Super Smash Bros. 4’s amiibo metagame had a lot of problems. There was no learn toggle, the AI couldn’t taunt, and – most of all – you couldn’t use FPs online in any way. Then Datel came to the rescue with the revolutionary amiibo Powersaves device, which paved the way for online tournaments and helped build the metagame we all know (and hate) to this day! Powersaves work for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well, and you can use them to download a copy of your amiibo figure’s backup file to send to tourneys. Though today’s guide will be targeting Powersaves usage for Ultimate, we’ll be talking about its functions for the previous title as well.
Setup
For step one, you’re going to need an amiibo Powersaves. They generally go for about $15 USD and can be found through GameStop for the best price. The actual device appears as a rectangular tile; after plugging it into your PC via USB, you can place an amiibo figure on the base to activate its functions. From there, you can back up the file, and you can then send that file to a tournament host. How convenient! To be clear, you’ll be needing access to a PC to be able to do this. If all you have is a mobile phone, you can check out our mobile backup guides instead.
Once you’ve obtained your amiibo Powersaves device, you can download its instruction manual right here. All of its basic functions are detailed in the manual, but we’ll explain them here as well! For now, let’s continue with the setup. You’ll also need to download the Powersaves software, and you can find the link for that here. Extract the .zip file, install the program, and then open up the application. Connect the base to the PC with the USB cable and you should be good to go! If you have any further questions (or if something isn’t working as expected), you can check the instruction manual listed above.
Backup & Restore
The primary function of amiibo Powersaves is to create backup files of your fully-trained amiibo figures. Within each figurine’s base is an NFC chip that contains all of its training data. Using Powersaves, you can save this training data as a .bin file, which you can then send through a direct message or email to a tournament host.
Let’s assume your Powersaves devices is all plugged in and ready to go. Place your amiibo on the tile, and the software screen should change. If you placed a Smash 4 amiibo figure on the base, the software should pop up with “SSB – (Character Name)”. If you placed a Smash Ultimate amiibo on the base, it’ll just say “AMIIBO”, and this is because the software was never updated to recognize characters introduced in this game. Don’t worry, though — you can still back up its file. The software just won’t display the character’s name, is all.
As you might imagine, the blue Backup button lets you create a backup of your amiibo figure. It’ll prompt you to type in a name for the new file, so put in whatever you want and it’ll save the .bin file under that name. By default, these files are saved in C://Users/(Your Username)/Powersaves for AMIIBO. If you want to enter a tournament on our Discord server, all you have to do is take that .bin file and send it to the tournament host via an email or direct message. Be sure to read each tournament’s rules so you know exactly where to submit your entry!
You can also restore backups to your amiibo. Want to retrain your FP? Make a backup, and then reset it. If you’re not happy with your new training, you can just restore the file you have saved earlier. Keep in mind: if you have two different Mario amiibo (for example), you can’t freely restore their backups to each other. This requires something called a brain transplant, and the Android-exclusive TagMo app is actually capable of doing this! Additionally, backing up the files of characters with punctuation in their names (including Mr. Game & Watch and Dr. Mario) might give you some trouble. Specifically, when you go to restore one of their backups, you might not see any that you can restore. Change their file names from “SSB_-_Dr. _Mario_(numbers)” to “AMIIBO_(numbers)” and they should work for you just fine. If you need any help restoring backups, join our community and we can help you out!
Cheats & Power Tag
At the time of writing, amiibo Powersaves’ cheats have not been updated since the release of the Cloud, Corrin, and Bayonetta amiibo in 2017. If for some reason you’re still playing Super Smash Bros. 4 (and using our guides), you can use Powersaves to give your FP stat points and bonus effects in the blink of an eye! You can’t use Powersaves to directly add Spirits to a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate FP, but you can upload a .bin file to the SubmissionApp Spirits editor instead, which works just as well! Please note that editing equipment or Spirits onto an FP doesn’t give it an inherent advantage. It’s just a shortcut that helps reduce the amount of farming you’ll need to do. As a side note, Powersaves natively includes cheats for non-Smash games as well, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Most amiibo Powersaves come with a tiny disc called a Power Tag, which you can think of as a blank amiibo figure. You can load any .bin file to this Power Tag and then scan it onto your Wii U or Nintendo Switch as if it were a genuine figurine. There’s no way for the console to tell if the amiibo you’re using is from a Power Tag or not — no worries! You can also use Power Tags to host your own tournaments, and you can accept submissions over on our Discord server. Then load the files to the Power Tag one at a time, and have them fight each other as if you actually had the trainers’ amiibo figures! How cool is that?!
File Editing
Once you’ve obtained your amiibo’s .bin file, there are several things you can do with it! As mentioned earlier, the SubmissionApp Spirits editor lets trainers zap their Figure Players with any combination of Spirits they want — without changing their training data in the process. There’s also the Amiibots system, which takes your training file and automatically ranks it against other competitive FPs. It’ll even assign your amiibo a win rate and a rating depending on its performance!
With that, that’s everything you need to know about amiibo Powersaves and how to use them. Here’s a quick recap: for Super Smash Bros. 4, you can backup, restore, and choose stats and bonuses to give to your FP. For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, you can only backup or restore its file, though you can also use external editors to change its Spirits or training data. As you can see, amiibo Powersaves have been a real help to our little scene, as they’ve allowed us to host online tournaments for over five years. Exion isn’t sponsored by Datel, although we wish we were. Call us.
If you would like to read more amiibo training guides, please follow this link.
