Secondary

A player's secondary character, usually just shortened to secondary (sometimes also called alternate character, or shortened to "alternate" or "alt"), is a character they use often, but not as commonly or as seriously as their main character. Most players stick with one or two main characters, but experienced players can often play multiple characters near the level of their main character. These secondaries are most often used in specific counterpick situations when that character would have an advantage, or where the player's main would have a disadvantage, that would outweigh the loss of skill. For instance, ChuDat in Melee withholds his main Ice Climbers against Peach, a strong counter, instead opting to use Jigglypuff against her, a secondary who matches more evenly with Peach.

Secondaries are also sometimes known as "pocket characters", mainly when it's a top/high tier character a player rarely practices with but brings out when the character has a significant matchup advantage over their opponent's character, or after they lose with their lower tier "main". King Dedede in Brawl was known as a common pocket character, as he hard counters many characters while having a perceived low learning curve, especially as his easy-to-perform chain throw is the primary reason he countered so many characters. Meta Knight in Brawl also had infamy as a common pocket character, as his arguably broken capabilities and perceived low learning curve allowed most players to play him nearly as well as their mains despite lack of real practice with him (or even better if their opponent's character is not well suited to handle Meta Knight). As a result, many high level Brawl players are known to have a "pocket Meta Knight" they bring out in matchups they don't like rather than a specialised secondary character (such as DEHF, who is known to use Meta Knight instead of Falco against the Ice Climbers and Pikachu). Cloud in Smash 4 was similarly infamous for being a very common pocket character, with it being a common joke within the competitive community that "everyone has a pocket Cloud". "Pocket characters" are known to usually lose, however, against equivalent or greater skilled opponents even if they have a significant matchup advantage, as their players lack the fined tune experience to play the character beyond the level of their fundamentals and their opponents are often much more experienced in the matchup, especially as they likely have already faced many other players trying to counterpick them with said pocket characters.

More uncommonly, players may have secondary characters they use not for specific matchup advantages, but for either themed matches (such as Fire Emblem only matches), to cover stages their main does poorly on, or simply when they lose confidence with their main in a match. Vinnie for example, after picking up the Ice Climbers as his main in Brawl, would still occasionally use his former main Mr. Game & Watch when the opponent would counterpick a stage the Ice Climbers do poorly on, such as Rainbow Cruise, or after losing a particularly bad match with the Ice Climbers.

Sometimes, secondaries aren't characters a player will use for practical purposes in tournaments, but rather are lower tier characters they enjoy playing but can't play as successfully as their higher tier main. Such characters are often played for fun, to sandbag, in non-standard money matches, and in tier restricted side tournaments. Ally's Captain Falcon in Brawl is one of the most noteworthy examples of a lower tier secondary used for such purposes. Vex is another high level smasher known to have especially competent low tier secondaries in Bowser and Ganondorf.

Some players may use a specific character even less frequently to be considered a secondary. This character is often referred to as a tertiary, with this naming format theoretically continuing as long as the character roster.