Donkey Kong (SSB4)

Donkey Kong in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Donkey Kong
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Konga Beat
Tier	C (22)

Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング, Donkey Kong) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. His return to the series was announced during the E3 Nintendo Direct on June 11th, 2013. Instead of being voiced by Takashi Nagasako, Donkey Kong retains the realistic gorilla grunts and roars (derived from tiger growl sound effects) that served as his voice in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, although they have been heavily altered.

Donkey Kong ranks 22nd out of 54 on the tier list, placing him in the C tier; this is a noticeable improvement from his placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 21st out of 38, and his best placement in the series. Donkey Kong retains his outstanding power, deceptively fast mobility, and great spacing options, but has also been improved both directly and indirectly. The removal of both chain grabbing and edge-hogging drastically improves his endurance and recovery, allowing him to take full advantage of the introduction of rage. Donkey Kong's gameplan is infamously reliant on his grab game, boasting a far-reaching grab and useful throws, most notably his "cargo up throw", which reliably starts easy and extremely damaging combos alongside KO confirms at relatively low percents.

However, not every change to the engine was beneficial. Donkey Kong retains many of his flaws from Brawl, including his awful defensive game. His already huge hurtbox (which includes a tie hurtbox) has become even larger, which alongside the removal of hitstun canceling and momentum canceling offsets the improvements to his survivability and makes him even more susceptible to combos than before. In addition, he remains vulnerable to edge-guarding because of his recovery's poor vertical distance and lack of overhead protection, alongside his ineffective ledge options. Furthermore, Donkey Kong has major issues dealing with close-quarters pressure due to his slow out of shield options, and a surprising amount of moves being unsafe on hit. Finally, Donkey Kong lacks any sort of projectile, often being forced to approach as a result.

Nevertheless, Donkey Kong's strengths generally outweigh his weaknesses, to the point that he has achieved above-average results in competitive play, largely thanks to HIKARU, Tweek, Konga and DKwill.

Attributes

As the second-heaviest character in the game, Donkey Kong is a super heavyweight, as expected. However, despite his weight, he sports surprisingly excellent mobility and frame data, making him a non-traditional heavy character. He has the ninth-fastest walking and air speeds, the 22nd-fastest dashing speed, and above-average falling speed, but in contrast he has below-average gravity and traction, as well as moderately slow air acceleration. His large size also gives his attacks a respectable amount of physical range, but at the expense of making him easier to hit and combo.

As expected, Donkey Kong's greatest asset is his power. In typical heavyweight fashion, Donkey Kong has a plethora of reliable kill moves (his sweetspotted up tilt, smash attacks and aerials, regular back throw, Giant Punch, and grounded Spinning Kong being the best examples) and excellent endurance thanks to his extremely high weight and above average falling speed. However, his fast mobility and frame data give him an effective approach and make it easier to land his attacks, which is further complemented by his above-average reach. Conversely, his moves that lack KO potential are effective for set-ups, thanks to their high speed, low knockback, and favorable launch angles. Thanks to these attributes, Donkey Kong can rack up damage and KO his opponents not only quickly, but safely compared to most heavyweights. Donkey Kong also has the second-best vertical and horizontal endurance in the game, being surpassed by only King Dedede vertically and Bowser horizontally.

Donkey Kong's grounded moveset is very useful; his neutral attack can be jab canceled for follow-ups, and can jab lock, as well as being able to set up into grab, his forward tilt is great for spacing, as it has long range and is intangible, his up tilt is a decent combo starter at low percentages, and his down tilt has incredible speed and can trip opponents, making it ideal for starting or extending combos. All of his smash attacks pack incredible power and have very long ranges, while not being particularly slow either. To complement his ground game, Donkey Kong's aerial game is extremely effective. His forward and down aerials can meteor smash and can effectively finish off his combos or his opponents, thanks to their high power. His neutral aerial is very quick and can lead into follow-ups, or it can be used to give Donkey Kong some space. His up aerial launches opponents upwards, making it great for combos and KOing. His back aerial is long-ranged, has a long-lasting hitbox, and can be used to edge-guard opponents. The last three aerials can also auto-cancel in a short hop, further demonstrating their utility. Finally, Donkey Kong's fast air speed allows him to easily pursue opponents in the air.

In addition, the aforementioned combo abilities pair well with his grab game. Donkey Kong's grab range is the second largest non-tether grab in the game (being surpassed only by Greninja's), while his grabs are decently fast, making them very easy to land. His pummel is fairly fast, making it great for racking up damage. While his up and down throws are rarely used because of their limited utility, his forward and back throws make up for that. His back throw is the tenth strongest in the game, making it a viable KO option.

Donkey Kong's forward throw is an all-purpose throw, as well as an excellent damage racker. Using it will open up four different throws, commonly known as the "cargo throws". Cargo down throw is a semi-spike and is great for edge-guarding. Cargo back throw deals 12% and can KO at very high percentages near the upper blast line. His most notable throw, however, is his cargo up throw, which can lead to any aerial at lower percents. Since it connects directly into his powerful up aerial at most percentages, this combo can be used to KO opponents at specific percentages, and has since been nicknamed the "Ding Dong".

Donkey Kong's special moveset has a lot of utility. Giant Punch is a deadly KO move, and a fully charged one has super armor, making it difficult to interrupt. Headbutt can bury opponents, leaving them exposed to any move. It also does strong shield damage, threatening attempts to block the move. Hand Slap has a very long range and allows for stage control, but since it is a quake move, it does not affect aerial opponents when it is performed on the ground. However, an aerial Hand Slap is now capable of meteor smashing and is not only fairly easy to land, but it is an effective one as well.

Finally, Spinning Kong can be used as an out of shield option, thanks to its super armor and serious damage output. As a recovery, it lets Donkey Kong move horizontally quickly and for a long time, giving him a very long horizontal recovery. Spinning Kong also retains its ability from Brawl to completely negate all momentum, against both horizontal and vertical knockback; however, this is considered impractical and nearly impossible to utilize due to the changes to hitstun canceling.

Despite these advantages, Donkey Kong has noticeable flaws. His most notable flaw is his poor defensive game. Although his large size gives him high reach, it also makes him very easy to hit, which is further exacerbated by the fact that he has a tie hurtbox. While his out of shield game is strong, Donkey Kong's shield itself is rather poor, due to it being unusually small for a character of his size (like Ganondorf), making him heavily vulnerable to shield stabbing. His rolls and edge recovery options are also very slow. With all of this working against him, Donkey Kong is heavily vulnerable to combos and juggling, worsened by his lack of combo breakers (due to his polarizing aerials) and lack of good dodging options outside of aerial maneuvering.

Despite being very fast in terms of start-up, Donkey Kong's moveset is slow regarding ending lag, making him susceptible to punishment without careful spacing. Finally, his vertical recovery is almost nonexistent, due to Spinning Kong's vertical distance being considerably low. This also makes it extremely difficult for him to survive even the weakest meteor smashes.

Custom moves can give Donkey Kong considerable benefits, more so than most other characters. Kong Cyclone is often considered to be Donkey Kong's most valuable move, as well as the best custom in the game: it grants super armor, has a suction effect, can be auto-canceled, and possesses greater power, maneuverability, and speed compared to Spinning Kong. Altogether, these traits enable Kong Cyclone to significantly improve DK's neutral game.

Chopper Kong does no damage and grants less horizontal distance, but covers more vertical distance, enabling Donkey Kong to survive meteor smashes more effectively. Storm Punch has a push effect and is very effective for edge-guarding and spacing. Lightning Punch charges much faster, giving Donkey Kong a more readily available KO option in case his moveset can't get the job done. However, it deals less damage, more so than Storm Punch. Jumping Headbutt has more vertical range and a hitbox during most of its descent, making it a good alternative to fast falling, but at the cost of being unable to properly bury opponents. Stubborn Headbutt eschews its role as a pressure move due to its slower start-up. However, it has higher power and grants him super armor throughout its duration, protecting Donkey Kong from any attack. Focused Slap and Hot Slap sacrifice range for paralysis and vertical range, respectively. Both are also potent KOing options, with the latter having high diagonal knockback, and the former having extremely high vertical knockback.

Overall, Donkey Kong is a potent character; with speed, power, range, endurance, and easy-to-use combos, there are very few matchups he cannot overcome. As a result, DK is, alongside Bowser, one of the two most effective super heavyweights in the game. This, in turn, is reflected in his presence in the competitive scene, as he has average tournament representation and above average results, the latter of which has been thanks to the likes of HIKARU, Tweek, Konga, and DKwill.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Donkey Kong has seen a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Brawl to SSB4, but was noticeably buffed overall. As for his buffs, the most noticeable improvement has been to his overall speed. His already solid movement speed has also been greatly increased, although this is the case for a majority of returning veterans. Donkey Kong has received some new attacks which help him out overall, including a new dash attack which covers much more distance and has much less ending lag, and an aerial variant of Hand Slap which gives him a new landing option and edgeguarding tool. He also has additional intangibility on a variety of his moves. His grab game is significantly more effective as his grabs have more range, and his dash grab is less laggy. All variants of his Cargo Throw have been altered and improved, but the most significant variant of Cargo Throw, which was improved, was his up throw. His Cargo up throw has altered knockback, which, when combined with the removal of hitstun canceling and the changes to DI, gives it much better combo potential, and at certain percents, it can lead into an up aerial for a guaranteed kill at very low percents, especially with rage. Donkey Kong has received many benefits from the game's new mechanics. Donkey Kong heavily benefits from the introduction of rage as his increased weight enables him to live for a long period of time and build up rage, which makes his already solid power become even more effective and allows his "Ding Dong" (Cargo up throw up aerial) to kill opponents at obscenely early percents. Donkey Kong also benefits from the removal of chain grabbing as it improves his endurance against certain characters, although he lost a couple of chain grabs of his own. Finally, DK benefits considerably from the removal of edge hogging and the introduction of edge stealing, which prevents his poor vertical recovery from being edge-hogged.

Donkey Kong did receive a few noticeable nerfs, both direct and indirect. As for indirect nerfs, the weakening of hitstun canceling does not benefit him as much as other characters. It does not grant him much better combo ability, and it makes him much easier to combo combined with his higher weight, falling speed and gravity and it significantly hinders his endurance, especially horizontally although it combined with his altered Cargo up throw gives him incredible followup potential including his "Ding Dong" (which greatly makes up for the removal of hitstun canceling). The removal of glide tossing and edge momentum shifting also hinders his mobility in certain situations. As for his direct nerfs, his overall damage output and KO power outside of his "Ding Dong" and rage have been reduced, and he has less range, especially when compared to the cast hindering his ability to wall out opponents and making it easier for his opponents to approach him.

Overall, the general changes to Smash 4's mechanics benefit him more than they hinder, and some of his buffs benefit him quite a bit, resulting in him being considered to be more viable than he was in Brawl despite the various downgrades his ground moves and aerials received. He was initially considered to be much worse in earlier versions of the game, although update 1.1.0 gave him multiple beneficial changes, most notably his "Ding Dong", resulting in players having a much higher opinion of him, with most professionals considering him to be a high-tier character.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetic used in Smash 4, Donkey Kong's skin is sleeker, his tie is more vibrant, and his fur is of a significantly higher visual quality than in Brawl. His teeth are also white instead of straw yellow. Altogether, these changes make Donkey Kong appear virtually identical to his appearance as of Donkey Kong Country Returns.
• Donkey Kong has received two new alternate costumes.
• Donkey Kong is significantly more expressive. He now scowls during certain attacks, his up taunt, and while hanging from an edge; he appears confused during his down taunt and while teetering; his irises shrink when he is hit, grabbed, screen KO'd, and when an opponent escapes his grab; his eyes comically bulge outward when he is launched; he sports a toothy grin during his side taunt, backflipping and chest-beating victory poses, and standing and pivot grabs; and he smiles with his lips pursed during his self-congratulatory victory pose. The majority of Donkey Kong's animations are also more fluid.
• Idle pose's animation has slightly changed. Donkey Kong now purses his lips, instead of slightly baring his teeth.
• Aside from his down taunt's voice clip, Donkey Kong's other voice clips have been updated yet again.

Attributes

• Donkey Kong walks slightly faster (1.2 → 1.3).
• Donkey Kong dashes slightly faster (1.622 → 1.7031).
• Donkey Kong is considerably heavier (116 → 122), improving his endurance.
• Donkey Kong's air speed is faster (1.081 → 1.15).
• Donkey Kong falls slightly faster (1.58 → 1.63), although relative to the cast, it has gone from the 10th highest out of 39 characters to the 22nd highest out of 58. This slightly improves his vertical endurance, but makes him more susceptible to combos, compounded by his higher weight and gravity.
• Donkey Kong's gravity is slightly higher (0.081 → 0.08505).
• Donkey Kong's fast falling speed is higher (2.212 → 2.608).
• Donkey Kong jumps lower (35.83759414 → 34), going from the 10th highest out of 39 characters to the 25th highest out of 58.
• Donkey Kong's shield is larger (11.6u → 12.9u), with it now fully covering Donkey Kong while it is at full health.
• Donkey Kong's ground release animation is considerably longer (FAF 21 → 30), now matching the rest of the cast. This means that Donkey Kong can no longer get a guaranteed punish on his opponent if he breaks out of their grab.
• The changes to hitstun canceling both help and hinder Donkey Kong. They significantly improve his own combo potential, but drastically worsen his survivability (considering his strong momentum canceling previously) and make him more susceptible to combos.
• The removal of chain grabbing significantly improves Donkey Kong's endurance in certain matchups, while not significantly impacting his own grab game.
• The removal of meteor canceling serves as a double-edged sword for Donkey Kong. It significantly improves the reliability of his own meteor smash moves, but makes him significantly more vulnerable to opposing meteor smashes, considering his large size and poor vertical recovery.
• The removal of glide tossing significantly hinders Donkey Kong's approach with items.
• Rolls have less landing lag (FAF 32 → 30).
• Rolls have a shorter duration (frames 4-19 → 4-16).
• Air dodge has less ending lag (FAF 50 → 35), although it is still slower compared to other air dodges.
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 29), although it is still one of the slowest in the game.
• Spot dodge has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 2-23 → 4-19).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • One of neutral attack's first hit's body hitboxes has altered knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 35/25) and its angle has been altered (361° → 110°). This makes it connect better with its second hit, but removes its ability to lock.
  • The far hit's knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 45/25) and angle (140° → 130°) have also been altered.
    • This makes it connect better with the second hit and improves its jab canceling potential at lower percents.
    • However, this hinders its jab canceling potential at higher percents, no longer being able to reliably lead into a down smash at realistic percents.
  • Neutral attack's first and second hit have shorter durations (frames 5-7 → 5-6 (first hit), frames 6-11 → 6-7 (second hit)).
  • Neutral attack's animation has slightly changed. Donkey Kong now turns farther inward when throwing the hook.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has increased intangibility on its non-angled and angled down versions (frames 8-11→ 1-25). The up-angled version also gains intangibility earlier (frame 8 → 7).
  • Upward angled forward tilt deals 1% less damage (12% → 11%) and has less intangibility (frames 8-37 → 7-11).
  • All variants have more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 8-11 → 9-11), more ending lag (FAF 34 → 38), and have smaller hitboxes (5.5u/5u/4u/3.5u → 5u/4.5u/3.2u).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has increased intangibility (frames 5-11 → 5-25) and its sourspot is larger (5u → 5.3u).
• Down tilt:
  • Donkey Kong's arm is now intangible when performing down tilt.
  • Down tilt deals less damage (8% → 7% (arm)/6% (hand)). This allows it to lock and trip for longer, but hinders its damage racking and spacing potential.
  • Down tilt has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 6-9 → 7-9). It also has smaller hitboxes (4.8u/4.8u/5.28u/6.4u → 4.4u/4.4u/5.5u).
• Dash attack:
  • Donkey Kong has a new dash attack, the Roll Attack based on his main attack from "Donkey Kong Country". Compared to the previous dash attack, it covers much more distance, has a longer duration (frames 9-20 → 9-24), and less ending lag (FAF 55 → 42), making it safer and greatly improving its approach potential. The clean hit also deals more knockback (100 (base), 20 (scaling) → 85/53), and the late hit no longer has set knockback (120 (set), 100 (scaling) → 60 (base)/65).
  • Dash attack deals 1% less damage (11% (clean)/9% (late) → 10%/8%).
• All smash attacks now have transcendent priority, improving their reliability.
  • However, this also prevents them from cancelling out projectiles.
• The 19% damage increase to shields and the increase to shieldstun significantly improve sweetspotted forward and down smash's shield pressuring potentials.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash now grants intangibility to Donkey Kong's head and arms on frames 20-26.
  • Forward smash's hitboxes deal consistent damage (21%/20% → 20% (hands), 19%/18% → 19% (body)) and have decreased knockback (30 (base), 94 (scaling) → 30/91 (hands), 18/100 → 25/91 (body)), hindering its KO potential. It also has smaller hitboxes (6.4u/6.8u/4.3u/3u → 5.7u/3.7u).
  • Sweetspotted forward smash sends opponents at a less favorable angle (361° → 46°).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has decreased knockback (40 (base), 93 (scaling) → 30/83), hindering its KO potential. Its hitbox is also smaller (9.5u → 8.8u/7u).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has received hitboxes at the tips of Donkey Kong's fists that deal 18%, improving its saftey.
  • Down smash has more startup and a shorter duration (frames 10-14 → 11-14).
    • Its higher startup makes the hitbox start on a lower position, decreasing its vertical range.
  • Down smash has decreased knockback scaling (100 → 88) and the new sweetspots also have lower base knockback (35 → 30), hindering its KO potential. Its arms and fists' hitboxes are smaller (7u → 4u/6u).
  • Down smash's angles have been altered (115°/98° → 70°, 55°/82°).

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 39 → 27).
  • It has increased landing lag (15 frames → 17).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has a new animation which decreases its start-up lag (frame 25 → 18), ending lag (FAF 60 → 56), and makes it auto-cancel/grab ledges earlier (frame 60 → 56).
  • It has slightly decreased landing lag (30 frames → 29).
  • The late sweetspot has higher knockback scaling (85 → 100) improving its KO potential.
  • The early hit has a longer duration (frames 25-26 → 18-20), but the late hit has a shorter duration (frames 27-29 → 21-22).
  • Its late hit deals less damage (16% → 15% (clean)/13% (late)), and the early hit and late sourspot deal less knockback (30 (base), 100 (scaling) → 30/85 (early), 50/85 → 30/100 (late)).
  • It has smaller hitboxes (6u/6u/4u/4u → 5.5u/4.5u (early), 7u/7u/4u/4u → 6u/5u (late)).
  • It no longer has hitboxes which deal extra shield damage (0 (hand/arm)/1 (shoulder) → 0 (all)).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has decreased knockback scaling (100 → 97) and has smaller hitboxes (7.6u/6u/6u → 7u/5u/5u (clean), 7u/5u/5u → 6u/4u/4u (late)), hindering its KO and spacing potential.
  • It has has increased landing lag (15 frames → 18).
• Up aerial:
  • Donkey Kong's head is now intangible while performing up aerial.
  • Up aerial has more duration. (frame 6-9 → frame 6-10)
  • It deals 1% less damage (14% → 13%), hindering its KO potential.
  • It has a smaller hitbox (8u → 7.5u).
  • It has increased landing lag (22 frames → 25).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has decreased start-up lag (frame 18 → 14) and landing lag (31 frames → 24).
  • Due to its angle being altered (270° → 361°), the sourspot is no longer a meteor smash.
  • It has a shorter duration (frames 18-23 → 14-16) and has smaller hitboxes (8.5u/7.7u/5.7u → 7u/5.8u).
  • The sweetspot has decreased base knockback (38 → 30).

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs have new animations. Instead of clenching both of his hands to grab his opponent, Donkey Kong now reaches out with one hand and grabs.
  • In the case of pivot grab, this results in it losing its disjoint, despite having more lateral range.
• Standing grab has more ending lag (FAF 30 → 31).
• Dash grab has less ending lag (FAF 50 → 39).
• Pivot grab has more startup lag (frame 10 → 11) with its total duration subsequently increased (FAF 36 → 37).
• Grabs have smaller grabboxes (6.24u/5.376u → 5.8u (standing/pivot), 6.24u/5.28u/4.32u → 4.6u (dash)),
• Standing grab does not extend as far away from Donkey Kong (z offset: 15u → 13.7u), which, along with its smaller size, gives it less range.
  • However, it does overall have slightly more range close to Donkey Kong due to its larger size in comparison to its previous near grabbox.
• Dash and Pivot grab extend further away from Donkey Kong (z offset: 9 (dash)/-19 (pivot) → z stretch: 17/-24.5), giving them significantly more range.
• Standing and Pivot grabs extend further close to Donkey Kong (z offset: 7 (standing)/-8 (pivot) → 4/-4), giving them more range inside of him.
• Dash grab does not extend as far close to Donkey Kong (z offset: -1.6 → 4), giving it less range inside of him.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals 1% less damage (3% → 2%).
• Forward throw:
  • All variants of Cargo throw have new animations.
  • Cargo throws ignore the new 1-second timer to prevent grabbed opponents from being regrabbed. Because of this, cargo down throw is now the only throw in the game that can still chain grab opponents.
  • The knockback-based armor while holding an opponent with Kong Karry has been significantly reduced (80 KB → 16 KB).
  • Cargo forward throw:
    • Cargo forward throw deals 2% more damage (8% → 10%).
    • Donkey Kong releases opponents from cargo forward throw later (frame 13 → 15), but it has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 46).
  • Cargo back throw:
    • Cargo back throw deals 4% more damage (8% → 12%), and has increased knockback (80 (base), 50 (scaling) → 70/80).
    • Cargo back throw's angle has been altered (55° → 72°). This improves its KO potential near the upper blast line, but significantly hinders its stage spike potential.
    • Donkey Kong releases opponents from cargo back throw later (frame 15 → 16), but it has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 43).
  • Cargo up throw:
  • Cargo up throw deals 3% more damage (7% → 10%), with altered knockback (90 (base), 30 (scaling) → 58/52) and Donkey releases opponents slightly later (frame 14 → 15). These changes, combined with the removal of hitstun canceling, grant it combo potential at low to high percentages, with it leading into an up aerial at certain percentages for a kill confirm.
  • Cargo down throw:
    • Cargo down throw deals 1% more damage (6% → 7%), and knockback (65 (base), 26 (scaling) → 50/80), improving its KO and stage spike potential.
    • Cargo down throw's angle has also been altered (28° → 48°).
      • This allows it to chain grab opponents on moving platforms.
      • However, this hinders its edgeguarding potential.
    • Donkey Kong releases opponents from cargo down throw later (frame 16 → 17), but it has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 45). When combined with its increased knockback, this significantly hinders its chain-grabbing potential at a wall.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw's animation has changed.
  • Down throw releases the opponent much sooner (frame 41 → 24) without compensation on its interruptibility. While this makes down throw harder to DI at higher percents, this significantly hinders its follow-up potential at lower percents, which is further exacerbated by the removal of chain grabbing, hindering down throw's damage-racking potential.
• Floor attack:
  • Front and back floor attacks deal 1% more damage (6% → 7%) and have less ending lag (FAF 50 (front), 52 (back) → 46 (both)).
  • Front floor attack has less startup lag (frame 20 → 18).
  • Back floor attack has more intangibility (frames 1-21 → 1-24).
  • Front floor attack has less intangibility (frames 1-25 → 1-24).
  • Back floor attack has more startup lag (frame 9 → 18).
• Edge attack:
  • Donkey Kong has a new edge attack, a forearm club. Compared to the previous fast edge attack, it has much more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 9-16 → 23-25) and has less range.
    • However, its total duration was only increased by one frame (FAF 55 → 56), giving it less ending lag.

Special moves

• Giant Punch:
  • Grounded fully charged Giant Punch has increased super armor frames (frames 17-20 → 11-20).
  • Giant Punch now has transcendent priority, improving its reliability.
    • However, this also removes its ability to cancel out projectiles.
  • The 19% damage increase to shields and the increase to shieldstun significantly improve fully charged Giant Punch's shield pressuring potential despite no longer dealing extra shield damage (2 → 0).
  • Giant Punch takes longer to fully charge (127 frames → 144) and has increased ending lag (FAF 53 (ground), 46 (air) → 63 (both) (uncharged), FAF 46 (both) → 48 (ground), 63 (aerial) (fully charged)).
  • The early hit was removed for grounded fully charged Giant Punch, increasing its startup lag (frame 18 → 19).
  • Giant Punch has a shorter duration (frames 18-22 → 18-20 (uncharged/aerial fully charged), 19-20 (grounded fully charged)).
  • Giant Punch grants less intangibility to DK's arm (frames 4-22 → 4-20).
  • Giant Punch's wind-up is lower-pitched.
• Headbutt:
  • Grounded Headbutt has increased range.
  • The 19% damage increase to shields and the increase to shieldstun significantly improve Headbutt's shield pressuring potential despite its reduced shield damage (30 → 25).
  • Aerial clean Headbutt deals 4% less damage (14% → 10%), its meteor smash hitbox is more difficult to land, and it barely stalls Donkey Kong's descent, significantly hindering its recovery potential. The removal of edge momentum shifting also hinders its utility.
  • Headbutt has increased ending lag (FAF 60 → 64).
• Spinning Kong:
  • Grounded Spinning Kong's first hit deals more damage (5% (arms)/4% (body) → 7%). Additionally, due to their angles being altered (361° → 20°/180°), its loop hits connect better. Lastly, it has increased super armor frames (frames 10-16 → 8-17).
  • The weakening of SDI makes Spinning Kong significantly more difficult to escape from.
  • Aerial Spinning Kong has increased intangibility (frames 4-6 → 3-6).
  • Grounded Spinning Kong's loop hits deal 1.7% less damage (3% → 1.3%), significantly reducing its maximum damage potential (35% → 18%).
  • Donkey Kong's "Invincicopter" can now only be performed by transitioning from the aerial version to the grounded version on frame 6.