Amiibo

amiibo (, amiibo) are a line of interactive figurines and cards available for usage with the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch systems. By scanning an amiibo with technology, players can receive various effects in games.

For the Wii U, amiibo are scanned using the Wii U GamePad. New Nintendo 3DS models can directly scan amiibo; older Nintendo 3DS models require an NFC adapter to scan them. For the Nintendo Switch, amiibo are scanned on either the right Joy-Con or the Pro Controller.

While the concept of figurines using NFC technology to interact with the Wii U was previously explored with , Super Smash Bros. 4 was the first game to feature the amiibo branding, acting as the debut and flagship title for the line.

As of September 2016, Nintendo reports that 39 million amiibo figurines have been sold, along with 30.6 million amiibo cards.

By September 2022, total sales reached 77 million toys.

Function in the Super Smash Bros. series
Super Smash Bros. series amiibo figures for every character in Super Smash Bros. 4 have been released, with amiibo figures for all characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate either already released or planned for future release. Some alternate costumes, such as male and female Corrin, have separate amiibo available; others, such as Alph for, do not. amiibo interact with games in the Smash series in two ways: Read-Only, where data on the amiibo can be downloaded into the game, and Read/Write, which have the additional functionality of data from the game being uploaded onto the amiibo. amiibo based on playable fighters are Read/Write, while all other compatible amiibo are Read-Only.

amiibo notably break a unique rule about the Smash series. Masahiro Sakurai has stated that any mass produced merchandise related to the series outside of free giveaways and limited edition collectors' items are generally prohibited. The only exception so far have been amiibo, which have been in regular circulation since November 21st, 2014.

In Super Smash Bros. 4
In Super Smash Bros. 4, amiibo figures function as Figure Players. A Figure Player is a computer-controlled character whose behavior and customizations are saved to the amiibo figure. The Figure Player learns from the fighters it fights against, leveling up in the process (up to level 50). Figure Players can be fed equipment to modify their stats.

Any amiibo figure corresponding to a playable character may be used, not just the ones released in the Super Smash Bros. amiibo series; however, amiibo cards cannot. Figure Players can be used on any copy of the game (even if the character has not been unlocked or downloaded).

While natively supports amiibo,  predates amibo, so it was unable to do so at launch. Version 1.0.5, released on February 9th, 2015, added support for scanning amiibo if the game is played on a New Nintendo 3DS or New Nintendo 2DS, while version 1.0.8, released on June 14th, 2015, added support for an external NFC reader/writer accessory, enabling support for the earlier released 3DS and 2DS models. The user must have one of these pieces of hardware to use amiibo with the 3DS version.

amiibo are not required to unlock any characters or other features in the games—they are completely optional for playing both versions.

Owing to Figure Players' ability to be "trained" and used on other consoles, amiibo tournaments have become a minor side event at some Smash 4 tournaments.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
amiibo compatibility returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. amiibo figures that represent playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate can be used as Figure Players, while amiibo that represent non-fighter spirits can instead be used to obtain those spirits.

Any amiibo figure corresponding to a playable character may be used as a Figure Player, not just the ones released in the Super Smash Bros. amiibo series; however, most amiibo cards cannot (with the exception of Isabelle amiibo cards). Figure Player data from Super Smash Bros. 4 can be converted for use in Ultimate, but once it is converted, the data can no longer be used in Super Smash Bros. 4. As Charizard was added back into Pokémon Trainer's team, a Charizard amiibo will scan as Pokémon Trainer with Charizard as the starting Pokémon.

Like in Super Smash Bros. 4, Figure Players function as computer-controlled opponents that learn from their opponents. However, it is now possible to disable their ability to learn. Figure Players no longer consume equipment, as the feature did not return. Instead, Figure Players can inherit up to three support spirits, permanently consuming them in order to gain their skills, having access to these skills even if spirits are disabled in the rules.

Introduced in version 3.1.0, amiibo Journey allows Figure Players to fight other amiibo over the internet for a set amount of time, gaining experience while it is away. Upon return, the Figure Player will level up accordingly and possibly give the player gifts it earned while battling.

Compatible amiibo of characters from other series who are not playable in the game will grant a spirit corresponding to the character scanned. However, only one reward will be granted per amiibo, even accounting for individual figures or bands with the same design.

Release
For Smash, amiibo are released in waves. Several staggered release dates have been announced, with each date containing a subset of the entire Smash lineup. The waves, the figurines they contain, and their release dates are detailed below; waves are listed in their American sets and dates, although the contents of each wave sometimes vary by region.

Smash-related amiibo are priced at $12.99 in the US, $15.99 in Canada, £10.99 GBP in the United Kingdom, $17.95 AUS in Australia, ¥1200 JPY in Japan, and €14.99 EUR in Europe.

Wave 1
The first wave of amiibo launched on November 21st, 2014, alongside the American release of. The European release followed on November 28th, 2014. This wave marked the first release of amiibo out of any game. The wave featured newcomers and, and veterans , , , , , , , , , and. The eight starter characters from the original Super Smash Bros. were all in this wave.

In Japan this wave was released alongside Wave 2 on December 6th, 2014.



Wave 2
The second wave of amiibo was released alongside the first one in Japan on December 6th, 2014. It was then released on December 14th, 2014 in the Americas and on December 19th, 2014 in Europe. The wave featured newcomer and veterans, , , , and.



Wave 3
Eight amiibo from the third wave were originally released in Japan on January 22nd, 2015, specifically, , , , , , , and. The final three amiibo,, , and were released on February 19th, 2015.

The entire wave was released in Australia on January 29th, 2015, and in the Americas on February 1st, 2015. In North America, several of the amiibo are exclusively available through specific retailers.

In Europe, Wave 3 was split in two. ,, , , , and were released on January 23rd, 2015, while , , , , and  were released on February 20th, 2015. 

Wave 4
The first six amiibo from the fourth wave were originally released in Europe on April 24th, 2015 and in Japan on April 29th, 2015. These are specifically, , , , ,. The final two amiibo,, and were released in Japan on May 28th, 2015 and in Europe on May 29th, 2015. The entire wave was released in the Americas on May 29th, 2015. Like Wave 3, in North America, several of the amiibo are exclusively available through specific retailers. This is the last wave to feature fighters from the original Super Smash Bros., while this is also the first wave to feature unlockable characters.

The Pac-Man amiibo was sold exclusively at Best Buy on October 19, 2018, in line with the upcoming release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 

Wave 5
The fifth wave of amiibo was released in Europe on June 26th, 2015, in Japan on June 11th, 2015, and in the Americas in late July 2015, with releasing on July 31st, 2015, and  releasing on July 24th, 2015. This wave also included Palutena as the first amiibo to be exclusive to an online retailer in North America, as well as being the only wave containing only exclusives in North America. 

Wave 6
The sixth wave of amiibo was released in the Americas on September 11th, 2015, making the following amiibo available:, , , , and. In Europe and Japan, and  released alongside Wave 5, and, , and  were released on July 17th, 2015, with the remainder of the wave releasing in September 2015. ,, and were bundled together as a "retro 3-pack" in North America and released exclusively at GameStop on September 25th, 2015 in North America and were individually released on October 29th, 2015 in Japan. This was the final set of amiibo featuring starters. The amiibo features multiple, swappable poses. 

Wave 7
The seventh wave of amiibo was released in Europe on October 23rd, 2015, in Japan on October 29th, 2015, and in the Americas on November 13th, 2015. This wave included the release of the first amiibo of a downloadable character,. was released in North America exclusively at Best Buy and Europe on November 20th, 2015. The three s was released in the United States on November 1st, 2015 in a 3-pack exclusively at Toys "R" Us. The 3-pack was released in Canada on November 20th, 2015. This is the last wave to have the initial releases of fighters from the base roster.

The three Mii Fighter amiibo were released individually in Europe, on the same day as R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, and Duck Hunt were released. 

Wave 8
The amiibo was the only amiibo in the eighth wave, which was released in Japan on December 17th, 2015, in the Americas on January 22nd, 2016, and in Europe on January 29th, 2016. Prior to Wave 15, it was the only wave to not feature any newcomers. 

Wave 9
The ninth wave of amiibo was released on March 18th, 2016 in Western regions, and on April 28th, 2016 in Japan. This wave included the releases of the DLC fighters and, with Roy being a GameStop exclusive in North America, and the first international release of  with his Famicom color scheme. 

Wave 10
The tenth and final wave of Super Smash Bros. 4 amiibo released worldwide on July 21, 2017, and featured amiibo of the last three DLC characters:, , and. Each of the three received an alternate version based on their alternate costumes: Bayonetta's design from the first Bayonetta game, Cloud's Advent Children costume, and female Corrin. The alternate amiibo with these designs are officially referred to as "Player 2" versions. The "Player 2" versions of these three fighters were exclusively available through specific retailers. 

Wave 11
Wave 11 marks the first wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It launched alongside the game on December 7th, 2018 and features two of the game's newcomers, and, as well as , a veteran returning from Brawl. 

Wave 12
Wave 12 marks the second wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was launched worldwide on February 15th, 2019 and features one of the game's newcomers,, and the returning , as well as the game's first downloadable character,. 

Wave 13
Wave 13 marks the third wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was launched worldwide on April 12th, 2019 and includes returning veteran and newcomers  and.



Wave 14
Wave 14 marks the fourth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was launched on July 19th, 2019 in Japan and Europe, and was launched on July 26th, 2019 in the Americas. This wave includes returning veterans and, along with newcomer.



Wave 15
Wave 15 marks the fifth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was launched worldwide on September 20th, 2019 and features veterans, and. This is the last wave to feature returning veterans. 

Wave 16
Wave 16 marks the sixth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was launched on November 6th, 2019 in Japan, and was launched on November 15th, 2019 in Western regions. This wave features newcomers, and. 

Wave 17
Wave 17 marks the seventh wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was launched worldwide on January 17th, 2020. This wave features newcomers and. This is the last wave to feature fighters from the base roster.

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Wave 18
Wave 18 marks the eighth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It launched in Japan and Europe on September 25th, 2020 and in the Americas on October 2nd, 2020. This wave features newcomers and, being the first wave to feature fighters from the Fighters Pass Vol. 1.

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Wave 19
Wave 19 marks the ninth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It launched worldwide on March 26th, 2021. This wave features newcomers, and. It was the final wave to feature fighters from the Fighters Pass Vol. 1.

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Wave 20
Wave 20 marks the tenth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It launched worldwide on April 29, 2022. Fighters Pass Vol. 2 newcomer is the only figure in this wave. This is the first wave to feature a fighter from the Fighters Pass Vol. 2.

and Alex were originally intended to be part of the wave, but supply chain issues delayed their release by several months.

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Wave 21
Wave 21 marks the eleventh wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It launched worldwide on September 9, 2022. This wave features two amiibo for Fighters Pass Vol. 2 newcomer, one for him and one for his alternate costume character Alex. Both were exclusively available together as part of the Steve + Alex double pack.

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Wave 22
Wave 22 marks the twelfth wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It launched worldwide on January 13th, 2023. This wave features newcomers and, both from Fighters Pass Vol. 2.

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Wave 23
On December 14th, 2022, alongside the announcement of Sephiroth and Kazuya's amiibo, it was confirmed that and 's amiibo would be released at some point in 2023. They were launched as a double pack on July 21st, 2023. This is the only instance of amiibo being released differently from the order of release in either Fighters Pass, as Kazuya was released after Pyra and Mythra.

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Wave 24
Wave 24 marks the fourteenth and final wave of characters from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. is the only figure in this wave. It will be released on February 16th, 2024.

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Sales
Over 710,000 amiibo from Wave 1 were sold prior to the introduction of Wave 2, with Nintendo also stating that sales were approximately equal to those of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. amiibo of were said to be the most popular, with  and  being the second and third most popular, respectively. At the end of 2014, it was announced that amiibo had outsold by a factor of at least two to one, with over 2.6 million figurines being sold ; a later quarterly report from Nintendo claimed that over 5.7 million amiibo were shipped worldwide.

Controversy
Demand for some amiibo far exceeded supply, leading to supply shortages. Pre-orders for broke sales records for Target, with the figurines selling out in only 35 minutes. amiibo from Wave 4 caused such huge demand that the web servers for GameStop crashed when pre-orders became available. GameStop also sold out of pre-orders for all Wave 4 amiibo in less than five hours.

These shortages caused panic among customers who were forced to wait for restocks and hope they can get a desired amiibo in the next round. This fervor encouraged scalpers to buy as many amiibos as possible and then resell them for immense price increases, an illegal practice known as price gouging. Nintendo's apparent lack of agency to restock led to the conspiracy that these shortages were planned to keep demand and value high. John Vignocchi, executive producer of competing NFC figure based game Disney Infinity, commented about this conspiracy by stating "[An intentional shortage] is irresponsible and rude to your hardcore fans." By the release of Ulimate, the demand for amiibo had plateaued and the practice of retail exclusivity was abandoned, and most common amiibo can be found easily for reasonable prices today.

Games compatible with Super Smash Bros. series amiibo
The following games have effects when an amiibo from the Super Smash Bros. series is scanned. The symbol means that all amiibo not listed serve the corresponding function.

Other series of amiibo compatible with Super Smash Bros.
The following amiibo from other release sets are compatible with both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Ultimate. All color, size, and style variations from these sets will function identically in Smash, though some will default to another costume.

The following amiibo are only compatible with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:

Non-fighter amiibo which give spirits
The following amiibo figures will reward the player with a spirit when scanned in Ultimate. If the spirit is a master spirit, their function will be unlocked as well.

If either of the characters in the following pairs are scanned, the duo's spirit will be obtained:
 * Alm or Celica
 * Cyrus or Reese
 * Callie or Marie
 * Pearl or Marina
 * Octoling Girl or Octoling Boy

amiibo not compatible with Ultimate
This is a list of officially released amiibo currently incompatible with Ultimate. When any of these figures are scanned, the game will show the message "This amiibo is not supported by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate". For the sake of brevity, all officially released amiibo cards (including ) except for Isabelle are also incompatible.

Trivia

 * Originally at launch, 's amiibo was exclusive to GameStop in North America, the same store his game, Xenoblade Chronicles, was exclusive to in its North American release.
 * The R.O.B., Cloud, Corrin, Bayonetta and Steve amiibo are the only ones to have different alternate costume versions in the Smash line.
 * The R.O.B. amiibo is the only amiibo with multiple versions featuring the same pose, and the only one who doesn't default to an alternate costume.
 * R.O.B. is the only character to have amiibo included in two different waves.
 * The Cloud and Bayonetta amiibo are the only amiibo with multiple versions featuring different costumes.
 * The Corrin and Steve amiibo are the only amiibo to have male and female versions.
 * Mr. Game & Watch's amiibo is the only one to come with multiple unique poses. One is based on his official SSB4 artwork, as are other amiibo; others feature his parachute from Fire, getting a 9 using Judge, and a bell-ringing pose resembling his side taunt and artwork pose from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Amongst his four poses, the Judge pose is the only one that was not used as an in-game trophy pose for Melee (which did not use any), Brawl (which used the bell pose) and (which used the artwork and parachute poses).
 * Mewtwo's amiibo released in Europe on October 23rd, 2015, one year to the day after it was confirmed to be a downloadable character during the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 50-Fact Extravaganza.
 * If the player feeds an amiibo equipment, and then exits the amiibo menus without saving the changes to the amiibo, that equipment will disappear anyway. The only way to get it back is to quit the game without letting the game save.
 * Isabelle, Inkling, Daisy, Chrom and Young Link are the only playable characters with amiibo released before their respective Super Smash Bros. series amiibo; as such, they have amiibo usable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that predate the release of their actual Smash amiibo.
 * Mega Man is the only third party fighter to have an amiibo outside the Super Smash Bros. series.
 * Mega Man is also the only character to have a proper "special edition" amiibo in the Super Smash Bros. line, that being Mega Man (Gold Edition).
 * Pikachu's Detective Pikachu amiibo is not compatible with Smash 4, and as such is the only amiibo figure to depict a Smash character to not have any functionality as a figure player in Smash.
 * However, Detective Pikachu is a spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the Detective Pikachu amiibo does grant this spirit in-game.
 * Certain amiibo that show characters in an alternate costume will have their Figure Player default to that costume. This includes the "Player 2" versions of Smash Bros amiibo, but also amiibo from other lines such as Inkling Boy, Isabelle in her winter jacket, and Link in his Tunic of the Wild for the Link’s Awakening figure. Ike's amiibo defaults to his alternate costume in Ultimate; as such, there is no Ike amiibo that defaults to his default costume.
 * , and  do not have amiibo based on their Ultimate renders, but have non-Smash amiibo based on the renders used for their Fighter spirits.
 * Timmy and Tommy is the only master spirit which can be obtained via amiibo.
 * Due to the Turbo Charge Donkey Kong and Hammer Slam Bowser figures technically being developed by, they are the only amiibo compatible with Smash not developed by Nintendo.
 * Despite Palico, Palamute, Magnamalo, Razewing Ratha, Shiver, Frye, and Big Man all having amiibo and spirits in Ultimate, none of said amiibo are compatible with Ultimate and thus can't be used to acquire the corresponding spirits.