In relative terms, acounter is a character that is commonly agreed by thecommunity to be the "correct" character to use against another specific character, as they have tools that make beating said other character relatively easy.Matchups are typically measured in a ratio to determine counters. Players often switch to a counter whencounterpicking.

Hard counter[edit]

Ahard counter is when a character holds a strong advantage against another. Many multiplayer games are designed around characters being hard counters to each other, though the developers of theSmash series have never made this conscious effort. The concept of the hard counter is relative; inMelee, for instance,Peach is often said to be a hard counter to theIce Climbers. Thus, Peachcounters the Ice Climbers. An example inBrawl is that theIce Climbers are a hard counter toGanondorf. A hard counter usually has a combination of the following elements, such as an infinite or "zero-death" (from zero damage to death)combo orchain throw, an especially high imbalance in the characters' abilities, the ability of one character being able to KO the countered character considerably early orgimp them with considerable ease, and the inability for the countered character toapproach effectively, that makes the match extremely difficult for the countered character. In terms of matchup ratios, a hard counter is usually considered to be 35-65 or worse.

Examples of hard counters in theSuper Smash Bros. games[edit]

Super Smash Bros.[edit]

Most hard counters inSuper Smash Bros. are due to range, or the ease of one character being able to "zero to death" another.

• Donkey Kong andLuigi hard counterJigglypuff. Donkey Kong can cargo release Jigglypuff and then regrab it into aGiant Punch from 0% to KO while Luigi KOs Jigglypuff with hisSuper Jump Punch as low as 30%.
• Kirby hard countersYoshi. Kirby's up tilt outspeeds and outreaches all of Yoshi's moves, thus preventing Yoshi from approaching effectively.
• Many characters hard counter Samus and Link, and no one hard countersCaptain Falcon, Kirby, orPikachu.

Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

• Among the worst matchups in the game isSheik againstBowser. Once Sheik lands a grab, she canchaingrab Bowser to extremely high percentages and then send him offstage with nearly any combinations of aerials, then easily edgeguard his poor recovery. Bowser's sluggish movement and abysmal neutral allow Sheik to easily grab him, and he has no setups of his own to offset this weakness.
• Peach hard countersRoy. Roy struggles to get any sort of opening on Peach; with weak aerials and a poor down tilt, almost all of Roy's approach options can be crouch cancelled by Peach, leading to an inevitable punish. He also gets nothing off of grabs, as they all send Peach too far away to follow up with any meaningful attack. Roy also struggles to KO Peach until absurd percentages nearing 200%; his smash attacks are the only attacks in his moveset with KO potential, but Peach easily spaces out of their range just by floating. In return, Peach can dismantle Roy off of one opening by simply knocking him into the air, abusing his terrible aerial game, or sending him off-stage where she can cover nearly all his recovery options with goodVegetable placements.
• Fox hard countersMr. Game & Watch because of how susceptible the latter is to Fox's typical pressuring and KO setups. Game & Watch's terrible shield allows Fox to easily shield poke him while applying shield pressure with aerials. Unlike several other light characters such asJigglypuff, who can use their weight to their advantage by avoiding Fox's combos at high percentages, Mr. Game & Watch has a faster falling speed and suffers much morehitstun, meaning that Fox's up throw on him unavoidably combos into up aerial even well past KO percentages.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

• Pikachu hard countersFox due to azero-to-deathchaingrab with Pikachu's down throw that is extremely easy to execute.
• Marth hard countersNess andLucas due to a zero to death grab release. Ness's and Lucas's unusually long ground release animation allows Marth to regrab or set up a KO move at high percentages.
• A large amount of characters hard counter Ganondorf. Among the worst matchups in all theSuper Smash Bros. games is the Ice Climbers versus Ganondorf, usually considered to be at least 90-10 in the Ice Climbers' favor, as Ganondorf does not have enough reach or fast enough attacks to avoid being shield grabbed and infinite chain thrown to a KO, while lacking the mobility to avoid being grabbed nor the ability to get through the Ice Climbers' zoning, and the fact thatFlame Choke is made completely ineffective by the Ice Climbers' 2-in-1 gimmick.

Super Smash Bros. 4[edit]

• Meta Knight hard countersRosalina, due to the ease at which his fast and high base knockback moves can eliminateLuma, and his ladder combos being extremely effective against Rosalina. Her large size and floatiness make it very difficult, if not impossible, to escape them, and she gets KO'd by said combos at very early percents due to her light weight. Meta Knight can start these ladder combos just by landing his very fast and large range dash attack.
• Zero Suit Samus is considered to hard counter all large heavyweight characters, due to their large size and weight making it very difficult for them to escape her very punishing juggles and ladder combos, and their size making it impossible for them toSDI out ofBoost Kick. These attributes lead to them sustaining even more damage than usual when punished, while still getting KO'd at rather early percents, nullifying their main advantage of being able to live a lot longer and abuserage to get early KOs. Additionally, most large heavyweights have poor neutral games, making them unable to exploit Zero Suit Samus's primary weakness of having a weaker neutral herself.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

• Villager hard countersPiranha Plant, aspocketedPtooie is absurdly strong, rendering Piranha Plant's best neutral tool very risky to use. This forces Piranha Plant to try and rush Villager down with its mediocre mobility and lackluster approach options. Villager'sforward smash is also an incredibly efficientEdgeguarding tool against Piranha Plant's linearrecovery.
• Olimar is usually agreed upon to be a hard counter toSamus by completely blocking Samus'Charge Shot, on which she relies heavily to fuction, with hisPikmin, making the neutral game extremely skewed in his favor, as Samus does not have enough options to be able to approach nor zone Olimar when her neutral special is neutered. This is also the case againstDuck Hunt, who has three different specials which block Charge Shot inTrick Shot,Clay Shooting andWild Gunman.
• Sonic hard countersKazuya, due to Sonic being too fast, in addition to having access to bothSpin Dash andSpin Charge, making Sonic near impossible for Kazuya to land a Grab orElectric Wind God Fist, and the Neutral Game being heavily favoured towards Sonic. Even when Kazuya managed to hit Sonic in return, Sonic is very hard for Kazuya to combo orzero-to-death due to having a weird hurtbox and a frame 2Air dodge.

Soft counters[edit]

Asoft counter indicates a matchup that favors one character noticeably, but only slightly. What makes a character a soft counter, as well as the difference between a hard and soft counter, is somewhat subjective. The main qualifier for a character to be a soft counter is the circumstances in which they excel being more niche or otherwise less effective. In terms of numbers, soft counters are usually 55-45 or 60-40 matchups. InMelee for instance,Fox can be said to soft counterSheik, though victory while playing as Fox is far from guaranteed. InBrawl,Snake can be said to be a soft counter toDiddy Kong, though only if the Snake player has close to perfectspacing. These matchups also tend to change depending on the stage. As with theMeta Knight versus Snake matchup, it is routinely said that Meta Knight only has a slight advantage onHalberd due to its low ceiling, while Meta Knight has a large advantage onBrinstar due to the aerial based fighting it supports. Regarding matchups in whichMarth soft counters his opponent, many of these matchups are more in his favor onBattlefield. Most soft counters are defined as being soft counters on thestarter stages, as there is usually a slightly greater chance of the advantageous character winning on the starter stage.

Examples of soft counters in theSuper Smash Bros. games[edit]

• The majority of matchups inSuper Smash Bros. are soft counters outside the examples said above. This is due to the very heavycombo game and easy-accesszero-to-deaths in the game.

• Many high tier versus high tier matchups inMelee are soft counters, includingSheik againstFalco andPikachu againstYoshi.

• InBrawl, soft counters tend to be influenced by the stage they are played on.King Dedede is usually said to soft counter Snake, but this may change on stages where Snake can more easily avoid chain throws or suffer less damage from them.

• Most matchups are heavily disputed one way or another inSmash 4 among higher tier characters, though some generally agreed upon soft counters includeSonic beatingMario andDiddy Kong beatingZero Suit Samus.

• InUltimate, due to the number of characters and matchups, the balancing being usually considered better and the community being the largest out of anySuper Smash Bros. game, most soft counters are heavily debated, and universally agreed upon soft counters are rare.

See also[edit]

• Character matchups (SSB)
• Character matchups (DSB)
• Character matchups (SSBM)
• Character matchups (SSBB)

• Terms
• Competitive play