Primary spirit

Primary spirits are a type of spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A spirit team can include only a single primary spirit, and must include a primary spirit in order to have any support spirits.

Primary spirits have one of four types: Attack, Shield , Grab , and Neutral. Attack is strong against Grab, Shield is strong against Attack, and Grab is strong against Shield; Neutral does not have any advantages or disadvantages against other types. Primary spirits cause the equipped fighter to deal 1.3× damage to fighters equipped with a primary spirit of the type they are strong against, but only deal 0.85× damage to fighter equipped with a primary spirit of the type they are weak against. In spirit battles, the opposing spirit is always assigned a type, even if it is a support spirit, and the puppet fighters experience type effectiveness accordingly (even though they are not actually equipped with a spirit).

Primary spirits have two main stats, an attack rating and a defense rating, with the spirit's listed power being the sum of those two stats. The primary spirits' listed power can be further increased by the skill that it has, any support spirits it has equipped, or a style that has been taught (in some cases a style may decrease the listed power). Primary spirits also provide a number of slots for support spirits, ranging from 0 to 3 (Primary spirits that do not have any support spirit slots often have higher stats to compensate.) If a primary spirit is from the same series as the character equipped with it, it gains a further 1.1× (10%) stat boost. Even though this series bonus can increase stats above 10,000, the stats used for attack and defense multipliers are capped at 10,000.

Additionally, primary spirits may have a trait, which applies an additional effect to the equipped fighter. This trait can be either positive or negative.

Some primary spirits can be enhanced at level 99. When enhanced, it becomes a new spirit with a higher rank and stats, and gains a skill (as enhancability counts as the unenhanced spirit's trait). Many skills of enhanced spirits are otherwise exclusive to support spirits. The skills gained are identical to those found on support spirits, meaning using a support skill that has the same name as the one on the primary spirit won't multiply together and instead counts as another use of that skill.

Stats
Primary spirits' attack and defense stats modify how much damage is dealt and received by the character, but do not affect knockback dealt, and are not factored into the knockback formula. For both stats, a value of 0 results in no change from base damage.
 * The damage dealt multiplier is equal to . Therefore, an attack of 2500 results in double damage, 5000 in triple damage, and so on.
 * When using a Final Smash the damage dealt multiplier is.
 * When using an item the damage dealt multiplier is . When throwing a non-throwing item (e.g. a Beam Sword or Super Scope), the damage dealt multiplier is applied to the item's base damage before being affected by its speed.
 * Smash attack charging speed is multiplied by . An attack of 2,500 will make smash attacks charge in 30 frames, 5,000 is 20 frames, etc.
 * The damage taken multiplier is equal to . Therefore, a defense of 2500 results in taking 0.4× damage, while a defense of 5000 results in taking 0.25× damage.
 * Shield regeneration is increased by a multiplier of  and shield depletion is reduced at the same amount. A defense of 10,000 will double shield regeneration and halve shield depletion.
 * Stun duration after a shield break is reduced by  frames. A defense of 2,500 will reduce the duration by 50 frames, 100 frames at 5,000, and 200 frames at 10,000.

Because of the nature of these functions, defense is a more effective stat in terms of raw numbers, in the sense that a defense of 1000 is stronger than an attack of 1000 (which is the case when stats are equal at any value). However, defense is also slower to rise as its magnitude increases, whereas attack rises at a constant rate.