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Zelda Super Smash Bros Ultimate Guide
Zelda is a fast and deadly fighter that can control a massive area of the stage, learn how to to here
Zelda Guide
Princess Zelda has never been a pushover in the Super Smash Bros franchise; Ultimate is no different, as her potent zoning abilities are in full display. She also features a good selection of neutral moves and throws that can help her secure KOs in the final moments of a stock. Her Air game is among the best in the title with dangerously big hitboxes. Her Lightweight is a downside as it is paired with a relatively low amount of options to move around the stage.
How to Unlock Zelda
As whit every base character in SSBU, there are three ways to unlock them. The first is to fight her in the World of Light Campaign. She is found in the Sacrad Lands regions. The next option is to play the versus matches, likely the best one, as she is the 2nd character to be unlocked this way. Finally, in Classic Mode, you can unlock her after defeating Pac-Man.
Key Strengths & Weaknesses
Zelda's best feature is her aerial game. She has some of the strongest aerial attacks in the game and can auto-cancel her down and neutral moves with a short hop. Her aerials lack the same power that allows her to get those disjointed long-range KOs compared to her grounded attacks. The general use of her aerial tools revolves around applying pressure to opponents. Her meteor-type down smash is incredibly powerful, and her normal back and forward kicks have short starts and great sweet spots. The one downside to her aerial pressure comes from fighting heavy shield opponents, as many of her attacks will not break it right away. There are a lot of out of shield options that can punish her.
Phantom Slash, Zelda's down special, is one of her most versatile moves, it's also very hard to maximize its potential when starting to learn the character. In the move, she builds a phantom soldier piece by piece for about a second. She can send the phantom forward and strike her opponent at any point, but if it's fully charged, the phantom will go further and hit even harder. This move provides a lot of depth at the higher levels of competitive play, as it opens the possibility to set up attacks alongside it, deny certain areas, and even edge guard.
The one major drawback to Zelda's potential as a top character is her mobility. In a game known for highly mobile, light characters taking on the top spots in tiers, Zelda's lightness and slowness is an almost lethal combination. End lag plagues most of her high-value attacks, meaning that misses are much more easily punished by her opponents, and although she has a good number of moves with great reach some are still quite hard to land on the sweet spot. She trends towards high and forward hitboxes, which means short characters or low profiling enemies have an easier time getting inside her space and undermining her great zoning potential.
Zelda Moves
| Input | Short Description | Damage | Knockback |
| Neutral Jab | A burst of energy, three in a row. | Low | Low |
| Forward Tilt | Zelda creates a magical blade and slashes her opponents. It has two sweet spots, one on her hand and the other at the tip of the blade. | High | High |
| Up Tilt | an excellent combo starter that can combo into itself at low percentages. | Medium | Low |
| Down Tilt | Zelda's fastest tilt attack, relative good damage for it though it is very hard to combo past it. | Low | Medium |
| Dash Attack | A fast dash attack that sends pulses of energy out of Zelda's hands, the sweet spot deals a good amount of damage and knockback | Medium | Medium |
| Forward Smash | String of small energy bursts, the final one deals a lot more damage and knockback, good against shields. | Medium | Low |
| Up Smash | Great at pressuring shields and getting KOs at high percentages, while also opening up some interesting combos at lower ones. | Low | Medium |
| Down Smash | A great tool to punish rolling opponents, its semi-spike trajectory is also applied to both sides of the hit. | Medium | Medium |
| Neutral Air | A multi-use move that deals ok damage and helps with edge guarding opponents thanks to its multiple hits. | Low | Low |
| Forward Air | Incredibly strong and fast sweet spot damage and knockback | High | High |
| Back Air | Much like her forward Air, sweet spot, lots of damage. | High | High |
| Up Air | Virtually the most reliable aerial KO option in Zelda's repertoire. | High | High |
| Down Air | A solid meteor smash that deals a great amount of damage in its clean. Failing that, it still has a pretty long active frame. | Medium | Medium |
| Grab | Longer range than most, as well as being disjointed | - | - |
| Pummel | A normal pummel | Low | - |
| Forward Throw | A great tool for setting up edge guarding situations, as it has solid knockback | Low | Medium |
| Back Throw | Great knockback on low percentages relatively speaking, but it greatly diminishes as the percentage grows. | Medium | Medium |
| Up Throw | One of the best up throws in the game with solid damage and knockback | Medium | Medium |
| Down Throw | Zelda's only true combo throw can be followed up by Neutral, forward, back, and up aerials. | Low | Low |
| Neutral Special | Shields Zelda from projectiles and deals a small amount of damage to enemies close to her | Low | Low |
| Side Special | High-risk high rewards charged projectile;e that can be adjusted mid-flight. | Medium | Low |
| Up Special | Similar to Palutena's Warp, Zelda first strikes her opponents low and then teleports high in the air. | Medium | Low |
| Down Special | Zelda creates a Phantom, acts as a charging attack, and can be used to set up very powerful combos. | High | Medium |
Best Zelda Moves
Aerial moves, all of them
Virtually every aerial move from Zelda is worth putting here. She has a massive advantage over the opponent's options in that realm, and for that reason is vitally essential to get to grips with how to maximize those elements of the character. Her short hop auto-cancel for her neutral and down air alongside the fast fall cancel for forward and back airs does a lot to open up enemies to combos in the early stages of a combo and can have a devastating effect once they reach the high 90%.
Farore's Wind
Although not a get-out-of-jail-free card, this quick teleport that also deals decent damage and knockback can be used defensively and in a measured offense to put opponents on the edge of their seats. A lower percentage does not project a big threat, but as damage piles on with aerials, this little tool can suddenly be an inspiring fear attack.
Ways to Punish
Make use of opponents' impatience. Zelda has a lot of significant small disjointed and longe range attacks that can chip away at enemies from a safe distance. Try to egg them on to get closer, though, and practice your sweet spots! A frustrated opponent might try to run in at the wrong time and allow you to square a simple combo, but if done correctly, you can get a sneaky stock out of what would, with sloppier execution, only have been a quick scare.
Zelda Core Combos
- Charged Down Special, into Dash, Jump, and Down Aerial.
- Up Throw, hop, Up aerial.
- Up special, Up tilt.
Playing Against Zelda
Do not let yourself get out-zoned by her, either cut into the inside to fight up close or wait for an opening and use what you can to harass in the meantime. An important element is that you should avoid getting sweet spotted as much as possible. A good Zelda Player will funnel you into trying to chase and get hit by the short hop aerials, and even if not all hit the sweet spot, it only takes one at a high percentage to take a stock from even to heavily disadvantaged.