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Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online - GSP Explained, Lag Fix, How to Play With Friends

Super Smash Bros Ultimate has a pretty robust online feature. Here’s what you need to know.

Jake Green avatar
Guide by Jake Green Contributor
Updated on

As the years have gone on, online play has become a bigger and bigger part of Super Smash Bros. It's never been the smoothest of experiences though, and even with the arrival of Super Smash Bros Ultimate—things are alittle messy. There have been some refinements to the way players get into matches with each other though, and if you know what you're doing it can be pretty quick to get started. To help you get into some Smash matches with your pals, and to give you some advice on how to improve your Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online experience in general, we've put together this Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online Guide. We'll explain what GSP is, and also take a look at how Battle Arenas work.

For more on Super Smash Bros Ultimate, be sure to head over to our Super Smash Bros Ultimate Guides Hub. It’s where you’ll find all of our Smash guides. From essential tips and tricks, to detailed character breakdowns, we’ve got you covered.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online Guide

Online is a big part of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and is where the best players will end up going to battle it out with each other. There’s a ranking system, several different matchmaking options, and even preferred rulesets. Let’s take a look at the key info.

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How to Play Online in Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Players looking for a real challenge in Super Smash Bros Ultimate will want to head online. You can do so by going to the Online section of the main menu. From there you are presented with a few options. You can either fight or spectate, and then can either go straight into a Quick Match or set up your own preferences. If you want to do the latter, then select Battle Arena. Think of these Battle Arenas as lobbies, in which players can wait before heading into a match. We’ll go into more detail on Battle Arenas later in this article.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Battle Arenas

Battle Arenas are essentially lobbies. You can either create your own, or join someone else’s. To create your own Battle Arena, you’ll need to set the number of players, and ruleset. You can also set a password so that only your friends can join.While waiting to start the match, you can place your character token in the waiting area, the ring, or in the spectator Stands.

How to Play Online With Friends in Super Smash Bros Ultimate

When you or one of your friends creates a Battle Arena, it will visible to everyone in their friends list. You can use this to easily set up matches with pals, as all you need to do is show Battle Arenas from friends only. To reiterate, you’ll need to be friends on your Nintendo account in order to matchmake in this way.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online Wireless Matchmaking

If everyone you’re wanting to play with is nearby, you can use the Wireless feature on the Nintendo Switch to set up a match. To do so, head into the menu and hit ZR. Scroll down to the icon of the Nintendo Switch and select Wireless play. From here you’ll be able to create an Arena and easily see those that your friends have created.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate GSP Explained

There’s a unique ranking system in Super Smash Bros Ultimate called GSP. It stands for Global Smash Power, and is a measure of your performance in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. If you win, your GSP goes up, lose and it goes down. You’re matched with players with a similar GSP to you, so the higher you go the harder it gets. You can view your GSP in the records section of the Vault.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Elite Smash

There’s a top tier of competitive online Smash Bros reserved for the very best players called Elite Smash. Players with a particularly high GSP are invited to take part, with 450,000 seeming to be the current requirement. You’ll only know once you’ve been invited, though the requirement will shift as the average GSP shifts up and down.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online Lag Issues

It’s pretty much a consensus right now that Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online is far from optimized. Players are reporting lag, issues finding other players, and being kicked from matches. Anyone who has played a Smash game online will know that unfortunately, this is par for the course. Hopefully Nintendo will patch in some stability fixes soon.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Matchmaking Fix

While there are issues affecting Super Smash Bros Ultimate Online as a whole, there are some ways that you can improve your matchmaking opportunities. Firstly, you’ll find it easier to find 1v1 matches that are more stable. As the character count increases, the stability takes a hit. Similarly, it is difficult to matchmake with certain rulesets, so consider trying some new types out. Finally, you can head into System Setting on your Nintendo Switch console and select network. Now, select Change Settings, and scroll to the MTU option. By default this is set to 1400, but you’ll want to change it to 1500.

For more on Super Smash Bros Ultimate, you'll want to visit our Super Smash Ultimate Guides Hub. There's also our Super Smash Ultimate Spirits Guide for everything you need to know about Spirits, and our guide on the fastest way to unlock characters in Super Smash Ultimate. Finally, you'll want to take a look at our Super Smash Ultimate Character Guides. There's one for every single fighter in the game, with movesets, Alternate Costumes and more.

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