Gravity

Gravity is a measure of how fast a falling character reaches their maximum falling speed. A character with high gravity does not necessarily have a fast falling speed; they simply reach their top falling speed faster. Gravity also affects how high a character is able to jump; two characters with the same jump force will not jump the same height if they have different gravity. Naturally, a character with higher gravity would jump lower than a character with lower gravity (assuming they have the same jump force).

Gravity does not take a direct effect on vertical knockback in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, although since a fighter's falling physics remain intact during hitstun, fighters with a combination of high falling speed and gravity will effectively resist vertical launch distance. From Super Smash Bros. Brawl onward, vertical knockback's velocity suffered by characters is now based on both their weight and their gravity (once they enter tumble); the formula to determine the gravity penalty is (g - 0.075) x 5 . This causes higher-gravity characters to be launched at a higher velocity, but horizontal launch speed is not directly affected. This reduces the natural effect of gravity on launch distance, keeping characters with low weight but high gravity (most notably Fox) from having disproportionally high vertical endurance, and in fact results in their endurance being slightly worse than a fighter with lower gravity, due to the formula overcompensating while not considering falling speed. Despite horizontal launch speed being unaffected, fighters with higher gravity also tend to have poorer horizontal endurance, due to the way the game decays launch speed. Fighters' total launch speed decays over time, with the horizontal and vertical components decaying such that they both reach 0 at the same time, and as such, when vertical launch speed is increased, horizontal launch speed decays more slowly. An example that shows the effect on gravity with knockback is with Zelda and Sheik in Melee and Brawl. In both games, Zelda and Sheik have the same weight and in Melee, Zelda and Sheik have the same horizontal endurance but Sheik has better vertical endurance due to her higher falling speed and gravity. In Brawl however, Zelda has better endurance both horizontally and vertically due to her lower gravity (although Sheik has slightly better vertical endurance with momentum canceling).

Gravity also affects how difficult the character is to combo - gravity does not take effect on knockback if a character is not put into tumble. By applying slightly more knockback to characters that more quickly fall into the next attack, it slightly normalizes the effect of setup and multi-hit moves on the cast. This also makes characters with higher gravity considerably more vulnerable to chain grabs in Brawl, and in Brawl and Smash 4, it makes moves with low knockback chain into them-self and other moves more reliably on characters with higher gravity when combined with Brawl removing DI against moves which do not put opponents into tumble (an example of this being Sheik's forward tilt, which can easily chain into itself multiple times).

In Melee and Brawl, gravity also affects how high a character will travel if they are aerial grab released. A character with high gravity will gain little height and will land quickly while a character with low gravity will gain a lot more height. Characters with very high gravity are at an advantage especially in Brawl as they will land before their grab release animation will end (although this puts them in a bad position if they end up off stage). Characters with very low gravity are also at an advantage as they will be released much higher into the air making it harder for characters to chase them and followup (in Brawl).

In Super Smash Bros. 4, a character's gravity can be altered by using the equipment bonus effects, Thistle Jump or Anchor Jump, with Thistle Jump decreasing it, while Anchor Jump increases it. However, both bonus effects also alter a character's falling speed.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, while gravity still plays a factor on determining knockback, for launch angles between 70˚ and 110˚ characters now use a different gravity value that is linearly correlated to their weight, with lighter characters using a lower gravity value, and heavier characters using a higher one; though a few exceptions to this exist. As a result of this change, moves that deal vertical knockback are generally easier to survive compared to Brawl and SSB4, thus making vertical survivability among the cast much more consistent than in both previous games. Conversely, Ultimate has the largest range of gravity stats in the entire series, including Melee, and as a consequence, the effect on horizontal launch distance is still significant. This can even lead to counter-intuitive results, such as Fox dying earlier horizontally from near the ledge than Jigglypuff, despite the former's weight being 9 points higher than the latter.

Super Smash Bros. gravity values

Compared to the later Smash games, Smash 64 has very low gravity values for all characters and as with most attributes, Smash 64 uses a different scale to measure gravity.

Source: [1]

JPN Rank Character Gravity 1 Fox 4 2 Captain Falcon 3.4 3 Link 3.2 4-5 Donkey Kong 3 Pikachu 6-7 Yoshi 2.7 Ness 8-9 Mario 2.4 Kirby 10 Luigi 2.1 11 Jigglypuff 2 12 Samus 1.9

NA/PAL Rank Character Gravity 1 Fox 4 2-3 Link 3.4 Captain Falcon 4-5 Donkey Kong 3 Pikachu 6 Yoshi 2.8 7 Ness 2.7 8-9 Mario 2.4 Kirby 10 Luigi 2.1 11 Jigglypuff 2 12 Samus 1.9

Super Smash Bros. Melee gravity values

Melee significantly increased the gravity for all characters and it is largely the main factor as to why Melee is a less floaty game than its predecessor. Melee also uses an alternate scale to measure gravity which would be reused in later games.

Rank	Character	Gravity
n/a	Giga Bowser	0.25
1	Fox	0.23
2	Falco	0.17
3-5	Captain Falcon	0.13
	Bowser
	Ganondorf
6	Sheik	0.12
7	Roy	0.114
8-11	Link	0.11
	Pikachu
	Pichu
	Young Link
12-13	Donkey Kong	0.1
	Ice Climbers
14-16	Mario	0.095
	Dr. Mario
	Mr. Game & Watch
17	Yoshi	0.093
18	Ness	0.09
19	Marth	0.085
20	Mewtwo	0.082
21-22	Kirby	0.08
	Peach
23	Zelda	0.073
24	Luigi	0.069
25	Samus	0.066
26	Jigglypuff	0.064

Notes

• Wireframes have gravities of 0.09 (Male) and 0.073 (Female).
• Sandbag has a gravity of 0.05.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl gravity values

Much like with falling speeds, every character's gravity (aside from Sheik's) was decreased. Brawl also introduced the gravity penalty where gravity would be added into the knockback formula for vertical knockback causing characters with higher gravity to suffer from increased knockback once they enter tumble.

Rank	Character	Gravity
n/a	Giga Bowser	0.1975
1	Fox	0.175
2	Sheik	0.1409
3	Wolf	0.13
4	Falco	0.112
5	Squirtle	0.1067
6-8	Captain Falcon	0.1027
	Bowser
	Ganondorf
9	Meta Knight	0.0956
10	Diddy Kong	0.092
11	Lucas	0.09
n/a	Wario Man	0.09
12	Link	0.089
13	Zero Suit Samus	0.0884
14	Pikachu	0.087
15-16	Charizard	0.085
	Sonic
17	Wario	0.0842
18-19	Ike	0.0837
	King Dedede
20	Donkey Kong	0.081
21	Snake	0.08
22	Ice Climbers	0.077
23	Mr. Game & Watch	0.07505
24-25	Mario	0.075
	Pit
26	Yoshi	0.07347
27	Ness	0.0711
28-29	Ivysaur	0.07
	Toon Link
30	Marth	0.06715
31	Zelda	0.067
32-33	Luigi	0.065
	R.O.B.
34	Peach	0.0632
35	Lucario	0.0625
36	Kirby	0.061
37	Olimar	0.06
38	Samus	0.058
39	Jigglypuff	0.05056

Notes

• The Fighting Alloys all share Mario's gravity value of 0.075, just as they share his weight.
• In Melee and Brawl, Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, and Bowser have all shared the same gravity values.
• Sheik is the only veteran to have her gravity increased from Melee to Brawl.

Super Smash Bros. 4 gravity values

Much like with falling speeds, gravity was increased across the board with most characters having higher gravity.

Rank	Character	Gravity
n/a	Giga Bowser	0.198
1	Fox	0.19
2	Greninja	0.18
3	Sheik	0.15
4	Falco	0.13
5-8	Captain Falcon	0.12
	Zero Suit Samus
	Ryu
	Bayonetta
n/a	Giga Mac	0.12
9	Roy	0.114
10-12	Bowser	0.11
	Meta Knight
	Charizard
13	Ganondorf	0.107835
14	Mega Man	0.1071
n/a	Wario-Man	0.1071
15-16	Diddy Kong	0.105
	Palutena
17	Mii Brawler	0.1
18	Cloud	0.098
19-20	Link	0.096
	Mii Swordfighter	0.096
n/a	Mii Swordfighter (Fighting Mii Team)	0.096
21	Pikachu	0.095
22-25	Wario	0.092
	Ike
	Bowser Jr.
	Corrin
26-29	Lucas	0.09
	Sonic
	R.O.B.
	Wii Fit Trainer
n/a	Mii Brawler (Fighting Mii Team)	0.09
30	Robin	0.089
31	King Dedede	0.087885
32-34	Mario	0.08715
	Dr. Mario
	Mii Gunner	0.08715
n/a	Mii Gunner (Fighting Mii Team)	0.087
35	Donkey Kong	0.08505
36	Shulk	0.085
37	Lucario	0.084
n/a	Mega Lucario	0.084
38	Mewtwo	0.082
39-40	Pit	0.081
	Dark Pit
41-43	Yoshi	0.08
	Mr. Game & Watch
	Little Mac
44	Toon Link	0.079
45	Villager	0.078
46-47	Samus	0.077
	Ness
48	Duck Hunt	0.076
49-51	Luigi	0.075
	Marth
	Lucina
52	Pac-Man	0.072
53	Zelda	0.071
54-55	Peach	0.068
	Olimar
56	Kirby	0.06405
57	Rosalina	0.062
58	Jigglypuff	0.053088

Update history

1.1.5

• Samus's gravity: 0.075 → 0.077

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gravity values

Gravity values were once again generally increased across the board. Gravity values have also been notably changed for moves which send opponents at an angle between 70° and 110°; with heavier characters using a higher gravity value than lighter characters when being hit by moves with vertical knockback.

Rank	Character	Gravity	During vertical knockback
1	Fox	0.23	0.0679
2	Greninja	0.18	0.0716
3	Mii Brawler	0.169	0.0736
4	Sheik	0.15	0.0682
5-6	Pichu	0.14	0.0628
	Piranha Plant		0.0796
7	Mythra	0.137	0.072912
8-9	Falco	0.13	0.0696
	Wolf		0.0729
10	Squirtle	0.128	0.0672
11	Joker	0.127	0.073248
12	Incineroar	0.126	0.081
13-14	Bowser	0.125	0.0874
	Diddy Kong		0.0722
15-20	Captain Falcon	0.12	0.0769
	Zero Suit Samus		0.0689
	Palutena		0.0726
	Ryu		0.0766
	Ken
	Bayonetta		0.0692
21-22	Roy	0.114	0.0739
	Chrom
23-26	Meta Knight	0.11	0.0689
	Charizard		0.081
	Banjo & Kazooie		0.0776
	Min Min		0.0769
27-28	Ganondorf	0.108	0.0816
27-28	Sephiroth	0.108	0.068544
29-30	Wario	0.107	0.078
	Mega Man		0.0763
31	Mii Swordfighter	0.106	0.0756
32	King K. Rool	0.105	0.0867
33-35	Mii Gunner	0.098	0.0769
	Shulk	0.098	0.0746
	Cloud	0.098	0.0756
36	King Dedede	0.097	0.0847
37-38	Link	0.096	0.0769
	Young Link		0.0716
39	Pikachu	0.095	0.0685
40	Hero	0.094	0.075936
41-43	Ike	0.092	0.078
	Bowser Jr.		0.0783
	Corrin		0.0749
44-50	Lucas	0.09	0.0736
	Sonic		0.0709
	R.O.B.		0.0776
	Wii Fit Trainer	0.09	0.0743
	Little Mac	0.09	0.0712
	Ridley		0.078
	Terry		0.078288
51-52	Robin	0.089	0.0739
	Byleth		0.074592
53-55	Mario	0.087	0.0749
	Dr. Mario
	Inkling		0.0736
56-58	Donkey Kong	0.085	0.0847
	Simon		0.078
	Richter
59	Lucario	0.084	0.0729
60	Luigi	0.083	0.0746
61-63	Ice Climbers	0.082	0.0729
	Mewtwo		0.0685
	Ivysaur		0.0743
64-66	Pit	0.081	0.0743
	Dark Pit
	Toon Link		0.0726
67-69	Yoshi	0.08	0.0769
	Mr. Game & Watch		0.0672
	Snake		0.0776
70-71	Villager	0.078	0.0729
	Pyra		0.074928
72	Ness	0.077	0.0736
73	Duck Hunt	0.076	0.0709
74-77	Samus	0.075	0.0783
	Dark Samus
	Marth		0.0722
	Lucina
78	Pac-Man	0.072	0.0739
79	Zelda	0.071	0.0706
80-83	Peach	0.07	0.0719
	Daisy
	Isabelle		0.0716
	Steve		0.0729
84	Olimar	0.068	0.0685
85	Kirby	0.064	0.0685
86	Rosalina	0.062	0.0696
87	Jigglypuff	0.053	0.0648

Trivia

• Not counting Giga Bowser, Fox holds the distinction of being the character with the highest gravity value in all games.
• Lucas is the only character from the transition from Brawl to Smash 4 to have his gravity value kept the same. Similarly, fellow DLC veterans Roy and Mewtwo's gravity values are the same as in their last appearance in Melee.
• Sheik is the only character to debut in Melee whose gravity has been increased in Brawl and Smash 4.

See also

• Air acceleration
• Air speed
• Falling speed
• Weight