Figure Players in both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate do not run off of uniquely-coded amiibo AI. Instead – assuming they are Level 50 – they use a “base AI” of a Level 9 CPU. This base AI is specifically programmed to use certain attacks more often than others, and these behaviors cannot be changed through training. Such behaviors are thus hard-coded.
General Information
FPs in Super Smash Bros. 4 are notorious for having a large amount of hard-coded behaviors, which generally makes them uncooperative during training. For example, Mario and Fox FPs in this game are hard-coded to use a large amount of down smash; though the amount of down smashes they use can be minimized through training, the tendency cannot be completely removed because it is hard-coded into the base AI. Furthermore, it is thought that the frequency at which the FP grabs and edgeguards is also hard-coded, which would explain why fighters like Pac-Man continuously use their grabs even when trained not to. Our Super Smash Bros. 4 training guides will alert you if the character in question has a known hard-coded spamming issue.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, more FP behaviors can be adjusted than in the previous title, including grab rate, edgeguarding frequency, and edgeguarding type. That being said, several fighters are still hard-coded with AI flaws; for example, Ness and Lucas cannot charge their neutral specials and will always use them uncharged. Another notable issue is that Bayonetta does not properly recover; instead of using a Witch Twist, a double jump, and then another Witch Twist, it simply uses a double jump and then a Witch Twist. As a result, the Bayonetta FP has one of the worst recoveries of any fighter in competitive amiibo training. Since these behaviors are hard-coded, they cannot be changed through additional training.
In both titles, there are certain strategies and techniques that players (or even FPs) can use that the game’s AI cannot deal with. For example, in Super Smash Bros. 4, a max-attack Little Mac’s forward smash could continuously shatter an FP’s shield and then one-hit KO it with the aid of Critical-hit capability. No matter how many times an FP was KO’d by a shield break, the base AI would never learn. Because the base AI is hard-coded into FPs, they could never be taught to avoid shielding when fighting Little Mac. Likewise, FPs in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate cannot be taught to properly dodge Incineroar’s Alolan Whip move, which is why the character is considered top-tier.
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