Hit points
Hit Points (also known simply as "HP") is the basic unit of health in the Stamina modes of the Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl. When a character is hit by an opponent's attack, their Hit Points decrease. The character can continue as normal until their Hit Points are reduced to 0, when they are knocked out. The health of two recurring bosses in the Super Smash Bros. series, Master Hand and Crazy Hand, are always measured in Hit Points, unless otherwise altered by the Master Hand glitch or an Action Replay.
Hit Points are decreased just like damage can be raised, so if an attack did 10%, it would decrease the opponent's HP by 10 points. Once the HP reaches 0 the character (or boss) will show an animation sequence of that character fainting or dying, during the sequence the other characters move in slow motion.
In terms of game coding, HP is equal to a negative damage - that is, an HP displaying as 123 HP is actually a damage of -123%. This explains why characters take minimal knockback in stamina matches until they are defeated (HP drops to 0, damage begins to rise above 0%). In the same way that damage is displayed as an integer but tracked as a decimal (so a damage of 14.6% is reported as 14%), HP is also rounded down - though as it's considered negative, it is rounded up, so a value of 14.6 HP would be displayed as 15 HP.
Trivia
- In SSBB, there is a glitch, where Bowser can be alive while at 0 HP. To perform it, Bowser's HP must reach 0 while he is in Giga Bowser form. Bowser will turn back to normal while being alive and at 0 HP. This also works with Wario when he is using his Final Smash. The only difference is Wario can't win a fight. Also, either one will die if they are hit by any move, even if it's non-damaging
- In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, when in the Boss Battles Mode, Master and Crazy Hand's health is displayed like a regular Subspace Emissary boss.
