Super Smash Bros Ultimate: Unlock all characters – here’s how

Seldom has there been a more apt video game title than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The current Nintendo flogger has really earned the superlative appendage with its sheer exuberant size. More than 70 fighters waiting here to let their fists fly. However, at the beginning only a fraction of the entire squad is available to you – if you unlock all characters you have to bring some meat with you.

But in pretty much every other way too, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a scale monster. So you can give yourself a beating in more than 100 arenas, each stage of course in an omega and battlefield version. In addition, the developers have implemented a number of pieces of music and let you collect almost innumerable ghosts. In this respect, this is a very impressive package that Nintendo has put together.

The real highlights are, of course, still the ones Characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Not only can you choose from every fighter who has ever set foot in a smash arena. In addition, you can choose from all the whipping boys who were previously hidden behind a DLC payment barrier (did someone say “Bayonetta” and “Cloud”?). And as if that weren’t enough, Nintendo has already announced that it will submit more fighters as DLC.

With this extent, you can quickly lose track of things. Therefore, in this guide you will not only learn which iconic characters make up the selection, but also how you can unlock all fighters.

Do you want to unlock all characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Then hopefully you have planned a couple of hours.

All fighters as a list at a glance – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Before we get your mouth watered with the full character selection, here is an overview of the very manageable fighters that are already available at the start of the game (small spoiler: It is the start selection of the first Smash game on the Nintendo 64): Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox and Pikachu.

That’s right, you have to unlock all of the remaining 68 whipping boys. Fortunately, there are several ways you can do this – and most of them are extremely quick. Essentially, you have three different approaches to do this:

Play Star of the Wandering Lights story mode
This mode is crammed full of unlockable characters anyway. You are forced to start with Kirby and also to free the seven remaining fighters who are actually available at the start of the game. But you always know exactly when you unlock which fighter – with the two following variants this always happens randomly.
Complete Classic mode
After each successful pass, you will be rewarded with a random challenger.
A new random challenger challenges you every ten minutes of gameplay
Indeed: it is enough to spend ten minutes in any mode. If you then leave this, there is another fighter on the doorstep.

The good news: You can combine all of these methods to make particularly rapid progress. We advise you to play the “Star of Wandering Lights” mode and leave it every ten minutes. In this way you can unlock many new fighters in a short time.

If you lose a fight against a challenger, that’s not a problem, by the way. In this case, a small menu item appears that lets you start the fight again.

If you are not averse to a little cheating, there is another very crucial trick that speeds up the unlocking of the characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate significantly. The basic idea behind this is as follows: The ten-minute timer mentioned above, which determines the appearance of a new challenger, is not immediately reset as soon as another fighter appears. You can take advantage of this fact (as long as Nintendo doesn’t fix it with a patch). Proceed as follows:

Use one of the variants described above to trigger an encounter with a challenger and win the fight.

As soon as you see the “character join the fight” notice, press the home button on your controller and exit the game

Now restart Smash Bros. Go into Smash Mode, set rules for a “One Stick / Life” match and choose one of your favorite fighters. As soon as the fight starts, you jump into the abyss and lose the match on purpose.

Since the ten-minute timer has not yet been correctly reset, another challenger appears. Defeat him and he will be yours.

As soon as the “character joins the fight” message appears again, you can repeat the game – as often as you want.

This should enable you to unlock all characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in less than three hours.

But now Tacheles: These are all fighters that you can unlock.

No.	character	First appearance	Series of games
01	Mario	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Super mario games
02	Donkey Kong	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Donkey Kong (Country)
03	link	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	The Legend of Zelda
04	Samus Aran	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Metroid
04ᵋ	Dark Samus	Newcomer	Metroid
05	Yoshi	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Yoshi games
06	Kirby	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Kirby games
07	Fox	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Star Fox (Lylat Wars)
08	Pikachu	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Pokémon
09	Luigi	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Mario games, Luigi’s Mansion
10	Ness	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Mother (earthbound)
11	Captain Falcon	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	F-Zero
12th	Jigglypuff	Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64, 1999	Pokémon
13th	Peach	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Mario games
13ᵋ	Daisy	Newcomer	Mario games
14th	Bowser	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Mario games
15th	Ice climbers	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Ice climbers
16	Sheik	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	The Legend of Zelda
17th	Zelda	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	The Legend of Zelda
18th	Dr. Mario	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Dr. Mario
19th	Pichu	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Pokémon
20th	Falco	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Star Fox (Lylat Wars)
21	Marth	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Fire emblem
21ᵋ	Lucina	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Fire emblem
22nd	Young link	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	The Legend of Zelda
23	Ganondorf	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	The Legend of Zelda
24	Mewtwo	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Pokémon
25th	Roy	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Fire emblem
25ᵋ	chrome	Newcomer	Fire emblem
26th	Mr. Game and Watch	Super Smash Bros. Melee Gamecube, 2002	Game-and-watch handhelds
27	Meta Knight	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Kirby games
28	Pit	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Kid Icarus
28ᵋ	Dark pit	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Kid Icarus
29	Zero Suit Samus	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Metroid
30th	Wario	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Mario and Wario games
31	Solid snake	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Metal Gear Solid
32	Ike	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Fire emblem
33-35	Pokémon trainer	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Pokémon
36	Diddy Kong	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Donkey Kong Country
37	Lucas	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Mother (earthbound)
38	Sonic	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Sonic games
39	King Dedede	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Kirby games
40	Olimar	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Pikmin
41	Lucario	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Pokémon
42	ROB	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Hardware accessories for the NES
43	Toon link	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	The Legend of Zelda
44	wolf	Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii, 2008	Star Fox (Lylat Wars)
45	Residents	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Animal Crossing
46	Mega Man	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Mega Man
47	Wii Fit Trainer	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Wii Fit
48	Rosalina	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Super Mario Galaxy
49	Little Mac	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Punch out
50	Quajutsu	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Pokémon
51-53	Wii fighter	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Wii console
54	Palutena	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Kid Icarus
55	Pac-Man	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Pac-Man
56	Robin	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Fire emblem
57	Shulk	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Xenoblade Chronicles
58	Bowser Jr.	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Mario games
59	Duck hunt duo	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Duck Hunt
60	Ryu	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Street Fighter
60ᵋ	Ken	Newcomer	Street Fighter
61	Cloud Strife	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Final Fantasy 7
62	Corrin	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Fire emblem
63	Bayonetta	Super Smash Bros. 3DS / Wii U 2014	Bayonetta
64	Incl	Newcomer	splatoon
65	Ridley	Newcomer	Metroid
66	Simon Belmont	Newcomer	Castlevania
66ᵋ	Judge	Newcomer	Castlevania
67	King K. Rool	Newcomer	Donkey Kong
68	Melinda	Newcomer	Animal Crossing
69	Fuegro	Newcomer	Pokémon
70	Piranha plant	Newcomer	Super mario games

Who or what are Echo fighters?

The so-called echo fighters represent counterparts of existing characters that differ only slightly from their respective models. While their looks differ significantly from the original, their capabilities only vary in nuances. This means that the characters, recognizable by an epsilon next to their name, line up somewhere between alternative skins and independent characters.

The following Echo characters are available in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:

Lucina (based on: Marth)
Dark Pit (based on: Pit)
Daisy (based on: Peach)
Dark Samus (based on: Samus)
Chrome (based on: Roy)
Judge (based on: Simon Belmont)
Ken (based on: Ryu)

While Lucina and Finsterer Pit appeared in earlier series parts, all other Echo versions can be selected for the first time in the Switch offshoot.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC: will there be new characters for download?

It will be – and just in time for the launch of the beater, Nintendo also announced the first and surprisingly unusual DLC fighter: Joker, the protagonist of the JRPG Persona 5. Chief developer Sakurai previously confirmed at the final Smash Direct conference that DLC characters are firmly planned. Even more: it is even possible to pre-order the season pass for the game. For around 25 euros you get a total of five packages, each consisting of a character, an arena and a few songs. You can also simply buy these bundles individually for around six euros each.

The distribution of the piranha plant is particularly unusual. These are only given to early buyers who register their game with the My Nintendo service by January 31, 2019. The fighter itself, however, should only be published afterwards, sometime in February.