A Collegiate Player's Guide to King K Rool

This guide has been a long time coming and it has finally arrived! Yes I know it isn't perfect, but as long as it helps someone I'll be happy :). This was ultimately a for fun project that myself and a buddy of mine did in our spare time over the course of several months. My current goal for the Advanced Guide is to have it out by the end of the summer (so early September) so be on the lookout around then for news and or the guide itself on my Twitch, Twitter and KZbin. Anyway, it's 12am so the night is still young! It's about time for me to N-Air my way to max GSP :DDDDDDDD!
Oh yeah, I also do lessons! If you are inclined to have a collegiate player give you some advice, feel free to join my discord and follow the guidelines [outlined in the server itself] as to how one is to get such lessons. They are currently [as of the time of the video's upload] free so snag a session while you can!
One last thing before I go mashing. I do not claim to know everything about the character nor do I claim to have discovered everything held within this character guide. I merely cumulated as much as I could and put it into a video format.
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
2:17 - Overview
2:58 - Attributes
6:24 - Moveset Breakdown
30:06 - Combos
35:54 - Mixups
40:09 - Kill Confirms
42:41 - General Game Plan
43:29 - Neutral
47:55 - Advantage
53:47 - Disadvantage
59:17 - Tech
1:06:55 - Design Flaws/Possible Fixes
1:16:47 - Tier List Placement/Closing Thoughts
Links:
- Twitter: / smithers_ssbu
- Twitch: / du_smithers
- My Discord: / discord
- K Rool Kord: / discord
- Crown-Sliding/ Bouncing Spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
- Plague von Karma video: • The Bounce Glitch - Ki...
- Scrumpy's channel: DON'T ACTUALLY SUPPORT HIM PLEASE. HE ACTUALLY DID SOME QUESTIONABLE THINGS THAT I DO NOT CONDONE. IGNORE WHAT I SAID IN THE VIDEO PLEASE AND THANK YOU!
- Ultimate Frame Data: ultimateframedata.com/
- Additional links/ Resources:
1.) docs.google.com/document/d/1H...
2.) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
3.) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
4.) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
5.) docs.google.com/document/d/1n...
6.) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Have a great one everyone, and thanks for your time!
#SuperSmashBros #SuperSmashBrosUltimate #Guide #Esports #KingKRool

[@smithers8360]

Plague Von Karma recently uploaded a video that dissected the guide that I made in great detail. I encourage everyone that watches this to look at that since it points out things that I should have mentioned. Here's a link if you are curious: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppKaiqeXhNSjbtU With all Plague has said, I will be sure to make the Advanced Guide pristine and check back with such a legend since Plague is obviously more acquainted with K Rool than myself. 😅 See you all again in a couple months!

[@unchained576]

Thanks for the video I will be checking the other videos. Morover, I like the music in this video.

[@StealthKey]

where is ittttt!111!!1 i NEEEEEEEDDDDDD ittt jk tho keep doin what ur doin

[@GreelTheMindRaker]

Never thought I'd see an actual K. Rool guide this late into ultimate. Can't believe how much knowledge of this character you have and how much work you put into this video. I've been playing K. Rool for over 2 years and I'm learning a lot from this video. Thanks for putting this together.

[@toastedtarts4044]

Yeah i don’t play k rool but i’m surprised by how many true combos he has

[@Silly_Scary]

I just started maining K. Rool earlier in 2023 and this guide definitely helped me become better

[@waluigitheprophet4406]

“This video will only cover the surface” One hour and twenty minutes

[@fuckpalutena9116]

This deserves way more views ngl. Good stuff as always smithers

[@PrettyKoolCrocodile]

That channel tag is fucking gold, I love it.

[@Florian-ip4so]

Wow, i was just looking for an advanced guide, that isn’t 2 years old and I’m impressed

[@san510leandro3]

This is super on point. K rool mains rise up

[@noahdavis1588]

so much time put in, amazing video thank you and its def crazy your subs arnt through the roof yet

[@Geonomos]

Really well done! I love King K. Rool's every move.

[@troix5677]

Amazing. Probably the only KKR guide I've seen that isn't wildly misleading, great stuff.

[@BlusterTheBenevolent]

Very nice watch, I must say. I look forward to the hypothetical “K.Rool’s placement on the tier list” video. Those Mythras, Inklings, Palutenas and Jokers really do a number on me.

[@slugintub2836]

Nair soaking damage is actually on if the reasons i use it to approach, pretty underrated option

[@tresseis8944]

Love this. Great work

[@user-ty1fv3rp6r]

Underrated channel. Deserves more subs.

[@lazftp3364]

Very underrated video man, great job!

[@theBCEproductions]

This is absolutely monstrous. Really sick clips and a shitload of knowledge about this character. I love how we came to basically agree on which moves are the best. Instant sub, great video

[@smithers8360]

TYSM! It makes me so happy to see the passion that so may have for this character is alive as ever! To comment on your statement on the clips... let's just say that there's much more to come ;)

[@theBCEproductions]

@@smithers8360 Watching this for a third time now, I really love that you even got a clip of up-smash's cheeky spike hitbox killing someone. I had to play K Rool for almost a year to even hit it once, and I was so confused, I thought I got spiked by something.

[@BenwahBalsss]

Perfectly descriptive. Love this

[@baiwatch1]

The jokes alone are keeping me watching

[@gw5663]

Mad respect, what a guide

[@benjapiano]

This video is so underrated :0 good stuff right here :D

[@Fr3ak_MM8BDM]

One notable thing you left out is that up B at the ledge can raw confirm into forward or up air based on DI and percentage

[@drake9764]

This is actually very helpful

[@cheezyboy2511]

Well done!

[@Gerald_Da_Gifafe]

Someone needs to show this to King of Skill.

[@venomouzelite4380]

Absolutely love it when they shield cannonball so i launch it then dash attack. such a sweet angle

[@smithers8360]

It sure is funny when it works haha

[@toucan4075]

Super high quality video. The low view count actually SHOCKED me.

[@toucan4075]

Finished the video, do you think you could further elaborate on his matchups in further videos? It'd be super helpful, since i'm one of those people who uh.. "dont know how to play" krool.

[@smithers8360]

@@toucan4075 Oh yeah, I defiantly will. I do want to be thorough though (which will probably end up with myself making a video per MU) so I may make a pole or something to see which MU people want to hear about first. Also I'm very glad to hear that you found my guide helpful! ❤

[@rylandpulliam459]

This is a great vid

[@YourLocalRussianNegro]

One other buff to K.Rool should be reducing the f-throw knockback so that it can combo into f-tilt at 0% and into dash attack at 40-50%. Btw, crown trumping looking like a nice new tech.

[@mike48931]

F throw combo into 40-50% would be broken lol

[@YourLocalRussianNegro]

@@mike48931 that's the idea 😈

[@YourLocalRussianNegro]

@@mike48931 but at least 30-40

[@kople5563]

Cool video

[@kople5563]

As a soon to be collegiate krool player this video is even cooler now

[@starvinmartinamg]

Thank you so much because I have a sweaty friend Jigglypuff and a Roy and a Terry that need to be destroyed they're going to learn loyalty to the royalty real quick

[@GuentersHoerspielstube]

Not too useful for me as I knew all that stuff (excluding Crown Trumping, that Sounds awesome!). But I'm really thrilled for the advanced stuff. And even though it could not help me that much, it's still an awesome guide

[@Native2Earth]

Nice video !! 💯 I think proper Krool buffs are: - King K. Rool - increase super armor limit, less end lag with up smash , increase shield damage and knock back with point blank blunderbuss

[@smithers8360]

Thank you for your support and the buff proposals! I do think that the ideas for buffs would benefit K Rool, but I am afraid that they would either do so to a much stronger extent that you may seem to believe or do little at all to actually do anything for K Rool. Allow me to break down how one may go about them and why each are as I deduct. Increasing the armor on both Crownerang and the passive armor bound to his normals The way one would go about this is fairly straight forward as you specify what specifically on my other video (namely Crownerang to 20 and passive armor to 30) with such values being changed accordingly. Both, however, would not do all that much as the weakness of either stem more so with how grab-able they are. I can hear you saying that "N-Air is a safe landing option though", but have you to say about how parry-able it is as to make it safe one needs to land low to the ground as hitting the opponent higher on their shield makes the move less safe (enough to be shield grabbed). So regardless of how much armor is added, an opponent with a strong awareness of this as well as how the parrying mechanic works can abuse this without having to worry about the armor at all (or even the hitbox for that matter). The strength of the armor comes from being able to tank though moves [which is what the buffs would allow more for] with the current stats doing just fine at accomplishing this. If you are falling victims to the armor breaking (crown or belly), you are likely not using it correctly via an over reliance. K Rool also has many moves that can beat out others via their range and or just winning the trade war via their high damage output. Heck, he doesn't even need to always need to beat out the moves as K Rool has plenty of fast options to simply whack the opponent before they can on K Rool. Decreasing the end lag of Up Smash This buff could go 1 of 2 ways, either it's not buffed enough where the areas where the move is used makes it meaningless or it get such a large buff where the move is an obnoxious fast escape option like G&W up special that the opponent needs to hard call out and or have no counterplay around it in some situations. Let's look at some common situations where the move is used and the 2 ways one would likely buff the move to then see what I mean here... A smaller decrease (or one so that Up Smash is still -20 or so) to the end lag of the move would be fairly limited as to where it would benefit K Rool. The most obvious one is when calling out a mash from the opponent during a D-Throw. This promotes less thought from the K Rool and less counterplay from the opponent for dealing with this option as mashing has them hit by K Rool's head and not mashing well has them get hit by the falling hitbox. Even on the event that the opponent mashes out, due to how the pop out of the bury works the opponent will likely not be able to whiff punish K Rool without a stall-and-fall or item in their character's kit for a wide percent range. This rout also indirectly nerfs Up Tilt's niche in this sort of situation as it can option coverage similarly to the above, but with more reward, consistency, and sometimes safely. What about a large decrease where it can be -10 or safer on shield. This would make it the best Up Smash in the game as it would now be one of the fastest, has armor, is safe on shield, and can be confirmed into. I think you can see what I'm getting at here so I am going to leave it at that. Give Blunderbuss a strong initial hit on Kannonball that's safer on shield Ok, this is again either a pointless or broken buff depending on how safe you end up making it. The FAF (meaning total frames of the move) makes it so reacting to being hit on shield is possible making any level of a buff here (else making it effectively + on block so that the succ catches the opponent while they're still in block stun) still risky. The strength of many safe moves in SSBU comes from not only them being low in the - side, but that the potential pressure/ follow ups are unreactable. So, I don't need to elaborate here as not only have I explained prior how this sort of "too strong or too weak" dilemma works but I have also shown that the buff makes the move only degenerate. There's still the problem of the start up of the move being reactable so there's also that needed to be played around which makes going for it very niche. Also, K Rool has better options in close quarters that can lead to more damage and or better situations than blunderbuss every would. So in short, the proposed buffs would make K Rool either degenerate or change nothing about him. Sure K Rool can be a bit degenerate with some moves, but when the goal of applying buffs to a character is to fix an underlying issue in a videogame where having fun is the focal point would either make K Rool not fun or make him very stale to both play as and fight against. This sort of thing would lower the skill ceiling of K Rool and or the scene of smash in general in the event that such an ideology were used for the entire cast. So not only would the buffs break what K Rool is, it would also break the identity of the game that many have come to love and enjoy. Sorta a lesson on game design and balancing in one go, huh? Not sure if you are even going to read this, but it was fun to think about and I hope others will find this case interesting like I did! Game Design is cool, ya feel? Have a good one, Christian!

[@Native2Earth]

@@smithers8360 I appreciate your input. To be more clear I think having a consistent 30 damage total belly armor no matter how many hits would make it more consistent and 15 damage for crownerang. I think up smash should have 4 frames less end lag because his kit currently relies to much on down smash. I think king k Rool, diddy kong, bayonetta bowser jr and joker should all have their guns have a property where if you shoot someone point blank it should damage shields 1.2x - 2x more than at other ranges as that is more realistic with ballistic weapon properties and k Rool has the slowest so it should have the most reward. I don’t think those three changes would change his play style but it would help him create pressure at high percents because right now grabbing is his main tool once someone gets over 100 and that gets boring.

[@AngelTheDuro]

The length of the video seem daunting at first but the video was so well made that i forgot about it lol

[@smithers8360]

Thank you!

[@carb0796]

Good

[@kroolwrld]

Quality vid

[@heroart110]

Question. For the match up chart can you fill us in on how to everyone, as King K rool… and win?

[@GuentersHoerspielstube]

If there is one thing I'd love to be buffed, and I know it would be unfair and unbalanced, it would be to slow down opponnents getting shot by blunderbuss and increasing the hitstun, so you could combo out of the shot. Succ into bair at 30 Sounds balanced to me lol

[@smithers8360]

First ecks dee

[@hoagieland3716]

Smithers, I’m curious. What does the “DU” before your tag stand for? Would it happen to be “Drexel University”?

[@smithers8360]

@@hoagieland3716 No, it's for Davenport University. The team there also just so happens to have a top 50 player in the world on it (it being Scend aka BestNess). ;)

[@scase15]

All of the fixes needed, I've been saying since release. 2 years in, it's clear nintendo has no intention of fixing them.

[@JohnnyFire117]

POV: 40:09 Your Jigglypuff while shielding

[@hoagieland3716]

If I can offer a funny combo that seems to work on a lot of heavy or fast falling characters, there seems to be a sweetspot for combining krown into returning krown (tho I haven’t actually done labbing for this, I’ve only gotten it in actual games). Here’s the combo: Krown -> returning krown -> kannonball -> dash attack

[@smithers8360]

I get this often myself when I play online 🤣, but this only works if the opponent doesn't know how to DI Crownerang properly at low percents (it's up and away for those that are curious). With proper DI, it is possible for the opponent to jump away every time. I wish it was real, but alas it is only a product of the online environment. 😔

[@hoagieland3716]

@@smithers8360 oh no for me it was offline precovid lmao

[@King_Krugbo]

Damn it's finally here

[@PrettyKoolCrocodile]

I just found this channel and also found you here! Hello!

[@King_Krugbo]

hehehe whats up

[@PrettyKoolCrocodile]

@@King_Krugbo Nothing much, scrounged on the KKR Discord to find this

[@simonboudreaux6360]

helped me out a lot now i can crush my twin at the tournament

[@ItchyBurritoMiniAltThingy]

Neato

[@Hose_10]

Alright this was epic but was killing cranky necessary

[@drkong333]

40:21 bruh

[@JASA_87]

All Hail Our Lord And Savior King K Rool!

[@smithers8360]

Based

[@regnarartlu]

Thanks for the detailed guide! Btw, how did you do that dance at 46:30 with K Rool? Is it just moving quickly left and right?

[@smithers8360]

What you do is tap left and right on the control stick within a 4 frame window (as this is how long initial dash is). Now get to dancing! 🎵

[@regnarartlu]

@@smithers8360 Thanks! I will 😛

[@NYGSucksButDex_]

I was just curious if footstool dair is true on all characters? Could be a better oos option than usmash or nair in certain situations.

[@smithers8360]

Footstool D-Air works on about a third of the cast. I labbed this out with the help of other K Rool labbers in the K Rool Kord and thus the listing can be found there. One that particularly surprised me was that it works on Pika which is is huge help as many K Rool mains see it as one of his worst matchups. Ponder on my friend!

[@k-leb4671]

I know you didn't like the idea of increasing K. Rool's speed, but I would still increase his running speed (and possibly his air speed) if I was a balance dev. Have you seen him in Donkey Kong Country? Dude's an Olympic sprinter. It looks ridiculous in Smash for him to be galloping on all fours in and yet move so slowly. I'd also make his up special more controllable. It feels pretty unwieldy to use, and in DKC3 K. Rool(enstein) was travelling horizontally straight with the propeller pack, so it's pretty whack that we don't have much horizontal and vertical control with it in Smash. I'd make it so that the vertical momentum is completely controlled with the analogue stick, instead of automatically shooting straight up with no stopping, whilst maybe also increasing horizontal speed. Perhaps the developers were trying to imitate how K. Rool's propeller pack went erratic whenever he was hit in DKC3 by making his Up B so frantic and uncontrollable. If so, I don't like it. And maybe my suggestion makes the move busted, but I just don't find it particularly fun the way it is now.

[@smithers8360]

The changes you mentioned would be fine if K Rool was redesigned in some form so that he wouldn't be obnoxious. Having different builds, like street fighter does, could allow for such an avenue for both the developer's vision and other creative interpretations being possible to exist along side each other. I don't see this happening in the foreseeable future though so our best bet right now would be to try and create what we want out of the character with some combination of spirits and or other setting changes.

[@josem6474]

Oh mr burns 🥵

[@Breadsandwich1]

Pog

[@PrettyKoolCrocodile]

Pog

[@christopherrose9507]

Idk about all them K's In the thumbnail big fella nice guide tho

[@NotViridium]

Yooooooo

[@fransam1945]

For F-air-grab combo, its super hard for me to do consistently, any advice?

[@smithers8360]

Simple practice routines can do you good. Something like slowing down (comes in the form of slowing down the game in training mode), repeated attempts with iterative changes (can be adjusted meaningfully via coming to understand how inputs are handled in various scenarios), as well as performing research about an occurrence (typically comes in the form of identifying and isolating a thing to then observe it in its purest form to then be more easily repeated). Mixing and matching between these can also be helpful. I hope this helps!

[@SoggyWafflesXp]

I would like to know how you think plant is good and Krool beats Steve? I’m just curious.

[@pighater1111]

have you fought the plant? those guys are good.

[@SoggyWafflesXp]

@@pighater1111 yes I am a plant main myself. This character isn’t good at all.

[@pighater1111]

@@SoggyWafflesXp *every plant i have ever fought has been good*

[@smithers8360]

Noted ;)

[@afork3614]

I just play smash with my friends and i mained King K Rool. The biggest problem i have is doing the moves i actually wanna do for example i have an hard time doing and landing the backward air

[@smithers8360]

This is also from a lack of practice/ meaningful practice. Breaking apart a thing into other things can help (i.e. work on your "fundies"). I seem to get a lot of traffic here in regard to how this sort of ordeal comes about, but I don't see much of a need to create content surrounding "fundies" as there are many resources out there already that tell the tale well enough. I see two such YT channels as good outlets to learn "fundies": BananaBoySSB and IzAw. To be fair, a decent bit of noise needs to be sifted through (grassroots scene moment), but hey, now you have some solid content to binge! Now get to it, gamer

[@afork3614]

@@smithers8360 Thanks i'll definitely check their channels thanks for the suggestions! Keep up your amazing work!

[@PlanetKrool]

I always find myself spamming bair on purpose because I use the first one to draw them in but I quick fall so the move doesn’t finish the animation. Then I use another one but I drift away from the opponent so when they attempt to punish I knock em on the head… gives me so many combos I even sneak in 2-3 more Bairs sometimes b4 I finish the combo lmao

[@starvinmartinamg]

In a future do Kirby

[@WilliamJackson1-r9z]

Kinky rool

[@fruitlion8]

I do have an important question, but one that has put me off the character until now. Is he just plain easier to play online? I'm stuck with WiFi, but when I do win as him, I feel like it's because I have an advantage someone offline wouldn't have.

[@smithers8360]

I am going to be 100% honest with you, I think K Rool is far worse online when played optimally. K Rool has a lot of strong punishes when he puts the opponent into reaction tech chase situations and that some of his tech/ traps become unreliable online. Sure some things do get better thanks to online (namely his projectiles and burst-range), but I don't think it's a fair trade-off in the end. This will be elaborated on in future vids as to what I mean by reaction tech chase punishes and such, but in short K Rool goes from dealing anywhere from 20 to taking a stock consistently (may need a read or two depending on the situation) offline to dealing 20-60 damage as a punish online. TL;DR Online benefits K Rool's neutral, but guts his tech and advantage state.

[@josem6474]

Hey smither

[@josem6474]

Mr burns ooooh

[@OrangeHeadedMusician]

Alright, Pythra is only "Good" and not top 5. Yeah, sure.