The following is an archived post from the Amiibo Dojo. It has been uploaded to the Exion Vault for referential purposes and retains its original publication date; some of the post’s links may not function currently or exist at all.
Good afternoon! Before you ask, yes, I am still working on some guides. Mega Man’s guide, at the time of writing, is currently in development. However, it’s come to my attention that I’ve been getting a lot of emails from readers. They aren’t having trouble with any amiibo, though. They’re asking me which amiibo I recommend them get based on ability. I originally wasn’t going to do this article, but I’ve gotten so many emails about it that I figured I might as well! Let’s get started, then.
There’s a whole lot of factors in choosing amiibo – how nice the figure looks, its performance in-game, and even who the character is. For this article, though, I’m going to focus on the five best-performing amiibo.
Let’s start with unequipped amiibo. Unequipped amiibo, as you may or may not know, are my strong suit – I rarely ever feed my amiibo, and when I do, I end up resetting them because I feel like they’re not anywhere near as manageable. The following list is going to assume that your amiibo has no bonuses, nor stats (but custom moves are included).
#1: Ness. I’m heavily biased towards EarthBound, seeing as it’s one of my favorite games, but Ness is one of, if not the best amiibo. He’s slightly weaker if he’s fighting against a human (due to the fact that human players will go off-stage to absorb his PK Thunder, while amiibo would never do that), but he’s godly versus other amiibo. Ness is also highly adaptable, meaning if he’s put in a situation he’s unfamiliar with, he can adapt very quickly. Let me give you an example – I recently bought a Little Mac amiibo and fed it so that its Attack would be maxed out. I then gave it the hyper smash attack bonus, and a few others – it was designed to break shields. Ness, who is unequipped, had his shield broken, and he died – but from then on, he only perfect shielded and he adapted very quickly – and somehow won. Overall, Ness is just an incredible amiibo. If you don’t feed your amiibo and want a balanced amiibo ready for any situation, Ness is the one for you. Need a training guide for him? See here! (note: link defunct)
#2: Shulk. I’m also slightly biased towards Xenoblade Chronicles, but Shulk is also an incredible amiibo. Ness and Shulk are just about even in performance – the only thing that made me put him at #2 was that his attacks are sort of laggy (which doesn’t really matter for an amiibo). He’s proficient with his Monado Arts, he can space himself and approach opponents fantastically…aside from those laggy moves, he’s just about perfect. If you’re interested in training a Shulk, check this guide out! (note: link defunct)
#3: Little Mac. After buying that Little Mac amiibo I mentioned earlier and having it equipped to go full-shieldbreaker, I reset it and trained it without any equipment, and I was surprised that he was still quite good. This amiibo is pretty much perfect as well – it does randomly Up B sometimes, but that’s only a minor flaw. Like I said, the amiibo is pretty much perfect – at least, its AI is, but Little Mac’s character design…isn’t. His recovery is the second worst in the game and his aerial game is essentially nonexistent. Oh, but Little Mac’s definitely #1 with equipment turned on. I also have a Little Mac training guide here, if you’re interested (note: link defunct)
#4: Mario. The most common amiibo on the list is also quite powerful. He’s simply overwhelming to a lot of amiibo. Between his smash attacks and his good aerial game, it’s hard for amiibo to stomach his powerful blows. He’s also quite easy to train, so if you’re looking for a simple training guide to use, see here! (note: link defunct)
#5: Bowser. Bowser’s in the same boat as Shulk…except without the fancy sword. He’s powerful, but with laggy attacks. Luckily, for an amiibo, that doesn’t really matter – amiibo can learn to attack you in such a way that they can recover from the move’s cooldown before you can counterattack. Bowser’s side B, Flying Slam, is also very powerful – it’s quick, and has almost no lag across the board. If you’re looking to train Bowser, check out this guide! (note: link defunct)
So those are who I believe to be the top 5 amiibo, at least when unequipped. The list definitely changes when you feed amiibo, though. Coincidentally, Amiibo Trainer (note: link defunct) also released a podcast about the 3 best amiibo today. That site focuses on feeding amiibo, so if you’re interested in learning the top 3 most powerful amiibo when equipment is thrown into the mix, you can check that out by following this link (note: link defunct). As always, thanks for reading – if you’ve got any questions, comments, or training issues you want fixed, email me at amiibocloud@gmail.com! See you tonight with the Mega Man guide!