Diddy Kong (SSB4)

Diddy Kong in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Donkey Kong
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Rocketbarrel Barrage
Tier	S (2-3)

Diddy Kong (ディディーコング, Diddy Kong) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. He was confirmed on February 21st, 2014, coinciding with the international release date of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Instead of using his voice actor Katsumi Suzuki, Diddy Kong retains his realistic chimpanzee screeches from Super Smash Bros. Brawl (sampled once again from the commonly used "Chimpanzee Screeche PE026201" stock sound effect).

Diddy Kong ranks 2nd/3rd out of 54 characters in the tier list, tying him with Cloud, and placing him in S tier, a slight rise from his equally top-tiered placement of 4th out of 38 in Brawl, makes him the highest ranked base-game character and is his best placement in the series. Diddy Kong's strengths lie in his powerful comboing ability, with attacks flowing very well together as a result of their surprisingly long reach for a character of his size, quick frame data, and low knockback. He also has a fair share of strong, effective finishers, such as his smash attacks, which he can combo into. He is also highly mobile and has a strong neutral game, thanks to his Banana Peel, Monkey Flip and Peanut Popgun, all which provide him great mobility and stage control. Diddy Kong also features many safe and reliable ways to KO thanks to his down tilt, forward air, back air, and throws. On top of this, Diddy Kong also has a strong and safe edgeguarding game thanks to back air and Peanut Popgun.

However, Diddy is not without flaws, mainly his susceptibility to being gimped, owing to how linear and short-ranged Monkey Flip is, as well as the unsafe properties of Rocketbarrel Boost, a poor damage output which is exacerbated by his poor aerial mobility when not using special moves, which hinders his aerial combo game and the lack of a reliable combo breaker.

Despite a number of nerfs to his combo ability in updates, Diddy Kong has maintained outstanding tournament results throughout the game's competitive lifespan, particularly thanks to ZeRo.

Attributes

Diddy Kong, true to his appearance in the Donkey Kong games, is an overall agile character. He is a middleweight with fast walking speed, fast dashing speed, fast falling speed, strong jumps, as well as the ability to wall cling and crawl. However, he has low air speed, below average air acceleration, and high gravity, hindering his aerial mobility.

Matching his great mobility overall, Diddy Kong's greatest strength is his quick attack speed. Along with having a variety of moves with quick frame data and low knockback, Diddy Kong's limbs have the unique ability of stretching, giving his attacks surprising range. This grants Diddy Kong one of the best combo abilities in the game, which is further supplemented by the utility of his moves. His grounded game has some interesting options: his up tilt covers a very reliable arc above himself, has follow-up potential at low percentages, and great KO potential at high ones despite its speed. Down tilt has low knockback, giving it the ability to combo into itself, as well as KO set-ups into up smash and forward aerial. His smash attacks also have high speed and good power, making them great for finishing off opponents. Forward smash is fairly quick and has the highest knockback of Diddy Kong's attacks, along with having the least ending lag out of his smash attacks. Up smash has incredibly fast startup with good range, and is his most commonly used smash attack to finish an opponent's stock due to the plethora of set-up options into it. Down smash is a semi-spike, making it great for edgeguarding and covering rolls, though it should be used carefully due to it having the highest ending lag out of his smash attacks. Meanwhile, his neutral attack has quick speed and is safe on hit, though it lacks reliable KO potential and cannot jab cancel into Diddy's moves, making it overshadowed by his other options. Forward tilt has a very good range, can be angled, and deals good knockback, making it great for spacing opponents out, but it is commonly forgone in favor of his smash attacks due to it lacking reliable KO potential, like his neutral attack.

In contrast, Diddy Kong's air game is also strong in any case, due to his aforementioned range, speed, and balance of power. Neutral aerial has a long duration and decent vertical knockback, making it a useful combo extender. Forward aerial is fast, strong, and has a long duration, and can autocancel from a short hop fast fall, making it an all-purpose attack and one of the staples on Diddy's moveset. Back aerial is his second fastest one, and has decent power for its speed, making it useful for comboing and edgeguarding. Up aerial, while significantly nerfed over time, remains Diddy's fastest aerial and, due to its high base knockback, it is excellent at juggling the opponent. His down aerial, however, despite having very high power for a meteor smash, has a sourspot, high landing lag, and lasts for only one frame. Thus, while it is a dependable edgeguarding tool, it is arguably Diddy's least useful aerial.

Diddy Kong's already great neutral game is further supplemented by his versatile special moves. Peanut Popgun allows Diddy Kong to shoot a peanut, a weak projectile that can be used for edgeguarding or disrupting approaches. While slow and difficult to land, the explosion from the overcharged popgun can also be used as an attack. It is also tremendously powerful, dealing 23% damage and heavy knockback, KOing earlier than even King Dedede's forward smash. Monkey Flip is a command grab that lets Diddy Kong latch onto and pummel an opponent. From there, it can be followed up by either a double punch or a jump attack, with the latter being a meteor smash and granting Diddy Kong a second use. Alternatively, it can be cancelled immediately into a strong flying kick. The jump also grants a lot of momentum, making it a great move for recovery. Rocketbarrel Boost is Diddy Kong's primary means of recovery, covering large amounts of distance, especially if fully charged. Diddy Kong can also ram and launch opponents, and if attacked during it, the rocketbarrels become unblockable projectiles. Finally, Banana Peel is a defining part of Diddy Kong's ground game. It can be used as a regular Banana Peel or out of shield, both of which can be used for predicting the opponent's floor recovery or leaving them open to a smash attack. All of these moves grant Diddy Kong excellent stage control options and give him a fantastic neutral game when combined with his combo potential and strong mobility.

However, Diddy Kong has some weaknesses. One of his flaws is his damage output being below average overall, making it crucial for him to extend his combos in any way possible to rack up the most amount of damage. In addition, despite his small frame and only average weight, Diddy Kong is vulnerable to combos due to his fast falling speed and high gravity, and he doesn't have a particularly reliable combo breaker. While his neutral aerial is something of an exception due to its long duration, it is only situational for combo breaking, as it has surprisingly slow startup at frame 8. This makes it easy for characters with reliable combo abilities to easily rack up damage on him, while his weight isn't heavy enough to sustain heavy hits at high percents. Another flaw is his recovery. While his high jumps, wall cling, and special attacks grant very long distances overall and allow for many mix-ups, this is counterbalanced by the numerous risks in using his recovery moves. Monkey Flip's kick input prevents Diddy Kong from using any other special move and, by extension, his Rocketbarrel Boost, which can limit his ability to use the move for recovery. As mentioned before, Rocketbarrel Boost has to be charged to cover long distances, and the rocketbarrels will detach from Diddy Kong if he's hit or crashes into the stage. This means that any hit during the move can be detrimental to Diddy Kong, with meteor smashes often KOing him outright (it still takes good timing to gimp his recovery because of the sheer speed of his Rocketbarrel Boost). As a result, Diddy Kong's recovery is only average.

Finally, even though his air game is arguably one of the best in Smash 4, it is still flawed. Diddy Kong's aforementioned slow air speed is slow enough to the point that he can only perform Wall of Pain combos at low percentages. His neutral, up and down aerials are good combo combo starters (the lattermost also being a powerful meteor smash), his forward aerial is good for catching dodges due to its long duration and his back aerial is a good edgeguarding option due to its fast startup (frame 5), but none of his aerials have are powerful enough to KO until very high percentages unless under the rage effect. In addition, his forward and down aerials have a surprising degree of landing lag (26 and 28 frames, respectively), his neutral and down aerials have unfavorable autocancel windows, and his up aerial is his only reliable aerial KO option, though it can only KO reliably if used after a down throw (both of which were nerfed in the 1.0.6 and 1.0.8 updates, as the former had its knockback reduced and the latter had its knockback increased and its angle altered). Finally, all of Diddy Kong's aerial attacks are surprisingly easy to punish on shield, as none of them are effective at wearing down shields.

Diddy Kong only has a few useful custom moves, having only two that are overall better than their defaults: Rocketbarrel Attack and Shocking Banana Peel. Rocketbarrel Attack has much less maneuverability and is slower, but is extremely powerful even when uncharged, granting Diddy Kong a lethal surprise KO option. Shocking Banana Peel has a different throw trajectory and is less effective when thrown directly at the opponent, but can paralyze the opponent, leaving them wide open to any attack. The rest of his custom moves have disadvantages that noticeably outweigh their advantages, with Exploding Popgun being particularly notorious. However, these do not matter much because his default specials are extremely useful.

Overall, despite his constant nerfs, Diddy Kong remains a very potent character. The combination of high combo versatility, easy to land KO options, strong stage control, and the lack of a glaring weakness has granted him great results in tournaments, as demonstrated by numerous top-level competitors such as ZeRo.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Initially, Diddy Kong was considered to be buffed in his transition from Brawl to Smash 4 despite already being a top tier character due to his new incredible up aerial which when combined with the changes to hitstun canceling/DI, he could combo into it with itself or his throws for either a deadly 50/50 with up throw or a long lasting kill confirm with down throw, but as of patch 1.0.8, he has been considerably nerfed from his initial incarnation and has seen a mix of buffs and nerfs from the transition from Brawl to Smash 4 but has been nerfed overall.

His most significant nerf was to his Banana Peel move, which was previously the key to his past success. Not only can he now only have one Banana Peel out at a time, but the peels also vanish if they hit an opponent, greatly hindering Diddy's stage control and removing his zero-death potential with his bananas. The removal of glide tossing also hurts his banana game. Peanut Popgun is now laggier, and it is weaker when charged, which further hurts Diddy's stage control. In addition to this, Diddy's damage output is considerably lower, weakening his damage-racking abilities and hindering some of his moves' KO potential. Forward aerial and the front hit of down smash are two moves that fall victim to this. Some moves have also seen nerfs to their speed, most notably dash attack and back throw, with the former in particular suffering from its greatly increased ending lag. Diddy Kong also falls noticeably faster, which, while improving his vertical endurance and making him less susceptible to juggles, also makes him considerably more vulnerable to combos. Lastly, Diddy's hitboxes are worse for a majority of his moves, with his attacks either having smaller hitboxes and/or having specific hitboxes removed.

He did, however, see some buffs. His already strong combo potential has been increased further due to the changes to hitstun canceling. Diddy Kong's grab game is much stronger as Diddy releases opponents later from up and down throw (giving them less ending lag), down throw's angle has been altered, and the removal of hitstun canceling has given both throws very strong combo potential. Diddy's limbs are also longer, which gives a decent amount of his attacks more range, even if they have worse hitboxes. Up smash is now considerably stronger (along with having more vertical range), now being a viable KO move that Diddy can even combo into with down tilt. His recovery has also significantly improved. Monkey Flip covers more distance and Rocketbarrel Blast is much more versatile.

Overall, he is still one of the most successful characters in competitive play, albeit not nearly as much as in early versions of the game, where he was indisputably the best character in the game. While Diddy Kong technically became inferior to his Brawl counterpart, every other character in Brawl's higher tiers was either nerfed significantly more than him, or outright removed from the game. As a result, his competition has been toned down, translating to an even stronger position relative to the cast.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetic used in Smash 4, Diddy Kong's attire is sleeker and more vibrant, and his fur is of a significantly higher visual quality than in Brawl. His hat's Nintendo logo has also been updated, his head is very slightly smaller, and his teeth are white instead of beige. Altogether, these changes make Diddy Kong appear virtually identical to his appearance as of Donkey Kong Country Returns.
• Diddy Kong is significantly more expressive.
• Diddy Kong's teeth are no longer visible while performing his side taunt.
• Diddy Kong now claps at the results and No Contest screens.
• Diddy Kong's previously unused damage yells from Brawl's Sound Test are now heard when taking high knockback.

Attributes

• Diddy Kong's more elastic limbs stretch out farther in his attacks, which gives a significant increase in the reach of a variety of his attacks.
• Diddy dashes slightly faster (1.721 → 1.824).
• Diddy's air speed is slightly faster (0.82 → 0.88).
• Diddy's falling speed is faster (1.43 → 1.75), which improves his vertical endurance, but worsens his recovery, and makes him more vulnerable to combos.
• Diddy's gravity is higher (0.092 → 0.105).
• Rolls have less ending lag (FAF 30 → 28).
• Rolls have a shorter duration (frames 4-19 → 4-15).
• Air dodge has less startup (frame 4 → 2) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 32).
• Air dodge has a shorter duration (frames 4-29 → 2-26).
• Spot dodge has a shorter duration (frames 2-20 → 2-16).
• Diddy Kong's item toss is weaker (1 → 0.9766667). When combined with the removal of glide tossing, this significantly hinders Diddy Kong's approach and item game with Banana Peel (as well as with other items).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack deals less damage, especially the first hit (3% (hit 1)/2% (hit 2) → 1.2% (both), 2%/1% → 0.5% (loop)).
  • The first three hits have much more ending lag (FAF 18 (hit 1)/21 (hit 2)/26 (hit 3) → 34/37/35).
  • The first hit transitions into the second hit later (frame 6 → 8).
  • The first two hits have increased set knockback (10 → 12/18/24) and their far hits launch opponents at a more favorable angle (80°/60° → 105°/78° (hit 1)/100°/78° (hit 2)), making them connect more reliably.
  • The first two hits' close hitbox launches opponents at a higher angle (361° → 45°), removing their ability to jab lock.
  • The first two hits' far hitbox is smaller (4u → 3.5u) and their back arm hitbox has been removed.
    • In addition to this, both hits have new animations where Diddy Kong stretches his arms out further. In the change of the first hit, its hitboxes were not properly compensated for this change, with the move now failing to fully cover Diddy's hand.
  • The second hit transitions into the third hit sooner (frame 9 → 8).
  • The second hit's hitboxes are now static, with the far hit having reduced range, now failing to fully cover Diddy's hand in addition to the move having less range behind Diddy.
  • The third hit has increased set knockback (15 → 25/37), making it lead into the rapid jab more reliably.
  • The third hit's far hitbox is slightly larger (4u → 4.2u).
  • The third hit's near hitbox launches opponents at a lower angle (80° → 60°).
  • The third hit transitions into the infinite later (frame 13 → 15).
  • The third hit's near hitboxes are smaller (4u/4u → 3.7u/3.2u).
  • The third hit's far hitbox has been moved closer to Diddy (z offset: 17 → 14), reducing its range.
    • The near hitboxes have also been moved closer to Diddy (z offset: 11/5 → 8/2), although due to the new animation, it has no additional range inside of Diddy.
  • The infinite has a much lower SDI multiplier (2x → 0.7x), making it more difficult to escape.
  • The infinite has a much larger hitbox (2.8u → 6.7u), which is now a static extended hitbox, giving it much more vertical range.
    • However, this hitbox does not compensate for the move's horizontal range, with the move now failing to fully cover Diddy's tail.
  • The infinite has decreased set knockback (8 → 4).
  • The infinite has received a finisher, an upward tail swipe. The finisher has a hitbox which deals 3% and horizontal knockback.
  • The finisher has much more ending lag compared to the previous infinite ending animation (FAF 10 → 40).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has a new, more exaggerated animation.
  • Dash attack now uses one static hitbox, rather than hitboxes attached to Diddy.
    • This gives it more horizontal range overall.
    • However, this also gives it less vertical range despite its new animation.
  • The first two hits of dash attack have altered knockback (70 (base), 50 (scaling) → 55 (set)/100(hit 1), 15 (set)/50 → 62/100 (hit 2)) and angles (270°/58° → 40° (hit 1), 285° → 366° (hit 2)), making dash attack connect more reliably (although it is still unreliable).
  • The final hit launches opponents at a higher angle (68° → 78°).
  • The final hit deals more knockback (70 (base), 50 (scaling) → 80/90). This improves its KO potential but hinders its combo potential.
  • Dash attack has a shorter duration with the second and third hits also having more startup lag (frames 9-13 (hit 1)/14-18 (hit 2)/20-23 (hit 3) → 9/18/24).
  • Dash attack has a drastically longer total duration (FAF 24 → 46), with the move no longer being lagless. This greatly hinders its approach/combo potential and safety.
  • Dash attack deals less damage (3% (hit 1)/4% (hit 3)/9% (total) → 2%/3%/7%).
  • Each hit of dash attack has smaller hitboxes (5u (hit 1)/4.5u (hit 2)/5u (hit 3) →3.5u/3.5u/4.5u).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a new animation where Diddy Kong stretches his arms further.
  • Forward tilt now deals consistent damage (11%/9%/8% → 10%). This makes the body hitboxes stronger, but the hand hitboxes weaker.
  • Forward tilt's hand hitboxes are now attached to Diddy, rather than being static.
    • This gives forward tilt more range overall due to its new animation.
    • However, this also gives forward tilt a less consistent horizontal range, with the move having less range on all but one frame.
  • The body hitboxes are moved closer to Diddy (z offset: 11/5 → 7.5/1.5), although due to the new animation, it does not have any more range behind Diddy.
  • Forward tilt now has a weaker late hit after its first frame (frames 10-13 → 10 (clean)/11-13) which deals less damage (11%/9%/8% → 7%) and it lacks body hitboxes, creating a large blindspot on Diddy's arms/body.
  • Diddy does not stretch his arms out nearly as far during the move's first active frame, giving the clean hit less range.
  • The hands now consist of two smaller hitboxes covering them, rather than one big hitbox covering both of them (5u → 2.7u/2.7u). This gives the hands less range overall, with the move no longer being disjointed.
• Up tilt:
  • Diddy stretches his arm further when performing up tilt, giving it more horizontal range.
  • Up tilt has more knockback scaling (130 → 150), and it launches opponents at a higher angle (80° → 92°), slightly improving its KO potential despite its lower damage.
  • Up tilt has a shorter duration (frames 6-12 → 6-11).
  • Up tilt has more ending lag (FAF 25 → 33).
  • Up tilt deals less damage (7% → 6%).
  • Up tilt has smaller hitboxes (4.5u/4.8u/5u → 4u/4u/3.8u), giving the move less vertical range.
  • Up tilt has a higher SDI multiplier (1x → 1.5x).
    • However, SDI is still less effective against the move due to the weakening of the mechanic.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt deals less damage (7% → 5.5%). This hinders its damage racking potential but improves its follow-up potential at higher percents, especially with the changes to hitstun canceling/Directional Influence.
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 4-6 → 4-5).
  • Down tilt has smaller hitboxes (5u/4u/3u → 4.2u/3.5u), its far hitbox has been moved closer to Diddy (z offset: 18 → 16) and the body hitbox has been removed, giving it less range.
    • The arm hitbox has been moved closer to Diddy (z offset: 11 → 8.5), although this does not compensate for the removal of the near hitbox.
    • The removal of the near hitbox also means that the move can no longer launch opponents at a 40° angle, hindering its setup potential against near opponents.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has a new animation where Diddy stretches his arms further. This gives it more horizontal reach, especially the second hit.
  • The weakening of SDI makes forward smash connect more reliably.
  • The second hit has higher knockback scaling (90 → 116), improving its KO potential on the hand and arm hitboxes (especially the latter) despite its lower damage.
  • Forward smash starts charging sooner (frame 9 → 5).
  • Forward smash has more ending lag (FAF 48 → 51).
  • Both hits have smaller hitboxes (5u/4.25u/3.5u/3u → 4.5u/4.0u/3.5u) and the back arm hitbox has been removed.
  • The second hit has more startup lag (frame 21 → 22).
  • The second hit deals less damage (13% → 11% (hand/arm)/9% (head), hindering the head hitbox's KO potential despite its higher knockback scaling.
  • The second hit no longer deals extra shield damage (3 → 0).
  • The second hit has a higher hitlag multiplier (1x → 1.2x).
  • The hand hitbox launches opponents at a less favorable angle (40° → 46°).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has a much more exaggerated animation where Diddy jumps up higher and swings his arms around more, giving the move significantly more range.
  • The first hit has a longer duration (frames 5-7 → 5-8).
  • The first hit's hitboxes now start directly in front of Diddy rather than slightly behind him, noticeably improving its use as an Out of Shield option.
  • The first hit has altered angles (95°/95°/95°/90° → 95°/105°/95°/95°) and knockback (30 (set), 30/50/70 (scaling) → (85/110/50/60)/100) which is now weight independent. This makes it connect more reliablytoo the second hit.
  • The second hit has altered angles (95°/95°/95° → 125°/105°/95°) and knockback (30 (set), 30/50/70 (scaling) → (48/45/45)/100). This makes it connect more reliably to the third hit.
  • The first two hits deal less damage (5% (hit 1/2)/16% (total) → 2.5%/11%).
  • The first two hits have smaller hitboxes (6u/4u/4u/3u (hit 1)/6u/4u/4u (hit 2) → 5u/3.7u/3.7u (both)) and the first hit's foot hitbox has been removed. This makes the hand hitbox less disjointed, and it gives the move less range below Diddy, especially on the first hit.
  • The second and third hits have more startup lag (frame 11 (hit 2)/18 (hit 3) → 12/19).
  • The third hit deals much more knockback (70 (base), 70 (scaling) → 50/129), greatly improving its KO potential.
  • The third hit has larger hitboxes (6u/4u/4u → 6.5u/4.5u).
  • The third hit now launches opponents away from Diddy Kong instead of towards him (95° → 85°).
  • The third hit's body hitbox has been removed, and the foot hitbox has been moved closer to Diddy (x/y offset: 0/-5 → 4/0.6), slightly reducing its disjoint and reducing its range below Diddy.
  • Up smash has more ending lag (FAF 51 → 54).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash starts charging slightly later (frame 2 → 3).
  • Down smash launches opponents at a lower angle (361° → 33° (front)/35° (back)).
  • The front hit deals less damage (16% → 12%), considerably hindering its KO potential despite its lower launch angle.
  • The back hit has more startup lag (frame 15 → 16).
  • The back hit deals more damage (12% → 15%) and has higher knockback scaling (72 → 76), significantly improving its KO potential.

Aerial attacks

• All of Diddy's aerials have longer animations (49 frames → 58 (neutral), 47 frames → 55 (forward), 45 frames → 54 (back), 41 frames → 49 (up), 50 frames → 53 (down)). This increases the amount of time Diddy cannot grab the ledge after using an aerial.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has a more exaggerated animation.
  • The changes to hitstun canceling/DI considerably improve neutral aerial's combo potential.
  • Neutral aerial has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 6-20 → 8-20).
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels much later (frame 27 → 59), no longer doing so in a short hop.
  • Neutral aerial has smaller hitboxes (3u/3u/3u/3u → 2u/2u/2u/2u).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less landing lag (30 frames → 26).
  • Forward aerial's hitboxes are now attached to Diddy Kong's feet, rather than being static. When combined with the move's new animation, with Diddy extending his legs out further, this considerably improves the move's range.
    • In addition to this, the latehits's hitboxes now have identical positioning to the clean hit, giving it even more range.
  • Forward aerial deal less damage (14% (clean)/11% (late) → 10%/8%) without full compensation on its knockback scaling (80 → 86), hindering its KO potential.
  • The hitbox on Diddy's body has been removed, significantly reducing forward aerial's range behind Diddy.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has higher knockback scaling (100 → 102).
  • Back aerial's has a new animation. Diddy stretches his leg out further. This slightly improves the back aerial's range.
    • However, Diddy's foot is no longer fully covered when performing the move.
  • As with most back aerials, back aerial now always launches opponents behind Diddy Kong.
• Up aerial:
  • Diddy Kong has a new up aerial; instead of performing a flip kick, he now swings his leg up and halfway across his head. It has more range overall (especially horizontally).
  • Up aerial has less ending lag (FAF 42 → 39). When combined with the changes to hitstun canceling/DI, this improves its combo potential.
  • The foot hitbox has been moved further from Diddy (x/y offset: 0/4 → 5/0).
  • Up aerial has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 3-7 → 4-7).
    • The higher startup makes the hitbox start at a higher position, hindering its range below Diddy kong.
  • Up aerial auto-cancels later (frame 15 → 27).
  • Up aerial no longer has an initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-2 → 0).
  • Up aerial deal less damage (11% → 6%) without full compensation on its knockback (30 (base), 90 (scaling) → 64/89), hindering its KO potential.
  • Up aerial now launches opponents away from Diddy at a less vertical angle (100° → 76°), hindering its KO/combo potential and making it more susceptible to DI.
  • The body hitbox has been removed, reducing up aerial's range below Diddy.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has slightly less ending lag (FAF 50 → 49) and landing lag (30 frames → 28).
  • The hand hitbox deals more damage (12% → 13%) and knockback (30 (base), 100 (scaling) → 25/110).
  • The arm hitbox is larger (5u → 6.7u).
  • The removal of meteor canceling improves down aerial's reliability.
  • Down aerial has a new animation and its hitboxes have been placed further down to reflect this (y offset: 9/4.5/0 → -3/6.5). This gives the move much more range below Diddy.
    • However, the move is also less disjointed and the body hitbox has been removed, significantly reducing the move's range above Diddy.
  • Down aerial has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 13-15 → 17).
  • The arm hitbox deals less damage (12% → 10%) and has less base knockback (30 → 20), significantly hindering its KO and edgeguarding potential.

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • Dash grab has less startup (frame 10 → 8) and a shorter total duration (FAF 40 → 39).
    • However, its total duration was not fully compensated, giving it slightly more ending lag.
  • All grabs reach slightly further inside Diddy (z offset: 5 (standing/dash)/-5 (pivot) → 4/-4).
  • Standing grab has more ending lag (FAF 30 → 32).