I've noticed that a lot of Kirby players tend to struggle against characters with swords, so I wanted to make a quick guide/reference sheet to help out. Swords are often considered to be an auto-win for the opponent, but that's not quite true. While Kirby does lose to a lot of ranged characters, it's usually a specific type of range that poses a threat. I'll explain as we go.
Neutral
The area where disjoints pose the greatest issue is neutral. This is obviously unfortunate, since a powerful neutral leads to consistency. But one thing I've noticed is that people often mix up what I'll call "neutral tools" and "neutral threat." For me, neutral threat is basically how all the abilities of a character work together to help them win neutral and gain some sort of advantage (percent, positional, stock, etc.). The strength of your advantage & your disadvantage contribute to this. Neutral tools are the individual buttons that help you to win footsies - like Sheik needles, Marth dtilt, jab, etc.
Okay, so what does that have to do with Kirby? Kirby's issues versus disjoints in neutral tend to stem from his lack of neutral tools. He's stubby and he's slow - which is a very poor combination. He does have a few tools that are underrated, though:
Advantage
Many people may be wondering why I didn't address Kirby's weakness to camping in the last section. That's because Kirby's advantage state is the big equalizer for characters that aren't like... Cloud or Corrin (but it still helps to know what to do against them).
I mentioned earlier that neutral threat comes from the danger of your tools, and thus it allows you to further take your tools beyond what they'd normally do. This is where Kirby's advantage stage comes into play. It's critical to know how to get the strongest punishes possible as Kirby, because that makes people fear your tools a little bit more. If, for example, a Marth player knows that you get 33% by pummeling them once, then doing bthrow, uair, bair, they're going to play around your grab more carefully. From there, you might be able to use more shield/crouch, because they'll want to keep you out with attacks/grabs.
If an Ike player knows that one whiffed grab (because of crouch or otherwise) might lead to a 0-death punish from uair/utilt strings, then they're going to try to grab less - which allows you to play using a lot of shielding. So on.
The long and short of it is - if you can maximize what you get out of a punish, that gives you two major bonuses:
>>Kirby Combo Tutorial<<
(I never want to see fthrow fair EVER again on a Diddy, a Roy, a Fox, a Falcon, a Marth, a...)
Disadvantage
I don't actually have too much to say here, except this: Kirby has multiple jumps. If you can't use them to force your opponent to commit when you're in the air, use them to get to ledge safely. This is unlikely to work against characters like Cloud due to high speed on the ground and the air, low endlag, and long-lasting aerials... but it will work to varying degrees against say, Marcina or Roy. Corrin is also rough since his air combos are true, so... RIP that.
Closing Thoughts
This guide is my take on the basics that you need to know in order to take on characters with range. As your own neutral and knowledge of the game improves, you'll be able to do significantly more depending on the characters you face. For example, Poyo is capable of playing in a way that heavily pressures ranged characters due to years of experience. Even without long punishes, he's able to get and maintain advantage off of movement and positioning alone. MikeKirby similarly has a neutral that's incredible, but an amazing punish game to go along with it. Komota is in the same boat as Mike.
So, last bit - why does Kirby seem to lose to disjoints? That's typically because the characters that beat him hardest have much more than disjoints. Take Cloud for example... it's not just his large disjoints. It's also that he has a low jumpsquat, incredible ground and air speed, cross slash and grab don't care about crouch, he can ledge trap or juggle to make up any percent deficit, and so on.
On the other hand, a character like Roy can't run away as easily (Kirby's weak to camping because of his vertical airspeed, not his horizontal!), he gets more out of being close to his opponents, his dash is committal, and Kirby can punish him incredibly hard.
Rosalina not only outranges Kirby, but you can't punish her as hard even when you win neutral. She's faster, her airdodge turns her invisible (and she - along with Puff and Kirby - gets control over her movement back 15 frames into an airdodge), meaning juking Kirby is free even without Luma. So on.
It's important to know what your opponent's strengths and weaknesses are beyond range in order to have a proper gameplan against them in neutral. More than that, you must develop your own strengths as well. That will allow you to see MUs that may feel unwinnable now as completely winnable.
P.S. Ban Triplats, please. I don't care how much you like uthrow, the platform camping is NOT worth it. If they can platform camp you, it's an auto ban.
P.S.S. Oh, also know your copy abilities. If Ike knows that he needs to Quick Draw back to stage, and you can hit him for free when he has to do it (with Eruption), he's less likely to want to take that bair. If Marcina knows you can hit everything except for ledge jump on reaction (with Shield Breaker), they're going to jump from ledge, and you can follow that accordingly. So on.
Neutral
The area where disjoints pose the greatest issue is neutral. This is obviously unfortunate, since a powerful neutral leads to consistency. But one thing I've noticed is that people often mix up what I'll call "neutral tools" and "neutral threat." For me, neutral threat is basically how all the abilities of a character work together to help them win neutral and gain some sort of advantage (percent, positional, stock, etc.). The strength of your advantage & your disadvantage contribute to this. Neutral tools are the individual buttons that help you to win footsies - like Sheik needles, Marth dtilt, jab, etc.
Duck Hunt has good neutral tools, since he can actually win footsies reasonably often against a lot of the cast with his combination of projectiles. However, he has low neutral threat due to the fact that any individual hit probably won't seal a stock, so his tools threaten the opponent less. Bayonetta is almost the opposite - while she has really good neutral tools, their power is VASTLY enhanced by the fact that you're afraid to get hit even once. And if you're afraid of getting hit by one move, she is now free to hit you with another. As a result, Bayonetta is allowed to play a neutral far beyond what her tools alone would allow her to.
Okay, so what does that have to do with Kirby? Kirby's issues versus disjoints in neutral tend to stem from his lack of neutral tools. He's stubby and he's slow - which is a very poor combination. He does have a few tools that are underrated, though:
- Ftilt: Kirby's ftilt is almost the same length as Marth's sword. Which means if he can tipper you, you can ftilt. Naturally, you do not want to be in this range (because we don't like dying at 2%), but if you're trying to stuff an advance, your frame 5 ftilt is a pretty safe way to do so.
- If you can perfect pivot, you get an upgraded neutral tool, since now you can extend your reach further than Kirby naturally would.
- This is best for gaining a positional advantage, so you can put more pressure on your opponent (or put more space between you).
- Crouch/Dtilt: I'm putting these together because they serve a similar purpose - just one for defense, and the other as a passive offense. Knowing what you can and cannot crouch is crucial for Kirby's spacing game, sure. So for example, you can crouch:
- Cloud jabs
- Marcina grab/jab
- Roy's grab
- So on (here's a full list of things Kirby can crouch)
- The reason why crouching is important is because it can negate a neutral tool. By taking away the option for an opponent to use one tool, you make them rely on others more heavily. This is especially good for grabs, since they're a critical part of a good ground game. So now, if a character wants to get a grab, they're required to bait you into shield - and that requires a little more effort than just going for the grab.
- This is different than spotdodge or dashing backwards for a couple of reasons. The first is that Kirby's dtilt keeps him at his lowest point while crouching (and it's very safe). This adds yet another element to think about - do I have to dash in and powershield? Can I bait them into shield so I can grab? So on. The second difference is that crouching has less lag than spotdodging or moving backwards. As a result, you can do it on reaction, you can telegraph it to bait another option, and so on - all with relatively little commitment.
- Finally, it can also force opponents who want to be in the air a lot to hit Kirby with landing aerials. In some cases, these are safer on shield. But in others, it can force them to endure quite a bit of endlag - which then becomes punishable. Then there's the other side, where in order to properly land with an aerial, you may need to stall in the air for a bit - giving Kirby clues to your next action.
Advantage
Many people may be wondering why I didn't address Kirby's weakness to camping in the last section. That's because Kirby's advantage state is the big equalizer for characters that aren't like... Cloud or Corrin (but it still helps to know what to do against them).
I mentioned earlier that neutral threat comes from the danger of your tools, and thus it allows you to further take your tools beyond what they'd normally do. This is where Kirby's advantage stage comes into play. It's critical to know how to get the strongest punishes possible as Kirby, because that makes people fear your tools a little bit more. If, for example, a Marth player knows that you get 33% by pummeling them once, then doing bthrow, uair, bair, they're going to play around your grab more carefully. From there, you might be able to use more shield/crouch, because they'll want to keep you out with attacks/grabs.
If an Ike player knows that one whiffed grab (because of crouch or otherwise) might lead to a 0-death punish from uair/utilt strings, then they're going to try to grab less - which allows you to play using a lot of shielding. So on.
The long and short of it is - if you can maximize what you get out of a punish, that gives you two major bonuses:
1) You get the opportunity to win neutral more by influencing your opponent's actions with fear from the start of the game.
2) You get to force the opponent to approach you more often by creating a large gap between you.
If you cannot maximize your punishes, Kirby cannot catch up to his opponents nor force the situations he needs in order to win neutral. Here's a fantastic guide to Kirby's combos by Phan7om, so you can take some inspiration:2) You get to force the opponent to approach you more often by creating a large gap between you.
>>Kirby Combo Tutorial<<
(I never want to see fthrow fair EVER again on a Diddy, a Roy, a Fox, a Falcon, a Marth, a...)
Disadvantage
I don't actually have too much to say here, except this: Kirby has multiple jumps. If you can't use them to force your opponent to commit when you're in the air, use them to get to ledge safely. This is unlikely to work against characters like Cloud due to high speed on the ground and the air, low endlag, and long-lasting aerials... but it will work to varying degrees against say, Marcina or Roy. Corrin is also rough since his air combos are true, so... RIP that.
Closing Thoughts
This guide is my take on the basics that you need to know in order to take on characters with range. As your own neutral and knowledge of the game improves, you'll be able to do significantly more depending on the characters you face. For example, Poyo is capable of playing in a way that heavily pressures ranged characters due to years of experience. Even without long punishes, he's able to get and maintain advantage off of movement and positioning alone. MikeKirby similarly has a neutral that's incredible, but an amazing punish game to go along with it. Komota is in the same boat as Mike.
So, last bit - why does Kirby seem to lose to disjoints? That's typically because the characters that beat him hardest have much more than disjoints. Take Cloud for example... it's not just his large disjoints. It's also that he has a low jumpsquat, incredible ground and air speed, cross slash and grab don't care about crouch, he can ledge trap or juggle to make up any percent deficit, and so on.
On the other hand, a character like Roy can't run away as easily (Kirby's weak to camping because of his vertical airspeed, not his horizontal!), he gets more out of being close to his opponents, his dash is committal, and Kirby can punish him incredibly hard.
Rosalina not only outranges Kirby, but you can't punish her as hard even when you win neutral. She's faster, her airdodge turns her invisible (and she - along with Puff and Kirby - gets control over her movement back 15 frames into an airdodge), meaning juking Kirby is free even without Luma. So on.
It's important to know what your opponent's strengths and weaknesses are beyond range in order to have a proper gameplan against them in neutral. More than that, you must develop your own strengths as well. That will allow you to see MUs that may feel unwinnable now as completely winnable.
P.S. Ban Triplats, please. I don't care how much you like uthrow, the platform camping is NOT worth it. If they can platform camp you, it's an auto ban.
P.S.S. Oh, also know your copy abilities. If Ike knows that he needs to Quick Draw back to stage, and you can hit him for free when he has to do it (with Eruption), he's less likely to want to take that bair. If Marcina knows you can hit everything except for ledge jump on reaction (with Shield Breaker), they're going to jump from ledge, and you can follow that accordingly. So on.
