Koopa Kid Circus; General Bowser Jr. Guide

Bowser Jr. is one of my favorite characters in Super Smash Bros 4. I have wanted him playable as a newcomer ever since the pre-Brawl era and I finally got my wish. A slightly unorthodox fighter, Bowser Jr. has an extremely versatile kit with plenty of options for rushdown, a solid aerial game, some combos and good stage control/zoning. He has some very strong (if not slightly unreliable) kill moves and a good off-stage gimping game.

Overview/Strengths:
Bowser Jr. has a unique property of having a "weak spot" and a protected spot. Hitting him in the clown car will do .85x damage while hitting his body will do 1.15x damage. For this reason, depending on the matchup, it's often advisable to spend some good time in the air and approach from above. He's in the upper echelons of the weight tiers so combined with his superb recovery (side B and up B) and clever use of damage mitigation, he'll be living for quite some time. He's unpredictable if played well and has very strong attacks with large lingering hitboxes.

Normals:
A- his boxing glove jab. Does 3% damage. It is decently fast and has pretty good range for a jab. The jab finisher is slightly unreliable (it's a little slow, as jab finishers tend to be and can whiff) but it does have long range so it can catch people off guard.

>A- Fork stab. Does 8% damage. This move is good. It's fast and decently powerful. It's a good zoning move as it has very nice knockback for a tilt. It won't really be killing anyone but at high %, you can use it to knock an opponent far away to set up a gimp. You can angle this slightly up or down.
^A- Fork Flip. Does 6% Damage. Similar to the FTilt but angled upwards. Has a decent hitbox size and is also very fast. A good move for people approaching from the air.
vA- Tongue lash. Hits 3 times for 8% damage, 1% on the first hit, 2% on the second hit, 5% on the last hit. Another very good tilt in Junior's arsenal, not to mention a very amusing one. It comes out fast and protects Bowser Jr.'s weak spot for the most part. It has good priority so it's your go-to zoning tool but it can be punished if you whiff. The range is good so it's easy to catch people off guard with this move if you don't abuse it.
Dash A- Buzz Saw. Hits 6 times for 11% damage. Jr.'s dash move is powerful as far as dash moves go, coming out fast and having a good hitbox in front of him. It has good damage and knockback and plenty of active frames but don't spam this move because it is easily punishable if you don't connect and you can easily be shield grabbed out of it.
>Smash- GIGA DRILL BREAKER. Hits 6 times for 16 damage uncharged, 22 damage charged. Bowser Jr. holds 2 drills out in front of him that spin for multiple hits and he pinches them together for the last hit. Note that this move has extremely good knockback on the last hit. The last hit of the move where he pinches the drills together also has slightly more range than the rest of the move meaning that you can catch people off-guard if they drop their shield (probably only good while people are unfamiliar with the matchup) This move is strong but I would advise against using it often outside of easy punishes. It has a somewhat awkward hitbox and I've noticed that it whiffs sometimes even if the opponent is close to you. It also has a slow startup and some end lag.
vSmash- Double wrecking ball. Hits for 18% uncharged, 25% charged. Bowser Jr drops two wrecking balls on both sides of him. This move comes out pretty fast and has very good knockback. However it does have a lot of end lag. The range is good so you can catch dodge-roll happy opponents with it for a strong punish. You might end up use this move more than your FSmash.
^Smash- Propeller Spin. Hits 7 times for 13% uncharged, 8% charged. Bowser Jr. flips upside down and spins the propeller on the underside of his car. The last hit has him do a little hop which launches the opponent. This is the weakest of his smashes but still a solid kill move. It has next to no horizontal reach so you'll probably only want to use this to catch airborne opponents or save it as an out of shield option.
NAir- Boxing Glove Spin- Hits for 6% Damage. The car extends it's boxing glove arms and spins around. This is a good air move. It's fast, does decent knockback (not a kill move) and has a ton of active frames. It has a pretty big hitbox.
FAir- Wrecking Ball Swing- Swings twice, hits once for 11% damage on the first swing, 8%-4% on second swing. This move hits harder depending on how early you hit with it. The hitbox does linger and it has solid knockback. Because of the active frames, this is a very good gimping move, even if you don't sweetspot it. This has some nasty landing lag but with timing you can short hop auto cancel it.

Bair- Backwards Wrecking Ball- 14%-8%. Unlike your FAir, this move only does one swing backwards. The sweetspot is the earlier frames of the move, similar to your FAir, and it also has good knockback. It comes out fast and has the same landing lag as Fair but like Fair you can short hop auto cancel land.
UAir- Hammer Swing- Hits for 10%. Jr. does a quick upwards hammer swing. This is a good juggling tool- the knockback isn't that high (not really a kill move either) but it's solid. It comes out fast and does good damage.
DAir- Drill Stomp- Hits 9 times for 12 damage. A drill comes out of the bottom of the car. This is a strong aerial move and fits in with the strategy of "approach from above". It has good priority and strong knockback on the last hit which is good because it has the most landing lag of any of your aerial attacks. It comes out decently fast and I haven't found that it's possible to escape the multihit. It won't be killing anyone but it is good for racking up damage.


Specials-
Neutral B- Clown Cannon - Hits once for 7% uncharged, 18% charged

Bowser Jr. charges and fires a cannonball. Instead of dissipating like most projectiles do at the end of their course, the cannoball will start falling like a normal object would under the influence of gravity and inertia. The ball can hit people while in this descent but if it hits the ground the ball will bounce and NOT hit opponents. The uncharged one will go about a little less than half of final destination before it starts falling and the fully charged cannonball will go very slightly less than the full distance. The charge takes a good deal of time to complete so you won't be using it too often. The actual firing of the cannonball also is considerably laggy. The ball has good priority and will eat through most any projectile like aura spheres and arrows. It also is decently big and because it's somewhat slow (it gains speed with charge), it can be a decent edgeguarding tool- it has very high knockback and can kill easily if charged. You can play zoning mindgames with this move in conjunction with your mechakoopas.
Side B- Clown Kart Dash- hits for 7%, 12-9% during spinout
The clown car grows wheels and charges forward at a high speed. Inputting a backwards motion will cause the car to spin out dealing more damage and knockback (you can surprise people with this move as it WILL kill at decently high percent if you sweetspot the spinout). The spinout does more damage at the start than at the end. This will also go through shields so throw out a spinout every so often to catch your opponent. What makes this move so good is that at any time, you can jump cancel it. This also works in midair giving you a stellar recovery. Note that if you Side B and jump cancel it, you won't get another midair jump so use your midair jump BEFORE inputting side B if you intend to recover with it. If you hit someone with the kart and jump cancel it, you can combo into an aerial attack. DAir is an option at very low %, NAir is a reliable option at low-mid%s and UAir at higher percents.
Up B- Abandon Ship- 5% on jump, 13% on car explosion. 15% on followup hammer swing.
Bowser Jr. jumps out of his ship, causing the car to plummet downwards and explode after a second. If the car lands on an opponent it will do the 5% and combo into the explosion. You can trick some opponents with this since the explosion is slightly delayed while the car is on the ground. This is a kill option although it is risky since it leaves your entire body exposed. While you are out of your car, your only attack is a midair hammer swing that covers a wide area on both sides of Bowser Jr. This hammer swing has extremely high power so it's another good kill move. At high %s, you can chain a Side B into an Up B hammer strike for an easy kill set up. Also note that if you get hit while you're out of your car, pressing A will cause another car to reappear allowing you to recover again. Landing or grabbing a ledge will cause your car to regenerate but this move has high landing lag so, again, be careful in how you use this powerful attack. This move can be a good edgeguard against certain predictable recoveries if you can drop the exploding car right on top of them.
Down B- Mechakoopa- 2% on contact, 7% on explosion, 9% if thrown
Bowser Jr. opens a hatch and causes a windup exploding koopa to waddle forward. If it reaches and edge it will turn around. After a few seconds it will stop moving and blink for a bit before exploding which can hurt you. If the mechakoopa hits an enemy, it will jump, popping them into the air, and explode for a 2 hit combo (you won't get hit by the explosion if it attacks this way). You can also pick up the mechakoopa and throw it like a projectile. This explosion will not hurt you either. Be careful though as enemies can also pick up the mechakoopa and throw them back at you. Some interesting properties are that the mechakoopa will reset it's timer if picked up (so picking it up right before it explodes while it's not moving will be safe) but if you don't throw it in time it will explode in your hands, hurting you. Another thing to note is that if you run up, you can regrab the mechakoopa as it pops up the enemy with it's jump attack. For example, run up and NAir, which will hit the opponent and grab the mechakoopa allowing you to throw it again. Using this move in the air will cause the mechakoopa to delay it's march, allowing you to pick it up easier. This move is your bread and butter for zoning and can allow you to create space or to have a safer approach.

Grabs
Bowser Jr. extends a claw from his car. It has decent range but despite it's appearance, it's not a tether grab. His pummel hits the opponent with a rubber mallet for 2% damage.
FThrow- punches the opponent forward. Does 9%
BThrow- Spins around and tosses the opponent backwards. Does 12%
Uthrow- Tosses the opponent upwards. Does 7%
Dthrow- Drills down on the opponent launching them on the last hit. Does 8%
Unfortunately, like much of the cast of characters, none of Bowser Jr.'s throws are really kill options. They also don't have any followups (that I've noticed, at least, the DThrow sends them too far away to follow up reliably).

Weaknesses:

Despite Bowser Jr.'s high damage and high knockback, he still has trouble killing. His "early" kill moves are Neutral B, FSmash, USmash, DSmash, UpB, and UpB Hammer. All of these are relatively easily telegraphed or high risk making closing out a kill difficult. He also has no easy lead-in to these moves other than perhaps landing a good Clown Kart dash. Making good reads and taking advantage of your gimping ability is essential.
Bowser Jr. struggles with certain matchups, notably zoning characters with long range such as Zero suit Samus and Rosalina. He can deal with heavy projectile spam with his down B and neutral B (the mechakoopa can act as a projectile barrier or sorts, similar to King Dedede's waddle dee in Brawl). but characters with long disjointed hitboxes can shut down his approach. Also, reflectors are hard to deal with as they can easily send the slow moving mechakoopas chasing after Junior himself. Characters with strong aerial approaches (i.e. Yoshi) who will attack you from above are a pain to deal with as they will constantly be targeting your soft fleshy turtle body.
Mixups with the Kart dash are great if they hit but if you get too predictable then Jr. is easily susceptible to being shield grabbed. A lot of his shenanigans can be somewhat easily avoided and blocked by a patient opponent.

Custom Moves:
Neutral 2- Piercing Cannon- 4% uncharged, 10% charged.
Fires a smaller cannonball that can, as the name implies, pierce through multiple opponents. It seems to have the same charge time and cooldown and the ball seems to travel at a higher speed. In a one-on one situation, this move doesn't seem to have a whole lot more use compared to the standard clown cannon. The higher speed makes it easier to hit but I actually value the larger, slow moving standard cannonball for the zoning and mindgames you can play with it.
Side 2- Koopa Drift- 2% on hit, 10% on spin out over 9 hits
This is an interesting alternative move. The car travels as normal but only deals 2% damage by running into someone. The main use of this move is the spinout function which has many more active frames and becomes a multihit attack (although dealing less damage). Like the standard kart, you can still jump cancel it after a hit but it knocks them forward instead of straight up- I've found that this means that the only reliable follow up is a FAir, which is very potent still. Another important thing to note about this move is that doing a spinout in the air, as shown in the above picture, gives you huge horizontal distance- you almost lose no height if you do the spinout immediately. You can fall while in car form and spinout while falling; you will keep spinning forward on the ground.
Up 2- Meteor Ejection- car hits for 3%, explosion hits for 10%
This move is weird. It drops the car straight down and it falls faster than the normal up special. The jump gives you significantly less jump height making it worse for recovery. The attack itself also has a lot less KO power making it no longer viable as a kill move. However, the main draw to this move is that, as the name suggests, it has meteor properites. The first few moments of this attack, right as you drop the car, it has a meteor effect. The explosion itself does not meteor, you have to drop the car on them. You can hammer in the air as normal after ejecting, of course. I would not highly recommend this move.

Down 2- Impatient Mechakoopa- hits for 5%
Bowser Jr.'s custom down special, the impatient mechakoopa, is not a very valuable one in my opinion. Jr. fires a mechakoopa at an arc that will instantly explode if it hits something. If it lands on the ground, it will explode after a second. You trade the stage control that the regular mechakoopa offers for a weak projectile. It does have its merits, if you can get used to the trajectory, you can do some nice edgeguards with it (the horizontal range is quite high too) but the cooldown is quite long so its not spammable. You CAN pick it up but because of how far you fire it and how short the fuse is, you will never be able to reach it in time on your own (I was able to pick it up after spawning a bunny hood). Opponents can pick it up but the short fuse will cause it to explode almost instantly.
Neutral 2- Air Cannon
Bowser Jr. charges his cannon but instead of shooting a damaging cannonball, he fires a blast of wind instead. It charges slightly faster than the cannon. Naturally, as the name implies, it fires nondamaging air that will instead push enemies back. I feel like it's not very useful as you can't hold the charge and the trajectory is limited to strictly horizontal (and it's not *that* big of a projectile anyways).
Side 2- Grounding Dash
Sorry, no pic as this is the only custom move for Jr. that I have yet to unlock (the grind is awful). Anyways, this move seems to be pretty good- it has slightly more startup but it does bury grounded opponents on hit. You can then jump cancel the move into an aerial or even a smash attack (maybe?). I'll test this once I unlock it.
The spin does no damage and you also dont do damage with it in the air.
Up 3- Koopa Meteor- hits for 9% on explosion, hits for 16% on fall
Bowser Jr. flies up in the car (the ascent is purely vertical) and then the car explodes, causing Jr. to plummet towards the ground. You have slight horizontal control while falling but its hardly any (You get less horizontal distance using this move than you do with Aether). Because of this, it has little value as a recovery move but it makes up for it with attack power. The car exploding is decent but when Jr. falls afterwards (and he falls fast), if he hits an opponent it will deal heavy damage and decent knockback. There's also less landing lag than your normal up special. You can hammer while falling as well. Interestingly, if you hammer right after the car explodes, you will have normal falling speed for a while and you even get more control of your horizontal movement. Overall I'd say this move isnt worth it as it would be easy to block or counter the attack portion and it has little value as a recovery option.

Down 2- Big Mechakoopa. Deals 14% on explosion, 15% if thrown
This move is very good. Jr. produces a large mechakoopa that walks slowly and doesn't pop up opponents before exploding. It also deals more damage and has a lot larger blast radius. It has a shorter fuse than the normal mechakoopa as well. Since it is so slow and doesn't tackle opponents, it is very easy for them to pick it up and throw it at you. For this reason, the best thing to do is to drop the mechakoopa and pick it up for yourself when your opponent isnt nearby. It becomes a very potent throwing weapon for you to use (and yes, it CAN kill).

Well that wraps up custom moves. My ideal loadout would probably look like 1,3 (or 1),1,3

Match-ups:
Mario is actually a bit of a challenge for Bowser Jr. as he has a lot of options to counter with. Mario's fireball can stuff a lot of your approaches. Also his cape is a lethal weapon- he can easily reflect a mechakoopa with it which will cause it to target you instead. This turns the stage control against you, bolstering his already decent aerial approach game. His FLUDD and cape are the legendary gimping tools which can stop a lot of your Up and Side special shenanigans as well. If he capes a charged cannonball it will almost certainly spell your doom. It's not all bad though; his legendary combo game will do less damage against you as he punches at the underside of your car with uptilts and upairs. His recovery is also not the greatest so you can go offstage and gimp him somewhat effectively.
I'd say, funnily enough, Jr. is pretty well equipped to deal with his old man. I say that but be warned, it is still a Bowser and you still do need to watch out for his heavy damage attacks lest you suffer an early KO. That said, your mechakoopa can limit is approach and your cannonball is a viable zoning option against him as he notoriously is weak to projectiles (do NOT spam these though as if you get predictable you will get grabbed or something). You have solid knockback and decent disjointed hitboxes so use those to your advantage to zone Bowser. Finally, due to his huge size, you can easily side B punish one of his many laggy moves and follow up with an aerial (or more!). Up B hammer kills reliably at less than 120% I believe.
Rosalina is a tough matchup for Bowser Jr. but then again, you could say the same for a large portion of the cast. Gravitational pull will render your cannonballs useless and allow her to easily steal your mechakoopas so, as with most other reflector characters, use those moves sparingly. Besides that, remember that she is the queen of zoning with Luma. You might be able to cheese and bypass Luma with a well timed side B to get Rosalina into an air combo but she can stuff that move with starbits as well so be careful. Don't try to approach her from above too often has her up Air will beat out anything you have and she can juggle you. Same tips for other characters apply when fighting her- don't ignore Luma, trying to kill him then rushing down Rosalina is something that could work but Luma is on a short respawn timer so act fast.
Link is notorious in this game for being a heavy projectile spamming and zoning character, although his sword moves still hit like a truck. You will have to watch out for that as he has high range and letting yourself be hit with a smash or dash attack will rack up tons of damage in no time at all. If you get into a long distance projectile war, your cannonball WILL eat through any projectile he throws at you fortunately but as long as he's not in an animation, his shield will completely negate it. Your best bet is to probably play a little safer and try to gimp him offstage. Also DO NOT get hit by the down air.
The Ganondorf matchup is similar to the Bowser matchup- you have tools to deal with him but that doesn't matter if you let yourself get hit as he has massively powerful attacks that can easily KO you. Luckily you're one of the heavier characters but you still need to keep your guard up. Watch your head for wizard kicks and down airs. Most everything he does is either telegraphed or has a long cooldown or both so punish with a side B and juggle with UAir. Your neutral B is good for edgeguarding in this matchup, especially if he uses side B to recover. You can gimp him but watch out for ganoncides if you miss your aerial.
Another character considered to be very strong by many, ZSS gives Bowser Jr. a fair share of problems. Her whip will out-range a lot of your attacks and they come out fast. She can grab or paralyze you out of Side B so use that move sparingly against her. She's agile enough to where it probably wouldn't be the best option against her anyways. She can be dispatched if you can land hits so the best option in this matchup would be to play safe and look for opportunities to land attacks; focus on dodging her grabs and maintaining stage control with your mechakoopas and disjointed hitboxes. She's also not as gimpable due to her up B having a big hitbox with lots of knockback and the unusual trajectory and speed of her down B. Look for a punish and outright kill her with a DSmash or something to that effect.