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Smash Meter Updates

The "Final Smash Meter" has been renamed to the "Smash Meter".

Meter Gain

Each move in Smash 6 has an Offensive Meter Gain value that specifies the amount of Meter it builds for the Attacker and a Defensive Meter Gain value that specifies the amount of Meter it builds for the Defender. These values are not affected by move Staleness/Freshness. Each character also has a Defensive Meter Gain Multiplier, which may increase or decrease their defensive meter gain.

Offensively, a player can gain Smash Meter by:

  • Hitting an Opponent (Offensive Meter Gain Value x 1)
  • Hitting an Opponent's Shield (Offensive Meter Gain Value x 0.5)

Defensively, a player can gain Smash Meter by:

  • Getting Hit by an Opponent (Defensive Meter Gain Value x 1 x Character Defensive Meter Gain Multiplier)
  • Shielding an Opponent's Attack (Defensive Meter Gain Value x 0.4 x Character Defensive Meter Gain Multiplier)
  • Perfect Shielding an Opponent's Attack (Defensive Meter Gain Value x 1.5 x Character Defensive Meter Gain Multiplier)

Other ways to gain Meter:

  • In King of the Hill, having control of the Hill provides a slight amount of Meter each second (if allowed by the ruleset)

The Smash Meter is divided into 6 equal segments. Each segment requires 100 units of Meter to fill. A player with a full Smash Meter will lose a segment of Smash Meter if no segments are consumed within 15 seconds of the meter being filled.

There are three ways to consume segments of the Smash Meter:

  • Power Shield (1 segment)*
  • Smash-Link (varies)
  • Final Smash Attack (all segments)

Power Shield

Upon activation, the character's shield will not take shield damage or decay for 1 second. The effect can only be activated while shielding and the effect will end if the character stops shielding. A Character's Defensive Meter Gain Multiplier is set to 0 while Power Shield is active.

*There is a ruleset option that causes Power Shield to instead place an Assist on cooldown instead of costing Smash Meter.

If the Smash-Link button is being held down during the link-cancel window of an attack, that attack can cancel into another specific action. Depending on the move used, that follow-up action could be another attack, grab, jump, dash, air-dodge, tag-in, or a combination of those options. The Smash Meter cost and specific Smash-Link follow-up options are determined on a per-move basis. If a move can Smash-Link into multiple options, the Smash Meter cost may or may not be the same for each option.

If a move is Smash-Linked into a dash, the character will enter the "Linked-Dash" state. While in this state, the character will not be able to Shield, Roll, Spot Dodge, Grab, or perform Smash Attacks. This state lasts 2 seconds or will go away if the character gets hit, uses a move, or becomes airborne. The input for Smash-Linking into a dash is Smash-Link + (Shield or Sprint) + (Left or Right) directional input.

Most moves can only be Smash-Linked if it hit a foe or a foe's shield, with few exceptions. If a move can Smash-Link into a grab, it will only be able to do so on hit and not on hitting a shield.

Each character has at least one Smash-Linkable move, but some characters have more possibilities than others.

Ultimate Final Smash Attack

In Smash 6, each character now has a Final Smash Attack and an Ultimate Final Smash Attack. The Ultimate Final Smash Attack is always a cinematic cutscene that ends the game. Eg, Fox's Team Star Fox and King Dedede's Dede-Rush would be Ultimate Final Smash Attacks, whereas Roy's Critical Hit and Link's Ancient Bow and Arrow would be standard Final Smash Attacks. Standard Final Smash Attacks never last longer than 5 seconds and will not cause a scene transition.

An Ultimate Final Smash Attack is obtained when the following conditions are met:

  • There are only two participants remaining in the match
  • The winning player has at least two more stocks than the losing player
  • The losing player is on their final stock
  • The losing player has 50% or more damage

When these conditions are met, the winning player will be given an Ultimate Final Smash Attack.

Final Smash Attack Power

Final Smash Attacks in this game have varying power:

  • Ultimate Final Smash Attack: Unblockable and will always instant kill
  • Final Smash obtained from a Smash Ball: Unblockable and standard power
  • Final Smash used by spending Smash Meter: Not Unblockable and 0.6x power

Notes

The meter system in Ultimate often resulted in a bunch of Final Smashes being used back-to-back, and the way meter was gained did not feel engaging. So, the meter system was significantly altered.

Power Shield helps prevent too many shield breaks, particularly when playing Tag Team 3v3 with Assists enabled.

Smash-Links offer a faster and flashier pace of play, and since the options are unique per move, they can help characters feel even more unique. Smash-Links have some balancing aspects too. Characters that already have great frame data and combo ability generally have worse or fewer Smash-Link options.

If the Smash-Link button is being held down, but none of the defined Smash-Link follow-ups are used during the Link-Cancel window of a move, no meter is consumed. Meaning, Smash-Links feel like Terry's Special Cancel mechanic with the addition of holding down the Smash-Link button.

Ultimate Final Smash Attacks are a fun cinematic ender to a match.

The screen does not tint when a player is able to use a Final Smash Attack.