Zelda (SSBM)

This article is about Zelda's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Princess Zelda.

Zelda in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Alternate form	Sheik
Other Smash Bros. appearance	in Brawl
Availability	Starter
Tier	F (18)

“	A graceful princess with powerful magical attacks.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Zelda (ゼルダ, Zerudā) is one of the more unique characters in the lineup for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zelda's most notable traits are her array of powerful magical attacks and her unique ability to transform herself into her alter ego, Sheik. This alternate form is very different from Zelda, and each was intended to help balance the other's weaknesses, so that ideally, one would change between the two so to match the flow of battle.

Zelda is 18th on the tier list, in the F tier. Zelda's positive attributes include an effective KO move with her Lightning Kick, as well as powerful attacks with transcendent priority. Additionally, Zelda has a somewhat long recovery, though it has few options that allow it to be extended. Zelda's primary weakness is her poor movement, due to having the slowest dash speed in the game, slow falling, and air speed, resulting in a short, slow wavedash. Zelda also lacks effective combos due to her high knockback moves, preventing her from easily racking up damage. This contributes to Zelda having poor matchups against others, though she does have a few even matchups against those higher than her, such as Dr. Mario.

Attributes

Zelda does not fall under any specific archetype of characters, due to her unusual properties as a fighter; she has a slew of powerful finishers, such as her Lightning Kick, but she is of average weight. Additionally, Zelda has a slow falling speed and a high traction, leading to a very short, albeit fast, wavedash.

One of Zelda's strengths is the perhaps surprising amount of power. Within the air, her forward and back aerials of the Lightning Kick can KO at as low as 70% to 80%, and her up air has a large hitbox that can also KO opponents. On the ground, Zelda's up tilt is surprisingly powerful (on par with Marth's up tilt), and its long duration and large radius allows it to be relatively useful under most circumstances. Zelda's up and forward smash attacks are also surprisingly powerful and they have high damage output due to their multiple hits.

In addition, Zelda has a variety of fast attacks, such as her down smash (which is the fastest in the game) and her forward and back aerials, both of which, as mentioned earlier, are among the most powerful in the game. As an added bonus, many of Zelda's attacks have transcendent priority; combined with an average reach in most of her attacks, Zelda has potential to stop others' attacks with her own

Additionally, Zelda has a decent grab game; her grab range is moderately high, being the ninth longest in the game. Her up throw, at low percentages, has chain throw potential and her down throw's trajectory can lead to combos with her forward or back aerial. Additionally, her forward and back throws are rather powerful, and their resulting trajectory can lead to some edgeguarding games.

However, Zelda is strongly held back by having one of the worst approach games in the game. On the ground, Zelda has a poor dashing speed, a short wavedash, and a slow dash dance; combined with decidedly average range in her attacks, Zelda cannot effectively attack or counterattack on the ground. Zelda doesn't fare better in the air; despite an above average air speed, Zelda suffers from poor jumping height, a low falling speed, and a high short hop, leading to a poor SHFFL and equally poor combo game. Zelda's lack of an effective projectile also prevents her from attacking from afar; Din's Fire is too laggy and weak to be an effective projectile.

In addition to a poor approach on the ground, Zelda's high knockback attacks and poor aerial game gives Zelda an almost non-existent comboing game, with many of her combos only lasting two or three hits, most of which that don't deal significant damage or set up for other approaches. Her forward and up smashes also suffer from SDI problems, as opponents can easily SDI out of them before the last, most powerful hit can harm them.

Zelda also suffers from having generally situation specials (save Transform). Nayru's Love can only harm attackers in short ranges, and it has high ending lag and it doesn't protect her from attacks above her. Din's Fire, as mentioned earlier, doesn't significantly aid her approach and it too suffers from high ending lag. Farore's Wind, while covering long distances, lacks a powerful offensive hitbox on its start, and lacks one altogether when reentering, making Zelda very easy to edgeguard and/or edgehog.

Moveset

Ground attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack: Zaps magic quickly from her palm, in a similar fashion to Ganondorf's neutral attack. Has transcendent priority. The three hits add up to 5% damage.
• Dash attack: Shoves her hands in front, with magic sparks coming out them. Has transcendent priority. 9-13% damage.
• Forward tilt: Swipes her hand forward with sparks. Has transcendent priority. 13% damage.
• Down tilt: Thrusts her foot out quickly from under her dress. Can meteor smash. Has transcendent priority. 7% damage.
• Up tilt: Waves her hand in an arch above her, her hand filled with sparks. Surprisingly powerful. Has transcendent priority. 11% damage.

Smash attacks

• Up smash: Waves her hand in an arch similar to her up tilt three times. Multi-hitting, powerful. Can be SDI'd out of. 14% uncharged, 20% fully.
• Down smash: Quick roundhouse-like kick. Short range with a sightly disjointed hitbox and poor power, but fast. Has transcendent priority. 11% uncharged, 15% fully.
• Forward smash: Sends out a fierce jab of magic in front of her in a similar fashion to Mario's. Like her up smash, multi-hitting and strong on the final frame. Also, this attack can be SDI'd out of. Has transcendent priority. 15% uncharged, 22% fully.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial: Spins with magic sparks twice. Many hitboxes, good for spacing. Has transcendent priority. 14% if all hits connect, though it may be DI'd out of, and full damage doesn't occur as often as Zelda players would like.
• Up aerial: Releases a giant fireball upwards. Good power. Has transcendent priority. 13% damage.
• Back aerial: Lightning Kick. Kicks backward. If the foe is hit with the tip of her foot just as the move comes out, it zaps them very powerfully, around that of Captain Falcon's knee smash. Has transcendent priority. 10% if not sweetspotted, 20% if sweetspotted. A bit faster than her forward Lightning Kick, so it can be used twice in a short hop.
• Forward aerial: Lightning Kick. Virtually identical to her back aerial in all but direction. Has transcendent priority.
• Down aerial: Thrusts her foot downwards. A very weak meteor smash. 8% damage

Grabs & throws

• Pummel: Zaps her foe. 2-3% damage per pummel
• Forward throw: Launches her foe forward, above average power. 12% damage.
• Back throw: Similar to her forward throw, only directly behind her. If the player uses her back throw very close to the ledge, she can set up an early edgeguard by using a sweetspotted forward or back aerial. 11% damage.
• Up throw: Thrusts foe to the sky. 11% damage.
• Down throw: Drops foe and zaps them, send foe behind her with weak knockback. Multi-hitting, hits add up to 9%.

Other attacks

• Ledge attack: Gets up and swirls her skirt forward. 6% damage.
• 100% ledge attack: Slowly gets up and slaps in front. 8-10% damage.
• Floor attack: Swirls her dress around with foot extended and gets up. 6% damage

Special moves

Zelda's special moves
Neutral special	Nayru's Love
Side special	Din's Fire
Up special	Farore's Wind
Down special	Transform

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable Players

See also: Category:Zelda professionals

• Cosmo
• The Lake

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

In the Classic Mode, Zelda can appear in the ordinary 1 on 1 battles, on a team with either Link, Marth, Young Link, Peach or Bowser, or in the game's metal battle. In her appearances, Zelda appears on Hyrule Temple, though she appears on Great Bay when with Young Link, and on Battlefield when with Bowser.

In Adventure Mode

Zelda's sole appearance in the Adventure Mode is in the second portion of Stage 3, the Underground Maze. The player has to fight against her on the Hyrule Temple stage to progress in the mode.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Zelda and her allies are fought on the Temple stage.

In Event Matches

Zelda is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 9: Hide 'n' Sheik: The player is pitted against two Zeldas on Great Bay; to win, however, players have to wait for Zelda to transform into Sheik and then KO them. Upon getting KO'd as Sheik, the CPU will be removed from the game; KOs against Zelda, however, merely cause her to respawn as normal.
• Event 15: Girl Power: The player, with two stocks, has to fight against Samus, Peach and Zelda, all of whom also have two stocks; the player, however, is tiny, and must KO all three, who are on the same team. Friendly fire is turned on in the match, easing it slightly for the player.
• Event 20: All-Star Match 2:Zelda is the third opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. Their character battles her on the Temple stage, and the player's character has 2 stock while Zelda has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her and the other four characters with the overall time and life they have: Samus, Link, Captain Falcon, and Fox.
• Event 29: Triforce Gathering: The player plays as Link with Zelda as their partner, both of whom have one stock. They face Ganondorf on the Hyrule Temple stage, who has two stock. Clearing the event allows the player to unlock Ganondorf.
• Event 44: Mewtwo Strikes!: In this event, the player is initially placed on Battlefield, against Zelda. After fifteen seconds, however, Mewtwo appears on stage and will fight the player. The player's goal is to KO Mewtwo; while Zelda can be attacked, KOing her will result in failure.

Ending images

Zelda and Sheik share ending images for the one-player modes, as well as the same cinematic; clearing the mode with one also gives the player both of their trophies.

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  Classic Mode.

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  Adventure Mode.

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  All-Star mode.

Trophy descriptions

The crown princess of Hyrule. Zelda entrusted Link with the future of Hyrule after a revelation came to her in the world of dreams. She knows much about the Triforce; in fact, the only person who likely knows more about Triforce lore is Ganondorf himself, whom Zelda evaded in Ocarina of Time by transforming into her alter ego, Sheik.

Game: The Legend of Zelda [07/87]

In addition to the normal trophy about Zelda as a character, there are two trophies about her as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Zelda on any difficulty:

Zelda (Smash Red)

Zelda is a bit slow and, because of her light frame, easy to send flying. On the other hand, her magical skills lend her reliable and explosive attack power. Zelda's easier to use if you focus on waiting and countering rather than pressing attacks. She can use Nayru's Love to reflect projectile attacks or as an offensive weapon. (B: Nayru's Love, Smash B: Din's Fire)

Zelda (Smash Blue)

Zelda's midair Lightning Kick centers immense magical power in the ball of her foot. If she strikes perfectly, the attack is as strong as can be. If her aim is slightly off, it'll be exceedingly weak. Farore's Wind again utilizes Zelda's magical prowess, this time by transporting her great distances. It's vital to know the lay of the land before using this move. (Up & B: Farore's Wind, Down & B: Transform)

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Costumes

Zelda's changeable clothing in SSBM

Trivia

• Zelda is the only character with the ability to transform into another character in Melee, and the first to do so in the Smash Bros. series, by being able to turn into Sheik. Pokémon Trainer in Brawl would later have the ability to "change" fighters by switching out different Pokémon, and Samus would gain the ability to change into Zero Suit Samus through her final smash.
• In a screenshot of the character select screen in Melee, from Smabura-Ken, Zelda's portrait is missing from the character select screen. This seems to have been done to hide the surprise of Zelda being playable, as Sheik was revealed first.