THE AMIIBO UNIVERSE: Facts and Theories

THE AMIIBO UNIVERSE

**UPDATED 03/22**

(Newly added articles will be at the bottom of each section.)

In this section I want to discuss the ins and outs of amiibos. I want to explain my theories on how I think amiibos work and interact and what makes them strong or weak. I also want to talk about some interesting things I've discovered in my time training amiibos that you may or may not know. This section will include a lot of random theories and interesting things that have happened as I've progressed in my training that I thought I would share with everyone. Keep in mind I am not saying these are  all facts, I'm mostly just theorizing why I think they do certain things.

INTERESTING THINGS I'VE LEARNED

• Common knowledge to most but some may not know, amiibos get a boost in damage on all of their attacks that a normal opponent doesn't. Meaning amiibos will always have an advantage.
• Amiibos seem to adapt to their opponents and differing playstyles. This is not a fact but judging from some of my personal experience, certain amiibos will play different when fighting certain other amiibos. IE playing aggressive vs some opponents and more passive vs others. This seems to be proof of amiibos having the ability to adapt to your playstyle and this is why fighting them vs each other interests me so much because they are constantly trying to change and adapt to beat their opposing amiibo.
• Amiibos sometimes will abuse specific moves if they aren't getting punished for it. IE Kirby's Neutral B and Yoshi's Egg Toss. This tends to ruin them in a lot of ways because they are spamming one move to rack up damage. Bowser/Ganondorf's Command Grab are also an example. I believe a big reason why amiibos spam moves is that they are landing a move over and over in training and not getting punished for it. This is why I train my amiibos to fight other amiibos when they start becoming more difficult to fight, there is less chance of them landing moves in general, so there is a better chance of them not becoming spammy.
• I'm not certain if this is the case or not but from what I've gathered, the only way to get amiibos to stop doing something over and over if you mess them up is to punish them AS they are doing it. If you kick them after they land something or just shield it, I don't think they learn from it. But if you kick them or grab them out of a move multiple times, they tend to stray away from using it as much. I also believe if they start landing the move less, this will also lessen the effect. (This is why it's hard to get an amiibo to stop spamming command grabs)
• Amiibos who have played more matches and developed more seem a good bit stronger than the fresher Lvl 50s. They seem to hold on to knowledge of how to adapt in different situations.
• Spot training a lvl 50 does seem to have some effect and makes them change things up. But I feel it takes 50's a lot longer to break bad habits on the simple fact that they are hard to fight and the chance of you punishing them for using something you don't want them to is much less. Trying to train a 50 to do new tricks is hard because they are typically kicking your ass. Sometimes you gotta suck it up and retrain them :/. I also believe there is a custom stage out there that makes the amiibos just stand there and not do anything, this is also an option if you don't want to retrain them.
• I have noticed that my amiibos tend to use aerials more in stages with platforms as well as in Free For Alls. I'm guessing this is because they are close to the blast zone and they see it as a more viable option. It could also mean hitting them through a platform with aerials isn't as easily avoided as it is when they air dodge relentlessly on omega stages. In Free For Alls I think they use them more often because it's easier to catch their opponents off guard. For instance, if they air dodge one opponents moves, they will leave them vulnerable for another opponent to land an air attack. Something to think about if you want your amiibos to do aerial attacks. In one on one amiibo fights, it's almost impossible for them to land aerials on omega stages, unless they are on the ground or it's a true combo. Amiibos will air dodge almost perfectly.
• Some amiibo tend to adapt faster than others. While some amiibo can adapt on the fly, some take a few games to get the hang of an opponent and how to counter them. But I've noticed the more an amiibo fights the same amiibo, they get better and better and will typically even out unless it's just a really bad match up.
• Amiibo with weaker kill options tend to get overshadowed by amiibo that can kill fairly easily, especially amiibo that can kill with grab options. (Lvl 50 amiibo fights are very evasive, lots of shielding and dodging. This means amiibo with weaker kill options have a lot of trouble killing other amiibo.)
• Some of my amiibo have learned that gimping on their ledge guards is a way to kill their opponents. (We trained a Yoshi that would use his neutral b as a way to gimp his opponents off the ledge in an egg at high percents. Also Pikachu will use his neutral b to gimp characters with poor recovery options like Mario or Marth.)
• Some amiibo learn unorthodox methods of killing/ledge guarding that they learn from trial and error. My Diddy Kong amiibo somehow learned to throw a banana peel where they would roll to on a ledge guard, so if they do roll they get tripped, allowing him to get a free punish off, sometimes a smash attack and even a kill. When Shiek is recovering she found out that while being ledge guarded the amiibo leave themselves vulnerable, so if at high percent she will instead use her up b vanish ability to spike them, rather than using it to cling to the ledge.
• Certain amiibo seem to have specific things already coded in that they will do regardless of if you want them to or not. Notably, Yoshi even with the "High Jump" custom will still use the move like he has eggs to ledge guard even if u start him at lvl 1 with the new custom skill. Also the Link zair chain will be used no matter what you do on his recovery.
• Certain amiibo age like a fine wine, they start out kind of bad but they seem to learn from a type of trial and error, making them better in the long run. Notable characters include Lucario, I thought he was weak at first but the more experience he had being in rage mode made him a lot better at utilizing it. Marth seems to do really bad the first time he fights an amiibo but once he gets a hang of their playstyle he takes it and runs with it and it's hard for them to beat him afterwards. Shiek, Yoshi and WFT I feel are also characters that will take a little time to progress into good amiibos.
• From what I've gathered, Big/Slow amiibos don't really match up to faster amiibos in a lot of ways. It may be different with custom setups and feeding equipment. But without equipment, the probability of them actually landing attacks on a skilled amiibo is next to none, so they typically get really behind. On the flipside of that, Heavies like Bowser and Ganondorf can turn a stock around with just one combo. So imo, heavies can be really hit or miss.
• Amiibos love to attack the ducks in the background on the Duckhunt Stage. They also go out of their way to attack the balloons on Town and City.
• Amiibos will not attempt combos against other amiibos unless they are true combos. They know that their opponent would just air dodge their combo attempts so they don't even try.
• In the amiibo fighting universe, it seems kill throws, counters, lingering hit boxes and true combos rule all. As I've said many times, amiibos will perfect shield and air dodge almost everything that comes their way. This is why having a kill throw makes it easy for amiibos to finish off stocks. Another powerful tool is the counters, these moves catch amiibos a lot and do insane damage with the amiibo buffs. Lingering hit boxes are moves that keep going longer than normal, meaning they are much harder to air dodge. These can lead to a lot of free punishes. A good example of this is Link and Zelda's Up Smashes. Amiibos approaching from the air try to air dodge these smash attacks and will get hit by it anyway. True combos are combos that cant be air dodged. Most characters have them, especially at low percents, usually with their down throw leading into an aerial. If amiibos don't have success in most of these areas, I will label them as weak because when fighting other amiibos they are going to struggle a lot more.
• Some amiibos thrive in different match types more so than others. While Rosalina and Lucario may be amazing in 1v1s because of their built in mechanics, they aren't nearly as strong in Free For Alls or Teams because of the chaos and inability to safely evade incoming attacks from behind. On the flip side characters like Bowser and Ganondorf are more effective in Free For Alls and Teams because they are able to rack up damage easier and land smash attacks. This is why I feel it's important to have a mix of match types when doing tournaments, to give each amiibo a chance to thrive.
• My strongest amiibo (Mario) seems to really bring out the best in my amiibos as they hit level 50. I place them vs. Mario and they really seem to improve. Even if he stomps them, it makes them quicker with their reactions after spending about 10 mins against "The Gatekeeper".
• In amiibo vs amiibo fights, it seems when one of them starts losing consistently, they go on somewhat of a tilt. Unable to land attacks will change them to more passive opponents and completely change them until they get back on a roll.
• Sometimes amiibos will have a stare down in anticipation to read their amiibo opponent at the same time. This is why sometimes you see them just stand there and not attack, just looking at each other. Sadly this is something about amiibos that can't be fixed.
• Shorter amiibos seem to have a slight advantage over taller amiibos. This is because taller amiibos don't land a lot of their aerials on short amiibos. Amiibos seem to short hop the same way all the time no matter what height the opponent is. (I think it's coded into the AI.) I believe this puts short amiibos in an advantageous position.
• Amiibos will use the boomerang and other items to combo into other moves. They will flinch and opponent with the boomerang or force and air dodge so they can land an aerial or tilt. They will do this with the Warp Star also, following it up with an aerial as they bounce from the ground.
• Amiibos seem to avoid their "Smash Balled" Opponent like the plague when they have it. Trying desperately to avoid getting hit with it.
• When grouped in a Team Match. Amiibos will follow up on grabs with smash attacks often. It seems they also follow up on Teammates Throws with Aerial Attacks.
• Amiibos that are pitted against certain playstyles change to adapt to that style in their attempts to counter it. This change in their styles can make them weaker against amiibos they may have previously done well against. The constant adaptation of styles is really interesting to watch. This may lead to some amiibos looking like they have regressed in strength.
• I've noticed that if an amiibo begins to underperform, having them keep fighting will eventually put them back to their previous strength when they start landing attacks and winning again.
• When amiibos struggle to land attacks, they can change into a defensive state where they won't attack much in fear of being punished and will only look for punish opportunities. This isn't something that can be controlled, it's something the AI will do automatically. You just have to be patient, they won't stay like that.
• Amiibos seem to remember how to fight against other amiibos they've faced multiple times.
• The past year has seen a lot of positive changes to amiibo AI, they don't air dodge nearly as often, so you will see them look for aerial opportunities a lot more. Also, recoveries have been tremendously improved. When amiibos came out they SD'd very often, and now they hardly ever do. It's good to see a lot of the negative things holding them back and making them less entertaining to watch have been worked out.

PROBLEMS I HAVE ENCOUNTERED:

• Amiibos seem to shield if an attack is coming their way regardless of if it's going to hit them or not. This leads to them not really being able to ledgeguard recoverys over the ledge a lot of the time, they choose to shield instead.
• Amiibos seem to not understand that they fall faster at high percents, sometimes their gimp attempts lead to them shooting down and SDing. I also don't think they learn from SDing because certain characters tend to jump off randomly miss their attack and die.
• Teaching an amiibo to gimp is great if you don't plan on fighting them vs eachother. But I think if your goal is to train them to fight eachother, like me. Don't bother with gimping. The chances of them landing a gimp on an amiibo is next to none most of the time. (Yes they will land them on occasion but sometimes these amiibos will jump off the stage trying to gimp, get footstooled or die because their percent is too high and they can't control their momentum.)

• Amiibos trying to air dodge a multi-hitbox smash attack, seems to be something they just don't learn from. I've seen a lot of Lvl 50 amiibos continuously get punished by Link and Zelda's up smash because it lasts through their air dodge. I've watched multiple amiibos fall into them over and over trying to air dodge the attack.
• Amiibos with bad recoverys dont realize that air dodging at the ledge to a ledge guard means they are going to die because they can't recover high enough. They never seem to learn from this. Big problem with characters like Mario, Bowser, Donkey Kong and so on. If you can find ways to teach them to save their jump and recover low then this may be a fix. I recently retrained all my amiibos to mostly stay on the stage and I haven't struggled with this much at all. Idk if they patched amiibos or what, but they seem to recover better than they did when they came out.
• I've noticed a big problem with amiibos spamming attacks over my course of training them. I think the cause of this is falling into that attack over and over and not shielding or dodging it. (IM LAZY OKAY?!) When training you have to be careful that you aren't allowing them to hit you with the same move because they end up thinking they don't need to do anything else.
• Yoshi has a problem with prioritizing his eggs over pretty much every skill. You really need to be careful training this amiibo, if you are dumpstering him and he is landing eggs while you are airborne, he will spam those eggs relentlessly because it's free damage for him and he feels that's all he can land. You have to coddle this one and allow him to land combos on you if you don't want him to spam.
• Training Donkey Kong to do aerials didn't really work out. I feel he needs to be trained mostly on the ground because he has a problem with not being able to land his back air on small targets and his forward air gets cancelled when he attempts to shorthop it, leading him into just getting punished for it and achieving nothing. He also has a serious problem with SDing.
• Amiibos do not recognize coins in coin battles, they don't even attempt to run towards them and pick them up, they just fight eachother like it's a normal match.
• Amiibos are oblivious to attacks from behind when attempting to ledge guard.
• Amiibos with chargeable projectiles don't seem to learn to charge them on their own, you will need to show them.
• Sometimes amiibos play so safe they miss obvious punish opportunities by shielding or dodging when they could've landed an easy smash. This is something that can't be changed, it's just built into them.'
• When amiibos are fighting, it seems that they will occasionally stand still when an opponent is on a platform above them. Rather than attacking them, they will wait on them to jump down. Also had Bowser break Shulks shield on a platform above and was on the lower platform trying to F Smash. I was confused why he did this, I guess they don't recognize the platforms.
• On Town and City, if an amiibo is standing on the moving platforms or charging a skill as it's moving, they will just stand there as it goes off screen and die, not knowing they need to jump off of it.
• Delfino Plaza seems to mess with amiibos a bit on their recoveries when the platforms change. They don't seem to realize how high they need to go to make it to the platform and SD
• I would advise against training amiibos/fighting them on Lylat Cruise. The teetering effect on the stage causes amiibos to SD very often. It seems to be a stage that should just be avoided all together. Amiibos with weaker recoveries will have a severe disadvantage on this stage.
• Multiple amiibos have been getting stuck under the Dream Land(64) stage trying to recover. This leads to unnecessary SD's. I guess the AI doesn't realize they are going to get stuck underneath that stage when they Up B.
• Skyworld is terrible for amiibos, the flooring breaks constantly and they just SD over and over if they have poor recoveries.
• Any stage with flooring leading into the blastzone doesn't seem to be great for amiibos, like the Boxing Ring and the Mario Galaxy Stage. The amiibos love to walk off screen and fight, leading to very early stocks that shouldn't have even happened.

In conclusion, I hope this was helpful in some way. I am constantly updating it when I find out new information or have a theory I want to express. 

(Click the Smash Ball for my Amiibo Guides)