We recommend picking the fighter that may have your favorites along their path. You’ll be able to get them all as you finish exploring the map.
The route you take not only impacts which of these fighters you’ll get first, but also which fighters you’ll be able to unlock soon after. You will be given a choice to unlock one of the three: Marth, Sheik or Villager. Right past him, you’ll be forced to make a decision. Immediately after starting, you’ll run into Mario. But where are they? Which way do you go? Why are they blocked off by a rock or a running stream? In this guide, we’ve compiled the characters and created maps of their locations, so you can find them. That all being said, sometimes you just want to hurry up and unlock your favorite character. (And unlocking them in World of Light unlocks them in the rest of Smash Ultimate, if you haven’t gotten them already.)
They’re the same as approaching the fighter in the “Challenger approaching!” method - you just have to kill them once to get them. The fights against the playable fighters are straightforward and don’t have any special rules. However, the game will only start you off with Kirby unlocked, which means you’ll have to seek out any other characters you want to play as and beat them to unlock each. You’ll run around on a map and play special fights with specific rulesets to emulate fighting against a character who isn’t quite playable in the game. Ultimate’s story mode, World of Light, is simple.