How to Unlock Every Character in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate"

Author:: Jennifer Wilber

Jennifer Wilber is a teacher and writer. She holds a B.A. in English and an Associate's in Computer Game Design. She is a life-long gamer.

How to Unlock Every Character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Nintendo Switch
Jennifer Wilber

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The Ultimate Super Smash Bros. Experience

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.

Only the original 8 unlocked characters from the original N64 "Super Smash Bros." are available when you first start "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate."
Screenshot captured by Jennifer Wilber

How to Unlock Characters in Vs. Mode

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

Ness
Zelda
Bowser
Pit
Inkling
Villager
Marth
Young Link
Wii Fit Trainer
Ice Climbers
Captain Falcon
Peach
Ryu
Ike
Jigglypuff
King K. Rool
Sonic
Simon
Zero Suit Samus
Little Mac
Isabelle
Shulk
Lucina
Wario
Ridley
Pokemon Trainer
Lucario
Daisy
Roy
King Dedede
R.O.B.
Falco
Luigi
Pichu
Richter
Lucas
Diddy Kong
Meta Knight
Snake
Ganondorf
Corrin
Mega Man
Bayonetta
Toon Link
Rosalina & Luma
Incineroar
Sheik
Olimar
PAC-MAN
Dark Samus
Wolf
Mr. Game & Watch
Robin
Dark Pit
Cloud
Duck Hunt
Ken
Greninja
Chrom
Mewtwo
Bowser Jr.
Dr. Mario
Palutena

You will quickly unlock new characters as you play the different game modes.
Screenshot captured by Jennifer Wilber

How to Unlock Characters in Classic Mode

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.

Classic Mode Character Unlock Paths


Original Character	1st Unlocked	2nd Unlocked	3rd Unlocked	4th Unlocked	5th Unlocked	6th Unlocked	7th Unlocked	8th Unlocked
Mario	Sonic	Bayonetta	Little Mac	Ike	Luigi	Roy	Dr. Mario	Olimar
Donkey Kong	Bowser	Pokemon Trainer	Rosalina & Luma	King Dedede	Sheik	Greninja	Diddy Kong	Duck Hunt Dog
Link	King K. Rool	Ice Climbers	Simon	Meta Knight	Snake	Young Link	Richter	Toon Link
Samus	Inkling	Wii Fit Trainer	Pit	Incineroar	Dark Samus	Cloud	Wario	Dark Pit
Yoshi	Lucario	Marth	Ryu	Ganondorf	Lucina	Ridley	Chrom	Ken
Kirby	Ness	Jigglypuff	Pac-Man	Zelda	Robin	Corrin	Lucas	Palutena
Fox	Captain Falcon	Zero Suit Samus	Peach	Falco	Daisy	Bowser Jr. (alt: Koopalings)	Wolf	Mewtwo
Pikachu	Villager	Shulk	R.O.B.	Mega Man	Isabelle	Mr. Game & Watch	Pichu	Sonic

There are tons of characters to unlock, both those new to the series and classic favorites.
Screenshot captured by Jennifer Wilber

How to Unlock Characters in the World of Light

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:

World of Light Character Unlock Locations


Character	How to Aquire
Kirby	Starting character
Mario	Beginning area
Villager	Near beginning, choose between Villager, Sheik, or Marth's path (can unlock the others later)
Sheik	Near beginning, choose between Villager, Sheik, or Marth's path (can unlock the others later)
Marth	Near beginning, choose between Villager, Sheik, or Marth's path (can unlock the others later)
Captain Falcon	Villager's path, Raceway
Link	Villager's path, Southern Great Plateau
Olimar	Marth's path, Mushroom Platforms - need Kammy Koopa's Spirit to cross mushrooms
PAC-MAN	Marth's path, Edge of the Mushroom Platforms
Jigglypuff	Sheik's path, River Woods
Mii Swordfighter	Sheik's path, Eastern Town
Isabelle	Eastern Town, take the secret path from the Northwestern Town using Kapp'n’s Spirit
Yoshi	Ribbon Road, North of River Woods
Dr. Mario	Edge of Ribbon Road and Lumiose City
Pikachu	Cliffside Rapids
Peach	Molten Castle Dungeon, at the top of the Cliffside Rapids
Bowser	Molten Castle Dungeon, at the top of the Cliffside Rapids
Lucario	Great Wall, south of Rapid Falls
Ryu	World Tour Zone at airport between Great Plateau and Mushroom Platforms, requires Kapp'n Spirit
Donkey Kong	Kongo Jungle, west of Mushroom Platforms
Wii Fit Trainer	Lumiose City
Inkling	Console City, south of Lumiose City
Fox	Heart Pool Mountain, west of Ribbon Road
Mega Man	Metal Gear Base, requires Hal Emmerich Spirit
Snake	Metal Gear Base Dungeon
Duck Hunt	Poison Woods
Pichu	Power Plant Zone in the Poison Woods
Little Mac	Edge of Lumiose City
Lucas	Northwestern Town
Ice Climbers	Frozen Mountain, located North of Northwestern Town
Simon	Temple of Light Zone, must activate all three colored switches
Pit	Temple of Light Zone
Falco	Outer Space - Requires Slippy Toad Spirit
Samus	Across the Canyon after clearing the Temple of Light
Mr. Game & Watch	Pac-Maze area, go through the teleporters to reach him
Diddy Kong	In the Jungle Japes Zone, East of the Pac-Maze
Pokemon Trainer	South of the Jungle Japes Zone
Mii Gunner	On the Alola Islands, requires the Lapras Spirit
Toon Link	In the Forest Hill Zone on the Alola Islands
Shulk	At the top of the Waterfall Peak, Northeast of the Pac-Maze
Zero Suit Samus	Near the peak of the Raging Volcano, Northeast of the Train Tracks
Ness	In the Magicant Land, North of the Great Canyon
King Dedede	In the Gourmet Race Zone, on the Floating Islands Northwest of the Raging Volcano

Comments

Poppy from Enoshima, Japan on December 10, 2018:

It's quite funny how they've kept the Ice Climbers in after all this time, I never got the impression they were particularly popular. Glad to see Wario is still around as he was my jam on the Wii U. Unlocking the characters seems fairly straightforward and I'll look forward to doing so once I get a Switch. Thanks for sharing.