Steve (SSBU)

Steve in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Minecraft
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	House of Boom
Tier	S+ (1)

“	Steve Rocks the Block!	”
—Introduction tagline (Steve)

“	Alex Swaps In!	”
—Introduction tagline (Alex)

“	Zombie Spawns In!	”
—Introduction tagline (Zombie)

“	Enderman Steps from the Shadows!	”
—Introduction tagline (Enderman)

Steve (スティーブ, Steve) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the second fighter from Microsoft after Banjo & Kazooie, and the eighth DLC character for Ultimate. He was confirmed as a playable character on October 1st, 2020 as the second downloadable character from Fighters Pass Vol. 2. Alex (アレックス, Alex), a Zombie (ゾンビ, Zombie), and an Enderman (エンダーマン, Enderman) also appear as alternate costumes. Steve was released as part of Challenger Pack 7 on October 13th, 2020 and is classified as Fighter #77.

Steve is ranked 1st out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him at the very top in the S+ tier. Steve's ability to create platforms and walls of his own with Mine / Craft / Create Block gifts him with an extremely potent defensive prowess that also grants him great stage control, recovery aid and gimp potential while also allowing him access to a myriad of unique advanced techniques. These blocks also allow him to greatly extend his combos with incredibly fast attacks such as his moving jab attack and axe ladders among others, allowing him to command one of the best advantage states in the game and rack up massive amounts of damage. His damage potential can be further increased by upgrading his toolset with the materials he mines; diamond tools are viewed as a high threat because of it. His back aerial and smash attacks yield incredible kill power, as do his down aerial and TNT, which are notable components in Steve's trapping game. Minecart is not only a useful horizontal recovery tool, but also a projectile command grab, a powerful KO option, and a tool Steve can use to approach opponents. Elytra's gliding mechanics allow Steve to mix up his recovery and can provide him great vertical coverage if angled right. Nearly every move in Steve's arsenal can be used for multiple purposes, such as his down tilt, which can ledgetrap opponents, block projectiles and set up combos.

However, Steve is not without weaknesses. His lackluster aerial and ground mobility hamper his approaching options, and his crouch and crawl are ineffective against projectile attacks. Furthermore, his Minecraft-inspired playstyle forces him to constantly mine for materials throughout the match; running out of materials denies him access to certain moves such as Minecart and TNT. Steve's tools will eventually break with extended use, leaving him with an ineffective punch attack unless he uses a crafting table to replenish his tools. However, he can also be denied usage of his crafting table (and his toolset) if he is kept airborne and off-stage, while respawning it forces Steve to use up potentially valuable resources. His up smash and down tilt leave him vulnerable to punish should he miss, and while Steve's tool attacks are fast, they have short reach, making them not as effective as a combo disruptor against other characters. Their short reach also forces Steve to engage in close-quarters combat as he lacks a conventional projectile, where he can easily be outclassed by characters with either ranged or disjointed attacks.

Overall, Steve is an incredibly versatile character who is able to manipulate stage terrain to corner opponents, which lets him reap the rewards of an excellent advantage state with massive damage outputs and kill power, on top of already impressive frame data and recovery. Although he has difficulty approaching opponents that outclass him in range, these weaknesses are greatly overshadowed by his strengths and he is considered by many as the best character in Ultimate. He has achieved excellent tournament representation and results from many players, most notably acola and Onin, with the former being considered the best player in the world in 2023. However, due to being perceived as "broken" by many in the community, there have been calls to ban the character, especially following the discovery of the Phantom MLG tech in February 2023, which led to temporary Steve bans in many regions, with the technique itself still being banned in some tournaments.

Attributes

Steve is a fighter who possesses slightly below-average weight and unremarkable mobility. He has the shortest jump out of the entire roster, in addition to a peculiar crouch and crawl based on Minecraft's "sneaking" mechanic where he simply hunches over, neither of which are very useful in battle. In addition to this, his walk speed, initial dash, running speed, and air speed are all among the bottom 10 of the respective stats, with his initial dash in particular being the worst in the game.

Taking many attributes from his home game, Steve is one of the most unique fighters on the roster. His battle strategy almost completely revolves around mining materials from the stage itself for several of his attacks, alongside crafting stronger weapons and the ability to place blocks almost everywhere within the fighting boundaries. These three attributes appear as his neutral special, Mine / Craft / Create Block. Mine can take a lot of time to get the desired materials, but Steve starts each stock with a set amount of materials for him to use, so he's not completely defenseless at the start of a fight. Craft is also fast, and in conjunction with the ability to teleport his crafting table to his current position, makes camping Steve's crafting table an ineffective strategy. Create Block is the most potent out of Steve's options and has a myriad of uses; this includes building temporary walls to interrupt opponents, stalling his recovery or his opponent's followups by standing on a floating block making it arguably one of the best recoveries in the entire series, blocking projectiles, mindgames, and extremely deep edgeguarding and gimping opportunities. Steve can even use the short longevity of Create Block to immediately cancel some of the lag in his grounded moves while in the air such as up smash and down smash, leading to some of the most dangerous and diverse aerial combos in the game should he be able to set it up. Create Block is thus one of Steve's essential techniques, though due to the difficulty of building and managing his resources in combat, it can take much experience to truly master.

Minecart is a powerful side special: by itself, it is a capable KO option, and can be used as a horizontal recovery tool. Uniquely, Steve can jump out of a moving minecart, turning it into a grabbing projectile that can scoop up a foe, forcing them to struggle out of it. This lets Steve follow up with attacks or edgeguard/gimp recovering opponents. By using up gold and redstone, Steve can use powered rails to accelerate his minecart and catch foes off-guard with the sudden burst of speed. Additionally, he can recover the iron used up from creating the minecart if he is the one to break it afterwards. TNT is Steve's explosive down special, and can be set off from afar by the minecart or by a redstone trail to a wooden pressure plate of Steve's creation, which is extremely useful for ledge trapping. However, it acts as a double-edged sword, as the explosion affects everyone including Steve, and the person who triggers the pressure plate takes reduced knockback from the explosion, which can be used in Steve's advantage for mind games, or against him by a crafty opponent. Additionally, Steve can safely detonate TNT if he uses down smash and properly times a buffered air dodge. Elytra requires no materials on Steve's part to use, has a hitbox upon startup, and its Brawl-like gliding mechanic allows Steve to mix up his recovery path, thwarting attempts at opposing edgeguards. While its horizontal recovery potential is almost unrivaled, it renders him vulnerable after the initial startup. He is also unable to switch directions after using it and will enter free fall if it is angled too high or hits a solid object, making a misinputted or misangled Elytra fatal.

Apart from his specials, Steve has noticeable strengths in his other attacks. His neutral attack, forward tilt and neutral aerial all involve a rapid sword swing, but unlike Mega Man's similar attacks, Steve's does not stop until the sword in question breaks, allowing him to continue a chain of sword hits for longer in comparison and set up for combos. This rapid-hit property is also seen in his up tilt and up aerial, which can juggle into various moves. His down-tilt flint and steel is a highly useful edgeguarding tool, as its flames are affected by gravity and can repeatedly block off the ledge for a two-frame punish, in addition to absorbing weak projectiles. In the same vein, down smash has lingering hitboxes on both sides and can be used as a semi-spike, especially in combination with Create Block. Steve's forward and back aerials also possess useful perks, the former possessing meteor smash potential if the opponent is hit near the end of the swing and the latter possessing powerful knockback. While his down aerial costs iron to use, Steve's anvil deals exceptional damage and knockback and can be canceled to avoid falling along with the anvil, making edgeguarding with the move far less risky. It should also be noted that his tool based attacks are further improved with high-tier tools, as gold swings faster and can combo more effectively, while diamond has excellent damage and knockback, especially when using his forward smash, forward air, and back air.

Steve's grab game is also respectable. While his tether grab cannot be used to grab the ledge, it can still grab shielded opponents from afar, granting Steve another ranged option to make up for his short-ranged normal attacks. His grab does have a noticable blindspot however, and can be low profiled in certain situations. His back throw angle leaves much to be desired, but his forward throw launches foes in a semi-spike manner and, along with his up throw, have very high base knockback, but average growth, making their KO potential lackluster. His down throw uses iron to slam an anvil on an opponent, dealing very high damage for a throw and sending at a useful angle for followups; however, it becomes incredibly weak without iron, as Steve will simply fling the opponent on the ground.

One of Steve's more powerful attributes is how much he can capitalize off of the advantage. Steve is widely agreed upon to have among the best advantage states in the entire game, with a wide range of tools that can lead to large amounts damage fairly easily, and with combos like axe ladders and pick loops, he can preserve the advantage to last even longer. His advantage stage is also uniquely strong at the edge, where he can place traps with TNT and use blocks to hinder certain options like jumping. Steve also has a very unconventional neutral game, which in spite of its passivity can be highly effective; Steve can use Create Block to build walls between himself and his opponent, and hide behind them to mine and upgrade his tools, possibly with gold or diamond. The high threat level of diamond tools means that the opponent is usually forced to approach to prevent Steve from crafting diamond tools, and may have to navigate around or destroy the blocks that may have been placed by Steve, which can be exploited by him to more easily find openings for whiff punishing.

Despite his strengths, Steve's attributes present flaws. His mobility is underwhelming, having among the worst ground mobility in the game due to the combination of poor run speed and the worst initial dash in the game (as opposed to most characters of this speed class usually having relatively high initial dash in contrast to their run speed). His aerial mobility is also unremarkable, having poor air speed and very low jump height, to the point where he's unable to reach the lower platforms of Battlefield without burning his double jump. Finally, despite being relatively short compared to an average humanoid character, Steve's crouch and crawl barely reduce his height and his hitstun animations leave him in an upright position, preventing him from ducking under attacks and leaves him vulnerable to being attacked.

His moveset has its own downsides. His down tilt and up smash leave Steve stuck until the animation is finished, making him open to a punish from the sides. While many of his core moves (such as his sword and axe moves) are very spammable, they only cover a very short distance and do not cover below or behind him, leaving Steve without a useful "get-off-me" option against combo-centric opponents, excluding using iron to summon an anvil or building a block to stall his fall, which are only effective with enough iron and within the stage's build limit, respectively. Additionally, the spammability of his moves are held back by Steve's low mobility, making it unwieldy for him to attempt rushdown tactics. His grab's range is offset by its very high ending lag, making his grab game less effective against mobile fighters, and his down throw is significantly less damaging and effective without iron.

Steve's Minecraft-inspired playstyle can also leave him in troublesome situations. If he mines more materials than his inventory can fit, he will end up discarding resources that might have otherwise been valuable. This negatively affects Create Block, as it always prioritizes the weakest block first; weak blocks can be broken very easily by hitting them with attacks or hitting the bottom side of the block, making them less effective for edgeguarding or creating a blockade. Additionally, walling off a recovering opponent may not be an effective option, as damaging hitboxes can easily plow through weaker blocks without much trouble, and hitting Steve (or placing them near the build limit) will cause his blocks to break significantly faster. His tools can break if used up enough, forcing him to mine to collect materials and craft to re-upgrade them. Furthermore, getting KO'd results in Steve's tools reverting to wood (though he keeps resources already in his inventory), and mining for materials/crafting new tools can be difficult against faster opponents, who can constantly pressure Steve and deter him from gaining resources. His reliance on materials for the majority of his strongest techniques prevents him from repeatedly using them to a greater extent, due to the glaring downsides of running out of a specific material (ex. his down air and down throw accomplishing nothing with a lack of iron). Careless use of his resources will essentially leave him with almost no useful abilities: the time needed to mine can become very detrimental when fully depleted of resources, or when barehanded/using wooden or stone tools, as it takes a significant amount of time to fully replenish resources or dig for gold/diamond.

His lack of a conventional projectile and short attacking range demands he gets in close to dish out damage, upon which fighters more suited for close combat than Steve can leave him constantly juggled. Steve's recovery, while having amazing horizontal and vertical reach, is also limited in some ways due to his low jump height and airspeed. Elytra takes some experience to get used to, as its mechanics can make it difficult to angle, and it can also be cut short if he bumps into an object. Minecart can be used for horizontal distance, though it does not grant good distance without gold, and cannot be used without iron. (Although Powered Minecart also uses up redstone, it and TNT use so little that running out of redstone never happens without specific setup to do so.) His blocks cannot be placed too far out from the edges of the stage, and the block Steve is standing on deteriorates faster than normal, which can limit his ability to stall offstage due to him requiring materials. TNT can be used in niche situations since it gives Steve a slight vertical boost when dropped in the air, but it's usually not recommended due to its extreme resource cost.

Overall, Steve excels in a strange combination of close-up fighting, stage control, and fearsome edgeguarding, resulting in a large learning curve for players eager to pick him up. His toolkit gives him powerful overall abilities when mastered, some of which are not possessed by any other fighter in the roster; however, poor use of his resources can render him almost helpless and remove some of his best options, and his terrible mobility, compounded by a reliance on fairly linear options for approaching, means he faces an uphill battle against characters that outrange him, or are fast enough to weave around his defenses.

Update history

The majority of changes Steve received from updates were bug fixes focused on removing game-breaking glitches. Aside from these and an aesthetic change, Steve has only received two balance-oriented changes: version 11.0.0 slightly buffed his down smash by eliminating a blind spot close to Steve, and version 13.0.1 nerfed his up smash by reducing the hitstun of each multi-hit, making Block-canceled up smash follow-ups slightly harder. Ultimately, aside from making the game and character play as intended, Steve is mostly unchanged.

9.0.1

• Fixed an issue in which certain characters could fall though the stage when breaking Blocks.
• Fixed an issue in which the anvil from Steve's down aerial could fall through the stage when pinching an opponent with the anvil and a Block.
• Minecart:
  • Fixed an issue in which fighters could be frozen if hit with Minecart.
  • Fixed an issue in which Minecart does not hit opponents when reflected off a wall.
  • Fixed an issue in which a fighter caught by Minecart teleports to the position in which they were caught.
• Steve's up victory pose was changed to remove the Steak after he eats it.

9.0.2

• Tap jump will now function correctly for jumping off a falling Anvil after using down air.

11.0.0

• Down smash has more range towards Steve, removing a blind spot in the move.

12.0.0

• Minecart has been adjusted to prevent certain situations where the opposing fighter would get hit by the minecart, become trapped, and then sometimes go through the landscape.
• Elytra will no longer give Steve extra jumps if he is hit at a certain time during the starting animation.

13.0.1

• Hitbox ID 0 of up smash's magma block has less fixed knockback (40 → 20), making it harder for Steve to combo off of it should he cancel the move with his blocks.

Moveset

• Steve can crawl.
• Steve can tilt his head up and down by tilting the Control Stick in said direction when he is walking, jumping and creating blocks. This mechanic is purely aesthetic and reflects how the player's head moves in Minecraft.
• Steve possesses a unique "resource" mechanic, which allows him to carry resources to build blocks, use certain moves, or upgrade his tools. The resources that Steve can possess are dirt, wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond, and redstone, all of which can be obtained through mining (detailed further below). Depending on the stage, dirt may be substituted with sand (such as on Tortimer Island and Coliseum), ice (such as on Summit), or wool (such as on Magicant and Living Room). All resources (except for redstone) are displayed above his in-game portrait, with a limit of 100 for block-building materials.
  • Steve starts the game with 36 units of dirt, 18 units of wood, 3 units of iron, and 2/3 redstone, the latter two of which are replenished should Steve lose a life without sufficient said material in stock.
  • Gold and diamond are only shown when available by the right of the gauge, while iron, which occupies the right of the gauge, displays its exact quantity up to 8. Cheaper materials are displayed proportionally and make up the left of the gauge.
  • Five tool materials exist: wood, stone, iron, gold, and diamond. Except for gold, each material mentioned is incrementally more powerful and durable than the last. Gold weapons are weak and fragile, but attacks with them are faster than those with weapons made from other materials, making them ideal for combos, and outside of neutral attack, up tilt, and up aerial, gold weapons have greater knockback scaling than the other tool tiers. The typical damages of each tool type are:
    • No weapon: 0.8x damage
    • Wood or gold: 1.0x damage
    • Stone: 1.1x damage
    • Iron: 1.2x damage
    • Diamond: 1.35x damage
• With continuous use, Steve's sword, axe, pickaxe, and shovel will use up durability points. Once all durability points for a set tool have been used up, it breaks apart and Steve can no longer use that tool. If Steve tries to use an attack that requires a weapon he does not have, he will perform a weak punch with minimal range instead. This prevents him from constantly brawling out at close range with his weapons, and every so often forces him to mine the ground for resources and craft new tools at a crafting table. The durability varies between tools made of different materials, with wood and gold being the least durable while diamond and iron are the most durable.
  • As each tool has its own durability, Steve can have different levels of each tool during a stock (eg. crafting a diamond set, using up a diamond pickaxe, then crafting a gold pickaxe while retaining his other diamond tools).
• Steve's tools reset to wood when he is KO'd, though he keeps any resources throughout stocks. If he is KO'd with less than three units of iron, he will respawn with three.

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

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

		Name	Damage					Description
			None/Other	Wood/Gold	Stone	Iron	Diamond
Neutral attack		Sword (剣)	2.72%	3.4%	3.74%	4.08%	4.59%	Steve quickly swings his sword in front of himself with short reach. He can repeat this attack by holding down the attack button, and can walk and jump, forward and backward, while doing this, making it functionally similar to Mega Man's Mega Buster and Min Min's Punch. It is one of the few neutral attacks in the game that cannot lock, and the hitbox is unable to hit floored opponents unless their hitboxes are large.
Forward tilt		Sword (剣)	2.72%	3.4%	3.74%	4.08%	4.59%	Same as neutral attack and neutral aerial. Steve can also use this attack while walking forward and backwards.
Up tilt		Axe (斧)	5.2%	6.5%	7.15%	7.8%	8.775%	Steve quickly swings his axe above himself. Similarly to his neutral attack/forward tilt/neutral aerial, Steve is able to repeat the attack by holding down the attack button, and can jump or walk forward or backward while he is doing this. Both moves have low upward knockback, making them useful as combo starters/extenders. Unlike up air, if he jumps while using this move, continues using it while airborne and then lands, he will not suffer landing lag. The hitbox reaches slightly to the left and right of Steve, allowing it to hit standing characters of average height.
Down tilt		Flint and Steel (火打ち石と打ち金)	0.8% (loop hit), 6.4% (last hit)					Steve uses flint and steel to create a flame with a lingering hitbox in front of himself. The flame is a looping multi-hit attack, with the final hit launching opponents. If Steve uses this move at the end of a platform or near a ledge, the flame travels downward, allowing him to edgeguard and 2-frame opponents, although this is most effective on characters with underwhelming recoveries since the flame sends at a diagonal angle. While it has a long-lasting hitbox, it has very low ending lag, giving it solid combo potential. It can be used to trade with weaker projectiles as well. This move does not use up durability points. Can be reflected and absorbed. Due to being a projectile, Steve experiences no hitlag, however the projectile itself does, delaying later hits relative to Steve and causing the opponent to be trapped for longer if all hits connect, thus reducing Steve's effective ending lag.
Dash attack		Pickaxe (ツルハシ)	8.32% (clean), 6.72% (late)	10.4% (clean), 8.4% (late)	11.44% (clean), 9.24% (late)	12.48% (clean), 10.08% (late)	14.04% (clean), 11.34% (late)	A quick running strike with his pickaxe with high knockback.
Forward smash		Sword (剣)	12%	15%	16.5%	18%	20.25%	Rears back before performing a slower but strong inward swing with his sword, based on the sweep attack that swords possess from Minecraft: Java Edition. Decently fast for an attack of its kind. As the hitbox goes as far as the pixelated slash effect, and as Steve takes a step forward to attack, it has deceptively good range (having a longer range than most of his other moves). The charging animation can also dodge attacks with good timing, as Steve steps back slightly. Unique to this attack, the diamond sword variant has higher knockback scaling than the other tool tiers (apart from gold), rendering it extremely powerful for an attack of its type (while the gold sword does have the highest knockback scaling, its reduced damage output makes it overall less powerful).
Up smash		Magma Block (マグマ ブロック)	1% (first hit), 0.4% (loop hit), 14% (last hit)	7.4% (pickaxe)	8.14% (pickaxe)	8.88% (pickaxe)	9.99% (pickaxe)	Steve places a magma block above himself before breaking it with his pickaxe. The move has a flame effect, possesses great vertical range, and hits multiple times, similarly to Roy's up smash. It has a ground-level hitbox in front of Steve that scoops opponents into the block, making it effective out-of-shield or against landing opponents. This scooping hitbox will only hit grounded opponents. However, with the exception of the initial grounded launcher hitbox, it only hits directly above Steve, and despite its animation, Steve cannot move until well after the move is complete as he automatically breaks the block afterwards, with the move having very high ending lag. This move does not use up durability points. The pickaxe itself can also deal damage. Despite its unorthodox animation, it is incredibly powerful for a multi-hitting up smash, KOing Mario at ground level of Final Destination at 102%.
Down smash		Lava Bucket (溶岩バケツ)	0.6% (loop hit), 14% (last hit)					Steve pulls out a lava-filled bucket and pours lava on both sides of himself. Both hits have long lingering hitboxes (with each lasting 10 frames) and are powerful semi-spikes, which can be used efficiently for edge guarding. It is slightly affected by gravity near ledges, similarly to Steve's down tilt, although this is much less noticeable. This move does not use up durability points. The lava can be reflected and absorbed.
Neutral aerial		Sword (剣)	2.72%	3.4%	3.74%	4.08%	4.59%	A sword swing identical to neutral attack and forward tilt.
Forward aerial		Pickaxe (ツルハシ)	8.4% (early), 9.6% (clean)	10.5% (early/clean), 12% (late)	11.55% (early/clean), 13.2% (late)	12.6% (early/clean), 14.4% (late)	14.175% (early/clean), 16.2% (late)	A pickaxe swing in front of himself. It is surprisingly fast and powerful, and can meteor smash if the opponent is hit near the end of the swing, though it has short range. It is able to combo from Steve's sword swinging moves, alongside up tilt and up air. If buffered out of a short hop, Steve will instead perform a sword swing that behaves like a neutral aerial but uses the forward aerial's animation and staleness.
Back aerial		Pickaxe (ツルハシ)	9.2% (early), 10.4% (clean)	11.5% (early), 13% (clean)	12.65% (early), 14.3% (clean)	13.8% (early), 15.6% (clean)	15.525% (early), 17.55% (clean)	A pickaxe swing behind himself with powerful horizontal knockback but low range. The move is stronger during the later part of the swing. The power of the diamond variant puts it among the strongest back aerials in the game. If buffered out of a short hop, Steve will instead perform a sword swing that behaves like a neutral aerial but uses the back aerial's animation and staleness.
Up aerial		Axe (斧)	5.2%	6.5%	7.15%	7.8%	8.775%	An axe swing identical to up tilt, but with less ending lag. Very weak, but very spammable; the gold version has the lowest total duration of any aerial attack in the series (in fact beating Meta Knight's infamous up aerial in Brawl), while all other versions last the same amount of time as the aforementioned attack. This speed easily allows up aerial to combo into itself and other aerials, though because of Steve's poor mobility, it is not easily abusable like Meta Knight's up aerial. Placing blocks and using a combination of up aerial and up smash's looping hits can slowly drag opponents up towards the top blast zone to set up extended combos. Unlike up tilt, it cannot transition into a ground variant, and upon landing with up air, Steve will suffer some landing lag; however, oddly, when up tilt transitions into an aerial variant and then lands, it does not incur landing lag and the move is not interrupted.
Down aerial		Anvil (金床)	18% (normal), 10% (cancelled), 8% (re-fall)					A powerful stall-then-fall in which Steve drops an anvil directly below himself while standing on it. The move can be canceled, a first for a stall-then-fall; if it is canceled, then Steve will jump off of the anvil, but it will continue falling. The jump does not use up Steve's double jump. After landing, the anvil remains on the stage for a brief amount of time before disappearing, which can block opponents or be stood on. If the ground under the anvil disappears or is destroyed before the anvil disappears, the anvil will start falling again. The anvil has incredible knockback and high damage, being capable of KOing grounded opponents as early as 88%, making it the strongest down aerial in the game. It is also notoriously powerful for contesting against juggles or upward attacks, due to its damage giving it very high priority, and its knockback being capable of KOing even earlier near the top blast lines. This move uses up one piece of iron and does nothing at all if Steve does not have any iron. If an anvil has been dropped recently, Steve cannot drop another until it disappears on its own, or after a short time if it is dropped offstage. The anvil counts as a projectile until it lands, even while Steve is riding it. Steve can mine a stationary anvil for iron, redstone and rare materials.
Grab		Fishing Rod (釣り竿)						A tether-like grab using a fishing rod with a wide range. Grounded grabbed opponents are trapped within a fence while Steve holds them. Unlike Isabelle's similar-looking Fishing Rod, it functions as an actual tether grab despite the lack of a grab aerial and tether recovery. The grab itself starts up relatively fast, but has high ending lag; additionally, despite the hook being able to visibly drop past ledges like Isabelle's, it will not grab opponents if it does so. The hook also arcs as it's cast and can possibly miss smaller characters entirely depending on their position. This move does not use up durability points.
Pummel		Grab Punch (つかみパンチ)	1.5%					A punch. Unique compared to other pummels, being marginally slower but stronger than similar pummels like Mario, but slightly faster and weaker than stronger pummels like Bowser. He shares this distinction with Joker, Terry, Min Min and Pyra & Mythra.
Forward throw		Piston Thrust (ピストンでふっとばす)	3% (hit 1), 6% (throw)					Steve stands on a piston and uses it to launch the opponent forward. It is a semi-spike with very high base knockback, but rather low growth, as it can only KO middleweights past 140% at the ledge. With rage, it is capable of being a KO throw. This move does not use up durability points.
Back throw		Fishing Rod Throw (釣り竿で投げる)	10%					Steve throws the opponent backward with the fishing rod. Rather weak and easy to DI due to its diagonal angle, and sends the opponent diagonally, making it a mediocre option for setting up edgeguards. This move does not use up durability points.
Up throw		Piston Thrust (ピストンでふっとばす)	3% (hit 1), 8% (throw)					Steve places the opponent on a piston launching them upward. Like forward throw, it has very high base knockback, but average growth, making its KO ability rather average. With rage, it is capable of being Steve's strongest KO throw. This move does not use up durability points.
Down throw		Anvil Crush (金床でつぶす)	7% (anvil), 8% (throw)					Steve throws the opponent on the ground before an anvil drops on them, launching them forward and consuming a piece of iron. Without sufficient iron, no anvil will appear, and Steve will simply throw the opponent onto the ground, making it weaker overall. Both versions are good for use in combos at low percents, with the anvil version dealing 15% total and being the second most damaging throw in the game (surpassed by King K. Rool's up throw which deals 16%). The anvil can be reflected.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—	—	—	—	—
Techs		—	—	—	—	—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%					Attacks in front and behind himself with his sword/fist. Deals the same damage regardless of the sword's material.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%					Same as his front floor attack, but reversed.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%					Attacks in front and behind himself with his sword/fist. Deals same damage regardless of the sword's material.
Edge attack Edge getups			9%					Climbs up and does a low swipe with his sword/fist. Deals same damage regardless of the sword's material.
Neutral special		Mine / Craft / Create Block						Mine (ground): Steve mines the ground or wall in front of himself to gather resources using an axe, pickaxe, or shovel. As with using a sword, axe, or pickaxe during standard attacks, mining uses up the durability of the weapon used. The weapon used and the speed of mining are determined by the type of terrain being mined, and the longer it is mined, the higher the quality of materials collected, such as diamond. If Steve has no tools available, he will use his bare hands instead; however, this causes him to mine more slowly. Steve can mine miscellaneous cheap materials (dirt/sand/ice/wool, depending on the stage and changing along with Stage Morph), wood, stone, iron, gold, diamonds and redstone. Similarly to Olimar's Pikmin Pluck in Brawl, the resources that Steve obtains most often with this move are dependent on the type of terrain being mined, though there is a set order to the materials mined from each terrain. However, on Battlefield form and Ω form stages, materials will appear at a pre-determined rate regardless of the type of terrain, though the tool used will still reflect the material of the surface resources are gathered on. This was done in order to prioritize match quality for more serious players due to the popularity of both forms for competitive battles, and to reduce the factors of randomness. If Steve is standing on a block he placed using Create Block, he will instead break the block underneath him without gaining any resources. Craft (crafting table): Steve uses his resources to craft a full set of tools (sword, axe, pickaxe and shovel), restoring their durability. Steve starts the battle with wooden tools, with a crafting table appearing at his starting point. The most valuable resources are prioritized when performing this move; for example, if Steve has both iron and stone, then his tools will be upgraded to iron. When upgrading to a new tier of tools, a Minecraft-styled progression bar appears above Steve, and Steve will flourish a new weapon after crafting completes. He is vulnerable to attacks throughout the upgrading animation but can cancel it during the early frames. The crafting table itself is considered a background object and will not interrupt player movement. It also has 30 HP, can be damaged (and thus cause hitlag), and can be destroyed by Steve or his opponents. If destroyed, the crafting table will respawn at Steve's location following a few seconds, and Steve can also summon the crafting table to his location by pressing the special move button while shielding, which uses a small amount of resources; if he does not have sufficient resources, he will not be able to spawn or move his crafting table. When summoned, it will have its HP restored. If multiple Steves are present, then they can use each other's crafting tables as well as their own. Create Block (midair): Steve places a block directly beneath himself, which functions as a platform. If the special move button is held down while Steve is walking on a block or jumping, he can continue placing blocks directly beneath himself as he moves. He can only place blocks a certain distance around the stage, signified by a pink barrier that appears while placing blocks adjacent to the limit. Up to 8 blocks can be on-screen at the same time for each Steve in play, and placing excessive blocks cause the oldest blocks to disappear instantly. The blocks break slowly over time, but touching them or hitting them (including hitting the block on the underside while jumping) speeds this process up. Blocks placed either near the build limit or after Steve was knocked into the air and yet to recover flash like a helpless character and break faster than they would otherwise. Placed blocks can absorb incoming attacks, including projectiles, and can also be used to aid Steve's recovery or to edgeguard opponents. Blocks can be made using dirt, sand, wool, ice, wood, stone, or iron, and will break more slowly the more valuable the material they are made of is. Unlike Craft, the least valuable resources are prioritized when performing this move.
Side special		Minecart	19% (powered rail acceleration), 15.6%-7.5%					Steve hops into a minecart and rides around the stage, placing rails as he does so. If Steve has redstone and gold, he can use it to lay down powered rails (powered via a redstone torch), making the minecart faster and more powerful. He can push the special move again while in the Minecart to lay down powered rails again (if he has redstone and gold) to make the cart burst forward again. Steve can jump out of the minecart at any time, but it still moves forward a short distance afterwards, trapping other fighters within it should they make contact; a trapped fighter will be stuck in the minecart for longer the more damage they have, but can escape by button mashing. Both a ridden and empty minecart are considered projectiles. Steve needs sufficient iron to place the minecart, and sufficient materials to place rails. Each rail placed uses 1 unit of dirt/stone/wood/iron. If Steve has little/no wood or stone, he will still bring out the minecart but will stop moving almost immediately. Steve can jump back into an empty minecart, and can move so long as he has tracks; as a result, he can move indefinitely in an enclosed space (such as between two walls). Steve can hop in and out of his minecart a maximum of two times per spawn, and can break a stationary minecart to regain the iron used to craft it. If Steve has no iron, he will face the inputted direction and attempt to place a minecart, but fail. This can be used to change his direction while airborne.
Up special		Elytra	5% (clean), 3% (late)					Steve dons an elytra and propels himself forward, upward, or downward with a firework rocket. During his initial burst, Steve has a damaging hitbox. The mechanics of this move appear similar to Brawl's gliding mechanic, with Steve being able to control his trajectory while gliding. Its maximum horizontal distance is extremely high, but its vertical distance is poor in comparison without proper usage. He is also able to turn around during the startup of the move, but he cannot change directions or cancel the move once he starts flying. The elytra falls off after a few seconds of flight or if Steve hits a solid object in mid-glide, leaving Steve helpless; he can also cancel the move by pressing the shield or special attack button, though this will also put him in freefall. This move does not use up durability points.
Down special		TNT	28%/14% (redstone detonation), 20%/10% (non-redstone detonation)					Steve lays a TNT block on the ground; this uses up 50 "points" of resources, with each resource giving incrementally bigger points (dirt = 2, wood/stone = 5, iron = 10). The TNT acts similarly to a Blast Box; it will fall downwards if placed in midair, can be detonated if hit for 20% damage, and takes double damage from flame attacks (but not immediately like the Blast Box), but also detonates after enough time passes. Its explosion is extremely powerful and causes Special Zoom on hit. If Steve holds down the special button after placing the TNT, he can place a trail of redstone, then a pressure plate upon letting go of the special button, which will manually detonate the TNT if stepped on and increases the power of the explosion. The redstone trail can be placed so long as Steve has redstone and is on the ground near a TNT block, but hitting the TNT block with enough knockback will move the block, and cause the redstone trail and pressure plate to disappear. The TNT affects both Steve and his opponents; however, if the TNT is triggered via a pressure plate, then the fighter who triggered the TNT takes reduced knockback from the explosion, allowing for creative traps. The TNT block can be mined to regain iron, redstone and rarer materials.
Final Smash		House of Boom	15% (trapping hit), 45% (cutscene)					Steve places a giant piston in front of himself, which extends to catch his opponents in the attack. A cinematic plays where the affected fighter is launched into a dark building in a forest, resembling a Jungle Temple, filled with TNT, where they are attacked by Creepers and Zombies, resulting in the entire building exploding as Steve comically eats a so-called "victory steak". When the cinematic ends, the victim is sent flying while Steve repeatedly crouches. The piston can hit multiple fighters, but only the first one hit will appear in the cinematic, though the piston causes enough knockback to KO bystanders as well. This attack does not use up durability points.

Stats

Stats	Weight	Dash speed	Walk speed	Traction	Air friction	Air speed	Air acceleration	Gravity	Falling speed	Jumpsquat	Jump height	Double jump height
Value	92	1.45 – Initial dash 1.45 – Run	0.85	0.095	0.0075	0.86	0.01 – Base 0.04 – Additional	0.07	1.42 – Base 2.272 – Fast-fall	3	16.5 - Base 10 - Short hop	22.5

Durability system

True to Minecraft, Steve's tools can break after a certain amount of use. While similar to the durability system of Robin, there are a few differences, including the lack of a hitbox upon a tool breaking, no visible durability indication, and the need to craft replacement tools.

Tool durability

Weapon	Wood/Gold	Stone	Iron/Diamond
Sword	25	40	50
Axe/Pickaxe/Shovel	70	85	95

Durability cost

Move	Durability cost
Sword attacks (except for Forward Smash)	2
Forward Smash	9 (Wood), 18 (Gold), 14 (other materials)
Axe attacks	5.5
Up Smash	0
Dash Attack	4.5
Forward Aerial/Back Aerial	6.5
Mine	2.5 (per resource)

Announcer calls

Steve

• English/Japanese/Chinese

• French

Alex

• English/Japanese/Chinese

• French

Zombie

• English/Japanese/Chinese

• French

• French (alternate take)

Enderman

• English/Japanese/Chinese

• French

• French (alternate take)

On-screen appearance

• Breaks stone blocks in front of him with his pickaxe while walking forward, with his crafting table appearing after the animation completes. Similar to Steve's initial reveal during his trailer.

• 

Taunts

• Up taunt: Jumps twice, and while in midair, punches three times. Due to Steve jumping the same height that his short hop covers, he can dodge some attacks with lower-reaching hitboxes. This gesture is often used in the Minecraft community as a greeting.
• Side taunt: Pulls out and eats a Steak, with a small burp upon finishing.
• Down taunt: Sneaks (crouches) three times while looking toward the screen. This is another popular gesture found in the Minecraft community, where players crouch repeatedly as a sign of peace, friendship, or agreement. It is also used to mock a player when losing or getting trolled.

• 

  Steve's up taunt.

• 

  Steve's side taunt.

• 

  Steve's down taunt.

Idle poses

• Steve does not possess any idle poses.

Crowd cheer

Steve

	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
Description	Ste - vu! *claps 3 times*	Su - ti - vu!

Alex

	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
Description	Ale - xu! *claps 3 times*	Ale -- xu!

Zombie

	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
Description	Zooommm - bie!	Zom - bie!

Enderman

	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer
Description	En - der - man!	Ender - man! *claps 3 times*

Victory poses

• Left: A Creeper is shown onscreen, which promptly explodes as Steve humorously lands directly in front of the camera without an animation.
• Up: Eats a Steak while the camera angle changes, and then burps while the steak vanishes.
• Right: Quickly builds a house similar to ones found in villages and stands outside of it, then closes the door.

The sound that plays when completing a challenge advancement in Minecraft: Java Edition.

• 
• 
• 

Steve's Up victory pose was changed in update 9.0.1; previously, Steve held the Steak even after he finished eating it.

• 

In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Steve players (SSBU)

•  acola - Highly regarded as not only the best player in the world since 2023, but also one of the best Ultimate players of all-time. He is known for his absurd consistency, having placed outside the top 8 at majors only once and winning 18 of them, making him one of the players with the most major wins in Ultimate.
•  crêpe salée - Initially known for his Wario, he picked up Steve as a co-main in 2023 and began using him more by 2024. He is considered the best player in Europe in the first half of 2024, becoming the first player to surpass Glutonny on the European Ultimate Power Rankings. He won several French events over Glutonny and other top Europeans during this time, and also placed 2nd at 95 Kings of Fields 4 and 3rd at Game is Game.
•  DDee - A Steve and Pokémon Trainer co-main who is considered one of the best Steve players in North America, as well as one of the strongest hidden bosses as he rarely travels outside his region. He has made top 8 at nearly all the majors he has attended, most notably placing 5th at MomoCon 2022 and 7th at Super Smash Con 2023.
•  Jake - Began competing online and was one of the first notable Steve players during the online metagame, but found greater success offline, becoming the second-best Steve player in North America in his prime, with multiple top 8 placements at majors such as 3rd at Glitch - Infinite, 5th at Ultimate Fighting Arena 2022, and 7th at Double Down 2022. Although less active since 2023, he remains one of the best Steve players in North America.
•  Miya - Better known as a Mr. Game & Watch player but also plays Steve as a secondary or counterpick, often used against players he normally struggled with when playing Mr. Game & Watch or to avoid the Mr. Game & Watch ditto. Steve is normally only used in a handful of games at majors, although a few of Miya's events did see some significant Steve usage, most notably in Miya's victory at DELTA 7.
•  Syrup - Although he began playing Steve over his Ness in 2023, he did not make a larger impact outside his region with the character until The Big House 11, where he placed 2nd but won the ditto against Onin. Since then, he is regarded as one of the best Steve players in North America, having placed 5th at Riptide 2024, Cirque Du CFL 3 and Get On My Level X.
•  Quandale Dinglelingleton - Although less prominent compared to other American Steve players, he is known for consistently placing high at most majors he attended, which includes placing 9th at Super Smash Con 2022, and his wins over Zackray at Ludwig Smash Invitational, where he placed 17th, and Light at Collision 2023, where he placed 13th.
•  Onin - The second-best Steve player of all-time who was both a top 10 player and in contention for the best player from the United States in 2022. They are the only Steve player outside of Japan to win a major, winning Get On My Level 2022 and Super Smash Con 2022.
•  Yamanaction - Initially known for his Luigi, but began playing more Steve throughout 2023 before becoming his primary main by the end of the year. He is considered the third-best Steve player in Japan, placing 3rd at Seibugeki 15 defeating Shuton and Asimo, 7th at DELTA 7, and 9th at Seibugeki 14, as well as defeating MkLeo at Kagaribi 12.
•  yonni - A major labber for Steve's metagame first known offline for defeating Dabuz to place 9th at Riptide. He eventually became one of the best Steve players in North America in 2021 and 2022 despite his inconsistency, most notably placing 5th at The Gimvitational defeating Tweek and Riddles. He stopped competing seriously by 2023, and has made a few tournament appearances since.

Tier placement and history

Leading up to release, there was a lot of speculation for how Steve would work in Smash due to his unique moveset compared to the rest of the roster. Many players saw a lot of potential in him, with several players going as far as to call him top tier or outright broken due to his block-creating and crafting mechanics, his glide recovery that works similarly to the infamous glide mechanic in Brawl, and his high power. After his release, players had mixed reactions to his viability. Some players such as ESAM and MkLeo believed that Steve was potentially high tier due to his incredible edge guarding and a great combo game. On the other hand, players such as Dabuz believed his weaknesses, especially his poor mobility, would make him more of a lower-mid tier character.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Steve's initial representation in competitive play was online. Although most of his initial success came from Salem, Steve gradually saw a larger playerbase that met with consistently high placements online. Most notably, Jake won several large weeklies, defeated several top 10 online players, and was ranked 1st on 2 iterations of the Panda Global Online Leaderboard.

Following the return of offline competitive play, Steve continued to see a strong presence at major and supermajor tournaments thanks to a thriving playerbase, with many ultimately ranking in the top 100. In particular, acola was widely considered the second-best player in 2022 while Onin notably 3-0'd MkLeo at Super Smash Con 2022 and ultimately won the tournament. This has led many to consider Steve as not only the best character in the game, but also a character that's "broken"; this has resulted in Steve placing 1st on the first and second tier lists.

Ban discussion

It has been suggested that this article or section be split into multiple pages or sections. The reason given for the split is: There is a lot of information on the ban that is both present and not present in the section (such as banned events), and even with cleanup the section will be rather large. (Discuss)

This article or section may require a cleanup. The editor who added this tag believes this page should be cleaned up for the following reason: A lot of this still needs to be sourced, and some sources need to be scrutinized You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Due to the character's unorthodox playstyle and sudden rise in the metagame, many people began to argue that Steve should be banned. While this movement initially took a while to gain momentum, the discussion began in earnest in early 2022 with the sudden rise of players unknown prior to Steve's release, as well as the number of top player upsets by then-unranked players (such as Dabuz by yonni or Tweek by DDog). Discussion on Steve's ban heated up around the Summer of 2022 with the rise of acola and Onin, both of whom dominated their scenes and won multiple majors despite being relatively unknown players months prior. In particular, Onin's dominant victory at Super Smash Con 2022, which included a devastating 3-0 victory over MkLeo; acola's victory at his debut overseas tournament The Gimvitational; and the Steve ditto between the two players at Let's Make Moves Miami led many players to compare Steve to Brawl Meta Knight and Smash 4 Bayonetta, two characters who dominated their game's respective metagames.

Proponents of Steve's ban argue that his ability to change a stage's layout with blocks and create near-unbeatable setups whether onstage or ledgetrapping has led to him being too strong with little viable counterplay. Some of his more notorious techniques include placing a block above the ledge and then using his Back Throw to either Stage Spike the opponent if they don't tech or guarantee a Forward smash if they do. This tech is called a Block Spike. Steve can also chain jabs across the stage to carry the opponent offstage or combo into a Forward Smash at the ledge, and using Down smash on his own TNT and buffering an Air dodge to avoid the explosion, covering most recovery options with a single move. Some of these players also argue that most players who saw success with Steve were "unknown" players prior to the character swap, and that their sudden burst of success proves that Steve "carries" his players. They pointed out how the metagame was being populated with Steve players - for example, Super Smash Con 2022 had 9 Steve players make top 64 while all other characters had 4 or less players - and that the character's increasing presence in the metagame was driving players away from the game.

On the other hand, opponents of Steve's ban argue that Steve's dominance in the metagame had been exaggerated or required more context, and that people have been developing counterplay in the matchup for a while. They also argued that Steve's dominance in the metagame was less notable than Brawl Meta Knight or Smash 4 Bayonetta, pointing to how only two Steve players - acola and Onin were consistent top 8 threats. In addition, some players noted how most players who picked up Steve were younger players who either had less opportunities to enter tournaments prior or began playing during the online metagame; for example, acola had his start in the Smashmate ladder and began ranking highly well before his offline debut.

Some people have proposed using Ultimate's Custom Balance feature to weaken Steve as opposed to a full ban. However, this proposal has raised concerns of it being a slippery slope, possibly leading to people to advocate using custom balance on more characters to weaken high tier characters who aren't ban worthy and strengthen low tier characters, which will lead to disputes over which characters get buffed or nerfed and by how much. Others became concerned that the lower knockback from custom balancing could actually end up strengthening Steve by making his combos more consistent.

PMLG (Phantom MLG) and ban efforts

Despite the heated discussion, there was little effort toward banning Steve for most of 2022, with notable exceptions being the French regional CrocoCup 1 and Ultimate Shockwave testing out a Steve ban, among other characters, for a few of their tournaments in November and December. However, the early-2023 discovery of Phantom MLG—a tech involving Create Block that allows Steve to escape out of a move and immediately follow it up with a counterattack—led to renewed and successful efforts to ban the character, with many organizers arguing that the tech was the breaking point for them. A few tournaments, including Collision 2023 and MAJOR UPSET, made efforts to only ban the tech itself, or give out penalties to those who were accused of using the tech, however some players argued that banning only the tech was impractical, as it could be difficult telling whether a Steve player performed PMLG or just simply fell out of a move. By May 2023, 17 out of the 50 United States have banned Steve completely, while many other states have seen bans at a local level. Bans were also exacerbated with Hungrybox's decision to ban the character from his Coinbox tournaments, and many other tournaments would also announce a ban, including Gateway Legends 2023, Luminosity Makes Moves Miami, and Regen 2023.

However, many players also argued that PMLG's brokenness was greatly exaggerated, as multihit moves would effectively negate it, the technique requires frame perfect timing, and said timing varies between moves as well as depending on staling. Others also noted how difficult it was to properly pull off in tournament - notably, UltRank issued a $35 bounty to the first three players who prove they performed the technique in bracket, with the bounty later raised to $100. The bounty remained unclaimed, and UltRank ended it after two months. In addition, the ban was not unified across all regions, as most scenes outside of North America did not institute a ban, with only a few notable exceptions such as Australia. In particular, Japan decided not to ban Steve, and the character remained legal during their Golden Week tournaments, which featured 3 supermajor events that had many international players in attendance.

Due to the threat of PMLG waning as well as a lack of a unified ban, some regions began unbanning the character in mid-May. By August 2023, most regions had either unbanned Steve or continued to have mixed legality, although full bans remained in place in some regions, most notably the Midwest and Australia.

Classic Mode: Journey to the Far Lands

Steve's congratulations screen.

Steve faces off against fighters who represent enemy mobs in Minecraft. With the exceptions of Rounds 2 and 6, all rounds are stamina battles. The title is a reference to the Far Lands, a glitch that used to exist in both Minecraft: Java Edition and the Bedrock Edition where land an extreme distance away from the starting point of a world formed large, fold-like cliffs due to overflow errors in the generation system. The final battle is against a giant Ridley and two tiny Endermen. If the player uses the Zombie or Enderman costumes, the opponents using this costume will not switch to a different one.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	(×6 (×2 Tiny)) Zombie	Minecraft World (Birch Forest, Night)	Glide	Horde Battle. The two tiny Zombies represents the Baby Zombie variant. The stage is always set to nighttime, referencing how Zombies burn in sunlight.
2	Wario (×4)	Minecraft World (Plains, Day)	The Arch-Illager	Represent Pillagers. Villager and Giant R.O.B. appear as CPU allies, representing a Villager and an Iron Golem, respectively.
3	Link (×3)	Minecraft World (Battlefield form, Night)	Clockwork Crafter	Represent Skeletons. The stage is always set to nighttime, referencing how Skeletons burn in sunlight.
4	Tiny Pit (×3) and Robin	Luigi's Mansion	Dragon Battle	Robin represents an Evoker and the tiny Pits represent Vexes. The stage represents a Woodland Mansion.
5	Giant Kirby (×2) and Tiny King K. Rool (×2)	Norfair	The Keeper of the Lake	The giant Kirbys represent Ghasts and the tiny King K. Rools represent Zombified Piglins. The stage represents the Nether.
6	Giant Enderman (×4)	Find Mii	Clockwork Crafter	Horde Battle. Items do not appear. The Endermen being sized up resembles their actual height in Minecraft. The stage represents the End Pillars.
Bonus Stage
Final	Giant Ridley and Tiny Enderman (×2)	Final Destination	The Arch-Illager	Giant Ridley represents the Ender Dragon. The stage represents the End.

Note: With the exceptions of Rounds 4 and 5, a song from the Minecraft universe is played regardless of the stage.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Steve has Earth accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light

The message that shows Steve's availability in World of Light

Due to his status as downloadable content, Steve does not have a legitimate role in World of Light. Instead, he is unlocked for use in the mode after freeing 10 fighters from Galeem's control. If loading an existing save file that meets this condition prior to downloading Steve, he is immediately unlocked.

Spirits

Steve's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is only available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Steve has been downloaded. Unlocking Steve 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 are purely aesthetic. Alex has a fighter spirit of her own, available exclusively through the shop. Each fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, the Zombie and Enderman have attack primary and neutral primary spirits respectively, but they do not have fighter spirits.

• 

  1,428. Steve

• 

  1,429. Alex

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  1,430. Zombie

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  1,434. Enderman

In Spirit Battles

As the main opponent

Spirit				Battle parameters
No.	Image	Name	Series	Enemy Fighter(s)	Type	Power	Stage	Rules	Conditions	Music
1,430		Zombie	Minecraft Series	•Zombie Team ×10 (20 HP)		1,700	Minecraft World (Savanna, Night)	N/A	•The enemy has super armor but moves slower •Stamina battle •Defeat an army of fighters	Clockwork Crafter
1,434		Enderman	Minecraft Series	•Enderman Team ×4		8,800	Minecraft World (Snowy Tundra, Night)	•Move Speed ↑ •Item: POW Block	•Only certain Pokémon will emerge from Poké Balls (Abra)	Glide
1,437		Piglin	Minecraft Series	•Gold Alex Team ×7 (×2 Tiny)		4,000	Reset Bomb Forest (Forest)	N/A	•Timed battle (2:00) •Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd •The enemy starts the battle with a Killing Edge	Cavern
				•Gold Mii Brawler Team ×7 (×2 Tiny) (Moveset 1111, Pig Mask, Pig Outfit)

As a minion

Spirit				Battle parameters							Inspiration
No.	Image	Name	Series	Enemy Fighter(s)	Type	Power	Stage	Rules	Conditions	Music	Character
1,435		Villager & Iron Golem	Minecraft Series	•Giant R.O.B. (INT)/ (JP/CH/KR) •Steve ×2		8,700	Minecraft World (Plains, Day)	•Item: Cucco	•The enemy has super armor and is hard to launch or make flinch •The enemy favors grabs and throws •Reinforcements will appear during the battle	Earth	Villagers
1,438		Ender Dragon	Minecraft Series	•Ridley (200 HP) •Enderman ×2 (50 HP)		12,700	Find Mii (hazards off)	•Health Recovery	•Defeat the main fighter to win •Stamina battle •The enemy is healed significantly when the enemy's at high damage	The Arch-Illager	Endermen

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Steve's splash art.

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  Alex's splash art.

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  Zombie's splash art.

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  Enderman's splash art.

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  Steve's amiibo.

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  Alex's amiibo.

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  Steve's unlock notice after downloading him from the Nintendo eShop.

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  Steve and Alex on Minecraft World.

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  Steve striking King K. Rool with his down tilt on Gerudo Valley.

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  Alex attacking Builder Mario with her back aerial on Tomodachi Life.

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  Steve using Elytra near Pit and Dark Pit on Temple.

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  Steve and Alex using Minecart with Bowser Jr. following behind on Port Town Aero Dive.

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  Scottish Steve, Swedish Alex, Zombie, and Enderman on Palutena's Temple.

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  Steve, Alex, and Mario on Minecraft World.

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  All of Steve and Alex's alternate costumes on Minecraft World.

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  Steve alongside all of the other DLC fighters of Fighters Pass Vol. 2.

Trivia

Steve's texture sheet for his default alternate costume, upscaled from the original textures.

• Steve is referred to within the game files with the codename "pickel". In Japanese, the loanword ピッケル pickel is used to refer to ice axes, deriving from the German word "Eispickel".
• According to Masahiro Sakurai, Steve was largely easy to develop conceptually, but the programming work required to "bring the fighter to life" was very difficult.
  • Sakurai stated that when Nintendo approached him about adding Minecraft content, he was at first skeptical of the idea, but ultimately agreed to it.
  • He also noted that every stage in the game had to be reworked to accommodate Steve's block-placing ability, which was a large portion of the fighter's programming workload.
  • Another development hurdle Sakurai and his team encountered while working on Steve was the issue of the Enderman costume unintentionally blending into stages with dark backgrounds. While attempting to remedy this issue, Sakurai would take screenshots of the Enderman in front of dark backgrounds and ask the development team to try and find it.
• According to former Minecraft production director Daniel Kaplan, negotiations between Nintendo and Mojang for Minecraft content to appear in Smash began "at least five" years prior to Steve's reveal.
• Steve is the first fighter in Smash history to have a victory animation modified in an update (not including an update in Smash 4 that universally improved slow-motion effects on sword-swinging animations). In version 9.0.1, Steve's Up victory pose was modified so that the Steak disappears after he finishes eating it.
  • Although the official reason for this change is currently unknown, many players noted that the position of the camera at the end of the pose gave it an unintentionally phallic appearance, with journalists reporting on it both before and after it was altered. Phil Spencer, the head executive of Microsoft's Xbox division, was shown the pose and stated in response to the interviewer's speculations, "I assume that will be fixed."
  • Steve is the second fighter in Ultimate to have their victory screens modified in some way via updates, the first being Chrom's victory theme being changed to fit the rest of the fighters from Fire Emblem Awakening in version 3.0.0.
• Steve and Byleth are the only fighters in Ultimate whose alternate costumes are displayed alongside their default costumes on the official Ultimate site, similarly to Robin's page on the official SSB4 site.
• Steve is the only character in either Fighters Pass, and one of two characters in Ultimate's entire DLC (the other being Piranha Plant), to be completely mute.
• Steve and Sora are the only DLC fighters in Ultimate who can crawl.
• Many of Steve's animations and sounds are directly taken from existing Minecraft games and media:
  • Steve is the only playable character to date without a unique tumbling animation, instead deriving it from his running animation, remaining upright; this reflects the way players are knocked back in Minecraft. His running animation is also used when he is star KO'd as well as during certain cinematic Final Smashes such as Triple Wolf and Wario-Man.
  • Steve's swimming animation is identical to his walk animation, as in Minecraft, and his drowning animation reflects the way players "sprint" underwater in Minecraft.
  • Steve simply falls to the side when KO'd by a weak attack in Stamina Mode, crumpling, or drowning, mimicking the way players and mobs die in Minecraft.
  • When falling asleep, Steve places a red bed on the ground and lies on it. When waking up, he collects it back into his inventory.
  • In his perfect shield animation, Steve crouches and briefly wields a Minecraft shield.
  • Steve's crouching and crawling animations are taken from Minecraft's sneaking mechanic. He also sneaks in his teetering animation, reflecting the fact that sneaking prevents the player from falling over ledges in Minecraft.
  • When landing from a fall of sufficient distance (roughly 73 units or 7.3 blocks), Minecraft's player damage sound plays, making him the only character with a unique long-distance fall sound. This sound cue is merely aesthetic.
  • Minecraft's eating sound effects play when Steve consumes a food item. This makes Steve the second character to make a unique sound when eating, following fellow third-party character Snake.
  • Steve's clapping animation resembles the "simple clap" emote exclusive to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, looped and with Steve's body turned to the side instead of facing forwards.
  • Steve and Alex's eyes blink periodically, a feature not present in their home series outside of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Dungeons. Otherwise, their facial expressions never change, even while asleep. The Zombie and Enderman do not blink.
  • When climbing a ladder, Steve idly glides up and down it while emitting Minecraft's own ladder-climbing sounds. He also crouches when stationary on a ladder, as the player does to remain stationary on a ladder in Minecraft.
  • When Steve's fishing rod enters a water surface, a water sound effect from Minecraft plays upon him retracting the grab.
  • Steve’s animation when carrying a heavy item is based on the Enderman’s animation when it’s carrying a block.
• Steve's alternate costumes each consist of a single texture taken from Minecraft, modified slightly for unknown reasons. This notably makes modifying them through file replacement extremely simple.
• Steve is the first playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series to have originated from an indie game. Markus Persson created Minecraft alone and served as its lead designer until its initial release in 2011, although his development company, Mojang AB (later "Mojang Studios"), became a subsidiary of Microsoft in 2014.
  • Independently owned properties currently exclusively appear in Smash Bros. in the form of Trophies, Spirits, Assist Trophies, and Mii Costumes; an indie character has yet to become playable while still being independently owned.
• Steve is the only fighter to lack an idle pose.
• Zombie and Enderman are the only alternate characters to lack fighter spirits.
• Zombie's and Enderman's stock icons are two of six to show the character's eyes, the others being Kirby, Meta Knight, Sonic, and R.O.B.
  • This is not counting Captain Falcon and Larry, as the eyes depicted for the former are not his actual eyes, and the latter lacks his irises.
• Much like Roy's sourspotted attacks, Steve's wooden and stone sword attacks use "punching" sound effects.
• Steve's animation for holding crates, party balls, barrels, and Blast Boxes resembles the way that Endermen carry blocks in Minecraft.
• If Steve picks up an Assist Trophy while walking, he can continue walking with it until he stops or performs any other action such as jumping. He, Mega Man, and Min Min are the only characters who can walk with an Assist Trophy.
• The initial reveal of Steve on October 1, 2020 led to a large influx of activity on the social media website Twitter, resulting in the website becoming unreachable for a short period of time. The last time that Twitter experienced an outage was on June 25, 2009, with the death of popular singer Michael Jackson causing a similar influx of activity.
• Steve is the only character in the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 with stance mirroring.
• Excluding the Mii Fighters, Steve and Olimar are the only fighter to have an alternate costume of a different character beyond a gender swap in the same pose as his default costume.
• Steve, Snake, and Inkling are the only characters who cannot angle their shield by holding the special move button while shielding. In Steve's case, this is due to the shield and special button combination being used to spawn a crafting table near him.