Donkey Kong Guide by Gojira345 TABLE OF CONTENTS A Introduction B Moves and their uses C General Strategies D Stages E Match Ups F Team Battles G Free For All Strategies H Donkey Kong and Items, What to do? I Sudden Death J Classic Mode K All Star L Boss Battles M Subspace Emissary N Break the Targets, Home Run Contest and Multi Man Melee O Event Matches P Miscellaneous Q Legal R Contact A) INTRODUCTION Welcome to my Donkey Kong guide. Donkey Kong is one of my favorite characters and if you are reading this guide he is probably one of yours. Donkey Kong is a range game type and has ridiculous power, and using this guide you should be able to unlock the banana slamma's might. Some terms you need to be familiar with. Nair, Uair, Dair, and Bair are neutral, up, down, and back air respectivley. Fsmash, Dsmash, Usmash are Forward, down, and up smash. Ftilt, Dtilt, Utilt are forward tilt, down tilt, and up tilt. RAR= Reverse aerial rush, or spamming bair at an opponent after a dash. You pivot, then jump and bair. Pivot drop= barely fall off the edge and catch it for a quick edgehog or edge gaurd. Sweetspot= When a move has a certain area that when hit with has a special attribute. For example, Captain Falcon's fair knee has to be inside the opponent slightly to sweetspot, causing massive knockback and damage. The other version does poor knockback and damage, but trips. WOP= Wall of pain. Refers to repeatidly hitting someone quickly with an aerial until they are too far out to recover, or it pushes them into a wall at low damage. DI= directional influence. When hit, hold a direction to influence where you go and how fast. Tech= Teching. Called ukemi on the smash dojo site, it's canceling all momentum by hitting L or R as you hit a wall, ceiling, floor, etc. Disjointed hitbox= Something that can hit you but cannot be hit in return. Marth's sword, Link's sword, ZSS's whip, etc. Short hop= barely jumping to do low aerials or manuevers. Fast fall= holding down to fall faster. SHFFL= Short hopping into a fast fall. Glide toss= Holding sheild, move left or right and at nearly the exact same time, cstick forward, backward, or up. Great for invincible quick approaches. B) MOVES AND THEIR USES Donkey Kong has a great moveset. Though his recovery is lacking in vertical height and he has no true projectile, Donkey Kong's arsenal more than makes up for this. Donkey Kong is an expert camper, gimper, and of course, straight up KO machine. Here is the moveset. AA-Double Jab. Swings both fists. Good to use on quicker opponents out of sheild to counter an aerial or missed smash. Forward tilt. Swings an open palm way out in front of him. Can aim up or down slightly. This move is great for swatting away projectiles and hitting an opponent away that needs to stay away. The range on this move means DK can defend himself from a character like Metaknight easily, as it even goes through moves like mach tornado. I've also heard you can ftilt through Ness's PK fire! Up Tilt. DK swings his arm in a "rainbow" over his head. This move is VITAL to any DK player, and here is why; 1) Covers a huge area around DK quickly 2) Juggles at low percents if enemy is stubborn about attacking instead of air dodging. 3) Has KO potential. 4) Hits through platforms on most if not all drop through platform stages 5) Protects DK's rear very well. Down Tilt. DK squats and swings his big ape palm quickly. You'd be suprized how many people walk into to this repeatidly, and how often it causes the opponent to trip, giving you a follow up smash for free. Eats small projectiles and BEST of all, if you trap a medium to large opponent against the wall with this you can do it almost INDEFINITELY. Cancel into down smash or forward smash at around 100 percent for light chars, and for heavies go until about 120 percent. Forward Smash. DK claps his hands in front of him HARD. This move is a great kill move, but don't spam it and you can catch an enemy off gaurd. It not only outranges and outprioritizes alot of smashes at range, you can kill some chars at 60 to 70 percent with this, and catch dash grabbers or dashers in general with it. Also good for edge guarding as it sticks WAY out over the edge. Up Smash. DK claps his hands above his head HARD. Same as the forward smash with good vertical range, this move has to be set up. On a plus, it hits through platforms and can sometimes punish things like Kirby's stone or Bowser's/Yoshi's down b. Can be slid into much like snakes mortar slide by dashing then upsmash, but you wont go as far. Lags a bit. Down Smash. DK slams his fist on both sides of him fast. This is an excellent roll punisher and kills at low percents. It comes out FAST and can knock the opponent off an edge if they hang too long. If they sheild, they get pushed back too far too grab. A MUST have in his arsenal. Neutral Air. DK spins, arms out. You will honestly not use this move as much as other aerials, but it does have it's good points. It starts and ends fast, and has crazy knockback above 100 percent. A kill move if saved. Up Air. DK headbutts. This move is awesome. If someone is above you and at high damage, give them this and watch them dissapear off the top screen. Starts and ends fast and even hits a small area in front of DK. You can up throw to this move on fast fallers and use it through platforms easily. Back Air. DK kicks his leg out, scooping up the enemy. Say hello to DK's recovery gimper and his ko move and his aerial spacer. This move does all these things depending on how it's used, and I can't tell you how usefull it can be to bair someone attempting to recover. Either use this move alot or save it for the kill. You can approach some characters with this move very effectivley. Forward Air. DK balls his fists and slams them down in front of him. This move is SLOW and has HORRIBLE LAND LAG. DO NOT use this on land unless you are confident it will hit. However, this slowness can be an advantage. You can jump out and fair at someone recovering, and if you hit them early, they fly into the wall. Late and you spike them. If they airdodge and you have time, down air them. Down Air. DK extends a foot, cracking the opponent down. This spike is killer and has huge range for a spike. It actually hits in the area with the foot he doesn't move as well. If you ledge hop spike cancel with other characters (letting go of the edge, spiking and then regrabbing the edge) you will love this move. DK's ftilt and back and forward throws set this up nicely. This has a bigger area of effect than you'd expect, extending to his CHEST I just discovered! This means you can use it OVER the stage to spike someone whom isn't. B special. This is DK's Giant Punch. He winds up, and each wind can be canceled with a roll, dodge, or pressing the button again to punch. DK will flash when fully charged and the punch has enormous power as you'd expect, though it has been nerfed in range since Melee. He also gets superarmor as the punch is out, meaning that if they don't interupt this move, but hit you during it you are not going anywhere, but they sure are. This move at some difficulty can be ledge hop canceled to surprize ledge gaurders. Always have one of these ready to go. Don't taunt. Charge that punch! B Side. The pitfall headbutt. DK can dash into this attack, and can even slide off the edge with it. It can be used as a weak spike or to ground an opponent after a missed smash as punishment. Rack up the damage with up b or if they are at high damage IMMEDIATLEY punch or fsmash. Eats sheilds as two of these close together will break a sheild. Having a helpless enemy planted in the ground may seem cheap, but the move is slow, so don't feel bad. Also, this move can be ledge canceled, or you can come back on with it! B up. Dk spins horizontal very quickly, floating along. This move has awful land lag if it ends before you land. You can cancel it into the ground version from below or you can use it on the ground as a "get away from me" move. Very fast and has superarmor as it starts to spin. Use this on the ledge repeatidly to keep some characters from recovering by dropping and immediatley doing the up b. Just watch out for spikers, as super armor only last a second or so and spikers love moves like this. B down. DK slaps the ground causing a mini earthquake. This move is not to be ignored. Use it sparingly as a surprise. Use it when they are on the tip of it's range, as it's the longest range move you got. This move punishes rolls, ledge attacks, spot dodges, and even blocks some projectiles. This move makes grenades and mines explode safely and stops dash attacks, even Snake's mortar slide. Possibly the safest ledge attack punish that isn't a true projectile. Do this and if they jump instead of attacking or pulling up, bair them. This move can also bounce people off ceilings repeatidly. Grab attack. DK grabs, then pummels with a fist. Not too useful in my opinion. Up throw. DK throws the opponent up. Pretty standard, decent knock back. Sets up for bair or up air. Down throw. DK slams the opponent face down. Looks awesome, good damage. If done at the ledge can sometimes set up for edgegaurd or on land just for a forward tilt or down b. Back throw. DK launches the opponent backwards with one hand. Good for setting up edgegaurding, or, if saved, can kill at about 90 percent. This move is just great for both, and I would recommend this be your go to throw. Forward throw. DK carries the opponent. This move seems downright stupid at first. Don't be fooled, though, you can do MANY things with this throw. First, either forward throw or down throw them and either grab again if they are low damage and don't expect it or throw them off for edgegaurding. You can also jump, up throw from cargo and get a free up air most of the time if you time it right. This move also has the coolest DK trick in his moveset. At about 60 percent damage and up on light characters, grab them near the edge, cargo, then walk off, rotate the stick around and throw them into the wall, then jump and recover. This spikes them off the stage, and if you catch your opponent even more off gaurd you can do it at lower percentages. Be very careful of the footstool if they wake up though. At really high damage, if you are up a stock, just walk off and forward throw them halfway down for a suicide kill. Yum. And to TOP THIS ALL OFF, if you are not convinced, cargo throw has loads of super armor. You can literally grab Snake, cargo and walk OVER his mines! Awesome! Edge attacks. Slaps at low percent, rushes backwards at high. You are better off ledge canceling a forward b, a neutral b or aerial, or airdodging back on if you ask me. Situational. C) GENERAL STRATEGIES Donkey Kong is either a chump or a champ dependent upon how you use him. Most characters are faster at close range. They can juggle you. They can combo you. But DK is heavy, and has the best melee range in the game, barely past Ike and Zero Suit Samus's over b. Donkey can kill as early as Bowser can and is faster. He can block projectiles with attacks and keep enemies at bay with his range. Down b when they roll, or down smash. When they dash at you down b. When they jump, expect an aerial and sheild grab or roll. Character's from the Zelda franchise are easily ledge stalled with up b and gimped with bair from the ledge. Kill at range with your forward smash and always juggle with up tilt when you can. When they are on a platform do your moves that go through it. Sometimes you can even over b pitfall them into the platform and bury them. Punish slow moves with the sliding version of the head slam and you will have one mean Kong. DON'T forget to spike! Remember to always dtilt spam if you have them against a wall and that any stage with platforms is your friend. Your up b knocks the Star Fox members out of the starting animation of their up b so use it to stall till they are at the point where they have to grab the ledge with it, then just let them whiff while you are invincible. D) STAGES AND COUNTERPICKS DK can perform well usually on stages with fall through platforms, and levels that don't move vertically. Any level where DK has a wall to work with is also good. Make sure he can either spike someone there, or gimp them, because very few will fall for getting cargoed and thrown into a ko wall, like some do with Kirby or Dedede at Eldin Bridge. Here is each stage one by one. 1)75m You will either love or hate this stage. In free for alls, you can camp near the KO wall of your choice and back throw people to their doom, or fsmash or whatever, but you are nothing but a target in the middle. Don't use your chest beating taunt near the DK up top by the way. His is better.... 1 on 1 you will have a hard time spiking or tricking someone into getting close to the blast zone, so try to lure them to hazards or just giant punch them as they traverse the many platforms. This stage is crazy and whom knows what can happen here. 2) Battlefield Hohoho this is your STAGE. Projectile users can't run away too well, it's easy to gimp recoveries and cargo stage spike people here, and if they get above the platforms, they are going to have a hard time getting back down without you landing an uptilt, up air, down b as they drop, up smash, or you name it. Beware Bowser, Snake, Ike and Olimar here, as they can do the same to you, and in Snake or Ike's case, do it better. 3) Bridge of Eldin. Let's make one thing clear. It may not be safe or proffessional, but your goal in life on this stage is to either spike them in the hole, or headbutt them right as the bomb is dropped on the bridge so they have a hilarious death awaiting. If you space they should die far before you and if you are gutsy you can cargo them into the KO wall. Should you take lots of damage you are more likely to survive horizontally than vertically so keep that in mind. In free for alls just hang near the middle and outlast everyone, then spike as they fight near the hole. Don't get spiked yourself by staying high when you do so though. 4)Castle Seige. This stage has a platform at the start, and it's very close to your head. In free for alls you can ground pound pretty safely under there and up smash unsuspecting victims above you. The KO walls at the start are CLOSE, so try to dtilt someone a bit then fsmash as opposed to running and charging giant punch. You can also backthrow from the start and then bair for an early kill sometimes! One on one you have to be more discreet about all this though... When it changes, get ready to charge giant punch as best you can up high or behind the breakable statues. This has a walk into wall KO wall, so ftilt or cargo someone there if you can. See final destination for the last part of Castle Siege.... 5) Delfino Plaza This can be cool or the bane of your existance. It has walls to infinite off of, walk into KO wall areas, fall through platforms to abuse, etc. It also is notorious for gimping your recovery as you have little vertical lift from up B. The slants in some areas you can use to stall projectile users and if you cargo and fall into the water, you jump first so jump and immediatley dair for a free spike! I think there is a possibility of pitfall burying someone and leaving them behind as well, but I am not sure and the timing would be tough. Don't pick this one unless you are confident! 6)Distant Planet. My favorite stage, and a really good one for DK. He can spike in multiple places, drop through the main platform to spike, bury someone on the bulborb to have it eat them, cargo downthrow people into the mouth of it as well, he can abuse the platforms as usual and there is a walkoff KO wall, and all the KO walls are close. If they added a wall that WASN'T in the bulborbs mouth, this stage would be the ultimate DK stage. Love it! In free for alls dsmash under the leaves. It's awesome! It goes straight through and hits more often than on battlefield. Too bad it's not tournament legal to fight here... 7) Final Destination Distance yourself just out of your opponents reach and attack, but don't run from projectile users. They will spam you. Try to get them off stage one on one or just outlive them when trading hits or fighting in the center. Cargo into stage spike is easiest here in my opinion so use it. In free for alls just hang back and wait like an Ike, fsmashing when they least expect and spiking those whom get knocked off. Don't cargo into stage spike in a ffa, you are just asking for it if you do... If surrounded dsmash or down b, but other than one on one, everything is situational here. 8) Flat Zone 2 This is not your stage. You can kill people very early here an carry them to the KO wall, but you are also cramped in and the stage hazards are unforgiving of your size. At the start of a ffa, try to get up the building and charge a punch. Your back throw works wonders here, so be very campy with tilts and sheild grabs, and very defensive rather than offensive. 9)Frigate Orpheon Treat this stage as you would battlefield, but camp the left and don't go right. You can't grab the edge and your recovery is very gimpable there. Plus, there is a platform just begging to be abused on the left. When this place flips, don't jump or up b! You could end up under the stage! Go to the center and prepare to defend. That pass through platform in the center will make this place just like Yoshi's Island, only with dips in the center, so go to Yoshi's Island for that part of the strategy. 10)Green Hill Zone Be very CAREFUL in the center. Your down b, down smash, and dtilt wreck this stage, and quickly break the hole open. In one on ones you can do this on purpose if your opponent stalls so you can spike them, but in free for alls, just try to claim the spinning bumpers and camp under them first, and use your "There's a KO wall there" strategies. Carrying them in the wall seems more dangerous here than Eldin, as in ffas other opponents can quickly catch up. 11)Halberd Don't try to walk off with an opponent at the start. Their damage will be too low and it takes off fast. Focus on staying on while keeping them off, or, if on the second pass you can pull it off and they have some damage, bury them before take off. As it moves treat it like Yoshi's Island with that abuseable platform and in free for alls gimps are key. Once you get to the hazard portion of the stage, try to move the laser into an enemy or try to bury someone running from the laser or a bomb. Laughter will ensue! Or cursing. If you HAVE to take a hit from the laser or bomb, try to cargo or b punch for the super armor. A forward air spike seems to do well here. 12) Hanenbow You COULD abuse the platforms if they weren't so far apart, but in one on ones and ffas you will mainly have people running away. You CANNOT SWIM HERE. May seem obvious but I always forget. Spikes are horribly ineffective as there are so many things to catch them. At least you can down b and play with the leaves for humurous effect... 13)Luigi's Mansion This is just like final Destination except for a few very key things. You can tech off the ceiling with sheild to survive large attacks. You can up tilt spam from below. You can tear it down, but then projectile users will have their field day. Also, the mansion pillars halt Ike's over b and other such attacks, and the mansion sheilds you from thunder or mortars from Snake. Cargo into stage spike doesn't work well, and if you want to kill someone early you will have to gimp them, spike them, or up air them at some damage at the top of the mansion. This stage is very good at protecting DK, so don't destroy it! 14)Lylat Cruise YAY! Just like Battlefield except it tilts. The only real worry for you is gimping yourself on the side tilted up if you miss with up b. Other than that bair gimping is great here. Spiking is great. Abuse those platforms and stay uphill so that the opponent will a) not be able to use projectiles well and b) be inclined to jump at you rather than dash grab or attack standing, which is what you want to happen. 15) Mario Bros. For the love of god go to the top and ground pound anything that moves. Abuse super armor with up b and knock those shells around. If you know how to glide toss, do so! You are a big target, so spot dodging shells is key here. Don't pick this as DK unless you are truly comfortable. 16)Mario Circuit. You can camp easily here and up air through the top platform, and cargo into ftoss or backthrow people into the KO wall, or kill the cars, I like camping left or right under the track as they have to come straight at you with no aerials unless they are Kirby or something. Try to ground bury people so that they get hit by cars if you are the joking type. Priceless. 17)Mushroomy Kingdom. If you can backthrow into wall, you will do well. If you can't avoid most the hazards or combatants, you will fail. In one on ones in the underground you can camp up top and make them come to you, then cargo, jump and up throw for a quick kill, and in ffa's you can bury people to leave them behind or abuse the pipes and vertically stacked blocks for uptilt or down b spam. Spiking people here is fun because they are so focused on staying alive they don't care if you are above them, but as a big target, you will probably go down first in a ffa. 18) New Pork City In one on ones this could last forever. I heard you can cargo stage spike, but I honestly don't know where. I don't know if super armor saves you from the Ultimate Chimera, but I know throwing someone into it or burying them next to it is great. If you can backthrow them down low and they don't tech well you can bounce them off the ceiling for a stage spike similar to what was possible in Great Bay on Melee. You should live to HIGH, HIGH percentages here. So in online ffa's or stock match ffa's you should have a clear advantage. 19)Norfair One on one this stage is great for DK as he can back throw kill, cargo people into the lava and ground pound to hog the safety pod. In ffas though you will probably get knocked around and depend on super armor to survive the lava. As with ANY stage with hazards, if you feel lucky try to bury them before the lava comes in any direction. In ffas you can do this alot as everyone is usually running willy nilly for items or just chasing anyway. 20)Pictochat This is either love or hate. Just remember you have wall combos when walls appear, especially the diagonal line. Avoid most hazards, unless you want to ride the cart and ground pound for lols. Try to bury people as always and up throw people into the fire if you can. The horizontal kill zone is close so don't go for vertical kills. There's not alot of room to hide here when it's blank so be on the defense until something forms. 21) Pirate Ship The ship itself spikes! IF YOU CARGO INTO THE WATER FOR THE SPIKE, WATCH OUT FOR THE SHIP! You Can abuse vertical kills well here and cargo to jump to upthrow to upair people off the top mast. When it crashes, try to either spike them in the water or back throw them on the rock. Bury them when the hazards come if you can, but it won't do much good. The red dragon boat is tiny and up tilt camping it should be easy if they recover that way. Or bury them on it if you can. Probably won't carry them off for the KO, but hey, if it does, you have a good water cooler moment. Another lol thing to do is to cargo them as the bombs start coming in, as your superarmor will protect you. 22)Pokemon Stadium 2 Treat it exactly like Lylat Cruise until it changes. When the fans start, punish those that jump up high with spammed up airs for vertical kills, or fair or back air them as you float. Yes, this is one of the few times you can effectivley use forward air over land and not be punished. It won't do any setups, but you can spike them if they are below you. The slow speed that foes come down as this happens messes with airdodging. Time for upsmash! When the stage is ice, you can't abuse the pass throughs as well, but you can do some amazing sliding attacks including sliding over b, up b, fsmash and up smash. The ice makes pivoting awful for DK, if not all chars though, and it's best to be oppurtunistic in ffa's here. When the stage is ground, You have a wall to infinite off of, platforms to abuse, and all is right with the world. You know what to do by now. Get to it! When the stage is conveyor belts, things get difficult. You can camp the middle easily under the platforms, but getting there in a ffa is tough, and jumping there backwards to use your bair is even tougher. I'd suggest ledge up b stalling this part or fighting hard for that middle point. 23)Port Town Aero Dive Ugh. This place gimps your recovery bad. There is a wall for infinites, but you won't have time. You can bury people for laughs in front of cars or as the stage leaves as always but...other than that this stage is trouble for DK's air mobility. The panic of FFA's sets up for spikes well though! 24)Rumble Falls For being a DK stage, this stage isn't very nice to DK! His vertical recovery is bad, and this stage moves up. You have to all but ignore your opponent when it speeds up, but other chars can aerial you for fun it seems. Watch the spikes and try to bury someone not for my usual advice of getting a laugh kill, but just to get higher ground. During the narrow portion with pass through platforms, you can ground pound at the top, forcing them to take damage. Don't pick this stage unless you are crazy good with DK and crazy good at the stage! 25)Shadow Moses Island. You have two choices here. Leave the walls up so you can tech off of them when hit or tear them down for cargo throw, back throw and fsmash kills. I prefer the later as killing vertically here with DK is tough sometimes. Up tilt spam doesn't work so well under the pass through platforms, but this is a good stage to run away and charge a giant punch in. 26) Skyworld Another love hate stage. Most of your moves will tear it down, causing you to fast fall to death or have no ledge to grab, but at the same time you can up tilt spam, and the Ko walls are close! Don't ride the platform at the bottom. Getting back is too hard. This is a good stage to top screen somebody, but that's about it for poor DK. 27)Smashville Treat this like Final Destination except for a few neat things. The ko zone is closer, so you can back throw off the moving platform for easy kills. The cargo stage spike works better on Kirby and Metaknight here because the bottom is so close. Also, sometimes humans on the moving platform won't block unless you jump, so a good upsmash can get them. The stage is small, so staying arms length away but still keeping them pressured should be easy. Special note. DK can drop, jump, and up b UNDERNEATH smashville and catch the other ledge. Neat. 28)Spear Pillar This stage is great when nothing is going on. You can camp the pass through platforms, tech off the ceiling or floor in the cave, or bury people to laugh as the laser blasts them. But when the controls are reversed, gravity is messed up, etc. you need to spin in place, use down b and sheild grab. Pray it doesn't happen as you recover, and pray Cresselia doesn't catch you off gaurd with a boomerang. Also, down b bounces people almost helplessly that don't tech in the cave, so abuse it. 29)Summit This stage is like the Anti DK mindgame in my opinion. You try to camp the pass through platforms on the left and you get dropped. You try to ledge gimp or spike and get eaten. You want to land as low as possible with DK's up b, but the moving of the stage causes you to float up. Icecicles fall on your head if you try to stay under the cave to wall tech. This stage's only advantage for DK is the vertical kills he can get here. 30)Warioware. You can't cargo stage spike. But you can do various things here. By now, it should be obvious how to utilize the platforms and to back throw for the close KO walls. During the minigames is where the fun begins. Now, I know that I have often told you to bury people in front of stage hazards if you can, but this stage takes being a jerk to a whole new level. 1. DON'T MOVE Move. If you have a fully charged giant punch and you are right next to them, Punch. You could also actually do nothing so that when they move you get to chase them invincible with a charged punch! If you begin charging before this starts, it won't penalize you for letting it charge! Your opponent can do nothing but let it happen lest they want to either be punched for getting too close or be punished for not participating. 2. Stay Dry. Bury someone in the rain and taunt from the umbrella, or ground pound or up tilt spam under it. 3. Taunt If they taunt at high damage, they should have known better. Cargo and throw them into a wall, punch them, do whatever. If you both taunt, but only you get rewarded, with lets say, a super mushroom, ground pound, up tilt, or nair to cover the whole stage in your fury. 4. Chisel it. Use nair or ground pound to either win it or make it impossible for everyone else. Up tilt does well too. 5. Dodge (arrows) You know what to do here. If you can pull it off, and still not get hit or punished by the player, kudos. 6. Dodge (car) Bury them or footstool/spike them into the ground if you can. Fair has nice range, remember that.... 7. Jump. Same as car dodge, only no need to bury them. Just spike. 8. Dodge (foot) If it locks on to you follow the other person, or cargo them or bury them with over b. 9. Pop it. Pop them first, then pop the party favor. If I've missed any I'm sorry, but you get the idea... 31)Yoshi's Island Not much to say here. You' can't cargo stage spike. There is a large, very abuseable drop through platform to uptilt or upsmash through, and your up b cancels into the ground version very easy here. The ghosts can end would be spikes, but other than that, meh... 32)Big Blue Your horizontal recovery makes you very vulnerable to opponents, but easy to land on cars. Don't jump alot, and try to back throw and up tilt alot, as the stage is very disorienting and people don't do well dodging here. Downsmash dominates here, so abuse it. 33)Brinstar Same as norfair, except the platforms are easier to abuse. That is, until whatever that stuff is snaps, then you can up b or up tilt on top of it relativley safely. If you break the stuff in the middle with ground pound you can spike easier, but other than the rising acid to watch out for not much to say here. You know what to do on stages with hazards at this point in my guide. Over b. 34)Corneria Here is a stage worth going on and on about. The left side is your enemy. You get shot up and you can get gimped there. You survive damage longest in the middle, but the remarkable part for DK is the tail end and top fin. DK can grab, cargo, jump, upthrow for a kill on the top fin, and can wall infinite on the back. If that isn't enough, bair kills easily off the back and ledge stalling off the exhaust is great. You can uptilt as they come down at you or ledge stall on the top fin with a fully charged punch for mindgames, and projectiles fare not so well here. I love this stage. 35)Green Greens Why not fountain of dreams Nintendo, WHY? Anywho, you can ground pound the bombs for surprise kills, wall infinite off the star blocks, abuse the drop platforms with uptilt, but you can't kill easily here. It's so big lateral wise that you need to kill vertically with dsmash. Lovely place for DK though. 36)Jungle Japes HERE is a DK level I can get behind. Spikes are hard here but satisfying. Cargo suicide off the left when up a stock and abuse the middle platform to live the longest and rack up damage. Killing is either really easy or hard here depending on position, but in a ffa you should have this, if you don't get Klap Trapped yourself... 37)Onett Walls for infinites. Cargo into superarmor as cars go by. Bury people as cars go by. Pass through platforms and walk into wall KO walls. This place is great for DK, so enjoy it. Just watch out for cars... 38)Pokemon Stadium Melee The orignal one has platforms, but they are harder to abuse. Treat it like Final Destination until it changes. The rock part with the mountain is crazyness. Just do what you would normally do here, but remember the windmill catches some people into jumping around alot, which should let you headbutt them with up air. The fire portion has a wall and pass throughs. Abuse them as normal with tilts and infinites. The ground portion also has walls and lots of pass through platforms. Pokemon Stages where apparently made for DK! The forest portion you should just treat like battlefield, really. 39)Rainbow Cruise This place has a wall to infinite, but other than that, all I can advise is stay alive and bair people away. Not really DK's stage. Maybe bury them on the sinking ship? I don't know what to say here really. 40)Temple Charge the punch far away. You can't up tilt through any of the platforms, but you can wall infinite and cargo people to were you want to kill them. Also, you should stay near the bottom if you can tech well, becuase you will live to like, 300 percent more often than you think. Fast characters can evade you forever here, so taunt them mercilessly and always play with a time limit. 41)Yoshi's Island Melee You can cargo suicide down the middle when it spins. You can cargo, jump, and forward throw someone into the wall off the left pipe, or you can drop someone into your uptilt by uptilting the platforms. This stage is small and in a ffa, kills should come easy. 42)Custom Stages Build a small stage with a wall on one side and pass through platforms all over, and congratulations, you've made a DK approved level! E) MATCH UPS DK is odd in that he does well against certain midweight powerhitters and is considered a counter to 2 of the "top tier" characters. Here are his match ups. MARIO Ok, here's the deal. I test these on humans and lvl 9's as best I can. Please don't complain that I underestimated a character yada yada, because frankly, Donkey's strategy is usually the same dependent upon their range and projectile type. So that said, Mr. Average himself can be decieving. He can punish your rolls with dsmash and fsmash hurts, but it's his b moves that make this match unique, not his standard moves. Mario's up b is an annoyance when trying to spike or edgegaurd him, but if he panics and uses it early punish him with a spike or fsmash. Gimping him is actually kinda hard, as Mario can cape stall pretty far, and in the process turn you bairs around, disorienting you. If you get knocked off the stage by Mario, lookout. Flood doesn't hurt so bad on it's own, but it can force you to up b early. If it does a good Mario can go straight into edgeguard or a cape, turning you around, making you fall to your doom. Though that forward air is tricky to land on a spinning Kong, it CAN be done and unless he hits your super armor you WILL be spiked. It's better to fair spike than to dair if the Mario is knocked way out, because dair that far out is risky and they are probably cape stalling. On land fireballs should only be a minor annoyance and your range on even your jabs trumps everything Mario has range and priority wise. Keep him at arms length with tilts, ground pound and platforms and you are good. If Mario floods you off the stage while charging try to hit R to cancel it immediatley and recover. LUIGI Ok, this may give you the idea to copy paste but you cannot fight Luigi like you do Mario. His over b and down b make for some crazy recovery help and spiking him is tough. I'd suggest up b to punish aerials rather than shield grabs, and trying to bait him into over b so you can bury him or throw out giant punch to trade blows with super armor. A good human Luigi will approach with the tornado until you ground pound it a few times, then they will attack with aerials. On another note if you get sheilded roll away. It's really easy to land Luigi's SUPER up b on DK and it can kill you at 70 percent with bad directional influence. If he does up b and you have dodged/rolled away succesfully upair or up smash or whatever you can land on him. I'd suggest picking the largest stage you can so that a well aimed up b or over b doesn't kill you at such low percents, and so that you can read the Luigi better. PEACH Ok, do not be obvious with your approach on a toad happy peach, especially with ground pound and giant punch or you will get toaded into a KO. Peach's turnips hurt worse than you think, and if they are floating on the ground WATCH OUT. Get behind her and bair, or you shall have to face the wrath of fair from Peach. Every thing she does comes out fast so space with dtilt and ground pound and up tilt, but never predictably or she will toad you as mentioned before. Spiking her is difficult with dair due to the parasol, so go for fair or just bair gimp her or up b ledge stall if you can. I would suggest up b for getting her off of you only sparingly, as Peach's LOVE multihit moves where they can jump in with Toad. She can hit you through the platforms with her uptilt and her Peach bomber punishes you alot for missing a smash. Best to kill her vertically or off the stage, not on it if you ask me. If she hovers watch out for fair! BOWSER Most people that talk tiers say DK eats Bowser due to range and that DK can combo him, and punish him easily. That may be true, but don't get cocky. Bowser's fire breath keeps you away, but after awhile you can ground pound farther than he can blow fire. If he gets you off the stage, he can simply blow fire on you until your recovery is GIMPED. Literally, I've had it happen a bit. He just blows fire and your up b is canceled over and over after the super armor is, and it pushes you down. Ouch. If you try to recover high though, a smash is waiting, so airdodge or up b all the way to the other ending. A dashing Bowser is to ALWAYS be ground pounded and a jumping one shielded. Note that platform stages are actually a bad idea, because Bowser utilizes them better than you! Note his up smash should NOT be airdodged into as it hits on the downswing. His dsmash is way better at punishing than yours, and if he jumps at you with fire or a fair/dair you can usually giant punch right through if you start early. Note that he is hard to spike as up b for Bowser carries him FAR. If he has a stock up don't sheild for long. The Bowsercide is coming (over b off the stage) so DI right or left back on if you can. Bowser is a very formidable match for DK. Keep him away and outsmart him on his go to moves, (including upsmashing his down b slam, lol) and you can come out on top. Dtilt trip him if you get the chance. DONKEY KONG. Mirror match. Start your b punch right after their's for hilarious super armor results. DK is easier to fair spike than dair in most situations, so keep that in mind. Punish the moves that you know are slow and ground pound if they dash. If they ground pound bair them, and with two good DK's, this could turn into a bair contest funnily enough. DO NOT GO FOR THE CARGO STAGE SPIKE. If your opponent struggles at all, they usually get out, even at 100 percent, due to DK's immense weight (I'm pretty sure weight effects ability to escape cargo and grabs in general, but especially cargo) and he will end up footstooling you to a gimped recovery. If you trip DK with dtilt, bury him then fsmash. DIDDY KONG Ok, lets get one thing in your mind here. A Diddy that uses his bananas well and knows how to glide toss (R plus cstick forward plus stick forward) will give you absolute heck unless you catch them with airdodge or an aerial and glide toss them back! DK's glide toss is HUGE. As he trips from the banana you can fsmash, dsmash, whatever you want just do it QUICK. Diddy can be gimped with bair, just note that fair is faster and is his KO move, and he may try to "Diddy Hump" you instead, or dair you into a spike as well. You CAN ledge stall him like a spacey with up b, but he can usually charge it enough to get back on stage. Spacing Diddy is hard, but if he stays aerial you can sheild grab or standing up b him a bit. Diddy's Smashes are weak, so if you know he will pile the damage on you with banana spam and you can't glide toss or throw them back, take him somewhere huge or small with platforms. Whatever you do though, don't roll into the same banana over and over. It's funny, but pathetic. YOSHI You may skip over this part, but Yoshi can be tough. Bair hits through sheilds and is used as an approach by many a good Yoshi. Eggs kill your bair spam on land, though off it you can bair Yoshi into the wall if you save it and don't diminish it. Just beware the fair he may throw at you. Yoshi's smashes are fast and can hit you out of up b easily if you are not in super armor. Yoshi is not easily spaced by ground pound or tilts and his egg roll goes through ground pound I believe. (But not giant punch, hehe). Watch the dair to. It's not a strong spike but it gimps you really well as DK. Up b is a good answer to one getting to close or egg rolling, and your dsmash is your best friend here. So is fair spiking. If Yoshi rushes you down dodge or jump! He's probably going to dash grab you on every opening, and when you sheild an egg he runs in to grab so look out! WARIO Wario can do crazy mean things to DK, and is one of his hardest matchups. His neutral b bite grab can be short hopped into you, and can counter your best kill moves, including giant punch! THough his bike and jabs can be sheild grabbed, everything else tends to hit you multiple times, knock you too far back, or poke through your weakened shield, like Wario's crazy dair. His floatiness makes him hard to spike, though if you can predict the bike you can get him with dair. The fart is fast and has two hitboxes. Wario himself and the fart. Both hurt and should be avoided at all cost. Though ground pound and ftilt outrange him, he prefers the air, and will grind into all your mistakes with great aerials. Wario doesn't mind stages with pass through platforms either, as he can just clap you through them and dodge uptilts very easily. This is tough. LINK Considered the lesser of the 2 Links, he still has some tricks up his sleave, though He's pretty ineffective against good ole DK compared to his little bro. Links projectile spam can hurt, but only if you let it. Run in shielding, then at the edge of ground pound/ftilt range, use it. If the Link player is still in lag from a bow and arrow or catching a boomerang, dash grab, cargo, and corner him at the edge. Bair gimping him offstage works well, but beware if they catch on and up b early or throw rangs. By the way, the boomerang can push you into a Link usmash, so hold sheild till it ends, or dodge down if he grabs. The spotdodge should leave him holding the hookshot out, so punish. The boomerang can also work like flood and push you way far out, but as long as you don't hit the wall or get pushed at a downward angle, you should be able to make it back. If Link pushes you back in your shield with fsmash and you can not grab, you can still ground pound, so cool! Also, if you airdodge a bomb, it grabs it! Throw it back! Dashing headbutt punishes missed grabs well also. ZELDA/SHEIK Zelda is usually whom they start with, and she is TOUGH. The trick is outranging her. Dodge/block dins fire on your way in and ftilt or ground pound her at range. If you get too close, you'll get the fsmash, or the upsmash. both hit multiple times and both hurt bad. GET HER OFF THE STAGE AND BAIR. She can't spam Din's fire from offstage as it makes her vulnerable, and she can't fight back very well. If you can ledge stall into an edgehog, even better. Spiking can sometimes be met with uair, which hurts, so watch it. Her bair sweetspots you very easily, and can WOP you quite well, so fast fall underneath and recover if you can. Her dair can spike, but only if she barely touches you with it, so don't worry too much about it. If she gets you up high, she will probably spam Din's fire straight at you, and predicting when to airdodge can be tough. If she teleports, she is probably going behind you for a fsmash or under for an usmash, so prepare a fsmash and release as she appears. Even if you miss, it scares the snot out of them, and they usually sheild, so rush in with a grab or try to break the sheild with over b or down b. Sheik is different, and a smart player will use Sheik to rack up damage, then switch to Zelda. Sheik's ftilt can capture you for a while, making it hard to get away. Sheik's needle attack charge is a good time to approach, and you should never worry about the whip. If you get caught in the multijab DI backwards and then ftilt or jab. Down b works to. If Sheik pulls that sliding usmash thing, attempt a sheildgrab, or just sheild and counter depending on Shieks range. Sheik can be easily edgehogged and WOP'd with bair air, as the explosion doesn't happen again on reappearing, like Zelda. Sheik also seems easier to utilt juggle, on note. Sheik will sometimes use up b to attack, so if you see it coming, sheild and punish the landing if you can. Tell Sheik to go away with up b out of sheild if you must. The superarmor trumps most of what sheik can do after being sheilded. GANONDORF He is slow and powerful. You are fast and powerful. He can cover ground quickly and chase you with down b, but if he does it from far away punish with over b or fsmash. If he lands an over b grab, he will probably chase you with it if he's good, or combo into dtilt or ftilt. A good Ganon will over b backwards if you roll behind, down b if you do it forward, and sheild grab if you attack to get up. If Ganon is up a stock and you are trying to bair gimp him, prepare to airdodge the over b Ganoncide so that he falls to his doom. Despite superarmor, Ganon can spike the snot out of you, but you can do the same to him, so really try to up b to ledge FAST or up b THROUGH him to avoid a good spiking. Some Ganons short hop cancel the dair over and over, giving you a world of pain if you don't tech and shield, so watch out if they have mastered this and get that R button ready. Even Ganon's neutral a can push you back really far, so try to outrange, out speed with ftilt, and be on the defensive. The down b hurts from above, so don't juggle too long, and above all if he charges volcano kick, the utilt, punish him afterwards or even during if you are close. Giant punch a Ganon's down b or fsmash if you dare! It works, but is risky. Use dtilt to trip if you can. Some players will run into this repeatidly for some reason. TOON LINK Ok, listen. A good Toon Link will give you nightmares. His projectile spam is nice, and if you cargo after the boomerang, it's hitting you. Use up b to keep him away for the superarmor, and though ftilt is good for punishing after smashes, he has more than enough time to sheild or spot dodge, so down b works better. However, down b has lag if you hit b too much, and an aerial from TL is probably coming your way, if not another projectile. Ftilt and dtilt block rangs and arrows, but you have to time it. If you get juggled, landing is hard, as he can attack, and if you airdodge, just attack again, usually spamming usmash. If you can get him off the stage and bair him a few times and return, he is gone, just watch the fair/bair he may throw out. If he hovers above the edge too much, he may attempt a dair spike, so either stall to make him miss, airdodge and up b, or if high enough fair him away. Sometimes you grab the edge just as Toon Link starts the dair, and he plummets to his death. This is priceless. If they up b back, fsmash as close to the edge as you can, as they often go above the edge before latching on. A good TL will usually tether instead, so if you know how to pivot drop do so. If they still have time for an up b, immediatley drop, up b and regrab. Usually ends in TL's death. Also, if they dair from above on the stage, a favorite of TL, don't sheild the entire attack. It pokes after the bounce. Instead, jump and uair, or utilt or even roll back, move forward a bit and prepare a fsmash, or if you have it, giant punch him. Giant punch, if timed right, also hits him through his fsmash, but good luck with the timing. He will push you off the stage if you sheild alot, so watch out. The key to this match is superarmor, patience, and gimping. You can kill TL conventionally, but it's much harder. Platforms would help more, except that TL is fast and usually only eats one utilt before he catches on. If worse comes to worse he's very light and it seems easier to cargo stage spike TL. Also, if he jumps to recover off the ledge, a quick nair usually hits first. KIRBY IMA GONNA CLOBBA DAT KERBEH! Ok, with that out of my system, lets begin. Kirby is faster than you. The hammer might as well be your giant punch, and Kirby can easily spike you with his dair if he waits for you super armor to end on up b. But you can get him. Sheild, and when he runs in for the grab or dash attack, down b once. Only once. If he sheilds, he takes sheild damage and is usually in range of another down b or ftilt. He also runs straight into dtilt with a roll sometimes after the ground pound. If he jumps at you remember that bair hurts but is easily sheild grabbed, where as fair hurts and hits multiple times, so wait it out. Kirby can easily interupt giant punch with alot of his moves, so the best time to deploy is during a blocked final cutter (his up b) or after he misses with stone. In fact, if you are doing something and Kirby is above, and sees you are busy, there is a good chance he will use stone. Roll back and then grab or giant punch as he releases the stone. Don't giant punch the stone though. I'm pretty sure it does nothing. Never got it to work. If he goes for a swallowcide STRUGGLE. Ram the buttons and pray for a toadstool jump off his head. If you ledge stall after this you can use the invincibility to drop a kirby into the abyss as he instinctivley up b's to hit you and grab the ledge. Cargo stage spike doesn't do well on Kirby, because even if it catches them off gaurd and don't tech, by the time the are damaged enough to not make it back to the edge, you could have killed them conventionally. On a plus note spiking Kirby is hard to aim, but it's not like hammer outranges fair! Bair gimping only works if you can hit him 2ce in 2 jumps, he usually makes it back anyway though. Watch out for final cutters projectile by the way, it can push you off the stage even if sheilded. If Kirby uses a smash, note that it is fast with little lag, but sometimes after a sheilded fsmash you can sneak in a dsmash for the kill or a sheildgrab. If he uses usmash and you are in the air, airdodge as best you can or dair fast fall and hope you hit first if you dare. If he uses dsmash to punish a roll that you don't do, then fsmash/giant punch him for trying to predict you. METAKNIGHT Ok, let's get this out of the way. Metaknight has some mean b moves. Let's play counter, ok? First of all, this is one of the few match up where I will suggest Final Destination. It's huge, so he dies quicker than you do, and because platforms are abuseable by Metaknight on a level far above your own. MACH TORNADO Ugh, he can eat you on every mistake with this move. DI out as best you can and punish him as he lands if he goes high, as he will be vulnerable. Sometimes you get out early facing away from him. If you do try to bair immediatley. If he starts this move from far away you can do the following. 1. Fsmash. Risky, but knocks him right out. 2. Dsmash. He has to be above. 3. Usmash. Not a good option, but works. 4. Ground pound. Works if he likes to tap b just enough to surf the ground. 5. Ftilt. You have to time it. Aim it accordingly. 6. Bair. Um, make sure you get it right. 7. over b. Really, REALLY difficult, best as he ends it. 8. Jump over, roll dodge, spot dodge. If he is coming at you fast, you can do this. BEST of all, is that if they get carried away, they fall off the edge to their death. 9. Dair. Best used if they have you near the top screen, as this move is a popular way to top screen kill after many uairs. DRILL RUSH If you see this coming, fsmash, dsmash, or ground pound. If he does it really far away, sheild grab. If he catches you in it they like to do it into the ground, so use the cstick to smash them as soon as it's over. SHUTTLE LOOP This can kill you. This can gimp you. This is FAST. They like to do it if you recover high, or after you miss an attack, or as they recover. 1. If they use it as you try to edgehog, it stage spikes. Best to crawl up and try to predict how they will get up from the ledge, or ledge stall if you are brave. If they do it and miss just above the stage, you can predict where they will land and fsmash him hard, if you don't have time settle for dtilt or the ground pound. If you time it really well, you can over b him and hopefully follow up the pitfall with fsmash. 2. If they have you at the edge, and you think they are lining up for this, use airdodge. Metaknights like to fair/bair over and over, and then up b near the edge for the kill. If you air dodge successfully, and they are in freefall, edgehog, as sometimes they will need to grab the edge because they went off JUST enough to need to grab it. If they are going to land on the stage use a ledge attack, or in lucky circumstances where you have 2 or 3 seconds, get up gently and prepare a fully charged dsmash, releasing BEFORE they hit the ground. 3. If they use it defensivley as they come back from up high you can try to aim a fair or dair if you can get inside the loop as they do it. Fair is far safer though. Or a bair if that's what you where doing in the first place. Metaknights dair is a go to move for getting you off the stage, and makes attempting to use uair on him risky. He also loves to punish your rolls with that crazy fast dsmash, so it's better to sheild grab or counter his rushes. If you see him come in for a dash grab or attack, try to down b, but only once. He is also so short that if you hold sheild, then jump over him and dair you often thwart both these moves. Getting a good hit and having him against the ledge oftens beckens Mach Tornado though, so be prepared to roll back and fsmash, but not if he's too close, or you could eat his dsmash as mentioned earlier. Up b's superarmor cuts out alot of his RAR or fair approaches, and can be a nuisance to his tornado if you time it right. Dtilt if he stays grounded as it often keeps you out of his grab range without popping him into the air. Remember that dude dies at 60 percent from a fsmash, and just hold on. Fight fast and fight defensivley fast. Up b, down b, and dsmash to defend and fsmash that tornado. If you get him to hop just above the ledge, it's sometimes quite easy to get a dair spike if you pretend to be doing something else, like charging a giant punch. Just cancel the charge with r, jump and go for that spike! KING DEDEDE Ok, let me tell you this right now. Choose either the biggest stage with platforms possible, or the smallest stage possible. (Battlefield or Lylat Cruise in tournaments, Temple and Pictochat casually). Dedede can chaingrab Donkey Kong ENDLESSLY. Pray they aren't a chaingrabber. If they are, pray they aren't able to do the standing still version that only works on you. If they are, pick the large stage to stay away and ground pound, ftilt, or punish them when they attempt something other than a grab, like a missed fsmash. If you DO grab them, back throw them off the stage, or cargo them and throw them off, then go for the spike. Dthrow to dair spike can work too, but let me tell you this. Dedede does not like to be spiked, and will usually up b to the stage if in range to avoid having this happen. If you can bair spam them until they are far enough out that they either can't recover due to being out of jumps or needing to up b to grab the ledge, do so and then ledge stall and they should pass right through you, and promptly suicide. Some will toss Waddle dees to back you off midair or gain more horizontal distance, so watch out for this, because a lucky gordo hurts. His projectile is slow, but they hurt, and waddle doos should be killed, as they can stun you, allowing Dedede a free fsmash or even worse, a grab. If you can sneak it in, spot dodge and jab if you can even land, or jump out if you can. DI up and away and pray. If you sheild, you can bait them into a running grab, spot dodge and punish. Dedede's running attack is powerful but slow and has horrible lag. If you end up spotdodging or blocking this, use cstick to fsmash the now helpless bird. If he uses his long, annoying ftilt, groundpound, and if you can catch him at maximum dtilt range, do it. Also, if Dedede is above you, don't uair, as his dair is annoying and racks up the damage. Sometimes they shorthop into this, so lookout. His ground moves are slow, minus the utilt he can use to kill you pretty quick. If he is charging one, dash before he misses, to the edge of it, and if you don't have to stop, keep going and over b pitfall him. If he pulls out jet hammer bait him into missing (he shouldn't be using this anyway) or ground pound as he comes forward with it. He likes to do this sometimes if you are offstage, so ledgestall with up b all you need to. If he trys to bair WOP you, try to DI above him, and up b all the way back, as he will have to recover too, so landing is not much of an issue. He can abuse platforms, but you do it better, so rejoice in utilting him, or even utilt juggle if he drops down. If he misses a dash grab he rolls over! Punish. If it really bothers you with the chain grab, you can cargo chain grab against the wall of Corneria, or dtilt him into a wall until 120 percent then dsmash. Stages with walls are usually tournament banned, and lucky for you, so are stages with walk off edges, as DDD can just chain grab you until you hit the wall, rinse and repeat. As said in various matchup threads on all is brawl or smashboards, DON'T GET GRABBED OR IT'S AN AUTOMATIC STOCK LOSS. Credit to ripple for that one. OLIMAR Ok, for starters, if you grab Olimar, do all in your power to throw him off the stage, because you can bair gimp him easily, and holding the edge while Olimar uses up b equals dead Olimar, as with all tether users. His range on his aerial moves is awful and he can be fair spiked and sometimes dair/b over spiked easily without much punishment. Off the stage is your game. On the stage is his. His range not only rivals yours on the ground, but his dash grab is ridiculous, so keep away from it. Charging a giant punch usually means he will try to throw pikmin all over you or dash grab, so cancel it or only charge when he dies. Giant punch is hard to land on this little dude, but if you can roll behind him during his fsmash, it's doable. Don't hesistate though, as Olimar players LOVE to punish rolls with dsmash. If you cargo him, just let him break free and ground pound to kill most, if not all his pikmin! A pikminless Olimar is to be rushed at for dash grabs, smashes, multihit moves, whatever you can do to keep him from pulling up more. This is another fight where stages with platforms are to be thought about, as Olimar can uair and usmash through them easily. Try to outrange his fsmash spam and grabs with down b to force him to jump and use aerials, which you can ftilt away, or sheild grab. If Olimar does grab you, he's probably going to go for the dthrow into fair, fair, fair, dair spike of ledge, which works wonders on you as DK, so airdodge or jump or nair or whatever you can if he slips up and gives you a window. Pikmin order, his whistle move, he might try to use for recovering above the stage, as it gives him super armor, and can make your attempts to fsmash edge gaurd or giant punch him look just plain silly. Also, if he is below you JUMP, or at least airdodge left or right, as his uair is his best aerial in my opinion, and combos the snot out of you. If you catch him doing pikmin order on the ground nearby, ground pound or dtilt repeatidly, so that after the super armor he gets launched anyway. This is a difficult fight for DK, so pick large stages so you can survive longer, like Lylat, Final Destination, or for laughs with friends, pick Rainbow Cruise and watch the Olimar be unable to keep up. The uair you have works well on a popped up Olimar as well. SAMUS/ZERO SUIT SAMUS Samus can do alot of spam. Missiles are manageable, super missles you can jump over into a bair to the face, bombs no longer explode on contact, and mini shots are easy to sheild or dodge. Don't let her charge if you can help it. Your predictable recovery means you eat fully charged shots if she has one. Zair is a pain, but you can run in and grab if she misses or goes too high with it. All your spikes are excellent, and the best set up seems to be to scare her with bair so she stalls with bomb jumping, then fair or b over. Dair works too, but Samus is floaty and can hurt you bad with up b, the screw attack. Charge giant punch from on top of platforms or in midair and cancel with R, or only if she dies if she screw attacks or uairs you through platforms. Note that she can usmash through platforms. Samus' tilts are here kill moves, dtilt being the offender. She'll be itching to use it if your damage is high, so if she misses ground pound, fsmash or ftilt after a roll back if up close. Samus punishes rolls with dsmash, and you should do the same, as her roll is slow. In fact, she will usually roll to cancel a charge if you jump in, if she doesn't fire it. Run in, sheild, then do a roll punish and you should be able to get her most of the time. Bair gimp doesn't do to well due to her bomb jumping, but if you don't use bair most of the match you can kill with it. Her grab is SLOW. If she misses give her giant punch or over b. Don't hesitate! Now, for that good old ZSS. This is the tougher portion for you to deal with. Try airdodge to catch the armor and throw them back, or glide toss if you can. After those shenanigans are over, you have one joke of a match going on. This match reminds me of every empowered woman vs big dude fight I've seen in every movie every, she's fast and hits multiple times hard, and quite laughably takes advantage of your slow strong moves and uses a stun gun and "whip" to great effect. Here are some things ZSS likes to do to you. 1. Over b. THis whip is like an improved version of her fsmash. She likes to do this, then if you sheild, promptly dash grab or fire the stun gun, then grab. Try to stay at the edge of this and ground pound, or roll behind her if you are close and jab or up b. Don't go for the smash unless you rolled ahead of time, as even this move is fast, and ZSS isn't hit by anything as slow as fsmash easily. 2. Stun gun spam. You can block these, or deflect with ftilt or up b, but then she grabs or uses over b. Try to just stay away, moving in slowly as she does this. If she is the sheild into grab variety, you should sheild, spot dodge, then fsmash, as a missed grab by ZSS is one of your VERY FEW moments to nail her hard...with a smash. 3. Air combo. Don't be above her. Her up b spikes if sweetspotted, and can be comboed over and over sometimes. Her usmash is good and has range, her aerials are all fast, and you don't want to be hit by fair, or top screen killed by uair. Instead, you want ZSS above YOU so that you can uair her, or punish her dair. If you know she like to abuse dair, spot dodge it near the edge, and watch her plummet to her death. If you can get ZSS off the edge, remember that edgehogging isn't 100 percent effective, as she can shoot you off if not invincible, then up b to spike you to die with her, as well as over b you then tether, or even use her DOWN b to get back on, which she can turn into a kick to spike you by the way. You can try to bair spam her, but it's better to bthrow her off and attempt a fair. If she fast falls to tether, try to dair, and if she down b's onto the stage in front of you, well, good bye ZSS. Cargo stage spike can help with this light weight warrior, but spastic enemies can be spastic button mashers, so watch out. If you can get a giant punch, try to trade hits with one of her aerials without being interrupted. Don't worry, this match up is supposed to be hard, I think. PIT Lets examine Pit's b moves first, as you probably came here to learn about getting around those. MIRROR SHEILD A not so good Pit will not use this as you have no projectiles. A good one will use it as Marth would use counter on your giant punch, smashes, or ground pound. If he puts it out and you haven't done anything jump and nair or fair or even dair with a shffl. Just do it QUICK. ANGEL RING HIYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA! DI back and up, then ground pound for the safest counter to this, or ftilt or fsmash for a more risky one. If you have him using this in the wrong direction as you jump over him (why is he not using utilt/usmash? Who knows...) then quickly bair or over b him. FREAKY BLUE FLYING...THING... Just hit him however you can if he's far from the stage. Go all out to do it, cause if you connect, he does NOT get it back, and falls to his doom. ARROW SPAM Ugh. Roll dodge towards him and try to grab. Pray he doesn't fsmash as you approach. You can swat them, but dodging is better. Block one at close enough range and ftilt him. If you grab, throw him off and go for fair or dair, as he jumps kinda weird and sweetspot for him is a little odd. He can angle them, so approaching with air dodge is key, and bair upon coming in is great if you can catch him with the bow still out. That being said, onto his crazy ground and air game. Most of Pits moves hit multiple times, and his fair can push you off the edge or too far back to sheild grab. Instead, counter with the same moves you have throughout this guide, the ranged ones. DO NOT SPOT DODGE. You will get hit. Block all his smashes through their duration and try to fsmash right back. Pits like to roll after you get close when they are arrow spamming at the edge, so dsmash. Don't be above Pit. He has too many options for comboing you, from uair to usmash to utilt to arrows. Just don't If he's above you, utilt him or give him the headbutt. If Pit glides he prolly wants to glide attack, so give him fair or a sheild grab. If he pulls that under the stage junk, dash to the other side, about one DK away, then try to ledgestall or do a dashing over b off the side to spike him. If he uses up b near you and you are edgehogging, he can get really high with it so immediatley drop and ledgestall or do a ledge hopped spike. Pit can be baired in the air off the stage better than on, so keep that in mind. If Pit is trying to catch you in multiple grabs or jabs, give him the message to back off with jabs of your own, or up b right into his jabs. Giant punch should go right through that weird sword dance he does when he taps A... ICE CLIMBERS The Ice Climbers are the hardest matchup you will face dependent on one thing. If they can chaingrab, you are probably dead. One of the chain grabs is a zero death combo that spikes you at the end, or they could just chain grab you until they feel like charging a smash DURING the grab with the cstick, then killing you. I don't play the Climbers, but even I can grab into fair spike at the edge or charge a fsmash so that you get nailed by it, or tap both buttons to rack up the damage. So what can you do if they are chain grabbers? 1. Break them up, and kill one or the other quickly . DO NOT GRAB THE ICE CLIMBERS. They will just grab you back, MIDGRAB. Or they can smash attack you during your grab. Instead, distance yourself and groundpound like it's the only move you have, utilt their air approach, and dtilt them to knock them out of grab range, you can ftilt, but they can slip in between them, and jabs only allow them to sheild grab. Up b can back them off, but if you do it too much you will get grabbed anyway. Once you have one seperated, preferably Nana, then go after that one with dsmash or fsmash, or even ftilt one off the stage if you can, then spike if it's Nana. Squall hammer has super armor, and when desynched (Ice Climbers can be knocked out of tune to do crazy things such as one smash during the others down b blizzard, for instance) can't be sheild grabbed, and it eats your sheild, so watch out when you do get them apart (or if your enemy desynchs on purpose) Block the ice shots and giant punch a missed grab or smash, and fsmash a missed blizzard. An experimental thing I haven't got to try yet is if Popo is off the stage and Nana is not, and Popo needs up b to recover, is to grab Nana, cargo and walk away, or to pitfall Nana with over b and see if it keeps her from assisting the other climber, killing the main one off. If you get the Ice Climbers off and they haven't squall hammered for the super armor or to recover yet, spike them with fair or dair and if you don't get one, you might get the other, and either situation is good. If you get Popo by himself, don't underestimate him, but keep him at range, and throw him more than he would ever expect, and he should eventually either be gimped or fsmashed from a safe distance. A lone Popo can be sheild grabbed during squall hammer and cargo stage spiked, backthrown to his death, whatever you want. He can't spike you anymore either, and your up b becomes infinitely more useful, as does you bair spam. Yay! Most importantly, IF YOU GET CHAINGRABBED DON'T GIVE UP! If they have you and you have giant punch spam that b button along with jump and DI away so that if you don't jump or DI out of a throw, you at the very least punch their sheild, and possibly KO Nana, or Popo if he doesn't sheild, expecting the grab to connect. Jabs interrupt too if you have them misstime a grab. Good luck. If you aren't in a tourney, play somewhere like Onnet or the Fzero stage, where chain grabbing would be a bad idea. I have no clue if wall infinite works on these guys. R.O.B. He likes the laser. He likes the Gyro. Lets seperate them. LASER He can save this to kill you with, or spam it to annoy you. It's strong, can kill you offscreen, he can bounce it off of things, and it goes through various pieces of environment and makes approaching hard. Block and roll forward, but DON'T roll close to ROB. His dsmash hurts. It hits alot and reminds you to never roll or spot dodge against him. Instead, roll away if you end up close. Once in range you know what to do. Either ground pound or sheild the aerial, though you will probably have to counter with a ftilt aimed high as he pushes you back far with his aerials. And if you are far back and don't have him cornered with ftilt, dtilt, utilt and down b, he's going back to the laser. GYRO THis little thing can KO you as you recover if fully charged, and while it's good to toss it back, or glide toss it at ROB into fsmash, you can't grab it until it stop spinning, unless you airdodge grab it. He will also use this to control the stage, to force you to jump from the edge rather than ledge attack, or to protect himself as he recovers. He can also use that multihit over b to reflect it back if you throw it I believe. That move can eat your sheild as well as reflect, so be careful if you glide toss. OK, that aside, now his melee moves. His air game is far superior to yours. His dair hits hard and pushes him back up, even if he fast falls, keeping him safe, and he can use it through platforms on tall characters, so if you miss an utilt through a platform, DUCK! His nair is his get away from me move, and can KO you, so airdodge or just stay back if you see it coming. His uair along with utilt/usmash is more than enough reason to not be above him, though bairing him in the face is just fine if he's grounded. His bair is just like his dair, so watch out for it, and if you know it's coming (he's jumping at you backwards) giant punch goes right through if you start it just before he starts bair. If you have to spike him, fair from far away, dair only if he has already done something else. ROBS up b recovery is CRAZY. It's like Pit's, only he can attack the entire recovery so long as he doesn't dodge, and it's only downfall is it has to land to recover, so if you can knock him out of it with bair or up b, go for it. Mostly though, ROB won't die unless you KO him the old fashioned way or spike him. Fair can be spammed, and can even WOP you. Don't let this happen by swatting him away with ftilt if he approaches you or recovering over top of him if you can. FOX If you haven't caught on, Fox is fast. His lasers don't stun, so if you want, run right up to him and dash attack or grab before he can put it the gun away. If he does, roll back. Or if you KNOW he will put it away, ftilt or down b from max distance. Dtilt works too, just don't get fsmashed. His reflector can wall infinite you, so don't take him to stages with walls, even though you can do it right back. If you see him reflect to knock you away as you dash but you've stopped short, give him a fsmash, giant punch, or over b that will continue due to sliding if you haven't quite fully stopped. His up b is so telegraphed it's not even funny, and if he does it on land, guess what? He's coming right at you, so jump to max range of it and fsmash or groundpound, or if he makes the mistake of doing it upwards, utilt juggle him, as usmash is a little inaccurate. Take him to battlefield or Lylat in tourneys, as the platforms help you more than him, and he can also accidentally gimp himself under the lip. Also, his dair can spike you softly, but just enough to not reach the ledge with up b, so weave in and out with up b if you can. Up b gets him off of you, and if he lands a jab or dair on land, he's probably going to uptilt, so try to powersheild and jab counter this on the utilt. Fox's fair is a bane and pokes sheilds, and is NOT to be sheild grabbed, and his bair makes for a nice kill move or WOP. Return the favor into his Fire Fox move and ledge stall him backwards until you can hog with invincibility. If he starts his up b above the stage instead of illusion (side b) for some inane reason and you have time, SPIKE HIM. Speaking of illusion, if he is straight across and you aren't already in his face, (you are onstage) he will usually illusion to the edge. If you can pivot drop, do so and watch him plummet, but don't jump out to bair. You'll get spiked by it. If he uses illusion above the stage, you can try to predict where he will land or spot dodge and cstick fsmash the direction he lands. If he fsmashes near the edge, you can sheildgrab, cargo, dthrow off the stage and try to ledgestall or predict his ledge technique of choice. FALCO If you think this is a Fox ditto, you are wrong. First off, Falco's chain grab is only a chain grab against a wall. You can jump, or even DI towards him and jump off his head into bair for a laugh. Nair is valuable in this fight for jumping over his lasers that DO stun and hitting him quickly, setting you up for ftilt. After he figures out he can't chain grab he will probably use his reflector after a dthrow, so jump high. His fsmash has good range, but if you can roll back and ground pound or hit with a fsmash of your own. Giant punch if you have one as he may RAR at you, and if you can throw him off his recovery isn't as good as Fox's, so you can bair WOP or edge hog him easier. Actually, you should treat him the same as Fox during edgegaurding. Except for Falco's dair. Don't be below him, and if he usmashes you high up, or uthrows at the stages edge, DI AWAY from the stage and move back in, as a double jump multihit spike is prolly coming your way, if not an uair. Fair hits multiple times, so try to up b if he jumps straight at you facing you, or make sure on the ground to block the entire thing. Falco's like to hang out right at the edge with usmash, so don't ledge attack if he's charging. Stall with up b and either up b back on or as it finishes press jump, quickly followed by towards the stage and down plus b. You will hop back on and bury him, or wreck his sheild. You also should not pick stages with walls unless you are confident you can dtilt him to oblivion before he can laser lock you. The reflector trips, and if you dtilt and miss, you'll probably get this to the face. WOLF This is tough. Miss blocking or dodging some shots, or get hit by the gun itself and you have some damage racked up. Reflector gives Wolf some INVINCIBILITY frames! Even if you start the giant punch first, this will cancel everything from the hit, including damage, but since you are only in superarmor, you take damage from the reflector. He can spike you easily. He can juggle you. He can come at you from below with up b and top screen KO you. His over b goes up at an angle and strongly discourages your bair approach. Out ranging him is OK, but doesn't help enough in this matchup. One thing you can take advantage of is Wolf players for some reason do this thing where they up b straight at you. (It's powerful and spikes at the end of it, so don't get caught ledge stalling with up b). If you spot dodge this or sheild, you can grab or cstick the direction he landed after the spot dodge, and if you airdodge go for an uair or try to fast fall down to set up an usmash as he's vulnerable. Lylat gimps him sometimes, but if you activley try to bair gimp him, you could end up getting a spike from his version of illusion, that goes up diagonally, meaning if he's lower than the platform, he has more options than up b. If he is a scar using Wolf ( uses a glitch to illusion through the bottom) get familiar with where he will be on smashville or battlefield and stand just beyond it, if not on top and sheild as he does it. If you choose to stand just beyond and he still does it, you don't have much time to punish as he lands quickly from it with no helpless free fall, so release that fsmash or giant punch a lil before he appears. Up b and ground pound only keep him off for so long, and dtilt will eventually be meet with that dashing fsmash. That fsmash is one of your banes, along with usmash, so try to stay grounded, but always more than a fsmash away unless you want to sheild grab a fsmash happy one and are confident he won't dash grab. His aerials hurt, but they can be easily sheilded and countered, so have at it if he chooses his worst approach against you ( considering that all his approaches are grand, take that with a grain of salt). CAPTAIN FALCON FALCON PUNCH his FALCON PUNCH. Seriously. Giant punch wins in priority! I am pretty sure if you time it right you can also giant punch falcon kick if he does it from afar, along with fsmash. Captain Falcon loves to combo, and you are one of the few characters he can do so to now, and he loves to sweetspot the knee, which you are a big target for, and he loves to spike, which is easiest on you as DK. So how to counter this? Your ground game! Jab through his jabs. Ftilt him away when he doest that infinite tap thing. Groundpound the raptor boost, and for the love of god if you hear the word "FALCON" then you should falcon block or donkey punch immediatley at close range. You have so many ways to out range him and counter his b moves that his smashes and tilts are all you have to worry about, and dtilt takes care of almost all of that. If he falcon punches the wrong way, or you spot dodge the kick, give him the pitfall into strong move one two. In the air, falcon is fast, but can't outrange your bair, so if he tries to bair you, bair him back. Fair? Bair or nair. Uair? Airdodge, because this is a problem, and pray he isn't a smart Falcon that fast fall up b's every air dodge. This hurts, and if he does it as you ledge stall or as you are trying to edge gaurd he can stage spike you with it. Raptor boost will spike you, and if you are near the edge, above it and he can make it with raptor boost with or without hitting you, he'll use it, so airdodge into up b if you are out there, and if not, just prepare a fsmash to say to him "Hey, you Raptor boost, you die, so why don't you up b over me?" When he does resume punishment/normal ground tactics. If he is predictable with the over b, you can jump out and dair him. Don't go out far enough to be up b'd though, and don't fair unless you aim it so your fist hits him below you, or you could get raptor boost spiked or up b'd. He can attempt to WOP you with bairs, but if you DI up you can up b back to the stage. He can't uair you too much if you do this because he HAS to go back sometime. He's not Jigglypuff ya'know... PIKACHU Thunder spam. Let us take care of all the ways to get around this NOW! THUNDER He likes to do this as you rush. Your fsmash knocks him out of it safely if he misses. Thunder is a really good time to roll away, especially if he lets it hit himself for the mega version. Giant punch, headbutt or groundpound him as it ends for free damage. If he does the jumping, dodging his own thunder version, analyze what type it is. If he does it forward, then sheild and roll back (his fair and bair poke) or ftilt or fsmash if he lands in front. A good Pika will airdodge or fire a neutral b jolt. These are eaten by groundpound, ftilt and dtilt; dtilt being the best option. You can easily dtilt his running approach, but sheild if he jumps. Anyways, more thunder. If he does it BACKWARDS, he has created a temporary wall, and you need to back off or air dodge away, not through, as best you can, then reapproach. If he does this as an edgeguard, there isn't much you can do, but the following help not get hit, or even counter the little wall of lightning. 1. Jump into instant upb across the stage. If you do this right after he misses with one and is about to start another you'll make it, and he shouldn't be able to chase you. Done from the ledge. 2. Wait for one to end and jump back on with over b to bury him or scare him off. 3. If you are good at it and super brave, ledge hop a giant punch. The penalty for missing the ledge is death... 4. If Pikachu resorts to that weird machine gun headbutt, up b through. If you are high above the stage you can try to airdodge through the thunder, but sometimes stalling with up b then holding forward helps. Leaves you vulnerable on the landing, but at least you didn't get top screened by thunder! That aside, don't roll around Pikachu. Dsmash is like a vaccum and it hurts, and it pops you up for thunder. If you back Pikachu off with dtilt he can reach you with fsmash, so look out, and use ground pound and ftilt and save dtilt for a surprise. If caught in the headbutt back out, and remember that after you fall out they like to over b or fsmash. If they over b from far away you can jump and bair them as they pass, or just sheild/down dodge then cstick their direction. If they spam thunder jolts note that they can poke your sheild and knock you onto the ledge if you are at the stage edge. Speaking of that his aerials poke, so if your sheild is low roll away or try to counter aerials with ftilt. If he misses with fsmash put yours right out there!. A low percent thing you can do to all light characters, including Pikachu is you can sometimes dthrow, bthrow or cargo throw into dair spike. You can also bthrow, bair, bair, then just ledgehog if he's far enough out. make sure to renew your invicibility with up b stall if you can. Pikachu tries to edgegaurd with it's projectile sometimes. just power through it with up b and hope super armor carries you through. Dsmash sets you up high for thunder, so airdodge, don't roll too much and try not to get top screened, in summary. POKEMON TRAINER. Ugh. All three of his teamates seem geared to take DK down. They have all they need to do so, but fortunately there's some good things you can do to them as well. When PT uses down b, use your fsmash or down b to hit them as they come out, depending on your timing. SQUIRTLE Let's break this into parts. WOP= Squirtle can WOP you in a very odd way. He can avoid sheild grabbing with moving in and out with his aerials like a boomerang and just loves to spam either fair or bair, because the are practically the same, until high damage, then switch to the other aerial for the kill. He can push DK down at a very low angle and still return to the stage, leaving you just out of reach of the edge. Try to up b through or air dodge back to the stage, and if you do manage to sheild grab an aerial, watch out, cause he may start with the dair, which is multihit and racks up the damage on you. Usmash dashing Squirtle's smashes are pretty standard, except for usmash. It's amazingly strong, has good range and if it doesn't KO you he will chase with uair or up b even! It goes through platforms and wouldn't be so bad if he couldn't do a technique similar to Snake's mortarslide by dashing one way, pivoting into his shell and dashing the other. It goes really far if timed right so if he is pivoting alot expect it and ground pound or sheild. Squirtles jabs are fast and if he gets the last hit you could end up being chased with a grab. Squirtle is pretty good at countering a missed aerial by grabbing you as you land, so look out. His version of Mario's fludd isn't as strong, but it does have the ability to set you up for another move, make you waste giant punch, or push you off if you up b to say "get away from me" It racks up the damage and keeps him away, but if he figures it out he may lure you into doing it stageside. He can also push you off as you charge. Squirtle has a move that makes him invincible, the over b. The only non invincible thing about it is he can gimp his recovery if he goes off stage, if attacked I think he speeds up or slingshots, not sure, and if you jump on him, he is as vulnerable as if his sheild had broken. Bairing him to death is key as it outranges him aerial wise, just watch the landing, but gimping him probably won't happen. You can counter a missed fsmash or dsmash with a pitfall or fsmash and kill him at about 70 percentish sometimes, but dtilting to back him off can lead to his dtilt, which is multihit, and he may try to grab right after, and Squirtle's dthrow hurts, some of his throws can even kill. JUST figured out that with great timing you can bury a Squirtle that is using over b, and that if they do it to recover ground pound and watch them plummet off the stage! IVYSAUR This can go one of 2 ways. Ivysaur can keep you away with her huge but weak bair, chew into you with nair and a well timed bullet seed, especially as you recover above her, razor leaf you to death, and pester you through platforms with utilt or uair, which is basically her usmash in the air. To top it off dair can kill you, or if aimed well SPIKE YOU. What to do? Keep out of fsmash range of Ivysaur and give her ftilt, dtilt, and down b hell. I know I sound like a broken record on some match ups, but DK plays a range game, and using these three moves at certain times is the key to victory. If Ivysaur whiffs a grab or smash, rush in with over b or fsmash or a grab of your own. Your goal in life is to pester her at range, get her through platforms. Throw or knock her offstage and let the bair begin! Get her far away and up b to the edge and hog, and watch the tether user fall to her death! If she fires a fair it can KO you at high damage and knock you off, and razor leaf can knock you off as well, so what to do? Up b stall if she is close enough to be hit or far away enough she can't up b (pretty far, that vine is LONG) Then hog. If you must spike, do it from a throw combo or a ledge hop, or use fair so you don't get her fair or bair. If Ivysaur rolls into you, it's probably to bullet seed, so run or ground pound and if she misses with this, give her over b and laugh. Or giant punch. CHARIZARD Rocksmash can do 40 percent damage to you if he gets a clean hit, it eats your sheild, and can KO. THey love to short hop into this move. You can giant punch or fsmash the rock for laughs, but other than canceling the rock, you can't hit him with those 2. Nevermind, if they short hop, yes you CAN fsmash them. Good times. Charizard's up b is like yours, only vertical. It has super armor and unlike yours CAN KO. If you try to ledgegaurd too close Charizard can drop and up b and can up b out of sheild to punish a blocked jab, so watch out! Fire breath has the potential to gimp you, but I've never had it happen, but they do short hop into it and rack up the damage. If they keep doing it you know what to do; down b. Charizard's ftilt is like yours, only slower, but it KO's at good percentages, and his fsmash hits twice, so block the entire thing. Dsmash from Charizard can punish rolls, but not as good as yours, so in close quarter dodge fest you should win out with the multitude of moves you have to punish rolls. Even his dtilt is like yours... Charizards air game is sickeningly good. He can shffl a dair on the stage to spike you whom are off the stage, but dair is useless for him on the stage, so if he makes the mistake of being vertical above you uair him. Your fair outranges his but is slow, and Charizard can knock you off the stage or dthrow you off the stage (dthrow has massive knockback) and fair you twice and recover as if nothing just happened as you are officially gimped. Try to up b early to the stage if this happens, or airdodge and try to get behind him if he is gimp happy. You don't want to be behind Charizard in the air, and if a Charizard jumps at you backwards do all in your power to avoid the bair. It can KO, has range that rivals yours, is a little slower but if you hit the tip of the tail instead of the tail itself it hurts bad. The trick to Charizard is to try to knock him so low and far out that he has to do anything but glide to get back, and then pivot drop and let him fall on a missed up b. Getting a bair is dangerous, but if you do keep it up and push him back. Remember, they only get their up b back, not their jumps. You can spike Charizard, but I wouldn't recommend it unless he's trying to kill you with uair. Getting up b to the face is always bad, and attempting to spike him usually warrants one. His utilt and usmash go well beyond platforms and can juggle you a little, but you can do the same to him, so if he goes aerial, spot dodge then lay it on. I'd suggest taking PT's whom love Charizard anywhere where grabbing the edge is iffy, like Lylat or Frigate Orpheon. His glide attack is mean, I've HEARD it can spike, not sure, but if he cancels a glide he is vulnerable, and fair, bair, uair, or even dair are basically free on a gliding Charizard, so go for it! LUCARIO Your goal in this fight is to bair Lucario off the stage or any other method of getting him far out there, then just to get back to and hold on to the edge. His up b does not attack, and though he can wall cling from it most just try to go above you and land on the stage. If they do jump back on with the attack of your choice, and if he does it way to high charge a dsmash or fsmash where you think he will land. Sure, this guy can combo the snot out of you and try to gimp you with fair spam, but up b does wonders for any antigimp problem due to superarmor. His dair is a killer though, and makes him fall slower, so expect this to be spammed as you come back. Try to avoid getting semi chain grabbed by force palm, his over b, and keep him at range with tilts, but since they can jump in with double team, go easy on ground pound except when they roll. They will use this mid utilt juggle too. Sometimes if you charge a giant punch and run at them and stop they will use this, and be completely vulnerable until the animation ends, so bury them any time they missjudge when to use double team. The sphere is a drag and can kill you when Lucario is at high percents, so try to get him to waste it or if point blank fire giant punch a little before they fire and take the damage but not the knockback. If they spam little ones just jump over and then grab, bair, or up b. Up b on the ground to get them off too much and they will double team though. Lucario is a lightweight, and while fast, his smashes are so telegraphed you shouldn't get hit unless put in a bad situation. They have deceptive range but you can punish a Lucario that spams them pretty easily with your ranged moves and a well timed fsmash. Lucario even recovers conventionally so spiking should just be a matter of aim. This should be in your favor. JIGGLYPUFF This is really about even if both players are evenly skilled. Jiggs has an easy time using rest on you, but if she misses, she is pretty much dead. She has the better wall of pain, and pound goes right through your bair, but you can bair her into a KO wall easily. You both have a big charge move, and if you see her charging roll out just continuously ground pound untill she rams into it, or down dodge as she flies by and hopefully she won't react in time and KO herself into a wall. Spiking Jiggs is safe, but not easy, best done after a throw, and if she tries to play a ground game with you you've pretty much won. Just sheild the smashes or jabs and grab. Ftilt her away, and even if they do an air game you can sometimes shield grab them. Popular combos that go into rest for Jiggs are dair into rest, uair into rest and short hop into rest, so look out for the moves that preceed the rest. Also, if she sings, wait, then give her the pitfall or giant punch. If she ever sheilds, which she should never do unless cornered, give her over b or up b, as a broken sheild on Jiggly puff doesn't stun her. It KO'S her! MARTH I may make some people raise an eyebrow with this one, but I think Marth and DK are equals. Marth can WOP with fair and kill with the sweetspot tip of the sword, and do it fast. DK can do the same to him with bair and though slower, doesn't need to sweetspot at all. DK can ledgestall and hog so that Marth's up b doesn't grab the edge, but an up b from Marth can KO you. Marth's dancing sword can rack up your percent, but up b goes straight through it, and giant punch if timed right can too. Marth can counter, but like Lucario if he misses you can punish, just be quick about it. Marth can break sheilds easily, and so can DK. Marth can up b out of sheild to kill you, and you can giant punch his slow second jab.(slow is a relative term here) You CAN spike Marth, but it is dangerous. Marth's fsmash is quick, and they love to use it. If he does though, and misses, rush in and pitfall. This match is pretty even in my opinion. IKE You'll get no sympathy from Ike. His range is equal if not better. He is slow, but not so much that it matters. That disjointed hitbox of fury known as his sword is your bane, and a few hits or one misplaced smash and you are gone. He can even gimp you with aether at the edge if you are above him, and grab the edge and just get ready to take your next stock. Against fast characters Ike doesn't do so well. Against you... Don't play a ground game with Ike. His air game is strong, but slow. Pop him up however you can (groundpound works but he can use counter and bair him off the stage. Ike's recovery is awful. If you can get him at a diagonal below the stage, he's gone. You can ledge stall aether to some degree if you time it correctly, but bairing him till he can't aether works wonders, as well as straight up spiking hiw with dair as he usually is so focused on grabbing the edge he doesn't care you just jumped at him. If they aether back on the stage, hold block, grab, and cargo stage spike. If you can't do that or their damage is low, just cargo and throw then bair spam him out. Ike will often use over b to recover if above the stage. if you see him charging try to fair him as this does many things. 1. Puts you in front of him, blocking the recovery and if he hits you he falls to his doom. 2. If it hits late spikes him. 3. If it hits early KO's him or pushes him way out. 4. Misses and let's you up b through him to chew some damage on him. If you are forced to play a ground game, Don't just sheild. It pushes you very far back and does huge damage to it, and he can poke with dtilt. (Dtilt spikes as well!) Instead do down dodge on everything he does. He is a single hit character, and even powershielding can be learned easily on him. Ground pound when he charges smashes or starts one, ftilt him away when he misses. If he does eruption, wait till the explosion ends then bury him or stand right outside it's range and fsmash or ground pound DURING the plunge. His superarmor means he takes more than one pound during eruption and the damage is free! Up b through his triple a jab if you know he's going to use it and beware his ftilt. If he charges quick draw ( usually as you recover) you can airdodge and bair him in the back of the head for attempted gimping, down dodge and grab, down dodge and cstick his direction, or if you get lucky and he's an idiot, he'll do it midair, miss you and die. Why would you ever charge it midair and release it midair towards the edge? I dunno... Also, if he does it from afar you can just ground pound until he rams into it. Just master the down dodge and up b out of sheild and this should go fine. NESS If you have to fight an Earthbound character, this is the one you want to be up against. He has a slower fsmash, his PK thunder dissapears when it hits something (you), and his smashes are more radial than direct. His PK fire can be a problem, but if he's spacing with it give him one of your moves, it'll reach and knock him offstage, where he belongs. He can dair spike you easily, but you can do the same to him even easier. He has to recover with double jump, or he's forced to rely on his PK thunder. If he does it jump out with any move, or simply jump out in front of the thunder, and he dies! Dair is the best to jump out with because if you miss the thunder you get a spike. If you do this too late, you may get rocketed in the face by Ness's strongest move, so lookout. If he does this on the ground, down b or run in and bury before it hits him,(which is also a good strategy if he tries to pk thunder you on stage or use pk cross on stage) because this move hurts. As an alternative you could just dodge is and hope he ends up off stage. Also, his fsmash is quick, but his bthrow is the beast. if you get grabbed DI towards the stage and fight to stay on screen with airdodge. If he pesters you up close with jabs just up b or back off just enough to fsmash him. He should die at low percents, so pick tiny stages if you are good at dodging PK fire. LUCAS If you think this is a ditto of Ness you are wrong. Lucas is the tougher of the two for you, and here is why. PK thunder hits multiple times, going through enemies, and you can't gimp it by just jumping in. Lucas' aerials rack the damage on, especially Nair, can poke sheilds I believe and come out fast. He will probably approach with them, so nair to kill or counter won't really work unless he's off gaurd. Use bair VERY well spaced. His PK fire can edgegaurd well, and does knockback instead of combo and when combined with PK freeze or PK thunder, makes recovery a pain. Handle WOP the same way to knock him out too far to recover, but the ground game is totally differnet. You want to spot dodge or block PK fire as you approach, and watch out for the dsmash that hits multiple times. His usmash is an absolute beast and can even punish rolls if timed right. If he misses you with this calmly run in and bury, as he is going no where for awhile. Lucas can tether grab the edge, and you as well. If you block too long just outside of attack range expect a dash grab or grab. Give this kid a dsmash or two at high damage and this should end well for you. MR GAME AND WATCH Mr. Game and Watch is tough for the second lightest character in the game. He can juggle you with utilt then up b parachute then use dair for some quick damage if you are off gaurd. He'll probably approach with his bair that pokes sheilds, so if you don't have a full sheild roll towards him or utilt or ftilt to keep him away. Once at high damage he will come in with fair, but you can spot dodge, airdodge, or sheild grab so be ready. His bacon is a minor nuisance. Don't jump over. Wait it out or ground pound if you can get close enough. If you try to hit him with uair feel free, just don't STAY under him or you will get the dair key. If he spams it, lure him into doing it, roll and fsmash immediatley. If caught in the jab DI back and giant punch him. It's hard to put this jab away once started sometimes. His dtilt is a pain if you are being edge gaurded, but remember your super armor to come through. His dsmash, fsmash and usmash are all fast and he will deploy at any vulnerability, so look out. Also, other neat tricks to lookout for. At the top of the screen, his uair can push you off, like Mario's fludd, only vertical, so don't be above him if you are both up high. IF YOU SEE A NUMBER ABOVE HIS HEAD DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO DODGE! A number 9 hammer is brutal, and a number 8 hurts. If he spams this sheild grab (albeit carefully) and bthrow the little ink blot. Bair him off the stage and try to spike him so that you don't have any more nightmares about hammer 9. If your brave or hilariously lucky and giant punch a hammer 9, killing G+W while you live, save a replay, please! SNAKE Donkey Kong has been discussed as a Snake counter time and time again, and here is why. 1. With bad DI on Snake's part a ftilt sets him up for his ever so spikeable recovery. 2. Cargo throw his his bane. Carry him and throw him at grenades or mines. Jump, uthrow to uair him. Cargo dthrow to set up for a spike. Use cargo's super armor to walk over a mine if you are fast enough, blows him up but not you. Cargo stage spike after his predictable close range game (ftilt or jab) if you sheild grab. 3. Dthrow to bair to bair to bair to recover to spike. 4. Glide tossing uncooked grenades into grab into cargo, or glide toss into fsmash. 5. Ground pound eats mines and sometimes deflects or safely detonates grenades. 6. Ftilt discourages Snake's GODLY ftilt and his GODLY utilt. Dtilt tripping Snake works well. 7. If he uses Nikita to edgegaurd, up b deflects it very well. If he does it on land, you can jump at him with giant punch or bair or nair before he can put it away sometimes. 8.Snake likes to hold grenades and sheild. Up b and giant punch eat shields, have super armor, AND the grenade explodes. This combo sometimes breaks the sheild, so fully charge a dsmash or fsmash and let fly. Snake's bair, nair, and c4 can cause you some real problems though, so try to stay away from all of theses, and if Snake lands from an aerial PUNISH. His air lag is AWFUL. Especially bair. His fair can spike, so if he's hovering for no reason and not using Nikita or planting mines or charging that really slow but powerful fsmash, up b early so as to discourage a spiking. Snakes usmash protects him extremely well and edge gaurds like crazy. If he hits you up immediatley air dodge. Often if the device hits you the mortar does too, and this is painful. His dthrow is a chaingrab on a ledge, so look out. If the Snake can mortarslide, let him have at it straight into a ground pound, giant punch, sheild grab, or even jump over him if he doesn't charge the projectile to fire when he needs to and bair. Donkey can eat alot of ftilts and triple a jabs before going down, but so can Snake, so try to kill early with fsmash or a spike and put his BROKEN self to rest. SONIC He can really move. He's got an attitude. He's the fastest thing in brawl. He's also got like, no priority and your dash attack cancels just about everything. You have to watch out for his aerials, but on a large stage you are going to survive until 150 percent unless he top screens you with a combo I'll mention later. This guy can give you a lot of trouble, but things to remember. 1. If he starts spin dash he will probably try to pop you up, uair, up b then uair for a top screen kill. Just ground pound or sheild. He can cancel spin into a grab from up close, so ftilt or back off. 2. Ftilt says get away so well in this match up. only his fair can sneak in through this. 3. Sonic's love to dair. DK's love to sheild and punish. Dsmash is fastest, so use it. 4. Homing attack can be utilted or usmashed even in some situations. Giant punch works at an angle, and offstage it can soft spike you so look out. 5. Sonic's up b is kinda predictable. Spike him if he stops moving forward. Sometimes he up b's right into a dair or fair. Bair gimp works well on Sonic too, if you can hit the little blue ball with it off stage that is. Also, he kinda HAS to land forward, so prepare a smash as he lands. 6. Sonic's fsmash is his kill move. Fsmash or ftilt him if he uses it out of range and expect it at high damage. Also, expect dsmash and usmash if you roll or recover above him. Pick a stage with platforms to give you the full advantage, and be merciless. THis is easier than you think if you space with dtilt, ftilt, and use fast moves over slow. Try to juggernaut him with slow moves and say hello to being too slow purgatory. All match ups where tested both ways on lvl 9 computers and tournament footage was watched on youtube to provide as much insight as I could. F) TEAM BATTLES Ok, I will be listing ways to fight with team hurt both on and off, and the general rule of team battle cheapness with hurt off is to stand inside each other or close and spam projectiles/area of effect moves, and DK with his ground pound and utilt excels at this. Also, his cargo throw has to be one of the most useful team battle combo starters, because it's so mobile. There are probably hundreds of tricks for any combo in team battles, I'll list what I can for DK. DK and MARIO TEAM HURT OFF Mario has 2 projectiles, and the way to counter ground pound is projectiles or air assaults. If Mario Stands inside you as you ground pound he can flood people and projectiles away and cape projectiles while firing his own. Once they break the two of you up you have some nice things going, like if they sheild Mairo's fireball or attacks, you can run in with up b or over b or down b to try and break a sheild. If you knock someone off, Mario can cape them to death, and if he knocks someone off, you can gimp or spike them. If Mario is good with evasion, he can just fludd them into you. Fludd into a giant punch is awesome, and if they down dodge or jump just pound or utilt. Mario can also use DK for cover when weak because DK lives longer and if they try to chase Mario too much, they get fsmashed or outranged by DK. TEAM HURT ON Like all projectile users, Mario can fireball you to give you your up b back. You can't ground pound counter as much, as you may hit Mario!. Also, note that all projectile users can let you do a neat thing where you giant punch someone off the stage and they save you with a projectile! Just pray they aren't busy/ have good aim. I guess he could fludd you forward as you giant punch for a sliding version and you could hover out as he bthrows to you spiking. He could also cape you using up b for a fake out on your opponents, but that is really just for last second goofing. LAST MAN STANDING So it's you and Mario, and one enemy is KO'd completely, but the other is left. Both can chase with grabs, and DK can force them to sheild with grounded up b so that Mario can grab, or vice versa with Mario using fireballs. Team hurt on or off, cargo dthrow into Mario fludding them then caping is so much win it hurts, and as mentioned earlier, ANY team member throwing them into you spiking is good. Also, note that on ANY team if DK pitfalls someone and sinks them in the ground, simultaneous smashes are in order. DK and LUIGI TEAM HURT OFF Luigi Tornadoes back and forth, or uses over b and the chop as you down b or ftilt, but this team match up is pretty bland. TEAM HURT ON Not much to say here other than he can't tornado as wildly and you can't ground pound as much. LAST MAN STANDING DK can cargo throw the poor guy into a fully charged "Weegee missile" or into a sweetspotted up b by Luigi, as the knock back is massive. DK and PEACH TEAM HURT OFF This is actually worse than team hurt on. Let's go there. TEAM HURT ON Now things get interesting! Peach can jump in with Toad on your ground pounds for free spore counters as walls, turnips can save you if VERY well aimed. She can float, keep someone in hitstun with dair and you can giant punch them for free! LAST MAN STANDING Peach can float very far out so that after your bthrow on an opponent she can fair them DIRECTLY into a wall, and still recover. Ouch. DK and BOWSER TEAM HURT OFF OMG, King Kong and Godzilla! Anyway, You can cargo and just hold during fire breath. Ground pound and fire breath at the same time, or fire breath and utilt defense. If Bowser has someone caught on the edge with fire jump in and dair spike! You can also pitfall someone caught in his fire, then fsmash them. Bowser can immediatley Koopa Klaw anyone bounced up by down b as well! TEAM HURT ON All is lost as you get juggled or burnt if you use fire or ground pound, but the two of you should dominate the stage with Bowser bombing and DK's general ground and edge game. Bowser doesn't play much of an edge game, so it will be up to you. Don't run into one of his smashes! LAST MAN STANDING Fire breath into pitfall was mentioned earlier, and cargo throw into Bowsercide is just plain funny. Really, you should just chase with your fastest most inconvieniant moves and KO, as 2 powerhouses vs one ANYTHING is usually going to be in your favor. DK and LINK TEAM HURT OFF Projectiles and ground pound ahoy! He can even use gale boomerang to drag them into the both of you! Bombs hurt no matter what though, but an air dodge catch and redirect of a bomb can fake out opponents, and make it possible for Link to focus less on where his bomb is, because YOU have it. Giant punch inside his up b as they are caught is priceless. He can't projectile save you unless he uses a bomb though, and that could KO you. Ouch. TEAM HURT ON No more projectile overlapping, but hey, he can literally reel you back in with gale boomerang! Good luck aiming it though... LAST MAN STANDING Use cargo super armor on lift for bomb toss. During Link's up b if they sheild use over b. It will either break the sheild or bury them. Both are good. Link can try to reel them into you with Gale boomerang and up throwing someone into a bomb very high in the air for a top screen is killer. You back airing them really far out and then link insta hogging with the hookshot grapple reel in is ok as well. DK and ZELDA/SHEIK TEAM HURT OFF This can be BRUTAL for your opponents. Zelda can stand inside of ground pound and Din's fire all she wants, and if they fire back use Naryu's love to reflect. If they jump her usmash and uair will lay the hurt on. If seperated you can have Her spam smashes as DK trys to pop them up or throw them around without fear of hitting each other. Sheik can spin the whip or shoot needles that don't hit you, and during her ftilt juggle you can bury them, but otherwise, stick to Zelda. TEAM HURT ON She can save you with Din's fire/needles, but you could get KO'd. Not much else to say here. LAST MAN STANDING. Cargo right when Din's fire hits you if you have a grab and the superarmor will eat the fire, but your opponent will launch. Throw them into an usmash or let Shiek spin the whip as you bair them offstage and recover. If the Zelda has really good timing you could up throw into a Zelda's reappearance to top screen ko, but the difficulty is high. DK and GANONDORF TEAM HURT OFF Though projectiles can get you with no counter other than block, Ganon can stand in ground pound and discourage them with utilt. You could also bury or sheild break someone trying to avoid the "useless" utilt old Ganon has, and if he lands an over b choke, help him out! Good Ganon's react after this by over bing again if they roll behind, or sheild grabbing if they attack, or down b if they roll forward. If they roll away, bury them or ground pound to make Ganon's reactions easier. Also, you can down b, Ganon can over b them in the air to put them right back into the down b you have going! If you get a grab next to Ganon you should dthrow as many good Ganon's have perfected the down b AND dair spike. If they dair an enemy on land, bury them if they don't tech or make it out. Ganon can dair them into your ground pound as well! TEAM HURT ON Dear me what is it going to take not to hit each other! Any way, Ganon is slow, so you may have to run in to the rescue from time to time as they will usually pick on him and leave you be. Use up b super armor if he is accidentally coming at you with down b and hopefully it will cancel both moves or just cause Ganon minor damage. Try to up b him if he is just short with his own, but mainly, if he is gimped, he's gimped. LAST MAN STANDING Sure, DK has suicide moves, but Ganon's is more effective. Cargo dthrow to Ganon as he side b's to the stage over and over and insta Ganoncide!. Awesome. You could also chase them until you bury them and then have Ganon utilt while you use giant punch on the buried victim. If he lands an over b help him chase and throw into Ganon's spike works too, or uthrow into Ganon's uair. Really, there are many ways these guys can work together to KO a single opponent, but if you land a same time Warlock/Giant punch on a cornered opponent, either his sheild is broken or you just performed the best team KO ever... DK and TOON LINK TEAM HURT OFF See Link, except he can't accidentlly kill you with dair, and his boomerang is standard. TEAM HURT ON See Link, only don't get hit by dair. LAST MAN STANDING See Link, only uthrow into his dair if you can pull it off. DK and SAMUS/ZSS TEAM HURT OFF Samus can spam zair, homing missles, usmash, utilt, charge shot, whatever in your ground pound. If she had a reflector, this would be even more broken. She can charge shot through you no fear. ZSS can spam stun gun, though really, if they jump and try to attack she can use up b to spike them back down into ground pound once or twice, or just usmash. If she stuns someone bury them. You don't have to fear accidentally getting hit with over b. TEAM HURT ON Stay clear of each other. Accidentally getting a missle, charge shot or stun gun to the face hurts, but the same moves can save you. Bad team for team hurt on if you ask me. LAST MAN STANDING Cargo throw into charge shot or her dair spike. Pitfall for charge shot and giant punch. Bair them off stage and return so Samus can spam them with shots of any kind. If it's ZSS, have her spam stun gun so you can bury or smash them. DK and PIT TEAM HURT OFF You should know what I'm going to say by now. Ground pound and arrows. Pull reflector if necessary, or have Pit angel ring while you utilt. It reflects as well and is hard to get past. TEAM HURT ON No more cheapness. He can save you with arrows EASILY. Bury those or giant punch those unfortunate enough to be caught in angel ring. LAST MAN STANDING Pit can fly out crazy far and come back, so bthrow into Pit fairing them for a WOP KO, or uthrow them into a very high Pit for an uair kill. If they are low damage and you bury them Pit should angel ring to stack it on. Pit could also angel ring the ledge as you up b stall or bair gimp, firing arrows as he waits to pull it out. DK and ICE CLIMBERS TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and ice shot. Chase during chain grabs to do whatever. Hide in blizzard and utilt. TEAM HURT ON Prepare to be squall hammered by accident, and if they get desynched, try to give one guy heck so they can chain grab or destroy the other, and DON'T hit them out of it. You can also hit them in such a way to purposefully desynch them. LAST MAN STANDING No need to promote cargo here. Let the IC's do all the grabbing. Be at the edge to spike if that's what they are going for in case they mess up. Someone caught in blizzard and frozen should be giant punched. DK and ROB TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and projectiles again...sigh...so simple. Also, he can reflect with over b, and if someone is caught in it over b or giant punch them for a sheild break or wallop. TEAM HURT ON He can save you or accidentally KO you with lasers, and can hover with up b ABOVE ground pound and aim his projectiles low in midair, or from platform above (all chars can use a platform for this if they have projectiles actually, why didn't I type it before? Oh well...) Air dodge catch the dradel if it accidently comes your way and make use of glide toss. LAST MAN STANDING Throw into his spike, because he can hover there forever it seems with up b. He can even go way far out, you bthrow, he double fairs them then returns. If you bury at low percent try to have him dsmash or over b as you up b. DK and KIRBY TEAM HURT OFF He can swallow them and spit them into your smashes, spam final cutter with or without your ground pound and hammer the bejeezus out of anyone you bury, or use stone on top of you as you uthrow or just hold them in cargo. TEAM HURT ON Can save you with cutter, but only VERY situationally. LAST MAN STANDING Let Kirby swallow them and prepare a smash or giant punch so as soon as they are spit, you KO them. DK and METAKNIGHT TEAM HURT OFF Mach Tornado eats projectiles, and if done inside a ground pound is hilariously unbreakable. TEAM HURT ON Accidentally hitting each other due to MK's b moves is a pain. He can save you with uair or tornado or drill as he comes back, but rare and pointless really. LAST MAN STANDING Any big move or smash as they are caught in a Mach Tornado or Drill Rush is Ok, but if team hurt is on could backfire. Not much else to do but throw them way out so Meta can gimp or he can dsmash and you can chase. DK and KING DEDEDE TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and utilt or even his up b. Waddles dees work too. You don't have to worry about waddle doos zapping you or gordos killing you by mistake. TEAM HURT ON Um, don't kill each other, especially with the projectiles and his up b. Good power match up, but Let Dedede have his space. Cargo super armor into his fsmash might work, haven't tested it. LAST MAN STANDING King Dedede swallows them, spits into DK whom buries, then Dedede uses jet hammer. Dedede can also go for swallocide, and if they footstool him you can be ready for the edgehog or spike. DK and OLIMAR TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and usmash up b from Olimar. Throw pikmin from there too. He can in general due to being so small hide behind you and protect YOU with fsmash. Neat. TEAM HURT ON Reset his up b if he gets edgegaurded with your own if you can! Poor guy has nothing to help him not get edgehogged! Try to dsmash if someone does this so they are knocked off and he can grab on. LAST MAN STANDING At low percent if you can bury Olimar can throw Pikmin on and if they don't break out and attack immediatley they should be ready to KO. You on one end of the stage and Olimar on the other should be enough to make anyone wet their pants though. DK and FOX TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and lasers....yawn. He can reflect projectiles and illusion through you. TEAM HURT ON He can't save you with the laser. Lame. LAST MAN STANDING Up b them to keep them sheilding or still as he laser spams. Other than that pretty conventional. DK AND FALCO TEAM HURT OFF See Fox. TEAM HURT ON He CAN save you with his laser. Sweet. LAST MAN STANDING Falco's illusion is a spike, and you have a throw that is absurdly easy to aim called cargo. Tell Falco what to do then do it. DK and WOLF TEAM HURT OFF See Falco. TEAM HURT ON See Falco. LAST MAN STANDING See Falco already. DK and CAPTAIN FALCON TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and usmash from Falcon. Hold them for Falcon Punch. TEAM HURT ON Whole lotta nothing except accidentally hitting each other. LAST MAN STANDING Burying someone so they can be Falcon Punched is awesome. Cargo dthrow into raptor boost spike is almost as good. DK and PIKACHU TEAM HURT OFF Ground pound and thunder. Sillyness to the max. Jolts to cancel projectiles. If they break you up, just attack near each other, dsmash for Pikachu and tilts for you. Someone in Pika's dsmash is to be giant punched. TEAM HURT ON You can accidentally get sucked into dsmash or thunder, but jolts can save you if you are a bit too low or far on your up b. LAST MAN STANDING Cargo throw into fully charge skull bash from Pikachu. If team hurt is off have Pikachu thunder as you ledge stall or ledge spike. Cargo into jump into uthrow into thunder for top screen KO is not only hilarious on battlefield but KO's at low percents. DK and POKEMON TRAINER TEAM HURT OFF Squirtle can usmash or water gun in ground pound, Ivysaur can bullet seed or utilt while shooting razor leafs and Charizard can blow fire, utilt, jump into rock smash or uair or up b etc, all in ground pound. DK can giant punch someone in bullet seed. TEAM HURT ON Charizard and Ivysaur can save you at great difficulty. Punish edgehoggers if Ivy gets knocked off and don't accidently ground pound Squirtle during his over b or he could rocket away. LAST MAN STANDING Squirtle can water gun them off for you to spike. Ivy can bullet seed for any aerial, you can cargo them into Charizard's ANYTHING and it's all good. Good team really. Burying someone then using rock smash is priceless. DK and LUCARIO TEAM HURT OFF Lucario can charge aura sphere indefinitley so hide behind it and attack. It blocks other projectiles sometimes and has to be jumped over. TEAM HURT ON Lucario can jump into ground pound with double team and hit some people, but it hits you too. He can save you with energy balls and if he has high damage PROTECT HIM! His kills are so easy when he's damaged! LAST MAN STANDING If they only have one stock and you both have plenty, jab Lucario from time to time if team hurt is on in between chasing them to make the risk reward part more exciting. Throw them off and let Lucario unleash a full sphere for some win. DK and JIGGLYPUFF TEAM HURT OFF Grab, cargo, let escape and rest. Singing while hiding in you is funny, but not effective. She can charge rollout without fear of nailing you, and go through you with it. TEAM HURT ON Jiggs can save you with pound. Can't rollout as much. LAST MAN STANDING