That One Level / Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Come on, jump up super high!
You'll never make me die
There's no spirit skill that beats me!
Know that I'm the super star
No one else will drive you this far!
This spirit's a bitch
Get ready for this!
Let's go, and fight Pauline!

— BigKlingy, parody lyrics for "Jump Up, Super Star!" based on how absurdly difficult Pauline's Spirit Battle is.

While the Spirit Battles that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Adventure Mode World of Light and Spirit Board throw at you can be quite challenging, a number of them have become infamous for chewing up players and spitting them out. The World of Light ones are especially difficult on Hard Mode. If you somehow beat all of them without Spirits helping you out in the Spirits List update as of Version 8.0.0... you're either lying or have insane abilities yourself against them, especially considering how certain abilities makes some of these fights feel next to impossible without them! Also, the fact that there's over 1,500 spirits to get (thankfully far less battles between fighter's spirits, evolved spirits, and spirits you can only get by shopping for them whenever they show up) as of Version 13.0.1 means if you're looking to make sure everybody is here in spirit form, you're going to be here for quite a while with some of these fights.

NOTE: Before you add a Spirit, ask yourself this: "Is the difficulty of beating the spirit unremarkable if you use the recommended spirits and/or the various Game Breakers? Are they guarding an objective or fighter, but can be circumvented?" If you answer yes to these two questions, do not add the Spirit. It isn't That One Level just because it's one of the spirits you personally had trouble with. Also, Walkthrough Mode is heavily discouraged in this page, as we are not an online guide, and other sites such as YouTube have better explanations on how to beat the spirit.

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World of Light

Note: Some of these spirits are also available on the Spirit Board down below. However, to actually get a fair amount of these spirits, you have to go through the World of Light at least once, meaning for simplicity's sake, we're going to just list these spirits as being a part of the World of Light in general.

• Pauline is easily the most infamous Spirit battle in the entire game, and not without reason. The map is 75m and the target is a pacifist Peach, and her backup consists of Mario, who starts the battle with a Hammer, and a giant Donkey Kong. Sound simple on a map as big as 75m? Not quite. First of all, your jump height is reduced (though Bunny Hoods spawn for you to remedy this) while Peach runs away from you like a coward. Secondly, another item that commonly spawns is the Timer, and while you can grab it to make beating up on Peach easier, the enemies can do the same thing themselves and utterly gang up on you. And third, there's a time limit that's a minute-and-a-half long for a stage as big as 75m. It turns out that everyone is actually really good at wasting your time, with either Mario or Donkey Kong blitzing you as you chase Peach all over the stage, all while the other backup fighter farms Timers to ruin whatever progress you might have made earlier on. In fact, Donkey Kong will use his grapple Forward Throw and just hold you there with it, not even attacking. Alternatively, he can throw you up and actually kill you there if you're unfortunate enough with your luck. You'll almost certainly have to KO Mario and Donkey Kong before you can get at Peach with any big hits, which is a difficult task with the strict time limit and the awkwardness of 75m in mind. Compounding this is the fact that the game doesn't even tell you about Peach actually fleeing from you before the stage starts. Hope you enjoy listening to "Jump Up, Super Star!" (dissonant lyrics and all), because you'll be at it for a good while. The difficulty regarding this Spirit battle is so widespread that even Sakurai himself lampshaded its infamy in the Min Min showcase video, and decided to show off a quick way to beat it in less than a few seconds. In other words, equip yourself with a Staff spirit along with spirit that increases shooting power. You should be able to take down Peach within seconds.^note  Be quick about it though, as Mario can immediately drop down and greet you with his hammer.
• Dry Bowser can be downright brutal to defeat properly. It isn't bad enough that the Battlefield form of Reset Bomb Forest is completely covered in lava and thus forces you to waste two Support Spirit slots, oh no. This fight also gives (Dry) Bowser the ability to receive curry effects at random points as well as gain a defense boost through the time it's effective, forcing you to choose between whether you want lava immunity or a Franklin Badge since you can't have both together, as both abilities require two slots. And worse yet, Bowser is no joke to fight against either, feeling downright merciless to you even before his first curry effect comes into play. All that can be said now is that you'd better have powerful spirits ready by the time you go facing off against him, because defeating him without one of the best is next to impossible. Oh, and did we also mention that this is the spirit that is guarding Daisy's fighter battle in World Of Light? Yeah, good luck if you want to play as the princess of Sarasaland in that game mode.
• Shine Sprite is incredibly annoying. The battle takes place on Delfino Plaza, on the section that is on top of a row of buildings to be more specific, and the main fighter is Rosalina, who periodically gains invincibility AND her Final Smash. Both will happen at the very start of the fight, so you can’t even put a scratch on her for quite some time. When the first bout of invincibility wears off, she gains reinforcements in the form of three highly aggressive Kirbies who are also larger than normal, adding some extra strength to their attacks.
• Yarn Yoshi is a surprisingly irritating battle, despite its simplicity. You're set against four Yoshis on Super Happy Tree, with the only battle modifier being that all fighters are much easier to launch. The trouble is that these Yoshis are *viciously* aggressive and intelligent, and are quite fond of smacking you straight out of bounds with one perfectly-timed smash if you try to flee them ganging up on you. With many characters, it's difficult to even get a good strike in one of the Yoshis without the others interrupting and rapidly building up your damage. Combined with the relatively narrow arena that leaves little room for navigation, and it's a recipe for disaster.
• Geno's battle will leave you praying to the Star Road. This match sets you against five CPUs who each represent one of the five party members from Super Mario RPG on the Battlefield form of Mario Galaxy in a 2:30 timed match. The opponents come in the order of Mario (who begins with a Koopa Shell), Bowser, a slightly larger Kirby standing in for Mallow, Peach (who has Autoheal) and Sheik with a Super Scope standing in for Geno, all of whom are competent enough to completely obliterate you if you let them surround you. While you only need to defeat Sheik to complete the battle, she doesn't spawn in until at least two fighters have been defeated, so the rest of the team has plenty of time to wear you down if the timer doesn't do that for you already.
• The Funky Kong Master Spirit takes place in Kongo Jungle and puts you against Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong, who will all eagerly pick up the constantly spamming Bullet Bills and fire at you with scarily competent aim. It's not much of a problem if you use a Support spirit that gives you the Franklin Badge, but you better be careful of not having an attack make you drop the Badge and have one of the enemies steal it from you. Also, watch out with where you aim your Bullet Bill if you get one yourself; one false move made can end you just as quickly as any of the CPU's Bullet Bill attacks. There are also two factors that makes this spirit battle necessary, one is that this is also one of the Spirit battles that unlocks a store where you can buy certain spirits exclusively from Funky Kong's shop, so you'll have to earn the right to enter Funky's shop in order to complete the spirits list, and two is that the DK island sub-map where Funky Kong is located is basically a gauntlet to reach Diddy kong, making this battle the major roadblock if you want to play as Diddy.
• M. Bison serves as the final boss for the Street Fighter-themed map in the "World of Light", and it’s quite the ordeal. It’s a stamina battle with reduced jumping in an Omega stage like the rest of the map, and your opponent is Ganondorf with enhanced special moves. Want to cheese him out with projectiles? Too bad; he’s perpetually equipped with a Franklin Badge, so you’ll have to get up close to this brutally powerful Spirit. Later in the fight, you’re sprung with two more conditions: your power drops, while his INCREASES. You’ll need to brave this bout if you want Ryu.
• Bison's immediate predecessor, Sagat, is no slouch either (appropriate, considering his original reputation as an SNK Boss). He's represented by a big Ryu; get too close, and he immediately whips out walk-forward Input Shoryukens that, given his size, will juggle you effortlessly and grind down your stamina until you're able to get free—no small task, considering Stamina Mode's lower knockback. Think you can cheese him with projectiles? Well, if you hang back, he starts spamming Shakunetsu Hadokens, which have proportionately large hitboxes and are a chore to avoid thanks to the battle's lowered jump height. One of the best strategies to beat him is to use Lucas or Ness and either reflect his Hadokens back at him with side smash attacks or absorb them with PSI Magnet for healing.
• For people playing for the first time, Ana can catch them by surprise. It is a stamina battle against a female Villager and Ness in Magicant with hazards off. The main problem surrounding this fight is that Ness loves to spam his special attacks, and he can be a huge headache when it comes to targeting Villager, or even worse, have him roast you over and over with PK Fire while the Villager spams Lloid Rocket to her heart's content. Thankfully, Ness has rather low HP (80 HP), but don't rely on that to save you since both him and the Villager have Autoheal and will gradually heal up every ten seconds or so. Unless you make it through the Hell that is dealing with Ness' aerial and special attacks, you might as well forget about defeating this troublesome duo.
• Jeff's Spirit Battle is a pain in the rear, considering the fact that the stage (Onett) will mean you'll have to move around. And the male Inklings you are assigned to fight LOVE to spam their projectiles, and said projectiles are far more powerful here. And since it's the Inklings (all of them the same color), they'll splatter paint on you, making it harder for you to tell where you're at. And to add insult to injury, Assist Trophy Jeff will appear at certain intervals and shoot his bottle rockets, which are incredibly accurate unless you keep moving. Making this even worse is the fact that the game recommends using a spirit that gives you the Franklin Badge; doesn't sound too bad right? Except... the AI is generally smart enough to not use projectiles against you as long as you have the Franklin Badge equipped (and will resort to other methods of attacking you instead) and Jeff's rockets cannot be reflected either. If anything, you're likely to lose the Franklin Badge and have one of the Inklings steal it from you, thus rendering them immune to projectiles for a spell. And if you try to spam a reflector or PSI Magnet, the Inklings will usually use Smash Attacks to put an end to that pretty fast.
• Great Fairy takes the form of a Zelda that is both Giant and has Increased FS Gain, which is a mean enough combo in its own. But then she ramps it up and adds two more skills to the mix: the first is increased Special power, which makes the already hard-hitting and hard-to-dodge Giant hit even harder. The second and even worse skill is Critical Health Recovery, which means she fully heals herself when she reaches 100% damage. Unless you KO her with the blow that triggers the heal, not only will she recover from your hard work (and it is hard work, as her Spirit Power is 9,500), but because of Increased FS Gain, she will likely have her Final Smash ready when she does. Not helping matters is that Zelda has a Danger Zone-style Final Smash (Triforce of Wisdom) that has a ridiculous range because she is Giant, and with the beating you're likely to take from her Special spam, along with her Final Smash being a One-Hit Kill when you're above 100%, this will KO you (and even if you aren't at 100% damage, chances are real good that depending on where she used it she'll kill you from the move's launching power anyways). As if Zelda's range wasn't enough of a problem on its own, this fight takes place in Fountain of Dreams, which is far from being a spacious stage.
• Don't let Kapp'n (Wild World) low down your guard just because he is an Advanced spirit. You face off against Luigi in a stamina battle taking place in New Donk City Hall. The main problem surrounding this fight is that the Kapp'n Assist Trophy appears, meaning that he will try to catch you with his bus and drive off towards the blast line, instantly KOing you if he manages to get past it. While you can get out of his bus by mashing buttons, it becomes more difficult to escape the more damage you have taken. Trying to attack Luigi while avoiding getting caught by Kapp'n isn't as easy as it sounds, especially considering that the stage becomes more and more cramped the longer the battle takes. Kapp'n will always respawn on the stage after driving out of bounds or after you manage to escape from his bus (and he has a rather nasty habit of spawning above you) and you can't KO him either, meaning that you will constantly have to run and jump all over the place unless you want to end up in his bus. The Luigi AI is also smart enough to knock you right into Kapp'n! You're going to have fun with this one.
• Not only does Deep Breathing appear rather early in World of Light, but it is also harder than the conditions make it look. The fight takes place in Wii Fit Studio and pits you against four Wii Fit Trainers with Autoheal each who are all very willing to gang up on you. Given that they are Wii Fit Trainers, their stats are all overall buffed if they use Deep Breathing. Also, did we mention that you only have one minute and a half to defeat the four of them?
• Dr. Wily is the optional spirit battle of the Base, and boy howdy, is he extremely tough. The fight is a stamina battle on the Omega form of Dr. Wily's Castle against eight Metal Mega Men, who will relentlessly pursue you with deadly ranged attacks, with a combined total of a monstrous 800 HP. Wily himself isn't too tough due to him just being a single Dr. Mario with less HP than any of the Mega Man fighters on their own, but the battle to get to him is extremely difficult. Even with a Franklin Badge, it might not guarantee victory because if they get hit with their own Crash Bombs, you won't be able to use close range attacks unless you want it to get stuck on YOU instead. Zoners will have to try to deal with Buster spam, as well as the Metal Blades as well.
• Mega Man Volnutt puts you against 3 Mega Men with items already equipped. Simple, right? How about the stage where it takes place being The Great Cave Offensive and under a two-minute limit? This makes it so the player most likely has to resort to the stage's gimmick of KOing an opponent when touching lava at high damage, but it's still a fight against three opponents, so you have to make sure to damage them all enough and launch them to any lava area under a restrictive time limit. And of course, being an Ace spirit, it means the three are likely to gang on you and give you a difficult time on it. And he blocks the route towards the Sacred Land, making it a mandatory fight.
• The Boss is easily among the most difficult of all the Spirit Battles. The reasons are numerous: you fight a smart and reactive Zero Suit Samus, on the Omega version of the Garden of Hope stage with the ground covered in poison, while she has over 13,000 power. This means you have to come in with at least one Support Spirit of poison immunity or Madama Butterfly's Poison Heal, as she will outdamage you with the poison constantly draining your health away otherwise. Even worse, early into the fight, Samus receives a potent Defense Up boost that makes damaging her much harder (it actually kicks in when her health is lower than 150 out of 180 when the battle description itself says it's supposed to kick in when she's at high damage). While this wouldn't be much of a problem due to being a Stamina Battle (and thus being able to cheese her out with ranged hits), this particular battle is timed, meaning that you can lose if you don't defeat her by the time the clock runs out. Even worse, it's almost certain that she will charge up her Final Smash at least once over the course of the fight, which is a free 20 HP she gets off of you, since her A.I tracks you scarily well while she's aiming her laser and chop about 10 seconds off the already-tight time limit, since you can't damage her while she's using it.
• Emperor Bulblax pushes the fairness of Stamina Battles to its absolute limits. Being on Distant Planet Omega Form, the battle is mano a mano between you and a Giant King K. Rool. The kicker? He both has Super Armor and is highly aggressive. This nasty combination ends up countering all three forms of strategy, as Grab is nullified by him being Giant, Attack is nullified by Super Armor, and Defense (his weakness) is nullified by his active aggression. It's made even worse with him having more HP than the player, as well as getting his Final Smash Meter up quicker than you. The only feasible form of countering him is through items, but almost all of them don't have a long-term form of beating him and only serve to be minor impediments. It's especially jarring when the island he's found on is filled with Spirits that are either easy or at least manageable, making this a blatant form of Surprise Difficulty.
• Viridi is very annoying to deal with. The fight takes place in Reset Bomb Forest and has you fight against a Mii Swordfighter (who is dressed up as Viridi, obviously) and a giant Kirby who spams the Down Special attack. While you only need to defeat the Mii Swordfighter in order to win, Kirby will make that difficult by interrupting your attacks and not letting you approach her at all. As in, he'll spawn a few seconds into the battle, very likely right on top of you, perfectly positioned to start spamming his Down Special. The cherry on top of the cake? This battle is timed, fifty-five seconds to be more precise!^note (In other words, it's perfectly timed to where Viridi shows up to say "Good riddance, human scum. The world's better off without you!" before setting off the reset bomb itself.) So if you don't hurry up and KO that Mii Fighter quickly, you lose!
• As if one annoying Kapp'n battle wasn't bad enough, let's try the vanilla Kapp'n. It's you versus Iggy on Wuhu Island locked on the "rocks at sea" section. The rules are "Buoyancy reduced" and "Hazard: heavy wind". This means that you die within seconds of touching the water and (unless you have a Spirit to cancel the effect — which if you've only acquired Spirits from World of Light, you don't at this point) have to struggle just to move around the stage. Meanwhile, Iggy is completely unaffected by the wind and bounces around the stage, hitting you from every angle and gleefully jumping out of the way of your attacks. The frustration induced by this fight is far beyond what its 9,600 rating would imply — and it's required that you do this fight because you need Kapp'n to travel over water and reach the airport island.
• The Pegasus Sisters are a complete pain in the rear. The battle pits you against three Lucinas who can all perform an extra jump in Skyworld, but with all the solid platforms gone, meaning that is not that difficult to fall off the stage by accident given the fact that the clouds allow characters to pass through them without the stone platforms above them and you are completely unable to grab ledges. The three Lucinas gang up on you, and the fact that they have a triple jump means that there is almost no place to hide from them. To add more insult to injury, the enemies can all unleash powerful critical hits at random points during the battle, meaning that even if your damage meter is at 0%, you might as well start all over again if one of them hits you while close to the blast lines. Remember what we said about the clouds being soft platforms the characters can pass through? Guess what will happen if any of the Lucinas manages to meteor smash you.
• Omega Ridley might show up late, but it still is a pain for how late it is. Ridley is already a powerhouse, but he's easy to launch, so no problem, right? Well, this Ridley is metal, making it harder for you to launch. As if that wasn't enough, Ridley is constantly under the effects of Superspicy Curry, requiring projectiles or a Franklin badge to even try attacking him. Oh, and the stage you fight him on? Norfair, which has all its rising lava intact. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Ridley is just as prone to the hazards of Norfair, but don't rely on it to save you that easily. By the way, want to play as Lucina in World of Light? This is the Spirit guarding her, meaning you must beat him before getting to her.
• Katrina is a weird case. You face off against an incredibly fast Palutena in Smashville who loves using dash attacks. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that once the battle starts, both Palutena and you will suffer a damage of 999%, the highest damage cap in the game, so you are dead meat if you don't have fast reflexes and Palutena strikes you by surprise. Admittedly, this can all be avoided by using Hinawa's Support Spirit, which makes you invincible for a short amount of time if you have received too much damage. Problem is, Hinawa is also a case of That One Level, and she is one of two possible beef gates blocking the True Final Boss, so you're probably not going to actually have her available to use by the time you encounter Katrina.
• Giga Mac. He has the tied most power in the entire game, that being 13,900. It puts you into the Boxing Ring with a giant Little Mac to represent Giga Mac himself, and he has Super Armor making him extremely difficult to get flying. His attack speed is also wicked too, draining your HP in a flash. To add insult to injury, his Final Smash gauge charges quickly. The stage's lack of Bottomless Pits mitigates Mac's notorious weakness in the air and makes conventional KOs without wearing down his HP difficult. Autoheal will heal you too slowly to compensate for how fast he's draining your HP too. In addition to this, while he's not immune to projectiles, it won't do you any good because he'll close the distance fast and turn you into a crater. And since he's got Super Armor, if you want to attempt PK Fire spam with Ness, the hero of Onett will be Yamcha'd in seconds due to the lack of flinching on Mac's end. Want to try for a close range combatant? Hope you have a counter, because if not, Mac will VERY quickly prove he ain't got cheeseburgers in his gloves. Even then, if you whiff the counter, the damage will rack up far to rapidly to compensate so then you need to catch up in terms of damage EVEN FASTER. Oh, and even if you have a Critical Healing spirit, you'll both get your Final Smash around the same time, so if he hits you with it you'll pretty much be back to where you were before the heal. K Rool is also a no-go since the Belly Armor will be broken in seconds if you were relying on it to tank the damage, and Glass Cannons and Fragile Speedsters won't be able to rack up damage enough to catch up and compensate for how much damage you're going to take in ONE HIT. Good luck trying to beat him because the title screen theme from the Wii Punch-Out!! game will be stuck in your head for a while. To quote Nathaniel Bandy, "I was purely shocked with his destruction and left with a complete loss of words." And if you ever beat this one without any spirits on you, you're either lying or just cheesed him with the stage's set-up.
• The Dr. Eggman spirit battle is no slouch either. It has you up against Roy Koopa (representing Eggman himself) and a metal Sonic (who is Metal Sonic, of course) in Green Hill Zone. Wouldn't be so bad on its own, except that ranged items keep spawning, and they are gravitated toward the AI. If that metal Sonic takes a lot of damage and grabs a Rage Blaster, you're screwed. And worst of all, Bob-ombs fall from the sky every fifteen seconds or so. There's no way of knowing where they will fall, and you'll need incredible reflexes to avoid them.
• Krystal is another Legend spirit battle that on paper sounds perfectly manageable, but in her own words... "You're not ready yet!" It pits you against a skilled and bloodthirsty duo of Fox and Falco that starts out with a Krystal enemy assist trophy. What makes Krystal scary is her versatile pool of attacks including freezing you from a distance with icy blasts that avert Denial of Diagonal Attack, and smacking you with her staff for a smash attack's worth of damage and knockback at close quarters. She also has a nasty habit of respawning right on top of you whenever she's out-of-bounds. Between the three of them and one of you, the Corneria stage becomes very cramped, not helped by the occasional Arwing swooping down and potentially firing at you. By the time you manage to defeat Krystal, you are probably at killing range percentage while dealing with the remaining Fox and Falco.
• Akuma will, for lack of a more polite term that adequately conveys how rough his Spirit Battle is, fuck your shit up. It's a Stamina Battle against Ryu on the Omega form of Suzaku Castle. Now, Akuma in his playable appearances has traditionally been a Glass Cannon, so you'd think that that would be the case here, right? WRONG. See, he's modeled after his original boss appearance from Super Street Fighter II Turbo, so he takes normal amounts of damage (and likely has more stamina than you will), and his specials are massively buffed to the point where he can quite literally wipe you out in three or four hits, his AI is fairly smart, and the fact that it's Omega Suzaku Castle means that there's nowhere to hide. And if he breaks your shield for whatever reason... say bye bye to whatever health you had left (unless you restart immediately). Not even a Critical Healing will be able to save you with this one! To add insult to injury, you must win this battle in order to be able to rescue and play as Ken in World of Light.
• Guile will make you beg for mercy. The battle conditions are simple; Your primary target is Captain Falcon, the stage is Omega Pilotwings, the Guile Assist Trophy will show up near the start of the match, and it’s a reduced jump power Stamina Battle (as with other Street Fighter Spirits). Guile or Captain Falcon by themselves would be more than manageable to take down, but together, they’re an impossibly frustrating duo to face. Falcon himself has 180 HP, just like other Legend-class Spirits, so you’ll have to deal a lot of damage to take him down, and he’s almost guaranteed to charge up his Final Smash. Guile himself is also rather durable, but he’s insanely annoying because of his signature Turtling play style. If you’re far away from him, he’ll spam his signature Sonic Boom projectile, often with varying speeds to make it harder to predict and dodge them. Try to use projectiles of your own, and he’ll block them with no issues. Try to get in close, and he’ll Flash Kick you away. Now, combine all of this long range Stone Wall annoyance with the ultra aggressive Close-Range Combatant Captain Falcon, who is clever enough to hit you whenever you try to bring up a reflector move to nullify the Sonic Booms, or even grab you and keep you in place so all of said Sonic Booms can hit their mark, and then throw you towards Guile so he can Flash Kick your teeth in. Guile also spawns right in the middle of the stage, so along with the reduced jump power, your breathing room shrinks dramatically. Individually, their biggest weakness is long range melee attacks, such as from the Belmont’s whips, but said weakness means little because they can cover for each other by hitting you while you’re occupied. This match is a very ugly instance of Character Select Forcing as a result, since mix-up and rushdown characters stand even less of a chance against their tag team shenanigans. Either get good, or go home and be a family man.
• 9-Volt & 18 Volt's Spirit Battle is pure agony, even on Easy mode. You are put in the Battlefield form of the Gamer stage and have to fight a Villager who loves to spam projectiles, an Incineroar who likes to grab you so his teammates can rack up damage on you, and worst of all, a permanent Sheriff Assist Trophy. Sheriff's attacks are quick, have infinite range, cannot be blocked or reflected, and inflict significant knockback, and with all the enemies ganging up on you, trying to do anything without getting locked in hitstun is nearly impossible. Sure, you could try to get rid of the Sheriff first, but the Sheriff Assist Trophy is Immune to Flinching, very durable (although an Assist Killer Spirit can help greatly with that), and you still have to worry about the other enemies attacking you. And even a Franklin Badge or other reflector move won't work, because the game doesn't register the Sheriff's bullets as projectiles for some odd reason. Just to top it all off, the stage keeps dropping Galagas that the enemy will use as soon as they appear. Given all the attacks that keep knocking you around, it's only a matter of time until something knocks you into a Galaga or leads to an unavoidable KO without being sucked up by a Galaga. Worst of all, you could even try to use the Galaga against them, but due to the constant bullet spam from the Sheriff, the Galagas will probably get destroyed even afterwards. Your best bet is to bring in an Assist Killer spirit on a character with a counter move, use said counter move to avoid being damaged by the bullets until you can take out the Sheriff, then grab and use the Galagas as soon as they appear, and even that will probably take a dozen attempts or more.
• Ashley is a weird case. You have to deal with both a very competent Mii Swordfighter (dressed as Ashley, of course) and a tiny Ridley, on a hazard-filled WarioWare. It also starts with an Ashley assist trophy, who is already an annoying assist (and you can't even harm her at all). Most importantly, however, is the stage-effect, where every once in a while your controls are flipped. While this can be nullified by a Support Spirit, spirits that provide immunity to this effect are very rare, and in World of Light itself, it's almost-guaranteed you won't have it by the time you square off with her. The result is that most players end up trying to brute-force a nearly unbeatable fight instead of hunting for an ability they may not know exists.
• The Star Rod features four highly aggressive Kirbies, each equipped with the eponymous weapon, assaulting you all at once. The Fountain of Dreams is far from a spacious stage, so you'll have little breathing room between half of the enemy force bludgeoning you and the other half firing star projectiles. Even worse, this is the big Spirit battle that stands in your way from entering the segment that tributes the world travelling segment from Street Fighter II's character select screen. So if you want to get there early, you need to figure out how to CLOBBAH THOSE DAMN KIRBIES real well, and do it fast.
• Rayman may not seem overly threatening at a glance, but the battle has the right combination of elements to make it quite the trial. You engage in a stamina battle in the Battlefield form of The Great Cave Offensive against Sonic, whose incredible speed makes him hard to keep up with and lets him get in your face instantly, and his strength is boosted, so it hurts a lot when he hits you. What takes the fight into the realm of frustrating is that a Sukapon Assist Trophy (the actual Rayman stand-in) will also be attacking you. Trying to drain Sonic's health becomes a nightmare when Sukapon can launch heads at you from a great distance to interrupt your attacks and deal a ton of damage, or throw you away if you get too close. Worst of all, the AI has an uncanny ability to juggle you between the two fighters' attacks, swiftly racking up the damage and making it nigh-impossible to get a hit in. Fortunately, like with most fights with assists, if you manage to defeat Sukapon (which is not as hard, as Sukapon may be strong, but he is not too durable), the fight becomes far more manageable.
• Akira. Take a Ryu with much higher health than you that requires extra Stamina spirits to even come close to, add in high-gravity to possibly waste a spirit slot or make it harder to dodge Ryu's attacks, make the battle take place in the Omega form of the Coliseum stage, add an Assist Trophy that's basically a second Ryu that can perform synchronized combos with the real Ryu, and the result is a spirit that can drive you insane. Think of bringing an Assist Killer support to help you? Sucks to be you, because the Akira assist can block your attacks (though he can still be grab and thrown. Try using Bowser's flying slam on Akira and land on Ryu to damage both), giving Ryu more time to damage you. To top it all off, this spirit is the one placed directly in front of Bowser Jr. in World of Light, meaning that you have to beat this battle to play as the Prince of the Koopas or the Koopalings.
• Terrakion, Cobalion and Virizion are an absolute nightmare. You're pitted against Yoshi, Duck Hunt and Lucario, all of whom start the battle equipped with beam swords and have the power of their melee weapons ramped up. Lucario and Yoshi will immediately swarm you with beefed up sword slashes while Duck Hunt stand back and spam projectiles, and they'll dodge or shield nearly all of your attempts to retaliate. To make matters worse, you have to fight them in the cramped Kalos Pokémon League stage, so you have little to no breathing room.
• Ho-Oh is one of the more infamous spirits in the game, and for very good reason. The fight is against a giant Charizard with Superspicy Curry active at all times, and the fight itself takes place in the Kalos Pokémon League, more specifically in the Blazing Chamber complete with two pillars of fire that make it almost impossible to fight. Needless to say, this Charizard is also very good at racking up damage, and it's nigh-impossible to get any real damage off without taking some yourself.
• The Judge spirit doesn't seem like it should be too hard at first, but it can prove to be an exercise in frustration. You're up against an army of 8 Mr. Game & Watches in Flat Zone X, and they each spam their side specials. If any of them hit you with a 9, it will KO you even at 0% damage, making this purely a Luck-Based Mission. And given that they come in multiple waves, the chance that one will hit you with a 9 becomes really high. Better be prepared to lose a lot of times if you're not lucky.
• Isaac is yet another headache. Roy, Robin, Palutena, and a Mii Swordfighter all need to be defeated here. They spawn in the rope bridge of Wuhu Island at set intervals while an Isaac Assist Trophy begins spamming Move and Lift. Isaac is the biggest nuisance here, and he's designed to be highly difficult to kill with his Psynergy hands either blocking him or picking you up. Throw in the four opponents, and either they'll slaughter you while you gradually kill Isaac or Isaac will cause you to fly out of bounds while you're trying to deal with the actual targets. A good strategy to deal with Isaac's Psynergy hands is to use Rosalina's Gravitational Pull to make any incoming hands disappear.
• Azura is a royal pain to deal with, being an extremely tough fight despite the simplicity of the conditions. Being a Legend Spirit, she has a very high 13500 power level, which in itself spells trouble. You're tasked with defeating a female Corrin with increased attack power on the Fountain of Dreams. The biggest problem, however, lies in how Azura's singing powers are represented: Corrin gets Sudden Final Smashes, which is deadly on its own, but the kicker is that she can use it twice in a row. The starting hit of the attack is also Anti-Air, creating pillars of light that can catch you while you're trying to approach her. The Corrin AI also happens to be quite smart and aggressive, and will wait for the perfect opportunity to snag you with her Final Smash for both easy damage and a potential KO, which she almost assuredly will considering how she has the capability to try it multiple times. You're pretty much guaranteed to have to deal with AT LEAST 4 of her Final Smashes before you finally get one of your own from the FS Meter...assuming you survive that long. Not helping is the fact that she beef gates Corrin's fighter battle. Your choices are simple - deal with the Final Smash Hell or forget about getting Corrin in the World of Light.
• The Dark Emperor is optional, which is probably a good thing since fighting him is likely to make you regret your life choices. Your opponent is a giant Ridley with Super Armor on the normal Find Mii stage. The precarious positioning of the stage's platforms combines with how aggressive Ridley is pushes the difficulty of this fight to the breaking point, but what pushes it past it is the fact that the normal stage hazard Dark Emperor is active during this fight. The Dark Emperor can buff or de-buff both you and the Ridley's stats, which is more likely to help it than you, move onto the foreground itself and obstruct your progress, or destroy the already limited terrain you can fight on. To quote the thing's PAL Trophy description in the previous game, "Talk about unfair!"
• The conditions for Hinawa's spirit battle, which takes place on Yoshi's Island, may look simple (all the fighters being easy to launch), but don't let that fool you. Zelda, who represents Hinawa of course, has a wide range of attacks that can hit you from distance, mainly Din's Fire and Phantom Slash. If that wasn't enough, she is aided by two Lucas fighters, who represent Lucas himself and his twin brother Claus, who gang up on you alongside Zelda and constantly spam PK Fire, PK Freeze and PK Thunder. Remember what we said about everyone being easy to launch? Yeah, you better have chosen a heavyweight fighter for this battle because lightweight characters like Pichu or Kirby have little to no chances with this one. Oh, and by the way, this spirit battle is one of the two spirits that can be mandatory to defeat in order to reach the Final Boss of World of Light.
• The alternative to Hinawa, Claus, is no joke either. It puts you in the Battlefield form of Garden of Hope against Lucas with all melee weapons having their power increased every so often. Lucas himself isn't so difficult to deal with, but after he is defeated, a Metal Lucas equipped with a Beam Sword shows up. This is where things get a bit more complicated. Lucas being metal means that he is heavier and thus it becomes more of a chore to try and knock him back. You want to use projectiles against him? He'll use his special attacks against you! You want to try short distance combat? Well, too bad for you because the beam sword's range will make that complicated. Chances are that by the time you have inflicted enough damage on him, he will have his Final Smash ready, and you'd be really lucky if you happen to survive his PK Starstorm.

Spirit Boards

Not all Spirits are found in the World of Light itself. Some of them have to be beaten by finding these Spirits in the right time, though a decent amount of them were also because they were DLC spirits that fit only in the regular Spirit Board as your chance to get them. However, these Spirits have three chances to beat them before they're gone for good (unless you have a rematch or two (or more) to spare), so these Spirits are bound to cause more Hell on you by comparison.

• Donkey Kong and Lady. You have to beat a giant Donkey Kong with super armor in a timed stamina battle, and he has a metric ton of stamina and enough strength to destroy you in seconds, making the timer more superfluous by comparison. To complicate things, Peach is also in the fight, representing the Lady (Pauline) in question, but this time, you have to protect her along the way or you lose, and she goes out of her way to get involved in the fighting. There's also the fact that because Donkey Kong is giant, his throw power is strong enough to OHKO you if you're unable to get out quick enough. None of this is helped by the fact that you fight in the awkward to fight 75m, and unlike with the Pauline spirit, hazards are turned on this time. Solution: equip yourself with a Super Launch Star spirit and throw it in the upper-left corner. When the giant Donkey Kong appears, he'll get launched into the star, which increases in knockback power and then he'll get KO'd the second time he falls into the star. Alternative solution: try to find the right spot as Min Min (or someone else with a long grab if you don't have her) while making sure you aren't accidentally KO'd yourself and throw the giant Donkey Kong backwards out of the stage (hopefully).
• Paula is even more irritating than Jeff. It's a 2v1 similar to Ana, against a female Villager and Ness. But unlike there, where you fight on Magicant, for Paula, you fight on Onett. Magicant is very open and has no walls or real hazards. Onett has the cars, which shave off 30 health (it's a stamina battle). Unlike Ana, whose Ness had only 60 or so stamina, Paula's Ness has 120. The base starting amount for the player. Same as the Villager. The main issue is that Ness loves to use PK Magnet's damage to combo you into a wall, over and over again. While the Villager whales on you as well. Plus, Ness gains a final smash a few seconds in, and has increased PSI attack power. All of that results in a very frustrating fight. To put it in perspective, if you are playing a superheavy like Bowser, it's very possible for you to get hit by all of PK Starstorm if you're not careful and die immediately, especially considering most of super-heavies have bad rolls due to having fairly slow invulnerability and huge hurtboxes.
• Ninten is pure hell. Any issue you have with Ness's psychic attacks is now multiplied by four, in a Stamina battle on the not-so-spacious Magicant stage. While they each only have 60 HP, your HP will going down a lot faster when they gang up on you, especially if two or more decide to just sit back and roast you over and over with PK Fire.
• Black Shadow is a Legend with over 13,000 power. This fight contains both a Captain Falcon and a slightly larger version of Ganondorf in Port Town Aero Drive. These two when together can knock you off the stage very quickly, and proceed to double on you, and Ganondorf hits like a truck with his Smash Attacks and Reverse Warlock Punch. It is very likely for you to get hit by their attacks, smacked off the stage and into a meteor smash from the Captain Falcon or Ganondorf, causing a defeat. Then there's the fact that you take sudden damage constantly, so you could be safe from one attack only to die from that attack in the next second. Even with some of the most powerful Legend spirits in the game, this fight can cause you to lose a lot of rematch items. For F-Zero fans, this reflects on the challenges of trying to beat Black Shadow and Blood Falcon in Chapter 7 of F-Zero GX's Hard Story Mode keenly well.
• The Badwagon. The fight is against Peach on Mario Circuit and the only condition is that Peach is permanently made of metal. Think about how much punishment Metal Mario could take in the original Smash and apply it to Peach. What's more, since the Final Smash meter is filled by receiving and giving damage, Peach will likely be able to use her Final Smash more than once. To say you're better off buying the spirit from Funky Kong is an understatement.
• Queen Metroid is a daunting Spirit Board exclusive against K. Rool in the Omega form of Brinstar. His aggressive assaults are later powered up, and then enhanced even further when he grows giant. His larger frame increases the surface area of his super armored belly, and makes his Blunderbuss and Crown projectiles much harder to avoid.
• Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, The legendary birds are represented by three Lucas fighters who each spam PK Freeze, PK Thunder, and PK Fire and the battle itself takes place in the Battlefield Form of Find Mii. They’re also really aggressive, and due to the fact that they all have 60 HP, they’re almost guaranteed to swarm you and ensure you never get a chance to fight back.
• Phyllis & Pelly can get a tad annoying if you don't know what you are doing. You fight against Pit, who represents Pelly and her cheerful and optimistic personality, and Dark Pit, who represents Phyllis and her grumpy and cynic personality, in Town & City, with the three of you all moving incredibly fast and having a hard time stopping. The worst part being that "Item Tidal Wave" rule is active during this battle, and the things that spawn are crates filled with all sorts of items (swords, melee weapons, guns, food, bombs etc.) which Pit and Dark Pit will waste no time in grabbing and using against you. Want to use the items against the angels yourself? chances are that you end up wasting more time in breaking the crates and grabbing the items than simply just going for Pit and Dark Pit, oh, and pray that the crate you just broke didn't happen to be filled with bombs, otherwise you might as well be hearing Phyllis telling you to "close the door on your way out (and be quick about it!)".
• Pyra is a bad time. To wit, you face off against a Lucina and a Shulk on the Battlefield form of Halberd, both with boosted melee weapon damage, on a field covered in lava, immediately robbing you of two of your precious support slots. Lucina packs a powerful melee weapon in the form of the Fire Bar, while Shulk starts the fight with Superspicy Curry active (which is something that the game doesn't tell you beforehand) making it very difficult to both get close to them and start a combo. Finally, unlike the average AI, if you're offstage they will come after you and try to edgeguard, meaning you'll likely die sooner than you normally would.
• The Able Sisters spirit battle takes place on Town & City and pits you against three Sonics whose sole purpose seems to be ganging up on you. If you aren't careful, you are highly likely to get stuck in their nasty combo attacks. They also start the battle with a drill each, and if the drill catches you it is also highly likely that it'll take you to the blast line, instantly KOing you. This battle is near-to-almost impossible without using any spirits.
• Baby Bowser can be a major pain in the butt. It's a stamina match against two Bowsers, one tiny and one giant, on the Omega form of Find Mii entirely covered in lava, meaning a lava immunity Spirit is an absolute must. While the tiny Bowser isn't that overly difficult, the giant Bowser is a major pain to kill, as he has super armor and will spam his most powerful attacks which hit like a truck, and if you're not good at dodging can (and probably will) reduce your stamina from full to zero in literally seconds. You can easily recover all your Stamina if you chose Ness, Lucas or Mii Gunner (If you have Absorbing Vortex) and throw your PK Shield the moment you see Bowser spitting fire (which is scaled up to cover the entire stage), but you'll still need to resist a long fight and don't get overconfident.
• Shadow Mario is a fight against Bowser Jr on the Omega form of Delfino Plaza. The conditions are he can use a Final Smash right away and his Final Smash meter fills quickly. The initial Final Smash is merely a minor annoyance, but subsequent Final Smashes can really mess with you, especially since Shadow Mario Paint is quite an obnoxious Final Smash to be on the receiving end of as it's one hit and you'll have a hard time escaping. Even if you somehow escape or never touched the paint to begin with, it severely limits the room you have to move around in. Also the floor is sticky, so you'll most likely have to use up two support slots for a sticky floor immunity spirit.
• Sukapon's Spirit Battle is twice as bad as Rayman because Sukapon is a Legend spirit with 13,700 power and puppets a Mii Gunner with 180 HP in a Stamina Battle. This Mii Gunner is extremely aggressive and nimble, preferring to zone you with her multitude of ranged attacks to make avoiding Sukapon almost impossible. Thanks to the enemy's high HP and AI level, it's more than likely you'll have to KO Sukapon twice before the fight is over. And to make matters worse, the Mii Gunner periodically gets a damage buff to keep the pressure on you even if Sukapon is gone. Your best bet with this one might be being cheap and taking it outside of the stage's boundaries quickly, if you can do so.
• Party Phil has you face off against three Mii Fighters, which doesn't seem too difficult at first, until you realize that it has the condition that Bob-ombs will rain from the sky, and unlike other battles with this condition, the Bob-ombs won't really stop falling down for any more than a couple seconds. Your main bet at winning this is hoping that the Miis will get repeatedly hit by the Bob-ombs while you can avoid them, turning this into another Luck-Based Mission. Did we mention that the Miis also resist explosions?
• Golden Dash Mushroom is an aggravating fight against a Mii Brawler who is Gold (increased power and super armor), has Collision Damage, and periodically gains uncontrollable speed and even more power, and all of this takes place on the Omega form of the Figure-8 Circuit The end result is a Lightning Bruiser who will constantly charge into you and isn’t easy to stop. The Bullet Bills and Spiny Shells provide some assistance, but it’s free for the Mii to use them as well.
• Toy-Con Robot is way too difficult, even if it is an Ace. It's almost as bad as Rayman but this time, you face two Mii Brawlers with one of them being giant, and both of them have increased power. And they have 10,000 power. And both of them are really aggressive as they constantly gang up to spam attacks on you. Worse, the giant Mii Brawler can survive up to 250%. This one can be really a nightmare if you aren't good at dodging.
• Toy-Con VR Goggles can also be quite the challenge despite being an Advanced Spirit. You're pitted against R.O.B. and two Mii Gunners, and all three will gang up on you and keep you at bay with ranged shots. May not be too difficult in theory, except you're fighting on Gamer with hazards on, meaning you have to always avoid 5-Volt's line of sight. As if that wasn't enough, hazard assist trophies are on, and it's Yuri Kozukata, meaning that you can't KO her, and you also have to avoid her camera even with everything else happening. Finally, to top it all off, Dragoon parts spawn, meaning that even if you can work through all that, you may just get one-shotted.
• Dragaux pits you in a Stamina Battle against a Giant Incineroar in Omega Find Mii. After losing half his health, he not only gets even bigger, but becomes Metal, making him hit like a train with little space for you to dodge.
• Trying to fight Fury Bowser head-on is about as suicidal as it is in his debut game, being one of the few Legend Spirits that were introduced via a Spirit Board Event. He's played by Bowser (duh), who is not only a Super Giant, but is also Metal on top of that, turning Bowser, who's already the heaviest character in the game, into an outright Damage-Sponge Boss who can only be launched by the strongest of moves. His AI (usually) isn't as bright as some of the other Spirits on this list, but that doesn't really matter because of how the Omega Find Mii stage you're on leaves you with zero breathing room, letting him spam moves like his Fire Breath and Whirling Fortress with no consequences. He also gets Curry Breath every once in a while, making approaching him even harder, essentially putting you in a Cycle of Hurting until it ends. Almost immediately after said Cycle ends, however, Bowser will get a Sudden Final Smash too, which is not only hell to avoid, but can slam you into the screen instantly if you're hit while at high damage. Be advised: Only bring the best Shield Primaries you can find, as well as some Metal Killer and Giant Killer Support Spirits, if you want even a sliver of a chance to defeat this demonic beast. Or learn to consistently dodge the giant fist. Or both.
• Knocking heads with the E.M.M.I. from Metroid Dread is an exercise in absolute frustration, especially for an Ace level battle. For starters, it's a stamina battle against a Giant R.O.B.; nothing necessarily wrong is there with that. Then you see your oppenent periodically become invincible. There we go, now we have a problem. Then when you see the stats, you'll notice you have only 30 HP on you. Don't be fooled by the enemy having only 20 HP by comparison; R.O.B. rapidly regains invincibility, leaving you with only 1 or 2 seconds to actually hit with anything at all. Combined with high speed and tendency to grab you much like what the E.M.M.I. does in its home game, and it can quickly make short work of you even with your best spirit teams and battle items. Even worse, this is one spirit fight where you can't really cheap shot it due to the constantly invincibility, with the times for vulnerability also being inconsistent once R.O.B. stops being invulnerable. And certain attacks with it can't work at all because of how slow they can be to work in this battle. Hope you enjoy the horror sounding track that plays with it, because you might be hearing it a lot here. Want a good score on the Spirit List rematch? Better have a stockpile of 50% Damages and a lot of luck, especially if you foolishly think you can beat this fight without a spirit helping you out.
• Just when you thought things were finally over and done with, the January 14, 2022 Spirit Board update gave fans one more unexpected update in store. To celebrate Street Fighter's 35th anniversary, the game added Evil Ryu as a Spirit, and if you ever played the Street Fighter Alpha series, you'll know that you're going to have to prepare for a world of hurt with him. As a sort of sequel to the Akuma spirit fight (which makes sense, considering what causes Evil Ryu to happen in the first place), you must defeat a viciously aggressive, black colored Ryu (representing his evil side coming out) that has increased Special Power and increased overall Attack Power on the Omega Suzuki Castle stage. The good news is that your defense isn't dropped, which means it is not as much of a case of Rocket-Tag Gameplay as Akuma has. There are two new problems to compensate that, however: #1, Evil Ryu has a Neutral affinity, so you are not allowed to have a Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors color advantage to give you an edge, unlike Akuma, who has a Red/Attack affinity and can at least be more easily dealt with via a Blue/Shield Primary. The second, more glaring problem is his Sudden Final Smashes. Said Final Smashes are given to him almost every ten to fifteen seconds, and he will chain them into his already deadly combos so you can't escape from them. Despite it being a Stamina Battle, Evil Ryu is also more than willing to fight dirty by first trying to knock you off stage, then using his ranged Final Smash (Shinku Hadoken) as an unavoidable edgeguard, thus sucking you in before dragging and knocking you into the Blast Zone for an early kill. Even with your best Spirit teams on hand, this Satsui-No-Hado-fueled monster of a Spirit has three words for you: Prepare to Die.
• From the Class of 2024, Deep Cut: Not only is Big Man represented by Kyogre, but it chains directly into the first of a repeating Squid Sisters assist to KO even more easily.
• The 13 Sentinel Pilots are truly a nightmare. To begin with, it's a timed Stamina battle against thirteen Giant R.O.B.s. Then, you realize that some of them come equipped with a Super Scope, some have the Impact Run ability, and some get a Sudden Final Smash upon arrival (Too bad the game only tells you about that last one). Add that to the R.O.B.s' usual rage-inducing moves like the Gyro attack, his down flurry attack where it's constantly hitting you with his arms at a downward angle and his Up-Smash being even more damaging than usual thanks to their Giant size, and you'll more than likely have a good chunk of your Stamina lost by the time you get through the first wave of R.O.B.s. Oh yeah, did we mention you only have 100HP without Stamina enhancing Spirits?
• From the 2024 Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Spirit Event, Terapagos may only be an Ace, but it feels much more difficult than the same event's Legend-level spirit battle, Koraidon & Miraidon. You fight three Squirtles in a row on Fountain of Dreams; the first Squirtle is just a regular one, but the second is giant and metal, and the third is giant, gold, has a quickly-charging Final Smash meter, and instantly gets a Final Smash after taking some damage. The latter two Squirtles have increased strength and durability due to being giant and metal/gold while also keeping Squirtle's speed and mobility, turning them into tanky Lightning Bruisers. Even if you quickly KO the first two Squirtles without taking much damage, the third Squirtle loves to throw you off-stage, hit you with a Triple Finish, and then follow up with a Water Gun just to make sure you can't get back on-stage.
• On that note, Koraidon and Miraidon themselves. The two are represented by Charizard and Meta-Ridley both equipped with a Screw Attack on Final Destination. The floor is electrified, meaning since Final Destination doesn't have any platforms to avoid it, you're going to need to fill two Support Spirit slots with an appropriate Spirit in order to just be able to fight! The two also work extremely well in tandem, meaning your attempts to land a combo on one will often be interrupted by the other landing a Flamethrower/Plasma Breath or one of the aerial attacks both prefer using on you. The best way to defeat them may be tricking the two into launching a Flare Blitz/Space Pirate Rush off the stage until they're too far away to fly back onto the stage, but with how far/high their respective up-specials can get them to travel, even that's no sure thing.
• Peach and Stella are more than capable of stopping your show in its tracks. For starters, it's a fight against Peach and a miniature yellow Kirby representing Stella on Luigi's Mansion. Peach prefers using Up-Smashes, so knowing that, you can be prepared for her maneuvers. Unfortunately, Kirby tends to be pretty aggressive, attacking you while you're attempting to land a combo on Peach, and his small size makes it hard to land a hit on him. Worse, representing Peach's transformations, the Lyn, Chef Kawasaki, and Akira Assist Trophies will spawn to assist the pair. Now, here is where Kirby's aggressiveness can get really annoying, as it will get in the way of you trying to take out Lyn before she can land her Critical Hit on you as well knocking you into range for Kawasaki to catch you and put you in his pot. By the time Akira appears, your damage percentage will most likely be at the point where one good hit from him and the curtain's going to fall on your performance.

DLC Spirit Boards

With the two DLC waves introduced to us by December 12, 2018 (made official by April 17, 2019 and completed by October 18, 2021), each character introduced to this game also has their own special Spirit Board filled up with at least eight different spirits from their series fully available for you to go up against. Unlike the regular Spirit Board, you can go up against these spirits as many times as you need to... which is a good thing since some of these spirits can be just as challenging as the spirits implemented into the game by default.

Joker (Persona 5)

• The first spirit you're introduced to in Joker's Spirit Board is of Morgana in Mementos, and this one can be quite tricky to pull off. It probably doesn't help that it has the highest point value of all Ace level spirits at an unusually high 11,500! For this one, you need to defeat a smaller than usual Pikachu with a Killing Blade included before not only occasional gusts of wind show up (meaning a spirit with strong-wind immunity is a must have), but a giant Incineroar with an Ore Club appears. While you only need to focus on Pikachu, the Incineroar's power and Ore Club will make it tough for you to focus solely on knocking Pikachu out. Plus, if you're not careful, the Incineroar can knock you out instead with one fell swoop through either the Ore Club or its Side-B attack. It's almost scary how good he is, indeed.
• For only being a Novice level Spirit, Futaba Sakura is deceptively tricky. For starters, it's a 1:30 timed battle against the regular Inkling on the Battlefield version of Mushroomy Kingdom. Simple enough, right? The problem is that, like in the 9-Volt & 18 Volt Spirit Battle, Galagas will constantly drop onto the battlefield, and unlike in that fight, they gravitate to the Inkling this time around. Sure you could grab one for yourself, but that will only leave you vulnerable not only to the Inkling's weaponry, but also the Dr. Wily Assist Trophy that spawns on stage early on in the battle. You'll definitely need to keep on your toes while dealing with the Phantom Thieves' resident hacker.
• The Caroline & Justine fight takes place on the Kalos Pokémon League stage (with no hazards) and has you going up against the Ice Climbers. Sounds simple on the surface, but there's both a time limit of one minute and sudden damage increments that get you without warning, meaning you got to take care of them (or at least, the main Ice Climber) quickly. Trouble is the Ice Climbers can pack a wallop on you themselves, meaning you can go from 0%-100+% real quickly yourself instead. Oh, and for one last piece against you, near the last 10 or so seconds of the match, if you're both surviving for whatever reason, your damage goes up to the maximum output of 999%, meaning if you haven't given them enough damage by that time, you better kiss that match goodbye and restart it immediately.
• The Phantom Thieves of Hearts fight, which takes place in Mementos, can get pretty bad, because if you don't hurry to KO each fighter quickly, the next one will appear and they'll start ganging up on you, with the fighters and the order they show up being Pikachu with an Ore Club, Captain Falcon with a Baseball Bat, Zero Suit Samus with a Fire Flower, Chrom and Sheik (be glad that the female Villager doesn't show up too). Healing KOs is a must because after you get all the other fighters, you'll face a pretty brutal Joker who'll get a Final Smash almost immediately, and if he catches you with more than 100% of damage it will be Game Over. Parts that are necessary to use the Daybreak item also spawn, and while you can use that to your own advantage, nothing stops the other Phantom Thieves stand-ins from collecting them. And while you only need to defeat Joker to win this battle, he doesn't show up until the other fighters have been taken care of. Good thing this is not a timed or even stamina battle.

Hero^*[From Dragon Quest III, Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest VIII, & Dragon Quest XI] (Dragon Quest XI)

• The Cetacea fight will pit you against a giant King K. Rool with super armor. He hits pretty hard but it's incredibly slow, so it's no problem, right? Well, the issue comes with him fighting alongside a Hero who will constantly bombard you with magic while hiding behind K. Rool as a meat shield, with them trapping you in constant combos. Add to this is the fact that this is both a stamina AND a timed battle.
• In a similar vein to the Phantom Thieves above is the Dragon Quest Legend Spirit, Hero's Comrades. It's a stamina battle against seven opponents, ending with a super-strong Ike with increased Smash Attack power as Hendrick. The sheer length of the fight can easily spell your doom, and Zelda and Zero Suit Samus come with female Robin and a tiny King Dedede in tow respectively, leaving you outnumbered and easily open to being struck down because you had your hands full dealing with one opponent while another was ambushing you. And we still haven't talked about Sheik at the halfway point and Link to start things out! You do get a Maxim Tomato about halfway through, but it's quite possible for one of the enemies to take it for themselves, rendering you even more likely to die from the gauntlet's length unless you bring a Spirit with some sort of healing effect along the way.
• The sudden addition of Tockles to the Hero's Spirit Board in Banjo & Kazooie's update quickly became an unpleasant surprise once players had the misfortune of actually fighting them. Upon the Yggdrasil's Altar stage is 8 tiny Mr. Game & Watches, all carrying various items like Beam Swords, Killing Edges and Death's Scythes with them. It's a shame the game only warns you about the Beam Swords specifically, as having multiple enemies gang up on you with such powerful items will very quickly test the player's sanity. They can even turn invisible periodically, making it that much more difficult keeping track of every single enemy you need to beat. And in one last kick in the teeth, like the Judge Spirit before them, nothing is stopping the Game & Watches from just using Judge, getting a 9, and instantly killing you right then and there.

Banjo & Kazooie

• Woe betide those who fight the Mumbo Jumbo spirit, which sets you against a Gold Mii Swordfighter and a Giant Gold R.O.B. on the normal Jungle Japes stage. While the Mii Swordfighter is the only one who needs to be taken out to win, it loves using the R.O.B. as cover while the latter uses its size and far-reaching attacks to strike you from unexpected distances, aggravated by Jungle Japes leaving you with little area to run. And in case you felt that was too easy, just before the R.O.B. shows up, you're inflicted with the Flower effect, steadily increasing your damage when both the R.O.B. and the Swordfighter could already knock you out faster than you can say "Eekum Bokum!"
• The Gruntilda spirit is similar to The Boss fight above in that you fight a stamina battle in an Omega stage covered in poison. The good news is that it's no longer timed. The bad news is that you now fight a stamina match against a Giant King Dedede with a permanent Star Rod that hits like a truck and is aided by three low-health Dr. Marios. You'll most likely have to play keep away against the duo, which is easier said than done since they're so large in size that they won't give you a lot of space to move around on the stage. And since there's multiple foes to deal with at the same time, you can attempt to combo one of them, only to be left wide open to an attack from the other. Even if you decide to bring Madama Butterfly to turn the poison into a Healing Factor for you, the Dedede's raw attack power alone can smack down your health faster than you can be healed.

Terry (Fatal Fury^note Though it's more accurate to say it represents SNK as a whole)

• The Geese Howard spirit battle is simple on paper, but can be quite challenging to deal with. You're tasking to take down a giant Mii Brawler who is addicted to three things: the Suplex Side Special, the Counter Throw Down Special, and throws in general. Like the Street Fighter spirits, you're stuck on an Omega stage with reduced jump power. SNK Boss Syndrome is strong here (fitting for being the Trope Namer himself), as the lack of platforms to retreat on and reduced jump power can mean hell when it comes to trying to avoid his constant Suplexes, and he can read your attacks like an open book, Counter Throwing you faster than you can say "PREDICTABO!".

Byleth (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

• Don't be fooled by Claude being just an Advanced class Spirit; he's way tougher than he should be. You're tasked to take down a Claude-colored Byleth on Omega Gaur Plains, but there are a few problems. Firstly, the Byleth likes to use Failnaught, and because Omega stages lack any auxiliary platforms and thus benefit projectile users greatly, you can be easily sniped from across the stage. Secondly, the floor is coated in Poison and your controls will be flipped every once in a while, but both Poison Immunity and Flip Control Immunity support Spirits fill two slots each, and Primaries can only have three slots at max. Fitting for the schemer that he is, Claude leaves you with a Sadistic Choice: deal with the constantly stacking and unavoidable Poison that can damage you enough to let him snipe you for an easy kill, or deal with the Interface Screw and likely leave yourself open to attack while you're trying to readjust yourself.
• Another aggravating foe that comes with Byleth's Spirit Board comes in the form of Rhea. The battle seems simple enough at first glance. It's Stamina Mode on the Bridge of Eldin, and your opponent is Palutena, who is replaced by a giant Charizard for the battle's second phase. There are few things of concern, however. For starters, Rhea's Power level is among the highest that Ace class Spirit fights can offer, making her statistically quite tough, and her Neutral typing means that you can't cheese it by having a triangle advantage. The biggest problem, however, is the Charizard. When we say that it's in giant form, we mean really giant, giving it a great power boost, huge attack range, and immense resistance to knockback and hitstun. That would be manageable, were it not for what could be best described as "jank". Hitbox Dissonance is in full swing, as the sheer size of the Charizard causes your fighter to be pushed back away from it quite a bit, and due to how hitboxes work in Ultimate, Charizard's idle stance can let it avoid grounded attacks at point-blank range, since your attacks can hit between its legs, and not the legs themselves. This leaves you with no choice but to either take to the air to hit its main body, which will probably net you a Flamethrower to the face to disrupt your attempts, or try and hit its legs with larger sized attacks, which can leave you wide open to being hit with repeated Down Smash stomps. You'd best beware the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros, as underestimating her can be your undoing.
• Sothis' Spirit has you on an Omega Spear Pillar, facing off against an aggressive female Byleth, who can and will chain Specials together along with using the Sword of the Creator to ensure the fight can't be taken to the air. That would be annoying on its own, but there are two other conditions that bring the fight from agitating to outright sadistic. Byleth will get random Final Smashes, and its large range and a lack of platforms to hide on means that you'll most likely be eating a powerful Ruptured Heaven every time she gets access to it. But by far, the worst part is that, like the above-mentioned Great Fairy, she'll be healed back to full once she's at high enough damage, undoing all your hard work unless you can KO her before the healing kicks in.

Min-Min (ARMS)

• Max Brass is an absolute nightmare to deal with. Don't let his (relatively speaking) low Power level for a Legend-class fight fool you; he's one of the most painfully brutal fights to ever grace the game. It's a one-on-one Stamina battle against King K. Rool, on an Omega-form Norfair. The good news is that the K. Rool is programmed to never use his projectile attacks, robbing him of some of the character's greatest assets and forcing him to solely be a Close-Range Combatant. The bad news is literally everything else. In spite of the lack of projectiles, K. Rool is otherwise programmed to be very, very smart, always scampering around like a cockroach on drugs so he's hard to pin down, and always dodging your attacks with no effort, at least when he's not Perfect-Shielding them. He can and will abuse his newly-buffed Kevlard, which will let him plow through your attacks and lay on the damage on you instead, and he'll also abuse his Gut Check so that you can't zone him out with projectiles of your own. Which is to say nothing of his throws, which he will use to set you up for more deadly blows. Thought that was bad enough? It gets far worse! Once he reaches 100 HP out of his total 180 HP pool, he gets a Critical Status Buff taken to the extreme. Not only does his regular attack power get buffed, but he becomes a Super Giant on top of that, multiplying his strength to outright obscene levels. He may be a bigger target, but his attacks also have more range as a result, and his sheer girth means that it's almost impossible to run away from him, as he takes up almost half of the stage. He also becomes much more resistant to hitstun and knockback, meaning that he can just take whatever you throw at him and hit back a million times harder while you're still recovering from endlag. A single Down Throw to Forward Smash is all it takes for him to chop a huge chunk of HP off of you, if not One-Hit Kill you outright. Your best bet is to, funnily enough, use Min Min and her huge range to keep him at ARMS length without the need of projectiles that can be potentially deflected by Gut Check, but even then it's not a guarantee. The reigning champion of the ARMS Grand Prix is sure to make you lose your mind and rip your hair out from sheer frustration.

Steve/Alex/Zombie/Enderman (Minecraft)

• Despite being a mere Advanced spirit based on a common mook, the Skeleton spirit can catch unsuspecting players off-guard if they're not careful. The battle takes place in the stone shore biome of Minecraft World and consists of three Links that spam neutral specials, which can easily leave players being peppered by attacks with little opportunity to attack back. Making this even worse is that all of them can suddenly have a Final Smash, which they use with striking accuracy. The odds of surviving all three Final Smashes is slim, essentially putting the player on a timer to take at least one of them out before the Final Smashes kick in.
• The Piglin is yet another Advanced spirit that is deceptively hellish. The battle requires the player to defeat either seven Gold Alexes or seven Gold Mii Brawlers if the player bought the Pig Costume under a 2-minute time limit, each holding a Killing Edge. Doesn't sound too hard on its own, but what makes what should be a simple fight a painful one is the stage: Reset Bomb Forest's second phase. The extremely awkward platforms are positioned just right to interfere with your attempts to KO the fighters no matter which of the two they are, and there's nothing stopping the fighters from just stalling for time and lose you the match, if they don't decide to just gang up on you and kill you outright with their boosted power and critical hits. And remember that time limit? Once you're down to about 10 seconds left, any remaining enemies decide you give one last middle finger and power up, so if that happens you may as well kiss that attempt goodbye and start over. Welcome to Hell.
• Upgrading from Advanced spirits to an Ace spirit for this series, the Villager & Iron Golem spirit has you dealing with not just three Steve & Alex characters, but a giant R.O.B. all at once, all of whom love grabbing you and throwing you all over the stage. To make matters worse, R.O.B. pops up only seconds after you try and fail to deal with the Minecraft characters early on. R.O.B. also has super armor on him, which makes going after him a greater challenge when you also have to deal with multiple Minecraft fighters all being annoying nuisances to deal with on their own due to their love for ranged grabs. And for extra measure, you need to make sure you get the Cuccos to throw against everyone just to have a fighting shot against them all, because you're in for absolute Hell with this match otherwise.
• If you thought that the Dark Emperor was a nightmare, well you're in luck, because the Enderdragon is similar both in the battle itself and certainly in its difficulty. It requires the defeat of a Super giant Ridley with 200HP and two Endermen with 50HP each, once again on the normal Find Mii stage in a Stamina Battle. Mercifully, the Dark Emperor won't interfere with this fight and Ridley lacks Super Armor this time around, but that's about it as far as good news goes. Ridley's sheer size makes him literally as big as some of the platforms you're standing on, meaning there's nowhere to run away, and the Endermen are likely to harass you with their endless normal attacks while Ridley prepares to tear away at your HP personally. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, once Ridley hits about 100HP, both him and the Endermen will fully recover their HP, undoing all of your hard work from before. Here's to hoping that either you're able to take down both Endermen before you get Ridley down to about 100HP or the dragon ends up being an idiot and self-destructs by accident, because you're otherwise likely to meet your end. A lot.

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

• The Turks and Rufus Shinra is an Ace spirit that will send you into the Lifestream. It's similar to both the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and the Hero's Comrades in that you're facing a large number of fighters who are all too willing to Gang Up on the Human, in this case, multiple Mii Brawlers and Swordfighters. Explosive items also spawn very frequently, meaning you can often end up taking unavoidable damage as a Bob-omb or Smart Bomb lands right in the path of one of your attacks. Your target, a Robin representing Rufus himself, doesn't spawn until all other fighters are defeated, by which point you're likely to be damaged enough that even his Wind jab combo can easily pick you off. All while you're praying an explosive doesn't drop on your head at the worst possible time.
• Bahamut ZERO is another straightforward fight that regardless manages to be a major pain in the neck. You're fighting on Battlefield Midgar, and ol' Bahamut himself is played by a Giant Meta Ridley. A very aggressive Giant Meta Ridley. His AI is absolutely relentless, abusing his Giant-boosted hitboxes, obscene attack power, and great combo game in order to stunlock you into oblivion once he catches you, if not just drag you off the screen like Jigglypuff's Wall of Pain back in the days of Melee. Because Ridley is Giant on a normal-sized stage, it's very difficult to evade and block his blows, especially if you try to come in from above, in which case he'll happily charge an Up Smash to cover one of the platforms and KO you on the spot. His Sudden Final Smash when he's at high damage is the cherry on top, because it can instantly destroy you if you reach 100% damage, meaning trying to use Rage and Critical Health effects is a bad idea. Bring several Giant Killers with you, or Bahamut ZERO will Tera Flare your butt into next week.

Pyra & Mythra (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

• For this series, there are two Legend spirit battles awaiting you in Pyra & Mythra's Spirit Board. With the first one, the Malos spirit battle has you in the Gaur Plains fighting against three giant Ridleys to start things out. While you do need to just take out the main fighter (a giant Richter with a beam sword) to win, you also need to beat at least two of the three Ridleys before you even have a chance against Richter in the first place. Unfortunately, Richter has an impeccable range with his whip and beam sword to easily cause significant damage on you, if not knock you out quickly. And for one last kick in the head for good measure, if you both survive long enough, you also have to deal with Metal Face doing his thing on the Gaur Plains as well. Good luck with that.
• As for the second Legend battle, the Pneuma spirit battle is a stamina match against Pyra & Mythra and a Shulk representing Rex on Cloud Sea of Alrest. Shulk is a major pain in the rear, often interrupting your attacks and catching you by surprise, but he at least has (relatively) low HP. Pyra & Mythra gain sudden Final Smashes at almost every minute. If that wasn't enough, when Pyra & Mythra are at high damage, their movement speed is increased (with Mythra already being quite fast) and they will turn metal (the game states that the transformation is occasional, but it's actually permanent). A support spirit that heals you when you are at high damage is a must for this fight, otherwise, you'll get absolutely obliterated between Shulk and the Aegis' combo game and all the Final Smashes.

Kazuya (Tekken)

• Heihachi Mishima, like Geese Howard before him, has a spirit match that fits him being a master fighter in his game series. Like Geese, Heihachi has a particular set of moves that the Mii Brawler representing him (either as Heihachi himself or a dragon helmet with a black fighter's uniform, depending on whether you bought Heihachi's Mii costume) utilizes rather well, with him using moves that represent Heihachi from Tekken to Smash as well as a Mii Brawler could. As a stamina battle, the Mii Brawler will damage you real well, real quickly, with a sudden Final Smash that's able to finish you off in a brutal manner if you don't have a spirit that heals from critical damage. All while you're encased in the (mostly) enclosed Mishima Dojo, with serious damage to the walls or fighter being key to try and throw Heihachi out of the dojo as an alternative win condition to depleting his stamina properly. While he might not represent SNK, he certainly feels like an offshoot of SNK Boss Syndrome with his spirit match.

Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

• Riku, as befitting his That One Boss status in the original game, is sure to drive you up the wall. Facing off against a Corrin with enhanced move speed, they also start off with a black hole, easily trapping you in place at the start of the fight to be wailed on, and as it's a stamina match, not being able to be launched is small comfort. And he WILL abuse that move speed buff to go at you from every angle, constantly poking at you from just out of your reach, using hit and run tactics to catch you off guard. If you're not prepared, he will send you screaming into EVERLASTING DARKNESS!
• Aqua is no slouch either. Like most of the other KH fights, it's a stamina battle, starting with 150 HP, however you don't immediately fight the opponent herself at first, instead starting off with a very annoying fight against four tiny Mr. Game & Watches with fifty HP each, representing Shadow heartless. These tiny guys are SUPER aggressive though, and will lunge at you any chance that they get. THEN Lucina will spawn, will full HP. While Lucina herself is no slouch, the really annoying part is the Krystal assist trophy. She's REALLY aggressive and her blizzard attack will take chunks off of your HP.
• Concluding the trend of unbelievably difficult Legend-class DLC spirits, we finish things off with Sora's very own Nobody, the Key of Destiny himself, Roxas. Are you scared yet? You should be. This stamina battle in the Roxas "Dive to the Heart" form of Hollow Bastion pits you against a Sora with 160 HP to your 150, as well as increased move and attack speed every so often. The trouble is, he also starts equipped with a Killing Edge, and he will heal once you get him down to 80 (all but guaranteeing that he'll be able to build up his Final Smash), neither of which the game tells you about. As you'd expect, the AI is hyper aggressive, refusing to give you any breathing room. He'll use Sora's entire bag of tricks against you, flinging magic to cover any distance, charging with his Sonic Blade, and pulling out a counter if you get sloppy. And because the spirit has a whopping 13,800 power and a Neutral affinity (meaning you can't weaken him by selecting a primary of opposing type), you either use a high power spirit of your own, limiting your support options, or weaken yourself in order to get auto healing that you WILL need to compensate.

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