'Smash Ultimate' Update Version 11.01 Nerfs Wii Fit Trainer Exploit

Nintendo surprised Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players with an unannounced update on Wednesday.

Updates in Smash Ultimate usually change the way that fighters play, and this one is no different. Instead of a handful of fighters being adjusted, though, version 11.01 fixes just one character—Wii Fit Trainer.

Wii Fit Trainer may not be considered one of the most powerful characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but the most recent update before Wednesday's—version 11.0, released on March 4—altered the way the fighter handled so much that players were taking advantage of it.

The official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Version 11.01 patch notes consists of a single line, which says, "Vulnerability when landing after using the Wii Fit Trainer's side special Header had decreased unintentionally, so this has been adjusted."

So what does this mean? This means that Wii Fit Trainer's side special, called Header, allowed for the character to be invulnerable for a longer period of time than originally intended. Those who play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate regularly know that this exploit was being used by players to spam the move without being "punished," essentially giving them a way to deal a lot of damage without the risk of being hit.

For three weeks, Smash Ultimate players were using this exploit to wreak havoc in online play, as well as come up with crazy combos like the one shown below.

Essentially, the Header special is used to keep opponents at a distance, but also to chain into combos like the one in the clip above. If a player uses Wii Fit Trainer's Deep Breathing special beforehand, their fall speed increases, allowing for even crazier combos.

This "shadow buff"—an update that wasn't intentional or documented—made waves in the Smash community.

The Reddit post quoted below, taken from r/SmashRage, perfectly describes the situation from the perspective of those who were playing against Wii Fit Trainers in the past few weeks.

"Wii Fit trainer is one of the few characters in the entire game that take zero skill. I just lost an entire one-on-one tourney because of it, you just Spam the same projectile a billion times during a match and it guarantees a win. This game should have a penalty for using the same special move over and over for example if you use the soccer ball five times in the span of 6 seconds then the speed of the attack should be slowed down just like roll dodging. That would actually make it fun and fair," wrote one reddit user.

Now that the update is live, players like the one above won't have to worry about any "godlike" Wii Fit Trainers online anymore.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now for Nintendo Switch.

Are you happy for this latest update? Did you encounter Wii Fit Trainers exploiting this unintentional change? Let us know in the comments section.