Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Pirate Ship

Revision as of 21:20, August 4, 2020 by EXemplary Logic (talk | contribs) (param rename: location -> subtitle)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Pirate Ship
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Pirate Ship across the series.
ZeldaSymbol.svg
Universe The Legend of Zelda
Appears in Brawl
SSB4 (Wii U)
Ultimate
Availability Unlockable (Brawl)
Downloadable (SSB4)
Starter (Ultimate)
Unlock criteria Unlock Toon Link.
Crate type Normal
Maximum players 4 (Brawl and Wii U)
8 (Wii U Ω form, Ultimate)
Music
Bolded tracks must be unlocked
Brawl Dragon Roost Island (100%)
The Great Sea (30%)
Tal Tal Heights (30%)
Song of Storms (30%)
Gerudo Valley (15%)
Molgera Battle (10%)
Village of the Blue Maiden (10%)
Termina Field (10%)
for Wii U Dragon Roost Island
The Great Sea / Menu Select
The Legend of Zelda Medley
Dark World / Dark World Dungeon
Tal Tal Heights
Song of Storms
Gerudo Valley (Original)
Gerudo Valley (Remix)
Ocarina of Time Medley
Village of the Blue Maiden
Termina Field
Ballad of the Goddess
Ultimate The Legend of Zelda series music
Main: Dragon Roost Island
Alternate: The Great Sea / Menu Select
Tournament legality
Brawl Singles: Banned
Doubles: Banned
Smash 4 Singles: Banned
Doubles: Banned
Ultimate Singles: Banned
Doubles: Banned
Article on Zelda Wiki Tetra's Ship

Pirate Ship (海賊船, Pirate Ship) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The stage is loosely based on Tetra's pirate ship from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but with many changes to facilitate Smash's gameplay. The main setup is a slightly curved main platform, representing the main deck, and two upper platforms, representing the mast of the ship. Characters can swim in the surrounding ocean.

It was released as the final downloadable familiar stage for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on September 30th, 2015, and also reappears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a familiar stage. The stage notably uses the cel-shaded artstyle of The Wind Waker as opposed to the realistic style of Brawl, which carries over into its future appearances; in Ultimate, it more closely resembles the style of The Wind Waker HD.

In Brawl and Ultimate, the unlock battle for Toon Link is fought here. In Brawl, the stage is unlocked along with Toon Link himself. In Ultimate, King K. Rool's unlock battle in World of Light is also fought here, as a reference to Gang-Plank Galleon, his own pirate ship in the Donkey Kong Country series.

Stage overview

All fighters are on a cruising ship which passes along an enemy lookout that fires bombs at the ship. Anyone that comes in contact with the bombs will take heavy damage (up to 36%) and high knockback, enough to KO Mario below 40% in Brawl. In Smash 4 and Ultimate the bomb’s power is severely nerfed from Brawl: now the knockback is fixed, not able to KO anymore.

Any player that swims into the front of the pirate ship while in the water or is meteor smashed (but not KO'd) towards the bottom of the back of the ship will be automatically OHKO'd via a very powerful meteor smash. Fighters with tether recoveries can also be meteor smashed due to their tether reaching out far enough for them to swing towards the water and thus into the front of the ship. A boat, the King of Red Lions, occasionally makes an appearance by sailing from the right side of the stage, and acts as a platform that players can stand on. The head of the boat creates a small wall, briefly allowing chain grabbing in Brawl. However, players that remain too long on the boat will be carried past the side blast line after brief time, for a guaranteed KO.

The ship will also run into a small rocky island from time to time, giving players a newly-shaped terrain to fight on. If characters run into the front of the ship while it is sinking, they will take damage, but there is no meteor effect unless the player is trapped underwater, between the rock and the ship beforehand. The ship will eventually right itself as the island sinks, forcing players to return to the norm.

There is a catapult at the front of the ship that will come up from the deck on occasion. Anyone who is standing on it will be sent flying when it fires. It deals no damage but high knockback, and has potential to KO even at lower damage percentages. In Brawl, if a character is fired by the catapult and hit by a strong attack (such as Pikachu’s Thunder, which is very powerful in this game) at the same time, they could potentially be OHKOed. However, it is necessary to chain the two hits in a few frames to combine their knockback in a boosted attack.

Another hazard is that a storm will sometimes cause a cyclone to come from the background, throwing the ship high into the sky, eliminating the option to swim around near the ship. This also throws the King of Red Lions into sky, disappearing along with anyone unlucky to have stood on it while it was flipped upside-down. The ship will fall back down after a short time and land back in the water. While falling, the players experience reduced gravity.

Ω forms and Battlefield form

In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the Ω form is set on an enemy lookout platform with the Pirate Ship sailing across in the background, with the ship's design more closely resembling that of the actual ship in The Wind Waker. Players cannot swim as the water lies below the lower blast line. The weather also occasionally changes, but does not affect the players or stage.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Ω form and Battlefield form are set on a similar platform to the Ω form in SSB4; however, the skull structure is now gone and it is resized and reshaped to match Final Destination and Battlefield, respectively. The three soft platforms of the Battlefield form resemble the soft platforms on the mast of the ship in the normal form.

Origin

 
The Pirate Ship docked at Outset Island, as seen in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

This ship is taken from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, although it is much smaller. After Link's sister, Aryll, was kidnapped by the Helmaroc King, Link sailed to the Forsaken Fortress on Tetra's ship to save her. During the trip, he was challenged by Niko, a pirate. This ship came back later in the game during the search for the third Goddess Pearl. The pirates stole bombs on Windfall Island, intending to get the treasure from Outset Island in the morning unaware of a curse on the sea preventing morning. Link managed to hear the password, and then came back on the ship to be challenged one more time and then get the bombs and beat the pirates to the treasure on Outset. This ship appeared a final time at the end of the game to rescue both Link and Tetra after they defeat Ganondorf. The ship came back at the beginning and end of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Like in Smash, the ship also has a catapult: it was used in The Wind Waker to launch a boulder at the Helmaroc King and to launch Link towards the Forsaken Fortress.

The smaller, red boat that appears on the right is known as the King of Red Lions, which is actually Hyrule's king in disguise. He can talk, and assists Link during the events of The Wind Waker. In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, when Link conducts the Ballad of Gales with his Wind Waker, a cyclone comes and transports Link to his destination: the cyclone that comes in this stage could be a reference to Ballad of Gales being played.

Also from The Wind Waker are the enemy look-out towers with cannons that fire bombs at Link if he sails too close, which can occasionally be seen in the background of this stage and act as a stage hazard. The Ω form of this stage takes place on top of one of these enemy look-out towers also.

Tournament legality

Pirate Ship is universally banned in all three of its appearances. There are various hazards that interrupt gameplay such as the catapult on the ship, the bombs that target players, and the front of the ship. Various places also promote camping such as the King of Red Lions and the rock that appears. When stage hazards are turned off in Ultimate, the stage remains banned as the slant on the ship can still block projectiles, and the water disturbs gameplay.

Trophy descriptions

 
The Pirate ship trophy in Brawl.

A ship commandeered by Tetra that sails to the far corners of the deep blue sea. When Link gets on board, he is challenged with a test given by the pirate underling Niko. In that test, Link must learn to use jumps and rope swinging to get through an obstacle course and reach Niko. If successful, he receives the Spoils Bag and bombs.

 : The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
 : The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Glitch

The Olimar grab glitch is a glitch in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It involves Olimar and Donkey Kong. To perform it, Olimar and Donkey Kong must be at the back of the Pirate Ship. Olimar must then perform a grab on Donkey Kong in a specific spot on the ship. If done correctly, Donkey Kong should clip in and out on the ground while the Pikmin is latched onto him. Like the Ike grab glitch and King Dedede grab glitch, the reason this happens its because the big character does not have any space when grabbed. When this happens, the animation of the character twitches, shakes, or flinches in two poses, causing the character to not break free from the grab.

Gallery

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Trivia

  • The rain on this stage is not rendered in 3D; it is actually just 2D sprites falling in the foreground and background, similar to the Distant Planet stage. This can be viewed by pausing the game and tilting the camera.
  • When falling from the cyclone, King Dedede can avoid battle by using his up special, allowing him to stay aloft for ten to fifteen seconds.
  • If a Rolling Crate is inserted between the rock and the ship, the game will emit a loud buzzing noise.
  • When the boat crashes against the rock, both are still moving, though it looks like they are stuck in place, and players can still be KO'd if they wait for too long in the sea, being carried off to a boundary KO by the current.
  • In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, all of the music tracks for this stage are shared with other The Legend of Zelda stages. This makes it one of three stages to share music with other stages, the others being Super Mario Maker and Big Battlefield.
    • Pirate Ship is the only downloadable stage that does not add new music.
  • Pirate Ship and Miiverse are the only downloadable stages in SSB4 not available for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Masahiro Sakurai stated that the Pirate Ship was intended for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, but it was scrapped because it was unable to function on the 3DS system.[1] Possible data for the stage was found in version version 1.0.6 data mining.
  • Pirate Ship is the only Brawl stage that is available as downloadable content, as well as the only DLC past stage that did not originate from the original Super Smash Bros.
  • Pirate Ship is the only downloadable stage that supports 8-Player Smash for its Ω form, but not its normal form.
  • Pirate Ship is one of three stages that has been a unlockable stage, a DLC stage, and a starter stage, as it was each in Brawl, Smash Wii U, and Ultimate, respectively; the others are Dream Land and Duck Hunt.
  • There exists a glitch where a player would possibly fall through the ship during the section where it crashes into the rock. [1]
    • This includes falling through the catapult when the ship is sailing as normal.
  • In Ultimate, the following Assist Trophies cannot appear on this stage: Nightmare, Kapp'n, Devil, Squid Sisters and the Ghosts. Additionally, Marshadow cannot be summoned here.

References