Movement:
-18th on the dash speed tier list
-17th on the wave dash list alongside captain falcon
-frame 4 jump squat (same as fox)
Kirby doesn't really have any comparable movement to anyone outside of the low tiers. It is kinda clunky at first but can be pretty decent when moving across small areas. In order to play in these small areas against fox and falco movement must be nearly frame perfect wit your inputs only falling behind by at the most 2 frames.
Neutral:
As a lot may guess kirby has a neutral similar to jigglypuff except for the fact that he is worse at it. This is do to his lack of aerial drift. So he must also combine the campy back air spacing with his ground movement. In good combination this can create a decent wall. While in the air space B-air and F-fair ,and on the ground go for forward and up tilts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9_nwcN37I
F-tilt - total frames - 32
hit frames - 5-8
IASA frame - 28
lag frames - 9-27 19
U-tilt - total frames - 23
hit frames - 4-7
lag frames - 8-23 16
F-air - total frames - 49
hit frames - 10-11, 17-18, 25-26
IASA - 40
land hit 2 lag frames - 20
L-canceled - 10
B-air - total frames - 43
hit frames - 6- 20
IASA - 26
land lag - 15
L-canceled - 7
Kirby frame data - https://smashboards.com/threads/kirby-hitboxes-and-frame-data.322531/
B-air and F-tilt are safe to use on shield not the other moves. Even with these two moves you must space properly or you risk being shield grabbed or a worse punish. B-air can auto cancel in short hop F-air can not. The best application for up tilt is to cover aerial approaches and back air is used to create space in tight situations. Forward air and tilt are used when you have space and you want to maintain it since these moves have more range and knock back.
Defense:
This is the position that a Kirby main will be in most often since most of the casts frame data, knock back ,and combo ability outrank his own. When in this position use moves like up tilt and back air. These moves are quick, create enough space between you and your opponent ,and can also follow up or combo into each other (character dependent.) Grab and down smash are Kirby's panic options. They are not as good as options previously mentioned, however in a tight enough space they can be used to catch opponents off guard and gain space. They are slow and laggy and don't have much follow up but can net you space.
Punish / Reads
Kirby, do to lack of knock back, has some decent follow up options on majority of the cast when used properly and mixed up frequently. Not many of Kirby's moves combo into each other and don't always give an easy follow up up are effective in their respective situations and with respective characters. The moves with the most combo and follow up potential are: F-air, B-air, D-air, U-tilt, grab, and U-air. Now these moves aren't good against every character all of the time so just keep in mind the character the opponent chooses and choose moves accordingly.
EX: Marth- Fair ,Fair Bair ,up tilt ,Bair
Peach- Fair ,Fair Bair ,up tilt ,Bair
Jiggs- up tilt ,Bair
Fox / Falco- Bair ,up tilt ,Bair
DISCLAIMER: These aren't all true and they aren't all of the follow ups! There are more and more complex follow ups these are just simple examples
Reads and grabs are pretty much the majority of how kirby's punish game starts. Grabs (mostly D-throw) ,Utilts ,and Bairs are the safest options for kirby to start a punish but a stray Fair or Down smash may also begin a punish. Kirby has a tech chase similar to Caption Falcons. He has to wave dash in the direction of the opponent's tech roll before inputting a dash. For a model of good Captain Falcon tech chasing look at Wizzrobe and model it and tweek it to mold Kirby's tech chase. Keep in mind that if your opponent misses a tech and does get up attack, Kirby can only CC most get up attacks within punish range into about 15%-20% so to counter this I wave dash back then grab instead of shielding or CC. Up throw is experimental so feel free to do so and as reference you can look up Triple R on youtube and observe his use of up throw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XveGdRvcRMg
Edge Guards:
Kirby's edge guarding is super effective when done optimally. Bair ,Dair ,angled Ftilts and Fsmash as well as down smash are great edge guarding tools. most characters can be rinse and repeat back air ,but their are sometimes where other moves are necessary to close out a stock. Examples of these moments are: 1. Can't make in to ledge 2. Opponent lands on stage 3. Opponent is above or below you and more. For the most part kirby should not have an issue closing out opponents stocks when off stage.
Recovery:
Kirby does not have the best recovery but it is not always the worst, When above stage Kirby has one of the better recoveries along with Puff and Peach as far as getting back and touching the ground goes. This changes however when he is level or below the ledge because he is forced to use his terrible up B which he is very easy to hit and keep off stage because of the small hit box and the fact that once he is hit ,even if you hadn't used all jumps, he may no longer jump. His ledge options aren't the best but aren't the worst. When on ledge he can perform a ledge dash however it is slow as most his moves are. For the most part though he can ledge camp similar to Puff. To study search Hungrybox and observe his ledge tactics.
More on character specific matchups ,combos ,followups ,and more will be added so refer back for new postings about every week or so.
-18th on the dash speed tier list
-17th on the wave dash list alongside captain falcon
-frame 4 jump squat (same as fox)
Kirby doesn't really have any comparable movement to anyone outside of the low tiers. It is kinda clunky at first but can be pretty decent when moving across small areas. In order to play in these small areas against fox and falco movement must be nearly frame perfect wit your inputs only falling behind by at the most 2 frames.
Neutral:
As a lot may guess kirby has a neutral similar to jigglypuff except for the fact that he is worse at it. This is do to his lack of aerial drift. So he must also combine the campy back air spacing with his ground movement. In good combination this can create a decent wall. While in the air space B-air and F-fair ,and on the ground go for forward and up tilts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9_nwcN37I
F-tilt - total frames - 32
hit frames - 5-8
IASA frame - 28
lag frames - 9-27 19
U-tilt - total frames - 23
hit frames - 4-7
lag frames - 8-23 16
F-air - total frames - 49
hit frames - 10-11, 17-18, 25-26
IASA - 40
land hit 2 lag frames - 20
L-canceled - 10
B-air - total frames - 43
hit frames - 6- 20
IASA - 26
land lag - 15
L-canceled - 7
Kirby frame data - https://smashboards.com/threads/kirby-hitboxes-and-frame-data.322531/
B-air and F-tilt are safe to use on shield not the other moves. Even with these two moves you must space properly or you risk being shield grabbed or a worse punish. B-air can auto cancel in short hop F-air can not. The best application for up tilt is to cover aerial approaches and back air is used to create space in tight situations. Forward air and tilt are used when you have space and you want to maintain it since these moves have more range and knock back.
Defense:
This is the position that a Kirby main will be in most often since most of the casts frame data, knock back ,and combo ability outrank his own. When in this position use moves like up tilt and back air. These moves are quick, create enough space between you and your opponent ,and can also follow up or combo into each other (character dependent.) Grab and down smash are Kirby's panic options. They are not as good as options previously mentioned, however in a tight enough space they can be used to catch opponents off guard and gain space. They are slow and laggy and don't have much follow up but can net you space.
Punish / Reads
Kirby, do to lack of knock back, has some decent follow up options on majority of the cast when used properly and mixed up frequently. Not many of Kirby's moves combo into each other and don't always give an easy follow up up are effective in their respective situations and with respective characters. The moves with the most combo and follow up potential are: F-air, B-air, D-air, U-tilt, grab, and U-air. Now these moves aren't good against every character all of the time so just keep in mind the character the opponent chooses and choose moves accordingly.
EX: Marth- Fair ,Fair Bair ,up tilt ,Bair
Peach- Fair ,Fair Bair ,up tilt ,Bair
Jiggs- up tilt ,Bair
Fox / Falco- Bair ,up tilt ,Bair
DISCLAIMER: These aren't all true and they aren't all of the follow ups! There are more and more complex follow ups these are just simple examples
Reads and grabs are pretty much the majority of how kirby's punish game starts. Grabs (mostly D-throw) ,Utilts ,and Bairs are the safest options for kirby to start a punish but a stray Fair or Down smash may also begin a punish. Kirby has a tech chase similar to Caption Falcons. He has to wave dash in the direction of the opponent's tech roll before inputting a dash. For a model of good Captain Falcon tech chasing look at Wizzrobe and model it and tweek it to mold Kirby's tech chase. Keep in mind that if your opponent misses a tech and does get up attack, Kirby can only CC most get up attacks within punish range into about 15%-20% so to counter this I wave dash back then grab instead of shielding or CC. Up throw is experimental so feel free to do so and as reference you can look up Triple R on youtube and observe his use of up throw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XveGdRvcRMg
Edge Guards:
Kirby's edge guarding is super effective when done optimally. Bair ,Dair ,angled Ftilts and Fsmash as well as down smash are great edge guarding tools. most characters can be rinse and repeat back air ,but their are sometimes where other moves are necessary to close out a stock. Examples of these moments are: 1. Can't make in to ledge 2. Opponent lands on stage 3. Opponent is above or below you and more. For the most part kirby should not have an issue closing out opponents stocks when off stage.
Recovery:
Kirby does not have the best recovery but it is not always the worst, When above stage Kirby has one of the better recoveries along with Puff and Peach as far as getting back and touching the ground goes. This changes however when he is level or below the ledge because he is forced to use his terrible up B which he is very easy to hit and keep off stage because of the small hit box and the fact that once he is hit ,even if you hadn't used all jumps, he may no longer jump. His ledge options aren't the best but aren't the worst. When on ledge he can perform a ledge dash however it is slow as most his moves are. For the most part though he can ledge camp similar to Puff. To study search Hungrybox and observe his ledge tactics.
More on character specific matchups ,combos ,followups ,and more will be added so refer back for new postings about every week or so.
