There are three Links in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — Link, Young Link, and Toon Link, and today we’re covering the coolest of the three. Compared to his two counterparts, Toon Link is sort of middle-of-the-road in that he is neither considered particularly strong nor particularly weak. If you’d like to learn more about the Hero of Winds and his rich metagame history, feel free to read his corresponding wiki page for additional information. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!
Special thanks to Dabuffalo for contributing Toon Link’s training information!
Spirits
Let’s start off with some Spirit recommendations! If you’d like to send your FP to participate in Spirits tournaments (or if you just want to raise a powerful Raid Boss), then we’ve got a bunch of setups here that work well on Toon Link. If you want to learn more about how Spirits work in this game, be sure to read our full guide — or just bookmark it for later! In the meantime, here are some bonus recommendations for Toon Link:
- Banned bonuses: From an objective point of view, Toon Link’s strongest bonus setup is Armor Knight plus Move Speed ↑. With this build, he’ll enjoy a 1.15x attack boost and a 1.8x defense boost. And then Move Speed ↑ adds a speed boost in addition! Do note that most tournaments keep Armor Knight banned due to its incredible power.
- Tournament-legal bonuses: Other options you could use on a competitive FP include Weapon Attack ↑, Weapon Attack ↑ (yes, two of them), Air Defense ↑, Critical-Health Stats ↑, and Shield Durability ↑. You could also try Mouthful of Curry or Critical Healing & Metal if you want!
- Raid Boss bonuses: Generally speaking, Raid Boss FPs should focus on movement-based Spirit effects — this is because they’ll already be much stronger than a human player thanks to their inherent stat boosts. As a result, Weapon Attack ↑, Move Speed ↑, and Landing Lag ↓ is going to be your best build.
Regarding stat distributions, you can either keep your Toon Link’s spread balanced (2100 / 2100) or invest in additional attack points (2500 / 1700). Make sure the FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral so it doesn’t lose Spirit-type matchups if it fights other FPs at some point!
Competitive Training
The rules of competitive amiibo training very much apply to Toon Link as well. As you battle it, you’ll want to keep running, taunting, and charged smash attacks to a minimum. As we’ll soon discuss, Toon Link can actually afford to go off-stage; his recovery is a bit exploitable, but his forward air is just too good to pass up on. At later levels, do your best to be purposefully hit by your FP’s attacks — this will raise its aggression and increase its chance of using the attack it hit you with in the future. Here’s a full list of moves you should use:
- Forward smash is one of Toon Link’s best grounded moves. It’s got great kill power and decent speed, and thus should be used often!
- Forward air is best used exclusively off-stage. It’s incredibly strong when it connects, so do your best to be as accurate as possible with this move.
- Up smash, up air, and up tilt are all great for juggling (in descending order of priority, so up smash is your top priority and up tilt is your lowest priority (you should still use it, though).
- Use Toon Link’s grab to rack on additional damage. At low percentages, you can use up throw to combo into an up air or two. At mid-to-high percentages, you can use a down throw to combo into a back air chain. At high percentages, use a back throw to KO.
- Boomerang is the only projectile that Toon Link’s AI can properly utilize. When you’re far away from your FP, occasionally throw a Boomerang to rack up damage. Don’t use it too often, though — we want the FP to focus on close-ranged combat.
- Mix in some neutral attack, down smash, and Spin Attack infrequently while grounded (and in the case of Spin Attack, out of shield as well) — but prioritize forward smash above all else.
Toon Link is a finicky fellow, so there are quite a few moves you should avoid altogether. These include down tilt, dash attack, grab aerial, down air, Hero’s Bow, and Bomb. The AI often charges Hero’s Bow directly next to an opponent, which leaves it highly vulnerable to incoming attacks. It also tends to blow itself up with its own Bombs. By the way, if you want to learn more about amiibo AI and how it learns, feel free to read our general training guide!
With this moveset, Toon Link will have respectable strength in just about every area — close-quarters, far away, and off-stage! He can rack on damage from afar with his Boomerang before closing in and attacking with a forward smash or grab. Once his opponent is off-stage, he can chase them down and finish them off with a powerful forward aerial.
Raid Boss Training
Raising an amiibo to Level 50 takes a long time. So here’s the plan: play as Toon Link as you fight against your FP, and play on Battlefield- or Ω-form stages in each match. If you’re happy with how your FP is behaving when it reaches Level 30 (give or take a few levels), you can switch its learning off and level it up in the background against CPUs or other FPs. Here are all the moves you should be teaching your Toon Link FP to use:
- Forward tilt and neutral attack should be used at close range. A little bit of forward smash works here too when the FP is at high percentages.
- Up tilt can link into itself a few times. You can then follow up with an up air or up smash! Up smash can also be used immediately after a parry to great effect.
- Neutral air is best used to land. Try forward air out of a full hop or off-stage, though edgeguarding human opponents is always risky for Raid Bosses. Only go off-stage if you’re willing to take that risk.
- For his grab, Toon Link fires off a Hookshot. It’s got decent range, but it’s also rather slow. When your FP is at high percentages, you can grab and KO it with a back throw. Don’t grab too often, as the Hookshot leaves Toon Link vulnerable if it misses.
While training Toon Link, you’ll want to avoid using any of his special moves (other than Spin Attack for recovery purposes only). For one, the AI can’t learn to camp with them; furthermore, because FPs do not save matchup experience, Toon Link will still fire a bunch of projectiles at opponents who could easily reflect them. As mentioned before, if you want to go off-stage, you can — just keep in mind that it’s a bit risky against human enemies. If you do decide to edgeguard, do so with a forward or back air.
Wrap-Up
It’s difficult (if not impossible) for Toon Link and Young Link to hold a candle to Link, who is one of the most popular and successful tournament contenders in competitive amiibo training. They can at least try to hold a candle to him, though, so we hope this guide helps get you on the right track! If you have any questions, feel free to join our Discord server and ask. If you want to learn how to enter online tournaments, please refer to our handy guide. Until next time — happy training!
If you would like to read more amiibo training guides, please follow this link.
