Which CPU level is the best balance between 'fun' and 'challenging' to you?

[Deleted member]

For me it's level 7. It's challenging but still fun. I'm starting to find level 7 to be a bit easy though.

 

[Wintropy]

Level 8 for me, but even so, I find the challenge is...strange, to say the least.

On the one hand, they're absurdly easy to read and punish, since they use very basic moves and don't exploit your weaknesses. On the other hand, their dodging is stupidly good and their tendency to do exactly what they shouldn't do makes them very unpredictable.

I usually find it tricky fighting them at first, since the usual routine that I've honed (defend, bait, play mindgames, read) don't work on them the same way they do on human opponents. So I don't use them for serious training, just for funsies. It's still good to practice combos and tech, I occasionally play around with CPUs as training dummies just to get used to characters I don't normally play.

 

[Roll-Spamming-Peasant]

After training with a Lvl. 50 amiibo for a while, I find lvl 5-7 cpus are the sweet spot.

 

[Born in 1839...]

I go right towards Level 1. That's the only one.

 

[b2jammer]

When I face against CPU's, it's always level 9. In terms of overall practice, I try to do about 65% CPU and 35% FG, mostly because I don't live close to any tournaments or friends who play Smash, and I rarely get the chance to play with friends online.

 

[NGUY (guitarstage)]

none simply dont play with them its bad

 

[ZeekLTK]

I won a $10 Amazon gift card, so I decided to see what amiibos are all about and got a "free" Luigi ($9.99). I have to say I am impressed. It is much more competent than the level 9s and a lot more fun to play. In fact, he has gotten so good that I can only beat him using Link (my main). Otherwise, he kicks my ass when I use anyone else. It is great practice and now level 9s are a piece of cake to fight compared to this beast. I might actually get a few more since I am enjoying fighting him so much.

 

[Pyra]

Level 9's in Melee and Brawl were too easy for me so I was kinda excited when Smash 4's CPUs put up a challenge.
It's fun that way.

If I'm learning a character, i tone it down to 7 or 8 though.

 

[Kabutops]

It depends on the character you're fighting and the character you're using. A level 9 Sheik can sometimes give my mewtwo a run for my money depending how focused i am, but for the most part I can 3-stock her without too much difficulty (and that's while trying to avoid opportunities to punish her for things I know a human wouldn't be stupid enough to do). A level 9 Yoshi is more of a challenge for me as I'm still learning the matchup. But if i were to switch to rosaluma then its like putting the game on easy mode lol

All in all, even with their perfect timing of air-dodges, shields & counters, level 9's still make stupid decisions that make them easy to punish. So they're not really that tough tbh. But still their a.i. is miles better than it was in the previous games.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Has anyone else ever noticed how grab-happy Robin is? Even at level 1, I've seen Robin do more grabs in a single match than most other CPU fighters.

 

[JamietheAuraUser]

Level 8's and 9's aren't really hard for me, they are just super weird due to their inhuman reaction time. They're honestly pretty dumb, and jump right into obvious smash attacks a lot. But they perfectly dodge 80-90% of your aerials and get out of every non-true combo. You end up adopting bizarre strategies while ignoring techniques and combos that would work on any human opponent. Level 7's, while slightly more human in their general reaction time, are a little too easy for me. I tend to fight level 8's and just try not to pick up too many bad habits.

You know what else high-level CPUs (in the 8 and 9 range) do that's really, REALLY irritating? SDI up out of Pit's FSmash. I swear the hitboxes on that move are placed deliberately so that upwards SDI on the first hit will carry you over the second hit. Which just makes me wonder: Sakurai, why would you do that? That's the ultimate in bad balance. Successfully landing the hit should mean you successfully land the hit, not that you get punished anyway due to an act on the target's part that you have no way to predict or prevent. I already have to make sure the foe won't shield or spotdodge, I don't need SDI to worry about on top of that!

/rage

Edit:

I find somewhere between 5 an 7 make reasonable practice dummies and probably behave closest to what you would get in a For Glory match. They will do air attacks, they'll punish poor choices, occasionally make poor choices, and they don't feel like they're blatantly reading and responding to your button inputs like level 9's do.

4 and under don't understand air combat at all.

It also depends on the character. Jigglypuff is laughably awful no matter the AI level, while characters with counters are straight up cheaters the higher the number goes. Who needs a read when you're program to respond with a counter the moment the player pushes a button?

Speaking of that, AIs of almost any level read the button input of your counter as well, and will proceed to not attack with frame-perfect reaction, even though had you not countered they definitely would have attacked. For characters with slower counters (Ike, Lucario), this means that you can't punish a predictable attack with a counter, because even if you time it right to input counter like one frame after they've started their attack… that's too late, as your counter frames won't be active yet when their attack hits.

 

[CrazyPerson]

Computer difficulty levels are all around terrible.

Level 9s i can usually take on pretty easily because they have no counter to the simplest of tactics... long as I stay away from anything that would actually work against a quality human player.

Levels where I can land some of the stuff I need to practice... computers do nothing to counter anything.

In games like this, computer AI is vital to the single player "training for multiplayer" experience... and it failed.
There is no good CPU difficulty.

 

[Kneutronic]

Level 7 is my level of balance for me, maybe a little bit lower, even. It's not fun when a CPU perfectly dodges all your attacks.

 

[_gold_]

To still keep it fun, I'd say lvl 8 is the perfect balance.

 

[Creativion]

Well I am not the best smash player so I usually lose against Level 9 CPUs, so I do that for a challenge. I usually set the CPU's at Level 5 or Level 7, so I guess Level 6 is a good level for them. I don't like to get mad at the CPU but I don't want it to be so easy.

 

[Maruken]

I use level 7 CPUs as a warm up because I tend to react slowly when I first get on, but after I can 2 stock them I just go for level 9.

Level 9 ROB is ****ing stupid

 

[nintenerd]

In majority, I play against level 9 computers. Ever since I initiated my competitive plays, I've always sparred against lv. 9 computers. They can be annoying at times, but I don't find them arduous. When I use Rosalina & Luma, I can kill the opponent without losing a life. Sometimes I can use a random character such as Jigglypuff and barely win. It depends on who you use and how adept you are as a player and the character.

Level 9 computers are much more astute than what they have been in the past installments. With dodging and blocking, they're pretty accurate. It depends on what character that the computer is using as well. I've noticed that some computers can dodge quicker than some other computers can based on who they're using. Also, it is somewhat tricky to hit the opponent in the air.

As for lower leveled computers, they aren't so challenging. It really depends on skill levels of the human player.

My ideal CPU level is 9.