Smash 4 lvl 9 CPU Tier List (Unofficial) (v1.1.6)

[AlexJ15]

After playing 2000+ matches with level 9 CPUs, this is the tier list that I made for them. A lot of characters with (good) counters are top or high tier because CPUs have frame perfect reaction time (0.017 seconds). Ness is low tier because of the way he recovers as a CPU. Sometimes I would KO him at percents at as low as 30% and on rare cases I would KO him at >70%.

TOP TIER
S:
A:
HIGH TIER
B:
C:
MIDDLE TIER
D:
E:
LOW TIER
F:

G:
BOTTOM TIER

H:

If you disagree with this tier list, let me know. If you have any questions or other thoughts, let me know.

 

[Frihetsanka]

I haven't played that much against level 9 CPUs due to them cheating, although I've played versus a few, and a pretty good amount against level 8 CPUs. Some thoughts:

is pretty bad. He uses Falcon Punch waaaaay to much, and overuses his specials in general. He barely ever dashgrabs too, and he has no counter or anti-projectile moves to make use of the CPU reaction speed. Middle tier at best, potentially low tier.

will use limit Blade Beam instead of Cross Slash if you bait him, and he might randomly taunt after a KO instead of charging limit. I think he should be C tier at best.

has a cape which makes it really hard to use projectiles against him. He should be E or D tier I think.

uses Thoron instead of Arc Thunder in many cases, and doesn't seem to use check mate much. I'd be inclined to put CPU Robin in low tier.

 

[AlexJ15]

I haven't played that much against level 9 CPUs due to them cheating, although I've played versus a few, and a pretty good amount against level 8 CPUs. Some thoughts:

is pretty bad. He uses Falcon Punch waaaaay to much, and overuses his specials in general. He barely ever dashgrabs too, and he has no counter or anti-projectile moves to make use of the CPU reaction speed. Middle tier at best, potentially low tier.

will use limit Blade Beam instead of Cross Slash if you bait him, and he might randomly taunt after a KO instead of charging limit. I think he should be C tier at best.

has a cape which makes it really hard to use projectiles against him. He should be E or D tier I think.

uses Thoron instead of Arc Thunder in many cases, and doesn't seem to use check mate much. I'd be inclined to put CPU Robin in low tier.

Level 9 and 8 CPUs are noticeably different. Level 9 CPUs are much more aggressive than level 8 CPUs. Level 8 CPUs also air doge less. Also, Falcon is one of those rare CPUs that edge guard by going of stage (by a lot). Based on my experience, (? ?) edge guard by going off stage. Every other CPU edge guards by staying on stage (and they're terrible at it). I will move since I did verse him a few times and he was kinda bad and I'll probably move some more characters after more thinking.

 

[Egghead]

is the worst out of them all. If you go offstage, she will float above you doing nothing. I spiked her every single time.

 

[a dog]

It's been a small eternity since I completed the Classic Mode 9.0 so I don't remember too much except that anyone with a counter (aka about a quarter of the cast pretty much) will do perfectly timed counters all the time, killing you super early. Any character who has a counter surely can't be worse than C tier I'd think. I bet even Mii Swordfighter could mess you up, lol.

 

[Emmington]

is horrible. The only throw he uses is his backthrow- his worst throw- followed with an arrow, and he'll randomly throw out his side-b, which is super punishable as well.

 

[Frihetsanka]

So I did some more testing, and here are some of my thoughts:

is terrible at dealing with projectiles. Corrin can pretty much sit back and spam Dragon Fang Shot until Captain Falcon is low and then finish him off. It's slightly harder with Ness, until you figure out that he's terrible at dealing with PK Thunder, so you can pretty much juggle him pretty hard. Kirby gimps him easily and Robin beats him too. What about characters without a projectile? He's a bit better against them, but he still overuses specials and underuses dash-grab. Oh, and he overuses smashes, has a tendency to be very unsafe when he's approaching you, and tends to recover recklessly. I think he's Low tier at best, potentially even Bottom tier.

is really good with his cape, which forces projectile-users to be careful. Aside from that, his general game-plan seems much less exploitable than Captain Falcon. He's probably mid tier as far as CPUs go.

uses F-throw as well.

 

[Crystanium]

I thought this was going to be having two computers playing against each other and using results to form a tier list. Facing off against level 9 computers is actually bad for you if you wish to be a good player. If I were you, I would have had two computers fight and come up with a conclusion with the data. By the way, computers will pick up your habits. For example, I use Samus. A computer Samus on my brother's Wii U will do some things that I have done, so this might affect your results as well unless you start from scratch.

 

[Jackguti]

idk if this is counting 8 player smash as well but whenever I play 8 player smash and a is in the game, he always is out significantly quicker than anyone else. Sometimes he would be out first and then whoever got 7th place would be out almost an entire 2 minutes ahead.

 

[AlexJ15]

Facing off against level 9 computers is actually bad for you if you wish to be a good player.

I know that. That's why I play against amiibos with really good customs instead. And if I do ever play against lvl 9 cpus, it's always 1v2 (me vs 2 lvl 9 CPUs)

idk if this is counting 8 player smash as well but whenever I play 8 player smash and a is in the game, he always is out significantly quicker than anyone else. Sometimes he would be out first and then whoever got 7th place would be out almost an entire 2 minutes ahead.

8-player smash does not count since winning isn't 100% skill.

 

[Axel311]

is the worst out of them all. If you go offstage, she will float above you doing nothing. I spiked her every single time.

THIS.

I've noticed that Level 9 Peach is terrible, probably the worst of all the level 9s because AI is broken when it comes to float, it's never used properly. It's pretty lol-wothy off stage, she'll just sit there and float under the ledge giving you a free spike.

In my opinion the best are the simple and/or high frame data characters since the AI doesn't really know tech. Level 9 Mario is probably the best of the level 9s. Marth is up there as well.

Level 9 Cloud would be good if he didn't spam blade beam unsafely so much.

Oh and just throwing this out there but I wish the AI on level 9 was better, they don't even know how to do their grab kill confirms.

 

[SJMistery]

The ranged figthers like Mega Man, Duck Hunt and Samus and the spacing based ones like Corrin, Shulk and Greninja are really bad on CPU. The term "safe distance" seems like a foreign concept for the CPU, it always tries to get as close as possible to try to troll you with quick combos, without realizing things like that you have a heavy projectile ready to fire or a Smash attack charging...

Plus, the CPU on 9 has a very exploitable flaw: just charge an up smash while they are flying above you. They will airdodge and try to divebomb and jab/grab you the moment the CPU detects the input, but will not take account that you did NOT release it yet, and all you need is wait until the invincibility is going to wear off to hit them before they can abuse their lag-cancelling aerials. In general, half-charging a Smash attack or a special is enough to curb-stomp most of the CPUs because they WILL roll into it and will try to dodge it exactly when you finish fully charging it.

 

[SvartWolf]

such a tier list could be interesting if you are facing them against other cpus to determine the kings of the AI

 

[AlexJ15]

such a tier list could be interesting if you are facing them against other cpus to determine the kings of the AI

Yeah, but doing that for every character would take way too long.

 

[Mordecai Hazard]

Lol, I'm not surprised Mario is first since I know I'm a pro player and i still sometimes have a hard time fighting him :V

 

[SJMistery]

Lol, I'm not surprised Mario is first since I know I'm a pro player and i still sometimes have a hard time fighting him :V

you tried a dash grab-up throw then start spamming middle charged up smashes? it always does the trick for me, for any CPU. Their airdodge subroutines almost never take into account when you RELEASE charged attacks, only when you start charging them...

 

[Mordecai Hazard]

you tried a dash grab-up throw then start spamming middle charged up smashes? it always does the trick for me, for any CPU. Their airdodge subroutines almost never take into account when you RELEASE charged attacks, only when you start charging them...

Nah, I just wait for them to make an attack that causes end lag, or just completely pressure them. Their airdoges are so fast lol.

 

[SJMistery]

Nah, I just wait for them to make an attack that causes end lag, or just completely pressure them. Their airdoges are so fast lol.

Hint. Hold the up Smash until after the airdodge. The CPUs are coded to el dodge the moment they sense the attack starting to charge , but they never take into account when you release it. Trust me, it always works. Once the CPU uses his double jumps, start chaining up Smash. You will cause massive damage with this exploit.

 

[MarioMeteor]

This tier list almost looks like it could official.

 

[BlueDaruma888]

As a main, I can attest that his CPU's pretty darn bad, and I'd actually put him lower on the list. Despite being a mediocre character already due to lack of frame data, the CPU has absolutely no idea as to when to use which art, save for shield when needed, nor does he ever cancel one. His spacing ability is also almost non-existent, although I'd guess that might just be the case for most characters with disjoints.

 

[SJMistery]

As a main, I can attest that his CPU's pretty darn bad, and I'd actually put him lower on the list. Despite being a mediocre character already due to lack of frame data, the CPU has absolutely no idea as to when to use which art, save for shield when needed, nor does he ever cancel one. His spacing ability is also almost non-existent, although I'd guess that might just be the case for most characters with disjoints.

Spacing is an alien concept to the CPU. It's particularly easy to spot when CPU tries to recover from the ledge or when trying to land after getting comboed.

 

[AlexJ15]

As a main, I can attest that his CPU's pretty darn bad, and I'd actually put him lower on the list. Despite being a mediocre character already due to lack of frame data, the CPU has absolutely no idea as to when to use which art, save for shield when needed, nor does he ever cancel one. His spacing ability is also almost non-existent, although I'd guess that might just be the case for most characters with disjoints.

Well, all lvl 9 CPUs are pretty bad (except for ). The reason why is high tier on this list is because he has one of the most powerful counters in the game. CPUs have frame-perfect reaction time, so they can surprise you with a counter pretty easily. CPU is still terrible, but not as bad as most CPUs.

 

[BlueDaruma888]

Well, all lvl 9 CPUs are pretty bad (except for ). The reason why is high tier on this list is because he has one of the most powerful counters in the game. CPUs have frame-perfect reaction time, so they can surprise you with a counter pretty easily. CPU is still terrible, but not as bad as most CPUs.

Ahhh that's completely true. I've forgotten about all of those times I've been completely destroyed by a CPU Counter Surge from a mere stray hit. That makes sense a lot of then.

 

[Alpha Princess365]

I absolutely hate as a CPU she can be downright obnoxious.

 

[SJMistery]

I absolutely hate as a CPU she can be downright obnoxious.

You tried spamming Turnips and fully charge your Smash attacks? The CPU is VERY stupid and always treats an attack input as a quick attack done at point blank range.

By spamming slow projectiles, they will typically dodge too early and get hit, and they will ALWAYS walk on you after immediately inputting a roll or airdodge while you charge Smash attacks, and regardless of who, it easy to beat CPUs with that method.

 

[Ryuphoton]

I have had many a bad time fighting against a lvl 9 CPU that has a counter and get destroyed because of a random counter.

 

[Croyster]

Ness and lucas are terrible. if you're any significant distance from them for a few seconds they will try and pk thunder rocket into you, it's hilariously exploitable.