Ah been a while since an update gave our lovable puff
a ton of touchups and I can easily say this patch has given him the biggest improvements. I wanted to wait a bit for me and our labbing squad to properly test out and assess all the improvements and I think I now ready to list them out and their implications for Kirby. Here's a rundown of his direct changes (His versions of neutral Bs get buffed alongside other characters so he pretty always gets some kind of change):
1. Up Smash's Early Tipper Hit Has Had its KB buffed.
It was well documented that 3.0 changed Up Smash so that the strong hit lasts from Frames 12-14 instead of just frame 12, making it an actual anti-air. However, it didn't do anything regarding weaker tipper hit the move has throughout the entire attack. In 5.0, the tip of the foot of Up Smash for the early strong hit had a BKB of 30 and a KBG 99. This made it kill about 20% later than the inner hit which could be rather annoying if you hit a foe really high above you or didn't dash in enough. But now, while it still does less %, it's BKB and KBG have been buffed to match the inner hit with values of 36 and 104 respectively. This effectively makes it kill about 12% sooner cutting the gap by about half. Easily the most modest change Kirby got but quite appreciated regardless. Now mispacing it less punishing and you can kill more often if you anti air with it at its zenith.
2. Jab startup is Frame 2 down from Frame 3
A one buff quickly found. Believe it or not, Kirby's Jab was widely agreed by us to be his worst move (and heck it probably still is). Puny hitbox, awful rapid jab damage, mixup combo potential was taken out like most Jab 1 and 2s, mega punishable on shield, barely quicker than the infinitely better D Tilt, etc. For the most part its niche was getting you Jab locks when D Tilt stopped locking. Now with this change, it hasn't skyrocketed up the ranks of Kirby's moveset, but it no longer is atmospheric levels below the rest of the kit. In the few niches it has, it performs better. Less startup means tech chasing with it is even smoother. You'll hit miss techs sooner and be able to follow them quicker. The reduced startup now gives Kirby a 100% true followup out of his D-Air on most of the roster with the exceptions of Ganondorf and all the superheavies heavier than him. Being Frame 2 now improves its abilty to cover standard getup. And probably most notably, it now has enough of a startup advantage over D-Tilt (which crouches Kirby frame 1 by the way) to be worth using when Kirby needs to mash a button out. Most notable when he's in a clank situation with characters like
that had quicker Jabs. Now he can at least stalemate them. And the Jabs of the 2 characters with Frame 1 Jabs (
) are crouched so Kirby can D Tilt against them. This isnt a crazy buff but it helps Jab stand out that little bit more from his incredible Tilts that mostly invalidated its existence pre-patch.
3. N-Air Startup is now Frame 8 and with Increased KB
Finally the big changes! Definitely a strong contentder for the biggest he got. Pre-Patch N-Air filled a very key role in Kirby's kit as being his most reliable option in disadvantage, best means of getting through projectiles, a key shield pressure tool being -2 at best, and offering a lot of combo potential. (Far more reliably than his overrated D-Air I might add). It got a KBG buff going into Ultimate and between the game switch and 3.0 got its dreadful FAF of 73 taken down to a far more reasonable 55. But despite how good it was, it still felt lacking and that memetic Frame 10 startup was definitely the elephant in the room. Being Frame 10 made it a lot harder to use in disadvantage than it should be. Both in the air and OOS shield. It also held back the edgeguarding potential the FAF buffs otherwise could bestowed it.
But at long last, after being glossed over for several games and most Ult patches, it FINALLY got a startup buff! It's now Frame 8. That decrease when typed out doesn't sound crazy, but believe me when I say it impacts a ton! For one thing, the startup buff now gives Kirby 1 of 2 new routes (the other I'll get into later) to combo via F-Throw on Battlefield height platforms. Next up, it's made N-Air a respectable OOS option. It had its spots before but the startup often made it not worth it. But coming out 2 frames sooner now lets it punish so much more stuff then before (especially given how imperfectly most moves are done on shield). And N-Air becoming Frame 11 OOS is key because it not only can come out faster and more safely than his Frame 12 Up Smash, but it covers all around Kirby to catch crossups so much better. Before Kirby would have to choose between his speedy B-Air and slower F-Air or stubby grab. N-Air now stands as a new more reliable midground. Being quicker only improves its case when you're in disadvantage and the startup buff has made it far more effective off stage! So much easier to time and easier to use multiple times with floats thanks to the simultaneous FAF reduction that actually makes it less laggy offstage than D-Air with an FAF of 53.
All this is so appreciated but in my power I would have preferred it to be made even faster. Something in the Frame 3-6 ballpark...had they not also juiced up its KB! They increased the KBG from 100 -> 117. That combined with its high BKB means it now can kill not much later than Kirby's B-Air! Throw this fact in with all the new boons I mentioned and now N-Air has ascended to the upper echelons of Kirby's kit. Not only is it quicker OOS and in disadvantage but you can outright kill people with it more reliably now too! Particularly near ledge. For perspective, with good DI Mario now dies 151% which is down from 185% and by ledge if not DI'd right he could die as early as 103%! This is has now made it utterly fearsome on ledge and off stage and while also making a potential new kill setup option. We need to do our customary testing but, Weak Up Tilt -> Full DJ N-Air is looking to have potential to kill near ledge. Kirby could do something similar with B-Air pre-patch but having to turn for it and the slightly lower height kept it from becoming meta. Perhaps N-Air can pick up the mantle there. In any case, Kirby's N-Air is now the real deal and possibly is best buff this patch.
4. U-Air Startup is now Frame 8 and does 10% base up from 9 while having more KB
The other major change to Kirby's aerials that's getting oodles of hype, Up Air has been changed in ways not too unlike N-Air and its improvements arguably mend more critical areas! Now N-Air despite lacking a bit still filled major roles for Kirby's kill. Up Air sadly couldn't say as much. For the longest time Up Air basically had all the flaws of flip kick Up Airs and few of the benefits. It lacked the KB to kill outright like say ZSS's Up-Air, but it had too much endlag to link into itself like
's. This left in that crummy no man's land of being too slow to combo but too weak to kill, thus leaving it as one of the weakest Up-Airs in the game. This has been a major issue for Kirby for a long time because it exaceraberated his issue with threatening people right above his air space that would already be a character weakness just cause of his ground jump height. Opponents could be sittting well over 150% and an Up Air still might not kill them unless you hit them at the very top of the screen after expending multiple floats and even then it might not be a sure kill. This is a big part of why Kirby mains have to auto strike triplat maps as they make it even easier to exploit this weakness of Kirby's. Sure his Up Smash got fixed but it's not like it can hit people bounding over him. This is also put a ton of strain on B-Air as his only reliable killing aerial against foes air camping.
But at last this patch has rectified that! Like N-Air, Up-Air got a double whammy of having its memetic Frame 10 startup reduced to Frame 8 and got a KB boost. Only Up Air's isn't owed solely to KBG changes. Along with getting it 108 KBG increase to 115, it also got a base damage increase from 9 to 10 to match his N-Air. These have combined to let Up-Air effectively kill about 30% sooner than it used to! For the first time since ironically Melee, being right above Kirby...is actually a risky prospect. With this new Up-Air Kirby can kill Mario standing on the top Battlefield platform as early as 136% which he can reach with a full DJ. Pre Buff this wasn't possible until 163%. This vastly improves his juggle game and overall advantage state and now the subtle tech we had of using multiple floats to corner someone in air is actually worth doing! And trades with Up Air are finally worth it.
And as I am also sure a lot of you also know by now, this as greatly aided it and N-Air's combo utility in a lot of ways too. It and N-Air FINALLY give him combo potential under low platforms which I'm sure you've seen in Twitter clips by now. The quicker starterup allows you to hit them off strong Up Tilt much sooner. With Up AIr you can now do reverse one in a shortup and ascend again for another aerial before touching the ground which aids Rev Up-Air And like N-Air, Up-Air, which was inches from doing this at much later % pre-patch, can now kill confirm off an Up Tilt on a lot of the cast. Only unless N-AIr Up Air has a chance to do this off strong Up Tilt as well as weak Up Tilt if you get a platform assist. Allows you to kill easily about 10-20% than if you did it off the ground.
It's 100% good news for the Up-Air and N-Air buffs buecasue they did mess a bit with some specific low percent combos before. Particularly ones you do with characters you can't F Throw F-Air at 0 but honestly the benefits more than outweigh those minor inconvenieces.
5. Inhale Startup is Now Frame 10
Another massive change this buff and one a lot of us have been hoping for ever since it was buffed a bit in SSB4. Kirby's Inhale is not only his X factor but it defines him as a character. But various things have ailed it for the longest time, not the least of which are its startup and hitbox size which make it much harder to land than it ought to be. In SSB4 Up Tilt -> Inhale was a reliable setup for it, but Up Tilt got KB changes which reduced the effectiveness. You now had to jump to get it even at low % and even then it was janky. And it startup means the windbox often doesn't kick until they've leaped away.
But with this patch these 2 issues have been nailed with a single Stone. Inhale got a massive startup buff reduction from Frame 14 to Frame 10! That just makes it couple frames slower than
's Chomp for perspective. And you might ask, how does this compensate for the hitbox size? Because, now that it's 4 frames faster, the windbox suction kicks in 4 frames faster as well which means foes now get pulled into range of the grab box much sooner than before. Enough that the small size isn't as glaring an issue.
This is a major buff (which is complimented by the last one I'll get to in a bit) because not only does it make getting raw Inhales infinitely easier but it also lets Kirby call out shields from above much easier, boosts its ledge trap and edgeguarding potential a ton, and drastically boosted the effectiveness of all his Inhale setups (aside from landing N-Air but that's cause of N-Air's KB buff and even thene it still works at low enough % for the strong hit and likely can work for the weak hit now). With the 4 frame boost, Up Tilt Inhale is back to its former glory and now F-Air 1 Inhale is way more practical. From what I've been told he can now F-Air 1 tipper into Dash Inhale too.
Inhale been a move even the best of Kirbies have been rather weary to use for the longest time. (Seriously I don't think I've seen Komota use it on stream once in Ultimate). But now, it's finally something Kirby's can feel fully confident in throwing out. This along with the next change I'll discuss will greatly aid him in matchups Copy Ability is vital.
6. The Copy Keep time and Drop RNG have been Buffed Once More!
Because of the terrible wording, most probably don't know what that whole "Harder to Interupt his Copy Abililty" lingo means. Well thanks to miners from before and now, I can divulge just what as been changed. Kirby essentially got the same type of buff to this that he got in 3.0 but even more. 3.0 increased the time Kirby can't drop an ability from 5 to 10 seconds. This was nice but I felt it was a hair too short. But the fittingly numbered 6.0 has doubled down on this increased that time from 10 to 20 seconds. That is actually a very nice window of time to be guarenteed to not drop a power. It's a 1/3 of a minute which more than enough to change the course of a matchup. It gives the Kirby player more time to establish their stage presence after landing it, escape a disadvantage state if they are hit afterward, ensure they get a setup off before it could be loss, etc. It's now something we can play around.
The other improvement was to the drop rate. Meshima found that our drop in 3.0 used a formula similar to Item Dropping and was calculated as 1.3( Attack % / 70). 3.0 reduced the multiplier from 1.3 to 1. This was good but it could have been better. Now 6.0 has come in reduced the multiplier once more from 1 to .7. What this effectively done has canceled out the 70 so now the damage you are dealt IS the drop rate. For perspective, in the vanilla game, a 10% attack was 18% drop rate. In 3.0 it became a 14% drop rate. And now it's 10% drop rate! This almost makes copies dropped half as often as they were on launch. Combined with the timer buff, this has DRASTICALLY improved Copy Ability retention. Now playing full stocks with stolen powers is so much more feasible. Kirby gets Copies more often and keeps them much longer.
Between these 2 changes I can legitimately called his Neutral B a good move! The only real issue it has a this point is that auto swallowing projectiles still leaves you as a sitting duck. Hopefully they amend that later but with all the other improvements Inhale is legitmately great in spite of that.
That about sums up the changes. This patch is easily the biggest one Kirby has gotten in Ultimate and blows 90% of his SSB4 patches out of the water. Many core issues Kirby's been plagued by for several GAMES have finally been address and/or chipped away at. Now of course these improvments don't straight up fix Kirby's weakness against camping. But honestly that wasn't even his core problem. A bunch of characters like
get camped a a good bit but are still threatening. It was really that the payofff for overcoming this at Kirby just wasn't consistently good enough. But for the first time in ages, this as finally been gnawed away at. Kirby now has new answer to foes camping above him, 2 new kill aerials that have good potential to kill raw on the fly (N-Air in particular) and massively free his B-Air up, and he finally consistently apply his Copy Ability in battle which usually tends to be his answer to camping in many matchups like
.
Now you might be wondering what I think of his prospects now. If I had to give MY opinion I (and most other Kirbies) now agree if he was bottom tier before he's firmly out of it now. As for where he falls now, I optimiscally put him in the lower half of mid tier and pessimistcally at the top of low tier. These changes have actually addressed issues hurting his viabilty and have universally improved his MU spread. The rough MUs are less painful and his anti-meta MUs have become more efficient and he likely goes even or better with more characters now. Of course this is an early impression. Will have to wait and see how the playerbase performs. Although I will say that it's definitely the happiest I've seen a lot of my fellow poyos in a long time with even some of our most pessimistic of users or former players showing excitement. (It's even gotten MikeKirby interested again!). Now obviously from my take, you should be able to tell Kirby ain't perfect yet. He still has some glaring problems I would ideally like addressed such as Up Throw being a tad too weak, Up Air still being too laggy, Final Cutter still being too slow, Stone not hitting shields twice, etc. But I can confidently call him FAR more capable than he was before and I have high hopes for his best users like Supergirl Kels, RK, Jesuischoq, Komota, etc. doing better with him.
This update has defintiely shaken up Kirby's meta and all for the better and I am looking forward to all the optimizations to be made now.
