Bayonetta’s life has been spiraling out of control since the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018. Not only is she no longer top-tier, but she’s also actually considered one of the worst fighters in competitive amiibo training. How unfortunate! That being said, players who clearly remember the Smash 4 days might argue that she’s deserved a low ranking all along. If you’d like to read up on Bayonetta’s metagame history, you can do just that over at her wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!

Spirits

If you’d like to equip your FP with a Spirit team, you should do so at Level 1 — in other words, before you start training it. If your Bayonetta amiibo is already Level 50, feel free to equip it with stats and bonuses anyway. You can then utilize the next section’s training tips to hone its skills! We’ve also got an in-depth Spirits guide if you want to learn more about how they work in this game. In the meantime, here are all of Bayonetta’s best setups:

• Banned bonuses: You can never go wrong with Armor Knight plus Move Speed ↑. This build blesses the Umbra Witch with additional defense and attack power! You can obtain Armor Knight from the Halberd Support Spirit, which in turn can randomly appear in Funky Kong’s shop.
  
• Tournament-legal bonuses: You can’t go wrong with power boosters, either, and Physical Attack ↑ is the perfect fit. Fist Attack ↑ and Foot Attack ↑ aren’t perfect fits, as Bayonetta’s physical moves are almost evenly split between the two. Instead, you could run a second Physical Attack ↑ Support skill for maximum power. Critical-Health Stats ↑, Critical-Health Healing ↑, and Critical-Health Healing ↑↑ are well worth considering as well. Feel free to mix and match!
• Raid Boss bonuses: If you’re planning on taking the Raid Boss route, use a setup including Physical Attack ↑, Move Speed ↑, and Landing Lag ↓. You’re also welcome to experiment with Instadrop in addition to all of the Spirit effects we discussed above.

Regarding stat distributions, they don’t matter too much. Bayonetta’s versatile; she can use a balanced build (2100 / 2100), an offensive one (2500 / 1700), or a defensive one (1700 / 2500). Make sure your FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral before you begin its training routine!

Competitive Training

Bayonetta’s best playstyle involves walking, parrying, and avoiding off-stage confrontations at all costs. Be sure to follow all of these rules during your training sessions! For an optimal recovery, Bayonetta is supposed to use Witch Twist, her midair jump, and then a second Witch Twist to gain the maximum vertical distance. Frustratingly, her AI consistently fails to use one of the necessary Witch Twists while recovering, and instead goes for an instant double jump into just one up special. This means her recovery is sometimes worse than Little Mac’s, and that’s why she has to avoid going off-stage. Here are all of her moves that you should focus on, listed in descending order of priority:

• From a distance, attack with Heel Slide. Follow up with an up tilt and then a grounded Witch Twist — but don’t continue the combo any further. By doing this, we’re teaching the FP to start using its hard-coded combo trees at later levels.
• When your FP has taken medium damage, start using forward smash and dash attack. Try to space these moves so that the very tips of the attacks hit! At close range, you can use down tilt and then follow up with a down smash (or, more rarely, an up smash). Mix in lots of grabs, too — and use any throw you want afterward.
• There are a few other moves you should use as well. When your FP is right next to you, hit it with a rapid jab every so often. You can use up tilt and grounded Witch Twist as anti-airs, and when you’re launched upward, you can use up air or back air to land. Be sure to use a few aerial Witch Times while you’re at it!

As you can tell, an optimal Bayonetta FP uses a decent chunk of its moveset! There are just two additional notes to keep in mind during your training sessions. First, don’t use down air — the AI has a chance of randomly calling on this move in the middle of a combo instead of another aerial which would have continued the string. Second, try your best to recover above the ledge whenever possible. Though Bayonetta’s AI does mess up its recovery a fair bit, training it to target above the ledge gives it a higher chance of utilizing both its jump and two Witch Twists.

With this moveset spread, your Bayonetta amiibo will be split between combo starters and kill moves. Figure Players can’t tell what percentage their opponent is at, so you need to teach them to use both of these kinds of moves at all times. Neither of these attack type can beat opponents who parry a lot, though, which is why we place a focus on grabs at close range. In this game, Figure Players often use an aerial attack as soon as they can act after being launched — by teaching Bayonetta to use aerial Witch Time, she can take advantage of this AI flaw.

Raid Boss Training

If you’d rather train a Raid Boss Bayonetta amiibo instead, that’s no problem! You’re welcome to dash and jump around as often as you’d like. As stated in the previous section, Bayonetta’s ladder combos are hard-coded, which means the AI will automatically learn them by the time it reaches Level 43. Just make sure to use Heel Slide – the combo’s “activating move” – and you’ll be all set. Here is a complete list of all the attacks you should focus on:

• Up tilt, neutral attack, and down tilt are to be used up close. Down tilt can combo into a forward air or Witch Twist, and a Witch Twist can kickstart one of Bayonetta’s signature ladder combos!
• From a distance, you can use a dash attack or Heel Slide to approach. Don’t use Heel Slide too often; Bayonetta FPs that use too much of it become predictable and easy to punish.
• Bayonetta’s grabs are nothing special, but they’re essentially required on her Raid Boss variant. Forward throw is generally your best option here!
• Back air is one of the Umbra Witch’s only reliable kill moves. Use it out of a short hop or full hop for maximum power. You can also mix in some up airs as combo extenders.
• Forward smash and up smash are quite slow and have low priority, but they’re a necessary evil. This character has trouble KOing, and thus needs just a sprinkle of smash attacks to help mitigate that flaw.

Bayonetta’s AI cannot properly recover, so make sure to avoid edgeguarding off-stage at all costs. The character is supposed to use Witch Twist, a midair jump, and then another Witch Twist, but the AI often skips that first Witch Twist and misses out on valuable vertical distance. Instead, charge up a neutral special at the ledge — you can also go for an uncharged down smash.

Wrap-Up

Bayonetta is an unfortunate case. She’s almost completely outclassed and / or eclipsed by every other Figure Player in the game. Still, if you’re a fan of the character, you may as well give her training routine a chance. Just prepare to be frustrated. If you have any questions, feel free to join our Discord community and ask! If you’re thinking of making the bold choice to enter Bayonetta into a tournament, you can check out our tourney preparation guide. We also appreciate donations to help keep the site up and running. Thanks so much for reading! Until next time — happy training!

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

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