It’s common knowledge that nobody likes fighting against Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. His special moves are obnoxious, and… well, that’s pretty much the only reason why. Fortunately, Sonic amiibo trainers are actually appreciated in this metagame — the character isn’t seen as toxic at all (which is because the AI can’t properly use its special moves), so Sonic lovers are free to raise and compete with this character to their heart’s content! If you’d like to learn more about Sonic’s metagame history over the years, check out his corresponding wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!

Special thanks to pixel gunners for contributing Sonic’s training information!

Spirits

New trainers really like Spirits. On the surface, you’d think they’d add an extra layer of strategy to amiibo training, but… that’s not exactly the case. Most of the cool Spirit effects are too strong and centralizing, so they’re banned. Which means you’re stuck using a bunch of power boosters instead, and this isn’t all that different from simply running vanilla matches instead. Still, if you’d like to equip your Sonic FP with a Spirit team, here are all the best setups you can use:

• Banned bonuses: Sonic’s a versatile fighter, so you could theoretically apply Super Armor, Great Autoheal, or Armor Knight to great effect. If you decide to choose Armor Knight, include Trade-Off Ability ↑ in the third slot. This build will grant your Sonic FP a figurative treasure trove of stat buffs, making it even more threatening in battle.
• Tournament-legal bonuses: If the tournament you’re entering does keep the bonus effects above banned, there are other options available! Try out Physical Attack ↑, Foot Attack ↑, Move Speed ↑, Trade-Off Ability ↑, Shield Damage ↑, or Critical-Health Stats ↑. Pick any three and you’re all set.
• Raid Boss bonuses: Each of the Spirit recommendations listed above works well on a Sonic FP! Great Autoheal, in particular, will frustrate any unfortunate player who winds up having to fight your amiibo. You could also use a simple setup of Physical Attack ↑, Air Defense ↑, and Move Speed ↑ if you like.

Stats generally aren’t too important — as long as your FP has them, it’s good to go. We recommend a balanced build (2100 / 2100), but don’t worry if you have trouble getting the numbers down to those specific values. If you’re reading this section and are kind of confused about it, we have a full Spirits guide that might clear things up for you. Give it a read when you have a moment!

Competitive Training

A competitive Sonic FP’s optimal playstyle is almost entirely grounded. That being said, he can afford to edgeguard off-stage and should do so at every possible opportunity. Mix in some perfect shields and some regular shields, and make sure you always walk instead of run. Here’s what an optimized Sonic’s moveset looks like, then:

• Forward tilt and forward smash are Sonic’s best close-up damage rackers. Forward tilt, despite its appearance, hits opponents twice; this makes it more difficult to perfect shield. Of these, you’ll want to use more forward tilt than forward smash. Its multi-hit nature makes it the better of the two moves. Mix in a bunch of grabs up close too.
• For anti-air, you’ll want to rely primarily on up smash. Some up airs are okay too! When you’re launched upward, secure a safe landing with a neutral air. At later levels, Sonic’s FP with automatically chain a landing neutral air into some hard-coded follow-ups.
• From a distance, charge up a Spin Dash and let it rip! Focus on this move a lot during your first few matches, and then switch over to close combat with only occasional Spin Dash atttacks in the mix. By the way, Spin Dash is the side special — the down special, Spin Charge, doesn’t work well when the enemy is at high percentages. That’s why we use Spin Dash instead!
• Sonic can afford to go off-stage thanks to his excellent forward air. Use this move to edgeguard your FP as often as possible! You can also use a few back airs, but forward airs are your top priority. If you opt to use Spin Dash as mentioned previously, you can mix in some down air — but only above-stage. Don’t go for this move off-stage to edgeguard.

One thing you’ll want to avoid is using your up special for purposes other than recovery. At later levels, Sonic will automatically use his up special on-stage to chase opponents falling high above him — no need to teach this! You should also try your best to air dodge to the ledge when recovering. If you’d rather not train your Sonic FP to go off-stage, you could use down tilt and a little bit of down smash at the ledge instead.

Raid Boss Training

If your Figure Player is at Level 1 right now (or a similarly-low level, if you gave it Spirits), then we’re going to mirror match it all the way to Level 50! Or until you’re satisfied with its behavior, in which case you can turn its learning off and level up against CPUs. Most Raid Bosses prefer to stay on-stage – as in, they’d rather not edgeguard – and the same goes for Sonic. Human players have a very easy time predicting AI opponents’ recovery patterns, which are hard-coded and thus cannot be modified. Here’s every single move you should teach your Sonic FP to use:

• Your neutral options include down tilt, jab, short-hopped forward airs and back airs, a bit of forward tilt, and some grabs. Down throw combos into a neutral attack or dash attack, and then up throw can combo into a back air, an up air, or a neutral air.
• Sonic’s landing options aren’t the best, so when you’re trying to safely return to the ground just throw out a forward or back air and pray that you don’t land directly on your opponent! You could teach your FP a tiny bit of neutral air in this case, too.
• When your FP is launched upward, juggle it with up smash. You can also catch landings with a grab or dash attack, but make sure to keep your usage of dash attack rather low. Sprinkle in some up tilt as well.
• Forward smash has got a ton of range, so it’s one of Sonic’s stronger kill moves. As mentioned earlier, you’ll only want to use up smash to juggle or as an out-of-shield option. Down smash is decent, but not necessary.

You might notice that our Sonic guide is describing a very specific type of behavior… and you might notice that said behavior doesn’t at all resemble how a human player would control Sonic. No special moves?! As a side note, be sure to check out our general guide if you haven’t done so already!

Wrap-Up

Thanks so much for reading! If you’ve come to the end of the guide and still have questions, don’t worry: you can join our mostly-friendly Discord community and ask as many questions as you want. Here are even more resources then: our tournament setup guide, our Patreon, and our donation box. Okay, so the last two really aren’t resources, but if you like our content and want to help support the site’s upkeep we’d very much appreciate it. Until next time — happy training!

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

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