By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Random? Not random? Let's see. Either way, marvel at me!
As much as I would've liked it, the idea that you could use amiibo to instantly unlock characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was FAKE NEWS.
Therefore, you're going to have to unlock over 60 characters legitimately through fighting them, since you begin with only Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Kirby, Link, Pikachu, Fox, and Samus. I know that my mains aren't in that batch of characters, so unlocking is very necessary for me. But how are characters unlocked in this game? It appears by completing VS. Mode matches, Classic Mode outings, playing the Spirit Board... basically doing anything where you pick one character from the selection menu and do one fight. (But not online play, or something like Squad Strike.)
From what the staff has shared amongst one another, and from what I've been reading from others, the process first appeared to be semi-random but people came up with a flowchart I haven't looked at since it makes me feel bad for writing this as content. I figure it would at least be somewhat educational and informative (and hopefully interesting) if I document my unlock order for you, and under what circumstances.
You can note the date I unlock things, and you can figure out which characters I used in my first weekend against the other staffers.
Unlocks with pictures are characters I'll play as. As of July 21, fixed incompetent list item HTML to make the list render correctly.
- Ness
- VS. Mode
- Played with Donkey Kong
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Zelda
- VS. Mode
- Played with Kirby
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Jigglypuff
- Classic Mode (9.8 difficulty)
- Played with Kirby
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Bowser
- VS. Mode
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Pit
- VS. Mode
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Inkling
- VS. Mode
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Pokémon Trainer
- Classic Mode (8.9 difficulty)
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try; they started with Squirtle
- December 9
- PAC-MAN
- Classic Mode (9.8 difficulty)
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Villager
- VS. Mode
- Played with Pokémon Trainer
- Won on first try
- December 9
- Young Link
- Century Smash
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try (both Young Link and Century Smash)
- December 9
- Wii Fit Trainer
- VS. Mode
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 11
- Ice Climbers
- Century Smash on Great Plateau
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try, and in half of the five minutes the Challenge wanted
- December 11
- Rosalina & Luma
- Classic Mode (8.4 difficulty)
- Played with Pokémon Trainer
- Won on first try
- December 11
- Simon Belmont
- Classic Mode (8.6 difficulty); Challengers Approach
- Played with Ice Climbers; played with Bowser
- Lost on first try, won on my second
- Both attempts December 11
- Captain Falcon
- VS. Mode
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try
- December 11
- Peach
- VS. Mode
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try
- December 12
- Ryu
- VS. Mode
- Played with Zelda
- Won on first try
- December 12
- Ike
- VS. Mode
- Played with Ryu
- Won on first try, after my Ryu lost horribly to the VS. Mode Captain Falcon I was playing. Apparently challengers still approach even if you don't win in a fight. Ironically, Ryu didn't take any damage while beating Ike.
- December 12
- King K. Rool
- VS. Mode
- Played with Ike
- Won on first try
- December 14; this is the first character unlock after version 1.2.0 release, which reportedly affected the difficulty of Challenger Approaching matches without specifying how or in which direction
- Sonic
- VS. Mode
- Played with Ike
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Luigi
- Classic Mode (7.3 difficulty); Challengers Approach
- Played with Ike, then with Bowser
- Lost on first try because Ike's recovery sucks; won on second try because Luigi's recovery sucks
- December 14
- Zero Suit Samus
- VS. Mode
- Played with Ike
- Won on first try; she literally down-aired through the breakable terrain on Brinstar to her death first thing
- December 14
- Little Mac
- VS. Mode
- Played with Ike
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Isabelle
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try, after my Little Mac lost to the VS. Mode Luigi I was playing. (He can only Side-B in the air once; if he gets hit out of it he can't do it again.)
- December 14
- Shulk
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Lucina
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Wario
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Roy
- Classic Mode (9.9 difficulty... had to use 3 Classic Tickets on the final boss though)
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Lucario
- VS. Mode
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 14
- Ridley
- VS. Mode
- Played with Bowser, and then Little Mac
- Lost on first try and I don't want to talk about it, but it was before I got Lucario. Then won on second try with Little Mac, never trying to do platforming.
- December 14
- Daisy
- VS. Mode
- Played with Lucario
- Won on first try
- December 15
- King Dedede
- VS. Mode
- Played with Lucario
- Won on first try
- December 15
- Falco
- VS. Mode
- Played with Lucario
- Won on first try
- December 15
- R.O.B.
- VS. Mode; Challengers Approach
- Played with Lucario and then Jigglypuff
- Lost on first try because I Extreme Speeded in a loop instead of angled properly because it works differently than the previous game; won on second try easily
- December 15–16; first try was before Falco
- Pichu
- VS. Mode; Challengers Approach
- Played with Bowser and then Lucario
- Lost first try. I was playing while I was writing this comment to ShinyGirafarig about how crappy the Challenger Approaching AI is (in an “it's easy” way), and then immediately after that comment, I get a Challenger Approaching and it's Pichu and it absolutely demolished Bowser. Lucario, however, had a much easier time and Pichu was definitely easier and far less aggressive than vs. Bowser.
- December 16
- Richter
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 16
- Lucas
- VS. Mode
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 16
- Ganondorf
- Classic Mode (9.8 difficulty)
- Played with Lucario
- Won on first try
- December 16
- Diddy Kong
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 17
- Meta Knight
- VS. Mode
- Played with Lucario, then Little Mac
- Lost on first try... it was Subspace Emissary all over again with Lucario vs. Meta Knight. I lost since Extreme Speed went, like, through the ledge and just kept going and Lucario fainted. Yikes. Little Mac was just fine though.
- December 17
- Snake
- VS. Mode
- Played with Pokémon Trainer
- Won on first try
- December 18
- Corrin
- VS. Mode
- Played with Pokémon Trainer
- Won on first try (with Charizard, without taking damage)
- December 18
- Mega Man
- VS. Mode
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 18
- Sheik
- Classic Mode (8.1 difficulty)
- Played with Donkey Kong
- Won on first try
- December 19
- Greninja
- Classic Mode (9.2 difficulty)
- Played with King Dedede
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Bayonetta
- VS. Mode
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Toon Link
- VS. Mode
- Played with Mega Man
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Olimar
- Spirit Board (vs. Chun-Li)
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Dark Samus
- Spirit Board (vs. Mr. Sandman)
- Played with Bowser... lost against Mr. Sandman though
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Incineroar
- VS. Mode
- Played with Toon Link, then Pokémon Trainer
- Lost with Toon Link, easily won with Ivysaur
- December 20... first match right after Toon Link
- Wolf
- Spirit Board (vs. Waluigi)
- Played with Ike
- Won on first try (Wolf... got destroyed by Waluigi)
- December 20
- Mr. Game & Watch
- Spirit Board (vs. Milly)
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Robin
- Spirit Board (vs. Salsa)
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try
- December 20
- Dark Pit
- After playing World of Light
- Played with Lucario
- Won on first try
- December 21
- Cloud
- VS. Mode
- Played with Jigglypuff
- Won on first try
- December 21
- Duck Hunt
- VS. Mode
- Played with Cloud
- Won on first try
- December 21
- Dr. Mario
- Classic Mode (8.6 difficulty)
- Played with Cloud
- Won on first try... I didn't do damage to him. He just failed to get on the New Donk platform on time.
- December 21
- Ken
- Spirit Board (vs. Octoling Boy & Girl)
- Played with Bowser
- Won on first try.
- December 21
- Chrom
- Spirit Board (vs. Magneton)
- Played with Ike
- Won on first try. Amazing that we go from three annoying PAC-MAN to gross Chrom all in one go. The worst characters!)
- December 21
- Bowser Jr.
- Spirit Board (vs. Flash Man)
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try.
- December 21
- Palutena
- Spirit Board (vs. Dialga)
- Played with Little Mac
- Won on first try.
- December 21
- Mewtwo
- Spirit Board (vs. Nino); Challengers Approach
- Played with Bowser, then Cloud
- Lost vs. Mewtwo with Bowser?! Then won with Cloud.
- The first time was December 21, after Chrom and before Bowser Jr. The second time, of course, was the very last character.
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| Jigglypuff Joins the Battle! |
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| Bowser Joins the Battle! |
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| Pokémon Trainer Joins the Battle! |
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| Ike Joins the Battle! |
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| Little Mac Joins the Battle! |
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| Lucario Joins the Battle! |
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| Cloud Joins the Battle! |
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| Bowser Jr. Joins the Battle! (Should be Ludwig.) |
Ludwig figures no one is going to be reading KoopaTV on Christmas, so he's publishing this to fill the space. He obviously unlocked himself quite late, since he was satisfied with Bowser and Jigglypuff... and he's not very good as a character. More on that in a future article. Unlocking things was fun! Also, Miis don't count as characters.
Well I am reading this. Also I found this:
ReplyDeletePAC-MAN
"Classic Mode (9.8 difficulty)
Played with Jigglypuff
Won on first try; they started with Squirtle
December 9"
In case you might miss it with your usual quick edit right after publishing after writing such a long list.
...
DeleteYeah you caught me copy-pasting. :x