Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has revealed Spirits Mode, a mode where players need to utilize the power of characters from many series that have lost their physical form. This is similar to the Stickers from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and replaces the trophies from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Spirits come in different classes: Novice, Advanced, Ace, and Legend. Each fighter can have one primary spirit and three support spirits, all which add to your fighter’s power. However, the main benefit of spirits are the additional skills they give.
The meat of the mode is fighting spirit battles, by going through the Target List on the Spirit Board. These enemy fighters are paired up with primary spirits with similar attributes, such as Iggy with Lakitu & Spiny. These are like the event battles in previous games, where fighters have special attributes and special conditions occur in game.
After beating the Spirit Battles, you get a chance to get the associated primary spirit by attacking the spirit within. However, the spirits are protected by a shield, which may block your attempt. That said, destroyed shields carry over to the next attempt.
Spirits come in three types, which act in a rock-paper-scissors fashion. Attack beats Grab, Grab beats Shield, and Shield beats Attack. You can see the associated spirits’ type, so choose accordingly.
You can raise your primary spirits by fighting alongside them, or feeding them snacks. Some spirits have special Lv. Max forms as well.
You can send spirits back to the real world, but they will leave behind cores that can be combined to summon new spirits. Spirits can also be trained at Dojos, and you can also send them to find treasures in caves. These functions continue even with the Switch in sleep mode.
Certain spirits are known as Masters, and you beat these Masters to unlock facilities. You can also power up Figure Players with spirits.
Final Smash Meter will be on in Spirits mode, and certain spirits will fill up the gauge faster.
Finally, Spirits Mode can be used online in battles against other players.
Here’s the full segment in video (starts at 7:43 mark):
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will come to the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018.
