A modder has recently discovered how to put future amiibo AI into Ultimate… kinda.
Amiibo AI for unreleased amiibo often isn’t in the game until a patch or two before the amiibo’s release. After the AI has been added into the game, players can modify an amiibo bin file to get the character number of the unreleased amiibo, and the game will actually recognize it as such. This is how, prior to Pichu’s release, I got hold of a Pichu bin file: a hacker had discovered the proper character number and made a functioning prototype identical to the final product.
Well, we’ve moved up a bit. We know amiibo AI are initially hinged on CPU AI, and that an amiibo with every byte set to 0 behaves similarly to a base CPU. The modder in question then patched the game a little bit to set that AI as the amiibo AI, which opened the door to see what unreleased amiibo would play like. At least, what they’d kind of play like: this is, to my knowledge, a simulation of what the amiibo will play like when they’re raised from level 1 to 50 with Learning Off. But it’s still something to look at.
Of particular note is that Hero is in fact proficient with his Command Selection, being able to use it appropriately, or not at all. It sounds as if Hero has a pretty smart AI, which goes against my previous predictions that it would have difficulty managing all the different special attacks.
It’s plausible that this won’t end up being the final product of Hero AI: after all, this is a mod and not the real AI. But this early indicator of Hero’s exceptional AI, coupled with his incredibly powerful critical hits and, occasionally, one-hit KO Commands, means that there could be a very scary opponent on the far horizon.
Separately, the section of the amiibo community who are active modders are currently combing through the rest of the unreleased amiibo to see what they’re capable of. Much closer to the present day are the release of the Squirtle, Ivysaur and, most importantly, the Snake amiibo. The community at the moment expects Snake to be quite the fighter.
This is an unprecedented look at the future of the amiibo metagame, and it’s not often we get this chance. Surely this event will go down in the amiibo history books.
Amiibo Doctor 