Most of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s newcomers are well-represented in competitive amiibo training. In fact, King K. Rool and Incineroar are among the most common fighters in unrestricted tournament brackets! Then we have Simon and Richter, who are undoubtedly the least represented of any newcomer introduced in this game. Still, the two have a great deal of potential, and we’ve got some top-tier training strategies for those of you wanting to raise yours to a whole new level. If you’d like to learn more about Richter’s metagame history, you can do so at his wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!
Special thanks to jozz for contributing Richter’s training information!
Spirits
Some amiibo trainers prefer to give their FPs a strong Spirit team — either to send it to a Spirits tournament or to equip it as a Raid Boss. Whichever the case may be, if you’d like to give your FP some Spirits, do so before you even start training it. If you want to learn more about why this is, we have an in-depth Spirits guide that covers everything you need to know about them. In the meantime, here are some bonus setups that work well for Richter:
- Banned bonuses: Super Armor works incredibly well on Richter, as he greatly appreciates being able to fire off his strong and long-ranged attacks without flinching. Armor Knight is another solid choice that can be paired with Trade-Off Ability ↑ to great effect.
- Tournament-legal bonuses: If you want to enter a Spirits tourney that follows our ban suggestions, pick any three from the following list of Spirit effects: Weapon Attack ↑ (applied either once or twice), Floaty Jumps, Air Defense ↑, Move Speed ↑, or Trade-Off Ability ↑.
- Raid Boss bonuses: The aforementioned Super Armor Spirit effect works well on a Raid Boss Richter FP. Great Autoheal works here too! If you’d prefer to use a different build instead, try Weapon Attack ↑, Move Speed ↑, and Landing Lag ↓.
Richter’s stat distribution can either be kept balanced (2100 / 2100) or defensive (1700 / 2500). The latter’s extra defense investment will help reduce the likelihood that Richter is launched off-stage, where he’s most vulnerable. One last thing here, then — make sure your FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral so it doesn’t have to worry about Spirit-type matchups after its training is complete.
Competitive Training
Compared to other FPs, Richter uses a relatively small portion of his moveset. This should make training him somewhat easy. As you level up your FP, don’t run or go off-stage. Even with access to two potential tether recoveries, Richter is left far too vulnerable to risk leaving the stage to edgeguard his opponents. Remain grounded whenever possible, and only use aerials if your FP launches you upward — in other words, don’t go out of your way to use them. Here’s a full list of attacks you should go out of your way to use:
- Forward tilt should be your primary damage-racker. It’s respectably strong and fairly quick. Use it at close range!
- Cross should be fired from afar to rack on damage. Be sure to use the smash-input version of the move to get extra distance and power.
- Down smash is best used on-stage at the ledge to intercept your FP as it tries to recover. Don’t be tempted to throw an Axe off the stage in this instance — just stick to down smash for the best possible result.
- Dash attack is a solid approach tool. When using this move, burst into a dash for a moment, press the attack button, and then go right back to walking.
- Up tilt is your primary anti-air. Richter’s up smash has rather pitiful horizontal coverage, so we use up tilt instead because it covers a wider range. This move links into itself a few times at low percentages and can KO at high percentages.
- Forward smash should only be used when you’re in a position where the very tip of the whip will connect. If your FP isn’t in range of a tipped forward smash, use a different move instead — such as forward tilt or Cross.
- Neutral aerial is Richter’s primary landing option. Teach your FP this move by using it whenever you fall from the respawn platform after being KO’d (which most likely won’t happen until later levels).
There are just two moves to avoid here, but they’re important ones. Don’t use down air or Axe at all as you train your FP. In the case of the former, the AI often uses it off-stage and self-destructs. In the case of the latter, the AI rarely spaces the projectile and winds up leaving itself vulnerable instead. As a side note, if you’d like to learn more about amiibo training, please read our general guide whenever you’ve got a spare moment!
Raid Boss Training
Now then, time to start training! If you’d like, you can equip yourself with a Spirit team to make this process easier. FPs can’t tell if you’re using Spirits or not, so don’t worry: they won’t notice that you’re “cheating”. In terms of the actual training, you can play as either Simon or Richter on Ω- or Battlefield-form stages. Since you’re raising a Raid Boss (as opposed to a competitive FP for tournaments), you’re free to dash and jump around as often as you’d want! Stay on-stage at all times and use the following attacks against your FP as it levels up:
- Forward tilt is Richter’s best friend, regardless of whether he is being trained for tournaments or as a Raid Boss. Use it at close- or mid-range to rack on damage. More rarely, neutral attack can be used here as well — but only the rapid jab version and not the silly whip twirl.
- Forward air and back air are best used out of short hops or just to land. Richter should never go off-stage, so these moves can only be effectively utilized on-stage as poking tools.
- Mix in some grabs. Richter doesn’t have very impressive throws, but they’re necessary to beat opponents who shield a lot. When grabbing your FP, simply toss it toward the nearest ledge. By the time the AI reaches Level 43, it’ll figure out any potential grab combos on its own.
- Up tilt and up air should be used as anti-airs. Keep in mind that up air’s horizontal coverage is low, so you’ll have to be extra-accurate when using this attack. Neutral air can be used to secure a safe landing. A tiny bit of down tilt and forward smash can be used as well — but these moves should take a backseat to the ones listed above.
You know how you can press the special move button to use a special move? Well, when training Richter, you don’t want to do that. This means you should steer clear of Axe, Cross, Uppercut, and Holy Water. The AI can’t perform cool combos with any of them, so it’s best to take them out of the equation and just focus on Richter’s simpler moves instead. As a reminder, never go off-stage when training this character — his recovery is extremely exploitable.
Wrap-Up
Apologies about our Simon and Richter guides being just about identical — but we suppose it’s fair, given the two fighters are just about identical. At any rate, thanks so much for reading! If you have any questions, you’re welcome to join our Discord server and ask away! If you want to learn how to enter a tournament, you can also look at our tour entry guide for more information. We also appreciate donations and Patreon subscribers if you like what you read today. Until next time — happy training!
If you would like to read more amiibo training guides, please follow this link.
