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How to get the Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Gabe Gurwin
Joseph Yaden
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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched in December 2018, with a roster of more than 70 characters, including multiple newcomers and every fighter ever featured in the series to date. It’s an impressive lineup, and is bolstered even further by the implementation of the Piranha Plant. This fighter can slam multiple times in a row into enemies, spit projectiles and poison, and unleash a spring-powered long-distance attack, among other moves, and its Final Smash is none other than the famous Petey Piranha.

In 2019, Nintendo implemented a way for early Smash Bros. buyers to acquire the Piranha Plant fighter for free. Though, that free offer has since expired, there is still a way to get your hands on the fighter for a nominal fee. Here’s everything you need to know about acquiring the Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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How players obtained Piranha Plant fighter for free

If players bought and registered their copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by January 31, 2019, they’d be granted free access to the Piranha Plant fighter. Upon registering it, you would have received an email from Nintendo with a code to unlock the character for free — whether they bought it physically or digitally.

Players who bought the physical copy needed to register the game through the My Nintendo Rewards Program to obtain Gold Points and receive credit for owning the game — after which, they would have gotten the same email listed above.

Since 2019 has long passed, you are no longer able to obtain the fighter for free, even if you purchased before January of that year, as the DLC codes have now expired (as of June 2019). This was a limited-time offer meant to reward early buyers of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and is no longer valid, unfortunately.

How to get Piranha Plant in 2021

If you’re reading this in 2021, you likely missed out on getting the Piranha Plant for free. Fortunately, Nintendo hasn’t walled off the fighter completely, but it’ll cost you. To acquire the fighter, you’ll need to purchase it from the eShop for $5. Keep in mind, this is the only way to obtain the character, as it’s not available through any of the additional Fighter Pass bundles.

To buy Piranha Plant, head to the eShop and search for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When you find it, select the game and you’ll be brought to its landing page on the digital store. Scroll down from here and you’ll find all of the DLC that corresponds to the game, including various fighter packs like Sephiroth and Steve from Minecraft.

Click View All Items, and you’ll see a list of all the available DLC items you can buy. Scroll down until you reach the Piranha Plant stand-alone fighter, which you can select and purchase for $5. Once you do that, it’ll install and you can boot up the game.

Typically, you’ll need to play a match or two and you’ll get the “A new foe has appeared! Challenger approaching” message, indicating that a battle to unlock the character will begin shortly. Then, defeat the Piranha Plant to obtain it in-game. If you lose, you can certainly try again.

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Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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