Fighting Wire Frames can be grabbed, bosses such as Master Hand and Giga Bowser cannot. Most enemies in Brawl's Subspace Emissary and 's Smash Run (including the enemies inside Master Fortress in ) can be grabbed, usually those with a comparable size to the playable characters. However, in Brawl, they cannot be held, grab released, or pummeled, instead causing the character to immediately throw them in the direction the control stick is held when the grab connects (forward throw by default). In Ultimate, most but not all Assist Trophies can be grabbed. In Melee, grabbing enemies in Adventure Mode instead allows characters to carry them like heavy items.

Hitting characters during a grab
While a character grabs another, others that are not involved in the grab can still hit either character, which has different effects depending on the game:
 * In all games, dealing any knockback to the grabber causes them to release the grabbed opponent and flinch as usual; if this opponent is not hit by the attack, they are either launched at a semi-spike angle in Melee, or go into their grab release animation in later games (or in Smash 64, a short flinching animation akin to it). This causes grabs to leave characters particularly vulnerable in battles with multiple players; however, initiating a throw gives them brief invincibility that can negate punish attempts from other opponents.
 * If the grabbed opponent is hit instead, and not the grabber, they can armor through the attack and remain in their grab hold animation until they take above a certain amount of damage. Otherwise, they are released from the grab and launched by the attack as usual, while the grabber goes into their grab release animation.
 * In Smash 64 and Melee, grabbed opponents take half damage from external attacks, and break free if the attack deals at least 6% with this reduction factored in. Hitting them repeatedly with attacks that deal less damage does not release them, even if their accumulated damage is much greater than the threshold; as a result, continuous weak attacks can be particularly effective for racking up damage on them. Additionally, in Melee, hitting a grabbed opponent puts them in their grab flinch animation for 20 frames, during which they cannot escape; exploiting this feature is what enables wobbling.
 * From Brawl onward, grabbed opponents no longer take half damage from external attacks, and they are released if they take at least 10% damage total, rather than from a single attack. This causes them to escape much more easily, weakening the effectiveness of attacking an opponent while another character holds them in a grab. They are also no longer put in their grab flinch animation, preventing wobbling or any similar techniques.

Interaction with other hitboxes
Grabboxes are not bound by usual priority rules. Instead, in each game, they behave differently if a grab connects with an opponent at the same time the opponent strikes the grabber with a standard hitbox.


 * In Smash 64 and Melee, the grab has full priority over the hitbox, with the grabber ignoring it entirely and hitting the opponent.
 * In Brawl, the grab has priority over the hitbox, but the hitbox still causes damage to the grabber, instead having them armor through it.
 * In Smash 4 and Ultimate, hitboxes outprioritize grabs; in this situation, the grabber receives full damage and knockback from the standard hitbox, while the attacker is grab released and takes 3% damage (or more if the grab came from a special move and the grab itself dealt damage, like the beginning of Falcon Dive). In Ultimate, however, a select few attacks' hitboxes are coded to be outprioritized by grabs, with the grabber taking damage but armoring through the attack like in Brawl; this is the case for 's Homing Attack, Spin Dash, and Spin Charge, and more notably 's Wonderwing (which also causes the grabber to take 0.25× damage from the hitbox).

Likewise, if both characters attempt to grab each other at the same time, the situation is resolved differently in each game. In Smash 64, Melee, and Brawl, this is determined by port priority, with the character in the lower port always getting the grab. In Smash 4, port priority is no longer a factor, with either character having an equally random chance to get the grab instead. Ultimate resolves both quirks by simply causing both grabs to cancel each other out, akin to a clang. This property is known as grab parrying by the in-game tips, and results in both characters taking 1% damage and performing their rebound animation (unless they are in the air, where their grab release animation is used instead). The exact timing of when this can happen is specific to every animation of every character, and may even be assigned to actions that are not grabs.

Grab time
From Melee onward, grabs hold the opponent for a variable amount of time, increasing proportionally to their damage percentage at the time of the grab (so it is not affected by pummeling or external damage), and decreasing with button mashing from the opponent. In Melee, the formula for grab frames is  rounded down, where p is the victim's percent at the time of the grab, and h is a handicap equal to the victim's current rank disadvantage over the grabber (for example, if the victim is placing 4th and the grabber is placing 1st, it is equal to 3). As a result, players that are currently losing will be grabbed for less time, and the minimum possible grab time without button mashing can be 76, 61, 46, or 31 frames depending on their rank disadvantage. From Brawl onward, the formula is changed to  rounded down, removing match placing from the equation and increasing grab time overall.

Button mashing reduces grab time by 6 frames per input in Melee, and 8 frames per input from Brawl onward (14.4 for buttons in Smash 4 and Ultimate, but they cannot be inputted as quickly as stick inputs). However, the grab time from Brawl onward cannot be lower than 19 frames, allowing certain characters to always pummel the opponent at least once and throw them before they can escape. In Ultimate, grabbed characters flash yellow when they are close to escaping (180 frames left or less, equal to 3 seconds).

Tether grabs and extended grabs
Some characters, instead of grabbing opponents directly, throw forward a long rope- or whip-like object in order to grab opponents. This sort of grab is known as a tether grab. The main characteristic of a tether grab is that it completely relies on a secondary model to work, allowing the model to move with the bone the grabbox is attached to, in contrast with standard grabs where the grabbox is attached to the neutral bone. This characteristic is the cause behind tether grabs not behaving properly if the gameplay speed is altered. Similarly, an extended grab is a grab that is not standard, but also not reliant on a secondary model to function; characters with such grabs include Yoshi and Min Min. Both tether and extended grabs are renowned for their very high range compared to most other grabs, but are also much slower than standard grabs, particularly in earlier installments.

Characters with tether grabs and extended grabs are noted in the table above. In general, characters with tether grabs also have grab aerials and can use them as a tether recovery, while those with standard or extended grabs do not, however this is not universal. For example, in Ultimate, has a grab aerial that cannot act as a tether recovery, while Steve and, in Brawl,  have a tether grab but do not have either a grab aerial or a tether recovery tied to a grab input. and also have a tether grab in the original Super Smash Bros., where grab aerials did not exist.

Notable grabs

 * In NTSC versions of Melee, ' grab can be extended to almost two and a half times its usual length using a special input combination. When this is done, her grapple beam also homes in on enemies if the L button is held, being the only tether grab able to do so, but only grabs enemies if the A button is pressed when the tip connects, and still cannot affect aerial opponents. This affects both her normal grab and dash grab, though not her grab aerial.
 * In Smash 4, 's grab appears to be one continuous beam; however, it actually projects three short-lived grabboxes, one after another in front of him, each one further outwards than the last. Because of these blindspots and its heavy ending lag, the move is infamous for its unreliability and high risk. In Ultimate, its hitboxes were reworked to be larger and more continuous, while its ending lag was reduced, making it more reliable and allowing it to beat out spot dodges more effectively.
 * In Melee, 's standing grab is notorious for its deceptively long range, reaching the farthest out of all non-extended grabs. Its range has since been reduced in later games, though it remains above-average in Brawl.
 * Likewise, 's grabs in Brawl, despite being extended, have only as much ending lag as regular grabs, making them extremely difficult to punish while carrying comparatively much lower risk. From Smash 4 onward, their ending lag was significantly increased to be closer to other extended grabs, though his pivot grab remained exceptionally quick until Ultimate.
 * 's pivot grab in Smash 4 is infamous for similar reasons, being capable of grabbing characters from unnaturally long distances in combination with hurtbox shifting. Its range was reduced in Ultimate, though it remains one of the farthest reaching grabs in the game.
 * In Ultimate, 's dash grab has a surprising disjoint in front of him. This is to compensate for him not moving forward during the grabbing portion of his dash grab, which would result in his dash grab having shorter range than what is typical for them.

Special moves that can grab
Some special attacks function as grabs (sometimes called command grabs, from the similar concept in traditional fighting games). When their hitboxes are viewed with Melee's, these attacks use the same magenta hitbox color as standard grabs. Special grabs put opponents in a unique state that is manipulated by the move in some fashion, and have their own independent rules as to whether and how opponents can escape. They can also be used in midair, and can usually grab opponents in this state, giving characters with access to them another option against shields.

In the following table, a special grab being escapable indicates it can be interrupted mid-execution and put the opponent in their grab release animation, while being mashable indicates its grab duration can be influenced by button mashing. All mashable special grabs use different duration formulas from regular grabs, with the exception of Force Palm.

* Not possible in real-time.

Hitboxes that can grab
In Ultimate, a minority of special moves utilize hitboxes that grab opponents when they hit (sometimes called hit grab, also from the similar concept in traditional fighting games). Functionally, these moves have all the properties of hitboxes (damage, angle, effect, etc.), but instead of dealing knockback when they connect with an opponent, they place the opponent in a grabbed state. Practically, the most important difference from a regular grab is that they can be shielded. Additionally, should the hitbox have non-zero knockback, it deals knockback if it connects with an opponent that cannot be grabbed. Like regular grabs, hit grabs ignore all forms of armor, though they may still activate certain effects of the armor, such as with Rebel's Guard. They do not work against counters, with certain moves triggering the counter attack, while others ignore the opponent entirely. If the moves' hitboxes are scripted as reflectable, they can also can be reflected, but instead of changing the trajectory of the move, they act as if a regular projectile collided with a shield, leaving both players unharmed. Interestingly, the projectile based hit grabs are the only hit grabs that do not trigger counters, though this may be coincidental.

Hit grabs cannot be escaped, nor influenced by button mashing.

Initial grab range by game
These are lists that rank how long the hitbox of each character's grab is in each game. Note that hitbox length alone does not accurately reflect how far away a character can actually grab ingame, as where a grab hitbox is positioned on a character plays a large role in how far away it can effectively grab characters. For example, the size of R.O.B.'s grab hitbox is above-average in Smash 4 and Ultimate, however most of the hitbox is positioned inside of his body, leaving so little of it extending outside his body that he has the worst reaching standing grab in both games. Conversely 's grab hitbox is of below-average size in Ultimate, but since it is a positioned in a way where most of it reaches outside her body, she has one of the farthest non-tether grabs in the game.

In Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. grab ranges as tested by SuperSqank. Testing method is between the character's bone 0 (position) and tip of furthest grabbox. The scale is different than the scale used in later games, with the conversion rate roughly being range/30 (So Fox's range for example is 400u, which would roughly convert to 13.33u using the scale from later games)

In Super Smash Bros. Melee
Melee grab ranges by character according to Zeckemyro and SuperSqank. This testing is done by calculating the distance between bone 0 (the character's position) and the tip of the furthest grabbox. While Bowser and Yoshi have higher grab ranges than Marth (who was thought to have the longest non-tether grab in the game), this is only because the long range of their grabboxes was made to fit their larger bodies. Marth has a better grab by comparison due to its better disjoint compared to his smaller size despite having less range overall (which is further complimented by its superior speed).

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Brawl grab ranges by Zeckemyro and SuperSqank. The units displayed are raw range between the character's position in 3D space (TopN bone/bone 0) and the tip of the furthest grabbox in in-game units.

In Super Smash Bros. 4
Smash 4 grab ranges by Zeckemyro and extra data for tether and extended grabs from SuperSqank. Numbers are raw horizontal range from the character's bone 0 position and the tip of the furthest grabbox. Certain tether and extended grabs will have asterisks next to their range due to not being able to get perfectly accurate values. Despite the innacurate values, the placements in this ranking are accurate.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Grab ranges in Ultimate as tested by Zeckemyro and CrimsonStarfall. The number besides each position indicates the range using in-game units. Extended grabs will be followed by an asterisk (*) due to only being approximations. Their range was tested and is placed correctly. Jostle and the height of the grabboxes can affect their consistency in the midst of battle. The grabs are listed based on their raw horizontal range.

Trivia

 * Only two characters in the series – Luigi and Link – have had their grab type outright changed, with Link's grab changing from tether to standard, and Luigi's grab changing from standard to tether. Both of these changes occurred in Ultimate.
 * In Melee, characters hanging on ledges cannot be grabbed, but in every other game they can. This can be done if a certain character's grab animation is low enough to be able to grab a character hanging from a ledge if the latter character's head is above the ledge. An example video for SSB4 can be seen here. Example for SSB can be seen here.
 * Grabs are the only non-special moves to not cause the player's controller to rumble (should the feature be turned on) when used, only doing so if the grab connects with an opponent.