Battle Arenas are a feature introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that allows up to eight players to congregate and battle in an online lobby. When the game launched in December 2018, Battle Arenas did not permit the use of Figure Players in any capacity. This functionality was eventually added in the 3.1.0 update.
General Information
Generally speaking, Battle Arenas are the easiest and most accessible method for players looking to pit their FPs against others. Access only requires a Nintendo Switch, a copy of the game, a fully-trained amiibo, and an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription. FPs do not and cannot learn from matches that take place in Battle Arenas, so their progress cannot be saved afterward. Furthermore, FPs take their owner’s place in battle, so it is impossible to play against your own amiibo in a Battle Arena unless you have two Switch consoles and two copies of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
When they were first introduced in 2019, Battle Arenas lacked hack checks of any kind. Figure Players with blatantly illegitimate stats (32,000 points in Attack and Defense, for example) were permitted to participate with no repercussions. Hack checks were later implemented in early 2021, and prevent FPs with impossible stat totals from participating in matches. Strangely enough, Battle Arenas do allow the use of unreleased amiibo fighters (including characters like Min Min months before her official release). Players who modify their Switch systems can even manage to use Random and Giga Bowser FPs, which will likely never be made available in any official capacity.
Despite Battle Arenas’ ease of access, they are not often used to host amiibo tournaments. This is for several reasons. For one, FPs have been observed to behave much differently in an Arena than in an offline match. This could be because its training data has to be uploaded to a server of some sort, but the true reason for the change in behavior is unknown. Another reason is that it is impossible to change the Arena’s rules to prevent entry of FPs with Spirit teams equipped. It is also impossible for a player to check the opposing FP’s Spirit team to ensure none of its bonuses are banned from competitive play. Furthermore, file submission tournaments do not require the physical presence of the FP’s owner (as Arenas do). The convenience of sending an amiibo file via Powersaves and then waiting for the tournament results in the background has made these types of competitions much more popular.
Players are advised to be cautious around opponents who use Mii Fighter FPs in Battle Arenas; if their Mii data is corrupt when they are summoned into battle (which can only be done on purpose and through hacking), all Switch consoles connected to the room will crash to the home screen. Thus, a malicious player can enter an Arena and purposefully crash the Switch consoles of everybody participating. Another Arena-related quirk is that – if a scanned FP is not properly added to the match – it may present itself as a Level 0 Mario FP (which is the default character used when an error occurs).
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