Samus (SSBU)

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Samus in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Metroid
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter (Unlockable in World of Light)
Final Smash	Zero Laser

“	With her Charge Shot, Missile and Bomb, Samus has three different projectiles to keep her opponents in check from a distance. When fully charged up, her Charge Shot is quite powerful. For her Final Smash, she launches a wide laser beam that can be moved up and down!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Samus (サムス, Samus) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. She retains her modified Metroid: Other M design from SSB4. Samus is classified as fighter #04.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Samus has received a mixture of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Ultimate, having been moderately buffed overall, although her playstyle has changed due to nerfs to key elements of her SSB4 moveset and buffs to others. In particular, her dash attack is no longer a potent combo starter, but she greatly benefits from the universal weakening of shields; her Charge Shot can now be charged in the air and deals far greater damage and shield damage, being able to break shields if used in conjunction with almost any other attack in her arsenal. This gives Samus more opportunities to charge up her most threatening move and strengthens her zoning and punish game, evoking her very projectile-heavy fighting style in her home series. As such, Samus now relies on a more patient playstyle that revolves around shield pressure and threatening foes with her Charge Shot. Additionally, Samus' mobility has been improved, with her infamously slow and punishable roll having been significantly increased in speed, making it more usable as a situational escape option. Overall, opinions on Samus are mixed, with some professionals such as ZeRo considering her to be as viable as in Melee (if not more), while others such as Leffen consider to be her a less effective, if still usable, character; however, general consensus is that she fares better than in SSB4 and most of her other appearances in the series, with a lower skill floor and stronger projectile game.

Aesthetics

• Samus's model features a more subdued color scheme.
• Samus has a new air dodge animation.
• Samus's eighth costume, formerly based on Dark Samus, has been replaced with a black and yellow costume due to Dark Samus's inclusion as a playable fighter.
• Samus has two new victory poses:
  • She fires a Super Missile and strikes a pose similar to her official artwork.
  • She lands on the ground and readies her arm cannon.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Samus's jumpsquat animation now takes 3 frames to complete (down from 4).
• Samus runs faster. (1.504 → 1.654)
  • Samus's initial dash is slightly faster (1.86 → 1.87).
• Samus has faster horizontal air speed (1.03 → 1.103).
• Samus reaches the maximum height of her jumps more quickly.
• Samus has a slightly faster falling speed (1.3 → 1.33)
• Samus's forward roll has slightly less lag (FAF 40 → 35).
• Samus's spot dodge has less lag (FAF 27 → 22).
• Samus's zair cannot pass through shield, lowering its utility in doubles.
• Grab aerial no longer follows Samus's vertical movement, with the Grapple Beam staying in place, similar to how it behaved in Melee.
• Samus’s dizzy animation has been fixed to reduce the character’s erratic shaking.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack's first hit has set knockback and hitstun, causing it to struggle to combo into other moves (including the second hit of neutral attack) and making it more punishable.
• Dash attack now produces a visual effect similar to the Shinespark ability from Super Metroid.
  • Dash attack has increased knockback, allowing it to KO at high percents.
  • Dash attack has more endlag (FAF 34 → 42) and a lower launch angle, greatly reducing its combo potential.
  • Dash attack comes out faster (8 → 7).
• Down tilt has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 45), essentially rendering it incapable of comboing.
• Forward smash's explosion sweetspot is slightly larger.
• Down smash deals more knockback.
  • Down smash has an altered ending animation, with Samus retaining more momentum from the kick.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials aside from up aerial have less landing lag. Neutral air: (16 → 9), Forward air: (24 → 14), Back air: (18 → 14), Down air: (20 → 12)
• Neutral aerial's second hit comes out 2 frames faster (16 → 14).
• Forward aerial now moves Samus forward a bit when used, giving it more range, especially if performed immediately during a short hop.
• Back aerial has a slightly different animation. Samus now faces further behind herself while kicking and curls in her leg afterwards. This gives it more ending lag (FAF 39 → 42)
• Up aerial deals five total hits, down from six.
  • Up aerial's hits link together more reliably because the subsequent hits are faster (Hit 2: 8 → 7, Hit 3: 10 → 11. Hit 4: 14 → 13, Final Hit: 17 → 16).
  • Up aerial deals slightly less damage (11% total → 10.9% total), and has increased landing lag (12 → 18).
• Down aerial's late hit deals less damage (11% → 10%).

Throws/other attacks

• Standing grab has fewer startup frames and less end lag (startup 16 → 15), (FAF 70 → 60)
• {{nerf|Dash grab comes out later (16 → 18)
• Samus's pummel is slower.
• All throws deal more damage (forward: 9% → 10%, down: 6% → 8%, back: 8% → 10% up: 9% total → 12% total).
• Down throw is a more consistent combo starter.
• Back throw and up throw can KO at high percents.
  • Up throw has a new animation, with Samus blasting her opponent upward with her arm cannon.

Special moves

• Charge Shot:
  • Charge Shot can now be charged in midair. A midair charge can be cancelled by jumping or airdodging, but doing so incurs additional landing lag.
  • Charge Shot deals more damage at full charge (25% → 28%).
  • Charge Shot charges faster (140 → 126).
  • Uncharged Shot has less endlag (54 → ~46)
  • Charge Shot deals greater shield damage, being able to break shields at full health if used in conjunction with almost any of Samus' other attacks.
• Missile:
  • Missiles have updated designs. When firing a missile, Samus's visor and armor lights flash blue in reference to Samus's palette when Missiles are selected in the original Metroid.
  • Super Missiles travel faster and stall initially before flying forward, similar to the Turbo Missile custom move from SSB4.
  • Homing Missiles and Super Missiles deal more damage (5% (Homing)/10% (Super) → 8%/12%).
  • Super Missiles have slightly less endlag (FAF 59 → 57).
  • Samus can drift horizontally while firing a missile in the air and missiles don't halt her aerial momentum.
• Screw Attack:
  • Screw Attack has less lag before Samus begins falling.
• Morph Ball:
  • Bombs have an earlier contact hitbox.
    • Bombs on contact deal more damage (4% → 9%).
• Zero Laser:
  • When Samus unleashes Zero Laser, the jets on the back of her suit vent flames as exhaust, which deal damage.

Classic Mode: Another Planet, Another Bounty

The opponents Samus faces are akin to the battles that she has faced throughout the Metroid series.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music
1	Wolf	Brinstar	Title Theme - Metroid
2	Giant King K. Rool	Brinstar (Ω form)	Brinstar Depths
3	6 R.O.B.s	Brinstar Depths	Brinstar (Melee)
4	Giant Ridley	Norfair	Vs. Ridley
5	Mewtwo, Bowser, and Charizard	Norfair (Ω form)	Multiplayer - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
6	Dark Samus	Frigate Orpheon	Vs. Parasite Queen
Bonus Stage
Final	Master Hand	Final Destination

Character unlock tree

Samus' Classic Mode character unlock tree includes the following characters in order:

• Inkling
• Wii Fit Trainer
• Pit
• Incineroar
• Dark Samus
• Cloud
• Wario
• Dark Pit

Each character can be unlocked by clearing Samus' Classic Mode, or the Classic Mode of any preceding character, if all preceding characters have been unlocked. Once all the above characters are unlocked, clearing Classic Mode with any of them will default to Mario's character unlock tree, starting with Sonic.

Role in World of Light

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

During the opening cutscene, Samus was present when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Samus attempted to fight back against the beams by shooting them with her arm cannon, but to no avail. Samus was vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment alongside the rest of the fighters (except for Kirby).

In gameplay, Zero Suit Samus has a separate awakening battle from Samus.

Samus can be found blocking the path of the bridge once engulfed in light and a location reminiscent of Pac-Maze.

Samus is later seen among several other fighters, making their last stand against Galeem and Dharkon. She also shows up in the bad ending where Galeem emerges victorious against Dharkon, witnessing Galeem engulf the world in light.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

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  Samus' fighter card.

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  Samus on The Great Cave Offensive.

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  Alongside her Bomb in Onett.

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  Back throwing Mega Man with her Grapple Beam on Find Mii.

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  About to fire a Missile at Mother Brain on Lylat Cruise.

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  Preparing her Charge Shot on Summit.

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  Taunting on Coliseum in her Gravity Suit-inspired costume.

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  Samus getting hit by Bayonetta's forward smash on Spirit Train.

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  Buried by the Inkling's Splat Roller on Figure-8 Circuit.

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  Samus watching an aerial Lucario on Prism Tower.

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  Samus getting launched by Shulk's dash attack on Gaur Plain.

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  Samus's Charge Shot getting reflected by Palutena on Temple.

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  Posing behind her Zero Suited self on Gaur Plain.

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  Struck by Bewear's uppercut on Wuhu Island.

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  Getting launched by Lunala's Moongeist Beam along with Fox and Palutena on Summit.

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  Firing a Missile on Wrecking Crew.

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

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  Samus, Palutena, Villager, and Shovel Knight fighting on Find Mii Ω with the Moon about to crash into the stage.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• Samus is the only female character on the game's starting roster (aside from Pikachu's female alternate costumes.)
• Samus is the only one of the original 12 characters from Smash 64 to have an Echo Fighter.
  • Samus is the only starter character in Ultimate to have an Echo Fighter.
• In her official artwork, Samus's pose matches the image of her alongside Anthony Higgs from Metroid: Other M. This same image was used on the official Other M website with Higgs removed.
• While Samus' playable design has not been updated to the more recent Metroid: Samus Returns, her Fighter Spirit uses her artwork from said game rather than Other M.
• Coincidentally, Samus's character number is the same as the number of playable Metroid characters in Ultimate.