Defense or Offense? (D3 in the neutral)

[Denjinpachi]

I play DeDeDe from time to time, and I always kind of find myself not knowing what his real take on the neutral game is. I see that he can do very well off of grab set ups, and can also get some nasty juggles with his far reaching moves. the only issue im really having is that he kinda struggles if whatever I dedicate to isn't a deadset read, or punish. Any kinda lenient tactics I can use to tip the neutral in my favor in general?

 

[Ridel]

Dedede's neutral is pretty bad you mainly want to zone and bait. I would say play defensively but use Waddles and disjoints to zone as Dedede has no real oos option outside of grab. Biggest issues are against characters like Falco and Ivy who can literally negate that with projectile spam.

 

[Chef BoyarDedede]

I'd agree with everything Ridel says. I often find I can play defensively and sort of waddle or air camp (mu and stage Dependant) and then stuff their approach with jab, utilt, ftilt, or maybe grab.
Often people try to wall out with fair and ftilt which I think works pretty well, but I think its better to try and stuff their approaches with these than just thrown them out preemptively because they can be dealt with pretty easily.
One thing I'm terrible at which I need to work on is staying more mobile and harder to approach, which makes this all work easier and better.