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How To Super Smash Bros 101

Vocabulary

Knowing the vocabulary of a game is essential to playing and mastering the game. The Super Smash Bros. Series has a lot of terminology that can confuse newcomers and even those who have played games in the series for years.

Common Vocabulary

  • Bair: Short for back aerial.
  • Blast Zone: The boundaries where if a character leaves its area, they are KO'd.
  • Dair: Short for down aerial.
  • Fair: Short for forward aerial.
  • Fastfall: Where a character falls faster to the ground by holding down.
  • Floaty: Describes a character that is light and can jump higher, but can be knocked further.
  • Frame: A still picture, when played in succession creates moving pictures. Used to determine the speed of a move and the lag associated with a move.
  • Heavy: Describes a character that is heavy and jumps low, but is knocked less further than normal weight character.
  • Hitbox: Areas that determine where a character can be hit.
  • KO: Stands for knockout and happens when a character loses a life in battle.
  • Nair: Short for neutral aerial.
  • Projectile: A non-melee move.
  • Recovery: Any way of getting back to the stage.
  • Self-Destruct(SD): A character that KO's themselves.
  • Short Hop: A shorter vertical jump performed by lightly pressing the jump button.
  • Spike: An attack that sends an opponent downwards.
  • Stock: A character's lives. 1 Stock= 1 Life
  • Tether: A ranged grab.

Advanced Vocabulary

  • Disjointed Hitbox: The hitbox of a melee attack that doesn't have a hitbox when receiving an attack. Ex: Cloud's Sword doesn't hurt Cloud when the sword is hit with an opponent's attack.
  • Edgeguard: Attacking to prevent opponents from returning to the stage.
  • Edgehog: Staying on the ledge so an opponent can't grab it(Only present in Brawl and games previous to Brawl).
  • Trump: Grabbing the ledge when the opponent is grabbing it making them let go away from the stage.
  • Gimp: A kill that happens at extremely low percentages.
  • Invincibility Frame: The frames that allow characters to not take damage.
  • Parry: When a character releases shield immediately after getting hit resulting in an opportunity for a counterattack(Exclusive to Smash Bros. Ultimate).
  • Perfect Shield: Pressing shield at the same time as getting hit causing the player to take no shield damage.
  • Punish: Taking advantage of an opponent's mistake.

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