my own improvment thread.

[Ministry]

This thread is sort of going to have a lot of things in it and i encourage others to add. a lot of it is my thoughts and ideas i have and would like to share. I'm looking to improve with Kirby as you guys know. Studying, theory crafting, thinking. Not just optimal stuff. maybe things that are not always best but are good maybe 1 or 2 times out of a 100. there is a situation for everything. i want to expand this character on top of what u guys already have.

Firstly i would like to share my YouTube playlist with people. Its a list of kirby videos i have watched and re watched and studied. videos i feel help me and i learn from. mostly its Randall, Duke, Kuya, Hack and there might be one of my videos in there. I know there is not tons of videos out there, so instead of scouring YouTube, we can have a central place to go fast to look up a match up or see a player.

sometimes for match ups like Randal vs Loring and vs Dairy. since i wanted to know about puff and ice kids. other times its videos about certain situations. like dealing with smart adaptive spacies (duke vs anson/toph).

I welcome anyone to send videos for me to check out. i try to look for Kirby players who have at least good movement or decisions. generally more experienced Kirby. but any video is good if you can learn something from it.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhdGAWei-ZPEWQE4ucpBqYSe1msMG9VJ9

Some other thoughts i have been thinking about.

Rock
When in rock form (down b) you do damage always when you move in a downward direction, That's how the move works, you fall from the sky and if someone hits it you take damage. but there are situations like on slopes on Yoshi and PS ledges, where u will slide. The damage still occurs if they are next to you or run into you. something i have been playing around with is walking until you are in a teeter animation on a ledge. if you start your rock and an opponent even slightly comes into contact with you, you will fall. BUT they will also take damage even if they are next to you on the opposite side. i think its something we could explore. I have even tested walking up and grabbing the rock. if you even walk into range of the rock before grabbing you will push it off and take damage. something to be tested, and i will test more.

Side B cancels
obviously its good to ledge cancel side b or any move rather. But i have been working on canceling side b from below. Since Ariel hammer gives you a tiny boost upward if its fresh and you haven't left the ground yet. the timing/spacing is tricky as different platforms have different heights. but i have been playing around with jumping and side b under shielding opponents/non shielding/tech chasing. the goal is to land on the platform after a couple hits, i don't know exactly the frame data for landing. but i think its also worth checking out.
I have also found that if you fall from ledge backwards and jump and side B, your hammer will come out then cancel on the ground very fast, so you get 1 or 2 hits in then are able to act. its my go to option for getting up from ledge as it covers in front of you and is not much of a committal compared to fair.

it can shield poke and generally seems interesting to me. i have sometimes been able to follow up with tilts or grabs. yes wave land might be better, but sometimes its great for that bit of extra damage, on characters like puff/peach/marth. it can also catch people by surprise. i have also been swallow tech chasing under platforms against characters that have valuable powers. samus/falco/doc/falcon/dk.​

turning unsafe moves into very optimal moves
This is basic but to me is very amazing. a lot of it is space manipulation near ledges/walls. If my opponent is shielding next to a ledge. If i am in front of him, hammer is a good gamble. If i hit his shield he will fall off and grab ledge. this makes it safe in that regards. looking at the opposite. If i am next to the ledge and he is shielding in front. I can hammer and will get pushed off the stage onto the ledge. making it very safe in that regard. same option but different situation.

Something similar is rapid jab. when they are shielding near a ledge, it is pretty cool, iv seen duke and Randal both do it. either poking their shield or pushing them off. its hard to punish. But i think it works well vs walls also. some situations are randal on yoshis/PS walls on certain transformations.

http://gfycat.com/AggravatingFixedDungbeetle

That's all for now.​

 

[Cereal Rabbit]

First Hit Of D-air (FHDair) -> Sweet Spot U-Smash
You can combo a down air into a sweet spot up smash if you land only the first hit of your dair next to your opponent. This will kill floaties anywhere from 80-100% depending on the stage. It's especially effective on Marth or Puff if you want to punish an up-B or rest. It's a sweet mix up that'll whiff up your opponent into a guaranteed (combo registered) attack.

If you use it on a fast faller you can get a up-tilt follow up where you can get an Uair or Bair, but I haven't figured out how to make it a true combo since knock down into a Kirby u-tilt will launch your opponent in a non tumbling state. Though the FHDair can still true combo into forward smash. If the f-smash isn't sweet spotted then you can Uair or Bair after too. I wouldn't down smash since F-smash and U-smash are guaranteed and have room for follow ups. This is a cool thing to try out.

Backwards Hammer Sweetspot
If your opponent jumps into the back part of your grounded side B when you swing backwards, it will sweet spot. Some set ups for this is if your opponent doesn't DI your up-tilt, your reverse hammer will land anywhere between 60%-80% depending on your fast faller. This is not optimal but super swaggy. You can smash a recovering Falcon back off in style if you read that he's landing on the stage.

Dair Drifting
Since Kirby is not the fastest faller, you can actually drift his aerials to make them safe on shield. When you play vs a character with mediocre OoS options, simply don't fast fall your dair and drift behind your opponent and follow up with an u-tilt on shield. This is great versus reaction or punish heavy play styles. Another great option is to crouch since a lot of characters cannot cover a crouching kirby behind shield.

Swallow Techchase
When you get successive up-tilts or throws that knocks your opponents onto platforms, you have an opportunity to read their teching options. One powerful (and almost guaranteed) option is to use your swallow as a mix up rather than Bair or Uair. This will help you maintain stage control as well as copy abilities (against Falco, Sheik, Peach, Doc) which will help improve your neutral like crazy. If your opponents tech the roll in, you can get a swallow. If they tech out, you can set up a running jump Kirbycide.

Kirbycide Cancel
I believe this was discovered by me. If you swallow suicide with a characters whose hurtbox is below you, their hurtbox will touch the blast zone below you, thus meaning you have a 2-4 frame window to put a jump input to survive a suicide. This only works versus opponents whose hurtbox are under you when you are in the airborne swallow state. This also does not work on FoD since the blastzone floor is too low.