Discuss DK specific game-play here.

RIP Janky Kong
Broken a** up tilts ,broken a** up b and shenanigans will not be missed.
So anyways, other than uptilt being slower and upb being nerfed, side b airstall is slightly faster(meaning that you don't last as long in the air), jab is seems to be faster, down b's hitbox is smaller and you cannot recover after doing a giant punch. I can still juggle with nairs and uairs along with some bairs and uair strings to fair still works for me so I still got this. Also is it just me or does uair kill earlier now?

Even though lost a few of his tools, he still has his expansive punish game. Even though the addition of Cargo U-throw doesn't do as much as one would think, I think DK still has the best punish game in the whole cast. He seems quicker, making it easier to land that one grab, and once you get a juggle going it's usually death.

DK is still pretty straight forward when it comes to comboing
Here are some combos you can do from his throws:
Downthrow to nair to dash attack(lower to mid percentages)
Downthrow to upair(mid or high percentages)
Upthrow to nair(lower percentages)
Upthrow to bair(if ppl try to DI behind you)
Upthrow to upair(between low mid percentages)
Upthrow to uptilt(early percentage)

And these can be followed up with aerials(especially nair and upair)



Also DK's smash attacks are strong af so cool i guess

Combo things are still around, ironically I think he now has the possibility of doing Ding-Dong now, granted given Uair's capabilities it's hit or miss but it's something. I don't really notice the differences in terms of his combo game or even things such as utilt and nair. That being said, I do agree that there's 2 things that really seem off about DK.

First is his recovery- still reaches as far but feels slower, not to mention Up-B doesn't have the same killing power/knockback it used to have, which is prob a good thing balance wise. Side B isn't as good for stalling, but is usually fine.

The second and more concerning thing is that his defense is MUCH worse than it was prior to Beta- yes he got punished hard back in those days, but I feel as though even with the punish game you have to play far more defensively as his shield isn't quite as strong, and the loss of the panic buttons such as up-b and nair seem to suggest that it's gonna be much worse when someone does manage to hit you. Not to mention his tech/roll animation feels very slow/not great.

Like DK's at least super heavy so you aren't dying early unless you get spiked or something, but most matchups feel very volatile with the new kong.

So lately I've been practicing my edge guarding skills against characters, and then I decided to do it against .
At first it seemed hard to do cause his up b after a double jump goes so far, so it doesn't matter how far away from the stage he is, he can still come back especially if he keeps his double jump).

What I found out tho, is that when he does up b, you can grab in while HE IS STILL DOING IT LOL (idk if this can also happen in smash 4, I never thought to try it but I might later).

I shielded first, then grabbed him while he was still doing up b, so it looks to me that is going to have trouble recovering because of that.

I think you have to time the grab perfectly out of shield to get it actually.

Edit: I tried it again when he was trying to get back on stage (instead of ledge) and I ran up and grabbed and it worked.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7694f8qt6wadh ... sfrec?dl=0

Replay of me showing that you can grab while he does his up b.

I think this only or mostly works when your above him tho.

7:12 on the timer is where it should show the grab on his up b. I think I failed the attempts of doing it again after, so really after you see that, just exit the replay if you feel like.

Most fast OoS options can beat it if timed right. Last version, a pretty decent edgeguarding strategy in the ditto was just to get hit, mash the special button while holding up, and repeat until they were dead. I'd encourage experimentation with OoS options besides grab to see which ones are more efficient at getting kills or damage: MK's up-B, for example.

Can yall add 's aerial down-B in? From Smash 4

Example of 's aerial down-B from smash 4, (at 2:00)
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=do ... ORM=VRDGAR

DK's F-Smash is disjointed for some reason...

So, with some limited testing:

With regards to Kargo Konga (CUThrow -> USmash), it works on every character except:


This assumes no DI, as DI screws this kill confirm up.

Well, yeah, it is in no way guaranteed, very much a mix-up. But it still kills very early if it hits.

Overall, this character's meta feels strangely developed and undeveloped at the same time. Combos on heavies move like clockwork, but often I find that optimization is lacking when I see DK and play him just because it feels so optimized already. We have a long ways to go, however.

Things I think DK mains (including me lol) need to optimize to truly push DK forward:

Uthrow chaingrabs on characters that it works on
Weak nair as a way of punishing DI out (weak nair -> dair, weak nair -> fair, weak nair -> strong nair all work)
Uair -> dair as a way of extending combos (already fairly common, but people never tech it so I guess it isn't common enough lol)
Uthrow -> usmash as a kill combo
OoS up-B to hit behind him
Dtilt -> grab against heavies
Down-B as a tech-chase setup that EZ combos into anything

I'll be honest here, i kinda want a nerf (change?) to DK. Mostly regarding his back throw. Just make it less of a kill throw.