Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Winners and losers from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Last Balance Patch.

With the final balance update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, an enthralling amount of characters got their final adjustments.

A little over three years after, the last balanced update to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out with the most significant adjustments to the roster of 82 characters.

 Following 2 Fighters Pass expansions with 12 new characters, Ultimate received an enthralling amount of support during the last three years. A plethora of balance adjustments have been made and removed throughout the time, from enhancements to the quality of life of all players to significant modifications to characters in positive and negative ways. 

A majority of the balance adjustments implemented in the Ultimate game were well-received, except a handful of characters that were nerfed a little too much. The new patch does not alter this idea.

The latest Balance update of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Version 13.0.1, isn’t making any significant adjustments. However, some characters from the competitive meta saw some significant changes, including nerfs to Steve Pyra/Mythra and Min Min.

 A few significant buffs were also given in Ryu and Ken, Inkling, Meta Knight, and Link and Link. Overall the patch was quite complete and, even though the patch was not as extensive as some of the previous updates, this update was a complete one that provided a surprising number of tweaks.

The winners of Patch 13.0.1: DK, Link, Bowser Jr. Ryu/Ken Piranha Plant

Update 13.0.1 brought about a variety of characters that those who are part of the community of competitive players would think were low-level. Although some tweaks could be questioned, the most notable improvements seemed to be an excellent fit for the characters involved, which saw significant improvement to their kit.

Donkey Kong, in particular, was one of the characters that received small but significant improvements to his moves and hitting down and super armor for Giant Punch and a more secure jab combo. 

The link also saw a few small but significant improvements and a more powerful jab attack, a more precise launch angle, a more potential for combos and strings, as well as an improved up smash. 

Meta Knight was able to see significant improvements because of a handful of tweaks to his strength and knockback in his air forward, air back, and up throws attack. Ike, along with Ice Climbers, also saw similarly minor adjustments that could be significant, such as Ike’s jab and up smash and side special and Ice Climbers’ dash attack and downbeat.

As for significant changes to characters, several characters with low levels received some necessary enhancements. Bowser Jr.’s hitboxes saw their consistency enhanced for moves such as down tilt and dash attack and activities such as side special and up smash come with more strength and knockback. 

Ryu’s moveset from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was able to see several significant improvements, including an improved and more powerful side tilt (substantial variation) attack. There are also slightly more powerful fireballs in all strengths and less time to finish particular (Tatsu) and side special (Tatsu).

 Inkling saw several enhancements to their set of moves that included stronger tilt attacks, bigger and stronger hitboxes on forwarding smashes, and a more excellent range for neutral specials, as well as. Piranha Plant also saw similar enhancements to tilts, down-air attacks, and reduced end lag when using down unique.

A few other characters received minor improvements that aren’t worth mentioning more in-depth, but overall, patch 13.0.1 was highly kind to some characters that had some obvious imperfections. 

Although these changes aren’t expected to significantly alter the playability of the buffed characters, they’ll undoubtedly help those who are already playing them.

The patch’s losers are Min Min, Pyra/Mythology, 13.0.1: Min, Pyra/Mythra Steve.

On the other hand, some compelling characters received substantial changes to their nerfs. Although some might say that these characters weren’t needed these changes or that other characters should have been nerfed more, These changes were primarily subtle but beneficial updates to high-end characters. 

Min Min’s offensive power was reduced by reducing damage to shields caused by her Megawatt attacks, adding an increase in recovery from her air attack that is neutral, and reducing active frames of her Dragon’s beam side smash.

Pyra and Mythra could remove specific set-ups due to adjustments to the attack, such as adding recovery to Pyra’s side special and more minor damage from the Mythra side slam. 

Minecraft‘s Steve multi-hit-up smash was modified to adjust the hitstun to prevent easy follow-ups in the event of Steve players who can complete the attack. 

The most significant change for the newer characters was to alter the animations used to get up the characters to be in line with the length of the universal getup animation of the characters. These adjustments complete the most recent major balance update to characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s roster.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Balance of Competitiveness

In the case of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players, it’s quite an odd update to put the game’s balance adjustments from now on. 

Some players would suggest that some of the most high-end characters that were problematic were not changed in update 13.0.1. On the other hand, the fans point out Pikachu, Game & Watch, and R.O.B. as characters that remain among the top. 

Some fans were genuinely amazed at the number of balance changes from this update. But, in general, there is no major issue in the game’s competitive balance that should have been resolved at this point. So even if there are especially broken characters, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is in good condition at the moment.

Particularly in comparison to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS, where Bayonetta dominated the competitive meta at the end of the game, Super Smash Bros. 

Ultimate offers a wide range of characters on the roster who can succeed in the tournament. Some outliers are to get into certain tiers; however, with a roster that includes about 80 or so characters, it’s remarkable that the metagame has changed in the way it has.