Steve (SSBU)

This article is about Steve's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For the character in other contexts, see Steve.

**“***Steve Rocks the Block!***”**—Introduction tagline (Steve)

* Alex
* Zombie
* Enderman
 Availability
 Final Smash

**Steve** (Japanese: スティーブ, *Steve, Arabic:* ستيف) is a playable character in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*, the second third-party fighter from Microsoft after Banjo & Kazooie, and the 10th DLC character for *Ultimate*. He was confirmed as a playable character on October 1st, 2020 as the second downloadable character from Fighters Pass Vol. 2. **Alex** (Japanses: アレックス, *Alex*, Arabic: اليكس), a **Zombie** (Japanese: ゾンビ, *Zombie*, Arabic: الاموات الاحياء), and an **Enderman** (Japanese: エンダーマン, *Enderman*, Arabic: إندرمان) also appear as alternate costumes. He was released on October 13th, 2020, and is classified as fighter #92.

## Attributes

Steve is a fighter who possesses slightly below-average weight and very unremarkable mobility. He has the shortest jump out of the entire roster, in addition to a peculiar crouch and crawl based on *Minecraft* "sneaking" mechanic, 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.

Taking many attributes from his home game, Steve is perhaps 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, 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. 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 if used near the upper sides of the stage, it is rather poor at vertical recovery and 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 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. The anvil also has high priority due to its damage, making it very powerful for contesting against attacks. It should also be noted that these 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 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.

Despite his strengths, Steve's attributes present flaws. His mobility is very underwhelming, having among the worst ground mobility in the game due to the combination of poor run speed and one of the worst initial dashes 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.

His moveset has its own downsides. His down tilt and up smash leaves 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*-revolving 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 reach, is also limited due to his low jump height, low air speed and recovery moves: 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. It is also rather mediocre vertically, with the firework's boost essentially being Steve's only means of recovering below the stage, and it doesn't reach as far as one might expect. Minecart can be used for horizontal distance, though it does not grant good distance without redstone and gold, and cannot be used without iron. 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 to do so.

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. Early impressions of Steve have been mixed to positive. Some players, like ESAM and Hungrybox, are optimistic due to Steve's unique strengths, especially in the hands of a player who has good resource management and a strong understanding of his abilities. Other players, like Dabuz and IzAw, believe that Steve's flaws will prevent him from being a strong character with IzAw believing Steve could be among the worst characters in *Ultimate* or even the worst character in the game.

## Update history

Shortly after Steve was released, he received several bug fixes that fixed major game breaking glitches, as well as receiving an aesthetic change.

**9.0.1**

* Fixed an issue in which certain characters could fall though the stage when breaking Blocks.
* Fixed an issue in which the anvil from Steve's down aerial could fall through the stage when pinching an opponent with the anvil and a Block.
* Minecart:
	+ Fixed an issue in which fighters could be frozen if hit with Minecart.
	+ Fixed an issue in which Minecart does not hit opponents when reflected off a wall.
	+ Fixed an issue in which a fighter caught by Minecart teleports to the position in which they were caught.
* Steve's up victory pose was changed to remove the Steak after he eats it.

## 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 sufficent 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. 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 constantly 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 is 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.*

*Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.*

### Durability system

True to *Minecraft*, Steve's tools can break after a certain amount of use. While similar to the durability system of Robin, 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.

#### Durability cost

 Forward Smash
 Ledge Attack/Floor Attacks
 Up Tilt/Up Aerial
 Dash Attack
 Up Smash
 Forward Aerial/Back Aerial
 Mine

### 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.

### 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.
* **Side taunt**: Pulls out and eats a Steak.
* **Down taunt**: Sneaks (crouches) three times while looking toward the screen.

* Steve's up taunt.
* Steve's side taunt.
* Steve's down taunt.

### 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.

## In competitive play

Leading up to release, there was a lot of speculation for how Steve would work in *Smash* due to his very unique move-set 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 stated Steve is more of a high-top tier, with advantages including incredible edge guarding and a great combo game, with Hungrybox putting him in high-tier. Other players like Dabuz, though, believe his weaknesses, especially his poor mobility and terrible neutral and disadvantage, make him more of a low-mid tier character. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Steve was developed and released, it may take a long time for his full potential to be realized.

In the online metagame, players who utilize Steve such as BestNess generally only play him as a secondary. However, Aaron has proven that Steve can work as a solo main online, with placements such as 5th at The Box: L4st's Box and claiming victory at The Box: Juice Box 17.

## Classic Mode: 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 in *Minecraft Java Edition* before Beta 1.8 and it still exists in 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 Endermen.

Note: With the exceptions of Rounds 4 and 5, a song from the *Minecraft* universe is played regardless of the stage.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Steve has *Earth* accompany the credits.

## Spirits

Steve's Fighter Spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is only available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 coins, 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 are purely aesthetic. Alex has a Fighter Spirit of her own, available exclusively through the shop. Each Fighter Spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with its artwork in *Ultimate*.

Additionally, the Zombie and Enderman have an attack primary and neutral primary spirits respectively, but they do not have fighter spirits.

## Spirit Battles

### As the main opponent

1. **^** This alternative occurs when the corresponding DLC has been purchased and downloaded.

## Trivia

Steve's Up victory pose prior to version 9.0.1.

* Steve is referred within the game files with the codename "pickel". In Japanese, the loanword ピッケル *pickel* is used to refer to ice axes, deriving from the German word "Eispickel".
* 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.
	+ He also revealed that every stage in the game had to be reworked to make use of Steve's block-placing ability.
	+ Sakurai stated that when Nintendo approached him about adding *Minecraft* content, he was at first skeptical of the idea, before deciding to go through with it. This has been misinterpreted by some to mean that he did not desire to do so.
* According to former *Minecraft* production director Daniel Kaplan, it took at least 5 years of negotiating between Nintendo and Mojang for Steve to appear in *Smash*.
* Steve is the second fighter in *Smash* history to have a victory pose modified in an update, after Robin. In this case, his Up victory pose was modified in version 9.0.1 so the Steak disappears after he finishes eating it.
	+ He is the third fighter to have their victory screens modified in some way via updates, the first being Robin as previously mentioned, and the second being Chrom's victory theme being changed to fit the rest of the characters from *Fire Emblem Awakening* in version 3.0.0 of *Ultimate*.
	+ Although it is unconfirmed if this was the actual reason for the removal, many players noticed that the meat in Steve's victory pose had an unintentionally phallic appearance, to the point that journalists reported on it both before and after it was removed. Phil Spencer, the head executive of Microsoft's Xbox division, was shown the pose and stated in response, "I assume that will be fixed."
* For Zombie and Enderman, in French, Spanish, and German, the voice clip from the announcer on the victory screen is slightly different from the one used on the character select screen, instead featuring a noticeable translation of "the" ("**le** Zombie"/"**l'**Enderman", "**el** Zombi"/"**el** Enderman", and "**der** Zombie"/"**der** Enderman"). This trait is shared with Inkling, Pokémon Trainer, Villager, Hero, the Ice Climbers, Wii Fit Trainer, and the Mii Fighters.
* Steve is the third fighter to have one of their victory animations shown in their reveal trailer, the first two being Joker and Terry.
	+ He is also the third fighter to have a victory theme originating from another video game, the first two being Sonic and Joker.
		- Despite this, his victory theme was actually a sound effect in the original game.
* Steve and Byleth are the only characters in *Ultimate* whose alternate costumes are displayed alongside their default costumes on the official *Ultimate* site, similarly to Robin's page on the official *SSB4* site.
* Steve and Alex are the first human characters to not have a gender, as all entities in *Minecraft* are genderless.
	+ However, Masahiro Sakurai described Steve and Alex as male and female, respectively.
* Many of Steve's animations and sounds are directly taken from existing *Minecraft* games and media:
	+ He is the only character to date with a unique tumbling animation, where he performs his running animation midair while staying upright, reflecting the same damage animations from *Minecraft*. This also applies when he is star KO'd and during certain cinematic Final Smashes such as Triple Wolf and Wario Man.
	+ He falls to the side when getting KO'd by a weak attack in Stamina Mode, crumpling, or drowning, resembling the death animations of said game.
	+ Steve's swimming animation is simply his walk animation slowed down, resembling his underwater behavior in *Minecraft* prior to Java 1.13, after which he received a unique swimming animation. Said updated animation is instead used when he drowns.
	+ While asleep, Steve will place a red bed on the ground and proceed to lie on it. When waking up, he collects it back in his inventory.
	+ If a perfect shield is performed, Steve will use an equippable shield to block the attack.
	+ Steve's crouching and crawling animations resemble *Minecraft*'s sneaking mechanic. Additionally, he also sneaks in his teetering animation, a nod to how sneaking in the original game prevents the player from falling off blocks.
	+ When falling from a sufficient distance, the "taken damage" sound from *Minecraft*'s fall damage mechanic plays when Steve lands, making him the only character with a unique long-distance fall sound. Unlike the original game, this cue is merely aesthetic.
	+ When eating, the eating sound effects from *Minecraft*, including the burp, play. This makes Steve the second character to make a unique sound when eating, following fellow third-party character Snake.
	+ Steve's clapping animation resembles the "simple clap" emote exclusive to the "Bedrock" Edition of *Minecraft*, looped and with Steve's head facing the camera while his body faces away.
	+ Steve and Alex's eyes can blink, which was previously only present in the "Bedrock" Edition of *Minecraft* and in *Minecraft Dungeons*. Otherwise, their facial expressions never change, even while asleep. The Zombie and Enderman do not blink.
	+ When climbing a ladder, Steve idly glides up and down it while emitting sounds identical to those made when climbing ladders in *Minecraft*. When stationary on a ladder, he crouches, in reference to how sneaking lets the player stay in place on ladders in the game.
	+ Using Steve's tools while holding an item allows him to briefly dual wield them.
	+ When Steve's fishing rod enters a water surface, a water sound effect from *Minecraft* plays upon him retracting the grab.
* Steve's alternate costumes each consist of a single template texture ported directly from *Minecraft*. This notably makes modifying them through file replacement extremely simple.
* Steve is the first playable third party character in the *Super Smash Bros.* series to have originated from an indie game. In this case, *Minecraft* started development solely by Markus Persson during its inception.
	+ Before this, indie characters were often relegated to being Trophies, Spirits, Assist Trophies or Mii Costumes.
* Steve, Harmony, Byleth, Hero, Terry, Ryu, and Aa are the only characters who have stamina battles for their Classic Mode routes.
	+ Of these characters, Steve, Harmony, and Aa is the only two to have both stamina battles and regular battles within the route, as Steve's route rounds 1, 3, 4, 5, and the boss are stamina battles while rounds 2 and 6 are regular battles, as Harmony's route only used for the final round, and as Aa's route rounds 2,3, and a fight against Ganondorf before the boss fight.
	+ Out of the three characters with Steve, Harmony and Aa; Aa by far is the only character that switches to regular battle against a boss.
* Steve, Jigglypuff, Bayonetta, Terry, and Harmony are the only characters who do not have a designated boss in their Classic Mode routes; all characters he battles in his route are playable characters.
* Steve, Hero and Corrin are the only characters who fight the same fighter multiple times in Classic Mode route; in Steve's case, he fights his alternate costumes, Zombie in Round 1 and Enderman in Round 6 and final round.
* Steve is the only character to lack an idle pose.
* Zombie and Enderman are the only alternate characters that do not possess a fighter spirit.
* Much like Roy's sourspotted attacks, Steve's sword attacks make punching sounds when using wood or stone swords, as do all variants of his axes and pickaxes.
* Steve holds crates, party balls, barrels, and Blast Boxes in a similar position to the way Endermen carry blocks in *Minecraft*.
* Steve is the lightest DLC fighter introduced in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* and the third lightest newcomer in general, after Daisy and Isabelle.
* Steve's blocks do not align to the Training Mode grid, appearing to be only 0.95 meters to a side instead of 1. This is because the grid lines correspond to 1.07 units instead of 1.
* In Home-Run Contest, Steve starts off with diamond tools. Additionally, the crafting table can’t be spawned, although Steve can still build blocks.
* Steve has the most individual tips of any character in *Ultimate*, with 60.
* Steve is the third fighter in *Ultimate* in which the English announcer announces the name of the alternate model being used, following Olimar and Bowser Jr.
	+ Steve is the first third-party character to have this distinction.
* Steve is the second DLC character with no voice clips, following Piranha Plant.
	+ He is also the third of the third-party characters to lack voice clips, following Mega Man and Pac-Man.
* Steve is the first DLC character in *Ultimate* whose down aerial cannot meteor smash under any conditions.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/Meshima\_/status/1317228490329001984
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/Meshima\_/status/1317228556305408002
3. ↑ https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E3%83%83%E3%82%B1%E3%83%AB
4. ↑ https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/10/every\_smash\_bros\_ultimate\_stage\_has\_to\_be\_reworked\_for\_minecraft\_steves\_inclusion
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/Kappische/status/1311773807175180296
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1319097009761112064
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/Ruben\_dal/status/1109625394003697665