Passive armor: Difference between revisions

Passive armor was first formally introduced in ''Melee'' for [[Nana]] and [[Giga Bowser]], where they have 5 and 20 units of subtractive [[Armor#Knockback-based armor|knockback-based armor]] respectively. In Nana's case, the armor makes her slightly harder to launch than Popo, while for Giga Bowser it is intended to make him harder to launch, taking advantage of his massive weight value. As the armor is subtractive, attack that inflict knockback below the threshold won't launch either character, though in the case of Nana this is rarely seen outside of cases like {{SSBM|Luigi}}'s [[Super Jump Punch]] sourspot, because of the particularly low threshold and the Ice Climbers' below average weight; however [[crouch cancelling]] could slightly increase the effectiveness of the armor. Though Nana doesn't have any form of passive armor as of ''Brawl'', the introduction of {{SSBB|Bowser}}'s {{b|Giga Bowser|Final Smash}} Final Smash introduced passive super armor for the first time. ''Smash 4'' would expand on this further, adding [[Giga Mac]], [[Mega Charizard X]], and [[Mega Lucario]], albeit with significantly nerfed durations to transformation Final Smashes in general. ''Smash 4'' also introduced the Tough Guy mechanic for {{SSB4|Bowser}}, giving him 19 units of knockback-based armor permanently with no drawbacks. With Giga Bowser no longer being a fully-controllable character in ''Ultimate'', he received 95 units of knockback-based armor for his boss incarnation, rather than super armor. ''Ultimate'''s [[DLC]] would also introduce Tough Body as an effective clone of {{SSBU|Bowser}}'s [[fighter ability]] for {{SSBU|Kazuya}}, only it uses 14 units of knockback-based armor.

| [[Bowser]] || 19 KB{{gameIcon|SSB4}}{{gameIcon|SSBU}} || {{n}}

| [[Ice Climbers (SSBM)|Nana]] || 5 KB{{gameIcon|SSBM}} || {{y}}

Tough Guy and Tough Body are [[fighter abilities]], originally introduced with Tough Guy in ''Smash 4''. These specifically apply to Bowser and Kazuya, respectively, in the form of passive knockback-based armor, summing to 19 and 14 KB respectively. Giga Bowser also has the same mechanic, though it isn't named, and it has a threshold of 95 KB. This armor requires the armor threshold to be breached to deal [[hitstun]] and [[knockback]]. Nana and Giga Bowser both have abilities with similar effects in ''Melee'', but it's subtractive, meaning that instead of requiring a threshold to be reached to deal full knockback, the knockback is subtracted by the value after calculation, preventing them to flinch if the value goes below 0.

Because Tough Guy and Tough Body's presence includes [[crouch]]ing, thanks to the 0.85× knockback reduction it provides, it improves the armor's ranges significantly; Kazuya in particular benefits from this as he will be crouching more often than most characters because of his unique crouch-based attacks. Bowser's armored smash and tilt attacks, as well as Kazuya's armored smash attacks and [[Heaven's Door]], also benefit from the passive armor in ''Ultimate'', giving him effectively two layers of armor for attacks to break through. Because the armor is knockback-based, Tough Guy's effectiveness deteriorates as [[percentage]] builds. As the character using it takes more damage, they take more knockback, which gives Tough Guy a hard limit in every matchup. Additionally, effects that increase knockback, such as [[rage]], will also affect Tough Guy. For a character-specific example, {{SSBU|Hero}}'s [[Psyche Up]] applies a 1.2× knockback multiplier directly onto his moves which, as a result, significantly decreases Tough Guy's effectiveness—if not neuter it outright—until it goes away.  

Due to Tough Guy's very low knockback threshold, its usefulness is highly specific to the point of being essentially nonexistent in some matchups. While characters like {{SSBU|Luigi}} and {{SSBU|Mega Man}} are noticeably impacted due to their reliance on weak, spammable projectiles in neutral, others such as {{SSBU|Donkey Kong}} and {{SSBU|Ganondorf}} are completely unaffected. This applies even moreso to Kazuya's Tough Body, having drastically lower damage ranges due to his lower base threshold and weight; for example, while Bowser can armor {{SSBU|Pyra}}'s Rapid Jab well until 174%, Kazuya can only armor it until around 12%. Like all armor, Tough Guy does not protect characters from [[grab]]s either, so characters that are noticeably affected by the ability can normally make up for it through a grab-heavy playstyle. Tough Guy was indirectly buffed in ''Ultimate'' thanks to the universal knockback reduction in all rapid jabs. The addition of damage-based armor into his moveset also assisted with this, adding a degree of safety at tighter percent ranges. Because Bowser himself gained more weight, it's common to see him armor rapid jabs to extremely high thresholds and punish them outright.