In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate there are a lot of things to unlock such as hundreds of soundtracks, hundreds of Mii outfits, and hundreds of spirits and spirit upgrades. But to unlock most items, you're going to need to buy them through the shop with your hard earned gold. This guide will help explain to you which modes would net you the most gold, the pros and cons to each method, and what to do with all that gold.

How to get Gold in Smash Ultimate

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the main way to get gold is through single player elements in the game. So, playing in the adventure mode World of Light, the Spirit Board, and Classic Mode will let you gain the most gold. You could also play online and get gold that way, but that would not net you as much as these single player game modes. Finally, through the Smash game modes, you get gold for each match you complete.

World of Light

In the adventure mode, World of Light, every time you pass an obstacle you will get gold, a spirit, and spirit enhancements based on what ally spirit you have. To get as much gold from these fights as possible, it's recommended that you use a lower class, level, and weaker primary spirit in these fights. This is because Nintendo rewards players for the difference in levels between you and the CPU. The pro to this is that it has the potential to be quick because you would have to fight one match to get a lot of gold. However, the con is that it may be incredibly difficult.

Going into fights and scenarios in the World of Light story mode with overall weaker spirits than the enemy will sometimes cause you to die in one hit, which may force you to constantly have to retry. The huge con of this method is that it may take a substantially longer time to complete than the other game modes depending on how the CPU acts. One moment they could jump off the cliff and you reap the rewards and another moment it takes you over 20 minutes to beat one level with low spirits.

The Spirit Board

The Spirit Board follows the same format as the World of Light mode, in that the weaker the spirit you fight with, the higher the rewards. The positive side to the Spirit Board is that, unlike the World of Light, no navigation is required, which may shave off some time. However, selecting difficulties of Spirits may be difficult because each spirit on the board has a timer. A level 4 spirit may not be present for hours or level 1 spirits, which do not give you as much gold, may plague the board. Both the Spirit Board and the World of Light follow the same structure to their fights, so they aren't extremely different.

Classic Mode

In the Classic Mode, players get gold for completing the story mode no matter what level difficulty it is. The higher the level, the more gold you get, so always set your starting difficulty at 5.0 which is the max to start out with. In the last game of Smash 4, it takes gold to start the Classic Mode but in Smash Ultimate, it is completely free. As you do better with each level in Classic Mode, you can raise the level all the way to 9.9 which nets you the most amount of stuff from spirits to gold. If you fail more than once, I would say you would be at a deficit because it takes roughly 200 gold to retry a level. If you have difficulties passing a level, it is okay to use your tickets.

I’m just saying this here because I know a lot of you are just saving them for something. Remember to use all your resources. Finally, keep in mind you still get gold even if you don’t complete Classic Mode by beating Master Hand. This alone is a nice way to earn money even if you fail. A great way to grind Classic Mode is with a friend as player two because it acts as a safety net. If one of you falls in battle, then the other player can still complete the mission.

The pros to Classic Mode are that you can actually play with a buddy as to not get lonely, you don’t have to complete it to get a good amount of gold each time, and it's highly replayable so you won’t get bored as fast as you’d think. The con is that it takes substantially longer than other game modes because you have to play in multiple battles than just one. Also, rewards are dependent on what level you get to which can be difficult for newer players who struggle playing the game or to regular players who mess up due to luck or because of how the CPU acts such as getting a powerful item early on in the match.

Mob Smash

Another game mode which nets you a good amount of gold is actually Mob Smash, but I would recommend Century Smash because it is a lot quicker for a lot more gold. The reason why I recommend Century over the other modes is because, in All-Star Smash, you go for as long as you can and people may go on for like 10 minutes or even longer. For Cruel Smash, it is way too hard to kill enough of them to get a decent gold income. In Century Smash, it is extremely easy to pick your best character and complete the 100-man gauntlet because every enemy basically dies in one hit. Each time you complete Century Smash, it should average about 2 minutes and you should get roughly 250–300 gold each time, which is not a bad income.

I believe it is the fastest and safest way to get gold is through Century Smash because it gives a high constant amount of gold in the shortest amount of time. The huge con to this is that it gets extremely boring fast. If this is your go-to method, be ready to spam this game mode with one character over and over again. Soon if you play it long enough, it becomes a chore rather than a game.

Online Play

Another game mode where you can get gold is through winning in online play. However, each victory doesn’t get you as much as one victory in these other offline game modes. Each victory online against a player will grant you a Smash Tag. Each Smash Tag is worth more gold the more victories you get against a person, so if you constantly play online you are bound to run into them again to get more gold. It’s okay if you accumulate a lot of tags with one or two wins. You have to win to get other player's Smash Tag, which can be difficult for those with poor internet or those who aren’t good at the game.

A huge pro to this mode is that you can play online with the same friends and just keep grinding for their Smash Tags. This is the most fun because it’s a match with an actual person rather than a bot. The cons to playing online are that it requires you to sometimes have good luck, good skill, and most importantly good internet. This is not the most effective way of grinding gold in my opinion, however it is one of the most fun because you get to play with other players; I highly encourage playing online not just because it gives gold, but because it will make you a better player by exposing you to real people and in turn will develop your playstyle because everyone plays differently.

How to sell Smash Tags: to sell the Smash Tags, go to the Vault menu, then to records, then to Smash Tags. There you can see all your victories over other players and sell which ones you don’t want.

The final way you can get gold and definitely the most fun way is through the Smash game modes such as Squad Strike, Smash Down, and regular Smash. You just need to finish a game and once on the result screen, it will show you the gold you’ve earned. You may miss it if you keep mashing the button to move onto the next fight so be careful. A way to know that you're earning gold is to listen to the sound the gold counter makes when it increases, which will happen every time you finish a match.

It doesn’t matter what mode you play, every game you complete in the local offline Smash section will give you gold. The pros to this are that you’re already doing this most likely and it’s easy to play games with friends. You can complete this by playing against other players, Amiibos, and regular CPUs. The drawback is that gold is given for how much time you spend in the game and how well each person does such as damage given. Sometimes during high-level play matches will take upwards to 8 minutes, and it requires you to maybe have someone over which can be a hassle. This is the most fun way to earn gold because it’s just you playing the game with friends or computers.

A way in which you could get a lot of gold from this is to bring your Nintendo Switch to a Smash tournament, that way everyone will constantly play high-level games giving you the gold. Who knows maybe you may also make new friends, meet top players, or get a venue fee lowered.

How to spend gold in Smash Ultimate

So now that you got a lot of gold, what do you do? You have to spend it. Go into the menu, then onto vault, then access the shop icon. There should be Mii outfits, music, support items, spirits, and snacks for you to spend all your hard-earned gold on. The more you buy, the more slots will be unlocked for you to buy even more. It takes some time to reset the shop so after you buy everything make sure to come back after playing a few more games.