Sheik (SSBU)

Sheik in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Sheikah Dance
Tier	B- (50)

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Sheik (シーク, Sheik) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Initially teased in the then-unnamed Ultimate's announcement trailer, she was officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018 alongside Zelda and the rest of the returning roster. Sheik is classified as Fighter #16.

As with Zelda, this is the first time in the series to not have Sheik voiced by Jun Mizusawa since Super Smash Bros. Melee; as a result of Zelda's The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds-based recast, Ayumi Fujimura now also voices Sheik, continuing the trend from the former voicing both characters in the previous games, and being one of her last roles before her retirement in 2019.

Sheik is currently ranked 50th out of 82 characters placing her towards in the middle of the B- tier. This is a drastic drop from her top tier placement in Super Smash Bros. 4, where she was ranked 4th out of 54. Sheik's main strength is her unrivaled frame data, with most of her attacks coming out at no later than frame 4 or 5. They also have very little end lag, enabling maximum reliability for most of her moves and combos to connect and safety on shield. This frame data also grants her arguably the best neutral game, a strong edgeguarding game, highly effective special attacks, and one of the best advantage states of any character. Complementing her neutral game is one of the best neutral specials in the game in Needle Storm, which is useful not only for zoning, camping, or connecting combos, but also confirms into offstage KOs with Bouncing Fish. Furthermore, she boasts a powerful and flexible recovery, with Vanish and Bouncing Fish giving her extensive range and distance that can reliably bring her back to the stage, as well as being fast and reliable KO options.

However, Sheik has significant weaknesses, the most prominent being her poor endurance. She is the sixth lightest character in the game, and her high falling speed and gravity makes her prone to easy combos and early KOs. Her grab game is also below-average; while down throw is a reliable combo starter at low percents, its utility drops off quickly, with its KO confirms requiring Sheik to read the opponent's DI or else only working at very specific percentages. Furthermore, Sheik's otherwise amazing neutral and combo game is sometimes offset by the very low damage output from her attacks, so she must win neutral multiple times to be able to inflict the same amount of damage that many other fighters can rack up from a single interaction or combo. Finally, Sheik's KO ability is generally subpar; while the handful of KO options she does possess have quick frame data and are mostly safe on shield, they are burdened with either awkward hitboxes or the requirement of a platform extension or prior combo string. For example, down smash works as an out of shield option but is sometimes inconsistent and only KOs at much higher percents, while up smash is afflicted by a large sourspot, and it often requires a combo and/or platform extension to KO reliably. Another KO option, Bouncing Fish, has high end lag, so it is somewhat unreliable in neutral for a KO and often requires either a combo string, or an offstage kill setup. Finally, rage alleviates her subpar KO abilities to a considerable degree; however, she struggles to survive long enough to benefit from it, especially against heavyweights, who can possibly live up to very high percents and KO her with rage of their own.

Overall, Sheik is a character with powerful unique abilities and attributes. She has a somewhat high learning curve, so her combo and KO abilities depend on the player putting in consistent time and effort to perform effectively. The general consensus on her was mostly poor in the early metagame, with players particularly highlighting the excessive nerfs she received transitioning into Ultimate. However, significant buffs from patch updates have since put the character's perception in a better shape, especially during the post-pandemic metagame. The consensus right now is that she is a high effort-high reward character that is only viable after one has significantly mastered her capabilities. Sheik remains a viable character in the current metagame, proven by players such as WebbJP, Eim, Mr.R, and VoiD.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Sheik being the 47th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or any character in his unlock tree, being the 5th character unlocked after King Dedede.
• Have Sheik join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Sheik must then be defeated on Gerudo Valley. In World of Light, she is fought on Final Destination.

Attributes

Sheik is a character that, like a ninja of sorts, fits the "hit-and-run" character archetype. One of Sheik's greatest strengths is her overall mobility, being among the best in the game, both grounded and aerial. She also has the 4th highest gravity, which makes her mobility better, but leaves her more vulnerable to horizontal knockback. Her crouch is also very low, making her difficult to hit when doing so. Sheik can also wall cling and crawl. However, she is the 6th-lightest character in the game, which, when coupled with her gravity and tall height, makes her very susceptible to combos and KO's, thus giving her very frail survivability overall.

Aside from her excellent mobility, another one of Sheik's greatest strengths is her extremely quick frame data. Easily one of, if not the fastest, in the game. With all of her moves, except her down aerial and smash attacks, coming out under 6 frames and all having very minimal ending lag, making her extremely difficult to punish properly, this is supplemented by the good range of her moveset. She also has an excellent projectile in Needle Storm, with the needles charging and traveling fast, being long-ranged (covers about half of Final Destination), possessing transcendent priority, causing hitstun, and having overall low cool down (especially when used in the air or on landing). These traits collectively give Sheik a strong camping ability, as well as allowing for versatile follow-ups off of her needles.

Overall, the combination of Sheik's mobility, projectiles, range, and frame data forms her greatest strength: her outstanding neutral game. She can play both defensively, by pressuring and zoning from afar without much trouble, or aggressively, with her fast attack speed giving her an unpredictable approach. Sheik can poke and pressure her opponents with her aerials and tilts, all of which are safe options. If they choose to drop their shield, they are wide open to these attacks. At the same time, holding a shield presents her with an opportunity to grab and use her throw set-ups.

Sheik's excellent frame data, combined with the low power of many of her moves, gives her among the best combo abilities in the game. Her throws can easily lead to other attacks, with her forward and down throws being particularly effective at starting combos, as they can set up long chains of forward aerials, with her up aerial and Bouncing Fish being useful combo finishers. Her combos are not limited to her air game; all of her tilts can start and extend combos since they send opponents into the air, and can confirm into aerials; her forward tilt, particularly, has reliable follow-ups all the way into KO percents. Down tilt, while not chaining into itself as effectively, has even lower power, giving her access to KO confirms as well.

All aspects of Sheik's moveset are solid overall. The majority of her aerial moves possess great versatility; forward aerial, in particular, has a fast startup, decent ending lag, auto-cancels in a short hop fast fall, and has slightly disjointed range, making it an all-purpose move: it can be used to approach, pressure, combo, and set up edge-guards. Up aerial similarly possesses great utility: its looping hits can be used to drag down opponents to extend combos or lead into KOs, depending on positioning, much like Joker's own up aerial. Additionally, it is her strongest aerial, and also launches opponents at a great angle for juggling, both of which give it good utility at both KOing and finishing combos. Her back aerial is also versatile to an extent, as it can be used to extend or finish combos as well. When sweet spotted (at the foot), it can KO at high percentages near the ledge and is even safer on shield than her forward aerial. Lastly, neutral aerial is her fastest aerial, allowing her to break out of combos and extend or finish hers, notably into Bouncing Fish.

Outside of Needle Storm, Sheik's special moveset also possesses good utility. Her up special, Vanish, grants her intangibility and invisibility, which collectively make it difficult for the opponent to predict where she will reappear. It also has a hitbox on disappearance that is moderately strong, and another one and a windbox when she reappears, making it difficult to punish. Meanwhile, Sheik's down special Bouncing Fish, is famous for being her primary KO move, being similar to Flip Jump on some regards: it deals respectable damage with high knockback scaling, can finish combos from her neutral aerial, forward aerial, back aerial, and aerial Needle Storm, and is safe on shield when retreating. Sheik can perform consecutive stronger kicks after the first, although this sees almost no use in normal gameplay.

Both Vanish and Bouncing Fish also conform to Sheik's last strength in her recovery, as they make it versatile and extendable; both of them can be used in tandem with each other, and they are difficult and risky to intercept, as they both deal high knockback enough to interrupt an edge-guard. Combined with her wall jump, this makes Sheik hard to edge-guard or gimp, without disabling her double jump, and enables her to reverse edge-guard effectively.

However, despite having immense strengths, Sheik has polarizing flaws. The most notable of them is her frailty: even though her recovery is amazing, in a similar vein to Fox, her on-stage endurance is very weak due to her very lightweight (being lighter than characters such as Kirby), succumbing to even decently strong blows, whereas her above average height, high falling speed and gravity make her easy to combo. This is further compounded by her notoriously poor damage output overall: despite her serious damage racking ability, she requires extremely long strings of attacks just to do the same amount of damage that the vast majority of the cast can inflict in noticeably far fewer hits, making her arguably the weakest fighter in the game in terms of general damage and knockback in her moveset.

While the low damage and power on her moves grant her an extensive combo game, Sheik also struggles to securely score KOs due to her handful of KO options and each of them being difficult to land precisely. Her up smash has a powerful first hit on her arms as she raises them, but it is difficult to land outside of a read or confirm, is hampered by its much weaker second hit as she lowers her arms and is very punishable if missed, her forward and down smash are among the weakest smash attacks of their kind, and they have punishable ending lag as well, while Vanish's disappearing hitbox is hard to land. In the air, she is limited to using her up aerial, back aerial, or Bouncing Fish to KO, and even then, the former two require to be used close to the blast lines due to their relatively weak knockback, whereas the latter is susceptible to DI and is predictable without a setup on top of KOing considerably later center-stage compared to the edge, making her often reliant on dragging her opponent close to the blast zone to secure a KO.

Furthermore, Sheik's aerial KO setups are difficult to pull off due to Ultimate's faster pace and launch physics, re-addition of directional air dodges, and the weakening of her neutral and back aerials' respective combo potentials. Her other aerials are otherwise only useful for edge-guarding and gimping characters with particularly weak or linear recoveries due to their abysmal KO power or sacrificial use. Sheik's grab game is also below-average overall: she lacks throws that can KO at realistic percents, and while her aforementioned forward and down throws are useful combo starters, they have too much knockback for truly reliable KO set-ups.

With all of these weaknesses working against her, it is not uncommon for Sheik's opponents to survive in excess of 150%. When combined with her frailty, she is notoriously vulnerable to comebacks, even against fighters with generally mediocre KO potentials. Lastly, the rage mechanic hinders Sheik: without rage, she often has trouble KO'ing, though as her rage increases, her combo game slowly dwindles, which, when combined with her poor damage output, can make bringing an opponent to KO percentages difficult. Additionally, this brings opponents to a high level of rage enough to KO Sheik herself.

Other weaknesses include a few moves that have very low utility, despite Sheik's moveset versatility. These include her down aerial, which is her overall slowest aerial, has the highest landing lag, and is a stall-then-fall, giving it the lowest utility of Sheik's aerial moveset despite its meteor smashing an opponent. Her dash attack, although very quick, is unsafe on shield due to its inability to cross-up and does not KO at realistic percents. Her up throw similarly does not KO at realistic percents and is her least useful throw, as it lacks the utility her other throws have. Sheik's smash attacks are unsafe and difficult to land overall, although they are fast enough to work as combo finishers. Lastly, Burst Grenade is powerful but has a slow explosion, which limits it to situational usage on edge-guarding predictable recoveries, extending the damage of a hard punish, or a situational mix-up to deter edge-guarders.

Altogether, Sheik's strengths slightly outweigh her weaknesses. While she has an outstanding neutral game owing to her excellent frame data and mobility, she often has to play a very long game due to her slow damage output. At that point, Sheik has to play an entirely different playstyle and try to look for openings to land her KO confirms.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Sheik was considered one of the most potent characters in SSB4 (and the best character in the middle of the game's lifetime), due to her nearly uncontested neutral game; despite receiving the most nerfs from game updates that did affect her effectiveness, she remained a top-tier character. Possibly as a result, while Sheik has received a large mix of buffs and nerfs, the latter is more prevalent since they have worsened her strengths while amplifying her weaknesses from the previous game. Thus, Sheik has been greatly nerfed overall in her transition to Ultimate.

Sheik's most notable nerfs are to her already weak damage output and her poor survivability. Her main combo moves like her tilts and neutral and forward aerials (most notably the latter), in addition to Needle Storm and Bouncing Fish, all deal less damage. This gives Sheik a notoriously harder time racking up damage, requiring her to string many more hits to deal any noticeable damage; her lack of KO ability exacerbates this. Although the weakening of rage has slightly improved her endurance and, most importantly, her combo consistency, this is counterbalanced by her lower weight, now being even lighter than small characters such as Kirby and Pikachu while also worsening her already lackluster KO potential. As a result, Sheik is unable to take significant advantage of rage, much like in SSB4.

The universal changes to the game's engine have both benefited and hindered Sheik, but have hurt her overall. The game's faster launch physics, changes to jostling mechanics (which prevent cross-ups and instead push characters away), and the reintroduction of directional air dodges worsen many of Sheik's combo strings and KO set-ups. Furthermore, the prevalence of the newly introduced 0.85x short hop multiplier on aerial attacks means Sheik doesn't benefit as much from the new 1v1 multiplier as the rest of the cast, due to her semi-reliance on aerials done out of a short hop; combined with the lower damage on her combo moves, this further exacerbates her worsened damage racking ability. While Sheik does benefit from the universally faster jumpsquats, mobility and lower landing lag like the rest of the cast, she already had highly impressive mobility and the overall fastest frame data in SSB4, which causes the rest of the cast to benefit more than her from their buffs in those aspects, allowing them to keep up with her.

However, Sheik has received some useful buffs besides the universal changes. Her running speed has increased even further, now being the 4th fastest among the cast. Her neutral infinite connects more reliably and has less ending lag, making it more consistent for damage racking despite its individual hits dealing less damage. Her up tilt, down tilt, and Needle Storm (especially the aerial version) also have less ending lag, improving their combo potential.

Sheik's generally least useful moves in SSB4, such as her dash attack, down smash, down aerial, and up throw, each deal more damage and/or knockback. Her smash attacks as a whole have also been buffed, with forward smash and down smash's hits connecting more reliably, and up smash's first hit having more power and slightly more range. Burst Grenade has less ending lag and no longer causes helplessness, while Vanish grants more intangibility when used on the ground. Sheik has a new pummel that has gone from one of the slowest to one of the fastest, allowing it to be used more safely and rack up more damage. Finally, and most notably, her back aerial now deals more damage and knockback, improving its previously lacking KO potential when sweetspotted (though it remains relatively weak).

In the end, Sheik's nerfs noticeably outweigh her buffs, as the former have both worsened her key strengths and exacerbated her main flaws, while the latter were not significant enough to compensate despite giving her more consistent options. Game updates have been generally kind to Sheik, giving her some miscellaneous buffs and fixing a few inconsistencies with her moveset; general optimizations to her playstyle have also proven beneficial. Nevertheless, Sheik performs worse than her SSB4 iteration, and is one of the most nerfed characters in the transition to Ultimate.

Aesthetics

• Sheik's design is based on the Sheikah Set from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including the long white scarf of the Stealth Mask. Her armor and hair feature subtle detailing, with the latter's shadow being more pronounced to further obscure her face, and her pupils are smaller. She also no longer carries her dagger around. Lastly, the aesthetic used in Ultimate has resulted in Sheik's overall color scheme being more vibrant.
• The Stealth Tights appear to have heels, and the Stealth Mask scarf is shorter. These changes are unique to Ultimate.
• Sheik is more vocal. She vocalizes when using Vanish and Bouncing Fish.
• Up taunt has been shortened, where it no longer has Sheik do a flip to rebound.
• Palutena's Guidance conversation for Sheik has been changed.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Sheik's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 4).
• Sheik's initial dash speed (1.7 → 2.178) and run speed (2.016 → 2.42) are faster, having the fourth fastest run speed in the game.
• Sheik's air speed is slightly faster (1.1 → 1.155).
• Sheik's weight has been decreased (81 → 78), being lighter than Kirby and making her the 6th lightest character in the game. This further worsens her already poor endurance.
• Sheik's traction is higher (0.06 → 0.106).
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 27).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-15 → 4-12).
• Back roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-15 → 4-14) and has more ending lag (FAF 28 → 33).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 25 → 24).
• Spot dodge has more startup and grants less intangibility (frames 2-15 → 3-14).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 2-25 → 2-26).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 31 → 45).
• The removal of perfect pivoting hinders her ground mobility, worsens Needle Storm's mindgame potential, and worsens her ability to extend combos.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first and second hits have altered angles (70° → 361°/180° (hit 1), 361° (hit 2)) and knockback (10 base/100 scaling → 35/30/20 base/30/30/15 scaling (hit 1), 20 base/40 scaling → 35/25 base/25/20 scaling (hit 2)) to keep opponents close to Sheik, akin to other neutral attacks.
    • This allows them to connect better and lock.
    • However, this worsens Sheik's guaranteed jab cancel setups, which played a large part in the utility of her neutral attack in Smash 4 (though they're still the only neutral attack able to jab cancel, if done on aerial characters).
  • The neutral infinite has faster startup (frame 9 → 5), a consistent angle (50°/60°/70° → 361°), lower hitlag (1× → 0.5×) and SDI (1× → 0.4×) multipliers, and deals less knockback (14 base/20 scaling → 12/15) while gaining a hitstun modifier of 2 on each hit. This vastly improves its linking capabilities, making it much more reliable overall.
  • The neutral infinite's finisher has significantly less ending lag (FAF 53 → 36), no longer being the slowest in the game and being much less punishable if shielded.
  • The finisher uses 3 small hitboxes instead of one extended hitbox. Overall, it does not reach as far horizontally as before, and its range is narrower vertically.
  • All hits except the first deal less damage (3% → 1.6% (hit 2), 0.8%/0.6% → 0.3% (infinite), 3% → 2% (finisher)), with knockback scaling not fully compensated on the finisher (115 → 132), slightly reducing its already lacking KO potential.
  • The infinite has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 9×. This allows it to lock opponents into their shields between each hit, and thus pressure them more effectively, but also allows them to cancel shieldstun and punish Sheik more easily if they shield 10 hits or more.
• Forward tilt:
  • The move deals less damage (4% → 3%). Its knockback scaling was also adjusted (158/165 → 180/188), dealing slightly more knockback at low to mid percents, weakening its combo potential.
• Up tilt:
  • The second hit has less startup lag (frame 19 → 16), allowing it to connect better from the first hit, with total duration adjusted to compensate (FAF 36 → 33).
  • Both hits deal less damage (5% hit 1/6% hit 2 → 3%/4%).
    • Also, the second hit's knockback was adjusted (20 base/125 scaling → 25/147), dealing more knockback at low to mid percents, weakening its combo potential.
  • Due to the changes to jostle mechanics, the first hit is harder to connect against grounded opponents.
  • The move has a slightly altered animation: Sheik's heel hits the ground after the second hit, bearing a closer resemblance Samus's up tilt. This slightly increases its range in front of Sheik, and allows it to hit opponents grabbing the ledge.
• Down tilt:
  • The move has less ending lag (FAF 30 → 27), improving its safety and combo potential.
  • It deals less damage (5% → 4.5%).
    • Its knockback was not compensated, allowing it to combo for longer.
  • The middle hitbox is smaller (3.5u → 3.2u), and has been moved inwards (X offset: 4 → 3). This makes it easier to land the outermost hitbox, but makes it harder to hit opponents below the ledge and slightly reduces the attack's range.
• Dash attack:
  • The move has less ending lag (FAF 41 → 35).
  • It deals slightly more damage (6.5% → 7% (clean), 4.5% → 5% (late)) with no compensation on knockback, slightly improving its KO potential.
  • It has increased shieldstun (1x → 1.5x), improving its safety against shields, although it is still more unsafe than most dash attacks in Ultimate.
• Forward smash:
  • The second hit has faster startup (frame 26 → 20), allowing it to connect better from the first hit. The move's total duration has been reduced as well (FAF 51 → 45).
• Up smash:
  • The first hit deals more knockback (50 base/86 scaling → 52/88).
  • The first hit has a marginally larger hitbox (6u → 6.1u).
• Down smash:
  • The move has less startup (frame 11/18 → 8/15) and ending lag (FAF 55 → 48).
  • The first hit deals more damage (3% → 4%).
  • The first hit has received an additional hitbox that launches opponents more inward (140° → 200°), allowing it to connect much better into the second hit.
  • The second hit launches at a lower angle (48° → 43°), and has more knockback scaling (155 → 165), improving its KO potential and letting it set up edgeguards better.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (10 frames → 6 (neutral), 10 → 5 (forward), 12 → 7 (back), 21 → 13 (up), 30 → 22 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • The move deals less damage (8%/7% → 6%/5% (clean), 5%/4% → 4%/3% (late)), with only base knockback compensated (20 → 30). This hinders its limited KO and gimping potential, while not improving its combo potential.
• Forward aerial:
  • Sheik can grab ledges after using forward aerial much sooner (frame 88 → 59).
  • It deals less damage (4.3%/5% → 3.8%/4.5%).
  • It deals less knockback (40 base/132 scaling → 44/43 base/127 scaling). Coupled with its lower damage, this improves its combo potential but also hinders its limited KO and gimping potential.
  • It has more range after the first 2 active frames (Y offset: 0 → -0.5/-1, Z offset: 0 → 1/1.5). This allows it to hit opponents below her slightly more easily.
• Back aerial:
  • The move deals more damage (7%/8% → 7.5%/9.5% (clean), 5% → 6% (late)), with knockback not properly compensated on the clean hit (30 base/100 scaling → 32/30 base/98 scaling), improving its KO potential especially if sweetspotted.
• Up aerial:
  • The move auto-cancels earlier (frame 47 → 44).
  • The looping hits launch grounded opponents at a slightly different angle (90˚ → 80˚).
  • The looping hits have a lower hitlag multiplier (1.3× → 0.7×), making them harder to SDI out of.
  • However, the changes to hitlag and the introduction of the DI angle indicator make it much easier to react with appropriate DI when the final hit connects, hindering its cross-up potential.
• Down aerial:
  • The move deals more damage (8% → 10%), with no compensation on the clean hit's knockback, increasing the meteor smash's power.
  • The late hit launches at a lower angle (70° → 56°), and has altered knockback (30 base/105 scaling → 55/78). Overall, it does more knockback, but launches at a worse angle for KOing.
  • The landing hit launches at a higher angle (40° → 48°), and has altered knockback (40 base/150 scaling → 77/50). This makes it safer on hit at any percentage, but removes its previously limited KO power.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have noticeably more ending lag (FAF 28 → 37 (standing), 35 → 45 (dash), 33 → 40 (pivot)).
  • Standing grab has more range (Z2 offset: 8.9 → 9.4).
  • Dash and pivot grabs have less range (Z2 offset: 10.7 → 9.5 (dash), -14.9 → -13.4 (pivot)).
  • Dash and pivot grab have more startup lag (frame 8 → 9 (dash), 9 → 11 (pivot)).
• Pummel:
  • Sheik has a new pummel, a knee strike rather than an elbow jab.
  • It deals much less damage (3.1% → 1%). Additionally, the first pummel she uses can miss many fighters, due to the way the early stages of grabs work.
  • However, has significantly faster startup (frame 9 → 1), deals more hitlag (5 frames → 11), and has less ending lag (FAF 24 → 6), shortening its duration. This makes it one of the fastest pummels in the game and increases the amount of times Sheik can pummel the opponent before they break free or she throws them, thus being more reliable for racking up damage.
• Up throw:
  • The move deals more damage (2% → 3% (throw), 5% → 6% (total)).
  • The move deals significantly more knockback (80 base/60 scaling → 110/62). This limits its 50/50 setups to low to mid percentages only, while still unable to KO at realistic percentages (until Sudden Death).
• Down throw:
  • Down throw has altered knockback (80 base/90 scaling → 95/60). This overall improves its combo potential.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

• Needle Storm:
  • Its charge can be canceled by jumping or spot dodging.
  • Its charge cancel animation when inputting shield is shorter (8 frames → 4), allowing it to be canceled faster.
    • However, Its charge can no longer be canceled immediately by rolling, instead incurring 4 frames of lag beforehand.
  • It reaches its full charge faster (98 frames → 82).
  • It has much less landing lag (30 frames → 12).
  • It has less ending lag (1-5 needles/6 needles: FAF 48/54 → 42/49), allowing for better followups with the aerial version.
  • The clean hit has a longer duration, with the late hit's duration reduced accordingly (frames 1-3 (clean)/4-10 (late) → 1-5/6-10).
  • A needle deals less damage (1.9% → 1.5% (clean), 1.2% → 0.8% (late)).
  • Needles travel slower (speed 12 → 10), and have a shorter duration (10 frames → 9).
  • A needle has less knockback scaling (180 → 167). Coupled with its lower damage, this reduces the move's already limited KO potential, but further increases its combo potential at high percentages.
  • The flight trajectory of aerial needles has been altered from approximately a 45° angle to a shallower 30° angle. This makes them worse for followups into aerials at lower percents, but better at higher percents.
  • After charging the move, Sheik holds the produced needles in one hand until they are fired.
• Burst Grenade:
  • The move no longer leaves Sheik helpless in the air.
  • It has less ending lag upon releasing the grenade.
  • The explosion’s hitbox is 20% larger (10u → 12u).
  • The grenade's vortex is clear/white rather than light blue.
• Vanish:
  • The move grants intangibility earlier when used on the ground (frame 19 → 14).
  • Vanish's explosion has more knockback scaling (102 → 112), noticeably improving its KO potential.
  • Sheik emits a gold flash right before she disappears.
  • Sheik's silhouette can be briefly seen in the direction the move travels, before she disappears. This makes it easier to predict where she teleports.
• Bouncing Fish:
  • After the first kick of Bouncing Fish hits an opponent, successive kicks deal more damage (12% → 13%) and knockback (26 base/90 scaling → 28/97), making them much stronger.
  • The move has slightly more startup lag (frame 17 → 18).
  • The move no longer grants intangibility.
  • The move no longer refreshes if Sheik is hit in midair after using it, hindering her recovery.
  • The first kick deals less damage (12% → 11%), though with its knockback scaling compensated (90 → 97).
  • The attack's hitboxes are considerably smaller (6u/4u → 3.5u/3u), reducing its reliability.
  • Bouncing Fish produces a splash of water at the start.
• Sheikah Dance:
  • Sheik has a new Final Smash called Sheikah Dance, replacing Light Arrow. She dashes forward while the Sheikah symbol flashes on-screen. If the initial attack lands, Sheik will trap the opponent in place and repeatedly beat them up and slash them with her dagger, before launching them away and behind her. This Final Smash is similar to Triforce Slash.
  • Sheikah Dance can only trap one opponent, as opposed to up to seven.
  • Sheikah Dance deals much higher, consistent damage (1% hit 1/44% first opponent/33% second/24% third/19% fourth/14% fifth/11% sixth/6% seventh → 3% hit 1, clean/2% hit 1, late/3% hits 2-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-14/2% hits 4, 8, 12, 15/12% hit 16/52%-53% total).
  • Sheikah Dance launches at a higher angle compared to Light Arrow (20° → 361°).
  • Sheikah Dance's last hit deals less knockback due to its lower damage output. Combined with its higher angle, this makes it KO slightly later than Light Arrow despite its increased knockback (30 base/65 scaling → 65 base/135 scaling), though it remains among the strongest Final Smashes in the game.
  • Sheikah Dance does not produce the Home-Run Bat sound effect, unlike Light Arrow.

Update history

Sheik was buffed via game updates. Beginning with update 2.0.0, she received a few quality of life buffs. The hitbox of up smash's first hit was enlarged, allowing it to catch landings better and hit a larger number of tall and/or large characters when they are standing right next to Sheik. Down smash's first hit received an additional hitbox in order to improve its consistency. Forward aerial's edge lockout duration was decreased significantly, which made it much safer to use while off-stage. Up aerial auto-cancels earlier, which made it slightly better for drag down combos. Lastly, Burst Grenade's ending lag was decreased, which made it slightly safer as an edge-guarding option.

Update 3.0.0 brought a few buffs as well, three of which were noteworthy. Firstly, down tilt's sourspots were shrunken and repositioned, which made the sweetspot easier to land and thus improved the move's combo potential. Secondly, forward aerial became more reliable at hitting small fighters, thanks to its hitboxes being repositioned. Lastly, Needle Storm reaches its full charge noticeably faster. Aside from these these buffs, neutral infinite became slightly safer via its finisher's ending lag being decreased.

Update 7.0.0 further buffed Sheik in a number of ways, most notably in regard to Needle Storm and Burst Grenade. Needle Storm has less landing lag, improving its safety and combo potential. Burst Grenade's ending lag was decreased even further, its explosion has more active frames, and it can no longer be canceled out by attacks; altogether, these buffs addressed the move's primary flaws that have plagued it since SSB4.

In addition, a handful of Sheik's underwhelming moves were also improved to varying degrees. Down smash's overall lag was decreased and its hits connect even better than before. Vanish's disappearing hitbox KOs noticeably earlier, thanks to its knockback being increased. Standing grab's range was increased, which mildly restored one of her former out of shield options. Lastly, Sheik's shield was enlarged as part of a near-universal buff.

Following this, update 8.0.0 improved forward smash's consistency by adjusting its first hit's launching angles and knockback, as well as increasing the range of its second hit. Lastly, update 9.0.0 followed a similar format in regard to up tilt by in