Spirit


 * For a complete list of spirits, see the List of spirits article.

Spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are characters that have lost their physical forms, and act as collectible power-ups that can be equipped to fighters to grant them increased strength and special abilities in battle. They are featured prominently in the game's Adventure mode, World of Light, where most characters except for the playable fighters themselves are reduced to this form through disintegration from Galeem's attack. Spirits consist of characters, creatures, and objects from various Nintendo and third-party video games. They are similar to the stickers from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the equipment from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and also replace trophies from earlier installments.

The main method to obtain spirits is through spirit battles, in which players fight a CPU-controlled puppet fighter containing a specific spirit. The conditions, stage and music track for each spirit battle, as well as the fighter(s) fought during the spirit battle, usually reflect the character of the spirit. Four types of spirits can be obtained: fighter, primary, support and master. Fighter spirits are spirits that cannot be equipped and lack corresponding spirit battles, but simply serve to represent the playable characters, and are obtained either by clearing Classic Mode with them or buying the spirits in the Vault Shop. A number of characters' alternate costumes (such as female Robin) also have separate fighter spirits, which can only be obtained by purchasing them in the Vault Shop. Primary and support spirits are divided into four classes of power, each represented by a star rating: Novice (one star), Advanced (two stars), Ace (three stars), and Legend (four stars).

Primary spirits have one of four strength types which determine how powerful they are against other spirits: red, limegreen, dodgerblue, and neutral, with attack being strong against grab, grab against shield, shield against attack, and neutral having no advantage or disadvantage against the other three. Support spirits may be equipped in addition to primary spirits and grant the fighter special skills, such as increased jumping, or equipping them with a specific item. Each primary spirit has a set amount of support slots from zero to three, and each support spirit takes up a set amount of these slots when equipped, with support spirits that grant more powerful abilities generally taking up more slots; no additional support spirits can be equipped if the primary spirit's support slots are already full, unless one of the support spirits that is already equipped is removed, and primary spirits that have no support slots cannot have any support spirits equipped to them. Many primary spirits also give skills to the fighter, and equipping more than one spirit with the same skill will stack its effect.

Master spirits are an unequippable type of spirit, appearing in the World of Light. Their strength in spirit battles is always neutral. After they are defeated, they unlock one of three activities – Gym (of which there is only one, Doc Louis), Dojo, or Explore – or a shop in Shopping. In the Gym, the player can leave up to four primary spirits to have them gain experience points and level up overtime. In the Dojo, up to four primary spirits can be left to learn special styles that increase some stats while weakening others (or, in the case of Slowpoke, forget styles they have already learned). This process can be accelerated by paying Spirit Points. In Explore, the player can send up to four primary and/or support spirits to the Ruins, Caves, or Jungle to search for treasure. The expedition lasts for multiple real-time hours (with the amount depending on the location explored). Upon its completion, the player receives rewards (including Spirit Points, coins, and inventory items), with each location having a certain type of reward that is more likely to be earned, and any primary spirits sent on the expedition also gain experience points. The expedition can be canceled at any time prior to its completion, which yields fewer rewards than waiting for the expedition to be complete does, though more rewards are earned the closer the expedition was to completion at the time of its cancellation. After returning from activities, spirits temporarily become exhausted, which prevents them from participating in additional activities until their exhaustion wears off. Spirits left at any of the three activities are unusable until they are finished. In Shopping, the player can use Spirit Points to purchase inventory items, Skill Spheres, and other spirits. Each store has a high likelihood of selling a specific type of spirit; for example, in Anna's shop, known as Anna's Emporium, there is a greater chance of spirits with equipment appearing. Spirits are also occasionally sold at a discount.

Beating a spirit battle within the Adventure mode instantly gifts the spirit to the player. In the Spirit Board, however, after beating a puppet fighter, the next screen shows the fighter under a dark sky dazed and surrounded by a round, spinning shield, where the player has a chance to obtain the spirit by firing a gun through the opening of the shield. If the player times the shot correctly, the dark sky clears and the spirit is acquired. If the player hits any part of the shield, it is broken off and they do not win the spirit, though the damage carries over to the next battle. The shield rotates faster the higher rank the spirit is. If the player fails, but has enough Spirit Points, the player can spend some Spirit Points for a retry, with higher-ranked spirits requiring more Spirit Points per retry. Only one retry per spirit battle is possible. Players can also use two types of items to aid hitting the puppet fighter should they have any, of which only one of each may be used per spirit battle, though they can stack with each other: Shield Spacer and Sluggish Shield. Shield Spacer removes a portion of the shield, while Sluggish Shield slows the shield's movement.

Primary spirits start at level one but can level up (causing their power to increase) by earning experience points, which they can obtain after participating in battles (earning more if they won than if they lost) or after being fed snacks, which are gained through various means including but not limited to winning a spirit battle or purchasing them through shops, though feeding spirits snacks does cost some Spirit Points. Snacks come in three different sizes: small, medium, and large. Larger sizes grant more experience points than smaller sizes do, but cost more Spirit Points to use. Snacks can also be sold to gain Spirit Points. The maximum level for spirits is level 99. However, certain spirits can be enhanced after reaching level 99, causing them to transform into a stronger primary spirit with a higher rank and a special attribute, but resetting the spirit to level 1. Spirits that can be enhanced have a silver border next to their type icon, which turns gold if the spirit is enhanced.

Spirits can also be dismissed, which causes the player to lose that spirit; however, they gain the spirit's core. Cores are divided into five categories to match the spirits they originated from: attack, shield, grab, neutral and support. Cores can be combined to obtain new spirits by summoning them, with each spirit that can be summoned having a different combination of cores from specific spirits and/or of specific types that is required to summon them. Some spirits can only be obtained by summoning them. Cores can also be fed to primary spirits like snacks to grant them experience points, with more experience points being gained if spirits are fed cores that match their type. Like snacks, cores cost some Spirit Points to use in this way, but can also be sold to gain Spirit Points.

Spirits can also be used on figure players from amiibo, which causes the figure player to gain stat boosts and potentially special attributes depending on the spirit. Spirits used in this way are lost, but their cores are gained as they would be if they were dismissed. Certain amiibo, mostly those that are not fighters, can be used to obtain a spirit corresponding to that amiibo (though only one spirit per amiibo can be obtained in this way).

Some spirits can also be obtained by completing in-game challenges (these do not appear on the Spirit Board until they have been obtained from challenges) or bought in shops (either the Vault Shop or one of the five shops unlocked throughout the World of Light). Having already obtained a spirit does not prevent it from appearing on the Spirit Board or in any of the shops.

Spirits can be used in spirit battles and in World of Light; additionally, they can be used in offline matches or online battle arenas if the spirits option in the rules is enabled. Created spirit teams can be saved for quicker access.

Trivia

 * In version 1.0.0 of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the spirit list featured a number of differences from the other versions:
 * King Boo, the 49th spirit, was listed as the 121st spirit, next to the rest of the Luigi's Mansion-series spirits.
 * Fishman was named "Merman" (this was also the name for the spirit shown in the World of Light trailer).
 * The  opponent spirits (except ) were ordered differently (from spirit numbers 936-945: Von Kaiser,, , Bear Hugger, , Don Flamenco, Soda Popinski, , Super Macho Man, and Mr. Sandman).
 * The Super Smash Bros. Melee event match "Bomb-fest" utilizes conditions very similar to those used in Spirit Battles.