Wolf (SSBU)

Wolf (, Wolf) is a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially revealed on June 12th, 2018 alongside the rest of the returning roster during the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct. Wolf is classified as Fighter #44, the last fighter number of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl veterans.

Jay Ward, Wolf's English voice actor from Brawl and , reprises his role albeit with new voice clips that make Wolf sound akin to his appearance in Starlink. In the Japanese version, Wolf's Brawl voice actor, Mahito Ōba, has been succeeded by Kōsuke Takaguchi, who reprises his role from ' and '.

Wolf is ranked 11th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the S- tier. This is a notable improvement over his 14th out of 38 placement in Brawl. Wolf is an all-around fighter with many different playstyles to choose from. He has a solid fundamental combo game with up throw and down throw as good combo starters. His moveset offers a lot of versatility, with his tilts functioning as safe pokes or kill options and his smash attacks as solid finishers. His aerials are all useful for both starting and extending combos, as well as edgeguarding. His back aerial, in particular, is one of the strongest in the game when sweetspotted and can be confirmed from a forward aerial. His specials are also crucial to his gameplan: his is a strong projectile that can force approaches and apply chip damage from a distance, acting as his primary tool in neutral, Wolf Flash and Fire Wolf offer quick recovery to the stage and serve as powerful finishers, and his   is effective for extending combos as well as serving as his primary defense against zoning. Wolf also has excellent air mobility, allowing him to chase his opponents in the air with ease.

Despite all these strengths, Wolf has some weaknesses. Wolf is a fast-faller middleweight, which makes him fairly easy to combo despite having a frame 2 air dodge. His recovery is also fairly linear and easy to intercept as it gets 2 framed fairly easily or loses to counterattacks which can leave vulnerable to gimps and edgeguards. While Wolf has good range in many of his attacks, he can have trouble against characters who have longer disjoints than him, such as, , and Finally, Wolf can have difficulty scoring KO's since his most potent finishers have long startup.

Overall, Wolf has the tools to deal with every character in the game and a solid fundamental gameplan for players to pick up. He functions like a glass cannon, being able to dish out damage with a strong neutral and advantage while having poor offstage survivability and being easy to juggle. His strengths significantly outweigh his weaknesses, however, and Wolf has attained a lot of representation across the board through Ultimate's lifespan; he was among one of the most-played characters in tournaments in 2019, resorting to several top players having a pocket Wolf. He is still relatively popular in today's meta, mainly piloted by players such as, , , and.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Wolf must then be defeated on Lylat Cruise (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Wolf being the 51st character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with Fox or any character in his unlock tree, being the 7th character unlocked after
 * Have Wolf join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Wolf's attributes and moveset give him a versatile gameplan, somewhere in the middle ground between 's focus on pressure and 's focus on punishes. This is reflected in his attributes: he has a slow dashing speed (though his initial dash is quite fast), an above-average walking speed, the 11th fastest falling speed, above-average air acceleration, and high gravity, most of which are not uncharacteristic of the Star Fox characters. Unlike the other "space animals", however, Wolf has the 6th fastest air speed in the game. This grants him mobility that is fairly average overall, but relatively balanced compared to Fox and Falco. Additionally, Wolf is also significantly heavier than them, as he is a middleweight (tied with the, , , , and ). Although Wolf's special moveset and vertical mobility are derived from his fellow Star Fox fighters, the similarities end there, with Wolf's being the most unique of the trio.

Wolf's is the centerpiece of his neutral game. With the lasers causing higher knockback (and therefore hitstun) than the average projectile, and having a long duration with transcendent priority, they grant him the ability to disrupt opponents' approaches, even when their grounded mobility is superior to his own, and its unique close-range hitbox on the bayonet give it some utility in close combat, dealing substantial damage if it connects. Lasers can often force opponents to jump over them, leaving them vulnerable to Wolf's fast aerial attacks; these are comprised of a neutral aerial sex kick with a powerful clean hit, a disjointed forward aerial that can combo into itself and his other aerials, a back aerial with moderate startup offset by its impressive power and hitboxes, an up aerial with fast startup and a wide arc well-suited to juggling, and a down aerial that consistently meteor smashes opponents.

Wolf also possesses large hitboxes on several of his attacks with many of them being disjointed, greatly aiding his devastating punish game as he can easily combo and deal massive damage from very few openings. While he can apply pressure from a distance, Wolf's close range options are not lacking either. Forward tilt and down tilt are decent poking tools, the latter of which can trip at low percents, while up smash deals high damage, covers a wide area around him, and has decent knockback. His neutral and forward aerials are quite fast and difficult to punish even if shielded, while his standing grab is tied for the fastest in the game. Further augmenting his strong neutral game are his dash attack and, the former which is useful for punishing aerial approaches and KOing at high percents, and the latter which allows him to deal with opposing camping while also having a close range hit that can be followed up with aerials.

Once Wolf has won the neutral exchange, he has several options to rack up damage. Forward aerial can combo into itself, other aerials and into a grab at very low percents, from which up throw can lead into another forward or up aerial until mid to high percents. Down throw can lead into a dash attack at low percents, while dash attack can extend the combo by chaining into up tilt or up aerial at very low percents. Should an opponent air dodge in an attempt to escape pressure, Wolf's aerial mobility allows him to chase them down and punish them, usually with up tilt or up aerial to continue juggling them, or with a back aerial to send them offstage.

After Wolf has inflicted a sufficient amount of damage, he can then attempt to score a KO via his numerous KO options. The most reliable one is his back aerial: its quick autocancel and decent range allow it to be spaced safely, and it can KO relatively early if sweetspotted (at around 110% from center-stage), while still possessing respectable power with its sourspots. His side special, Wolf Flash, can either meteor smash or semi-spike opponents at the end of the dash depending on which hitbox connects, both of which are incredibly powerful. Wolf's up special, Fire Wolf, consists of looping hits and a deceptively strong final hitbox.

Other notable finishers are his forward smash and down smash: the former is safe on shield and potentially when whiffed thanks to it possessing deceptively low ending lag in spite of its high startup, whereas the latter posseses a powerful sweetspot that enables it to KO as low as 50% at the edge and makes it an effective 2 frame punish. At higher percents, Wolf has several other moves (forward tilt, sweetspotted up tilt, dash attack, clean neutral aerial, up smash, and back throw) that each sport respectable KO potential in the event he is unable to land his primary KO options.

However, Wolf does possess noticeable weaknesses, the most notable of which is his recovery. Wolf Flash and Fire Wolf are both linear and offer unremarkable travel distance compared to other recovery options. Unlike Fox and Falco, Wolf's side special renders him helpless; this essentially restricts him to using only one of his specials as a recovery option, which leaves him with a much shorter recovery distance overall. This also leaves Wolf highly vulnerable to gimps and edgeguarding, with meteor smashes in particular being deadly against him even at low percents, to the point where exploiting his recovery offsets the increased horizontal endurance his higher weight would otherwise provide.

Though he is not short of finishers, Wolf can frequently have difficulty landing his most powerful ones due to their slow startup (with back aerial and all his smash attacks having more than 12 frames of startup), his below-average dashing speed, and his lack of guaranteed setups into them. Although he possesses true setups into Wolf Flash, such as from his forward aerial or down throw at medium percents, they are very risky to pull off, as he can either end up offstage after its use and thus inadvertently self-destruct (since it renders him helpless) or miss the sweetspots and end up vulnerable due to its high landing lag. Lastly, Wolf is, like Fox and Falco, very susceptible to combos because of his high falling speed and gravity. However, Wolf's heavier weight and lack of sufficiently fast options to escape pressure (his fastest aerial attacks start on frame 7) make this weakness even more apparent compared to Fox and Falco.

Overall, Wolf is a non-traditional glass cannon. He sacrifices the power of other glass cannons like and  for sheer versatility, due to his combination of an effective projectile for disrupting and forcing approaches, fast approach options of his own, and an abundance of combo and KO options, which allow him to keep up the pressure on his opponent even after winning the neutral game. As such, Wolf is able to adapt to nearly any playstyle. However, due to his vulnerability to combos, poor recovery, and trouble securing KOs, Wolf must also be well aware of his opponents, as a single mistake can cause him to sustain heavy damage from combos and end up in a position where he in turn can easily be KO'd.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Wolf has received some of the most noticeable changes of any returning veteran, similarly to and. Aesthetically, most of his moveset has been reanimated to look more polished and further differentiated from. This has led to a much larger overhaul in Wolf's moveset compared to other veterans, as several of his attacks either have altered or completely new animations alongside mechanical changes. As a result, Wolf has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition from Brawl, but has been considerably buffed overall.

Like most of the returning veterans, Wolf's initial dash is much faster, while his dash and air speed have been slightly increased. In addition to this, however, his fast falling speed is significantly faster, no longer providing the smallest falling speed increase out of the cast by a considerable margin, greatly enhancing his aerial approach and landing ability. Coupled with his superior mobility are the buffs to his, already an effective projectile in his previous appearance, and his new dash attack; the former's blasts deal more damage and knockback, while the latter covers much more horizontal range and is stronger. Both of these changes improve his neutral game, now boasting one of the most respectable ones among the cast.

Wolf's entire moveset has been generally improved. He has a new neutral aerial that gives him a vastly more effective approach option, his forward aerial has become an excellent combo starter due to its reduced ending and landing lag, and his back and up aerials have had their knockback noticeably increased (most notably the former). Back throw now deals enough knockback to be a KO option at the edge, and up throw and down throw have useful combo starters at low percentages. Wolf Flash and Fire Wolf are far stronger, giving him two more powerful, albeit risky, KO options; the former in particular can now be aimed up or down, slightly improving his horizontal recovery and potentially making the clean hit easier to land. has a stronger damage multiplier, which combined with its intact speed multiplier makes it the best of the three space animals.

Wolf also heavily benefits from the changes to gameplay mechanics. Aside from his faster mobility, the new air dodge mechanics, as well as the changes to hitstun canceling, allow Wolf to combo and juggle his opponents for a longer period of time; he has gained not only several more ways to start combos, but also KO setups into his powerful back aerial and Wolf Flash. The drastic weakening of momentum canceling allows his moves to KO earlier and overall put his survivability more in line with the cast. The removal of edgehogging in favor of ledge trumping and the removal of chain grabbing and meteor canceling also significantly improve his survivability; in particular, Wolf benefits from meteor canceling far more than any other returning veteran, as it puts his own survivability more in-line with the rest of the cast while making his down aerial and Wolf Flash more effective for KOing offstage.

However, Wolf has received a few significant nerfs as well. Some of his moves have received increased lag, such as his forward smash, down smash, and his renowned back aerial from Brawl, in exchange for more power; the latter two are particularly noteworthy due to their previous speed and already decent power. Because of this, Wolf has a more difficult time scoring KOs without resorting to setups at medium percentages, as his finishers are much harder to land in general, forcing him to either time them precisely or lure the opponent into them.

Additionally, several of Wolf's moves have less range to varying degrees. His new forward smash does not move him a considerable distance forward, while his forward aerial has lost its deceptively large disjoint. His recovery has also worsened due to both Fire Wolf and Wolf Flash's travel distances being shortened; unlike 's or 's own side special, Wolf Flash also still leaves him helpless after the move, which makes him more susceptible to edgeguarding than in Brawl. Wolf's neutral and forward aerials, while possessing greater combo ability and safety, are also weaker, while the former also has slower startup. Wolf's new down throw is now less effective for tech-chasing and setting up edgeguards because of its higher launch angle (though this is mitigated by Wolf's newfound combo game).

Despite Ultimate's new mechanics heavily benefiting Wolf, he has also seen a few nerfs from the changes to the mechanics, most notably the removal of DACUS which hinders his grounded approach. Lastly, Wolf is much lighter, worsening his survivability (especially horizontally, due to the changes to momentum canceling), while he remains an easy combo target due to his high falling speed and the changes to hitstun canceling.

Overall, Wolf's buffs have drastically altered his playstyle for the better, though he now possesses a higher learning curve. He is now able to take advantage of his less polarized moveset and has gained a varied combo game that makes up for the loss of his previous damage racking options in Brawl, but his higher frailty means he must keep playing carefully to avoid opponents from taking advantage of him. Wolf's buffs and benefits from the revamped game engine eclipse his nerfs, and he is widely agreed to be significantly better than he was in Brawl and a strong contender in competitive play.

Update history
Wolf received a mix of buffs and nerfs via game updates, but was nerfed slightly overall. In update 3.0.0, the sweetspot of his down smash's front hit, infamous among the community for its extreme power (especially near edges), was weakened slightly. was also affected by the near-universal nerf to projectiles' shield damage outputs, while an exploit that allowed Wolf to reduce Wolf Flash's landing lag with a directional air dodge was removed. These nerfs were negligible, however, as Wolf retained his strengths and continued to perform very well in tournaments.

Update 3.1.0 granted Wolf a few buffs and nerfs, although the latter were more impactful than the former. Blaster's ending lag was increased, which slightly worsened its renowned utility as a safe neutral tool that could counter approaches with relatively low risk. Down smash's front sweetspot was weakened slightly once again, while Fire Wolf's final hitbox was shrunken noticeably to compensate for its looping hits' improved consistency. Conversely, neutral attack's hits connect together more reliably, and 's overall lag was decreased by 1 frame. Lastly, update 7.0.0 enlarged Wolf's shield as part of a near-universal buff.

Overall, Wolf fares mildly worse than he did at the launch of Ultimate. However, his sizeable player base and consistent success in tournaments have both remained largely intact regardless.  

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Wolf's hitboxes, see here.
 * Wolf can wall jump.

On-screen appearance

 * Ejects from a Wolfen.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Leans his head back and howls.
 * Side taunt: Does a beckoning gesture with his fingers while smirking and asking "Are you scared?" (, What's wrong, what's wrong?).
 * Down taunt: Kneels down, slaps the ground with one hand, and makes a howling-esque noise.
 * Smash Taunt: Kneels down before contacting Team Star Wolf. This can only be done on Lylat Cruise and is performed by tapping the down taunt command. Wolf will hold a pose for a few seconds, then a conversation will begin. This can only be done once each round and if the player is hit while Wolf is holding his pose before the conversation starts, it is canceled.

Idle poses

 * Claws at the air.
 * Pretends to howl.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses
In any victory pose, there's a chance Wolf will say "Playtime's over, Star Fox!" (, Playtime is over, Star Fox!) if Fox was present during the match.
 * Left: Raises his right hand towards his face. He then moves his arms in alternating circular motions before bringing his left arm towards his right side. He then concludes by swinging out his left arm while raising his right, assuming a martial arts stance. This may be in reference to his idle stance in Brawl.
 * Up: Performs two alternating slashes and then a wheel kick, saying "You're good, but I'm better." (, You will be defeated by the very me!). After the kick, Wolf assumes a low-postured stance in which he raises his right arm behind himself while he holds out his left while smirking.
 * Right: While facing away from the camera, Wolf raises his right arm. He then turns quickly toward the camera, gesturing towards the screen with his claws. During the entirety of the pose, he scoffs and says "Weaklings, the lot of you." (, Such weak ones.)

Tier placement and history
Initial opinions of Wolf were mixed before the release of Ultimate, with players noting the loss of his renowned back aerial and powerful DACUS, reduced invincibility from, and Wolf Flash still causing helplessness, which was a big detriment compared to and 's respective side specials. However, players began to realize the effectiveness of Wolf's buffs past the game's release, as it gave him a powerful projectile courtesy of his Blaster, effective combos due to his modified physics, and a notorious edgeguarding tool in down smash, which kept its high power despite being nerfed twice through game updates. This caused Wolf to gain a renowned, controllable neutral game, allowing him to dictate the flow of battle through use of his Blaster, overall speed, and combo ability.

As a result, Wolf has consistently been a very popular pick in competitive play since Ultimate's early lifespan; he has been the most used character in many competitive events, including, , and. In addition, many professional players have attained strong results with the character, and players in general have agreed that Wolf is potentially one of the best characters in the game, with players such as believing the character is top 3 in the game.

However, Wolf's weaknesses have become more exploitable as the meta evolved, with his strongest mains either dropping him or moving to other characters (Tweek). In addition, due to the additions of strong characters such as / and, Wolf's position in the metagame began to drop as many players left Wolf out of conversations on the best character in the game. Despite these issues, however, Wolf continues to be a popular character following the pandemic, with players such as, , and achieving strong results at major events. Despite having slipped in players' tier lists, many players and professionals such as and  still consider the character to be top tier, making him ranked 11th on the first and current tier list.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Wolf players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Wolf players in Japan. Placed 1st at, 2nd at , 5th at , 7th at , and 17th at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 32nd on the PGRU v3 NA.
 * - One of the best Wolf players in the world in 2021. Placed 7th at, 9th at both and , 17th at , and 25th at  with wins over players such as , , and . He was listed in the C-tier on the PGRUContenders North America.
 * - One of the current three best Wolf players in the world. Placed 5th at, 7th at , 9th at , , 2nd at , and with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 23rd on the PGRU v3 NA.
 * - The best Wolf player in South America. Placed 4th at both and  as well as 25th at  with wins over, , and . Currently ranked 5th on the Chilean Power Rankings. Online, placed 4th at  and 7th at.
 * - Co-mains Wolf alongside and is one of the best Wolf players in the United States. Placed 1st at, 7th at , 9th at , 17th at , and 25th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 40th on the PGRU v3 NA.
 * - One of the current three best Wolf players in the world. Placed 3rd at, 4th at , 5th at , 7th at , and 13th at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 40th on the Japan Player Rankings.
 * - The best Wolf player in Europe. Placed 1st at, 5th at both and , 9th at , and 13th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 8th on the PGRU v3 EU.
 * - One of the current three best Wolf players in the world. Placed 3rd at, 9th at both and , and 13th at both  and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 20th on the PGRU v3 NA.
 * - The best Wolf player in the world during the early metagame but has since dropped the character. Placed 1st at both and, 2nd at , 5th at , and 7th at.

: Reunited Roster
Wolf's opponents, like himself, are veterans who were absent from Super Smash Bros. 4. The boss of this route is Galleom, who was also absent from Smash 4. Notably, Young Link and Pichu were also absent from Brawl.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Wolf has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Although Wolf does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (except for ) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Wolf was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He is unlocked in the Mysterious Dimension in The Dark Realm. The player must defeat the Andross (Star Fox 64 3D) spirit, which is the answer to a given question ("Who among these spirits is a scientist?"), to reveal a path leading to a wrecked airplane. His unlock battle is on the plane's tail, just to the left of the Krystal spirit.

Spirit
Wolf's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Wolf has been unlocked. Unlocking Wolf 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 is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Early gameplay footage of Wolf in Ultimate contains a few inconsistencies between his official render and his in-game model. The soles of his boots are blue in his official render while they were red in his in-game model, the straps behind his right shin guard were white instead of black, and his jacket and gloves were a dark purple color instead of light purple.
 * Oddly, in his showcase video, the inconsistencies only appear in the final part of the video, when he attacks Fox.
 * They are also present in, , and 's character showcase videos.
 * Additionally, the inconsistencies are used for his model in the first five screenshots of his character page on the Ultimate official website.
 * The black bootstraps in his render are themselves an inconsistency, as they are purple in his in-game model.
 * Wolf is the only playable Star Fox character:
 * Whose neutral attack does not transition into a rapid jab.
 * Whose down smash doesn't hit simultaneously on both sides.
 * Whose forward aerial does not hit multiple times.
 * Who does not use his Blaster for any of his throws.
 * Whose side special still puts him in helpless.
 * Who does not face Master Hand and/or Crazy Hand as the final boss in Classic Mode.
 * Whose fighter spirit does not use artwork from Star Fox Zero; in Wolf's case, it is his artwork from Star Fox: Assault, which was previously used for Wolf's design in Brawl.
 * Whose English voice actor from Brawl reprises his role in Ultimate, while Fox and Falco's voice actors were changed from Brawl to Smash 4, which is retained in Ultimate.
 * Wolf (in English) is also the only Star Fox character in Ultimate (in either English or Japanese) whose voice actor reprises his role from a previous Smash game, as his, Fox, and Falco's Japanese voice actors were all changed in Ultimate from previous games.
 * Wolf is the only returning Brawl veteran who does not have a palette swap of his design from that game in Ultimate.
 * The visual effects for all of Wolf's claw-based attacks display three slash trails, despite attacking with four fingers.
 * Prior to update 8.0.0, Wolf's unique voice clip when winning against Fox ("Playtime's over, Star Fox!") was not present in the Sound Test. Fox,, , and also shared this distinction.
 * There's been a change in Wolf's in-game model that's not present on either his official artwork or amiibo. Additional straps were added to his shin guards that match the color of the bands on his gloves.
 * Unlike in Brawl, looking through Wolf's eyepatch reveals that the eye socket is empty.
 * Wolf uses his left hand for his forward smash but uses his right hand to fire his Blaster. This shows that Wolf has some kind of cross-dominance.
 * Navigating the camera around Wolf's model reveals that there are a few gaps in some parts of his body including:
 * Between the bandana and collar in the back.
 * Between the left side of his waist and jacket. It's more noticeable to see in this video.
 * Underneath between his jacket and lower waist.
 * Additionally, Wolf's zipper disconnects from his jacket when performing certain animations such as his idle pose or hanging on an edge. This also happens with.
 * Certain animations will also cause the nape of Wolf's neck to detach from his bandanna, exposing a gap.
 * There is an animation error with Wolf's forward teching animation; his left foot will be twisted the other way when rolling.
 * The same thing happens for exactly 1 frame during the roundhouse kick segment of his up-inputted victory pose.
 * When Wolf walks off a platform with his left leading foot, his body becomes slightly disfigured. This is better seen when playing the game in slow motion.
 * Additionally, if he throws an item upward while airborne, both his arms will be dis-positioned before snapping back to normal.
 * Wolf,, , , , and are the only characters that use their crouching animation from their previous Super Smash Bros. game when holding a small item (in Chrom's case, he uses Roy's previous crouching animation).
 * This makes Wolf, Marth, and Lucina the only characters to have both updated idle and crouching animations, but will transition to their previous animations when holding a small item.
 * Much like in Brawl, Wolf's supine floor attack is the only arm-based attack that involves him punching rather than using his claws.
 * Despite Wolf's design changing from Brawl, the Star Fox Smash Taunt reuses his design from Brawl. This is also the case with Fox and Falco.
 * If Fox is present in the match, the lasers fired from Wolf's Blaster generate a black smoke effect when hitting an opponent, an item, or a wall, much like the lasers fired from Fox's Blaster.
 * Wolf's description from the North American amiibo website is based on his trophy description from Smash 4.
 * Interestingly, Wolf's up taunt finishes faster when facing left if uninterrupted. A similar situation occurs with both (up and down taunts) and  (up taunt).
 * While Wolf's design in Ultimate was based on his appearance in Star Fox Zero, his outfit is entirely original, most likely because he lacks any full-body appearance in-game, with both his headshot while speaking and the view of him in the cockpit of his Wolfen only showing his head and a small part of his outfit.
 * However, the design of his outfit in Ultimate does not appear to match with the small amount of his outfit that is visible in Star Fox Zero.
 * Masahiro Sakurai showed an early version of Wolf's taking damage animation in a YouTube video, notably with a different facial expression that was changed to be more exaggerated.