Zelda (SSBM)

Zelda in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Alternate form	Sheik
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Tier	B (19)

“	A graceful princess with powerful magical attacks.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Zelda (ゼルダ, Zelda) is one of the more unique characters in the lineup for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zelda's most notable traits are her array of powerful magical attacks and her unique ability to transform herself into her alter ego, Sheik. This alternate form is very different from Zelda, and each was intended to help balance the other's weaknesses, so that ideally, one would change between the two so to match the flow of battle.

Zelda is 19th on the tier list, in the B tier. Zelda's positive attributes include an effective KO move with her Lightning Kick, as well as powerful attacks with transcendent priority. Zelda's primary weakness, however, is her poor movement, due to having the slowest dash speed in the game (along with Jigglypuff), slow falling, and air speed, which together with her very high traction results in the shortest wavedash in the game (along with Peach). Additionally, despite Zelda's somewhat long recovery, her recovery is very easily edgeguarded and/or edgehogged. This contributes to Zelda having poor matchups against others, though she does have a few even matchups against those higher than her, such as Dr. Mario.

Attributes

Zelda does not fall under any specific archetype of characters, due to her unusual properties as a fighter; she has a slew of powerful finishers, such as her Lightning Kick, but she is of light weight. Additionally, Zelda has a slow falling speed and a high traction, leading to a very short, albeit fast, wavedash.

One of Zelda's strengths is the perhaps surprising amount of power. Within the air, her forward and back aerials of the Lightning Kick can KO at as low as 70% to 80%, and her up air has a large hitbox that can also KO opponents. On the ground, Zelda's up tilt is surprisingly powerful (on par with Marth's up tilt), and its long duration and large radius allows it to be relatively useful under most circumstances. Zelda's up and forward smash attacks are also surprisingly powerful and they have high damage output due to their multiple hits.

In addition, Zelda has some fast attacks, such as her down smash (which is the fastest in the game) and her forward and back aerials, both of which, as mentioned earlier, are among the most powerful in the game. As an added bonus, many of Zelda's attacks have transcendent priority; combined with an average reach in most of her attacks, Zelda has potential to stop others' attacks with her own.

However, Zelda is strongly held back by having one of the worst approach games in the game. On the ground, Zelda has a poor dashing speed, a short wavedash, and a slow dash dance; combined with decidedly average range in her attacks, Zelda cannot effectively attack or counterattack on the ground. Zelda doesn't fare better in the air; despite an above average air speed, Zelda suffers from poor jumping height, a low falling speed, and a high short hop, leading to a poor SHFFL and equally poor combo game. Zelda's lack of an effective projectile also prevents her from attacking from afar; Din's Fire is too laggy and predictable to be an effective projectile.

In addition to a poor approach on the ground, Zelda's high knockback attacks and poor aerial game gives Zelda an almost non-existent comboing game, with many of her combos only lasting two or three hits, most of which that don't deal significant damage or set up for other approaches. Worse, most of her finishers are very unreliable. Her forward and up smashes suffer from SDI problems, as opponents can easily SDI out of them before the last, most powerful hit can harm them. Zelda's up aerial, while powerful, is impossible to land on a grounded opponent, as it has some start-up lag and the hitbox is just above her. Zelda's up tilt and her Lightning Kicks are possibly her only reliable K.O. moves.

Additionally, Zelda has a very poor grab game; her down throw can easily be DI'd away while its follow-ups are not always reliable; her up throw, while it has chain throw potential at low percentages, it doesn't last for long enough to rack up a good amount of damage. And finally, her forward and back throw, while they have above-average base knockback, they have mediocre K.O. potential and coupled with Zelda's poor edge-guarding game, they aren't so useful in most cases.

Zelda also suffers from having generally situational specials (save Transform). Nayru's Love can only harm attackers in short ranges, and it has high ending lag and it doesn't protect her from attacks above her. Din's Fire, as mentioned earlier, doesn't significantly aid her approach and it too suffers from high ending lag. Farore's Wind, while covering long distances, lacks a powerful offensive hitbox on its start, and lacks one altogether when reentering, making Zelda very easy to edgeguard and/or edgehog.

Moveset

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

Zelda's aerial attacks

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			5% (Total)	Zaps magic quickly from her palm, in a similar fashion to Ganondorf's neutral attack. Has transcendent priority. Hits 3 times.
Forward tilt			13%	Swipes her hand forward with sparks. Has transcendent priority.
Up tilt			11%	Waves her hand in an arch above her, her hand filled with sparks. Surprisingly powerful. Has transcendent priority.
Down tilt			7%	Thrusts her foot out quickly from under her dress. Can meteor smash.
Dash attack			13% (Total)	Shoves her hands in front, with magic sparks coming out them. Has transcendent priority. Can hit 3 times.
Forward smash			15% (Total)	Sends out a fierce jab of magic in front of her in a similar fashion to Mario's. Like her up smash, Hits 5 times and strong on the final frame. Also, this attack can be SDI'd out of. Has transcendent priority.
Up smash			14% (Total)	Waves her hand in an arch similar to her up tilt three times. Hits 12 times, powerful. Can be SDI'd out of.
Down smash			11%	Quick roundhouse-like kick. Short range with a sightly disjointed hitbox and poor power, but fast. Has transcendent priority.
Neutral aerial			14%	Spins with magic sparks twice. Many hitboxes, good for spacing. Has transcendent priority. It may be DI'd. Hits 6 times.
Forward aerial		Lightning Kick	10% (sour); 20% (sweet)	Kicks forward. If the opponent is hit just as the move comes out, it zaps them very powerfully, in a way similar to Captain Falcon's knee smash. Has transcendent priority. A bit faster than her forward Lightning Kick, so it can be used twice in a short hop.
Back aerial		Lightning Kick	10% (sour); 20% (sweet)	Virtually identical to her forward aerial but in a different direction and with slightly more startup lag. Has transcendent priority.
Up aerial			13%	Releases a giant fireball upwards. Good power. Has transcendent priority.
Down aerial			8%	Thrusts her foot downwards. A very weak meteor smash.
Grab			—
Pummel			2-3% per pummel	Zaps her foe.
Forward throw			12%	Launches her foe forward, above average power.
Back throw			11%	Similar to her forward throw, only directly behind her.
Up throw			11%	Thrusts foe to the sky. Has the ability to chain throw fast-falling opponents at low percents.
Down throw			9% (Total)	Drops foe and zaps them, send foe behind her with weak knockback. Hits 5 times.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Swirls her dress around with foot extended and gets up.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Swirls her dress around with foot extended and gets up.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Gets up and swirls her skirt forward.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Slowly gets up and slaps in front.
Neutral special		Nayru's Love	13%	Twirls around with magical hitboxes on both sides. The attack also reflects projectiles.
Side special		Din's Fire	10% (Ground); 12% (Air)	Zelda controls a fireball's motion before it explodes, damaging all who are near. The attack causes the helpless state if used in the air.
Up special		Farore's Wind	4%	A yellow ribbon of magic spins around Zelda, causing her to disappear. After that, she will reappear in the direction held on the control stick (or directly above her original location if the control stick is not moved).
Down special		Transform	0%	Transforms into Sheik

Victory Theme

An orchestrated portion of the main theme from The Legend of Zelda series.

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Zelda professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  The Lake

Inactive

•  Cosmo

Tier placement and history

Zelda was ranked extremely high on the first tier list, tying for 6th place with Samus and Luigi; however, discussion in the relevant SmashBoards topic suggests this is an artifact of some tier list contributors grouping her with her top-tier counterpart Sheik, and her placement was not fully based on her prowess as an independent character. As a result of fixing this issue in the next tier list, she almost instantly fell down to the lower tiers, and is currently ranked 19th. Zelda's position can be attributed to her undesirable combination of traits, being floaty and light yet tall, and having very slow movement speed, a poor wavedash, and poor hitbox placement on most of her moves. In combination with Sheik being a constant in the top tier, this deterred many from using her in serious play. Zelda has also made very little impact in tournaments; her only players, Cosmo and The Lake, are semi-inactive and usually do not place high enough to earn money in any large tournament. Usually, the only time when Zelda shows up in top level play is when Sheik players transform into her off-stage to take advantage of her longer recovery where they would otherwise not be able to recover; if the opponent is aggressive enough, they may be forced to fight as her until an opportunity to transform back is available.

With developments in the Melee metagame over time, some smashers have argued that Zelda's current tier placing is too high, and that she should be in the bottom tier, effectively marking her as being nonviable in tournament play; American smasher Mew2King notably believes that Zelda is one of the two worst characters in the game, citing her poor frame data in his assessment of her.

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

In the Classic Mode, Zelda can appear in the ordinary 1 on 1 battles, on a team with either Link, Marth, Young Link, Peach or Bowser, or in the game's metal battle. In her appearances, Zelda appears on Temple, though she appears on Great Bay when with Young Link, and on Battlefield when with Bowser and in the metal battle. Unusually, however, Zelda will never appear as an ally in team and giant fights.

In Adventure Mode

Zelda's sole appearance in the Adventure Mode is in the second portion of Stage 3, the Underground Maze. The player has to fight against her on the Temple stage to progress in the mode.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Zelda and her allies are fought on the Temple stage.

In Event Matches

Zelda is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 9: Hide 'n' Sheik: The player is pitted against two Zeldas on Great Bay; to win, however, players have to wait for Zelda to transform into Sheik and then KO them. Upon getting KO'd as Sheik, the CPU will be removed from the game; KOs against Zelda, however, merely cause her to respawn as normal.
• Event 15: Girl Power: The player, with two stocks, has to fight against Samus, Peach and Zelda, all of whom also have two stocks; the player, however, is tiny, and must KO all three, who are on the same team. Friendly fire is turned on in the match, easing it slightly for the player.
• Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Zelda is the third opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. Their character battles her on the Temple stage, and the player's character has 2 stock while Zelda has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her and the other four characters with the overall time and life they have: Samus, Link, Captain Falcon, and Fox.
• Event 29: Triforce Gathering: The player plays as Link with Zelda as their partner, both of whom have one stock. They face Ganondorf on the Temple stage, who has two stocks. Clearing the event allows the player to unlock Ganondorf.
• Event 44: Mewtwo Strikes!: In this event, the player is initially placed on Battlefield, against Zelda. After fifteen seconds, however, Mewtwo appears on stage and will fight the player. The player's goal is to KO Mewtwo; while Zelda can be attacked, KOing her will result in failure.

Ending images

Zelda and Sheik share ending images for the one-player modes, as well as the same cinematic; clearing the mode with one also gives the player both of their trophies.

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  Classic Mode.

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  Adventure Mode.

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  All-Star mode.

Trophy descriptions

The crown princess of Hyrule. Zelda entrusted Link with the future of Hyrule after a revelation came to her in the world of dreams. She knows much about the Triforce; in fact, the only person who likely knows more about Triforce lore is Ganondorf himself, whom Zelda evaded in Ocarina of Time by transforming into her alter ego, Sheik.

Game: The Legend of Zelda [07/87]

In addition to the normal trophy about Zelda as a character, there are two trophies about her as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Zelda on any difficulty:

Zelda (Smash Red)

Zelda is a bit slow and, because of her light frame, easy to send flying. On the other hand, her magical skills lend her reliable and explosive attack power. Zelda's easier to use if you focus on waiting and countering rather than pressing attacks. She can use Nayru's Love to reflect projectile attacks or as an offensive weapon. (B: Nayru's Love, Smash B: Din's Fire)

Zelda (Smash Blue)

Zelda's midair Lightning Kick centers immense magical power in the ball of her foot. If she strikes perfectly, the attack is as strong as can be. If her aim is slightly off, it'll be exceedingly weak. Farore's Wind again utilizes Zelda's magical prowess, this time by transporting her great distances. It's vital to know the lay of the land before using this move. (Up & B: Farore's Wind, Down & B: Transform)

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Alternate costumes

Zelda's alternate costumes in Melee

Trivia

• Zelda is the only character with the ability to transform into another character in Melee, and the first to do so in the Smash Bros. series, by being able to turn into Sheik. Pokémon Trainer in Brawl would later have the ability to "change" fighters by switching out different Pokémon, and Samus would gain the ability to change into Zero Suit Samus through her Final Smash.
• Zelda is the only character in Melee, along with Peach, to have 3 idle poses. The majority of the cast only have one.
• In a screenshot of the character select screen in Melee, from Smabura-Ken, Zelda's portrait is missing from the character select screen. This seems to have been done to hide the surprise of Zelda being playable, as Sheik was revealed first.