mountain_tiger
Smash Champion
Hey DK boards. I’ve noticed that I haven’t really contributed anything to the boards yet, so I figured I’d make a small guide about Donkey Kong’s Side Special move, Headbutt. Hopefully this should have at least some use for DK beginners.
Section 1: The basics
It goes without saying that Headbutt is a high risk, high reward sort of move. The reason it’s so risky is due to the large amount of lag you suffer before and after the hitbox appears. Taking some info from the Frame Data thread, Headbutt’s hitbox doesn’t appear until frame 20, and you have to go through over half a second’s lag afterwards, more than enough for any good player to severely punish you. What this basically means is that if you constantly fish around for this move, YOU WILL GET PUNISHED. You have to be smart about when you use it.
But if you DO manage to land it, then you’re in an excellent position, since you can hit your opponent with basically whatever you want to. In addition, if you use this move when your opponent is in the air, if you hit with it properly they should get meteor smashed downwards, useful for edgeguarding opponents with poor recoveries.
BTW, here’s the formula for how long a character stays buried (in frames):
Frames of buried stun (grounded headbutt) = 96+D – 5N
Frames of buried stun (aerial headbutt) = 114 + D – 5N
D is the % of damage your opponent has taken, whereas N is the amount of times your opponent presses any button. In this sense, the physics of buried stun are very similar to that of grabbing, in that higher damage increases the time spent helpless, while button mashing reduces it.
Section 2: Situations where you can land Headbutt
Considering how slow this move is, you’re not going to be landing it on any opponents in a neutral position (anyone who tries to do so is doing it wrong). No, Headbutt is designed to punish mistakes that your opponents make. Situations where you can land Headbutt include:
- Punishing an attack with a lot of ending lag
- Punishing an aerial attack with a lot of landing lag
- Hitting a helpless opponent just as they hit the ground (such as when they overshoot the ledge when recovering)
- Punishing spotdodges (the high start-up lag gives it a ‘pseudo-linger’ effect)
- Punishing roll dodges (same basic principle as punishing spot dodges)
- Punishing a whiffed tether grab (the only exceptions are Yoshi and Lucas if they pivot grab, and possibly Samus when dash grabbing too)
- After footstooling a ground opponent (Headbutt cancels your upwards momentum, and since they suffer lag you have enough time to do a Headbutt. I’m not sure which characters this does and doesn’t work on, but it works for at least some of them).
So although you won’t be landing a Headbutt on your opponent all too often, whenever your opponent makes a mistake, a good deal of the time you can use a Headbutt to punish them, at which point you can use whatever you want.
Section 3: Recommended follow-ups to Headbutt
OK, so you managed to land a clean Headbutt, and now they’re stuck in the ground, completely defenceless. That’s all well and good, but what are you going to follow up with? Well, most of the time you’ll want to use a move with powerful knockback to try and kill your opponent. Here are the top three best options, in order:
9-wind punch: Strangely enough, a 9-wind punch has more knockback than a ‘steaming’ fully charged punch. Thus, if you have the move charged with 9 winds, then quickly tap B twice to hit them with it, because it’s incredibly powerful, killing light characters at percentages as low as 30%.
Fully charged punch: However, let’s say that instead you have the punch fully charged. Although it’s not as strong as the 9-wind punch, its knockback is still nothing to be sniffed at. A fully charged punch kill the lighter characters at around 50-60%, which isn’t too shabby. This is your second best option.
FSmash: If you haven’t gotten the punch charged at all, then you still have FSmash to fall back on, since Headbutt doesn’t really allow you enough time to charge a Giant Punch while they’re in buried stun. FSmash is another very strong move, and kills light characters at around 70-80%. If you want to, you can try and charge the FSmash a tiny bit before releasing it. However, doing so is risky, because if you’re not careful your opponent may escape before you release it, thus meaning you don’t hit with it at all, which is obviously bad.
USmash: When a character escapes from the buried stun, they experience a brief amount of jump lag. With proper timing, you can land a charged USmash, since they suffer 11 frames of lag, while USmash has a charge release of 8 frames. If you charge it up enough the potential killing power of it can be huge.
These are, overall, the three best moves you can use after a successful grounded Headbutt if you want to kill your opponent. Since Donkey Kong can start killing opponents at low percents this way, you usually have something to kill your opponent with. If, however, you land it at very low percents where you can’t kill your opponent, then for racking up damage Spinning Kong works well. I also recommend DSmash because if they escape early it should still hit them (hopefully). FSmash sometimes works, depending on how fast they button mash.
Section 4: Other uses for Headbutt
Now, Headbutt’s uses are by no means limited to simply smacking opponents into the ground. No, there are a couple of other (admittedly situational) uses for this move, and here are the main two other uses:
- Headbutt can be used as a meteor smash. Now, at first, you may think, ‘But he already has Fair and Dair to meteor smash. What good does another one do?’ Ah, well here’s the good thing about it. When you do Fair and Dair, you’re falling for the entire duration of the move, and since both moves last almost a whole second, you can sometimes fall too far and end up dying due to Donkey Kong’s poor vertical recovery. However, Headbutt stalls you in the air until the hitbox appears, meaning that you don’t fall for as long, making recovery much more likely. In addition, if you run along the edge, and use Headbutt just as you’re about to fall off, you’ll slide along the air and perform it (useful for edgeguarding). Be aware that sometimes the meteor smash won’t hit, and instead you’ll get a weak 8% hit that bounces them upwards slightly.
- You can also use it to stall your recovery. Now, Donkey Kong’s recovery is very predictable, since the only resources he has to recover are his second jump and Spinning Kong, his up B move. However, if you use Headbutt in the air, as stated in the previous paragraph you will float in the air until the hitbox appears. If your opponent is trying to edgeguard you, this can potentially throw off their timing, and thus giving you the opportunity to up B back to the stage without being punished. You can’t do this trick too far below the stage though, or you’ll fall too far and be unable to recover.
Section 5: Conclusion
Overall, although Headbutt is a very risky move and should only be used occasionally, when the opportunity arises to use it then you should definitely take it. It essentially guarantees your opponent’s death from around 70%+, even less if you’re careful with how you charge your punches. In a game like Brawl, you need to take advantage of as many moves as you can, and Headbutt it no exception.
I hope that this guide helps new Donkey Kong players regarding how and when to use Headbutt. And thus this concludes my first proper contribution to the Donkey Kong boards. If there’s anything you think I missed, then tell me and I’ll put it in, giving you full credit for it.
Section 1: The basics
It goes without saying that Headbutt is a high risk, high reward sort of move. The reason it’s so risky is due to the large amount of lag you suffer before and after the hitbox appears. Taking some info from the Frame Data thread, Headbutt’s hitbox doesn’t appear until frame 20, and you have to go through over half a second’s lag afterwards, more than enough for any good player to severely punish you. What this basically means is that if you constantly fish around for this move, YOU WILL GET PUNISHED. You have to be smart about when you use it.
But if you DO manage to land it, then you’re in an excellent position, since you can hit your opponent with basically whatever you want to. In addition, if you use this move when your opponent is in the air, if you hit with it properly they should get meteor smashed downwards, useful for edgeguarding opponents with poor recoveries.
BTW, here’s the formula for how long a character stays buried (in frames):
Yes, this was taken from the frame data thread as well…
Frames of buried stun (grounded headbutt) = 96+D – 5N
Frames of buried stun (aerial headbutt) = 114 + D – 5N
D is the % of damage your opponent has taken, whereas N is the amount of times your opponent presses any button. In this sense, the physics of buried stun are very similar to that of grabbing, in that higher damage increases the time spent helpless, while button mashing reduces it.
Section 2: Situations where you can land Headbutt
Considering how slow this move is, you’re not going to be landing it on any opponents in a neutral position (anyone who tries to do so is doing it wrong). No, Headbutt is designed to punish mistakes that your opponents make. Situations where you can land Headbutt include:
- Punishing an attack with a lot of ending lag
- Punishing an aerial attack with a lot of landing lag
- Hitting a helpless opponent just as they hit the ground (such as when they overshoot the ledge when recovering)
- Punishing spotdodges (the high start-up lag gives it a ‘pseudo-linger’ effect)
- Punishing roll dodges (same basic principle as punishing spot dodges)
- Punishing a whiffed tether grab (the only exceptions are Yoshi and Lucas if they pivot grab, and possibly Samus when dash grabbing too)
- After footstooling a ground opponent (Headbutt cancels your upwards momentum, and since they suffer lag you have enough time to do a Headbutt. I’m not sure which characters this does and doesn’t work on, but it works for at least some of them).
So although you won’t be landing a Headbutt on your opponent all too often, whenever your opponent makes a mistake, a good deal of the time you can use a Headbutt to punish them, at which point you can use whatever you want.
Section 3: Recommended follow-ups to Headbutt
OK, so you managed to land a clean Headbutt, and now they’re stuck in the ground, completely defenceless. That’s all well and good, but what are you going to follow up with? Well, most of the time you’ll want to use a move with powerful knockback to try and kill your opponent. Here are the top three best options, in order:
9-wind punch: Strangely enough, a 9-wind punch has more knockback than a ‘steaming’ fully charged punch. Thus, if you have the move charged with 9 winds, then quickly tap B twice to hit them with it, because it’s incredibly powerful, killing light characters at percentages as low as 30%.
Fully charged punch: However, let’s say that instead you have the punch fully charged. Although it’s not as strong as the 9-wind punch, its knockback is still nothing to be sniffed at. A fully charged punch kill the lighter characters at around 50-60%, which isn’t too shabby. This is your second best option.
FSmash: If you haven’t gotten the punch charged at all, then you still have FSmash to fall back on, since Headbutt doesn’t really allow you enough time to charge a Giant Punch while they’re in buried stun. FSmash is another very strong move, and kills light characters at around 70-80%. If you want to, you can try and charge the FSmash a tiny bit before releasing it. However, doing so is risky, because if you’re not careful your opponent may escape before you release it, thus meaning you don’t hit with it at all, which is obviously bad.
USmash: When a character escapes from the buried stun, they experience a brief amount of jump lag. With proper timing, you can land a charged USmash, since they suffer 11 frames of lag, while USmash has a charge release of 8 frames. If you charge it up enough the potential killing power of it can be huge.
These are, overall, the three best moves you can use after a successful grounded Headbutt if you want to kill your opponent. Since Donkey Kong can start killing opponents at low percents this way, you usually have something to kill your opponent with. If, however, you land it at very low percents where you can’t kill your opponent, then for racking up damage Spinning Kong works well. I also recommend DSmash because if they escape early it should still hit them (hopefully). FSmash sometimes works, depending on how fast they button mash.
Section 4: Other uses for Headbutt
Now, Headbutt’s uses are by no means limited to simply smacking opponents into the ground. No, there are a couple of other (admittedly situational) uses for this move, and here are the main two other uses:
- Headbutt can be used as a meteor smash. Now, at first, you may think, ‘But he already has Fair and Dair to meteor smash. What good does another one do?’ Ah, well here’s the good thing about it. When you do Fair and Dair, you’re falling for the entire duration of the move, and since both moves last almost a whole second, you can sometimes fall too far and end up dying due to Donkey Kong’s poor vertical recovery. However, Headbutt stalls you in the air until the hitbox appears, meaning that you don’t fall for as long, making recovery much more likely. In addition, if you run along the edge, and use Headbutt just as you’re about to fall off, you’ll slide along the air and perform it (useful for edgeguarding). Be aware that sometimes the meteor smash won’t hit, and instead you’ll get a weak 8% hit that bounces them upwards slightly.
- You can also use it to stall your recovery. Now, Donkey Kong’s recovery is very predictable, since the only resources he has to recover are his second jump and Spinning Kong, his up B move. However, if you use Headbutt in the air, as stated in the previous paragraph you will float in the air until the hitbox appears. If your opponent is trying to edgeguard you, this can potentially throw off their timing, and thus giving you the opportunity to up B back to the stage without being punished. You can’t do this trick too far below the stage though, or you’ll fall too far and be unable to recover.
Section 5: Conclusion
Overall, although Headbutt is a very risky move and should only be used occasionally, when the opportunity arises to use it then you should definitely take it. It essentially guarantees your opponent’s death from around 70%+, even less if you’re careful with how you charge your punches. In a game like Brawl, you need to take advantage of as many moves as you can, and Headbutt it no exception.
I hope that this guide helps new Donkey Kong players regarding how and when to use Headbutt. And thus this concludes my first proper contribution to the Donkey Kong boards. If there’s anything you think I missed, then tell me and I’ll put it in, giving you full credit for it.
