Spirit

Characters shown as spirits

“	Spirits are characters that have lost their physical forms. Equipping your fighter with spirits will power them up with all sorts of new abilties. Wondering how many kinds of spirits there are? You'll have to see for yourself!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Spirits are a type of power-up in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They are also featured in Adventure Mode: World of Light, where they assist the fighters in defeating Galeem. Spirits can be seen as similar to stickers in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and equipment in Super Smash Bros. 4, while they also replace Trophies from earlier installments as the successor.

Spirits are characters who lost their bodies through disintegration (due to Galeem's attack) and were transformed into souls, which were then trapped into Puppet Fighters and made to do Galeem's bidding. There are 1297 spirits in the game; an incomplete list of them can be found here.

Spirit Classes

Spirits are separated by their strength which is referred to as "classes".

• ★☆☆☆ Novice (standard strength)
• ★★☆☆ Advanced (a bit stronger)
• ★★★☆ Ace (especially powerful)
• ★★★★ Legend (in a league of their own)

Spirit Types

“	There are two kinds of spirits. Primary spirits boost the physical abilities of the fighter you equip them to, while support spirits provide special skills. Try out different combinations to power up your fighters!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Primary Spirits

Each fighter can only have one Primary Spirit assigned at a time. The Primary Spirit will enhance the fighter's stats and may have up to three slots for a Support Spirit to be equipped in; as a rule, Primary Spirits that do not have many slots will compensate with higher base stats. Primary Spirits have strengths based on their type, and grant an advantage against spirits that their type is strong against. However, they will also impose a weakness against the type of Spirit that they are weak against. Some Primary Spirits also add secondary modifications like a Support Spirit.

“	Primary spirits come in different types: Attack, Shield, and Grab. Attack has an advantage over Grab, Grab has an advantage over Shield, and Shield has an advantage over Attack. Try to equip spirits that are strong against your opponent's spirit team!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

There is also a fourth type, Neutral, which is not strong or weak against any other type.

Equipping a fighter with a Primary Spirit from the same series as the fighter gives an unlisted 10% bonus to the spirit's stats.

Support Spirits

Certain Primary Spirits have slots, which can be filled by Support Spirits. The Support Spirits will give fighters passive bonuses such as starting with an item, resistance to certain damage types or status effects, added abilities, and more. They can be useful when encountering traps that appear in certain Spirit Battles, such as winds that constantly push fighters or floors that put any fighter to sleep on contact. The fighter can equip up to three Support Spirits at a time depending on how many slots the Primary Spirit has, although some Support Spirits can take up more than one slot. Support Spirits are also divided into types like Primary Spirits, but only during Spirit Battles where they are equipped by an enemy Puppet Fighter.

Fighter Spirits

Fighter Spirits are based on an existing playable character in the game, and cannot be equipped. Rather, they simply exist to allow the players to enjoy the artwork. They are earned by completing Classic Mode with the indicated fighter. With some exceptions, the Fighter Spirits generally use the fighter's artwork from their franchise of origin. Characters with significant alternate costumes will have fighter spirits based on them as well, such as Male Wii Fit Trainer and each of the Koopalings; this does not include Wire Frame Little Mac or classic Link.

Master Spirits

Master Spirits are another type of Spirit that cannot be equipped, except by the Puppet Fighter possessing them in a Spirit Battle. Once unlocked, Master Spirits run facilities that can be used by up to four other spirits at a time. These facilities include Gyms (which level up spirits), Explore (which bring back rewards), and Dojos (which teach styles to spirits). Master Spirits have dialogue boxes, though certain spirits (such as Kraid) communicate unintelligibly and therefore have provided translations. Like Secondary Spirits, Master Spirits are only assigned types when used by puppet fighters in Spirit Battles.

Spirit Battles

“	Spirit battles have various conditions that may remind you of the character you're battling. If you manage to win one of these matches, you'll get a chance to capture the spirit for yourself!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Most spirits can be obtained via Spirit Battles, which appear similar to the thematic missions seen in Event Matches and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U's Special Orders. Battles can be selected from the Spirit Board, containing up to ten spirits to challenge. The Spirit Board will cycle out new spirits after a short period of time. Each Spirit Battle contains unique challenges and rules. The spirits that are battled against will be paired with puppet fighters of a similar personality and/or appearance, with the battle's rules, conditions, stage and music track often being reflective of the spirit itself. During all battles against spirits, the Final Smash Meter will be active, and certain spirits can make the gauge fill up faster or slow the rate the enemy's gauge fills at. A spirit can be acquired by defeating its respective puppet fighter, then attacking the fighter in a shooting-style minigame. There is a shield that prevents the spirit from being acquired; however, the damage to the shield carries over to the next time that spirit is encountered and Spirit Points can be spent for one additional attempt per battle. There are also usable items that can slow the speed the shield rotated at, remove part of the shield, or bypass the minigame entirely.

Before each Spirit Battle, the two sides' strength will be compared. The higher the player's advantage over the spirit, the easier the battle will be, but fewer rewards will be earned if the player's strength is significantly greater than the spirit's.

There are consumable items one can earn or purchase to make the spirit obtaining process easier. Examples include restocking the Spirit Board, rerolling the board, or forcing the reappearance of a previously fought Spirit for a second attempt at acquiring it.

One can also battle other players locally in versus matches with spirits equipped, working in a similar manner to character customization from Super Smash Bros. 4.

Raising Spirits

Inkling equipped with the spirits of Gooey, Lip, Nabbit and the Ouendan.

When used in a battle, Primary Spirits will gain experience regardless of its outcome. A sufficient amount of experience will allow the spirit to level up, which increases its stats. Some Spirits can also be enhanced upon reaching level 99; this causes the spirit to change to a new spirit, which will be at level 1 but compensate with a higher class and superior base stats. Additional, spirits available via enhancement typically cannot be found in Spirit Battles.

Spirits can also level up by using Snacks or Cores on them; using a core of the same type as the spirit will give an additional boost.

Facilities

Spirits can level up by training in the gym, learn a style that alters their stats in the dojo, or hunt for treasure. Spirits must remain in a facility for an extended period of time to gain its benefits and cannot be used while deployed in a facility, but they can be recalled at any time. All facilities must be unlocked by defeating their corresponding Master Spirits in World of Light before they can be used.

When selecting Spirits to use a facility, some of them may have arrows displayed on them. These spirits will be more or less efficient at whatever they were assigned to do, depending on the way the arrow points.

Dojo

Dojos teach Spirits different Styles. A spirit with a Style active will alter its user's stats, boosting some stats at the expense of other stats. A Spirit can only know one Style at a time.

Explore

Spirits can be sent for treasure, with a chance of finding valuable items, SP, Gold, and the like.

Release and Summon

Spirits can also be released; while this removes the spirit, the core a released spirit leaves behind can be used to create a new spirit when combined with other cores or level up other spirits. Some spirits can only be found by summoning them with specific cores.

Spirits can also power up Figure Players, but will be permanently consumed. The Figure Player will gain any abilities the Spirit used to power it up may have possessed, and will be considered the same type as that Spirit.

Spirit Effects

All Support Spirits, as well as some Primary Spirits, come with an extra effect, which may be beneficial or detrimental. These effects are listed below.

Attack

Abilities that increase the power of specific attack types.

Defense

Abilities that increase or decrease damage received by specific attack types.

Speed

Abilities that increase or decrease mobility, either on the ground or in the air.

Items

Abilities that allow the fighter to start with an item, or make items more effective.

Hazards

Abilities that mitigate or nullify the effects of hazards that may be encountered in the Spirit Board and World of Light.

Special

Abilities with unusual effects or otherwise do not fit into any other category.

Trivia

• Despite the lore referring to spirits as characters, some spirits (such as Samus' Gunship, the Shine Sprite, and Snake's cardboard box) are based on inanimate objects instead of characters.
• Alter egos and other versions of playable characters, such as Kaptain K. Rool or Mario and Luigi in their Mario Tennis Aces outfits, also appear as spirits, despite not being separate characters.
• The amount of spirits in Ultimate surpasses the amount of Stickers in Brawl as there were only 700.

See also

• Conditions (Spirit Battles)