Ganondorf (SSBU)

Ganondorf (, Ganondorf) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially revealed alongside and the rest of the returning roster on June 12th, 2018 during E3 2018. Like in games prior to, he is unlockable, instead of being available from the start. Ganondorf is classified as Fighter #23.

, after having previously voiced Ganondorf in ', ' and Super Smash Bros. Melee, reprises his role in all regions with new voice clips that sound more akin to the former game, replacing 's portrayal from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4.

Ganondorf is ranked dead last on the tier list, at 82nd out of 82, in the D- tier. This is a slight drop from his already very low placement in Smash 4, where he was tied with at 52nd/53rd out of 54, and gives him the dubious distinction of being the only character ranked last for the NTSC and European tier lists of two different games, the other being Brawl. It should be noted that his placement does not equate to the same level of unviability as in previous games, as he is overall more viable than in Brawl and Smash 4. However, despite noteworthy improvements to his raw power over Brawl and Smash 4, Ganondorf's core weaknesses continue to hold him back drastically compared to the rest of the roster: his terrible frame data and slow movement give him severe difficulty in approaching and escaping disadvantage, several of his moves have small or poorly placed hitboxes which results in poor range or glaring blindspots, and his recovery is among the worst in the game.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Ganondorf must then be defeated on Bridge of Eldin (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Ganondorf being the 40th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the 4th character unlocked after.
 * Have Ganondorf join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Ganondorf is the epitome of the super heavyweight archetype: he is the fifth heaviest character in the game and possesses extreme power in exchange for terrible mobility and frame data. Despite his high traction, above average falling speed, and moderately high gravity, he sports the seventh slowest walking speed, the fourth slowest dashing speed, the third slowest air speed, the sixth lowest air acceleration, and sixth lowest jump and double jump heights. As a result, he is among the least mobile characters in the game, but his high weight grants him exceptional endurance, allowing him to survive at very high percentages and benefit from rage.

Ganondorf's most defining trait is his incredible kill power and damage output. Most of his moves inflict over 10% damage and are capable of killing under 100% with ease, even from the middle of Final Destination, giving him one of the strongest punishment games in the roster. His forward tilt and down smash are very powerful semi-spikes, while his forward and up smashes are massive disjoints that utilize a large sword to cover Ganondorf. In particular, these two smash attacks can not only hit below the ledge, but the former is generally the third strongest of its kind in the game, having the potential to KO most opponents well below 65% (even at the center of Final Destination). His neutral special, Warlock Punch, has the most startup out of his entire moveset, but it also deals ludicrous knockback and damage (especially when B-reversed in the air), being capable of instantaneously killing middleweights and lighter (if it connects before touching the ground). Ganondorf’s sweetspotted down aerial and aerial Wizard's Foot are extremely powerful meteor smashes that can KO opponents offstage at exceptionally low percents. Thanks to his strength, Ganondorf has among the highest KO potential in the game, as he can rack up heavy damage and KO opponents in very few hits.

Ganondorf's shield-breaking capabilities are potent and fearsome. His aforementioned forward and up smashes, Warlock Punch, and aerial Wizard's Foot can bring shields down to a sliver of health, while his Volcano Kick (up tilt) has vacuum properties, deceptively large reach, and can shatter shields in a single hit. These options also allow Ganondorf to play mindgames to make opponents with low shield health play more carefully around him, as he can punish any mistake extremely hard. As such, mistiming or overusing shields against Ganondorf can be deadly, as his aforementioned powerful moves allow him to capitalize shield breaks.

Despite his power, Ganondorf has excellent combo starters, some of which are potential kill confirms. His down throw can combo into every aerial except down aerial or dash attack up to mid-percentages. His dash attack is versatile; not only does it possess extreme KO power at high percentages, being the third strongest dash attack in Ultimate, but its early hit can potentially lead into neutral aerial, up aerial, or Dark Dive at early percentages. Even better, it has a late hit sourspot that grants followups into neutral attack, forward tilt, grab, all aerials except down aerial, and grounded Dark Dive, with the latter two options being potential kill confirms at high percentages. Neutral aerial's set knockback on the first kick as well as the late hit of the second kick can lead into neutral attack, grab, forward tilt, down tilt, or dash attack right after landing on the ground. Sweetspotted down aerial's high hitstun combos into neutral attack, grab, forward tilt, down tilt, every aerial, up smash, or down smash up to middle percentages. Perhaps Ganondorf's best combo starter is grounded Flame Choke, which is is a command grab that meteor smashes opponents into the ground, leading into a myriad of followups and reads. These follow ups include, but are not limited to: neutral attack, forward tilt, down tilt, dash attack, grounded or aerial Wizard’s Foot, any smash attacks or aerials, or even another Flame Choke. While Flame Choke can be teched, its low ending lag allows Ganondorf to tech-chase with the move, with some followups hitting short-distanced techs such as forward tilt covering 's inward tech, up smash or turnaround down smash on 's inward tech, down tilt on 's tech away, or neutral attack on all of 's tech options. Some characters can even be trapped at the ledge, where they move no distance from tech away and are hit during their neutral and inward techs.

All of Ganondorf's aerials are very useful, as they are fast despite their immense power (excluding forward aerial and down aerial), and are guaranteed to knock opponents off the stage even at medium percents, giving him a great edgeguarding game. His sweetspotted down aerial is his most damaging aerial and the second strongest meteor smash in the game, and when sourspotted has the second strongest horizontal knockback out of all his aerials (after his sweetspotted back aerial). His up aerial is his lowest damaging aerial, but is his second fastest aerial, can autocancel from a short hop, and its late hitbox is a very potent gimp with its semi-spike angle and high hitstun. His neutral aerial has the lowest knockback out of all his aerials, but is his fastest aerial consisting of two hits that naturally combo into each other with damage rivaling his sweetspotted down aerial, while doubling as long-lasting sex kicks, and has the greatest horizontal reach out of all his aerials allowing it to wall out approaches. His forward aerial boasts good reach in an arc that also hits slightly behind him, while his back aerial is a deceptively fast KO move that can autocancel from a short hop. Aerial Flame Choke is a chokeslam that lacks guaranteed followups, but does more damage than when used on the ground and can still tech-chase. Aerial Wizard's Foot is Ganondorf's only aerial option with vertical knockback, making it a good anti-air that punishes juggles. Finally, Dark Dive is a command grab that does multiple weak electric hits that make it difficult to interrupt, which leads into a very powerful throw that can reverse edgeguard situations, especially when facing away from the stage, while also not causing helplessness and letting him reuse the move; if the grab misses, the move performs an uppercut at the end to deter potential edgeguards.

In spite of his strengths, Ganondorf has glaring flaws. He is highly vulnerable to combos and juggling thanks to his heavy weight, very large size, above average falling speed and gravity, and low air speed, and his slow mobility hinders his approach and ability to close distance or create space. His lack of a projectile or reflector also leaves him susceptible to projectile camping and zoning.

Arguably Ganondorf's biggest weakness is his lack of defensive options, courtesy of the issues within his moveset. To begin, his frame data is very sluggish and among the worst in the game: he has very few moves that are active before frame 9 (these being neutral attack, neutral aerial, up aerial, and standing grab) and some not even coming out before frame 28 (such as forward smash, Warlock Punch, and Volcano Kick), along with many of his moves having extremely high ending lag (most notably all of his smash attacks and all his special moves). As a result of his abysmal frame data, many of his moves are unsafe on shield unless fully spaced, despite his aforementioned shield breaking capabilities. Combined with his poor mobility, Ganondorf struggles to compete with faster characters like, slow projectile users like , and long-ranged characters like and. This forces Ganondorf's offense to heavily rely on proper spacing and mindgames.

In contrast to Ganondorf's tall size, some of his attacks have poor reach and often have problematic hitbox placements, causing them to have noticeably large blind spots. His neutral attack, forward tilt, back aerial, Dark Dive, and Wizard's Foot, some of which are considered Ganondorf's fastest attacks and best out of shield options, all suffer from a combination of short reach, short hitbox duration, small hitbox sizes, and/or high hitbox placements. Wizard's Foot and Flame Choke also have their hitboxes end earlier than their animations suggest, while forward aerial and back aerial's hitboxes do not properly match their trails. Neutral aerial's two hits often fail to link properly, especially against grounded opponents, likely resulting in Ganondorf getting punished if he whiffs the second hit, and the second hit itself is difficult to land due to its high hitbox placement. His forward smash, despite its impressive reach, completely lacks any active hitboxes during the downward swing, giving it a notoriously large dead zone above and in front of his head. His up smash has a blindspot directly in front of him, and its rear hitboxes end just above the ground. Ganondorf's numerous blind spots allows many small characters such as to easily exploit and weave through his attacks, especially when crouching.

Ganondorf's grab game is also lackluster. His grab reach is notoriously short despite his tall stature, and, outside of down throw, his throws have little to no followup potential. None of them are consistently viable KO options either, despite dealing respectable amounts of damage; while his forward and back throws deal passable knockback, even they are rather weak and can't KO middleweights under 200% from center stage, while his up throw lacks KO potential altogether. His down throw, despite being a decent combo starter, loses much of its combo potential very quickly past low percentages. The ability to tech Flame Choke at any percentage works against Ganondorf, as it forces hard reads, and incorrect reads can put Ganondorf in a vulnerable position. Flame Choke also lacks a collateral hitbox, allowing doubles,, and to hit him out of the move.

The other major weakness is his poor recovery, which is considered to be one of the worst in the game. Ganondorf's slow air speed and low jump height, as well as the helplessness-causing Flame Choke and Dark Dive having low speed and resilience, makes his off-stage movement linear and predictable while leaving him very vulnerable to edgeguards and gimps. His recovery specials also work against Ganondorf; aerial Flame Choke can be escaped by button mashing and KOs Ganondorf first when used as a sacrificial KO, while Dark Dive's throw can be teched and punished in its endlag. As such, it's possible to edgeguard Ganondorf by even intentionally getting hit by his aerial specials, leaving him in a position where his abysmal mobility prevents him from recovering.

Ganondorf also has considerable trouble landing safely. Despite his aerials having relatively low landing lag, the aforementioned poor hitbox placements fail to properly defend him from directly underneath, while down aerial and Wizard's Foot have noticeable start-up. While Wizard's Foot is Ganondorf's fastest option to return to the ground and can anti-air intercepting opponents with its vertical knockback, its landing possesses a small and very brief quake along with large landing lag, making it highly punishable.

Overall, Ganondorf's raw power allows him to deal heavy damage quickly and close stocks early, but he has little means to defend himself which forces him to play cautiously, enforcing a bait-and-punish playstyle. His playstyle is a high risk, high reward character: a single mistake can lead to either player losing a stock, even at 0%. He cannot afford to make any careless mistakes himself, where his exploitable recovery allows his opponents to remove his stocks just as early as he can remove theirs.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Ganondorf was infamously a poorly regarded character in his previous two appearances following his debut appearance, owing to a myriad of factors such as slow mobility, vulnerability to general pressure (such as rushdowns, zoning and combos), and awful recovery. Most likely due to his low placement in SSB4, Ganondorf has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in Ultimate, but was buffed overall, albeit not enough to raise his tier standing.

Ganondorf's primary strengths, such as his already strong damage output and knockback power, have been further increased since the previous game. Most of his moves deal even more damage, and some of his moves (whether they were already strong or among the weakest in SSB4) are more powerful, like his dash attack, back aerial, Dark Dive, and Wizard's Foot; notably, dash attack has become as potent as it was in Brawl, whereas Dark Dive and Wizard's Foot have had most of their lost KO power restored from Melee. Forward aerial, a move previously considered inferior to his back aerial, has improved range, making it a far safer KO move.

Ganondorf's smash attacks are now sword swings that possess increased, consistent power as well as larger, disjointed range. Up tilt, notorious for shattering full shields, is easier to land with its faster startup and stronger windboxes, and its sourspot has been strengthened to match its sweetspot. His notoriously weak grab game was also buffed, with his grabs having a longer duration and greater range, and his throws receiving improved utility such as higher power (forward throw, although it still remains rather weak), damage (up throw) or combo potential (down throw). Ganondorf is also heavier, making his already great endurance better.

Ganondorf notably benefits from some of the universal gameplay changes. The increase in mobility (most notably to his running speed, although it still remains slow), his faster jumpsquat, and the reduced landing lag on his aerial attacks all improve his very poor neutral game and approach. His faster jumpsquat and landing lag reduction also improve his combo ability, thus further strengthening his damage racking game.

Despite these notable buffs, Ganondorf is not without nerfs, especially toward his hitbox placements and ineffective defensive game. His forward and up smashes, despite having disjointed range, have significantly increased ending lag; up smash has especially lost its ability to bait approaches. His down tilt's vertical angles on its close hitbox make it a much less effective KO option, especially out of Flame Choke. His up tilt is weaker, and has gained an incredibly weak late hitbox with no KO potential. Hitbox adjustments and/or reductions on his forward tilt, up tilt, back aerial, Dark Dive and Wizard's Foot make them harder to land and further worsens his blindspot issues. Among his biggest nerfs were to his up aerial, which has more startup and its sourspot no longer hits underneath him, thus removing most of its gimping effectiveness and lock combos, and Flame Choke, as the aerial version is now escapable at low percentages and a "Ganoncide" now KOs him first. Dark Dive's release also pushes back Ganondorf after he launches the opponent away, though this is counterbalanced by the release having less ending lag.

Despite gaining considerable improvements from the game's engine, Ganondorf is also hindered by some of the universal changes; the universal increase to mobility makes it slightly harder to catch up with some characters. The increased shield drop frames impairs his poor out of shield options, and the universally increased traction which reduces shield push makes his attacks, especially his aerials, less safe unless perfectly spaced. The increased tech window, as well as the restoration of buffering techs during hitlag, makes Flame Choke easier to escape from, and makes Dark Dive much easier for opponents to survive from being launched under the stage and retaliate. Although Ganondorf's heavier weight allows him to survive even longer, he is also easier to combo. The changes to air dodging are a mixed bag for Ganondorf, as they improve his great edgeguarding ability, but make him easier to edgeguard in return. Finally, the weakening of rage slightly hinders Ganondorf, though due to his increased damage and power, this change is fairly negligible.

Overall, Ganondorf has gained some drastic increases in power that renders his punish and advantage states much deadlier, but at the cost of notable nerfs that further affect his disadvantage, exacerbating his glaring weaknesses and making him even more polarized. Although initially considered to have improved substantially from SSB4, the lack of changes from game updates, as well as various changes made to his fellow veterans both on release and through updates, have caused Ganondorf to fall behind. Said updates have also introduced a bevy of more powerful DLC characters, all of which Ganondorf struggles against in one way or another. Because of this, despite performing better as a standalone character in Ultimate, Ganondorf has not significantly improved from his appearance in SSB4, instead performing worse relative to the rest of the cast.

Update history
Ganondorf received a mix of buffs and nerfs via in game updates, but has been slightly buffed overall. A majority of these buffs were dedicated to fixing inconsistencies that plagued him ever since previous games.

Update 1.1.0 changed the properties of aerial Flame Choke to always kill Ganondorf first when reaching the blast zone, significantly reducing the effectiveness of Ganoncide. Update 2.0.0 allowed forward aerial to autocancel out of a double jump, which was infamous in Brawl and SSB4 for not cancelling even out of a full hop due to an incorrectly coded timer, and would almost always force him to enter the landing animation. After being absent from patch notes for little over a year, Ganondorf was granted a small but important buff in 11.0.0, which significantly decreased the ending lag of Dark Dive, slightly improving his recovery while making it harder to Tech Check Ganondorf, a technique that has existed since Melee.

Due to his key weaknesses not being addressed from updates and other characters having received more substantial buffs, Ganondorf is considered to fare worse compared to the game’s release, despite receiving more buffs than nerfs throughout his update history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Ganondorf's hitboxes, see here.

On-screen appearance

 * Emerges from a liquid-like vortex of darkness.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Floats in the air and then curls into a ball while spinning before opening up from his curled position and striking a pose while laughing. Resembles his transformation into Ganon before the final battle in Ocarina of Time.
 * Side taunt: Punches his right hand into his open palm in a threatening pose and scoffs, with electricity emitting from his hands afterward. When the electricity is emitted, his cape will flow as if being blown by the wind.
 * Down taunt: Unsheathes his sword, grunts, looks at it while sporting a mocking smirk as the blade's tip pulses with dark magic, then sheathes it.

Idle poses

 * Brings his hands together, then swings his right arm over his head.
 * Crosses his arms and looks in the opposite direction while sporting a mocking smirk.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Turns to his left, flips his cape, and pumps his fist, showing the back of it. Resembles the way Ganondorf beckons Link into his battle in Ocarina of Time.
 * Up: Briefly levitates in the air before landing on the ground while punching his palm, then reels back and thrusts his hand towards the screen.
 * Right: Flips his cape before crossing his arms while laughing; reminiscent to the cutscene that plays after Link pulls the Master Sword in Ocarina of Time, and ending with a sinister grin.

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


 * - The best Ganondorf player in Canada. Placed 13th at, 65th at , and 97th at both and  with wins on players such as , , and . Currently ranked 2nd on the York Region Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Ganondorf players in the world from the early metagame to 2021. He was one of the first to show notable Ganondorf results at supermajors with several solid performances such as 33rd at and 65th at  defeating  and.
 * - A notable Wi-Fi Ganondorf player who regularly performs well on Smashmate, ranking as high as 5th on the 14th Smashmate SP ranking. He has seen some success offline, such as placing 2nd at the regional defeating  and 33rd at the major . He also notably created the "Gungnir Combo".
 * - One of the best Ganondorf players in the world in the post-pandemic metagame. His 25th-place finish at the is the highest placement for a Ganondorf player at a major since the early metagame, and he has also placed well at several other events, such as 33rd at the supermajor  defeating.
 * - One of the two best Ganondorf players in the world in the post-pandemic metagame with several strong results, including 9th at, 17th at defeating , and 33rd at both the majors  and.

Tier placement and history
Public opinion on Ganondorf during Ultimate's early metagame was high due to improvements to his flaws from previous games, with some players comparing him to his Melee self. This positive opinion was supported by 's surprise yet successful usage of the character against at, which led many players to believe that Ganondorf was viable, or at least better than what he was in the previous two games.

However, this positive perception did not last long as more players noted issues regarding his gameplay: he still has severe difficulty in approaching, recovering, and escaping disadvantage. Despite the buffs he received in the transition, his matchup spread remains atrocious, as most other characters from the previous game retained similar tools to overwhelm him, such as, , and. This was compounded with how Ganondorf mostly received minor changes in patches while other low-tier characters received significant buffs. As a result, Ganondorf's playerbase remains one of the smallest in the current metagame, with sporadic success seen from players such as in the early metagame and  and  in the post-online metagame. Despite being significantly better than his Brawl and Smash 4 incarnations, Ganondorf is once again considered one of the worst characters in the game, and as such is ranked dead last on the current tier list, albeit as a low tier due to the lack of a bottom tier.

: Encroaching Darkness
Ganondorf fights against the heroes and protagonists of various series.

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

Role in World of Light
Although Ganondorf 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.

Ganondorf was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat. He is unlocked in the Sacred Land in The Dark Realm on the top of the land which makes up the Triforce of Power. This land can only be accessed after interacting with the Master Sword (just after the unlock). Unlocking Ganondorf will briefly reveal the Triforce of Power in the center of the map before disappearing to reveal Ganon's castle and his boss battle.

Spirits
Ganondorf's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Ganondorf has been unlocked. Unlocking Ganondorf 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.

Additionally, Ganondorf makes appearances in various primary spirits, including a few as Ganon.

Trivia

 * Ultimate marks the first time in the Smash series that Ganondorf utilizes a sword in his base moveset.
 * However, a custom special in SSB4 allowed him to use a sword.
 * Ganondorf's entry on the official Super Smash Blog has a grammatical error, using the word "then" instead of the correct "than." Also, the words "Final Smash" are lowercase instead of uppercase like in other fighter entries.
 * Despite now being based on his Ocarina of Time appearance again, Ganondorf's unlock battle takes place on Bridge of Eldin, which is from Twilight Princess.
 * The opposite occurs in, as it featured Ganondorf in his Twilight Princess appearance, and Ganondorf is unlocked on Gerudo Valley, a stage from Ocarina of Time.
 * Ultimate is the first game to utilize new voice clips for Ganondorf as opposed to reusing them from the Zelda series. This also applies to.
 * Neither game whose bases served as the redesigns for Link and in this game featured Ganondorf with a humanoid form. This is especially most noticeable during their brief cameos in 's and 's reveal trailers.
 * According to Sakurai from a Famitsu column, as of January 2019, Ganondorf was the most used fighter in Elite Smash.
 * Despite reverting back to his Ocarina of Time design in this game, Ganondorf is the only returning Zelda character from SSB4 (excluding ) to have his Twilight Princess design directly referenced in this game, as a spirit.
 * Ganondorf’s extreme power has become a popular meme within the community, most notably associated with his forward smash (humorously nicknamed as Doriyah by the community, based on his exclamation during the attack), as well as his general ability to take stocks before his opponents despite being at much higher percentages than they are.
 * In World of Light, despite being able to transform into Ganon, the Demon King, Ganondorf is awakened before having to fight his monstrous form. This is unlike, who is fought in his Giga Bowser form and is awakened after the battle.
 * There's a visual glitch on Ganondorf's cape whenever he descends from a ladder where it will suddenly snap back down if the descending animation lasts for more than 40 frames.
 * This also happens to during his descent when using Aether.
 * The lattermost part of Ganondorf's up smash is fully incapable of hitting and  when they are crouching, due to the fact that the hitboxes go away before the sword fully hits the ground.
 * Ganondorf is the only opponent in 's Classic Mode route that is not from the universe nor its sub-universe.
 * ,, , and  are the only ones who fight Ganondorf outside of his home stage.
 * If Ganondorf continually uses his up taunt on the floor of Mute City SNES, he cannot be damaged by it.
 * In order to do this, however, players need to use a Super Star or any other long-lasting invincibility or intangibility, such as respawning intangibility.