Releasing at the end of 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is well on its way to being two years old at this point. While the second fighters pass has been slow-going thanks to the ever-present pandemic, Ultimate‘s competitive community continues to thrive in a troublesome online atmosphere. Online tournaments, hosted by various tournament organizers and content creators alike, are keeping the scene alive.
Note: This Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tier list is taking into consideration both online and offline results, both pre and post-social distancing, along with information and results from after the 8.0 Min Min patch. Meta changes as a result of most tournaments being online won’t be a non-factor, but they also won’t dramatically affect these rankings. Characters within each tier are put in a loose order, but the tiers themselves are the true separation. As of Patch 8.1.0, here’s the ranking of every character currently in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Top tier is the best of the best in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. These are the usual suspects, the tournament winners, and just in general the characters who’ve been at the top of the game since launch and/or when their character was released. Funnily enough, this is the tier that’s generally remained the most consistent, outside of a few outliers like Pichu’s and Olimar’s nerfs from 3.1.0.
S-Tier includes
- Pikachu
- Joker
- Palutena
- Peach/Daisy
- Mr. Game & Watch
- Wario
High tier has also remained relatively consistent, with a few characters ebbing and flowing between tiers as the meta evolved. Characters like Pokémon Trainer and Roy, among several others, shifted between this tier and B-Tier as the meta changed and different characters were picked up/dropped. This particular tier has had minimal impact from balances patches; The only major changes were Snake’s up-smash nerf bringing his character down, along with Diddy Kong’s buffs in 8.0.0 bringing him back up.
A-Tier includes
- Mario
- Zero Suit Samus
- R.O.B.
- Snake
- Pokemon Trainer
- Diddy Kong
- Lucina
- Roy
- Chrom
- Wolf
- Fox
- Shulk
The various mid-tier characters are where things get a little tricky in terms of ranking. B-Tier characters are filled 50-50 between characters who just barely aren’t good enough to be high tier, along with characters who aren’t bad enough to be considered the lower end of mid-tier. This particular tier has the highest amount of fluctuation with patches/balance changes. Additionally, Pro players experiment with additional characters often, and in some cases push the character meta forward like MkLeo with Marth/Byleth.
B-Tier includes
- Young Link
- Falco
- Inkling
- Ike
- Mega Man
- Cloud
- Luigi
- Ness
- Captain Falcon
- Olimar
- Yoshi
- Greninja
- Sonic
- Marth
- Byleth
- Pac-Man
- Sheik
- Wii Fit Trainer
Low mid-tier doesn’t typically see a lot of movement, meta-wise. Occasionally, characters in this tier get some pretty sizable wins and tournament runs, but their consistency after their few weeks/months of popularity usually dips down considerably. There are also characters that place middlingly well at tournaments, but can never seem to crack the top 8 consistently. The shoto characters like Ryu and Ken are prime examples of this, with incredible tools but only middling results overall. Granted Ken has done particularly well in online tournaments recently, but that wasn’t the same story pre-pandemic. Hero was also in a similar situation, with some regions even considering banning Hero before they inevitably fell off in the competitive meta.
C-Tier includes
- Min Min
- Corrin
- Bayonetta
- Hero
- Bowser
- Pit/Dark Pit
- Terry
- Ken
- Samus/Dark Samus
- Link
- Ryu
- Ridley
Some fluctuation occurs in low tier, but typically these characters remain pretty stagnant. This is the tier filled with characters who have some unique characteristics that can lead to niche wins, but don’t typically perform well on a national level for tournaments like EVO. Some of these characters have had some good tournament performances like Rosalina & Luma, but they’ve been few and far between. The only unfortunate inclusion here is Pichu, who of all the characters in Ultimate, has become a shadow of their former selves.
D-Tier includes
- King K. Rool
- Donkey Kong
- Pichu
- Jigglypuff
- Kirby
- Mewtwo
- Zelda
- Rosalina & Luma
- Meta Knight
- Toon Link
- Banjo & Kazooie
- Ice Climbers
- Ganondorf
- Incineroar
- Robin
- Villager
- Lucas
- Lucario
- Simon/Richter
- Mii Swordfighter
- Mii Brawler
As for the last tier, characters in bottom tier just don’t have enough to compete on a viable level. Either the character’s tools are overshadowed by another character with a similar archetype or their tools are outplayed and outpaced by too many other characters. That’s not to say they aren’t fun, and there are certainly plenty of character specialists out there who main these characters competitively, but they’re inherently difficult to play at top level.
F-Tier includes
- Piranha Plant
- King Dedede
- Duck Hunt
- Little Mac
- Bowser Jr.
- Mii Gunner
- Doctor Mario
- Isabelle
There will undoubtedly be several tier choices up to interpretation here, not to mention the order isn’t exactly stringent within each tier, but overall this is a solid representation of the current character meta in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now, in all fairness, this doesn’t necessarily represent the online-only meta.
There are plenty of characters like Samus and Sonic who are much harder to react to with input delay and buffer when playing online. The middle tiers will likely shift and change a lot with the next patch, but low tiers could get miracle balance changes as well, so only time will tell where the meta of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will go next.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now for Nintendo Switch.
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