Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

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In a similar vein to her fellow ''Zelda'' fighters {{SSBU|Link}} and {{SSBU|Ganondorf}}, Zelda is now voiced by {{s|wikipedia|Ayumi Fujimura}}, who reprises her role from ''{{s|zeldawiki|The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds}}'' in all regions, replacing Jun Mizusawa from ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'', ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', and ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''. Similar to {{uv|Star Fox}} characters in ''Melee'', the former provides a single line of spoken Japanese dialogue in [[World of Light]]'s opening; this line is dubbed in English by Brandy Kopp, who also voices {{SSBU|Palutena}}.
In a similar vein to her fellow ''Zelda'' fighters {{SSBU|Link}} and {{SSBU|Ganondorf}}, Zelda is now voiced by {{s|wikipedia|Ayumi Fujimura}}, who reprises her role from ''{{s|zeldawiki|The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds}}'' in all regions, replacing Jun Mizusawa from ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]'', ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', and ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''. Similar to {{uv|Star Fox}} characters in ''Melee'', the former provides a single line of spoken Japanese dialogue in [[World of Light]]'s opening; this line is dubbed in English by Brandy Kopp, who also voices {{SSBU|Palutena}}.


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 placement in ''SSB4'', where she was ranked 52nd/53rd out of 54 and was tied with {{SSB4|Ganondorf}}, and is her best placement in the series. Zelda has strong zoning tools to restrain her opponents out. For instance, she utilizes magic in her attacks, giving her [[disjointed]] range in general. [[Phantom Slash]] a very versatile move that can be useful in several situations, such as applying pressure, ledge-trapping, a method to combo in her finishers and forcing opponents to approach her. She also has a good get-off-me option in [[Nayru's Love]] to break free from combos, as well as a useful [[reflection|reflector]]. Despite being a [[weight|lightweight]], Zelda has an abundance of KO options, with KO power on par with heavyweights, and her attacks come out surprisingly quick for their power, which is supplemented by her amazing [[grab]] game and powerful [[out of shield]] options. She also has a solid [[recovery]] in [[Farore's Wind]] to avoid edgeguards and safely return to the stage. Farore's Wind is also great as an out-of-shield option that can KO at high percents and as a surprise burst option to help her approach. Her edgeguarding game is also amazing, as she has several ways to put her opponent in unfavorable positions and intercept recoveries, like [[Din's Fire]], which can force them to [[air dodge]] and leave them open for her down aerial. Unlike in the previous games, Din's Fire doesn't leave her [[helpless]], allowing her to protect herself from afar when she's recovering. In addition, Zelda has a good normal moveset, especially her forward aerial and back aerial; in other words, her [[Lightning Kick]]s, which can be a deadly out-of-shield option when sweetspotted.
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. Zelda has strong zoning tools to keep her opponents out. She uses magic in her attacks, giving her disjointed range in general. Her [[Phantom Slash]] a very versatile move that can be useful in many situations, such as applying pressure, ledgetrapping, a way to combo in her finishers and forcing foes to approach her. She also has a good get-off-me option in [[Nayru's Love]] to break free from combos as well as a useful reflector. Despite being a lightweight, Zelda has an aboundance of KO options, with KO power on par with heavyweights, and her attacks come out surprisingly fast for how powerful they are, which is supported by her amazing grab game and powerful out-of-shield options. She also has a solid recovery in [[Farore's Wind]] to avoid edgeguards and safely return to the stage. Farore's Wind is also great as an out-of-shield option that can KO at high percents and as a surprise burst option to help her approach. Her edgeguarding game is also amazing, as she has several ways to put her opponent in unfavourable positions and intercept recoveries, like [[Din's Fire]], which can force them to [[air dodge]] and leave them open for her down aerial. Unlike in the previous games, Din's Fire doesn't leave her [[helpless]], allowing her to protect herself from afar when she's recovering. In addition, Zelda has good normals, most notably her forward aerial and back aerial; in other words, her [[Lightning Kick]], which can be a deadly out-of-shield option when sweetspotted.


Despite these strengths, Zelda has her notable weaknesses. Her overall mobility is sluggish, with a below-average [[walk]]ing speed and one of the slowest [[dash]]ing speeds, as well as below-average [[air acceleration]]. Despite her disjoints, her overall range is still mediocre, and combined with her poor mobility, she struggles against speed demons and campers, like {{SSBU|Joker}} or {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}, or characters that can outrange her with better disjoints, like {{SSBU|Cloud}} and {{SSBU|Shulk}}. A few of her attacks' hitbox also have unfavorable placements, sometimes not connecting on small or crouching characters. Since she has the inconvenient combination of being tall, slow on the ground, [[falling speed|floaty]] and [[weight|light]], her endurance is lackluster, she struggles to land safely and is vulnerable to [[juggling]], leaving her with a risky [[neutral game]] and a terrible disadvantage state, with Farore's Wind being risky for escaping juggles due to its high ending lag and landing lag. While Din's Fire can only be absorbed and not reflected, Phantom Slash counts as a projectile, meaning that it can also be reflected due to the amount of time it takes to set up. She can make usage of Nayru's Love for response, since the Phantom will linger in place for a second when fully charged, but if it gets reflected back to her, it will cause her serious trouble. In addition, if Zelda gets hit at any point during the setup of Phantom Slash, the Phantom falls apart, preventing one of her best tools from being used in neutral. Nayru's Love is not to be overused, as it has enough ending lag to be punished hard without careful usage. While Zelda has several finishers, most of them are inconsistent, either possessing sourspots that lack KO potential, high ending lag or a combination of both, and some of those sourspots, like with the Lightning Kicks or Din's Fire, are also unsafe on hit, meaning that she can be punished for not connecting with the sweetspot. While she has good tools for pressuring [[shield]]s, with moves that are safe on shield like forward tilt, forward smash or her aerials, Zelda is required to space correctly for those moves to be at their best for doing so.
Despite these strengths, Zelda has her notable weaknesses. Her overall mobility is among the worst in the game, with a below average walk speed and one of the slowest dashing speeds. Her range on some of her attacks is also not as good as other moves, and combined with her poor speed, she struggles against characters who can run away from her and camp her out like {{SSBU|Joker}} or {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}} or characters that can outrange her and have better disjoints, like {{SSBU|Cloud}} and {{SSBU|Shulk}}. A few of her attacks also have unfavourable hitbox placements, sometimes not connecting on small or crouching characters. Since she is tall, slow on the ground, floaty and has a below average weight, her endurance is lackluster, she struggles to land safely and is vulnerable to juggling, leaving her with a risky [[neutral game]] and a very poor disadvantage state, with Farore's Wind being risky to use to escape juggles due to its high ending lag and landing lag. While Din's Fire can only be absorbed and not reflected, Phantom Slash counts as a projectile, meaning that it can also be reflected due to the amount of time it takes to set up. She can use Nayru's Love to respond to this, since the Phantom will linger in place for a second when fully charged, but if it gets reflected back to her, it will cause her serious trouble. In addition, if Zelda gets hit at any point during the setup of Phantom Slash, the Phantom falls apart, preventing one of her best tools from being used in neutral. Nayru's Love is not to be overused, as it has enough ending lag to be punished hard when not used carefully. While Zelda has several finishers, most of them are inconsistent, either having sourspots that lack KO potential, high ending lag or a combination of both, and some of those sourspots, like with the Lightning Kicks or Din's Fire, are also unsafe on hit, meaning that she can be punished for not connecting with the sweetspot. While she has good tools for shield pressure, with moves that are safe on shield like forward tilt, forward smash or her aerials, Zelda needs to space correctly to use her moves at their best.


Overall, Zelda plays a strong zoning game, with tools for ledge-trapping and making space, but her precise hitboxes and poor mobility gives her a weak 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.
Overall, Zelda plays a strong zoning game, with tools for ledgetrapping and making space, but her precise hitboxes and poor mobility gives her a weak 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.


==How to unlock==
==How to unlock==
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==Attributes==
==Attributes==
Zelda is a tall, floaty [[weight|lightweight]] character with overall slow mobility. While she has slightly above-average [[air speed]], the 20th highest [[traction]], and a decent [[initial dash]], her jumping force and [[air acceleration]] are below-average, and she has the 22nd slowest [[walk]]ing speed, the 16th slowest [[falling speed]], the 10th lowest [[gravity]], and is tied with {{SSBU|Byleth}} for the 9th slowest [[dash]]ing speed in the game. Zelda's attacks are based on magic, making most of them [[disjoint]]ed, albeit short-ranged attacks. Those attacks also boast generally quick startup; all of her attacks activate before frame 10, excluding [[forward tilt]], [[up aerial]], [[down aerial]], and [[forward smash]]. Despite her lightweight status, most of her attacks have [[KO]] potential and impressive damage output, giving her power comparable to heavyweights. Due to these factors, Zelda can be generalized as a zoner glass cannon.
Zelda is a tall, floaty [[weight|lightweight]] character with overall slow mobility. While she has a slightly above-average [[air speed]], the 20th highest [[traction]], and a decent [[initial dash]], her jumping force 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 of her 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 [[KO]] potential and impressive damage output, giving her power comparable to heavyweights. Due to these factors, Zelda can be generalized as a zoner glass cannon.


Her [[neutral attack]] is a small burst of magical energy in front of her, boasting decent startup before transitioning into a [[rapid jab]] of several magical bursts with a finishing hit. The first hit of jab is especially useful for a variety of situations, such as jab-to-grab mixups, platform tech-chasing, and can confirm into down smash at higher percentages. It can even catch immediate jumps in short-range. [[Forward tilt]] is a slow swipe with an extremely strong tipper hitbox, useful for spacing, ledge-trapping, and sometimes ending combos. [[Up tilt]] is one of her most versatile moves, an arm-sweep with lingering hitboxes useful as an anti-air, for catching [[spot dodge]]s, tech-chases, and starting and extending combos across most percentages. It also an important move for KO confirms at medium percentages: inverting her up-tilt can confirm into lightning kick and up air at medium to mid-high percentages. [[Down tilt]], another one of her most important moves in her kit, is a quick and lingering crouching kick. Its quick frame-data and lingering hitbox allows it to be useful as a fast poke and as a 2-frame punishing option. The crouching animation allows her to pancake and evade moves in neutral, and although it is not safe on shield, the quick animation makes it difficult to punish if the opponent is unprepared. It leads into her most important KO confirms at mid-percentages at or near the ledge, down tilt to lightning kick, so proper utilization of this move is essential. Her [[dash attack]] is a dual-palm thrust with a burst of magic most powerful closest to her hands. It is one of her most important burst options, with a good disjoint and excellent speed. It is also a good tool to end combos. Proper application of this move to catch landings and punish whiffed moves is essential, although overuse and misuse is easily punished as it is unsafe on shield. Her [[forward smash|forward]] and [[up smash|up]] smashes are both powerful, multi-hitting bursts of magic energy; the former being a thrust of the hand forward and the latter being a wave of the hand back and forth above her. [[Down smash]] is an extremely quick 360° legsweep that launches opponents at a [[semi spike]] angle with great knockback.
Her [[neutral attack]] is a small burst of magical energy in front of her, boasting decent startup before transitioning into a [[rapid jab]] of many magical bursts with a finishing hit. The first hit of jab is particularly useful for a variety of situations, such as jab-to-grab mixups, platform tech-chasing, and can confirm into downsmash at higher percentages. It can even catch immediate jumps in short-range. Forward tilt is a slow swipe with an extremely strong tipper hitbox, used to space, ledgetrap, and sometimes end combos. [[Up tilt]] is one of her most versatile moves, an arm sweep with lingering hitboxes used to anti-air, catch spot dodges, tech-chase, and start and extend combos across most percentages. It also an important move for KO confirms at mid percentages: inverting her up-tilt can confirm into lightning kick and upair at mid to mid-high percentages. [[Down tilt]], another one of her most important moves, is a fast and lingering crouching kick. It's speed and lingering hitbox allows it to be used as a fast poke and as a 2 framing option. The crouching animation allows her to pancake and evade moves in neutral, and although it is not safe on shield, the quick animation makes it difficult to punish if the opponent is not ready. It leads into her most important kill confirms at mid-percentages at or near the ledge, down-tilt to lightning kick, so proper utilization of this move is essential. Her [[dash attack]] is a dual hand thrust with a burst of magic most powerful closest to her hands. It is one of her most important burst options, with a good disjoint and excellent speed. It is also a good tool to end combos. Proper application of this move to catch landings and punish whiffed moves is essential, although overuse and misuse is easily punished as it is unsafe on shield. Her [[forward smash|forward]] and [[up smash|up]] smashes are both powerful, multi-hitting bursts of magic energy; the former being a thrust of the hand forward and the latter being a wave of the hand back and forth above her. [[Down smash]] is a very fast 360° leg sweep that launches opponents at a [[semi spike]] angle with decent knockback.


Zelda has unique high-risk/high-rewarding [[aerial]]s that boast immense KO power. Zelda can [[auto-cancel]] both her [[neutral aerial|neutral]] and [[down aerial]]s in a short hop, and [[forward aerial|forward]] and [[back aerial]] auto-cancel from a fast fall. Though her neutral air lacks notable KO ability, it has fast startup with a long active duration, dealing decent damage. Her neutral air is her most versatile aerial, useful as an anti-air and burst option, combo-extending tool (and sometimes starting them), out-of-shield option, shield pressuring tool, and occasionally edgeguarding. Although the horizontal knockback on the last hit of neutral air makes comboing afterwards difficult, it often means giving Zelda enough space to setup [[Phantom]] or a ledge-trap situation. The first hit of neutral air when auto-canceled can pop opponents up and lead into a variety of confirms, but due to her aforementioned slow mobility, this is mostly an impractical option. Additionally, opponents can occasionally fall out of her neutral aerial, making it an inconsistent tool in practice.  
Zelda has unique high-risk/high reward [[aerial]]s which boast immense kill power power. Zelda can auto-cancel both her [[neutral aerial|neutral]] and [[down aerial|down]] aerials in a short hop, and [[forward aerial|forward]] and [[back aerial]] auto-cancel from a fast fall. Though her neutral air lacks notable KO ability, it has a fast start-up with a long active duration, dealing decent damage. Her neutral air is her most versatile aerial, used as an anti-air and burst option, combo-extending tool (and sometimes starting them), out-of-shield option, shield pressuring tool, and occasionally edgeguarding. Although the horizontal knock-back on the last hit of neutral air makes comboing afterwards difficult, it often means giving Zelda enough space to setup phantom or a ledge-trap situation. The first hit of neutral air when auto-canceled can pop opponents up and lead into a variety of confirms, but due to her mobility, this mostly is not a practical option. Additionally, opponents can occasionally fall out of her neutral aerial, making it an inconsistent tool in practice.  


Her [[forward aerial|forward]] and [[back aerial]]s are known as [[Lightning Kick]]s. Both of these aerials possess a minimal, albeit powerful sweetspot at her foot, dealing 24% with high knockback. The sweetspot is only active for the first frame, with the late hit or "sourspot" dealing 4% with minimal knockback. Both kicks boast an extremely fast startup at frame 6, but have very punishable ending lag, making them high-risk/high-rewarding aerials. Their quick startup and powerful knockback means they work as landing aerials to punish whiffed attacks, and work relatively as deadly [[out of shield]] options with misspaced attacks. Their short active frame for the sweetspot and punishable ending lag/sourspot means they are very risky when performed as rising aerials (or if whiffed at all in any application), as missing or hitting opponents with the sourspot will almost typically mean Zelda will get punished. Her [[up aerial]] is a large, disjointed explosion with excellent damage and knockback, however, with significant startup and the lack of horizontal range. Down air, sometimes nicknamed the "Lightning Stomp," is a [[meteor smash]] with a powerful sweetspot on her foot, similar to her Lightning Kicks. However, unlike her Lightning kicks, this sweetspot is much larger, making it much easier to connect despite it short active window. Additionally, unlike the lightning kicks, its sourspot has a large and lingering hitbox that typically spike opponents downwards. It is amongst the most powerful meteor smashes in the game, and one of Zelda's most useful aerials. Besides being one of the best meteor smashes in the game, it also has great utility in platform-chases and is a great punishing tool as hitting it on grounded opponents will allow Zelda to combo into lightning kick and up-air. Overall, her aerials are all unique high-risk, high-rewarding moves.
Her forward and back aerials are known as Lightning Kicks. Both of these aerials possess a very small but powerful sweetspot at her foot, dealing 24% with high knockback. The sweetspot is only active for the first frame, with the late hit or "sourspot" dealing 4% with minimal knockback. Both kicks boast an extremely fast startup at frame 6, but have very punishable ending lag, making them high risk/high reward aerials. Their fast startup and powerful knockback means they work as landing aerials to punish whiffed attacks, and work decently as deadly out of shield options with misspaced attacks. Their short active frame for the sweetspot and punishable ending lag/sourspot means they are very risky when used as rising aerials (or if whiffed at all in any application), as missing or hitting opponents with the sourspot will almost always mean Zelda will get punished. Up air is a large, disjointed explosion with excellent damage and knockback, however with significant startup and no horizontal range. Down air, sometimes nicknamed the "Lightning Stomp", is a meteor smash with a powerful sweetspot on her foot, similar to her Lightning Kicks. However, unlike her Lightning kicks, this sweetspot is much larger, making it much easier to connect despite it short active window. Also unlike the lightning kicks, its sourspot has a large and lingering hitbox that always spike opponents downwards. It is amongst the most powerful meteor smashes in the game, and one of Zelda's most useful aerials. Besides being one of the best meteor smashes in the game, it also 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. Overall, her aerials are all unique high risk, high reward moves.


Her [[special move]]set takes inspiration from various ''[[Legend of Zelda]]'' titles. Her neutral special move, [[Nayru's Love]], is a [[reflection|reflector]] that doubles as a melee-oriented attack; Zelda is also intangible from frames 4-13 of the move. These traits make it useful against [[projectile]]-heavy characters, as well as evading/halting opponent’s combos. [[Din's Fire]], her side special move, sends out an explosive ball of fire that explodes on the release of the button or when reaching maximum charge, becoming more powerful and flying further the longer it is charged. It possesses a powerful sweetspot in the inner part of the explosion, with an otherwise large explosion hitbox. The ball of fire does not count as a projectile, but the explosion can be absorbed. In addition, for the first time in the series, Zelda can use it to cover her recovery, as it no longer leaves her helpless in midair. Her up special move, [[Farore's Wind]], is a fantastic [[recovering]] tool, allowing her to make it back to the stage in almost any off-stage situation. Due to its quick startup and deadly knock-back, it functions as a deadly out-of-shield option, though DIing out of the second hit is possible if the opponent is prepared or has already buffered another move. It can work as a burst option to read predictable [[roll]]s or anti-zone, but she suffers from great ending lag, so this option is extremely risky. As a teleportation-based recovery, it can be tricky to edgeguard or ledge-trap Zelda due to its reappearance-hitbox, but certain characters can threaten her at ledge if they have a deadly 2-framing option. On top of this, it can have anti-ledge trapping and mindgame potential if one opts to use the aforementioned powerful second hitbox instead of snapping to ledge. Additionally, much like {{SSBU|Palutena}}'s [[Warp]], she can completely avoid the move's ending lag by using a technique, called [[edge cancel]]ling, which grants her access to otherwise-impossible approaching and stage controling options.  
Her [[special move]]s take inspiration from various Zelda titles. 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 evading/halting opponent’s combos. [[Din's Fire]], her side special move, sends out an explosive ball of fire that explodes on the release of the button or when reaching max charge, becoming more powerful and flying further the longer it is charged. It possesses a powerful sweetspot in the inner part of the explosion, with an otherwise large explosion hitbox. The ball of fire does not count as a projectile, but the explosion can be absorbed. In addition, for the first time in the series, Zelda can use it to cover her recovery, as it no longer leaves her helpless in midair. Her up special move, [[Farore's Wind]], is a fantastic recovery tool, allowing her to make it back to the stage in almost any off-stage situation. Due to it's quick startup and deadly knock-back, it functions as a deadly out of shield option, though DIing out of the second hit is possible if the opponent is ready or has already buffered another move. It can work as a burst option to read predictable rolls or anti-zone, but she suffers from great ending lag so this option is extremely risky. As a teleport recovery, it can be tricky to edgeguard or ledgetrap Zelda due to its reappearance hitbox, but certain characters can threaten her at ledge if they have a deadly 2-framing option. On top of this, it can have anti-ledgetrap and mindgame potential if one opts to use the aforementioned powerful second hitbox instead of snapping to ledge. And, much like {{SSBU|Palutena}}'s [[Warp]], she can completely avoid the move's ending lag by using a technique called [[edge cancel]]ling, which grants her access to otherwise-impossible approach and stage control options.  


Lastly, her down special, [[Phantom Slash]], is her most important tool in her kit. It is a unique projectile that she builds piece-by-piece until it is fully formed, though she can use it at any stage of its creation by pressing either the special or attacking button, which affects several of its properties. The earliest stages possess rather low damage, knockback, and range, but it becomes progressively more potent as it becomes more complete, with the final stage possessing high damage output, impressive knockback, and stellar range. It takes a little over a second to reach the final stage, after which Zelda will be able to move and attack freely in an untethered sort of state. The Phantom will attack on its own after about another second if it is not triggered, granting Zelda a lot of flexibility when using it, such as retreating behind it for protection, attacking in tandem with it, launching the opponent towards it, performing [[shield break]]ing combos, making grab-based setups, and even covering her recovery (similar to Din's Fire). 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, pressure, zone, and trap because of how much space it covers, how much damage it deals, and how much different mixups Zelda can do with it.
Lastly, her down special, [[Phantom Slash]], is her most important tool. It's a unique projectile that she builds piece-by-piece until it is fully formed, though she can use it at any stage of its creation by pressing either the special or attack button, which affects several of its properties. The earliest stages have rather low damage, knockback, and range, but it becomes increasingly more potent as it becomes more complete, with the final stage having high damage output, impressive knockback, and stellar range. It takes a little over a second to reach the final stage, after which Zelda will be able to move and attack freely in an untethered sort of state. The Phantom will attack on its own after about another second if it is not triggered, granting Zelda a lot of flexibility when using it, such as retreating behind it for protection, attacking in tandem with it, launching the opponent towards it, performing shield breaking combos, making grab setups, and even covering her recovery (similar to Din's Fire). 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, 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.


Zelda has outstanding range and reward for her [[grab]], with her pivot grab being one of the most disjointed in the game, along with a relatively quick [[pummel]] with a passable damage output. Her grab, however, has extremely slow startup. Each of her [[throws]] have great reward: [[forward throw]] is good to setup edgeguarding, while [[back throw|back]] and [[up throw]] are excellent KO throws. [[Down throw]] is most useful as a combo starter, and can combo into neutral aerial, forward and back aerial, up aerial, as well as stalling long enough for a set up Phantom to hit.
Zelda has outstanding range and reward for her [[grab]], with her pivot grab being one of the most disjointed in the game. Her grab however, has extremely slow startup. Her [[throws]] have great reward. [[Forward throw]] is good to setup edge guarding, while [[back throw|back]] and [[up throw]] are excellent kill throws. [[Down throw]] is most useful as a combo starter, and can combo into neutral aerial, forward and back aerial, up aerial, as well as stall long enough for a set up Phantom to hit.


Despite her strengths, Zelda is not without some notable key weaknesses. Chief among them is arguably her poor mobility and floatiness, which impair her ability to approach and punish safely on the ground and in the air. She flounders against quick, fast-falling opponents, like {{SSBU|Wolf}} and {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}, and speed demons, like {{SSBU|Sonic}} and {{SSBU|Fox}}. Her slow mobility is exacerbated through numerous issues of her frame-data, as several of her attacks, while quick to startup, have punishing amounts of ending lag. Since she has the inconvenient combination of being [[weight|light]], tall, and floaty, with the lack of safe landing mixups or options to assist her from ledge, she is extremely vulnerable to getting juggled and ledge-trapped, contributing to one of the worst disadvantages in the game, with Farore's Wind being risky for escaping juggles due to its high ending lag and landing lag. This also means she struggles to land safely and is vulnerable to [[juggling]], leaving her with a risky [[neutral game]]. In addition, the former is also another one of her most overwhelming flaws: her poor endurance makes her vulnerable to early KOs by receiving hard-hitting attacks. The existence of [[rage]] further pronounces this: damaged opponents can send Zelda flying even earlier and farther with high levels of the mechanic, and while Zelda can benefit from it by finishing her opponents off even earlier with it due to her plethora of powerful attacks, including her Lighting Kicks, her poor endurance prevents her from benefitting from the mechanic by an effective degree. Aside from that, Zelda's other issues include poor range on her normal moveset (despite her disjoints), as well as her precise sweetspots on her moves, made worse with punishable amounts of ending lag. This means she will sometimes be punished even if she hits a move. A few of her attacks' hitbox also have unfavorable placements, sometimes not connecting on small or crouching characters, thus allowing characters with more striking disjoints, such as {{SSBU|Shulk}} and {{SSBU|Mr. Game & Watch}}, to outrange Zelda.
Despite her strengths, Zelda has some key weaknesses. Chief among them is arguably her poor mobility and floatiness, which hamper her ability to approach and punish safely on the ground and in the air. She flounders against quick, fast-falling opponents like {{SSBU|Wolf}} and {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}. This mobility issue is exacerbated through numerous frame data issues, as many of her attacks, while quick to startup, have punishing amounts of end lag. Since she is light, 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. Other issues include poor range on her normals, as well as her precise sweetspots on her moves, made worse with punishable amounts of ending lag. This means she will sometimes be punished even if she hits a move.


While Zelda boasts several finishers in her kit, most of them are inconsistent, either possessing sourspots that lack KO potential, high ending lag or a combination of both, and some of those sourspots, like with the Lightning Kicks or Din's Fire, are also unsafe on hit, meaning that she can be punished for not connecting with the sweetspot. In addition, although she has good tools for pressuring [[shield]]s, with moves that are safe on shield like forward tilt, forward smash or her aerials, Zelda is required to space correctly for those moves to be at their best for doing so.
Finally, her special moves have exploitable weaknesses; Nayru's Love and Farore's wind have large amounts of endlag, making them easy to punish when overused. Most importantly, Phantom knight is a large commitment and Zelda is stuck either in startup if she chooses to charge the knight fully, and she is stuck in ending lag if she releases early. This means opponents can punish Zelda by reading when she decides to charge knight with correct timing and spacing, negating her best ability to control space, zone, and trap. This forces her to play a neutral with her risky, short ranged neutral tools and subpar mobility.


Finally, her [[special move]]s have exploitable weaknesses; Nayru's Love and Farore's wind have large amounts of ending lag, making them easy to punish when overused. Most importantly, Phantom Knight is a large commitment and Zelda is stuck either in startup if she chooses to charge the knight fully, and she is stuck in ending lag if she releases early. This means opponents can punish Zelda by reading when she decides to charge the knight with correct timing and spacing, negating her best ability to control space, zone, and trap. In addition, while Din's Fire can only be absorbed and not reflected, Phantom Slash counts as a projectile, meaning that it can also be reflected due to the amount of time it takes to set up. She can make usage of Nayru's Love for response, since the Phantom will linger in place for a second when fully charged, but if it gets reflected back to her, it will cause her serious trouble. A circumstantial example is {{SSBU|Mr. Game & Watch}}, who can easily reflect Phantom using [[Oil Panic]] back to Zelda. Further pronouncing this, Zelda's poor endurance also means that a reflected Phantom at maximum charge can often potentially prove fatal, especially at higher than average precents, thus inadvertently costing Zelda a stock if unprepared. In addition, if Zelda gets hit at any point during the setup of Phantom Slash, the Phantom falls apart, preventing one of her best tools from being useful in neutral. Nayru's Love is not to be overused, as it has enough ending lag to be punished hard without careful usage. This forces her to play a neutral with her risky, short-ranged neutral tools and sub-par mobility.
Overall, Zelda's strengths include fast burst options, decent combo trees, good stage control and ledgetrapping with phantom setup, and extraordinary killpower. Her mobility, range, frame data, sweetspot issues mean that she must be precise with how she spaces her attacks and sets up phantom, and she must make the most out of ledgetrap situations. 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 a disadvantage due to her floaty nature and lack of safe landing options.
 
Overall, Zelda is characterized as a zoner glass cannon, like {{SSBU|Ness}} and {{SSBU|Peach}}, whose strengths include quick burst options, decent combo trees, good stage controlling and zoning, ledge-trapping with setups involving Phantom, and extraordinary KO power. Her mobility, range, approach, endurance, frame-data and consistency of landing sweetspots leave a lot to be desired, however, meaning that she must be precise with how she spaces her attacks and sets up Phantom, and she must make the most out of ledge-trapping situations. She must be creative in her approaches to overcome her slow mobility and low endurance when she does not have a lead, and must mix up what she does to get out of a disadvantage due to her floaty nature and lack of safe landing options.


==Changes from ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''==
==Changes from ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''==
Zelda had historically and consistently been regarded as one of the worst characters (and, at one point in ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', the overall worst) in previous games, due to her combination of underwhelming frame-data as a whole, a lackluster special moveset, her hitboxes' inconvenient placements, and an undesirable mixture of attributes (slow, light, tall, and floaty). While ''SSB4'' had brought updates to her offensive game, her weaknesses remained, causing her to remain unviable. Likely as a result of being a poorly regarded character in previous games, Zelda has been significantly buffed overall in the transition to ''Ultimate''.
Zelda had historically and consistently been regarded as one of the worst characters (and, at one point in ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', the overall worst) in previous games, due to her combination of underwhelming frame data as a whole, a lackluster special moveset, bad hitbox placements, and an undesirable mix of attributes (slow, light, tall, and floaty). While ''SSB4'' had brought updates to her offensive game, her weaknesses remained, causing her to remain unviable. Likely as a result of being a poorly regarded character in previous games, Zelda has been significantly buffed overall in the transition to ''Ultimate''.


One of Zelda's biggest buffs is her greatly improved moveset: a considerable portion of her moveset have received either reduced lag, better KO potential, or other improvements. [[Neutral attack]], previously the slowest in the game, comes out significantly faster, and has been reworked to possess an infinite portion with better damage-racking ability and knockback; [[forward tilt]] has more range, less ending lag, and increased damage that improve the sweetspot's KO potential; [[forward smash]] now utilizes an improved [[autolink angle]], allowing it to connect reliably at both close range and when spaced.
One of Zelda's biggest buffs is her greatly improved moveset: many of her moves have either reduced lag, better KO potential, or other improvements. [[Neutral attack]], previously the slowest in the game, comes out significantly faster, and has been reworked to possess an infinite portion with better damage racking ability and knockback; [[forward tilt]] has more range, less ending lag, and increased damage that improve the sweetspot's KO potential; [[forward smash]] now uses an improved autolink angle, allowing it to connect reliably at both close range and when spaced.


[[Neutral aerial]] has decreased landing lag, allowing it to start combos into multiple ground options, including down tilt into forward aerial. [[Up aerial]] has received a new weaker late hit that increases its duration, its hitbox is larger, has been moved upwards and its duration has been extended; while the placement makes it difficult to hit grounded opponents, this increases its already solid large vertical range and makes it more difficult to spot dodge. Her [[Lightning Kick]]s have been improved as well, possessing a larger sweetspot and the forward-inputted kick is now active as quick as the back-inputted kick, increasing their potency for follow-ups when landing with them, and making them more devastating [[out of shield]]. Her previously good [[grab]] game was improved to the point it is now among the most effective in the game: her [[back throw|back]] and [[up throw]]s are much stronger, while down throw deals more damage and, although its knockback and angle were altered, its combo ability remains mostly intact. Additionally, she has the longest range for a non-[[tether grab]] among the entire cast in the game.
[[Neutral aerial]] has decreased landing lag, allowing it to start combos into multiple ground options, including down tilt into forward aerial. [[Up aerial]] has received a new weaker late hit that increases its duration, its hitbox is larger, has been moved upwards and its duration has been extended; while the placement makes it difficult to hit grounded opponents, this increases its already solid large vertical range and makes it more difficult to spot dodge. Her [[Lightning Kick]]s have been improved as well, having a larger sweetspot and the forward kick is now active as fast as the back kick, increasing their potency for followups when landing with them, and making them more devastating [[out of shield]]. 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, while down throw deals more damage and, although its knockback and angle were altered, its combo ability remains mostly intact. Additionally she has the longest range for a non-tether grab of any character in the game.


Zelda's special moveset, considered among the most situational in previous games, has received various improvements. [[Nayru's Love]] has faster startup and [[intangibility]], and preserves Zelda's momentum, strengthening its already strong defensive ability and improving its edgeguarding applications. [[Din's Fire]] no longer causes [[helplessness]], giving it utility as an anti-edgeguarding option, has increased duration of effect and the sweetspot is larger and easier to land, making it more difficult to [[spot dodge]] and more effective in neutral or advantage state. [[Farore's Wind]] has faster startup, making it a more effective out of shield option, and more precise angles for reappearance, allowing her to land its second hit easier even if the opponent DIs the first hit, making "elevator" combos much more consistent. Most importantly, however, [[Phantom Slash]] has been heavily reworked to possess several more stages that can be unleashed faster, deal more damage, and the last stage allows Zelda to move around before it is unleashed, allowing for intricate trap setups and combos when edgeguarding and approaching, while the Phantom no longer suffers cooldown if destroyed. Since the Phantom is formed behind Zelda, it is now better used in her advantage state, though with sufficient spacing, it is also a strong tool in the [[neutral game]]; though with precise input, Zelda can also short hop behind the Phantom while charging it, allowing it to block incoming projectiles while charging.
Zelda's special moveset, considered among the most situational in previous games, has seen various improvements. [[Nayru's Love]] has faster startup and [[intangibility]], and preserves Zelda's momentum, strengthening its already strong defensive ability and improving its edgeguarding applications. [[Din's Fire]] no longer causes [[helplessness]], giving it utility as an anti-edgeguarding option, has increased duration of effect and the sweetspot is larger and easier to land, making it more difficult to spot dodge and more effective in neutral or advantage state. [[Farore's Wind]] has faster startup, making it a more effective out of shield option, and more precise angles for reappearance, allowing her to land its second hit easier even if the enemy DIs the first hit, making "elevator" combos much more consistent. Most importantly, however, [[Phantom Slash]] has been heavily reworked to possess several more stages that can be unleashed faster, deal more damage, and the last stage allows Zelda to move around before it is unleashed, allowing for intricate trap setups and combos when edgeguarding and approaching, while the Phantom no longer has any cooldown if destroyed. Since the Phantom is formed behind Zelda, it is now better used in her advantage state, though with sufficient spacing it is also a strong tool in the [[neutral game]]; though with precise input, Zelda can also short hop behind the Phantom while charging it, allowing it to block incoming projectiles while charging.


Additionally, Zelda noticeably benefits from some of the universal changes brought by ''Ultimate''{{'}}s engine. The universal reduction of [[landing lag]] has improved the safety and followup potential of Zelda's aerial attacks, especially her aforementioned neutral aerial. Despite still possessing sub-par mobility relative to the rest of the cast, the enhancements of mobility nevertheless benefit her, offering her faster [[dash]]ing, [[walk]]ing, [[air speed]]s and especially a faster [[initial dash]], as the latter of which gives her an above-average [[fox-trotting]] ability for quicker grounded movement, an improvement shared with her fellow ''Legend of Zelda'' fighters {{SSBU|Link}} and {{SSBU|Ganondorf}}, the universal 3-frame [[jumpsquat]]s and reduced landing lag improve her noticeably, as they greatly supplement her neutral game, previously one of her core weaknesses prior to ''Ultimate''. This allows her to approach more reliably and improves her combo potential, giving her more consistent and durable followups from moves, such as [[up tilt]], neutral aerial, up throw, and down throw, which can dish out large amounts of damage. The changes to [[air dodging]] also overall benefit her, due to improving her edgeguarding game with moves like Din's Fire, while the reintroduction of directional air dodging allow Zelda to make usage of one to either extend her recovery in a pinch or recover without being reliant on Farore's Wind. Finally, [[dash-canceling]]'s expanded prevalence has improved her ability to approach by performing attacks out of a run, especially when combined with her drastically improved foxtrot.
Additionally, Zelda noticeably benefits from some of the universal changes. Despite still having below-average mobility relative to the rest of the cast, 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 improves her combo potential, giving her more consistent and durable followups from moves such as [[up tilt]], neutral aerial, up throw, and down throw, which can dish out large amounts of damage. The changes to [[air dodging]] also generally benefit her, as they improve her edgeguarding game with moves like Din's Fire.


However, Zelda has received some mixed changes and a few nerfs as well. Despite the improved frame-data and combo potential of her neutral attack, it no longer has frame-advantage against shields, and none of her other attacks has had their ending lag reduced enough for full compensation. Down tilt has less ending lag, but has less range and its new angle worsens its combo potential in general, removing its ability to combo into up aerial, although it can now combo better into neutral aerial and dash attack and has a new KO setup into forward aerial. The changes to down aerial's hitboxes increase the clean hit's range and remove the blindspot located in Zelda's upper leg, but causes the late hit to have smaller hitboxes. Up and down smashes are both stronger, though the former has lost one of its looping hits and is more inconsistent on characters on the ground. Zelda's dash and pivot [[grab]]s, already below-average in speed, have received even more startup, although her pivot grab has exceptional range for a non-tether grab and both of them have less ending lag. Both [[forward throw]] and Farore's Wind are weaker, most significantly the former, now only being usable for setting up edgeguards in a similar vein to {{SSBU|Ness}}' own forward throw, though Farore's Wind is more consistent for self-combos due to faster startup and more precise DI options for reappearance that can hit opponents who DI the initial hit.
However, Zelda has received some mixed changes and a few nerfs as well. Despite the improved speed and combo potential of her neutral attack, it no longer has frame advantage against shields, and none of her other attacks has had their ending lag reduced enough to fully compensate. Down tilt has less ending lag, but has less range and its new angle worsens its combo potential in general, removing its ability to combo into up aerial, although it can now combo better into neutral aerial and dash attack and has a new KO setup into forward aerial. The changes to down aerial's hitboxes increase the clean hit's range and remove the blindspot located in Zelda's upper leg, but causes the late hit to have smaller hitboxes. Up and down smash are both stronger, though the former has lost one of its looping hits and is more inconsistent on characters on the ground. 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. Both [[forward throw]] and Farore's Wind are weaker, most significantly the former, now only being usable for setting up edgeguards in a similar vein to {{SSBU|Ness}}' own forward throw, though Farore's Wind is more consistent for self-combos due to faster startup and more precise DI options for reappearance that can hit opponents who DI the initial hit.


Although Zelda benefits from some the changes to the game's engine, other changes have impaired her as well; despite the aforementioned enhancements to mobility in ''Ultimate'', she still retains her grounded movement, which still prevents her from catching up with most of the cast despite her aforementioned above-average foxtrot. The increased [[shieldstun]] is both beneficial and injurious Zelda: it allows her moves to be more safely spaced, but combined with the universal reductions to landing lag (despite aerials dealing less shieldstun), it also slightly worsens her respectable [[out of shield]] game.
Although Zelda benefits from some the changes to the game's engine, other changes have impaired her as well; the universal increase in mobility doesn't benefit her as much due to her slow grounded movement, since it still doesn't allow her to catch up with most of the cast. 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 considerably enhanced from previous installments, making her strengths much more defined. Game updates also brought her meaningful improvements that have made her moveset more cohesive and consistent. This has allowed Zelda to fare better than in previous installments; though despite these changes and her strengths, Zelda still retains her core weaknesses from previous games. When combined with the more striking buffs received to the other returning veterans and the introduction of dominating DLC characters, some of which Zelda struggles against, Zelda still underperforms compared to the rest of the cast, although her ''Ultimate'' incarnation is her strongest one yet.
Overall, Zelda's moveset has been considerably enhanced from previous installments, making her strengths much more defined. Game updates also brought her meaningful improvements that have made her moveset more cohesive and consistent. This has allowed Zelda to fare better than in previous installments; though despite these changes and her strengths, Zelda still retains her core weaknesses from previous games. Zelda still underperforms compared to the rest of the cast, despite this incarnation being her strongest one yet.


{{SSB4 to SSBU changelist|char=Zelda}}
{{SSB4 to SSBU changelist|char=Zelda}}
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==Update history==
==Update history==
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 neutral aerial connecting better and having less landing lag, 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. In 13.0.0, the first hit of her neutral attack was made slightly faster, somewhat improving its consistency as a combo starter, her up and down smash inflict more knockback, and her down aerial's sweetspot is significantly 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.
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 neutral aerial connecting better and having less landing lag, 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. In 13.0.0, the first hit of her neutral attack was made slightly faster, somewhat improving its consistency as a combo starter, her up and down smash inflict more knockback, and her down aerial's sweetspot is significantly 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.
However, Zelda has also received minor nerfs to Phantom Slash; in update 3.0.0, its shield damage was reduced, hindering its potency in shield break setups, while in update 9.0.2, a bugfix removed a technique that allowed Zelda to spawn the Phantom in front of her, granting more protection during the charge.


However, Zelda has also received minor nerfs to Phantom Slash; in update 3.0.0, its shield damage was reduced, hindering its potency in shield break setups, while in update 9.0.2, a bug fix removed a technique that allowed Zelda to spawn the Phantom in front of her, granting more protection during the charge.


'''{{GameIcon|ssbu}} {{SSBU|3.0.0}}'''
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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 jab and 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.
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 jab and 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.


This optimism did not last for long, as Zelda's polarizing nature became more noticeable as time went on: despite receiving buffs in updates 7.0.0 and 13.0.0 that improved her consistency, Zelda's poor mobility, disadvantage, highly risky neutral and remained critical weaknesses. As a result, Zelda players began struggling in the developing metagame, and they either dropped the character (such as Mystearica) or saw worse results and consistency than before (such as ven). Although Naskino continued to do well in Europe and {{Sm|Yn}} began making waves in Japan in early-2023, opinions on Zelda continued to decline, and as a result, she sits at 75th out of 82 on the first tier list, rising two spots in the second and current one. Although she is still consolidated as a low-tier, this is her best placement in the series and she is far better than all her previous incarnations.
This optimism did not last for long, as Zelda's polarizing nature became more noticeable as time went on: despite receiving buffs in updates 7.0.0 and 13.0.0 that improved her consistency, Zelda's poor mobility, disadvantage, and highly risky neutral remained critical weaknesses. As a result, Zelda players began struggling in the developing metagame, and they either dropped the character (such as Mystearica) or saw worse results and consistency than before (such as ven). Although Naskino continued to do well in Europe and {{Sm|Yn}} began making waves in Japan in early-2023, opinions on Zelda continued to decline, and as a result she sits at 75th out of 82 on the first tier list, rising two spots in the second and current one. Although it is her best placement in the series and she is far better than all her previous incarnations, she is currently placed in low-tier.


=={{SSBU|Classic Mode}}: Wisdom Prevails==
=={{SSBU|Classic Mode}}: Wisdom Prevails==

Revision as of 15:18, March 8, 2024

This article is about Zelda's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For the character in other contexts, see Princess Zelda.
Zelda
in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Zelda SSBU.png
ZeldaSymbol.svg
Universe The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances in Melee
in Brawl
in SSB4
Availability Unlockable
Final Smash Triforce of Wisdom
Tier D- (73)
Zelda (SSBU)

Zelda (ゼルダ, Zelda) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. She was confirmed as a playable character along with Sheik and the rest of veterans on June 12, 2018. Unlike the game's predecessors, she is unlockable instead of being available from the start. Zelda is classified as Fighter #17.

In a similar vein to her fellow Zelda fighters Link and Ganondorf, Zelda is now voiced by Ayumi Fujimura, who reprises her role from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in all regions, replacing Jun Mizusawa from Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. 4. Similar to Star Fox characters in Melee, the former provides a single line of spoken Japanese dialogue in World of Light's opening; this line is dubbed in English by Brandy Kopp, who also voices Palutena.

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 Ganondorf, and is her best placement in the series. Zelda has strong zoning tools to keep her opponents out. She uses magic in her attacks, giving her disjointed range in general. Her Phantom Slash a very versatile move that can be useful in many situations, such as applying pressure, ledgetrapping, a way to combo in her finishers and forcing foes to approach her. She also has a good get-off-me option in Nayru's Love to break free from combos as well as a useful reflector. Despite being a lightweight, Zelda has an aboundance of KO options, with KO power on par with heavyweights, and her attacks come out surprisingly fast for how powerful they are, which is supported by her amazing grab game and powerful out-of-shield options. She also has a solid recovery in Farore's Wind to avoid edgeguards and safely return to the stage. Farore's Wind is also great as an out-of-shield option that can KO at high percents and as a surprise burst option to help her approach. Her edgeguarding game is also amazing, as she has several ways to put her opponent in unfavourable positions and intercept recoveries, like Din's Fire, which can force them to air dodge and leave them open for her down aerial. Unlike in the previous games, Din's Fire doesn't leave her helpless, allowing her to protect herself from afar when she's recovering. In addition, Zelda has good normals, most notably her forward aerial and back aerial; in other words, her Lightning Kick, which can be a deadly out-of-shield option when sweetspotted.

Despite these strengths, Zelda has her notable weaknesses. Her overall mobility is among the worst in the game, with a below average walk speed and one of the slowest dashing speeds. Her range on some of her attacks is also not as good as other moves, and combined with her poor speed, she struggles against characters who can run away from her and camp her out like Joker or Zero Suit Samus or characters that can outrange her and have better disjoints, like Cloud and Shulk. A few of her attacks also have unfavourable hitbox placements, sometimes not connecting on small or crouching characters. Since she is tall, slow on the ground, floaty and has a below average weight, her endurance is lackluster, she struggles to land safely and is vulnerable to juggling, leaving her with a risky neutral game and a very poor disadvantage state, with Farore's Wind being risky to use to escape juggles due to its high ending lag and landing lag. While Din's Fire can only be absorbed and not reflected, Phantom Slash counts as a projectile, meaning that it can also be reflected due to the amount of time it takes to set up. She can use Nayru's Love to respond to this, since the Phantom will linger in place for a second when fully charged, but if it gets reflected back to her, it will cause her serious trouble. In addition, if Zelda gets hit at any point during the setup of Phantom Slash, the Phantom falls apart, preventing one of her best tools from being used in neutral. Nayru's Love is not to be overused, as it has enough ending lag to be punished hard when not used carefully. While Zelda has several finishers, most of them are inconsistent, either having sourspots that lack KO potential, high ending lag or a combination of both, and some of those sourspots, like with the Lightning Kicks or Din's Fire, are also unsafe on hit, meaning that she can be punished for not connecting with the sweetspot. While she has good tools for shield pressure, with moves that are safe on shield like forward tilt, forward smash or her aerials, Zelda needs to space correctly to use her moves at their best.

Overall, Zelda plays a strong zoning game, with tools for ledgetrapping and making space, but her precise hitboxes and poor mobility gives her a weak 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 Yn from Japan, Naskino in France, and Ven in the United States, with respectable results.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

Zelda must then be defeated on Temple (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

Zelda is a tall, floaty lightweight character with overall slow mobility. While she has a slightly above-average air speed, the 20th highest traction, and a decent initial dash, her jumping force and air acceleration are below average, and she has the 22nd slowest walking speed, the 16th slowest falling speed, the 10th lowest gravity, and is tied with Byleth for the 9th slowest running speed in the game. Zelda's attacks are based on magic, making most of them disjointed albeit short-ranged attacks. They also boast generally quick startup; all of her 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 KO potential and impressive damage output, giving her power comparable to heavyweights. Due to these factors, Zelda can be generalized as a zoner glass cannon.

Her neutral attack is a small burst of magical energy in front of her, boasting decent startup before transitioning into a rapid jab of many magical bursts with a finishing hit. The first hit of jab is particularly useful for a variety of situations, such as jab-to-grab mixups, platform tech-chasing, and can confirm into downsmash at higher percentages. It can even catch immediate jumps in short-range. Forward tilt is a slow swipe with an extremely strong tipper hitbox, used to space, ledgetrap, and sometimes end combos. Up tilt is one of her most versatile moves, an arm sweep with lingering hitboxes used to anti-air, catch spot dodges, tech-chase, and start and extend combos across most percentages. It also an important move for KO confirms at mid percentages: inverting her up-tilt can confirm into lightning kick and upair at mid to mid-high percentages. Down tilt, another one of her most important moves, is a fast and lingering crouching kick. It's speed and lingering hitbox allows it to be used as a fast poke and as a 2 framing option. The crouching animation allows her to pancake and evade moves in neutral, and although it is not safe on shield, the quick animation makes it difficult to punish if the opponent is not ready. It leads into her most important kill confirms at mid-percentages at or near the ledge, down-tilt to lightning kick, so proper utilization of this move is essential. Her dash attack is a dual hand thrust with a burst of magic most powerful closest to her hands. It is one of her most important burst options, with a good disjoint and excellent speed. It is also a good tool to end combos. Proper application of this move to catch landings and punish whiffed moves is essential, although overuse and misuse is easily punished as it is unsafe on shield. Her forward and up smashes are both powerful, multi-hitting bursts of magic energy; the former being a thrust of the hand forward and the latter being a wave of the hand back and forth above her. Down smash is a very fast 360° leg sweep that launches opponents at a semi spike angle with decent knockback.

Zelda has unique high-risk/high reward aerials which boast immense kill power power. Zelda can auto-cancel both her neutral and down aerials in a short hop, and forward and back aerial auto-cancel from a fast fall. Though her neutral air lacks notable KO ability, it has a fast start-up with a long active duration, dealing decent damage. Her neutral air is her most versatile aerial, used as an anti-air and burst option, combo-extending tool (and sometimes starting them), out-of-shield option, shield pressuring tool, and occasionally edgeguarding. Although the horizontal knock-back on the last hit of neutral air makes comboing afterwards difficult, it often means giving Zelda enough space to setup phantom or a ledge-trap situation. The first hit of neutral air when auto-canceled can pop opponents up and lead into a variety of confirms, but due to her mobility, this mostly is not a practical option. Additionally, opponents can occasionally fall out of her neutral aerial, making it an inconsistent tool in practice.

Her forward and back aerials are known as Lightning Kicks. Both of these aerials possess a very small but powerful sweetspot at her foot, dealing 24% with high knockback. The sweetspot is only active for the first frame, with the late hit or "sourspot" dealing 4% with minimal knockback. Both kicks boast an extremely fast startup at frame 6, but have very punishable ending lag, making them high risk/high reward aerials. Their fast startup and powerful knockback means they work as landing aerials to punish whiffed attacks, and work decently as deadly out of shield options with misspaced attacks. Their short active frame for the sweetspot and punishable ending lag/sourspot means they are very risky when used as rising aerials (or if whiffed at all in any application), as missing or hitting opponents with the sourspot will almost always mean Zelda will get punished. Up air is a large, disjointed explosion with excellent damage and knockback, however with significant startup and no horizontal range. Down air, sometimes nicknamed the "Lightning Stomp", is a meteor smash with a powerful sweetspot on her foot, similar to her Lightning Kicks. However, unlike her Lightning kicks, this sweetspot is much larger, making it much easier to connect despite it short active window. Also unlike the lightning kicks, its sourspot has a large and lingering hitbox that always spike opponents downwards. It is amongst the most powerful meteor smashes in the game, and one of Zelda's most useful aerials. Besides being one of the best meteor smashes in the game, it also 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. Overall, her aerials are all unique high risk, high reward moves.

Her special moves take inspiration from various Zelda titles. Her neutral special move, Nayru's Love, is a 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 evading/halting opponent’s combos. Din's Fire, her side special move, sends out an explosive ball of fire that explodes on the release of the button or when reaching max charge, becoming more powerful and flying further the longer it is charged. It possesses a powerful sweetspot in the inner part of the explosion, with an otherwise large explosion hitbox. The ball of fire does not count as a projectile, but the explosion can be absorbed. In addition, for the first time in the series, Zelda can use it to cover her recovery, as it no longer leaves her helpless in midair. Her up special move, Farore's Wind, is a fantastic recovery tool, allowing her to make it back to the stage in almost any off-stage situation. Due to it's quick startup and deadly knock-back, it functions as a deadly out of shield option, though DIing out of the second hit is possible if the opponent is ready or has already buffered another move. It can work as a burst option to read predictable rolls or anti-zone, but she suffers from great ending lag so this option is extremely risky. As a teleport recovery, it can be tricky to edgeguard or ledgetrap Zelda due to its reappearance hitbox, but certain characters can threaten her at ledge if they have a deadly 2-framing option. On top of this, it can have anti-ledgetrap and mindgame potential if one opts to use the aforementioned powerful second hitbox instead of snapping to ledge. And, much like Palutena's Warp, she can completely avoid the move's ending lag by using a technique called edge cancelling, which grants her access to otherwise-impossible approach and stage control options.

Lastly, her down special, Phantom Slash, is her most important tool. It's a unique projectile that she builds piece-by-piece until it is fully formed, though she can use it at any stage of its creation by pressing either the special or attack button, which affects several of its properties. The earliest stages have rather low damage, knockback, and range, but it becomes increasingly more potent as it becomes more complete, with the final stage having high damage output, impressive knockback, and stellar range. It takes a little over a second to reach the final stage, after which Zelda will be able to move and attack freely in an untethered sort of state. The Phantom will attack on its own after about another second if it is not triggered, granting Zelda a lot of flexibility when using it, such as retreating behind it for protection, attacking in tandem with it, launching the opponent towards it, performing shield breaking combos, making grab setups, and even covering her recovery (similar to Din's Fire). 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, 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.

Zelda has outstanding range and reward for her grab, with her pivot grab being one of the most disjointed in the game. Her grab however, has extremely slow startup. Her throws have great reward. Forward throw is good to setup edge guarding, while back and up throw are excellent kill throws. Down throw is most useful as a combo starter, and can combo into neutral aerial, forward and back aerial, up aerial, as well as stall long enough for a set up Phantom to hit.

Despite her strengths, Zelda has some key weaknesses. Chief among them is arguably her poor mobility and floatiness, which hamper her ability to approach and punish safely on the ground and in the air. She flounders against quick, fast-falling opponents like Wolf and Zero Suit Samus. This mobility issue is exacerbated through numerous frame data issues, as many of her attacks, while quick to startup, have punishing amounts of end lag. Since she is light, 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. Other issues include poor range on her normals, as well as her precise sweetspots on her moves, made worse with punishable amounts of ending lag. This means she will sometimes be punished even if she hits a move.

Finally, her special moves have exploitable weaknesses; Nayru's Love and Farore's wind have large amounts of endlag, making them easy to punish when overused. Most importantly, Phantom knight is a large commitment and Zelda is stuck either in startup if she chooses to charge the knight fully, and she is stuck in ending lag if she releases early. This means opponents can punish Zelda by reading when she decides to charge knight with correct timing and spacing, negating her best ability to control space, zone, and trap. This forces her to play a neutral with her risky, short ranged neutral tools and subpar mobility.

Overall, Zelda's strengths include fast burst options, decent combo trees, good stage control and ledgetrapping with phantom setup, and extraordinary killpower. Her mobility, range, frame data, sweetspot issues mean that she must be precise with how she spaces her attacks and sets up phantom, and she must make the most out of ledgetrap situations. 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 a disadvantage due to her floaty nature and lack of safe landing options.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Zelda had historically and consistently been regarded as one of the worst characters (and, at one point in Super Smash Bros. 4, the overall worst) in previous games, due to her combination of underwhelming frame data as a whole, a lackluster special moveset, bad hitbox placements, and an undesirable mix of attributes (slow, light, tall, and floaty). While SSB4 had brought updates to her offensive game, her weaknesses remained, causing her to remain unviable. Likely as a result of being a poorly regarded character in previous games, Zelda has been significantly buffed overall in the transition to Ultimate.

One of Zelda's biggest buffs is her greatly improved moveset: many of her moves have either reduced lag, better KO potential, or other improvements. Neutral attack, previously the slowest in the game, comes out significantly faster, and has been reworked to possess an infinite portion with better damage racking ability and knockback; forward tilt has more range, less ending lag, and increased damage that improve the sweetspot's KO potential; forward smash now uses an improved autolink angle, allowing it to connect reliably at both close range and when spaced.

Neutral aerial has decreased landing lag, allowing it to start combos into multiple ground options, including down tilt into forward aerial. Up aerial has received a new weaker late hit that increases its duration, its hitbox is larger, has been moved upwards and its duration has been extended; while the placement makes it difficult to hit grounded opponents, this increases its already solid large vertical range and makes it more difficult to spot dodge. Her Lightning Kicks have been improved as well, having a larger sweetspot and the forward kick is now active as fast as the back kick, increasing their potency for followups when landing with them, and making them more devastating out of shield. Her already good grab game was improved to the point it is now among the most useful in the game: her back and up throws are much stronger, while down throw deals more damage and, although its knockback and angle were altered, its combo ability remains mostly intact. Additionally she has the longest range for a non-tether grab of any character in the game.

Zelda's special moveset, considered among the most situational in previous games, has seen various improvements. Nayru's Love has faster startup and intangibility, and preserves Zelda's momentum, strengthening its already strong defensive ability and improving its edgeguarding applications. Din's Fire no longer causes helplessness, giving it utility as an anti-edgeguarding option, has increased duration of effect and the sweetspot is larger and easier to land, making it more difficult to spot dodge and more effective in neutral or advantage state. Farore's Wind has faster startup, making it a more effective out of shield option, and more precise angles for reappearance, allowing her to land its second hit easier even if the enemy DIs the first hit, making "elevator" combos much more consistent. Most importantly, however, Phantom Slash has been heavily reworked to possess several more stages that can be unleashed faster, deal more damage, and the last stage allows Zelda to move around before it is unleashed, allowing for intricate trap setups and combos when edgeguarding and approaching, while the Phantom no longer has any cooldown if destroyed. Since the Phantom is formed behind Zelda, it is now better used in her advantage state, though with sufficient spacing it is also a strong tool in the neutral game; though with precise input, Zelda can also short hop behind the Phantom while charging it, allowing it to block incoming projectiles while charging.

Additionally, Zelda noticeably benefits from some of the universal changes. Despite still having below-average mobility relative to the rest of the cast, the universal 3-frame jumpsquats 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 improves her combo potential, giving her more consistent and durable followups from moves such as up tilt, neutral aerial, up throw, and down throw, which can dish out large amounts of damage. The changes to air dodging also generally benefit her, as they improve her edgeguarding game with moves like Din's Fire.

However, Zelda has received some mixed changes and a few nerfs as well. Despite the improved speed and combo potential of her neutral attack, it no longer has frame advantage against shields, and none of her other attacks has had their ending lag reduced enough to fully compensate. Down tilt has less ending lag, but has less range and its new angle worsens its combo potential in general, removing its ability to combo into up aerial, although it can now combo better into neutral aerial and dash attack and has a new KO setup into forward aerial. The changes to down aerial's hitboxes increase the clean hit's range and remove the blindspot located in Zelda's upper leg, but causes the late hit to have smaller hitboxes. Up and down smash are both stronger, though the former has lost one of its looping hits and is more inconsistent on characters on the ground. Zelda's dash and pivot grabs, 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. Both forward throw and Farore's Wind are weaker, most significantly the former, now only being usable for setting up edgeguards in a similar vein to Ness' own forward throw, though Farore's Wind is more consistent for self-combos due to faster startup and more precise DI options for reappearance that can hit opponents who DI the initial hit.

Although Zelda benefits from some the changes to the game's engine, other changes have impaired her as well; the universal increase in mobility doesn't benefit her as much due to her slow grounded movement, since it still doesn't allow her to catch up with most of the cast. 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 considerably enhanced from previous installments, making her strengths much more defined. Game updates also brought her meaningful improvements that have made her moveset more cohesive and consistent. This has allowed Zelda to fare better than in previous installments; though despite these changes and her strengths, Zelda still retains her core weaknesses from previous games. Zelda still underperforms compared to the rest of the cast, despite this incarnation being her strongest one yet.

Aesthetics

  • Change Zelda's appearance is based on her design from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past,[1][2][3] and A Link Between Worlds,[4] with her overall design being a combination of the two.[5] Her slightly smaller eyes, red necklace, more detailed epaulets, belt and bracers, and the white dress is from A Link to the Past, while her crown, bangs, and the pink dress are from A Link Between Worlds. The color scheme of her Twilight Princess design (which was her default in Brawl and Smash 4) is now the basis for an alternate costume.
    • Change Consequently, Zelda's hair and the jewel of her crown are once again blonde and red respectively, as opposed to brown and blue respectively, with the former being no longer tied at the bottom, similar to her predecessor in Melee; her eyes are larger; her epaulets are smaller; she wears a crimson, gem-like necklace; a sleeved, white dress with a cape and a sleeveless, pink dress with a yellow, Triforce embroidery, as opposed to a purple bodice and a white silk skirt; a more traditional, crimson belt with golden ornaments instead of a gold metallic belt with a tapestry; pants under her dress; bracers with being bare-handed instead of gloves; and high heels instead of boots.
    • Change As a result of her design change, many of Zelda's basic animations have been altered, including her standing pose, idle poses, and walking animations. All of these animations depict her as very cheerful and somewhat mischievous, making her far more expressive than her SSB4 incarnation, which rarely showed any emotion.
    • Change Zelda has an updated Palutena's Guidance conversation to coincide with the design change.
  • Change Many of Zelda's alternate costumes have been altered:
    • Change The skirt of her red and blue costumes are now white, instead of maroon and navy respectively.
    • Change Her black costume now features a purple gradation at the edges of the sleeve and the skirt.
    • Change The skirt of her Ocarina of Time-inspired costume is now lavender and violet, instead of white and dark purple, better matching the coloration of the original.
  • Change Zelda always faces the screen regardless of which direction she turns, causing all of her animations to be mirrored.
  • Change All of Zelda's taunts have been altered:
    • Change Her up taunt is entirely new; she draws a cross pattern with magic akin to her grab from her fingertips, uttering a short grunt similar to Daisy's down taunt.
    • Change Her side taunt has a faster and flashier animation.
    • Change Her down taunt is a more casual and joyful wave.
  • Change Zelda hangs onto ledges with one hand.
  • Change Zelda's dress has independent physics.
  • Change Many of Zelda's attacks produce brighter, flashier magical effects.
  • Change All of Zelda's victory poses are completely new:
    • Change For the left-inputted pose, she conjures a small flame out of her finger and swirls it around playfully, akin to Lucas' right-inputted victory pose.
    • Change For the right-inputted pose, she summons the Phantom armor and proudly poses in front of it.
    • Change For the up-inputted pose, she emits magic out of two fingers and points at the screen.
  • Change Zelda is significantly more vocal.
    • Change She vocalizes in all of her taunts and victory poses; she giggles during her down taunt and new up-inputted victory pose; makes a Kiai noise during her side taunt; makes a breath during her new right-inputted pose.
    • Change Zelda vocalizes upon waking up from sleep status when not suffering from any knockback, similar to a few other characters such as Palutena and Cloud. She shares this addition with Link, Ganondorf and Wolf.
    • Change Zelda's voice clips, in general, sounding significantly more dynamic and exaggerated than her predecessors, in a similar vein to Pit and Ike in their transition from Brawl. For instance, her attack and knockback voice clips are louder compared to their Brawl/Smash 4 counterparts, while stun and sleeping voice clips are quieter and longer.

Attributes

  • Buff Like all characters, Zelda's jumpsquat takes 3 frames to complete (down from 6).
  • Buff Zelda runs faster (1.3 → 1.43).
    • Buff Her initial dash speed is also much faster (1.6 → 1.958). This improves her approach on the ground and gives her an above-average foxtrot.
  • Buff Zelda walks slightly faster (0.87 → 0.914).
  • Buff Zelda's air speed is slightly faster (1.04 → 1.092).
  • Buff Zelda's traction is much higher (0.054 → 0.116).
  • Change Zelda's full hop has less air time (62 frames → 57). This allows her to land faster, but reduces her window to use aerials.
  • Nerf Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-17 → 4-15).
  • Nerf Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-17 → 5-16), and more ending lag (FAF 31 → 36).
  • Buff Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 27).
  • Nerf Spot dodge grants less intangibility (frames 3-18 → 3-17).
  • Buff Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-28 → 3-30).
  • Nerf Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 34 → 57).

Ground attacks

  • Neutral attack:
    • Buff It has significantly less startup lag (frame 11 → 4), now being her fastest move and no longer being the slowest neutral attack in the game.
    • Nerf The third hit has been removed. Combined with the move's faster startup, this makes the move much less safe on shield and eliminates its combo potential at low percents.
      • Buff However, neutral attack has gained a rapid jab with a finisher, which can be transitioned into after the second hit. This partially compensates for the lost third hit by having similar damage output and higher KO potential.
    • Nerf The first two hits deal less damage (3% → 2.5%). With the removal of the third hit, it deals much less total damage (11% → 5%).
    • Buff The first hit lasts for 2 frames, up from 1.
    • Change The first two hits have a lower hitlag multiplier (1× → 0.6×), which, with the removal of the third hit, makes the move execute faster on hit and harder to react to.
    • Change They have more horizontal launch angles (361°/140°/140° → 361°/361°/180°), with only the outermost hitbox sending inward now.
      • Change The outermost hit uses a separate outward angle (361°) for non-fighter targets, preventing Zelda from launching incoming items and projectiles toward herself.
      • Buff Due to the inner two hits both using the Sakurai angle, they can now jab lock and trip until high percents. The outermost hit can do so at any percent due to never lifting opponents off the ground.
    • Change It no longer has set knockback (40/30 set/100 scaling → 25 base/35/30/20 scaling (hit 1), 40/25 base/25/20/25 scaling (hit 2)). The second hit has gained a hitstun modifier of 2.
      • Buff This makes the inner hits deal more knockback at high percents, giving them jab cancel setups.
      • Nerf Compared to the inner hits, the outermost hit has notably lower knockback, making it negative on hit until high percents and unable to jab cancel until unrealistically extreme percents. This makes the move riskier to use without transitioning into the rapid jab, and makes its jab cancel ability inconsistent.
      • Nerf The knockback scaling eventually makes the move fail to connect fully, though this only occurs at ridiculous percents.
    • Nerf It has smaller hitboxes (3.2u/3.2u/4u (hits 1-2), 3.6u/3.6u/6u (hit 3) → 2.4u/2.4u/3.2u (hit 1), 3u/3.2u/3.5u (hit 2)). They are positioned closer to Zelda (z-offset 5.5u/9.5u/13u (all hits) → 4u/7u/10u (hit 1), 5u/8u/11.5u (hit 2)), drastically reducing the move's horizontal range and spacing utility.
      • Nerf The hitboxes are positioned lower (y-offset 12.5u (all) → 12u/12u/11.8u (hit 1), 11.8u/11.8u/11.5u (hit 2)), worsening their range above Zelda while not improving their reach below due to their smaller sizes.
      • Buff However, there is a new hitbox in front of Zelda's lower body, improving its ability to hit shorter opponents at point-blank range.
  • Forward tilt:
    • Nerf It has more startup lag (frame 10 → 12).
    • Buff It has a shorter total duration (FAF 38 → 37), effectively reducing the ending lag by 3 frames due to the increased startup.
    • Buff Forward tilt no longer has a blind spot directly in front of Zelda. Instead, if she is close to another character, her lunge animation will push her backwards to allow the hitbox to connect.
    • Nerf It uses five small hitboxes (2.1u/2.2u/2.3u/2.4u/2.5u) instead of three medium-sized ones (3u/3.5u/4u). This makes it much narrower, reducing its vertical range.
      • Buff However, the outer hitbox is positioned farther out (x-offset 3.5u → 6.2u), improving its disjoint.
    • Buff It deals more damage (12% → 15% (sweetspot), 10% → 11.5% (sourspot), which with its lower ending lag makes it safer on shield.
      • Buff The knockback was not fully compensated on the sweetspot (50 base/88 scaling → 72/69), significantly increasing its KO potential, especially near the horizontal blast zone.
      • Buff The sourspot has more base knockback (50 → 72), but significantly less knockback scaling (88 → 68). With its higher damage, its KO potential is slightly higher overall, especially near the horizontal blast zone, but is slightly worse from across stage.
    • Nerf The three sourspot hitboxes take priority over the two sweetspot hitboxes, making the sweetspots much harder to land, especially with the aforementioned size reduction.
    • Change The inner sweetspot hitbox has the same sound effect as the sourspots, despite having identical strength to the outer sweetspot.
  • Up tilt:
    • Buff Up tilt has a longer hitbox duration (frames 7-18 → 7-19), allowing it to hit opponents lying down.
    • Buff The outermost hitbox is larger (5u → 5.5u), improving its range.
  • Down tilt:
    • Buff Down tilt has less ending lag (FAF 25 → 22).
    • Nerf It has 3 small unextended hitboxes (2.6u/2.6u/2.6u) instead of 1 medium-sized extended one (3.6u). Instead of being attached to her leg, they are now static hitboxes positioned closer to each other. Overall this notably reduces its range.
    • Nerf It sends opponents at a much lower angle (80° → 62°), and has less base knockback (20 → 15), but more knockback scaling (120 → 125). This greatly worsens its combo potential at low and high percents, and no longer has a guaranteed set-up into up aerial.
      • Buff However, this allows it to combo more reliably into a dash attack and forward aerial at mid percents in combination with its lower ending lag and Zelda's faster jumpsquat.
  • Dash attack:
    • Buff Dash attack's sweetspot is larger (2.2u → 2.8u) and is now extended (z-offset: 12.8 → 12.6-13.2). Its other hitboxes are also larger (5u (sourspot)/4.8u (late hit) → 5.2u/5u), but their horizontal ranges were compensated on the far side (z-offset 7.8-13.8 → 7.8-13.6). Overall this improves the move's range, especially for the sweetspot.
    • Buff The late hit has a longer duration (frames 8-10 → 8-12).
    • Buff Dash attack has less ending lag (FAF 40 → 36).
  • Forward smash:
    • Buff The looping hits have been moved farther out (Z offset: 8/16 → 9/17), as has its final hitboxes (Z offset: 9.5/16 → 10.5/17), increasing its horizontal range while not introducing a blind spot due to the new jostle mechanics.
    • Buff The looping hits use an autolink angle (25°/165° → 366°) and have higher set knockback (40/50 → 60/60), improving their consistency.
    • Buff The final hit is slightly larger (5.5u/6u → 5.7u/6u).
  • Up smash:
    • Buff The looping hits are larger (3.5u/3.5u/3.5u/4.2u → 3.5u/4u/4u/4.6u) and are positioned higher (y-offset 11u/17u/17u/18u → 12u/18u/18u/19u), improving its range.
      • Nerf However, this slightly decreases its lower reach. Combined with jostling, it is more difficult to punish lower opponents out of shield.
    • Buff The looping hits use continuous hitboxes with a rehit rate, significantly reducing the gaps between its hits (frame 9/12/15/18/25/28/31 → 9-23/25-32 (rehit rate 4)).
      • Nerf However, this causes it to have only six looping hits, down from seven, reducing up smash's total damage (15.4% → 14.6%).
    • Change The side looping hits use different and higher launch angles for grounded and aerial opponents (200° → 100° (grounded)/160° (aerial)) and have different set knockback (40 → 60 (grounded)/20 (aerial)), allowing them to connect more reliably against aerial opponents, but no longer pulling in opponents standing on either side of her as easily.
    • Change The first four looping hits have lower knockback scaling (105 → 100), and the top looping hit has lower set knockback (40 → 20).
    • Buff The final hit has more knockback scaling (214 → 222), improving its KO potential.
    • Nerf The side hitboxes for the final hit are smaller (7.5u/7.5u → 6.5u/6.5u).
  • Down smash:
    • Buff Down smash has higher knockback scaling (86 (front)/96 (back) → 89/100), improving its KO potential.

Aerial attacks

  • Buff All aerials have less landing lag (19 frames → 12 (neutral), 23 → 15 (forward), 25 → 16 (back), 19 → 12 (up), 18 → 12 (down)).
  • Change Lightning Kicks and down aerial have unique sound effects when used.
  • Neutral aerial:
    • Change Neutral aerial has altered hitlag (1× (all) → 0.6× (looping hits)/2× (last hit)).
    • Nerf Neutral aerial is vulnerable to SDI again (0× → 0.8× (looping hits), 1× (last hit)).
    • Buff The looping hits use weight-independent knockback.
    • Change The looping hits now use different hitboxes for aerial versus grounded opponents.
    • Nerf On aerial opponents, instead of 2 medium hitboxes, the looping hits now consist of 4 small extended hitboxes (4.7u/4.7u → 1.5u/1.5u/1.5u/1.5u). This gives them much less range in the z-axis, being significantly narrower than even a Lightning Kick sweetspot. Additionally, due to being extended, they no longer interpolate.
      • Nerf They no longer use the autolink angle (366° → 132°/230° (front), 152°/210° (back)), causing the move to connect less reliably. Due to the angles constantly sending in toward Zelda's opposite side and no longer matching her movement, the opponent's final launch position and direction are far less controllable, making follow-ups more difficult, especially from an auto-canceled short hop.
      • Nerf The aerial hitboxes have drastically lower knockback and thus hitstun (75 set/100 scaling → 30 base/10 scaling (bottom hits), 15 base/10 scaling (top hits)). This makes it much easier for the opponent to punish Zelda if they fall out of the looping hits, and completely removes neutral aerial’s drag-down combo potential at realistic percents despite the move’s lower landing lag.
    • Nerf On grounded opponents, the looping hits' angles send more outward from Zelda (80° → 70°), making it harder to connect subsequent hits.
      • Nerf They also no longer use set knockback (75 set/100 scaling → 50 base/80 scaling), now sending into tumble at higher percents. Combined with the new knockback speed-up effect, at higher percents it becomes harder or even impossible to fully connect the move against grounded opponents, due to the first hit sending them too far.
      • Buff However, the angle and knockback changes improve a single hit's combo potential on grounded opponents if used in a fast fall, especially the higher their percent.
      • Change Due to the removal of set knockback, the front hit's higher damage now makes it stronger than the back hit.
      • Buff The hitboxes are slightly larger (4.7u → 5u).
      • Change The hitboxes have altered positions (y-offset 11 (front)/12 (back) → 10/13, z-offset 7.6/-6 → 7.6/-5).
    • Buff The hand hitboxes for the final hit are larger (4u → 5u) and have altered positions (y-offset 11 (front)/12 (back) → 9/13.5, z-offset 7.6/-6 → 8.5/-7), increasing their range.
    • Change The last hit has less base knockback (40 → 35), allowing it to combo for longer, but reducing its KO potential.
  • Lightning Kick:
    • Change Zelda now uses a specific voice clip when performing either her forward or back aerial; it somewhat resembles Fox, Falco, Pit and Dark Pit's voice clips when they perform Fox Illusion, Falco Phantasm, Palutena Bow and Silver Bow respectively.
    • Change On top of the magic effect, the sweetspots now have additional unique lightning effects on hit. These are purely aesthetic and not to be confused with the electric effect.
    • Buff The sweetspot hitboxes are now static instead of being attached to Zelda's toe. They are slightly larger (1.9u → 2.2u) and extend into the Z-axis (X offset: -1–1), making it easier to land and preventing it from missing due to opponents leaning into the Z-axis.
  • Forward aerial:
    • Buff Forward aerial has less startup (frame 9 → 6), with its total duration reduced as well (FAF 53 → 50).
    • Buff It auto-cancels earlier (frame 50 → 43), although still not fast enough to auto-cancel in a short hop.
    • Nerf Its initial auto-cancel window is shorter (frames 1-3 → 1-2).
  • Back aerial:
    • Buff Back aerial has less ending lag (FAF 53 → 50).
    • Buff It auto-cancels earlier (frame 52 → 45).
    • Buff The sourspots have a longer duration (6-9 → 6-10).
    • Buff The sweetspot has more base knockback (28 → 30).
  • Up aerial:
    • Buff Up aerial has a new late hit that deals 12%, doubling the move's hitbox duration (frames 14-16 → 14-16 (clean)/17-19 (late)).
    • Buff The hitbox is larger (8u → 9u).
    • Change Its hitbox is higher up (Y offset: 23 → 26.5). Combined with its larger size, this noticeably improves its range above Zelda, but introduces a blindspot and makes it very hard (or even impossible) to hit grounded opponents onstage.
    • Buff It has more base knockback (30 → 55), but less knockback scaling (84 → 73 (clean)/70 (late)). Overall, it KOs earlier, especially near the top blast zone.
    • Buff It auto-cancels slightly earlier (frame 55 → 54), with its auto-cancel window no longer exceeding its animation length.
    • Nerf It has a new animation which is longer than the previous one (54 frames → 63). This increases the amount of time Zelda cannot grab the ledge after using the move although the move has interruptibility frames to compensate for its total duration.
  • Down aerial:
    • Buff Down aerial's clean hit is larger, and has an additional hitbox that covers Zelda's lower leg, giving it more range (4u → 4.2u/4u). They are also positioned farther up and down (X offset: 0 → 2/-1). This removes its blind spot and makes it easier to land.
    • Nerf The late hit has smaller hitboxes (6u/6u → 5u/5u), reducing its range and worsening its gimping potential.
    • Buff The removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes improves down aerial's combo potential onstage, combined with its reduced landing lag.

Throws and other attacks

  • Change Zelda's animation when holding a Super Scope or Gust Bellows has been altered, as she now holds the item in a manner similar to a rifle.
  • Grabs:
    • Nerf Standing grab has more ending lag (FAF 38 → 40).
    • Nerf Dash and pivot grabs have more startup lag (frame 11 → 13 (dash), 14 (pivot)).
      • Buff However, dash grab's total duration was not fully compensated (FAF 47 → 48), giving it one frame less ending lag.
    • Nerf Dash grab has less range (Z2 offset: 14.5u → 13.3u).
    • Buff Pivot grab has significantly increased range (Z2 offset: -16.7u → -19.2u), becoming one of the farthest-reaching non-tether pivot grabs in the game.
    • Buff Pivot grab has less ending lag (FAF 45 → 43).
  • Pummel:
    • Buff Pummel deals more hitlag (5 frames → 14), but has significantly less startup (frame 7 → 2) and ending lag (FAF 25 → 8), shortening its duration.
    • Nerf It deals much less damage (3% → 1.3%).
    • Change Zelda grabs and pummels opponents with one hand instead of two.
  • Change Forward, back, and up throws have altered animations, and Zelda's hands emit brighter trails of magic. The speed of these throws no longer depends on the opponent's weight, making them slower for lighter opponents and faster for heavier opponents.
  • Forward throw:
    • Nerf Forward throw deals less damage (12% → 10%) and knockback (70 base/50 scaling → 100/30). This significantly hinders its KO potential despite launching at a lower angle (45° → 42°), to the point it can no longer KO under 215% even near the edge.
      • Change However, the changes to up throw more than compensate due to KOing earlier from any point on stage.
      • Buff The low knockback scaling now gives Zelda a consistent throw to combo into a delayed Phantom.
  • Back throw:
    • Buff Back throw deals more damage (11% → 12%) and has less base knockback (80 → 40), but more knockback scaling (60 → 90), greatly improving its KO potential, especially from center stage.
  • Up throw:
    • Buff Up throw has much higher knockback scaling (60 → 82), allowing it to KO middleweights at around 150%, while in SSB4, it was unable to KO until around 200%.
    • Buff It has increased combo potential due to Zelda's faster jumpsquat and jump speed.
    • Change It sends opponents at a marginally less vertical angle (88° → 87°).
  • Down throw:
    • Buff Down throw's four looping hits deal more damage (1% → 1.5%), increasing its total damage (6% → 8%).
    • Change The looping hits use the fire effect instead of magic.
    • Nerf It has less base knockback (85 → 75), but more knockback scaling (55 → 85), marginally increasing its combo potential at lower percents in combination with Zelda's faster jumpsquat and jump speed while reducing it at higher percents.
    • Nerf It has marginally more ending lag (FAF 70 → 71) and sends opponents at a less vertical angle (100° → 104°), leaving it unable to combo into an up aerial at low-mid percents and further hindering its follow-up potential at high percents.
      • Nerf Due to the more outward angle, neutral aerial is a less reliable follow-up on DI away, forcing the user to use a lightning kick instead, which is much more precise.
  • Edge attack:
    • Buff Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

  • Nayru's Love:
    • Buff It no longer halts vertical momentum, allowing Zelda to move in the air while using the move.
    • Buff Its intangibility starts one frame earlier (frame 5 → 4).
    • Nerf Its reflective hitbox has a shorter duration (frames 5-43 → 5-41). The intangibility also ends two frames earlier, reducing its duration by one frame (frames 5-15 → 4-13).
    • Buff The hitboxes have less startup lag (frame 13 → 11), with their total duration reduced as well (FAF 60 → 58).
    • Buff The inner looping hit is larger (6u → 8.5u) and positioned lower (y-offset 8 → 7). This allows it to hit below stage.
      • Nerf However, the inner looping hit does not stretch as far (z-offset -4 to 4 → -0.5 to 0.5), slightly reducing the looping hits' horizontal range against aerial opponents.
      • Change The final hit now has less vertical range than the looping hits, increasing the chance of the move not connecting fully.
  • Din's Fire:
    • Buff Din's Fire no longer leaves Zelda helpless in the air.
    • Change Zelda has a lower gravity upon using the move (0.019 → 0.012).
    • Buff It has improved maneuverability (angle addition per frame 1.375° → 1.645°, maximum angle 74.5° → 78°).
    • Buff It travels a slightly longer distance.
    • Buff The explosion's duration is longer (2 frames → 6 frames).
    • Buff Its hitboxes are larger, especially the sweetspot (2.1u → 3.5u (sweetspot), 4.5u → 4.8u (sourspot)).
    • Change The flame has a more stylized appearance.
  • Farore's Wind:
    • Buff Farore's Wind's first hit has less startup lag (frame 8 → 6), improving its out of shield utility. It also has a longer duration (1 frame → 2).
    • Nerf Zelda's speed is reduced on the move's startup, making her easier to hit and reducing the added distance from a jump.
    • Buff Zelda disappears faster (frame 21 → 17), and consequently begins her teleport sooner.
    • Buff Zelda has more precise angles of teleport direction, allowing her to land its second hit on enemies who DI the initial hit.
    • Nerf Its teleport duration is shorter (20 frames → 18), slightly decreasing its maximum distance.
      • Buff However, in conjunction with the faster startup, this makes the second hit come out faster (frame 41-42 → 35-36) and the move interruptible sooner (FAF 81 → 76).
      • Buff The intangibility duration is marginally shorter (frames 21-39 → 17-34) but is no longer shorter than the teleport duration. Furthermore, there is no longer a single frame of vulnerability before the reappearance hitbox comes out.
    • Change It shows small green orbs that follow Zelda's path during her teleport.
    • Change A more intense green/yellow vortex is produced at the start and end of the move.
    • Nerf The second hit has less base knockback (90 (sweetspots)/70 (sourspots) → 80/60), with only the aerial version's sweetspot having its knockback scaling compensated, though not fully (90 → 94). This hinders its KO potential, especially near the side blast zones for the grounded hits and the top blast zone for the aerial hits.
    • Nerf Due to her higher traction, Zelda does not slide as far on the ground on reappearance, making edge canceling significantly harder.
    • Buff Zelda can drift and fast fall in the air much sooner after reappearing, reducing her vulnerability.
  • Phantom Slash:
    • Change Phantom Slash has been heavily reworked. The Phantom armor assembles itself behind Zelda rather than appearing fully formed out of a portal in front of her. It is a single-press chargeable move; pressing the special move button again will cause the incomplete armor to attack at its current charge level. The move has seven charge levels, with five different types of attacks:
      • 1st: Kick (frame 15)
      • 2nd: Punch (frame 20)
      • 3rd: Outward slash (frame 28)
      • 4th: Overhead slash (frame 38)
      • 5th: Upward slash (frame 50, can be delayed up to frame 120)
    • Buff Most notably, the new overhead slash makes it harder for opponents to jump over the Phantom to punish Zelda during the move's charge.
      • Buff Combined with the Phantom's much faster charge, the move has significantly improved zoning utility.
    • Buff If she doesn't release the Phantom, Zelda can now move freely starting on frame 67 while the Phantom remains in place. This creates a significant overlap between frames 67 and 120 where Zelda can simultaneously move freely and manually release the fully charged Phantom at any moment.
      • Buff Zelda can use the Phantom's automatic release on frame 120 as a trap and attack the opponent in tandem with the trap, retreat behind the Phantom for protection, or use the large window of manual release versus waiting as a mind game. This improves Zelda's neutral game and advantage state, and also discourages the opponent from reflecting the Phantom since she has enough time to respond with Nayru's Love.
    • Buff All attacks have a longer hitbox duration, and all after the first also have less startup (frame 11 (1st), 13-14 (2nd), 18-19, 24-27 (3rd) → frames 11-12 (kick), 8-12 (punch), 8-11 (outward/overhead slash), 7-17 (upward slash)).
    • Buff Releasing the Phantom has less ending lag (FAF 47 → 40).
    • Buff There is no longer a cooldown if the Phantom is destroyed. Once the armor disappears, the move can be used again immediately, improving the Phantom's bodyblocking utility.
    • Buff The Phantom's windboxes are stronger, especially for the highest charges. This improves the move's consistency and gimping potential.
    • Nerf Phantom Slash deals less damage overall, especially when fully charged (≈6%-≈8% (1st level), ≈11%-≈15% (2nd), ≈24% total (3rd) → 5.9% (kick), 8.2% (punch), 10.5%/11.8% (outward slash), 14.1%/15.4% (overhead slash), 17.7% (upward slash)), as the fully charged hit only hits once. It has also received negative shield damage (0 → -1, -1.5, -2, -2.5, -3).
    • Nerf The Phantom charges behind Zelda instead of in front, leaving her more vulnerable since it has to travel a short distance before it can hit in front of her.
    • Change The last level has more base knockback (32 → 60), but less knockback scaling (100 → 75), and launches at a lower angle (50° → 46°). This make it better for KOing at the ledge, but worse from afar.
  • Final Smash:
    • Change Zelda has a new Final Smash called Triforce of Wisdom. She magically opens a glowing, triangular portal that sucks in the opponent and immobilizes them while dealing damage. If the opponent is at or above 100% damage before the portal closes, they are "sealed away" and instantly KO'd; otherwise, they receive set knockback. Other opponents above 100% damage can be launched significantly if they are within a certain radius of the portal when it closes.
    • Buff Compared to Light Arrow, Triforce of Wisdom has a significantly longer duration and more range covering the entire stage, making it almost impossible to avoid. It also deals more total damage (40% → 67%).
    • Nerf Triforce of Wisdom can only trap one opponent, making it less effective in battles with more than two players.
    • Change Triforce of Wisdom does not produce the Home-Run Bat sound effect, unlike Light Arrow.

Update history

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 neutral aerial connecting better and having less landing lag, 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. In 13.0.0, the first hit of her neutral attack was made slightly faster, somewhat improving its consistency as a combo starter, her up and down smash inflict more knockback, and her down aerial's sweetspot is significantly 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. However, Zelda has also received minor nerfs to Phantom Slash; in update 3.0.0, its shield damage was reduced, hindering its potency in shield break setups, while in update 9.0.2, a bugfix removed a technique that allowed Zelda to spawn the Phantom in front of her, granting more protection during the charge.


Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 3.0.0

  • Nerf Phantom Slash deals less shield damage (0 (all) → -1 (1st charge)/-1.5 (2nd charge)/-2 (3rd charge)/-2.5 (4th charge)/-3 (5th charge)).

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 4.0.0

  • Change Medium and fast walking animations have been adjusted to prevent her dress from clipping.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 7.0.0

  • Buff Overall shield size has been increased.
  • Buff Forward tilt deals more damage (10%/12% → 11.5%/15%), with knockback scaling not fully compensated (70/70 → 68/69). This significantly improves its KO potential to the point it is even stronger than in Smash 4, with the sweetspot KOing at around 120% from the center of Final Destination.
  • Change Neutral aerial's looping hits launch aerial opponents at more horizontal angles (92°/270°/92°/270° → 132°/230°/152°/210°), causing them to connect more reliably if Zelda is drifting away, but less reliably when Zelda is rising or falling.
    • Nerf Due to now sending toward Zelda's opposite side, the final hit's launch direction is much more volatile. This makes follow-ups more difficult, especially from an auto-canceled short hop.
  • Buff Neutral aerial has less landing lag (15 frames → 12), matching its Brawl counterpart. This improves its combo potential, making KO setups into Lightning Kicks more reliable.
  • Buff Up aerial has a bigger hitbox (8u → 9u), increasing its range.
  • Buff Up aerial's clean hit has more knockback scaling (70 → 73).
  • Buff Up aerial has a new late hit that increases its duration (frames 14-16 → 14-19), and deals less damage (17% → 12%) with knockback not compensated.
  • Buff Din's Fire's sweetspot is larger (2.6u → 3.5u), and the explosion's hitbox is active for longer (4 frames → 6).
  • Buff Phantom Slash deals more damage on all charges (4.7% → 5.9% (level 1), 6.6% → 8.2% (level 2), 8.5%/9.4% → 10.5%/11.8% (level 3), 11.3%/12.2% → 14.1%/15.4% (level 4), 14.1% → 17.7% (level 5)), with knockback scaling partly compensated on the highest two charges (60 → 57 (level 4), 75 → 68 (level 5)).

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 9.0.2

  • Bug fix Fixed an issue where Zelda's momentum after using Phantom in the air was different from what was intended.
    • Nerf This means she can no longer exploit this bug to improve the move's safety.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 10.1.0

  • Buff Forward smash has received various adjustments that allow the move to connect more reliably:
    • Buff The first four hits send at an autolink angle (25°/165 → 366° (both)) and have more set knockback (40/50 → 60 (both)).
      • Nerf This tends to pull opponents toward the center of the near hitbox. In the majority of cases, this marginally reduces the move's KO potential compared to before.
    • Buff The last hit's hitbox at Zelda's arm is slightly larger (5.5u → 5.7u).
    • Buff All hits have received a -100% trip chance, preventing them from tripping opponents and missing subsequent hits due to the trip's intangibility.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 11.0.0

  • Change Changed the length of vulnerability when crumpling to be consistent with other fighters.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 13.0.0

  • Buff The first hit of neutral attack has less ending lag (FAF 25 → 24).
  • Buff Neutral infinite's loop hits deal more damage (0.2% → 0.4%).
  • Buff Up smash has higher knockback scaling (214 → 222).
  • Buff Down smash has higher knockback scaling (86 (front)/96 (back) → 89/100).
  • Buff Down aerial's clean hit has a larger hitbox (3.2u/3u → 4.2u/4u).

Moveset

For a gallery of Zelda's hitboxes, see here.

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

  Name Damage Description
Neutral attack Short Flash (ショートフラッシュ) / Rapid Flash (ラピッドフラッシュ) / Flash Finish (フラッシュフィニッシュ) 2.5% (hits 1-2) Extends her palm to emit a burst of magical energy, then follows up with a series of several magical bursts before finishing with a slightly larger blast, which can KO near the edge at reasonable percentages. Unlike in the previous games, where it was the slowest at frame 11, it now comes out quickly, at frame 4. While it has decent disjoint range, it can miss shorter characters due to its high hitbox placement. The rapid jab is especially potent in calling out fast grounded approaches and some low non-disjointed aerial approaches. At low percentages, it is specifically good at setting up for Tech-chasing.
0.4% (loop), 3% (end)
Forward tilt Magical Cutter (マジカルカッター) 15% (hand, blade), 11.5% (arm) A magically-infused outward knifehand strike. It can be angled and has two sweet spots (one on her hand and the other being a blade of magic) that possess respectable power. Its sweet spot KOs middleweights at around 93% while near the edge of Final Destination. It has three sour spots, which are located on Zelda's arm and take priority over the sweet spots, is also reliable for KOing in spite of being noticeably weaker. Its sour spots KO middleweights at around 109% while near the edge of Final Destination. Due to its somewhat low ending lag for its power (24 frames), it's safe on shield with good spacing, and thanks to its five hitboxes sharing almost identical knockback values, it has good range. However, it has noticeable startup lag at frame 12, as well as small and narrow hitboxes, and it can sometimes miss small or crouching characters.
Up tilt Barricader (バリケーダー) 7.2% 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 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, up smash, Nayru's Love, and Farore's Wind at low percentages; into neutral aerial from low to medium percentages as well as into Lightning Kick out of a reversed up tilt; and up aerial at medium percentages out of a reversed up tilt. It is also good as an anti-air attack thanks to its long active duration.
Down tilt Low Kick (ローキック) 5.5% A kneeling low-level roundhouse 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 safe poke. It can, however, combo into a dash attack or neutral aerial at mid percentages. With proper timing, it can also be a KO combo into forward aerial.
Dash attack Quick Palm Shot (クイックパームショット) 12% (clean sweet spot), 9% (clean sour spot), 6% (late) A double palm thrust that emits a blast of magical energy from her hands, similarly to Peach's dash attack. The sweet spot 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 sweet spot's base is strong enough to KO middleweights at around 99% while near the edge of Final Destination. However, it has a noticeable ending lag, while its other hitboxes lack KO potential.
Forward smash Shining Palm Shot (シャイニングパームショット) 1% (hits 1-4), 13% (hit 5) A palm thrust that emits a multiple-hitting blast of magical energy. Its last hit's respectable damage output and very high knockback growth make it strong enough to KO middleweights at around 65% 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, with 26 frames, it is safe on shield and very hard to punish with good spacing. Due to it hitting on frame 16, however, it has the highest start-up lag out of Zelda's smash attacks.
Up smash Power Steer (パワースティア) 2% (hits 1-4), 0.8% (hits 5-6), 5% (hit 7) Waves her arm twice in an overhead fanning motion while her hand is infused with magical energy. It hits on frame 9, which is fairly fast for a smash attack. When coupled with its multiple hits and its last hit's extremely high knockback growth, it is useful for both KOing and pressuring shields. Its last hit KOs aerial middleweights at around 104% from anywhere on Final Destination. It also has some combo potential at low percents, and the looping hits of neutral aerial can connect into an up smash. However, it has minimal horizontal range, long duration and 30 frames of ending lag, thus making it punishable if not used properly.
Down smash Spinning Low Kick (スピニングローキック) 12% (front), 10% (back) A spinning, low-level roundhouse kick. Due to it hitting on frame 5, it is tied with Mario, Dr. Mario, Pit, Dark Pit, Ryu, and Ken's down smashes for the second-fastest smash attack of any kind in the game, being surpassed only by Meta Knight's buffered down smash. It is also a semi-spike that hits on both sides, which makes it very useful for punishing rolls or setting up an edge-guard. Although it is Zelda's weakest smash attack, it is still quite powerful and has rather low ending lag. While its back hit has more knockback scaling, the front hit KOs earlier due to its higher damage. Its front hit KOs middleweights at around 117% while near the edge of Final Destination. In comparison, its back hit KOs them at around 122% while near the edge of Final Destination.
Neutral aerial Zelda Spin (ゼルダスピン) 2.5% (hits 1-4, front), 1.5% (hits 1-4, back), 5% (hit 5) 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. Although the move was buffed in order to make the multi-hit more consistent, opponents can 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 in the multi-hit portion.
Forward aerial Lightning Kick (Front) (稲妻キック（前）) 20% (clean foot), 4% (clean leg, late) A magically-infused flying kick. Its sweet spot is at the tip of her foot, 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, although faster and marginally stronger, making it the strongest forward aerial in the game. 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 have less landing lag. However, the sweet spot only lasts for one frame when the hitboxes become active, and the sour spots lack KO potential and are very unsafe because of their extremely low damage outputs and average knockback growth. Its considerable ending lag also makes it punishable at low percentages, even if it is sweet spotted, and due to the aforementioned very low damage and knockback, the sour spot can lock opponents and set-up in other moves, 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.
Back aerial Lightning Kick (Back) (稲妻キック（後）) 20% (clean foot), 4% (clean leg, late) A magically-infused flying kick. It functions almost identically to forward aerial, with the only difference being that its sweet spot has slightly more base knockback and knockback growth. Its sweet spot KOs 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.
Up aerial Condense Blast (コンデンスブラスト) 17% (clean hit), 12% (late hit) Leans back and turns slightly to extend her arm in order to use her magic to create a fiery explosion 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 sweet spotted, 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.
Down aerial Meteor Heel (マイルドメテオヒール, Mild Meteor Heel) 16% (clean), 5% (late, leg), 4% (late, foot) A magically-infused stomp, also known as the Lightning Stomp. All of its hitboxes are meteor smashes, with its sweet spot being the most powerful among them and they can also lock opponents. Its sour spot, 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 sweet spot to start combos on grounded opponents quite reliably, as it can lock. 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. It can also autocancel in a short hop.
Grab Holding (ホールディング) — Restrains the opponent with magic. Zelda's grabs have long-range and are somewhat disjointed, with her pivot grab being one of the longest non-tether pivot grabs, but also have a noticeable start-up and ending lag.
Pummel Holding Attack (ホールディングアタック) 1.3% A blast of magical energy. Moderate speed and damage.
Forward throw Force Move (フォースムーブ) 10% Magically spins the opponent in front of herself and then throws them away. It is useful for setting up edge-guards thanks to its high base knockback and good damage output but lacks KO potential because of its low knockback growth, often not KOing until 200% without rage. However, it puts the opponent in a dangerous position.
Back throw Force Back Move (フォースバックムーブ) 12% Magically spins the opponent and turns around with them in tow before throwing them away. In addition to being good for setting up edge guards, it is among the strongest throws in the game, KOing middleweights at around 105% while near the edge of Final Destination.
Up throw Force Top Move (フォーストップムーブ) 11% Magically spins the opponent overhead and then throws them upward. It is one of the most damaging up throws in the game and has both excellent KO potential and decent combo potential, but it only applies to heavyweights and fast-fallers, as it can combo into neutral aerial at low percentages against such characters; In addition to its combo 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. Overall, these attributes make it one of the best up throws in the game.
Down throw Plasma Beat (プラズマビート) 1.5% (hits 1-4), 2% (throw) Magically shoves the opponent underneath herself and then blasts them with fiery, magical energy from her hands. It functions as Zelda's only true combo throw, launching up and behind Zelda, allowing it to combo into neutral aerial, up aerial, back aerial, forward aerial, as well as neutral special and up special. Its angle is heavily affected by DI, but DI can be reacted to for a guaranteed follow-up. Its up aerial and back aerial combo at mid percentages are fairly consistent, especially with proper timing. Its up aerial combo also boasts the ability to KO characters at high percentages. However, this combo will lose its effectiveness if Zelda has too much rage.
Forward roll
Back roll
Spot dodge
Air dodge 		— —
Techs — —
Floor attack (front)
Floor getups (front) 		  7% Kicks in front of herself and then behind herself.
Floor attack (back)
Floor getups (back) 		  7% Kicks in front of herself and then behind herself.
Floor attack (trip)
Floor getups (trip) 		  5% Kicks around herself.
Edge attack
Edge getups 		  9% Performs a kick while climbing up.
Neutral special Nayru's Love 2% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4, close), 4% (hit 4, tip) 1.25× (reflected projectiles) Creates a crystalline barrier around herself. The barrier deals damage and reflects projectiles with 25% more power and speed than they originally had. It also grants intangibility on frames 4-13, making it good as a defensive option against combos. However, it has a moderate start-up for its hitboxes (frame 11) and considerable ending lag, making it punishable if used recklessly, so it must be used carefully and not overused to avoid punishment.
Side special Din's Fire 7%-14% (sweet spot), 3.5%-7% (sour spot) Launches a magical fireball. It can be aimed up or down, and releasing the button causes it to explode. It has a large hitbox, and despite being a projectile, it cannot be reflected but only 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 sweet spot, which is located in the inner part of the explosion, is quite powerful, especially when fully charged. It is very useful for edge guarding. Fully charged sweet spotted Din's Fire KOs middleweights at around 87% while near the edge of Final Destination. However, it is very predictable, and its sour spot is very weak regardless of its charge.
Up special Farore's Wind 6% (hit 1), 10% (grounded hit 2 near), 7% (grounded hit 2 far), 12% (aerial hit 2 near), 8% (aerial hit 2 far) Warps in a given direction. It travels a long distance and can be angled in eight directions similarly to Fox's Fire Fox, but is much faster compared to it. It deals damage upon contact while disappearing and while reappearing, and grants intangibility on frames 21-39. When combined with a jump, its travel distance is greatly increased. Its grounded disappearance has very high base knockback, very low knockback growth and launches at 91°, all of which enable it to combo easily into its reappearance when it is aimed upward. In comparison, its reappearance has a sweet spot near Zelda that has a decent damage output, high base knockback, and high knockback growth, all of which makes it very reliable at KOing, especially near the upper blast line. Its sweet spotted reappearance KOs middleweights at around 68% while near the upper blast line of Final Destination and in conjunction with the initial grounded hit, while the grounded reappearance can KO middleweights at around 71% from the edge of Final Destination. However, its reappearance has a sour spot that, although safe, lacks KO potential because of its lower damage output and average base knockback, and due to it incurring helplessness, it is highly punishable if whiffed. It can be edge-canceled, a trait it shares with Sheik's Vanish, Mewtwo's Teleport and Palutena's Warp.
Down special Phantom Slash 5.9% (level 1), 8.2% (level 2), 10.5%/11.8% (level 3) 14.1%/15.4% (level 4), 17.7% (level 5) Conjures a Phantom piece by piece and propels it forward with another button press. Serves as a projectile with varying attacks reaching various levels of 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.
Final Smash Triforce of Wisdom 7% (initial vacuum), 3% (subsequent vacuum), 60% (main) Uses the 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 Dream Land or Mushroom Kingdom II), due to its long duration and large vacuum hitboxes.

Stats

Stats Weight Dash speed Walk speed Traction Air friction Air speed Air acceleration Gravity Falling speed Jumpsquat Jump height Double jump height
Value 85 1.958 – Initial dash
1.43 – Run 		0.914 0.116 0.006 1.092 0.01 – Base
0.055 – Additional 		0.071 1.35 – Base
2.16 – Fast-fall 		3 31.55 - Base
15.24 - Short hop 		31.55

Announcer call

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The editor who added this tag suggests: Needs announcer calls from other languages.
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  • English/Japanese/Chinese

On-screen appearance

  • Appears facing the screen, generating magical sparkles from between cupped hands. Zelda then flourishes her hands while smiling before assuming her idle pose.
  • Zelda's on-screen appearance

    Zelda's on-screen appearance

Taunts

  • Up taunt: Places her hand on her hip, while generating magic and twirling it in front of her.
  • Side taunt: Closes her eyes and summons Din's Fire between cupped hands.
  • Down Taunt: Giggles and waves with a smile.
  • Zelda's up taunt.

    Zelda's up taunt.

  • Zelda's side taunt.

    Zelda's side taunt.

  • Zelda's down taunt.

    Zelda's down taunt.

Idle poses

  • Brushes her hair while looking back.
  • Smiles and performs a pondering gesture with a finger tapping her cheek.
  • Zelda's first idle pose.

    Zelda's first idle pose.

  • Zelda's second idle pose.

    Zelda's second idle pose.

Crowd cheer

Cheer (English) Cheer (Japanese/Chinese) Cheer (Italian) Cheer (Dutch) Cheer (French)
Cheer
NTSC

PAL
Description Zel - da! Zel - da! Zeeeeel - da! Zel - da! Zel - da!
Cheer (German) Cheer (Spanish) Cheer (Russian) Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
NTSC

PAL
Description Zel - da! Zeeeeel - da! Zel - da! Zel - da! Zelda!

Victory poses

  • Left: Creates magic with her fingertips and waves it around.
  • Up: Creates fire from her fingertip and waves it around while giggling.
  • Right: Summons a Phantom behind her with a snap of her finger and poses with it.
A flourished and abridged remix of the theme that plays when Link obtains a Triforce Piece in The Legend of Zelda and has since become the main theme of The Legend of Zelda series.
  • ZeldaVictoryPose1SSBU.gif
  • ZeldaVictoryPose2SSBU.gif
  • ZeldaVictoryPose3SSBU.gif

In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Zelda players (SSBU)

Tier placement and history

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 jab and 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 Mystearica, Naskino, and ven, led many to believe the character was a solid mid-tier, with some arguing that she could be a potential high-tier.

This optimism did not last for long, as Zelda's polarizing nature became more noticeable as time went on: despite receiving buffs in updates 7.0.0 and 13.0.0 that improved her consistency, Zelda's poor mobility, disadvantage, and highly risky neutral remained critical weaknesses. As a result, Zelda players began struggling in the developing metagame, and they either dropped the character (such as Mystearica) or saw worse results and consistency than before (such as ven). Although Naskino continued to do well in Europe and Yn began making waves in Japan in early-2023, opinions on Zelda continued to decline, and as a result she sits at 75th out of 82 on the first tier list, rising two spots in the second and current one. Although it is her best placement in the series and she is far better than all her previous incarnations, she is currently placed in low-tier.

Classic Mode: Wisdom Prevails

Zelda's congratulations screen.

Zelda's opponents are antagonists and she fights each of them on stages that hail from The Legend of Zelda series.

Round Opponent Stage Music Notes
1 Wario (SSBU) Wario Great Plateau Tower Main Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2 Bowser (SSBU) Bowser Skyloft Ballad of the Goddess (Original)
3 Mii Swordfighter (SSBU) Mii Swordfighter (×5) Temple Temple Theme Horde Battle.
The Mii Swordfighters are dressed in the Yiga Clan Mask and Yiga Clan Outfit.
4 Giant King K. Rool (SSBU) King K. Rool Bridge of Eldin Dark World (for 3DS / Wii U) A possible reference to King Bulblin.
5 Dark Samus (SSBU) Dark Samus Gerudo Valley Hidden Mountain & Forest
6 Link (SSBU) Link (×4) Hyrule Castle Great Temple / Temple
Bonus Stage
Final Ganondorf (SSBU) Ganondorf, then Ganon Sacred Land Calamity Ganon Battle - Second Form (Ganondorf)
Death Mountain (Ganon)		 A Maxim Tomato spawns on the stage after Ganondorf is KO'd.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Zelda has Hidden Mountain & Forest accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light

Finding Zelda in World of Light

Zelda was among the fighters that were summoned to fight the army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Zelda tried to rally the other fighters to fight the army of Master Hands by saying, "Stow your fear; it's now or never!" ("ここまで来たらやるしかないでしょう!", Now that we've made it this far, there's no turning back!), and was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. She and Mewtwo attempted to reflect the beams using Nayru's Love and Confusion, respectively, but this attempt failed, and both of them were vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters (excluding Kirby).

Zelda was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. She is unlocked in The Dark Realm at Sacred Land, on the bottom left corner of the land which makes up the Triforce of Wisdom. The player must defeat the spirit of Impa (which is revealed by solving a clock-based puzzle) to clear a boulder that's blocking the path to her unlock battle and then the Zael and Uxie, Mesprit, & Azelf spirits. Unlocking her reveals the Triforce of Wisdom in the center of the map. If Young Link is unlocked, the boulders leading to Cloud's unlock battle and the Master Sword clear out.

Zelda is later seen among several other fighters, making their last stand against Galeem and Dharkon. She is also seen in the bad ending where Galeem emerges victorious against Dharkon, witnessing Galeem engulf the world in light.

Fighter Battle

No. Image Name Type Power Stage Music
17
Zelda SSBU.png
 Zelda
Shield
Shield
 10,100 Temple (Ω form) Ocarina of Time Medley

Spirits

Zelda's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Zelda has been unlocked. Unlocking Zelda in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Her fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with her artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, different incarnations of Zelda appear as primary and support spirits.

  • 173. Zelda

    173. Zelda

  • 189. Young Zelda

    189. Young Zelda

  • 190. Zelda (Ocarina of Time)

    190. Zelda (Ocarina of Time)

  • 238. Zelda (Breath of the Wild)

    238. Zelda (Breath of the Wild)

  • 247. Zelda (The Wind Waker)

    247. Zelda (The Wind Waker)

  • 259. Zelda (Spirit Tracks)

    259. Zelda (Spirit Tracks)

In Spirit Battles

As the main opponent

Spirit Battle parameters
No. Image Name Series Enemy Fighter(s) Type Power Stage Rules Conditions Music
187
SSBU spirit Marin.png
 Marin The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Link Link (SSBU)
Shield
 4,600 Tortimer Island (Battlefield form) •Hazard: Slumber Floor •The floor is sleep-inducing
•Timed battle (1:30) 		Tal Tal Heights
189
SSBU spirit Young Zelda.png
 Young Zelda The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Young Link Young Link (SSBU)
Shield
 3,700 Hyrule Castle N/A •Take your strongest team into this no-frills battle Ocarina of Time Medley
195
SSBU spirit Malon.png
 Malon The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Shield
 3,600 Smashville •Item Tidal Wave
•Item: Cucco 		•The enemy becomes more powerful after eating
•Certain items will appear in large numbers 		Ocarina of Time Medley
201
SSBU spirit Great Fairy.png
 Great Fairy The Legend of Zelda Series •Giant Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Shield
 9,500 Fountain of Dreams (Battlefield form) •Health Recovery •The enemy's special moves have increased power
•The enemy is healed significantly when the enemy's at high damage
•The enemy's FS Meter charges quickly 		Ocarina of Time Medley
215
SSBU spirit Din.png
 Din The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)×2
Attack
 4,000 Bridge of Eldin (Battlefield form) •Hazard: Lava Floor •The floor is lava
•The enemy favors side specials 		Ballad of the Goddess (Remix)
216
SSBU spirit Nayru.png
 Nayru The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)×2
Shield
 3,500 Bridge of Eldin •Temporary Invincibility •The enemy will occasionally be invincible after a little while
•The enemy favors neutral specials 		Ballad of the Goddess (Original)
236
SSBU spirit Hilda (The Legend of Zelda).png
 Hilda (The Legend of Zelda) The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Bunny Young Link Young Link (SSBU)
Shield
 9,100 Temple •Assist Trophy Enemies (Nightmare) •Hostile assist trophies will appear Lorule Main Theme
238
SSBU spirit Zelda (Breath of the Wild).png
 Zelda (Breath of the Wild) The Legend of Zelda Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU) (50 HP)
•Link Link (SSBU) (60 HP)
•Inkling Inkling (SSBU) (30 HP)
•Donkey Kong Donkey Kong (SSBU) (60 HP)
•Falco Falco (SSBU) (50 HP)
•Zero Suit Samus Zero Suit Samus (SSBU) (50 HP)
Shield
 9,200 Great Plateau Tower N/A •Stamina battle
•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd
•Defeat an army of fighters 		Main Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
258
SSBU spirit Phantom.png
 Phantom The Legend of Zelda Series •Clear Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Shield
 3,800 Spirit Train (Battlefield form) N/A •The enemy's down special has increased power
•The enemy favors down specials
•The enemy is invisible 		Full Steam Ahead
582
Hinawa
 Hinawa EarthBound Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Lucas Lucas (SSBU)Lucas (SSBU)
Attack
 13,100 Yoshi's Island •Easy to Launch •All fighters are easy to launch Mother 3 Love Theme
659
SSBU spirit Mist.png
 Mist Fire Emblem Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Ike Ike (SSBU)
Grab
 3,500 Reset Bomb Forest (hazards off) •Health Recovery
•Defense ↑ 		•The enemy has increased defense when the enemy's at high damage
•The enemy is healed when the enemy's at high damage 		Victory Is Near
1,053
SSBU spirit Maria Renard.png
 Maria Renard Castlevania Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Falco Falco (SSBU)
•Charizard Charizard (SSBU)
•Incineroar Incineroar (SSBU)
Grab
 3,700 Reset Bomb Forest (hazards off) N/A •The enemy starts the battle with a Cucco Slash
1,065
SSBU spirit Charlotte Aulin.png
 Charlotte Aulin Castlevania Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Richter Richter (SSBU)
Attack
 3,700 Bridge of Eldin (Battlefield form) N/A •The enemy's special moves have increased power
•The enemy favors side specials
•Reinforcements will appear during the battle 		Hail from the Past
1,174
Source: https://youtu.be/9HtomHkLa3Q?t=72
 Jenna Golden Sun Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Shield
 3,500 Temple (Battlefield form) •Assist Trophy Enemies (Isaac) •Hostile assist trophies will appear
•The enemy favors side specials 		Battle Scene / Final Boss - Golden Sun
1,236
protagonist
 Shop Assistant Style Savvy Series North America
Nintendo presents: Style Boutique Series PAL 		•Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Attack
 3,600 Tomodachi Life •Item: Transforming Types •The enemy is easily distracted by items Style Savvy: Trendsetters
1,241
Yuri kozukata fatal frame
 Yuri Kozukata Fatal Frame Series North America
Project Zero Series PAL 		•Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Attack
 9,200 Luigi's Mansion •Assist Trophy Enemies (Yuri Kozukata) •Hostile assist trophies will appear Main Theme - Luigi's Mansion (Brawl)
1,365
SSBU spirit Nakoruru.png
 Nakoruru SAMURAI SHODOWN Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU) (140 HP)
•Tiny Falco Falco (SSBU) (40 HP)
Shield
 3,800 Yoshi's Island (winter) •Attack Power ↑
•Item: Swords 		•Defeat the main fighter to win
•Stamina battle
•The enemy has increased attack power when the enemy's at high damage 		Banquet of Nature - SAMURAI SHODOWN
1,442
SSBU spirit Aerith.png
 Aerith FINAL FANTASY Series •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Cloud Cloud (SSBU)
Shield
 7,500 Fountain of Dreams •Health Recovery •Defeat the main fighter to win
•The enemy is healed after a little while 		Aerith's Theme
•Mii Swordfighter Mii Swordfighter (SSBU) (Moveset 1312, Aerith's outfit, Normal Voice Type 6)[SB 1]
•Cloud Cloud (SSBU)
1,489
SSBU spirit Kokorowa.png
 Kokorowa Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin •Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•R.O.B. R.O.B. (SSBU)×2 (INT)/R.O.B. (SSBU)×2 (JP/CH/KR)
Shield
 3,700 Suzaku Castle N/A •Defeat the main fighter to win
•The enemy favors down specials 		Boss 1 - Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword

As a minion

Spirit Battle parameters Inspiration
No. Image Name Series Enemy Fighter(s) Type Power Stage Rules Conditions Music Character
1,107
SSBU spirit Fighting Alloy Team.png
 Fighting Alloy Team Super Smash Bros. Series •Captain Falcon Team Captain Falcon (SSBU)×4
•Zelda Team Zelda (SSBU)×4
•Mario Team Mario (SSBU)×4
•Kirby Team Kirby (SSBU)×4
Attack
 3,300 Final Destination (Battlefield form) N/A •Take your strongest team into this no-frills battle Cruel Smash Blue Alloy
1,246
SSBU spirit Orville.png
 Orville Takt of Magic •Robin Robin (SSBU)
•Pit Pit (SSBU)
•Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Grab
 3,400 PictoChat 2 N/A •Defeat the main fighter to win Struggle Against Chaos Charlotte (Takt of Magic)
1,328
SSBU spirit Hero's Comrades.png
 Hero's Comrades DRAGON QUEST Series •Ike Ike (SSBU) (120 HP)
•Tiny King Dedede King Dedede (SSBU) (120 HP)
•Zero Suit Samus Zero Suit Samus (SSBU) (100 HP)
•Sheik Sheik (SSBU) (130 HP)
•Tiny Robin Robin (SSBU) (90 HP)
•Zelda Zelda (SSBU) (110 HP)
•Link Link (SSBU) (100 HP)
Shield
 13,300 Yggdrasil's Altar N/A •The enemy has increased melee-weapon damage and move speed
•The enemy's smash attacks have increased power
•Stamina battle 		The Hero Goes Forth with a Determination Serena
1,411
SSBU spirit Duran & Angela.png
 Duran & Angela Mana Series •Roy Roy (SSBU)
•Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Tiny Bunny Kirby Kirby (SSBU)×2
Attack
 9,200 Gaur Plain (Ω form) •Item: Ramblin' Evil Mushroom •Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd Filled with Hope Angela
1,456
SSBU spirit Seth & Gloria.png
 Seth & Gloria Bravely Default Series •Mii Swordfighter Mii Swordfighter (SSBU) (Moveset: 3223, Chrom Wig, Dunban Outfit)
•Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Shield
 9,400 Delfino Plaza (Large Island) •Health Recovery
•Defense ↑
•Item: Swords 		•The enemy has increased defense after a little while
•The enemy is healed when the enemy's at high damage
•The enemy's melee blows will heal them when they hit 		Jergingha - Planet Destruction Form Gloria
1,461
SSBU spirit Lora.png
 Lora Xenoblade Chronicles Series •Lucina Lucina (SSBU)
•Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
•Cloud Cloud (SSBU)
Grab
 3,800 Jungle Japes (Battlefield form) N/A •Defeat the main fighter to win Battle!!/Torna Haze
1,514
SSBU spirit Rauru.png
 Rauru The Legend of Zelda Series •Mewtwo Mewtwo (SSBU) (100 HP)
•Zelda Zelda (SSBU) (70 HP)
•Giant R.O.B. R.O.B. (SSBU) (70 HP)
•Robin Robin (SSBU) (60 HP)
•Inkling Inkling (SSBU) (60 HP)
•Charizard Charizard (SSBU) (60 HP)
•Pit Pit (SSBU) (60 HP)
Neutral
 13,000 Temple (Battlefield form) N/A •Stamina battle
•The enemy favors neutral specials
•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd 		Calamity Ganon Battle - Second Form Zelda (Tears of the Kingdom)

As an ally

Spirit Battle parameters Inspiration
No. Image Name Series Enemy Fighter(s) Type Power Stage Rules Conditions Music Character
243
SSBU spirit Calamity Ganon.png
 Calamity Ganon The Legend of Zelda Series •Giant Ganondorf Ganondorf (SSBU)
•Ally: Zelda Zelda (SSBU)
Attack
 13,900 Great Plateau Tower (Ω form) •Sudden Damage •You lose if your CPU ally is KO'd
•You'll occasionally take sudden damage after a little while
•The enemy is giant 		Calamity Ganon Battle - Second Form Zelda (Breath of the Wild)
  1. ^ This alternative occurs when the corresponding DLC has been purchased and downloaded.

Alternate costumes

Palette swap (SSBU)
Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU) Zelda (SSBU)

Gallery

Fighter Showcase Video

Trivia

  • Masahiro Sakurai chose to base Zelda's design in Ultimate off of her A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds incarnations instead of her more recent Breath of the Wild incarnation because that version of Zelda, according to him, "is more into research than fighting."[1][2][3][4] He also mentioned in a subsequent Nintendo Treehouse Live event that he chose this design to better represent The Legend of Zelda franchise as a whole instead of having all of its fighters come from the same game.
  • Zelda's current default design was previously an alternate costume in terms of coloration of her model, whereas her previous default design based on Twilight Princess has now become an alternate costume in that same regard.
    • Coincidentally, Zelda was revealed in SSB4 at the same time A Link Between Worlds was released, which inspired her current design.
    • Ironically, despite her Twilight Princess incarnation being retired after this game, even though Ganondorf's design from that game is still directly referenced via a spirit, as well as Link's Wolf form from that game, Zelda is the only returning Zelda character from SSB4 that doesn't have her Twilight Princess design directly referenced in Ultimate at all.
  • Zelda can be unlocked by Kirby via his Classic Mode route, which may reference their team-up from Brawl's Adventure Mode, The Subspace Emissary.
  • Zelda is currently the only playable The Legend of Zelda character in Ultimate whose design originates from either a handheld game or a non-3D game.
  • The World of Light opening marks Zelda's first spoken line of dialogue in the Smash series. This is also the first time in the series that any Zelda character is voiced in English.
    • Zelda is one of the few characters to have her cutscene dialogue dubbed in English, but otherwise keep her Japanese voice actress's battle grunts, after Fox and Falco in Melee. She is also the only character to speak English in a cutscene while still having a Japanese KO line (with her yelling "いやぁっ!" (Nooo!)).
    • Zelda speaks English in all Western language versions of Ultimate, unlike Breath of the Wild, which was dubbed into multiple languages.
    • She is the second Zelda character to speak in Smash, the first being Sheik in Melee.
  • Zelda is the only The Legend of Zelda character whose animations are mirrored.
  • Zelda's Classic Mode route is vaguely similar to Diddy Kong's, as both characters fight villains and/or final bosses of various series for opponents.
  • Zelda, Peach, Falco, Olimar, Duck Hunt, and Dark Pit are the only fighters to appear as allies in Spirit Battles.
  • Ultimate marks the first time Zelda's Kirby hat no longer resembles Young Zelda's wimple from Ocarina of Time, despite her appearance in Melee being based on her adult design from the same game, and her Brawl and SSB4 designs both being based on her appearance in Twilight Princess, which also makes it the first time said Kirby hat is based directly on how she appears in-game.
  • Gravity on Zelda's hair is temporarily disabled whenever she performs her hair-brushing idle pose.

References

  1. ^ a b Masahiro Sakurai (translated by Brando) (2018-06-20). "Smash is Special – Part 1" Sakurai's Famitsu Column Vol. 557. SourceGaming.info (original Japanese publication in Famitsu). Retrieved on 2018-06-20. “Zelda's new design is based on "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"”
  2. ^ a b Dairantou Smash Bros. SPECIAL (E3 2018). Nintendo (2018-06-12). Retrieved on 2018-07-08. “Breath of the Wild Zelda isn't interested in combat, so her design is from A Link to the Past.”
  3. ^ a b Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (North America) - Palutena's Guidance: "Yes, that's Zelda from A Link to the Past. She's a descendant of the Seven Sages. When she was captured, she used telepathy to ask Link for help."
  4. ^ a b Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - E3 2018. Nintendo (2018-06-12). Retrieved on 2018-07-08. “In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Zelda's more into research than fighting, so her design is from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds”.
  5. ^ PushDustIn on Twitter: Zelda is confirmed to be based on Link to the Past AND Link Between Worlds.


v • d • e
Fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Veterans Bayonetta · Bowser · Bowser Jr. · Captain Falcon · Cloud · Corrin · Dark Pit · Diddy Kong · Donkey Kong · Dr. Mario · Duck Hunt · Falco · Fox · Ganondorf · Greninja · Ice Climbers · Ike · Jigglypuff · King Dedede · Kirby · Link · Little Mac · Lucario · Lucas · Lucina · Luigi · Mario · Marth · Mega Man · Meta Knight · Mewtwo · Mii Fighter (Mii Brawler · Mii Gunner · Mii Swordfighter) · Mr. Game & Watch · Ness · Olimar · Pac-Man · Palutena · Peach · Pichu · Pikachu · Pit · Pokémon Trainer (Charizard · Ivysaur · Squirtle) · R.O.B. · Robin · Rosalina & Luma · Roy · Ryu · Samus · Sheik · Shulk · Snake · Sonic · Toon Link · Villager · Wario · Wii Fit Trainer · Wolf · Yoshi · Young Link · Zelda · Zero Suit Samus
Newcomers Banjo & Kazooie · Byleth · Chrom · Daisy · Dark Samus · Hero · Incineroar · Inkling · Isabelle · Joker · Kazuya · Ken · King K. Rool · Min Min · Piranha Plant · Pyra / Mythra  · Richter · Ridley · Sephiroth · Simon · Sora · Steve · Terry
v • d • e
The Legend of Zelda (universe) The Legend of Zelda universe
Fighters Link (SSB · SSBM · SSBB · SSB4 · SSBU) · Sheik (SSBM · SSBB · SSB4 · SSBU) · Zelda (SSBM · SSBB · SSB4 · SSBU) · Young Link (SSBM · SSBU) · Ganondorf (SSBM · SSBB · SSB4 · SSBU) · Toon Link (SSBB · SSB4 · SSBU)
Assist Trophies Tingle · Skull Kid · Midna · Ghirahim · Moon
Bosses Ganon
Stages Hyrule Castle · Great Bay · Temple · Bridge of Eldin · Pirate Ship · Gerudo Valley · Spirit Train · Skyloft · Great Plateau Tower
Underground Maze (Adventure Mode)
Items Heart Container · Bunny Hood · Deku Nut · Fairy Bottle · Cucco · Bombchu · Beetle · Gust Bellows
Enemies Bubble · Cucco · Darknut · Like Like · Octorok · Peahat · ReDead · Stalfos
Other Bulblin · Dark Link · King Bulblin & Lord Bullbo · King of Red Lions · Koume & Kotake · Majora's Mask · Navi · Phantom · Sacred Land · Tetra · Yiga Clan
Trophies, Stickers and Spirits Trophies (SSBM · SSBB · SSB4) · Stickers · Spirits
Music Brawl · SSB4 · Ultimate
Masterpieces The Legend of Zelda · Zelda II: The Adventure of Link · The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
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