Once upon a time, Palutena was low-tier. More specifically, she was one of the bottom ten Figure Players in Super Smash Bros. 4, and this placement was warranted for several reasons. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, things have been looking up for the Goddess of Light. Between a number of direct buffs, AI changes, and increased tournament representation, Palutena has found her place in the tier list’s middle rankings. If you’d like to learn more about her metagame history, feel free to check out her wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!

Special thanks to Dreamy Jay for contributing Palutena’s training information!

Spirits

It’s time to equip your Palutena FP with Spirits! If you’d rather leave it vanilla (which means no stat points or bonus effects), that’s fine — in that case, feel free to skip this section. In fact, most of our online tournaments don’t allow Spirits, so if you’re looking to start competing you’ll have an easier time finding non-Spirited tours. If you’re still game to equip a Spirit team, then here are all of Palutena’s optimal builds:

• Banned bonuses: Armor Knight plus Trade-Off Ability ↑ is your best bet here. With this, your FP will enjoy increased attack power and significantly increased defense. You could also go for Super Armor if you like, but Armor Knight is absolutely the better option.
• Tournament-legal bonuses: Fortunately, Palutena has plenty of other options available. These include Weapon Attack ↑, Magic Attack ↑, Physical Attack ↑, Air Defense ↑, Trade-Off Ability ↑, Critical-Health Stats ↑, Critical Healing & Metal, and Critical Immunity. That’s a long list of options, so feel free to pick and choose your favorite bonuses as you like!
• Raid Boss bonuses: As with all Raid Bosses, Great Autoheal works great on the Goddess of Light! If you’d rather not go with that Spirit effect, you can try any combination of Move Speed ↑, Air Defense ↑, Shield Damage ↑, and Landing Lag ↓.

Regarding stat distribution, just about anything works on Palutena, but you might want to invest a bit more heavily in defense since she’s rather light (1800 / 2400). You could also run a more balanced build if that extra attack power is important to you (2100 / 2100) — either way’s fine! For more information, please read our full Spirits guide!

Competitive Training

By all accounts, Palutena’s game plan is pretty simple. Rack up damage with Autoreticle from afar, and then close in and attack with tilts and finish off with a smash attack. Edgeguarding is optional, but overall not recommended; generally speaking, FPs are safer if they choose to stay on-stage instead. Here’s a complete explanation of everything you should be teaching your Palutena FP to do, then:

• At close range, go for a combination of forward tilt and down tilt. These moves both strike opponents multiple times, which in turn makes them solid options to use against enemies who like to shield.
• From a distance, attack with Autoreticle. This multi-hit projectile is almost guaranteed to successfully connect if the enemy is within its range, and this helps Palutena rack on much-needed damage.
• When it’s time to score a KO, rotate up smash and forward smash — but don’t use too much of either move, since they’re a tad slow. 
• When your FP is launched upward, juggle it with a bunch of up airs! When you’re launched upward, you can land with a neutral air or back air.
  

If you do decide to teach your FP to edgeguard, do so with down air — but, again, it’s not necessary. Make sure to employ a healthy mix of perfect shielding and regular shielding; that way your FP will be ready to defend itself against incoming attacks. If you’d like to learn even more about amiibo training in this game, have a look at our general guide when you have the chance!

Raid Boss Training

Palutena doesn’t really have the best game plan as a Raid Boss. Her AI can’t weave together its projectiles and melee attacks as well as a human player could, so it’s forced to rely on its above-average frame data to be able to contend. You’ll want to avoid edgeguarding wherever you can since humans can predict the AI’s recovery patterns. Be sure to teach your FP to make use of each technique listed below:

• Down tilt and forward tilt are a bit slow, but they’re about the best you can do in terms of grounded neutral options. Mix in some grabs plus some short-hopped forward airs and back airs.
• When your FP is above you, intercept its landing with a mixture of up tilts and especially up airs. The latter strikes multiple times and boasts an impressive damage output, so be sure to use lots of them!
• In addition to the aforementioned forward and back airs, you should mix in some landing neutral airs and down airs. Landing directly on opponents isn’t the best idea, though, so keep that in mind. Forward air, back air, up air, and neutral air should also be used for air-to-air combat.
• Finally, add in a pinch of down smash, forward smash, and Autoreticle at the ledge. Again, don’t edgeguard off-stage: just walk up to the ledge and fire off an Autoreticle or two. Palutena’s AI isn’t so good with its projectiles.

In a way, training an amiibo is kind of like cooking: you’ve got to include a healthy balance of different ingredients (which, in this case, are specific attacks). Find the right balance of the moves listed above, and you’ll be well on your way to training a powerful Raid Boss! Be sure to avoid using Counter and Reflect Barrier, by the way.

Wrap-Up

Thanks so much for sticking with us to the very end! We’re hoping that Palutena’s tournament representation increases as a result of this guide, so if you have any further questions feel free to join our Discord community and ask! If you’re interested in competing in said tournaments, check out our full-length guide on how to get set up. We’ve also got a Patreon and a donation box just in case you liked what you read today. Until next time — happy training!

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

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