First Official 4BR Smash for Wii U Tier List

It is common for fighting game communities to create a tier list for their game as a source of reference and debate regarding the tournament viability of the cast. The Smash scene is no exception to this, and all games in the series have had a tier list posted to SmashBoards. More often than not, the website itself was instrumental to the creation of these lists, mainly through projects organized by the so-called Smash Back Room for each respective game.

Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS finds itself in the unique position of receiving patches, DLC characters and stages for more than a year after release, with two more characters still forthcoming. As a result of this, it made sense to hold off on tier list discussion until a period of relative stability came along. The current patch (1.1.3) left the majority of the cast relatively untouched and had Genesis 3 as a major showcase, so we chose this build as a foundation. With the recent launch of the 4BR, we were in a good position for the official tier list project to finally get underway.

The 4BR acknowledges that tier lists are often controversial and won't be perfect at the first iteration, if ever. We do, however, strive to study the game to the best of our ability and give a sincere opinion on the current state of affairs. As such, a tier list can be an important benchmark to look back on as the game progresses.

To illustrate this, compare the first and last tier lists for Brawl. Over the nearly 5 years separating the two, we saw the fall of top tier threats like King Dedede, R.O.B. and Mr. Game & Watch, the rise of supposed mid tiers like Captain Olimar and Zero Suit Samus and the blatant early misjudgment of Zelda's potential. Despite these major shifts, the majority of the cast did not end up that far from where they initially started.

Our community has pushed Smash 4 hard from day one, and we have more resources at our disposal than ever before, be it complete frame data, tutorials, or tournament footage. It will be interesting to see how this affects our accuracy in rating the cast, something only time will tell. All that being said, we are proud to present you the first official tier list for Smash Bros. for Wii U!

Procedure

In late December 2015, 4BR members were asked to distribute all 56 released characters across 20 tiers, with no differentiation within the same tier. Voters could place gaps wherever they wanted and there were no restrictions on the amount of characters in the same group. They had to assume play under the 1.1.3 patch with no custom moves allowed, while Miis had to be considered with their 1111 moveset only, in accordance with tournament reality at the biggest events. The 4BR at this moment has no official stance or recommendation on ruleset matters.

We agreed to let voting run until after Genesis 3, which would hopefully provide us with insights into especially the more recent additions to the cast, most notably Cloud. During the voting process, there was a separate topic for reasoning and discussion. We also asked a small group of non-members to submit a vote, in order to involve more people at the forefront of the metagame. We ended up with 53 votes, of which 34 were American and 19 were international.

These are the people who submitted a vote:

Spoiler: List of Voters

@AeroLink_the_SoulMaster (AeroLink)
@Alphicans
@Amazing Ampharos
@Ambrose (My Smash Corner)
@ASC | Red Ryu
@Camalange
@CHOMPY
@CYVE
@Dabuz
@DtJ XeroXen
@D1
@earth_tyt (Earth)
@False
@Fox Is Openly Deceptive
@gsmVoiD (VoiD)
@istudying
@John123456
@Katakiri
@k9.
@Liberation
Marc
@Meru.
@Mister Eric
@Mr-R
@Myran
@NAKAT
@NickRiddle
@nietono
@qb9b
@Ranai
@Raziek
@Rayquaza07
@Remzi (VABengal)
@rintarosu10 (RIN)
@san.
@Seagull Joe
Shaya
@Slice~ (Beefy Smash Doods)
@Spinosaurus
@SS_and_TH (Komorikiri)
@TA~Mav
@The calm tyrant... (Tyrant)
@TheReflexWonder
@Thinkaman
@Trela
@UltimateRazer (GrimTurtle)
@vyQ (Beefy Smash Doods)
@Xiivi
@Xzax Kasrani
@Zan-
@Zigsta
@---
@-6WX-

Spoiler: Breakdown by region

USA
Atlantic North: 12
Midwest: 8
Pacific West: 7
Southwest: 4
Atlantic South: 3

International
Europe: 8
Japan: 6
Canada: 3
Australia: 2

Note that we will not release individual votes, but any voter is free to share his own vote with the public. The most notable abstainee was @TSM ZeRo, who felt it was still too early for a tier list.

Results

Shaya processed the votes and found these average placements, standard deviations and gaps between average placements for the cast:

Spoiler: Raw voting data

Character | Average Placement | Standard Deviation | Gap
Sheik | 20.0 | 0.0 | 0.0
Zero Suit Samus | 19.46 | 0.708 | 0.538
Rosalina | 18.77 | 0.87 | 0.687
Ryu | 17.95 | 1.103 | 0.82
Pikachu | 17.86 | 1.065 | 0.099
Sonic | 17.83 | 1.269 | 0.021
Fox | 17.52 | 1.146 | 0.313
Mario | 17.51 | 1.108 | 0.014
Diddy Kong | 17.43 | 0.998 | 0.082
Meta Knight | 17.12 | 1.489 | 0.307
Villager | 16.52 | 1.614 | 0.597
Cloud | 16.5 | 1.657 | 0.023
Ness | 16.39 | 1.502 | 0.11
Captain Falcon | 15.16 | 1.767 | 1.228
Yoshi | 15.15 | 1.893 | 0.013
Luigi | 14.27 | 1.996 | 0.881
Dark Pit | 13.89 | 2.138 | 0.381
Pit | 13.88 | 2.308 | 0.006
Peach | 13.75 | 2.115 | 0.133
R.O.B. | 13.63 | 2.221 | 0.12
Wario | 13.56 | 1.898 | 0.067
Toon Link | 13.2 | 2.416 | 0.357
Lucario | 12.92 | 2.224 | 0.285
Olimar | 12.47 | 2.452 | 0.454
Greninja | 12.25 | 2.633 | 0.215
Ike | 12.12 | 2.425 | 0.126
Donkey Kong | 11.8 | 2.252 | 0.325
Mega Man | 11.41 | 2.159 | 0.386
Pac-Man | 11.29 | 2.278 | 0.124
Bowser | 10.81 | 2.66 | 0.477
Robin | 10.17 | 2.722 | 0.642
Roy | 9.29 | 3.209 | 0.883
Kirby | 9.1 | 3.388 | 0.183
Bowser Jr. | 8.93 | 2.671 | 0.176
Mr. Game & Watch | 8.72 | 2.47 | 0.21
Lucas | 8.65 | 2.993 | 0.071
Mewtwo | 8.35 | 2.666 | 0.297
Falco | 8.12 | 3.026 | 0.232
Wii Fit Trainer | 8.08 | 2.674 | 0.037
Shulk | 7.75 | 2.926 | 0.325
Marth | 7.72 | 2.237 | 0.038
Link | 7.47 | 2.474 | 0.249
Duck Hunt Dog | 7.18 | 3.11 | 0.283
Little Mac | 7.18 | 2.633 | 0.009
Dr. Mario | 7.14 | 2.437 | 0.033
King Dedede | 6.04 | 2.721 | 1.107
Lucina | 5.59 | 2.547 | 0.447
Mii Brawler | 5.01 | 2.952 | 0.584
Charizard | 4.79 | 2.255 | 0.218
Palutena | 4.78 | 2.199 | 0.008
Samus | 4.12 | 1.942 | 0.656
Mii Gunner | 3.6 | 2.153 | 0.525
Mii Swordsman | 3.32 | 2.054 | 0.282
Ganondorf | 3.23 | 1.675 | 0.082
Jigglypuff | 2.79 | 2.035 | 0.448
Zelda | 1.96 | 1.259 | 0.828

A standard deviation of (close to) 0 means that voters generally placed the character close to the mean, while a higher standard deviation means that the character had a larger range of placements. Most standard deviations are over 1, indicating that we are far from a consensus.

We considered all gaps over .50 as tier separation points and those above .75 for a change in label (Top, High, etc.). However, we decided against single character tiers and the C tier occupying a "High Mid" label with just two characters. Finally, we split F tier into two based on the largest difference within that group of 14 characters.

Official 4BR Smash for Wii U Tier List v1.0 (1.1.3 patch)

Top
S:

High
A:
B:

Middle
C:
D:
E:

Low
F:
G:

Bottom
H:
I:
J:

Text version:

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

Graphic version:

Conclusion

The first year of Smash 4 has been an absolute rollercoaster, with players flocking from Bowser to Diddy Kong to Sheik to Luigi to Donkey Kong to Sheik again. With the completion of the cast on the horizon and the nerfs and buffs slowing to a halt, the game can be expected to come to full fruition in 2016. We can't wait to see the Smash 4 tier list evolve over the years as Smashers all over the world rise to the challenge -- and with them, their respective characters.

What do you think of the tier list? Would you have placed any 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 also include a more in-depth analysis of the results with statements by 4BR members.

Major thanks go out to Shaya for processing the votes, @Zigsta and @Liberation for helping with the release and @Xiivi, Shaya , and @Camalange for collecting outside votes and various odds and ends. Finally, a shoutout to all the voters for their time and input. I was proud to spearhead this project and receive help from so many dedicated people.

 

You know, the tier list could have been held off, no? I mean, hell, we could have just waited for a few more months to another whole year, maybe things would be better.

Anyways, if anyone wants to see a more legitimate tier list...
Just put Kirby, Robin and Little Mac in bottom tier, Dedede in second to last place, Roy in bottom tier, Link in middle, Lucas in upper middle, Ryu in eighth, Ganondorf in low tier, Falco in middle tier, Marth next to Lucina and Bowser Jr. way below Falco, and you got a splendid and fixed tier list.

 

Kinda questioning Charizard below Lucina, DDD, and 1111 Brawler as well as le no results dino above Luigi (who is above the Pits, WTF). Other than that though, I like this overall and am glad to see we have a basically universally-agreed-on top tier.

 

Long story short:
We expect a faster release cycle considering the current paradigm.
Depending on the extent of the balance patch tomorrow we could see another "soon".

 

I think Yoshi is on par with Rosalina

 

Is this tier list going to matter in two days?

All things considered, though, even as a general guideline, I disagree with Ike being put lower-mid when three Ikes hit Top 32, and Ryo hit Top 8 in two nationals. I see more results from Ike than half of the mid-tier characters.

Mewtwo being low is funny when that one guy beat Nairo in Winner's Finals. He's more or less the recent discovery, and I feel his placement in the tier list is less about his current data and more his accumulation of tournament rounds since his release.

It's interesting, though. Top tiers are completely accurate, and so are the lower ones. The middle is where my question comes into play.

 

Why wasn't this postponed until after 1.1.3 when we already have a confirmed Marth change (meaning there is another confirmed balance patch) and two more characters coming in two days?

Because did you read it? They were asked to vote for 1.1.3 since December. This is what this is.

Comment on the list: and should switch places. That is my biggest problem with this.

 

Long story short:
We expect a faster release cycle considering the current paradigm.
Depending on the extent of the balance patch tomorrow we could see another "soon".

Well, you know, we could have accepted actually waiting for a tier list to come out, Shaya. Nothing comes under such heavy backfire like this if it wasn't feeling like it was rushed.

Most people are agreeing that the tier list is flawed heavily among everything, and that it goes to show that we're NOT ready for one just yet.

 

This reaction is... expected. More important tier list means more useless critique. Do you all sincerely think you have a better perception of the game than the backroom? Maybe YOU are wrong.

 

I mean, come the hell on, 4BR, you are pulling a Fine Bros. here on us.

Calm the **** down they arent suing us for using a common thing like Fine Bros.

 

Initial Impressions:
J tier is a bit excessive. Would've but all of high into A, mid into B, low into C, and bottom in D. Also, new patch and characters come out in 2 days, so this seems like a bit of a waste.

 

Ganondorf is too damn down. Seriously.
Plus the game will change in a couple of days so, this will change, hopefully in a good way.

 

Why now?! Wait just 2 days at least to be a full rooster... A tier list for 2 days...

 

Will the Yoshi/Roy hype ever die? Every character below them has accomplished more than Yoshi/Roy in their entire life.

 

Calm the **** down they arent suing us for using a common thing like Fine Bros.

I redacted my statement when I eventually said they were like EA.

Ganondorf is too damn down. Seriously.
Plus the game will change in a couple of days so, this will change, hopefully in a good way.

Hell, Ganondorf could get something that instantly makes him a high tier and it would show that this list is BS.

 

My biggest issue is how scared people are to use + and - to dictate small gaps in character viability.

What has resulted is 11/26 letters of the alphabet when about 5 or 6 of those are entirely unrequired and not representative of the actual gap between characters in this game.

Prior FGC experience tells me you should be precise and try to avoid this kind of arbitrary gapping especially if you're trying to represent small changes in data. If you don't you get things like J tier where one of the characters in it placed decently high (I believe JWest got 65th at G3) in one of the hardest stacked Smash 4 majors of all time. It doesn't correlate very well despite Samus being bad.

 

So, another popularity contest.

 

Let's not let the SSBWiki take this with viability.

First off, Ganondorf is not in the bottom three characters; he's a low tier, if not a lower middle tier character.

Then they have the audacity to put bottom tier Robin into high tier!?

Ooh, and Link in Low Tier when he's been agreed to be middle tier or upper middle?

Ryu...in top...five...WHAT?!

Game and Watch, Kirby and Little Mac in low tier? Where are their accurate bottom tier placements?

King Dedede's meant to be in the bottom five, you know.

Like seriously, 4BR, you need to really disband and remake yourself.
A tier list like this is actually unacceptable.

Man like, half those characters i was already feeling like asking you about your arguments for the characters you rank higher than anyone else i see around. I'm legit curious because i have never seen a tournament Ganon or Link, only For Glory ones. What i have seen is Raziek's Robin even before the massive buffs they got, so i was expecting them to have rocketed but was surprised to the extent. I could stick in some words for Kirby and Ryu as well but they are not as legit as the Robin ones, and the main thing i want is your perspective on the others.

 

I agree, Ganon is way higher than this. He feels a lot better than in Brawl now.

And once again Sonic is above Mario despite both of them being near-top tier now, bleh.

 

Sonic should be top 5 imo at this point. Rosa is not in the highest tier. Falcon should be in the tier above, he is not mid. Mii brawler is not that high, he is the WORST. Samus should be higher. Wii Fit should be higher. ike is far too low. If you wan't reasonings just tell me, I have proper reasonings for all besdies maybe brawler, but that one is explainable.

 

Radical Larry, this is probably below average to our expectations.
This wasn't rushed.
[Asides from getting it out before the patch, it was completed well before it's announcement date].


Everything is best as an iterative process.

 

You know, the tier list could have been held off, no? I mean, hell, we could have just waited for a few more months to another whole year, maybe things would be better.

Anyways, if anyone wants to see a more legitimate tier list...
Just put Kirby, Robin and Little Mac in bottom tier, Dedede in second to last place, Roy in bottom tier, Link in middle, Lucas in upper middle, Ryu in eighth, Ganondorf in low tier, Falco in middle tier, Marth next to Lucina and Bowser Jr. way below Falco, and you got a splendid and fixed tier list.

Kirby is not agreed to be bottom tier. Robin actually has results (spoilers: more than Link does. By quite a large margin. Link has nothing hence his accurate placement), his placement is fine. Little Mac is fine.

Link is not middle. That is not agreed upon at all despite what you think. Falco is not middle either. Bowser Jr. has Tweek: those results alone keep him faaaar ahead of Falco.

You're throwing a fit over Ryu and D3 being like, 3-4 spots farther than you think. That's not worth the shouting you've been doing here.

Ganondorf is in an odd spot I'd agree, though on the other hand he has next to no results because none of his mains have been able to go anywhere. Not worth arguing over.

Marth has significant advantages over Lucina, they are no longer side by side characters like Pit and Dark Pit. And yes Roy is better than both of them. Not by very much, which is reflected accurately, but he is. Nothing wrong with his placing.

Really, most of the issues are in Mid Tier. That whole section needs a lot of juggling. Most of the characters in every other tier are pretty good, probably within 1-2 spots of accuracy.

EDIT:

I am however going to have to chime in with what multiple other people have said: Ike is too low. He's gotten top 8 at MLG and at least 4 Ike mains have gotten top 32 (I want to say top 20) at international tournaments. Going by results alone, he should be higher than most of the characters in mid tier.

 

I think Yoshi is on par with Rosalina

No.Not even a little.Like even if your joking.Thats all wrong

 

Welp, Zelda's bottom tier three Smash games in a row.

Better luck next time, gorl.

What are you talking about? She's S-tier!

Oh, spoiler. Sorry.

 

>places Lucas bellow G&W
>Motherboy has footstool combos on him and half the cast

Lol ok.

As soon as anyone actually pulls them off in a big tournament he will rise for sure, same for Greninja, but for now most people have never seen them yet.

 

Ugh, I mean I think it's cool we got one and all, but seriously this is gonna be obsolete in 2 days, not only because of Corronetta but because gameplay footage of Marth confirmed that balance changes are coming, meaning there will be shuffling of characters(whether drastic or not remains to be seen.)

Tier List 1.0 should have really been post EVO.

 

Didn't expect people to complain so much about the list. Of course everybody is going to have some qualms. It's a tier list. Everybody's opinions can be radically different. However, this list is really well constructed and the complaints that people have been giving here are pretty minor overall and are being blown out of proportion.

I'm pleasantly surprised with Greninja's placement. While I would put him a couple spots higher, all the characters placed above him and below him make sense. I don't see Ganondorf as that bad, but his placement honestly makes sense when you consider his terrible matchup spread, exploitable recovery, awful movement, etc.

I'm glad that this was released before the patch. It was best that we had an official tier list released at a stable point in the meta. It's good to finally have an official starting point to look at.

 

I feel like Smash 4 was balance patched way too many times in a short amount of time. Character releases were fine and obviously, so were bug fixes e.g. giant Yoshi, online Peach issues, and singleplayer mode Mewtwo issues, but the balance patch releases were "insane" compared to other fighting games. If Smash 4 - assuming the Wii U version is the "true" launch version - was never patched until a year after its release which means we'd be dealing with our Diddy overlords, the meta wouldn't have changed almost drastically and too rapidly. It's unpredictable what will happen. Who knows, maybe 1.1.4 decides to favor Palutena and oh look! Palutena is high tier now.

As for this tier list: finally. That's all I can say. You all asked for it and now you have it. Remember one thing: you can never please everyone.

Right now, even though Bayonetta and Corrin will be out on 2/3 or 2/4 depending on where you live, we at least have a starting point. It does not really matter they're going to be released. Why? Many fighting games have characters released periodically and waiting for the last character is almost pointless. The difference is Smash 4 released pretty much everything in under a year in contrast to say, Street Fighter IV which had multiple editions throughout the years or KoF XIII which only introduced 4 DLC characters, 2 of which were basically semi-clones with different play styles. Now, the point is it's the starting point. After Bayonetta and Corrin are released, maybe it'll take another month or two to place them. Even if they waited, the tier list could be the same or just slightly different as maybe 2 characters would be significantly changed enough in 1.1.4 to warrant their changes in placement.

Everything else is left to the development of the players and the characters. Sometimes balance patches, but it's better for player skill and character development to affect a character's placement on a tier rather reliance on balance patches. I'd rather see more Brawl Ike, Sonic, and Wolf tier changes than er... Smash 4 1.0.8 Diddy and 1.1.0 Luigi tier changes. Even then, those Diddy, Luigi, etc. players out there? They're proving something: their characters can rock your world. Now it's up to you; how do you answer?

 

Guys,
Come on lmao.

 

The first tier list is always the worst IMO. This has a lot of things off ,but a lot of things right. i mean, Melee had Sheik as number one, not fox, so who knows!!!

 

Radical Larry, this is probably below average to our expectations.
This wasn't rushed.
[Asides from getting it out before the patch, it was completed well before it's announcement date].


Everything is best as an iterative process.

It feels like it was rushed, though.
It's just that this shouldn't be the start of something amazing; and to me, it's not below average to my expectations, it's the first thing I would have been hyped for and it fell so short, so fast. It's abysmal to my own expectation, in all honesty.

I hope that after the patch, we actually wait a hell of a long time for a good tier list to come out.

 

Guys,
Come on lmao.

Ladies and gentleman, I present to you, SmashWiki.

 

Top tier is all women; Super Smash Sisters confirmed.

 

Guys,
Come on lmao.

Well hello there SmashWiki, nice to see you on here.

 

Top tier is all women; Super Smash Sisters confirmed.

Nah man, it's Super Bash Sisters!

 

Personally, I'm just happy Cloud and Pit are so high and WFT isn't bottom.

Didn't expect people to complain so much about the list.

This is the smash community. Complaining is a given

 

Ness's matchups vs those above him on the tier list (imo):

Cloud: Ness's favor
Villager: Villager's favor
Meta Knight: Even
Diddy Kong: Ness's favor
Mario: Mario's favor
Fox: Even
Sonic: Ness's favor
Pikachu: Ness's favor
Ryu: Ness's favor
Rosalina & Luma: Rosalina's favor so thoroughly like omg sakurai why
Zero Suit Samus: Ness's favor
Sheik: Sheik's favor

 

Ness's matchups vs those above him on the tier list (imo):

Cloud: Ness's favor
Villager: Villager's favor
Meta Knight: Even
Diddy Kong: Ness's favor
Mario: Mario's favor
Fox: Even
Sonic: Ness's favor
Pikachu: Ness's favor
Ryu: Ness's favor
Rosalina & Luma: Rosalina's favor so thoroughly like omg sakurai why
Zero Suit Samus: Ness's favor
Sheik: Sheik's favor

How is the ZSS matchup Ness's favor?

 

S tier is all blonde women

Feminists approve?

Does this list dictate how good a character is or how much used..

Because Ganon and Link are not that bad..

 

I think you guys underestimate the importance of this. Corrin and Bayo may be coming out soon and even if, even if the patch and those two characters drastically affect the metagame (and let's face it -- no they won't) this tier list still provides a good snapshot of the 1.1.3 metagame to look back on.

 

If you squint, Sheik looks like Shulk! Shulk number one! We win! We win!