Kirby vs Bayonetta MU

Hello everyone. My name is Muk. A Kirby main from the Netherlands and I am here to explain the MU vs Bayonetta. I know that almost every Kirby has a lot of trouble fighting her and how to play vs her. This isn’t surprising for how strong she is in smash 4, but there are quite some ways to beat her in her own game and able to play around her. Let me remind everyone that Bayonetta has insane amount of playstyles and ways to play her. This is huge for how you fight Bayonetta in general. This and in fact what Kirby can do will help a lot to how to fight Bayonetta. This guide will go into detail how you fight her in multiple stages and how to deal with her in those stages of the game. Even though Bayonetta has been seen as the most toxic character in smash 4. She can be doable to play against if you figured out how she works and how the opponent plays her and if you want to rub salt into the opponent then now you can with how annoying the MU can be once you figured it out.


Even though this is became more of a meme nowadays, it is still really relevant and true sadly. People tend to forget that just SDI can create a huge problem for mid level bayonetta’s and enough to straight up beat her, if she can’t read the SDI. But this is also relevant to even the top bayonetta’s. SDI is nowadays a must do in smash 4, because of her. But in the past there were other characters that you had to SDI too. There are a lot of guides even by Bayonetta mains how to play with SDI and how to defeat her. But how does this implement in the Kirby vs Bayonetta MU? Well SDI is even more of a crucial thing in this MU. Because of Kirby’s floaty and small body he is able to escape quite some things if you SDI hard enough, but the problem is what and where do you go to SDI? Well it always depends if the person can read the SDI, but most of the time at the first up-b you can just SDI up and try to air dodge or bair when you can. Of course they can read it and that’s why you need to make sure that you mix up it up. But SDI’ing the first up-b Up makes it easier to escape it. For the second up-b it depends. Most of the time you rather do down and away to escape it, but that is readable for top bayonetta’s and can be punished hard for it, but you can also take the risk and SDI up. This can even kill you if you don’t watch out, but it a really risky move to throw them off guard. This done right makes killing for Kirby on the top already a lot harder, because of the floaty and small character. But Up-B isn’t the only thing you can use SDI for. Single hit moves can also be SDI’d. It sounds weird to do that, but it throws people off guard if you go the other way because of the fact you shifted a little bit for it. Easy example and extremely useful is Side-B. Her side-b on the ground knocks you pretty decently to combo out of it, but a little shift because of SDI can create a difference of how her combo will be going. This is also even more relevant to her aerial side-b. All of her follow ups are mostly easy to get, but with SDI’ing everything it becomes already a lot harder to deal with. This also counts for her combo starters to like Dtilt and Utilt. It can create a little less great of a angle for them to work with and sometimes just enough to airdodge it or to avoid it in general. Because of Kirby floatyness the %’s to kill Kirby is also lower, but this will be a lot harder if you are over that %. Bayonetta combos doesn’t really connect anymore with high % and then adding pretty good SDI through it and you can life a lot longer and has to rely on non Bayonetta combos and just go for a smash attack or a killthrow. Reminder that every single hit move is SDI’ble if you check if they have a SDI multiplier and all of Bayonetta her moves that does % has a SDI multiplier. This can be extremely useful if you just SDI the most basic thing to throw her off. There are multiple guides how to SDI Bayonetta moves and I would recommend searching them up how to do it perfectly. Last note is that top Bayonetta will read your SDI so if you think you are comfortable with doing the same SDI then I would recommend switching it up and if you only know 1 way to SDI then I would recommend learning the other ways to SDI too.


There are multiple ways to play Bayonetta in general.

You have the aggressive Bayonetta that wants to get hits in as much as he/she can and try to frustrate you until you are going in recklessly and losing.You have the defensive Bayonetta that wants to camp you out with bullets and waits on a opening to get you out of nowhere and kill you with the added % you gained from the bullets.
You have the combo Bayonetta that wants 1 good combo move in and tries to create as much % as he/she can and then return to neutral to do it again.
You have the neutral Bayonetta that is generally not hyper aggressive, but not as defensive as the campy ones. They play the game like other characters do, but with Bayonetta with the options she has.

All of these types of Bayonetta’s have their own counter play to them and for Kirby some Bayonetta’s can be harder to play against then others. Maybe you don’t like waiting around then you are going to hate it. Maybe your out of shield game isn’t that good and hates to get juggled then aggressive and combo Bayonetta can be a problem. But all of them have a way to beat them in their own game and it can create a whole different MU in general. A lot of things in the MU stays the same of how you do it, but the more detailed MU tips changes in which playstyle they have. Every playstyle of Bayonetta has a easy way to exploit it, but you need to know what.

Aggressive Bayonetta tend to press a lot more and want you to be scared, but if you know which moves can be crouched and which moves are unsafe then you can punish that pretty easy. These types of Bayonetta tend not to camp and just go for you. Which you don’t mind, because Kirby and platform camping. But you need to be prepared that he isn’t wanting to camp and you can play the other way around to annoy him with the bullets you get from the opponent and play the timer.

Defensive Bayonetta tend to just take the time and camp when they have a slight lead or more. These people test your patience and wants you to do something stupid or whiff something to punish it with a Bayo combo. These Bayonetta’s are a cat and mouse mini game with them. Get them once off their landing or something else to inhale them to get the lead back with bullets from across the stage and let them come to you or create a lead for yourself. You can try to catch them every time and try to play catch, but can be risky because of the fact that she can turn on you and punish you hard for it.

Combo Bayonetta tend to just throw out risky, but huge rewarding tools to get something going and bring it as much as you can. You need to be prepared to SDI everything and react to a lot of stuff. Knowing how to SDI and how to mix up is necessary to do well vs them. These Bayonetta also throw themselves into situations that you can abuse as well. So take advantage of their greediness for going hard on you. These Bayonetta’s are close to aggressive Bayonetta’s, but they also don’t like having someone else camp vs them. So they also try to go in as much as they can.

Neutral Bayonetta are a all-rounder that doesn’t really play one way specifically and also harder to counter them hard. These Bayonetta’s tend to just try to play neutral and abuse the combo game when he can. You need to have patience and knowing what the person does. If he switches his playstyle mid set then that shows you can one way of a easy countering method, but if they don’t do it then be prepared to try to outplay them most of the time and learning his habits.


All in all these are the 4 types I would say that Bayonetta’s would play around. Of course this isn’t a perfect way to call someone 1 style, but you can see in their playstyle how they tend to be one. If you know it’s one of those types of Bayonetta’s then make sure you are prepared to change your playstyle mid set to counter them. Note that is a general tldr for those types of Bayonetta’s. You still have to play neutral, advantage state etc vs them. It’s just a focus on those kinds of Bayonetta’s

Neutral​

Bayonetta is a character that can open with everything and it can work out, but you need to prepare what she is going to do first. She is able to instantly go on you and start with a Bayo combo, but that can be avoided if you wait it out to check what kind of Bayonetta the opponent is. If the opponent plays defensive then you have more room to fight her and able to seek openings on stage to get closer to her. If she plays aggressive then make sure that she fails something to punish her, but watch out if you do something that isn’t safe. Kirby has the tools to punish her, but sometimes she can still do witch time out of stuff. This can still create the fear of wanting to punish something with a good move or just play it safe and going for a grab/wait it out. Grabs are also the safest way to start things off with combo’s and getting safe % on them. A lot of Bayonetta’s in general use a lot of moves to get something started, so out of shield grab can help a lot if you know how – it is on shield. You can start combo’s with dtilt and uptilt too, but this can create fear if the Bayonetta plays with witch time a lot. Not only will you die at around 80%, but it starts her combo’s extremely easy. You rather start something off with a grab to make sure you continue it afterwards with the grab. A lot of early combos are still true even though she has great escape options. Make sure that you leave no openings for her to get. She will create insane amount of reward if you fail something. Better tend to wait to check how the Bayonetta’s playstyle is and how he/she plays with Bayonetta and then play around it. Bayonetta does have scary moves to space you out and try to get free % in like bair and dtilt, but those moves can be played around with run up shield and spotdodge. Note that his are mix ups just to get in. It isn’t used to spam. Try to stay grounded or in the air next to her. Above Bayonetta screams for help with all of her options to start something off. That’s why spacing with bair and pp uptilt does help, if she doesn’t use a lot of witch time. Remind yourself that side-b is really punishable and need to be prepared to punish it every time it comes. It can be tricky sometimes where she will stop and when she stops with the side-b, but make sure that if she has used side-b on your shield that you do Dsmash for the safest punish. IF you know which side she stops then you can punish it even with a Fsmash. People tend to forget that up-b is also not safe. If you know that a up-b is coming you can even inhale it if you space it right. Bayonetta’s dtilt is her moved used grounded option vs Kirby. It hits Kirby while crouched, starts combo’s and has safe pokes with the bullets, but it isn’t as safe as you think. Even if she camps across the stage with the bullets active you can still get closer while she does it while flying in the air. But watch out, she can use her aerial side-b to catch you so mix up how you approach if she bullet camps like that. Dtilt is also – enough on shield to punish it with grab, so run up shield vs her while dtilt spamming is really useful to get something started. When Bayonetta died and she comes back from angel platform. Try to stay safe as long as you can and in shield until her invincibility is over. Most of the time she wants to kill you with smash attacks or start off a combo with a hit, so knowing this only grab is left, but if you stay mid stage a grab won’t do enough. If the Bayonetta gets annoyed by you not dying then she tends to spam smash attacks until some of them hit. This can be useful, because fsmash can be crouched. So staying safe and waiting how she kills can really help surviving long. If he/she tends to grab a lot then you using attacks can make sure that Bayonetta goes back to her original playstyle and you can wait again for a opening and kill her. If you get hit by a jab, just accept it or you have a god SDI that you will fall out of it. The jab is one of the best jabs in the game and it just doing % and throwing you away. It isn’t bad that you get hit by it. Really watch out for her uptilt in general. The move can shield poke you fast and it has a invisible hitbox above her so respect it really hard if you tend to go above her. Not only does it combo to the rest, but it can used to pressure you while you are on the platform. Don’t get annoyed when Bayonetta is taunting vs you. It became a norm for a lot of Bayonetta’s to taunt just the sake of trying to trigger you. A lot of them don’t like it when you do something annoying. So abuse this.

Copy ability and usage on it
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A lot of people don’t know how crucial the copy ability is and the usage for it. There are 2 types of Bullets you can shoot. The feet guns and the arm guns. This has 2 different usage that can difference each other a lot. The feet guns help to gun down Bayonetta from high up and on platforms. Not only that, Kirby can also destroy her shield fast and then shield poke her to get some extra % in it. This will make sure that if she already has lower shield that she gets hit no matter what. It is also really useful when she tries to approach on you. The arm guns can let her stay in shield and destroy her shield a lot faster to the point you can break it. It is also really good to continue getting extra % from mid range compared to the feet guns. Both versions are good for getting offstage and adding % up on a safe position, but make sure that you stop firing when she is close to you. She can spam smash attack close and she gets the hit in on you. So know your timing when she can do something and run away. The reason for that is that camping doesn’t become a scary thing anymore. Bayonetta has the ability to circle camp really easy, but isn’t doing all that well once you get the copy. This can take a few minutes to get the % back, but it also annoys the Bayonetta a lot that she gets cut off every time in the air. Or she takes the hit or goes on you. Shielding on the platform is a option, but the shield becomes a lot smaller after 4 shots so staying there isn’t really a option. So going to the opponent is one of the only few options left, if you don’t want getting % to even up the %. But then you realize that Bayonetta isn’t camping anymore which is Kirby biggest flaw and if Bayonetta is coming close to you in midrange then you can still add up % with your bullets or lower her shield of other moves. You can also charge the guns for more %, knockback and shield damage. This is a little longer charging up, but it does a lot more if you know its safe enough. It works the same as normal bullets except if the Bayonetta is offstage. When Bayonetta is offstage you can’t really go offstage to catch her, but your guns can catch her. Especially the charged bullets that will send her back offstage further. This will get annoying for Bayonetta and if you do it enough then Bayonetta can't recover anymore and dies. The whole factor of having a projectile that makes sure that it can annoy Bayonetta. Stop her camping on platforms and make sure that you can even up the % means so much for a character that can’t move a lot. The guns is a must use in the mu and destroys the flow of Bayonetta’s game plan and changes to your favor, but Bayonetta can camp back with dtilt bullets, but you can stay out of range or run up and bait the dtilt out or run up shield and punish her to get the % that way. In the end Bayonetta has to play around it in your favor.


One of the worst things about Kirby is being a body bag to combos. He has no get off me option and he has accept a lot of damage because of it. But with a lot of juggling is with up-b’s, side-b’s and other aerials a lot of combo’s can be a lot shorter with SDI’ing and able to punish Bayonetta from it. But if he reads the SDI. Then make sure that you DI the best way possible that it will be hard for Bayonetta to catch you further. You don’t really have great options if she goes hard in the air, but you can bait her for it and try to stone her. It is cheesy, but it works if people aren’t ready for it. After that make sure that you air dodge a lot and especially upair. Upair is a huge aerial that can be spammed a lot even if you air dodge the second one still hits you. So make sure that you always drift in a way that she can’t follow it up. Kirby’s air dodge is for Bayonetta pretty annoying, if the combo isn’t really true. This makes trying to hit Kirby a lot harder then it looks. Not only makes it harder to be killed on the top. You also survive longer, because of the fact it needs confirms to keep going. If there is enough room between you and Bayonetta you can always use your jumps to create even more room, if you are already in the air to check where you can land after being juggled. Just make sure that you aren’t spamming air dodge 24/7. She does have easy tools to read and kill you for it if she drops her combo.


Kirby has a lot of problems with landing back on stage. He has a few options like: jumping, stone, a aerial and air dodge. But after that it is kind of hard to come back from it. You need to check where Bayonetta is going and if she is going hard on you. If she does then make sure that you air dodge and drift away from her to avoid any combo’s. If she is gone then check where you can land as safe as you can. Never land on Bayonetta. She has too many tools in general to get you and die from it. Make sure that you at least land besides her or a lot further away from her. If you have any other choose but to recover with up-b then make sure that she doesn’t get the hitbox on her. This is a free witch time on you and kills you. Always try to avoid any unnecessary hitboxes to not let her witch time it. Inhale can be good if she is already next to you in the air. This can bring you down with her and get the guns for free. Use your jumps wisely. The jumps can create micro spacing between bayo and you to make sure that she doesn’t barely hit you. And if you land on the ground then you can always use one jump above the ground to use a aerial if she thinks you don’t do it. Always keep one jump left to make sure if she goes hard on you later then you can at least try to escape it with the one jump you have left. If you want to land safely then try to go to the ledge. This wants Bayonetta for sure, but it is also one of the safer options there is. Landing on the ground with no other option is worse then going to the ledge vs Bayonetta.

Offstage​

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Bayonetta is a monster offstage, but weirdly limited. She does have a lot of options and she can spam a lot of aerials, but after a few aerials she has to go back to the ledge. This is a perfect opening to get back to the stage. Stalling in the air with your jumps is extremely useful for that, but watch out. If she knows you are stalling then she can go ham on you and make sure you don’t have any more jumps left and die from it. Make sure that if she does side-b or up-b on you that you DI in the blastzone. Most of the time it doesn’t kill you, but it makes sure that you still have enough space left. If you don’t have any more jumps left while she does that then make sure that you DI in her to stay alive then. If you have the chance to recover high. Always take it. Kirby has a lot better chance to recover high then low with just his up-b to recover low and maybe his jumps if he has it left and Bayonetta left the ledge open for Kirby. Once you are above Bayonetta then she still tries to go for it, but create as much space as you can and go for the stage. You have a lot more chance then at the ledge and she has to replace herself to catch you. And then you can just choose where you want to land. It is still risky to do, but it gives a lot more options then recovering low. If you have no other option then recovering low then make sure that you sweet spot the ledge with your up-b. It’s a very specific spacing and it will make sure that you don’t get witch timed if she stays at the ledge or Dsmash you. If she goes offstage to catch you recovering low then make sure she gets hit by the up-b. If she gets the spike then you reset it and ledge trap her or you go trying to spike/stone her. It’s not recommended, but the chance is there that you catch her. Make sure when you are back on stage that you don’t go offstage to catch her except if you know you can catch her with something.



Ledge trapping Bayonetta is not that hard as it looks. Yes a lot of hitboxes with up-b, upair , side-b are everywhere if she is at the ledge. But be prepared how she does it. If she jumps you can inhale her and get the guns for free. If she drops ledge and does a aerial or up-b then just stay in shield and let her regrab the ledge to punish her. Getup attack is – enough to Fsmash, but if she does it that means it most likely a miss input or a buffer so don’t let her get away with it. Both normal getup and roll are reactble if you are at the ledge. The biggest thing to remember is that they are jump and drop ledge heavy to create hitbox or just to get away from the ledge. You can punish her jump with a inhale if you already know and after that just gun her down. Or stay in shield and try to catch her in the air. If she drops down from her ledge just have patience. Her hitboxes does win vs yours, but she still has to recover so grabbing the ledge or going above you is the only way and that is both punishable. Just make sure that you aren’t shield poked for it though. Once that happens then she can go back to the stage very easy and reset neutral for it.

Advantage​

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You don’t really ever have a advantage state vs her. She always have tools to get back easily and able to even the odds. The only thing that she doesn’t like that you have patience while you are ahead. Bayonetta does have huge comeback factors, but those can be a lot easier to do when the opponent continues to go on her. Kirby on the other hand doesn’t have the combo power to continue that. So it just stays at regular grabs and uptilt into nothing at higher %’s. Kirby has to play a lot of neutral and playing the time. On the other hand, Bayonetta has to do stuff which Kirby can bait very effectively and punish it for it. This can continue until you have a read or a upthrow that kills. This can trigger the Bayonetta player that she has to play Kirby’s game which is more lamer and relaxed then Bayonetta’s, but she cant afford it. Especially if Kirby has his guns. If Kirby has his guns then its just a matter of time when she is in upthrow %. You can just run away and try to out camp her with bullets. If she does get annoyed and goes for stuff then you can again bait the move and punish her for it and reset the situation after the bait with guns and gun her down. If you are ahead. There isn’t any need to go in. She has enough tools to do it for you. Yes she can still camp with bullets, but it depends how long the person does it. If you know the opponent isn’t really a camper then you don’t really have to worry for it and just bait him once he has enough of camping. If the Bayonetta does continue camping then just wait it out and try go for inhale punish and then camp her out.


If you are behind vs Bayonetta then learn to have patience. Bayonetta (depending on playstyle) can annoy you with what they do. Circle camping with bullets, abusing hitboxes, insane combo game etc. But you need to take % step by step. Once you have bullets take it also step by step. Bayonetta can take insane amount of % on you, if you don’t watch out for it. With circle camping: Take your time and learn the patterns with camping. Once you see a landing opening or she is going to far then strike with most preferably inhale. Vs camping Bayonetta it’s your most useful tool to get a lead back. (More on this in “Camping Bayonetta”). With aggressive / combo Bayonetta’s you need to make sure that Bayonetta makes a big enough mistake that you can at least some % in. If you get a inhale on aggressive / combo Bayonetta’s then try to camp them out and try to get as much % as you can while they are trying to get in. Note that if you do this too close then they will punish you heavily. Once they try to work around it then try to play a lot of bait and punish for it again. If this doesn’t work then good luck.


Kirby has a HUGE problem vs platform camping and camping in general. Bayonetta has been one of those characters can camp extremely long and gives small % to the opponent. Kirby can’t really deal with this except with guns which is explained in: Copy ability and usage on it. Without it he can’t really win vs Bayonetta. But there are few things to check on even without guns. Bayonetta has to land someday. Yes even with all the aerial gun spam and side-b’s and up-b’s. She still has to land. This creates enough land to punish her for it, but watch out. When she lands she has few tricks left to do. She still has maybe a second up-b, dair to throw you away and witch time to make sure if you pressed too early that you get punished for it. These are the most common with landing by Bayonetta. This can be a mix up on his own, but a lot of Bayonetta’s have a one preferred way to land with it. After they done one of those 3 you can punish her and try to get some % back while she is camping. The second thing is that inhale is still a command grab. Yes you can still catch Bayonetta in the air if she is around you in the air. Normally Bayonetta does mostly a aerial or up-b/side-b around you, but the risk is there that she also does witch time, because you want to get your lead back. So you can then get her in the air to try to get the guns for it. But also if she stays on the platform shielding. You can also inhale that. Lastly try to lure her into a corner that she has no option to engage in battle. This is the hardest thing to do out of the 3 options, but it can create better situations for Kirby without creating the extra risk for a punish or a read. This can be done by flying around the Bayonetta or just try to fake out aerials to push Bayonetta somewhere else. It is pretty hard, but can create more favorable situations.

Early game % (0-60%)​

Try to focus on getting a grab or a uptilt that is safe. Kirby has a pretty good combo game vs her and also the Bayonetta player is also more likely to go more ham in the %, just because she has the chance to do so with already no % to begin with. This can create Kirby combos a lot easier if she does that. But you can also try to mix up the combos and trying to get it for a early inhale to get the guns and then play neutral and then mix it up again with grab combo’s. Of course the Bayonetta still wants her combo’s so be prepared to play a lot out of shield and trying to punish her once she is close to you. After some combo’s or some bullet shots on her then you are already in mid game %.

Mid game % (61-100%)​

This is the harder part, because almost all of your combo’s doesn’t work anymore and you have to rely on more bait and punish and bullets. If you already have the lead then make sure that you play a lot of neutral to keep that % and try to push it as much as you can. Try to keep stage control and make sure that she has to work for the % on you while you just play around her if you are ahead. If you have to climb up then make sure you go for a lot more grabs and spaced aerials to keep her busy and safe from moves.


At this % make sure that you take it slow and keep playing around easy grabs and around Bayonetta confirms. This can take a long time to kill her, but it is also annoying for her, because of the fact it’s hard to kill you too with the rage she has that confirms stop working. Also once she is at upthrow % then go for it. Make sure that you aren’t fishing for it all the time. Bair is still a really good option to mix up with and try to kill her. Always make sure that you keep her at a disadvantage state and try to push it until she is dead.


Final Destination: Bayonetta doesn’t really have safe place to land and bullets goes though the whole stage to keep her outside. She doesn’t really have any resets to try kill you on the top except all the way from the ground. This and the fact that Kirby can catch her without any platform camping does really help getting better chances to kill her and ignore most of the camping game on her side.

Battlefield: Even though platform camping is a thing. Once you know how to abuse the guns and know how to get her landings then the MU is a lot more doable with surviving longer, more room to do stuff, platforms which you can easily jump onto and upthrow that really helps the MU. It will create a long game with most of the time at least 4 mins per game, but it makes sure that you can keep the lead with guns and you are safe most of the time. And you aren’t killed on the top that easily. Also you have more chances to recover on the sides.


Dreamland: Even though Battlefield is useful for his space and able to go to platforms and upthrow. Dreamland has too much space and a lot harder to play around then Battlefield. Platform camping on this stage is also a lot easier and more annoying and killing on the top by Bayonetta is also a thing. It has his positives, but the negatives are just to hard to wanting to go there. Better take Battlefield if you want platforms.

Lylat: Lylat’s tilting makes guns more and a lot less useful. This comes because of the fact that Bayonetta can hit Kirby with her own Neutral-b and just camp Kirby out a lot more, but not only that. Kirby’s guns can fly over Bayonetta and can be safe even though at other stages it should have hit. Also a lot of Kirby’s combos are stopped because of the stage not being flat. It can stop Kirby combo’s earlier and resets neutral a lot more. And lastly Bayonetta has a lot of room in the air and has multiple ways to land, because of the 3 platforms around it. Yes it can still hit with your guns, but rather take another stage for it then.