S Tier - Kirby can use these moves better than them
A Tier
It is so game changing when Kirby doesn't have to approach as he charges these projectiles. He can also combo into these attacks, just to give himself breathing room to charge up again. Samus is the most deadly of the bunch, but I think they're all worthy of A Tier.
Good zoning tool, and Kirby can debatably make great use of grenade tech.
B Tier - Take them if you can get them, but don't act too hungry.
This move has insane damage output, 30-40% damage if you catch them at close range and is no longer unsafe on hit. You could menace Bowser's recovery in Smash 4 for free damage but it's not so in Ultimate, they gave his Up B a protective hitbox that lets him travel through the flames.It can be used to somewhat cover ledge options however, and will hit him hanging on the ledge as well.
Low risk projectile to somewhat force approaches or at least tack on some free damage. Might also menace their recoveries from onstage to boot. These moves vary in quality, but so do the matchups, and they all seem useful to have if you can get them.
Pocketing and throwing Lloyds and slingshots back is about the most mileage this grants Kirby in a 1v1 scenario. Pocketing a bowling ball can be great but is unlikely. Mainly gets B tier due to disrupting Villager's zoning potential.
Good combo break tool and reflecting Phantom is great. Just remember Phantoms have variable activation windows depending on what Zelda wants, so you're still at risk of getting hit if your timing prediction was off. May cause Zelda to avoid using Phantoms out of fear, which is great news for Kirby as well.
I just like forcing the approach, and it's nice to have a move strong enough to kill in the air that isn't as laggy as hammer. Safe on block too, so it can substitute for your smash attacks and cheese early kills on a read.
Another frame 1 combo break tool (though at the cost of health) and a great move in its own right.
C Tier - Starting to debate whether you want this over Inhale
One of the greatest features of this move was covering ledge options, but now consistently loses to ledge attack in Ultimate. All in all this move is Inhale but starts up faster and grants some healing.
Yoshi's is slow but has great damage potential when successful.
Can be used to push opponent offstage for an edgeguard, but I didn't have as much mileage with Fthrow > Water Gun as I expected.
Good finisher for an Utlit string.
Not as good at racking up damage as Bowser's.
Two ways to reflect, though it could menace him offstage somewhat.
Reflectors.
Low damage, low knockback, easy to avoid. Can kind of camp Doc mostly due to how slow he is, but he could just cape them back.
The only projectiles she has are slingshots or an activated Lloyd Trap. Kirby can sit back and eat slingshots without putting himself at risk of followup attacks until she starts approaching with them. What makes Pocket great however is how easily you can jump on top of the trap with pocket, forcing an activation. That not only nullifies the danger of the trap, but can give you a very high damage tool that would be insane for Kirby if he had any aerials that could kill since he can followup off a trap for up to 60% damage. What keeps this in C Tier is just that Isabelle can just stop using Traps once she's been inhaled and that move isn't central enough to her gameplay for it to hurt too bad
The spamming ends when you run out of charges, but these attacks can really menace Robin
Similar to Robin, you can't refill on ink, but you start with a lot, and you can safely spam from a distance and the Ink debuff is nice for Kirby
One of the slower counters of the game
Has a long cooldown after use but good damage
D Tier - Has few applications, especially in this 1v1 matchup
Frame 1 light armor lets you avoid combos you otherwise couldn't with your once-per-airtime airdodge. However, Mac isn't much of a low knockback combo monster. The only combo you can use this to avoid are his strings into Up B for a very hard punish, which stone already can do. And Inhale is just such an effective tool against Mac that this isn't much of a contest.
Same drawbacks as Luigi/Doc but Mario's better movement stats give him a much easier time getting around this move.
Spitting back gordos is fun but you can just as easily eat them. Debatably ranks C Tier since it's a slight upgrade to the base Inhale in terms of damage dealt but I'm not impressed.
He can reflect these back now and thus isn't very threatened by this mediocre wall of projectiles.
Still slow enough that she can easily reflect them back
Can close distance well enough to deal with his own gun, unlike Falco/Wolf. Plus reflector.
Similar to Fox, except you tack on even less damage now.
Not as good as Pit's. Also two means of reflecting it.
E Tier- Don't bother
Yes this move has many improvements, but is only effective against opponents that don't know how to deal with it. Jigglypuff mains can work out strategies to respond to Rollout shield pressure.
Hadoken is low damage and very laggy. Only gets use from Ken/Ryu since they can cancel directly into this for a combo finisher, Kirby cannot.
I'm a fan of these moves, but these two can magnet them. But since Lucas's move is so ridiculous I could see arguments for a higher tier in his case.
Since the AI climber is inactive when the player Climber is grabbed, Inhale can be very useful for separating them. And Kirby's ice shot is just the puniest projectile you could ask for. Ice Shot is debatably useless even when there are two climbers doubling its output which Kirby cannot benefit from.
? Tier Needs labbing for usefulness