Young Link (SSBU)

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Young Link in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearance	in Melee
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Triforce Slash

“	He’s back after 17 years! Young Link is faster than Link but he’s also lighter, making him easier to launch.	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Young Link (こどもリンク, Young Link) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially confirmed as playable on June 12th, 2018. Young Link is classified as fighter #22.

As in Melee, Fujiko Takimoto's portrayals of Young Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its sequel Majora's Mask were repurposed for Ultimate.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Young Link being the eighth character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Link or any character in his unlock tree, being the sixth character unlocked after Snake.
• Have Young Link join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Young Link must then be defeated on Great Bay.

Differences between Link in SSB4 and Young Link

Aesthetics

• Young Link wields the Kokiri Sword and Deku Shield instead of the Master Sword and Hylian Shield.
• With the exception of his up special and up throw, all sword attacks make a punch/kick sound effect instead of a slashing sound effect upon impact.
• Young Link's on-screen appearance, taunts, idle poses, and two of his victory animations are different from Link's.

Attributes

• Young Link is shorter than Link. While this does make him harder to hit, it also results in him having less reach in his attacks.
• Young Link's Kokiri Sword has less of a disjointed range advantage on his attacks than Link, which gives him inferior range when combined with his shorter height.
• Young Link's air speed is faster than Link's (0.88 → 0.966).
• Young Link walks faster than Link (1.188 → 1.26).
• Young Link dashes faster than Link (1.3944 → 1.749).
• Young Link falls faster (1.6 → 1.8) than Link.
• Young Link's traction is significantly higher than Link's (0.064 → 0.105).
• Young Link has a greater jump height than Link.
• Young Link is overall weaker than Link in KO potential.
• Unlike Link, Young Link can wall jump.
• Young Link's Hookshot is shorter than Link's Clawshot, reducing its utility as a recovery tool.
• Young Link is significantly lighter than Link (104 → 88). While this drastically worsens his endurance for horizontal and vertical survival, his faster falling speed lessens his otherwise reduced weakness to combos.

Ground attacks

• Young Link's neutral attack can either end in a third hit or a neutral infinite with a finisher hit.
• Young Link's dash attack has him slash directly in front of himself while running forward, instead of performing the Jump Attack from Ocarina of Time.

Aerial attacks

• Down aerial does not have a meteor smash hitbox.

Special moves

• Fire Bow's arrows deal more hitstun than Link's arrows, increasing his combo ability and making the move safer on hit up close. It also has slightly faster startup than Link's Bow.
  • Fire Bow deals flame damage (hence the name).
  • Fire Bow's arrows travel less distance.
  • Fire Bow's arrows have reversed damage roles. It deals more than Bow's arrows uncharged, but less damage fully charged.
• Instead of the Gale Boomerang, Young Link retains his standard Boomerang, which does not have a windbox.
  • Boomerang travels less distance compared to Link's Gale Boomerang.
• Spin Attack lands multiple hits instead of one, allowing it to trap opponents within its hitboxes, and the late hitboxes inflict more damage.
  • Nonetheless, it is still weaker than Link's clean Spin Attack in damage. Also, it is not a viable KO move unlike Link's.
• Young Link's Bomb looks slightly different from Link's, as it is smaller; it has a smaller projectile hitbox but is slightly harder to track visually when thrown.
  • Young Link's bombs have four hitboxes as opposed to Link's two, increasing their hitstun and combo ability.
  • Young Link's bombs do more damage to opponents than Link's, given that all of their hitboxes connect.
  • The multi-hit property of the bombs means that their explosion can affect Young Link more often in close range.
  • Young Link's Bombs travel a shorter distance when thrown.
• For Triforce Slash, the final flourish and slash have altered animations, as Young Link rears his hand back and does an outward slash, instead of a stab.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee

Young Link is still faster and lighter than Link. He retains moves and characteristics from Melee Link himself no longer possesses, such as a rapid jab, dash attack, and Hookshot. Their moves largely appear and function similarly but some of them have different attributes. Young Link shares some traits with Link's incarnation in SSB4 in some aspects as well.

Young Link has been buffed in the transition from Melee to Ultimate. Young Link's speed has been improved from Melee not just in terms of his mobility but also his attacks. Many of his attacks have decreased ending lag and his aerials have heavily decreased landing lag (even compared to their L-canceled counterparts). Some of his moves have also been reworked to make them more reliable and effective such as his up smash and his forward and back aerials and the weakening of SDI heavily benefits his multi-hit attacks.

However, he has also seen a few nerfs. Some of Young Link's attacks deal less damage while others have shorter durations and a few of his attacks even have slightly increased startup and ending lag. His aerial mobility is also worse (especially when relative to the cast) and his down tilt and down aerial no longer have meteor smash hitboxes meaning that Young Link gains no benefits from the removal of meteor canceling. The changes to air dodging also hinder his mobility as wavedashing and wavelanding are significantly less effective.

Despite his nerfs, Young Link is a significantly better character than he was in Melee although to what extent is currently unknown.

Aesthetics

• Due to the game's graphical improvements, Young Link's design gains additional detail, particularly in his hair. His colors are more subdued than they were in Melee.
• Young Link is relatively bigger; he is almost as tall as regular Link.
• Young Link is much more expressive. Like Diddy Kong, his hat is also "looser" on his head and pops off during certain animations, such as his down aerial.
• Young Link now has an entrance animation, similar to Link's animation from the original Super Smash Bros.
• Young Link's taunt from Melee has been moved to his down taunt and it executes significantly faster. In addition, he has two new taunts: one where he triumphantly lifts his sword into the air while grinning, and another where Navi flies around him, akin to Link's side taunt in Brawl and Smash 4.
• Young Link has new voice clips for taking medium and heavy knockback, a second KO voice clip, and a different Star KO scream.
• The Kokiri Sword now has a bronze hilt. It leaves behind a white trail with blue accents, as opposed to a pure white trail in Melee.
  • Additionally, Link's yellow and blue Spin Attack sword trail from Smash 4 is recycled for Young Link, as Link now has a unique sword trail.
• All sword attacks now make a standard slash sound effect instead of a punch/kick sound effect like in Melee.
• Young Link now has three additional alternate costumes, bringing his total up to the standard eight. His black alternate costume has also been altered to better resemble Dark Link.
• Young Link now has a Boxing Ring alias, being “Master of the Ocarina.”
• Young Link's victory animation where he adjusts his belt is slightly different. He now holds the Kokiri Sword and after adjusting, flicks his nose with his thumb.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Young Link's jumpsquat animation now takes three frames to complete (down from 4).
• Young Link walks faster (1.2 → 1.26).
• Young Link dashes much faster (1.6 → 1.749) although relative to the cast, his dashing speed is now only slightly above average. His initial dash is also faster (1.72 → 2.09).
• Young Link's air speed is slightly slower (1 → 0.966), one of the few exceptions to returning veterans. It has gone from the 6th highest air speed to only the 60th highest.
• Young Link's fall speed has been slightly reduced (2.13 → 1.8), but is now faster relative to the roster.
• Young Link's midair jump is significantly higher. This improves Young Link's ability to recover back to the stage.
• Young Link now has a fast fall speed more in line with the rest of the roster (2.2 → 2.88), in comparison to his almost unnoticeable fast fall in Melee. This greatly increases the versatility of his air game, and allows him to use various mix-ups that other characters possess.
• Young Link's Deku Shield now protects him from projectiles while walking, similar to the shields of all other Link incarnations.
• Young Link is slightly heavier (85 → 88), which improves his survivability but makes him more susceptible to combos.
• The removal of meteor canceling harms Young Link more than any other returning veteran as it significantly hinders his endurance against meteor smashes and he no longer has access to any meteor smashes of his own.
• The changes to air dodging hinder Young Link's mobility and he can no longer use his grab aerial out of an air dodge.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's third jab has slightly more horizontal range and the first hit can now jab lock at higher percents.
  • The first three hits of neutral attack have less ending lag (frame 24 → 20) (hit 1), frame 23 → 17 (hit 2), frame 51 → 36 (hit 3)).
  • Neutral attack infinite is now a flurry of slashes that transition much faster, and has a finisher in the form of an ascending slash.
  • Neutral attack now consists of two hits followed by either a stab if the attack button is held, or a neutral infinite if the button is mashed, akin to that of Captain Falcon.
  • Neutral attack deals less damage (3% → 2% (hit 1), 2% → 1.5% (hit 2), 5% → 3.5% (hit 3), 1% → 0.3% (loop hits)). the first three hits also have shorter durations (frames 6-8 (hits 1/2), frames 6-10 (hit 3) → frames 6-7 (all).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt covers more vertical range. It also has less startup lag (frame 11 → 10).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has a shorter duration (frames 9-15 → 9-14) and has more ending lag (frame 31 → 32).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has much quicker startup (frame 14 → 8) and ending lag (frame 41 → 26).
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 14-16 → 8-9). It also has less vertical range and can no longer meteor smash aerial opponents.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has less ending lag (frame 55 → 35).
  • Dash attack has more startup lag and a shorter duration (frames 7-11 → 8-10). It also sends opponents at a higher angle hindering its edgeguarding potential.
• Forward smash:
  • The first hit of forward smash has less ending lag (frame 50 → 48). The second hit also deals more damage (10% → 12%) and is properly affected by charging.
  • The first hit deals less damage (10% → 6%) and no longer has set knockback hindering its reliability at higher percents. The second hit has more startup lag (frame 10 → 11), has more ending lag (frame 41 → 50) and it deals less knockback. Both hits also have a shorter duration (3 frames (hit 1), 4 frames (hit 2) → 2 frames (both)).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has more ending lag (frame 61 → 70). The final hit also has more startup lag (frame 40 → 41).
  • Up smash's hits chain together much more reliably due to the weakening of SDI. The second hit also deals more damage (2% → 3%) and the final hit has much higher knockback allowing up smash to kill at realistic percents. The first two hits also has less startup lag and longer durations (frames 11-14/26-28 → 10-14/25-29).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has less ending lag (frame 51 → 50) and the sourspots deal more damage (7% → 10% (front), 6% → 9% (back).
  • Down smash has a shorter duration (frames 9-12/21-23 → 9-10/21-22).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have significantly less landing lag (15 frames → 6 (neutral/forward/back), 30 frames → 14 (up), 50 frames → 17 (down)) having even less than when L-canceled in Melee.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has less ending lag (frame 41 → 36).
  • Neutral aerial deals less damage (12% (clean), 8% (late) → 10%/5%) hindering it's KO potential.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial is no longer a single degrading hit, and instead hits twice like Link's. It deals more damage when both hits connect (12% → 14%) and has slightly higher KO potential. It also has less ending lag (frame 56 → 41).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has less ending lag (frame 41 → 30). The first hit now has set knockback making it connect much more reliably with the second hit and the second hit deals more knockback.
  • The first hit deals less damage (5% → 7%) and both hits have shorter durations (frames 6-9/18-23 → 6-8/18-20).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less ending lag (frame 71 → 60).
  • Up aerial has a slightly shorter duration (frames 5-50 → 5-49).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has less ending lag (frame 91 → 80). The early hit also deals more damage (14% → 18%) improving its KO potential.
  • Down aerial no longer has a meteor smash hitbox on Young Link's head, removing the move's ability to meteor smash opponents from below. The late hit also deals less damage 17% → 15%) and down aerial has a slightly shorter duration (frames 13-65 → 13-64).
  • Down aerial can only spike on the first few frames of the down air. Anything after that will result in the enemy being launched upwards.
• Grab aerial:
  • Grab aerial has drastically decreased landing lag (30 frames → 8), granting it combo potential. It also no longer leaves him helpless.
  • Grab aerial has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 9-18 → 11-18) and it has more ending lag (frame 61 → 74). It also deals less damage (5% → 4%) and is now affected by stale move negation.

Throws/other attacks

• Young Link's grabs have significantly less ending lag (frame 86 → 53 (standing), frame 96 → 61 (dash), making it safer to use. They also have longer durations (4 frames → 7).
  • Grabs have more startup lag (frame 10 → 12 (standing), frame 13 → 14 (dash)).
• Young Link jumps a bit higher when performing his up throw.
• Up throw has more ending lag.
• Hookshot is no longer a wall grapple, and is instead a tether recovery.
  • This removes the ability to grapple to any wall, reducing its versatility.
  • Hookshot's range and safety has improved to compensate.

Special Moves

• Fire Bow:
  • Fire Bow's arrow now lights up when nocked, and ignites when completely charged, compared to in Melee where the arrow does not light up at all. This is purely aesthetic, as the arrows are always on fire regardless of charge length.
  • Fire Bow's arrows have been redesigned to more closely resemble the artwork found in the manual for Ocarina of Time.
  • Fire Arrows now disappear after a brief amount of time in the air.
  • Fire Bow has slightly decreased ending lag (frame 39 → 38), and the arrows fly much further than before and deal more knockback, even when not fully charged. Fire Bow can now auto-cancel out of a short hop and Young Link can now B-reverse Fire Bow.
  • Fire Bow deals less damage (8%-15% → 4%-12%).
• Boomerang:
  • Young Link has a new throwing animation for the Boomerang.
  • Young Link's Boomerang is much bigger and thrown vertically instead of horizontally when released, increasing its coverage immensely. Young Link can now B-reverse Boomerang
  • Combined with the removal of wall grappling with Clawshot, returned Boomerang no longer causes Young Link to jump much higher than before.
  • Boomerang deals less damage when throw (16% (normal) 19% (smash) → 11%/13.2%).
• Spin Attack:
  • Grounded Spin Attack deals two less hits (12 → 10) during its multi-hit portion of the attack. It still deals the same amount of damage due to changes to stale move negation.
  • Grounded Spin Attack's endlag has been reduced (frame 81 → 71). Combined with lower vertical knockback on the finisher, this allows the move to combo into his aerials. It also connects more reliably.
  • Grounded Spin Attack can now be charged, as with the other incarnations of Link.
  • Grounded spin attack has more startup lag (frame 8 → 9).
  • Aerial Spin Attack preserves much more momentum after being used, and Young Link can move more during its animation. In addition, the move's vertical recovery has increased.
  • Aerial spin attack deals less damage (13% → 12%).
• Bomb:
  • Like with Link's Bombs in Super Smash Bros. 4, the explosions from Young Link's Bombs do not damage him if they hit an opponent.
  • Young Link's Bombs travel further when thrown.
  • Compared to previous incarnations of Bombs, Young Link's Bombs deal noticeably less self-damage if they detonate just after being thrown.
  • Bomb's maximum damage output is lower (14% → 9.8%).
• Triforce Slash:
• Young Link now has a Final Smash, that being Triforce Slash. Visually, this variant resembles Link's version from Smash 4, but the final flourish and slash have altered animations: Young Link rears his hand back and does an outward slash, instead of a stab.

Update History

1.2.0

• Invisible bomb glitch removed.

Classic Mode: Hyrule Smash

Young Link's opponents are all from the Zelda series. Additionally, to go with the theme of the route, all items and assist trophies are from the The Legend of Zelda universe.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music
1	Zelda	Hyrule Castle	Hyrule Main Theme
2	Young Link	Temple	Song of Storms
3	Sheik	Gerudo Valley (Ω form)	Gerudo Valley
4	4 Toon Links	Pirate Ship	The Great Sea / Menu Select
5	Ganondorf	Bridge of Eldin	Main Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
6	Link	Great Plateau Tower	Main Theme - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Bonus Stage
Final	Ganon	?	Calamity Ganon Battle - Second Form

Role in World of Light

Although Young Link does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Young Link was one of the many imprisoned fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He is unlocked in the Sacred Realm sub-area on the bottom right corner of the land which makes up the Triforce of Courage. The player must rely on the owl statues which will guide the player to Saria's spirit battle. Unlocking her spirit clears out a tree stump that blocked access to his unlock battle. Once Young Link is unlocked, the Triforce of Courage appears in the center of the map. If Zelda is unlocked, the path leading to Cloud's unlock battle and the Master Sword clears out.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

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  Artwork of all The Legend of Zelda characters, as posted on the official Legend of Zelda Twitter account.

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  Young Link's amiibo.

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  Young Link's fighter card.

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  Young Link on Great Bay.

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  Tossing his Bomb at Wario on Castle Siege.

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  Idling with Toon Link's Fairy on Skyworld.

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  Drinking Lon Lon Milk with Inkling on Temple.

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  Performing his down aerial in his Dark Link-based costume on the Umbra Clock Tower.

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  Tossing his Boomerang on Onett.

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  Young Link drinking his Lon Lon Milk with Simon on Figure-8 Circuit.

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  Carrying his Bomb with Bomberman on Temple.

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  Idling with Mario on Tomodachi Life.

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  With all playable The Legend of Zelda veterans on the Great Plateau Tower.

Character Showcase Video

<youtube>qpzDPfCzB7g</youtube>

Trivia

• Young Link's official artwork is based off of the pose he strikes after using his grounded Spin Attack.
• Young Link and Pichu share the longest gap between playable appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series, with seventeen years between Melee and Ultimate.
  • This has been noted by both of their Super Smash Bros. blog's "Today's Fighter" descriptions.
• The belt around Young Link's sheath appears to have back-face culling, as it is shown to not be visible when seen from the other side. This is mostly noticeable whenever he is shown performing his down taunt, where he is drinking Lon-Lon milk at the end of his character showcase video. This was fixed in the initial release of the game.
  • Additionally, his legs would clip through his tunic in his showcase video, which was also fixed in the initial release of the game.
• Due to Young Link's hair having more physics-based movement, in certain animations such as taking damage, it's possible to see that his sideburns get cut off rather than being connected to his cap.