Paralyze

Pit paralyzed by Zero Suit Samus's Paralyzer in Brawl

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

Paralyze is an attack effect in the Super Smash Bros. series that debuted in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and has appeared in every subsequent game. Fighters hit by paralyze attacks are inflicted with the paralysis status condition for an amount of time based on the attack's knockback. While paralyze attacks typically do minimal damage and knockback, they freeze their victims on the spot momentarily, granting an opening for a fighter to followup with a combo or a powerful move. This makes them strong utility moves for fighters who have access to them.

Outside of Final Smashes and custom moves, Zero Suit Samus's Paralyzer and down smash, Corrin's Dragon Fang Shot, the bell from Pac-Man's Bonus Fruit, and Kazuya's Electric Wind God Fist are the only fighter attacks with the paralyze effect. Additionally, several Assist Trophies and Poké Ball Pokémon, stage hazards, and Smash Run enemies have the paralyze effect.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Support Spirit skill Zap-Floor Immunity prevents the equipped fighter from being paralyzed, but does not affect the damage they take from paralyzing attacks.

Status condition

Paralyzed fighters freeze in place while shaking back and forth briefly, before taking the knockback of the attack.

Any fighter hit by a paralyzing attack will be inflicted with paralysis. In Brawl and Smash 4, if a fighter that was paralyzed is hit by a paralyzing attack again before they land, grab a ledge, or can act out of the effect will only cause damage to them with no knockback or paralysis; in Ultimate, the fighter takes knockback alongside the damage, merely without being paralyzed, allowing such moves to still function as traditional launchers until that fighter can be paralyzed again.

The duration of paralysis in frames is $k\times ({\frac {d}{2.6}} 14)\times h\times c\times 0.05$ in Brawl, $k\times ({\frac {d}{2.6}} 14)\times h\times c\times 0.025$ in Smash 4, and $k\times h\times c 1$ in Ultimate, rounded down, where k is the attack's knockback, d is its damage, h is its hitlag multiplier, and c is the crouch canceling hitlag modifier (0.67 if active, and 1 otherwise). For example, a move that deals 4% damage, 60 units of knockback, and has a normal hitlag multiplier will paralyze targets for 46 frames in Brawl, 23 frames in Smash 4 and 61 frames in Ultimate (if not crouch canceled in all cases). As such, moves that have knockback scaling (rather than set knockback like Zero Suit Samus's Paralyzer) and deal a high amount of hitlag will paralyze the opponent for longer as their percent increases. Paralysis is weight independent, but the amount of knockback dealt is still affected by knockback multipliers and knockback resistance (such as from the Metal Box). In Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, since crouch canceling multiplies knockback taken by 0.85× alongside its effect on hitlag, it becomes a particularly effective countermeasure against paralysis, reducing its duration by 0.5695×. Paralysis duration is capped at 80 frames in Brawl, 76 frames in Smash 4, and 90 frames in Ultimate.

List of paralyzing attacks

By characters

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

By items

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

By enemies and bosses

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

By stage hazards

In addition to natural stage hazards, the Spirit Battle condition "The floor is electrified" creates a hazard that inflicts paralyzing damage.

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