As they’ve been tried and tested by professional smashers, these are the best Smash characters in Ultimate.
Smash Ultimate is the most fast-paced and unruly version of the Nintendo all-star brawler by far. Only rivaled by Melee, the Nintendo Switch iteration of the fighting series takes the action from zero to 60 with lightning speed matches and damage that can climb up to 100% in the blink of an eye.
Shedding the floatiness of Brawl and the combo-heaviness of Smash 4, Ultimate brings Smash back to its competetive roots in what feels a lot like a proper sequel to 2001’s Melee.
The balance of the roster is more evenly spread than ever, with previous low-tiers such as Zelda and King DDD climbing the ranks of mid-tiers, and series favorites such as Pokémon Trainer and Snake returning to change up the meta.
Some characters are main-stay top-tiers, and some have emerged due to patches and buffs (and in Pichu’s case, nerfs). What is it that builds the best Smash characters? Projectiles, safe shield approaches, low percent kill confirms, consistent low percent combos, and a whole lot of technical play.
How to play as the best ‘Smash’ characters in ‘Ultimate’
Palutena
Palutena is the sleeper hit of Smash Ultimate. She was mid-tier in Smash 4, but climbed the ranks as one of the best Smash characters in Ultimate mainly due to two major changes to her build: nair chains and amped up dash speed.
While she wasn’t incredibly slow in 4, her speed now rivals that of Captain Falcon and Limit Cloud. Take advantage of this to dash dance in front of your opponent, much like Little Mac players would have in Smash 4. As she had in 4, Palutena’s back air and dash attacks are invulnerable, making for consistently safe punishes on opponents charging a smash attack or the like. Her counter is now combined with her reflect, but neither are all too viable, unless they are thrown infrequently.
Nair is your safest approach, especially if an opponent is jumping. With a down-throw at 0-15%, you can confirm at least two, if not three nairs, quickly followed up by a forward air or up air to add insult to injury. Once you’ve gotten your opponent up to around 50-60%, it’s time to start the mixups. Force their approach with a deluge of Auto Reticle and Explosive Flame–just be careful not to become too predictable with your projectiles, else an opponent may read and punish you hard.
For kills, look for back throws near ledge, up-smash to punish many ledge options (and at times two frame), a string of nairs to both intimidate and kill an opponent, a RAR back air off of a down throw, or the classic down throw up air to catch opponents at around 60% for an easy and quick kill. Add some of her tilts to force shield pressure; down tilt can two-frame; and side-tilt has realllly long dual hitboxes that can kill. Don’t mess with this goddess. Opponents that are accustomed to approaching with aerials will soon realize that Palu is here to punish their every hop.
Snake
Snake is known for his notoriously thick thighs. He hasn’t skipped leg day since Brawl, and now, his leg attacks are some of the best kill confirms in the game. That, coupled with his superior projectile game and up b tricks, makes him easily one of the best characters in Smash Ultimate.
Right off the bat, start any match by tossing out some grenades. They do 1% on impact, but their explosion will quickly add up if an opponent isn’t paying attention. The goal of any Snake player is to get the opponent to approach. If you don’t have viable projectiles to combat Snake’s grenades, consider this matchup an uphill climb. It’s not really worth reflecting his projectiles, as he will be able to read and punish you with a dash attack or grab combo.
Don’t chase Snake off-stage. It’s always a bait and will always end in his favor. He can act out of his up b and will often do so with a down b C4 plant. Wait for him to come back to stage, else he will be able to set back up with more grenades, up smash spam, and side b Nikita.
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As a Snake player, you want to whittle away at your opponent’s defenses for long enough that you’re able to get a down throw up tilt kill confirm. The higher your opponent’s percent, the longer they will stay passed out after Snake’s chokehold. At around 100%, Snake will have a guaranteed up tilt kill from down throw. Use back air and up air to prevent aerial approaches, and surprise C4 explosions to take stocks with ease. For some low percent off stage cheese, try out his Mario-esque forward air spike.
Pokémon Trainer
The three first Generation Pokémon Starters come back with a vengance in Ultimate, and togther, they make three of the best Smash characters. Squirtle has a mean low percent combo game, Ivysaur has great zoning and spike capabilities, and Charizard has viable throw combos and burst options.
Depending on your matchup, you will want to start off as either Squirtle or Ivysaur. The key to switching between the three characters quickly is in using a special move to negate the cool down time between switches. For Squirtle, that’s a Water Gun charge and cancel, while Ivysaur’s is Vine Whip (off stage) or Razor Leaf (on stage), and Charizard’s is Flamethrower. If you cannot recover as Squirtle, switch to Ivysaur, and if you’re still having trouble, switch to Charizard after a Vine Whip to gain a third jump and decent Fly up b.
Squirtle can confirm two down throws into up b Waterfall at 0%. This will consistently put your opponent at around 50% and is very difficult to DI. You can opt to down throw into up air strings, nair, forward air, or down air to accomplish this 50% a bit quicker, but doing so relies on reading the right option and performing a more technical movement. Stall out til you reach around 60% yourself with some nearly invincible Withdraw side b’s (just don’t get footstooled–you’ll be left helpless for around 5 seconds) before switching to Ivysaur.
Ivysaur’s mission is to either Razor Leaf into forward air or down throw into Vine Whip (which kills ridiculously early with the tipper). Down throw is his kill throw at around 130%, and backthrow is viable around the same if you’re able to get your opponent near ledge. Up air and down air have incredible launching power. If you’re able to get either, especially a down air off stage, you’ll more than likely guarantee a kill.
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Charizard is your insurance policy. Ivysaur has plenty of kill confirms, but Charizard is there to clean up the mess if Ivy reaches around 120%. His up throw kills at 120-130% (lower if it lands on a platform), and his forward and back throws have decent kill power. His back air has insane knockback at the tip of his flaming tail. It’s predictable, but can catch an opponent off stage if timed well. His up tilt, up smash, and up b make his wings invulnerable, with up b having some super armor after startup. If worse comes to worse, throw out a side b Flare Blitz every once in a while if you’re at a high percent. If you’re not planning on living much longer, it makes sense to Kamikazee, potentially earning you a kill at 60%.