- Game Versions
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
King Dedede match up guide for intermediate players.
******Stuff I am assuming*******
I assumed that you have already read a moveset guide/are comfortable enough already to do D3 tech but have just recently wanted to get more competitive
I assumed that although you are comfortable playing DDD you might be struggling with certain match ups.
I am assuming that the character being fought by you is an amazing player and will utilize their full utilities.
I am assuming you know technical smash lingo, like bair, fair, dair, nair just to name a few basics.
**Disclaimer: I am in no way amazing at this game and I have tried my best to make this as accurate as possible in order to truly help D3 mains who are in that phase of trying to get really good. This guide is based off the current meta of patch 1.1.6 and is hopefully as relevant as possible. I am open to suggestions or deleting the guide entirely if it's just not good. I am trained as a chemist and was hoping to apply my analytical skills to this king DDD guide so hopefully it can help D3 mains who are new but comfortable with the game get ideas on how to deal with their toughest match ups. If this guide seems decent to people I'll do the rest of the characters. A majority of this guide is from my own experience, competitive matches, the king DDD discord and kuroganehammer.com for specific data. This guide more so gives you an Idea of what each character is looking for in order to be better prepared to counter it.
Mario:
Mario’s go for their classic bread and butter of down throw to up tilt, prepare and expect the up tilts and try and SDI and DI up and away, typically you should be able to get out by the 3rd up tilt mashing jump also helps break this combo. At higher percents it's gonna be down throw to up air so expect that and DI away from mario as much as possible to escape the up air follow up. Mario will run up and short hop behind you expecting you to throw out a move, he will either land behind you and grab or throw out the first hit of down air which will also lead to a grab at low percents. Be careful throwing out gordos in the neutral as a good mario will not cape the gordo but reflect it with his fireballs.
Mario will use fireballs in the most strategic way by either full hop or short hop fireball in order to drift forward at you in line with the fireball in hopes you shield the fireball so he can get a free grab, I think it’s best to just jump if you see mario either running behind a fireball or drifting toward you in the air with a fireball. Mario’s down tilt will lead into an easy grab at low percents and sometimes since marios are expecting you to know the down throw up tilt combo they only up tilt once expecting you to air dodge for another free grab. If you get grabbed by the ledge and down thrown do not jump after the throw instead fast fall down and recover low because if you jump he will fair spike you. Never try and punish a mario up smash if he is on the ground charging it he expects you to do this and will abuse the intangibility of this move.
At or around 70% he can go for a short hop forward drifting nair which will knock you toward the ground and if you don't tech he will jab lock you and fsmash you to death. If you notice the mario has good reaction time don't mix up the super jump by trying to go past the ledge and land on stage at the top of the arc of up B because he will just cape you to your death. To beat mario abuse DDDs range and try and wall him out, ledge traps and edge guard are important against mario and it's best to use the gordo in this advantageous state while he is trying to recover.
Luigi:
Like mario luigi's love to run behind their fireballs expecting you to shield so they get a free grab. Try and avoid this by short hop or full hop right before the fireball gets to you because if he was running and throws out the grab expecting to get it, you get a free weak nair combo starter at low percents. Luigi arguably gets more off grabs than mario because most of his aerial chain combos lead into another grab. Typically he will down throw, fair, fair, regrab, fair, up air after the second fair hits try and either jump or DI away as much as possible to avoid the regrab. If you get luigi in the air expect him to try and land with his down B, luigi's love to land with down B. This is another character you don't want to just throw out gordos in neutral because he will just fireball them right back at you. If you expect this you can reflect it but he may have time to fireball it again leading to a ping ponging of the gordo until it disappears.
Luigi's recovery is pretty bad so don't go for edge traps go for off stage edge guards because he doesn't have a lot of options when recovering is pretty easy to gimp him. Be aware that at +100% he will go for jab jab up b, you can typically shield the up b if you expect it but it can catch you off guard especially if he is mixing up his jab patterns the whole time. If he catches you with jab at that magic up B percentage mash jump and he get the weak hit and it's a free punish. It's safe for you to expect a misfire everytime he uses side b that way he doesn't catch you off guard and kill you early. Luigi's nair is frame 3 so if you are trying to juggle him try and space the hammer so your hurtbox isn't as close to him other wise he will break the juggle with his nair. Typically luigi's don't go off stage to try and edge guard but be wary of a ledge trump because he is going to down taunt spike you if you regrab the ledge.
Princess Peach:
Peach loves to use turnips in a similar fashion to mario and luigi's fireballs although arguably the turnip is a small bit less annoying than the fireballs but will still lead into grabs. If she throws a turnip at you and you shield it expect to get grabbed and if you get hit by the turnip she gets a free dash attack. Peach is going to use her float mechanic to hover above you try to bait out a move so she can punish you with an aerial. Beware of the peach bread and butters which at low percents are down throw ftilt, expects you to air dodge her follow up, regrab, down throw, back air, rushdown, regrab, down throw, back air. She is also looking for a down air to connect because depending on the way it launches you she can link a back air or forward air to this.
If you get hit with her down tilt expect a fair follow up and/or she is expecting another air dodge for a free grab. Turnips do reflect gordos so do not throw out a gordo if she is holding a turnip or you will eat said gordo. In my opinion peach is more easily walled out than mario and luigi, her fair has quite a bit of start up and bair is going to pillage her float mechanic quite nicely. Don't be to afraid of her counter although it doesn’t hurt to expect it but I don't think I've ever seen a peach counter kill. Be wary of her kill confirms especially if she expects you to jump while she has a turnip, she will throw the turnip off you in the air and the moment it bounces off you she will regrab it with fair which will kill you.
Bowser:
I am less experienced in this match up... Gordos are great in this match up as bowser has a giant hurtbox much like DDD. I personally think that jab jab grab is really good against the other heavy characters so don’t be afraid to go for that on bowser. Beware of getting grabbed by bowser as his grab range is superior to DDDs. He gets a decent amount off grabs and will either up throw, up tilt, up air, or up throw, nair, nair at low percents. He has another up smash that if you see him charging it just be patient and don’t try to challenge it as his shell covers most of his body and is intangible during the move. Try and avoid getting grabbed at high percents by the ledge because he will forward throw you into the blast zone.
If you hit bowser's shield and he isn't facing you expect him to up b out of shield to punish you and since DDDs moves are all commitments you will most like eat the up b he throws out. If bowser runs at you and short hop down b either let it hit you or roll back because it’s going to shield break you and due to the good knockback on bowser's fsmash and because we survive vertically not horizontally you will most likely be killed by it. You can go for both edge traps and edge guards against bowser because his recovery is really predictable.
Yoshi:
ugh yoshi's eggs are more annoying than fireballs and turnips combined. A good yoshi is going to be able to confirm almost anything from an egg hit, up air, grabs, and nair. Eggs pillage gordos so never throw out a gordo in neutral only when edge guarding yoshi. Although not impossible to gimp yoshi it is more difficult due to him having super armor on his double jump. its best to try and hit him back off stage after he burns his double jump because that’s yoshi death. Yoshi has some bread and butters that work really well on DDD like up tilt, up tilt, up air, up air, up air, even if you air dodge the third up air he'll just fall under you and up air again. Best to DI left or right out of this column of destruction and better yet to try and avoid those up tilts. Yoshis neutral special the egg poop thing is annoying but i've found that most yoshi's expect you to mash out of this move very quickly.
If you notice the yoshi is going for hard reads out of egg rather than quick damage it's best to slightly delay the mash to throw him off, but if he down airs you in the eggs you eat damage no matter what so if he goes for that often mash sooner rather than later. The strongest yoshi kill confirm in my opinion is his fair spike to up air. If you see him fishing for that fair spike avoid, dodge, evade lol because you will die. Like luigi, yoshi's nair is extremely good at breaking combos so try to space the hammer in the air in such a way that your hurtbox can avoid the nair. Expect to get comboed by yoshi pretty hard in the air unless your evasion skills are off the charts because his air speed is 2.03 times our own air speed and he will abuse that. (number calculated from data on kuroganehammer.com). What I call the for glory yoshi combo is the following, he will grab you at +100% and he will grab pummel you until you slide out onto the ground do a jab and then kill you will his up b. To avoid this all you need to do is be aware that he is just grab pummeling and not about to throw you usually this is obvious after the 3rd or fourth grab pummel and if you don't mash anything you get more time to prepare yourself the for the jab which you can shield and roll away because if you have low shield after the jab the up b will break it and he'll kill you anyway.
Wario:
Similar to inhale but an overall much better move is Wario's bite. Wario will try and abuse the bite as much as possible using it to cover ledge get up options, catch you out of the air, b reverse it to punish rolls, because it has minimal end lag he will use this move often. Wario also has great air mobility (1.92 times that of our own) so he will abuse this to short hop behind you and grab or last moment aerial after you drop shield. In neutral gordos are great against wario because he has to rely on reflecting gordo with an aerial or tilt and if you expect that you have a greater chance to volley the gordo back at him and hit him anyway. I would say go for edge guards and ledge traps when fighting wario. If the bike is on stage he has to rely on his up to recover but if not he can recover great horizontal distances with his bike. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure of what combos wario is looking for so I’m not much help there but I do know a few he can pull off.
If you are grounded the first few hits of wario's down air can be fast fallen into the ground and then a waft at high percents. If he manages to full hop fair you and you tumble to the ground a second fair can reset you. The tip of his dash attack will trip you usually giving him a free grab and punish and at low percents down throw will combo into the tip of dash attack if you don't jump. Beware of wario's back air by the ledge if you see him fishing for one because that will kill you at higher percents. Honestly i've only played one god like wario and that’s it so, I'm a bit inexperienced against good warios.
However, don't let wario shield break you, not that it's usually an issue because I'm not aware of shield break setups for him but if he does the god like wario I fought has an insta death combo on you even if he shield breaks you at 0%, the only caveat is he needs the waft to be charged. If Wario shield breaks you he'll pull out the bike and stand from you about two character widths away and throw the bike upwards, then roll behind you and forward tilt you into the bike, jab you into the bike, jab you into the bike again and when the bike knocks you back the last time he'll waft you. It does 90% damage and since he can do this right on the ledge you will most likely die because waft has horizontal knockback.
Game & Watch:
Game & Watch or Mr. G&W will do a short hop frying pan and try to confirm a grab off from it if you shield it. When he gets a grab at zero he can down throw up tilt and nair you. At or around 40% he will start to go for down throw side b so that he can clutch out the game with a judge #9. If the Mr. G&W is frying pan happy throwing out gordos in neutral is not going to work because he'll just press b and you'll eat that gordo because he can just keep pressing b and even if you reflect it the gordo only volley's or hits you. When trying to land against a Mr. G&W be aware of his usage of up airs. Mr. G&W will use his up air to poof-poof you and mess up your downward momentum which can be confusing and throw off aerial spacing if you aren't careful.
Mr. G&W is the third lightest character so it shouldn't be to hard to get early kill on him with a bair off stage, so my recommendation is to go for edge guards more so than ledge traps but ledge traps are also good for Mr. G&W as well. He will try and edge guard you with frying pan by sending bits of food right by the ledge, the timing is tricky but you want to up b in the middle of the food launching that way you'll hit the ledge when there isn’t a piece of food there. I used to get pillaged by this edge guard until I figured out the timing. Armoring through doesn't really work cause the projectile covers the top of the super jump arc where there isn't any armor. If you get a shield break on Mr. G&W with the super hard read gordo+fsmash ledge trap, the u gordo to jet hammer works really well if he is in the 40-60% range. Mr. G&W also has an upsmash that if you see him charging it he is baiting for you to hit him, as this moves starts up it has invincibility that will negate your attack and you will eat a fully charged up smash and it will kill you at 79%(no rage) on an omega with no DI cause I was in training mode and can't really use two controllers at once.
Donkey Kong:
This is a matchup where gordos are super good. Since DK is also a super heavy the jab jab to grab is a mixup that works well. Try to avoid getting grabbed by DK as much as possible because if you do get grabbed the cargo throw will allow him to combo you hard. The ding dong will kill you getting grabbed at 95% with no rage and 3 pummels if the DK manages to connect it all and no DI because again I was in training alone. There is also a really weird hit box on the DK super punch by his shoulder that has vertical knockback and will kill you if you get grabbed at 101% no rage no DI. DK downtilt has the chance to trip you with a certain part of his hand and if you get tripped that's a free grab for him and more combos. It’s harder to wall DK out because he has massive arms that rival the range of our hammer however in the air his options are much more limited as he will go for bairs with his stubby legs or up airs to catch your landing.
To abuse his air weaknesses try reverse aerial rushing him when he is facing you in the air so you can bair him. He may pick you up at higher percents and try to throw you into the stage but if you are expecting it and don’t mash out it time it’s not too bad to tech and then footstool him but it’s most likely more beneficial to mash like hell to get out of that situation. As long as you are above DK off stage it's super easy to spike him but if you are any bit on his level in the air you'll eat his up b because our dair is slow. I go for more ledge traps on DK because if you get the shield break the u gordo to up B is really good on him in the 20-50% range the timing isn't as strict. There should always be a gordo out when DK is trying to land because he doesn't have a ton of options in the air to reflect gordo without the gordo trading with him.
Diddy Kong:
Honestly I'm trash at this matchup so take my advice with a grain of salt. Diddy kong's banana is what makes this matchup so difficult. All he has to do is wait for you to try and land and catch your landing with a banana for a free grab and most likely a decent string of aerials at lower percents. The only good thing is even if you get comboed for like 4-5 hits from him his damage output is incredibly low so just relax when he is juggling you and try to be smart about how you DI which is usually away from him so he can't follow up. I don't have much more advice except try and pick up on his habits. Is he b reversing peanut gun and cancelling it to mix up his landings? Is he baiting you to throw a move so he can banana you? He is vulnerable when he plucks a banana but usually a diddy won't allow himself to be punished for plucking a banana.
Link:
In this match up it's really important to use power shield as much as possible. There is a special range you want to stay at or try to stay at all times when fighting link which is just outside of his sword's range but just inside your hammer's range. Being at this distance to link negates his usage of projectiles and allows you to punish if/when possible. It can be incredibly hard to get in on link if he is stuffing all your approaches with projectiles but dash shield is super good against his projectile game. Just remember if a bomb hits your shield it bounces off so don't run forward into it. At 140% links f-tilt and dash attack will kill you from center stage with no DI no rage. Links knock back on his tilts scales dramatically with rage so be wary of his tilts if he is at high percentage. A smart link is going to try to confirm as many things as possible off from bombs so if you can shut down his bomb game with power shields it's much harder for him to get hits in on you. This goes without saying buts it's impossible to out camp link you are going to have to approach him if he is trying to camp you out this again is where the power shield is really important in this match up. Link will down throw you into up tilt which after the first up tilt his you should be able to jump away if you DI up and to the right. If he up smashes though you just have to eat the up smash and then can escape. Never air dodge out of link's down throw at early or high percents, air dodge at high percents and you will eat an up air and die, air dodge and low percents and you'll eat more up tilts, up smash, or another grab. Link is like DK in that if you are on his level at all when trying to spike him you will eat his up b, it's better to be much higher than link and wait for him to start his up b and fastfall dair him. If you down throw him at the ledge at early to mid percents try to either fair wall or bair wall him as far away as possible from the stage because he has no horizontal recovery options except for maybe tether but even that has limited range. Link has the 3rd fastest fast fall speed ours is 3.12 and his is 3.04 so unlike a majority of the cast he can rival our ability to hit the ground first if both are in the air.
Princess Zelda:
Zelda is the special moves warrior, expect to see every one of her specials moves in the neutral. She will edgeguard with her projectile and down b. Don't be afraid to throw out gordos in neutral because even if she uses her reflector it typically blasts the gordo away and at a really high angle. This is the zelda bread and butter starting at 0% two down tilts into a grab, down throw, nair and then fair or bair depending on which way the nair sends you, if you expect the fair or bair follow up it's much easier to avoid by simply DI'ing away. She will mix up her follow ups on down throw at around 40-60% down throw can connect with her sweet spot bair which sounds cool and has scary knockback. Don't air dodge out of her down throw at high percents she expects this and wants to up air you which is powerful.
Since she is tall bair is really good in this match up because it’s really easy to hit her with it compared to pikachu who is super short and hard to hit with bair on the ground. Don't charge any smash attacks unless you are sure they are going to hit, if a zelda sees you charging a smash attack she will snipe you with her up B and since she hits you while you are charging the smash attack its gives her additional knockback and if by the edge can take your stock very early. I can't test how early because I again I don't have anyone to test it with but I believe a friend of mine took a stock as early as 60 something percent while I was charging a smash attack by the ledge. Go for ledge traps against zelda because edge guarding is tricky since her up B makes her disappear and has a hitbox.
Sheik:
UGH pre patch Sheik was a nightmare with her campy needles but now post nerf shiek is much more enjoyable match up still bad though. A good Sheik will give you no time to breathe by constantly being in your face. Sheik has a ton of confirms and set ups and next to no lag on all of her moves. She is looking for side tilts into down tilts into grab into fair, fair, fair, bouncy fish. Her nair has a lingering hit box and is good for tagging your get up options. Gordos are good in this match up because unless sheik spaces right she'll just trade with the gordo and thank Sakurai that needles don't reflect gordos. She won't be afraid to chase you down anywhere, on stage, off stage, or in the air. After a forward throw be ready for the bouncing fish because after mid percents it's more easily avoided but until like 60-80% expect sheik to just juggle and combo you unless your evasion game is on point.
Use caution when going for ledge traps because she can let go of the ledge jump and bouncy fish the gordo into your face. Best thing to do is stand by the ledge wait for her to grab it then wait like 1/2 a second run back and pivot fsmash. Quite often Sheiks will bouncing fish after grabbing the ledge expecting you to get hit but dashing back and fsmashing should put you just outside of her range but put her in the sweet spot of fsmash. Something that works really well on sheik and can kill early by the edge is weak nair to bair. Relax in this match up because you are going to get juggled just be patient because you'll most likely get the first kill because Sheik needs really hard reads to kill us, tipper up smash or needles to bouncing fish by the blast zone.
Ganondorf:
Ganondorf is somewhat of a free matchup so long as you don't sleep on ganon, remember he only needs to hit you like 4-5 times and you die. Ganon lacks good approach options and is pillaged by gordos, just be cautious of his nair because even the lightest tap from his nair will reflect gordo and is probably his best option to reflect due to the size of his legs and speed of the move. He may use jab or ftilt but i've seen ganon use nair more reliably to reflect gordos than both those moves. Ganon lacks a lot of combos but at low percents he will try to down tilt down b you, avoid his down tilt as it allows him some follow ups like fair or grab at low percents. Depending on where ganon is trying to recover it may be best to go for ledge traps because if you are on his level in the air expect to be ganoncided, ganon will always ganoncide you if he get the opportunity.
Never stand directly on the ledge when ganon is trying to recover unless you are 100% sure you can avoid the ganoncide. Another thing ganon will do is randomly up smash, do not approach he is baiting you to run up and get with either another up smash or ftilt, this is because ganon's up smash looks extremely punishable but has almost zero end lag and he will punish if your approach directly after an up smash. If he is trying to flame choke(side b) combo you meaning he side b's you over and over again reading how you tech, if he keeps getting the read don't tech immediately and he will burn his side b and you can get up. Again be cautious though because if he is pillaging you with side b and his reads are on point it can be hard to get away. My best advice is don't always tech the same way.
Toon Link:
Much of what was said about link applies to toon link where your power shield skills can determine the outcome of this match up. Some differences are that toon link is going to be able to get much more up tilts on you because it's a faster move than regular link and combos better than regular links up tilt. Toon link is still looking to confirm as many moves as possible off from his bombs. The biggest difference is toon links side b which can net him grabs if he is really good with it, it shuts down gordos super easily, and it stuffs aerial approaches if he angles it upwards. Toon link has good mobility on the ground and in the air and he will abuse this against DDD. Try and pay attention to his bomb habits which can be difficult because they usually mix it up. Fight him basically like you would regular link except expect to be comboed more because of how much faster his is than regular link.
Samus:
Zero Suit Samus:
Pit:
Marth:
Ike:
Kirby:
King DeDeDe:
Meta Knight:
Fox:
Falco:
Pikachu:
Lucario:
Jigglypuff:
Charizard:
ROB:
Ness:
Captain Falcon:
Olimar:
Dr. Mario:
Sonic:
Rosalina:
Bowser Jr.:
Palutena:
Robin:
Little Mac:
Greninja:
Duck Hunt Dog:
Villager:
Wii Fit Trainer:
Dark Pit:
Lucina:
Shulk:
Mega Man:
Pac-Man:
Mewtwo:
Lucas:
Roy:
Ryu:
Cloud:
In my opinion although not godlike cloud either wins most match ups including this match up or gets gimped. Never throw gordos out in neutral because he will just nair them right back. The best advice I have is to throw him off stage and don't drop your edge guards/ledge traps. Don't allow him stage control or back on the stage or he will win. The one edge guard I get most success with is full hop u gordo to fast fall down smash. if you time it right the gordo will hit him at the top of his up b and the down smash will connect during the gordo impact stall. Even a down smash at zero if he is by the ledge off stage so it connects is enough to send him far enough to not recover if he has already used his air jump.
If the u gordo to down smash is too tricky you can charge jet hammer on a recovering cloud and let it rip right as you hear the sound of his up b start it should connect with him at the top of his up b and kill him at higher percents or send him far enough away to gimp him. The jet hammer works well because he doesn't auto snap unless its limit up b. Im sure this is also well known by now but if the cloud miss judges the up b distance and you know he has used his air jump you can quickly run up and shield the up b hit and grab him. Wait for the grab release it will send him far enough away he can't recover. Don't pummel him in this situation because if you accidently charge his limit he can recover just fine.
Corrin:
Gordos only work on her if you have the advantage because corrin has too many great options to reflect gordos. At lower percents her nair connects with another nair and into fair if you aren't DI'ing far enough away or she catches you off guard with it. Her dragon pin move (side b) is troublesome because she can two frame you with it and she can also use it to combo into an up smash or up tilt. Corrins at low percents are also looking for a down tilt. The combo she is looking for is down tilt, down tilt, up tilt, nair, fair and if it that first down tilt hits at zero she can get two up tilts. It's better to go for edge traps more than edge guards against corrin although not impossible to edge guard her.
That up b of hers does have some intangibility frames making it tricky to punish if you aren't above and slightly behind her. Her dragon shot projectile is one of the more easily cancelled projectiles in the game you can literally just jab a fully charged one and it disappears. If the corrin is counter happy try and bait a counter from them by just charging your smash attack until you see them counter then let it rip for a free stock. Also, be cautious baiting a counter as they may also just wait and counter a full charge smash attack which is certain death for DDD. Typically corrins counter when they are out of jumps and trying to land on stage.
Bayonetta:
Again not a complete nightmare now that she has been nerfed but still a pretty challenging matchup. Some of the old bayo style kill off the top combos still work on DDD but can be avoided if you DI up and away while mashing jump at the last second that way you avoid the up air that kills you off the top. She will witch time you if you try and land with aerials on her while she is grounded which will set her up for a free combo starter. Her new zero to deaths work by pushing you horizontally toward the blast zone. Honestly, I can't DI out of the new sideways zero to deaths as well as I could the old vertical one but I imagine it’s DI down but I would love some feedback if anyone knows how to get out of it that would be greatly appreciated. Grounded after burner kick is unsafe on our shield and nets us a free grab.
I think gordos are great against bayo for edge guarding. Instead of the typical edge guard, position yourself slightly closer to the ledge before she is near it and is still trying to fade toward the ledge. If you can get the gordo to fall down while close to the ledge her up b with get stalled by it. You should be charging an fsmash while she is up b'ing the gordo because it will poke through and hit her by the last few hits of her up b and into your forward smash and or down smash if you see the fsmash won't make it in time. Honestly, I never encounter too many great bayo players so I'm a bit inexperienced on this on.
******Stuff I am assuming*******
I assumed that you have already read a moveset guide/are comfortable enough already to do D3 tech but have just recently wanted to get more competitive
I assumed that although you are comfortable playing DDD you might be struggling with certain match ups.
I am assuming that the character being fought by you is an amazing player and will utilize their full utilities.
I am assuming you know technical smash lingo, like bair, fair, dair, nair just to name a few basics.
**Disclaimer: I am in no way amazing at this game and I have tried my best to make this as accurate as possible in order to truly help D3 mains who are in that phase of trying to get really good. This guide is based off the current meta of patch 1.1.6 and is hopefully as relevant as possible. I am open to suggestions or deleting the guide entirely if it's just not good. I am trained as a chemist and was hoping to apply my analytical skills to this king DDD guide so hopefully it can help D3 mains who are new but comfortable with the game get ideas on how to deal with their toughest match ups. If this guide seems decent to people I'll do the rest of the characters. A majority of this guide is from my own experience, competitive matches, the king DDD discord and kuroganehammer.com for specific data. This guide more so gives you an Idea of what each character is looking for in order to be better prepared to counter it.
Mario:
Mario’s go for their classic bread and butter of down throw to up tilt, prepare and expect the up tilts and try and SDI and DI up and away, typically you should be able to get out by the 3rd up tilt mashing jump also helps break this combo. At higher percents it's gonna be down throw to up air so expect that and DI away from mario as much as possible to escape the up air follow up. Mario will run up and short hop behind you expecting you to throw out a move, he will either land behind you and grab or throw out the first hit of down air which will also lead to a grab at low percents. Be careful throwing out gordos in the neutral as a good mario will not cape the gordo but reflect it with his fireballs.
Mario will use fireballs in the most strategic way by either full hop or short hop fireball in order to drift forward at you in line with the fireball in hopes you shield the fireball so he can get a free grab, I think it’s best to just jump if you see mario either running behind a fireball or drifting toward you in the air with a fireball. Mario’s down tilt will lead into an easy grab at low percents and sometimes since marios are expecting you to know the down throw up tilt combo they only up tilt once expecting you to air dodge for another free grab. If you get grabbed by the ledge and down thrown do not jump after the throw instead fast fall down and recover low because if you jump he will fair spike you. Never try and punish a mario up smash if he is on the ground charging it he expects you to do this and will abuse the intangibility of this move.
At or around 70% he can go for a short hop forward drifting nair which will knock you toward the ground and if you don't tech he will jab lock you and fsmash you to death. If you notice the mario has good reaction time don't mix up the super jump by trying to go past the ledge and land on stage at the top of the arc of up B because he will just cape you to your death. To beat mario abuse DDDs range and try and wall him out, ledge traps and edge guard are important against mario and it's best to use the gordo in this advantageous state while he is trying to recover.
Luigi:
Like mario luigi's love to run behind their fireballs expecting you to shield so they get a free grab. Try and avoid this by short hop or full hop right before the fireball gets to you because if he was running and throws out the grab expecting to get it, you get a free weak nair combo starter at low percents. Luigi arguably gets more off grabs than mario because most of his aerial chain combos lead into another grab. Typically he will down throw, fair, fair, regrab, fair, up air after the second fair hits try and either jump or DI away as much as possible to avoid the regrab. If you get luigi in the air expect him to try and land with his down B, luigi's love to land with down B. This is another character you don't want to just throw out gordos in neutral because he will just fireball them right back at you. If you expect this you can reflect it but he may have time to fireball it again leading to a ping ponging of the gordo until it disappears.
Luigi's recovery is pretty bad so don't go for edge traps go for off stage edge guards because he doesn't have a lot of options when recovering is pretty easy to gimp him. Be aware that at +100% he will go for jab jab up b, you can typically shield the up b if you expect it but it can catch you off guard especially if he is mixing up his jab patterns the whole time. If he catches you with jab at that magic up B percentage mash jump and he get the weak hit and it's a free punish. It's safe for you to expect a misfire everytime he uses side b that way he doesn't catch you off guard and kill you early. Luigi's nair is frame 3 so if you are trying to juggle him try and space the hammer so your hurtbox isn't as close to him other wise he will break the juggle with his nair. Typically luigi's don't go off stage to try and edge guard but be wary of a ledge trump because he is going to down taunt spike you if you regrab the ledge.
Princess Peach:
Peach loves to use turnips in a similar fashion to mario and luigi's fireballs although arguably the turnip is a small bit less annoying than the fireballs but will still lead into grabs. If she throws a turnip at you and you shield it expect to get grabbed and if you get hit by the turnip she gets a free dash attack. Peach is going to use her float mechanic to hover above you try to bait out a move so she can punish you with an aerial. Beware of the peach bread and butters which at low percents are down throw ftilt, expects you to air dodge her follow up, regrab, down throw, back air, rushdown, regrab, down throw, back air. She is also looking for a down air to connect because depending on the way it launches you she can link a back air or forward air to this.
If you get hit with her down tilt expect a fair follow up and/or she is expecting another air dodge for a free grab. Turnips do reflect gordos so do not throw out a gordo if she is holding a turnip or you will eat said gordo. In my opinion peach is more easily walled out than mario and luigi, her fair has quite a bit of start up and bair is going to pillage her float mechanic quite nicely. Don't be to afraid of her counter although it doesn’t hurt to expect it but I don't think I've ever seen a peach counter kill. Be wary of her kill confirms especially if she expects you to jump while she has a turnip, she will throw the turnip off you in the air and the moment it bounces off you she will regrab it with fair which will kill you.
Bowser:
I am less experienced in this match up... Gordos are great in this match up as bowser has a giant hurtbox much like DDD. I personally think that jab jab grab is really good against the other heavy characters so don’t be afraid to go for that on bowser. Beware of getting grabbed by bowser as his grab range is superior to DDDs. He gets a decent amount off grabs and will either up throw, up tilt, up air, or up throw, nair, nair at low percents. He has another up smash that if you see him charging it just be patient and don’t try to challenge it as his shell covers most of his body and is intangible during the move. Try and avoid getting grabbed at high percents by the ledge because he will forward throw you into the blast zone.
If you hit bowser's shield and he isn't facing you expect him to up b out of shield to punish you and since DDDs moves are all commitments you will most like eat the up b he throws out. If bowser runs at you and short hop down b either let it hit you or roll back because it’s going to shield break you and due to the good knockback on bowser's fsmash and because we survive vertically not horizontally you will most likely be killed by it. You can go for both edge traps and edge guards against bowser because his recovery is really predictable.
Yoshi:
ugh yoshi's eggs are more annoying than fireballs and turnips combined. A good yoshi is going to be able to confirm almost anything from an egg hit, up air, grabs, and nair. Eggs pillage gordos so never throw out a gordo in neutral only when edge guarding yoshi. Although not impossible to gimp yoshi it is more difficult due to him having super armor on his double jump. its best to try and hit him back off stage after he burns his double jump because that’s yoshi death. Yoshi has some bread and butters that work really well on DDD like up tilt, up tilt, up air, up air, up air, even if you air dodge the third up air he'll just fall under you and up air again. Best to DI left or right out of this column of destruction and better yet to try and avoid those up tilts. Yoshis neutral special the egg poop thing is annoying but i've found that most yoshi's expect you to mash out of this move very quickly.
If you notice the yoshi is going for hard reads out of egg rather than quick damage it's best to slightly delay the mash to throw him off, but if he down airs you in the eggs you eat damage no matter what so if he goes for that often mash sooner rather than later. The strongest yoshi kill confirm in my opinion is his fair spike to up air. If you see him fishing for that fair spike avoid, dodge, evade lol because you will die. Like luigi, yoshi's nair is extremely good at breaking combos so try to space the hammer in the air in such a way that your hurtbox can avoid the nair. Expect to get comboed by yoshi pretty hard in the air unless your evasion skills are off the charts because his air speed is 2.03 times our own air speed and he will abuse that. (number calculated from data on kuroganehammer.com). What I call the for glory yoshi combo is the following, he will grab you at +100% and he will grab pummel you until you slide out onto the ground do a jab and then kill you will his up b. To avoid this all you need to do is be aware that he is just grab pummeling and not about to throw you usually this is obvious after the 3rd or fourth grab pummel and if you don't mash anything you get more time to prepare yourself the for the jab which you can shield and roll away because if you have low shield after the jab the up b will break it and he'll kill you anyway.
Wario:
Similar to inhale but an overall much better move is Wario's bite. Wario will try and abuse the bite as much as possible using it to cover ledge get up options, catch you out of the air, b reverse it to punish rolls, because it has minimal end lag he will use this move often. Wario also has great air mobility (1.92 times that of our own) so he will abuse this to short hop behind you and grab or last moment aerial after you drop shield. In neutral gordos are great against wario because he has to rely on reflecting gordo with an aerial or tilt and if you expect that you have a greater chance to volley the gordo back at him and hit him anyway. I would say go for edge guards and ledge traps when fighting wario. If the bike is on stage he has to rely on his up to recover but if not he can recover great horizontal distances with his bike. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure of what combos wario is looking for so I’m not much help there but I do know a few he can pull off.
If you are grounded the first few hits of wario's down air can be fast fallen into the ground and then a waft at high percents. If he manages to full hop fair you and you tumble to the ground a second fair can reset you. The tip of his dash attack will trip you usually giving him a free grab and punish and at low percents down throw will combo into the tip of dash attack if you don't jump. Beware of wario's back air by the ledge if you see him fishing for one because that will kill you at higher percents. Honestly i've only played one god like wario and that’s it so, I'm a bit inexperienced against good warios.
However, don't let wario shield break you, not that it's usually an issue because I'm not aware of shield break setups for him but if he does the god like wario I fought has an insta death combo on you even if he shield breaks you at 0%, the only caveat is he needs the waft to be charged. If Wario shield breaks you he'll pull out the bike and stand from you about two character widths away and throw the bike upwards, then roll behind you and forward tilt you into the bike, jab you into the bike, jab you into the bike again and when the bike knocks you back the last time he'll waft you. It does 90% damage and since he can do this right on the ledge you will most likely die because waft has horizontal knockback.
Game & Watch:
Game & Watch or Mr. G&W will do a short hop frying pan and try to confirm a grab off from it if you shield it. When he gets a grab at zero he can down throw up tilt and nair you. At or around 40% he will start to go for down throw side b so that he can clutch out the game with a judge #9. If the Mr. G&W is frying pan happy throwing out gordos in neutral is not going to work because he'll just press b and you'll eat that gordo because he can just keep pressing b and even if you reflect it the gordo only volley's or hits you. When trying to land against a Mr. G&W be aware of his usage of up airs. Mr. G&W will use his up air to poof-poof you and mess up your downward momentum which can be confusing and throw off aerial spacing if you aren't careful.
Mr. G&W is the third lightest character so it shouldn't be to hard to get early kill on him with a bair off stage, so my recommendation is to go for edge guards more so than ledge traps but ledge traps are also good for Mr. G&W as well. He will try and edge guard you with frying pan by sending bits of food right by the ledge, the timing is tricky but you want to up b in the middle of the food launching that way you'll hit the ledge when there isn’t a piece of food there. I used to get pillaged by this edge guard until I figured out the timing. Armoring through doesn't really work cause the projectile covers the top of the super jump arc where there isn't any armor. If you get a shield break on Mr. G&W with the super hard read gordo+fsmash ledge trap, the u gordo to jet hammer works really well if he is in the 40-60% range. Mr. G&W also has an upsmash that if you see him charging it he is baiting for you to hit him, as this moves starts up it has invincibility that will negate your attack and you will eat a fully charged up smash and it will kill you at 79%(no rage) on an omega with no DI cause I was in training mode and can't really use two controllers at once.
Donkey Kong:
This is a matchup where gordos are super good. Since DK is also a super heavy the jab jab to grab is a mixup that works well. Try to avoid getting grabbed by DK as much as possible because if you do get grabbed the cargo throw will allow him to combo you hard. The ding dong will kill you getting grabbed at 95% with no rage and 3 pummels if the DK manages to connect it all and no DI because again I was in training alone. There is also a really weird hit box on the DK super punch by his shoulder that has vertical knockback and will kill you if you get grabbed at 101% no rage no DI. DK downtilt has the chance to trip you with a certain part of his hand and if you get tripped that's a free grab for him and more combos. It’s harder to wall DK out because he has massive arms that rival the range of our hammer however in the air his options are much more limited as he will go for bairs with his stubby legs or up airs to catch your landing.
To abuse his air weaknesses try reverse aerial rushing him when he is facing you in the air so you can bair him. He may pick you up at higher percents and try to throw you into the stage but if you are expecting it and don’t mash out it time it’s not too bad to tech and then footstool him but it’s most likely more beneficial to mash like hell to get out of that situation. As long as you are above DK off stage it's super easy to spike him but if you are any bit on his level in the air you'll eat his up b because our dair is slow. I go for more ledge traps on DK because if you get the shield break the u gordo to up B is really good on him in the 20-50% range the timing isn't as strict. There should always be a gordo out when DK is trying to land because he doesn't have a ton of options in the air to reflect gordo without the gordo trading with him.
Diddy Kong:
Honestly I'm trash at this matchup so take my advice with a grain of salt. Diddy kong's banana is what makes this matchup so difficult. All he has to do is wait for you to try and land and catch your landing with a banana for a free grab and most likely a decent string of aerials at lower percents. The only good thing is even if you get comboed for like 4-5 hits from him his damage output is incredibly low so just relax when he is juggling you and try to be smart about how you DI which is usually away from him so he can't follow up. I don't have much more advice except try and pick up on his habits. Is he b reversing peanut gun and cancelling it to mix up his landings? Is he baiting you to throw a move so he can banana you? He is vulnerable when he plucks a banana but usually a diddy won't allow himself to be punished for plucking a banana.
Link:
In this match up it's really important to use power shield as much as possible. There is a special range you want to stay at or try to stay at all times when fighting link which is just outside of his sword's range but just inside your hammer's range. Being at this distance to link negates his usage of projectiles and allows you to punish if/when possible. It can be incredibly hard to get in on link if he is stuffing all your approaches with projectiles but dash shield is super good against his projectile game. Just remember if a bomb hits your shield it bounces off so don't run forward into it. At 140% links f-tilt and dash attack will kill you from center stage with no DI no rage. Links knock back on his tilts scales dramatically with rage so be wary of his tilts if he is at high percentage. A smart link is going to try to confirm as many things as possible off from bombs so if you can shut down his bomb game with power shields it's much harder for him to get hits in on you. This goes without saying buts it's impossible to out camp link you are going to have to approach him if he is trying to camp you out this again is where the power shield is really important in this match up. Link will down throw you into up tilt which after the first up tilt his you should be able to jump away if you DI up and to the right. If he up smashes though you just have to eat the up smash and then can escape. Never air dodge out of link's down throw at early or high percents, air dodge at high percents and you will eat an up air and die, air dodge and low percents and you'll eat more up tilts, up smash, or another grab. Link is like DK in that if you are on his level at all when trying to spike him you will eat his up b, it's better to be much higher than link and wait for him to start his up b and fastfall dair him. If you down throw him at the ledge at early to mid percents try to either fair wall or bair wall him as far away as possible from the stage because he has no horizontal recovery options except for maybe tether but even that has limited range. Link has the 3rd fastest fast fall speed ours is 3.12 and his is 3.04 so unlike a majority of the cast he can rival our ability to hit the ground first if both are in the air.
Princess Zelda:
Zelda is the special moves warrior, expect to see every one of her specials moves in the neutral. She will edgeguard with her projectile and down b. Don't be afraid to throw out gordos in neutral because even if she uses her reflector it typically blasts the gordo away and at a really high angle. This is the zelda bread and butter starting at 0% two down tilts into a grab, down throw, nair and then fair or bair depending on which way the nair sends you, if you expect the fair or bair follow up it's much easier to avoid by simply DI'ing away. She will mix up her follow ups on down throw at around 40-60% down throw can connect with her sweet spot bair which sounds cool and has scary knockback. Don't air dodge out of her down throw at high percents she expects this and wants to up air you which is powerful.
Since she is tall bair is really good in this match up because it’s really easy to hit her with it compared to pikachu who is super short and hard to hit with bair on the ground. Don't charge any smash attacks unless you are sure they are going to hit, if a zelda sees you charging a smash attack she will snipe you with her up B and since she hits you while you are charging the smash attack its gives her additional knockback and if by the edge can take your stock very early. I can't test how early because I again I don't have anyone to test it with but I believe a friend of mine took a stock as early as 60 something percent while I was charging a smash attack by the ledge. Go for ledge traps against zelda because edge guarding is tricky since her up B makes her disappear and has a hitbox.
Sheik:
UGH pre patch Sheik was a nightmare with her campy needles but now post nerf shiek is much more enjoyable match up still bad though. A good Sheik will give you no time to breathe by constantly being in your face. Sheik has a ton of confirms and set ups and next to no lag on all of her moves. She is looking for side tilts into down tilts into grab into fair, fair, fair, bouncy fish. Her nair has a lingering hit box and is good for tagging your get up options. Gordos are good in this match up because unless sheik spaces right she'll just trade with the gordo and thank Sakurai that needles don't reflect gordos. She won't be afraid to chase you down anywhere, on stage, off stage, or in the air. After a forward throw be ready for the bouncing fish because after mid percents it's more easily avoided but until like 60-80% expect sheik to just juggle and combo you unless your evasion game is on point.
Use caution when going for ledge traps because she can let go of the ledge jump and bouncy fish the gordo into your face. Best thing to do is stand by the ledge wait for her to grab it then wait like 1/2 a second run back and pivot fsmash. Quite often Sheiks will bouncing fish after grabbing the ledge expecting you to get hit but dashing back and fsmashing should put you just outside of her range but put her in the sweet spot of fsmash. Something that works really well on sheik and can kill early by the edge is weak nair to bair. Relax in this match up because you are going to get juggled just be patient because you'll most likely get the first kill because Sheik needs really hard reads to kill us, tipper up smash or needles to bouncing fish by the blast zone.
Ganondorf:
Ganondorf is somewhat of a free matchup so long as you don't sleep on ganon, remember he only needs to hit you like 4-5 times and you die. Ganon lacks good approach options and is pillaged by gordos, just be cautious of his nair because even the lightest tap from his nair will reflect gordo and is probably his best option to reflect due to the size of his legs and speed of the move. He may use jab or ftilt but i've seen ganon use nair more reliably to reflect gordos than both those moves. Ganon lacks a lot of combos but at low percents he will try to down tilt down b you, avoid his down tilt as it allows him some follow ups like fair or grab at low percents. Depending on where ganon is trying to recover it may be best to go for ledge traps because if you are on his level in the air expect to be ganoncided, ganon will always ganoncide you if he get the opportunity.
Never stand directly on the ledge when ganon is trying to recover unless you are 100% sure you can avoid the ganoncide. Another thing ganon will do is randomly up smash, do not approach he is baiting you to run up and get with either another up smash or ftilt, this is because ganon's up smash looks extremely punishable but has almost zero end lag and he will punish if your approach directly after an up smash. If he is trying to flame choke(side b) combo you meaning he side b's you over and over again reading how you tech, if he keeps getting the read don't tech immediately and he will burn his side b and you can get up. Again be cautious though because if he is pillaging you with side b and his reads are on point it can be hard to get away. My best advice is don't always tech the same way.
Toon Link:
Much of what was said about link applies to toon link where your power shield skills can determine the outcome of this match up. Some differences are that toon link is going to be able to get much more up tilts on you because it's a faster move than regular link and combos better than regular links up tilt. Toon link is still looking to confirm as many moves as possible off from his bombs. The biggest difference is toon links side b which can net him grabs if he is really good with it, it shuts down gordos super easily, and it stuffs aerial approaches if he angles it upwards. Toon link has good mobility on the ground and in the air and he will abuse this against DDD. Try and pay attention to his bomb habits which can be difficult because they usually mix it up. Fight him basically like you would regular link except expect to be comboed more because of how much faster his is than regular link.
Samus:
Zero Suit Samus:
Pit:
Marth:
Ike:
Kirby:
King DeDeDe:
Meta Knight:
Fox:
Falco:
Pikachu:
Lucario:
Jigglypuff:
Charizard:
ROB:
Ness:
Captain Falcon:
Olimar:
Dr. Mario:
Sonic:
Rosalina:
Bowser Jr.:
Palutena:
Robin:
Little Mac:
Greninja:
Duck Hunt Dog:
Villager:
Wii Fit Trainer:
Dark Pit:
Lucina:
Shulk:
Mega Man:
Pac-Man:
Mewtwo:
Lucas:
Roy:
Ryu:
Cloud:
In my opinion although not godlike cloud either wins most match ups including this match up or gets gimped. Never throw gordos out in neutral because he will just nair them right back. The best advice I have is to throw him off stage and don't drop your edge guards/ledge traps. Don't allow him stage control or back on the stage or he will win. The one edge guard I get most success with is full hop u gordo to fast fall down smash. if you time it right the gordo will hit him at the top of his up b and the down smash will connect during the gordo impact stall. Even a down smash at zero if he is by the ledge off stage so it connects is enough to send him far enough to not recover if he has already used his air jump.
If the u gordo to down smash is too tricky you can charge jet hammer on a recovering cloud and let it rip right as you hear the sound of his up b start it should connect with him at the top of his up b and kill him at higher percents or send him far enough away to gimp him. The jet hammer works well because he doesn't auto snap unless its limit up b. Im sure this is also well known by now but if the cloud miss judges the up b distance and you know he has used his air jump you can quickly run up and shield the up b hit and grab him. Wait for the grab release it will send him far enough away he can't recover. Don't pummel him in this situation because if you accidently charge his limit he can recover just fine.
Corrin:
Gordos only work on her if you have the advantage because corrin has too many great options to reflect gordos. At lower percents her nair connects with another nair and into fair if you aren't DI'ing far enough away or she catches you off guard with it. Her dragon pin move (side b) is troublesome because she can two frame you with it and she can also use it to combo into an up smash or up tilt. Corrins at low percents are also looking for a down tilt. The combo she is looking for is down tilt, down tilt, up tilt, nair, fair and if it that first down tilt hits at zero she can get two up tilts. It's better to go for edge traps more than edge guards against corrin although not impossible to edge guard her.
That up b of hers does have some intangibility frames making it tricky to punish if you aren't above and slightly behind her. Her dragon shot projectile is one of the more easily cancelled projectiles in the game you can literally just jab a fully charged one and it disappears. If the corrin is counter happy try and bait a counter from them by just charging your smash attack until you see them counter then let it rip for a free stock. Also, be cautious baiting a counter as they may also just wait and counter a full charge smash attack which is certain death for DDD. Typically corrins counter when they are out of jumps and trying to land on stage.
Bayonetta:
Again not a complete nightmare now that she has been nerfed but still a pretty challenging matchup. Some of the old bayo style kill off the top combos still work on DDD but can be avoided if you DI up and away while mashing jump at the last second that way you avoid the up air that kills you off the top. She will witch time you if you try and land with aerials on her while she is grounded which will set her up for a free combo starter. Her new zero to deaths work by pushing you horizontally toward the blast zone. Honestly, I can't DI out of the new sideways zero to deaths as well as I could the old vertical one but I imagine it’s DI down but I would love some feedback if anyone knows how to get out of it that would be greatly appreciated. Grounded after burner kick is unsafe on our shield and nets us a free grab.
I think gordos are great against bayo for edge guarding. Instead of the typical edge guard, position yourself slightly closer to the ledge before she is near it and is still trying to fade toward the ledge. If you can get the gordo to fall down while close to the ledge her up b with get stalled by it. You should be charging an fsmash while she is up b'ing the gordo because it will poke through and hit her by the last few hits of her up b and into your forward smash and or down smash if you see the fsmash won't make it in time. Honestly, I never encounter too many great bayo players so I'm a bit inexperienced on this on.
