Zelda (SSBB)

Zelda in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Shares character slot with	Sheik
Other playable appearances	in Melee in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Light Arrow
Tier	F (37)

Zelda (ゼルダ, Zelda) is a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The titular character of The Legend of Zelda universe, Zelda's model from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is reused in Brawl. Zelda was confirmed as a returning fighter on June 25th, 2007 on the Smash Bros. DOJO!!.

Jun Mizusawa reprises her role as Zelda's voice actor from Ocarina of Time, Melee and Twilight Princess, with some voice clips recycled from Melee, along with ones newly recorded.

Having previously appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Zelda reappears in Brawl as a character utilizing strong magical attacks, but despite her overall KO power being strongly buffed, her tier position is a drop from Melee at 37 out of 38 compared to 24 out of 26 in the earlier game. While Zelda possesses fast, powerful attacks, some of the most powerful aerials in Brawl, and a great defensive game thanks to strong out of shield options, Zelda suffers from a combination of severe character build flaws. These flaws include a very inconvenient combination of attributes similar to Mewtwo (slow, light, tall, and floaty), her almost non-existent approach options, possessing a moveset that consists nearly entirely of unreliable finishers with poorly-placed hitboxes (which makes it difficult for her to KO consistently despite her abundance of powerful attacks, and leaves her with an almost non-existent combo game), a terrible projectile that cannot force approaches, one of the worst grab games, with a very slow grab and terrible throws, and her predictable and unreliable recovery (her primary recovery move suffers from major angular issues, and she does not have access to an alternate recovery move nor the air speed and jumping abilities to make it back without using a recovery move). This has left her with terrible tournament results and having terrible matchups against many higher tiered characters, ultimately clocking her in F Tier right above the worst spot (with Ganondorf being the only fighter ranked lower than her) - although the combination of her and her transformation, Sheik is higher at 24/38, placed in the D tier (though this is based on theory rather than actual practice). While Zelda is ranked as one of the worst characters in the game in the American and European tier list, in Japan she is ranked significantly higher, 16th in the high tier along with Sheik, as they are considered as a single character.

Attributes

Zelda is a floaty, lightweight character with poor momentum canceling (making her very easy to KO but difficult to chain throw) with strong, graceful attacks, usually augmented with magic. She has abysmal grounded mobility overall, with her having the 4th slowest walking and dashing speeds. However, she has above-average air speed.

Arguably Zelda's most defining trait is the high KO power on a large portion of her moveset. Her aerials (except for neutral aerial) are among the absolute strongest in the game, with her forward, back and up aerials being the strongest in Brawl and her down aerial being the third most powerful meteor smash in the game. Her Lightning Kicks and down aerial are single, powerful blows that cause a lot of damage and knockback if landed properly, but they are extremely weak and have low stun when sourspotted, while her up aerial is likewise the most powerful in the game. On the ground, both her forward and up tilt are among the strongest, with the latter easily KOing most floaty characters under 100%, her forward and up smashes have fast start-up and hit multiple times with large damage output and powerful knockback on the final hit, with the latter being nearly impossible to SDI out of and being able to juggle at lower percentages, while her down smash has almost no start-up lag and is a decently powerful semi-spike, which can be extremely deadly against characters with poor recoveries.

Zelda is also gifted with a solid defensive game. She has very good out of shield options, with her neutral aerial, up and side smashes having fast start-up and multiple hitboxes, her down smash having almost no start-up lag, her down tilt being a good comboing and locking move, and her Nayru's Love being a reflector with high damage output, decent knockback and fast start-up, while also having a projectile in Din's Fire to defend herself to some degree (even though it is extremely situational). Her strong defense is counterbalanced by her very low traction and her generally poor mobility (very slow dash speed and slow falling speed). Her grab is long ranged, but very slow (especially for a non-tether grab) making it hard to land without set ups, and it cannot be used out of shield in most cases like a normal grab.

Zelda's crippling combination of her slow mobility, atrocious endurance, and her tall frame, however, is arguably what makes her one of the worst characters in Brawl. Zelda's tall frame and floatiness makes her very easy to juggle, despite her above-average air speed, while the latter and her lightweight both give her one of the worst endurances in the game, especially from the upper blast line. Despite her potent defensive game, it is very easy to force her to play offensively because of her terrible approach options, her very slow mobility and her slow grab. Characters with great camping abilities (most notably Falco) can simply outcamp her with a flurry of projectiles or by simply evading her thanks to their superior mobility, while she cannot rely on her Din's Fire to camp, as it is easily avoidable and Zelda will not win any projectile wars with it. This means that she gets very few chances to use her strong out of shield options to her advantage and is instead forced to play with her horrible offensive game due to her abysmal approach.

Another one of Zelda's major flaws is her inconsistency in KOing opponents. As mentionned before, most of Zelda's moveset has high KO potential, but landing them is extremely difficult due to the poorly-placed hitboxes on most of her strongest finishers. Her Lightning Kicks and down aerial are extremely powerful when sweetspotted, but the sweetspot hitboxes are notoriously small and the sourspots have incredibly low knockback, damage output and low hitstun, making the moves dangerously unsafe and difficult to land. Her up aerial is impossible to land on a grounded opponent and is rather laggy. Her forward smash can be SDI'd out of fairly easily, her up smash lacks horizontal range and is not very effective against heavier characters, and her down smash is rather weak for a smash attack despite its semi-spike properties, while her up tilt is rather slow for a tilt attack and is less effective againt heavier characters. Conversely, Zelda high knockback attacks give her one of the worst comboing abilities in the game. Zelda is virtually unable to follow-up her aerials into each other, despite her above-average air speed, due to the terrible hitbox placements and properties of most of her aerials, while her only few combo starters, such as her down tilt, jab, neutral aerial or dash attack, eventually become predictable for repetitive use, and most of Zelda's combos only last for merely two or three hits at low percentages, which do not rack up a lot of damage under most circumstances. This is aggravated by her awful grab game; her grab is very slow and her throws have almost non-existent utility outside of situational edgeguarding in case of her forward and back throws.

Lastly, Zelda possesses an extremely situational set of special moves. Din's Fire is long ranged, has a large hitbox when and deals good damage when fully charged, KOs at high percents, cannot properly be reflected, can be controlled, and be used for edgeguarding. However, it is predictable and avoidable against skilled players (easy to spot dodge or air dodge), being difficult to camp with against most characters (with few exceptions, like the Ice Climbers and slow characters). Additionally, it is not very effective as an edgeguarding move, as the move sends at a vertical angle, does not KO reliably until around 150% unless near the top blast line, and opponents can easily air dodge it off-stage. Nayru's Love is a decent duration reflector attack and a solid defensive and spacing tool, but suffers from high ending lag. Farore's Wind is a long distance recovery/attack, but her linear recovery is below average (falls almost straight down after it, and she has a small ledge sweetspot range) among cast members because of its low reliability as it's also easy to hit her before she disappears due to its slow start-up. Transform enables Zelda to alleviate some of her weaknesses (such as poor mobility) by transforming into Sheik, but the loading time is extremely long, which gives more than enough time to her opponent to set up a punish on her.

In the end, Zelda relies on her strong defensive game and potential power to overcome her weaknesses, which is usually hard to do. Zelda is a character that has hard time to approach her opponents, but once she does, she can be a devastating character. Zelda can be described as a glass cannon: she can pump out a lot of damage if the opponent approaches her, but she will not survive long once she starts getting hit. Transform can also shore up some of Zelda's weaknesses (most notably her terrible mobility and approach) by turning into Sheik, and vice-versa.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Zelda has been given major power buffs from Melee to Brawl and she is now an even more powerful character than in Melee due to her gaining several, new powerful finishers like her down smash, down aerial and Din's Fire. Her moveset deals more damage overall and she benefits from various additions including much lower SDI multipliers and the fact that stale move negation no longer affects individual hits of multi-hit moves. The universally decreased falling speeds also further improve her KO power as none of her vertical finishers received a nerf to their power. Additionally, some of her out of shield options have been improved, the aforementionned lower SDI multipliers on her forward and up smash, as well as her neutral aerial, have greatly improved their defensive utility.

However, changes to the mechanics have mitigated these buffs, and she received significant nerfs that made her an even lighter and floatier character, worsened her already horrible endurance and her already inconsistent KOing ability, and considerably weakened her combo game to be among the absolute worst. Those nerfs have drastically harmed Zelda overall, making her arguably even worse relative to the cast than in Melee: her flaws from the previous game remain and were exacerbated by the physics changes due to her average weight being lowered further (although this benefits her matchup against King Dedede) and her slower falling speed and lower gravity making her even floatier. Her barely improved mobility also remains very slow despite the increases to her walking, dashing and air speeds. Despite her moves doing more damage, her damage racking game has been weakened: her powerful moves are harder to hit with due to their smaller hitboxes, increased lag, shorter duration and the introduction of several large sourspots, her combo game has been severely nerfed leaving her with barely any combo potential on most of her moves, while her grab game was greatly weakened despite the improvements her grabs received due to the slower falling speeds and the introduction of hitstun canceling no longer allowing her to chaingrab with her up throws or completely removing her previous follow-ups with her down throw. Lastly, her marginally better Din's Fire remains very difficult to camp with, while still being fairly ineffective as a edgeguarding and KOing move due to only merely KOing above 150%. Transform takes a lot longer to perform and Sheik has been significantly nerfed in her own right making transforming into Sheik a much less effective strategy than in Melee.

Overall, her nerfs heavily outweigh her buffs, making Zelda an even worse character in this game and she still heavily struggles against much of the rest of the cast.

Aesthetics

• Zelda's design is now based on her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
• Zelda has gained two new alternate costumes.
• Zelda has altered animations when dashing, crouching, carrying heavy items, and when tumbling.
• Zelda has three new taunts.
• Zelda now vocalizes when jumping from the ground.
• One of Zelda's heavy knockback scream from Melee is now used as the alternate KO voice clip.
• As on screen appearances were not present in Melee, Zelda now receives one.

Attributes

• Zelda walks faster (0.7 → 0.8).
• Zelda dashes faster (1.1 → 1.224), no longer having the slowest dashing speed.
• Air dodge has a longer duration (frames 4-19 → 4-29) no longer being the worst in the game.
• Spot dodge has less startup lag and a longer duration (frames 3-20 → 2-20). It also has less ending lag (FAF 33 → 26).
• Zelda's traction is significantly lower (0.1 → 0.054), especially when comparing with the returning veterans, now going from being tied out with other three characters for the highest traction to one of the lowest. This makes it harder for her to punish out of shield and provides almost no benefits due to the removal of wavedashing.
• Zelda has slightly faster air speed (0.95 → 0.987).
• As with the returning veterans, Zelda's falling speed is slower (1.4 → 1.13). Compared to the returning veterans, however, Zelda falls faster.
• Zelda is lighter (90 → 85), now being a lightweight, which when combined with the previous point, worsens her already poor endurance.
• Her lower weight however does allow her to be knocked down by King Dedede's down throw preventing her from being chain grabbed by it.
• Zelda's gravity is lower (0.073 → 0.067), making her floatier and reaching her maximum falling speed slower. However, this doesn't compensate for her worse endurance than in Melee.
• Zelda's glide toss covers more distance especially her backwards glide toss.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack has less ending lag (FAF 27 → 24).
  • The first two hits now uses set knockback instead of base knockback (10 (base) → 0, 0 (set) → 50/43/30/7), allowing it to more reliably connect into the third hit.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a shorter duration (frames 12-15 → 12-14) and more ending lag (FAF 37 → 40).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 48).
  • It has increased KO potential due to the universally decreased falling speeds, but has less combo ability.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has a longer duration (frames 5-7 → 5-11) and less ending lag (FAF 30 → 25). It now has a 40% tripping chance further improving its follow-up potential.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has more ending lag (FAF 36 → 38).
  • Its clean hit deals slightly less damage (13% → 12%), but due to universally decreased falling speeds, its KO potential remains similar.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash deals more damage due to changes to stale move negation (16% → 17%).
  • Its looping hits have a lower SDI multiplier (1.0x → 0.5x) making it harder to escape.
  • Forward smash's final hit has altered knockback (50 (base), 98 (scaling) → 30/105).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has larger hitboxes and connects significantly more reliably. It also deals more damage due to changes to stale move negation (14% → 15%), has more KO potential due to universally decreased falling speeds and the multi-hits now have set knockback and can now trip opponents.
  • Its looping hits have a lower SDI multiplier (1.0x → 0.1x) making it harder to escape.
  • It has more startup (frame 5 → 6) and ending lag (FAF 51 → 57).
  • It hits one less time, hitting eleven times instead of twelve.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has more knockback scaling, improving its KO potential especially the front hit due to its increased damage (90 (front), 80 (back) → 95/85). This, combined with its improved semi-spike trajectory (30° → 20°), makes it much better for gimping characters with poor horizontal recoveries and setting up edgeguards. The back hit also has less startup lag (frame 13 → 12).
  • Both hits have a shorter duration (frames 4-7 (front), 13-16 (back) → 4-6/12-14) and it has more ending lag (FAF 32 → 40). It also has less intangibility (frames 4-16 → 4-14).
  • Down smash's front hit deals 1% more damage (11% → 12%), but the back hit deals 1% less (11% → 10%) with its knockback compensated (80 (scaling) → 85).
  • Zelda now vocalizes when using down smash.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial can no longer be SDI'd out of and the hits now connect properly. It also has less landing lag (18 frames → 12).
  • Neutral aerial now has 5 hits instead of 6. The multi-hits also now do consistent damage (2%-3% → 2%).
  • Neutral aerial has more ending lag (FAF 42 → 51).
• Lightning Kick (forward & back aerial):
  • Sweetspotted Lightning Kicks are now takes priority over the sourspots (ID 2 → 0) and now have significant amounts of hitlag and can no longer be SDI'd. This grants Lightning Kicks greater followup potential.
  • Sourspotted Lightning Kicks are significantly weaker and deal drastically less damage (10% → 4%). The sweetspots now last for only 1 frame as opposed to 4 in Melee, while the rest of the attack's frames deal the same damage a sourspotted Lightning Kick would deal. The sweetspotted hitbox's size is also significantly smaller (5.2u → 1.7u) , being less than a third of the size from Melee (although their increased priority slightly compensates for this). They also have more landing lag (18 frames → 22) which is further exacerbated with the removal of L-canceling. Altogether, those changes drastically hinder the move's utility, completely removing their approaching abilities, while making them dangerously unsafe if missed.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial's sweetspot had its knockback adjusted (30 (base)/96 (scaling) → 34/95) increasing its KO potential.
  • It also has a longer duration (frames 8-11 → 8-12).
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 36 → 40), preventing Zelda from performing two forward aerials in a short hop.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's sweetspot deals more base knockback (30 → 40).
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 33 → 36)
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial deals more damage (13% → 15%) and has its knockback values adjusted (0 (base), 120 (scaling) → 30/110), improving its KO potential to the point where it is now the strongest up aerial in the game. It also has less landing lag (25 frames → 22).
  • It has a smaller hitbox and can also no longer auto-cancel out of a short hop due to it a later auto-cancel window (frame 45 → 56).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has gained a clean sweetspot for 1 frame, which is similar to that of her Lightning Kicks, dealing much more damage (7% → 16%) and knockback (5 (base), 85 (scaling) → 50/90) powerfully meteor smashing foes with a slightly different angle (275° → 270°). However, it cannot land on a grounded opponent.
  • The sourspotted hit can now trip opponents and has a longer duration (frames 14-17 → 14-24) and less landing lag (24 frames → 21).
  • Its late hits deal less damage (8%/7% → 5%/4%).
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 43 → 45).
  • Down aerial's animation has been altered. Zelda's body is more upright when stomping down with her left arm placed a bit more to her side.

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Grab range is longer, now being the 3rd longest non-tether grab in the game.
  • Dash grab has less startup lag (frame 12 → 11) and Zelda now lunges forward when using a dash grab giving it more range. Both it and standing grab also have less ending lag (FAF 31 (standing), frame 41 (dash) → 30/40).
• Pummel:
  • Pummel has slightly less ending lag (FAF 26 → 25).
• Up throw:
  • Due to the slower falling speeds of Brawl, up throw can no longer chaingrab fastfallers.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw sends opponents higher due to universally decreased falling speeds and has had some of its follow-ups removed which when combined with the changes to hitstun weakens its combo ability.

Special moves

• Nayru's Love:
  • Nayru's Love can now be used to perform a "Love jump" increasing its utility. It also has a higher maximum damage output due to changes to stale move negation (13% → 15%) and the final hit can now semi-spike improving its edgeguarding potential.
  • The move has more startup lag on its hitboxes (frame 6 → 7) and invincibility and reflect periods (frame 4 → 5).
  • Zelda has a different voice clip when using Nayru's Love.
• Din's Fire:
  • The size and power of Din's Fire now increases as it travels further, can be controlled easier, detonates quicker, deals more damage (7%-13% → 8%-16%), has less lag, deals drastically more knockback, and is faster to use.
  • Zelda no longer vocalizes when detonating Din's Fire.
• Farore's Wind:
  • Farore's Wind has an explosive hitbox when Zelda reappears, making it a safer move to use on stage.
  • Farore's Wind travels slightly less distance and has more start-up lag (frame 10 → 11).
  • Zelda no longer vocalizes when using Farore's Wind.
• Transform:
  • Stale-move negation now resets when Transform is used meaning that if Zelda transforms, all of Sheik's moves will be fresh rather than carrying over the staleness from Zelda's moves. This is especially beneficial as stale-move negation now affects knockback.
  • Due to the game disc no longer automatically loading Sheik and Zelda's data at the same time rather than having it loaded at all times as in Melee, Transform takes much longer to complete and no longer takes a consistent amount of time. This allows the opponent to set up a punish on Sheik for simply performing the move, and makes Transforming into Sheik for a faster, more reliable playstyle a much larger risk.
• Light Arrow:
  • Zelda has a Final Smash, Light Arrow. Zelda pulls out the Bow of Light and shoots a Light Arrow. The Light Arrow deals high damage and incredible knockback, and will usually one-hit KO anyone who gets hit by it. Sheik also has Light Arrow has her Final Smash, albeit with slight differences.

Moveset

For a more detailed information regarding Zelda's moveset and attack hitboxes, see this page.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2% (hits 1-3)	Zelda sticks her hand out in front of herself and shoots small magical sparks, pushing foes slightly back. Disjointed with decent range.
Forward tilt			13% (hand), 12% (arm), 11% (body)	Zelda steps forward and slashes one arm in front of her, with a trail of sparkles. The attack has moderate knockback. The tip of the attack hits backwards, while the base hits forwards. Can be angled.
Up tilt			11%	Zelda waves her arm above her head in an arc with a boost of magic power. This move has very high vertical knockback, and makes an excellent finisher.
Down tilt			7% (foot), 8% (leg)	Zelda crouches and kicks her foot in front of her, hitting opponents low. The tip of her foot meteor smashes grounded opponents and launches airborne opponents upwards. Can make the opponent trip, allowing for multiple follow-ups.
Dash attack			12% (clean body), 9% (clean hands), 8% (late body), 7% (late hands)	Zelda shoves her arms in front of her and pushes foes in front of her away with a boost of magic power. Any foes caught in the sweetspot of the move will shocked and knocked upwards.
Forward smash			1% (hits 1-4), 13% (hit 5)	Zelda charges magic energy in her right hand and flashes it in front of herself, hitting opponents multiple times before knocking them away. Can pressure shields and deals great knockback. However, it can be SDI'd out of (though it requires good timing).
Up smash			1% (hits 1-10), 5% (hit 11)	Zelda charges magic energy in her left hand and waves it above her head twice, hitting opponents multiple times before knocking them away. At low percentages, especially against heavy characters, this can combo several times with itself, and is also easily followed by an up tilt.
Down smash			12% (hit 1), 10% (hit 2)	Zelda quickly kicks on both sides of herself, knocking opponents away. It is the fastest down smash in the game (tied with R.O.B) with good semi-spike knockback. The leg Zelda strikes with is intangible.
Neutral aerial			2% (hits 1-4), 5% (hit 5)	Zelda spins in place, slowly trailing sparkles from her hands. Has short range but is useful for catching opponents in combo's.
Forward aerial		Lightning Kick	20% (clean foot), 4% (clean leg, late)	Zelda quickly kicks in front of herself, dealing great damage and knockback if the opponent is hit at the beginning of the move and just the tip of her boot. Otherwise, the opponent is hit with low damage and knockback.
Back aerial		Lightning Kick	20% (clean foot), 4% (clean leg, late)	Identical to Zelda's forward aerial, except the opposite direction and faster, dealing slightly higher knockback than the forward Lightning Kick.
Up aerial			15%	Zelda brings her arm above her head and releases a fiery explosion above her head, dealing great knockback. Requires precise timing to KO.
Down aerial			16% (clean), 5% (late leg), 4% (late foot)	Zelda stomps her foot below herself, meteoring opponents. The initial hitbox deals a powerful meteor (the 3rd strongest meteor smash in the game, whereas later hitboxes hit opponents with less force, albeit still a meteor.
Grab			—	Zelda restrains her opponent in front of her with magical energy.
Pummel			3%	Zelda waves her arms quickly in front of her victim, dealing small magic damage.
Forward throw			12%	Zelda spins her opponent in front of her and throws her opponent away. Deals a good amount of damage.
Back throw			11%	Zelda spins her opponent, circles them around herself and throws them behind herself. Deals good damage.
Up throw			11%	Zelda forces her opponent above her and throws them upward.
Down throw			2% (hits 1-4), 2% (throw)	Zelda forces her opponent under her and shoots magic from her hands at them, before knocking them behind herself.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2 leg), 6% (hit 2 body)	Zelda performs a spin kick as she gets up. Notable for having unusually high damage on the second hit.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Essentially the same as the front floor attack.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Zelda performs a sweep kick from the sitting position.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Zelda climbs up and swings her legs in a circular motion, while pulling herself up.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10% (arm), 8% (body)	Zelda raises up slowly, and after a short pause, smacks the enemy with the back of her hand.
Neutral special		Nayru's Love	1-2 (hits 1-5), 3-5% (hit 6)	A crystal forms that reflects projectiles, followed by the shards spinning around and slicing nearby opponents.
Side special		Din's Fire	8-16%	Launches a controllable fireball that charges as it travels until it explodes. Can be directed up or down with the control stick.
Up special		Farore's Wind	6%	Teleports in a given direction, dealing damage at both ends.
Down special		Transform	0%	Transforms into Sheik.
Final Smash		Light Arrow	3% (hit 1), 39% (Light Arrow 1st opponent), 29% (2nd opponent), 21% (3rd opponent)	Zelda pulls out a large magical bow and light arrow which she fires in a straight, horizontal line across the stage. It can strike multiple opponents with one-hit KO power, but the damage decreases for each successive target. Launches opponents at a 45° angle.

On-screen appearance

• Teleports in with magic in her hands.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Jabs her arm upwards, creating sparkles above her palm.
• Side taunt: Clasps her hands. When she does, a ball of fire appears between her hands, a remodel of one of her victory poses from Melee.
• Down taunt: Leans forward and waves.

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Flips her hair back.
• With one hand on her elbow, she puts the other hand on her neck, puts it back down and then taps her other arm with one finger.
• Holds one arm and looks in multiple directions.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Zel-da!	Zel-da!
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Wii Remote selection sound

• The Transform sound effect is heard and Zelda shouts.

Zelda's selection sound

Victory poses

This flourish is a cover of the music that played whenever Link obtained a Triforce Piece in The Legend of Zelda.

• Up: Turns her head to the left, making an elegant stance.
• Left: Praying, she turns her head upward, similar to her taunt from Melee.
• Right: Conjures bright red magical energy.

Up	Left	Right

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Zelda has one of the weakest matchup spreads in the game. She counters one character, Ganondorf, has four even matchups, soft countered by eight characters, countered by fourteen characters, hard countered by seven characters and has two nearly unwinnable matchups.

Notable players

See also: Category:Zelda professionals (SSBB)

•  JuJux - Was considered the best Zelda player in Europe.
•  Riot - Was considered the best Zelda player in the world prior to Ven.
•  ScaryLB59 - Co-mained Zelda and Sheik, and was considered among the best Zelda players in the United States.
•  Ven - Was considered the best Zelda player in the world by the end of Brawl's active life.

Tier placement and history

Zelda was initially seen as a solid mid-tier character, being ranked 20th on the first tier list; her significant power buffs in Brawl made her a very powerful character that was able to compete decently with the then inexperienced playerbase, who did not utilise much camping and couldn't play the neutral game well. As the metagame progressed however, it became realized Zelda's buffs did little to address the very significant problems of her character design; Din's Fire was still a terrible projectile that could not force approaches while Zelda herself was still very slow and incapable of initiating approaches, and her moveset still consisted near-entirely of unreliable finishers that made it very difficult for her to rack up damage, as well as gave her difficulty in reliably finishing stocks when the opponent was in KO range, while players started to notice that the changes to Brawl mechanics had crippled her severely, alongside other direct nerfs. Those changes had drastically nerfed her already poor endurance (exacerbated by her lower weight), and completely removed most of her combo capabilities and her throws' uility, while her Lightning Kicks were no longer viable approaching options, due to much bigger sourspot hitboxes making them much more unsafe. As Brawl became more defensive based, the playerbase's neutral improved, and camping became more prevalent, Zelda's problems were significantly exacerbated, and it gradually became clear that Zelda was a poorly-designed character that could not remotely viably compete.

Zelda's decline started slowly, with her only falling two places on the second tier list. But it picked up on the third tier list with her falling four places, and then she took a nose dive on the fourth tier list to 35th in bottom tier as the fourth worst character. She fell even farther to being ranked the second worst character on the fifth tier list, and remained stuck there for the rest of Brawl's competitive life, which is also the largest tier drop any character experienced in Brawl. By the end of Brawl's active life, there were even some players who considered Zelda as the worst character in Brawl and not Ganondorf, though the BBR would not sway in placing Ganon as the worst on their final Brawl tier list. While Zelda did have a few players dedicated to using her, her overall playerbase was very small and made very little impact, so her competitive prospects never improved in Brawl.

While Zelda performs poorly in Brawl singles, she performs slightly better in doubles, where a teammate can alleviate some of her significant flaws and allow Zelda to utilize her strengths better. Riot, for example, routinely placed well in doubles events in his region, compared to his worse and more scarce results in singles.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

In the Subspace Emissary single-player mode, Zelda and Peach have two different storylines, depending on which one is saved from Petey Piranha.

Zelda and Peach in the Subspace Emissary.

At the start, she and Peach are watching a friendly match between Mario and Kirby. After the Halberd appears, she and Peach rush from offstage after the stadium is attacked by the Primid. The player can choose out of the four to fight off the Primids. When the Ancient Minister appears and drops a Subspace bomb, Mario is blasted away by a cannonball when he tries to stop it. Zelda and Peach are captured by Petey Piranha. The player, as Kirby, must save either Peach or Zelda by destroying one of their cages.

Storyline 1

If Zelda is saved, she joins Kirby as they both escape from the stadium on a Warp Star. They are pursued by the Halberd, and land on top of it. Soon they fall off and reach the ground, fighting along through hordes of Subspace foes. Later on, Kirby leaves Zelda behind, and Bowser appears from the sky and turns her into a trophy.

The Shadow Bugs (which came along with Bowser) make a clone of Zelda while he takes the real Zelda. The clone proceeds to ambush Link and Yoshi with a Dark Cannon. However, Pit destroys the Dark Cannon and he and Mario fight and defeat her. When the clone is defeated, Link witnesses her trophy disintegrating into Shadow Bugs and, believing it was the real Zelda, proceeds to attack both Mario and Pit with Yoshi’s help. Mario and Pit defeat them and turn them into trophies and then Link and Yoshi fall into a state of unconsciousness as trophies. Kirby then revives them as King Dedede snatches them with his cargo (already hauling Luigi, Ness, and Peach). The five heroes chase after Dedede to his castle which is in ruins after Bowser stormed it and took Peach's trophy. The group then catches up to Bowser at a cliff but he escapes with Peach's trophy and flies to the Halberd where Zelda is already being held.

Storyline 2

If Peach was saved, Wario appears whilst Zelda is trapped under her wrecked cage. He blasts her with a Dark Cannon and turns her into a trophy, before fleeing the stadium with her. She is later captured by King Dedede when he ambushes Wario and steals his Cargo along with Ness. As he passes Link and company, Link spots her on the back of the Cargo, and Pit shoots the Cargo, slowing it down so that they can pursue Dedede.

Dedede puts his own Dedede brooch on her, but when Bowser attacks his castle, he finds her trophy and takes it. However, he is pursued by Mario and Pit, and when Pit fires an arrow at Bowser, the Dedede brooch falls off and is found by Kirby. Bowser escapes in the Koopa Clown Car and takes her trophy up to the waiting Halberd.

Re-merge

After this point, the storylines are the same regardless of who was rescued.

At a later part of the story, Zelda and Peach are discovered by Lucario, Meta Knight, and Snake in cages aboard the Battleship Halberd, stuck in their trophy form. Shadow Bugs of the princesses then fight the trio. After being freed, Snake tells both Zelda and Peach to stay in the room that they were being held captive in. Zelda transforms into Sheik, and both she and Peach make their way to the deck of the Halberd, against Snake's orders.

When Fox attacks the Halberd against and nearly hits Peach by accident, Sheik uses Vanish to appear on top of Fox's Arwing. She then breaks the cockpit and Fox ejects, and they both fall to the Halberd. Just as they begin to fight, Peach holds up a hand and yells, "Hi!" Both Fox and Sheik look over, and find Peach has just offered them both tea. Fox, looking confused, looks to Sheik, to find she has already begun to drink. Fox accepts the tea and they do not fight again.

Zelda/Sheik helps Peach, Fox, Lucario, Snake and Falco defeat Duon. She is on the Halberd when Meta Knight lands it and meets up with the two other groups. Sometime between the Halberd's retaking and before the Subspace Bomb detonation at the Isle of Ancients, she returns to Zelda's appearance.

During the fight against Tabuu, Zelda (along with all the other characters) gets turned into a trophy. If she is revived, she, along with Link, revives Ganondorf and points out what happened. She then aids the heroes in defeating Tabuu at the end of the story.

Playable Appearances

If Zelda is rescued in Midair Stadium, after The Lake Shore is completed, she will be removed from the team until Battleship Halberd Exterior.

• Midair Stadium
• Sea of Clouds - If she's rescued in Midair Stadium.
• Battleship Halberd Exterior
• Battleship Halberd Bridge
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze - If she's rescued in Subspace (Part II).

Trophy form

Zelda, like Luigi, doesn't have the trophy form pose of her collectible trophy. She instead has her arm in front of her rather than behind, as in her down taunt.

Exclusive Stickers

The following stickers can either only be used by Zelda or by a small set of characters which includes her:

• Acro: [Magic] attack +15
• Ashley: [Magic] attack +22
• Boomerang: [Weapon] attack +4
• Bow: [Magic] attack +8
• Colin: [Specials: Direct] attack +4
• Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule: [Electric] attack +31
• Dark Samus: [Electric] attack +31
• Darknut: [Slash] attack +13
• Epona & Link: [Arm, Leg] attack +9
• Fierce Deity Link: [Slash] attack +21
• Girl [Animal Crossing]: [Magic] attack +21
• Girl [Magical Vacation]: [Magic] attack +19
• Happy Mask Salesman: [Leg] attack +9
• Hylian Shield: [Slash] resistance +10
• Kamek: [Magic] attack +11
• Kyorusuke: [Magic] attack +8
• Lantern: [Flame] resistance +7
• Legend of Outset: [Arm] attack +26
• Linebeck: [Throwing] attack +20
• Link [Link to the Past]: [Electric] resistance +31
• Link [Twilight Princess]: [Slash] resistance +27
• Link [Wind Waker]: [Flame] attack +31
• Link with Goron Mask: [Slash] attack +17
• Link's Grandma: [Arm, Leg] attack +2
• Lon Lon Milk: Launch power +18
• Midna & Wolf Link: [Leg] attack +26
• Moblin: [Slash] attack +15
• Moon Fairy Seren: [Magic] attack +16
• Myrrh: [Magic] attack +15
• Naomi Hunter: [Leg] attack +5
• Octorok: [Leg] attack +4
• Peach & Daisy: [Leg] attack +27
• Piece of Heart: Heart Container effect +50
• Pinkle: [Magic] attack +15
• Salvatore: [Electric] attack +9
• Shahra: [Leg] attack +7
• Sheik: [Body, Spin] attack +17
• The Great Fairy: [Magic] attack +21
• Tingle [Wind Waker]: [Flame] resistance +24
• Toadette: [Magic] attack +7
• Young Zelda [Minish Cap]: [Battering] resistance +16
• Zelda [Link to the Past]: [Magic] attack +27
• Zelda [Ocarina of Time]: [Flame] resistance +18

Using stickers

Almost all of Zelda's moves are magic attacks. A magic sticker covers all of her moves except for down tilt, down smash, Din's Fire, sourspotted forward, back and down aerial and all ledge and floor attacks. A leg sticker covers all of those moves, except for Din's Fire and her slow ledge attack, the latter being an arm attack. Din's Fire is boosted by explosive stickers, and along with up aerial and the second hit of Farore's Wind, flame stickers. Her forward tilt, Nayru's Love and Farore's Wind's first hit are boosted by slash stickers. Lastly, Zelda also benefits from electric stickers, as these will cover her neutral attack, up tilt, dash attack, up smash, forward smash, neutral aerial, Lightning Kicks, down aerial and down throw.

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 2: Landmaster Ignition: As Fox with a Smash Ball, the player must survive against Meta Knight and Sheik. Fox must rely on his Landmaster as his opponents take less knockback from his regular attacks. Sheik may transform into Zelda on harder difficulties.
• Event 17: Super Waterfall Climb: As Zelda, the player must survive on Rumble Falls until the background changes into a waterfall. Two pairs of Ice Climbers with unlimited stock will try to hinder the player's progress.
• Event 22: Monkeys Unite: Diddy Kong allied with a giant Donkey Kong must defeat Sheik and Lucario. Sheik may transform into Zelda on harder difficulties.
• Event 25: The Aura Is With Me: As Lucario at 182% damage, the player must defeat both Sheik and Ness. Sheik may transform into Zelda on harder difficulties.
• Event 31: The Ultimate Bodyguard: Marth must defend Zelda and defeat two Ganondorfs on Castle Siege. Zelda remains in her crouching position until the third background change, where she'll transform into Sheik and assist Marth.
• Event 33: Advent of the Evil King: As Ganondorf, the player must defeat Link, Zelda, and Pit on Temple.
• Event 34: All-Star Battle Melee: Zelda is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are newcomers from Super Smash Bros Melee.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 6: Unwanted Suitors: As Zelda and Zero Suit Samus, both players must defeat an invisible Captain Falcon and an invisible Luigi on Port Town Aero Dive.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies

Zelda's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Zelda.

Zelda

The princess of Hyrule. In other games, her role changes between titles. In Ocarina of Time, she was hunted by the would-be conqueror, Ganondorf. She deceived him, however, by adopting the persona of Sheik. In Twilight Princess, she surrendered to Zant and was held as his prisoner.

: The Legend of Zelda

: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Light Arrow (Zelda)

Princess Zelda's Final Smash. She wields a mighty bow of light with which she can attack from afar. Her arrow travels in a straight line and flies through all characters unlucky enough to be in the way. This attack cannot be blocked. The more enemies there are, the higher the chances to get them all with one shot. More is always better!

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• 

  Classic Mode trophy

• 

  Light Arrow trophy

Alternate costumes

Trivia

• In the Super Smash Bros. Brawl manual, Zelda is referred to as a "queen" even though she is commonly referred to as "princess". This is because her Brawl appearance is based on the Zelda of Twilight Princess, who is queen de facto, but does not officially bear the title as her coronation was prevented by the events of the game.
• Though Zelda's recovery goes farther than Sheik's, Sheik can actually go higher vertically from the ground.
• The amount of transformation lag can be shortened by pausing the game during the transformation; doing this, however, causes a replay of the match to lag at the point of where the player transformed.
• Unlike in Melee, where completing Classic mode with either Zelda or Sheik would get both Zelda and Sheik trophies, Brawl makes one play both characters separately at the end to retrieve their trophies.
• During Zelda's down smash animation, there is a small rendering error where her arm twists the wrong way near the end of it. It only lasts for about one frame, however, and is nearly impossible to see in a normal match; in Training mode, where the player can set the game's speed at 1/4 and zoom in, the error "blinks" shortly. This error was fixed in SSB4.
• Pikachu, Zelda, and Snake are the only characters in the game where all three of their taunts temporarily make a held item disappear.
• If one looks closely at Zelda's boots, both sides on each via the buckles show metal studs styled akin to the Triforce seen in her home series. This aesthetic element is not part of her original design from Twilight Princess. The studs were removed from her model in SSB4.
• Zelda and Sheik are the only two characters in this game to share a character select icon. Melee only shows Zelda on its character selection screen and players hold A while selecting a stage to start a match as Sheik, while Smash 4 onwards splits the two into their own characters. Pyra and Mythra would later on share a character selection icon in Ultimate.
• For some reason, Zelda's red alternate costume, unlike her other colors including her default, doesn't seem to be wearing gloves. SSB4, however, does give her her gloves.

External links

• Zelda's page at Smash Bros. Dojo!!
• Zelda and Mario in the Subspace Emissary (2:18-2:31)
• Zelda Character Guide on SmashBoards
• Zelda and Sheik's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice