Fighter number

Fighters listed by their number on the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website.

Fighter numbers are a method of identifying and sorting characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Definition

As explained by Masahiro Sakurai, the numbers order characters based on "the order in which they joined the series". They are ordered in the following way:

• SSB (01-12): The starter characters are ordered by their placement on the character selection screen, which in turn is based on each character's first appearance (with Mario and Donkey Kong as the oldest and Pikachu as the newest). The unlockable characters are similar, though they are sorted column-first rather than row-first as the starters are; as such, Ness precedes Captain Falcon despite being created later. This also matches their series debut order, explaining why Ness comes before Captain Falcon.
• Melee (13-26): The starter characters are ordered by their first appearance on Melee's E3 2001 reveal trailer (based on which ones had their faces shown first, meaning that the Ice Climbers and Sheik come before Zelda, whose hand appeared earlier in the trailer). Zelda was the only character on Melee's starting roster who wasn’t revealed to be playable at E3 2001, which could also be the reason why Zelda is placed after Sheik, despite both Melee and Brawl treating her as the primary character and Sheik as an alternate form. The unlockable characters are ordered by how many Vs. Mode matches are required to unlock them, and thus Young Link, Ganondorf, Pichu, and Mewtwo's roles in the reveal trailer are ignored.
• Brawl (27-44): The characters first revealed in Brawl's original trailer are first (in the order they were revealed), followed by the remaining newcomers in the order revealed on the official website. Notably, Pokémon Trainer is not given a fighter number; instead, their three Pokémon (Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard) are numbered, ordered by their cycling order.
• SSB4 (45-63) and Ultimate (64-82): The characters are ordered by when each newcomer was revealed. Pyra and Mythra are given separate numbers.
• Echo Fighters share their number with their "parent" in addition to an apostrophe (') stylistically referred to as "dash" in Japanese and Chinese or a superscript epsilon (^ε) in other languages, regardless of which game they joined in. For example, Samus's fighter number is 04, while Dark Samus's fighter number is 04^ε, despite Dark Samus making her playable debut in Ultimate.

Usage

The fighter numbers are used to order characters on Ultimate's character selection screen and promotional material. The Mii Fighters are the only fighters whose placement on the selection screen does not correspond with their numbers, as they are instead always shown as the last characters on the selection screen, even after DLC characters, likely due to their customizable nature. The only major in-game usage of the fighter numbers is that Echo Fighters, due to not having their own fighter number, can be optionally stacked onto the character they are based on in the character selection screens for Vs. Mode, Special Smash (except for Smashdown), Tourney, and Online modes (except for Quickplay). The only place that the fighter numbers are explicitly shown in-game is on the Move List.

A similar system is used for ordering stages on Ultimate's selection screen, where all stages are ordered by when they first appeared in the series. The only exceptions are stages not based on any franchise (Battlefield, Big Battlefield, Final Destination, and Small Battlefield), which are all placed first on the selection screen even if they debuted in later games. Another quirk involves stages which debuted in and are shared between both versions of Super Smash Bros. 4, which are mixed in with stages that debuted exclusively in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U).

Order

Fighter Number	Fighter
01	Mario
02	Donkey Kong
03	Link
04	Samus
4.504ε	Dark Samus
05	Yoshi
06	Kirby
07	Fox
08	Pikachu
09	Luigi
10	Ness
11	Captain Falcon
12	Jigglypuff
13	Peach
13.513ε	Daisy
14	Bowser
15	Ice Climbers
16	Sheik
17	Zelda
18	Dr. Mario
19	Pichu
20	Falco
21	Marth
21.521ε	Lucina
22	Young Link
23	Ganondorf
24	Mewtwo
25	Roy
25.525ε	Chrom
26	Mr. Game & Watch
27	Meta Knight
28	Pit
28.528ε	Dark Pit
29	Zero Suit Samus
30	Wario
31	Snake
32	Ike
33	Squirtle ( Pokémon Trainer)
34	Ivysaur ( Pokémon Trainer)
35	Charizard ( Pokémon Trainer)
36	Diddy Kong
37	Lucas
38	Sonic
39	King Dedede
40	Olimar
41	Lucario
42	R.O.B.
43	Toon Link
44	Wolf
45	Villager
46	Mega Man
47	Wii Fit Trainer
48	Rosalina & Luma
49	Little Mac
50	Greninja
51	Mii Brawler
52	Mii Swordfighter
53	Mii Gunner
54	Palutena
55	Pac-Man
56	Robin
57	Shulk
58	Bowser Jr.
59	Duck Hunt
60	Ryu
60.560ε	Ken
61	Cloud
62	Corrin
63	Bayonetta
64	Inkling
65	Ridley
66	Simon
66.566ε	Richter
67	King K. Rool
68	Isabelle
69	Incineroar
70	Piranha Plant
71	Joker
72	Hero
73	Banjo & Kazooie
74	Terry
75	Byleth
76	Min Min
77	Steve
78	Sephiroth
79	Pyra
80	Mythra
81	Kazuya
82	Sora

Trivia

The order of the base roster fighters (without Ken and Incineroar, who were not revealed at the time) without Echo Fighters being placed next to their parent fighters.

The back of Ultimate's North American physical case, with many fighters misplaced.

• Coincidentally, Greninja and Inkling have the same fighter numbers as their respective costume numbers in Super Mario Maker.
• Had Echo Fighters been numbered normally (i.e. not grouped with their base fighters), they could be placed accordingly:
  • Dark Pit would have been either between Palutena and Pac-Man or between Shulk and Bowser Jr. Although he was officially revealed after the launch of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, his status as a playable character was teased directly after the reveal of Palutena.
  • Lucina would have been between Pac-Man and Robin.
  • Daisy would have been between Inkling and Ridley.
  • Richter's position would have been unchanged, as he was revealed directly after his base fighter Simon and before Chrom, making him the only Echo Fighter with this trait.
  • Chrom and Dark Samus would have been between Richter and King K. Rool, with Dark Samus listed after Chrom.
  • Ken would have been between Isabelle and Incineroar.
  • If Echo Fighters had been numbered normally, the final number would have been 89 instead of 82.
• Oddly, on the back of the North American physical case of Ultimate, several fighters are misplaced from their fighter number order:
  • Luigi is between Jigglypuff and Peach, rather than between Pikachu and Ness.
  • Zelda is between Young Link and Ganondorf, rather than between Sheik and Dr. Mario.
  • Roy is between Pokémon Trainer and Diddy Kong, rather than between Mewtwo and Chrom.
  • Ike is between Wii Fit Trainer and Rosalina & Luma, rather than between Snake and Pokémon Trainer.
  • Toon Link is between Ken and Bayonetta, rather than between R.O.B. and Wolf.
  • Palutena is between Ridley and Corrin, rather than between the Mii Fighters and Pac-Man.
  • Cloud is between Corrin and Simon, rather than between Ken and Corrin.
• Although fighter numbers debuted in Ultimate, previous games had used similar systems for organizing its fighters.
  • Brawl’s Classic Mode places whomever the player picked first, but the remaining characters are separated by whether they debuted in 64, Melee, or Brawl, with the exception of Jigglypuff being with the Brawl newcomers.
  • The Super Smash Bros. 4 Official Site orders the starting characters almost identically to their fighter numbers. The only exceptions are that Zelda is ordered before Sheik in SSB4, the third-party characters and Miis are ordered after everyone else, and on the website Lucina (the only unlockable character who was revealed before launch) is ordered after Robin despite being revealed first.
  • The character lineup that replaces the opening movie in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS orders starting characters in the same way as the website. The lineup in for 3DS similarly orders the unlockable characters by their debuts, though with Duck Hunt before Bowser Jr. and the three clones (including Lucina) ordered after the other unlockables.
• Although the amount of fighter numbers and the amount of playable characters differ due to Echo Fighters not counting for fighter numbers and transformation characters counting for multiple, competitively speaking the amount of characters counted on the tier list is identical to fighter numbers, despite the different criteria. Lucina, Chrom, and Ken are counted as separate characters due to their significant differences, adding three, while counting Pokémon Trainer and Pyra/Mythra as one slot each subtracts the three from Lucina, Chrom, and Ken.
  • Additionally, by sheer coincidence, Rosalina & Luma's fighter number and tier list position in the first Ultimate tier list are the same number.