Introduction
Hey everyone. I am writing this guide in the hopes that most people here can understand that range, disjointed hitboxes and priority are 3 completely different things and to clear up any misunderstanding and confusion with these 3 terms. To my amazement a few days ago, I was surprised that most people here thought that these 3 terms meant the same thing or confused the definition of one of these words with another word which I have mentioned in the title above. For starters, they do not mean the same thing. There's a reason why there are 3 words in the first place. This is because they all possess a different meaning to each other. However, they are closely related to each other which is why I guess people often get them mixed up. By reading this guide, hopefully people won't get these terms mixed up as they are pretty important to know. Who knows, you might learn a thing or two about each of these terms? Anyways, let's get on with this shall we?
Range
First of all, what is range? Well, range is how far a character's hitbox can extend outside their hurt box when using an attack. Do not confuse this with a disjointed hitbox as they mean 2 completely different things. I'll explain what a disjointed hitbox is later. With range, it doesn't normally concern projectiles as they are completely different from ranged moves. (I'll explain why later.) Also, not all characters have a set range on their attacks as obviously from playing the game, all of their attacks have various ranges to them. However, there are character's who do have better range on their attacks overall compared to other characters. Mostly characters who wield weapons (Like a sword for example.) are notable for having great range associated with their attacks. Also, the higher overall range a character has on their moves, the easier it is for them to space themselves accordingly in battle.
Well, that's about it on range I think.
Projectile
A projectile is a hitbox which is able to leave the user's hurtbox. Most projectiles follow a linear path while others travel in arcs or can even be controlled by the user. Some can be used instantly while others can be charged to make them stronger. There are even projectiles which have a unique ability to them. However, they all serve an important purpose for those who wield them: To set up an approach, condition your opponent and create an opening when your opponent approaches you which is a pretty useful thing to do in battle as the situation can easily be put into your advantage. Especially against characters who lack a projectile. Another good thing about projectiles is that NONE of them produce hit lag for the user. Even if the opponent is in your face and you fire a projectile, you will not suffer any lag when the projectile lands on your opponent. Strangely enough, there are some odd additions for projectiles in the game like the IC's Blizzard attack and Bowser's and Charizard's Fire breath/Flamethrower attack. This is because they produce hitboxes which are still attached to their hurtboxes. However, they can be reflected and absorbed like normal projectiles and they produce no hitlag when they land on your opponent so these attacks are treated like one.
I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but projectiles can fall into either the physical or energy category. Energy projectiles are unaffected by gravity (Mario's is the only exception.) while physical projectiles are. (Snake's Nikita and Samus' Missile are the only exceptions.) Therefore, energy based projectiles travel linear paths while physical projectiles tend to travel in arcs. (Unless they are controllable.) Therefore, energy projectiles are a little easier to land against grounded opponents while physical projectiles are easier to land on opponents in the air as the projectile can fall with them and potentially still hit them even when they air dodge. Against characters who possess reflectors however, energy projectiles are a little more disadvantageous to have than physical projectiles because once an energy based projectile is reflected, there's a higher chance that the reflected projectile will come back and hit you compared to a physical one because of the linear path most of them travel in. You can still get hit if a physical projectile is reflected however, you need to be reasonably close to your opponent for that to happen and that depends on the trajectory in which your projectile travels in as well. Also, there are some characters who are only able to absorb energy based projectiles. Therefore, this decreases the list of characters you can spam energy based projectiles on. However, that doesn't mean that your character's energy based projectile is completely nullified against these characters. It just means you have to use them more intellectually and sparingly because characters who possess reflectors or absorbers cannot have their reflector or absorber activated at all times. Although if you spam the projectile or are predictable when using them, then yes, they will absorb it or reflect it right back at you and depending on how far you are from your opponent, you may get hit in the process.
Disjointed Hitbox
A disjointed hitbox is a hitbox or attack which is either not attached to a character's hurtbox or extends far away from a characters hurt box. Again, like with range, character's who wield weapons are notable for possessing this. Other characters who posses this in majority of their moves are Lucario, Olimar, Ness and Lucas. However, there are some characters who are not notable for their range that can still have disjointed hitboxes associated with some of their attacks. Like Pikachu for example, he practically has short range on all of his moves. However, his FSmash and DSmash have disjointed hitboxes to them because the electricity extends outside his body or hurtbox. There are others too, but I'm too lazy to list them all. Just be aware of that however. Also, a common misconception is Snake's U-tilt. Most people think the move has a disjointed hitbox to it. This is not true because disjointed hitboxes can trump this move. This move just has a LOT of range and priority to it. Also, consider the situation where a Lucas uses PK Fire (>B): If Sonic were to punch it, he'd get hurt because the his arm doesn't extend outside his hurtbox. However, if Marth used his FSmash on it, he wouldn't get hurt because the hitbox extends outside his hurt box. That is an example of what a disjointed hitbox is.
Priority
Okay people, priority is something not a lot of people here are familiar with and it is pretty important to know so listen up. Priority is an attack's ability to trump another attack if both yours and your opponents attacks collide with each other at the same time. Usually the more damage an attack does, the better the priority that move has. This isn't the case most of the time however. With Meta Knight for example, consider the situation where he uses his Mach tornado. (Neutral B) The more you press B, the more priority it gains. Also, despite the fact that his attacks don't do a lot of damage, most of his moves still has high priority associated with them.
If you are still unsure about how priority works, consider these situations: If 2 Mario's jab each other at the same time, the attacks cancel each other out and no one gets hurt because they have similar priority to each other. However, if Peach were to use her jab against Ike's FSmash for example, Peach would get hurt because Ike's FSmash has more priority over Peach's jab. Another example is where some characters use their jab to cancel certain projectiles. Like jabs, some projectiles like Lucario's BAS and Pikachu's Thunder Jolt have low priority to them. So when the projectile collides with a characters jab, they cancel each other out as shown in the image below:
Weak projectiles (Like Pikachu's Thunder Jolt for example.) have similar priority to most jabs.
Another thing I should note is that priority only affects grounded characters. So if 2 characters aerial attacks collided with each other at the same time, the attacks won't cancel each other out or even have one of those aerial attacks trumping the other aerial attack based on how much priority both of those moves have. None of that happens at all. Instead, when 2 characters aerial attacks collide with each other at the same time, both characters trade hits with each other regardless of both of those aerial attacks priority. Even if it's 2 Marth's using an Fair or a Meta Knight using an Fair against Kirby's Bair against each other for example, both characters will still trade hits with each other because priority is disregarded when both characters are in the air because of what I stated earlier: priority only affects grounded characters. The only thing that can prevent this from happening is when a characters aerial attack comes out faster than their opponents aerial attack or vice versa. If a character uses an aerial attack against a grounded character, then yes, priority will apply.
One final point about priority is that if a character has high priority associated with most of their attacks, the easier it is for them to approach characters because they have the ability to trump almost any move their opponent uses on them. Therefore, the character who has lower priority overall have to be more cautious in how they approach and what moves they can use against their opponent because they don't have many moves that they can just throw out at their opponent and hope that it'll hit them otherwise they'll easily get out prioritized by an attack which has higher priority to it.
Well, that's it for my guide for now. Hopefully I've cleared up any kind of misunderstanding people may have had originally on range, priority and disjointed hitboxes. If you still have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Also, if you think I'm incorrect on something or if I'm missing something, let me know and I'll change or add information if you have proof to back it up. Also, this guide isn't 100% complete yet as I'm still yet to clean it up and add more stuff to it so keep an eye out on this guide as I might add more stuff to it if I have time to do so.
Hey everyone. I am writing this guide in the hopes that most people here can understand that range, disjointed hitboxes and priority are 3 completely different things and to clear up any misunderstanding and confusion with these 3 terms. To my amazement a few days ago, I was surprised that most people here thought that these 3 terms meant the same thing or confused the definition of one of these words with another word which I have mentioned in the title above. For starters, they do not mean the same thing. There's a reason why there are 3 words in the first place. This is because they all possess a different meaning to each other. However, they are closely related to each other which is why I guess people often get them mixed up. By reading this guide, hopefully people won't get these terms mixed up as they are pretty important to know. Who knows, you might learn a thing or two about each of these terms? Anyways, let's get on with this shall we?
Range
First of all, what is range? Well, range is how far a character's hitbox can extend outside their hurt box when using an attack. Do not confuse this with a disjointed hitbox as they mean 2 completely different things. I'll explain what a disjointed hitbox is later. With range, it doesn't normally concern projectiles as they are completely different from ranged moves. (I'll explain why later.) Also, not all characters have a set range on their attacks as obviously from playing the game, all of their attacks have various ranges to them. However, there are character's who do have better range on their attacks overall compared to other characters. Mostly characters who wield weapons (Like a sword for example.) are notable for having great range associated with their attacks. Also, the higher overall range a character has on their moves, the easier it is for them to space themselves accordingly in battle.
Well, that's about it on range I think.
Projectile
A projectile is a hitbox which is able to leave the user's hurtbox. Most projectiles follow a linear path while others travel in arcs or can even be controlled by the user. Some can be used instantly while others can be charged to make them stronger. There are even projectiles which have a unique ability to them. However, they all serve an important purpose for those who wield them: To set up an approach, condition your opponent and create an opening when your opponent approaches you which is a pretty useful thing to do in battle as the situation can easily be put into your advantage. Especially against characters who lack a projectile. Another good thing about projectiles is that NONE of them produce hit lag for the user. Even if the opponent is in your face and you fire a projectile, you will not suffer any lag when the projectile lands on your opponent. Strangely enough, there are some odd additions for projectiles in the game like the IC's Blizzard attack and Bowser's and Charizard's Fire breath/Flamethrower attack. This is because they produce hitboxes which are still attached to their hurtboxes. However, they can be reflected and absorbed like normal projectiles and they produce no hitlag when they land on your opponent so these attacks are treated like one.
I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but projectiles can fall into either the physical or energy category. Energy projectiles are unaffected by gravity (Mario's is the only exception.) while physical projectiles are. (Snake's Nikita and Samus' Missile are the only exceptions.) Therefore, energy based projectiles travel linear paths while physical projectiles tend to travel in arcs. (Unless they are controllable.) Therefore, energy projectiles are a little easier to land against grounded opponents while physical projectiles are easier to land on opponents in the air as the projectile can fall with them and potentially still hit them even when they air dodge. Against characters who possess reflectors however, energy projectiles are a little more disadvantageous to have than physical projectiles because once an energy based projectile is reflected, there's a higher chance that the reflected projectile will come back and hit you compared to a physical one because of the linear path most of them travel in. You can still get hit if a physical projectile is reflected however, you need to be reasonably close to your opponent for that to happen and that depends on the trajectory in which your projectile travels in as well. Also, there are some characters who are only able to absorb energy based projectiles. Therefore, this decreases the list of characters you can spam energy based projectiles on. However, that doesn't mean that your character's energy based projectile is completely nullified against these characters. It just means you have to use them more intellectually and sparingly because characters who possess reflectors or absorbers cannot have their reflector or absorber activated at all times. Although if you spam the projectile or are predictable when using them, then yes, they will absorb it or reflect it right back at you and depending on how far you are from your opponent, you may get hit in the process.
Disjointed Hitbox
A disjointed hitbox is a hitbox or attack which is either not attached to a character's hurtbox or extends far away from a characters hurt box. Again, like with range, character's who wield weapons are notable for possessing this. Other characters who posses this in majority of their moves are Lucario, Olimar, Ness and Lucas. However, there are some characters who are not notable for their range that can still have disjointed hitboxes associated with some of their attacks. Like Pikachu for example, he practically has short range on all of his moves. However, his FSmash and DSmash have disjointed hitboxes to them because the electricity extends outside his body or hurtbox. There are others too, but I'm too lazy to list them all. Just be aware of that however. Also, a common misconception is Snake's U-tilt. Most people think the move has a disjointed hitbox to it. This is not true because disjointed hitboxes can trump this move. This move just has a LOT of range and priority to it. Also, consider the situation where a Lucas uses PK Fire (>B): If Sonic were to punch it, he'd get hurt because the his arm doesn't extend outside his hurtbox. However, if Marth used his FSmash on it, he wouldn't get hurt because the hitbox extends outside his hurt box. That is an example of what a disjointed hitbox is.
Priority
Okay people, priority is something not a lot of people here are familiar with and it is pretty important to know so listen up. Priority is an attack's ability to trump another attack if both yours and your opponents attacks collide with each other at the same time. Usually the more damage an attack does, the better the priority that move has. This isn't the case most of the time however. With Meta Knight for example, consider the situation where he uses his Mach tornado. (Neutral B) The more you press B, the more priority it gains. Also, despite the fact that his attacks don't do a lot of damage, most of his moves still has high priority associated with them.
If you are still unsure about how priority works, consider these situations: If 2 Mario's jab each other at the same time, the attacks cancel each other out and no one gets hurt because they have similar priority to each other. However, if Peach were to use her jab against Ike's FSmash for example, Peach would get hurt because Ike's FSmash has more priority over Peach's jab. Another example is where some characters use their jab to cancel certain projectiles. Like jabs, some projectiles like Lucario's BAS and Pikachu's Thunder Jolt have low priority to them. So when the projectile collides with a characters jab, they cancel each other out as shown in the image below:
Weak projectiles (Like Pikachu's Thunder Jolt for example.) have similar priority to most jabs.
Another thing I should note is that priority only affects grounded characters. So if 2 characters aerial attacks collided with each other at the same time, the attacks won't cancel each other out or even have one of those aerial attacks trumping the other aerial attack based on how much priority both of those moves have. None of that happens at all. Instead, when 2 characters aerial attacks collide with each other at the same time, both characters trade hits with each other regardless of both of those aerial attacks priority. Even if it's 2 Marth's using an Fair or a Meta Knight using an Fair against Kirby's Bair against each other for example, both characters will still trade hits with each other because priority is disregarded when both characters are in the air because of what I stated earlier: priority only affects grounded characters. The only thing that can prevent this from happening is when a characters aerial attack comes out faster than their opponents aerial attack or vice versa. If a character uses an aerial attack against a grounded character, then yes, priority will apply.
One final point about priority is that if a character has high priority associated with most of their attacks, the easier it is for them to approach characters because they have the ability to trump almost any move their opponent uses on them. Therefore, the character who has lower priority overall have to be more cautious in how they approach and what moves they can use against their opponent because they don't have many moves that they can just throw out at their opponent and hope that it'll hit them otherwise they'll easily get out prioritized by an attack which has higher priority to it.
Well, that's it for my guide for now. Hopefully I've cleared up any kind of misunderstanding people may have had originally on range, priority and disjointed hitboxes. If you still have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Also, if you think I'm incorrect on something or if I'm missing something, let me know and I'll change or add information if you have proof to back it up. Also, this guide isn't 100% complete yet as I'm still yet to clean it up and add more stuff to it so keep an eye out on this guide as I might add more stuff to it if I have time to do so.
