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 with [[transcendent priority]], giving her disjointed range in general. She has an abundance of KO options, with power comparable to or exceeding that of heavyweights, despite being a lightweight. Many of her strongest attacks tend to create favorable trades if not outright beating out the opponent's move due to their priority. They come out surprisingly fast for how powerful they are, many of which are also effective out-of-shield options, most famously her [[Lightning Kick]], which has devastating launching power when sweetspotted, and [[Farore's Wind]], which is also one of the best recoveries in the game due to being a unique teleport that travels far with hitboxes both on disappearance and reappearance. 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 notable weaknesses. Her mobility is among the worst in the game, with a low run speed, falling speed and gravity leaving her with committal jumps and a poor approach and [[neutral game]]. Being tall makes her easier to hit, and being floaty makes her especially vulnerable to juggling with poor landing options; this gives her one of the worst disadvantage states in the game and only exacerbates her already low weight. While Zelda has several powerful finishers, most of them are inconsistent, having very precise sweetspots that are especially difficult to land with 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 require specific spacing or timing, which are difficult given her poor mobility. The range on several of her attacks is poor, limiting their utility. 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 has no fast, low-committal projectiles, making her susceptible to being outcamped; in general, all her special moves have high lag and can be punished hard when 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 represented 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 with overall slow mobility. While she has an above-average [[air speed]] and [[initial dash]], the 20th highest [[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 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 lightweight status, most of her attacks have impressive [[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 having lower lag and being more consistent. She has decent close-quarters combat with many fast moves that can start combos. Her [[neutral attack]] is her fastest move at frame 4. It can transition into a [[rapid jab]] and its finisher for simple damage and emergency KOs; on its own, though short in range, it can be useful in some situations, such as shield mixups, platform tech-chasing, and confirms at higher percentages. [[Forward tilt]], though narrow and precise with slow startup, has a very strong tipper hitbox (being the highest-damage forward tilt in the game, and the second strongest behind Incineroar's) and is used to space (especially on shield) and secure early KOs with its high base knockback. [[Up tilt]] is one of her most versatile moves, with large, lingering hitboxes that hit all around her being used to anti-air, catch spot dodges and getups, tech-chase, and start and extend combos across most percentages. It is an important move for KO confirms; landing the back hit can confirm most notably into lightning kick and up air at mid and high percentages, respectively. [[Down tilt]], another one of her most important moves, though quite small, has fast startup, low lag yet a surprisingly long-lasting hitbox (7 frames) that allows it to be used as a quick low-committal poke, a 2-framing option (especially with a set-up Phantom) and for catching ledge getups. The crouching animation allows her to pancake and evade moves in neutral and out of shield. It can be relatively safe on shield if spaced and/or hit with the later frames, though in general the quick animation can make it difficult to punish or to DI in time. It most reliably leads into dash attack at mid percents, but can lead to Lightning Kick at higher percents for a KO confirm, especially with poor DI. Down tilt is often used to cover options in tandem with [[dash attack]], her most important burst option with excellent speed, a good disjoint, a long-lasting hitbox and only moderate ending lag. Proper application of dash attack to catch landings and punish whiffed moves is essential, while avoiding overuse and misuse due to it being unsafe on shield.

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. Her [[forward smash]] is still a strong finisher, however, with one of the largest disjoints of any of her normals. Due to its multiple hits, it is a decent option for catching ledge getups, especially when charged, though unlike Pichu's, it has a 1-frame gap between each of its hits, making it inconsistent at this. Also, due to its rather low ending lag it can be hard to punish on shield, especially if spaced. [[Up smash]] is similarly a powerful multi-hit with good disjoint, though not as large and only vertically speaking. While its horizontal range is poor, it has a relatively fast startup (frame 9) that can punish poorly spaced moves on shield. It has a very long duration of 25 frames between the first and last hit with only 2 inactive frames in between, making it effective for catching getups as well as landings, spot dodges and preemptively intercepting reckless approaches. It is one of her laggiest moves, however, which in combination with its unspectacular range makes it a highly committal option that should only be used sparingly. [[Down smash]]'s foot sweetspots launch opponents at a [[semi spike]] angle with decent knockback. At frame 5, it is one of her fastest moves and is a quick punish option with only moderate ending lag. As it hits on both sides, it can be used for catching rolls. It can set up edge guards on characters with poor recoveries due to its nasty launch angle. However, due to being a simple leg sweep and one of her few non-magic attacks, it has a rather short range with only average power.

Zelda has unique high-risk, high-reward [[aerial]]s which boast immense kill power but have high lag, very weak sourspots and/or small sweetspots, limiting their usage in neutral and forcing her to play carefully in the air. The exception to this is her [[neutral aerial]]; it does not have a notable strong hit or sweetspot, instead being her least committal, most versatile aerial which ameliorates her subpar neutral and air-to-air game. It can auto-cancel in a short hop and is a multi-hit a fast start-up with many active frames hitting on both sides. It is used as an anti-air and burst option, combo starter or extender, out-of-shield option, shield pressuring tool, and occasionally edge guarding. At lower percents, it can combo mainly into a dash attack when fast-falled, or into an up tilt or dash attack when auto-canceled. At higher percents, it gives Zelda enough space to set up a Phantom or a ledge-trap situation; additionally, for KOs it can edge guard or launch into a set up Phantom. A single hit when fast-falled can pop grounded opponents up and lead into a variety of confirms at higher percents, but this is difficult to land due to her mobility. Despite being her most important aerial in neutral, it suffers from consistency issues. Due to lacking an autolink angle, opponents can fall out of the looping hits, notably if she is moving in any direction too fast. The looping hits have very low hitstun, failing to give the move any drag-down potential and leaving her very punishable if the opponent falls out. It is also hard to control which side the opponent ends up on due to to the looping hits' constantly inward-sending launch angles, making follow-ups difficult. [[Up aerial]] is a large, vertically disjointed explosion with a good duration and excellent power. Due to its massive disjoint, it can shark through certain stages. Relative to its power, it has low landing lag, having some combo potential at lower percents when fast falled, and being safe on shield if used on opponents on platforms while falling. While not too risky due to being massive, disjointed and strong all throughout, it has significant startup and ending lag and only covers the range above her, limiting its usage.

Her forward and back aerials, known as Lightning Kicks, are her most polarized moves. Both these aerials have fast startup at frame 6 and possess a devastating sweetspot at her toe, dealing as much as 24% and higher knockback than the vast majority of smash attacks in the game. This makes them work well as punishes on whiffed attacks and as deadly out of shield options for misspaced attacks. However, the sweetspot is tiny and only active for the first frame, making it quite difficult to land. Additionally, they have notable landing lag, rarely going unpunished on shield (though the pancaking during her landing animation can mitigate this), but most significantly cannot auto-cancel in a short hop and have very high ending lag in the air. Furthermore, the sourspots, while rather large, deal pitiful damage with minimal knockback, being punishable even on hit at most percents. This makes them very risky, especially when used as rising aerials, as missing the sweetspot in any way often results in a punish. This leaves her kicks with poor utility in neutral, especially for aerial moves which tend to be safer spacing options. Down air is a meteor smash with a powerful sweetspot on her foot, similar to her Lightning Kicks. While not nearly as fast and strong as her Lightning Kicks, this sweetspot is much larger, making it much easier to connect. Also, unlike the Lightning Kicks, the sourspots linger for longer and always spike opponents downward, making them useful for gimping opponents or leading into a follow-up, especially with the later frames and/or at high percents. Though precise with slow startup, it is one of Zelda's most useful aerials, having the lowest ending lag, being able to auto-cancel in a short hop and tying for the lowest landing lag. Besides being a powerful meteor smash, the clean hit has great utility in platform chases and is a great punish tool, as hitting it on grounded opponents will allow Zelda to combo into Lightning Kick and up air, even at high percents. Overall, her 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 that she builds piece-by-piece until it is fully formed, which takes a little under a second; starting on frame 15, she can have it attack at any stage of its creation by pressing either the special or attack button. The Phantom has a hurtbox and HP; these as well as its attack properties vary depending on its charge. The earliest stages have low damage, knockback, range and HP, being limited to zoning or tanking weaker projectiles. However, it becomes increasingly more potent as it becomes more complete, with the later stages having an invincible shield (similar to Hero's and the Links'), and the final stage having high HP, damage output, impressive knockback and stellar range. After just over a second, Zelda will be able to move and attack freely. The Phantom will attack on its own 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. It is quite good at comboing into other moves or being a combo finisher itself, especially since it and many of Zelda's other moves have high hitlag. Other usages include playing mind games with manual releases on opponents stuck in shield, retreating behind it for protection (namely against projectiles), punishing opponents stuck in hitlag if they hit the Phantom, punishing shielding opponents with grabs or shield break combos, covering opponents' high recoveries while she covers below, or even covering her own recovery (similar to Din's Fire) and especially her ledge getups. 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. With precise input, Zelda can also short hop behind the Phantom while charging it to create a "displaced Phantom," allowing it to block incoming projectiles while charging and making it harder for the opponent to interrupt Zelda. Another technique allows Zelda to simultaneously release the Phantom and perform an attack of her own on frame 67 with very precise input, allowing for an overwhelming onslaught of hitboxes. While Phantom is reflectable, Zelda can mix up her timing by delaying the attack, leaving the opponent having to predict when to activate their reflector. Phantom Slash'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 again. In addition, if she enters hitstun at any point before releasing the Phantom, it falls apart, limiting the use of one of her best tools in neutral. The windboxes on the highest charges are also sometimes not strong enough to connect into the slash, although sometimes they can gimp on their own.

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 move, [[Nayru's Love]], is a [[reflection|reflector]] that doubles as a melee attack; Zelda also is intangible from frames 4-13 of the move. These traits make it useful against [[projectile]] users as well as beating out moves and disrupting strings. It also has a good duration and horizontal range on both sides of her, giving it use in 2-framing and edge guarding. However, due to having no hitlag, it can easily be teched to avoid stage spikes by using the sound clip as a cue to time the shield input. Its multi-hits can be inconsistent, especially if Zelda is moving or if the opponent is too high or low relative to the hitboxes. It is also very unsafe, especially on shield, making it highly punishable. [[Din's Fire]], her side special move, sends out a slow ball of fire that explodes on the release of the button or when reaching max charge, becoming more powerful and moving faster the longer it is charged. It possesses a powerful sweetspot in the inner part of the explosion, with a weak but otherwise large sourspot. The explosion itself can be reflected or absorbed, but the ball of fire cannot be interacted with. In addition, for the first time in the series, Zelda can use it off stage, as it no longer leaves her helpless in midair. While powerful, its trajectory is very limited and the explosion delay is noticeable, making it easy to avoid in most cases, and quite punishable if used in neutral. Instead, it is mostly used for off-stage play; while it can usually only gimp opponents with poor recoveries, it can otherwise at least force an air dodge/low recovery, leading into a ledge trap opportunity with Phantom. Her up special move, [[Farore's Wind]], is a fantastic recovery tool, allowing her to make it back to stage in almost any off-stage situation. As a teleport recovery, it can be tricky to edgeguard Zelda due to its intangibility and impressive omnidirectional distance, but it has vulnerability during its startup, and certain characters can threaten her at ledge if they have a deadly 2-framing option. However, it has anti-2-frame and mindgame potential if one opts to use the aforementioned powerful second hitbox instead of snapping to ledge, or teleport from above ledge to avoid the two-frame vulnerability completely. Much like {{SSBU|Palutena}}'s [[Warp]], albeit significantly more difficult, she can completely avoid the move's ending lag by [[edge cancel]]ling, which grants her access to otherwise-impossible approach, stage control, shield-breaking and landing options. Due to its large hitboxes, quick startup and high knockback, it functions as a deadly out of shield option, though DIing out of the second hit is possible. The first hit can also be used on its own out of shield to inflict small damage and simply reset neutral, avoiding the risk of missing the second hit. 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 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, her [[throws]] have great reward. [[Forward throw]] is good to set 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 (depending on DI) 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 big weaknesses. Chief among them is her poor mobility, which hamper her ability to approach and punish safely on the ground and in the air. 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. In particular, 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 extremely vulnerable to getting juggled and ledgetrapped, contributing to one of the worst disadvantages in the game, 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 even on hit. Her combo game is average to subpar; while up tilt is excellent, many of her moves have too much lag, mediocre launch angles and/or unfavorable knockback values for reliable follow-ups or wide combo windows. Her aerials especially have unusually limited follow-ups compared to other fighters due to their lag. Due to this, she partially relies on Phantom to start or finish combos for damage-racking. Some of her multi-hit moves also have consistency issues, namely neutral aerial and Nayru's Love.

Finally, her special moves have exploitable weaknesses; Nayru's Love and Farore's Wind have large amounts of ending lag, making them easy to punish when overused. Farore's Wind also requires following DI to KO off the top. Din's Fire is for the most part too slow and telegraphed to be effective for camping, edge guards or in neutral. Most importantly, Phantom Slash is a large commitment, as Zelda is stuck either in startup if she wants to set up the Phantom as a trap, or she is stuck in ending lag if she releases it manually. This means that, with correct timing and spacing around the Phantom's possible attack ranges, opponents can punish Zelda by pre-emptively reading when she decides to charge Phantom, limiting her best ability to control space, zone and trap. If there is space, the opponent can also retreat to disengage with the Phantom, 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), large characters that become easy targets for her normally precise sweetspots (King K. Rool), especially those without safe options on shield, allowing easy punishes with her deadly out of shield options (King Dedede), and characters with poor recoveries for whom Din's Fire becomes a legitimate threat in conjunction with Phantom (Ganondorf). Zelda's weaknesses mean she struggles with quick opponents who can bait out her options and keep her in disadvantage (Fox, Greninja, Zero Suit Samus), can be camped by characters with projectiles that are fast and/or dwarf the Phantom's range (R.O.B., Young Link, Min Min), can be outranged and overwhelmed by characters with large disjoints who can challenge Knight setups and out-neutral her (Cloud, Aegis), and struggle 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 ledgetrapping with Phantom setups, and impressive kill power spread broadly across her moveset. Her weaknesses in mobility, range, frame data, consistency and sweetspot issues mean that she must be precise with how she spaces her attacks, and she must 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 must mix 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 lightning kicks are significantly easier to land, and their improved auto-cancel window make them less risky to use; forward aerial's improved startup also makes it a much stronger 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 useful, though 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 especially 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 generally 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 a few 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 drastically harming the looping hits' consistency, completely removing their drag-down combos and making the launch behavior volatile which hinders follow-ups. 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 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. In particular, 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), it also slightly worsens her respectable out of shield game.

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 very low fall speed and gravity that have been left completely untouched, which leaves her with committal jumps and a poor air-to-ground transition, and significantly low endurance due to her light weight, despite her already slow speed. Most significantly, many of her normals are worse compared to previous iterations, suffering from lack of utility due to impractically small hitboxes, poor follow-up potential, punishable sourspots and/or heavy ending lag.

Zelda has been buffed overall via game updates, receiving significant changes in update 7.0.0 and 13.0.0. Notable buffs in version 7.0.0 include her up aerial having more range, knockback and a longer duration, her forward tilt becoming stronger, and [[Phantom Slash]] dealing more damage at all charge levels, being much stronger. Her neutral aerial has less landing lag, and the looping hits now have inward launch angles, which makes the move connect more consistently, but makes the final launch position harder to control for follow-ups. In 13.0.0, the first hit of her neutral attack was made slightly faster, allowing it to jab cancel earlier, her up and down smash inflict more knockback, and her down aerial's sweetspot is larger, making it an all around more reliable tool. Aside from these buffs, as of 10.1.0, her forward smash connects better and has more range.

Aside from the mixed change to neutral aerial's angles, Zelda has also received two minor nerfs, though negligible as the first was eventually negated, and the second was a reversal of a very brief unintended bug. In update 3.0.0, Phantom's shield damage was reduced, though the later 7.0.0 damage buff completely compensated for this. In update 9.0.2, a bugfix removed a shadow buff from the 9.0.1 patch that allowed Zelda to displace the Phantom much more easily, specifically to spawn it in front of her to grant more protection during the charge.

|neutraldesc=Extends her palm to emit a burst of magical energy, then optionally follows up with a series of several magical bursts before finishing with a slightly larger blast, which can KO near the edge. Unlike in the previous games, where it was the slowest at frame 11, it now comes out quickly at frame 4 with a new rapid jab, but no longer has a third hit. The rapid jab is especially potent in calling out fast grounded approaches.

|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 for a forward tilt. Their high base knockback makes them 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%. Due to its somewhat low ending lag for its power (24 frames), 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 small and narrow hitboxes, making it hard to land and sometimes miss on small or crouching characters.

|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 very long active duration and almost no 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 from low to medium percentages as well as Lightning Kick, 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 good as an anti-air attack thanks to its disjoint and long duration.

|dtiltdesc=A kneeling low-level kick. Due to it hitting on frame 5, it is Zelda's fastest tilt attack. However, unlike in ''SSB4'', it has noticeably less combo potential, mostly serving as a fast, low-committal poke. It can, however, combo into a dash attack and Lighting Kick at mid percentages. It can also be a KO combo into forward aerial, especially with poor DI.

|dashdesc=A double palm thrust that emits a blast of magical energy from her hands. The sweetspot lasts for two frames and is located on 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% while 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 out of shield option. It has a very long duration, making it good for 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 {{SSB4|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 powerful and has only moderate ending lag. The front hit deals higher damage and the sweetspot KOs at around 112% on middleweights while near the edge of Final Destination. In comparison, its back hit sweetspot KOs them at around 117% while near the edge of Final Destination.

|nairdesc=Twirls 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 a decent amount of utility: it has a great damage output, especially if the opponents are hit from the front, can be used as a follow-up from down throw; as a combo starter when [[SHFF]]'d, or as an edge-guarding option, and it can autocancel in a short hop. The last hit also 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 resulting in the multi-hits being weaker and less consistent, with opponents being able to get launched out of the multi-hit portion at a multitude of percentages, reducing its consistency and reliability. This issue is made worse 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. Due to coming out on frame 6, it's also extremely 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 outputs and base knockback. Its considerable ending lag also makes it punishable at low percentages, even if it is sweetspotted, and 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.

|uairdesc=Leans back and turns slightly to extend her arm in order 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, only slightly weaker than Shulk's up aerial if the second hit is sweetspotted, making it Zelda's most reliable aerial KOing option, as it KOs middleweights at around 100% from a full hop. It can also clip through platforms or the bottom of a stage's edge and has a great vertical range thanks to its large hitbox. It also has a late hit that deals less damage 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, with its sweetspot being the most powerful among them and they can also lock opponents. Its sourspot, though significantly weaker, lasts deceptively long, allowing it to potentially gimp fighters with poor recoveries. It also has low ending lag and the lowest landing lag out of Zelda's aerials, which enables its sweetspot to start combos on grounded opponents quite reliably. Can be safe on shield with proper spacing. It hits on frame 14, which ties it 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 blast of magical energy. Moderate speed and damage.

|uthrowdesc=Magically spins the opponent overhead and then throws them upward. It is one of the most damaging up throws in the game and has excellent KO potential. It can 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=Magically shoves the opponent onto the ground and then blasts them with fiery, magical energy from her hands while levitating. It functions as Zelda's only reliable combo throw, launching up and behind Zelda. 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 turnaround forward aerial fairly consistently with proper timing from low to mid percents. Its combo potential will be more limited the more [[rage]] Zelda has.

|nsdesc=[[zeldawiki:Nayru's Love|Creates a blue crystalline barrier with shards around herself]]. They deal damage and [[Reflection|reflect]] projectiles with 25% more damage and speed. It also grants [[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 worse recoveries, it is usually easily avoidable. Even though it is hard to land itself, it can force the opponent to use an air dodge and recover low/to the ledge.

|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 compared to it. It deals damage to nearby opponents while disappearing and while reappearing, and grants full intangibility during its travel. Its grounded disappearance has very high base knockback, low knockback growth and launches at 91°, enabling it to combo into its reappearance at many percents when aimed upward. In comparison, its reappearance has a sweetspot near Zelda that has higher damage, high base knockback, and high knockback growth, making it very reliable at KOing, especially near the upper blast line. Its sweetspotted 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. However, its reappearance has a sourspot that, although large and safe on hit, lacks KO potential because of its lower damage output and average base knockback, and due to it 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 reaching various levels of speed, HP, damage and distance depending on the charge. When fully charged, the Phantom will delay its attack for around a second, giving Zelda time to add pressure, perform combined combos or to retreat behind it for protection, and if the opponent tries to reflect it, she can react by using Nayru's Love. 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 either be launched with poor knockback. However, if they reach 100% or higher during it, they are instantly KO'd. Very difficult to avoid on smaller stages (such as {{SSB|Dream Land}} or [[Mushroom Kingdom II]]), due to its long duration and large vacuum hitboxes.

*{{Sm|Mystearica|USA}} - One of the best Zelda players in the world in 2019, most notably placing 3rd at {{Trn|Midwest Arena 2}} defeating {{Sm|Ned}} and {{Sm|Goblin}} and 5th at {{Trn|2GG: Run it Back}} defeating {{Sm|Tea}}, alongside some strong major/supermajor results such as 25th at {{Trn|Pound 2019}} and 33rd at {{Trn|Smash 'N' Splash 5}}. She dropped Zelda for {{SSBU|Palutena}} in 2020.

*{{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}}. As of 2024, however, he has retired.

*{{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 the supermajor {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 11}} defeating {{Sm|Tea}} and the major {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 14.5 "in Hyogo"}}.

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. However, players found that some of her key issues, such as her low mobility and poor endurance, were retained from previous games as well. 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.<br>The Mii Swordfighters are dressed in the Yiga Clan Mask and Yiga Clan Outfit.