Link (SSB4)

Link in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Triforce Slash
Tier	D (31)

Link (リンク, Link) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. His return to the series was announced during the E3 Nintendo Direct on June 11th, 2013. He was also among the first wave of amiibo that are compatible with SSB4.

As in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Akira Sasanuma's portrayal of Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was repurposed for Smash 4, with mostly returning voice clips from Brawl, and in addition to some new ones sourced from the game.

Link is ranked 31st out of 54 on the tier list, placing him in the D tier. This is a significant improvement over his bottom-tier placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 35th out of 38, and his best placement in the series to date. Link possesses multiple projectiles in the form of his Hero's Bow, Gale Boomerang and Bomb, each of which serves as a great tool for combos, camping, gimping, and disrupting approaches. Aside from his projectiles, Link's Master Sword grants him above-average power and disjointed range. In addition to his retained strengths, his recovery has been greatly buffed from Brawl, thanks to Spin Attack and Clawshot covering noticeably more distance, and Bomb's shorter fuse improving its recovery potential. As a heavyweight, his respectable durability allows him to take advantage of rage to further bolster his already powerful attacks.

However, Link remains held back by his relatively sluggish mobility and frame data. He has moves that are easily overwhelmed in close-combat and punishable if whiffed. This, combined with his high weight render him vulnerable to combos, especially from the fast, rushdown-oriented characters that are prevalent in the metagame. What's more, several of his fellow veterans gained more significant buffs than Link did in the transition to Smash 4, dampening his selling points in competitive play.

While Link's early tournament results were mediocre at best, he nevertheless attained a dedicated playerbase, with players such as Scizor, Sova Unknown, and T achieving commendable results with him.

Attributes

Link is a heavyweight, and the majority of his attributes are largely reflective of his weight class. His only attribute that is atypical of a heavyweight is his walking speed, which is above average. His most unique attribute is his fast fall; while his regular falling speed is tied with that of R.O.B., Ryu, and standard Mii Swordfighter as the 24th fastest in the game, his fast fall is actually the third fastest in the game, behind Fox and King Dedede. This is because Link uniquely increases his falling speed by 90% when fast-falling, as opposed to the standard 60% that all other characters (bar Ryu) adhere to.

Like his alternate timeline counterpart, Link possesses two shields instead of just one. In Link's case, he wields the Hylian Shield, which blocks opposing projectiles if he is standing still or walking. Like Toon Link, Link also wields his respective version of the Master Sword, which grants him disjointed range and above-average strength, the latter of which is most evident in his forward tilt, smash attacks, dash attack, and Spin Attack. However, his forward, up, and down aerials also boast impressive power while possessing certain traits: his forward and back aerials can hit twice, his up and down aerials have long-lasting hitboxes, and his down aerial can meteor smash.

Link is one of the handful of characters in SSB4 with a tether grab, with his Clawshot being a useful supplement to not just his recovery, but also his zoning and combo games. Although its damage output has been lowered since Brawl, Clawshot still boasts impressive range, has minimal landing lag, and comes out even faster than before as an attack. It also assists his combo game, due to his down throw's impressive combo potential, while his up throw possesses KO potential. Lastly and most importantly, Clawshot is a pivotal part of Link's recovery, especially due to his sluggish mobility.

Link's special moves all have their uses. Hero's Bow is a strong option against characters who struggle at approaching and is good for providing long-ranged pressure. Gale Boomerang is a decent spacing option and has follow-up potential upon contact or via its vacuum effect. Gale Boomerang's drag effect also grants it gimping potential in the form of Gale Guarding. Spin Attack's overall recovery distance has noticeably improved since Brawl, while its already impressive power has been further increased, which in turn improves its KO potential or as a way to punish rolls. However, Link's Bomb is perhaps the most versatile weapon within his arsenal thanks to its utility. Throwing a Bomb at an opponent can cause enough hitstun to help Link's approach and/or set up combos. Conversely, if the opponent shields it, the Bomb simply bounces off, allowing it to be used for spacing. Even holding a Bomb long enough for it to explode can be useful; while doing so damages Link, it gives him a small vertical boost and removes him from being helpless, aiding his recovery and/or allowing him to break out of combos. Like in Brawl, his bombs can also be used for a technique called Bomb Sliding, which noticeably supplements his ground mobility. When combined with the overall fastest item throw animations in the game, Link's Bomb allows him to pressure opponents at a deceptively fast speed.

Despite his benefits, Link retains some of his flaws from his previous appearances. Even though his recovery has noticeably improved after formerly being one of his most significant flaws in Brawl, it still limits how far he can go offstage safely. Link is also still susceptible to combos from faster characters, such as Sheik. As a result, he must make good use of reads, spacing, and camping to avoid giving the advantage to such characters. As a tether, his grab is quite slow and punishable when whiffed. In addition, Link's KO potential is hindered by lag, particularly in regard to his forward tilt, dash attack, forward aerial, and down aerial.

In terms of customization, Link's custom moves benefit him. Power Bow grants Link's arrows incredible power, being able to KO significantly easier. However, this comes at the cost of a heavily decreased range and increased charge time, with uncharged arrows lacking any utility. Quickfire Bow fires magical arrows at an extremely quick rate that are also unaffected by gravity, granting them spammability. However, they are much weaker and have a shorter range. Boomerang removes the windbox from the Gale Boomerang and makes it act like the Boomerang from Smash 64 and Melee; it can now be angled more easily, has four hitboxes instead of two, and deals damage when returning to Link. However, most of Link's setups are now removed since the Boomerang can no longer pull opponents in. Ripping Boomerang possesses no windboxes, deals less damage, and has a shorter range, but it hits multiple times, goes through opponents, has four hitboxes similar to Boomerang, and stuns victims, making it good for setups. Shocking Spin is an electrically charged Spin Attack with significantly more serious damage and KO potential, and the aerial version semi-spikes. However, the grounded version has increased ending lag, while the aerial version lacks back hitboxes and worsens Link's already sub-par recovery by decreasing its horizontal momentum and vertical distance; additionally, while the aerial version can semi-spike, it only works if the opponent is in front. Whirling Leap drastically improves Link's recovery, granting him significantly improved vertical and horizontal distance, alongside very high aerial control during its duration. However, it is solely limited to being a recovery option due to its lack of any hitboxes. Giant Bomb has Link pull out a massive bomb that has a greater explosion radius and damage. However, it has slightly more startup lag and does not explode upon impact, limiting its tactical use compared to the standard Bomb. Meteor Bomb is a much smaller Bomb with a shorter fuse that meteor smashes anyone it hits with moderate knockback. This gives it unique edgeguarding potential and can set up for interesting combos, but as it also affects Link, this prevents him from extending his recovery unless the bomb is used to interrupt potentially deadly vertical KOs.

Overall, Link is very capable at both spacing and camping, yet also possesses impressive power and a deceptively useful combo game. However, Link's sub-par mobility and reliance on both camping and his combo game can result in his playstyle being difficult to utilize at higher levels of play, largely because of the speedy and combo-oriented characters that are prevalent in the metagame.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Link has been buffed significantly in the transition from Brawl to SSB4. Both his ground and aerial games have improved. His overall mobility has slightly improved, and his attacks have seen adjustments to either make them more reliable or to improve their utility. An example of this is with the dash attack, as while it is much slower and has no follow-up potential, it is much stronger, now being the second strongest dash attack in the game. His air speed has been increased, and a few of his aerials have seen some useful adjustments; forward aerial's first hit is much stronger, up aerial is stronger, and down aerial's clean hit now meteor smashes granting it edgeguarding potential as well as the latter two aerials having less landing lag. His grab game has also considerably improved as his grabs have less ending lag and his down throw is weaker, giving it greater follow-up potential, especially when combined with the changes to hitstun canceling. He also is a potent edgeguarder, with his down aerial now being capable of meteor smashing to go alongside his other offensive options against opponents on the edge. Additionally, Spin Attack covers much more distance and is less reliant on momentum, while Clawshot has increased range as a tether, significantly improving his recovery, removing one of Link's most detrimental flaws in Brawl. Lastly, his camping game has seen some improvements due to his projectiles, most notably Bomb, being buffed in certain ways.

Link also benefits from the general physics changes brought about by SSB4. The edge trump mechanic, combined with the increased speed to air dodges, immensely improves his recovery, allowing him to make much greater use of his new and improved recovery options. The rage mechanic further boosts his power and can be utilized well, due to his excellent endurance. The changes of hitstun canceling have also improved his combo potential, especially out of back aerial and down throw.

However, Link has also seen some nerfs. While the removal of hitstun canceling improves his own combo potential, it makes him more susceptible to combos himself and it removes momentum canceling, hindering his endurance, especially vertically (although Link does notably benefit from the removal of chain grabbing). Link also lost access to the advanced techniques he had in Brawl, most notably DACUS, which significantly hinders his approach potential, combined with his up smash having more ending lag. He also no longer has access to Quickdrawing, and the removal of edge momentum shifting has hindered Gale Boomerang's utility. As for his more direct nerfs, his overall damage output is lower (although it is higher relative to the cast), with his forward and down smash seeing significant nerfs to their damage, and some of his moves have worse overall KO potential due to their alterations, such as with down tilt and down aerial. His grab aerial is also worse on stage, as while it connects with the strong hit more reliably, it is weaker, launches opponents at a less favorable angle, and has more landing lag, hindering its use as a spacing tool. Lastly, while his out-of-shield game has improved due to his faster Spin Attack and the general changes to shields, his spot dodge is drastically worse, going from being one of the best to a very mediocre spot dodge.

Ultimately, Link is considerably better than how he was in Brawl as his buffs are of greater quantity than his nerfs and while most of his direct changes do not greatly benefit him, the changes to the game's mechanics greatly benefit him overall as they improve his combo and KO potential and most importantly, they make his recovery far better fixing one of his main issues in Brawl. Despite this, his other issues, including his poor mobility and frame data, were not properly addressed and, in some cases, worsened, and he did see a few notable hindrances from the changes to the game's mechanics. Nevertheless, he is a significantly more effective character relative to the cast and has seen greater tournament results, although he still struggles against the higher-tiered characters.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetic used in SSB4, Link's overall color scheme is significantly more vibrant, and his hair is of a significantly higher visual quality than in Brawl. Link's hair is also sandy blond instead of blond. As a result, other than his hairstyle, his hair color, and the starched appearance of his clothing, his coloration closely resembles his The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword incarnation in the Wii U version, whom despite being unused in Smash, sports a similar design to his Twilight Princess incarnation. His model in the 3DS version remains similar to his Brawl model.
• Link's blue and Dark Link alternate costumes have been slightly updated. The former's Hylian Shield is now blue instead of black, while the latter now has black sclera and red pupils, and its Hylian Shield is now colored black instead of silver. Link has also received three new alternate costumes, two of which are based on the Hero of the Skies's civilian clothes and Fierce Deity Link.
• Link has a new idle pose. He now readies his sword-wielding arm by slightly rearing it back while keeping his Hylian Shield in front of himself, instead of twirling the Master Sword by his side and bringing his shield-wielding arm to his side. Link also always holds his Hylian Shield in front of himself during his other idle poses. However, he will revert to his idle poses from Brawl while holding a small item.
• Backward roll's animation has changed. It is now based on the backflip used by the Hero of Time.
• The Master Sword's trail is now sky blue with white accents and produces afterimages, instead of being a sky blue blur.
• The Hylian Shield's metal decals and rim are now silver and polished, instead of gray and tarnished.

Attributes

• Link walks slower (1.2 → 1.188).
• Link dashes faster (1.328 → 1.3944).
• Link's air speed is faster (0.8084 → 0.88).
• Link's fast falling speed is faster (2.666 → 3.04).
• Link's gravity is higher (0.089 → 0.096). This slightly improves his aerial mobility but slightly hinders his endurance, makes him more susceptible to combos, and reduces the height of his jumps.
  • Despite this, his double jump is higher.
• Rolls have decreased ending lag (FAF 38 → 31).
• Rolls have a shorter duration (frames 4-19 → 4-17).
• Air dodge has decreased startup lag (frame 4 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 34).
• Spot dodge has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frame 2-20 → 3-18) and has increased ending lag (FAF 23 → 28), no longer being one of the best in the game.
• Dashing item throw has significantly less ending lag (FAF 42 → 19), making it the fastest in the game. This slightly improves Link's item-based zoning potential, although he is still usually better off using his DITCIT.
• The Hylian Shield now blocks projectiles even while Link is walking. Additionally, it now always protects his front while he is idle, due to his idle poses' updated animations. Lastly, Link now raises the Hylian Shield when a projectile or an explosion hits it. Altogether, these changes significantly improve its reliability.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's first hit has higher base knockback (16 → 35/30). Along with the changes to its angles and the lower knockback on the second hit, this enables the move to connect all its hits more reliably.
  • Neutral attack's first and second hits deal less damage (4% (hit 1)/3% (hit 2) → 2.5% (both)), and the latter also has lower knockback (40 (base), 20 (scaling) → 38/10), hindering its jab canceling ability. The first hit also has more ending lag (FAF 20 → 28) and different angles across its hitboxes (361° → 95°/80°/361°), making jab locking with it much harder combined with its higher base knockback, as only the hitboxes closest to Link and with the lowest ID can do so rather than all of them. While this would improve its jab canceling potential, this is negated by its higher ending lag.
• The increased shieldstun benefits forward tilt and down tilt, as due to their long range, average damage, and reduced lag, they are now safe on shield if properly spaced.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a longer duration (frames 15-18 → 15-19), decreased ending lag (FAF 40 → 38) and higher knockback (20 (base), 98 (scaling) → 55/82), improving its KO potential near the horizontal blastzone.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has less startup (frame 13 → 11) and ending lag (FAF 32 → 29). Combined with its lower knockback and the changes to hitstun canceling, this grants it combo potential from low to mid percents.
  • Down tilt deals less damage (12% → 11%), and its extended hitbox has lower knockback scaling (50 → 30), while its meteor hitbox has a significantly smaller radius (4u/3.5u → 1.5u) and lower knockback (90 (base), 50 (scaling) → 0/62). This worsens the move's KO potential, and renders it nearly useless for edgeguarding even with the removal of meteor canceling, as the meteor hitbox is survivable offstage even at high percents and can no longer hit any character hanging on an edge except for Charizard.
  • Down tilt's hitboxes are distributed differently; instead of having two normal hitboxes that launch targets upward and the other two closer to Link that meteor smash, the move has one extended hitbox covering the entire Master Sword that launches upward, and a normal hitbox close to the tip that meteor smashes and only affects aerial targets.
• Dash attack:
  • Link has a new dash attack, the Jump Attack from The Legend of Zelda series. Compared to the previous dash attack, it deals more damage (10%/12%/11% → 14%/13%/12%) and has significantly more knockback (30 (base), 80 (scaling) → (70/85/85)/(85/85/77), greatly improving its KO potential.
  • Dash attack has much more startup (frame 8 → 20) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 57) compared to the previous dash attack.
  • Dash attack has different angles (90°/80°/70°/60° → 45°/50°/55°) compared to the previous dash attack. This improves its spacing potential but hinders its follow-up potential.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash's first hit has been noticeably altered: the hitbox at the tip of the Master Sword has higher knockback (25 (base), 90 (scaling) → 30/100), while the rest of the hitboxes deal lower damage (15% → 7%) and knockback (25 (base), 90 (scaling) → 47/15), and can no longer send opponents behind Link, enabling them to connect into the second hit beyond low percents. This overall benefits the move, as the setup hitboxes in conjunction with the second hit still deal more damage and can KO earlier than the previous first hit alone, while the tipper hitbox still allows the first hit to KO on its own should opponents potentially be hit too far away for the second hit to connect.
  • Forward smash's second hit has drastically more base knockback (20/25/30 (base), 90 (scaling) → 85/89), allowing it to KO earlier near edges and with rage, despite its much lower damage.
  • Forward smash has increased ending lag (FAF 50 (both hits) → 52 (hit 1)/68 (hit 2)), and the second hit deals much less damage (17%/20%/19% → 13%/12%).
  • The window of time that the attack button can be pressed after forward smash's first hit has been significantly tightened. This decreases the possibility of accidentally using its second hit, but makes it so that the delay between the first and second hits cannot be abused before using the second hit.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's last hit deals more damage (10%/9%/8% → 11%/10%/9%) and has more knockback (70 (base), 80 (scaling) → 60/96), improving its KO potential. Its first and second hits have also received several adjustments to their knockback and angles, which, alongside the weakening of SDI enables the move to connect all hits better.
  • Up smash has more ending lag (FAF 70 → 78), now being the up smash with the slowest interruptibility in the game.
  • The removal of DACUS significantly hinders up smash's approach potential.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's first hit launches at a higher angle (75° → 78°) and has more knockback (26 (base), 90 (scaling) → 40/88), improving its KO potential.
  • Down smash's second hit deals less damage (16%/17%/16% → 12%/11%/10%).
  • Down smash's second hit is a semi-spike (75° → 30°) and has higher base knockback, but lower knockback scaling (20 (base), 90 (scaling) → 80/63). Coupled with its lower damage, this hinders its KO potential from center stage, but improves its edgeguarding potential.

Aerial attacks

• The increased shieldstun benefits neutral aerial and forward aerial, as due to their low landing lag and higher damage (sweetspotted in the case of neutral aerial), they are now safe on shield with properly timed landings.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Clean neutral aerial no longer has a consistent damage output (10% → 11%/9%). This improves the sweetspot's KO potential, but reduces its combo and locking potential, and vice versa for the sourspot.
  • Neutral aerial has a longer duration (frames 7-27 → 7-31).
  • Neutral aerial's initial auto-cancel window is shorter (frames 1-6 → 1-3) and auto-cancels later (frames 32 → 36), no longer auto-canceling in a short hop.
  • Neutral aerial has slightly increased landing lag (9 frames → 10).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial deals more damage (9% (hit 1)/12% (hit 2) → 11%/13%), with knockback noticeably increased on the first hit (5 (base), 100 (scaling) → 20/130) and compensated on the second hit (20 (base), 110 (scaling) → 30/100), improving the former's KO potential.
  • Forward aerial has slightly increased landing lag (10 frames → 12). Link's higher gravity also prevents it from auto-canceling in a full hop.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial deals less damage (4% (hit 1)/7% (hit 2) → 3%/5%) hindering its edgeguarding potential and each hit has a shorter duration (frames 6-9 → 6-8 (hit 1), frames 18-23 → 18-22 (hit 2)).
    • The second hit's lower damage and the changes to hitstun canceling turn it into a reliable combo starter, allowing Link to follow up with more back aerials and a reverse Spin Attack.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial launches at a higher angle (80° → 85°) with more knockback scaling (85 → 88), improving its KO potential, and has decreased landing lag (30 → 23 frames).
  • It has an altered animation where Link leans farther backward while performing the Up Thrust, improving its range and narrowing his hurtbox while performing the move.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has significantly decreased landing lag (50 → 32 frames) and increased range below Link (4.2u → 5.5u (early)/6u (clean, late)).
  • Down aerial has received an early hit in addition to its clean and late hits, the former two which take up a longer portion of the move (frame 14 (clean)/frames 15-64 (late) → frames 14-19 (early)/20-22 (clean)/23-64 (late)).
  • The new early hit meteor smashes aerial targets (65°/90° → 270°), significantly improving its edgeguarding ability, while having a different angle (65°/90° → 55°) and much lower knockback (30 (base), 80 (scaling) → 25/40) against grounded targets, allowing it to combo into the bouncing hit at a wide range of percents, which also deals more damage (8% → 11%).
  • Down aerial deals less damage (22% (clean)/18% (late) → 15% (early, late)/18% (clean)) and has reduced base knockback (40/30 → 30 (clean), 40/50 → 30 (late)). Combined with the aerial early hit meteor smashing and the grounded early hit having much lower knockback and making the clean hit harder to land, this immensely hinders the move's onstage KO potential. The hitbox at the hilt of the Master Sword has also been removed, reducing its range above Link.
• Grab aerial:
  • Grab aerial has increased range as a tether recovery, significantly improving its recovery potential when combined with the changes to ledges. It also transitions faster as an attack (frames 11-16 (hit 1)/23-24 (hit 2) → frames 12-21/22-23), has less base knockback (60 → 50) and the first hit launches at a lower angle (45° → 35°), which along with its lower damage allows both hits to connect better.
  • Grab aerial has more startup (frame 11 → 12), deals less damage (4% (hit 1)/6% (hit 2) → 2.5%/4%) and now has 8 frames of landing lag rather than auto-canceling. These changes significantly hinder its safety, spacing, and follow-up potential, combined with the first hit's lower angle.

Throws/other attacks

• All grabs have decreased ending lag (FAF 86 (standing)/96 (dash, pivot) → 62 (standing)/66 (dash)/67 (pivot)).
• Before update 1.0.8, Clawshot came out earlier and went limp when fully extended, but also ended faster. However, this was merely aesthetic.
• Clawshot flies and retracts in a straight line like the Hookshot in SSB. However, this is merely aesthetic.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals slightly more damage (2% → 2.1%).
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw has less ending lag (FAF 41 → 36).
• Down throw:
  • Down throw deals less damage (4% (throw)/7% (total) → 3%/6%).
  • Link releases opponents from down throw one frame later (frame 23 → 24).
  • The hitbox has a longer duration (frame 22 → 22-23). This prevents the hitbox from whiffing against certain characters with certain weight values.
  • Down throw has decreased knockback scaling (90 → 85), and it launches opponents at a higher angle (110° → 83°). When combined with its lower damage and the changes to hitstun canceling/DI, this significantly improves its combo potential.
• Edge attack:
  • Link has a new edge attack, a crouching thrust that resembles the Crouch Stab used by the Hero of Time.
  • New edge attack has less startup lag compared to the previous fast edge attack (frame 27 → 20).
  • New edge attack deals less damage compared to the previous edge attacks (8% (fast)/10% (slow) → 7%).

Special moves

• Hero's Bow:
  • Hero's Bow charges faster and has increased knockback (7 (base), 50 (scaling) → 10/66), improving its camping potential.
  • Quickdrawing has been removed, hindering Hero's Bow's utility. Their higher knockback also hinders their locking potential.
• Gale Boomerang:
  • Gale Boomerang has slightly improved setup potential at close range and at low percentages.
  • The removal of edge momentum shifting (in version 1.0.8) has hindered Gale Boomerang's approach and edgeguarding potential.
• Spin Attack:
  • Spin Attack's animation has slightly changed. Link now spins while swinging the Master Sword in a slight undulating motion. This slightly repositions its hitboxes.
  • Uncharged Spin Attack deals 2% more damage (12% → 14%), and its front hit has increased knockback scaling (72 (early), 80 (clean/late) → 86 (early/clean)/82 (late)), improving its KO potential. It also has decreased startup lag (frame 11 → 8).
  • Aerial Spin Attack deals 8% more damage (14% → 22%) due to consisting of nine hits instead of five, and its last hit has increased knockback scaling (160 → 200), significantly improving its KO potential. It can now also hit opponents behind Link.
  • Aerial Spin Attack covers much more distance, and Link retains much more momentum upon performing it. This significantly improves what was previously one of the worst recovery moves in Brawl.
  • The weakening of SDI makes aerial Spin Attack significantly more difficult to escape from.
  • Spin Attack's back hit has decreased knockback. The early and clean hits also have reduced base knockback (68 (early)/55 (clean) → 60/48).
• Bomb:
  • Bomb deals 1% more damage at Link's feet or an opponent's feet when thrown from the ground (7% → 8%). It also deals consistent damage at Link's feet or an opponent's feet when smash thrown in the air (5%-9% → 9%).
  • Bomb no longer damages Link if it explodes by hitting an opponent or another projectile. It also has increased durability. These changes improve its combo potential and safety.
  • Bomb's explosion is now absorbable.
  • Bomb has a shorter fuse, improving its recovery potential, but hindering its mindgame potential.
  • Bomb is slightly larger. However, this is merely aesthetic.
• Triforce Slash:
  • Triforce Slash deals much less damage (83% → 60%), hindering its KO potential, no longer being able to OHKO in certain circumstances.

Update history

Link has been heavily buffed via game updates. In update 1.0.4, the knockback of the first hit of his forward smash was lowered, allowing it to connect better into the second hit. In update 1.0.6 though, he received a mix of buffs and nerfs, which hindered his KO and damage racking potentials, but improved his range and combo game. However, update 1.0.8 brought Link significant buffs in the form of a much more effective grab game and better KOing options, the latter of which helped mitigate the nerfs to his KOing potential that update 1.0.6 brought. In update 1.1.0, his grab game was buffed by slightly decreasing the start-up lag of his dash and pivot grabs.

Updates 1.1.3 and 1.1.5 also brought several buffs, which further increased his already high KO potential. Lastly, he was indirectly buffed due to the changes on the shield mechanics in updates 1.1.0 and 1.1.1, as the increased shieldstun and the fact that hitlag modifiers now apply on shielding opponents improve Link's close-range game by making his moves safer on shield. Altogether, these buffs have resulted in Link being viewed as a better character than how he was in Brawl and even better than during the initial release of SSB4, much like Samus.

1.0.4

• Non-tipped forward smash's first hit's has lower base knockback (60 → 47), allowing it to more reliably lead into the second hit.
• Link can no longer throw a bomb with down special to cancel landing lag (outside of special moves which already could not be canceled).
  • This hinders the safety of his aerials and air dodge, hinders the combo potential of his aerials and it prevents Link from canceling hitstun if he lands while in non-tumble hitstun.
• Link can no longer throw a bomb with down special to cancel tumble hitstun.
  • This not only makes Link considerably more susceptible to combos, since he can no longer throw a bomb to cancel the hitstun and act sooner but this also considerably hinders his endurance, since he can no longer throw a bomb and then utilise momentum canceling to survive longer.

1.0.5

• Hylian Shield now blocks Blasters, improving its reliability.
• Due to the release of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the Quickfire Bow and Power Bow custom moves were altered in order to match the Wii U version.
  • As a result, Power Bow's start-up lag and endlag were dramatically increased. Before, it charged around the same speed as his normal Hero's Bow; now it is one of the slowest charging specials in the game.
  • Conversely, Quickfire Bow's start-up lag and endlag were heavily decreased. This allows it to have better zoning potential and allows Link to more properly keep opponents in check.

1.0.6

• Neutral attack's first hit's has considerably higher ending lag (FAF 20 → 28), significantly hindering its safety and its jab canceling potential.
• Dash attack has less startup lag (frame 21 → 20).
• Dash attack's near hit deals less damage (13% → 12%) and has lower knockback scaling (78 → 72), hindering its KO potential.
• Down tilt's main hitbox now always launches opponents in the direction Link is facing (Angle flipper: 0 → 3), making it a more consistent combo starter.
• Down tilt's hitboxes are now static, rather than being attached to Link's sword/body.
• Down tilt's main hitbox now uses one extended hitbox which covers Link's sword rather than two standard hitboxes.
• Down tilt's meteor hitbox is positioned higher, it can no longer hit grounded opponents and it now takes priority over the main hitbox.
• Down tilt's main hitbox has lower knockback scaling (50 → 30), hindering its KO potential.
  • However, this also improves its combo potential at lower percents.
• Down tilt's meteor smash hitbox is significantly smaller (4u → 1.5u) and the meteor smash hitbox inside of Link has been removed, giving the move less range inside of Link.
• Down tilt's meteor smash hitbox has dramatically reduced knockback (90 (base), 50 (scaling) → 0/62), making it immensely weaker.