Definitely get the right feel for death cargo upthrow combos on fast fallers. Like Cargo Upthrow, SH Uair FF (no lcancel), regrab to eventual Uair strings. Vs Floaties, think of your cargo upthrow as Fox's upthrow Uair combo since it's not only a good way to rack damage but also it's your main way of killing them.
You want to be facing back a lot, yes, since DK's Bair is pretty redic. Throwing out Uptilts and Ftilts after a spaced Bair on a shield or a wiffed spaced Bair can catch alot of people that think they can attack you right after the Bair. Approaching your opponent facing forward isn't horrible though. DK's Nair is surprisingly decent. It has good range and can be used like Marth's Nair 2nd hit (as in, the move doesn't really do anything intially but when his arm comes out, it feels like the 2nd strike of Marth's Nair). I've seen Green Ranger use it as an overextended approach to catch dash dance / wavedash back camping and Mexican use it in SH retreats as a move to beat / outspace enemies approaching with SH aerials. Also when approaching facing forward, please consider you dtilt/ftilt options and wavedash back baits.
Try to incorporate crouch cancel + grab into your game. DK needs to do everything he can to get those grabs in cause honestly you only get them when your opponent messes up. Normal grab opportunities come from Bair, dash dance, maybe Nair.
Learn how to be cheesy with Up B. It's really nice out of shield (like with Samus, cept it kills). Even doing a mis-spaced Bair on someone's shield, you can quickly Up B to save yourself and attack them before they can punish you. It's a really good edgeguard move too. You can really gimp characters with vertical like recovery (Mario, Marth, etc.) even at low percents. Simply grabbing the edge and doing an invincible Up B can ruin Marth at basically any %. If they're not dead, grab the edge again for invinciblitly and just repeat till they die. Also keep in mind that when recovering, you don't need to be touching the edge to grab it. DK can hover close to the edge and still grab it. Characters that aim for the ledge sweetspot (ex. Marth doing a fsmash that would cover the edge) will miss.
Get used to lightshield since DK's shield sucks, but light shield only sometimes because the extra lag makes it hard to shield grab. Also get used to shield pivoting so the back of your shield is facing your opponent. Defensively this makes them attack the part of your shield that isn't hard to poke. Offensively this allows you to setup Back Airs.
DK is fun and very unpopular.
