Link (SSBB)

Link in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Triforce Slash
Tier	F (35)

“	A warrior from distant Hyrule. His sword and projectiles make him a versatile fighter.	”
—Brawl manual description

Link (リンク, Link) returns as a playble character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl at E3 2006. He was one of the original 4 members to be confirmed as returning playable character at E3 2006, with the other three being Mario, Kirby, and Pikachu.

Link is currently ranked 35th in Low Tier. Link is equipped with a useful DACUS that helps his mobility, as well as some camping ability, some of the best overall reach in his attacks, great momentum cancelling and the third best potential vertical endurance, and many KO moves. Like his Melee incarnation, he still has plenty of projectiles, all of which can be useful at different times. Despite his projectiles and large number of advanced techniques, however, Link in general has poor mobility due to poor dashing speed, air speed, and jumping ability, poor out of shield options, one of the worst aerial games, and sluggish moves in general (his fastest ground attack, jab, has a startup lag of 7 frames, and fastest aerial, back aerial, is 6 frames). The most crippling flaw of Link, however, is his recovery, that has been heavily nerfed from Melee to being arguably the worst recovery in Brawl, and often prevents him from fulfilling his amazing endurance potential; Spin Attack doesn't give him much horizontal distance (and barely any without prior momentum), his bombs are less effective for recovery, and his hookshot can no longer wall grapple. This has resulted in terrible match-ups against most characters, and terrible tournament results.

Attributes

Link may be a character of poor speed, but he makes up for that with power. His sliding DACUS also helps his slow mobility and his BDACUS is very effective due to his fast sidestep. Link is moderately heavy, having the same weight as Captain Falcon. Link is also one of the heavyweight characters that has good directional influence and momentum canceling, especially vertically, which along his extremely quick fast fall allows him to survive almost as long as Snake, though he arguably has the worst recovery in the game and sometimes his fast fall can also give him problems recovering. His heavyweight backfires, however, by making him extremely vulnerable to chain grabs that force him offstage. Link's tilts are fast and powerful, and his down tilt is particularly good for getting opponents into the air. It can also meteor smash at the tip of the sword or hitting behind Link. His up tilt is fast and good for juggling, and his forward tilt can easily KO at high percentages. Link's forward smash can become a two hit combo at low percentages, it is also a great KO move, depending from where the sword connects. His down smash is an easy KO move at fairly high percentages, and is Link's quickest smash. However, it is predictable making it easy to watch out at higher percentages, and has some ending lag. Link's up smash doesn't KO easily, but it racks up decent damage. Link's aerial attacks are also good, as both his neutral aerial and grab aerial (zair), combined with a short hop and fast falling, is a great option for approach. Link's back aerial is good for spacing when needed. Link's forward aerial is fairly fast, is a good set-up move and its second hit is powerful, but this KOing move is hard to land, since the first hit only set ups the second hit at very low percentages and the first hit lacks KO power. Link's up and down aerials are some of his best KO moves, having high duration and high knockback, but have high ending and landing lag. Even though his aerial attacks are effective, his slow aerial speed, fast falling speed, and small jumps give Link a very weak aerial game. His grab, like all tether grabs, has good range but has 12 frames start-up and is laggy if missed. Specials for Link are also good for keeping distance, racking up damage, and great for survival. On the ground, Link can charge his up special. It is a good edge guarding tool, but is predictable. Spin attack can also deflect projectiles if used in the air. His neutral special is a bow that charges and shoots high-speed projectiles. If activated in the air, just before hitting the ground, an uncharged arrow will shoot instantly, making it a fast attack that will often hit unsuspecting enemies. Link's down special allows him to pull out a bomb and throw it, which can be used for mind games, but his own bombs can be used against him. His side special move, Gale Boomerang has fairly good range and can gimp some opponent's recovery. Smashing the side special will cause the boomerang to reach farther. Link's shield can act as a shield on its own: when Link doesn't move, many projectiles coming from the opposite direction he's facing can't hit him. Crouching can also block most attacks as well, but leaves his upper hitbox open. He also has a great spot dodge.

Link's critical problem is his abysmal recovery, being among the worst recoveries in the game, on par with Ganondorf's Dark Dive; this makes him easy to KO despite being a heavyweight with great momentum canceling. Although his projectiles, particularly Gale Boomerang help it somewhat, his poor jumping, quick fall speed, slow air speed, and poor distance on the Spin Attack make his recovery arguably the shortest in the game both horizontally and vertically and also very predictable, so it's suggested that all Link mains have good directional influence. Link's spin attack is also a slow recovery move, with predictable trajectory, making it fairly easy to edgeguard, mostly with moves that out prioritizes his projectiles, and due to the poor distance of his recovery he can get KO'd offstage with a fairly low amount of hits and not being able to recover, especially when he loses his 2nd jump, and due his poor vertical distance that also means meteor smashes are devastating for his recovery. Link's most effective mode of recovery is to first throw the Gale Boomerang to disrupt the opponent, then use his up special right after doing his second jump to give more momentum so he can gain more height, but even this is a poor recovery option. Using Spin Attack immediately after being hit while recovering makes it give no horizontal distance at all. His Clawshot is also useful, being the second longest tether grab in the game, but, like all tether recoveries, it is easily edgehogged. Another method of recovery is where Link pulls out a bomb, uses his Spin Attack, and his bomb blows up on him for little damage but gives Link another Spin Attack. At higher percentages the knockback from the bomb can be used for additional height. Although, Link has a large ledge sweetspot, but due to his poor recovery, Link heavily relies on edge grabbing, leaving him vulnerable to edgehogging (though, this can be prevented with his projectiles). If Link is lucky, the Gale Boomerang can carry the opponent out far enough so they can't recover, but this happens rarely, making it very unreliable.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Link has received some significant power buffs and is overall a much more powerful character in Brawl. However, he has received some significant nerfs in other more important areas, that have made him an even slower and less mobile character, and most significantly, has drastically nerfed his recovery almost back to Smash 64 levels. This overall makes him a worse character in Brawl than he was in Melee.

Aesthetics

• Link's design is now based off of Twilight Princess, rather than being based of his Ocarina of Time design he had in Melee and SSB. Also, he has recieved a massive boost in graphics quality. This most notably seen on his tunic and hat, which have much more detail and textures.
• His forward helpless state is now the animation of when he finishes his double jump (from both Melee and Brawl), but his back and neutral helpless states are the same.

Attributes

• Link dashes slightly faster (1.3 → 1.328).
• Link's air speed is drastically slower (1 → 0.8084), going from 6th best out of 26 characters to 6th worst out of 39 characters. This significantly reduced Link's already poor mobility, as well as significantly hindered Link's recovery and made approaching more difficult.
• As with the returning veterans, Link's falling speed was decreased (2.13 → 1.6). Compared to the returning veterans, however, Link falls faster. In comparison to the rest of the cast, this makes Link more vulnerable to combos and chain throws, and makes his recovery worse, while with his terrible mobility and laggy attacks, he gets no real benefit from it outside the vertical endurance boost.
• Link's traction is significantly lower (0.1 → 0.064), especially when comparing with the returning veterans, now going from the best in Melee to the 10th highest. This makes it harder for him to punish out of shield.
• New tether recovery that replaced wall grappling is less effective, as Link can now only grab unoccupied ledges with his clawshot, instead of being able to latch onto anywhere on the stage's wall. Additionally, The change of airdodging has affected Link, as he can no longer use an airdodge to get closer before he uses his clawshot.

Ground attacks

• Link's neutral attack is now always three hits instead of being multi-hit, making it less effective at racking up damage.
• All tilts deal stronger knockback, with his forward and up tilts now being reliable finishers under 150%.
• Down tilt's meteor smash hitbox was given significantly smaller and worse hitbox placement (now being a small hitbox on Link's body), now making it nearly impossible to land due to its impractical placement.
• All smash attacks deal stronger knockback, especially the first hit of his forward smash, which can now reliably KO under 150%.
• Second slash of forward smash is now affected by smash charging.
• Up smash inflicts 2% more damage when all hits connect (15% → 17%).
• Link was given a beneficial DACUS, whose inputs can also be used for super glide tossing his Bombs or other items.

Aerial attacks

• Link is arguably the character second most adversely affected by the loss of L-cancelling after Ganondorf, as his high landing lag aerials were especially reliant on it, with his up aerial completely losing its comboing abilities while his down aerial is now dangerously unsafe if he misses it.
• Neutral aerial's initial hitbox is slightly weaker and deals 1% less damage (11% → 10%).
• First hit of forward aerial was significantly weakened, with it dealing 4% less damage (13% → 9%) and no longer reliably KOing. However, even with the power nerf, it's still too strong and hits opponents away from the second hit outside low damages. Despite the second hit of forward aerial is more powerful, and deals 5% more damage (8% → 13%), the attack is worse overall as timing to land only the second hit is now mandated to KO with the move.
• Up aerial's initial hitbox is slightly weaker and deals 1% less damage (16% → 15%), but its later hitbox is slightly stronger and deals 1% more damage (12% → 13%).
• Down aerial is more powerful.
• If Link fast falls while using his down aerial, he will not bounce after hitting with it, plummeting straight through to the ground.
• Zair is significantly more useful for non-recovery purposes; the move now has nearly no landing lag, and its altered knockback makes it useful for setting up additional blows, giving the move significant utility and making it an effective spacer.

Throws/other attacks

• Throws are slightly better, with up and back throw dealing 2% more damage, and down throw dealing 1% more damage (6% → 7%).
• Up throw deals much stronger knockback, now being capable of KOing when the opponent approaches 200%.

Special moves

• Hero's Bow charges faster, and the arrows it fires travel faster and farther.
• Link has a new side special: Gale Boomerang. It is considered less effective; Gale Boomerang deals significantly less damage in its initial hitboxes and has no damaging hitboxes at all in its later flight and on its return, while the opponent can still fully react when being pushed/pulled by the wind hitboxes, which makes it difficult for Link to use the move to setup additional blows. Gale Boomerang also travels more slowly.
• Grounded Spin Attack is significantly weaker unless it is charged, making the move less effective for KOing. The semi-spike of its later hitboxes was also removed as in the PAL version of Melee.
• Aerial Spin Attack covers significantly less horizontal distance, and has a greater reliance on prior momentum, to where if Link uses the move without momentum toward the direction he was going, it'll gain almost no horizontal distance at all.
• Link can no longer hit his own bombs with aerial Spin Attack, preventing Link from utilising the most useable form of his bomb jump, thus Link can no longer use a bomb jump to extend his recovery unless he had a bomb in his hand before going offstage and it explodes in time.

Moveset

For a more detailed information regarding Link's moveset and attack hitboxes, see this page.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			4%	A diagonal sword slash followed by a horizontal slash, with a lunging stab finisher. Loosely based on Link's final blow to Ganon in Ocarina of Time. The first 2 hits are great when jab canceled, as it can lead into his grab, up special, down smash or even to itself again if the opponent doesn't SDI out of it.
			3%
			5%
Forward tilt			13%	An overhead swipe. An efficient KO move at higher percentages.
Up tilt			9%	Swings sword in an arc. Has good range and knockback. Good for juggling fast-fallers at low percentages.
Down tilt			12%	Swipes sword across ground. Meteor smashes aerial opponents in contact with Link's body and the hilt of the sword. This is more difficult to use as a meteor smash than other down tilts, because the sweetspot is significantly smaller, ranging only from his head to his body (while crouching).
Dash attack			12% (blade), 10% (tip), 11% (arm & body)	Swings sword from head to toe. Good combo starter.
Forward smash			15% (blade), 14% (body)	Link lunges forward with a wide sword swing in front of him, dealing good damage and knockback when tipped. The base of his sword has extremely little knockback, designed to link onto an optional second hit: a sword swing with greater KO power.
			17% (blade), 20% (arm), 19% (body)
Up smash			4% (hit 1), 3% (hit 2), 10% (hit 3 blade), 9% (hit 3 arm), 8% (hit 3 body)	Swings sword in an arc three times. First two hits have no knockback, while the 3rd hit has below average knockback. This move is easily SDIed out of the last hit.
Down smash			Hit 1: 16% (blade & body), 14% (tip), 17% (arm) Hit 2: 16% (blade & body), 17% (arm)	Swipes sword from front to back, having very quick start-up but moderately long ending lag. Opponents can be hit by both swipes if they are between Link and the Gale Boomerang during its second phase as it pulls the opponent towards Link; however, good timing is required.
Neutral aerial			10% (clean), 6% (late)	Link thrusts his leg out in front of him for an extended time. Has sex kick properties.
Forward aerial			9% (hit 1), 12% (hit 2)	Swings his sword twice while spinning 360 degrees. Second hit has great knockback, though the first hit only sets up the second hit at very low percentages, making it hard to use as a KOing move.
Back aerial			4% (hit 1), 7% (hit 2)	Does a two kick combo behind himself. Has very little landing lag and low damage.
Up aerial			15% (clean), 13% (late)	Thrusts his sword upward, just like the upward thrust attack in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Long duration and can star KO at higher damages, though it has a slow startup, little horizontal range, and significantly high ending lag.
Down aerial			22% (clean), 18% (late), 8% (after bounce)	Holds his sword downward, this time based on his "Downthrust" from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Bounces when the attack lands, possibly scoring an additional hit, but goes through opponents if Link is fast falling. A very powerful finisher that can K.O as low as 75%, but if missed leaves Link open for 50 frames if not auto-cancelled (the laggiest aerial landing in the game).
Grab aerial			4% (hit 1), 6% (hit 2)	Link fires his Clawshot forward, scoring two hits. Has no landing lag at all. Can be used as a tether recovery. Very useful for spacing and stopping approaches against taller characters.
Grab			—
Pummel			2%	Hits opponent with the hilt of the Master Sword. A fairly fast pummel.
Forward throw			3% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Link releases the opponent then kicks them, football punt style.
Back throw			3% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Link throws the opponent behind him and kicks them away.
Up throw			5% (hit 1), 2% (throw)	Link raises the opponent above him and slashes upward.
Down throw			3% (hit 1), 4% (throw)	Link takes the opponent onto the ground and elbow drops them.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Does two slashes front and back.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Does another two slashes front and back.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Essentially the same as his other two floor attacks.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8%	Pulls himself up into a front flip and slices downward.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Slowly climbs up and stabs in front of himself.
Neutral special		Hero's Bow	4-12%	Link equips his bow, with the arrows serving as projectiles. Charging increases the speed, distance and damage dealt by an arrow.
Side special		Gale Boomerang	7% (release), 5% (flight)	Throws the Gale Boomerang, which damages at it flies away and then pulls enemies towards Link as it returns. Can be angled up or down. A "smash throw" (similar to performing a smash attack) increases the distance the boomerang can travel.
Up special		Spin Attack	12%/9%/7%/5% (ground), 4% (air hit 1), 2% (air hits 2-4), 4% (air hit 5)	This move functions differently when grounded and airborne; an aerial Spin Attack is used as recovery which grants Link vertical distance. A grounded Spin Attack is akin to most Zelda games, and functions similarly to a smash attack with great knockback.
Down special		Bomb	5% (explosion), 7% (throw), 8% (smash throw), 5-9% (dropped)	Link pulls out a bomb, based off its design from Twilight Princess. On contact with a surface, it detonates, dealing damage to opponents and can also hurt Link as well. The explosion can grant him an extra Spin Attack if used skillfully.
Final Smash		Triforce Slash	5% (traping), 4% (hits 1-15), 18% (hit 16)	Link locks onto an opponent and proceeds to slash them repeatedly with his Master Sword. A luminous image of the Triforce appears around the opponent as Link slashes them. The final strike launches the opponent.

On-screen appearance

• Small whirlwinds appear on the battlefield, from which Link appears. Link then proceeds to equip the Master Sword and Hylian Shield.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Swings his sword twice and twirls the sword before sheathing it. Similar to his Twilight Princess victory pose, which he performs after defeating a boss, learning a hidden sword technique, or sheathing his sword upon the defeat of harder-to-defeat enemies.
• Side taunt: Link takes out a fairy that appears similar to Navi from Ocarina of Time. The fairy then proceeds to fly around as Link watches it until it returns to his pocket.
• Down taunt: Link's taunt that had previously appeared in the original Super Smash Bros.. He pulls his knee to his chest and draws his sword back behind his head. Similar to Lucario's down taunt. May be loosely based on the attacking pose used by the Link from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Link twirls his sword. Similar to the twirling he makes when targeting an enemy in Twilight Princess.
• Link looks at the screen, then looks back afterwards.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Go Link! *clap x3*	Li-n-k
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Wii Remote selection sound

• Link yells, similar to his up smash.

Link's selection sound

Victory poses

This flourish is a cover of the music that played whenever Link obtained a Triforce Piece in The Legend of Zelda.

• Gives two swipes of his sword, then sheaths it.
• Horizontal swipe with his sword, then holds it up, giving off a battle cry.
• Three swipes with his sword, turns to his right. (His "character chosen" animation in Super Smash Bros.)

Up	Left	Right

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Link has among the worst matchup spreads in Brawl. He soft counters two characters Ganondorf and Zelda and is even with three, but is soft countered by seven, countered by 20, and hard countered by four. He suffers against characters who can outspeed him such as Sonic and Sheik, characters who can outcamp him such as Falco, or characters that can chaingrab him to death such as Ice Climbers and King Dedede. Overall, Link has very few advantageous matchups, and his positive matchups are rarely seen in competitive play.

Notable players

See also: Category:Link professionals (SSBB)

•  Izaw
•  KirinBlaze
•  Legan
•  Mr. R
•  Scabe
•  Scizor

Tier placement and history

Despite the considerable power buffs he received in Brawl, his amazing momentum cancelling, and being given a useable DACUS, Link has perpetually hovered among Brawl's bottom four characters since the first tier list. Link's terrible and extremely gimpable recovery has always significantly limited Link's survivability even in the early inexperienced Brawl metagame, and his very sluggish attacks and terrible mobility significantly inhibited Link's ability to effectively compete since day one. Link has had some renowned players, such as KirinBlaze and Legan in the United States, Izaw in Europe, and Scabe in Australia, but none of these players have ever achieved much beyond the local level, and they have all since dropped Link for a better character (such as Izaw dropping Link for Sheik), or stopped playing Brawl competitively altogether. As such, Link's competitive prospects have never gotten any better over the years, and while he isn't usually thought of as a candidate for worst character, it's extremely unlikely Link will ever rise beyond the bottom tier, as he perpetually competes with Jigglypuff for the 35th spot on the tier list.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Link's role begins with him walking through a forest with his fairy companion, Navi. Upon reaching the Master Sword's resting place, Link pulls the sword from its pedestal, wielding it once more. In a clearing of the forest is a napping Yoshi, who Link at first pays no mind to. However, the Halberd soon flies over the clearing, dropping Shadow Bugs which soon form into Primids. At this point, Link and Yoshi form a team and battle through the enemies while in pursuit of the Halberd, only to lose their aforementioned target as it flies far off into the distance, though they quickly continue their pursuit.

Link in the SSE

Link's next appearance plays out depending on which princess is saved earlier on in the story. If Peach was saved, Link and Yoshi do battle with a Shadowbug clone of Peach (who had recently been turned into a trophy by Bowser) after she attempted to turn an unsuspecting Mario and Pit into trophies until Link prevented the attack by slicing the Dark Cannon in half. Upon defeating the clone of Peach, Link is attacked by Mario, who witnessed the defeat of Peach's copy as it reverts into Shadowbugs and drifts away, apparently mistaking it for the real Peach. Then Link and Yoshi fight him and Pit. If Zelda is saved earlier on, then it is she who is cloned, and Mario and Pit fight the clone of her, and must then fend off an attack by Link and Yoshi, whom Link thinks Mario killed the real Zelda. After the defeat of Mario, Pit/Link and Yoshi, King Dedede arrives in a cargo, and snatches the trophies of the fallen duo with an arm attached to it. Fortunately, Kirby (who had accompanied Peach/Zelda earlier) appears and frees the two trophies, and revives them as well. Upon revival, Pit/Link fires an arrow at the incoming cargo, slowing it down a little. The five characters then form an alliance and pursue Dedede.

During their pursuit, they find Dedede's cargo (now empty) parked outside of a cave, and decide to enter it. After getting out of the cave, they find Dedede's trashed hideout, and, upon finding a hole in the wall, they decide to enter it. After they get out of the hole, they find Bowser, who Mario tries to attack until Bowser raises Peach/Zelda's trophy as a shield, forcing him to miss. Pit then fires an arrow at Bowser, which he barely dodges, before escaping in his Koopa Clown Car.

They then pursue the Ancient Minister in a desert, trying to stop him from detonating another Subspace Bomb. Mario and Link begin to approach the Minister while dodging the lasers he fires at them. Despite their best efforts, the Subspace Bomb still explodes while the heroes barely escape the blast.

Link later appears after the team makes its way to the desert, where they aid another group (consisting of Marth, Ike, the Ice Climbers, Lucas, and the Pokémon Trainer) in fighting off the Subspace Army. Later, Link and Zelda are both present when meeting Tabuu, but they are defeated by Tabuu's Offwaves. If Link and Zelda's trophy forms are retrieved after the initial attack by Tabuu, they will both be shown agreeing to revive Ganondorf (who was turned into a trophy earlier on when he tried to attack Tabuu on his own), at which point they show him where their common target is. Link helps the other heroes throughout the rest of the story.

Playable appearances

• The Forest
• The Lake Shore
• The Cave
• The Wilds (Part II)
• The Canyon
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part II))

Exclusive stickers

These stickers can only be used by Link, or a select few including him:

• Boomerang: [Weapon] Attack +4
• Colin: [Specials: Direct] Attack +4
• Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule: [Electric] Attack +31
• Darknut: [Slash] Attack +13
• Epona & Link: [Arm, Leg] Attack +9
• Fierce Deity Link: [Slash] Attack +21
• Happy Mask Salesman: [Leg] Attack +9
• Hylian Shield (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess): [Slash] Resistance +10
• Lantern: [Flame] Resistance +7
• Legend of Outset: [Arm] Attack +26
• Linebeck: [Throwing] Attack +20
• Link (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past): [Electric] Resistance +31
• Link (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess): [Slash] Resistance +27
• Link (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker): [Flame] Attack +31
• Link with Goron Mask: [Slash] Attack +17
• Link's Grandma: [Arm, Leg] Attack +2
• Lon Lon Milk: Launch Power +18
• Midna & Wolf Link: [Leg] Attack +26
• Moblin: [Slash] Attack +15
• Octorok: [Leg] Attack +4
• Piece of Heart: Heart Container Effect +50
• Salvatore: [Electric] Attack +9
• Sheik: [Body, Spin] Attack +17
• Tingle (The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker): [Flame] Resistance +24
• Young Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap): [Normal] Resistance +16
• Zant: [Weapon] Attack +7
• Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time): [Flame] Resistance +18

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars: Link is one of the opponents that must be fought in this event. All opponents are starter characters from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
• Event 18: Dark Link Duel: Link must defeat Dark Link in a 200 HP battle on Bridge of Eldin.
• Event 33: Advent of the Evil King: As Ganondorf, the player must defeat Link, Zelda, and Pit on Temple.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 7: Battle of the Dark Sides: Link and Samus must defeat Dark Link and Dark Samus in a 200 HP battle on Bridge of Eldin.
• Co-Op Event 13: Blades of the Quick and Mighty: Marth and Ike must defeat Link, Meta Knight, and Ganondorf on Temple.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies

Link's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Link.

Trophy descriptions

Link

A young man who emerged to rescue Hyrule from peril. He's the bearer of the Triforce of Courage who fights to keep Ganondorf from conquering the world. His green outfit is a constant throughout the series. He's a skilled swordsman, horseman, and archer. He's also proficient with bombs and boomerangs.

: The Legend of Zelda

: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Triforce Slash (Link)

Link with a Smash Ball, releasing his ultimate attack. Light flares from the Triforce symbol on the back of his hand and rushes out to meet the enemy he faces. The enemy gets trapped within the glittering Triforce, is quickly cut to shreds, and is launched by the last strike. The attack works on one enemy at a time, so it's best to go after the character in first place.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• 

  Classic Mode trophy

• 

  Triforce Slash trophy

Alternate costumes

Link's alternate costumes in Brawl

Origin

Even though he is the Link from Twilight Princess, he has received a few tweaks to his design for Brawl. The first is that he has blond hair in Brawl, while it appears to be dirty blond or light brown in Twilight Princess. His face is also slightly more slender and sharper, with smaller eyes and a fiercer expression, possibly hinting that this is a slightly older version of the Link in Twilight Princess. This is also supported by the fact that the Master Sword is a lot smaller compared to him than it was in Twilight Princess, although it could also be simply be that the sword has been scaled down like his bombs. One curious addition is that a fairy appears alongside Link as he pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal when he is introduced in the Subspace Emissary. It also appears in his side taunt, in which Link takes it out of his pocket and lets it fly round him once before putting it back. This fairy could be Navi, the fairy from Ocarina of Time who aided the Link of that game by giving him hints while flying around him. Although Navi never appeared in Twilight Princess, a fairy is used as the pointer in the Wii version of the game when the Wii Remote is pointed at the screen. Theories regarding Link's design mention that it is either the result of a merging of several Links, or that he is a general Link that represents the Zelda universe in Brawl.

Trivia

• Link, Pit, Ice Climbers, and Toon Link are the only characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl who are left-handed.
• Link uses battering items such as the Beam Sword and Lip's Stick with his right hand in order to wield his sword with his left. This prevents him from using his shield when holding items.

External links

• Link's page at Smash Bros. Dojo!!.
• Link Character Guide on SmashBoards
• Link's hitbox size of each of his moves
• Link's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice (part 1) (part 2)