Wolf is one of three Star Fox characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unfortunately, he didn’t appear in Super Smash Bros. 4, so his amiibo figure wasn’t released until fairly recently. Somehow, Wolf suffers from even smaller tournament representation than Fox and Falco, despite his comparable position on our tier list. We aren’t really sure why Wolf isn’t getting the representation he so deserves, but we do know this: he’s a strong contender with lots of potential. If you’d like to learn more about Wolf’s metagame history, you can do so over at his corresponding wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!

Spirits

If you’re planning to equip your Wolf amiibo with a Spirit team, you should do so before you start saving training data to it. Then, once it’s been equipped with its finalized stats and bonuses, you can start playing matches against it! We’ve also got an in-depth Spirits guide available in case you want to learn more about how they work in this game. Of course, if you don’t want to give your FP a Spirit team, you can skip ahead to the next section instead. For now, here’s a bunch of bonuses that work well on Wolf:

• Banned bonuses: Super Armor is great on Wolf! He’s got loads of firepower throughout his moveset, but some of his attacks are a tad sluggish, so that extra knockback resistance can come in handy. As usual, Armor Knight is another solid choice, especially when paired alongside Trade-Off Ability ↑ for loads of extra stat enhancements.
• Tournament-legal bonuses: To those of you looking to enter a tournament that follows our ban list, pick three from the following list: Physical Attack ↑ (applied either once or twice), Air Defense ↑, Critical-Health Stats ↑, Shield Durability, or Critical Immunity.
• Raid Boss bonuses: Physical Attack ↑, Strong Throw, and especially Move Speed ↑ are useful on a Raid Boss Wolf FP. Feel free to experiment with more niche options as well, including Instadrop, Landing Lag ↓, Floaty Jumps, or Hothead Equipped.

Regarding stat points, you can either go balanced (2100 / 2100) or lean more heavily into attack power (2500 / 1700). Make sure the FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral before you move on; that way it won’t lose Spirit-type matchups in games it plays after its training is complete.

Competitive Training

Wolf’s optimal competitive playstyle includes a mixture of walking, parrying, shield flickering, and staying on-stage at all times. This means you should never dash or jump (other than to recover) during the matches you play. For the best possible result, fight your Wolf amiibo while playing as Wolf, and do so on Ω- or Battlefield-form stages. Below is a list of attacks you should use against your FP. When it reaches Level 20 – give or take a few levels – you should start purposefully getting hit by attacks you want it to use later.

• Wolf’s forward tilt is among the strongest in the game. Use it against your FP at close range — just walk up and attack! Neutral attack can be mixed in at close range as well. Fun fact: even though Wolf has four fingers, his forward tilt shows three claw trails instead of four.
• Blaster is one of the best projectiles any FP has access to. It single-handedly invalidates a large portion of the cast, making it vital to Wolf’s success. When attacking with Blaster, only do so from a distance.
• Up smash is incredibly strong when used after a parry and can then be used to juggle. Up tilt and up air can be used to extend juggling combos, but are generally inferior to up smash’s perfect blend of speed and strength.
• Down smash’s extreme power and speed make it a great option. When your FP is launched off-stage, walk up to the ledge and try to intercept its recovery with a well-timed down smash. You could also use down smash as a neutral option after a parry or to intercept a roll. Forward smash can be used sparingly as well.
• Wolf boasts a versatile grab game! He can combo his down throw into a dash attack at low to mid percentages, or he can instead opt to use an up throw to start an up air juggle. At high percentages, his back throw can KO lightweight opponents, and his forward throw sends enemies at a favorable angle — especially when used near the edge.
• Neutral air can be used to secure a safe landing. Forward air, down air, and back air serve this purpose too. When your FP grabs the ledge, you can try and read its getup jump with a full hop back aerial. If it works out, the resulting attack is really strong!

There are four moves you should avoid at all costs: down tilt, Wolf Flash, Fire Wolf, and Reflector. In the case of Wolf Flash and Fire Wolf, you should only ever use them to assist your recovery. As a reminder, you should remain on-stage at all times, as Wolf’s recovery is far too exploitable to be worth taking a risk. If you want to learn even more about competitive amiibo training, feel free to read our general guide whenever you’ve got a spare moment.

Raid Boss Training

Raising a competitive Wolf amiibo can be tough, as trainers are required to exercise restraint. No running, no jumping, and no off-stage is the optimal playstyle, and it’s sometimes difficult to follow those rules at all times. If you’re training a Raid Boss, good news: you’re welcome to run and jump around as often as you’d like! You should still stay on-stage while training, as Wolf’s recovery is extremely vulnerable. You can choose to either play stock or timed matches to level up your FP. As you fight, use the following moves:

• Neutral attack is one of Wolf’s fastest moves, and it deals decent damage to boot. You can use this after a parry or when your FP gets too close. Forward tilt can be mixed in at close range too!
• Down tilt is much more useful on a Raid Boss than it is on a competitive-trained FP. It’s fast and can KO at high percentages; additionally, it has a chance to trip opponents!
• Be sure to grab and throw your FP frequently during training. At low percentages, you can combo a down throw into a dash attack. At medium percentages, switch over to up throw into up air combos. At high percentages, try and KO with back throws!
• Up tilt, up air, and up smash are strong juggling tools. Up smash is strong out of shield as well, and this is thanks to its surprisingly wide horizontal range. If you happen to use an up smash against your FP while it’s at a low damage percentage, you can move in and rack on additional damage with repeated up airs.
• Forward air and back air can be used for general poking and damage-racking, and then neutral air is your go-to landing move.
• Blaster is a bit risky to teach a Raid Boss. If you use Blaster too many times, the AI will learn to use it even at close range, which can spell doom if the opponent jumps over the projectile and intercepts with a tilt or aerial. Use a tiny bit of Blaster from afar, and don’t worry about attacking with the bayonet’s hitbox.
• Forward smash, down smash, and Reflector can be sprinkled in as well. With Reflector, you’re welcome to use it for a brief moment as a close-up attack. At later levels, you can also use it to reflect your FP’s Blaster projectiles.

Steer clear of Wolf Flash and Fire Wolf at all costs! Don’t try to get flashy with off-stage Wolf Flash meteor smashes; FPs don’t like doing risky things like that, plus the attack rarely connects. It’s okay to use Wolf Flash and Fire Wolf to recover — just don’t use them offensively.

Wrap-Up

Thanks so much for reading! Compared to some other fighters, Wolf’s optimal training strategy actually includes a good portion of his moveset. That’s a nice change of pace compared to characters like Shulk or Marth, isn’t it? As always, if you have any questions that weren’t answered here, feel free to join our Discord server to ask as many questions as you want. If you want to learn how to participate in online tournaments, please read our tour setup guide. Finally, we appreciate donations to keep the site up and running, and we’ve also got a Patreon page you can take a look at when you have a spare moment. Until next time — happy training!

If you would like to read more amiibo training guides, please follow this link.

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