Steve (SSBU)

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Steve (, Steve) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the second fighter from Microsoft after , and the eighth DLC character for Ultimate. He was confirmed as a playable character on October 1st, 2020 as the second downloadable character from . Alex (, Alex), a Zombie (, Zombie), and an Enderman (, Enderman) also appear as alternate costumes. Steve was released as part of Challenger Pack 7 on October 13th, 2020 and is classified as Fighter #77.
Steve is ranked 1st out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him at the very top in the S+ tier. Steve's ability to create platforms and walls of his own with Mine / Craft / Create Block gifts him with an extremely potent defensive prowess that also grants him great stage control, recovery aid and gimp potential while also allowing him access to a myriad of unique advanced techniques. These blocks also allow him to greatly extend his combos with incredibly fast attacks such as his moving jab attack and axe ladders among others, allowing him to command one of the best advantage states in the game and rack up massive amounts of damage. His damage potential can be further increased by upgrading his toolset with the materials he mines; diamond tools are viewed as a high threat because of it. His back aerial and smash attacks yield incredible kill power, as do his down aerial and TNT, which are notable components in Steve's trapping game. Minecart is not only a useful horizontal recovery tool, but also a projectile command grab, a powerful KO option, and a tool Steve can use to approach opponents. Elytra's gliding mechanics allow Steve to mix up his recovery and can provide him great vertical coverage if angled right. Nearly every move in Steve's arsenal can be used for multiple purposes, such as his down tilt, which can ledgetrap opponents, block projectiles and set up combos.
However, Steve is not without weaknesses. His lackluster aerial and ground mobility hamper his approaching options, and his crouch and crawl are ineffective against projectile attacks. Furthermore, his Minecraft-inspired playstyle forces him to constantly mine for materials throughout the match; running out of materials denies him access to certain moves such as Minecart and TNT. Steve's tools will eventually break with extended use, leaving him with an ineffective punch attack unless he uses a crafting table to replenish his tools. However, he can also be denied usage of his crafting table (and his toolset) if he is kept airborne and off-stage, while respawning it forces Steve to use up potentially valuable resources. His up smash and down tilt leave him vulnerable to punish should he miss, and while Steve's tool attacks are fast, they have short reach, making them not as effective as a combo disruptor against other characters. Their short reach also forces Steve to engage in close-quarters combat as he lacks a conventional projectile, where he can easily be outclassed by characters with either ranged or disjointed attacks.
Overall, Steve is an incredibly versatile character who is able to manipulate stage terrain to corner opponents, which lets him reap the rewards of an excellent advantage state with massive damage outputs and kill power, on top of already impressive frame data and recovery. Although he has difficulty approaching opponents that outclass him in range, these weaknesses are greatly overshadowed by his strengths and he is considered by many as the best character in Ultimate. He has achieved excellent tournament representation and results from many players, most notably and , with the former being considered the best player in the world in 2023. However, due to being perceived as "broken" by many in the community, there have been calls to ban the character, especially following the discovery of the Phantom MLG tech in February 2023, which led to temporary Steve bans in many regions, with the technique itself still being banned in some tournaments.
==Attributes==
Steve is a fighter who possesses slightly below-average weight and unremarkable mobility. He has the shortest jump out of the entire roster, in addition to a peculiar crouch and crawl based on Minecrafts "sneaking" mechanic where he simply hunches over, neither of which are very useful in battle. In addition to this, his walk speed, initial dash, running speed, and air speed are all among the bottom 10 of the respective stats, with his initial dash in particular being the worst in the game.
Taking many attributes from his home game, Steve is one of the most unique fighters on the roster. His battle strategy almost completely revolves around mining materials from the stage itself for several of his attacks, alongside crafting stronger weapons and the ability to place blocks almost everywhere within the fighting boundaries. These three attributes appear as his neutral special, Mine / Craft / Create Block. Mine can take a lot of time to get the desired materials, but Steve starts each stock with a set amount of materials for him to use, so he's not completely defenseless at the start of a fight. Craft is also fast, and in conjunction with the ability to teleport his crafting table to his current position, makes camping Steve's crafting table an ineffective strategy. Create Block is the most potent out of Steve's options and has a myriad of uses; this includes building temporary walls to interrupt opponents, stalling his recovery or his opponent's followups by standing on a floating block making it arguably one of the best recoveries in the entire series, blocking projectiles, mindgames, and extremely deep edgeguarding and gimping opportunities. Steve can even use the short longevity of Create Block to immediately cancel some of the lag in his grounded moves while in the air such as up smash and down smash, leading to some of the most dangerous and diverse aerial combos in the game should he be able to set it up. Create Block is thus one of Steve's essential techniques, though due to the difficulty of building and managing his resources in combat, it can take much experience to truly master.
Minecart is a powerful side special: by itself, it is a capable KO option, and can be used as a horizontal recovery tool. Uniquely, Steve can jump out of a moving minecart, turning it into a grabbing projectile that can scoop up a foe, forcing them to struggle out of it. This lets Steve follow up with attacks or edgeguard/gimp recovering opponents. By using up gold and redstone, Steve can use powered rails to accelerate his minecart and catch foes off-guard with the sudden burst of speed. Additionally, he can recover the iron used up from creating the minecart if he is the one to break it afterwards. TNT is Steve's explosive down special, and can be set off from afar by the minecart or by a redstone trail to a wooden pressure plate of Steve's creation, which is extremely useful for ledge trapping. However, it acts as a double-edged sword, as the explosion affects everyone including Steve, and the person who triggers the pressure plate takes reduced knockback from the explosion, which can be used in Steve's advantage for mind games, or against him by a crafty opponent. Additionally, Steve can safely detonate TNT if he uses down smash and properly times a buffered air dodge. Elytra requires no materials on Steve's part to use, has a hitbox upon startup, and its Brawl-like gliding mechanic allows Steve to mix up his recovery path, thwarting attempts at opposing edgeguards. While its horizontal recovery potential is almost unrivaled, it renders him vulnerable after the initial startup. He is also unable to switch directions after using it and will enter free fall if it is angled too high or hits a solid object, making a misinputted or misangled Elytra fatal.
Apart from his specials, Steve has noticeable strengths in his other attacks. His neutral attack, forward tilt and neutral aerial all involve a rapid sword swing, but unlike Mega Man's similar attacks, Steve's does not stop until the sword in question breaks, allowing him to continue a chain of sword hits for longer in comparison and set up for combos. This rapid-hit property is also seen in his up tilt and up aerial, which can juggle into various moves. His down-tilt flint and steel is a highly useful edgeguarding tool, as its flames are affected by gravity and can repeatedly block off the ledge for a two-frame punish, in addition to absorbing weak projectiles. In the same vein, down smash has lingering hitboxes on both sides and can be used as a semi-spike, especially in combination with Create Block. Steve's forward and back aerials also possess useful perks, the former possessing meteor smash potential if the opponent is hit near the end of the swing and the latter possessing powerful knockback. While his down aerial costs iron to use, Steve's anvil deals exceptional damage and knockback and can be canceled to avoid falling along with the anvil, making edgeguarding with the move far less risky. It should also be noted that his tool based attacks are further improved with high-tier tools, as gold swings faster and can combo more effectively, while diamond has excellent damage and knockback, especially when using his forward smash, forward air, and back air.
Steve's grab game is also respectable. While his tether grab cannot be used to grab the ledge, it can still grab shielded opponents from afar, granting Steve another ranged option to make up for his short-ranged normal attacks. His grab does have a noticable blindspot however, and can be low profiled in certain situations. His back throw angle leaves much to be desired, but his forward throw launches foes in a semi-spike manner and, along with his up throw, have very high base knockback, but average growth, making their KO potential lackluster. His down throw uses iron to slam an anvil on an opponent, dealing very high damage for a throw and sending at a useful angle for followups; however, it becomes incredibly weak without iron, as Steve will simply fling the opponent on the ground.
One of Steve's more powerful attributes is how much he can capitalize off of the advantage. Steve is widely agreed upon to have among the best advantage states in the entire game, with a wide range of tools that can lead to large amounts damage fairly easily, and with combos like axe ladders and pick loops, he can preserve the advantage to last even longer. His advantage stage is also uniquely strong at the edge, where he can place traps with TNT and use blocks to hinder certain options like jumping. Steve also has a very unconventional neutral game, which in spite of its passivity can be highly effective; Steve can use Create Block to build walls between himself and his opponent, and hide behind them to mine and upgrade his tools, possibly with gold or diamond. The high threat level of diamond tools means that the opponent is usually forced to approach to prevent Steve from crafting diamond tools, and may have to navigate around or destroy the blocks that may have been placed by Steve, which can be exploited by him to more easily find openings for whiff punishing.
Despite his strengths, Steve's attributes present flaws. His mobility is underwhelming, having among the worst ground mobility in the game due to the combination of poor run speed and the worst initial dash in the game (as opposed to most characters of this speed class usually having relatively high initial dash in contrast to their run speed). His aerial mobility is also unremarkable, having poor air speed and very low jump height, to the point where he's unable to reach the lower platforms of Battlefield without burning his double jump. Finally, despite being relatively short compared to an average humanoid character, Steve's crouch and crawl barely reduce his height and his hitstun animations leave him in an upright position, preventing him from ducking under attacks and leaves him vulnerable to being attacked.
His moveset has its own downsides. His down tilt and up smash leave Steve stuck until the animation is finished, making him open to a punish from the sides. While many of his core moves (such as his sword and axe moves) are very spammable, they only cover a very short distance and do not cover below or behind him, leaving Steve without a useful "get-off-me" option against combo-centric opponents, excluding using iron to summon an anvil or building a block to stall his fall, which are only effective with enough iron and within the stage's build limit, respectively. Additionally, the spammability of his moves are held back by Steve's low mobility, making it unwieldy for him to attempt rushdown tactics. His grab's range is offset by its very high ending lag, making his grab game less effective against mobile fighters, and his down throw is significantly less damaging and effective without iron.
Steve's Minecraft-inspired playstyle can also leave him in troublesome situations. If he mines more materials than his inventory can fit, he will end up discarding resources that might have otherwise been valuable. This negatively affects Create Block, as it always prioritizes the weakest block first; weak blocks can be broken very easily by hitting them with attacks or hitting the bottom side of the block, making them less effective for edgeguarding or creating a blockade. Additionally, walling off a recovering opponent may not be an effective option, as damaging hitboxes can easily plow through weaker blocks without much trouble, and hitting Steve (or placing them near the build limit) will cause his blocks to break significantly faster. His tools can break if used up enough, forcing him to mine to collect materials and craft to re-upgrade them. Furthermore, getting KO'd results in Steve's tools reverting to wood (though he keeps resources already in his inventory), and mining for materials/crafting new tools can be difficult against faster opponents, who can constantly pressure Steve and deter him from gaining resources. His reliance on materials for the majority of his strongest techniques prevents him from repeatedly using them to a greater extent, due to the glaring downsides of running out of a specific material (ex. his down air and down throw accomplishing nothing with a lack of iron). Careless use of his resources will essentially leave him with almost no useful abilities: the time needed to mine can become very detrimental when fully depleted of resources, or when barehanded/using wooden or stone tools, as it takes a significant amount of time to fully replenish resources or dig for gold/diamond.
His lack of a conventional projectile and short attacking range demands he gets in close to dish out damage, upon which fighters more suited for close combat than Steve can leave him constantly juggled. Steve's recovery, while having amazing horizontal and vertical reach, is also limited in some ways due to his low jump height and airspeed. Elytra takes some experience to get used to, as its mechanics can make it difficult to angle, and it can also be cut short if he bumps into an object. Minecart can be used for horizontal distance, though it does not grant good distance without gold, and cannot be used without iron. (Although Powered Minecart also uses up redstone, it and TNT use so little that running out of redstone never happens without specific setup to do so.) His blocks cannot be placed too far out from the edges of the stage, and the block Steve is standing on deteriorates faster than normal, which can limit his ability to stall offstage due to him requiring materials. TNT can be used in niche situations since it gives Steve a slight vertical boost when dropped in the air, but it's usually not recommended due to its extreme resource cost.
Overall, Steve excels in a strange combination of close-up fighting, stage control, and fearsome edgeguarding, resulting in a large learning curve for players eager to pick him up. His toolkit gives him powerful overall abilities when mastered, some of which are not possessed by any other fighter in the roster; however, poor use of his resources can render him almost helpless and remove some of his best options, and his terrible mobility, compounded by a reliance on fairly linear options for approaching, means he faces an uphill battle against characters that outrange him, or are fast enough to weave around his defenses.
==Update history==
The majority of changes Steve received from updates were bug fixes focused on removing game-breaking glitches. Aside from these and an aesthetic change, Steve has only received two balance-oriented changes: version 11.0.0 slightly buffed his down smash by eliminating a blind spot close to Steve, and version 13.0.1 nerfed his up smash by reducing the hitstun of each multi-hit, making Block-canceled up smash follow-ups slightly harder. Ultimately, aside from making the game and character play as intended, Steve is mostly unchanged.
 
 
 
 
 
==Moveset==
*Steve can crawl.
*Steve can tilt his head up and down by tilting the Control Stick in said direction when he is walking, jumping and creating blocks. This mechanic is purely aesthetic and reflects how the player's head moves in Minecraft.
*Steve possesses a unique "resource" mechanic, which allows him to carry resources to build blocks, use certain moves, or upgrade his tools. The resources that Steve can possess are dirt, wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond, and redstone, all of which can be obtained through mining (detailed further below). Depending on the stage, dirt may be substituted with sand (such as on Tortimer Island and Coliseum), ice (such as on Summit), or wool (such as on Magicant and Living Room). All resources (except for redstone) are displayed above his in-game portrait, with a limit of 100 for block-building materials.
**Steve starts the game with 36 units of dirt, 18 units of wood, 3 units of iron, and 2/3 redstone, the latter two of which are replenished should Steve lose a life without sufficient said material in stock.
**Gold and diamond are only shown when available by the right of the gauge, while iron, which occupies the right of the gauge, displays its exact quantity up to 8. Cheaper materials are displayed proportionally and make up the left of the gauge.
**Five tool materials exist: wood, stone, iron, gold, and diamond. Except for gold, each material mentioned is incrementally more powerful and durable than the last. Gold weapons are weak and fragile, but attacks with them are faster than those with weapons made from other materials, making them ideal for combos, and outside of neutral attack, up tilt, and up aerial, gold weapons have greater knockback scaling than the other tool tiers. The typical damages of each tool type are:
***No weapon: 0.8x damage
***Wood or gold: 1.0x damage
***Stone: 1.1x damage
***Iron: 1.2x damage
***Diamond: 1.35x damage
*With continuous use, Steve's sword, axe, pickaxe, and shovel will use up durability points. Once all durability points for a set tool have been used up, it breaks apart and Steve can no longer use that tool. If Steve tries to use an attack that requires a weapon he does not have, he will perform a weak punch with minimal range instead. This prevents him from constantly brawling out at close range with his weapons, and every so often forces him to mine the ground for resources and craft new tools at a crafting table. The durability varies between tools made of different materials, with wood and gold being the least durable while diamond and iron are the most durable.
**As each tool has its own durability, Steve can have different levels of each tool during a stock (eg. crafting a diamond set, using up a diamond pickaxe, then crafting a gold pickaxe while retaining his other diamond tools).
*Steve's tools reset to wood when he is KO'd, though he keeps any resources throughout stocks. If he is KO'd with less than three units of iron, he will respawn with three.
For a gallery of Steve's hitboxes, see here.
===Stats===
===Durability system===
True to Minecraft, Steve's tools can break after a certain amount of use. While similar to the durability system of , there are a few differences, including the lack of a hitbox upon a tool breaking, no visible durability indication, and the need to craft replacement tools.
====Tool durability====
Weapon 	Wood/Gold	Stone	Iron/Diamond
Sword 	25 	40 	50
Axe/Pickaxe/Shovel	70 	85 	95
Durability
====Durability cost====
Move 	Durability cost
Sword attacks (except for Forward Smash)	2
Forward Smash 	9 (Wood), 18 (Gold), 14 (other materials)
Axe attacks 	5.5
Up Smash 	0
Dash Attack 	4.5
Forward Aerial/Back Aerial 	6.5
Mine 	2.5 (per resource)
Cost
===Announcer calls===
====Steve====
Steve English Announcer SSBU.wav|English/Japanese/Chinese
Steve French Announcer SSBU.wav|French
====Alex====
Alex English Announcer SSBU.wav|English/Japanese/Chinese
Alex French Announcer SSBU.wav|French
====Zombie====
Zombie English Announcer SSBU.wav|English/Japanese/Chinese
Zombie French Announcer SSBU.wav|French
Zombie French Alt Announcer SSBU.wav|French (alternate take)
====Enderman====
Enderman English Announcer SSBU.wav|English/Japanese/Chinese
Enderman French EU Announcer SSBU.wav|French
Enderman French EU Alt Announcer SSBU.wav|French (alternate take)
===On-screen appearance===
*Breaks stone blocks in front of him with his pickaxe while walking forward, with his crafting table appearing after the animation completes. Similar to Steve's initial reveal during his trailer.
SteveOnScreenAppearanceSSBU.gif
===Taunts===
*Up taunt: Jumps twice, and while in midair, punches three times. Due to Steve jumping the same height that his short hop covers, he can dodge some attacks with lower-reaching hitboxes. This gesture is often used in the Minecraft community as a greeting.
*Side taunt: Pulls out and eats a Steak, with a small burp upon finishing.
*Down taunt: Sneaks (crouches) three times while looking toward the screen. This is another popular gesture found in the Minecraft community, where players crouch repeatedly as a sign of peace, friendship, or agreement. It is also used to mock a player when losing or getting trolled.
SSBUSteveTaunt1.gif|Steve's up taunt.
SSBUSteveTaunt2.gif|Steve's side taunt.
SSBUSteveTaunt3.gif|Steve's down taunt.
===Idle poses===
*Steve does not possess any idle poses.
===Crowd cheer===
====Steve====
 	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	
Description	Ste - vu! *claps 3 times* 	Su - ti - vu!
====Alex====
 	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	
Description	Ale - xu! *claps 3 times* 	Ale -- xu!
====Zombie====
 	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	
Description	Zooommm - bie! 	Zom - bie!
====Enderman====
 	Cheer (All versions except Korean)	Cheer (Korean)
Cheer 	 	
Description	En - der - man! 	Ender - man! *claps 3 times*
===Victory poses===
*Left: A Creeper is shown onscreen, which promptly explodes as Steve humorously lands directly in front of the camera without an animation.
*Up: Eats a Steak while the camera angle changes, and then burps while the steak vanishes.
*Right: Quickly builds a house similar to ones found in villages and stands outside of it, then closes the door.
SSBUSteveVictory1.gif
SSBUSteveVictory2.gif
SSBUSteveVictory3.gif
Steve's Up victory pose was changed in update 9.0.1; previously, Steve held the Steak even after he finished eating it.
File:SSBUSteveVictory2old.gif
==In competitive play==
===Most historically significant players===
See also: :Category:Steve players (SSBU)
* - One of the greatest Ultimate players of all time and was the best in the world in 2023 and the first half of 2024. He is known for his consistency even at the highest level of competitive play, having placed outside the top 8 at only one ranked event throughout his entire competitive career, while conversely winning many other majors and supermajors, including some of Ultimates largest events such as , , and . He has been a mainstay in the game's top 5 ever since he first arrived on the offline scene and is the only Steve player to rank top 10 for more than a year.
* - Came to prominence during Japan's Steve wave in 2024 and is considered the second-best Steve player in Japan during this time, peaking at 30th on the LumiRank 2024.1. He was first known for placing 9th at , where he eliminated , and found several other 9th-place finishes at several other majors that year, including and . His first top 8 finish took place at , where he defeated to place 7th, and he followed it up by defeating to place 5th at .
* - Initially began as a player before picking up Steve in 2023, first as a co-main but eventually becoming his primary character in the following year. He is considered the best player in Europe in the first half of 2024, becoming the first player to outrank Glutonny on the European Ultimate Power Rankings and winning several events throughout the year, most notably the LumiRank 2024.2 A-tier . In addition, he had placed 2nd at and 3rd at .
* - A Steve and co-main who is considered one of the best Steve players in North America, as well as one of the game's best hidden bosses as he rarely travels outside of Georgia. Although he has only attended a handful of majors, he has placed single-digits at all of them, placing 5th at , 7th at , and 9th at .
* - One of the first notable Steve players in competitive play after winning multiple online weeklies and tiered events. He eventually found greater success offline, becoming the second-best Steve player in North America during his prime, with multiple top 8 placements at majors such as 3rd at , 5th at , and 7th at . Although less active offline since 2023, he remains one of the best Steve players in North America.
* - The second greatest Steve player of all-time. They were especially known for their performances in 2022, where they were ranked in the top 10 and were in contention for the best American player. They are the only non-Japanese Steve to win a major, having won and . Although they were never able to reach the top 10 since, they often remain the second-highest ranking Steve player on global rankings and have seen multiple top 8 performances at majors and supermajors in the years since.
* - A Steve and co-main who came to prominence during Japan's Steve wave in 2024. He is best known for winning using primarily Steve, the first new Steve main to win a major since the character's initial rise in 2022, and had also placed 3rd at and 5th at with mainly Steve. He was ranked 34th on the LumiRank 2024.2.
* - Initially known for playing but eventually swapped to Steve in 2023. His first successful performance with Steve took place at , where he placed 2nd and won the ditto against . In the following year, he rose to become the second-best Steve player in the world and the first to dethrone Onin in North America, notably placing 3rd at and 5th at , and , as well as winning .
* - Initially known for his , but began playing more Steve throughout 2023 before becoming his primary main by the end of the year. He is considered one of the best Steve players in Japan, placing 3rd at defeating and , 7th at both and , and 9th at , as well as defeating at .
* - A major Steve labber who was one of the best Steve players in North America during the first few years of the early metagame, despite his inconsistency compared to other Steve players during that time. He was first known for defeating at , ultimately placing 9th, but became better known for his 5th-place finish at where he defeated and . He stopped competing seriously by 2023, and has made a few tournament appearances since.
===Tier placement and history===
Leading up to release, there was a lot of speculation for how Steve would work in Smash due to his unique moveset compared to the rest of the roster. Many players saw a lot of potential in him, with several players going as far as to call him top tier or outright broken due to his block-creating and crafting mechanics, his glide recovery that works similarly to the infamous glide mechanic in Brawl, and his high power. After his release, players had mixed reactions to his viability. Some players such as and believed that Steve was potentially high tier due to his incredible edge guarding and a great combo game. On the other hand, players such as believed his weaknesses, especially his poor mobility, would make him more of a lower-mid tier character. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Steve's initial representation in competitive play was online. Although most of his initial success came from , Steve gradually saw a larger playerbase that met with consistently high placements online. Most notably, won several large weeklies, defeated several top 10 online players, and was ranked 1st on 2 iterations of the Panda Global Online Leaderboard.
Following the return of offline competitive play, Steve established himself as a strong character right from the getgo, with successful performances from both Jake and . His representation then greatly improved in the spring of 2022, owing to the rise of in Japan and in North America, before exploding in the summer of 2022, with acola and Onin both winning several majors during this time: Onin especially won , the largest event of the year, and infamously 3-0d , who at that time was still the best player in the world. These incredible performances effectively cemented Steve as the best character in the new metagame, and as such he was ranked 1st on the first tier list. This position only became even more unanimous as the metagame progressed: though Onin's results declined in the following year, acola rose to become the best player in the world, and several new Steve players were able to establish themselves in competitive play, including in the latter half of 2023 and in Europe, with crêpe salée becoming the only player to ever dethrone on the European Ultimate Power Rankings. Most notably, Japan had a major Steve issue throughout 2023 and into 2024, with acola remaining one of the best players in the world, the rise of and , and several notable Japanese players maintaining a Steve secondary/counterpick, including and . As such, Steve remains the unanimous best character in the game.
===Ban discussion===
Due to the character's unorthodox playstyle and sudden rise in the metagame, many people began to argue that Steve should be banned. While this movement initially took a while to gain momentum, the discussion began in earnest in early 2022 with the sudden rise of players unknown prior to Steve's release, as well as the number of top player upsets by then-unranked players (such as by or by ). Discussion on Steve's ban heated up around the Summer of 2022 with the rise of and , both of whom dominated their scenes and won multiple majors despite being relatively unknown players months prior. In particular, Onin's dominant victory at , which included a devastating 3-0 victory over ; acola's victory at his debut overseas tournament ; and the Steve ditto between the two players at led many players to compare Steve to Brawl and Smash 4 , two characters who dominated their game's respective metagames.
Proponents of Steve's ban argue that his ability to change a stage's layout with blocks and create near-unbeatable setups whether onstage or ledgetrapping has led to him being too strong with little viable counterplay. Some of his more notorious techniques include placing a block above the ledge and then using his Back Throw to either Stage Spike the opponent if they don't tech or guarantee a Forward smash if they do. This tech is called a Block Spike. Steve can also chain jabs across the stage to carry the opponent offstage or combo into a Forward Smash at the ledge, and using Down smash on his own TNT and buffering an Air dodge to avoid the explosion, covering most recovery options with a single move. Some of these players also argue that most players who saw success with Steve were "unknown" players prior to the character swap, and that their sudden burst of success proves that Steve "carries" his players. They pointed out how the metagame was being populated with Steve players - for example, Super Smash Con 2022 had 9 Steve players make top 64 while all other characters had 4 or less players - and that the character's increasing presence in the metagame was driving players away from the game.
On the other hand, opponents of Steve's ban argue that Steve's dominance in the metagame had been exaggerated or required more context, and that people have been developing counterplay in the matchup for a while. They also argued that Steve's dominance in the metagame was less notable than Brawl Meta Knight or Smash 4 Bayonetta, pointing to how only two Steve players - and were consistent top 8 threats. In addition, some players noted how most players who picked up Steve were younger players who either had less opportunities to enter tournaments prior or began playing during the online metagame; for example, acola had his start in the Smashmate ladder and began ranking highly well before his offline debut.
Some people have proposed using Ultimate's Custom Balance feature to weaken Steve as opposed to a full ban. However, this proposal has raised concerns of it being a slippery slope, possibly leading to people to advocate using custom balance on more characters to weaken high tier characters who aren't ban worthy and strengthen low tier characters, which will lead to disputes over which characters get buffed or nerfed and by how much. Others became concerned that the lower knockback from custom balancing could actually end up strengthening Steve by making his combos more consistent.
====PMLG (Phantom MLG) and ban efforts====
Despite the heated discussion, there was little effort toward banning Steve for most of 2022, with notable exceptions being the French regional and Ultimate Shockwave testing out a Steve ban, among other characters, for a few of their tournaments in November and December. However, the early-2023 discovery of Phantom MLG—a tech involving Create Block that allows Steve to escape out of a move and immediately follow it up with a counterattack—led to renewed and successful efforts to ban the character, with many organizers arguing that the tech was the breaking point for them. A few tournaments, including and , made efforts to only ban the tech itself, or give out penalties to those who were accused of using the tech, however some players argued that banning only the tech was impractical, as it could be difficult telling whether a Steve player performed PMLG or just simply fell out of a move. By May 2023, 17 out of the 50 United States have banned Steve completely, while many other states have seen bans at a local level. Bans were also exacerbated with 's decision to ban the character from his Coinbox tournaments, and many other tournaments would also announce a ban, including , , and .
However, many players also argued that PMLG's brokenness was greatly exaggerated, as multihit moves would effectively negate it,https://twitter.com/AcidArmyGaming/status/1650674954512244743 the technique requires frame perfect timing, and said timing varies between moves as well as depending on staling.https://twitter.com/ChakkieWFT/status/1648421839637741568 Others also noted how difficult it was to properly pull off in tournament - notably, UltRank issued a $35 bounty to the first three players who prove they performed the technique in bracket, with the bounty later raised to $100. The bounty remained unclaimed, and UltRank ended it after two months. In addition, the ban was not unified across all regions, as most scenes outside of North America did not institute a ban, with only a few notable exceptions such as Australia. In particular, Japan decided not to ban Steve, and the character remained legal during their Golden Week tournaments, which featured 3 supermajor events that had many international players in attendance.
Due to the threat of PMLG waning as well as a lack of a unified ban, some regions began unbanning the character in mid-May. By August 2023, most regions had either unbanned Steve or continued to have mixed legality, although full bans remained in place in some regions, most notably the Midwest and Australia.
==: Journey to the Far Lands==
Steve faces off against fighters who represent enemy mobs in Minecraft. With the exceptions of Rounds 2 and 6, all rounds are stamina battles. The title is a reference to the Far Lands, a glitch that used to exist in both Minecraft: Java Edition and the Bedrock Edition where land an extreme distance away from the starting point of a world formed large, fold-like cliffs due to overflow errors in the generation system. The final battle is against a giant Ridley and two tiny Endermen. If the player uses the Zombie or Enderman costumes, the opponents using this costume will not switch to a different one.
Round 	Opponent 	Stage 	Music 	Notes
1 	(×6 (×2 Tiny)) Zombie 	Minecraft World (Birch Forest, Night) 	 	Horde Battle. The two tiny Zombies represents the Baby Zombie variant. The stage is always set to nighttime, referencing how Zombies burn in sunlight.
2 	(×4) 	Minecraft World (Plains, Day) 	 	Represent Pillagers. and Giant appear as CPU allies, representing a Villager and an Iron Golem, respectively.
3 	(×3) 	Minecraft World (Battlefield form, Night)	 	Represent Skeletons. The stage is always set to nighttime, referencing how Skeletons burn in sunlight.
4 	Tiny (×3) and 	Luigi's Mansion 	 	Robin represents an Evoker and the tiny Pits represent Vexes. The stage represents a Woodland Mansion.
5 	Giant (×2) and Tiny (×2) 	Norfair 	 	The giant Kirbys represent Ghasts and the tiny King K. Rools represent Zombified Piglins. The stage represents the Nether.
6 	Giant Enderman (×4) 	Find Mii 	 	Horde Battle. Items do not appear.The Endermen being sized up resembles their actual height in Minecraft. The stage represents the End Pillars.
Bonus Stage	Bonus Stage 	Bonus Stage 	Bonus Stage	Bonus Stage
Final 	Giant and Tiny Enderman (×2)	 	 	Giant Ridley represents the Ender Dragon. The stage represents the End.
Note: With the exceptions of Rounds 4 and 5, a song from the universe is played regardless of the stage.
Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Steve has accompany the credits.
==Role in World of Light==
Due to his status as downloadable content, Steve does not have a legitimate role in World of Light. Instead, he is unlocked for use in the mode after freeing 10 fighters from Galeem's control. If loading an existing save file that meets this condition prior to downloading Steve, he is immediately unlocked.
==Spirits==
Steve's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing as Steve. It is only available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Steve has been downloaded. Unlocking Steve 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. Alex has a fighter spirit of her own, only available through the shop. Each fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in Ultimate.
Additionally, the Zombie and Enderman have attack primary and neutral primary spirits respectively, but they do not have fighter spirits.
SSBU spirit Steve.png|1,428. Steve
SSBU spirit Alex.png|1,429. Alex
SSBU spirit Zombie.png|1,430. Zombie
SSBU spirit Enderman.png|1,434. Enderman
==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
1,430 	 	Minecraft Series	•Zombie Team ×10 (20 HP) 	 	1,700 	Minecraft World (Savanna, Night) 	N/A 	•The enemy has super armor but moves slower•Stamina battle•Defeat an army of fighters 	 	
1,434 	 	Minecraft Series	•Enderman Team ×4 	 	8,800 	Minecraft World (Snowy Tundra, Night)	•Move Speed ↑•Item: POW Block	•Only certain Pokémon will emerge from Poké Balls (Abra) 	 	
1,437 	 	Minecraft Series	•Gold Alex Team ×7 (×2 Tiny)	 	4,000 	Reset Bomb Forest (Forest) 	N/A 	•Timed battle (2:00)•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd•The enemy starts the battle with a Killing Edge	 	
1,437 	•Gold Team ×7 (×2 Tiny) (Moveset 1111, Pig Mask, Pig Outfit)	Minecraft Series	 	 	4,000 	Reset Bomb Forest (Forest) 	N/A 	•Timed battle (2:00)•Reinforcements will appear after an enemy is KO'd•The enemy starts the battle with a Killing Edge	 	
===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
1,435 	 	Minecraft Series	•Giant (INT)/ (JP/CH/KR)• ×2 	 	8,700 	Minecraft World (Plains, Day)	•Item: Cucco 	•The enemy has super armor and is hard to launch or make flinch•The enemy favors grabs and throws•Reinforcements will appear during the battle	 	Villagers 	
1,438 	 	Minecraft Series	• (200 HP)•Enderman ×2 (50 HP)	 	12,700 	Find Mii (hazards off) 	•Health Recovery 	•Defeat the main fighter to win•Stamina battle•The enemy is healed significantly when the enemy's at high damage 	 	Endermen 	
This alternative occurs when the corresponding DLC has been purchased and downloaded.
==Alternate costumes==
							
							
==Reveal trailer==
==Gallery==
Steve Rocks the Block.png|Steve's splash art.
Alex Swaps In.png|Alex's splash art.
Zombie Spawns In.png|Zombie's splash art.
Enderman Steps from the Shadows.png|Enderman's splash art.
Steve amiibo.png|Steve's amiibo.
Alex amiibo.png|Alex's amiibo.
Steve unlock notice SSBU.jpg|Steve's unlock notice after downloading him from the Nintendo eShop.
SSBUWebsiteSteve1.jpg|Steve and Alex on Minecraft World.
SSBUWebsiteSteve2.jpg|Steve striking with his down tilt on Gerudo Valley.
SSBUWebsiteSteve3.jpg|Alex attacking Builder with her back aerial on Tomodachi Life.
SSBUWebsiteSteve4.jpg|Steve using Elytra near and on Temple.
SSBUWebsiteSteve5.jpg|Steve and Alex using Minecart with following behind on Port Town Aero Dive.
SSBUWebsiteSteve6.jpg|Scottish Steve, Swedish Alex, Zombie, and Enderman on Palutena's Temple.
Sakurai Twitter Minecraft.jpg|Steve, Alex, and Mario on Minecraft World.
SSBU Steve alts.jpg|All of Steve and Alex's alternate costumes on Minecraft World.
All Fighters from Fighters Pass Vol 2.jpg|Steve alongside all of the other DLC fighters of .
==Trivia==
*Steve is referred to within the game files with the codename "pickel". In Japanese, the loanword pickel is used to refer to ice axes, deriving from the German word "Eispickel".ピッケル - Wikipedia
*According to Masahiro Sakurai, Steve was largely easy to develop conceptually, but the programming work required to "bring the fighter to life" was very difficult.
**Sakurai stated that when Nintendo approached him about adding Minecraft content, he was at first skeptical of the idea, but ultimately agreed to it.
**He also noted that every stage in the game had to be reworked to accommodate Steve's block-placing ability, which was a large portion of the fighter's programming workload.https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/10/every_smash_bros_ultimate_stage_has_to_be_reworked_for_minecraft_steves_inclusion
**Another development hurdle Sakurai and his team encountered while working on Steve was the issue of the Enderman costume unintentionally blending into stages with dark backgrounds. While attempting to remedy this issue, Sakurai would take screenshots of the Enderman in front of dark backgrounds and ask the development team to try and find it.https://twitter.com/KodyNOKOLO/status/1455935774088704000
*According to former Minecraft production director Daniel Kaplan, negotiations between Nintendo and Mojang for Minecraft content to appear in Smash began "at least five" years prior to Steve's reveal.https://twitter.com/Kappische/status/1311773807175180296
*Steve is the first fighter in Smash history to have a victory animation modified in an update (not including an update in Smash 4 that universally improved slow-motion effects on sword-swinging animations). In version , Steve's Up victory pose was modified so that the Steak disappears after he finishes eating it.
**Although the official reason for this change is currently unknown, many players noted that the position of the camera at the end of the pose gave it an unintentionally phallic appearance, with journalists reporting on it both before and after it was altered. Phil Spencer, the head executive of Microsoft's Xbox division, was shown the pose and stated in response to the interviewer's speculations, "I assume that will be fixed."Stephen Totilo on Twitter
**Steve is the second fighter in Ultimate to have their victory screens modified in some way via updates, the first being 's victory theme being changed to fit the rest of the fighters from Fire Emblem Awakening in version .
*Steve and are the only fighters in Ultimate whose alternate costumes are displayed alongside their default costumes on the official Ultimate site, similarly to 's page on the official SSB4 site.
*Steve is the only character in either Fighters Pass, and one of two characters in Ultimates entire DLC (the other being ), to be completely mute.
*Steve and are the only DLC fighters in Ultimate who can crawl.
*Many of Steve's animations and sounds are directly taken from existing Minecraft games and media:
**Steve is the only playable character to date without a unique tumbling animation, instead deriving it from his running animation, remaining upright; this reflects the way players are knocked back in Minecraft. His running animation is also used when he is star KO'd as well as during certain cinematic Final Smashes such as Triple Wolf and Wario-Man.
**Steve's swimming animation is identical to his walk animation, as in Minecraft, and his drowning animation reflects the way players "sprint" underwater in Minecraft.
**Steve simply falls to the side when KO'd by a weak attack in Stamina Mode, crumpling, or drowning, mimicking the way players and mobs die in Minecraft.
**When falling asleep, Steve places a red bed on the ground and lies on it. When waking up, he collects it back into his inventory.
**In his perfect shield animation, Steve crouches and briefly wields a Minecraft shield.
**Steve's crouching and crawling animations are taken from Minecrafts sneaking mechanic. He also sneaks in his teetering animation, reflecting the fact that sneaking prevents the player from falling over ledges in Minecraft.
**When landing from a fall of sufficient distance (roughly 73 units or 7.3 blocks), Minecrafts player damage sound plays, making him the only character with a unique long-distance fall sound. This sound cue is merely aesthetic.
**Minecrafts eating sound effects play when Steve consumes a food item. This makes Steve the second character to make a unique sound when eating, following fellow third-party character .
**Steve's clapping animation resembles the "simple clap" emote exclusive to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, looped and with Steve's body turned to the side instead of facing forwards.
**Steve and Alex's eyes blink periodically, a feature not present in their home series outside of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Dungeons. Otherwise, their facial expressions never change, even while asleep. The Zombie and Enderman do not blink.
**When climbing a , Steve idly glides up and down it while emitting Minecrafts own ladder-climbing sounds. He also crouches when stationary on a ladder, as the player does to remain stationary on a ladder in Minecraft.
**When Steve's fishing rod enters a water surface, a water sound effect from Minecraft plays upon him retracting the grab.
**Steve’s animation when carrying a heavy item is based on the Enderman’s animation when it’s carrying a block.
*Steve's alternate costumes each consist of a single texture taken from Minecraft, modified slightly for unknown reasons. This notably makes modifying them through file replacement extremely simple.
*Steve is the first playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series to have originated from an indie game. created Minecraft alone and served as its lead designer until its initial release in 2011, although his development company, Mojang AB (later "Mojang Studios"), became a subsidiary of Microsoft in 2014.
**Independently owned properties currently exclusively appear in Smash Bros. in the form of Trophies, Spirits, Assist Trophies, and Mii Costumes; an indie character has yet to become playable while still being independently owned.
*Steve is the only fighter to lack an idle pose.
*Zombie and Enderman are the only alternate characters to lack fighter spirits.
*Zombie's and Enderman's stock icons are two of six to show the character's eyes, the others being , , , and 
**This is not counting and Larry, as the eyes depicted for the former are not his actual eyes, and the latter lacks his irises.
*Much like 's sourspotted attacks, Steve's wooden and stone sword attacks use "punching" sound effects.
*Steve's animation for holding crates, party balls, barrels, and Blast Boxes resembles the way that Endermen carry blocks in Minecraft.
*If Steve picks up an Assist Trophy while walking, he can continue walking with it until he stops or performs any other action such as jumping. He, , and are the only characters who can walk with an Assist Trophy.
*The initial reveal of Steve on October 1, 2020 led to a large influx of activity on the social media website Twitter, resulting in the website becoming unreachable for a short period of time. The last time that Twitter experienced a worldwide outage was on June 25, 2009, with the death of popular singer causing a similar influx of activity.https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2020/oct/06/smash-steve-broke-twitter/
*Steve is the only character in the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 with stance mirroring.
*Excluding the Mii Fighters, Steve and are the only fighter to have an alternate costume of a different character beyond a gender swap in the same pose as his default costume.
*Steve, , and are the only characters who cannot angle their shield by holding the special move button while shielding. In Steve's case, this is due to the shield and special button combination being used to spawn a crafting table near him.
==References==
 
Category:Downloadable content
Category:Third-party characters
Category:Microsoft
Category:Mojang Studios
Category:Spirits
es:Steve (SSBU)