Though easily overlooked in casual play, priority is an important factor for competitive players to understand and consider in order play Melee successfully. In short, priority is a characteristic of moves which determines what occurs when their hitboxes collide with other hitboxes. Therefore, by understanding a move’s priority, a player can know what outcome to expect should their attack collide with an opposing attack. In this article, I will go through the basic rules of priority in Melee and its effects on specific hitbox interactions. I will also dive into the concept of port priority, wherein the outcome of specific scenarios is determined by the player’s controller port, rather than by other pre-existing priority rules.

The Law of High and Low Priority:

The vast majority of grounded hitboxes in Melee function under the law of high and low priority, meaning they are assigned either a high or low priority based on the amount of damage they deal. Melee’s priority range spans 9%, meaning that, if two attacks with a damage output within 9% of each other collide, the attacks will "clank" (marked by the appearance of a white circle), and their hitboxes will cancel each other out.

However, if two attacks with a percent difference greater than 9% collide, then the stronger of the two moves will out-prioritize the other, meaning the weaker hitbox will be cancelled while the stronger hitbox will connect. For this reason, stronger moves are considered to have higher priority, as they are more likely to out-prioritize an opposing attack. In addition to standard attacks, most projectiles adhere to the normal priority rule, meaning they can also out-prioritize, clank with, or be out-prioritized by other grounded moves.

Notably, certain attacks, such as Fox’s and Falco’s forward smashes and Side-B’s, will finish their animations even if they collide with another move within their priority range. When such attacks interact with each other, it is more likely for the two hitboxes to go through each other rather than cancel each other out.

Normal Aerial Priority:

While aerial attacks also function under standard rules of priority, these rules are different than those for grounded attacks, causing different results when aerial attacks interact with other moves. If a normal aerial attack collides with a normal grounded attack or another normal aerial, the two moves will never clank. This means that neither attack will be cancelled, regardless of damage output, and both hitboxes will connect as a result.

However, aerial attacks do adhere to the law of high and low priority when they collide with normal projectiles, so percent output does determine priority in these cases. Interestingly, aerial attack animations will not be cut short upon colliding with another hitbox, much like the aforementioned spacies’ forward smashes and Side-B’s. Because of this, the clanking animation never occurs when an aerial collides with a projectile, even if the two moves do technically clank.

Transcendent Priority:

Any hitbox that does not follow a normal priority rule is considered to have transcendent priority. Transcendent hitboxes cannot clank with each other, meaning both hitboxes will connect if two transcendent hitboxes collide with each other. However, transcendent hitboxes will also fail to cancel out non-transcendent hitboxes. As a result, transcendent hitboxes are actually unable to clank with any move; they can go through any move and any move can go through them, regardless of percent output. For this reason, transcendent hitboxes seem to disregard rules of priority altogether, rather than merely functioning under a different set of rules.

Because of its unique properties, transcendent priority can be a bit of a double-edged sword. While a player throwing out a transcendent hitbox does not have to worry about getting out-prioritized, they have no chance of out-prioritizing their opponent either. This means that transcendent hitboxes are most useful in scenarios where the user would benefit from a trade.

Though some aerial attacks possess transcendent hitboxes, transcendent priority is relatively unhelpful on aerial attacks. This is because all aerials already disregard priority when interacting with normal grounded and aerial attacks, meaning the added transcendent priority does not change anything, and transcendent priority prevents the user from cancelling out an incoming projectile, meaning the user is guaranteed to take damage while possibly being too far away to deal damage to their opponent. Of course, transcendent aerials can still be useful for trading with other transcendent hitboxes.

The following is a list of moves which possess transcendent priority in Melee: Bowser’s Neutral-B and Side-B; Donkey Kong’s Down-B; Dr. Mario’s Side-B and all hits of his Down-B barring the final one; Falco’s Neutral-B; Fox’s Neutral-B and aerial Side-B; Ice Climbers’ Down-B; Kirby’s dash attack, his grounded Side-B, and the projectile hitbox of his Up-B; Link’s Up-B and zair; Mario’s Side-B, Down-B, and sweetspotted forward smash; Marth’s Neutral-B, Up-B, and Side-B; Mewtwo’s Down-B, down smash, and sweetspotted forward smash; Ness’ dash attack, his Neutral-B, and the projectile hitbox of his Up-B; Pichu’s Down-B and forward smash; Pikachu’s Down-B, down smash, and forward smash; Roy’s Neutral-B and Up-B; Samus’ zair; Young Link’s zair and aerial Up-B; and Zelda’s jab, forward tilt, up tilt, dash attack, forward smash, down smash, neutral-air, forward-air, back-air, up-air, Neutral-B, and Side-B (Zelda definitely wins the title of “queen of transcendence”).

Port Priority:

As previously mentioned, priority in certain events is determined by which port the player’s controller is plugged into. In Melee, the effects of port priority tend to be somewhat miniscule since the aforementioned priority rules determine the outcome in most cases. Nevertheless, there are some events which lack priority rules to determine the order of events. As a result, players who understand the nature of these scenarios may be able to gain a slight advantage just by plugging their controller into a certain port.

Port priority typically comes into play whenever two players try to perform the same non-attacking action simultaneously. Generally, the player using the lower port (the port number closest to 1) is favored and will out-prioritize their opponent in such scenarios. Such cases include trying to grab each other or grab the ledge at the same time; in both cases, the lower port player will out-prioritize the higher port player, landing their grab or successfully ledgehogging their opponent. In addition, if two players attempt to pick up an item at the exact same time, the lower port player will obtain the item.

If two characters attempt to land in the same spot at the same time, the lower port player will be pushed to the side in order to keep the two characters from occupying the exact same space. If a character is hit by attacks from two opponents at the same time, that character will take the knockback from the lower port player’s attack (assuming the two attacks fall within the same priority range), a fact which doubles players ought to keep in mind.

Interestingly, port priority affects the hitstun on all throws in the game, subtracting one frame of hitstun from any of the lower port player’s throws by registering the frame where the higher port opponent is released as a frame of hitstun, which does not occur when a higher port player throws a lower port player. This being the case, throwing is one of the few situations where it is generally advantageous to be the higher port player, as their opponents will be left in hitstun for slightly longer.

The topic of priority tends to be secondary to other topics of discussion in the realm of competitive Melee. Indeed, it is possible to play Melee fairly well without a particularly in-depth understanding of the rules of priority. Even so, any player would benefit by acquiring a deeper understanding of Melee as a whole. In doing so, the player may begin to win more and more minute interactions, which can add up to game and set victories in the long haul. By knowing how a character’s priority compares to that of an opponent’s character, players may be able to more wisely select each move, and will be better prepared for any scenario where both players act concurrently.

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