Falling speed

Falling speed refers to the rate in which a character can move downward in midair. Falling speed can greatly impact a character's fighting style — for instance Jigglypuff, a floaty character uses its low falling speed in order to hit opponents multiple times in mid-air while faster characters like Captain Falcon use their quick falling speed to perform quick and powerful aerial attacks.

Additionally, falling speed directly affects the vertical component of attacks' knockback in combination with weight. Attacks of upward trajectory knock back slow-falling, floaty characters more than they knock back fast-fallers. However, a floaty heavyweight will be harder to KO vertically than a floaty lightweight. Though both falling speed and weight affect knockback, they are independent of each other. A fast-falling character is not heavy and in vice versa. Examples would be Fox who is a fast-faller, but is light while Samus is a heavy weight and a floaty character.

All characters can fast fall at any time to increase their falling speed which is the case when they try to perform SHFFL aerials.

Accelerated falling speed
Accelerated falling speed, also called Fast-falling speed, but not to be confused with Fast falling, can be best described as the falling speed the player falls at after being knocked up. For instance Fox, who possesses the highest accelerated falling speed in the game, starts falling immediately after just being knocked up into the air. This is the reason why he susceptible to certain chain grabs more then others and why he is the easiest character to combo. For instance he is the character most susceptible to 's down throw chain grab while being resistant to 's down throw chain grab until higher percentages.

Fast-faller
Fast-faller is a name that refers to characters with the highest accelerated falling speed. , and  are prominent examples.

Fast-fallers enjoy fast short hop approaches and being the most difficult to KO vertically. They are susceptible to different combos then floaty characters. Generally, fast-fallers are more vulnerable to chain grabs and combos.

High-fallers
High-faller is a name that refers to characters with high accelerated falling speed, but their accelerated falling speed is not as high as fast-fallers. The most prominent characters who fall into this group are, , , and.

High-fallers are susceptible to combos and chain grabs just like fast fallers are. However, certain combos and chain grabs vary for fast-fallers and high-fallers like certain chain grabs that work on fast-fallers might not work on high-fallers and vice versa.

Above Average-fallers
Above Average-fallers refers to characters whose falling speeds are higher than average fallers, but not as high as high-fallers. This lands certain characters in which their accelerated falling speed is not to high, to low or average. Characters who are the most prominent example of this are, , , and.

These characters accelerated falling speeds allow them to be combo'ed more than average-fallers, but not susceptible to combos and chain grabs that high-fallers and fast-fallers are vulnerable to. They also benefit from not being KO'ed off the top as easy as average-fallers while not having the problems that high or fast-fallers have.

Average-fallers
Average-fallers as the name implies, refers to characters whose accelerated falling speed is only average or in the middle. This means that their accelerated falling speed is not high enough to be considered fast or high-fallers nor to low to be considered floaty. Characters who are the most prominent example of this are, , , and.

Average-fallers have the privilege of not being susceptible to the majority of chain grab or combos like fast or high-fallers are, while not being easy to KO vertically like floaty characters. This makes them ideal when going up against any character.

Below Average-fallers
Below Average-fallers refers to characters whose accelerated falling speed is in between that of an average-faller and a floaty character. Characters who are the most example of this are, , and.

These characters greatly benefit from being not susceptible to combos and chain grabs, while also being a little harder to kill off the top of a stage. However, they are still susceptible to being KO'ed off the top faster than average fallers are.

Floaty
Floaty is a name that describes characters with slow falling speed. , and  are prominent examples of characters with low accelerated falling speed. is also a floaty character which is unusual for a heavyweight.

Floaty characters have great benefits in terms of performing aerial attacks in quick succession. Jigglypuff would be an example of this with the wall of pain. Floaty characters have an easier time recovering due to their slow falling speeds while also being less vulnerable to combos and chain grabs. However, they're easy to KO vertically.