O hi, I was just reading your guide, when i noticed one of the matchups was quite a bit off. In order to prove this, I quoted the summary and will provide counterpoints to all of your points.
Zair: Fantastic
Link's Zair is easy to hit with on Donkey Kong. Like... super duper easy to hit with on Donkey Kong. The dude is huge yet, while his arms have decent swipe range, doesn't even come close to being able to compete with Link's Zair. For like.. real reals.
zair has plenty of range, however, if you're using it at full range, which is necessary against someone with dk's range, you will be quite predictable. At first glance it looks like he has no answer to it, right? Not quite. Dk's grounded upb has some very nice range, and very useful SA frames at the startup, on top of decent movement. If link zairs, a running upb with decent timing (most dk mains who are somewhat decent can time the upb SA frames, it's a pretty basic dk trick) will punish properly. now, you may say that, since zair has no lag, you might say "why not shield or roll?", put simply, upb shield pokes and can easily chase rolls, neither of those will work. the first time it shield pokes, it will do minimal damage, however, you're shield will be reduced to a small dot, the second time you will take somewhere between 20 and 36 depending on DI. Also, if dk gets your shield low, watch out, sideb, fsmash, the punch, and downb all take away somewhere between half and 3/4ths of your shield.
Jab Cancel: Fantastic
Link can Jab Cancel against Donkey Kong with almost zero reciprocity. It's amazing. Use it, be amazing. Canceling into the Utilt at low percentages is great for building up damage. Just watch out for his grab range and you should have little to no problem.
Another problem solved by proper use of upb, the frame 4 invincible hit means that most jab combos lose to it, and link is not exempt. if link is at low percents, it will pop him up into the rest of the upb, dealing anywhere from 23 all the way up to 40+% depending on DI. if link is at a higher percent, or DI's in order to avoid th low percent combo, it hits him far enough away that we can retreat to a ledge/ area far from link to land unpunished.
Donkey Kong don't want much... Just to Stage Spike!
At approximately 50% Donkey Kong can grab Link and put him on his back, jump off of the stage, and stage spike Link. This seems scary, difficult to avoid but really... it's not.
How do you deal with it?
You know, I feel like you all should have gotten these points by now.
1. Don't get grabbed.
--Like for real reals.
2. Have a bomb in hand.
--Donkey don't like fire.
As long as you can tech the stage you shouldn't get spiked. At higher percentages you can actually use your Nair to stage spike Donkey Kong.
That is, if he stage spikes. Against characters link, ganon, and a few others, dk has a second option. jump off, and dthrow them forward, instead of towards the stage, followed by an upb ledge stall will effectively kill link at any % past 60.
Shield Game
Due to his grab range and some quick smashes he has a good shield game. His Dsmash, Utilt, and Ftilt come out quickly. Don't underestimate this, and simply don't blindly approach his shield. You have a Zair to build up damage from a safe distance with little to no reciprocity.
However, as I stated earlier, zair is not that safe, meaning if you attack his shield, it'll be from a distance with projectiles. you also forgot to mention his 6 frame dtilt that sets up several attacks that do 20+% (dtilt trip - gfsc headbutt - either usmash, fsmash, or punch depending on % is my personal favorite, though on stages with platforms, dtilt to downb to tech chased usmash works better)
Edge-Guarding and Recovery
Edge-guarding Donkey Kong is an interesting thing. Your Zair and Gale Guards are pretty much useless. Yet, regardless of that, you can simple just drop down and Dair Donkey Kong as he's moving horizontally across the screen... hoping to get to the ledge. Aiming the Dair is very important though, he has invincibility frames and amazing priority on his Up+B.
Recovering against DK will be interesting. He has an array of spikes ready to edge-guard you, and spike you with. To be honest your basic tricks apply:
1. Alternate Up+B and Zair recoveries.
2. Have a bomb in hand to cancel out spikes and prolong recovery.
3. Watch out for his Bair, it's got range and comes out relatively quick.
dair is pretty hard to land if dk is paying attention, he can control the upb, and just pull back for a second so the dair misses. I've heard a lot of people say that they can gimp dk's recovery, and in all my tournament experience, the only ones who could do it are ness, ganon, mk, rob (bair) dedede (bair and fair) marth (counter) and ike. Of these, the only ones that actually killed were ganon, ness, rob, and ike. Not saying your move can't break the upb, just saying that if the DK steers it properly, you'll probably miss, which is very bad for you.
That brings me to my next point. gimping link consists of 3 moves, bair, upb, and fair. Fair i will cover in a bit.
the smartest way to gimp people with bad recoveries is to bair them a couple times, and then ledge stall with upb so that they cannot make it back. link is one of these characters, and a bair off stage at 60% will result in a death so long as dk does not screw up the ledge stall.
fair is kind of a backup gimp. It isn't consistent, and is only for when dk cannot make it off the stage to gimp. from the stage, dk can fast fall the fair to go straight through certain recoveries that occasionally overshoot the stage, like marth or link if they space wrong. however, this requires an error on the links part, and isn't very consistent.
What you did not mention is DK's superb ledge pressure game. dk can space an fsmash so that it will eat your get up attack, jump, and roll, if he times the release right. It will also hit you off ledges, and, if you manage to get up and shield in time, will knock you back onto the ledge with nothing but a smaller shield to show for you efforts. If you ledge stall, dsmash will stage spike you, killing after 45%. The donkey kong can also space downb to take out the standard get up, get up attack, and roll, forcing you to get up with a jump, very useful on battlefield and lylat, because it puts you up on the platform, with dk right below you. Basically, if you do make it back to the ledge, you're still in a bad position. you're zair helps, but the fsmash will still beat it, as will a running shield grab.
Super Armor and Invincibility
A few moves of Donkey Kong's have some interesting properties to them...
Super Armor! PAWNCH!
The only ability with super armor on it is the "Donkey Punch", and to be honest there are easy ways to not contest with this beast of a move.
When his "Donkey Punch" is charged up, don't use moves with a slow start up. Try to Jab Cancel into your damage builders, and simply use tipped Zairs. It will definitely save you a lot of grief.
Invincibility! Get to the Choppa!
Donkey Kong's Up+B has invincibility frames on start up. To be honest, this shouldn't be a huge problem. Simply just don't try to stab something with a Dair that's invincible. That's just a @#$!ing stupid idea.
The upb I covered earlier. For the punch, having it charged limits your kill moves to... nothing. they all have enough start up that, with decent prediction, all get eaten by the SA. If the dk predicts what you are going to do, anything, even jabs or projectiles, a jump in punch will eat it, deal around 30 damage, and kill at 60-70.
Building Up the Damage
To be honest, just name of a move of Link's and it will build up damage quite nicely. Utilts to Usmashes are fantastic. Your projectiles and Zair on top of all of that make this match-up almost laughable.
your projectiles work quite nicely, and usmash can be a pain if you can land it against his spacing game, but other than that... you don't really have many consistent moves. dk's bair beats out your aerials (save for tippered zair, however, if the dk is spacing right, you'll rarely be at tipper range when you're both in the air). zair, as I've explained earlier in this post, only works when dk is in the air, as on the ground upb will beat it. your tilts all get out-ranged and out-prioritized by dk's tilts and downb.
Finishing Moves
Killing this Ape is the one problem you may come up against. He's heavy, and hard to get off of the stage. Generally you just need to be patient. If the Donkey Kong is playing defensively and you need to spam him up to all sorts of percentages. Go for it. He needs to approach you, you do not need to approach him. To setup kills your Jab Cancel is fantastic, as is a sour Zair to Fsmash. Just get used to seeing where his laggy attacks are and exploit them. He makes it easy.
properly spaced, his only punishable moves on block are dsmash (which we only use oos or when we are guaranteed not to be punished) fair, dair, nair (which we don't use outside of gimps) and upb (assuming only the end hits, if 7 of the spins hit, it shield pokes)
if you spotdodge, sideb, fsmash, and punch become punishable even when spaced, however, spotdodging is a lot riskier.
if the dk doesn't space, bair and his tilts are punishable, but this is assuming you're playing good dk's, so disregard that.
What you left out (I can right in big letters and colorful fonts too)
Link is one of the characters with proper fall speed for the utilt trap, meaning from 0%, we can utilt you 3-4 times, for a total of 30 or so percent, and, if we read your air dodge right, or if we are on a stage with a platform, we can lead it into a usmash, for a total of 50% and you in a bad position.
dtilt combos, a lot, dtilt-dtilt-downb is a 30ish% combo that puts link in a bad position. If the dtilt trips, it combos into both the punch, fsmash, and the gfsc headbutt, all of which hurt, a lot.
DK has crazy tech chases. If you get grabbed, dthrow will force a tech chase (technically you can airdodge, but it then becomes a psuedo cg, so its either tech chase or regrab) On the ground, dtilt and low ftilts can trip into tech chases, upb can also force it depending on DI, and a bunch of other random moves that aren't practical can occasionally force them
for grounded tech chases, if the dk reads your get up right, it's a headbutt, if he wants to be lazy, downb will beat three out of four options depending on placement (get up attack wins if he's up close, rolling away wins if he's at a distance) if you are by the ledge, fsmash beats all 4 options entirely, the only difference would be how long the fsmash is charged**
platform tech chases are easier to force, as downb and upb (di'd high) as well as his aerials can all force you into the tech/lay in vulnerable position. get up attacks and standing up are pretty much the same in rolling towards the nearest ledge in this position. So in reality, you have two options, roll towards one end of the platform, or roll towards the other/stand/get up attack. both of these give dk enough time to see where you're going, and either usmash, or foxtrot usmash, in essence, if you're laying in vulnerable on a platform, dk gets a free usmash, which does 18% minimum charge (probably 20% with the slight charge we get) and will kill you somewhere in the 60-70's
And that all brings me to my final point. His kill game is amazing. fsmash, usmash, and the punch will all kill in the late 60's/early 70s, and can be guaranteed with headbutts (one properly read roll/spot dodge, or a diminished shield is all he needs to land it) Dsmash kills in the 90ish range, and a grab by the ledge kills at 50-60 (not stage spike, dthrow to ledge stall). Basically your stocks are very short while his stocks last forever. His gimp game is very good, and assuming you make it to 120, uair becomes a very reliable 6 frame kill move.
now, you may say that usmash, fsmash, and the punch are not that reliable, however, they can all be used to punish due to there extreme priority. Usmash WILL beat the dair, it beats everyones dair, lucarios included. meaning you should not return with dair at all, it can also be used through platforms with decent succcess (or guaranteed with a tech chase on a platform) fsmash can be guaranteed with a tech chase by the ledge, and is quite likely to hit if you are on the ledge. Finally the punch goes through all your stuff, aerial start up time is 14 frames for the SA (don't quote me on it, might be up to 16), meaning if you're committed to any whiffed attack, the jump in punch can land.
I just thought your matchup was quite a bit off so i wrote you an essay explaining why, I'm quite sure it is not in links favor, and I will give you a number when the dk boards cover it.
** Properly spaced with you right at the ledge, you cannot roll back, as that would not move you, you cannot roll towards because you're still in range, you cannot do the get up attack because you're still in range and it wins in priority, and you cannot a normal stand up because you're still in range. This is dk's checkmate situation, as it will normally kill anywhere at anywhere from 20 to 60 percent depending on weight, charge, recovery, DI etc.