Zelda (SSBU)

Zelda (, Zelda) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. She was confirmed as a playable character along with and the rest of veterans on June 12, 2018. Unlike the game's predecessors, she is unlockable instead of being available from the start. Zelda is classified as Fighter #17.
In a similar vein to her fellow Zelda fighters and , Zelda is now voiced by , who reprises her role from in all regions, replacing Jun Mizusawa from Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. 4. Similar to characters in Melee, the former provides a single line of spoken Japanese dialogue in World of Light's opening; this line is dubbed in English by Brandy Kopp, who also voices .
Zelda is ranked 73rd out of 82 on the current tier list, placing her near the top of the D tier. This is a slight improvement from her 52nd/53rd out of 54 placement in SSB4 where she was tied with , and is her best placement in the series. She has an abundance of KO options, with power comparable to or exceeding that of heavyweights, despite being a lightweight. Among them are several outstanding kill throws and Phantom Slash, a versatile zoning and trapping tool that can start or finish combos, force approaches and apply pressure by controlling space, namely in ledge trapping. Many of her strongest attacks come out surprisingly fast and have transcendent priority, tending to create favorable trades if not outright beating out the opponent. Several double as effective out-of-shield options, notoriously Farore's Wind, which is also one of the best recovery moves in the game, and her Lightning Kicks—the immense power of the latter, especially as aerials, makes them versatile finishers, giving Zelda the signature ability to convert into very early KOs without the use of smash attacks.
Despite these strengths, Zelda has many notable weaknesses. Her main finishers and safe-on-shield moves require precise sweetspots or spacing, weak sourspots that can even be punishable on hit, and/or high ending lag. Her mobility is among the worst in the game, which compounds the inconsistency of these moves. The hitboxes on several of her attacks are poor, limiting their utility and giving her especially poor defense with their transcendence; she lacks fast, low-committal projectiles herself, making her susceptible to being outcamped. She also has a limited number of moves and rather small or inconsistent windows to confirm into other moves, as some of her combo moves like down tilt and neutral aerial have unfavourable angles that make them inconsistent at starting and extending combos without the proper timing or percents. Thus, as Zelda relies heavily on the committal Phantom to secure damage and KOs, as well as to compensate for her mobility, approach options and pressure, she can crumble in stretches of combat where it is unfit to use. An unfavorable combination of tallness, floatiness, a lack of landing options and her light weight results in one of the worst disadvantage states and overall endurances in the game.
Overall, Zelda plays a decent zoning game and a strong trapping game, with tools for controlling space and KOing early, but her precise hitboxes and low mobility result in poor consistency and a weak neutral and disadvantage state, making her a glass cannon with a focus on precision. Zelda is rarely represented in tournaments, but there have been dedicated players, such as from Japan, in France, and in the United States, with respectable results.
==How to unlock==
Complete one of the following:
*Play VS. matches, with Zelda being the 2nd character to be unlocked.
*Clear with or any character in his unlock tree, being the 4th character unlocked after .
*Have Zelda join the player's party in World of Light.
Zelda must then be defeated on Temple (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
==Attributes==
Zelda is a tall, floaty lightweight character (weighing the same as Sora) with overall slow mobility. While she has an above-average air speed, initial dash and traction, her jumps and air acceleration are below average, and she has the 22nd slowest walking speed, the 16th slowest falling speed, the 10th lowest gravity, and is tied with for the 9th slowest running speed in the game. Zelda possesses the largest array of transcendent moves in the game; her attacks are mostly based on magic, being short-ranged attacks with varying but overall modest degrees of disjoint. They also boast generally quick startup; all her normal attacks activate before frame 10, except for forward tilt, up aerial, down aerial, and forward smash. Despite her low weight, many of her attacks have impressive KO potential and damage output, giving her power comparable to that of heavyweights. Due to these factors, Zelda can be generalized as a zoner glass cannon.
Zelda's ground game is notably safer than her aerial game due to generally being less committal and more consistent. She has decent close-quarters combat, namely in her down tilt, a short-ranged low-profiling poke, and up tilt, a large all-around anti-air; both are quick to execute combo starters with long-lasting hitboxes. They often work in tandem with dash attack, which is her most important burst and punish option with excellent speed and large hitboxes. More situational is her neutral attack, which is her fastest move at frame 4; it can transition into a rapid jab for simple damage, or sometimes combo at high percents on its own, but is short-ranged, inconsistent at comboing and unsafe on shield. Forward tilt is the biggest outlier, being much slower with narrow hitboxes and a strong but low-priority tipper; it can be used to space (especially on shield) at a longer range.
Though known for her broad power, Zelda's smash attacks are one of the few areas where she falls average in strength, although they are all still respectable finishers. Her forward smash has a good horizontal disjoint with multiple hits; it is a decent option for catching ledge getups, and due to its rather low ending lag it can be hard to punish on shield, especially if spaced and/or charged. Up smash is similarly a powerful multi-hit; though laggier and having poor horizontal range, it has a fast startup (frame 9) that can punish poorly spaced moves on shield, and has a very long duration of 23 active frames, making it effective for catching getups and landings. Down smash is a simple leg sweep with average power, being one of her few non-magic attacks, but compensates by being very fast at frame 5; hitting on both sides, the foot sweetspots semi-spike at a nasty launch angle that can easily set up edgeguards.
Zelda possesses among the most powerful sets of aerials in the game; uniquely, a majority of them are highly polarized with high risk and high reward, limiting their usage in neutral and forcing her to play carefully in the air. Her forward and back aerials, known as her Lightning Kicks, are by far most polarized moves. Both have fast startup at frame 6 with an incredibly strong sweetspot at her toe, making them effective punishes and deadly out of shield options. However, the sweetspot is tiny and only active for one frame. Additionally, they have high ending lag; the sourspots are also pitifully weak, even being punishable on hit at most percents. This makes them very risky. Down aerial is a vaguely similar move with a powerful single-frame clean hit on her leg, but a very weak late hit. Although slow to come out and weaker than her Lightning Kicks, the clean hit is much larger, the late hit lingers for longer and all hits meteor smash, making it useful for gimping. The clean hit has great utility in punishes, as hitting it on grounded opponents will can start a combo at nearly any percent for massive damage or a KO confirm.
Up aerial is Zelda's only truly consistent aerial, as it consists of a single strong, large and lingering hitbox. A vertically disjointed explosion with excellent power. While having relatively low landing lag, it has significant startup and ending lag and only covers the range above her, limiting its usage. Neutral aerial stands out as her only aerial to not have outstanding power or a notable sweetspot. Instead, as a multi-hit with many active frames hitting on both sides, it serves as her least committal, most versatile aerial. It can auto-cancel in a short hop, which with good execution can most reliably convert into an up tilt or dash attack at lower percents; it can also combo into dash attack when fast-falled, and a single hit can pop grounded opponents up into a variety of confirms at virtually any percent, making it a versatile combo starter. Despite being her most important all-around aerial, it lacks an autolink angle, instead having a rather convoluted set of six hitboxes that cause the move to be inconsistent and the launch direction to be volatile. 
Overall, Zelda's aerials on their own can be awkward for spacing, air-to-air combat, and starting combos, instead functioning more strongly in conjunction with and as follow-ups to other moves. One of the moves that most boosts the potency of her aerials is her down special, Phantom Slash, her most important tool. It's a unique projectile with a hurtbox that she builds piece-by-piece, with its properties becoming increasingly strong by the charge, and she can have it attack before it is complete. The earliest stages are limited to zoning and body-blocking, but by the final stage, it has outstanding HP, speed, power and range. After it is complete, Zelda will also be able to move freely, while the Phantom will attack automatically after about a second if it is not manually released, granting Zelda much flexibility during this window. Phantom Slash forms the basis of Zelda's kit and is designed to compensate for Zelda's lackluster neutral, with its speed, power and mixup potential allowing her to control space, cover options, pressure, zone and trap. Its main weakness is that it cannot be charge-canceled, requiring Zelda to commit to either an early release or waiting until she is actionable. In addition, if she enters hitstun at any point before releasing the Phantom, it falls apart.
Outside Phantom Slash, the rest of her special moves take inspiration from the spells of the three Golden Goddesses that Link can use in Ocarina of Time. Her neutral special, Nayru's Love, is a reflector that doubles as a melee attack; it has a long duration and hits on both sides of her, with full intangibility from frames 4-13 of the move, allowing it to beat out moves, disrupt strings, two-frame and edgeguard. However, the multi-hits can be inconsistent, and it is laggy, making it highly punishable. Din's Fire, her side special, is a slow ball of fire that becomes stronger and faster the farther it travels. While the explosion has a powerful sweetspot, its slow startup and predictable trajectory make it easy to avoid; instead, it is mostly used to gimp opponents with low resources. Her up special, Farore's Wind, is an outstanding offensive teleport. It is difficult to edgeguard and to two-frame due to its intangibility, omnidirectional distance and large, strong hitboxes. Like 's Warp, she can avoid the move's ending lag by edge canceling, which grants her access to otherwise impossible movement options. It is also a reliable out of shield option, as the first hit is fast and can optionally combo into the powerful reappearance hitbox. It can situationally work as a burst option to punish laggy options or anti-zone from a distance. While having unique uses in their own rights, her specials can be strategically be used with each other for creative setups and KOs.
Zelda has good range for her grab, with her pivot grab being one of the most disjointed in the game. While having notably slow startup, they have great reward in her throws. Forward throw is good at setting up edge guarding and ledge traps, while back and up throw are excellent kill throws and among the strongest of their kind. Down throw is a reliable combo starter into neutral aerial or Lightning Kick at lower percents, and is even a possible third kill throw into the latter at mid percents. All her throws can lead into a set-up Phantom with proper timing for combos or KO confirms, though forward and down throw are the most practical.
Despite her strengths, Zelda has significant weaknesses. Chief among them is her poor mobility, which hampers her ability to approach and move around safely. Her initial dash, for instance, is tied for the second laggiest in the game at 15 frames, which makes her unable to shield and rather vulnerable whenever she wants to move faster than walking. She also has a low ground speed, air acceleration, falling speed and gravity, leaving her with committal jumps, a slow, telegraphed approach and a risky neutral game. These mobility issues dampen the effectiveness of her moveset; for example, many of her safe-on-shield or finishing moves, like her forward tilt, forward smash, Lightning Kicks and down aerial, require precise timing and spacing that is difficult to position given how slow she is. Her floatiness makes her air-to-ground transition poor and exacerbates the downsides of her already clunky aerials; as her aerials are also laggier than average, she cannot take exploit her long air time in the same way fighters with excellent aerial combat like can. Since she is tall and floaty with no safe landing options or mixups, she is very vulnerable to getting juggled and ledge trapped, contributing to one of the worst disadvantages in the game and compounding her already poor endurance from her light weight.
Other issues include poor range on her normals, limiting their utility. The transcendent priority of most of her moves is a double-edged sword; while improving their offense, they give her an especial weakness against projectiles and disjoints. In particular, aerials by default do not clank, except with projectiles which they can destroy; however, the entirety of Zelda's neutral and up aerials, as well as the sweetspots of her Lightning Kicks are transcendent, effectively providing none of the benefits but with all the downsides. The few aerial hitboxes that can protect her against projectiles are subpar: her kicks’ sourspots (which only deal 4%-5%), or the single-frame clean hit of down aerial. Zelda also has consistency issues (namely neutral aerial, Nayru's Love and some of the windboxes of Phantom) and extremely weak sourspots, both of which make her punishable on hit relatively often. Her combo game is polarized and often subpar, as many of her moves have too much lag or unfavorable launch angles and knockback values for reliable follow-ups or wide combo windows. Due to this, she partially relies on Phantom to land stray KOs or start or finish combos for damage-racking. All her special moves have exploitable weaknesses, as they are all committal and can be punished hard if not used correctly. With correct timing and spacing around the Phantom's possible attack ranges, opponents can punish Zelda by reading when she will use the move and preemptively closing in. If there is space, the opponent can also retreat to disengage, with Zelda not being able to do much about it except gaining some stage control. Especially against mobile characters, this forces her to play with her risky, short-ranged neutral tools and subpar mobility.
Among favorable matchups, Zelda excels against slower characters with poor ground and aerial approaches where Phantom Slash can effectively wall them out (, ), against large characters that become combo fodder and easy targets for her normally strict sweetspots and combos, especially those without safe options on shield, enabling easy punishes with her deadly out of shield options (), and against poor recoveries that are very susceptible to her semi-spikes and edgeguarding moves (). Zelda's weaknesses cause her to struggle against quick opponents who can outbox her and/or exploit her poor movement to bait out her options and keep her in disadvantage (, , , ), against characters who can out-zone and out-camp her with tools that are fast, dwarf the Phantom's range and/or can pierce through it (, , ), and against characters with large disjoints who can exploit her transcendent priority (, ).
Overall, Zelda's strengths include impressive kill power spread broadly across her moveset, fast and powerful out of shield options, and good stage control and ledge trapping with Phantom setups. Her weaknesses in mobility, range, frame data, consistency and sweetspot issues require her to be precise with how she spaces her attacks and to make the most out of Phantom ledge traps with proper reads and option coverage. She must be creative in her approaches to overcome her mobility issues when she does not have a lead, and in mixing up what she does to get out of disadvantage due to her floaty nature and lack of safe landing options.
==Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4==
Zelda had historically and consistently been regarded as one of the worst characters (and, at one point in Super Smash Bros. 4, the overall worst) in previous games, due to her combination of underwhelming frame data as a whole, a lackluster special moveset, bad hitbox placements, and an undesirable mix of attributes (slow, light, tall, and floaty). While SSB4 had brought updates to her offensive game, her weaknesses remained, causing her to remain unviable. Likely as a result of being a poorly regarded character in previous games, Zelda has been significantly buffed overall in the transition to Ultimate.
Zelda's moveset overall has improved. Her Lightning Kicks have slightly better autocancels, making them more usable; forward tilt, down tilt and dash attack have less ending lag, improving her boxing game. Forward aerial is now as fast as back aerial. Examples of significantly stronger moves include forward tilt, back throw and up throw, all of which are now among the strongest of their kind. Hitbox improvements include up aerial, which is larger with a new late hit, and her dash attack, Lightning Kicks and down aerial, all of whose sweetspots are larger. Her special moveset in particular, considered among the most situational in previous games, has seen various improvements. Din's Fire no longer causes helplessness, has an increased duration and has a larger sweetspot, making it more usable, albeit still situational. Farore's Wind has faster startup and execution and reduced vulnerability, making it a more effective out of shield and punish option; it has more precise angles for reappearance to follow opponent DI, making the "elevator" combo more likely to connect, while also being less unsafe if it whiffs. Phantom Slash is, however, arguably by far her greatest buffed move from Smash 4. It has been heavily reworked to possess more stages with a wider variety of attack ranges, improving its zoning usage, and a new last stage allows Zelda to set it as an independent trap, allowing for intricate setups and combos. It is also much faster, in particular no longer having a special cooldown if destroyed, allowing it to be used much more frequently.
Additionally, Zelda benefits disproportionately from some of the universal changes. Her horizontal movement has been improved in her increased run speed, air speed, air acceleration and initial dash. The universal 3-frame jumpsquats improve her noticeably, as she used to have one of the slowest ones; her very powerful out of shield options also become much better. Altogether, the gap in mobility between her and the rest of the cast has been slightly tightened. With the removal of teching grounded spikes, down aerial is by far her most improved combo starter, giving Zelda a plethora of untechable combos and kill confirms. With her excellent recovery, the new limits to air dodges also benefit her off-stage game more than average.
However, Zelda has received many significant nerfs as well, most notably to the hitboxes and combo game of her normals. Neutral attack is drastically smaller and is no longer safe on shield nor has consistent combo potential, removing one of her best neutral and spacing tools. Down tilt is much smaller and has a considerably worse launch angle. Neutral aerial has been nerfed greatly by the autolink removal and lower knockback harming the looping hits' consistency, completely removing their drag-down combos and making the launch direction drastically more difficult to control. Down throw's increase in knockback scaling, combined with its more horizontal launch angle removes its 50/50s at high percents. Overall, many of her old damage-racking options and kill confirms have been weakened or outright removed.
Other nerfs include her forward tilt, which is much more precise due to its slower startup, narrower hitboxes and the sweetspot losing highest priority and being drastically harder to land; the move is often weaker on average despite the damage buffs. Down aerial's late hit is worse at gimping due to its smaller hitboxes. Zelda's dash and pivot grabs, already below average in speed, have received even more startup, although both of them have less ending lag. Farore's Wind is weaker, making it worse at early KOs, cannot travel as far and is much harder to edge cancel with, hindering one of her movement options; there is also less time to angle the teleport, slightly making it harder to combo into itself.
Although Zelda benefits from some of the changes to the game's engine, other changes have impaired her as well. The changes to jostling have made the below-average sizes of her hitboxes more salient. The new knockback speed-up effect further limits her already nerfed combo moves, as it counteracts her mobility buffs. The universally increased traction makes her edge cancels much harder and reduces shield pushback; together, with the reduction of aerials' shieldstun, it affects her set of aerials among the most, as they have high damage values; this partially cancels out their landing lag buffs. Her air dodges are also now much laggier than average, which worsens her disadvantage state.
Overall, Zelda's moveset has been enhanced from previous installments, making her strengths more defined, especially around Phantom Slash as the new crux of her game plan. However, nerfs to her combo tools, hitboxes, consistency and precision have tempered her buffs by effectively transferring many of her other moves' usages and strengths to Phantom, centralizing her play style around the reworked move. Game updates have brought her moderate improvements, mostly making several moves across the board even stronger. The changes overall allow Zelda to fare better than in previous installments, with this incarnation being her strongest one yet. However, she still underperforms compared to the rest of the cast. Many of her more problematic attributes have been untouched from Smash 4, i.e. punishable sourspots, her laggy initial dash, low fall speed, low gravity and low weight. Most significantly, many of her normals are worse compared to previous iterations, suffering from lack of utility due to worse hitboxes, combo potential and safety.
==Update history==
Zelda has been buffed overall via game updates, receiving the biggest changes in update 7.0.0, followed by update 13.0.0. A majority of the changes focused on augmenting the power of her kill moves, with up smash, down smash, up aerial, and especially forward tilt and down special being stronger. Hitbox buffs made up aerial, down aerial's clean hit and Din's Fire's sweetspot larger, and increased the hitbox duration of up aerial and Din's Fire. Small frame data buffs reduced the ending lag of her jab by 1 frame and the landing lag of neutral aerial by 3 frames, making their combos more viable. Multihit angle adjustments made forward smash more consistent; while also intending to do the same for neutral aerial, its angle changes were a mixed bag in practice, only improving its consistency in some cases, but making the final hit's launch direction much more volatile and thus making auto-cancel combos more difficult.
Aside from the mixed change to neutral aerial's angles, Zelda has also received two minor nerfs, though negligible as the first was eventually negated, and the second reversed a very brief unintended bug. In update 3.0.0, Phantom's shield damage was reduced, but the later 7.0.0 damage buff completely compensated for this. The 9.0.1 patch introduced a shadow buff that allowed Zelda to displace the Phantom much more easily; this bug was fixed just three weeks later in update 9.0.2.
Overall, compared to release, Zelda's raw power has been accentuated, but without inherent or major changes to her neutral, inconsistencies and combo trees.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Moveset==
For a gallery of Zelda's hitboxes, see here.
===Stats===
===Announcer call===
Zelda English Announcer SSB4-SSBU.wav|English/Japanese/Chinese
===On-screen appearance===
*Appears facing the screen, generating magical sparkles from between cupped hands. Zelda then flourishes her hands while smiling before assuming her idle pose.
ZeldaOnScreenAppearanceSSBU.gif|Zelda's on-screen appearance
===Taunts===
*Up taunt: Places her hand on her hip, while generating magic and twirling it in front of her.
*Side taunt: Closes her eyes and summons Din's Fire between cupped hands.
*Down Taunt: Giggles and waves with a smile.
SSBUZeldaTaunt1.gif|Zelda's up taunt.
SSBUZeldaTaunt2.gif|Zelda's side taunt.
SSBUZeldaTaunt3.gif|Zelda's down taunt.
===Idle poses===
*Brushes her hair while looking back.
*Smiles and performs a pondering gesture with a finger tapping her cheek.
SSBUZeldaIdle1.gif|Zelda's first idle pose.
SSBUZeldaIdle2.gif|Zelda's second idle pose.
===Crowd cheer===
 	Cheer (English)	Cheer (Japanese/Chinese)	Cheer (Italian)	Cheer (Dutch)	Cheer (French)
Cheer 	 	 	 	 	
Description	Zel - da! 	Zel - da! 	Zeeeeel - da! 	Zel - da! 	Zel - da!
 	Cheer (German)	Cheer (Spanish)	Cheer (Russian) 	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	 	 	
Description	Zel - da! 	Zeeeeel - da! 	Zel - da! Zel - da!	Zelda!
===Victory poses===
*Left: Creates magic with her fingertips and waves it around.
*Up: Creates fire from her fingertip and waves it around while giggling.
*Right: Assembles a Phantom behind her with a snap of her finger and poses with it.
ZeldaVictoryPose1SSBU.gif
ZeldaVictoryPose2SSBU.gif
ZeldaVictoryPose3SSBU.gif
==In competitive play==
===Most historically significant players===
See also: :Category:Zelda players (SSBU)
* - One of the best Zelda players in North America, first debuting in the early metagame under the tag "ZeroTwoNone" and notably placing 13th at and 17th at . He went on hiatus in the online metagame before returning in 2023, achieving several notable major performances such as 33rd at and . He is ranked 138th on the LumiRank 2024.2.
* - The second-best Zelda player in Japan. He is best known for placing 17th at , defeating and along the way. Although very inconsistent at other events, he had a few other noteworthy events including placing 17th at and 33rd at defeating in the latter event. He was ranked 143rd on the LumiRank 2024.1.
* - The best Zelda player in Europe is a top 50 player on the continent in the post-online metagame, ranking 37th on the European Ultimate Power Rankings for the first half of 2023. He has consistently placed highly at several events, most notably 13th at and 17th at . He retired in 2024.
* - The best Zelda player from 2019 to 2022. His best results were in the early metagame thanks to strong performances such as 17th at defeating and 33rd at defeating ; he was also the first Zelda player ranked on a global ranking, ranking 83rd on the OrionRank Ultimate: Six Months In. Although less consistent since, he has still seen some strong results, including 9th at , tied as the best Zelda placement at a major.
* - The best Zelda player in the post-pandemic metagame, especially since 2023. He has the best peaks for a Zelda player, including placing 9th at both , defeating , and , both of which are tied for the highest placement from a Zelda player at a major. In addition, he is known for placing 3rd at defeating and . He was ranked 114th on the LumiRank 2024.1, which marks the highest a Zelda player has ranked since the early metagame.
===Tier placement and history===
Players were initially divided on Zelda's competitive viability. Many players pointed out that her key issues, most notably her low mobility and poor endurance, were retained from previous games. On the other hand, other players were more optimistic towards the character due to improved frame data over her Smash 4 iteration, particularly on her out-of-shield options, as well as Phantom Slash's higher utility. This optimism, coupled with strong early performances from players such as , , and , led many to believe the character was a solid mid-tier, with some arguing that she could be a potential high-tier.
This optimism did not last for long, as Zelda's polarizing nature became more noticeable as time went on: despite receiving buffs in updates 7.0.0 and 13.0.0 that mostly augmented her power, Zelda's inconsistencies, poor mobility, disadvantage, and highly risky neutral remained critical weaknesses. As a result, Zelda players began struggling in the developing metagame, and they either dropped the character (such as Mystearica) or saw worse results and consistency than before (such as ven). Although Naskino continued to do well in Europe and began making waves in Japan in early 2023, opinions on Zelda continued to decline, and as a result she ranked 75th out of 82 on the first tier list, rising two spots to 73rd in the second and current tier list. Although it is her best placement in the series and she is far better than all her previous incarnations, she is currently placed in the low-tier.
==: Wisdom Prevails==
Zelda's opponents are antagonists and she fights each of them on stages that hail from series.
Round 	Opponent 	Stage 	Music 	Notes
1 	 	Great Plateau Tower	 	
2 	 	Skyloft 	 	
3 	(×5) 	Temple 	 	Horde Battle (3 at a time)The Mii Swordfighters are dressed in the Yiga Clan Mask and Yiga Clan Outfit.
4 	Giant 	Bridge of Eldin 	 	A possible reference to King Bulblin.
5 	 	Gerudo Valley 	 	
6 	(×4) 	Hyrule Castle 	 	
Bonus Stage	Bonus Stage 	Bonus Stage 	Bonus Stage 	Bonus Stage
Final 	, then Ganon	Sacred Land 	(Ganondorf) (Ganon)	A Maxim Tomato spawns on the stage after Ganondorf is KO'd.
Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Zelda has accompany the credits.
==Role in World of Light==
Zelda is among the fighters that are summoned to fight the army of Master Hands.
During the opening cutscene, Zelda tries to rally the other fighters to fight the army of Master Hands by saying, "Stow your fear; it's now or never!" ("", Now that we've made it this far, there's no turning back!), and is present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashes his beams of light. She and attempt to reflect the beams using Nayru's Love and Confusion, respectively, but this attempt fails, and both of them are vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters (excluding ).
Zelda is one of the many fighters that falls under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. She is unlocked in The Dark Realm at Sacred Land, on the bottom left corner of the land which makes up the Triforce of Wisdom. The player must defeat the spirit of (which is revealed by solving a clock-based puzzle) to clear a boulder that's blocking the path to her unlock battle and then the and spirits. Unlocking her reveals the Triforce of Wisdom in the center of the map. If is unlocked, the boulders leading to 's unlock battle and the Master Sword clear out.
Zelda is later seen among several other fighters, making their last stand against Galeem and Dharkon. She is also seen in the bad ending where Galeem emerges victorious against Dharkon, witnessing Galeem engulf the world in light.
===Fighter Battle===
No.	Image	Name 	Type	Power 	Stage 	Music
17 	 	Zelda	 	10,100	Temple (Ω form)	
==Spirits==
Zelda's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing as Zelda. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Zelda has been unlocked. Unlocking Zelda in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Her fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with her artwork in Ultimate.
Additionally, different incarnations of Zelda appear as primary and support spirits.
SSBU spirit Zelda.png|173. Zelda
SSBU spirit Young Zelda.png|189. Young Zelda
SSBU spirit Zelda (Ocarina of Time).png|190. Zelda (Ocarina of Time)
SSBU spirit Zelda (Breath of the Wild).png|238. Zelda (Breath of the Wild)
SSBU spirit Zelda (The Wind Waker).png|247. Zelda (The Wind Waker)
SSBU spirit Zelda (Spirit Tracks).png|259. Zelda (Spirit Tracks)
==In Spirit Battles==
===As the main opponent===
Spirit	Spirit 	Spirit 	Spirit 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters
No. 	Image 	Name 	Series 	Enemy Fighter(s) 	Type 	Power 	Stage 	Rules 	Conditions 	Music
187 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• • 	 	4,600 	Tortimer Island (Battlefield form) 	•Hazard: Slumber Floor 	•The floor is sleep-inducing•Timed battle (1:30) 	 	
189 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• • 	 	3,700 	Hyrule Castle 	N/A 	•Take your strongest team into this no-frills battle 	 	
195 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• 	 	3,600 	Smashville 	•Item Tidal Wave•Item: Cucco 	•The enemy becomes more powerful after eating•Certain items will appear in large numbers 	 	
201 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	•Giant 	 	9,500 	Fountain of Dreams (Battlefield form)	•Health Recovery 	•The enemy's special moves have increased power•The enemy is healed significantly when the enemy's at high damage•The enemy's FS Meter charges quickly	 	
215 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• ×2 	 	4,000 	Bridge of Eldin (Battlefield form) 	•Hazard: Lava Floor 	•The floor is lava•The enemy favors side specials 	 	
216 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• ×2 	 	3,500 	Bridge of Eldin 	•Temporary Invincibility 	•The enemy will occasionally be invincible after a little while•The enemy favors neutral specials 	 	
236 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• •Bunny 	 	9,100 	Temple 	•Assist Trophy Enemies (Nightmare) 	•Hostile assist trophies will appear 	 	
238 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• (50 HP)• (60 HP)• (30 HP)• (60 HP)• (50 HP)• (50 HP)	 	9,200 	Great Plateau Tower 	N/A 	•Stamina battle•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd•Defeat an army of fighters 	 	
258 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	•Clear 	 	3,800 	Spirit Train (Battlefield form) 	N/A 	•The enemy's down special has increased power•The enemy favors down specials•The enemy is invisible 	 	
582 	 	EarthBound Series 	• • 	 	13,100 	 	•Easy to Launch 	•All fighters are easy to launch 	 	
659 	 	Fire Emblem Series 	• • 	 	3,500 	Reset Bomb Forest (hazards off) 	•Health Recovery•Defense ↑ 	•The enemy has increased defense when the enemy's at high damage•The enemy is healed when the enemy's at high damage 	 	
1,053 	 	Castlevania Series 	• • • • 	 	3,700 	Reset Bomb Forest (hazards off) 	N/A 	•The enemy starts the battle with a Cucco 	 	
1,065 	 	Castlevania Series 	• • 	 	3,700 	Bridge of Eldin (Battlefield form) 	N/A 	•The enemy's special moves have increased power•The enemy favors side specials•Reinforcements will appear during the battle 	 	
1,174 	 	Golden Sun Series 	• 	 	3,500 	Temple (Battlefield form) 	•Assist Trophy Enemies (Isaac) 	•Hostile assist trophies will appear•The enemy favors side specials 	 	
1,236 	 	Style Savvy Series Nintendo presents: Style Boutique Series	• 	 	3,600 	Tomodachi Life 	•Item: Transforming Types 	•The enemy is easily distracted by items 	 	
1,241 	 	Fatal Frame Series Project Zero Series 	• 	 	9,200 	Luigi's Mansion 	•Assist Trophy Enemies (Yuri Kozukata)	•Hostile assist trophies will appear 	 	
1,365 	 	SAMURAI SHODOWN Series 	• (140 HP)•Tiny (40 HP) 	 	3,800 	(winter) 	•Attack Power ↑•Item: Swords 	•Defeat the main fighter to win•Stamina battle•The enemy has increased attack power when the enemy's at high damage 	 	
1,442 	 	FINAL FANTASY Series 	• • 	 	7,500 	Fountain of Dreams 	•Health Recovery 	•Defeat the main fighter to win•The enemy is healed after a little while 	 	
1,442 	• (Moveset 1312, Aerith's outfit, Normal Voice Type 6)•	FINAL FANTASY Series 	 	 	7,500 	Fountain of Dreams 	•Health Recovery 	•Defeat the main fighter to win•The enemy is healed after a little while 	 	
1,489 	 	Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin 	• • ×2 (INT)/×2 (JP/CH/KR) 	 	3,700 	Suzaku Castle 	N/A 	•Defeat the main fighter to win•The enemy favors down specials 	 	
===As a minion===
Spirit	Spirit	Spirit 	Spirit 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters 	Inspiration
No. 	Image 	Name 	Series 	Enemy Fighter(s) 	Type 	Power 	Stage 	Rules 	Conditions 	Music 	Character
1,107 	 	Super Smash Bros. Series 	• Team ×4• Team ×4• Team ×4• Team ×4 	 	3,300 	(Battlefield form) 	N/A 	•Take your strongest team into this no-frills battle 	 	Blue Alloy 	
1,246 	 	Takt of Magic 	• • • 	 	3,400 	PictoChat 2 	N/A 	•Defeat the main fighter to win 	 	Charlotte (Takt of Magic) 	
1,328 	 	DRAGON QUEST Series 	• (120 HP)•Tiny (120 HP)• (100 HP)• (130 HP)•Tiny (90 HP)• (110 HP)• (100 HP)	 	13,300 	Yggdrasil's Altar 	N/A 	•The enemy has increased melee-weapon damage and move speed•The enemy's smash attacks have increased power•Stamina battle 	 	Serena 	
1,411 	 	Mana Series 	• • •Tiny Bunny ×2 	 	9,200 	Gaur Plain (Ω form) 	•Item: Ramblin' Evil Mushroom 	•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd 	 	Angela 	
1,456 	 	Bravely Default Series 	• (Moveset: 3223, Chrom Wig, Dunban Outfit)• 	 	9,400 	Delfino Plaza (Large Island) 	•Health Recovery•Defense ↑•Item: Swords	•The enemy has increased defense after a little while•The enemy is healed when the enemy's at high damage•The enemy's melee blows will heal them when they hit	 	Gloria 	
1,461 	 	Xenoblade Chronicles Series	• • • 	 	3,800 	Jungle Japes (Battlefield form)	N/A 	•Defeat the main fighter to win 	 	Haze 	
1,514 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series 	• (100 HP)• (70 HP)•Giant (70 HP)• (60 HP)• (60 HP)• (60 HP)• (60 HP) 	 	13,000 	Temple (Battlefield form) 	N/A 	•Stamina battle•The enemy favors neutral specials•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd 	 	Zelda (Tears of the Kingdom)	
===As an ally===
Spirit	Spirit	Spirit 	Spirit 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters 	Battle parameters	Battle parameters 	Inspiration
No. 	Image 	Name 	Series 	Enemy Fighter(s) 	Type 	Power 	Stage 	Rules 	Conditions 	Music 	Character
243 	 	The Legend of Zelda Series	•Giant •Ally:	 	13,900 	Great Plateau Tower (Ω form)	•Sudden Damage 	•You lose if your CPU ally is KO'd•You'll occasionally take sudden damage after a little while•The enemy is giant	 	Zelda (Breath of the Wild)	
This alternative occurs when the corresponding DLC has been purchased and downloaded.
==Alternate costumes==
							
							
==Gallery==
The Legend of Zelda artwork.png|Artwork of all The Legend of Zelda characters, as posted on the official Legend of Zelda Twitter account.
SSBU Zelda Number.png|Zelda's fighter card.
Zelda_unlock_notice_SSBU.jpg|Zelda's unlock notice.
SSBUWebsiteZelda1.jpg|Zelda idling on Temple.
SSBUWebsiteZelda2.jpg|Using her neutral aerial in her red costume on Tortimer Island.
SSBUWebsiteZelda3.jpg|Zelda using her forward tilt on on Coliseum.
SSBUWebsiteZelda4.jpg|Kneeling next to a sleeping on Tortimer Island.
SSBUWebsiteZelda5.jpg|Using Farore's Wind on Luigi's Mansion.
SSBUWebsiteZelda6.jpg|Idling in her dark costume on Spirit Train.
SSBUWebsiteGanondorf5.jpg|Zelda taunting next to on Hyrule Castle.
SSBUWebsiteRosalina4.jpg|Zelda giving a high-five on Prism Tower.
SSBUWebsiteYoshi2.jpg|Firing a Super Scope at on Mario Galaxy.
SSBUWebsiteKapp'n3.jpg|Taunting near on Kapp'n's bus on Temple.
SSBUWebsiteSummit.jpg|Zelda, , , and the on Summit.
SSBUWebsite13.jpg|Using Phantom Slash on Mario Galaxy.
SSBUZeldaJPTwitter1.jpg|With all playable veterans on the Great Plateau Tower.
SSBU LegendofZeldaReps.jpg|With Link and Ganondorf on the Great Plateau Tower.
SSBU challenge image 011.png|Zelda with Cloud in Tortimer Island.
===Fighter Showcase Video===
==Trivia==
*Masahiro Sakurai chose to base Zelda's design in Ultimate off of her A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds incarnations instead of her more recent Breath of the Wild incarnation because that version of Zelda, according to him, "is more into research than fighting." He also mentioned in a subsequent Nintendo Treehouse Live event that he chose this design to better represent The Legend of Zelda franchise as a whole instead of having all of its fighters come from the same game.
*Zelda's current default design was previously an alternate costume in terms of coloration of her model, whereas her previous default design based on Twilight Princess has now become an alternate costume in that same regard.
**Coincidentally, Zelda was revealed in SSB4 at the same time A Link Between Worlds was released, which inspired her current design.
**With Ganondorf's Twilight Princess incarnation still directly referenced via a spirit, as well as Link's Wolf form from that game, Zelda is the only returning Zelda character from SSB4 that doesn't have her Twilight Princess design directly referenced in Ultimate at all.
*Zelda can be unlocked by Kirby via his Classic Mode route, which may reference their team-up from Brawls Adventure Mode, The Subspace Emissary.
*Zelda is currently the only playable The Legend of Zelda character in Ultimate whose design originates from either a handheld game or a non-3D game.
**She is also the only Zelda character whose design comes from the "Fallen Hero" timeline.
*The World of Light opening marks Zelda's first spoken line of dialogue in the Smash series. Outside Japan, it is also the first time in the series that any Zelda character is voiced in English.
**Zelda is one of the few characters to have her cutscene dialogue dubbed in English, but otherwise keep her Japanese voice actress's battle cries, after and in Melee. She is also the only character to speak English in a cutscene while still having a Japanese KO line (with her yelling "" (Nooo!)).
**Unlike in Breath of the Wild, which was dubbed into multiple languages, Zelda speaks English in all Western language versions of Ultimate.
**She is the second Zelda character to speak in Smash, the first being in Melee.
*Zelda is the only The Legend of Zelda character whose animations are mirrored.
*Zelda's Classic Mode route is vaguely similar to 's, as both characters fight villains and/or final bosses of various series for opponents.
*Zelda, , , , , and are the only fighters to appear as allies in Spirit Battles.
*Ultimate marks the first time Kirby's Zelda hat no longer resembles Young Zelda's wimple from Ocarina of Time. It is also the first time the hat reflects how she appears in-game, as her appearance in Melee is based on her adult design from Ocarina of Time, and her Brawl and SSB4 designs are based on her appearance in Twilight Princess.
*Gravity on Zelda's hair is temporarily disabled whenever she performs her hair-brushing idle pose.
==References==
 
Category:Spirits
es:Zelda (SSBU)