Link (SSBU)

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Link in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Ancient Bow and Arrow

“	Link has been redesigned to match his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He can now pick up arrows he's fired, and his bombs have been upgraded to remote bombs, so you can set them off when the timing is just right!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Link (リンク, Link) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was teased in a trailer released on March 8th, 2018 before being fully confirmed as playable on June 12th, 2018. Link is now voiced by Kengo Takanashi, who reprises his role from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.^{[citation needed]}

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

NOTE: SmashWiki is not speculative. Please refrain from adding detailed data values derived from pre-release gameplay footage, such as the E3 demo. Such data (damage values, launch trajectories, frame data, etc.) are subject to change before the official release.

Link now incorporates many elements from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild into his moveset, such as the Remote Bomb, the Ancient Bow & Ancient Arrow, and the Sword Beam. Compared to his previous iterations in Smash, Link's increased dash speed and sword range in Ultimate make him more threatening during close combat, while the return of the Boomerang improves his ability to combo. Alternatively, Remote Bomb Runes offer an array of advantages and disadvantages over the previous Bombs, while the loss of his Clawshot hinders his grab range and recovery.

Aesthetics

• Link's design is now based on his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
  • Link's default outfit is now the blue Champion's Tunic, with the more traditional green Tunic of the Wild as an alternate costume.
  • Link has an altered idle pose with his legs positioned further apart and his sword and shield held up at all times.
  • Link now holds the Master Sword with his right hand and the Hylian Shield with his left hand, resulting in many of his animations being altered. This is how he holds his sword and shield in Breath of the Wild and other recent Zelda games.
  • The Master Sword appears as it does in Breath of the Wild and is much longer.
  • Link's new on-screen appearance involves him gliding onto the stage using the Paraglider.
  • Link's Boxing Ring alias has been changed to "Champion of Hyrule".
• Link has a new side taunt where he holds onto the Master Sword with both hands, similar to one of Ike's taunts.
• Link's victory animation where he swings his sword once, twirls it around his head, then sheathes it now has him swing it back before sheathing it.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Link's jumpsquat animation now takes 3 frames to complete (down from 7.) This significantly improves his mobility when transitioning into the air.
• Link jumps higher.
• Link dashes faster.
• The Master Sword is longer than it was in previous installments, increasing the range of Link's sword-based attacks.

Ground Attacks

• Neutral attack's final hit now involves Link swiping vertically instead of thrusting his sword.
  • Neutral attack's damage has been redistributed, with the first two hits dealing more damage and the third hit dealing less.
• Forward tilt causes the screen to shake when the sword hits ground.
  • Forward tilt has more end lag.
• Up tilt is now an overhead arcing slash that starts from behind Link.
  • Up tilt no longer encircles Link's entire body, hindering its horizontal range and leaving Link more vulnerable to frontal attacks.
  • Up tilt deals more damage.
• Down tilt deals less damage.
• Dash attack's initial lunge provides less distance, decreasing the move's horizontal range but allowing Link to hit opponents closer to him more reliably.
  • Dash attack's sweetspot deals more damage.
• Forward smash's first hit will shoot out a spinning Sword Beam when Link is at 0% damage. This is in reference to numerous Zelda games where Link's sword shoots out beams when he is at full health. Charging forward smash increases the size and damage of the projectile.
• Down smash has slightly more startup frames.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have reduced landing lag, with neutral aerial and back aerial now being almost as fast as a hard landing.
• Forward aerial's first hit now has set knockback that reliably links into the second hit.
  • Forward aerial's animation has been sped up, with the second hit coming out much faster.
  • Forward aerial's first hit can no longer can K.O. opponents, and both hits deal less damage.
• Back aerial has a slightly different animation.
  • Both hits of back aerial deal slightly more damage.
• Down aerial has a different animation, with a more exaggerated downward thrust.

Throws/other attacks

• Link now grabs with his hand instead of using the Clawshot.
  • All grabs have significantly less end lag.
  • All grabs have reduced range.
• Link no longer has a grab aerial or a tether recovery due to losing the Clawshot.
  • Link can now Z-drop his Remote Bombs without triggering the grab aerial's lengthy animation.
• Forward throw and back throw deal less damage.

Special Moves

• Traveler's Bow:
  • Link now uses the Traveler's Bow from Breath of the Wild instead of the Hero's Bow.
  • Arrows will momentarily become visibly lodged in opponents' bodies when they hit.
  • Traveler's Bow charges faster, and the arrows travel much further at their minimum charge.
  • Arrows travel noticeably slower.
  • Arrows that fail to hit an opponent linger on the ground longer and can be picked up and thrown. Using the Traveler's Bow while holding an arrow causes Link to fire two arrows in one shot for double damage.
  • Arrows can be picked up by opponents and thrown at Link.
• Boomerang
  • The more traditional Boomerang has replaced Gale Boomerang, behaving as it did in Smash 64 and Melee.
  • If the Boomerang is intercepted by another projectile, it will drop to the ground and disappear in a puff of smoke instead of just disappearing.
  • Boomerang has regained its damaging hitbox upon return, allowing Link to interrupt opponents' attacks and perform combos more reliably than he could with Gale Boomerang's windbox.
  • Boomerang's throwing range has been increased.
  • Boomerang travels more slowly upon returning. This increases the amount of time it takes before Link can throw it again, but also increases the amount of time the returning hitbox is active.
  • Boomerang will damage Link if it is reflected back at him. Also, Link can no longer perform the Gale Guarding technique.
• Spin Attack:
  • Spin Attack has larger and more vibrant graphics. Link can also spin either inwards or outwards.
  • Spin Attack now has Link move his arm during the charging animation, and it gained a new animation for when Link charges an inward spin.
• Remote Bomb Rune:
  • The spherical Remote Bomb from Breath of the Wild replaces Bomb as Link's down special. Rather than exploding on contact, the Remote Bomb bounces off of opponents and objects. It is now detonated by inputting down special again, similar to Snake's C4. It will also detonate automatically after about 30 seconds. This substantially changes up Link's item play and recovery tactics.
  • Remote Bomb's 30 second fuse allows it to remain in play much longer than Bomb's 7 seconds.
  • Remote Bomb's explosion has a significantly larger blast radius.
  • Remote Bomb's explosion deals more damage.
  • Remote Bomb's explosion deals significantly higher knockback, improving its KO potential. It also launches opponents at a more horizontal angle, and the opponent's location relative to the bomb determines where they are sent. This generally improves its combo and edgeguarding potential.
  • Remote Bomb cannot be manually detonated if it is held by an opponent.
  • Only one Remote Bomb can be on the field at a time, as opposed to two Bombs.
  • The Remote Bomb itself deals less damage when hitting an opponent since it no longer explodes on contact.
  • The more horizontal knockback of Remote Bombs, coupled with the fact that Link cannot detonate them while he is helpless, hinders Link's vertical recovery.
  • Link can now Z-drop and detonate a Remote Bomb on himself to supplement his horizontal recovery.
• Ancient Bow and Arrow
  • Link's new Final Smash is the Ancient Bow and Arrow, replacing Triforce Slash. It is functionally similar to Zelda's Light Arrow from previous games, although it only deals a single powerful blow to the first opponent in the arrow's path, along with any bystanders.
  • Ancient Bow and Arrow has significantly more horizontal range than Triforce Slash.

Role in World of Light

Link was among the fighters summoned to the cliffside to fight the army of Master Hands.

Link was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed its beams of light. Link successfully deflected three beams of light with his Hylian Shield (staying true to the shield's unbreakable nature), but he lost his footing on the third blow, and was vaporized and transformed into a spirit along with the rest of the fighters (excluding Kirby).

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Official render of Link's Tunic of the Wild outfit.

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  Link taunting on the Great Plateau Tower.

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  Link about to perform his forward smash on Temple.

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  Link performing a Spin Attack on Pac-Man on Spirit Train.

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  Link holding a Heart Container on Great Bay.

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  Link performing his new Final Smash, Ancient Bow and Arrow.

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  About to strike Ganondorf with his dash attack on Skyworld.

• 

  Struck by Daisy's down smash on Spirit Train.

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  Link struck by Dr. Mario's forward smash on New Pork City.

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  Link, Mario and Samus struck by the Inkling's Splat Roller on Figure-8 Circuit.

• 

  Link getting hit by Isabelle's forward smash on Luigi's Mansion.

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  Link struck by Roy's neutral aerial on Skyloft.

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  Link, Marth and Shulk advancing towards Rathalos on Coliseum.

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  Link, Pikachu, Bowser and Inkling being attacked by Rathalos on Tortimer Island.

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  Link using Traveler's Bow on Prism Tower.

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  With Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, Ice Climbers, Pit, Villager and Inkling on Battlefield.

• 

  With Kirby, Mario, Inkling, Marth, Pit, Ridley and Villager on Battlefield.

• 

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

• 

  With Zelda and Ganondorf on the Great Plateau Tower.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• Ultimate marks the first time in the Smash series where Link does not wear his trademark green tunic as his default outfit, as well as the first time Link no longer has his Goron and Zora tunics from Ocarina of Time as his respective red and blue alternate costumes; however, his traditional design still appears as an alternate costume, the Tunic of the Wild, while his new red and blue costumes are now based on armor sets from Breath of the Wild, the Hylian Tunic and the Royal Guard Uniform, respectively.
  • Ironically, Link's Champion's Tunic cannot be dyed in Breath of the Wild despite being the base for four of his costumes in Ultimate. His Tunic of the Wild can be dyed, but the colors used for the other four costumes based on this outfit are not possible in Breath of the Wild.
  • Link's Fierce Deity costume is the only recolor of the Tunic of the Wild to not expose his knees. This is in line with how Fierce Deity Link appeared in Majora's Mask.
  • Despite Link's design now being the Champion's Tunic, which lacks a cap, Kirby still gains his familiar green cap when copying him; however, this is in line with Link's alternate costume.
• Ultimate is also the first Smash game where Link does not use a tether; however, his doppelgängers, Young Link and Toon Link, still use one.
• Coincidentally, Link is ranked #3 in order of appearance in the Smash series, which is also the same number of playable versions of Link in Ultimate. It is also the same number of pieces that make up the Triforce.
• In the E3 demo of the game, Link's portrait used his in-game model as opposed to his official artwork. This was also the case for Mario, Pikachu and Villager.