Unlockable characters are characters who needed to be unlocked before being played as, unlike a starter character. You need to participate in an Unlock Bout in order to obtain characters, though.
Much like with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, every character can be unlocked through the story mode, The Dark Tournament. As per Smash tradition, every character has a single player unlock requirement and a VS. match number requirement. A few characters have more requirements.
These requirements are usually:
- Clear a mode under certain conditions.
- Event matches
- Obtain a certain amount of trophies or stickers.
- Meet certain requirements with a character.
- Play the game for a certain period of time.
- Possibly other, more weird and random requirements. Besides, the ones listed above are... somewhat vague.
A character's AI in Unlock Bouts are slightly harder than they are in Brawl; in particular easy to unlock characters such as Jigglypuff and Luigi are much harder. Generally they are set to about Level 8-10, with three exceptions who are set to Level 11.
However, there are two major changes. Upon meeting a requirement, you are not forced to fight your opponent, with the exception of Secret A and Secret B. Instead, a message stating that they would like to challenge you is sent to your Smash Tab, where you can do the challenge at anytime you please. This give you a bit more relief when it comes to making progress in the game overall. Like in the other games, to get another challenge, should you lose, you need to clear one of the unlock requirements again.
The other major change is the fact that requirements revolving around VS. matches or play time also factor in Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which makes getting characters by VS. matches for the people who do not want to use cheesy, albeit easy tactics to unlock characters and rather get them randomly, by just happening to play a certain number of VS. matches or play the game for a certain period of time.
How to Unlock each character[]
Here's a graph containing details on each of the unlockable characters, from first to last in VS. match order:
| Character | How to Unlock | VS. Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Jigglypuff | Clear Classic Mode with any character | 10 |
| Luigi | Clear Classic Mode without using a continue or clear Classic Mode with your final score having a 2 in the tens digit. | 22 |
| Isaac | Download 5 items of User submitted content from Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or clear 100 Soldier Clash. | 40 |
| Toon Link | Clear Classic Mode on Normal or higher with Link. | 70 |
| Professor Layton | Collect 100 Trophies. | 100 |
| Wolf | Play on the to be announced Star Fox stage 25 times. | 150 |
| Funky Kong | Play 10 Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection matches OR have a combined time Race to the Finish time with all starting characters below 25:51.03 | 200 |
| Roy | Spend an hour playing as Ike or Marth | 250 |
| Sonic | Clear Event 20: The Fastest Thing Alive or clear Classic Mode in 12 minutes or less. | 300 |
| Snake | Clear 10 storylines in The Dark Tournament: Adventure Mode. | 350 |
| Zoroark | Win 40 matches as Lucario. | 400 |
| Knuckles | Clear 25 Event Matches. | 450 |
| Ridley | Use Samus and Zero Suit Samus a combined 30 times successfully across each mode. | 500 |
| Bowser Jr. | Win at least 30 matches on Stage Builder stages using Bowser or Peach or clear 35 Break the Targets!! stages. | 550 |
| Mega Man | Unknown | 600 |
| Vaati | Unknown | 650 |
| Waluigi | Clear Event 29: The Inferiority Complex. | 700 |
| Ocelot | Initiate 5 uses of Snake's Smash Taunt in matches. | 750 |
| King K. Rool | Unknown | 800 |
| Mr. Game & Watch | Clear Classic Mode with all of the starting characters. | 850 |
| R.O.B. | Clear at least 10 different challenges across 25 different Challenge Walls. | 900 |
| Black Shadow | Unknown | 950 |
| Ryu | Encounter Crazy Hand in Classic Mode with at least 15 characters or clear Event 36: Tribute to the Master. | 1,000 |
| The Dog | Obtain the "Master Taunting Dodge" bonus (successfully taunt during a failed Final Smash attempt) in a random Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection match OR taunt 500 times. | 1,100 |
| Dark Samus | Clear Event 48: Phazon Nightmare. | 1,200 |
| Mewtwo | Clear Classic Mode with Lucario and Zoroark on Very Hard or higher or play 50 combined hours of VS. mode. | 1,300 |
| Kyle Hyde | Clear at least 150 unique, non-universal (ie Classic Mode) Challenge Wall challenges or play 100 Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection matches. | 1,450 |
| Ganondorf | Win with Link and Zelda 100 times each in VS. matches or win a Ranked Clash with each character save Fawful, Ganondorf, Secret A, and Secret B over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. | 1,700 |
| Fawful | Clear Classic Mode with 50 characters, then clear Classic Mode on Unfair with Mario, Luigi or Bowser. Fighting Crazy Hand in the process will set Fawful's AI to 10 rather than 11 | 2,000 |
| Secret A | Coming soon! | None |
| Secret B | Coming soon! | None |