Half the advice on how to unlock all smash bros characters describes a condition that was true two updates ago. The current one is simpler than the folklore around it.
Assume anything automated in the interface has an edge case, because it usually does. The fastest route is usually a fresh, focused run rather than continuing an existing one. The confirmation for how to unlock all smash bros characters appears somewhere most people never open.
Straight to it
Check the collection screen rather than your inventory — the unlock often registers somewhere you are not looking.
If the unlock does not appear
If several people report different requirements, they are usually describing different versions. Doing the requirement on a lower difficulty usually still counts, despite what forum posts claim. The condition behind how to unlock all smash bros characters is specific, which is why playing more does not help. Rushing the setup is the single most reliable way to spend longer overall.
Anything gated behind a seasonal event genuinely can expire, unlike most unlocks. Community wikis are excellent for data and unreliable for timing, which is a useful distinction. The reward is often less transformative than the effort implies, and that is worth knowing beforehand.
The order that saves the most time
Doing the condition twice never helps, though plenty of guides imply otherwise. The interface rarely distinguishes between not unlocked and not yet displayed, and those are different problems. The obvious approach works; the rest of this page is about making it work the first time.
- Restart the game once before assuming it failed.
- Check whether the requirement is per-character or account-wide.
- Set aside enough time to finish, since stopping halfway causes most of the confusion.
- Check the version you are running before following any step-by-step advice.
- Connect once if you have been playing offline.
- Check the deadline first if it is seasonal.
How to tell it worked
A requirement described as cumulative usually is, which means partial progress is not lost between sessions. If a step feels pointless, it is usually there to prevent a failure you have not hit yet. Where two conditions exist, the game often only tells you about the easier one.
What it changes once you have it
Where a counter exists but is hidden, doing the condition in one session removes all ambiguity. If a guide describes a grind, it is probably describing a different unlock with a similar name. The margin for error is wider than it appears, so a slightly imperfect attempt still counts.
What the requirement actually is
Expect the second attempt to go noticeably better than the first, and plan around that. The requirement is usually a single flag rather than a score, which is why extra effort changes nothing. The game usually confirms this in a menu you have no reason to open.
People searching how to unlock all smash bros characters have often already met the requirement without the game saying so. Advice on how to unlock all smash bros characters is unusually unreliable because the requirement changed at some point.
Things that waste the most time
- Changing several settings at once, then having no idea which one helped.
- Repeating the requirement several times when once was enough.
- Following two guides simultaneously and ending up with neither method intact.
- Following advice written for the version before the requirement changed.
- Checking the inventory instead of the collection screen and concluding it failed.
Frequently asked questions
Can it be missed permanently?
A few unlocks are tied to a point of no return. If yours is, the guide above flags the last safe moment to do it.
What should I do if I get stuck partway?
Note the exact step, then re-check the one before it. Almost every report of being stuck traces back to a skipped precondition.
Why do other guides say something different?
Most of them describe an earlier version, and a few describe a method that worked once and was never re-tested.
None of how to unlock all smash bros characters is difficult in isolation — the difficulty was only ever in the sequence.