Recovery

This article or section may require a cleanup. The editor who added this tag believes this page should be cleaned up for the following reason: grammar and layout stuff on this section (a table would be best) You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Peach recovers using her Up Special Move, the Parasol.

A recovery is the attempt to return onstage after being knocked or falling off. Some tools to achieve this end are the second jump and the third jump (usually an up Special Move). Some recovery moves only go nearly straight up, while others are for long horizontal differences.

For many characters, recovery can be augmented or replaced by moves other than the standard second jump plus up special. This page documents the maximum recovery potential of each character. In the case that a character has multiple recovery options for horizontal or vertical movement, both are listed.

List of Recoveries

It is notable that in Melee, an air dodge while tilting the Control stick would allow some vertical and/or horizontal recovery. Note that if the recovery is the same in each game, it will not be mentioned unless it was changed.

Character	SSB	SSBM	SSBB
Bowser	NA	Whirling Fortress is his primary recovery. It provides some vertical distance and decent horizontal distance	He can use Flying Slam to augment his recovery if he hasn't used Whirling Fortress.
Captain Falcon	Falcon Dive is used for vertical recoveries, but can not grab foes hanging on to the ledge. If it makes contact in mid air, it will give the opponent their mid air jumps and Captain Falcon can use the move again. Falcon Punch can be used to increase his vertical and horizontal distance.	Falcon Punch loses it's potential for a recovery, as it is slower and does not provide as much distance. Falcon Kick allows Captain Falcon to regain his 2nd jump in midair. Raptor Boost is also a good horizontal recovery move, but missing will put him in a helpless state. Falcon Dive can grab opponents hanging on to a ledge.	Raptor Boost now makes Captain Falcon bounce if it hits the opponent in mid air, but using Falcon Dive is still a better and safer option because it has slow start-up and almost any move can hit through it. Falcon Kick no longer lets him recover his 2nd jump. Falcon Dive, like all types of grabs, no longer grants the opponent their mid air jump again. It can be used against edgehoggers to stage spike them, though they can tech it.
Charizard	NA	NA	Fly provides the most vertical distance out of all of his moves. Charizard has 2 extra mid-air jumps and can glide.
Diddy Kong	NA	NA	Rocketbarrel Boost provides the most vertical distance out of all of his moves. Monkey Flip can be used as a recovery as well and can be used in conjunction with his third jump and Rocketbarrel Boost. Note that if one presses the attack or special attack button, Diddy Kong can only use his third jump after this. The blast from his charged Peanut Popgun can help him recover if the control stick is tilted to the opposite direction of the ledge. [1]
Donkey Kong	Spinning Kong is his primary recovery. It provides a short vertical distance but a long horizontal distance. It also provides Invincibility Frames at the tip of his hands.	Spinning Kong no longer has Invincibility Frames. Headbutt slows down horizontal and vertical momentum.	No changes were made to his recovery.
Dr. Mario	NA	Dr. Mario can use the Super Sheet to propel himself forward a bit and slow his fall speed. Also, if the player rapidly presses B during the Dr. Tornado, he rises up in the air. Super Jump Punch provides the best verticle distance and can be used following either or both of these moves.	NA
Falco	NA	Fire Bird is the Falco's primary recovery move. It has start up lag however and does not provide a great amount of distance. Falco Phantasm provides the most horizontal distance. His Reflector (move)#Falco can be used to slow down his fall speed.	Fire Bird provides less distance now. Falco Phantasm provides greater horizontal distance. The Reflector can not be used to slow down fall speed, as Falco kicks it now.
Fox	Fire Fox is his primary recovery. It can be used in any direction but pulls him down a little. His Reflector slows down his fall speed.	Fire Fox now surrounds Fox with fire. Fox Illusion provides the greatest horizontal distance. Also, his Forward aerial can slow down his momentum, propel him diagnally.	His forward aerial can also be used to "foxcopter". Hitting the jump button while sliding into his fair will cause Fox to jump and fair at the same time, adding height to his jump while moving forward. He can also "shine stall" by spamming his shield by holding D-tilt and mashing B. This will greatly reduce his fall speed.
Ganondorf	NA	In Melee, the Wizard's Foot would give Ganondorf his second jump back, allowing for large horizontal recoveries.	In Brawl, however, it is one of the shortest horizontal recoveries in the game, with many situations when despite not getting edge guarded his recovery is too short to make it back, with only decent vertical distance and very linear making it one of the worst recoveries in the game. Additionally, in Brawl the Landing lag glitch makes it hard for him to get-up from the ledge after recovering. he is forced to use either the Flame Choke for horizontal movement or the Dark Dive for vertical recovery, but they can't be used in the same jump. While in Melee it can't grab edge hoggers, it can in Brawl to stage spike them (though they may tech it and punish the ending lag it gives gimping Ganondorf himself). Also in Brawl the lack of hitstun allows many characters (including other Ganondorfs) to hit him out of the Up b grab from mid to very high percents, which may result in a gimp depending on the opponent's aerials.
Ice Climbers	NA	Belay is an incredible recovery move when both Ice Climbers are present, and is a tether. Squall Hammer can also be used to recovery, and with a solo Ice Climber, it becomes the only move of choice. Rapidly pressing B allows the Climber to gain some height.	The same as in Melee.
Ike	NA	NA	Ike is limited to either vertical recovery (Aether) or horizontal (Quick Draw). Both give good distances in their respective directions, but cannot be combined, limiting Ike's total recovery, which is generally poor and extremely predictable.
Ivysaur	NA	NA	Ivysaur's U-Air and D-Air either propel him downward or upward respectively. Due to the small size of the upward boost, it is actually more helpful in getting more horizontal distance to set up his Vine Whip Tether Recovery, however he is extremely vulnerable to edge-hoggers.
Jigglypuff	Jigglypuff is capable of using its Rising Pound technique for unlimited horizontal distance. While it lacks an up special that grants vertical distance, its five mid air jumps provide the same height that most characters can get from up specials. It also has the lowest falling speed and the highest air speed, after Yoshi. Also, if you are near either of the side Blast lines, sometimes Rollout can be useful. In Smash 64, Jigglypuff has problems recovering from below but has overall one of the best recoveries from above. Jigglypuff's rising pound isn't as useful in smash 64 as in the other games. Due to jigglypuff's low aerial priority compared to others in SSB, Jigglypuff has a tough time avoiding gimps.	The same in SSB	The same as Melee.
King Dedede	NA	NA	He has four mid-air jumps, along with an incredibly high up special. While his mid-air jumps are the smallest of any character and he has the worst lateral air movement, he is still capable of huge recoveries due to the Super Dedede Jump.
Kirby	His recovery consists of five midair jumps and the Final Cutter for good vertical movement. Final Cutter is rather defective though. if you miss the ledge, you go plumetting downwards and have no chance of recovering. It is a more offensive move and should be used when normally attacking on solid ground. In addition, by using a forward aerial after each jump and tilting the control stick slightly up, Kirby can perform a technique similar to Rising Pound, albeit not infinitely. In addition, Kirby can use his Hammer to move diagonally down to recover from the upper-corners while preventing interference. This is similar to Samus' Bomb Recovery. Kirby has overall one of the best recoveries in smash 64, with probably being 3rd best after Mario and Pikachu respectably. The trick to gimping Kirby's up b in smash 64 is to hit Kirby while Kirby is going up, not when the final cutter is going down.	The same in SSB	His side special in the air gives him horizontal movment and can be used for recovery.
Link	Link has a variety of techniques to augment Spin Attack. Link's bomb, if it explodes while he is holding it, can aid his recovery by giving him back his Spin Attack (see Bomb recovery).	In SSBM, the Hookshot grabs onto walls, and in SSBB, the Clawshot (its replacement) is a Tether Recovery.	Despite these techniques he has the worst recovery in SSB and arguably the shortest in SSBB due to terrible distance of Spin Attack, fast fall, poor jump and average air speed while in Brawl his air speed is even worse with addition of his original poor stats for recovery, but Spin Attack is a better recovery move in SSBB than in SSB. Link's recovery in smash 64 is possibly the worst recovery of any character in any smash game outside of its moderate priority which is one of the reasons for Link's placement on the tier list in both the original Super Smash Bros and Brawl.
Lucario	NA	NA	Interestingly, Lucario's dair stops all momentum, making it easier to recover. Its recovery, ExtremeSpeed, is also "bendable". Lucario also possesses a unique trait, the ability to wall jump after using his third jump. This only takes effect if Lucario reaches the wall before Extremespeed ends and is very useful on stages with space to wall jump under the ledge, such as Final Destination but because extreme speed doesn't make opponents flinch, he is extremely vulnerable to edge-hoggers. Additionally, due to having the highest wall jump and his floatiness, he can jump and wall cling/jump straight up a wall without having to have another one.
Lucas	NA	NA	Lucas has multiple recovery options: the standard PK Thunder, his Rope Snake (which functions as a tether recovery), Zapjump, Magnet Pull, and Wave Zap. He can also use his PSI Magnet to stall in the air. Additionally, if holding an item, he can gain a large vertical distance equal to a Zap Jump by throwing the item up and midair jumping at the same time. Also using any arial attack right after your jump will propel him in the air.
Luigi	Luigi's down b and up b in smash 64 is both good and bad. Luigi's down b goes incredible distance when the b button is mashed and both of his recovery moves recover him diagonal. However, both his down b and up b have low priority outside of the top of the down b.	In melee, Luigi has a very gimpable recovery but his forward b can "misfire" leading to 25 damage and high knockback. Luigi has overall one of the most difficult recoveries to perfect in melee. It is required for someone to mash the button at least 20 times a second to do a full down b recovery after already doing a uncharged down b on the ground. Luigi's up b is completely vertical, leading him to a very gimpable up b.	In brawl, Luigi has a much bigger improvement. Luigi's Green Missile, combined with the mobility of the Luigi Cyclone, give a hard-to-match horizontal recovery. Luigi's recovery also requires much less button mashing. In both SSBB and SSBM, both forward and down b can be used in combination with Super Jump Punch, since neither of the two makes Luigi helpless. Luigi can also amusingly get his head stuck in the wall after forward b'ing (at least when its misfired or partially charged). Luigi's has 2 forms of down b in brawl for recovery: Uncharged cyclone recovery (UCR): using down b off the stage without jumping. Takes quicker button mashing speed but allows Luigi to still jump Charged Cyclone recovery (CCR): Using down b off the stage while jumping. Uses up the jump but takes much less hand speed.
Mario	If the player rapidly presses B during the Mario Tornado, in SSB, he rises up in the air.	Mario can use the Cape to propel himself forward a bit and can also wall jump and use his tornado.	The same as in Brawl except he has no tornado.
Marth	NA	Marth's side special (Dancing Blade) slows his fall speed and propels him forward if only the first attack of the combo is used. But works best in SSBM This does not put him in a helpless state.	In Brawl, a charged Shield Breaker or even uncharged if shorter distance will also propel Marth very forward and leave him open to perform more attacks. His Dolphin Slash can be used for quick vertical recovery, but self stage spikes if hits lips under ledges. It can also stage spike opponents, but in Brawl it can be easily edge hogged for a succesful edge guard on him, or punishing the high landing lag it gives when Marth lands onstage. In Brawl the Dolphin Slash gives him the Landing lag glitch
Meta Knight	NA	NA	Meta Knight is gifted with multiple mid air jumps and the ability to glide. In addition, all of his special moves can be used as recovery moves, although all of them put him in helpless animation. The Shuttle Loop is notable in that it allows him to perform a second glide after using it (helpless animation begins after the glide is terminated). Because high of the amount of safe recovery options Meta Knight has, how far he can go and how risky it is to edge guard him, he has arguably the best recovery in Brawl.
Mewtwo	NA	Mewtwo's large second jump, slow fall speed, and high air speed allow for long recoveries even before his up special, Teleport. The massive recoil of Shadow Ball can also help in recovery. Confusion can also help him gain some distance once in the air.	NA
Mr. Game & Watch	NA	Mr. Game & Watch has no particular recovery techniques besides the standard second jump plus up special.	He is one of the few characters who doesn't become helpless after using his recovery and he can use his down special to end any momentum.
Ness	Ness has no particular recovery techniques besides the standard second jump plus up special, although his PSI Magnet slows his fall speed somewhat. Yet, his Up+B can't be used like normal attacks to help him recover and he is extremely vulnerable to edge-guarding by touching the bolt. The player must guide the PK Thunder towards Ness' body at the right angle so he'll fly upwards.	The same.	The same.
Olimar	NA	NA	Olimar lacks any move besides his second jump that gives him vertical movement in the air. He is limited to using his up special as a tether recover and since he becomes helpless after his up special, he is extremely vulnerable to edge-hoggers.
Peach	NA	Peach has the ability to float, allowing her to maintain the same vertical position while moving horizontally. She can stall by using Toad, as it allows her to hover for a brief time. In addition, her side special (Peach Bomber) can be used to climb up walls. Both of these techniques can be followed with an up special.	In Brawl she lacks vertical recovery as her midair jump is very short and her up special doesn't gain much vertical height.
Pichu	NA	Pichu can use his Skull Bash (side special) to travel great horizontal distances, and then follow it with an up special. Pichu can also wall jump, which can aid his recovery in some stages like Fountain of Dreams.	NA
Pikachu	he is limited to his up special but has Invincibility frames at the beginning of the moves and has overall the longest recovery, granting Pikachu by far one of the best recoveries in the game and an ability to use his Recovery move to get out of hits. There is also a glitch in smash 64 where if Pikachu uses up b into Jigglypuff's rest, Pikachu will quickly move from one side of the screen to the other. In all 3 smash games, his up special is one of the hardest to stop since it goes in any direction the player wants.	In melee, Pikachu has overall one of the better recoveries, but can also use his recovery to Super Wavedash by using Up b into equal priority projectiles allowing Pikachu to teleport from one side of the stage to the other allowing Pikachu to ambush certain characters, as in Falco (Laser) and Link/Young Link (boomerang). Pikachu can also use Skull bash on the ground in order to reverse grab the ledge and use Up b on the stage, by tilting in the opposite direction and back to gimp characters. Finally, Pikachu can QAC with his recovery move.	Now Pikachu can wall jump (similar to Pichu) in Brawl.
Pit	NA	NA	Pit has multiple mid air jumps, the ability to glide, and his Wings of Icarus which give him the second largest vertical recovery in the game, however if they attack him after his up special is used/while using it, he will enter helpless state and fall to his doom.
R.O.B.	NA	NA	R.O.B. can use his up special multiple times in the air, although the total time is the same. It is the greatest verticle recovery in the game. However, using the Robo Burner in segments, even quick ones, adds recovery distance. In addition, his back aerial propels him forward each time it is used, and his down aerial causes him to stay stationary about one second. However, he can't air dodge after using his up special, but he can use a quick attack, such as Uair or Fair to cancel Robo Burner for a while, and air dodge.
Roy	NA	Roy can perform the same recovery techniques as Marth in Melee. However, his faster falling speed, slower air speed, less forward motion on side special, and greater lag after side special combine to make his recovery inferior to Marth's. To compensate for this, his Up-B move, Blazer, can be aimed to go anywhere from diagonally upward to directly vertical depending on where the control stick is tilted after the inital Up-B.	NA
Samus	Samus's Morph Ball Bombs can be used to perform a Bomb recovery and she can utilize her Screw Attack to gain vertical height.	She can now use her grab as a tether recovery and her bomb recovery became more useful.	The same as in Melee but the grab can only grab on to edges and her bomb recovery isn't as useful.
Sheik	NA	In Melee, for long distance recoveries with Sheik, players would switch to Zelda, as her recovery is strictly better.	Sheik can no londer change to Zelda for better recovery range but can now use her chain as a tether recovery.
Snake	NA	NA	Snake can use his C4 on himself in mid-air to get his up special back just as Link can as almost infinite recovery. His up special is his Cypher, a flying stealth camera. On the downside, if he is grabbed while he is using or has used the move and is not thrown, he cannot use the Cypher again. Additionally, it's very easy to edge-guard when he uses it from below but the super armor from attacks that deal 7% or less helps a bit.
Sonic	NA	NA	Sonic's greatest vertical recovery is provided by his Spring Jump. His other special moves can provide more horizontal distance, but they cannot be used after his up special. It is recommended that you use his Spin Dash move for horizontal recovery and jump out of it for a bit of vertical recovery, use his Homing Attack for close-range recovery, and Spring Jump for desperate vertical recovery. Like Snake, if he is grab released without pummeling after using his Spring Jump, he cannot use any of his specials again.
Squirtle	NA	NA	Squirtle can use Withdraw to aid its horizontal recovery, although it continues to fall during this move. Also, its Waterfall can be used for vertical/diagonal recovery, although it leaves Squirtle in a helpless state.
Toon Link	NA	NA	Like Link, Toon Link can use a Bomb Recovery or a Tether Recovery followed by a Spin Attack.
Wario	NA	NA	Wario can use his bike to gain a third mid-air jump. Also, if he uses a half or fully charged Wario Waft, it rockets him up farther than his actual recovery if it has fully charged. Since his Corkscrew leaves him helpless, it shoudl only be used as a last resort. A great recovery when he is able to use his bike but poor when he can't.
Wolf	NA	NA	Wolf is more limited in recovery options than Fox and Falco. His side special (Wolf Flash) covers much less ground than either of theirs, though it gives a fair amount of vertical recovery. His up special provides him fast directional recovery, but he falls almost straight down after using it and has the worst accuracy and smallest edge sweetspot of the three (although it charges faster to make it harder to edge-guard during start-up).
Yoshi	Yoshi's recovery is hampered by the fact that he really only has his one mid air jump to use. However, his second jump is the highest in the game and has the fastest air speed that is even faster than Jigglypuff's.	Yoshi's Egg Roll and air dodge had a place of recovery in Melee, but very little.	Yoshi's Egg Throw in Brawl gives him a slight hop in mid air and he lost his air dodge recovery.
Young Link	NA	Like Link, Young Link can use a Bomb Recovery or a Tether Recovery or a Spin Attack. The Bomb Recovery will help after the Spin Attack. Young Link can also wall jump and his grapple is shorter then Link's grapple.	NA
Zelda	NA	Zelda's recovery comes mainly in the form of her long ranged up special, Farore's Wind. Additionally, she can use Din's Fire to glide horizontally short distances, much like Peach's float. However, these moves cannot be combined as they each put Zelda into helpless animation.	In Brawl, despite the good distance Faroe's Wind gives, her recovery is one of the worst in the game because her angles where she can move is extremely limited, and she falls almost straight down after using it, both which makes it very predictable and easy to predict where she teleports. The landing lag it gives when she lands onstage is also punishable by getting her back offstage, and she's vulnerable to hits during the start-up of her Up b.
Zero Suit Samus	NA	NA	Zero Suit Samus has two tether recoveries (Plasma Whip for horizontal recovery, and Plasma Wire for vertical recovery) and can use Flip Jump. Her Flip Jump can help in offensive recovery in the sense that she can Meteor Smash an opponent by attacking during it, and is useful if you are in a situation where tether recovery will not work, whether the ledge cannot be sweet spotted or it is being edge-guarded by another character. None of her moves permit her helplessness, so her moves can be used multiple times. Also, if tap jump is on and she hasn't used her second jump, she will rise a bit when using Plasma Wire, as can most characters.

Gallery

File:Recovery.jpg

Mario recovering from a fall.

File:Pikmin 080111j-l.jpg

Olimar using a tether recovery.

Most recovery moves are also effective ground attacks, such as Link's Spin Attack.