Super Smash Bros. Ultimate continues to dominate the hearts and minds of brawl buddies across the world, and Nintendo shows little sign of slowing the money train down anytime soon. The game’s second DLC character, Hero, is now available as part of Smash Ultimate‘s $24.99 season pass, or on his own at $4.99. Hailing from Square Enix’s long-running Dragon Quest series, Hero actually represents four different characters from four different games, depending on which costume you have selected.
The default look, “Eleven,” is the protagonist from Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, which launches on the Nintendo Switch this September. “Arusu,” clad in khaki and blue, is Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation‘s protagonist and a descendant of the legendary hero Erdrick. The aqua-colored fish-ear costume that somewhat resembles Sirius from My Hero Academia is “Solo,” of Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen. And finally, “Eight” is here to represent exactly what his name implies: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King.
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All of these changes are cosmetic, of course — Hero has the same slate of abilities no matter which game he’s representing in a match. This is not to imply that Hero is an easy character to pick up, mind you! Hero has more moves than any other character in all of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so we’ve put together this guide to help keep his myriad spells and abilities straight. Read on to learn more about Hero’s charge-based special attacks, and discover how his in-game menu works. (Yes, Hero has so many moves that he has his very own JRPG-style menu system.)
Moves
Hero’s special moves all require MP to cast, with more powerful moves requiring more MP. If a special is attempted without the requisite MP available, the player will be left vulnerable to attack. MP is recovered slowly over time, and by landing successful attacks on opponents.
Frizz (B) – Quickly launches a small horizontal fireball.
Frizzle (Half Charge B) – Launches a larger, slightly faster fireball.
Kafrizz (Full Charge B) – Launches a much larger, slower fireball.
A note on charging Frizz:Charging can be interrupted by blocking, and resumed later by holding B. A fully-charged Kafrizz can be stored without launching for an unlimited amount of time. Zap and Woosh-style moves cannot be interrupted or stored in this way.
Zap (Side + B) – Hero whips a close-range electrical burst from his sword, which knocks the target backwards.
Zapple (Half Charge Side + B) – Hero whips a medium-range electrical burst from his sword, which launches the target.
Kazap (Full Charge Side + B) – Hero calls a bolt of lightning from the sky, stunning nearby targets, followed by a spinning sword slash that launches the target a great distance.
Woosh (Up + B) – Launches Hero and nearby targets skyward, requiring little MP.
Swoosh (Half Charge Up + B) – Launches Hero and nearby targets even higher, requiring more MP but also providing enhanced latter movement over Woosh.
Kaswoosh (Full Charge Up + B) – Launches Hero and nearby targets a great height, requiring the most MP but providing the greatest degree of freedom.
Command Selection (Down + B) – Brings up a random list of four Commands, which all have various effects and MP costs. The Command Selection list can be closed without selecting a Command by hitting block — this can be done as many times as necessary to try for the desired Command. Here are all of the potentially available Commands:
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- Oomph: Raises attack power for a limited time.
- Psyche Up: Greatly increases the attack power of the next attack that successfully connects with a target. Effect does not dissipate on whiff.
- Bounce: Applies a ward that reflects projectiles. If a projectile bounces between multiple Bounce-imbued Heroes, the strength of the projectile grows exponentially with each bounce.
- Heal: Reduces damage percentage.
- Flame Slash: Wide-area fire attack.
- Kacrackle Slash: Freezes target in a block of ice.
- Acceleratle: Greatly increases movement speed.
- Kaboom: Launches an explosive horizontal projectile.
- Snooze: Slow-moving projectile that puts the target to sleep.
- Hatchet Man: Strong forward attack that can nullify projectiles.
- Thwack: Has a random chance to instantly KO a target. KO percentage chance is higher or lower based on the amount of damage the target has sustained, with higher damage percentages being more likely to trigger an instant KO.
- Zoom: Returns Hero to the stage from anywhere in the level, but may result in Hero taking ceiling damage on stages that have a ceiling.
- Kaclang: Freezes Hero in place as an (almost) impervious metal statue for a time.
- Metal Slash: Instant KO against metal targets.
- Hocus Pocus: Applies a random effect to Hero, some negative, some positive.
- Magic Burst: Large area attack centered on Hero, which fully depletes the MP meter. Total damage done is based on how much of the MP meter is available, with more MP equaling more damage. Extremely Dragon Ball Z.
- Kamikazee: Produces a powerful explosion centered on Hero, which also KOs Hero.
Gigaslash (Final Smash) – Summons the strength of every Dragon Quest hero to perform an enormous slash attack. Extremely high vertical range of four meters.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
Since Hero hasn’t even been available for a full 24 hours by the time this guide goes live, his strengths and weaknesses have yet to manifest. We’ll update this section once the community has spent some time with Hero and sussed out his role in Smash Ultimate‘s gigantic roster.
Weaknesses
Since Hero hasn’t even been available for a full 24 hours by the time this guide goes live, his strengths and weaknesses have yet to manifest. We’ll update this section once the community has spent some time with Hero and sussed out his role in Smash Ultimate‘s gigantic roster.
Changes
Hero is brand new for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and as such there are no previous iterations of the character to compare him to. Likewise, he has yet to be patched or adjusted within Smash Ultimate, so what you see is what you get.
Outfits
As mentioned above, Hero has four different models representing four different titles from the Dragon Quest series. They look like this!
That’s pretty much it! For helpful guides and tips concerning the rest of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s record-breaking roster, as well as tier lists and other goodies, check out Fanbyte’s Smash Ultimate Hub.
All of our Smash Ultimate guides are created with the help of Eric Van Allen.
