4BR Smash for Wii U Tier List v2.0

Many fighting game communities will often make a tier list for their game, often as a reference for discussion of tournament viability. Smash is certainly no exception, with tier lists for all Smash games, and with Back Rooms often being the main body that organizes and crafts them with the help of correspondents and members.

The first Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U tier list was released in Spring 2016, for Patch 1.1.3. It's been nearly half a year, and the meta has seen shocking shifts in its rulesets, character viability and more thanks to 3 new patches and 2 new characters.

As a disclaimer, the 4BR acknowledges that tier lists aren't always accurate and are often controversial. However, we do want to study the game and give a take on the current meta, adding yet another important snapshot to the history of the game.

The community has been vigilant for this game since the very beginning, with 2016 being a fantastic year thus far for Smash. From competitors and dataminers to content creators and tournament organizers, it's been quite the ride. And with the future for Smash 4 getting bigger and brighter, it's only natural to say that the meta will constantly evolve as time goes on. With that out of the way, we'd like to introduce you to the second official tier list for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Procedure

Starting in early June 2016 (after Smash 'N' Splash 2), we asked 4BR members to distribute all the characters in the game (with the exception of Mii Fighters due to a lack of consistency regarding their legality) across tiers; players could have as many tiers as they want, and even order characters within their tiers. Players had to assume that this was under Version 1.1.6 of the game and that customs were off. In addition, players were allowed to place Miis (either under their 1111 loadout, or an XXXX loadout) if they so desired for an addendum. At this time, the 4BR does not have an official stance or recommendation on ruleset matters, including Mii Fighters. As with the previous vote, we also reached out to correspondents from outside the 4BR to help with this project and added a handful of applicants to the 4BR to help partake in this project.

For example, here is my vote, which was ordered within tiers:

Spoiler: Example Vote

We decided to run voting until August 8th, the week of Super Smash Con, to allow for more thoughts about July's tournaments to run in, especially EVO 2016. Eventually, we ended up with a total of 56 votes, with 31 US voters and 25 international voters.

The following people submitted a vote:

Spoiler: List of Voters

@---
@-6WX-
@~Pink Fresh~
@AeroLink_the_SoulMaster
@Alphicans
@Ambrose
@Camalange
@Catana
@CHOMPY
@CYVE
@Dabuz
@earth_tyt
@EcneBanjo
@Espy Rose
@Fox Is Openly Deceptive
@FullMoon
@Ghostbone
@istudying
@JJROCKETS
@John12346
@kameme8808 (Kamemushi)
@KENisbg (KEN)
Gunla
@Luco
@M@v
@Marc
@Marcbri
@Meru.
@Mr E
@Mr-R
@Myran
@NickRiddle
@Player-1
@Pugwest
@qb9b (9B)
@Ray_Kalm
@Raziek
@Red Ryu
@Remzi
@RichBrown
@rintarosu10 (RIN)
@san.
@Slice~ (Beefy Smash Doods)
@Seagull Joe
@Shaya
@SS_and_TH (Komorikiri)
@SSB_Ned (Ned)
@SShane (SS)
@Thinkaman
@Trela
@Tweek
@UltimateRazer (GrimTurtle)
@vyQ (Beefy Smash Doods)
@Xiivi
@Zan-
@Zigsta

As with the previous tier list, we will not be publicly releasing individual votes; however, all voters are free to share their votes with the public.

Results

Thanks to @Locuan (vote formatting) and @Shaya (processing), we were able to generate the average placements and groupings (tiers) of the cast. Furthermore, we have included standard deviations for both of these results and the weighted group score, which considered characters per group and the placement differences between v2.0 and v1.0 (with Marth and Mewtwo having the biggest jumps, both in the positive direction).

Spoiler: Voting Data

Character | Ordered Average | Standard Deviation (Order) | Grouped Average | Standard Deviation (Group) | Weighted Group | Difference from v1.0
Diddy Kong | 1.32 | 1.501 | 9.88 | 0.391 | 9.95 | +8
Cloud | 2.18 | 2.18 | 9.84 | 0.418 | 9.91 | +10
Sheik | 2.66 | 2.734 | 9.65 | 0.7 | 9.82 | -2
Rosalina | 3.39 | 2.085 | 9.66 | 0.634 | 9.85 | -1
Mario | 4.88 | 2.443 | 9.33 | 0.786 | 9.62 | +3
Sonic | 5.39 | 2.756 | 9.29 | 0.733 | 9.61 | ±0
Fox | 5.88 | 2.376 | 9.15 | 0.776 | 9.56 | ±0
Zero Suit Samus | 7.09 | 2.182 | 8.83 | 0.782 | 9.28 | -6
Ryu | 8.41 | 4.165 | 8.68 | 0.874 | 9.14 | -5
Mewtwo | 8.46 | 3.07 | 8.72 | 0.73 | 9.21 | +27
Bayonetta | 8.93 | 3.914 | 8.74 | 0.885 | 9.14 | New
Pikachu | 13.88 | 3.274 | 7.67 | 0.9 | 8.26 | -7
Meta Knight | 14.54 | 5.931 | 7.62 | 1.092 | 8.17 | -4
Villager | 15.07 | 4.358 | 7.51 | 0.806 | 8.08 | -3
Mega Man | 15.93 | 5.837 | 7.4 | 0.937 | 7.95 | +13
Ness | 16.39 | 4.916 | 7.41 | 1.068 | 8 | -3
Toon Link | 16.64 | 3.739 | 7.23 | 0.836 | 7.82 | +5
Corrin | 17.85 | 6.337 | 7.15 | 1.107 | 7.66 | New
Marth | 19.36 | 6.852 | 7.01 | 1.063 | 7.47 | +23
Captain Falcon | 20.95 | 4.615 | 6.72 | 0.922 | 7.26 | -6
Greninja | 21.11 | 5.731 | 6.8 | 1.052 | 7.32 | +4
Lucario | 21.52 | 5.405 | 6.63 | 0.968 | 7.14 | +1
Yoshi | 23.64 | 5.201 | 6.42 | 0.984 | 6.9 | -8
Pit | 23.73 | 6.264 | 6.39 | 1.115 | 6.83 | -6
Donkey Kong | 24.41 | 4.854 | 6.27 | 0.98 | 6.68 | +2
Peach | 24.52 | 5.898 | 6.2 | 1.079 | 6.64 | -7
Dark Pit | 24.89 | 5.888 | 6.27 | 1.044 | 6.68 | -10
R.O.B. | 25.64 | 5.393 | 6.08 | 1.17 | 6.51 | -8
Luigi | 27.34 | 6.583 | 5.95 | 1.126 | 6.26 | -13
Olimar | 30.93 | 7.914 | 5.62 | 1.338 | 5.94 | -6
Robin | 30.98 | 6.396 | 5.42 | 0.931 | 5.61 | ±0
Bowser | 31.55 | 5.812 | 5.23 | 1.018 | 5.4 | -2
Lucas | 32.18 | 7.071 | 5.17 | 1.149 | 5.34 | +3
Wario | 32.61 | 4.471 | 5.26 | 0.943 | 5.43 | -13
Ike | 32.68 | 5.711 | 5.06 | 1.03 | 5.08 | -7
Lucina | 34.52 | 7.746 | 4.95 | 1.178 | 5.08 | +13
Mr. Game & Watch | 37.8 | 6.637 | 4.38 | 1.337 | 4.33 | +1
Pac-Man | 38.73 | 6.016 | 4.34 | 1.097 | 4.18 | -6
Little Mac | 38.8 | 6.891 | 4.21 | 1.149 | 4.01 | +7
Palutena | 38.91 | 5.881 | 4.11 | 1.156 | 3.94 | +12
Kirby | 39.27 | 6.413 | 4.23 | 1.166 | 4.06 | -5
Duck Hunt | 40 | 7.697 | 4.21 | 1.303 | 4.05 | +3
Link | 40.64 | 8.186 | 4.09 | 1.338 | 3.94 | +1
Shulk | 41.77 | 6.753 | 3.86 | 1.267 | 3.6 | -2
Samus | 42.66 | 6.459 | 3.71 | 1.186 | 3.49 | +8
Bowser Jr. | 43.18 | 5.907 | 3.61 | 1.138 | 3.33 | -10
Wii Fit Trainer | 43.18 | 5.465 | 3.65 | 1.043 | 3.35 | -5
Dr. Mario | 45.16 | 4.554 | 3.47 | 1.051 | 3.11 | -1
Falco | 45.75 | 4.141 | 3.25 | 1.036 | 2.86 | -9
Roy | 46.02 | 5.323 | 3.38 | 1.191 | 3.08 | -15
Charizard | 48.27 | 3.763 | 2.82 | 1.077 | 2.48 | ±0
King Dedede | 49.02 | 4.06 | 2.7 | 1.146 | 2.32 | -6
Mii Gunner | 51.26 | 6.322 | 2.28 | 1.124 | 1.7 | +2
Mii Brawler | 51.89 | 6.696 | 2.26 | 1.316 | 1.76 | -3
Zelda | 52.07 | 2.235 | 1.92 | 0.616 | 1.49 | +3
Ganondorf | 52.66 | 2.254 | 1.9 | 0.651 | 1.47 | ±0
Mii Swordfighter | 53.85 | 3.951 | 2.04 | 0.947 | 1.53 | -2
Jigglypuff | 53.98 | 1.433 | 1.72 | 0.604 | 1.35 | -1

A standard deviation of (close to) 0 means that voters generally placed the character close to the average (mean), while a higher standard deviation shows that the character had a diverse range of placements. As expected, the further down the tier list one goes from the top, the larger the deviations tends to be. While the top and bottom tiers have lower standard deviation results, the middle and lower tiers were highly opinionated.

For the first time, our procedure for the Tier List asked voters for two things concurrently - tiers or groups of characters (similar to Wii U v1.0) and the orders for characters within them (overall 1-58, similar to many other past BR lists). The resulting lists were not completely congruent, with several small position swaps (orders were still maintained in the release). However, this gave us the means to decide our tier separations, reflecting how closely our voters put characters together in contrast to the volatility of ordered placements.

The Top/High/Mid/Low/Bottom divides were decided by the group score's range (9.88 - 1.72) split equally into five. The tiers primarily express point gaps of 10-9, 9-8, etc., with two exceptions. We merged the bottom tiers (2.82 - 1.72; 1.10 range), and to coincide with the high tier's split (8.25 - 6.62), we bumped up Captain Falcon, Greninja & Lucario, creating two tiers.

As such, we would like to present you with the...

Official 4BR Smash for Wii U Tier List v2.0 (Wii U Version 1.1.6)

--------------------TOP--------------------
S:
A:
-------------------HIGH--------------------
B:
C:
--------------------MID---------------------
D:
E:
--------------------LOW-------------------
F:
G:
------------------BOTTOM----------------
H:

Text Version

--------------------TOP--------------------
S: Diddy Kong, Cloud, Sheik, Rosalina, Mario, Sonic, Fox
A: Zero Suit Samus, Ryu, Mewtwo, Bayonetta
-------------------HIGH--------------------
B: Pikachu, Meta Knight, Villager, Mega Man, Ness
C: Toon Link, Corrin, Marth, Captain Falcon, Greninja, Lucario
--------------------MID---------------------
D: Yoshi, Pit, Donkey Kong, Peach, Dark Pit, R.O.B., Luigi
E: Olimar, Robin, Bowser, Lucas, Wario, Ike, Lucina
--------------------LOW-------------------
F: Mr. Game & Watch, Pac-Man, Little Mac, Palutena, Kirby, Duck Hunt, Link
G: Shulk, Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, Bowser Jr., Dr. Mario, Falco, Roy
------------------BOTTOM----------------
H: Charizard, King Dedede, Zelda, Ganondorf, Jigglypuff

Graphic Version

Smashboards Tier List Maker Version:

Addendum for Mii Fighters:

Of the votes we collected, 27 of them had Mii Fighters. While we were not able to accrue enough data for XXXX Miis, we did find results with 1111 Miis, which placed them into the bottom tier as follows:

H:

Conclusions

With the Summer of Smash coming to a close, there have been many unique advancements in the Smash 4 metagame that will be reflected within this tier list. Ever since the first tier list was released, Bayonetta took the world by storm; two of the top tiers in the last list received big changes, knocking them down a tad; everyone picked up Cloud; and Mega Man became a big threat. Other characters became relevant thanks to buffs, such as Marth and Mewtwo. Even though future patches are unlikely, it's safe to assume that the tier list will evolve quite fruitfully, as seen with previous Smash games.

What do you think of the tier list? Do you agree with the placements, or would you place certain characters differently? Let us know what your thoughts and questions are and we will try to address the most common ones in a followup article, which will include statements from various members of the 4BR.

Special thanks goes to Shaya and Locuan for their help with processing the votes and results; Camalange, Shaya, @Marc, Vayseth and Events2Compete (Joe Fattal) for assisting with the collection of outside votes; and shrooby for creating the tier list image. Lastly, I'd like to give a special thank you to all the voters for their time and input into crafting this tier list. I was proud to take the mantle for the second tier list and receive help from so many people.

 

Ayyeee & hopefully we DONT Get Another patch because this i sperfectly fine & perfectly Balanced

We may; If they release SSBNX as a port of SSB4, it will likely be Version 2, meaning balance changes and such.

 

If they release SSBNX as a port of SSB4

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. SSBNX maybe, but as a version 2, ridiculous.

 

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. SSBNX maybe, but as a version 2, ridiculous.

Is is a real rumor though

 

What would make it so different???

 

What would make it so different???

NX support would be big enough IMO to be its own full version. It might also add more features to the game (NX exclusive) like the rumored Adventure Mode comeback.

 

Ugh fine but a few demands I want made. 1.) NO SUBSPACE EMISSARY, If I have to play a story that goddamn long one more goddamn time I'll lose it. 2.) If they are going a version two why not program just a few more characters idk Sora or hell snake for all I care. 3.) Make Corrin kickass in this version plz.

 

Shulk isn't Bottom Tier on the list though?

YE

 

I don't appreciate how Bayonetta is climbing back up there to A and S tier....

Shes not broken doe

 

Shes not broken doe

She's Damn close to it tho.

 

She's Damn close to it tho.

No she's not. You want to talk about broken? Go play against a Rosalina.

 

That is literally the most sexist thing I've heard to date. In fact to iterate on what ur saying Most of the top tiers are GIRLS. This game must be sexist to us boys... probably. Yes Rosaluma is broken but to be fair She is the hardest character to master (that's just me tho IDK about in general). No offense to any female users out there.

 

That is literally the most sexist thing I've heard to date. In fact to iterate on what ur saying Most of the top tiers are GIRLS. This game must be sexist to us boys... probably. Yes Rosaluma is broken but to be fair She is the hardest character to master (that's just me tho IDK about in general). No offense to any female users out there.

I count 7 males (counting Mewtwo as one, 6 without) and 4 females, there's still more males in Top Tier. Although, really, what would be wrong if there was a female majority? I don't see how that'd be sexist unless if their gender was the reason they were designed so well for competitive play, which I doubt it is.

 

Wait there's only 8 others besides the elite four girls, you're saying Diddy is just an it and will always be an it???? Ugh... ok I was only kidding about Diddy, but still what about the Lumas? technically they're two characters in one... Should I quit while I'm ahead?

 

Everybody sleeping on . As soon as the edge guard meta evolves she's going to sky rocket to mid tier.

The thing with Jigs and her edge guard game is that she's only really good at gimping people off stage which is really hard to do against most (not all) current meta characters, especially considering that getting footstooled off stage absolutely destroys and chance of her making it back to stage

 

Come on people.
Roy is way better than that.

 

Come on people.
Roy is way better than that.

Yeah I deferentially think Roy is better than what he is on there but not by much

 

Yeah I deferentially think Roy is better than what he is on there but not by much

yeah.
he shouldn't be much higher.
but i believe he should be at least on par with Robin.

 

This game must be sexist to us boys

Please tell me you're trolling. Unless there was a conscious choice to make the ladies better than the men, or to refuse to buff the male characters because of their gender, it's not sexist.

 

yeah.
he shouldn't be much higher.
but i believe he should be at least on par with Robin.[/QUOTE
Yeah for sure. However I think that Robin is also fairly under rated

 

Please tell me you're trolling. Unless there was a conscious choice to make the ladies better than the men, or to refuse to buff the male characters because of their gender, it's not sexist.

I'm sorry am I being sexist for thinking SSB is sexist to guys? I'll shut up about it if u like, I was just salty about how crazy good the female department has been lately, to the point it's almost ridiculous. Still, mad love goes out to them tho for being great characters in the game and crazy good fighters.

 

This is probably the first tier list I've seen where I can't disagree with any of the placements. This is easily one of the best tier lists!

 

I'm surprised Mewtwo is so high. At first glance, he is not much better than his Melee version...

 

I'm surprised Mewtwo is so high. At first glance, he is not much better than his Melee version...

That is, until you bring up his amazing tournament results (especially at Pound). Not only that, but his potential is just amazing. Disjointed hitboxes, amazing recovery, and a powerful projectile (also a reflector that can command grab and lead into combos). Heck he can even footstool into Disable to get a free stock, but this one takes more skill.

Mewtwo in Smash 4 was definatley remastered in a way that Melee tried to present him in, but failed.

 

Long story short, Mewtwo is crazy good this game, an enormous improvement compared to his too disjointed appearance in melee (His kill blows are utter trash to hit). Just take one good look at least one Abadango match and see if u still think he isn't that much better than his last incarnation. But I think the only reason Mewtwo isn't S tier yet is because the most brutal of kills and setups are among the most demanding out of the higher tiered characters (Next to Rosaluma). Hell, I can't even do Abadango's footstool to Disable combo, it's that unforgiving.

 

I'm pretty much okay with this minus the fact that Roy is so low on the tier list.


Sakurai plz buff

 

Roy's placement sickens me.

 

Meh, everybody's a critic. Roy doesn't have a good end game, why else would he be so low on this list baffles me, more so than why everyone minds his placement.

 

The thing with Jigs and her edge guard game is that she's only really good at gimping people off stage which is really hard to do against most (not all) current meta characters, especially considering that getting footstooled off stage absolutely destroys and chance of her making it back to stage

That's all she has going good for her though. She sucks in every other category... :/

 

Her weight is ass, her strength, ridiculously unpredictable in a bad way, her ending lag, ass. Basically she's just pure Ass minus the edge-guarding gimps. If they gave her the strengths she had in melee it would be a whole nother ball game. Otherwise, it ain't looking pretty for this puffy sap.

 

That's all she has going good for her though. She sucks in every other category... :/

Yeah it's really unfortunate. One other thing she has going for her that I forgot to mention is the fact that her back air is really freaking good in this game as it does a good amount of damage and can kill even if staled but other than that she doesn't have a lot of good tools

 

I'm surprised Mewtwo is so high. At first glance, he is not much better than his Melee version...

Mewtwo is amazing in this game.
Abadongo proved it by winning Pound-2016 just with Mewtwo.

 

Abadongo proved it by winning Pound-2016 just with Mewtwo.

Wait just Mewtwo??? Doesn't he have another main that he's real god like with, IDK SANIC???

 

Wait just Mewtwo??? Doesn't he have another main that he's real god like with, IDK SANIC???

Abadongo also has an amazing Meta Knight, and he used to play Pac-Man but at Pound 2 he went only Mewtwo

 

Mario is way too high.

 

Mario is way too high.

Mario is just a super solid character with really good results (mainly because of Ally) and he isn't hard countered by any character

 

Mario is way too high.

his combos and upsmash are way too easy to do, even on casual level... :/

 

Not seeing how is worse than despite him getting way more consistent results and having the better matchup spread. Just me though.

Very good list overall, can't complain about most of the placings.

Yeah, swap their spots and I think it's good

 

Yeah, swap their spots and I think it's good

Shut up you Corrin has range and decent launching power even up close in personal compared to Marth. I'd cry if he's better than my main.

 

Shut up you Corrin has range and decent launching power even up close in personal compared to Marth. I'd cry if he's better than my main.

If you space properly as Marth then you have better damage output and kill potential than Corrin.

 

If only it was easier to do such a thing...