Princess Zelda (SSBB)

This article is about Zelda's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Princess Zelda.

Zelda
Princess Zelda
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Appears in	SSBM SSBB
Availability	Starter

Zelda (ゼルダ, Zeruda) is a character for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. She looks nearly identical to her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. She is still a lightweight, her poor mobility is modestly improved, and her attacks have been markedly improved, now even quicker and more powerful.

Role in the Subspace Emissary

In the Subspace Emissary single-player mode, Zelda and Peach rush to help Mario and Kirby from offstage after the stadium is attacked by the Primid. You can choose out of the 4 to fight off the Primids. When the Ancient Minister appears and drops a Subspace bomb, Mario is blasted away by a cannon when he tries to stop it. Zelda and Peach are captured by Petey Piranha. The player, as Kirby, must save either Peach or Zelda by destroying one of their cages. If Zelda is saved, she joins Kirby as they both escape from the stadium being absorbed by subspace. Later on, Kirby leaves Zelda behind, and Bowser appears from the sky and turns her into a trophy.

The Shadowbugs (that came along with Bowser) make a clone of Zelda that proceeds to fight Mario and Pit. When the clone is defeated, Link witnesses this and proceeds to attack both Mario and Pit with Yoshi.

At a later part of the story, Zelda and Peach are discovered by Snake, Meta Knight, and Lucario in cages aboard the Battleship Halberd, stuck in their trophy form. Shadowbugs of the princesses then fight the trio. After being freed, Snake tells both Zelda and Peach to stay in the room that they were being held captive in. Zelda transforms into Shiek, and both Peach and her make their way to the deck of the halberd, against Snake's orders.

During the fight against Tabuu, Zelda (along with all the other characters) gets turned into a trophy. If she is revived, she, along with Link, revives Ganondorf and points out what happened. She then aids the heroes in defeating Tabuu at the end of the story.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

• Nayru's Love's reflect duration is slightly longer, and reflects faster
• Din's Fire's hitbox increases as it travels further. Much faster to use, detonates quicker, deals more damage and knockback, and has less lag
• Farore's Wind has an explosive hitbox when it reappears
• Non-sweetspotted aerials are weaker. Sweet-spotted aerials are stronger
• Down Aerial has Lightning-Kick style damage and knockback on its sweetspot
• Most moves generally improved in speed and/or power.
• Grab is faster
• Increased running speed
• U-air increase in speed with much more knockback
• Transformation time is longer.
• Standard attack is increased in damage and knockback
• If Zelda is tagged and Farore's Wind is used, the tag vanishes until Zelda reappears, thus not giving away her location to where she's teleporting
• Change in appearance, though her Melee outfit and hair color are available as an alternate costume

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Quick, moderate-ranged directional aerials, which can deal immense damage and lead to low percent kills if sweet-spotted.
• Strong throwing power in all directions.
• Quick down-tilt sets up finishers.
• One of the strongest finishers in Brawl.
• Up-tilt kills at moderate percentages.
• Can Burndown opponents who are beneath her ready to smash or juggle, using Farore's Wind.
• Forward and Up Smashes multi-hit and have high knockback, allowing the attacks to defeat quick shields against them.
• Down Smash is very quick and has almost entirely horizontal knockback.
• Can reflect projectiles with Nayru's Love.
• Din's Fire is one of the most powerful projectiles in the game: Fairly quick, long-ranged, large hitbox, high damage, KOs at high percents, cannot properly be reflected, can be controlled.
• Very difficult to approach due to quick Jab, Down Tilt, and Down Smash, long duration Nayru's Love, Forward Smash, and Up Smash, and long grab range.
• Most ground moves have decent range and high priority due to slightly disjointed hitboxes.
• Powerful moves with high knockback.
• Very unpredictable if used well.
• Very good Wavebouncing with Din's Fire.
• Very powerful Spike if sweet-spotted.
• Up-air can kill at around 85%.
• Great support character for doubles play.

Cons:

• Floaty
• Lightweight (10th lightest).
• Third slowest dash speed in the game, along with King Dedede.
• Directional aerials are nearly worthless if they miss the sweet-spots, which can be hard to hit with.
• Din's Fire juggling can be fairly easily air dodged or punished with PSI Magnet or Oil Panic.
• Transformation into Sheik is very slow.
• Ground game is a little slow.
• Some of her multi-hit attacks can be DI'd out of easily.

Standard Moves

Ground Attacks

Normal

• Dash attack - Zelda extends her arms, palms out. Any enemy caught in her path is electrocuted and sent flying.
• Standard attack - Zelda extends one arm. A circular magical spark appears at the end of it, hitting up to three times.
• Forward Tilt - Zelda slashes one arm forward, with a trail of sparkles. Decent knockback, and depending on what part it hits with, it can knock them behind Zelda
• Down Tilt - Zelda crouches and stabs one foot forward. This attack can meteor smash an airborne opponent, and pops an opponent on the ground into the air, which is great for setting up a forward smash or uptilt, depending on percentage.
• Up Tilt - Zelda waves her hand above her head in an arc, starting in front of her to behind her, trailing sparkles like her forward tilt. This move has incredible knockback, and can kill off the top at moderate percentages (>115%).

Smash

• Forward Smash - Zelda extends her hands with a thrust, and a burst of sparkles appears. If an enemy is hit by this, it expands its animation, shocking them multiple times and then launching them away with high knockback. Against a foe who quickly attempted to shield, the multi-hit nature of this attack means that the attack may still be underway when the shield drops.
• Up Smash - Zelda waves her hand back and forth over her head once quickly, trailing a stream of light. If an enemy is caught in this, the animation expands in to more back and forths, hitting and shocking multiple times before launching them away. At low percentages, especially against heavy characters, this can combo several times with itself. Like with the forward smash, it is effective against quick shields.
• Down Smash - Zelda kicks along the ground in front of her and then behind her, appearing to sweep forward and back with her dress. This smash comes out very quickly, and knocks almost entirely horizontally.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral Aerial - Zelda spins in place, slowly trailing sparkles from her hands. This hits several times and sucks people in, dealing a decent amount of damage
• Forward Aerial - Zelda kicks to one side, with a spark at her foot. In the first few frames, if you hit directly with the foot, this attack pauses the opponent in place for a second dramatically, before dealing heavy lightning damage and launching them away with huge knockback. If any other part of this attack hits, or if it hits after the first few frames, it deals only a small amount of damage, with very little knockback. Larger foes tend to be more vulnerable to falling victim to a sweet-spotted hit.
• Back Aerial - Identical to Zelda's forward Aerial, only in the other direction
• Down Aerial - Zelda sticks one foot out beneath her. Like her Forward and Back aerials, if this hits within the first few frames with the foot, it pauses the opponent dramatically, then deals high damage and spikes the opponent straight downwards very fast. If it hits with any other part or outside this window, it does a very small amount of damage and still knocks downwards, but much slower. If it hits a non-airborne opponent, the sweet-spot cannot hit, and it is always the weak hit.
• Up Aerial - Zelda holds one hand up, and a small trail of sparkles extends to a point above her where it shortly explodes and lauching enemy upward. This explosion has a smaller hitbox than "Melee Zelda's" Up-air, but it is significantly faster and stronger, allowing for under 100% KOs.

Grabs & Throws

• Down Throw: Throws opponent on ground and kicks repeatedly with magical bursts.
• Back Throw: Telekinetically twirls opponent behind herself and tosses them.
• Forward Throw: Telekinetically twirls opponent and throws them forward.
• Up Throw: Telekinetically twirls opponent above her head, then releases them upward.
• Pummel: Discharges magic into them.

Special Movements

Taunts

Up: Jabs her arm upwards, creating a yellow burst.

Side: Clasps her hands, then separates them. When she does, a bit of fire appears between her hands.

Down: Waves.

On-Screen Appearance

Teleports in using a magical spell.

Victory Pose

Victory Theme: Zelda Triforce Theme

• Conjures bright red magical energy
• Turns her head to the left, making an elegant stance
• Praying, she turns her head upward

Wii Remote Choice

Magical sounds can be heard, and Zelda says "Hiya!"

Credits Music

• Ocarina of Time Medley

Strategies and Tips

• Use Nayru's Love often against light weight characters who get in close. Zelda is light and easily knocked around, and Nayru's Love offers defense against more than just projectiles. Beware using this same tactic against heavyweights or those with long range since the lag after the move can leave you vulnerable to those who are not knocked back. The move also works well when you find yourself being bounced around in the middle of a four man brawl and you need the clear up some room.
• Despite her appearance Zelda is an in-your-face brawler. Her attacks are moderately quick to strike and quite powerful. While you wont out-smash a quick smasher like Kirby or Wario, Zelda's smashes really shine because they deliver no initial knock-back, but instead tie up opponents in a storm of damage before spitting them out. The Up-smash is particularly good at this. Don't be afraid to get in there.
• Spend time in training mode to get a feel for the sweet spots for Zelda's directional aerials.
• Hitting the sweet spots with directional aerials is somewhat easier if some sort of fall-slowing is in effect (like the Pokemon Stadium 2's air element mode). Beware that you are also more vulnerable while under the effects of fall-slowing.
• Larger foes (like Bowser or Dedede) have a larger hitbox and are easier to execute B- and F-airs against. Exploit their size with this attack.
• If a foe acquires a Hammer or Golden Hammer and you're at range against them, use Din's Fire on them to juggle them until their hammer time is stopped.
• Din's Fire is not to be underestimated. It is one of the most useful and powerful projectiles in the game. It is an excellent edge-guarding and juggling attack because it's a fast-moving, guidable projectile with a large hitbox. The move does far greater damage, and has a larger blast radius, the farther it travels before being detonated. If you see an opponent being knocked into the air, chase them with Din's fire and let it go at the last moment for an easy Star-KO. When a Smash Ball appears allow your opponents to land one or two solid attacks on it and hit it from a distance with Din's fire to steal the Smash Ball right out from under them. When you see a Fire Box appear, wait for an opponent to get close and detonate it from a safe distance with Din's Fire, the same tactic can work for a Party Ball that drops a handful of Bob-ombs. Zelda has a great up-close game, but mastering Din's Fire makes her versatile and deadly from any range.
• When facing edge-guarders, try to reappear from Farore's Wind on top of the edge-guarder. The move will deliver a small fire blast as you reappear and will teach that edge-guarder a lesson.
• Master Zelda's Up-air and Side-air attacks. Both require precision to execute but are deadly when executed properly. The Side-air in particular has to be "sweetspotted" in order to do any worth-while damage, but if it is sweetspotted, both you and your opponent will know. A particularly good combo is to deliver an up-smash from the ground and then follow your opponent into the air to deliver and up-air attack for easy KOs even below 100%, or a sweetspotted side-air for similar effect.
• Zelda has a strong ground game, but it too light and too easy to juggle to take to the skies against most other characters. Keep Zelda on the ground if you can and only take to the air on your own terms, such as when delivering an up-air to finish off your juggling combo.

External links

• Zelda's page at Smash Bros. Dojo!!
• Zelda and Mario in the Subspace Emissary (2:18-2:31)