Description of thread
Are you new to the competitive smash scene? Have you read through threads and not understood what people were saying? Well this thread is the answer. I have tried to keep each definition/explanation concise and easy to understand so that even those with only minimal smash background knowledge will (hopefully) be able to understand.
This will have to be an ongoing project. It is by no means complete yet. Every day a new tactic is discovered and some of them are given names or abbreviations that aren't immediately apparent to the uninitiated. I'll do my best to stay on top of it and keep this thread updated, but I would greatly appreciate it if people could help in this regard, especially in terms of the character specific jargon.
How to use this thread
Let's say you come across a word/acronym you're not familiar with in any of the forums. You'll come here, use the almighty power of 'control F', and search for the word/acronym. (Try putting quotation marks around the word in your search if you're having trouble, e.g. "Word". This is especially helpful for some acronyms such as SH.) If you find it, that's good news. If you're still unsure after reading the description given, then feel free to ask in this thread. There are no stupid sincere questions in this thread. If you don't find it, post the word/acronym along with a link to the thread that you saw it in and you'll get an answer from either myself or one of my fellow smashers who are only too happy to help. I will then add that word/acronym to this list.
If you can think of anything that is missing, and I am sure that there will be a lot, then please do me a favour and let me know about it so I can make this list better. Also, if you don't agree with one of the definitions/explanations I have given because you believe I am wrong or just didn't quite say everything that needed to be said in a concise manner, then by all means, please tell me, because you're probably right.
We'll see how this goes.
Choosing Appropriate Names
Over the years, many words/acronyms have come into common usage that may not have been preferable in the long run for reasons such as a lack of unity or commonality between other names, or perhaps simply because context is required to differentiate one acronym from another. There is the potential for a fresh start here. Feel free to make suggestions. If the community chooses to discard any old names at any point, you'll still be able to find them on this list; either they will appear to the right of the preferred name or they will be under the bottom heading, 'Common Jargon from Past Smash Games'.
Index
[Note: If you already have the word/acronym in mind that you want to search for, try using 'Control-F' to search for it. More details above.]
FIRST POST
General Boards Jargon
Smash Related Jargon
-Talking about characters and their relation to each other:
-Tournament Jargon:
-In-game features and tactics:
-Words relevant to working out how far someone gets launched:
-Words used to talk about the inability to move and how to avoid it:
-Words used to talk about influencing your characters movements when being attacked:
-Words used to describe attacks as well as what they can and can't interact with:
-Stage Related Jargon:
-Button and Stick Names:
-Miscellaneous:
Basic Character Options
-Names of basic attacks:
-Names of other basic commands:
-Names of movement options for the ground and air:
Advanced Character Options and Basic Combinations of Options
-Advanced item options:
-Advanced grab options:
-Advanced special move options:
-Cancelling things and other miscellaneous options:
SECOND POST
Character Specific Jargon
-(List of all characters in alphabetical order with all their jargon):
THIRD POST
Common Jargon from Past Smash Games
Jargon that was Patched Out and is No Longer In Any Game
General Boards Jargon
"Post"- A separate singular submission of writing.
"Thread"- A thread is where posts are made. Threads will have titles describing what their purpose is.
"OP"- This stands for Original Post (i.e. the first post in that thread) or Original Poster (referring to the person who made the original post; see also 'TC'). In context it could also mean Over Powered.
"TC"- Topic Creator. The person who made the thread and the original post.
"tl;dr"- Internet slang commonly used on these forums which just stands for 'Too Long; Didn't Read'. In context it can either mean that the following is a summary of the post in question for those that were not bothered to read it all, or it can be used to state that the post in question is long-winded.
"IIRC"- Internet slang meaning 'if I recall correctly".
"Bug"- An unintended coding error that was not picked up on.
"Glitch"- A combination of intended game mechanics resulting in an unexpected outcome.
"AT"- Advanced Technique. Broadly speaking, any potentially useful tactic that isn't immediately obvious; this can be by taking advantage of a 'bug' or 'glitch' that is beneficial, taking advantage of some established mechanic in a way that wasn't immediately obvious, or using some combination of the above to produce something new. In context 'AT' can also sometimes stand for 'Assist Trophy'.
"Johns"- Excuses.
"Salt"/"Salty"- Anger and disappointment due to inability to accept defeat, usually because of something stupid happening.
"Free"- Used pre-emptively to describe a person or a matchup as an easy or guaranteed win.
"GC"- Gamecube.
"PM"- Depending on the context, it could mean 'Project M' or 'private message'.
"Lab"- Laboratory. Refers to any place where one tests, experiments or practices techniques; usually training mode. In context it could also refer to 'the smash lab' which was an exclusive group of dedicated and knowledgeable members assembled for the purpose of dissecting the game then presenting their findings and to make advanced information more easily accessible, among other things.
"Labbing"- Using scientific and controlled environments to test theoretical game mechanics and in-game interactions for the purposes of expanding the total sum of knowledge about the game or developing the 'metagame'.
"RPS"- Rock Paper Scissors.
Smash Related Jargon
Talking about characters and their relation to each other:
"Main"- The preferred and most used character that someone has chosen.
"Secondary"/"Secondaries"- Any other character or characters that a person uses other than their 'main' character.
"MU"/"Match Up"- Used to express games in general between two specifically stated characters.
"Metagame"- Broadly speaking, the ever-changing state of how the game is played in a competitive setting, including but not limited to the players, popular characters, common tactics, and agreed upon rules. Often used in the narrow sense to mean the current set of known tactics for any particular character that are used with the aim of playing that character to their maximum potential.
Tournament Jargon:
"Starter"- Refers to stages that are widely considered the most neutral and competitive stages available, and as such these will be the only stages that are able to be played on in the first game of a tournament set.
"CP"/"Counterpick"- Choosing a character or a stage that gives you an advantage over the opponent's chosen character. A stage itself can be referred to as a counterpick stage to differentiate it from a 'starter' stage; counterpick stages are generally going to be less obviously neutral and are only able to be chosen (by the loser of the previous game) once there has been at least one game.
"Strike"- Ruling out a stage that you don't want to play on in that game of the set.
"FLSS"/"Full List Striking System"- Instead of separating legal stages into 'starter' and 'counterpick', tournament sets that follow this system have all of the legal stages available from the first game and the players then work out which stage they will start on by taking turns at banning stages they don't want to play on.
"DSR"/"Dave's Stupid Rule"- While there are a few variations of this, essentially it's about not being able to play on a stage that has been used previously, e.g. because you've already won on it.
"Gentleman's Rule"- Regardless of anything else that says otherwise, if both players agree to it, they can play on any stage they want.
In-game features and tactics:
"SD"- Self Destruct. To kill yourself. Though in context it could be referring to Sonic's Spin Dash (his side-special).
"KO"- Knock Out. Forced beyond the borders of the blast-line. Killed.
"Star KO"- Being killed up the top of the screen only instead of having your stock being immediately taken like what happens when killed off the side or lower blast lines, you will slowly shrink into the distance in the background and then a star-like flash will indicate the KO.
"Screen KO"- Similar to a Star KO, only the character hits the screen, temporarily blocking the view, and then the stock is taken once they fall down.
"Recovery"- Describes the methods and available options that characters have to make it back to the ledge/stage and avoid losing a stock.
"Gimp"- The taking of a stock, usually at a low percent, by interrupting/negating a character's recovery.
"Edgeguarding"- Attempting to stop the opponent from being back on stage with all their options available again once they are hit off. This does not have to 'gimp' them and will often refer to merely keeping the opponent in the disadvantaged position where they are easier to deal with.
"Trump"- A new mechanic in smash 4 where you grab the ledge once someone is already on it, forcing them off.
"2 Frame"/"Two Frame"- When a character grabs the ledge from below the stage without using a tether, the character will be vulnerable and can be hit during the first two frames of their ledge grab animation. If hit during the 2 frame, they will get back any double jumps used up as it will still count as if they grabbed the ledge.
"Ramen Noodles"- Grabbing the ledge from the stage very quickly by whatever means. Typically associated with Melee and Project M, though the term is generally applicable.
"Sharking"- Being beneath the opponent in an advantageous position, typically using long ranged attacks aimed upwards, for example from beneath the stage to hit people who are on the stage.
"Planking"- Abusing tactics that are centred on stalling at the ledge. The effectiveness of planking obviously depends greatly on the character being used to plank and the opposing character's anti-planking options. In past smash games it was fairly common as characters could repeatedly grab the ledge and abuse the 'intangibility' frames it gave; then smash 4 came around and with the introduction of new ledge mechanics it was thought that we'd seen the last of planking as a viable strategy. This has proven to not be so. A good example is customs Villager who gains a significant advantage by stalling at the ledge.
"Scrooging"- Going under the stage and grabbing the ledge on the opposite side.
"Ledge Slip"/"Ledge-slip"/"Edge Slip"/"Edge-slip"/"Prattack"- A ledge slip occurs when a character is forced to slide off the edge of a platform or the stage while they are still grounded. In smash 4 this will occur if you hit a standing opponent with a move that does horizontal knockback while they are still on relatively low enough percents to not be hit off their feet. The character will then slip off the edge backwards which will cause them to be unable to do any action, including tech, for a certain period of time, other than drift forwards or backwards. In previous games, ledge-slips were possible if you hit a character's shield as well, forcing them to slide backwards or forwards off the edge, but this particular variation was intentionally taken out in smash 4.
"Lock"/"Jab Lock"/"Jab Reset"- A Lock is the state you can force upon another character in which they will be unable to do anything but flop on the ground then immediately try to stand up. It can be done only with certain moves and only under certain conditions. The character must get hit with a particular move (1.) soon after they missed a tech on the ground, or (2.) soon after they were forced to land in 'tumble' (i.e. they were unable to tech having been footstooled close to the ground or they were forced to 'edge-slip'), or (3.) soon after the next 'flop' animation once they have already been locked. Note that in smash 4, locks are no longer potentially infinite and the character will automatically break free of the lock after three times. Some people refer to all locks as 'jab locks' or 'jab-resets' regardless of whether jab was actually used to lock or not, but this terminology is unhelpful and no longer applies. Many different moves may have locking properties such as Nairs, F-tilts, D-tilts, or Neutral-specials, so it makes no sense to talk about 'jab locking' or 'jab resetting' with anything but 'jab'. Instead, use 'lock' as the more general term and refer to specific locks as e.g. a 'Nair Lock'. Also note, this sort of 'lock' should not be confused with 'shield-lock'.
"Camp"- To not approach the opponent. This usually involves using a lot of attacks that will hit from a distance while trying to maintain that distance.
"Circle Camping"- Trying to keep a solid portion of the stage in between you and your opponent in an attempt to avoid confrontation, usually with the intent of winning by time-out, such that you end up running around in circles.
"Spam"- To use a lot of a particular move or moves, e.g. projectiles, a particular aerial, etc.
"Poke"- Throwing out a single long-range low-lag attack under such circumstances that there is little to no risk of the user being punished but where there exists a chance of the opponent being hit, e.g. if they drop their shield or approach at just that right moment only to be hit by the tip of the attack. Not to be confused with a 'shield poke'.
"Spacing"- Adjusting your position relative to the opponent allowing you to use your attacks at a range that they are most effective/safe.
"Zoning"- Using your attacks and the threat of your attacks to limit your opponent's available movement options.
"Footsies"- Staying just out of range of your opponent, using your safer attacks to 'poke' at them while being careful not to overcommit, trying to bait the opponent into overcommitting, and at all times looking for an opening or an overcommitment that you can punish.
"Stage Control"- Essentially using the natural formations and limitations of the stage to your advantage by either remaining in a specific area or keeping your opponent in a disadvantageous area of the stage. A typical example would be if you were on an FD stage, staying toward the centre of the stage to make it more difficult to be KO'd, and keeping your opponent toward the edge of the stage where they have less room to maneuver and are more susceptible to being KO'd, gimped or edge-guarded. What is considered good stage control will change depending on the stage and the characters being used though.
"Neutral"- The state of play in which no character has any significant advantage over the other as both have all their options available to them, otherwise there would be a state of 'advantage' and 'disadvantage'. The definition can get tricky when considering how e.g. projectiles can limit options, but this sort of thing is considered to merely be a part of neutral until they hit.
"Shield Poke"- This describes the ability to hit someone with a normal attack even if they are holding up their shield. To do this, you must make sure that your attack hits a part of the character shielding that isn't covered by their shield and at the same time make sure your attack avoids hitting what's left of the shield.
"Tech Chase"- The act of following another character's grounded 'tech' option to punish them as soon as they can be hit.
"Hit Confirm"- This involves throwing out a fast and safe attack such that if it misses you should be fine but if it hits you'll be able to react to this and string the hit into an attack that otherwise would have been unsafe to throw out just by itself due to the lag being easily punishable.
"Option Select"- This is where you input a certain combination of joystick/c-stick/button presses, and depending on what happens to you (you might enter shield stun from being hit or hitlag from actually connecting with an attack for example), that same input will do different things, essentially allowing you to cover multiple scenarios with the same input (for example a roll if your shield isn't hit or a grab if it is hit).
"Empty Hop"- Jumping (usually a SH) doing nothing (except maybe fast falling at the peak of your jump) and landing. Typically used to bait out responses while keeping your own options open.
"Tomahawk"- Making your opponent shield, expecting you to land with an aerial, but instead you fast fall just before you touch the ground and Grab. Alternatively, you can land and do any other grounded attack.
"Cross-up"- Approaching the opponent in such a way that you end up behind them so that if they shield they will be unable to grab you out of shield.
"Shield Dash"- This is where you initiate a run forwards (i.e. a 'dash'), then after the initial frames of the dash, you continue to hold forwards and hold shield so that shield is immediately activated on the first frame that you transition into the 'Run'. Otherwise it may simply be used to refer to shielding directly out of any part of the 'Run' by continuing to hold forwards on the joystick and pressing shield.
"Attack String"/"String"- Two or more attacks connecting with the opponent in a sequence where the character being hit can escape, though usually their options are very limited.
"Frame Trap"- Using a move that puts the opponent into a position where most of their options (and in some cases all of them) are too slow or lack the range required to stop them from being hit by your next move.
"Combo"- Two or more attacks connecting with the opponent in such a way that the character being hit has no options to escape other than 'DI' and 'SDI'.
"True Combo"- Regardless of any other factors (such as DI, SDI, etc), a true combo is two or more attacks that are technically and literally inescapable.
"Juggle"- Continually hitting the opponent upwards and keeping them from landing. This can occur by e.g. using up-tilts to combo at a lower percent, but it will also refer to taking advantage of the limited options characters have available in the air (especially if they've used their double jump/s) to continually hit them back up (effectively stopping them from refreshing their double jump/s and keeping them in that disadvantaged position).
"BnB"/"Bread and Butter"- A basic combo used regularly and relied upon for easy damage.
"Tether Save"- Getting hit horizontally then cancelling out all your knockback by tethering the ledge as you go past.
"Read"- Predicting what an opponent will do before they do it and punishing that option.
"Mixup"- One of two or more options that you can choose to take in any given scenario; typically an option that you don't normally take. Choosing to take that option is meant to make you harder to 'read'. For example you can mixup your 'DI' by choosing to DI (e.g. a D-throw) in a direction that you normally wouldn't with the intention of avoiding your opponent's typical follow up (even if DIing in that direction might put you in a worse position if the opponent doesn't fall for the mixup). Another example would be choosing an offensive option or approach (e.g. empty SH to FF Grab) that wouldn't typically be considered 'optimal' (where the optimal thing to do would have been e.g. SH Aerial); the offensive mixup could be specifically designed to beat the opponent's option (e.g. Shield) which was intended to deal with your 'optimal' option.
"Ladder"/"Luigi Ladder"- A doubles stalling tactic that revolves around team mates renewing each other's Up-specials so that they can either rise up past the blast zone, remain indefinitely beneath the stage, or rise up toward the blast zone and then stay just under it but also just out of reach of their opponents. This was famously seen in Melee with the Luigi Ladder, but there have been plenty of other variants, recently including Pac-Man and Mega Man.
Words relevant to working out how far someone gets launched:
"KB"/"Knockback"- The property of any attack that makes the character being hit actually get hit away.
"BKB"/"Base Knockback"- When working out just how far away a character will be hit, each attack will have its own 'base knockback' which is essentially the portion of the knockback calculation that is not affected by the percentage of the one being hit.
"KBG"/"Knockback Growth"/"Scaling"/"Knockback Scaling"- This is best understood in relation to 'base knockback' above. When calculating how far an attack will send a character, Knockback Growth is the property of an attack that is dependent on the percent of the character, so it will hit them further and further away the higher their percent is.
"WBKB"/"WKB"/"Weight Based Knockback"- Similar to 'base knockback' above. If the attack has a specified weight-based knockback, this is a factor that will alter how far the character will be launched based on their weight.
"Set Knockback"/"Fixed Knockback"- A move with set knockback will have a certain amount of 'base knockback' or 'weight based knockback' but absolutely no 'knockback growth', meaning that the character being hit will always be launched the same distance regardless of their percent assuming there are no other factors involved.
"KBR"/"Knockback Resistance"/"Launch Resistance"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack but because of some factor they will receive less 'knockback'. It can sometimes be used as a general term that encompasses the armors below.
"Super Armor"/"SA"/"Hyper Armor"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack, but because they used a move that put them in the state of having super armor, when they were hit they will always receive no 'knockback' whatsoever. A good example of this is the short period of time just before the hitbox comes out on Mac's smash attacks.
"Heavy Armor"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack but because the attack didn't have enough launching power (knockback) due to being a weak attack or the character with the heavy armor not being on a high enough percent, they receive no knockback. Good examples of this would be Bowser's 'tough guy' armor which can withstand only very insignificant knockback or Yoshi's double jump which can withstand much greater knockback.
"Damage Based Armor"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack, but because the attack didn't do enough damage the character getting hit receives no knockback. For example, if during Charizard's side-special he gets hit by an attack that does 15% or less, he will power through it (with a few unrelated exceptions). Note that if a move does 15% in training mode it will do more when fresh in a real match because of the 1.05 x freshness bonus, so moves that do 15% would in a real match do 15.75% when fresh and would therefore beat out Charizard's side-special damage based armor.
"Rage"- This refers to the fact that in otherwise identical scenarios, the opponent will get launched further if you, the one doing the hitting, are at a higher percent than the other scenario. If the attacker has rage, the formula that works out how much knockback an attack will induce must go through one final step, as rage is a 'total knockback' multiplier. A character will only have rage if they are on 36% or more. The more damage they have, the more the total knockback will be increased; this caps at 150% though, so e.g. the total knockback multiplier will be the same if the attacker is on 150% or 999%.
"Crouch Cancel"- If you hold down while standing you will 'crouch', and if you get hit by an attack while crouching then you will receive less knockback. Note that Crouch Cancelling can sometimes (mistakenly) be used to refer to 'Jab Cancelling'; e.g. someone might mistakenly say 'crouch cancelled Jab'.
"Stale"/"Staling"- If a move/attack is used such that it actually connects with a 'hurtbox', that move will have been 'staled' and will do slightly less damage and knockback on subsequent uses, and this effect will stack until the move is completely staled. In order to unstale a move, other moves must be used nine times before the stale move is refreshed, and this is so regardless of how stale the move was initially. Alternatively, you can lose a stock and upon your return, none of your moves will be stale. (There are some rare exceptions. For example some moves will never stale and some hurtboxes will not stale your moves upon being hit (e.g. pac-man's hydrant). Also note that moves do not stale in training mode.)
"Fresh"- A move/attack that is fresh will do the full amount of damage and knockback because it is not in the least bit 'stale'. In a match (i.e. outside of training mode) there is a 'freshness bonus' that applies to moves that are fresh; this is where the damage dealt by the move will be multiplied by 1.05.
Words used to talk about the inability to move and how to avoid it:
"Lag"/"Laggy"- This is used to describe when your character is momentarily unable to attack or defend and no external source has put you in this position, e.g. after one of your attacks is no longer capable of hitting the opponent and you can't move just yet, or after landing which is made more noticeable if you e.g. airdodge just before landing giving you airdodge 'landing lag'.
"AC"/"Auto Cancel"/"Autocancel"- Using an aerial attack, landing before the aerial's animation has ended, and then without any further input, receiving no lag from landing with the aerial (other than the usual minor lag for simply landing). Some aerials can only do this by using them just before you land, while others can only do this by landing at a certain time after the attack is no longer capable of hitting. Rosalina is special in that if you auto cancel an aerial by using it just before you land, Luma will still do the attack, leaving Rosalina free to do any action, e.g. grab.
"Landing Lag"- If you're in the air then come down to touch the ground, you will be momentarily unable to do anything the moment you land. While you will receive a very small amount of lag whenever you land even if you do nothing, you will receive much more landing lag if you, e.g. land using an aerial in such a way that it does not 'auto cancel' or if you airdodge into the ground.
"RCO Lag"/"Recovery Carryover Lag"/"Landing Lag Glitch"- This is where the landing lag of a special-move is stored and experienced later on when it shouldn't be. In Brawl this was very prevalent and was caused by using a specific special-move to recover to the ledge which made it so that the very next time you land on the ground you will be forced to go through the full landing lag of that special move unless you land while using an aerial, in which case you simply have to endure more lag than normal. This particular version of the problem seems to have been fixed in smash 4, but there are now other ways to experience RCO lag. Take ZSS for example. If you hit her during or after her Up-special, she will be forced to undergo the full landing lag of that Up-special the next time she lands unless you land with an aerial which will make it so you only experience more lag than normal. Another example is if you use Fox's Up-special and fall from the right distance (e.g. use it at the peak of your FH and go horizontally across) you will land laglessly, but you will store the landing lag of the Up-special which can be experienced latter. Unlike the Brawl version however, going to the ledge actually helps and will get rid of the stored RCO lag.
"Hitlag"/"Freeze Frames"- The brief period of time in which both characters stay still when an attack connects (after which the one that got hit will get launched and the one doing the hitting with finish their attack animation). This period of time is more accentuated in some moves.
"Hitstun"- The state in which you are unable to do anything after getting hit by an external force, e.g. an opponent's attack.
"Shield Hitlag"- This happens in the short period of time after your shield gets hit by an attack; it is where you and the opponent are frozen in place similar to 'hitlag'. Obviously if a disembodied attack such as a projectile hits your shield, then the opponent is not frozen in place and so the shield hitlag will work the same way as shield hitstun for all intents and purposes. During the time you are 'frozen' in shield, you can 'shield stun shuffle' (see below).
"Shield Hitstun"/"Shield Stun"/"Shieldstun"- This happens in the a short period of time after the 'shield hitlag' freeze time wears off and it is a further period of time in which you cannot drop shield or do any other options such as grab or jump when an attack hits your shield. The attacker will continue their attack animation and typically you will slide slightly away from the attacker while still in your shield.
"Shield Drop"/"Shield-Drop"- This is the animation that follows if you let go of shield. It will occur regardless of whether your shield was hit. You cannot do anything other than jump during this animation for seven frames unless you 'power-shielded' a move. The seven frame shield-drop lag can be avoided entirely by doing something 'OoS'.
"Power Shield"/"Power-shield"/"Perfect Shield"/"PS"- Raising your shield at precisely the right moment so that the attack hits it at the same time the shield comes out. To be specific, the first three frames of the shield will power-shield. The shield will not suffer damage, you won't slide backwards in your shield during 'shield-stun', shield-stun will be reduced, and you will be able to attack during 'shield-drop' allowing any option to be used to punish the opponent who hit your shield without delay. [Note that you will not be able to walk/dash/crouch/shield during the shield-drop of a power-shield, so in many cases you're actually better off doing an F-smash to reach the opponent instead of a dash grab, just for example.] Some multi-hit moves that lock you in your shield will let you power-shield the first hit that comes close to you and then it will count as a power-shield after the final hit.
"Shield Lock"/"Shield-lock"/"Shieldlock"- Essentially it describes the fact that you cannot drop your shield. This occurs naturally whenever you bring up your shield, as there is a minimal amount of time in which the shield must be held up for even if you let go of shield immediately. It can also happen between two (or more) attacks/hitboxes hitting your shield because the second attack/hitbox hit your shield during the 'shieldstun' caused by the first attack/hitbox.
"Free Fall"/"Freefall"/"Special Fall"- A state in which your character cannot do anything while in the air except move left and right. For example, this occurs after using most character's 'Up specials'.
"Tumbling"- This is where the character falls through the air, e.g. after having been hit hard following the 'Reeling' animation or after being footstooled. They go through a distinct flipping and stunned-looking animation. You can act out of this state (you may use all aerial options other than Zair directly), but if you land while still in this state, you will either have to 'tech' or otherwise flop to the ground and use one of the options available while lying down.
"Reeling"- If you get hit hard, this is the animation your character goes into during which you cannot act, and then this animation transitions into 'tumbling'. You can still 'tech' if you hit a hard surface, but that is all (except of course if this happens https://smashboards.com/threads/untechable-reel-animations.439039/ ).
"Mash"- Using as many inputs as fast as can, on both buttons and joystick, to escape being held by a grab faster or to wake up quicker after your shield breaks.
Words used to talk about influencing your characters movements when being attacked:
"DI"/"Directional Influence"- Slightly altering the direction/trajectory you get hit in by holding the joystick in any direction at any point before or instantly after you get hit with an attack (to be precise, you need to be holding a direction as your character goes from being in 'hitlag' to 'hitstun'; see above). You cannot alter the distance that you get hit by using DI, only the angle you get launched at. The greatest change to your trajectory is achieved by holding the joystick either left or right on the horizontal plain that is relative to the direction you would otherwise be hit (perpendicular to the direction the attack would normally hit you). Note that 'DI' is sometimes used as an umbrella term to talk about influencing where your character ends up once it gets hit, but this would include 'vectoring' as seen below which is a very different thing.
"LSI"/"Launch Speed Influence"/"VI"/"Vector Influence"/"Vectoring"/"KI"/"Knockback Influence"- Holding Up or Down (includes diagonals) to increase or decrease the distance you are hit by an attack. After the patch it no longer affects vertical launch trajectories, i.e. between 65°-115° or 245°-295°.
"SDI"/"Hitstun Shuffling"- By hitting the joystick (and/or the c-stick for gamecube controlers) during 'hitlag', you are able to instantly move slightly in that direction. This can be done multiple times if you're very quick. Note that you cannot SDI downwards at all if you were on the ground when hit.
"ISSDI"/"In Shield SDI"/"Shield DI"/"Shield Stun Shuffling"- If you hit the joystick (or the c-stick for GC controlers) left or right during 'shield hitlag' (see above) you will not roll, rather, you will move slightly in the direction of your input while still in shield.
"Automatic SDI"- Holding the joystick in any direction such that when the 'hitlag' (caused by the particular 'hitbox' that connected with you) has ended, you move slightly in that direction, a little less than a single 'SDI' input.
Words used to describe attacks as well as what they can and can't interact with:
"Sweet Spot"- This can mean one of two things depending on the context. It is either the part of an attack that has the greatest effect ('knockback'), or it refers to when a character recovers so low in relation to the ledge that they barely grab it which maximises their chances of avoiding attacks from someone on-stage. The later is more of an issue for recoveries that don't auto-snap to the edge.
"Sour Spot"- In relation to the first kind of 'sweet spot' above, this is the portion of the attack with the least 'knockback'.
"Hitbox"- The unseen underlying attack area. For example, there will usually be multiple hitboxes attached to the limbs of your character when they move them in an attack animation.
"Hurtbox"- The unseen underlying attack detection area. For example, your character's body is usually made up of hurtboxes. When a hitbox comes into contact with a hurtbox, an attack is successfully landed.
"Projectile"- Anything that is 'shot' (broadly speaking) or thrown.
"Disjointed"/"Disjoint"- Where an attack has a hitbox that extends far away from any hurtboxes and is not a projectile.
"Clash"/"Clank"- This occurs where two characters throw out attacks at each other and the 'hitboxes' of the attacks touch each other. In a typical case, both grounded characters will then 'rebound' and be unable to do anything for a short period of time then be able to act on the same frame, except if one of the hitboxes that clanked does 9% or more than the opponent's, in which case the stronger attack will continue and not rebound, or except if the move used has a special property meaning it cannot rebound. There's much more to it than that, so watch this if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV2xTqIf_yg
"Rebound"- The animation that a character may go into if their standard hitbox from a grounded attack touches another standard grounded hitbox, making them unable to do anything for a short period of time, with some exceptions. See above and below.
"Does not Rebound"/"Cannot Rebound"/"Trample"- This is a property that applies to only some moves where the move 'clashes' or 'clanks' with another as above, only the move isn't cancelled, it continues, and the character using it is not put into the rebound state where they are unable to do anything for a brief period of time.
"Transcendent Priority"- Used to describe the property given to 'hitboxes' that are special in that they were designed to not interact with other hitboxes in any way. They will not 'clash' and instead will pass right through.
"Phantom Hit"/"Spark"- When the hitbox of a move doesn't quite come into full contact with a hurtbox but there is no space between the two, i.e. you just missed, there will be sparks to indicate this but nothing else will happen. In Melee the one almost being hit would receive half the damage that the attack otherwise would have inflicted but there would still be no hitlag/hitstun/knockback.
"Royzone"- This is where the character using the attack is too close to the opponent such that the attack misses entirely.
"Tipper"- The outermost edge of an attack, such as a sword tip, that is also a 'sweetspot'. Many of Marth's moves have tippers, but the term is not exclusive to Marth. A good example would be the first hit of Link's F-smash. Technically it will refer to the hitbox that also has the lowest priority, meaning you have to miss with the other hitboxes in the attack in order to hit with it.
"Sex Kick"- This is where an aerial attack involving a kick has a 'Sour Spot' that stays out for a long time while the animation of the attack stays still, the classic example being Fox's Nair.
"Invincibility"- A state in which the opponent's character will receive hitlag if they attack you because their attacks can actually touch the part/whole of you that is invincible, but you will not receive any damage or hitstun. This word is also commonly used instead of 'intangibility'.
"Intangibility"- A state in which the part/whole of your character cannot even be touched by any attacks as they will pass right through. This is seen in spotdodges and rolls etc. Often referred to as 'invincibility'.
"Spike"/"Meteor"/"Meteor Smash"- 'Spike' is often used interchangeably with 'meteor', though their differences used to be important in past games that had 'meteor cancelling'. A spike is any attack that hits you at an unfavourable angle, anywhere between directly down and diagonally down.
"Multi-Hit Spike"/"Sling Spike"- In smash 4, there are aerial attacks with multiple hits that will drag the opponent with the attacking character to better ensure that all the hits connect. In order to use this to send the opponent downwards, you must hit the opponent with the multi-hit attack, fast fall during the attack, and find a way to make the last hit of the multi-hit attack miss; e.g. this can be done by landing and cancelling the move.
"Semi-Spike"- Any attack that hits you anywhere between diagonally down and horizontally can be referred to as a semi-spike.
Stage Related Jargon:
"FD"- Final Destination.
"BF"- Battlefield.
"YI"- Yoshi's Island.
"Ledge"/"Edge"- Any part of a stage that characters can tether or hold onto then hang off that grants special ledge options and intangibility. Note that in context 'edge' will also refer to the very end of a stage that can still be stood on, e.g. 'running off the edge' or 'standing on the edge'.
"Stage Spike"- Getting hit into the underside of the stage so that you bounce off it and get sent generally downwards.
"Cave of Life"- Any area in a stage that is enclosed enough, whether it be walls or roof or a combination, such that anyone who gets hit while in that area will have a much greater chance of surviving whether it be by teching the wall or roof or by simply bouncing off them and allowing the bounces to reduce the knockback of the attack.
"Pineappled"- Being blocked from recovering by the underside of the stage, typically referring to the Dreamland Smash 64 stage.
"Battlefielded"- Missing a ledge snap when you appeared to be close enough to get it, typically referring to the Melee Battlefield stage.
Button and Stick Names:
"Z"- The Grab button.
"A"- The normal Attack button.
"B"- The Special move button.
"A+B"- A new feature in smash 4 that allows you to do smash inputs by holding A then hitting B or holding B then hitting A or hitting both at the same time.
"Joystick"/"Analogue Stick"/"Control Stick"/"Circle Pad"/"Slide Pad"- The main stick, able to rotate and point in any direction, that controls many things like basic movement, alterations of attacks, etc.
"C-stick"/"Smash-stick"- The default setting that allows for easy access to smash attacks. Hitting the C-stick Upwards for example will count as having hit upwards on the joystick at the same time as inputting a smash command (think A+B=smash), resulting in an U-smash.
"A-stick"/"T-stick"/"Tilt-stick"- Setting the c-stick to attack instead of smash will give you an A-stick. Hitting the A-stick Upwards will count as having tilted the joystick upwards and hit attack, resulting an an U-tilt.
"B-stick"/"Special-stick"- Setting the c-stick to special instead of smash will give you a B-stick. Hitting the B-stick Upwards will count as having hit the joystick upwards and hit special, resulting in an up-special.
Miscellaneous:
"Frame"- A single frame is the smallest segment of time in which the game recognises inputs and interactions, works out what it all means, and displays the results. In the smash series, there are 60 frames per second.
"FAF"/"First Actionable Frame"- This refers to the point in a move at which you are able to do anything else even though the animation of the move isn't finished yet. To clarify, if you do an action, then do another action out of it as soon as possible, the first actionable frame will be the first frame of that second action.
"IASA"/"Interruptible As Soon As"- Often synonymous with 'FAF' above, but in some instances it is more specific and applies to things that the FAF cannot apply to. Take for example Link's Jab. The FAF for Jab 1 is all the way at the very end of the move's animation; it is only after Jab 1 has finished that you can e.g. shield, and then the first frame of that second action would be the FAF. If however you want to transition into Jab 2 from Jab 1, then this can be done much sooner, and the first frame of Jab 2 if used as soon as possible will be the IASA frame.
"Buffering"- Inputting a command for an action slightly before your character is able to do it (e.g. if your character is currently busy doing another action, you input the command for this new action toward the end of the old action) resulting in that action being performed by the character as soon as as they are able to do it. In smash 4, only one command/action can be buffered, and if multiple inputs are made in the period of time in which an input can be buffered, the chosen action to be performed will be determined based on the priority of the command. That is to say, some commands will overrule others. In order of priority from highest to lowest, in the air the order is Special button > Shield button > Attack button > Jump button, and on the ground the order is Special button > Attack button > Shield button > Jump button.
"JV"- As an example of this term being used, a 'JV 3 stock' indicates that the player won with 2 stocks at 0%. Normally when you beat someone you can indicate how much you beat them by with reference to how many stocks you had left when the game ended; so if when the game ends you were still on 2 stocks and at e.g. 65%, you would say that you '2 stocked' the opponent. Adding the term 'JV' onto the beginning indicates that you were at 0% with one less stock than you said which recognises that you were very close to achieving the win with that extra stock.
"FG"/"For Glory"- The online mode as opposed to 'for fun'.
"CQC"/"Close Quarters Combat"- Refers to a character's ability to fight on the ground and in the face of other characters. Usually involves quick attacks.
"Sakurai Angle"- A property commonly given to moves that means the angle it launches grounded opponents will depend on how much 'knockback' the move did under the circumstances (see the above section titled 'Words relevant to working out how far someone gets launched'). If the move did a small amount of knockback to a grounded opponent, they won't be lifted into the air; if it has a higher amount of knockback, the opponent will be launched at a roughly 45 degree angle diagonally up (the exact angle depends on the game).
"Tripping"/"Prat Falling"- Where a character falls over and sits up, at which point they are limited to doing a get-up attack, standing up, or rolling to either side. While unforced tripping (seen in Brawl) was removed, in smash 4 there is still externally forced tripping from bananas and some attacks.
"Blast Line"/"Blast-line"/"Blast Zone"/"Blast-Zone"- The border or boundary of each stage that marks the point at which a character will be KO'd if they go beyond that point, resulting in a 'blast' of light.
"Magnifying Glass"/"Hoop"- When a character is off screen but not beyond the blast zone, instead of the camera going all the way over to the side, the character is represented on the edge of the screen as being inside a circle to show roughly where they are while signifying that they are beyond that point. While in the magnifying glass, your character will receive hoop damage of 1% every second or so while you stay in the magnifying glass, forcing you to move further away from the blast line. (Note that there is no hoop damage if you're in training mode. Note also that this hoop damage stops when you're at or over 150%.)
"DBZ"/"Dragon Ball Z"- This refers to a moment in a match where both characters hit each other and get launched toward the blast zone at the same time, typically resulting in at least one of them losing a stock.
"ECB"/"Environment Collision Box"- This is the property attached to each character model that tells the game whether the character is currently touching/interacting with any part of the environment of the stage such as the ground, walls, roof, or platforms, as well as other ECB's. However it is not normally the thing responsible for detecting whether a character is airborne or grounded as they come to land; that is usually decided by the root bone of the character which typically extends further down than your ECB will. It is unknown how things like the instant ledge getup work (a phenomenon where you let go of the ledge, dj into the corner of the stage, use an aerial and find yourself standing on-stage). So maybe ECB affects landing in some cases.
"AOE"- Area of Effect.
"Bidou"- A control scheme that takes advantage of the 'B-stick' to allow for easier execution of some advanced techniques such as perfect pivoting. Similar things can be done with the other sticks but the B-stick is considered to be the best suited. The three possible stick choices are the 'C-stick' (default), the 'A-stick' and the 'B-stick'. The C-stick gives a smash input as well as a smash joystick input for one frame then continues to override any joystick inputs for as long as it is held. The A-stick gives an attack input as well as a tilted joystick input for 1 frame then immediately gives control back to the joystick on the following frame regardless of how long it is held. The B-stick gives a special input as well as a smash joystick input for one frame then immediately gives control back to the joystick regardless of how long it is held. The idea behind Bidou is that you can hold the button input corresponding with the stick prior to inputting the stick in a given direction, and the stick input will result in the joystick input only. So for example if you hold both A and B (with A+B=smash turned on) then hit the C-stick, you will get a 1 frame smash joystick input in that direction; if you hold attack then hit the A-stick you will get a 1 frame tilted joystcik input in that direction; and if you hold special then hit the B-stick you will get a 1 frame smash joystick input in that direction. Perfect Pivoting for example requires a 1 frame smash joystick input backwards out of an initial dash, so only the C-stick and B-stick would work to make this easier.
Basic Character Options
Names of basic attacks:
"U-air"/"Uair"- Up Aerial. Jump, Hold up on the joystick/directional pad and use your aerial attack. (If using a GC controller, you can also hit the c-stick up while in the air.)
"D-air"/"Dair"- Down Aerial. The aerial attack that comes out when the joystick is held down.
"F-air"/"Fair"- Forward Aerial. Hold the joystick in the direction that your character is facing and use your aerial attack.
"B-air"/"Bair"- Backward Aerial. Hold the joystick in the opposite direction to which your character is facing and use your aerial attack.
"N-air"/"Nair"/"Nairplane"- Neutral Aerial. The aerial attack that comes out when the joystick is in its neutral state, i.e. not held in any direction.
"Z-air"/"Zair"- Zair is the aerial attack that uses the same tool and button input used to Grab/Tether. Only some characters have a Zair. So named because of the default button to do this on the GC controller, ‘Z’.
"U-tilt"/"Utilt"- Up Tilt. Hold the joystick/directional pad upwards then hit the attack button, or lightly tilt the joystick up and hit attack.
"D-tilt"/"Dtilt"- Down Tilt. Hold the joystick/directional pad downwards then hit the attack button, or lightly tilt the joystick down and hit attack.
"F-tilt"/"Ftilt"- Forward Tilt. Hold the joystick in the direction your character is facing then hit attack, or lightly tilt the joystick forwards and hit attack.
"Jab"/"Jab1"- Make sure the joystick is in its neutral state and hit attack. Generally has very little knockback unless the character has no 'Jab2'.
"Jab2"- The second attack in the jab sequence. Generally has very little knockback unless the character ends the jab sequence with their second jab.
"Jab3"- The third attack in the jab sequence. Generally has very little knockback unless the character ends the jab sequence with their third jab.
"Rapid Jab"/"Multi-Jab"/"Multi Jab"- The flurry of attacks that ends some character's Jab sequence.
"Gentleman"- Finishing a Jab sequence just before the Rapid Jabs are initiated. Previously this was a Captain Falcon exclusive term, but it is now commonly used in reference to all characters with a similarly good Jab sequence finisher just before their Rapid Jabs.
"U-smash"- Up smash. Quickly move the joystick upwards and Hit attack at the same time. (If using a GC controller, just hit the c-stick up.)
"Hyphen Smash"- Using U-smash during an initial 'Dash'; charging the Up-smash will let you slide the distance of your character's dash while charging.
"D-smash"- Down smash. Quickly move the joystick downwards and Hit attack at the same time.
"F-smash"- Forward smash. Quickly move the joystick in the direction your character is facing and Hit attack at the same time.
"U-throw"/"Uthrow"- Up throw. Grab the opponent then hit up.
"D-throw"/"Dthrow"- Down throw. Grab the opponent then hit down.
"F-throw"/"Fthrow"- Forward throw. Grab the opponent then hit forwards, i.e. the direction your character is facing.
"B-throw"/"Bthrow"- Backward throw. Grab the opponent then hit backwards, i.e. in the opposite direction to which your character is facing.
"DA"/"Dash Attack"- The attack that occurs if you Hit attack during either a 'Dash' or a 'Run'.
"Command Grab"- Certain special moves such as Captain Falcon's Up-special and Lucario's Side-special used up close act just like a grab except that you are not then given the same options you would have after getting a normal grab.
"Pummel"- The action of hitting someone you have grabbed while still holding on to them.
Names of other basic commands:
"Tether"- Grabbing the ledge from a distance with e.g. a claw-shot. Only some characters can do this.
"Jump Squat"- From the moment you input a jump using the jump button to the moment your character actually leaves the ground, this period in-between is known as the jump squat due to the animation your character goes into to begin their jump. It is a very small amount of time, but it is in this period that the jump can be cancelled with e.g. an Up-smash or and Up-special performed as if it had started from the ground.
"SH"/"Short Hop"- This is the small jump off the ground so named to distinguish it from the larger version. Which version you get depends on how long the jump button is held.
"FH"/"Full Hop"- The large jump off the ground, as opposed to the shorter version as seen above.
"Ledge Jump"/"Tournament Winner"- The special animation jump you get when you input 'jump' while hanging off the ledge.
"Ledge Hop"- Hitting down or away from the ledge to let go of it then returning on stage with your double jump. This term is sometimes used mistakenly when talking about the 'ledge jump'.
"DJ"/"Double Jump"- Every character has a jump that they can use while already in the air. Some have multiple 'double jumps' and these would not be called 'triple jump' etc.
"Wall Jump"- Some Characters can jump off vertical surfaces such that they don't use up any of their other jumps.
"Wall Cling"- Some Characters can temporarily stick to vertical surfaces.
"Footstool"- Jumping on a character's head.
"Tech"- Can mean one of two things depending on the context. It can either be short for 'Technique' or it can mean the action of hitting the shield button, after being hit, just before you bump into something solid (i.e. the floor, a wall, or the roof) while in hitstun to stop yourself from bouncing off that surface and to regain control of your character.
"Tech Roll"- See above for 'tech'. When you tech on the ground, you can hold left or right before you tech or hit left or right as you tech, and this will result in you rolling in that direction instead of teching in place.
"Tech Jump"- Essentially, it's like a special 'wall jump' performed upon teching a vertical surface. It's special because even characters who can't wall jump will be able to tech jump. If you hold up on the joystick before/while you tech a wall, you will automatically do a tech jump.
"Z-catch"- Using the Grab button to catch items in the air.
"Z-drop"- Using the Grab button to drop items in the air.
"Crouch"- Hit and hold down on the joystick while on the ground so that your character ducks or lies down.
Names of movement options for the ground and air:
"FF"/"Fast Fall"- If you Hit down on the joystick while your character is in the air and not rising, your character will move down faster than normal. In smash 4, FF can be cancelled by using any aerial attack or special, or by simply double jumping like in past smash games. You can fast fall during an aerial from the moment you do it (so long as you're not rising of course), but you cannot fast fall during a special and must wait till it is finished.
"Drift"/"Drifting"- Moving left or right in the air, usually while falling.
"Dash"- The beginning animation when starting a run in any direction. If you just flick the joystick left or right such that it returns to neutral, you will only see the dash without your character going into the run animation.
"Run"- What follows after the Dash if the joystick is held in the same direction.
"Pivot"- Moving the joystick in the opposite direction to which your character is facing and returning the joystick to neutral such that your character merely turns around in place to face the other way.
"Perfect Pivot"/"PP"/"True Pivot"- Interrupting the initial 'Dash' with a 'Pivot'. Hit left or right to initiate a dash, then immediately flick (i.e. hit quickly and let go of so that it immediately returns to neutral) the joystick back in the other direction. This can be used in combination with Foxtrotting to do things like a D-smash (or any option for that matter) immediately after a Dash. Used just by itself it can slightly adjust your position very quickly and immediately give you all your options.
"Dash Turn"- The slow animation your character goes into when changing directions out of a 'Run' or the later frames of a dash.
"Slingshotting"- Refers to using the slide some characters get out of a Dash Turn, usually for the purposes of doing specific moves while sliding to increase their effect or look fancy. Note that in context 'slingshot' could easily be referring to Villager's Fair and Bair.
"Turnaround Cancel"- Running in one direction, then instantly turning to use a move such as a F-tilt or F-smash back in the other direction, in some cases resulting in you using the move while retaining some momentum causing you to slide in the original direction you were running in.
"Foxtrotting"- Moving around using only Dashes in small bursts. Requires the joystick to be put to neutral between each dash.
"Stutter Step"/"Kara Smash"- Cancelling the initial frames of a Dash with a F-smash. This can be used in combination with Foxtrotting to do what seems like an F-smash immediately after a Dash (which some people have come to call an "S Smash"/"S-Smash").
"Skid"- Sliding to a stop; occurs when you return the joystick to neutral out of a 'run'. If you return the joystick to neutral out of an initial 'dash', this is called a 'foxtrot'.
"Dash Dancing"- Moving the joystick left then right then left etc. fast enough so that your character continues to change directions immediately. A more technical way of putting it is that you're cancelling your initial dash with an immediate initial dash back in the opposite direction, and then you can continue to do this if you want. Most techs will require only a single dash dance however, and anything more than that is pretty useless.
"RAR"/"Reverse Aerial Rush"- This is basically where you run, pivot, and then quickly jump so that you jump backwards in the direction of your initial run while still keeping some of the momentum.
"Crawling"/"Crouch Walking"- Moving forwards or backwards while crouching. Only some characters have a crawl.
"Crawl Dashing"- Immediately reversing your grounded sliding momentum (whether it be caused by landing with a special move or just the result of walking and then stopping, etc) by crawling in the opposite direction to which you are sliding. This bounces you back and retains/redirects the sliding momentum you had.
"Haze Walking"/"Pivot Boosting"/"Pivot Walking"/"Doop Walking"- Moving in one direction while constantly spinning. There are a couple of control methods that allow you to do this. One way is that you go to walk in one direction, lightly move the joystick backwards so you just turn around without going back the way you came then immediately lightly hold back in the original direction you were going so that you turn around again and get a slight boost, then you lightly move the joystick backwards again to turn around (and so on). It used to be made easier holding A, holding forwards on the joystick, and hitting the c-stick diagonally up and backwards, but this is no longer the case. It can now only be made easier by holding A, lightly holding the joystick forwards, and tapping the A-stick backwards whenever you want to turn. If you hold the joystick too far forwards you will initiate a dash. There is no benefit over merely walking other than flashiness.
"Pivot Landing"/"Craq Walking"- 'Drifting' backwards then continuing to hold backwards upon landing so that you turn around while retaining some of the momentum gained in the air. Alternatively, drifting forwards then upon landing (lightly) turning around to face where you came from while retaining some of the momentum gained in the air.
Advanced Character Options and Basic Combinations of Options
Advanced item options:
"Dash Throw"- Throwing an item out of a Dash or Run.
"JC-Throw"/"JC Throw"/"Jump Cancel Throw"/"JCIT"/"Jump Cancel Item Throw"- Using an item throw to cancel the initial frames of a jump before you leave the ground. Can be helpful for e.g. throwing items backwards out of a dash or run, it can make some characters slide ever so slightly if used out of a run, and it means you get a standing item throw instead of a dash throw, which can be good if the dash throw is laggier.
"RCIT"- Roll Cancel Item Toss. Cancelling the initial frames of a roll by throwing an item. Note that no-one seems to be able to get a boosted slide by doing this, and so there is no 'glide toss' in smash 4.
"DACIT"/"DTCIT"/"DITCIT"- People called it a DACIT, short for Dash Attack Cancelled Item Toss because it's the same input for a DACUS only you do it while holding an item, even though technically you are cancelling a 'Dash Throw' (not a Dash Attack) into an item toss. Unlike a DACUS, there are many variations of this depending on your input. See the 'Bombslide' in the Link specific jargon for more details.
"Boost Toss"/"Boost Item Toss"- Doing a DACIT and getting a slide out of it. Character dependant. The basic elements of this tech are about inputting a dash throw i.e. throwing an item while running, then in the initial frames of that dash throw you input the command to throw the item a second time (in whatever direction and in whatever way as you see fit) and then either on the same frame as the second throw input or on a frame soon after, moving the joystick generally upwards such that it registers as a fully extended upwards command, and this upwards input is what cancels the dash throw animation, replacing it with the second throw's animation, but keeping the momentum from the dash throw on the frame that the dash throw animation was canceled.
"ZAC"- Z-drop Aerial Catch. Use the Grab button to drop an item in the air, usually at around the peak of your jump or while falling, then use an aerial to catch it again. This is one way to use aerials while holding an item.
"IZAC"- Instant Z-drop Aerial Catch. This allows you to use aerials while holding an item as soon as you jump off the ground, i.e. while rising. The timing is strict. You need to input the jump, then the moment you leave the ground use the grab button to drop the item (too soon and you'll cancel your jump with an item throw), immediately release the grab button, then use an aerial to catch the item while still rising.
"Insta-Throw"/"Instant Item Throw"- Catching an item with airdodge then immediately cancelling the airdodge by throwing the item in any direction.
Advanced grab options:
"Shield Grab"- Not really 'advanced', but it's just grabbing while shielding i.e. out of shield ('OoS'). Can be used to do a standing Grab out of a Run as opposed to doing a Dash Grab which is slower.
"Dash Grab"- Grabbing out of a dash or a run.
"Roll Cancel Grab"- Cancelling the initial frames of a roll with a Grab input. The timing is extremely precise.
"DACG"- Cancelling the initial frames of Dash Attack with a Grab.
"Boost Grab"- Sliding across the stage as a result of doing a 'DACG'. Only applies to certain characters. Results will vary.
"Pivot Grab"- Turning around and Grabbing at the same time. Can be done in two ways, either simply tapping the joystick in the opposite direction to which your character is facing (backwards), or by Dashing forwards, Grabbing, then Instantly hitting the joystick backwards. This results in a different Grab animation that usually reaches further. Usually it's the latter that is being referred to.
"DACPG"- Dash Attack Cancel Pivot Grab. Cancelling the initial frames of a Dash Attack with a Grab then Hitting Backwards on the joystick to turn it into a Pivot Grab.
"Boost Pivot Grab"- Sliding across the stage as a result of doing a 'DACPG'. Only applies to certain characters. Results will vary.
"Chain Grab"/"Chaingrab"/"Pseudo Chain Grab"- Note that there are two ways that this term is currently used and only one of them applies to smash 4. This term used to solely refer to grabbing a character, throwing them, then re-grabbing them in such a way that they cannot escape in between. This was purposefully made impossible in smash 4 as now the character who got grabbed cannot be re-grabbed until a certain period of time has passed, allowing them to escape in between. The term chain grab will still be used to mean this, but the user will specifically be talking about one of the past smash games. In smash 4, some characters have found ways around the new mechanic that stops the person from being immediately re-grabbed. What they can do is grab and throw the opponent, then immediately use their multi-hit aerial to drag the opponent back down towards the ground, then combo this into a re-grab (all done in such a way that it is inescapable). This work-around has been widely referred to as a chain grab or a pseudo chain grab.
Advanced special move options:
"Turn Around Special"/"Turn Around B"- Using a special move so that your character turns around to face the other way with no other effects to their momentum. Can be done in a couple of ways. For the neutral special, either flick the joystick backwards such that it immediately returns to neutral then quickly Hit special, or lightly hold the joystick backwards and Hit special.
"Special Reversal"/"B-reversal"- Using a special move so that your character turns around to use the move and at the same time they 'reverse' any momentum they had, i.e. if you were jumping forwards therefore moving forwards at a certain speed, you will instantly start travelling in the opposite direction with the same speed. For the neutral special, this is done by Hitting special and then instantly moving the joystick backwards, i.e. the opposite way to which you are facing. The same input is done for jumping both forwards and backwards.
"Wavebounce"/"Wave Bounce"/"Recoil Special"- It's a combination of the above two. You use a special move to reverse your character's momentum seemingly without turning around to face the opposite way, but in fact you just turn around twice very quickly. For the neutral special, this will be done by at first either flicking the joystick backwards such that it immediately returns to neutral and then quickly hitting special or lightly tilting backwards and hitting special, i.e. the 'turn around special', then instantly hitting the joystick in the direction that has just now become backwards (i.e. the direction you were originally facing before you started). The same input is done for jumping both forwards and backwards
"C-bounce"/"C Bounce"- A variation on the input method for a wavebounce. It can be done in two ways depending on which special you want to wavebounce. To wavebounce neutral special, set C-stick to attack (i.e. set it to the 'A-stick'), run forwards or jump in either direction, then continue to hold the joystick in the direction you are traveling as you hit the A-stick backwards on the same frame that you hit the special button. If performed correctly, you will do a neutral special wavebounce. To wavebounce side special, keep the C-stick set to smash and do the same thing, only you'll have to let go of the C-stick immediately if you want to wavebounce, otherwise you'll just get a B-reversal. It essentially imitates what the B-stick does.
"Stun Jacket"- (It should really be called Hitlag Jacket to avoid confusion with Hitstun.) The counters of Peach, Marth, Ike, Palutena, Greninja, Lucina and Roy are programmed to put the user and the opponent into a long duration of hitlag upon activation of the counter to indicate that the counter was activated. However some unusual moves that are not projectiles or items do not put the user in hitlag when they hit, e.g. zss’s d-smash, falco’s reflector, bayo’s bullet arts (i.e. holding the attack button). When these unusual moves interact with the aforementioned counters, the opponent with the unusual move will not receive the hitlag from the counter activation while the one using the counter will still undergo it. When this happens, the opponent with the unusual move will receive the counter activation lag the very next time they enter hitlag or shieldhitlag; this may be caused by the counter attack hit itself, otherwise if the counter attack whiffs it can be any attack from the counter user that induces hitlag or shieldhitlag on them, even a throw (if your throws induce hitlag), a projectile, or item, or any move of the opponent that puts them in attacker hitlag/shieldhitlag when they hit the counter user. In this way, it can make comboing and shield pressure easier for the character with the counter or more difficult for the character with the unusual move depending on who hits who first. If the move used does not induce hitlag (e.g. some throws used by either party or obviously projectiles/items used against the counter user) the stun jacket will continue to be stored.
Greninja’s stun jacket induces the most hitlag and is broken.
Cancelling things and other miscellaneous options:
"Jab Cancel"- Cancelling your jab sequence by 'crouching' (e.g. if your character had a jab sequence consisting of two hits, you could do the first hit and then hold down on the joystick), allowing you to do another 'Jab 1' sooner than normal. Note that you do not have to wait till the crouch animation is complete; you can do the other Jab 1 on the very next 'frame' after your crouching animation starts. The frame that you can crouch on is the same frame that all other options become available to you, or in other words, that is where the 'IASA' frame is for that Jab.
"OoS"/"Out of Shield"- Refers to certain moves being able to be done without having to let go of the shield button to drop your shield and wait before being able to attack. Examples of these are Grab, Item Throw, Jump, Roll, Spotdodge and Platform Drop.
"Shield Platform Drop"- Dropping through a platform directly out of shield. If you stand on a platform, hold shield, then move the joystick at the right speed (somewhere between getting a spot-dodge and merely angling your shield down), you will fall through the platform straight out of shield without needing to let go of the shield button and then drop through.
"Airdodge Cancelling"/"DeLux Cancelling"- Airdodging into the ground with less 'lag' than normal. Airdodge starts with a very small period of time in which you are able to be hit; then there is a long period of time in which you are 'intangible'; following this there is yet another very small amount of time in which you will be vulnerable and unable to do anything; but after this you are able to do any action before the animation of the airdodge is over (see 'FAF'), and a moment later the airdodge will autocancel. In smash 4, if you land during any part of the animation of your airdodge, you will receive a decent amount of 'landing lag' upon touching the ground again. But toward the end of the airdodge animation, this landing lag can be traded for the landing lag received when landing with an aerial attack if you use the aerial during the very short period you are able to act in before the animation of the airdodge is finished. So long as that aerial has less landing lag than the airdodge, it's better to land with; some aerials can 'auto cancel' so that you receive no landing lag (other than the very small amount that comes from simply landing). Airdodge cancelling in its most distinctive form consists of timing your airdodge so that the very first moment you can act, you use an aerial attack that auto cancels at the very beginning of the animation just before you touch the ground, allowing you to completely avoid all the landing lag of the airdodge. Note that there is a very small amount of room between when you can act out of the airdodge animation and when it will autocancel anyway, so the use for airdodge cancelling is limited to very specific cases (e.g. Falco doing a SH immediate airdodge; if you use an aerial you will get less lag, otherwise you will get the full lag of the airdodge).
"JC"/"Jump Cancel"- Immediately after you hit the jump button before your character actually leaves the ground, the jump can be cancelled by certain moves such as an Up smash, an Up-special or an item throw.
"Reverse Jump Cancelled U-smash/Up-special"- Run forwards, hit backwards, instantly hit Jump, instantly cancel the jump with an U-smash or Up-special. The latter is more for Up-specials that have a grounded variation.
"Edge Cancelling"/"Ledge Cancelling"- Completely removing any remaining animation or lag on a move by sliding off the edge of a platform or the stage. This can be done in two ways. The first way is by 'drifting' towards the edge of a platform or the stage, landing near the tip of it and sliding off. This works for some moves and all airdodges. The second way is by using the momentum of your run/dash so that when you use a specific grounded move you will slide off the edge.
"Tether Cancel"- At any point after the tether has latched onto the ledge, you can hit down on the joystick to cancel it. You can avoid fast falling when you cancel the tether if you quickly flick the joystick down only part of the way. Alternatively, so long as you are rising, hitting down as hard as you want won't make you FF.
"SHFF"- Short Hop Fast Fall. It's just a combination of a 'SH' and a 'FF'. Each of these is defined separately above.
"Frame Syncing"/"Frame Stacking"/"FS"/"Frame Overlapping"/"FO"/"Frame Cancelling"/"FC"- Using an aerial on your last airborne frame then landing during 'hitlag'. Some frame syncs will allow you to land on the following frame after hitting the opponent, while others will let you land later on during hitlag. This is because the attacking character actually continues to move very slowly during hitlag, and so the closer to the ground you were on your last airborne frame, the less time it will take to fall during hitlag and land. Once you land, you will continue to go through any remaining hitlag while experiencing landing lag. What this means is that effectively, though not technically, you are able to cut out some of your landing lag and in the best case scenario (high amount of hitlag plus a low amount of landing lag), this could allow you to act immediately with a ground option after hitting the opponent with an aerial. Technically, you still experience the full amount of landing lag for the move you used, it's just that some of the landing lag was spent still in hitlag during which time you couldn't have moved anyway. This is a difficult AT to pull off and while it works for all aerials that aren't projectiles, only some will get a noticeable benefit from it. Note that this will never work if you hit a shield.
Are you new to the competitive smash scene? Have you read through threads and not understood what people were saying? Well this thread is the answer. I have tried to keep each definition/explanation concise and easy to understand so that even those with only minimal smash background knowledge will (hopefully) be able to understand.
This will have to be an ongoing project. It is by no means complete yet. Every day a new tactic is discovered and some of them are given names or abbreviations that aren't immediately apparent to the uninitiated. I'll do my best to stay on top of it and keep this thread updated, but I would greatly appreciate it if people could help in this regard, especially in terms of the character specific jargon.
How to use this thread
Let's say you come across a word/acronym you're not familiar with in any of the forums. You'll come here, use the almighty power of 'control F', and search for the word/acronym. (Try putting quotation marks around the word in your search if you're having trouble, e.g. "Word". This is especially helpful for some acronyms such as SH.) If you find it, that's good news. If you're still unsure after reading the description given, then feel free to ask in this thread. There are no stupid sincere questions in this thread. If you don't find it, post the word/acronym along with a link to the thread that you saw it in and you'll get an answer from either myself or one of my fellow smashers who are only too happy to help. I will then add that word/acronym to this list.
If you can think of anything that is missing, and I am sure that there will be a lot, then please do me a favour and let me know about it so I can make this list better. Also, if you don't agree with one of the definitions/explanations I have given because you believe I am wrong or just didn't quite say everything that needed to be said in a concise manner, then by all means, please tell me, because you're probably right.
We'll see how this goes.
Choosing Appropriate Names
Over the years, many words/acronyms have come into common usage that may not have been preferable in the long run for reasons such as a lack of unity or commonality between other names, or perhaps simply because context is required to differentiate one acronym from another. There is the potential for a fresh start here. Feel free to make suggestions. If the community chooses to discard any old names at any point, you'll still be able to find them on this list; either they will appear to the right of the preferred name or they will be under the bottom heading, 'Common Jargon from Past Smash Games'.
Index
[Note: If you already have the word/acronym in mind that you want to search for, try using 'Control-F' to search for it. More details above.]
FIRST POST
General Boards Jargon
Smash Related Jargon
-Talking about characters and their relation to each other:
-Tournament Jargon:
-In-game features and tactics:
-Words relevant to working out how far someone gets launched:
-Words used to talk about the inability to move and how to avoid it:
-Words used to talk about influencing your characters movements when being attacked:
-Words used to describe attacks as well as what they can and can't interact with:
-Stage Related Jargon:
-Button and Stick Names:
-Miscellaneous:
Basic Character Options
-Names of basic attacks:
-Names of other basic commands:
-Names of movement options for the ground and air:
Advanced Character Options and Basic Combinations of Options
-Advanced item options:
-Advanced grab options:
-Advanced special move options:
-Cancelling things and other miscellaneous options:
SECOND POST
Character Specific Jargon
-(List of all characters in alphabetical order with all their jargon):
THIRD POST
Common Jargon from Past Smash Games
Jargon that was Patched Out and is No Longer In Any Game
General Boards Jargon
"Post"- A separate singular submission of writing.
"Thread"- A thread is where posts are made. Threads will have titles describing what their purpose is.
"OP"- This stands for Original Post (i.e. the first post in that thread) or Original Poster (referring to the person who made the original post; see also 'TC'). In context it could also mean Over Powered.
"TC"- Topic Creator. The person who made the thread and the original post.
"tl;dr"- Internet slang commonly used on these forums which just stands for 'Too Long; Didn't Read'. In context it can either mean that the following is a summary of the post in question for those that were not bothered to read it all, or it can be used to state that the post in question is long-winded.
"IIRC"- Internet slang meaning 'if I recall correctly".
"Bug"- An unintended coding error that was not picked up on.
"Glitch"- A combination of intended game mechanics resulting in an unexpected outcome.
"AT"- Advanced Technique. Broadly speaking, any potentially useful tactic that isn't immediately obvious; this can be by taking advantage of a 'bug' or 'glitch' that is beneficial, taking advantage of some established mechanic in a way that wasn't immediately obvious, or using some combination of the above to produce something new. In context 'AT' can also sometimes stand for 'Assist Trophy'.
"Johns"- Excuses.
"Salt"/"Salty"- Anger and disappointment due to inability to accept defeat, usually because of something stupid happening.
"Free"- Used pre-emptively to describe a person or a matchup as an easy or guaranteed win.
"GC"- Gamecube.
"PM"- Depending on the context, it could mean 'Project M' or 'private message'.
"Lab"- Laboratory. Refers to any place where one tests, experiments or practices techniques; usually training mode. In context it could also refer to 'the smash lab' which was an exclusive group of dedicated and knowledgeable members assembled for the purpose of dissecting the game then presenting their findings and to make advanced information more easily accessible, among other things.
"Labbing"- Using scientific and controlled environments to test theoretical game mechanics and in-game interactions for the purposes of expanding the total sum of knowledge about the game or developing the 'metagame'.
"RPS"- Rock Paper Scissors.
Smash Related Jargon
Talking about characters and their relation to each other:
"Main"- The preferred and most used character that someone has chosen.
"Secondary"/"Secondaries"- Any other character or characters that a person uses other than their 'main' character.
"MU"/"Match Up"- Used to express games in general between two specifically stated characters.
"Metagame"- Broadly speaking, the ever-changing state of how the game is played in a competitive setting, including but not limited to the players, popular characters, common tactics, and agreed upon rules. Often used in the narrow sense to mean the current set of known tactics for any particular character that are used with the aim of playing that character to their maximum potential.
Tournament Jargon:
"Starter"- Refers to stages that are widely considered the most neutral and competitive stages available, and as such these will be the only stages that are able to be played on in the first game of a tournament set.
"CP"/"Counterpick"- Choosing a character or a stage that gives you an advantage over the opponent's chosen character. A stage itself can be referred to as a counterpick stage to differentiate it from a 'starter' stage; counterpick stages are generally going to be less obviously neutral and are only able to be chosen (by the loser of the previous game) once there has been at least one game.
"Strike"- Ruling out a stage that you don't want to play on in that game of the set.
"FLSS"/"Full List Striking System"- Instead of separating legal stages into 'starter' and 'counterpick', tournament sets that follow this system have all of the legal stages available from the first game and the players then work out which stage they will start on by taking turns at banning stages they don't want to play on.
"DSR"/"Dave's Stupid Rule"- While there are a few variations of this, essentially it's about not being able to play on a stage that has been used previously, e.g. because you've already won on it.
"Gentleman's Rule"- Regardless of anything else that says otherwise, if both players agree to it, they can play on any stage they want.
In-game features and tactics:
"SD"- Self Destruct. To kill yourself. Though in context it could be referring to Sonic's Spin Dash (his side-special).
"KO"- Knock Out. Forced beyond the borders of the blast-line. Killed.
"Star KO"- Being killed up the top of the screen only instead of having your stock being immediately taken like what happens when killed off the side or lower blast lines, you will slowly shrink into the distance in the background and then a star-like flash will indicate the KO.
"Screen KO"- Similar to a Star KO, only the character hits the screen, temporarily blocking the view, and then the stock is taken once they fall down.
"Recovery"- Describes the methods and available options that characters have to make it back to the ledge/stage and avoid losing a stock.
"Gimp"- The taking of a stock, usually at a low percent, by interrupting/negating a character's recovery.
"Edgeguarding"- Attempting to stop the opponent from being back on stage with all their options available again once they are hit off. This does not have to 'gimp' them and will often refer to merely keeping the opponent in the disadvantaged position where they are easier to deal with.
"Trump"- A new mechanic in smash 4 where you grab the ledge once someone is already on it, forcing them off.
"2 Frame"/"Two Frame"- When a character grabs the ledge from below the stage without using a tether, the character will be vulnerable and can be hit during the first two frames of their ledge grab animation. If hit during the 2 frame, they will get back any double jumps used up as it will still count as if they grabbed the ledge.
"Ramen Noodles"- Grabbing the ledge from the stage very quickly by whatever means. Typically associated with Melee and Project M, though the term is generally applicable.
"Sharking"- Being beneath the opponent in an advantageous position, typically using long ranged attacks aimed upwards, for example from beneath the stage to hit people who are on the stage.
"Planking"- Abusing tactics that are centred on stalling at the ledge. The effectiveness of planking obviously depends greatly on the character being used to plank and the opposing character's anti-planking options. In past smash games it was fairly common as characters could repeatedly grab the ledge and abuse the 'intangibility' frames it gave; then smash 4 came around and with the introduction of new ledge mechanics it was thought that we'd seen the last of planking as a viable strategy. This has proven to not be so. A good example is customs Villager who gains a significant advantage by stalling at the ledge.
"Scrooging"- Going under the stage and grabbing the ledge on the opposite side.
"Ledge Slip"/"Ledge-slip"/"Edge Slip"/"Edge-slip"/"Prattack"- A ledge slip occurs when a character is forced to slide off the edge of a platform or the stage while they are still grounded. In smash 4 this will occur if you hit a standing opponent with a move that does horizontal knockback while they are still on relatively low enough percents to not be hit off their feet. The character will then slip off the edge backwards which will cause them to be unable to do any action, including tech, for a certain period of time, other than drift forwards or backwards. In previous games, ledge-slips were possible if you hit a character's shield as well, forcing them to slide backwards or forwards off the edge, but this particular variation was intentionally taken out in smash 4.
"Lock"/"Jab Lock"/"Jab Reset"- A Lock is the state you can force upon another character in which they will be unable to do anything but flop on the ground then immediately try to stand up. It can be done only with certain moves and only under certain conditions. The character must get hit with a particular move (1.) soon after they missed a tech on the ground, or (2.) soon after they were forced to land in 'tumble' (i.e. they were unable to tech having been footstooled close to the ground or they were forced to 'edge-slip'), or (3.) soon after the next 'flop' animation once they have already been locked. Note that in smash 4, locks are no longer potentially infinite and the character will automatically break free of the lock after three times. Some people refer to all locks as 'jab locks' or 'jab-resets' regardless of whether jab was actually used to lock or not, but this terminology is unhelpful and no longer applies. Many different moves may have locking properties such as Nairs, F-tilts, D-tilts, or Neutral-specials, so it makes no sense to talk about 'jab locking' or 'jab resetting' with anything but 'jab'. Instead, use 'lock' as the more general term and refer to specific locks as e.g. a 'Nair Lock'. Also note, this sort of 'lock' should not be confused with 'shield-lock'.
"Camp"- To not approach the opponent. This usually involves using a lot of attacks that will hit from a distance while trying to maintain that distance.
"Circle Camping"- Trying to keep a solid portion of the stage in between you and your opponent in an attempt to avoid confrontation, usually with the intent of winning by time-out, such that you end up running around in circles.
"Spam"- To use a lot of a particular move or moves, e.g. projectiles, a particular aerial, etc.
"Poke"- Throwing out a single long-range low-lag attack under such circumstances that there is little to no risk of the user being punished but where there exists a chance of the opponent being hit, e.g. if they drop their shield or approach at just that right moment only to be hit by the tip of the attack. Not to be confused with a 'shield poke'.
"Spacing"- Adjusting your position relative to the opponent allowing you to use your attacks at a range that they are most effective/safe.
"Zoning"- Using your attacks and the threat of your attacks to limit your opponent's available movement options.
"Footsies"- Staying just out of range of your opponent, using your safer attacks to 'poke' at them while being careful not to overcommit, trying to bait the opponent into overcommitting, and at all times looking for an opening or an overcommitment that you can punish.
"Stage Control"- Essentially using the natural formations and limitations of the stage to your advantage by either remaining in a specific area or keeping your opponent in a disadvantageous area of the stage. A typical example would be if you were on an FD stage, staying toward the centre of the stage to make it more difficult to be KO'd, and keeping your opponent toward the edge of the stage where they have less room to maneuver and are more susceptible to being KO'd, gimped or edge-guarded. What is considered good stage control will change depending on the stage and the characters being used though.
"Neutral"- The state of play in which no character has any significant advantage over the other as both have all their options available to them, otherwise there would be a state of 'advantage' and 'disadvantage'. The definition can get tricky when considering how e.g. projectiles can limit options, but this sort of thing is considered to merely be a part of neutral until they hit.
"Shield Poke"- This describes the ability to hit someone with a normal attack even if they are holding up their shield. To do this, you must make sure that your attack hits a part of the character shielding that isn't covered by their shield and at the same time make sure your attack avoids hitting what's left of the shield.
"Tech Chase"- The act of following another character's grounded 'tech' option to punish them as soon as they can be hit.
"Hit Confirm"- This involves throwing out a fast and safe attack such that if it misses you should be fine but if it hits you'll be able to react to this and string the hit into an attack that otherwise would have been unsafe to throw out just by itself due to the lag being easily punishable.
"Option Select"- This is where you input a certain combination of joystick/c-stick/button presses, and depending on what happens to you (you might enter shield stun from being hit or hitlag from actually connecting with an attack for example), that same input will do different things, essentially allowing you to cover multiple scenarios with the same input (for example a roll if your shield isn't hit or a grab if it is hit).
"Empty Hop"- Jumping (usually a SH) doing nothing (except maybe fast falling at the peak of your jump) and landing. Typically used to bait out responses while keeping your own options open.
"Tomahawk"- Making your opponent shield, expecting you to land with an aerial, but instead you fast fall just before you touch the ground and Grab. Alternatively, you can land and do any other grounded attack.
"Cross-up"- Approaching the opponent in such a way that you end up behind them so that if they shield they will be unable to grab you out of shield.
"Shield Dash"- This is where you initiate a run forwards (i.e. a 'dash'), then after the initial frames of the dash, you continue to hold forwards and hold shield so that shield is immediately activated on the first frame that you transition into the 'Run'. Otherwise it may simply be used to refer to shielding directly out of any part of the 'Run' by continuing to hold forwards on the joystick and pressing shield.
"Attack String"/"String"- Two or more attacks connecting with the opponent in a sequence where the character being hit can escape, though usually their options are very limited.
"Frame Trap"- Using a move that puts the opponent into a position where most of their options (and in some cases all of them) are too slow or lack the range required to stop them from being hit by your next move.
"Combo"- Two or more attacks connecting with the opponent in such a way that the character being hit has no options to escape other than 'DI' and 'SDI'.
"True Combo"- Regardless of any other factors (such as DI, SDI, etc), a true combo is two or more attacks that are technically and literally inescapable.
"Juggle"- Continually hitting the opponent upwards and keeping them from landing. This can occur by e.g. using up-tilts to combo at a lower percent, but it will also refer to taking advantage of the limited options characters have available in the air (especially if they've used their double jump/s) to continually hit them back up (effectively stopping them from refreshing their double jump/s and keeping them in that disadvantaged position).
"BnB"/"Bread and Butter"- A basic combo used regularly and relied upon for easy damage.
"Tether Save"- Getting hit horizontally then cancelling out all your knockback by tethering the ledge as you go past.
"Read"- Predicting what an opponent will do before they do it and punishing that option.
"Mixup"- One of two or more options that you can choose to take in any given scenario; typically an option that you don't normally take. Choosing to take that option is meant to make you harder to 'read'. For example you can mixup your 'DI' by choosing to DI (e.g. a D-throw) in a direction that you normally wouldn't with the intention of avoiding your opponent's typical follow up (even if DIing in that direction might put you in a worse position if the opponent doesn't fall for the mixup). Another example would be choosing an offensive option or approach (e.g. empty SH to FF Grab) that wouldn't typically be considered 'optimal' (where the optimal thing to do would have been e.g. SH Aerial); the offensive mixup could be specifically designed to beat the opponent's option (e.g. Shield) which was intended to deal with your 'optimal' option.
"Ladder"/"Luigi Ladder"- A doubles stalling tactic that revolves around team mates renewing each other's Up-specials so that they can either rise up past the blast zone, remain indefinitely beneath the stage, or rise up toward the blast zone and then stay just under it but also just out of reach of their opponents. This was famously seen in Melee with the Luigi Ladder, but there have been plenty of other variants, recently including Pac-Man and Mega Man.
Words relevant to working out how far someone gets launched:
"KB"/"Knockback"- The property of any attack that makes the character being hit actually get hit away.
"BKB"/"Base Knockback"- When working out just how far away a character will be hit, each attack will have its own 'base knockback' which is essentially the portion of the knockback calculation that is not affected by the percentage of the one being hit.
"KBG"/"Knockback Growth"/"Scaling"/"Knockback Scaling"- This is best understood in relation to 'base knockback' above. When calculating how far an attack will send a character, Knockback Growth is the property of an attack that is dependent on the percent of the character, so it will hit them further and further away the higher their percent is.
"WBKB"/"WKB"/"Weight Based Knockback"- Similar to 'base knockback' above. If the attack has a specified weight-based knockback, this is a factor that will alter how far the character will be launched based on their weight.
"Set Knockback"/"Fixed Knockback"- A move with set knockback will have a certain amount of 'base knockback' or 'weight based knockback' but absolutely no 'knockback growth', meaning that the character being hit will always be launched the same distance regardless of their percent assuming there are no other factors involved.
"KBR"/"Knockback Resistance"/"Launch Resistance"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack but because of some factor they will receive less 'knockback'. It can sometimes be used as a general term that encompasses the armors below.
"Super Armor"/"SA"/"Hyper Armor"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack, but because they used a move that put them in the state of having super armor, when they were hit they will always receive no 'knockback' whatsoever. A good example of this is the short period of time just before the hitbox comes out on Mac's smash attacks.
"Heavy Armor"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack but because the attack didn't have enough launching power (knockback) due to being a weak attack or the character with the heavy armor not being on a high enough percent, they receive no knockback. Good examples of this would be Bowser's 'tough guy' armor which can withstand only very insignificant knockback or Yoshi's double jump which can withstand much greater knockback.
"Damage Based Armor"- This is where a character gets hit by an attack, but because the attack didn't do enough damage the character getting hit receives no knockback. For example, if during Charizard's side-special he gets hit by an attack that does 15% or less, he will power through it (with a few unrelated exceptions). Note that if a move does 15% in training mode it will do more when fresh in a real match because of the 1.05 x freshness bonus, so moves that do 15% would in a real match do 15.75% when fresh and would therefore beat out Charizard's side-special damage based armor.
"Rage"- This refers to the fact that in otherwise identical scenarios, the opponent will get launched further if you, the one doing the hitting, are at a higher percent than the other scenario. If the attacker has rage, the formula that works out how much knockback an attack will induce must go through one final step, as rage is a 'total knockback' multiplier. A character will only have rage if they are on 36% or more. The more damage they have, the more the total knockback will be increased; this caps at 150% though, so e.g. the total knockback multiplier will be the same if the attacker is on 150% or 999%.
"Crouch Cancel"- If you hold down while standing you will 'crouch', and if you get hit by an attack while crouching then you will receive less knockback. Note that Crouch Cancelling can sometimes (mistakenly) be used to refer to 'Jab Cancelling'; e.g. someone might mistakenly say 'crouch cancelled Jab'.
"Stale"/"Staling"- If a move/attack is used such that it actually connects with a 'hurtbox', that move will have been 'staled' and will do slightly less damage and knockback on subsequent uses, and this effect will stack until the move is completely staled. In order to unstale a move, other moves must be used nine times before the stale move is refreshed, and this is so regardless of how stale the move was initially. Alternatively, you can lose a stock and upon your return, none of your moves will be stale. (There are some rare exceptions. For example some moves will never stale and some hurtboxes will not stale your moves upon being hit (e.g. pac-man's hydrant). Also note that moves do not stale in training mode.)
"Fresh"- A move/attack that is fresh will do the full amount of damage and knockback because it is not in the least bit 'stale'. In a match (i.e. outside of training mode) there is a 'freshness bonus' that applies to moves that are fresh; this is where the damage dealt by the move will be multiplied by 1.05.
Words used to talk about the inability to move and how to avoid it:
"Lag"/"Laggy"- This is used to describe when your character is momentarily unable to attack or defend and no external source has put you in this position, e.g. after one of your attacks is no longer capable of hitting the opponent and you can't move just yet, or after landing which is made more noticeable if you e.g. airdodge just before landing giving you airdodge 'landing lag'.
"AC"/"Auto Cancel"/"Autocancel"- Using an aerial attack, landing before the aerial's animation has ended, and then without any further input, receiving no lag from landing with the aerial (other than the usual minor lag for simply landing). Some aerials can only do this by using them just before you land, while others can only do this by landing at a certain time after the attack is no longer capable of hitting. Rosalina is special in that if you auto cancel an aerial by using it just before you land, Luma will still do the attack, leaving Rosalina free to do any action, e.g. grab.
"Landing Lag"- If you're in the air then come down to touch the ground, you will be momentarily unable to do anything the moment you land. While you will receive a very small amount of lag whenever you land even if you do nothing, you will receive much more landing lag if you, e.g. land using an aerial in such a way that it does not 'auto cancel' or if you airdodge into the ground.
"RCO Lag"/"Recovery Carryover Lag"/"Landing Lag Glitch"- This is where the landing lag of a special-move is stored and experienced later on when it shouldn't be. In Brawl this was very prevalent and was caused by using a specific special-move to recover to the ledge which made it so that the very next time you land on the ground you will be forced to go through the full landing lag of that special move unless you land while using an aerial, in which case you simply have to endure more lag than normal. This particular version of the problem seems to have been fixed in smash 4, but there are now other ways to experience RCO lag. Take ZSS for example. If you hit her during or after her Up-special, she will be forced to undergo the full landing lag of that Up-special the next time she lands unless you land with an aerial which will make it so you only experience more lag than normal. Another example is if you use Fox's Up-special and fall from the right distance (e.g. use it at the peak of your FH and go horizontally across) you will land laglessly, but you will store the landing lag of the Up-special which can be experienced latter. Unlike the Brawl version however, going to the ledge actually helps and will get rid of the stored RCO lag.
"Hitlag"/"Freeze Frames"- The brief period of time in which both characters stay still when an attack connects (after which the one that got hit will get launched and the one doing the hitting with finish their attack animation). This period of time is more accentuated in some moves.
"Hitstun"- The state in which you are unable to do anything after getting hit by an external force, e.g. an opponent's attack.
"Shield Hitlag"- This happens in the short period of time after your shield gets hit by an attack; it is where you and the opponent are frozen in place similar to 'hitlag'. Obviously if a disembodied attack such as a projectile hits your shield, then the opponent is not frozen in place and so the shield hitlag will work the same way as shield hitstun for all intents and purposes. During the time you are 'frozen' in shield, you can 'shield stun shuffle' (see below).
"Shield Hitstun"/"Shield Stun"/"Shieldstun"- This happens in the a short period of time after the 'shield hitlag' freeze time wears off and it is a further period of time in which you cannot drop shield or do any other options such as grab or jump when an attack hits your shield. The attacker will continue their attack animation and typically you will slide slightly away from the attacker while still in your shield.
"Shield Drop"/"Shield-Drop"- This is the animation that follows if you let go of shield. It will occur regardless of whether your shield was hit. You cannot do anything other than jump during this animation for seven frames unless you 'power-shielded' a move. The seven frame shield-drop lag can be avoided entirely by doing something 'OoS'.
"Power Shield"/"Power-shield"/"Perfect Shield"/"PS"- Raising your shield at precisely the right moment so that the attack hits it at the same time the shield comes out. To be specific, the first three frames of the shield will power-shield. The shield will not suffer damage, you won't slide backwards in your shield during 'shield-stun', shield-stun will be reduced, and you will be able to attack during 'shield-drop' allowing any option to be used to punish the opponent who hit your shield without delay. [Note that you will not be able to walk/dash/crouch/shield during the shield-drop of a power-shield, so in many cases you're actually better off doing an F-smash to reach the opponent instead of a dash grab, just for example.] Some multi-hit moves that lock you in your shield will let you power-shield the first hit that comes close to you and then it will count as a power-shield after the final hit.
"Shield Lock"/"Shield-lock"/"Shieldlock"- Essentially it describes the fact that you cannot drop your shield. This occurs naturally whenever you bring up your shield, as there is a minimal amount of time in which the shield must be held up for even if you let go of shield immediately. It can also happen between two (or more) attacks/hitboxes hitting your shield because the second attack/hitbox hit your shield during the 'shieldstun' caused by the first attack/hitbox.
"Free Fall"/"Freefall"/"Special Fall"- A state in which your character cannot do anything while in the air except move left and right. For example, this occurs after using most character's 'Up specials'.
"Tumbling"- This is where the character falls through the air, e.g. after having been hit hard following the 'Reeling' animation or after being footstooled. They go through a distinct flipping and stunned-looking animation. You can act out of this state (you may use all aerial options other than Zair directly), but if you land while still in this state, you will either have to 'tech' or otherwise flop to the ground and use one of the options available while lying down.
"Reeling"- If you get hit hard, this is the animation your character goes into during which you cannot act, and then this animation transitions into 'tumbling'. You can still 'tech' if you hit a hard surface, but that is all (except of course if this happens https://smashboards.com/threads/untechable-reel-animations.439039/ ).
"Mash"- Using as many inputs as fast as can, on both buttons and joystick, to escape being held by a grab faster or to wake up quicker after your shield breaks.
Words used to talk about influencing your characters movements when being attacked:
"DI"/"Directional Influence"- Slightly altering the direction/trajectory you get hit in by holding the joystick in any direction at any point before or instantly after you get hit with an attack (to be precise, you need to be holding a direction as your character goes from being in 'hitlag' to 'hitstun'; see above). You cannot alter the distance that you get hit by using DI, only the angle you get launched at. The greatest change to your trajectory is achieved by holding the joystick either left or right on the horizontal plain that is relative to the direction you would otherwise be hit (perpendicular to the direction the attack would normally hit you). Note that 'DI' is sometimes used as an umbrella term to talk about influencing where your character ends up once it gets hit, but this would include 'vectoring' as seen below which is a very different thing.
"LSI"/"Launch Speed Influence"/"VI"/"Vector Influence"/"Vectoring"/"KI"/"Knockback Influence"- Holding Up or Down (includes diagonals) to increase or decrease the distance you are hit by an attack. After the patch it no longer affects vertical launch trajectories, i.e. between 65°-115° or 245°-295°.
"SDI"/"Hitstun Shuffling"- By hitting the joystick (and/or the c-stick for gamecube controlers) during 'hitlag', you are able to instantly move slightly in that direction. This can be done multiple times if you're very quick. Note that you cannot SDI downwards at all if you were on the ground when hit.
"ISSDI"/"In Shield SDI"/"Shield DI"/"Shield Stun Shuffling"- If you hit the joystick (or the c-stick for GC controlers) left or right during 'shield hitlag' (see above) you will not roll, rather, you will move slightly in the direction of your input while still in shield.
"Automatic SDI"- Holding the joystick in any direction such that when the 'hitlag' (caused by the particular 'hitbox' that connected with you) has ended, you move slightly in that direction, a little less than a single 'SDI' input.
Words used to describe attacks as well as what they can and can't interact with:
"Sweet Spot"- This can mean one of two things depending on the context. It is either the part of an attack that has the greatest effect ('knockback'), or it refers to when a character recovers so low in relation to the ledge that they barely grab it which maximises their chances of avoiding attacks from someone on-stage. The later is more of an issue for recoveries that don't auto-snap to the edge.
"Sour Spot"- In relation to the first kind of 'sweet spot' above, this is the portion of the attack with the least 'knockback'.
"Hitbox"- The unseen underlying attack area. For example, there will usually be multiple hitboxes attached to the limbs of your character when they move them in an attack animation.
"Hurtbox"- The unseen underlying attack detection area. For example, your character's body is usually made up of hurtboxes. When a hitbox comes into contact with a hurtbox, an attack is successfully landed.
"Projectile"- Anything that is 'shot' (broadly speaking) or thrown.
"Disjointed"/"Disjoint"- Where an attack has a hitbox that extends far away from any hurtboxes and is not a projectile.
"Clash"/"Clank"- This occurs where two characters throw out attacks at each other and the 'hitboxes' of the attacks touch each other. In a typical case, both grounded characters will then 'rebound' and be unable to do anything for a short period of time then be able to act on the same frame, except if one of the hitboxes that clanked does 9% or more than the opponent's, in which case the stronger attack will continue and not rebound, or except if the move used has a special property meaning it cannot rebound. There's much more to it than that, so watch this if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV2xTqIf_yg
"Rebound"- The animation that a character may go into if their standard hitbox from a grounded attack touches another standard grounded hitbox, making them unable to do anything for a short period of time, with some exceptions. See above and below.
"Does not Rebound"/"Cannot Rebound"/"Trample"- This is a property that applies to only some moves where the move 'clashes' or 'clanks' with another as above, only the move isn't cancelled, it continues, and the character using it is not put into the rebound state where they are unable to do anything for a brief period of time.
"Transcendent Priority"- Used to describe the property given to 'hitboxes' that are special in that they were designed to not interact with other hitboxes in any way. They will not 'clash' and instead will pass right through.
"Phantom Hit"/"Spark"- When the hitbox of a move doesn't quite come into full contact with a hurtbox but there is no space between the two, i.e. you just missed, there will be sparks to indicate this but nothing else will happen. In Melee the one almost being hit would receive half the damage that the attack otherwise would have inflicted but there would still be no hitlag/hitstun/knockback.
"Royzone"- This is where the character using the attack is too close to the opponent such that the attack misses entirely.
"Tipper"- The outermost edge of an attack, such as a sword tip, that is also a 'sweetspot'. Many of Marth's moves have tippers, but the term is not exclusive to Marth. A good example would be the first hit of Link's F-smash. Technically it will refer to the hitbox that also has the lowest priority, meaning you have to miss with the other hitboxes in the attack in order to hit with it.
"Sex Kick"- This is where an aerial attack involving a kick has a 'Sour Spot' that stays out for a long time while the animation of the attack stays still, the classic example being Fox's Nair.
"Invincibility"- A state in which the opponent's character will receive hitlag if they attack you because their attacks can actually touch the part/whole of you that is invincible, but you will not receive any damage or hitstun. This word is also commonly used instead of 'intangibility'.
"Intangibility"- A state in which the part/whole of your character cannot even be touched by any attacks as they will pass right through. This is seen in spotdodges and rolls etc. Often referred to as 'invincibility'.
"Spike"/"Meteor"/"Meteor Smash"- 'Spike' is often used interchangeably with 'meteor', though their differences used to be important in past games that had 'meteor cancelling'. A spike is any attack that hits you at an unfavourable angle, anywhere between directly down and diagonally down.
"Multi-Hit Spike"/"Sling Spike"- In smash 4, there are aerial attacks with multiple hits that will drag the opponent with the attacking character to better ensure that all the hits connect. In order to use this to send the opponent downwards, you must hit the opponent with the multi-hit attack, fast fall during the attack, and find a way to make the last hit of the multi-hit attack miss; e.g. this can be done by landing and cancelling the move.
"Semi-Spike"- Any attack that hits you anywhere between diagonally down and horizontally can be referred to as a semi-spike.
Stage Related Jargon:
"FD"- Final Destination.
"BF"- Battlefield.
"YI"- Yoshi's Island.
"Ledge"/"Edge"- Any part of a stage that characters can tether or hold onto then hang off that grants special ledge options and intangibility. Note that in context 'edge' will also refer to the very end of a stage that can still be stood on, e.g. 'running off the edge' or 'standing on the edge'.
"Stage Spike"- Getting hit into the underside of the stage so that you bounce off it and get sent generally downwards.
"Cave of Life"- Any area in a stage that is enclosed enough, whether it be walls or roof or a combination, such that anyone who gets hit while in that area will have a much greater chance of surviving whether it be by teching the wall or roof or by simply bouncing off them and allowing the bounces to reduce the knockback of the attack.
"Pineappled"- Being blocked from recovering by the underside of the stage, typically referring to the Dreamland Smash 64 stage.
"Battlefielded"- Missing a ledge snap when you appeared to be close enough to get it, typically referring to the Melee Battlefield stage.
Button and Stick Names:
"Z"- The Grab button.
"A"- The normal Attack button.
"B"- The Special move button.
"A+B"- A new feature in smash 4 that allows you to do smash inputs by holding A then hitting B or holding B then hitting A or hitting both at the same time.
"Joystick"/"Analogue Stick"/"Control Stick"/"Circle Pad"/"Slide Pad"- The main stick, able to rotate and point in any direction, that controls many things like basic movement, alterations of attacks, etc.
"C-stick"/"Smash-stick"- The default setting that allows for easy access to smash attacks. Hitting the C-stick Upwards for example will count as having hit upwards on the joystick at the same time as inputting a smash command (think A+B=smash), resulting in an U-smash.
"A-stick"/"T-stick"/"Tilt-stick"- Setting the c-stick to attack instead of smash will give you an A-stick. Hitting the A-stick Upwards will count as having tilted the joystick upwards and hit attack, resulting an an U-tilt.
"B-stick"/"Special-stick"- Setting the c-stick to special instead of smash will give you a B-stick. Hitting the B-stick Upwards will count as having hit the joystick upwards and hit special, resulting in an up-special.
Miscellaneous:
"Frame"- A single frame is the smallest segment of time in which the game recognises inputs and interactions, works out what it all means, and displays the results. In the smash series, there are 60 frames per second.
"FAF"/"First Actionable Frame"- This refers to the point in a move at which you are able to do anything else even though the animation of the move isn't finished yet. To clarify, if you do an action, then do another action out of it as soon as possible, the first actionable frame will be the first frame of that second action.
"IASA"/"Interruptible As Soon As"- Often synonymous with 'FAF' above, but in some instances it is more specific and applies to things that the FAF cannot apply to. Take for example Link's Jab. The FAF for Jab 1 is all the way at the very end of the move's animation; it is only after Jab 1 has finished that you can e.g. shield, and then the first frame of that second action would be the FAF. If however you want to transition into Jab 2 from Jab 1, then this can be done much sooner, and the first frame of Jab 2 if used as soon as possible will be the IASA frame.
"Buffering"- Inputting a command for an action slightly before your character is able to do it (e.g. if your character is currently busy doing another action, you input the command for this new action toward the end of the old action) resulting in that action being performed by the character as soon as as they are able to do it. In smash 4, only one command/action can be buffered, and if multiple inputs are made in the period of time in which an input can be buffered, the chosen action to be performed will be determined based on the priority of the command. That is to say, some commands will overrule others. In order of priority from highest to lowest, in the air the order is Special button > Shield button > Attack button > Jump button, and on the ground the order is Special button > Attack button > Shield button > Jump button.
"JV"- As an example of this term being used, a 'JV 3 stock' indicates that the player won with 2 stocks at 0%. Normally when you beat someone you can indicate how much you beat them by with reference to how many stocks you had left when the game ended; so if when the game ends you were still on 2 stocks and at e.g. 65%, you would say that you '2 stocked' the opponent. Adding the term 'JV' onto the beginning indicates that you were at 0% with one less stock than you said which recognises that you were very close to achieving the win with that extra stock.
"FG"/"For Glory"- The online mode as opposed to 'for fun'.
"CQC"/"Close Quarters Combat"- Refers to a character's ability to fight on the ground and in the face of other characters. Usually involves quick attacks.
"Sakurai Angle"- A property commonly given to moves that means the angle it launches grounded opponents will depend on how much 'knockback' the move did under the circumstances (see the above section titled 'Words relevant to working out how far someone gets launched'). If the move did a small amount of knockback to a grounded opponent, they won't be lifted into the air; if it has a higher amount of knockback, the opponent will be launched at a roughly 45 degree angle diagonally up (the exact angle depends on the game).
"Tripping"/"Prat Falling"- Where a character falls over and sits up, at which point they are limited to doing a get-up attack, standing up, or rolling to either side. While unforced tripping (seen in Brawl) was removed, in smash 4 there is still externally forced tripping from bananas and some attacks.
"Blast Line"/"Blast-line"/"Blast Zone"/"Blast-Zone"- The border or boundary of each stage that marks the point at which a character will be KO'd if they go beyond that point, resulting in a 'blast' of light.
"Magnifying Glass"/"Hoop"- When a character is off screen but not beyond the blast zone, instead of the camera going all the way over to the side, the character is represented on the edge of the screen as being inside a circle to show roughly where they are while signifying that they are beyond that point. While in the magnifying glass, your character will receive hoop damage of 1% every second or so while you stay in the magnifying glass, forcing you to move further away from the blast line. (Note that there is no hoop damage if you're in training mode. Note also that this hoop damage stops when you're at or over 150%.)
"DBZ"/"Dragon Ball Z"- This refers to a moment in a match where both characters hit each other and get launched toward the blast zone at the same time, typically resulting in at least one of them losing a stock.
"ECB"/"Environment Collision Box"- This is the property attached to each character model that tells the game whether the character is currently touching/interacting with any part of the environment of the stage such as the ground, walls, roof, or platforms, as well as other ECB's. However it is not normally the thing responsible for detecting whether a character is airborne or grounded as they come to land; that is usually decided by the root bone of the character which typically extends further down than your ECB will. It is unknown how things like the instant ledge getup work (a phenomenon where you let go of the ledge, dj into the corner of the stage, use an aerial and find yourself standing on-stage). So maybe ECB affects landing in some cases.
"AOE"- Area of Effect.
"Bidou"- A control scheme that takes advantage of the 'B-stick' to allow for easier execution of some advanced techniques such as perfect pivoting. Similar things can be done with the other sticks but the B-stick is considered to be the best suited. The three possible stick choices are the 'C-stick' (default), the 'A-stick' and the 'B-stick'. The C-stick gives a smash input as well as a smash joystick input for one frame then continues to override any joystick inputs for as long as it is held. The A-stick gives an attack input as well as a tilted joystick input for 1 frame then immediately gives control back to the joystick on the following frame regardless of how long it is held. The B-stick gives a special input as well as a smash joystick input for one frame then immediately gives control back to the joystick regardless of how long it is held. The idea behind Bidou is that you can hold the button input corresponding with the stick prior to inputting the stick in a given direction, and the stick input will result in the joystick input only. So for example if you hold both A and B (with A+B=smash turned on) then hit the C-stick, you will get a 1 frame smash joystick input in that direction; if you hold attack then hit the A-stick you will get a 1 frame tilted joystcik input in that direction; and if you hold special then hit the B-stick you will get a 1 frame smash joystick input in that direction. Perfect Pivoting for example requires a 1 frame smash joystick input backwards out of an initial dash, so only the C-stick and B-stick would work to make this easier.
Basic Character Options
Names of basic attacks:
"U-air"/"Uair"- Up Aerial. Jump, Hold up on the joystick/directional pad and use your aerial attack. (If using a GC controller, you can also hit the c-stick up while in the air.)
"D-air"/"Dair"- Down Aerial. The aerial attack that comes out when the joystick is held down.
"F-air"/"Fair"- Forward Aerial. Hold the joystick in the direction that your character is facing and use your aerial attack.
"B-air"/"Bair"- Backward Aerial. Hold the joystick in the opposite direction to which your character is facing and use your aerial attack.
"N-air"/"Nair"/"Nairplane"- Neutral Aerial. The aerial attack that comes out when the joystick is in its neutral state, i.e. not held in any direction.
"Z-air"/"Zair"- Zair is the aerial attack that uses the same tool and button input used to Grab/Tether. Only some characters have a Zair. So named because of the default button to do this on the GC controller, ‘Z’.
"U-tilt"/"Utilt"- Up Tilt. Hold the joystick/directional pad upwards then hit the attack button, or lightly tilt the joystick up and hit attack.
"D-tilt"/"Dtilt"- Down Tilt. Hold the joystick/directional pad downwards then hit the attack button, or lightly tilt the joystick down and hit attack.
"F-tilt"/"Ftilt"- Forward Tilt. Hold the joystick in the direction your character is facing then hit attack, or lightly tilt the joystick forwards and hit attack.
"Jab"/"Jab1"- Make sure the joystick is in its neutral state and hit attack. Generally has very little knockback unless the character has no 'Jab2'.
"Jab2"- The second attack in the jab sequence. Generally has very little knockback unless the character ends the jab sequence with their second jab.
"Jab3"- The third attack in the jab sequence. Generally has very little knockback unless the character ends the jab sequence with their third jab.
"Rapid Jab"/"Multi-Jab"/"Multi Jab"- The flurry of attacks that ends some character's Jab sequence.
"Gentleman"- Finishing a Jab sequence just before the Rapid Jabs are initiated. Previously this was a Captain Falcon exclusive term, but it is now commonly used in reference to all characters with a similarly good Jab sequence finisher just before their Rapid Jabs.
"U-smash"- Up smash. Quickly move the joystick upwards and Hit attack at the same time. (If using a GC controller, just hit the c-stick up.)
"Hyphen Smash"- Using U-smash during an initial 'Dash'; charging the Up-smash will let you slide the distance of your character's dash while charging.
"D-smash"- Down smash. Quickly move the joystick downwards and Hit attack at the same time.
"F-smash"- Forward smash. Quickly move the joystick in the direction your character is facing and Hit attack at the same time.
"U-throw"/"Uthrow"- Up throw. Grab the opponent then hit up.
"D-throw"/"Dthrow"- Down throw. Grab the opponent then hit down.
"F-throw"/"Fthrow"- Forward throw. Grab the opponent then hit forwards, i.e. the direction your character is facing.
"B-throw"/"Bthrow"- Backward throw. Grab the opponent then hit backwards, i.e. in the opposite direction to which your character is facing.
"DA"/"Dash Attack"- The attack that occurs if you Hit attack during either a 'Dash' or a 'Run'.
"Command Grab"- Certain special moves such as Captain Falcon's Up-special and Lucario's Side-special used up close act just like a grab except that you are not then given the same options you would have after getting a normal grab.
"Pummel"- The action of hitting someone you have grabbed while still holding on to them.
Names of other basic commands:
"Tether"- Grabbing the ledge from a distance with e.g. a claw-shot. Only some characters can do this.
"Jump Squat"- From the moment you input a jump using the jump button to the moment your character actually leaves the ground, this period in-between is known as the jump squat due to the animation your character goes into to begin their jump. It is a very small amount of time, but it is in this period that the jump can be cancelled with e.g. an Up-smash or and Up-special performed as if it had started from the ground.
"SH"/"Short Hop"- This is the small jump off the ground so named to distinguish it from the larger version. Which version you get depends on how long the jump button is held.
"FH"/"Full Hop"- The large jump off the ground, as opposed to the shorter version as seen above.
"Ledge Jump"/"Tournament Winner"- The special animation jump you get when you input 'jump' while hanging off the ledge.
"Ledge Hop"- Hitting down or away from the ledge to let go of it then returning on stage with your double jump. This term is sometimes used mistakenly when talking about the 'ledge jump'.
"DJ"/"Double Jump"- Every character has a jump that they can use while already in the air. Some have multiple 'double jumps' and these would not be called 'triple jump' etc.
"Wall Jump"- Some Characters can jump off vertical surfaces such that they don't use up any of their other jumps.
"Wall Cling"- Some Characters can temporarily stick to vertical surfaces.
"Footstool"- Jumping on a character's head.
"Tech"- Can mean one of two things depending on the context. It can either be short for 'Technique' or it can mean the action of hitting the shield button, after being hit, just before you bump into something solid (i.e. the floor, a wall, or the roof) while in hitstun to stop yourself from bouncing off that surface and to regain control of your character.
"Tech Roll"- See above for 'tech'. When you tech on the ground, you can hold left or right before you tech or hit left or right as you tech, and this will result in you rolling in that direction instead of teching in place.
"Tech Jump"- Essentially, it's like a special 'wall jump' performed upon teching a vertical surface. It's special because even characters who can't wall jump will be able to tech jump. If you hold up on the joystick before/while you tech a wall, you will automatically do a tech jump.
"Z-catch"- Using the Grab button to catch items in the air.
"Z-drop"- Using the Grab button to drop items in the air.
"Crouch"- Hit and hold down on the joystick while on the ground so that your character ducks or lies down.
Names of movement options for the ground and air:
"FF"/"Fast Fall"- If you Hit down on the joystick while your character is in the air and not rising, your character will move down faster than normal. In smash 4, FF can be cancelled by using any aerial attack or special, or by simply double jumping like in past smash games. You can fast fall during an aerial from the moment you do it (so long as you're not rising of course), but you cannot fast fall during a special and must wait till it is finished.
"Drift"/"Drifting"- Moving left or right in the air, usually while falling.
"Dash"- The beginning animation when starting a run in any direction. If you just flick the joystick left or right such that it returns to neutral, you will only see the dash without your character going into the run animation.
"Run"- What follows after the Dash if the joystick is held in the same direction.
"Pivot"- Moving the joystick in the opposite direction to which your character is facing and returning the joystick to neutral such that your character merely turns around in place to face the other way.
"Perfect Pivot"/"PP"/"True Pivot"- Interrupting the initial 'Dash' with a 'Pivot'. Hit left or right to initiate a dash, then immediately flick (i.e. hit quickly and let go of so that it immediately returns to neutral) the joystick back in the other direction. This can be used in combination with Foxtrotting to do things like a D-smash (or any option for that matter) immediately after a Dash. Used just by itself it can slightly adjust your position very quickly and immediately give you all your options.
"Dash Turn"- The slow animation your character goes into when changing directions out of a 'Run' or the later frames of a dash.
"Slingshotting"- Refers to using the slide some characters get out of a Dash Turn, usually for the purposes of doing specific moves while sliding to increase their effect or look fancy. Note that in context 'slingshot' could easily be referring to Villager's Fair and Bair.
"Turnaround Cancel"- Running in one direction, then instantly turning to use a move such as a F-tilt or F-smash back in the other direction, in some cases resulting in you using the move while retaining some momentum causing you to slide in the original direction you were running in.
"Foxtrotting"- Moving around using only Dashes in small bursts. Requires the joystick to be put to neutral between each dash.
"Stutter Step"/"Kara Smash"- Cancelling the initial frames of a Dash with a F-smash. This can be used in combination with Foxtrotting to do what seems like an F-smash immediately after a Dash (which some people have come to call an "S Smash"/"S-Smash").
"Skid"- Sliding to a stop; occurs when you return the joystick to neutral out of a 'run'. If you return the joystick to neutral out of an initial 'dash', this is called a 'foxtrot'.
"Dash Dancing"- Moving the joystick left then right then left etc. fast enough so that your character continues to change directions immediately. A more technical way of putting it is that you're cancelling your initial dash with an immediate initial dash back in the opposite direction, and then you can continue to do this if you want. Most techs will require only a single dash dance however, and anything more than that is pretty useless.
"RAR"/"Reverse Aerial Rush"- This is basically where you run, pivot, and then quickly jump so that you jump backwards in the direction of your initial run while still keeping some of the momentum.
"Crawling"/"Crouch Walking"- Moving forwards or backwards while crouching. Only some characters have a crawl.
"Crawl Dashing"- Immediately reversing your grounded sliding momentum (whether it be caused by landing with a special move or just the result of walking and then stopping, etc) by crawling in the opposite direction to which you are sliding. This bounces you back and retains/redirects the sliding momentum you had.
"Haze Walking"/"Pivot Boosting"/"Pivot Walking"/"Doop Walking"- Moving in one direction while constantly spinning. There are a couple of control methods that allow you to do this. One way is that you go to walk in one direction, lightly move the joystick backwards so you just turn around without going back the way you came then immediately lightly hold back in the original direction you were going so that you turn around again and get a slight boost, then you lightly move the joystick backwards again to turn around (and so on). It used to be made easier holding A, holding forwards on the joystick, and hitting the c-stick diagonally up and backwards, but this is no longer the case. It can now only be made easier by holding A, lightly holding the joystick forwards, and tapping the A-stick backwards whenever you want to turn. If you hold the joystick too far forwards you will initiate a dash. There is no benefit over merely walking other than flashiness.
"Pivot Landing"/"Craq Walking"- 'Drifting' backwards then continuing to hold backwards upon landing so that you turn around while retaining some of the momentum gained in the air. Alternatively, drifting forwards then upon landing (lightly) turning around to face where you came from while retaining some of the momentum gained in the air.
Advanced Character Options and Basic Combinations of Options
Advanced item options:
"Dash Throw"- Throwing an item out of a Dash or Run.
"JC-Throw"/"JC Throw"/"Jump Cancel Throw"/"JCIT"/"Jump Cancel Item Throw"- Using an item throw to cancel the initial frames of a jump before you leave the ground. Can be helpful for e.g. throwing items backwards out of a dash or run, it can make some characters slide ever so slightly if used out of a run, and it means you get a standing item throw instead of a dash throw, which can be good if the dash throw is laggier.
"RCIT"- Roll Cancel Item Toss. Cancelling the initial frames of a roll by throwing an item. Note that no-one seems to be able to get a boosted slide by doing this, and so there is no 'glide toss' in smash 4.
"DACIT"/"DTCIT"/"DITCIT"- People called it a DACIT, short for Dash Attack Cancelled Item Toss because it's the same input for a DACUS only you do it while holding an item, even though technically you are cancelling a 'Dash Throw' (not a Dash Attack) into an item toss. Unlike a DACUS, there are many variations of this depending on your input. See the 'Bombslide' in the Link specific jargon for more details.
"Boost Toss"/"Boost Item Toss"- Doing a DACIT and getting a slide out of it. Character dependant. The basic elements of this tech are about inputting a dash throw i.e. throwing an item while running, then in the initial frames of that dash throw you input the command to throw the item a second time (in whatever direction and in whatever way as you see fit) and then either on the same frame as the second throw input or on a frame soon after, moving the joystick generally upwards such that it registers as a fully extended upwards command, and this upwards input is what cancels the dash throw animation, replacing it with the second throw's animation, but keeping the momentum from the dash throw on the frame that the dash throw animation was canceled.
"ZAC"- Z-drop Aerial Catch. Use the Grab button to drop an item in the air, usually at around the peak of your jump or while falling, then use an aerial to catch it again. This is one way to use aerials while holding an item.
"IZAC"- Instant Z-drop Aerial Catch. This allows you to use aerials while holding an item as soon as you jump off the ground, i.e. while rising. The timing is strict. You need to input the jump, then the moment you leave the ground use the grab button to drop the item (too soon and you'll cancel your jump with an item throw), immediately release the grab button, then use an aerial to catch the item while still rising.
"Insta-Throw"/"Instant Item Throw"- Catching an item with airdodge then immediately cancelling the airdodge by throwing the item in any direction.
Advanced grab options:
"Shield Grab"- Not really 'advanced', but it's just grabbing while shielding i.e. out of shield ('OoS'). Can be used to do a standing Grab out of a Run as opposed to doing a Dash Grab which is slower.
"Dash Grab"- Grabbing out of a dash or a run.
"Roll Cancel Grab"- Cancelling the initial frames of a roll with a Grab input. The timing is extremely precise.
"DACG"- Cancelling the initial frames of Dash Attack with a Grab.
"Boost Grab"- Sliding across the stage as a result of doing a 'DACG'. Only applies to certain characters. Results will vary.
"Pivot Grab"- Turning around and Grabbing at the same time. Can be done in two ways, either simply tapping the joystick in the opposite direction to which your character is facing (backwards), or by Dashing forwards, Grabbing, then Instantly hitting the joystick backwards. This results in a different Grab animation that usually reaches further. Usually it's the latter that is being referred to.
"DACPG"- Dash Attack Cancel Pivot Grab. Cancelling the initial frames of a Dash Attack with a Grab then Hitting Backwards on the joystick to turn it into a Pivot Grab.
"Boost Pivot Grab"- Sliding across the stage as a result of doing a 'DACPG'. Only applies to certain characters. Results will vary.
"Chain Grab"/"Chaingrab"/"Pseudo Chain Grab"- Note that there are two ways that this term is currently used and only one of them applies to smash 4. This term used to solely refer to grabbing a character, throwing them, then re-grabbing them in such a way that they cannot escape in between. This was purposefully made impossible in smash 4 as now the character who got grabbed cannot be re-grabbed until a certain period of time has passed, allowing them to escape in between. The term chain grab will still be used to mean this, but the user will specifically be talking about one of the past smash games. In smash 4, some characters have found ways around the new mechanic that stops the person from being immediately re-grabbed. What they can do is grab and throw the opponent, then immediately use their multi-hit aerial to drag the opponent back down towards the ground, then combo this into a re-grab (all done in such a way that it is inescapable). This work-around has been widely referred to as a chain grab or a pseudo chain grab.
Advanced special move options:
"Turn Around Special"/"Turn Around B"- Using a special move so that your character turns around to face the other way with no other effects to their momentum. Can be done in a couple of ways. For the neutral special, either flick the joystick backwards such that it immediately returns to neutral then quickly Hit special, or lightly hold the joystick backwards and Hit special.
"Special Reversal"/"B-reversal"- Using a special move so that your character turns around to use the move and at the same time they 'reverse' any momentum they had, i.e. if you were jumping forwards therefore moving forwards at a certain speed, you will instantly start travelling in the opposite direction with the same speed. For the neutral special, this is done by Hitting special and then instantly moving the joystick backwards, i.e. the opposite way to which you are facing. The same input is done for jumping both forwards and backwards.
"Wavebounce"/"Wave Bounce"/"Recoil Special"- It's a combination of the above two. You use a special move to reverse your character's momentum seemingly without turning around to face the opposite way, but in fact you just turn around twice very quickly. For the neutral special, this will be done by at first either flicking the joystick backwards such that it immediately returns to neutral and then quickly hitting special or lightly tilting backwards and hitting special, i.e. the 'turn around special', then instantly hitting the joystick in the direction that has just now become backwards (i.e. the direction you were originally facing before you started). The same input is done for jumping both forwards and backwards
"C-bounce"/"C Bounce"- A variation on the input method for a wavebounce. It can be done in two ways depending on which special you want to wavebounce. To wavebounce neutral special, set C-stick to attack (i.e. set it to the 'A-stick'), run forwards or jump in either direction, then continue to hold the joystick in the direction you are traveling as you hit the A-stick backwards on the same frame that you hit the special button. If performed correctly, you will do a neutral special wavebounce. To wavebounce side special, keep the C-stick set to smash and do the same thing, only you'll have to let go of the C-stick immediately if you want to wavebounce, otherwise you'll just get a B-reversal. It essentially imitates what the B-stick does.
"Stun Jacket"- (It should really be called Hitlag Jacket to avoid confusion with Hitstun.) The counters of Peach, Marth, Ike, Palutena, Greninja, Lucina and Roy are programmed to put the user and the opponent into a long duration of hitlag upon activation of the counter to indicate that the counter was activated. However some unusual moves that are not projectiles or items do not put the user in hitlag when they hit, e.g. zss’s d-smash, falco’s reflector, bayo’s bullet arts (i.e. holding the attack button). When these unusual moves interact with the aforementioned counters, the opponent with the unusual move will not receive the hitlag from the counter activation while the one using the counter will still undergo it. When this happens, the opponent with the unusual move will receive the counter activation lag the very next time they enter hitlag or shieldhitlag; this may be caused by the counter attack hit itself, otherwise if the counter attack whiffs it can be any attack from the counter user that induces hitlag or shieldhitlag on them, even a throw (if your throws induce hitlag), a projectile, or item, or any move of the opponent that puts them in attacker hitlag/shieldhitlag when they hit the counter user. In this way, it can make comboing and shield pressure easier for the character with the counter or more difficult for the character with the unusual move depending on who hits who first. If the move used does not induce hitlag (e.g. some throws used by either party or obviously projectiles/items used against the counter user) the stun jacket will continue to be stored.
Greninja’s stun jacket induces the most hitlag and is broken.
Cancelling things and other miscellaneous options:
"Jab Cancel"- Cancelling your jab sequence by 'crouching' (e.g. if your character had a jab sequence consisting of two hits, you could do the first hit and then hold down on the joystick), allowing you to do another 'Jab 1' sooner than normal. Note that you do not have to wait till the crouch animation is complete; you can do the other Jab 1 on the very next 'frame' after your crouching animation starts. The frame that you can crouch on is the same frame that all other options become available to you, or in other words, that is where the 'IASA' frame is for that Jab.
"OoS"/"Out of Shield"- Refers to certain moves being able to be done without having to let go of the shield button to drop your shield and wait before being able to attack. Examples of these are Grab, Item Throw, Jump, Roll, Spotdodge and Platform Drop.
"Shield Platform Drop"- Dropping through a platform directly out of shield. If you stand on a platform, hold shield, then move the joystick at the right speed (somewhere between getting a spot-dodge and merely angling your shield down), you will fall through the platform straight out of shield without needing to let go of the shield button and then drop through.
"Airdodge Cancelling"/"DeLux Cancelling"- Airdodging into the ground with less 'lag' than normal. Airdodge starts with a very small period of time in which you are able to be hit; then there is a long period of time in which you are 'intangible'; following this there is yet another very small amount of time in which you will be vulnerable and unable to do anything; but after this you are able to do any action before the animation of the airdodge is over (see 'FAF'), and a moment later the airdodge will autocancel. In smash 4, if you land during any part of the animation of your airdodge, you will receive a decent amount of 'landing lag' upon touching the ground again. But toward the end of the airdodge animation, this landing lag can be traded for the landing lag received when landing with an aerial attack if you use the aerial during the very short period you are able to act in before the animation of the airdodge is finished. So long as that aerial has less landing lag than the airdodge, it's better to land with; some aerials can 'auto cancel' so that you receive no landing lag (other than the very small amount that comes from simply landing). Airdodge cancelling in its most distinctive form consists of timing your airdodge so that the very first moment you can act, you use an aerial attack that auto cancels at the very beginning of the animation just before you touch the ground, allowing you to completely avoid all the landing lag of the airdodge. Note that there is a very small amount of room between when you can act out of the airdodge animation and when it will autocancel anyway, so the use for airdodge cancelling is limited to very specific cases (e.g. Falco doing a SH immediate airdodge; if you use an aerial you will get less lag, otherwise you will get the full lag of the airdodge).
"JC"/"Jump Cancel"- Immediately after you hit the jump button before your character actually leaves the ground, the jump can be cancelled by certain moves such as an Up smash, an Up-special or an item throw.
"Reverse Jump Cancelled U-smash/Up-special"- Run forwards, hit backwards, instantly hit Jump, instantly cancel the jump with an U-smash or Up-special. The latter is more for Up-specials that have a grounded variation.
"Edge Cancelling"/"Ledge Cancelling"- Completely removing any remaining animation or lag on a move by sliding off the edge of a platform or the stage. This can be done in two ways. The first way is by 'drifting' towards the edge of a platform or the stage, landing near the tip of it and sliding off. This works for some moves and all airdodges. The second way is by using the momentum of your run/dash so that when you use a specific grounded move you will slide off the edge.
"Tether Cancel"- At any point after the tether has latched onto the ledge, you can hit down on the joystick to cancel it. You can avoid fast falling when you cancel the tether if you quickly flick the joystick down only part of the way. Alternatively, so long as you are rising, hitting down as hard as you want won't make you FF.
"SHFF"- Short Hop Fast Fall. It's just a combination of a 'SH' and a 'FF'. Each of these is defined separately above.
"Frame Syncing"/"Frame Stacking"/"FS"/"Frame Overlapping"/"FO"/"Frame Cancelling"/"FC"- Using an aerial on your last airborne frame then landing during 'hitlag'. Some frame syncs will allow you to land on the following frame after hitting the opponent, while others will let you land later on during hitlag. This is because the attacking character actually continues to move very slowly during hitlag, and so the closer to the ground you were on your last airborne frame, the less time it will take to fall during hitlag and land. Once you land, you will continue to go through any remaining hitlag while experiencing landing lag. What this means is that effectively, though not technically, you are able to cut out some of your landing lag and in the best case scenario (high amount of hitlag plus a low amount of landing lag), this could allow you to act immediately with a ground option after hitting the opponent with an aerial. Technically, you still experience the full amount of landing lag for the move you used, it's just that some of the landing lag was spent still in hitlag during which time you couldn't have moved anyway. This is a difficult AT to pull off and while it works for all aerials that aren't projectiles, only some will get a noticeable benefit from it. Note that this will never work if you hit a shield.
Bowser
