Air friction

Air friction is a measure of how long it takes for a character to stop moving from a sideways force when in midair. It is the aerial equivalent to traction, which only applies when grounded.

Air friction only applies when the player is not holding the Control Stick in a horizontal direction (or the input is being ignored, such as when in hitstun). If the player is attempting to slow down, air acceleration applies instead, and air friction is ignored. This allows characters to be designed with several properties:

• High acceleration and high friction means a character will change velocity quickly in all situations.
• High acceleration and low friction means a character will respond quickly to the player's controls, but be very slow to decelerate if the player lets go.
• Low acceleration and high friction means a character will respond slowly to the player's controls, but be very quick to decelerate if the player lets go. This would lead to an unintuitive situation where a player trying to slow down will take longer than simply allowing friction to take over.
• Low acceleration and low friction means a character will change velocity slowly in all situations.

Air friction also determines how far a character travels when they are aerial grab released (along with gravity in Melee and Brawl). A character with low air friction will travel a long horizontal distance whereas characters with high air friction will not travel far at all. This is because air friction acts as a force against the momentum granted by the aerial grab release. This results in characters with higher air friction being left in a more vulnerable position after being aerial grab released. This is especially significant in Brawl, due to the long amount of time the grab released opponent cannot act. Characters with high air friction in Brawl are much more vulnerable to aerial grab release followups (unless they have extremely high gravity to compensate), especially if they can be forced into an aerial grab release from the ground. This is the reason why Wario's aerial grab release in Brawl sends him nowhere horizontally, making him extremely vulnerable to followups.

It is circumstantial as to whether high or low air friction is good or bad and it is also game dependent (as with the aforementioned Brawl aerial grab release example). Low air friction means a character will not slow down as much if the player attempts to use a neutral aerial when moving, and will cause them to travel a bit further during combos. But on the other hand, high air friction helps resist being KO'd to a degree, and it may be beneficial in some cases to slow to a stop quicker without providing directional input.

Air friction values

Super Smash Bros.

This article or section may require additional technical data. The editor who added this tag elaborates: only JPN/NA values here; check for potential EUR/AUS changes You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Jigglypuff	1
2	Kirby	0.5
3	Pikachu	0.45
4-5	Ness	0.4
4-5	Yoshi	0.4
6-8	Donkey Kong	0.3
6-8	Fox	0.3
6-8	Samus	0.3
9-10	Captain Falcon	0.2
9-10	Mario	0.2
11	Luigi	0.15
12	Link	0

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Jigglypuff	0.05
2	Sheik	0.04
3	Ness	0.03
4-9	Donkey Kong	0.02
4-9	Falco	0.02
4-9	Fox	0.02
4-9	Ganondorf	0.02
4-9	Ice Climbers	0.02
4-9	Kirby	0.02
N/A	Male Wire Frame	0.02
10-13	Dr. Mario	0.016
10-13	Mario	0.016
10-13	Mewtwo	0.016
10-13	Mr. Game & Watch	0.016
14	Yoshi	0.013
15-20	Bowser	0.01
15-20	Captain Falcon	0.01
15-20	Luigi	0.01
15-20	Pichu	0.01
15-20	Pikachu	0.01
15-20	Samus	0.01
N/A	Giga Bowser	0.01
21-26	Link	0.005
21-26	Marth	0.005
21-26	Peach	0.005
21-26	Roy	0.005
21-26	Young Link	0.005
21-26	Zelda	0.005
N/A	Female Wire Frame	0.005
N/A	Sandbag	0.001

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Wario	0.08
N/A	Wario-Man	0.08
2	Jigglypuff	0.0375
3	Ness	0.0225
4	Sheik	0.021
5	Squirtle	0.018
6-12	Donkey Kong	0.015
6-12	Fox	0.015
6-12	Ganondorf	0.015
6-12	Ice Climbers	0.015
6-12	Kirby	0.015
6-12	Meta Knight	0.015
6-12	Olimar	0.015
13-14	Ivysaur	0.014
13-14	Lucas	0.014
15	Falco	0.013
16	Mr. Game & Watch	0.012
17-21	Diddy Kong	0.01
17-21	Mario	0.01
17-21	Peach	0.01
17-21	Sonic	0.01
17-21	Toon Link	0.01
N/A	Fighting Alloy Team	0.01
22	Yoshi	0.00975
23	Ike	0.009
24-26	Charizard	0.008
24-26	Pit	0.008
24-26	Zero Suit Samus	0.008
27-31	Bowser	0.0075
N/A	Giga Bowser	0.0075
27-31	Captain Falcon	0.0075
27-31	Luigi	0.0075
27-31	Pikachu	0.0075
27-31	Samus	0.0075
32-33	King Dedede	0.006
32-33	Zelda	0.006
34-35	Lucario	0.005
34-35	Snake	0.005
36-37	R.O.B.	0.004
36-37	Wolf	0.004
38	Link	0.0038
39	Marth	0.00375

Super Smash Bros. 4

Rank	Character	Air friction
N/A	Wario-Man	0.08
1	Mega Man	0.05
2	Wario	0.04
3	Jigglypuff	0.0375
4	Ness	0.0225
5	Mewtwo	0.016
6-19	Bowser Jr.	0.015
6-19	Donkey Kong	0.015
6-19	Duck Hunt	0.015
6-19	Fox	0.015
6-19	Ganondorf	0.015
6-19	Greninja	0.015
6-19	Kirby	0.015
6-19	Mario	0.015
6-19	Mii Brawler	0.015
6-19	Olimar	0.015
6-19	Pac-Man	0.015
6-19	R.O.B.	0.015
6-19	Ryu*	0.015*
6-19	Sheik	0.015
N/A	Giga Mac	0.015
20	Lucas	0.014
21	Dr. Mario	0.01212
22-23	Meta Knight	0.012
22-23	Mr. Game & Watch	0.012
24-32	Falco	0.01
24-32	Mii Gunner	0.01
24-32	Palutena	0.01
24-32	Peach	0.01
24-32	Rosalina & Luma	0.01
24-32	Sonic	0.01
24-32	Toon Link	0.01
24-32	Villager	0.01
24-32	Wii Fit Trainer	0.01
33-36	Cloud	0.009
33-36	Corrin	0.009
33-36	Ike	0.009
33-36	Shulk	0.009
37-42	Bayonetta	0.008
37-42	Charizard	0.008
37-42	Dark Pit	0.008
37-42	Diddy Kong	0.008
37-42	Pit	0.008
37-42	Zero Suit Samus	0.008
N/A	Giga Bowser	0.008
43-48	Bowser	0.0075
43-48	Captain Falcon	0.0075
43-48	Little Mac	0.0075
43-48	Luigi	0.0075
43-48	Pikachu	0.0075
43-48	Samus	0.0075
49	Robin	0.007
50-51	King Dedede	0.006
50-51	Zelda	0.006
52-54	Lucario	0.005
52-54	Roy	0.005
52-54	Yoshi	0.005
N/A	Mega Lucario	0.005
55-56	Link	0.0038
55-56	Mii Swordfighter	0.0038
57-58	Lucina	0.00375
57-58	Marth	0.00375

* Ryu is a special case thanks to his Fighter ability. If Ryu jumps, his air friction is 0, meaning he will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate. If Ryu becomes airborne through other means, his air friction is a standard 0.015.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Rank	Character	Air friction
1	Mega Man	0.05
2	Wario	0.04
3	Jigglypuff	0.0375
4	Ness	0.0225
5-6	Simon	0.02
	Richter
7	Squirtle	0.018
8	Mewtwo	0.016
9-29	Mario	0.015
	Donkey Kong
	Kirby
	Fox
	Ice Climbers
	Sheik
	Ganondorf
	Olimar
	R.O.B.
	Greninja
	Mii Brawler
	Pac-Man
	Bowser Jr.
	Duck Hunt
	Inkling
	Ridley
	King K. Rool
	Incineroar
	Min Min
	Ryu	0.015*
	Ken
30-32	Ivysaur	0.014
	Lucas
	Banjo & Kazooie
33-38	Mr. Game & Watch	0.012
	Meta Knight
	Mii Gunner
	Terry
	Mythra
	Sora
39	Dr. Mario	0.011472
40-51	Peach	0.01
	Daisy
	Falco
	Sonic
	Toon Link
	Villager
	Wii Fit Trainer
	Rosalina & Luma
	Palutena
	Isabelle
	Joker
	Kazuya
52-56	Ike	0.009
	Shulk
	Cloud
	Corrin
	Pyra
57-66	Pit	0.008
	Dark Pit
	Zero Suit Samus
	Charizard
	Diddy Kong
	Bayonetta
	Piranha Plant
	Hero
	Byleth
	Sephiroth	0.008
67-75	Samus	0.0075
	Dark Samus
	Pikachu
	Luigi
	Captain Falcon
	Bowser
	Pichu
	Little Mac
	Steve
76	Robin	0.007
77-78	Zelda	0.006
	King Dedede
79-82	Yoshi	0.005
	Roy
	Chrom
	Snake
83-84	Lucario	0.004
	Wolf
85-86	Link	0.0038
	Mii Swordfighter
87-89	Marth	0.00375
	Lucina
	Young Link

* Ryu and Ken are a special case thanks to their Fighter ability. If Ryu/Ken jumps, their air friction is 0, meaning they will not slow down at all unless the player attempts to decelerate. If Ryu/Ken become airborne through other means, their air friction is a standard 0.015.