Specials

General Information

With good timing, Kannonballs can be shot every 2 seconds. This is thanks to the 25 frame “Preparation” stance the move has before it decides on a Kannonball or Vacuum. If a Kannonball is ready to run out (F90+), you can create a mixup situation with Blunderbuss: hold for Vacuum, or shoot a Kannonball. This contributes to its versatility.

Kannonballs are very oppressive projectiles that can immediately deter approaches. Thus, they are among the best ways to maintain stage control, even in advantage. It’s very slow, but it isn’t designed to shoot at the opponent. Instead, Kannonballs make a wall that prevents the opponent from getting to you. So really, it's more a case of shooting across the stage to control space more than anything else. Kannonballs vary in their viability in neutral based on projectile interactions, which can be found here. If they beat a projectile, they become even more oppressive than before and can single-handedly turn an MU on its head.

By holding down on a platform, K. Rool can slip through platforms. This enables some very unique movement and some nasty mixups with the vacuum. However, going below plats too often can be predictable if done in excess. Thus, staying on platforms before dropping as a reactionary measure is the recommended practice. You can fire a Kannonball and use Vacuum by holding it, then release, and then use Vacuum again to get an “extension”. At any point while a Kannonball is out, Vacuum will be available.

FH Blunderbuss is an immensely important tool when trying to deter approaches, as it reaches a level above the ground that is very hard to avoid. This is especially effective against the sword users with longer range, which love to jump with aerials, quickly taking the momentum away. The most notable application matchup-wise for this is in the Villager/Isabelle matchup where their slingshots can’t penetrate the Blunderbuss Kannonballs, forcing a Pocket. Another example would be DK, who is hit by FH Blunderbuss if you delay it by a few frames.

Kannonballs can also keep their hitboxes when falling, as Vikerkaar does here, and Chirori frequently uses it as well. This is minor, but can potentially gimp an opponent trying to recover low. A good movement setup is B-Reversing Blunderbuss at the ledge after jumping off-stage. However, this is quite slow and requires you to make a big commitment, so it should be used against linear recoveries that they can't deviate from.

Kannonball Combos & Setups

Kannonballs have monumentally high hitlag when they connect, as well as low BKB. As a result, it's possible to use Kannonballs for niche combos such as confirming a dash attack cancelled dash grab, though with updates this has become far more difficult.

You can also hit opponents into Kannonballs - with FH Kannonballs being the easiest to do so with - using UTilt, FTilt, DA, Crownerang and FThrow. They vary in consistency, but UTilt and FTilt are the best by far. Reshoots have a similar thing going on, and being -2 on shield minimum means it’s very difficult to stop as well. DA and FTilt are your most consistent methods of getting someone into a Reshot Kannonball, but you can be cheeky and FAir someone if they’re hanging around in the air. It’s all very realistic: if they try to punish a Reshoot, you can definitely kill them for it.

On the note of the -2 on shield Reshoots, this means you have potential for blockstrings on characters without strong OOS. This can very well "confirm" a Grab on characters like Captain Falcon, as you grab the startup on their OOS. Grab will beat F6 OOS and higher. Jab can be used to keep them in shield and pressure more as well, or you can dash back and FAir the panic option. This is a strong option select, so practice your reaction time and get to it!

Vacuum Throws

The Vacuum feature is quite useful and can be used for various setups. There are 3 "throws": the default forward, which you're usually going to be using, and the UThrow and BThrow that we don't care much about. The FThrow can both kill at around 140%. Vacuum can be delayed for around 19 frames if you don't hold B, which is helpful for mixups.

Blunderbuss Throws all give the opponent invincibility until the hitstun ends, which is a real shame as it cuts out any potential combos (and we found a lot of those, sadly). The best "combo "you can get is a Blunderbuss Kannonball to the face, immediate suck, Up Throw into Up Aerial for around 40%. It’s effective but relies on the opponent not jumping and...well, getting hit by an F26 projectile.

Yes, Vacuum throws can be used for the "Suck and Cuck", as a great man once said. It's decent, but should only be done when it's clear that you're dead off stage. It’s a good mixup option and you can stage spike with it, or go with Back Throw if the opponent will be gimped. Should they tech or not? Are you going to Forward or Back Throw? You can absolutely survive doing this as well, especially if you drag the opponent back with Vacuum while recovering and use b.BThrow. This is all cheese at the end of the day, but there's nothing wrong with trying it against worse players.

b.UThrow is similar to your normal UThrow in its low knockback at Low%s. Both of them are often used to bait fast landing options, which can lead to some great anti-landing tricks. If they airdodge down, you can usually get a grab and start making them feel the burn. This can lead to very high damage very quickly. b.UThrow can lead to UAir if the opponent doesn’t airdodge or jump immediately, making it a good frame trap for conditioning. This is a great way to exploit opponents who don’t know the matchup too well or are in stressful situations as a result. It’s mostly for reads, though. It can be used in highly specific under-the-stage scenarios but don’t count on it too much: the knockback is mediocre. If there was a little less lag this would be a great combo starter, but alas, it’s more of a read gimmick.

Ledgetrapping

It is possible to use Blunderbuss Vacuum to ledgetrap the opponent, by sucking on the platform until they begin to pop up, and responding to neutral getup and roll accordingly. However, opponents can easily just wait this out. Thus, delaying the use of this is recommended to stay a few steps ahead of the opponent and maintain advantage. Use Vacuum Delay to keep them waiting as long as possible, or shoot a Kannonball beforehand to get access to Vacuum on command. Vacuum Ledgetrapping is considered suboptimal as it always loses to either jump -> reel back if you’re far away, or getup attack when you’re too close. However, it is a monumentally strong knowledge check due to how gimmicky it is. Thus, attempting Vacuum Ledgetrapping in Game 1 is valid.

However, moving outside of Vacuum, Kannonballs are serviceable ways to cover grounded options and encourage the opponent to wait on the ledge. Once their ledge intangibility has ended, if they stay on ledge, it's very easy to spike them with DAir or force them up with DTilt. Additionally, if they jump early, it's an easy FAir to reset the trap.

General Information

Crownerang is an entity that spawns hitboxes on set frames, and nothing can stop it from doing this. We call these f.Crown and r.Crown. f.Crown spawns F26, b.Crown F65. After b.Crown has reached a set point, it will follow K. Rool with gradually decreasing speed, up to 0.4x the initial throw. It will maintain a hitbox until it hits the ground - in which case it rolls once with that hitbox - and then becomes an item the opponent can get. If it reaches K. Rool’s CC Radius, K. Rool will pick up the crown for the FAF 18 animation. Naturally you can execute tech with this, as it’s considered a special move.

Crownerang has 12% (14.4% in 1v1) Damage-based armor, from F5-63. This can make it a tool in neutral or disadvantage depending on the matchup. FF Crownerang is a surprisingly decent landing option if you’ve dodge staled FF N-Airdodge too much.

Crownerang's main weakness is that you're completely vulnerable while it's being thrown, which makes it a near-free grab if used midrange. You should never, ever use Crownerang when the opponent is close by. Stay aware of the opponent's burst and jump-in ranges, and stay just slightly out. Many newer players will spam the hell out of Crown - even in close range - and whine when they're punished. This simply isn't how the move should be used. A max spaced Crown is what you should be aiming for most of the time.

Using Crownerang

Crownerang is extremely slow on start up. You should be moving back in the air or C-Bouncing when using Crown most of the time as a result, to try and stay safe. Jump, reel back and let Crown rip. This is your best way of going about it, really. If you use Crown wrong, you'll end up being punished and sent back to 1994. There are many ways to chuck this out, so look into it in Training Mode, and find your preference; every K. Rool uses Crown in a very distinct way.

An important thing to note is that using Crownerang will require a lot of situational awareness. If you use it wrong, it will be reacted to (keep in mind that F26 with a sound cue isn't very good) and punished. You should stay out of the opponent’s threat range and go from there. Safely throwing Crown can be very easy or very difficult depending on the matchup. Crownerang has some amazing neutral use when not spammed, and can be used to intercept platform approaches and high recovery routes. Get creative, and try to be as unpredictable with it as possible. Be patient, or it will lead to some of the heaviest punishes of your Smash career.

Crownerang is a very formidable combo tool in its own right, and setting it up is definitely something a beginner wants to lab, which is assisted by holding players in place with something like Jab, Grab, or UTilt. Many players will jump over Crown and try to punish like it's Donkey Kong Country, but this is Smash, and we have armor for some ungodly reason. If a player is held in place, this often allows for r.Crown to come back in time for you to score a UAir, which acts as one of our best kill confirms as well. There are also combos involving Crown Sliding, which can be found on the advanced techniques page.

Crownerang’s main use outside of spacing and starting combos at mid-long range is actually projectile defense. Its priority allows it to beat almost every projectile in the game (or force-trigger moves such as Robin’s Arcthunder or Ness’s PK Fire), and still be perfectly fine. This is a much better option than Gut Check in many situations, allowing you to stuff the projectile and likely hit the opponent in the process. The only thing it doesn’t stop are moves with transcendent priority, such as Wolf’s Lasers.

Crown can be used to intercept aerial approaches quite well; Crown can completely seize control of platforms, and force players to approach from the ground. This is one of the better ways to set up the Jab -> UAir kill confirm, as again, players really like to punish Crownerang. It's good practice to use this against players who heavily favor movement, as they'll typically get much more antsy when Crownerang is intercepting their approaches. Mixing this with Blunderbuss is ideal.

While Crownerang can be used as a linear ledgetrapping tool by simply being thrown, it can be reversed to hit the opponent at the ledge with the correct timing (examples can be found here). Combined with Blunderbuss, this can cover every single ledge option. This is often utilized by Japanese players, particularly Chirori and Dera. It's slow and difficult to set up though, so be careful. Additionally, Blunderbuss, while one of the better ways to cover everything, isn't necessarily required: FAir and other moves are perfectly valid options.

Projectile Interactions can be found here, which you should use to learn what your projectiles beat. This is extremely useful in forming neutrals dedicated to destroying different characters. This is how K. Rool operates: MU knowledge first. For example, Crownerang beats Ridley’s Plasma Breath and Blunderbuss Kannonballs beat Link’s arrows. Gut Check is very unreliable against weaker projectiles when it comes to reflecting, so this entire document is an invaluable asset.

Counterplaying Item Crown

If the opponent manages to get to the crown before K. Rool can pick it up, it can be picked up as an item. It can be thrown at him to deal a significant amount of damage and nasty knockback to us. The crown can't be caught by K. Rool either, as it's not an item to him, meaning his only way to "catch" it is to Gut Check it at maximum range.

Ergo, one of the biggest shortcomings of a King K. Rool player is their inability to counterplay their own Crown. While it’s difficult, it isn’t impossible and nor should you be afraid of it. It’s not a stock when it’s lost. Apply your knowledge of the ROB and PAC-MAN matchups, as it mirrors them in how you counterplay against your own Crown.

A key point is to remember how you usually deal with projectiles. You have all sorts of options: iDA, Gut Check, u.FTilt to name a few. Remember, you have BSA, shield and a counter all there to tank hits; tank them! You should also gauge the opponent’s specials to narrow down how predictable they will become with your Item Crown. Rosalina, for example, has Gravitational Pull to bring the Crown in, but she only has 2 or 3 moves (depending on Luma’s presence) while she’s holding it: she has to get rid of to have a remote threat level. Shielding is important as well, especially if you combo, as you can usually collect Crown with a Crown Cancel right after. Parrying it and moving in on the opponent is a good idea as well, since they're often at a frame disadvantage in that situation.

It’s also good to try and do a knowledge check. Do they Z-Drop Item Crown OOS? It’s F4, after all. Do they ledgetrap with it? Things like this can help narrow down times where you can bait a bad throw and get it back. Punish them for a lack of item play intelligence and laugh as they got bodied by a PAC-MAN later.

General Information

Propellerpack is one of the longest-reaching recoveries in the game, and decently well-defended to boot. It can be moved from side to side, with a bit of a momentum effect. This slows the recovery down a bit when trying to avoid something, reducing the air time and thus lowering distance covered slightly. Only move if the opponent intends to stage spike you, or it could be your undoing. It's best to move into the opponent rather than away to hit with the propeller hitbox, confirming you'll be safe. It also gives you a little more time to try and tech the move, making it a useful option if you're not going to make it and intent to feint.

An interesting aspect of Propellerpack (and virtually all Up-B moves) is that you can hold down to not ledge-snap. Through this you can actually skip the ledge and snap to the stage. Due to this, when considering the ledgegrab range, we can precisely position the Propellerpack hitbox to hit more characters on the ledge. By holding down and releasing once we reach the arm area, we can extend the Propellerpack hitbox. However, note that the range is shorter than his normal ledgegrab animation.

You can drift under Battlefield, Smashville, and a few other stages, but the timing can be strict at times and it’s pretty slow. Any dodge staling can also make it pretty risky, as you will have to airdodge to pull it off. Thus, this is mostly used for style points. UAir can be used along the way to keep it going, but makes being intercepted much easier due to the lag. This is best against slow characters who ledgetrap well, such as Incineroar.

How to Recover with Propellerpack

This is by far where most K. Rools crumble, and it is for the stupidest reasons. Many players underestimate the sheer distance Propellerpack can go, and due to it they just...let themselves die.

Delay your recovery. K. Rool can stay off stage for a super long time (Gut Check Stalling, UAir, double jump, airdodge). If an opponent is just running off stage, you can sit there in the dead zone until they realize they have to go back. You have a ton of mixups at your disposal and can literally recover from the magnifying glass.

Use Propellerpack as a last resort, close to the stage. Many players try to recover from a distance and this is simply where Propellerpack doesn’t work well. You lose airtime and momentum when swerving, not to mention being vulnerable to attacks from the front. By going low, many players become less inclined to edgeguard you, and Propellerpack's hitbox makes it outright impossible for anyone without a significant disjoint.

Abuse the hell out of that hitbox. It’s got some RNG to it due to the propeller placement, and you can make use of this with your swerving. If an opponent is trying to stage spike you, you can swerve back and likely hit them. If not, well, we have what is basically an immunity to them anyway.

For some reason, K. Rools don’t have their fingers over the shield button while holding down, and I don’t understand why. The most common edgeguard method for K. Rool is to stage spike him, when he is almost immune to them. His sheer weight, combined with LSI (hold down to reduce launch speed) means even Lucina BAir can’t reach untechable %s until around 240%. If you get good at teching, soon enough, opponents will have to rethink their assault. It is completely unfeasible to stage spike a good K. Rool. Remember: the red graphic doesn’t mean jack when it comes to untechables. Try it anyway. This is a common myth, and if it were true, Pichu FTilt would be untechable at 45%ish. It isn’t, obviously, it’s just hard to react to. Launch speed has to reach a value of 6, which is really, really high, and from around 4.5 onwards you'll start seeing the red. It is always worth a shot.

Overall, adjust your recovery route based on these factors:

• The opponent’s patience and how they go offstage.

  • Do they have a plan?

  • Do they have habits?

  • How consistent is your recovery route?

  • Can their spikes outrange you?

• Your distance from the stage.

  • Can you hug the stage?

    • Does the opponent have a spike that goes past the ledge?

  • Do you need to swerve, if so by how much?

Remember, never use Propellerpack immediately, as you will die for it. If they don’t punish it, yeah, that’s fine, but uh... just don’t do it if you value your stocks. K. Rool can be bullied really hard with careless mistakes such as this.

Offensive Utility

Propellerpack sniping the ledge can allow for some very interesting options. UAir can be considered to be a kill confirm, FAir allows you to regain stage advantage easily, and if the opponent DIs poorly you can definitely get a BAir spike. React to their options and go from there if they don’t shield or parry. To increase the pressure, you can hold down to not grab the ledge, although this is risky and we highly recommend knowing your ledgegrab range first. If you can master this, you can punish parries quite tidily.

By launching someone high, then catching a poor option with this, you can carry an opponent to the top blast zone for a Star KO. UThrow on a high platform (eg. Middle of Battlefield) tends to be one of the best ways to perform this, exploiting poor DI or challenge attempts to carry them straight up. However, UTilt does this just fine as well. You can also catch opponents recovering high with this by surprise, feigning another option to minimize their time to react. It's best to practice this if you intend to perform it. It works even at 0%; just try to react to the opponent's DI if possible. However, this is a very free, very meaty punish if it fails. Characters such as Mario, Greninja and Squirtle can easily begin to use their water attacks to send K. Rool off stage, immediately ending the stock and potentially the game. As said before, use it sparingly and if you're absolutely sure it can work (e.g. have absolutely no faith in your opponent whatsoever).

Weaknesses

While difficult to get spiked by opponents from above thanks to the hitbox, you're not exactly immune. It's possible to get hit by wider-ranged spikes, such as Mega Man or Ivysaur's DAirs. Sword characters have an effortless time doing it with the correct spacing as well, with Chrom and Lucina especially being capable (and to a slightly lesser degree, Roy and Marth who require more accurate spacing). You want to practice swerving a bit to stop this from occurring.

The biggest weakness is from the front. Characters like Ganondorf enjoy using their attacks (in his case Up B) from this angle to force a high recovery and then essentially just kill you. There is little to no counterplay to this, except recovering directly below the stage before they set up. As mentioned before, always stall and try to hug the stage, because you're at your safest this way.

While this is one of the best superheavy recoveries in the game just behind King Dedede, options are very limited once it's in use. It cannot be cancelled into a move, movement is somewhat hard to get a grasp of, and overall quite exploitable. I cannot emphasize enough that care must be taken to ensure that you're not intercepted. Recovering as K. Rool is rewarding in that he takes ages to be taken there again; take advantage of your stocks and outlive your opponent.

General Information

Gut Check is one of the strongest counters in the game damage-wise, dealing 1.5x damage and very high knockback. It's also a reflector, with the same damage multiplier. To offset this, it's centered on K. Rool's belly, which often turns players off from using it. Make no mistake though, this move is still great despite the minor setback.

Gut Check can be angled left or right with inputs if hit by an attack and not a projectile, but the utility of this is somewhat limited outside of Doubles Formats. In Doubles though, this is brilliant as it can be triggered on command. Fully charged smash attacks from Little Mac can turn into a massive gimmick play that launches opponents a nasty distance!

In the case someone goes too deep into your hurtbox, you can also reverse the counterattack to either gimp or kill the opponent off-stage. 6.0.0 also made this easier due to increasing the size of the counterattack’s belly sweetspot. While this is highly dependent on how good your knowledge of the hitbox is, it’s also capable of instilling some major fear in the opponent. Hell, that fear can even kill someone if you’re threatening with a stage spike and they try to tech, thus buffering an airdodge. It’s pretty damn devious!

Gut Check’s 4-15 frames of intangibility means you can occasionally dodge grabs. Through this it is possible to avoid tether grabs such as Zero Suit Samus’s and maybe even get something out of it if you buffer an option. However, this is inconsistent and highly matchup-dependent and very situational. The intangibility ends before the counter searchbox does, which is where K. Rool can be hit in the face. K. Rool becomes invulnerable once the counter actually goes off, wherein hitboxes will deactivate when coming into contact with him.

Gut Check has a sourspot where that gust of wind is, making it kill earlier in these scenarios. There’s very little difference in practice, but this does allow Gut Check to punish even max spaced moves from most of the cast, with only a few exceptions such as Min Min and Sephiroth.

Applications

The best application for Gut Check is using this to abuse recoveries with hitboxes, such as Ike and Chrom's. It's reasonably easy to time, and off-stage the move isn't that bad if planned correctly. However, poor planning can hamper it due to the counter's endlag if it fails, but this will absolutely be your fault due to how long the counter's active frames are.

Gut Check is also really good out of parry when being shield pressured too much, as a parry confirms it will work while resetting neutral. So long as the hitbox is active, the counter will work. If you’re able to lab and practice this, you can definitely get some very strong defensive options out of it. This works incredibly well on multihit attacks, especially Incineroar’s Darkest Lariat which otherwise shieldpokes or even breaks shields. If you can get the hang of parrying, you’ll suddenly see this move become very, very useful. It’s also okay as an OOS option if your opponent is just mashing (F7 considering intang), but...don’t be silly with it.

Gut Check is our fastest combo-breaking option along with airdodge, both being Frame 4. If you know where a combo is going, you can make a calculated risk of buffering Gut Check to catch them for overextending. This is objectively superior to buffering airdodge once you’ve mastered it due to the damage you'll get off of it.

Gut Check can get you out of ledgetrap situations if you jump off the ledge and use it immediately, but this is a very high risk read and can land you in heaps of trouble if the opponent doesn’t do anything. However, many ledgetraps involve active hitboxes, giving you ample methods to trigger it. Notably, Olimar's Pikmin can also trigger Gut Check if latched onto the belly, which can be used against his ledgetraps quite well.

Gut Check can be used offstage to stall and time out an opponent who goes off too quickly. It also helps as a momentum cancel option in this regard, as it stops everything in a way that is debatably better than using airdodge. This is very useful for stalling recovery as a result, and should be used primarily for the outlined purposes. Seriously, the momentum cancelling is a godsend.

Issues

Once you've started using Gut Check, there's no cancelling it and you're committed to it for just over a second. If you're using it, make absolutely sure it's gonna work. Note that you have almost half a second of endlag if this fails. You are going to be punished, or probably taunted just to rub salt in the wound. Make sure you’re in the perfect situation to use this, as this move can backfire tremendously. Gut Check only covering his belly means King K. Rool is essentially Face McShooty from Borderlands 2, begging to be shot in the face. Only this time, the back is also a weakness. Thus, Pichu and other fast characters can easily ignore this move.

Projectile-heavy characters won't care about the reflector feature at all, as failing to use the counter correctly here will lead to an easy punish; it’s quite slow. Additionally, counter only really works for one thing. It’s definitely an option though, but only against larger projectiles like Samus’s Charge Shot, which humorously is an instant KO if done close to her as both the belly and the reflected shot will connect. We have a document on Projectile Interactions with Gut Check, check it out for MU Knowledge.

Generally, the rules for Gut Check are the same as any other counter. Don't overuse it, use it on reaction, etc. - just be more aware of the rules this time. It's got the same problems and holes, with a little more sprinkled in because Sakurai hates heavies.