Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List – Current Through February 2022

This is the official February 2022 tier list for USAC – It was voted on by the most achieved tournament victors and the most knowledgeable researchers from the USAC discord server, the center of competitive amiibo talent. The SUAL Discord server has its own tier list, which you can find here.

I’ve also added some personal commentaries on the placements of the tier list down below, in addition to periodic commentaries on the Amiibo Doctor Youtube channel.

Special thanks to Lady Cucco and the CTL committee for compiling and processing the data! She does an excellent job, and we’re lucky to have her.

Official Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List for February 2022

Byleth

It’s no secret that Byleth is quite the contender in amiibo tournaments. Previous tier lists placed him in A and eventually A+. But, as I theorized since the very beginning, Byleth’s special moves and overly powerful Smash attacks could create an impenetrable wall that other amiibo simply wouldn’t be able to break through.

I hate to say it, but… I told you so.

It’s not clear to me that Byleth’s better than Bowser and King K. Rool in the long run, but he’s definitely got the moveset for it, so I see it as a valid and reasonable placement.

Top-Heavy

While this tier list page is missing a lot of the older lists, long-term trainers remember the oldest official tier lists as having much narrower S-B+ tiers. Characters like Kirby, Mii Brawler, Pokemon Trainer and Mii Swordfighter used to be placed much lower, but each one had major innovations that led them to achieve much greater results.

It’s interesting to then wonder: what other low-tiers could be a secret high-tier? Now that amiibo AI patches are most likely finished, further developments in the amiibo meta can only come from the official releases of amiibo (we’ve had files for every character’s amiibo except Sora for several months now) and from trainer innovation. So… is there anything left to discover?

Official Smash Ultimate Spirits Amiibo Tier List for February 2022

This is the first official Spirits amiibo tier list that USAC has produced. Making a Spirits tier list is usually quite difficult, because every individual placement has to question whether the best representatives of that character used the best possible spirits loadout.

Official Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List for November 2021

Amiibo tier list for November 2021.

Meta Slowdown

This tier list page isn’t missing any lists – nay, there have been no lists since June 2021. This is indicative of one of the inevitabilities of competition – over time, as the most optimal strategies are discovered, there are simply fewer changes in the overall metagame to account for. If you compare to the June tier list below, you’ll notice something – the D+ and D tiers are identical, and so are several other orderings of characters. This almost never happens in amiibo, and is solid evidence that the competitive amiibo meta is slowing down significantly.

It’s very tempting to create new tier lists frequently for the people involved, even for minor changes. Other competitive games will update their tier lists if they believe even one character has moved up or down a tier. Fortunately, due partially to the integrity of the USAC tier list system and partially to the somewhat deterministic nature of the meta, these tier lists will continue to depend on the level of innovation in the meta, and not just an arbitrary desire for another tier list.

Terry’s Placement

The most noteworthy mention in this tier list is the acknowledgement of Terry’s dominant position in amiibo. Prior to Terry’s release there was significant disagreement over the placement of King K. Rool and Bowser, with much of the community divided. Now, that argument isn’t so important – Terry can flatten out both of them quite easily.

Terry is a combo-based character, and the only combo-based heavyweight in the game. In addition, his AI provides him with a vast toolkit of small-hit inescapable chains that are difficult for large, slow heavyweights to avoid. While Terry’s physical range is minimal, he only needs a few hits to take a stock.

Of course, Incineroar is still the king of it all.

Official Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List for June 2021

This June 2021 tier list featured two very controversial elements: the introduction of the U tier for Incineroar, and King K. Rool having S tier all to himself.

U tier

Voting on the tier list is straightforward: participants are given a Google poll with each amiibo in the game, and asked to assign a tier list placement to each amiibo. The tier placements range from S to D.

Suggestions for an “S+”, “SS”, “Uber”, “Cat” tier that was above S had been submitted frequently for most of 2021, but the vote had never been put on the ballot proper. While the addition of Incineroar in U tier was generally met with quiet agreement, the decision was unilateral on the part of the tier list statisticians. Their reasoning for creating a new tier without a vote was that Incineroar was unanimously voted S tier.

King K. Rool, alone at the top

The significantly more controversial element is King K. Rool’s single placement in S tier. S tier has historically been the “banworthy” tier – amiibo that are considered game-breaking enough to be banned from all tournaments are placed in S tier. You’ll notice that in the previous tier lists, Incineroar is always in S tier.

There were close contenders for S tier in addition to King K. Rool. Bowser and Terry have been controversial competitors for the top spot, but due to the mathematical way the tier list is produced, they averaged out to be slightly below S tier. It’s an unusual quirk of the math – most voters feel that either Bowser or Terry were also S tier, but they were cancelled out by the ones who felt that the other amiibo was S tier, and by the few who only voted for King K. Rool in S tier.

Continuing Changes to the Game

Nintendo is still patching AI periodically, with the release of every new character or amiibo. You may notice with the previous tier lists that some characters have just dropped significantly for seemingly no reason – while this is occasionally due to the whims of voters who collude to bring down a character, it’s also sometimes caused by a change to the character’s AI that severely hinders their gameplay.

If your amiibo is suddenly not performing in tournaments as well as it used to, it may be that a patch has altered their ability to fight.

Official Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List for April/May 2021

King K. Rool – is he S tier?

I’ve talked about this before, but King K. Rool is definitely not an S tier amiibo. The data’s all there in the previously-linked article, and I did a more recent video on this on the Amiibo Doctor Youtube channel.

This is an eternal issue with competitive amiibo that I’ve discussed in other videos. If, either by chance or by decision, a larger than normal number of people submit an amiibo to a tournament consistently, that amiibo will place better on average. It’s simple reasoning – the more shots you take, the more shots you make.

What’s been happening is that there’s a number of people who, for their own reasons, are upset about King K. Rool and think that entering him is the best way to win amiibo tournaments. Thus, when they try to win tournaments, they enter King K. Rool. Then he gets more wins, and eventually the perception is created that he’s banworthy.

Bayonetta – The Lonely Old Hag

One of the most interesting things to come out of the April/May 2021 amiibo tier list is that, for the first time ever, there is only one amiibo in D tier. This may be the only time we see something like this occur, and it should definitely be studied.

Personally, I would’ve at least placed Jigglypuff in D tier alongside Bayonetta, and I think I voted that way, but that’s a minority opinion for sure.

Official Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List for February 2021

Official Smash Ultimate Amiibo Tier List for January 2021

69 Comments

  7. Hi I love puff and my friend just got me the amiibo, are they in D tier because of bad AI or because puff isn’t that good to begin with?

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    2. If you allow support spirits, use instadrop and rest. It’s a true combo and along with rollout spam, the best thing puff can do.

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  8. I emailed you this same question but I’m gonna ask again because you didn’t see it. I saw that hard dk from alpharads channel was super powerful but he was trained in a 4 player battle. Is this better than training 1 on 1 or can I do some of the 4 player battle and some of the 1 on 1?

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  9. So since I got both Hero and Link, what spirits shall I put on them to match my Stands theme: Silver Chariot for Link and The Hand for Hero.

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    2. Robin is amazing. It’s only drawback is the stuff about the charge and how you have a limited us of weapons and spells before they have to charge again. Also, though this is between me and my brother’s amiibos , it’s a great incin encounter.

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  14. Know that I think about it, why do people teach some amiibos to run and some to walk, and how does walking make some amiibos function better? Sorry just couldnt figure out wording please ask me of you need me to re word this for anyone who wants to help.

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    1. How’s this: Why do we teach some amiibos to walk instead of run instead of making all of them just run? And does having the amiibo walk or run affect the tier list at all (this sounds so much better)

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        1. Walking will stop the amiibo from acsidently using dash attack. If it becomes a big problem you should consider giving it the breaking ability spiret.

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    1. I feel like you could make rob good is you spam Neutral and side special and down throw to up air (because amiibos are pro mashers). I don’t have one so I wouldn’t know, but I would like to see someone try that.

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      1. King K Rool, and a little Bowser Jr: I feel that k.rool is S teir because of the following: If so Manny people are useing him he must be amazing right? And also a not properly trained one still kicks butt in tournaments. To me Jr. Is at least C+ tier but because no one uses him, he is not. But everyone used king k rool, and so he is higher on the tier list, but that is exactly why I think he is S tier. The way I see this tier list, is not really like a tier list. It is more like a suggestion of who everyone uses in a tournament, and who you should be scared of. I certainly am scared of king k rool because I know I am going to run into one in a bracket, so I have a luigi that beats k rool about 85% of the time with my testing. But I am not scared of little mac because I have so Manny amiibos that are very good at gimping him.

        Toon Link: I think that toon link is a great amiibo outside of tournament. But there has got to be a way to bring him up a tier because he is so good at applying pressure on the opponent.

        Inkling: Inkling is the worst amiibo in the meta. I have tryed multiple times with multiple diferent straights On multiple diferent Inklings, but none work (I ended up giving one great auttoheal and it made them a lot better.) . R.O.B and Puff are better than Inkling with no spirets though.

        Hero: Hero is at an okey spot, but I fell like we need to fix the whole randomness of what training method we make him in order to find the right spot.

        Snake/Pit’s: I just found it funny that snake is in between dark pit and pit. I thought that pit and pi2 would stay together like samus and dark Samus.

        Olimar: I think Olimar has found his spot after all this time. But Alph is better.

        Ice Climbers: I recently trained an Ice climbers and named it Vanilla Ice (If you got that reference I love you and plz tell me if you did get it) and I found how great they can be, and in my opinion they are consistent. I do feel we havent mastered them yet. (Does anyone know if the team stats up spiret makes nana stronger?[Hero’s spiret bored] if it does plz tell me.)

        Mii firefighter/Brawler: last I checked the best way to train a swordie is with chakram. But I trained one that primarily used F tilt and the flippy side B. It did beat my very amazing Mii brawler. (Just to clarify I think that my brawler has SD’d with down B more than any other but has still braught every single match back that it has SD’d unless if he SD’d for his final stock. But getting back on track, if people have been using this and I have been ignorant of it then I do beleive that sowrdie should be where he is, but if I am not ignorant, then I think that swordie should be below brawler.

        Ganondorf: my brothers Gannon (my brother is Bunion L) does not use up tilt anymore, my brother acsidently left his Kern on for a while and then I don’t know exactly what he did after that, but all I know is that there is a way to get up tilt out of gannons system, so I do beleive that he deserves where he is on the list.

        Little mac and shulk are over rated too.

        Doc. PLZ respond with your thoughts.

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  19. You teach some Amiibo to walk instead of run because it provides more defensive options. Other Amiibo don’t need to do this. It’s called the Musket Method. If you want I have a tier list showing which Amiibo should and shouldn’t use it.

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  20. i think bowser jr should be higher like b or a tier i traind a really good bowser jr amibo so please conseter changeing him plz

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    1. Hey, good question.
      So the cape works basically the way you’d expect – it reflects projectiles with it, and can use it as an attack.
      FLUDD, I’d have to check. I know it can use FLUDD to edgeguard but I don’t think it can use FLUDD for any other purposes. (barring an AI update changing how it works, of course)

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  26. So my mario amiibo uses FLUDD more than cape. I would honestly say it uses FLUDD at the best timing since it uses it when the opponent is trying to come back. While the opponent is starting to float upward from FLUDD, my Mario jumps and uses a front air for really and instant KO. Would this method potentially bring Mario up a tier or two?

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        1. Working on a guide for her but unfortunately there’s no qualified information for her out there. Your best bet is smash attacks and see ladder combo, because that’s built-in, but that’s just filler until I can find a qualified trainer

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  30. will the Kazuya Amiibo automatically become U-teir?
    Unless the AI is absolute garbage, the super armor command grabs and moving hit hit boxes in the specials would probably destroy most Amiibo?

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  32. how is dark pit better then normal pit even tho the only difference is the final smash which isn’t used most of the time in tourements

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