Dash

Mario dashing in Melee

Mario dashing in Brawl

"Run" redirects here. For information on the CPU mode in Brawl, see List of CPU modes.

A dash is a form of ground movement faster than walking. It is performed by tapping sideways on the control stick. The player's character enters his or her initial dash animation, in which they change directions with very little lag, and then proceeds to his or her running animation. In Brawl, a character attempting to dash can trip instead. While dashing, characters can also perform their dash attack, shield, or jump. The Bunny Hood item increases a character's running speed. The concept of the initial dash is vital to many forms of ground movement, such as dash-dancing, Fox-trotting, and pivoting.

Other terminology

The initial dash is the first part of a character's dash, during which a character can change directions with only 1 frame of lag — much less than during while running, where this lag can be as high as 51 frames (Marth in Melee). The concept of the initial dash is vital to many forms of ground movement, such as dash-dancing, fox-trotting, and pivoting.

A stutter step is the term for when a character begins to dash but stops almost immediately, often used for positioning and mindgames. Along with merely stopping, characters can also dash cancel via a variety of other methods.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Initial dash

Because the initial dash animation translates into the running animation much later than in Brawl, it is a vital tool for movement in general and dash-dancing in particular. During the initial dash, the following actions can be used:

• Altering the speed of the dash with the control stick, most notably backwards to Moonwalk.
• Turning around by mashing the control stick in the opposite direction. Turning around takes one frame during which the character is standing and can do all ground attacks except neutral B. If the control stick stays in a neutral position after this pivot frame, the character will keep standing.
• Pressing A or C-Stick forward/backward during the first 3 frames to do a small step forward smash. This is only possible after dashing forward, not backward.
• Pressing A after the first 3 frames to do a dash attack.
• Pressing L or R to shield. During the first two frames of a forward dash, L/R always trigger a roll. On frame 3, they trigger the shield, but with 1 frame delay.
• Pressing L+A, R+A or Z to do a dash grab.
• Jumping and jump cancelling.
• Using forward special.

Run

During the run — the later part of the dash — different options are available:

• Pressing down to crouch. (Spending 1 frame in the RunBrake animation is necessary before the crouch can start.)
• Turning around by mashing or pushing the control stick in the opposite direction. Turning around takes very long, up to 51 frames (Marth). During the turnaround animation, only a jump can interrupt it.
• Pressing A or C-Stick forward/backward during the first 3 frames to do a small step forward smash. This is only possible after dashing forward, not backward.
• Pressing A to do a dash attack.
• Pressing L or R to shield.
• Pressing L+A, R+A, or Z to do a dash grab.
• Jumping and jump cancelling.
• Using special moves.

Running speed

Running speed is the rate at which a character can run.

Super Smash Bros. rankings

Rank	Character	Running speed
1	Captain Falcon	70
2	Fox	60
3	Pikachu	55
4	Samus	54
5	Yoshi	50
6-7	Donkey Kong and Kirby	48
8	Mario	44
9-10	Link and Jigglypuff	42
11-12	Luigi and Ness	40

Taken from Antdgar's Frame Data

Super Smash Bros. Melee rankings

Rank	Character	Speed
1	Captain Falcon	2.3
2	Fox	2.2
3-5	Marth, Sheik, and Pikachu	1.8
6	Pichu	1.72
7	Roy	1.61
8-10	Young Link, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong	1.6
11-15	Falco, Dr. Mario, Mario, Mr. Game & Watch, and Bowser	1.5
16-20	Samus, Kirby, Mewtwo, Ice Climbers, and Ness	1.4
21	Ganondorf	1.35
22	Luigi	1.34
23-24	Link and Peach	1.3
25-26	Jigglypuff and Zelda	1.1

Source

Super Smash Bros. Brawl rankings

Rank	Character	Speed
1	Sonic	3.5
2	Captain Falcon	2.18
3	Fox	2.08
4	Zero Suit Samus	1.93
5	Sheik	1.92
6	Meta Knight	1.847
7	Charizard	1.8
8	Pikachu	1.765
9	Diddy Kong	1.721
10	Marth	1.7
11	Yoshi	1.68
12	Toon Link	1.65
13	Donkey Kong	1.622
14	Pit	1.583
15	Mr. Game & Watch	1.553
16	Bowser	1.527
17-20	Ivysaur, Lucas, Mario, and R.O.B.	1.5
21	Samus	1.445
22	Falco	1.432
23	Lucario	1.414
24-25	Olimar and Wolf	1.4
26	Ness	1.393
27	Ice Climbers	1.388
28-29	Ike and Kirby	1.371
30	Squirtle	1.37
31-33	Peach, Snake, and Wario	1.35
34	Luigi	1.34
35	Link	1.328
36	Zelda	1.224
37	King Dedede	1.22
38	Ganondorf	1.16
39	Jigglypuff	1.1

Note that several slow runners can use their dash attack to travel a far distance quicker, and some characters have a DACUS to increase mobility. The most notable case of this is Snake, whose DACUS gives him much more stage control and ability to evade opponents.

Super Smash Bros. 4 rankings

This article or section is incomplete. You can help SmashWiki by expanding or finishing it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Cloud's dashing and certain fighter's buffed dashing speed

Rank	Character	Speed
1	Sonic	3.5
2	Captain Falcon	2.32
3	Little Mac	2.24
4	Fox	2.184
5	Zero Suit Samus	2.1
6	Greninja	2.08
7	Sheik	2.016
8	Charizard	2.0
9	Roy	1.91
10	Meta Knight	1.9
11	Palutena	1.888
12	Mewtwo	1.9
13	Yoshi	1.86
14	Pikachu	1.85325
15	Diddy Kong	1.824
16	Bowser	1.792
17-18	Marth	1.785
17-18	Lucina	1.785
19	Toon Link	1.7325
19.5	Mii Brawler	1.72
20	Donkey Kong	1.7031
21	Wii Fit Trainer	1.696
22-23	Pit	1.66215
22-23	Dark Pit	1.66215
24	Rosalina	1.632
25	Duck Hunt	1.63
26-27	Mario	1.6
26-27	Ryu	1.6
28-29	Kirby	1.568
28-29	R.O.B.	1.568
30	Mr. Game & Watch	1.5264
31-32	Shulk	1.52
31-32	Pac-Man	1.52
33	Samus	1.504
34-37	Luigi	1.5
34-37	Lucas	1.5
34-37	Wario	1.5
34-37	Ike	1.5
37.5	Mii Swordfighter	1.5
38	Lucario	1.4847
39	Falco	1.472
40	Olimar	1.47
41	Ness	1.46265
42	Mega Man	1.456
43	Bowser Jr.	1.424
44	Peach	1.4175
45	Link	1.3944
46	King Dedede	1.36
47	Dr. Mario	1.312
48	Zelda	1.3
48.5	Mii Gunner	1.3
49	Villager	1.27
50	Ganondorf	1.218
51	Jigglypuff	1.155
52	Robin	1.15

See also

• Dash-dancing
• Dash-canceling
• Pivoting

Trivia

• There are some strange inconsistencies for some characters' running speeds:
  • Luigi has a slower dashing speed than Mario in each Smash game to date, despite generally running faster than Mario in games such as Super Mario Galaxy.
    • There are, however, some games where Mario can run faster than Luigi such as Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2.
  • Wolf and Falco dash slower than Fox, despite being faster than him in Star Fox: Assault.
  • Ike is a generally slow character in the Smash games, despite having good speed stats in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
  • Mewtwo has a base Speed stat of 130 in the Pokémon games, making it the fastest character out of any playable Pokémon in Smash. However, Pikachu, Pichu, Charizard, and Greninja, whose Speed stats are below Mewtwo's, dash faster in Smash.
  • Lucario dashes significantly slower than Pikachu, despite both having the same base Speed stat in the Pokémon games.