Star Fox characters have a history of being disappointing Figure Players. Fox, Falco, and Wolf (mostly the former two) are based around combos, which the AI cannot consistently pull off — especially not against fellow FPs. Fox is rather difficult to train, but he’s got a solid niche in lower-tier tournaments. If you’d like to learn more about his metagame history before we continue, feel free to check out his corresponding wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!

Special thanks to Riparo for contributing Fox’s training information!

Spirits

Some trainers like to give their amiibo Spirit teams, and if you’re one of them — great! You’ve come to the right place. You’re going to want to give your FP its full setup as soon as possible because Spirits will actually shuffle its training. If your FP is already Level 50, no worries: just play a few matches against it afterward to brush up its skills. For more information on how Spirits work in this game, check out our full Spirits guide. In the meantime, here are some setups you could use on Fox:

• Banned bonuses: Fox’s best options include Armor Knight and Great Autoheal. As usual, you’ll want to pair Armor Knight with either Trade-Off Ability ↑ or Move Speed ↑ — Armor Knight grants Fox tons of extra defense, which means a Trade-Off effect’s 30% damage penalty is no big deal here.
• Tournament-legal bonuses: Physical Attack ↑ boosts a large portion of Fox’s moveset, and Foot Attack ↑ stacks with it to increase the power of his best moves. You can occupy the third slot with Air Defense or Trade-Off Ability ↑; in the case of the latter, make sure you use our defensive spread listed below. Giant is another potential option; it increases the size of up smash’s hitbox, making it even more fearsome!
• Raid Boss bonuses: The aforementioned Great Autoheal works excellently on a Fox Raid Boss! If you’d rather not use it, try out a setup of Physical Attack ↑, Foot Attack ↑, and Move Speed ↑ instead.

If you decided to include the Trade-Off Ability ↑ Spirit effect in your Fox FP’s setup, you should use a defensive stat spread (1800 / 2400); if not; then a balanced one (2100 / 2100) works just fine here. Make sure your FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral before you begin its training routine!

Competitive Training

When raising an optimal competitive Fox FP, follow these rules: no running, no taunting, and no charging smash attacks. Stick to those, and you should be good to go! As you might expect, Fox’s recovery leaves him rather vulnerable, so it’s safest to keep him on-stage whenever possible. If you’re satisfied with your FP’s training by the time it reaches Level 25 (give or take), you’re welcome to switch its learning off and level it up in the background against CPUs. Here’s what an optimized Fox amiibo looks like, then:

• Dash attack is one of Fox’s fastest grounded attacks and his premier combo starter. When using this move, be sure to combo it into a string of up tilts as often as possible. Up tilt can also be used all on its own; at later levels, the AI is hard-coded to combo it into itself and then into a down special.
• Up smash is a safe and powerful kill move. Use it for two specific purposes: when you’re directly next to your FP, and to attack it as it lands. Up air works well as an anti-air as well; use it on its own or after an up tilt.
• Forward smash propels Fox forward, which makes its range deceptively high. Use this move in balance with up smash to KO your FP (or even just to rack on damage).
• Use some grabs. Fox doesn’t have any interesting follow-ups after using one of his throws (save for down throw to forward air), but his grab is necessary to mix up his game plan since he doesn’t have any viable multi-hit attacks to challenge shields. Every so often, walk up to your FP, grab it, and toss it towards the nearest edge.
• At later levels, your FP will sometimes launch you upward. When this happens, you can use a neutral air to land! Feel free to mix in some back airs too — when using back air, your best bet is to attack with it after falling from the respawn platform. That way you don’t have to input a jump (which would make your FP more likely to jump, which we don’t want).

There are just two moves to avoid while training Fox: Fox Illusion and Blaster. While these attacks are instrumental to Fox in competitive play (human-versus-human), they don’t bring much value to him as an FP. Unfortunately, Fox’s AI is hard-coded to use Blaster at the edge of the stage, and this behavior can’t be changed through training. That being said, you should still do your best to avoid using or getting hit by the projectiles. To lessen the chance of Fox using Blaster, you can attack it with down smash and forward smash while at the ledge.

Raid Boss Training

The best way to raise a Figure Player to Level 50 is through mirror matches. This means you’ll have to play as Fox in order to properly train your Fox amiibo! As we discussed in the previous section, Fox’s poor recovery leaves him vulnerable to edgeguarding, and this issue only gets worse against human opponents. Keep Fox on-stage at all times, and refer to the following list of attacks during your training sessions:

• Dash attack isn’t just Fox’s best tool as a competitive FP — it’s his best move as a Raid Boss, too! It can combo into an up tilt, up smash, or neutral air, which makes dash attack a versatile option worth focusing on. You can also use it to catch your FP’s landings.
• Down tilt combos into an up smash or aerial move. Use it often as a neutral option and the AI will eventually teach itself all of its follow-ups! Mix in some jabs and forward tilts at close range as well.
• Up tilt links into itself over and over again and eventually combos into an up smash. Up smash is an excellent aerial punish, and is incredibly effective when used after shielding. Intercept your FP’s landings with both of these moves.
• Fox’s grab has two simple purposes: either use down throw into forward air or simply throw the opponent off-stage. When grabbing your FP, do one of these two things!
• Neutral air, forward air, and back air can all be used for general air combat. They’re also great for securing landings! Up air sets up for juggling and can be used consecutively to great effect.
• Mix in a tiny bit of forward smash and down smash at the ledge to get KOs.

A Raid Boss Fox FP should avoid using any of its special moves offensively; the AI often uses Blaster and Fox Illusion incorrectly and leaves itself vulnerable as a result. Fire Fox has too much startup to be a viable attack, and the FP’s usage of Reflector is hard-coded — meaning that by the time it reaches Level 43, it will automatically have learned to reflect projectiles with the move. As a side note, if you want to learn more about amiibo training and how it works in this game, check out our general training guide!

Wrap-Up

Of all the Star Fox fighters in Ultimate, Fox might just be the most difficult to train — but don’t let that deter you! If you have any questions during training, you’re welcome to join our Discord community and ask as many as you want. If you want to learn how to enter online tournaments we host there, check our how-to guide. We’d also greatly appreciate you checking out our Patreon or donation box if our guides have helped you. 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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