Super Smash Bros has one of the biggest rosters seen in the series. Or really out of all the best fighting games as a whole, it’s ridiculously big. You don’t have every character from the get-go though. There’s a Smash Ultimate Unlock order you’ll need to go through.

The characters in Super Smash Bros Ultimate come in drips once you start the game up. Since it has an aggressively large roster of Smash Ultimate characters, you don’t get everyone at once. You’ll have to unlock each character one by one until you’ve fleshed out the game. While it was often thought that this was random, there is actually a Smash Ultimate unlock order. This is how the fighters break down, and how you’ll unlock all of them.

Smash Ultimate Unlock Order

When you first start out in Smash Bros Ultimate, there are eight characters in the game. This matches the original roster for Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. The Smash unlock order then decides how you’ll unlock all of the other characters.

If you’re playing through Adventure of Classic mode, there are ways to force a specific Smash Bros character to unlock. If you’re just playing normal matches though, there’s a specific Smash Ultimate unlock order that will be triggered.

As you play the game, you’ll be given new challenges. These are specific fights that will pop up against an AI opponent. The AI will be playing as a new character. Defeat them and they’ll join the game, lose and you’ll have to wait for them to come around again. When Ultimate was first released, players thought the process was random as everyone was progressing through the modes differently. It turns out though that there is a specific order if you don’t touch the modes that bring on specific characters.

What’s the Smash Ultimate Unlock Order?

If you’re not playing any other game modes, then this is the order that you will unlock new Smash Bros characters. This is the Smash Ultimate unlock order:

Ness
Zelda
Bowser
Pit
Inkling
Villager
Marth
Young Link
Wii Fit Trainer
Ice Climbers
Captain Falcon
Peach
Ryu
Ike
Jigglypuff
King K. Rool
Sonic
Simon

Zero Suit Samus
Little Mac
Isabelle
Shulk
Lucina
Wario
Ridley
Pokémon Trainer
Lucario
Daisy
Roy
King Dedede
R.O.B
Falco
Luigi
Pichu
Richter
Lucas
Diddy Kong
Meta Knight
Snake
Ganondorf
Corrin
Mega Man
Bayonetta
Toon Link
Rosalina and Luna
Incineroar
Sheik
Olimar
Pac-Man
Dark Samus
Wolf
Mr. Game and Watch
Robin
Dark Pit
Cloud
Duck Hunt
Ken
Greninja
Chrom
Mewtwo
Bowser Jr.
Dr. Mario
Palutena

That’s the exact Smash Ultimate unlock order if you’re just playing normal games. Standard matches can be set up with the Smash fighting game esports set of rules, it’s likely a mode that gets the most play now that Ultimate is a bit older. There are more characters in the game though.

DLC Characters Unlock Order

Super Smash Bros Ultimate doesn’t just have its base roster. It’s also got multiple waves of DLC fighters! These included fan favorites like Banjo-Kazooie. However, it also introduced guest characters from some of the best PlayStation and Xbox fighting games, like SNK’s Terry.

Source: Nintendo

These characters don’t really fit into the Smash Ultimate unlock order though. These fighters are unlocked as you purchase them, or as you purchase each wave. You don’t have to fight them to get access to them! They’ll just show up in your game the next time you load it up, ready to go.

That’s how the Smash Ultimate unlock order works. It’s great that we now know a bit more about how the game works and when each character will become available if you’re not playing the more involved game modes.