Clone

In Melee, Mario and Dr. Mario's aerial attacks are
identical in animation, which is part of what makes them clones.

A clone (officially Echo Fighter (ダッシュファイター Dash Fighter) for certain clones in Ultimate) is a character whose moveset, animations, and general properties are mostly derived from another character, as opposed to being unique to them. All clones have some notable differences from their original, ranging from different animations (such as with Daisy) to fully unique moves (such as with Chrom) -- thus differentiating them from alternate costume characters such as Alph -- but on the whole, they will generally be very similar to their parent, to the point where a casual player might play either in the same way. However, this is not to say that playing a clone like their parent will be successful: Roy may be a clone of Marth in Melee due to sharing all his attacks and animations, but as his movements and hitboxes are all altered, his optimal playstyle is completely different.

Clones are a common inclusion in various fighting games, as it is significantly less expensive in time and resources to develop a character using another character as a base than it is to do everything from scratch, while still potentially forming a character of unique playstyle and fanbase. However, despite being easier to make and thus resulting in a larger roster overall, fans are quick to show disdain for clones, perceiving them as stealing resources from potential unique characters.

The term "clone" can also be used to refer to individual moves. For example, Charizard's Flamethrower is a clone of Bowser's Fire Breath, as even though the characters are not related, they are the same type of move with identical function.

It is uncommon for clones to be starter characters; they are more likely to be unlockable characters. If a clone's parent is also unlockable, it is very likely for the clone to be unlocked after their parent.

Subtypes

The term "clone" does not by itself sufficiently describe how similar two characters are. Perhaps two characters share all but one attack, while another pair has only half of their attacks in common while still clearly being a derivative overall. As a result, there is a spectrum of terms to describe how much of a clone a character might be.

• A full clone (often shortened to just "clone") will have unique taunts and victory poses, may have unique attributes (such as being heavier or faster) or non-combat animations (such as running or jumping), and perhaps a unique attack or two. Otherwise, they share effectively all moves and animations with their parent. Pichu in Melee and Lucina in SSB4 are examples of full clones.
• A semi-clone has several unique attacks and animations of their own while retaining a significant amount from their parent. Falco in Brawl and Roy in Smash 4 are examples of semi-clones.
• A pseudo-clone is, for the most part, their own unique character, but with enough moves or animations copied from their parent that it would be inaccurate to say they are not cloned to some degree. Wolf in Brawl and Luigi in Ultimate are examples of pseudo-clones.

It is not uncommon for a cloned character to receive further differentiating changes in later games, thus making them less of a clone. Some use the term Luigification for when a character is separated from their parent and forms their own identity, as Luigi has done in both his home series and the Smash Bros. series. However, it is generally very difficult to determine at what point a character who was once a clone is no longer a clone, or even which specific category some characters may fall into. For example, Luigi’s status as any type of clone post-Brawl was a subject of heavy debate before the term “pseudo-clone” was accepted.

Ultimate introduces the term "Echo Fighter" to refer to certain clones. The term is used to determine which characters are grouped together on the character selection screen when the corresponding menu option is enabled, and also forces such characters to share the same fighter numbers with an appended epsilon (ε). The Japanese term is "Dash Fighter", and uses the prime symbol (') instead of an epsilon. In Japanese, the prime symbol is pronounced "dash", hence the term "Dash Fighter"; in mathematics, the prime symbol is used to designate that something is derived from something else, such as x′ being derived from x. Otherwise, it is simply a term used by the developers to denote a character as being low-budget; as a result, it only loosely fits into the spectrum of clone terms used by the community to discuss the degree of similarity in the final result. For example, Dr. Mario is a full clone, while Ken is a semi-clone, but Ken is labeled as an Echo Fighter while Dr. Mario is not. However, Daisy, Richter, and Dark Samus, who have next to no discernible differences from their base fighter, are labeled as such. Notably, none of the clones who debuted prior to Smash 4 are labeled as an Echo Fighter.

Clones in Super Smash Bros.

While all four of the unlockable characters were created with the premise of reusing some of the pre-existing characters' movements and models, two of them (Captain Falcon and Ness) are unique enough that they are not clones of their parents (Samus and Mario respectively), and mainly only copy from their skeletons rather than their movesets.

Clone	Parent	Category	Different moves	Attributes
Luigi	Mario	Full clone	Luigi's only unique attacks are his dash attack and down tilt, though his taunt is unique among the cast in that it has a hitbox.	Luigi's special moves all have different purposes: his Fireball's lack of gravity alters where it controls space, while his Super Jump Punch and Luigi Cyclone are both one-hit power moves rather than trapping combo moves. In general, Luigi is slower than Mario and has fewer combos and inferior approaching ability, but has a better recovery and more KO moves.
Jigglypuff	Kirby	Semi-clone	Jigglypuff's unique attacks include its up smash, back aerial, up aerial, forward throw, and all special moves.	While Jigglypuff shares many of Kirby's animations and properties (such as having six jumps), it is generally difficult to compare the two, as the pair are historically not seen as a semi-clone in the same way that other characters are.

Notes

• The Fighting Polygon Team is composed of full clones of all 12 playable fighters, though they cannot use special moves.
• As mentioned above, Ness and Captain Falcon reuse some of Mario's and Samus's movements, respectively. For Ness, his only similarities to Mario are his floor attacks (additionally, their Polygons are almost identical). For Captain Falcon, he shares his dash attack, floor attacks, down tilt, and down smash with Samus, but is vastly different otherwise.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Melee

Originally, Masahiro Sakurai was going to include significantly fewer playable characters in Melee. However, with fans wanting more characters while time was constrictive, Sakurai decided to add clones later in development to pad out the roster, as these characters would take a lot less time to develop than unique characters. According to the Japanese website, clones were known as model swap characters (モデル替えキャラ). Clones are marked on the character selection screen as recessed icons next to the fighters they are based on.

Luigi received many changes that distanced him from Mario considerably, changing him from a full clone into a semi-clone. On the other hand, Jigglypuff and Kirby both received changes significant enough that Jigglypuff is no longer considered any sort of clone.

Clone	Parent	Category	Different moves	Attributes
Dr. Mario	Mario	Full clone	Dr. Mario's moves are all identical to Mario's, though he throws Megavitamins that act similarly to Mario’s fireballs, as well as a few more unique properties.	Dr. Mario has stronger attacks in general, with some of them having unique properties: his forward smash is an electrical attack without a sourspot, his forward aerial is a non-meteor powerful finisher, and his neutral aerial (which has a slightly different animation) is a sex kick with its strongest hit at the end instead of the beginning. Dr. Mario also cannot wall jump and has a worse recovery in general. Despite Dr. Mario's trophy describing him as "a tad slower" than Mario, the two have identical speed stats, with the exception of Dr. Mario's slightly faster air speed.
Falco	Fox	Full clone	While Falco's entire moveset has different functions from Fox's due to different knockback or properties, all of his moves are completely identical in concept and animation.	Falco is slightly taller than Fox, and most of his moves have slightly larger range as a result (with the notable exception of his down tilt and Reflector, which has a smaller hitbox). Falco has a slower walking speed, dashing speed, and jump squat, but a higher vertical jump height, as well as slightly heavier weight and faster falling speed. While Falco's moves all look the same as Fox's, many have different properties and therefore applications. For example, Fox uses his up smash and up aerial as his main high-power KO moves, while Falco instead relies on his forward smash and down tilt. Falco's down aerial is a powerful single-hit spike that cannot be SDI'ed out of, making it a much more reliable combo starter and edgeguarding tool. Fox's flinchless Blaster is ideal for tacking on damage for free, while Falco's (which has a different animation) can flinch and so is more suited for facilitating and interrupting approaches. Falco's side special, Falco Phantasm, travels a shorter distance than Fox's, but has lower startup and meteor smashes the opponent when it hits. Falco's up special, Fire Bird, charges faster and deals stronger knockback, but covers significantly less distance than Fox's and lacks the burn hitbox while charging. Fox's Reflector delivers set horizontal knockback and is mainly used for interrupting and edgeguarding, as well as waveshining heavier characters, while Falco's Reflector deals vertical knockback and is mainly used as a combo starter. Falco's back throw and up throw launch opponents in an unpredictable direction, as his lasers produce knockback, making them unreliable as combo starters.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Full clone	Ganondorf has a single-hit neutral attack and a unique forward aerial. The rest of Ganondorf's moveset is cloned, though he is consistently much slower but stronger than Captain Falcon, most notably in his up tilt.	Ganondorf is significantly heavier and much more powerful than Captain Falcon, and while his movement is slower, most of his attacks do not lose too much speed. Almost all of Ganondorf's attacks are viable KO options and have some sort of property difference, such as aerial Wizard's Foot acting as a powerful spike. Most notably, Ganondorf's up tilt (the Volcano Kick) is the slowest-to-hit attack in the game and has correspondingly extreme power, whereas Falcon's up tilt is a simple attack not much different from other up tilts.
Luigi	Mario	Semi-clone	Luigi has a unique up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, forward aerial, and side special. The final hit of his neutral combo is also different.	Luigi has a higher jump height, slower air speed, slower dashing speed, and lower traction compared to Mario. Luigi's Super Jump Punch no longer grants any horizontal distance. While his down smash, neutral aerial, and down aerial look the same as Mario's, they behave quite differently.
Pichu	Pikachu	Full clone	Pichu's only unique move is its up smash, though it has various other properties, most notably recoil damage from electrical attacks.	Pichu is generally faster and weaker than Pikachu, which is exacerbated by its electric attacks inflicting self-damage. Most special moves have minor differences; Skull Bash is stronger and can be charged for longer, Agility covers more space than Quick Attack but deals no damage, and Thunder is a multi-hit move.
Roy	Marth	Full clone	Roy only has one part to his neutral attack. The rest of his moveset is cloned from Marth's, though with visible fire effects and an inversed tipper mechanic.	While Marth's sweetspot is at the tip of his sword, Roy's is at the hilt, which affects almost his entire moveset and so enforces a completely different style of play. Roy is also slower than Marth in most aspects. His up smash and up special are multi-hit moves, and his Counter does not deal fixed damage like Marth's.
Young Link	Link	Full clone	Young Link's moves are all weaker than Link's, but his entire moveset is otherwise the same as that of Link.	Young Link is a smaller, faster, and weaker character overall. He can wall jump, his grounded Spin Attack is a multi-hit move, his arrows are on fire, and his forward smash's first hit is purely a setup for the second hit rather than a launching move by itself.

Notes

• As Luigi and Dr. Mario share a "parent" in Mario, it could be argued that they are technically semi-clones of each other.
• Giga Bowser is effectively a full clone of Bowser; he is omitted from the above list due to not being a playable character.
• The Male and Female Wire Frames are clones of Captain Falcon and Zelda, respectively, though without special moves. Unlike the previous game's Polygons, they also have weaker movesets.
• Master Hand and Crazy Hand could be considered semi-clones, as they share most of their attacks while having some unique attacks and many unique animations.
• Coincidentally, all clones' head icons face the opposite direction as their parent's.
• Technically, Samus can be considered a "grandparent" to Ganondorf, since the latter is a clone of Captain Falcon, who was partially cloned off of Samus in the previous title. The two characters are so vastly different that they cannot be considered clones in any sense, but Ganondorf and Captain Falcon still share their floor attack, dash attack, and up-tilt animations with Samus.
• Although Mr. Game & Watch has always been a unique character as opposed to a clone, he incidentally shared most of his attributes (except for his weight, air speed and air acceleration) with Mario in Melee.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

None of the newcomers in Brawl are full clones, though there are new lesser clones. In addition, four out of six full clones from Melee were cut, with the two that returned (Falco and Ganondorf) now becoming semi-clones. As a result, there are no full clones in Brawl.

Clone	Parent	Category	Different moves	Attributes
Falco	Fox	Semi-clone	Falco has a different neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, and back aerial, while he also uses his down special differently.	Falco keeps many of his differences from Melee, such as which of his attacks are more powerful than Fox's, while gaining a few new ones alongside his changed attacks. Most notably, he kicks his Reflector out instead of holding it in place, which can trip opponents and extends its reach, but means he cannot hold it forever or use it as part of a combo engine.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Semi-clone	Ganondorf has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, up smash, forward aerial, up throw, side special, and Final Smash.	Ganondorf's new Twilight Princess design gives him a wide variety of new animations, even for attacks that still mirror Falcon's. Flame Choke is the biggest change, giving him a new and unique special move. Otherwise, Ganondorf remains slower and more powerful than Falcon.
Lucas	Ness	Pseudo-clone	Lucas's only similar moves are his forward smash, up aerial, pummel, and special moves (excluding neutral special). The rest of his moveset is unique, and even then his shared moves feature different properties.	Having mostly a unique moveset of his own, Lucas's similarity to Ness is primarily in his weight and skeleton being identical to Ness's. However, Lucas jumps higher and runs faster than Ness. His special moves are fairly similar to Ness's, but with major functional differences, such as PK Thunder being a multi-hit attack. More importantly are his attributes; he has mostly the same physical properties as Ness, and both suffer from an additional 10 frames of grab release lag that no other character has. This is the only clone pair where the derived character is the starter and the parent is unlockable.
Luigi	Mario	Semi-clone	Luigi has a unique neutral combo third hit, up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, down smash, forward aerial, down aerial, side special, down special, and Final Smash.	Mario's Mario Tornado changing from his down special to his down aerial is the main new difference between him and Luigi, in addition to Luigi being able to crawl. Luigi's down smash also has a new animation further distinguishing it from Mario's. Additionally, Luigi has been given some new animations and now has his own voice clips, rather than re-using a sped-up selection of Mario's.
Toon Link	Link	Semi-clone	Toon Link has a unique up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, forward throw, and back throw.	Toon Link retains many of the same differences from Link that Young Link had in Melee: he is smaller, faster, and weaker, can wall jump, and has a forward smash that only launches on the second hit, a more controllable Boomerang, and a multi-hit grounded Spin Attack. However, many of his standard attacks are now considerably different from Link's, making him a semi-clone instead of the full clone that Young Link was. As proof that Toon Link was derived from Link, there is an error where his forward throw is treated as a Foot attack like Link's even though it is a shoulder tackle.
Wolf	Fox	Pseudo-clone	Wolf's only similar moves are his forward throw, pummel, and all special moves (including his Final Smash). The rest of his moveset is unique, and even then his shared moves all feature different properties.	Historically, Wolf's status has been very unclear and heavily debated ever since Brawl's release. Like Lucas, his main similarity to his parent is in his special moves; his Blaster is fairly unique by only firing a single shot and has a melee hitbox, and his side special hits with his body instead of producing damaging afterimages, but overall they are evidently all derivations of Fox's. The majority of his moveset is otherwise unique. In addition, the vast majority of Wolf's non-combat animations (such as dodges, getups, and item actions) remain exactly identical to Fox's, even in cases where they do not connect properly into his other animations as a result.

Notes

• The Fighting Alloy Team are all clones: Red of Captain Falcon, Blue of Zelda, Yellow of Mario, and Green of Kirby (with Jigglypuff's forward, back, and up throws). Like their predecessors, they lack special moves.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. 4

Super Smash Bros. 4 re-introduces full clones, adding one such veteran and two such newcomers. These clones were originally developed as alternate costumes, but it was later decided to give them a difference in moveset, resulting in them being split into their own characters — as "even a small difference in abilities" requires a unique roster slot. There are no new semi-clones, and returning semi-clones were not given much in the way of new differences. Full clones are marked on the character selection screen by being listed outside of the rest of the characters from their series.

Most clones and semi-clones share at least one custom move, though full clones have more custom moves in common.

Clone	Parent	Category	Different moves	Attributes
Dark Pit	Pit	Full clone	Dark Pit has his own Final Smash, though it is still cloned (from Zelda and Sheik, specifically). The rest of his moveset is completely identical.	Dark Pit was made into a clone because Sakurai did not like the idea of him using Pit's Three Sacred Treasures for his Final Smash. Another noticeable difference is his side special, Electroshock Arm, which deals electrical damage with stronger knockback while hitting opponents at a horizontal trajectory. Besides this, his other differences from Pit are extremely minimal — he has a smaller hitbox on his neutral attack rapid finisher (which is due to only Pit's equivalent attack getting buffed), his forward tilt deals weaker knockback, and the arrows fired from his neutral special travel with less control but are stronger and faster. Due to his extreme similarity to Pit, most tier lists do not even give him his own placing, instead having him share Pit's spot.
Dr. Mario	Mario	Full clone	Dr. Mario retains his down aerial and down special from Melee, which, due to changes to Mario since, are now incidentally different attacks.	Dr. Mario was made into a clone because Sakurai felt fans of his Melee incarnation would be disappointed to lose his uniqueness. Concurrently, he retains most of his differences: while he can now wall jump (removing a difference), he now acts as a slower but stronger Mario due to built-in equipment multipliers, and his up special now only hits once without spawning coins. However, he is still very similar to Mario; his Final Smash and custom moves are all direct copies of Mario's (or Luigi's, in the case of Dr. Tornado).
Falco	Fox	Semi-clone	Falco has a different neutral combo, up tilt, forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial, and down special.	Not much has changed for Falco; aside from getting a new up smash and back aerial, and up aerial's animation being significantly altered, he retains his differences from Fox from the previous game. Notably, while he shares no custom moves with Fox, he and Fox both have custom neutral specials that replicate the other's default.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Semi-clone	Ganondorf has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, up smash, forward aerial, up throw, side special, and Final Smash.	Ganondorf has not received any major changes that affect how much of a clone he is, though he did get a few minor animation- and functionality-related tweaks. He notably shares no custom moves at all with Captain Falcon.
Lucas	Ness	Pseudo-clone	Lucas's only similar moves are his forward smash, up aerial, pummel, and special moves (excluding neutral special). The rest of his moveset is unique.	Lucas received no additional moves to distinguish himself from Ness. In fact, he now shares some non-attack animations with Ness despite having unique ones in Brawl, such as his Final Smash animation, dash ending animation, idle animation when holding items, and his clapping animation. In addition, all of Ness's special moves have custom variants that cause them to act like Lucas's (whereas Lucas, like all DLC characters, has no custom moves).
Lucina	Marth	Full clone	Although Lucina's damage output and knockback are altered throughout her entire moveset thanks to lacking Marth's tipper, her entire moveset is otherwise largely identical to Marth's in frame data and animation.	Lucina was made into a clone because Sakurai decided to have her act as an easier-to-play version of Marth, with equal power across her sword instead of a sweetspot at the tip. Concurrently, all of Lucina's attacks deal damage somewhere between Marth's sweetspots and sourspots, giving her a more aggressive and consistent playstyle. Despite lacking Marth's usual sweetspots, Lucina's up tilt has a timing-based sweetpsot on the latter half of the slash, where it will do more damage but less knockback. However, aside from slightly different animations for Shield Breaker and Counter and a few other minimal changes (such as being negligibly shorter, or a few of her moves not halting her horizontal momentum), she is completely identical to Marth in all other ways.
Luigi	Mario	Semi-clone	Luigi has a unique neutral combo, up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, down smash, forward aerial, down aerial, down throw, side special, down special, and Final Smash.	Luigi's jumps are animated differently, being a scuttle instead of a block-punch. He has a new down throw as well, where he Ground Pounds the opponent. He also does not share any customs with Mario, aside from one that makes his Fireballs act like Mario's default ones.
Roy	Marth	Semi-clone	Roy has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, dash attack, forward smash, and down aerial. His neutral special is unchanged from its cloned version in Melee, while his up special is animated differently but acts the same. His Final Smash has the same name and concept as Marth's, but behaves differently.	Roy is the most decloned character in SSB4, with several new moves as well as different animations on similar ones, largely involving him holding his sword in a reverse grip. As a DLC character, he has no custom moves. Marth's customs do not mimic his specials like Ness's do to Lucas.
Toon Link	Link	Semi-clone	Toon Link has a unique dash attack, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, forward throw, and back throw.	Link being given a new dash attack makes Toon Link's more distinct, though Toon Link himself has received few decloning changes. The two Links do not share many custom moves.

Notes

• As Luigi and Dr. Mario, as well as Lucina and Roy, share a common "parent" character in Mario and Marth respectively, both pairs can be argued as semi-clones of each other.
• Many standard and special attacks of the Mii Fighters are cloned moves from existing characters. Several of the Mii Gunner's moves are similar to Samus's or Fox's (with a couple similar to Ness's and Robin's). Similarly, the Mii Swordfighter shares moves with the swordfighters (specifically Link and Ike), while the Mii Brawler shares moves with Mario, Little Mac, and Captain Falcon.
  • The Fighting Mii Team operates like Mii Fighters but lacks special moves, much like previous enemy teams.
• While Wolf is not present in this game, Fox's Fox Illusion has a custom variation that mimics Wolf's, even being named "Wolf Flash". Fox also has a Charge Blaster custom neutral special that only fires a single shot and a Twisting Fox custom up special that is a multi-hit move without fiery properties, which are also similar to Wolf's.

Clones in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As stated above, Ultimate uses the term "Echo Fighter" to refer to certain clones based on development time. The term is not fully related to how unique a character is, as some full clones are not marked as Echo Fighters despite their similar movesets. On the character selection screen, Echo Fighters are positioned directly after their base fighter, and there exists an option to merge the portraits of the base fighter and the Echo Fighter in certain modes.

With Ultimate bringing back all veterans, every clone that was originally cut returns. However, most returning full clones did not receive many new differences. In the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate, however, Luigi and Ganondorf were both significantly decloned (with Luigi commonly being agreed to have become a pseudo-clone) and Link's new changes based off of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild subsequently decloned both of his counterparts to an extent.

Clone	Parent	Category	ɛ	Different moves	Attributes
Chrom	Roy	Full clone		Chrom has a unique up special mostly inspired by Ike's, as well as a unique Final Smash. The rest of his moveset is largely the same as Roy's, though without fire effects, sweetspots, or reverse grip.	Like Lucina, Chrom's main difference from his base fighter is the lack of a sweetspot, with his attacks being equally powerful across the blade. Other than this, however, Chrom's attacks are all fairly identical to Roy's, though his forward tilt moves him slightly forward, and Chrom's counter is stronger than Roy's. Some of Chrom's attack animations slightly differ from Roy's as well, as he does not hold his sword in a reverse grip for his neutral attack, forward tilt and up tilt, which consequently slightly changes the hitbox placements for these attacks.
Daisy	Peach	Full clone		Daisy's entire moveset is completely identical to Peach's without any practical differences whatsoever.	Daisy has some unique non-combat animations such as standing and running, and many different aesthetics, but other than that, she has no gameplay-affecting differences whatsoever. The differing animations she has alter her hurtbox placements marginally, but this is not enough to change any of her matchups. Prior to Version 3.0.0, Daisy's Vegetable had higher base knockback but lower knockback scaling; as this was purposely changed to match Peach's version, it is clear that Daisy is intended to not have any gameplay differences from her at all.
Dark Pit	Pit	Full clone		Dark Pit has his own Final Smash. Aside from that, only his neutral and side specials have different properties.	Dark Pit's hitbox differences have been removed from all of his non-special attacks, making him even more similar to Pit. His Final Smash is unchanged, though since Zelda and Sheik have both received new ones, it can be argued whether it is still a cloned move. Other than that, Dark Pit retains his two other differences from SSB4.
Dark Samus	Samus	Full clone		Dark Samus's moveset is exactly like Samus's in every way except for elemental properties, slight animation differences, and minor hitbox placement changes.	Most of Dark Samus's properties and hitboxes are the same as Samus's, with the most major difference being that most flame attacks involving the Arm Cannon are now electric ones. Dark Samus also has a large variety of unique non-attack animations, and many of her moves (such as her dash attack, all smash attacks, as well as her neutral and side specials) have altered animations, which has subtle effects on their hitbox placement (such as allowing some moves to hit shorter characters, while Samus' equivalents are more difficult to high-profile over). Additionally, Dark Samus's rolls are faster, and her shield is bigger.
Dr. Mario	Mario	Full clone		Dr. Mario has a different down aerial, back throw, and down special.	Dr. Mario is relatively unchanged compared to Mario. He received a new back throw and both he and Mario received new, differing animations for their functionally unaltered side specials; he also received a new down aerial, though this does not declone him any more than before because he already had a different one. He retains his external multipliers, which have been made slightly more extreme, and his traction is now slightly higher. None of this is enough to change his clone status, regardless, as he was already one of the closest clones to his base character.
Falco	Fox	Semi-clone		Falco has a different neutral combo, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial, down throw, and down special.	Both Fox and Falco received the same new Final Smash, so other than Falco's new down throw, he did not get decloned any further. He is still a traditional semi-clone of Fox, where he has a fair share of both similar and unique attacks.
Ganondorf	Captain Falcon	Semi-clone		Ganondorf has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, forward smash, up smash, down smash, forward aerial, pummel, forward throw, up throw, side special, and Final Smash. His shared moves, while sharing similar animations, have significantly different frame data, damage, and knockback that alters their functions.	Ganondorf received a new set of smash attacks involving his sword, making him now only share about half of his moveset with Captain Falcon. Captain Falcon has also received new altered animations resembling those of Ganondorf (such as Falcon Dive). Captain Falcon also received a new forward smash, meaning that even if Ganondorf had not received any changes, their only shared smash attack would be their down smash.
Isabelle	Villager	Semi-clone		Isabelle has a unique neutral attack, up tilt, forward smash, up smash, down smash, neutral aerial, side special, and down special.	Isabelle is one of the two only new semi-clones in Ultimate, with her shared moves mostly being inspired by Villager rather than being directly copied from him. She is faster, lighter, and floatier than Villager, without the ability to wall jump. Sakurai has noted that Isabelle could not be made into an Echo Fighter of Villager due to her different body proportions, and him feeling that some of Villager's moves would be unsuitable for her.
Ken	Ryu	Semi-clone		Ken has a unique held far neutral attack, held forward tilt, forward smash, neutral aerial, up aerial, back throw, and Final Smashes. His special moves also have different properties or animations, and he has two entirely new moves only accessible via command inputs, while losing access to Shakunetsu Hadoken.	Ken is the only Echo Fighter that is a semi-clone rather than a full clone (and one of the two only new semi-clones, alongside Isabelle), with his various differences being taken from Super Street Fighter II Turbo. As such, some of Ken's attacks involve fire, his Hadoken is a different shape, and his Focus Attack is a kick (slightly modifying the placement of its hitbox). Some of Ken's standard attacks, including his forward smash, neutral aerial, up aerial, and back throw, are different from Ryu's. Additionally, Ken has access to two unique "crazy kicks", command-input roundhouse kicks that can be canceled into his Inazuma Kick. His Heavy Shoryuken has a flame effect while hitting multiple times with high knockback as opposed to hitting once, and his Tatsumaki Senpukyaku hits multiple times, repurposing it into a combo starter and combo extender. Ken also walks and runs slightly faster. However, he shares most of his non-attack animations with the character he is based on, like Dr. Mario and the other Echo Fighters.
Lucas	Ness	Pseudo-clone		Lucas's only similar moves are his forward smash, pummel, special moves (excluding neutral special) and his Final Smash. The rest of his moveset is unique, and even then, many of his shared moves have different properties.	With Ness getting a new up aerial, Lucas only shares three standard attacks with him. However, his special moves are still relatively similar, he still shares non-attack animations, and his lesser attacks (floor and edge attacks) are perfectly identical.
Lucina	Marth	Full clone		Although Lucina's attacks all have altered damage and knockback values due to lacking Marth's tipper, her entire moveset is largely identical to Marth's in terms of frame data and animation.	Aside from getting a few negligible changes making her slightly more similar to Marth (such as now being as tall as Marth or several of her attacks now halting her momentum), Lucina is effectively unchanged, with the same differences from Marth as in SSB4. Her damage output is still the average of Marth's tippered and non-tippered attacks, and her up tilt still features a timing-based sweetspot on the latter half of the swing that has more damage but less knockback.
Luigi	Mario	Pseudo-clone		Luigi's only shared moves are his forward tilt, up tilt, up smash, neutral aerial, back aerial, up aerial, neutral special, and up special.	Luigi now has an extended grab, which alters his pummel and most of his throws except for his down throw as well. He also has a new running animation, and his forward tilt has an altered animation. However, his up tilt has been changed to slightly resemble Mario's. As a result, he has transitioned from being a significantly decloned semi-clone to a fully fledged pseudo-clone.
Mythra	Pyra	Semi-clone		Pyra and Mythra have unique neutral, side, and up specials, and Mythra has access to Foresight.	Pyra and Mythra share many standard attack animations, but Mythra is generally much faster and weaker than Pyra in terms of movement speed and power, and their special moves (with the exception of Swap) are each very different. Additionally, Mythra uses Foresight for her dodge while Pyra's forward smash has increased knockback. Uniquely for clone characters, the two can swapped between in battle.
Pichu	Pikachu	Full clone		Pichu has a unique forward tilt, up smash and neutral aerial, though it has various other differing properties, most notably its recoil damage from electrical attacks.	Pichu has not changed much from its previous appearance; it has a different neutral aerial due to Pikachu gaining a new one, and its new forward tilt is different, but the rest of its moveset is mostly the same as before, and remains cloned from Pikachu's. Its electric attacks are now generally stronger than Pikachu's. Also, Pichu has completely different non-attack animations. Additionally, due to having completely differently proportioned models, many of Pichu's attacks and animations are either slightly different or completely distinct from Pikachu's.
Richter	Simon	Full clone		Simon and Richter are completely identical moveset-wise, with identical attack properties, frame data and animations.	Aside from different taunts, the only difference Richter has is that his Holy Water uses aura rather than flame due to emitting blue flames, which is a very minor change - under tournament conditions, it only affects his matchup with Olimar, Link, and Snake, and small interactions in doubles play alongside characters that can freeze. Unlike most clone pairs, where the base fighter is developed first, Simon and Richter were designed alongside each other, taking inspiration from each other's home series abilities; Sakurai notes in the August 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct that they arguably echo each other.
Roy	Marth	Semi-clone		Roy has a unique neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, dash attack, forward smash, and down aerial. His neutral special is unchanged from its cloned version from Melee. His up special has multihits, super armor and is animated differently, although the concept remains virtually the same. His Final Smash has the same name and concept as Marth's, but behaves differently.	Roy and Marth received the same new forward throws, and Flare Blade can change direction while Shield Breaker can be angled. This does not affect Roy's semi-clone status; he is still essentially a faster semi-clone of Marth whose sweetspot and sourspot placements are reversed.
Toon Link	Link	Semi-clone		Toon Link has a unique dash attack, forward smash, up smash, neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, grab, forward throw, back throw, and Final Smash.	Toon Link has a new one-part forward smash, but Link also received his own changes, most notably losing his Clawshot. Additionally, Toon Link has different non-attack animations, due to having a completely different model. However, this is not enough to push Toon Link out of semi-clone status, as he still retains a good chunk of his moveset.
Wolf	Fox	Pseudo-clone		Wolf's only similar moves are his dash attack, neutral aerial, pummel, and all special moves including his Final Smash. Even then, these moves all feature different properties and animations.	While Wolf’s non-attack animations are no longer directly copied from Fox, many of them remain quite similar. In addition, Wolf has received changes that make some of his attacks more like Fox's, specifically his dash attack and neutral aerial, and got the same Final Smash rework of having Landmaster replaced with an airstrike attack. Aesthetically, he also now holds a device in his hands to use his Reflector, just like Fox does. All other differences Wolf had in Brawl are retained.
Young Link	Link	Full clone		Young Link has a unique third neutral attack, up tilt, dash attack, grab, down special and Final Smash. Additionally, Young Link can perform a rapid jab, whereas Link can not.	Young Link did not receive many changes at all, effectively acting as a legacy version of the changed parent Link. Young Link also holds his sword in his left hand while Link uses his right, though this mirroring is a fairly minor point. As a result, while Link has received some changes, he is still mostly a faster and weaker version of Link.

Notes

• In the Nintendo Direct of November 1, 2018, when Sakurai was talking about Ken, he humorously noted that Luigi (although now a pseudo-clone as of Ultimate) could be considered the original “echo fighter”, as he was initially introduced as a simple palette swap of Mario in 1983's Mario Bros. Likewise, Luigi was originally a full clone of Mario in Super Smash Bros..
• While Link now holds his sword in his right hand while Young Link and Toon Link still use their left, their animations are simply mirrored, which does not affect their clone status.
• As Lucina and Chrom both share the same distinctive attribute of having their sword attacks deal equal damage throughout the blade while being based on Marth and his semi-clone Roy respectively, Chrom can be considered to be a semi-clone of Lucina. Compared to Lucina, Chrom is faster, heavier and stronger, but jumps lower, falls faster, and has a much less safe recovery.
  • Likewise, Toon Link can be considered a semi-clone of Young Link, with both being lighter, faster, and weaker versions of Link. They both share unique traits that Link does not possess, such as a tether grab, the ability to wall jump, standard bombs that explode on impact, grounded Spin Attack hitting multiple times as opposed to once, and the use of Triforce Slash as a Final Smash. Compared to Young Link, Toon Link is faster, but many of his moves consistently are single-hit as opposed to multi-hit, generally having less damage potential though stronger knockback.
• In World of Light, all Echo Fighters are affiliated with Dharkon, whereas their original fighters are all affiliated with Galeem.
  • With the exception of Roy and Dark Samus, all Echo Fighters and their original fighters are found in the respective realms of their masters (Samus, Peach, Marth, Pit, Ryu, and Simon in the Light Realm; Daisy, Lucina, Chrom, Dark Pit, Ken, and Richter in the Dark Realm).
• In Classic Mode, most clones are located in the same unlock column as the character they are based on, with the only exceptions being Roy, Chrom, and Ganondorf.
  • It should be noted that since Chrom shares his unlock column with Marth and Lucina, Roy is the only character whose moveset is derived from Marth to not share the same unlock column with him.

Trivia

• Jigglypuff is so far the only character to go from a clone archetype to a completely unique character.
• Dr. Mario, Pichu, Lucina, and Dark Pit are the only characters to be full clones in multiple installments.
  • Of these characters, Dr. Mario and Pichu are the only ones who aren't Echo Fighters in Ultimate.
• Mario and Marth are the only characters to have more than one full clone of them.
• Jigglypuff and Ganondorf are the only characters to have been considered a type of clone of someone outside of their series.
• Brawl is the only game to have no playable full clones.
• There is exactly one Echo Fighter based upon a character introduced in each installment of Smash, with the exception of Melee, which has three inspired fighters.
  • Coincidentally, the three Melee inspired Echo Fighters are based on the three Melee fighters that possess a counterattack.
• Fire Emblem is the only series to have more than one Echo Fighter.
• Street Fighter and Castlevania are the only third-party series to have a clone.
• Most of the Echo and clone pairs have fan terms to refer to them simultaneously, as due to their significant similarity, often both are applicable to a subject at hand, such as describing how a particular combo works on them, or referring to who someone plays, as often players of these characters will play both characters of an Echo or clone pair.
  • Marth and Lucina may be referred to by the portmanteau "Marcina". Similar terminology applies to "Chroy", for Roy and Chrom.
  • Simon and Richter Belmont are simply referred to by their shared last name, "Belmont".
  • Ryu and Ken may be referred to by "Shoto", the traditional FGC term for all Ryu-derived characters in the Street Fighter series.
  • To refer to Pit and Dark Pit, or Link, Toon Link, and Young Link, the most common method is to pluralize the parent character's name; i.e., "Pits" and "Links".
  • Samus and Dark Samus are most commonly referred to as just the parent character's name, as are Peach and Daisy. The latter may also be referred to as "Paisy". "Princess" is another alternative, but this is uncommon due to potentially including Zelda, who is not otherwise a clone.
  • Pikachu and Pichu may be referred to as the "Rats", which originated as a disparaging nickname for Pikachu in Smash 64 due to its long-standing status as that game's undisputed best character, and then was later adopted by Ultimate players to refer to both of them, often with similar negative connotations.
  • Ness and Lucas may be referred to as the "PK Kids".
  • Fox, Falco, and Wolf may be referred to under the collective name of "Space animals", or "Spacies" for short. Similarly, Mario, Luigi, and Dr. Mario are commonly referred to under the collective term of "Mario Bros." or "Plumbers".
• Simon and Richter are the only pair of clones who took inspiration from each other, rather than one being explicitly developed before the other.