Super Smash Bros Ultimate amiibo Functions and Unlocks Guide

December 18, 2018

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Super Smash Bros Ultimate‘s amiibo functionality will seem pretty familiar for anyone who played the Smash Bros games on 3DS or Wii U. It takes the Fighter Player concept from those games and expands upon it, while also allowing you to use your amiibo to unlock spirits for Spirit Mode as well. There’s quite a lot going on so watch our video below or continue reading our amiibo guide for all the details.

Figure Players

You can use the amiibo figures of any of the playable characters to create a ‘Figure Player’. Figure Players are unique AI which you can fight with or against in Smash Mode. You can use any variant figure, even if it’s from a non-Smash Bros series, but no cards. Over time your Figure Player levels up, becoming stronger and smarter, and develops its own playstyle.

Setting Up

To get started and create a new Figure Player, head to the Games & More section and select the amiibo option. Tap your amiibo and you’ll be prompted to select an owner profile and give it a nickname. You’ll then have a choice of alternate colours to give your Figure Player. Once you’ve made all your selections, your Figure Player will come to life before your very eyes!

Don’t stress too much about these choices as you can change them later by selecting Customise from the amiibo menu.

Using amiibo in Battles

Once you’re in Smash Mode, add a CPU player like normal and then press A while your cursor is over the CPU label. This will toggle the player into a Figure Player. Tap the amiibo you want to add to the game, and they’ll appear in that slot. You can add as many amiibo into the game as you want – you can even have a match of 8 Figure Players if you want!

amiibo gain experience as they battle which, over time, will bring them from Level 1 to Level 50. Fighter Players get smarter and stronger as they play – a Level 1 amiibo will barely ever attack, while a Level 50 amiibo will be at least as tough as a Level 9 CPU player. A Level 50 Fighter Player will also deal more damage than a regular player.

Fighter Players become more competent than regular CPU players because they can learn from their battles. There’s a lot of debate about how this actually works, but from personal experience they appear to remember which moves are effective at KO’ing opponents and will copy your general playstyle if you use the same character as them. For example, if you spam Villager’s slingshot against a Villager amiibo then it will use slingshot aerials more often than other attacks. You can also teach them to pull specific taunts after they KO an opponent!

New to Ultimate is the ability to turn this learning feature off, allowing you to prevent a Fighter Player’s playstyle from changing. Head to the amiibo menu and select the Customise option. Then set Learn to Off. This will prevent bad players or poorly trained Fighter Players from being a bad influence on your amiibo.

Tapping an amiibo on the amiibo menu after it’s fought a few battles can also reward you with gifts like coins and spirit items.

Feeding amiibo

In the amiibo section you can select the Level Up option to feed spirits to your amiibo. If your Figure Player hasn’t reached Level 50 yet then this will give them experience towards levelling up. There’s much cooler bonuses gained from doing this, however, depending on what kind of spirits you use as food.

Primary Spirits

Primary Spirits have one of four different attributes – Neutral, Attack, Shield and Grab. Attack spirits are stronger against Grab spirits, Grab spirits are stronger against Shield spirits, and Shield spirits are stronger against Attack spirits. Feeding a Primary Spirit to an amiibo can pass that attribute onto the Fighter Player. This will make them more effective against Fighter Players and spirits with an attribute they’re strong against (and vice versa).

Support Spirits

Support Spirits can grant all kinds of useful abilities to your characters in Spirit Mode, and if you feed one to an amiibo it will pass that ability onto them. Fighter Players have 3 open ability slots which can be filled with these abilities. Most abilities take up a single slot but more powerful ones can take up 2 or even all 3 slots.

All Spirits

Every spirit you feed to your Figure Player will alter its stats. Figure Players have an offence stat which dictates the damage and knockback from their attacks and a defence stat which dictates the damage and knockback they receive. Spirits can increase and decrease these stats, but the total of the two stats can’t exceed 4200 points. Once you reach this maximum, further feeding will rebalance the stats rather than increasing the total.

Spirits can also change the personality of your amiibo, which seemingly has an effect on how they fight (although this will require further experimentation). There are 24 different amiibo personalities, which are listed below along with their believed effects.

Aggressive – rushdown style
Cautious
Cool
Daredevil
Entertainer
Enthusiastic
Flashy
Laid Back
Light
Lightning Fast – moves around a lot, quick to react
Lively
Logical
Normal
Offensive
Quick
Realistic
Reckless
Show-Off – taunts more frequently
Sly
Technician
Thrill Seeker
Unflappable
Versatile
Wild

Spirits fed to amiibo are gone for good, but all spirits appear to be able to be unlocked again through methods like the Spirit Board and the in-game store. You will receive cores of any spirits fed to your amiibo which you can combine to summon powerful new spirits in Spirit Mode.

Converting amiibo From Smash 3DS/Wii U

If you tap an amiibo in the amiibo menu that has Fighter Player data saved from Smash 3DS or Wii U, you will be able to convert that data to be compatible with Ultimate. However it will no longer function in the previous games.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate amiibo guide - amiibo Transfer Step 1

Super Smash Bros Ultimate amiibo guide - amiibo Transfer Step 2

The Fighter Player’s level will be lowered and they will lose all their stat boosts and abilities given to them by equipment. Supposedly they will retain a Fighter Player’s learned behaviours, but since their level is so low when they’re transferred it’s hard to confirm whether this is actually the case.

Unlocking Spirits

Smash Bros Ultimate adds a new use for amiibo figures that don’t have a corresponding playable character. When you’re on the amiibo menu (accessed through the Games & More section) tap a compatible amiibo and you’ll be given a spirit for use within Spirits Mode. These spirits can boost your offensive and defensive capabilities or give you special skills that help out in battle. None of these spirits are amiibo exclusive as they can all be earned through playing World of Light or the Spirit Board. You can even earn duplicates if you run into a spirit you’ve already unlocked! The only catch is that you can only use each amiibo to get a spirit once. Not once per day – once ever. Here’s a list of each compatible amiibo and the spirits they’ll unlock:

Animal Crossing Series

Blathers

Name: Blathers
Type: Support
Ability: Black Hole Equipped (2 Slots)

Celeste

Name: Celeste
Type: Support
Ability: Item Gravitation (1 Slot)

Cyrus

Name: Cyrus & Reese
Type: Support
Ability: Ore Club Equipped (3 Slots)

Digby

Name: Digby
Type: Primary
Power: 1564
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Battering Items Power Up
Offence: 797
Defence: 707

K.K

Name: DJ K.K.
Type: Primary
Power: 1357
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Can be enhanced at Lv. 99
Offence: 577
Defence: 780

Kapp’n

Name: Kapp’n
Type: Support
Ability: Easier Dodging (1 Slot)

Kicks

Name: Kicks
Type: Support
Ability: Sticky Floor Immunity (2 Slots)

Lottie

Name: Lottie
Type: Primary
Power: 958
Attribute: Grab
Ability Slots: 1
Ability: None
Offence: 388
Defence: 570

Mabel

Name: Able Sisters
Type: Support
Ability: Shield Durability Up (1 Slot)

Reese

Name: Cyrus & Reese
Type: Support
Ability: Ore Club Equipped (3 Slots)

Resetti

Name: Resetti
Type: Primary
Power: 958
Attribute: Grab
Ability Slots: 2
Ability: Jump Down
Offence: 1625
Defence: 1530

Rover

Name: Rover
Type: Support
Ability: Ice Floor Immunity (2 Slots)

Timmy & Tommy

Name: Timmy & Tommy
Type: Master

Timmy & Tommy’s spirit is different from all the others because it’s not one you equip. Instead, once you unlock their spirit it will open a store you can access from Spirit Mode which will allow you to buy spirits and items.

Tom Nook

Name: Tom Nook
Type: Primary
Power: 1431
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Can be enhanced at Lv. 99
Offence: 386
Defence: 1045

Fire Emblem Series

Alm

Name: Alm & Celica (Young)
Type: Primary
Power: 726
Attribute:Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Can be enhanced at Lv. 99
Offence: 454
Defence: 272

Celica

Name: Alm & Celica (Young)
Type: Primary
Power: 726
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Can be enhanced at Lv. 99
Offence: 454
Defence: 272

Tiki

Name: Tiki
Type: Primary
Power: 1583
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Can be enhanced at Lv. 99
Offence: 839
Defence: 744

Kirby Series

Waddle Dee

Name: Waddle Dee
Type: Primary
Power: 1429
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 3
Ability: Can be enhanced at Lv. 99
Offence: 922
Defence: 507

The Legend of Zelda Series

Bokoblin

Name: Bokoblin
Type: Primary
Power: 754
Attribute: Neutral
Ability Slots: 2
Ability: Battering Item Power Up
Offence: 406
Defence: 319

Daruk

Name: Daruk
Type: Primary
Power: 1814
Attribute: Shield
Ability Slots: 1
Ability: Weight Up
Offence: 796
Defence: 916

Guardian

Name: Guardian
Type: Support
Ability: Weapon Resist Up (2 Slots)

Mipha

Name: Mipha
Type: Support
Ability: Critical Health Stats Up (1 Slot)

Revali

Name: Revali
Type: Support
Ability: Shooting Attack Up (1 Slot)

Urbosa

Name: Urbosa
Type: Primary
Power: 1756
Attribute: Attack
Ability Slots: 2
Ability: Electric Attack Up
Offence: 1011
Defence: 646

Metroid Series

Metroid

Name: Metroid
Type: Support
Ability: KOs Heal Damage (2 Slots)

Shovel Knight Series

Shovel Knight

Name: Shovel Knight
Type: Primary
Power: 2963
Attribute: Attack
Ability Slots: 2
Offence: 1037
Defence: 1926

There are also spirits for Plague Knight, Spectre Knight and King Knight in the game so it’s likely that these upcoming Shovel Knight amiibo will be compatible with the game as well.