I did about 60 hours of in-game testing with CPU controlled opponents to try and determine the most generally effective Skills and Spirit sets for Hero, ahead of his amiibo release on October 2nd. Here are my results, sure to be helpful to anyone trying out the Hero Figure Player for the first time.
Methodology Overview
For context, here’s how my testing worked: I had 34 different Spirit sets with Ray Mk II at appropriate levels as the Primary Spirit, and different Support Spirits to emulate equipped Skills. A round robin tournament of 561 individual time matches saw every single Spirit team fight its 33 opponents in six-minute matches on random Omega Forms, minus the 2D effect stages.
I recorded the point totals of each match, without factoring in Sudden Death results. By my theory, a higher positive score at the end of the tournament means you consistently outperformed your opponents both in terms of kill potential and survival.
This methodology isn’t flawless, and my results aren’t the only way to train your Figure Player; there’s a lot of customization when it comes to amiibo, after all, and I don’t test certain skills like Instadrop at all. It was my desire to create a baseline to begin from.
The full list of tested Spirits can be found here, in a shareable Google Sheet.
Most Consistent Tournament Legal Sets
Spirit Type:
Neutral
Attack:
2100
Defense:
2100
Skill 1:
Weapon Attack ↑
Skill 2:
Magic Attack ↑
Skill 3:
Trade-Off Ability ↑
With two offensive Skills to match Hero’s primary attacking types and Trade-Off Ability ↑ to capitalize on his above-average weight, this is a good generalist set for coaches that aren’t afraid of starting at 30% each stock.
Spirit Type:
Neutral
Attack:
2100
Defense:
2100
Skill 1:
Weapon Attack ↑
Skill 2:
Magic Attack ↑
Skill 3:
Air Defense ↑
If you are feeling spooked about starting at 30% each stock, you can sub out Trade-Off Ability ↑ for Air Defense ↑. This will cut all damage your Hero takes by an additional 30% while they’re in the air, which serves the primary purpose of helping to prevent off-stage gimps of his costly recovery.
Spirit Type:
Neutral
Attack:
2250
Defense:
2250
Skill 1:
Weapon Attack ↑
Skill 2:
Shield Damage ↑
Skill 3:
[empty]
One of Hero’s unique gimmicks is the critical hit on his smash attacks. Using raw numbers granted by an empty slot to boost your overall stats, along with Shield Damage ↑ to encourage more shield breaks, will naturally present your Figure Player with more opportunities to charge a forward smash and swing for the fences.
Type:
Neutral
Attack:
2100
Defense:
2100
Skill 1:
Air Attack ↑
Skill 2:
Weapon Attack ↑
Skill 3:
Magic Attack ↑
Purely offensive Skills can be effective, and half of Smash takes place in the air. Air Attack ↑ is viable, and can help Hero chase off-stage KOs or punish opponents trying to get in on him that manage to get in the way of a Whoosh spell.
Type:
Neutral
Attack:
2100
Defense:
2100
Skill 1:
Weapon Attack ↑
Skill 2:
Shield Damage ↑
Skill 3:
Air Defense ↑
You can, of course, mix and match what makes the above sets viable, going for both more shield breaks and fewer off-stage gimps.
Tournament Illegal Sets
Type:
Neutral
Attack:
2100
Defense:
2100
Skill 1:
Trade-Off Ability ↑
Skill 2:
Armor Knight
Continuing a long tradition of being the most consistently effective Spirit set in the game, the “ToA Knight” build absolutely massacred the tournament, taking home almost twice as many points overall as second place. It wasn’t a complete blowout; the set can lose. But its strength can not be overstated.
Type:
Neutral
Attack:
-400
Defense:
4600
Skill 1:
Great Autoheal
While it only came in fourth in my CPU testing, it’s important to realize that I test exclusively with balanced sets. A Defense-leaning build with Great Autoheal may perform better. With the high level of utility and variety of the moves at Hero’s disposal, consistent healing does him a lot of favors. And as always, don’t be afraid of negative numbers. His Attack will be just as high as an FP with 0 investment.
Best Full Power CPU Set
Just for good measure, I went ahead and ran some quick numbers to find good Spirit Teams for a Hero player or CPU, since I know some people are going to be into that. Quick rundown:
Zacian & Zamazenta are almost certainly Hero’s best Primary Spirit, with a useful inherent trait, high stats, and a Neutral Type. This set uses what you may consider to be a banned Skill in Armor Knight, but that hardly matters in single player endeavors.This set uses a mix of Hero’s most effective legal Skills, in case you need a hand in PvP Spirits games or CPU tournaments.
Specific Support Spirits
Here’s a quick visual guide for all the Support Spirits that provide Hero his most applicable Skills.
Weapon Attack ↑ – I recommend this for nearly every Hero build, since his sword is his most reliable way to attack. You’ll never run out of sword. Luigi (Mario Tennis Aces), Robobot Armor, Karel, Harriet, Hard Man, and Goligan.Magic Attack ↑ is also a super important Skill for Hero, but I would say it doesn’t have to be on every set like Weapon Attack ↑ should be. You’re just not always going to have MP, the way you’re always going to have a sword. But Hero has some high damage spells, so buffing them further can very much put in work for you. Wanda, Soren, Shaft, and Ivan.Shield Damage ↑, as mentioned above, will (theoretically) open Hero’s opponents up for more shield break punishes, which can lead to cheeky critical hit forward smash kills. Wolfen, Mr. Saturn, and Amy.Air Defense ↑ will help prevent off-stage gimps, as well as let your Hero soak up hits a little better in general combat above the stage. Especially important when recovering costs Hero his easily spent MP. Baby Peach, Coo, Parachute, Medusa Head, Twintelle, and Corviknight.Great Autoheal is normally banned for ‘engendering passivity’ (which makes for really boring matches at times), but if you decide you don’t care, the consistent healing can do wonders for Hero in combination with his versatile toolkit. Only the Legend Celebi will give you this one.Trade-Off Ability ↑ will give anyone equipped an extra 18% overall to Attack, 20% overall to Defense, and 20% additional speed while moving horizontally on the ground or in the air. It’s a very worthwhile trade, especially on heavier characters that don’t mind starting at 30% damage. Majora’s Mask, Garon, and Kazuhira Miller.Armor Knight, what I consider to be the strongest Skill in the game, gives you a 15% bonus to your overall Attack and an 80% bonus to your overall Defense, in exchange for about a 40% drop to your horizontal speed – amended well enough by Trade-Off Ability ↑, which just gives you further stacked multipliers. Trade-Off Speed ↑ will totally repair your speed, but you don’t get those tasty Attack and Defense buffs. Only Halberd will give this to you.
Conclusions
At the time of this article’s writing, Hero’s amiibo hasn’t been released yet. CPU testing isn’t a 1:1 for Figure Player success; some amiibo have notably performed worse than their CPU counterparts for one reason or another, and there are a number of ways a Figure Player can be customized and conditioned that a CPU simply can’t be.
Even so, I’m confident this information will be helpful to players trying Hero for the first time, and I’ll be excited to see how successful Hero Figure Players deviate from my results.
Amiibo Doctor 