Editing Zelda (SSBU)

Zelda is ranked 73rd out of 82 on the current [[tier list]], placing her in the D- tier. This is a slight improvement from her 52nd/53rd out of 54 placement in ''SSB4'' where she was tied with {{SSB4|Ganondorf}}, and is her best placement in the series. She has a strong zoning tool in [[Phantom Slash]], which is a very versatile move that can also start or finish combos, force approaches and apply pressure by controlling space, namely in ledge trapping. Zelda uses magic in her attacks, giving her solid disjointed range in general. She has an abundance of KO options, with power comparable to or exceeding that of heavyweights, despite being a lightweight; furthermore, she possesses the largest array of moves with [[transcendent priority]], so her strongest attacks tend to create favorable trades if not outright beating out the opponent due to their priority. Several of them come out surprisingly fast for how powerful they are, and are effective out-of-shield options, most notoriously her [[Lightning Kick]] and [[Farore's Wind]], the latter of which is also one of the best recovery moves in the game. She also has an outstanding array of throws, being able to combo with down throw until high percents and having two strong kill throws in her up and back throws.

Despite these strengths, Zelda has some notable weaknesses. Her mobility is abysmal; she has a low run speed, falling speed and gravity, and a laggy initial dash, leaving her with committal jumps, a poor approach and [[neutral game]]. Being tall makes her easier to hit, and being floaty with poor landing options makes her especially vulnerable to juggling; this gives her one of the worst disadvantage states in the game and only exacerbates her status as a lightweight. Despite having several powerful finishers, most of them are inconsistent, having very precise sweetspots that are notoriously difficult to land given her poor approach and mobility, weak sourspots that can even be punishable on hit, and/or high ending lag. She lacks moves that are safe on shield, most notably her aerials; the few moves that are safe require specific spacing or timing, which are difficult given her poor mobility. The range on several of her attacks is poor, limiting their utility. Almost all her normals are transcendent, which is a double-edged sword that gives her poor defense against projectiles and larger disjoints, since she cannot clank with them and easily loses to them. She also has a limited number of moves and rather small windows to confirm into other moves, forcing her to often rack up damage and secure KOs through Phantom setups or stray hits. She lacks fast, low-committal projectiles, making her susceptible to being outcamped; in general, all her special moves have high lag and can be punished hard if not used carefully.

Overall, Zelda plays a decent zoning game and a strong trapping game, with tools for ledge trapping and controlling space, but her precise hitboxes, inconsistency and poor mobility gives her a weak neutral and disadvantage state, making her a glass cannon with a focus on precision. Zelda is rarely seen in tournaments, but there have been dedicated players, such as {{Sm|Yn}} from Japan, {{Sm|Naskino}} in France, and {{Sm|Ven}} in the United States, with respectable results.

Zelda is a tall, floaty [[weight|lightweight]] character (weighing the same as [[Sora]]) with very poor mobility. While she has an above-average [[air speed]], [[initial dash]] and [[traction]], her jumps and [[air acceleration]] are below average, and she has the 22nd slowest [[walk|walking speed]], the 16th slowest [[falling speed]], the 10th lowest [[gravity]], and is tied with {{SSBU|Byleth}} for the 9th slowest [[run|running speed]] in the game. Zelda's attacks are mostly based on magic, making most of them [[disjoint]]ed albeit short-ranged attacks. They also boast generally quick startup; all her normal attacks activate before frame 10, except for [[forward tilt]], [[up aerial]], [[down aerial]], and [[forward smash]]. Despite her low weight, most of her attacks have immense [[KO]] potential and damage output, giving her power comparable to that of heavyweights. Due to these factors, Zelda can be generalized as a zoner glass cannon.

Zelda's ground game is notably safer than her aerial game due to generally being less committal and more consistent. She has decent close-quarters combat, namely in her [[down tilt]], a short-ranged low-profiling poke, and [[up tilt]], a large all-around anti-air; both are quick to execute combo-starters with long-lasting hitboxes. They often work in tandem with [[dash attack]], which is her most important burst and punish option with excellent speed and large hitboxes. More situational is her [[neutral attack]], which is her fastest move at frame 4; it can transition into a [[rapid jab]] for simple damage, or sometimes combo at high percents on its own, but is short-ranged, inconsistent at comboing and unsafe on shield. [[Forward tilt]] is the biggest outlier, being much slower with narrow hitboxes, but having a strong low-priority tipper; it can be used to space (especially on shield) at a longer range.

Though known for her broad power, Zelda's smash attacks are one of the few areas where she falls relatively average to below-average in strength, although they are all still respectable finishers. Her [[forward smash]] has a good horizontal disjoint with multiple hits; it is a decent option for catching ledge getups, and due to its rather low ending lag it can be hard to punish on shield, especially if spaced and/or charged. [[Up smash]] is similarly a powerful multi-hit; though laggier and having poor horizontal range, it has a fast startup (frame 9) that can punish poorly spaced moves on shield, and has a very long duration of 23 active frames, making it effective for catching getups and landings. [[Down smash]] is a simple leg sweep with average power, being one of her few non-magic attacks, but compensates by being very fast at frame 5 and executing relatively quickly; hitting on both sides, the foot sweetspots [[semi spike]] at a nasty launch angle that can set up edgeguards.

Zelda possesses among the most powerful set of [[aerial]]s in the game; uniquely, a majority of them are highly polarized with high-risk and high-reward and limited usage in neutral, forcing her to play carefully in the air. Her forward and back aerials, known as her Lightning Kicks, are by far most polarized moves. Both have fast startup at frame 6 with an incredibly strong sweetspot at her toe, making them effective punishes and deadly out of shield options. However, the sweetspot is tiny and only active for one frame. Additionally, they have notable landing lag, ending lag and cannot auto-cancel in a short hop. Furthermore, the sourspots are pitifully weak, even being punishable on hit at most percents. This makes them very risky with poor utility in neutral. Down air is a similar move with a powerful single-frame sweetspot on her foot and very weak sourspots. Although slow to come out and weaker than her Lightning Kicks, the sweetspot meteor smashes and is much larger, and the sourspots linger for longer and always spike opponents downward, making them useful for gimping opponents. The clean hit has great utility in punishes, as hitting it on grounded opponents will can start a combo at nearly any percent for massive damage or a KO confirm.

[[Up aerial]] is Zelda's only truly consistent aerial, as it consists of a single large hitbox with consistently high knockback. A vertically disjointed explosion with excellent power, it has relatively low landing lag. While not very risky when falling, it has significant startup and ending lag and only covers the range above her, limiting its usage. [[Neutral aerial]] stands out as her only aerial to not have outstanding power or a notable sweetspot. Instead, as a multi-hit with many active frames hitting on both sides, it serves as her least committal, most versatile aerial. It can auto-cancel in a short hop, which with good execution can convert into an up tilt or dash attack at lower percents; it can also combo into a dash attack when fast-falled, and a single hit can pop grounded opponents up into a variety of confirms at virtually any percent, making it a versatile combo starter. Despite being her most important all-around aerial, it lacks an autolink angle, instead having a rather convoluted set of six hitboxes; their knockback and launch angles cause the move to be inconsistent and the launch direction to be difficult to control.  

Overall, Zelda's aerials on their own can be awkward for spacing, air-to-air combat, and starting combos, instead functioning more strongly in conjunction with and as follow-ups to other moves. One of the moves that most boosts the potency of her aerials is her down special, [[Phantom Slash]], which is also her most important tool. It's a unique projectile with a hurtbox and HP that she builds piece-by-piece, with its properties becoming increasingly strong by the charge, and she can have it attack before it is complete. The earliest stages are limited to zoning and body-blocking projectiles, but by the final stage, it has outstanding HP, speed, power and range. After just over a second, Zelda will be able to move freely, while the Phantom will attack automatically after about another second if it is not manually released, granting Zelda much flexibility during this window. She can attack in tandem with it in ledge traps and to mitigate the vulnerability of laggy moves; other usages include playing mind games with manual releases, punishing shielding opponents with grabs or shield break combos, and covering her own recovery and ledge getups. It is quite good at comboing into other moves or being a combo finisher itself, due to Zelda's moves having high hitlag. Phantom Slash forms the basis of Zelda's kit and is designed to compensate for Zelda's lackluster neutral, allowing her to gain stage control, cover options, pressure, zone and trap because of how much space it covers, how much damage it deals, and how many different mixups Zelda can do with it. However, Phantom's main weakness is that it cannot be charge-canceled, requiring Zelda to commit to either an early release or to wait until she is actionable. In addition, if she enters hitstun at any point before releasing the Phantom, it falls apart.

Outside Phantom Slash, the rest of her [[special move]]s take inspiration from the spells of the three Golden Goddesses that Link can use in Ocarina of Time. Her neutral special, [[Nayru's Love]], is a [[reflection|reflector]] that doubles as a melee attack; it has a long duration and horizontal range on both sides of her, with full intangibility from frames 4-13 of the move, allowing it to beat out moves, disrupt strings, two-frame and edgeguard. However, the multi-hits can be inconsistent, and it is laggy, making it highly punishable. [[Din's Fire]], her side special, is a slow ball of fire that becomes stronger and faster the farther it travels. While the explosion has a powerful sweetspot, its slow startup and predictable trajectory make it easy to avoid in most cases, and quite punishable if used in neutral. Instead, it is mostly used to gimp opponents with low resources. Her up special, [[Farore's Wind]], is an outstanding offensive teleport, allowing her to recover in almost any off-stage situation. It is difficult to edgeguard and to two-frame due to its intangibility, omnidirectional distance and large, strong hitboxes. Like {{SSBU|Palutena}}'s [[Warp]], she can avoid the move's ending lag by [[edge cancel]]ing, which grants her access to otherwise impossible movement options. It is also a fast, useful out of shield option, as the first hit can also be used on its own out of shield, or to further combo into the powerful reappearance hitbox. It can work as a burst option to punish laggy options or anti-zone from a distance, but due to its high ending lag, this option is usually very risky. While having unique uses in their own rights, her specials can be strategically be used with each other for creative setups and KOs.

Zelda has good range for her [[grab]], with her pivot grab being one of the most disjointed in the game. While having notably slow startup, they have great reward in her [[throws]]. [[Forward throw]] is good at setting up edge guarding and ledge traps, while [[back throw|back]] and [[up throw]] are excellent kill throws and among the strongest of their kind. [[Down throw]] is most useful as a combo starter, and can reliably combo into neutral aerial, forward aerial or back aerial from low to mid percents. All her throws can lead into a set up Phantom with proper timing for high-damage combos or KO confirms, though forward and down throw are the most practical.

Despite her strengths, Zelda has significant weaknesses. Chief among them is her poor mobility, which hampers her ability to approach and move around safely. Her initial dash, for instance, is tied for the second laggiest in the game at 15 frames, which makes her unable to shield and rather vulnerable whenever she wants to move faster than walking. This mobility issue is exacerbated through numerous frame data issues, as many of her attacks, while quick to start up, have punishing amounts of end lag and precise hitboxes, making her approach telegraphed; her floatiness makes her air-to-ground transition poor and exacerbates the downsides of her already awkward aerials. Since she is tall and floaty, with no safe landing mixups or options to help her from ledge, she is very vulnerable to getting juggled and ledge trapped, contributing to one of the worst disadvantages in the game and compounding the endurance issues from her light weight. Other issues include poor range on her normals, limiting their utility, and extremely weak sourspots that can be punished on hit. Her combo game is average to subpar, as many of her moves have too much lag or unfavorable launch angles and knockback values for reliable follow-ups or wide combo windows. Due to this, she partially relies on Phantom to land stray KOs or start or finish combos for damage-racking. Some of her moves also have consistency issues, namely neutral aerial, Nayru's Love and some of the initial windboxes of Phantom Slash.

Finally, her special moves have exploitable weaknesses, as they are all committal and have varying degrees of punishable lag. With correct timing and spacing around the Phantom's possible attack ranges, opponents can punish Zelda by reading when she will use the move and preemptively closing in. If there is space, the opponent can also retreat to disengage, with Zelda not being able to do much about it except gaining some stage control. Especially against mobile characters, this forces her to play a neutral with her risky, short ranged neutral tools and subpar mobility.

Among favorable matchups, Zelda excels against slower characters with poor ground and aerial approaches where Phantom Slash can effectively wall them out (Ice Climbers), against large characters that become easy targets for her normally difficult-to-land sweetspots (King K. Rool), especially those without safe options on shield, enabling easy punishes with her deadly out of shield options (King Dedede), and against poor recoveries that are legitimately threatened by Din's Fire and Phantom (Ganondorf). Zelda's weaknesses cause her to struggle against quick opponents who can bait out her options, exploit her poor movement and keep her in disadvantage (Fox, Greninja, Zero Suit Samus), against characters that can outcamp her with projectiles that are fast and/or dwarf the Phantom's range (R.O.B., Young Link, Min Min), against characters with large disjoints who can beat out her transcendent moves (Cloud, Aegis), and against characters with better boxing options than her (Shotos).

Overall, Zelda's strengths include fast and powerful out of shield options, good stage control and ledge trapping with Phantom setups, and impressive kill power spread broadly across her moveset. Her weaknesses in mobility, range, frame data, consistency and sweetspot issues require her to be precise with how she spaces her attacks and to make the most out of Phantom ledge traps with proper reads and option coverage. She must be creative in her approaches to overcome her mobility issues when she does not have a lead, and in mixing up what she does to get out of disadvantage due to her floaty nature and lack of safe landing options.

One of Zelda's biggest buffs is her improved moveset: many of her moves have either reduced lag, better KO potential, or other improvements. Most notably, her aerials have significantly reduced landing lag across the board, making them much more usable. The sweetspots of her kicks are significantly easier to land, and their improved auto-cancel window make them less risky to use; forward aerial's faster startup also makes it a much better out of shield option. Examples of significantly stronger moves include [[forward tilt]], whose increased damage makes the sweetspot safe on shield and one of the strongest of its kind, and [[up aerial]] which is larger and stronger with a new late hit. Her already good grab game was improved to the point it is now among the most useful in the game; her [[back throw|back]] and [[up throw]]s are much stronger, giving her two new viable kill throws among the strongest of their kind.

Zelda's special moveset, considered among the most situational in previous games, has seen various improvements. [[Din's Fire]] no longer causes [[helplessness]], has an increased duration and has a larger sweetspot, making it more usable, albeit still situational. [[Farore's Wind]] has faster startup and execution and reduced vulnerability, making it a more effective out of shield and punish option; it has more precise angles for reappearance to follow opponent DI, making the "elevator" combo more likely to connect, while also being less unsafe if it doesn't. [[Phantom Slash]] is, however, her greatest buffed special and arguably her greatest buff from Smash 4 out of any of her moves. It has less lag and been heavily reworked to possess several more stages that cover a wider variety of ranges, improving its zoning usage, and the last stage allows Zelda to move around before it is unleashed, allowing for intricate trap setups and combos. The Phantom also no longer has any cooldown if destroyed, allowing it to be used much more frequently.

Additionally, Zelda noticeably benefits from some of the universal changes. Her horizontal movement has been improved (both absolutely and relative to the cast) in her increased run speed, air speed, air acceleration and initial dash. The universal 3-frame [[jumpsquat]]s and reduced landing lag improve her noticeably, as they greatly supplement her neutral game, previously one of her main weaknesses. This allows her to approach more reliably and slightly improves her combo potential from fast falled aerials—most notably down aerial, which, due to the removal of teching grounded spikes, gives Zelda a plethora of new combos and kill confirms from the move. The changes to [[air dodging]] also benefit her, as they improve her edgeguarding game with moves like Din's Fire, which also improves her ledge trapping game by forcing low recoveries and allowing time for a Phantom set up.

However, Zelda has received some mixed changes and nerfs as well, most notably to the combo game of her normals. Neutral attack is drastically smaller and is no longer safe on shield nor has consistent combo potential, removing one of her best neutral and spacing tools. Down tilt is much smaller and has a considerably worse launch angle, hindering its combo ability past mid percents. Neutral aerial especially has been nerfed greatly, with the autolink removal and lower knockback harming the looping hits' consistency, completely removing their drag-down combos and making the launch direction drastically more difficult to control. Down throw's increase in knockback scaling, combined with its more horizontal launch angle removes its 50/50s at high percents.

Other nerfs include her forward tilt, which is much more precise due to its slower startup and narrow hitboxes, and due to the sweetspot losing highest priority and being drastically harder to land, the move is arguably weaker on average despite the damage buffs. Down aerial's late hit is worse at gimping due to its smaller hitboxes. Zelda's dash and pivot [[grab]]s, already below-average in speed, have received even more startup, although her pivot grab has very large range for a non-tether grab and both of them have less ending lag. Farore's Wind is weaker, making the sweetspot especially worse at early KOs, cannot travel as far and is much harder to edge cancel with, hindering one of her movement options.

Although Zelda benefits from some of the changes to the game's engine, other changes have impaired her as well. The new knockback speed-up effect further limits her already nerfed combo moves, as knockback was sped up more than her mobility was increased. The increased [[shieldstun]] both helps and hinders Zelda, as it allows her moves to be more safely spaced, but combined with the universal reductions to landing lag (despite aerials having less shieldstun) and nerfs to shield drop lag and grabs out of shieldstun, it also slightly worsens her out of shield game in some cases. Her air dodges are also now much laggier than average, which worsens her disadvantage state.

Overall, Zelda's moveset has been enhanced from previous installments, making her strengths more defined, especially around Phantom Slash as the new crux of her game plan. The changes overall allow Zelda to fare better than in previous installments, with this incarnation being her strongest one yet. However, she still underperforms compared to the rest of the cast. Nerfs to her combo tools, consistency and precision have tempered her buffs by effectively transferring many of her other moves' usages to Phantom, centralizing her playstyle around the reworked move. Game updates have brought her quality-of-life improvements, mostly making several moves across the board even stronger, while failing to address Zelda's core weaknesses. She still suffers from her more problematic attributes, i.e. her laggy initial dash, low fall speed, low gravity and low weight. Most significantly, many of her normals are worse compared to previous iterations, suffering from lack of utility due to impractically small hitboxes, poor or inconsistent follow-up potential, punishable sourspots and/or heavy ending lag.

Zelda has been buffed overall via game updates, receiving the biggest changes in update 7.0.0, followed by update 13.0.0. A majority of the changes focused on augmenting the power of her kill moves, with up smash, down smash, up aerial, and especially forward tilt and down special being stronger compared to release. Hitbox buffs made up aerial, down aerial's clean hit and Din's Fire's sweetspot larger, and increased the hitbox duration of up aerial and Din's Fire. Slight frame data buffs reduced the ending lag of her jab by 1 frame and the landing lag of neutral aerial by 3 frames. Multihit angle changes made forward smash more consistent; while also intending to do the same for neutral aerial, its angle changes were a mixed bag in practice, only improving its consistency in some cases, but making the final hit's launch direction much more volatile and thus making auto-cancel combos more difficult.

|neutraldesc=Extends her palm to emit a burst of magical energy, then optionally follows up with a series of several magical bursts before a finishing blast, which can KO near the edge. Unlike in the previous games, where it was the slowest jab at frame 11, it is now her fastest move at frame 4. It no longer has a third hit, but can start combos on its own at high percents with certain hitboxes.

|ftiltdesc=A magically-infused outward knifehand strike. It can be angled and has two sweetspots at the tip that possess great power. It has three sourspots located on Zelda's arm that take priority over the sweetspots, being noticeably weaker but still having above-average KO power. Its high base knockback makes it especially potent at early KOs near the ledge. The sweetspots KO middleweights at around 83% while near the edge of {{SSBU|Final Destination}}, and the sourspots KO at around 109%. It's safe on shield when spaced with the sweetspot. However, it has noticeable startup lag at frame 12 with an active duration of only two frames, as well as having strict priority and small and narrow hitboxes, making it hard to sweetspot, or even land at all on small or crouching characters, or opponents in the air.

|utiltdesc=Waves her arm in an overhead arcing motion while her hand is infused with magical energy. Due to it hitting on frame 7 and having a long active duration and low ending lag, it is one of Zelda's most reliable combo starters. It can combo into itself, neutral attack and up smash at low percentages, into neutral aerial as well as Lightning Kick from low to medium percentages, and into up aerial at medium percentages out of a reversed up tilt. Its combo potential increases the later the frame on which it hits. It is also a strong anti-air attack thanks to its disjoint, large hitbox and long duration.

|dtiltdesc=A kneeling low-level kick. Due to it hitting on frame 5, it is Zelda's fastest tilt attack and her fastest move to execute. Compared to ''SSB4'', it has smaller range and noticeably less combo potential, mostly serving as a fast, low-committal and low-profiling poke. It can, however, combo into a dash attack and Lightning Kick at mid percentages. It can also be a KO combo into forward or back aerial, especially with poor DI. It is potent in calling out fast grounded approaches and two-framing.

|dashdesc=A double palm thrust that emits a blast of magical energy from her hands. The sweetspot lasts for two frames and is located at Zelda's hands. Due to it hitting on frame 6, it is one of the fastest dash attacks in the game. To complement this, its sweetspot's high base knockback allows it KO middleweights at around 120% while near the edge of Final Destination. However, it is small, with its other hitboxes lacking KO potential, and is unsafe especially on shield.

|fsmashdesc=A palm thrust that emits a multiple-hitting blast of magical energy. Its last hit's respectable damage output and high knockback growth make it strong enough to KO middleweights at around 75% near the edge of Final Destination. Its multiple hits also make it useful for pressuring shields, especially when it is charged, which combined with its moderate ending lag at 26 frames, makes it hard to punish on shield with good spacing. Due to it hitting on frame 16, however, it has the highest start-up lag out of Zelda's smash attacks.

|usmashdesc=Waves her arm twice in an overhead fanning motion while her hand is infused with magical energy that hits several times. It hits on frame 9, which is fairly fast for a smash attack and makes it a decent point-blank out of shield option. It has a very long duration, making it good at catching getups and landings, and has a good vertical disjoint. Its last hit KOs aerial middleweights at around 104% from anywhere on Final Destination. However, it has minimal horizontal range and 30 frames of ending lag, thus making it very punishable if not used properly.

|dsmashdesc=A spinning, low-level roundhouse kick. Due to it hitting on frame 5, it is tied with {{SSBU|Mario}}, {{SSBU|Dr. Mario}}, {{SSBU|Pit}}, {{SSBU|Dark Pit}}, {{SSBU|Ryu}}, and {{SSBU|Ken}}'s down smashes for the second-fastest smash attack of any kind in the game, being surpassed only by {{SSBU|Meta Knight}}'s [[buffer]]ed down smash. It hits on both sides, making it useful for punishing rolls, and the foot hitboxes [[semi-spike]] which is useful for setting up an edge-guard. Although it is Zelda's weakest smash attack, it is still decently strong and has rather moderate ending lag. The front hit deals higher damage, and the sweetspot KOs at around 112% on middleweights near the edge of Final Destination; in comparison, the back hit sweetspot KOs them at around 117%.

|nairdesc=Twirls twice with her arms outstretched and her hands infused with magical energy. Due to it hitting on frame 6, it is tied with forward and back aerials for the lowest amount of start-up lag out of Zelda's aerials. It has large hitboxes on both sides with several hits, making it rather versatile; it has a rather high damage output, especially with the front hits, can start combos when [[SHFF]]ed, can string into other moves with good drift in an autocanceled short hop, or can be an edge-guarding option. The last hit has decent knockback for its type, as it can KO middleweights at around 150% at the edge of Final Destination without rage. The moved was changed from Smash 4, resulting in the multi-hits being weaker and less consistent, with opponents sometimes being able to fall out of the multi-hit portion, reducing its consistency and reliability. This issue is most salient if Zelda is fast-falling or drifting away in the multi-hit portion.

|fairdesc=A magically-infused flying kick. Its sweetspot is at the tip of her foot and has both an outstanding damage output and high knockback growth, KOing middleweights at around 59% while near the edge of Final Destination, similarly to Captain Falcon's Knee Smash, though slightly weaker. At frame 6, it's quite fast for its power. Compared to back air, it has slightly less knockback, but autocancels slightly earlier and has less landing lag. However, the sweetspot only lasts for one frame, and the sourspots are very weak and unsafe, even on hit because of their extremely low damage and base knockback. Its considerable ending lag also makes it punishable at low percentages, sometimes even if it is sweetspotted. Due to the aforementioned very low damage and knockback, the sourspot can lock opponents and set up into other moves at high percents but lacks utility otherwise. Autocancels in a full hop fast fall, just one frame after Zelda reaches the peak of her short hop, similarly to Kirby's forward aerial.

|bairdesc=A magically-infused flying kick. It functions identically to forward aerial, with the only difference being that its sweetspot has slightly more base knockback and knockback growth, in exchange for having slightly more landing lag and auto-canceling slightly later. It is the strongest back aerial in the game, with the sweetspot KOing middleweights at around 54% while near the edge of Final Destination. However, it has the highest amount of landing lag out of Zelda's aerials.

|uairdesc=Leans back and turns slightly, extending her arm to create a fiery explosion above her from her index and middle fingers. It is the most damaging and second strongest up aerial in the game, behind Shulk's up aerial if the second hit is sweetspotted. It KOs middleweights at around 100% from a full hop. It has a huge vertical disjoint thanks to its large hitbox and high position, being able to clip through platforms or the bottom of stage edges. It also has a late hit that is weaker but improves its ability to juggle. However, it is slow, hitting on frame 14, which makes it tied with down aerial for the highest amount of start-up lag out of Zelda's aerials. It also has high ending lag (35 frames) and a fairly short horizontal range. It autocancels in a full hop.

|dairdesc=A magically-infused stomp, also known as the Lightning Stomp. All of its hitboxes are [[meteor smash]]es and can lock opponents, with its sweetspot being the most powerful among them. Its sourspot lasts deceptively long, allowing it to potentially gimp fighters with poor recoveries, but deals even less knockback than Lightning Kicks' sourspots. It ties for the lowest landing lag out of Zelda's aerials, which allows it to be safe on shield with proper spacing, and enables its sweetspot to reliably start combos on grounded opponents. It hits on frame 14, which ties with up aerial for the highest amount of start-up lag out of Zelda's aerials, but combined with its deceptively long duration and its low ending lag, it's somewhat fast for a meteor smash. Like neutral aerial, it can also autocancel in a short hop.

|pummeldesc=A point-blank blast of magical energy. Average power and speed.

|fthrowdesc=Magically pulls the opponent back and then tosses them away. It is useful for sending opponents off stage, even at low percents, thanks to its high base knockback, but due to its low knockback growth lacks KO potential unless extremely close to the horizontal blast zone. However, it can combo into Phantom Slash for high damage or an early KO.

|uthrowdesc=Magically spins the opponent overhead and then hurls them upward. It has excellent KO potential, being able to KO middleweights at around 146% from anywhere on Final Destination, and is tied with Incineroar and Lucas's up throws for the fifth strongest up throw in the game. On heavyweights and fast-fallers, it also has limited combo potential into neutral aerial at low percentages. Overall, these attributes make it one of the best up throws in the game.

|dthrowdesc=Casts the opponent onto the ground and then blasts them with fiery magic from her hands while levitating. It functions as Zelda's only reliable combo throw, launching up and behind her. Its DI can be reacted to for a guaranteed follow-up from low to mid percents. With DI in, it can combo into neutral aerial, Lightning Kick, up aerial and up special. With DI out, it can combo into a dash back forward aerial or back aerial fairly consistently with proper timing from low to mid percents. Its combo potential will be more limited the more [[rage]] Zelda has.

|nsdmg=2%/1% (hits 1-3, near/far), 5%/4% (hit 4, near/far), 1.25× (reflected projectiles)

|nsdesc=[[zeldawiki:Nayru's Love|Creates a blue crystalline barrier with shards around herself]]. They deal moderate damage and [[Reflection|reflect]] projectiles with 25% more damage and speed. It also grants full [[intangibility]] on frames 4-13, making it good at beating out other moves and sometimes good as a defensive option to disrupt strings. However, it has a moderate start-up for its hitboxes (frame 11) and considerable ending lag, making it punishable if used recklessly.

|ssdesc=[[zeldawiki:Din's Fire|Launches a magical fireball]] that slowly accelerates forward. Its trajectory can be altered, albeit marginally, by holding up or down, and releasing the special button causes it to stop and then explode after a moment. It has a large hitbox, and only the explosion can be reflected or absorbed. The longer the button is held down, the farther the fireball will travel, and it will automatically detonate when it reaches its maximum distance. Its sweetspot, which is located in the inner part of the explosion, is quite powerful. When fully charged, the sweetspot can KO middleweights at around 87% while near the edge of Final Destination, but the sourspot is very weak regardless of its charge. While useful off stage on characters with bad recoveries, it is otherwise easily avoidable with an air dodge or simply clanking. Even though it is hard to land itself, it can force the opponent to use an air dodge and recover low/to the ledge.

|usdmg=6% (hit 1), 10%/7% (grounded hit 2 near/far), 12%/8% (aerial hit 2 near/far)

|usdesc=[[zeldawiki:Farore's Wind|Warps in a given direction]]. It travels a long distance and can be angled omnidirectionally, similarly to Fox's Fire Fox, but is much faster in comparison. It deals damage to nearby opponents both while disappearing and while reappearing, and grants full intangibility during its travel. Its disappearance launches upward, enabling it to combo into its reappearance at various percents when aimed correctly. The reappearance has a sweetspot that deals high damage, high base knockback, and high knockback growth, making it potent at KOing, especially near the upper blast line. Its sweetspotted aerial reappearance can KO middleweights off the top blast zone at around 68% from the initial grounded hit (though heavily dependent on DI and LSI), while the grounded reappearance can KO middleweights at around 71% from the edge of Final Destination. The reappearance has a sourspot that, although large and safe on hit, lacks KO potential, and due to the move incurring [[helpless]]ness, it is punishable if whiffed. It can be edge-canceled, a trait it shares with Sheik's Vanish, Mewtwo's Teleport and Palutena's Warp.

|dsdesc=Conjures a {{s|zeldawiki|Phantom}} piece by piece and propels it forward with another button press. Serves as a projectile with varying attacks of increasing degrees of speed, HP, power and distance. When fully charged, the Phantom can delay its attack for up to about a second, effectively controlling a large space and giving Zelda time to add pressure, perform combined combos or to retreat behind it for protection. When fully charged, the Phantom can KO middleweights at around 84% from the edge of Final Destination. Very versatile and one of Zelda's best options in the neutral game and advantage state.

|fsdesc=Uses the [[zeldawiki:Triforce|Triforce of Wisdom]] to generate a triangular portal that sucks in opponents using massive periodic shockwaves. Upon catching an opponent, they will take heavy damage before either being launched with low knockback, or being instantly KOed if they reach 100% or higher before the final hit. Very difficult to avoid on smaller stages (such as {{SSB|Dream Land}} or [[Mushroom Kingdom II]]), if not effectively impossible, due to its long duration and massive vacuum hitboxes.

*{{Sm|Maipan|Japan}} - The second-best Zelda player in Japan. He is best known for placing 17th at {{Trn|DELTA 8}}, defeating {{Sm|Zackray}} and {{Sm|Tea}} along the way. Although very inconsistent at other events, he had a few other noteworthy events including placing 17th at {{Trn|DELTA 7.5}} and 33rd at {{Trn|Seibugeki 13}} defeating {{Sm|TamaPDaifuku}} in the latter event.

*{{Sm|Naskino|France}} - The best Zelda player in Europe is a top 50 player on the continent in the post-online metagame, ranking 37th on the [[European Ultimate Power Rankings]] for the first half of 2023. He has consistently placed highly at several events, most notably 13th at {{Trn|King Of Fields 95 3}} and 17th at {{Trn|Temple: Hermès Edition}}. He retired in 2024.

*{{Sm|Yn|Japan}} - The best Zelda player in the world since 2023. He has the best peaks for a Zelda player, including placing 9th at both {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 11}}, defeating {{Sm|Tea}}, and {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 14.5 "in Hyogo"}}, both of which are tied for the highest placement from a Zelda player at a major.

Players were initially divided on Zelda's competitive viability. Many players pointed out that her key issues, most notably her low mobility and poor endurance, were retained from previous games. On the other hand, other players were more optimistic towards the character due to improved frame data over her ''Smash 4'' iteration, particularly on her out-of-shield options, as well as [[Phantom Slash]]'s higher utility. This optimism, coupled with strong early performances from players such as {{Sm|Mystearica}}, {{Sm|Naskino}}, and {{Sm|ven}}, led many to believe the character was a solid mid-tier, with some arguing that she could be a potential high-tier.

|3||{{CharHead|Mii Swordfighter|SSBU|hsize=20px}} (×5)||[[Temple]]||''{{SSBUMusicLink|The Legend of Zelda|Temple Theme}}''||Horde Battle (3 at a time)<br>The Mii Swordfighters are dressed in the Yiga Clan Mask and Yiga Clan Outfit.