| “ | A rematch against a fighter you couldn't defeat before. Pull off victory this time! | ” |
| —Description from Ultimate's Mode Guide | ||
Challenger's Approach is a mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where the player can attempt to fight again against an unlockable character. This mode is available in the Games & More menu and after failing a Challenger Approaching fight. When selected, the Challenger Approaching screen will appear for the unlockable fighter that has been lost to, then the player is able to choose any character they have unlocked to rematch the unlockable fighter.
Unlock Order
Timed encounters
When the player finishes a VS. match, a Mob Smash, a Spirit Board fight or exits the World of Light, a new character can challenge the player to a Challenger Approaching duel. However, the player must then wait 10 minutes before a new Challenger Approaching challenge is issued. This 10-minute cooldown can be bypassed by closing the game and reopening it.
Time-based Challenger Approaching challenges are issued in a specific order, skipping any characters unlocked in the World of Light or whose Challenger Approaching fight has already been triggered due to Classic Mode.
Below is a table listing the order characters unlocked, the amount of time needed to unlock them, and the stage and music accompanying their unlock battle. The values listed under "Cumulative Wait Time" are idealized values that assume that no characters are unlocked in the World of Light or have their Challenger Approaching fights triggered by Classic Mode, that the player never closes the game after first opening it until they trigger Palutena's Challenger Approaching fight, and the player never spends longer than the minimum amount of time (10 minutes) between triggering Challenger Approaching fights.
Classic Mode
When the player completes Classic Mode, a new character will challenge the player to a Challenger Approaching duel. This character will be the next character in the table below who the player hasn't attempted to unlock through a duel. After all of the characters in a column are unlocked, the unlock sequence loops around to Mario's column, then Donkey Kong's column, and so on.
The unlock sequence for downloadable fighters begins at Mario's column.
The Challenger Approaching duels are the same as those issued on a timed basis, this is simply another way to trigger them.
Notably, all clones, semi-clones, and pseudo-clones except for Ganondorf, Roy, and Chrom are in the same column as the character they are based on.
| Unlock Order |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st |  |
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| 2nd |  |
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| 3rd |  |
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| 4th |  |
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| 5th |  |
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| 6th |  |
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| 7th |  |
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| 8th |  |
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Trivia
- DLC fighters are the only ones not included in the table since they are automatically unlocked upon purchasing them.
- The difficulty of the fights depend on the number of characters unlocked, if the player had not unlocked any, the difficulty of the fights are at level 1 difficulty. However, each character unlocked will steadily increase the opponent's difficulty.
- This mode along with Sephiroth Challenge are the only modes in Ultimate that would no longer be available at some point. In this case, Challenger's Approach would no longer be available if the player has unlocked all unlockable characters in the game.