Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has unleashed a real madness, but with over 72 fighters to choose from it can be a bit tricky to decide which character is the best fit for you.
We’ve taken it upon ourselves to do the hard work separating each character by playstyle, and we’ve created a Super Smash Bros Ultimate tier list to help you get started with competitive play that includes Byleth, the latest addition.
In this page:
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate Tier List
- How did we compile our Super Smash Bros Ultimate tier list?
- Are Piranha Plant, Joker, Dragon Quest Hero, Banjo & Kazooie and Terry Bogard good in our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier?
- Best Super Smash Bros Ultimate melee fighters
- Best sword fighters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate
- Best ranged fighters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate
One of the first things you should keep in mind is the general play style of each character. We have divided them into three categories, melee, sword and ranged. Keep in mind, however, that some characters (like Link and all his variants) do not generally fit this mold.
When you have decided which character to play with, you will have to unlock him, and for that we have prepared a guide to unlock all the characters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate that will be quite useful.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate Tier List
We’ve tried to sort the current Super Smash Bros Ultimate roster of fighters into a single list based on their strengths, weaknesses, attack options, recoveries, and overall attack power.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate Tier List (Last Updated: November 12, 2019)
| Smash Bros. Tier | Fighters |
| Top | Lucina, Peach, Daisy, Pikachu, Pichu, ROB, Hero, Chrom, Ridley, Inkling, Snake, Ryu, Toon Link, Young Link |
| Powerful | Roy, Marth, Olimar, Mega Man, Yoshi, Mewtwo, Fox, Cloud, Bayonetta, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Canela, Villager, Ken, Link, Simon, Richter, Wii Fit Trainer, Shulk, King K. Rool, Lucario, Joker, Corrin, Lucas, Incineroar, Robin, Terry |
| good ones | Ike, Pit, Dark Pit, Samus, Dark Samus, Falco, Wolf, Ness, Palutena, Pokemon Trainer, Rosalina & Luma, Sonic, Zero Suit Samus, Zelda, Greninja, Mr Game and Watch, Mii Fighter, Wario, Jigglypuff |
| Media | Banjo & Kazooie, Bowser Jr., Byleth, Diddy Kong, Duck Hunt Duo, Ice Climbers, King Dedede, Mario, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Meta Knight, Pac-Man, Piranha Plant, Sheik, Captain Falcon, Kirby |
| Weak | Ganondorf, Little Mac |
Between new characters and patches, this is how the Super Smash Bros. Tier List has changed with the arrival of Byleth:
- Byleth (NEW – Medium)
- Toon Link (From strong to best)
- Young Link (From strong to better)
- Ryu (From strong to better)
Super Smash Bros Ultimate Tier List (Characters in alphabetical order)
| Smash Bros. character | Tier |
| Villager | Strong |
| Banjo & Kazooie | Medium |
| Bayonetta | Strong |
| Bowser | Strong |
| Bowser Jr. | Medium |
| Byleth | Medium |
| Cinnamon | Strong |
| Captain falcon | Medium |
| Chrom | Best |
| Cloud | Strong |
| Corrin | Strong |
| Daisy | Best |
| Diddy kong | Medium |
| Donkey kong | Strong |
| Dr Mario | Medium |
| Duck Hunt Duo | Medium |
| Pokemon Trainer | Okay |
| Wii Fit Trainer | Strong |
| Swordsman Mii | Okay |
| Falco | Okay |
| Fox | Strong |
| Ganondorf | Weak |
| Greninja | Okay |
| Hero | Best |
| Ice climbers | Medium |
| Ike | Okay |
| Incineroar | Strong |
| Inkling | Best |
| Jigglypuff | Okay |
| Joker | Strong |
| Ken | Strong |
| King dedede | Medium |
| King K. Rool | Strong |
| Kirby | Medium |
| Link | Strong |
| Young Link | Best |
| Little mac | Weak |
| Lucario | Strong |
| Luke | Strong |
| Mii fighter | Okay |
| Lucina | Best |
| Luigi | Medium |
| Mario | Medium |
| Marth | Strong |
| Megaman | Strong |
| Meta Knight | Medium |
| Mewtwo | Strong |
| Mr Game and Watch | Okay |
| Ness | Okay |
| Olimar | Strong |
| Pac-man | Medium |
| Palutena | Okay |
| Peach | Best |
| Piranha Plant | Okay |
| Pichu | Best |
| Pikachu | Best |
| Mii Gunman | Okay |
| Pit | Okay |
| Dark Pit | Okay |
| ROB | Best |
| Richter | Strong |
| Ridley | Best |
| Robin | Strong |
| Estela and Luma | Okay |
| Roy | Strong |
| Ryu | Best |
| Samus | Okay |
| Dark Samus | Okay |
| Sheik | Medium |
| Shulk | Strong |
| Simon | Strong |
| Snake | Best |
| Sonic | Okay |
| Terry | Strong |
| Toon Link | Best |
| Wario | Okay |
| Wolf | Okay |
| Yoshi | Strong |
| Zelda | Okay |
| Zero Suit Samus | Okay |
How did we compile our Super Smash Bros Ultimate tier list?
Super Smash Bros Ultimate patch 7.0 not only adds Byleth, but several changes to the balance of different characters. There’s an increased shield size on weak characters, and some notable debuffs and buffs that help to understand how the roster has changed since 6.0.
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Starting with Joker, who was introduced as an incredibly strong character who debuted at the top of the list and has since gone from Best to Strong. This latest patch is even more debuff.
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Arsene’s summon now lasts less when you take damage in battle from two or fewer enemies. That makes it slightly less powerful, especially in a competitive context. On top of that, Joker’s down special has also received a debuff, making it harder to land those finishing blows on a player who may be trying to recover and get back on stage.
In the end, while these debuffs are significant, we believe that Joker is still a good competitive fighter and we haven’t moved him from the “strong” tier of the list, especially considering that Arsene is still a fairly bital component of your arsenal.
Palutena, one of the game’s most difficult characters to handle, has also received a debuff. Although in a competitive context knowing how to handle Palutena can be deadly, knowledge of his attacks and range keep him in the ‘Good’ portion of the list.
Patch 7.0 includes an increased distance of his down cast, making it more difficult to continue with a combo.
In addition to that, his neutral air has also reduced his effectiveness, so his attack is less powerful on enemies with low percentages. That doesn’t mean he didn’t get increases to his hard up and smash down. However, we have not moved her from her current position on the list.
On the flip side of the coin, Toon Link and Young Link receive the biggest buffs we’ve seen in a patch so far. Link is young when it comes to throwing distance, and his airborne grip now lasts a bit longer, and he has bonus damage. Toon Link has received a similar buff, increasing his speed for Back Air Attack and Down Air Attack.
That in addition to having increased the throw distance on his down smash, which is significant. That is the reason why both have gone from Strong to Best. Both Links have many options, are easy to get started, and are very strong.
Street Fighter’s Ryu has also received notable buffs that achieve a tier change, with more attacks that have increased in power and more invincibility frames in his side special.
In this way, Ryu has gone from the Strong tier to the Best.
Are Piranha Plant, Joker, Dragon Quest Hero, Banjo & Kazooie and Terry Bogard good in our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier?
With the addition of new characters a new dimension has been added to consider in this list. Starting with Piranha Plant , his range of movements and attacks make him a powerful character, but he doesn’t give you the same amount of options as others like Joker.
Joker is incredibly versatile, with fantastic close combat and ranged combat, as well as dynamic recovery. Above, when you fill his bar and unleash his person, Joker becomes a master of zone control. You can keep your enemies at bay if you want, but you can also directly face some of the best fighters in the game, which is why we have put it in the category of Strong. After update 4.0, the way Arsene reacts to projectiles has caused his tier to be lowered slightly.
However, it is worth remembering that the 2019 EVO winner used Joker, so you should never rely solely on tiers.
Update 4.0 brought the Hero of Dragon Quest with it in different cosmetic incarnations. And huff, it’s very strong. Being a sword fighter, the Hero has a magic bar with a menu of abilities that allows him to use special attacks that usually do a huge amount of damage, including improvements to the character’s movement and speed.
Additionally, you can block projectiles with a forward tilt, and their special attacks consume quite a bit of MP. By fully charging your side special, you can almost certainly knock the enemy off stage. It has very strong normals, tilts and smashes, as well as an ability with the potential to perform an instant KO.
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We have seen the Forbidden Hero in some tournaments, to give you an idea of how strong he is.
The fourth character, Banjo & Kazooie , is interesting for having a fairly wide range of attacks.
Banjo & Kazooie’s normal attacks and tilts may seem a bit clumsy, and in fact he is not a great character at close range, but with Banjo & Kazooie what interests you is to use his grabs and side specials to perform a lot of hurt.
If your opponent is far away, you can also use your side special, which throws eggs at the enemy. The Banjo & Kazooie trick is that your side special is so strong that you have a limited number of uses in feather form, so use the move carefully.
Banjo & Kazooie is a very situation dependent character, and not an all-time character at all despite his large number of attacks, so we’ve placed him in the middle character section of our tier.
The arrival of update 6.0 brings with it Terry Bogard , a legend of the genre who has appeared in games like Fatal Fury or Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
This more technical fighter is not suitable for players who cannot quickly execute fighting game moves. If you know how to perform Super and special moves in games like Street Fighter you shouldn’t have any problems.
In any case, you have the training room to practice.
Terry has a ton of special moves, and with the right keystrokes you can master them all. Pressing B performs a Power Wave, a low-range projectile that moves across the ground, a quarter circle forward, and B or A will perform a Burn Knuckle, a horizontal punch that covers a decent distance.
Back, down-back and down will allow you to perform Crack Shoot, a high kick that is very good to get closer distances and will help you mark your zone.
Power Dunk is forward, down, and down-forward. It will launch your enemies into the air and return them to the ground with another blow, increasing the percentage of the opponent in a considerable way.
Terry’s final special, Rising Tackle, didn’t seem particularly helpful to us. It is an attack that launches you upwards and does not do much damage.
Just with these movements it might seem that Terry is not very strong and it may seem difficult to approach the fighters from a distance, but the truth is that Terry’s large amount of aerial allows him to be an excellent fighter off stage.
The reason we have moved Terry from Good to Strong in our list of Tiers, the most interesting part of the character, is the list of special moves that he achieves when he takes 100% damage and a ‘Go’ appears next to the portrait of your character.
Power Geyser runs with down, down-back, back, down-back, forward, and A or B; will cause Terry to perform a quick hit on the ground that can kill with relatively low percentages and throw your opponents into the air.
