Paralyze

Pit is paralyzed by Zero Suit Samus' Paralyzer.

For the effect causing characters to be dazed for a period of time, see Stun.

Debuting in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there are a few attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series that can cause the rare paralyze effect. Targets hit by these attacks will be frozen in place for a short period of time, shaking back and forth, before taking knockback. In most cases, this allows a character to follow up with any of their moves while the target is paralyzed, including a smash attack or other powerful move, making the effect very strong. However, after a character is paralyzed, they are immune to subsequent instances of the effect until they land on the ground, grab a ledge, or their hitstun wears off otherwise, preventing them from being infinitely trapped by repeated uses of paralyzing moves; likewise, hitting them with these moves while already paralyzed does not increase or reset the duration of the effect.

The duration of paralysis in frames is determined by the knockback the move used inflicts, multiplied by the result of the formula ((d / 2.6) + 14) * h * c * 0.025 (rounded down), where d is its damage, h is its hitlag multiplier, and c is the crouch canceling hitlag modifier (0.67 if active, and 1 otherwise). For example, a move that deals 4% damage, 60 units of knockback, and has a normal hitlag multiplier will paralyze targets for 23 frames if not crouch canceled. As such, moves that have knockback scaling (rather than set knockback like Zero Suit Samus's Paralyzer) and deal a high amount of hitlag will paralyze the opponent for longer as their percent increases. The paralyze effect ignores weight differences for knockback calculation, but not knockback resistance, such as from the Metal Box. In Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, since crouch canceling multiplies knockback taken by 0.66× alongside its effect on hitlag, it becomes a particularly effective countermeasure against paralysis, reducing its duration by 0.5695×. Paralysis duration caps at 76 frames in Brawl and Smash 4, and 90 frames in Ultimate.

In Brawl and Smash 4, attempting to paralyze an opponent more than once before they land, grab a ledge, or can act out of the effect will only cause damage to them with no knockback or paralysis after the first occurence, leaving the attacker at an extreme disadvantage, and forcing them to wait for the effect to "refresh" if they wish to keep taking advantage of moves that cause it. In Ultimate, this was changed so the opponent takes knockback alongside the damage, merely without being paralyzed, allowing such moves to still function as traditional launchers until the effect refreshes.

The vast majority of paralyzing attacks are either Final Smashes, custom moves, or the effects of certain items or Smash Run enemies. Extremely few standard characters' moves can paralyze, with Paralyzer, Zero Suit Samus's down smash, and Dragon Fang Shot being the only moves with the effect that do not fit in any of the aforementioned categories. This is the only status that can affect damageable objects besides characters, like items, causing them to shake.

List of paralyzing attacks

By characters

Character	Move(s)	Games
Captain Falcon	Lightning Falcon Kick (side hitboxes, landing)
Corrin	Dragon Fang Shot
Dark Pit	Dark Pit Staff (trapping hit)
Donkey Kong	Focused Slap (both hits, both on the ground and in the air)
Ganondorf	Beast Ganon (trapping hit)
Greninja	Secret Ninja Attack (trapping hit)
Ike	Paralyzing Counter
Kirby	Ultra Sword (first trapping hit)
Kirby (Copy Abilities)	Dragon Fang Shot
	Bonus Fruit (bell)
	Paralyzer
Link	Triforce Slash (trapping hit)
Little Mac	Stunning Straight Lunge
Lucario	Stunning Double Team
Pac-Man	Bonus Fruit (bell)
	Lazy Fruit (bell)
Pikachu	Thunder Wave
R.O.B.	Super Diffusion Beam (second-last hit)
Robin	Pair Up (Chrom's trapping dash)
Toon Link	Triforce Slash (trapping hit)
Sheik	Light Arrow (trapping hit)
	Paralyzing Needle
Zelda	Light Arrow (trapping hit)
Zero Suit Samus	Down smash
	Paralyzer
	Electromagnetic Net

By items

Item	Attack	Games
Assist Trophies	Nikki: Spooky Ghost
	Wily Capsule: Lightning projectiles
Poké Ball Pokémon	Ditto: Transform (if the summoner possesses paralyzing attacks)
	Spewpa: Stun Spore

By enemies and bosses

Enemy/Boss	Attack(s)	Games
Devil Car	Paralyzing fumes
Kihunter	Acid
Red Bubble	Ramming into the player
Starman	PK Beam γ and PK Beam Ω

By stage hazards

Stage	Attack	Games
Mute City (SSB4)	Racers that touch the track boundaries occasionally get shocked, which paralyzes anyone on them.
Orbital Gate Assault	Orbital Gate's Force Field
Gamer	5-Volt
Midgar	Electrified platforms