Link (SSBU)

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Link in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Ancient Bow and Arrow

“	Link has been redesigned to match his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He can now pick up arrows he's fired, and his bombs have been upgraded to remote bombs, so you can set them off when the timing is just right!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Link (リンク, Link) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was teased in a trailer released on March 8th, 2018 before being fully confirmed as playable on June 12th, 2018. Link is now voiced by Kengo Takanashi, who reprises his role from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.^{[citation needed]}

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

NOTE: SmashWiki is not speculative. Please refrain from adding detailed data values derived from pre-release gameplay footage, such as the E3 demo. Such data (damage values, launch trajectories, frame data, etc.) are subject to change before the official release.

Link's now incorporates many elements from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild into his moveset, such as the Remote Bomb, the Ancient Bow & Ancient Arrow, and the Sword Beam. Compared to his previous iterations in Smash, Link's increased dash speed and sword range in Ultimate make him more threatening during close combat, while the return of the Boomerang improves his ability to combo. Alternatively, Remote Bomb Runes offer an array of advantages and disadvantages over Bombs, and the loss of his Clawshot hinders his recovery.

Aesthetics

• Link's design is now based on his appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
  • Link's default default outfit is now the blue Champion's Tunic, with the more traditional green Tunic of the Wild as an alternate costume.
  • Link has an altered idle pose with his legs positioned further apart and his sword and shield held up at all times.
  • Link now holds the Master Sword with his right hand and his shield with his left hand, resulting in many of his animations being altered. This is how he holds his sword and shield in Breath of the Wild and other recent Zelda games.
  • The Master Sword now bears its design from Breath of the Wild, and is much longer.
  • Link's new on-screen appearance involves him gliding onto the stage using the Paraglider.
  • Link's Boxing Ring alias has been changed to "Champion of Hyrule".
• Link has a new side taunt where he holds onto the Master Sword with both hands, similar to one of Ike's taunts.
• Link's victory animation where he swings his sword once, twirls it around his head, and sheathes it now has him swing it back before sheathing it.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Link's jumpsquat animation now takes 3 frames to complete (down from 7.) This significantly improves his mobility when transitioning into the air.
• Link jumps higher.
• Link dashes faster.
• The Master Sword is longer than it was in previous installments, increasing the range of Link's sword-based attacks.

Ground Attacks

• Neutral attack's final hit now involves Link swiping vertically instead of thrusting the sword.
  • Neutral attack's damage has been redistributed, with the first two hits dealing more damage and the third hit dealing less.
• Forward tilt now causes the screen to shake when the sword hits ground.
  • Forward tilt has more end lag.
• Up tilt is now an overhead arcing slash that starts from behind Link.
  • Up tilt no longer encircles Link's entire body, hindering its horizontal range and leaving Link more vulnerable to frontal attacks.
  • Up tilt deals more damage.
• Down tilt deals less damage.
• Dash attack's initial lunge provides less distance, decreasing the move's horizontal range but allowing Link to hit opponents closer to him more reliably.
  • Dash attack's sweetspot deals more damage.
• Forward smash's first hit will shoot out a spinning sword beam when Link is at 0% damage. This is in reference to numerous Zelda games where Link's sword shoots out sword beams when he is at full health. Charging forward smash increases the size and damage of the sword beam.
• Down smash has slightly more startup frames.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have reduced landing lag, with neutral aerial and back aerial now being almost as fast as a hard landing.
• Forward aerial's first hit now has set knockback that reliably links into the second hit.
  • Forward aerial's animation has been sped up, with the second hit coming out much faster.
  • Forward aerial's first hit can no longer can K.O. opponents, and both hits deal less damage.
• Back aerial has a slightly different animation.
  • Both hits of back aerial deal slightly more damage.
• Down aerial has a different animation, with a more exaggerated downward thrust.

Throws/other attacks

• Link now grabs with his hand instead of using the Clawshot.
  • All grabs have significantly less end lag.
  • All grabs have reduced range.
• Link no longer has a grab aerial or a tether recovery due to losing the Clawshot.
  • Link can now Z-drop his Remote Bombs without triggering the grab aerial's lengthy animation.
• Forward throw and back throw deal less damage.

Special Moves

• Traveler's Bow:
  • Link now uses the Traveler's Bow from Breath of the Wild instead of the Hero's Bow.
  • Arrows will momentarily become visibly lodged in opponents' bodies when they hit.
  • Traveler's Bow charges faster, and the arrows travel much further at their minimum charge.
  • Arrows travel noticeably slower.
  • Arrows that fail to hit an opponent linger on the ground longer and can be picked up and thrown. Using the Traveler's Bow while holding an arrow causes Link to fire two arrows in one shot for double damage.
  • Arrows can be picked up by opponents and thrown at Link.
• Boomerang
  • The more traditional Boomerang has replaced Gale Boomerang, behaving as it did in Smash 64 and Melee.
  • If the Boomerang is blocked by another projectile, it will now drop to the ground and disappear in a puff of smoke instead of just disappearing.
  • Boomerang has regained its damaging hitbox upon return, allowing Link to interrupt opponents' attacks and perform more reliable combos than he could with Gale Boomerang's windbox.
  • Boomerang will now damage Link if it is reflected back at him, unlike Gale Boomerang. Link can also no longer perform the Gale Guarding technique.
  • Boomerang's throwing range has been increased.
  • Boomerang travels more slowly upon returning. This increases the amount of time it takes before Link can throw it again, but also increases the amount of time the returning hitbox is active.
• Spin Attack:
  • Spin Attack has larger and more vibrant graphics. Link can also spin either inwards or outwards.
  • Spin Attack now has Link move his arm during the charging animation, and it gained a new animation for when Link charges an inward spin.
• Remote Bomb Rune:
  • Remote Bomb Rune from Breath of the Wild replaces Bomb. It no longer explodes upon contact, but rather, bounces upon the opponent or object. The Remote Bombs are now detonated by inputting down special again (and will detonate automatically after about 30 seconds), similar to Snake's C4. This, as a result, also changes up Link's recovery tactics and item play substantially.
  • Remote Bomb Rune's 30-second fuse allows it to remain in play for much longer than Bomb's 7. Additionally, it cannot be manually detonated when being held by another fighter.
  • Remote Bomb Rune has an exponentially larger blast radius than Bomb and deals significantly higher damage and knockback, as well as having a more favorable horizontal angle than Link's previous Bombs. Additionally, the direction in where the opponent is relative to the bomb determines where they are sent, increasing not only its potential combo setups, but also increasing its edge-guarding potential.
  • Link can only have one Remote Bomb Rune out on the battlefield at a time, instead of two standard bombs.
  • The more horizontal knockback of Remote Bombs, coupled with the fact Link cannot use them to hit himself out of special fall, overall hinders Link's vertical recovery. However, Link can z-drop and detonate his bombs on himself to supplement his horizontal recovery.
• Ancient Bow and Arrow
  • Link's new Final Smash is the Ancient Bow and Arrow, replacing Triforce Slash. It is functionally similar to Zelda's Light Arrow from previous games, although it only deals a single powerful blow to the first opponent in the arrow's path, along with any bystanders.
  • Ancient Bow and Arrow has significantly more horizontal range than Triforce Slash.

Role in World of Light

Link was among the fighters summoned to the cliffside to fight the army of Master Hands.

Link was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed its beams of light. Link successfully deflected three beams of light with his Hylian Shield (staying true to the shield's unbreakable nature), but he lost his footing on the third blow, and was vaporized and transformed into a spirit along with the rest of the fighters (excluding Kirby).

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Official render of Link's Tunic of the Wild outfit.

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  Link taunting on the Great Plateau Tower.

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  Link about to perform his forward smash on Temple.

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  Link performing a Spin Attack on Pac-Man on Spirit Train.

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  Link holding a Heart Container on Great Bay.

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  Link performing his new Final Smash, Ancient Bow and Arrow.

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  About to strike Ganondorf with his dash attack on Skyworld.

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  Struck by Daisy's down smash on Spirit Train.

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  Link struck by Dr. Mario's forward smash on New Pork City.

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  Link, Mario and Samus struck by the Inkling's Splat Roller on Figure-8 Circuit.

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  Link getting hit by Isabelle's forward smash on Luigi's Mansion.

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  Link struck by Roy's neutral aerial on Skyloft.

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  Link, Marth and Shulk advancing towards Rathalos on Coliseum.

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  Link, Pikachu, Bowser and Inkling being attacked by Rathalos on Tortimer Island.

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  Link using Traveler's Bow on Prism Tower.

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  With Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, Ice Climbers, Pit, Villager and Inkling on Battlefield.

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  With Kirby, Mario, Inkling, Marth, Pit, Ridley and Villager on Battlefield.

• 

  With all playable The Legend of Zelda veterans on the Great Plateau Tower.

• 

  With Zelda and Ganondorf on the Great Plateau Tower.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• This marks the first time in the series where Link does not wear his trademark green tunic as a default outfit, both in official art and in-game, as well as the first time Link no longer has his Goron and Zora tunics from Ocarina of Time as his respective red and blue alternate costumes, nor uses a tether. However, his traditional design (the Tunic of the Wild outfit) still appears as an alternate costume, with his new red and blue costumes now being based on two armor sets from Breath of the Wild (the Hylian Tunic and the Royal Uniform, respectively), while both of his doppelgängers still retain their tethers.
• Despite Link's design now being based on Breath of the Wild, Kirby still gains his familiar green cap when copying him. However, this is in line with Link's alternate costume.
• Coincidentally enough, Link is ranked as #3 in order of appearance in the Smash franchise, as the Zelda franchise is revolved around the Triforce, and there are three different playable versions of Link in this game.
• Ironically, in Breath of the Wild, Link's Champion's Tunic cannot be dyed despite being the base for four of his costumes in this game. His Tunic of the Wild can be dyed, but the colors used for the other four costumes (based on this outfit) are not possible in the actual game.
• In the E3 demo of the game, Link's portrait, strangely, used his in-game model as opposed to the render made for him in the game. This was also the case with Mario, Pikachu and Villager.
  • His hat in the Tunic of the Wilds costume was pointed toward the top right, while in his official render, it goes behind his head and is pointed to the left.
• Despite being a recolor of Link's Tunic of the Wild, Link's Fierce Deity costume (carried over from Smash 4) is the only one of the four color variants of that costume that does not show his now-exposed knees.