How to Unlock Every Character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch really is the ultimate Super Smash Bros. experience. This latest iteration of the Super Smash Bros. series features every character who has ever appeared in the Smash series, plus plenty of new challengers, making for a total of 74 characters available in the game at launch. There will also be several more new characters released as paid DLC later on, bringing the total to 77.

When you first start up the game, only the original 8 unlocked characters who appeared in the original Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64 will be available. These characters include Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. There are several different ways to unlock this massive roster of characters. The main ways to unlock the unlockable characters are by playing Vs. mode, Classic mode, and the World of Light mode. There will also be several DLC characters available to purchase in the future.

The first way to unlock all of the characters is to simply play Vs. mode until everyone is unlocked. As you play Vs. mode, new characters will appear after a match to fight. If you are playing with multiple people, whoever won the match will face off against the new challenger. If you win the match, the new fighter will join your roster.

If you lose this match, you will be able to fight the character again later on for another chance at unlocking them. After a while, an icon that looks like a door will appear in the “Games and More” menu. Click on this option when it appears to challenge the unlockable characters that defeated you the first time. If you lose again, they will keep appearing here after a while until you are able to defeat them. If you have more than one character that you lost to, you will have to rematch them in the order they first appeared to you.

Contrary to early reports, new challengers appear to be triggered by player input, not by other factors like play time, distance traveled, KOs, or damage dealt. Player input can be accumulated by playing any mode to count toward Vs. mode character unlocks. According to IGN, the game does appear to make players wait a certain amount of time between unlocks, probably about 5-10 minutes, but as long as you had enough player input accumulated, you will get a new challenger within this amount of time. It also appears that, as long as you have enough input accumulated, you can also get a new challenger by exiting the game, restarting it, and playing one Vs. match, even if it hasn’t been long enough since your last challenger.

Also contrary to early reports, there does appear to be a specific order in which you unlock characters via Vs. mode. If you don’t unlock characters via the other methods, you will unlock the characters in the following order by playing only Vs. mode:

Vs. Mode Character Unlock Order

1. Ness
2. Zelda
3. Bowser
4. Pit
5. Inkling
6. Villager
7. Marth
8. Young Link
9. Wii Fit Trainer
10. Ice Climbers
11. Captain Falcon
12. Peach
13. Ryu
14. Ike
15. Jigglypuff
16. King K. Rool
17. Sonic
18. Simon
19. Zero Suit Samus
20. Little Mac
21. Isabelle
22. Shulk
23. Lucina
24. Wario
25. Ridley
26. Pokemon Trainer
27. Lucario
28. Daisy
29. Roy
30. King Dedede
31. R.O.B.
32. Falco
33. Luigi
34. Pichu
35. Richter
36. Lucas
37. Diddy Kong
38. Meta Knight
39. Snake
40. Ganondorf
41. Corrin
42. Mega Man
43. Bayonetta
44. Toon Link
45. Rosalina & Luma
46. Incineroar
47. Sheik
48. Olimar
49. PAC-MAN
50. Dark Samus
51. Wolf
52. Mr. Game & Watch
53. Robin
54. Dark Pit
55. Cloud
56. Duck Hunt
57. Ken
58. Greninja
59. Chrom
60. Mewtwo
61. Bowser Jr.
62. Dr. Mario
63. Palutena

Another way to unlock characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is by playing Classic mode with different characters. Each time you beat Classic mode, you will be greeted by a new challenger that can be unlocked. These matches with new challengers work the same way as the ones unlocked by Vs. mode.

It appears that the characters that you use to beat Classic mode determine which character will be unlocked after beating this mode. Each starting character begins unlocking new characters in a specific order. Characters in these unlock groups can be used to further unlock the next character in the unlock group. For example, I first beat classic mode with Samus and unlocked Inkling. Next, I played Classic mode again with my new Inkling, and unlocked Wii Fit Trainer. The next character in this group, Pit, could be unlocked using Samus, Inkling, or Wii Fit Trainer to beat classic mode.

The third way to unlock characters is in the World of Light mode, an RPG-inspired story mode that is new to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In this mode, you start out with Kirby and unlock more characters as you go. The new characters you unlock in this mode will appear in your roster for other modes, but not vice-versa.

When you first start out, you will quickly unlock Mario as well. You will then have a choice to unlock either Villager, Sheik, or Marth. You can only pick one of these to start with.

As you explore the rest of the map defeating enemies, you will be able to unlock the rest of the characters in the following locations:

There will also be several characters available as downloadable content later on. If you purchase Super Smash Bros. Ultimate before January 1^st, 2019, you will receive Piranha Plant for free when it is available. Be sure to register your game with My Nintendo before January 1^st if you have the physical version of the game to secure your Piranha Plant.

There will also be 5 other DLC characters available at a later date. The first of these characters will be Joker form Persona 5. The other 4 have not yet been revealed. These 5 characters will be available to preorder as part of the “Fighter’s Pass” for $25, or will be available individually for $5.99 each. If you didn’t qualify for the free Piranha Plant preorder bonus, this character will also be available to purchase separately from the Fighter’s Pass.