Kirby (SSBU)

Kirby (, Kirby) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Like all veterans, he was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Kirby is classified as Fighter #06.

Kirby is voiced in all regions once again by Makiko Ōmoto, using a combination of new voice clips and ones recycled from Super Smash Bros. 4.

Kirby is currently ranked 76th out of 82 on the Ultimate tier list, placing him in the upper half of D+ tier, this is similar to his placement in the previous game, where he was ranked 49th out of 54. Kirby possesses fast tilts and low ending lag on his aerials, granting him access to quick and powerful combos, he also possesses high damage output on the majority of his moves, with his back air and dash attack granting him strong KO options. Kirby's relatively small size and low crouch also makes him hard to hit; his crouch especially allows him to avoid most grabs and some attacks. Finally, Kirby's Inhale grants him his opponent's neutral special move, which not only deals more damage than the opponent's, but can also be used to alleviate some of Kirby's weaknesses.

However, Kirby has poor endurance, as his light weight makes him susceptible to early KOs. His poor air and ground speed, as well as a lack of projectiles and ranged attacks, presents a host of problems in neutral and offstage, as Kirby has trouble approaching and fighting those that can outrange him. Finally, Kirby's recovery, though far-reaching, is rather predictable, and his poor air speed and floatiness make Kirby very vulnerable to edgeguarding.

Overall, Kirby's weaknesses undermine some of his strengths, and as a result he has consistently placed near the bottom in terms of competitive representation. Nevertheless, Kirby has still seen some success from dedicated mains such as, , and.

Attributes
Kirby is known for being a small lightweight, being tied for the eighth-lightest character in the game. True to his franchise, Kirby is a slow, yet floaty character. He has the 31st slowest walking speed, and 42nd fastest dashing and initial dashing speeds. He also has the 5th slowest air speed, 20th highest air acceleration, 3rd lowest gravity, the 5th lowest falling and fast falling speeds, and above average traction. Due to these statistics, Kirby has difficulty approaching opponents. Kirby's recovery is versatile: despite his slow air speed and low jump height rendering him susceptible to edgeguarding, his five midair jumps, slow falling speed, long vertical airdodge, and Final Cutter's decent distance give him good stalling capabilities and decent safety.

Kirby's greatest strengths are his fast frame data, high combo potential, and the versatility of his moveset. The majority of Kirby's attacks are characterized by speed, with his tilts being among the fastest in the game, while his slowest moves instead boast high power as a trade-off, while still being quite fast for their power. Neutral attack and forward tilt are fast and have decent range, allowing Kirby to quickly distance opponents, with the latter being used for tech chase setups. Up tilt's low knockback and high speed allow it to combo into multiple moves, such as itself, an aerial attack, or an Inhale. Down tilt's low power is compensated by its very fast speed and it launching opponents at the Sakurai angle, which allows it to trip most opponents even over 80%. Should he trip his opponents with it, he can follow up with a variety of attacks, such as a dash attack, grab, or forward smash. Dash attack’s early hit is excellent for whiff punishing and scoring a KO, potentially KOing opponents starting at 90%, while the late hit can set up into an Inhale. His smash attacks have good range, high power, and great speed, making them excellent at scoring a KO. Kirby is also very small, making him hard to hit, and his very low crouch allows him to avoid almost all grabs and several attacks. As a result, Kirby has an excellent ground and defensive game thanks to his quick frame data and evasive crouch, requiring opponents to be careful when approaching him in neutral.

The usefulness of Kirby's ground game also extends to his grab game. His grabs have short range but are among the fastest, while his pummel's meager damage output is counterbalanced by its very fast speed. His forward throw, unlike most other forward throws in the game, has combo potential, leading into aerial attacks from low to mid percentages. Back throw can be followed up by a back aerial at 0% on certain characters, can KO at high percents, and can send opponents offstage. Up throw is his strongest throw and is able to KO almost all characters around 170%, or even earlier if it lands on a platform. Lastly, down throw is reliable for damage racking when no other throw can yield better results.

Kirby's air game is also notable, despite his poor air speed, due to the versatility of his aerial attacks. Neutral aerial has a long-lasting hitbox, high knockback on the clean hit, very low landing lag, and good coverage, making it a safe landing option. The weak hit of neutral air can combo into his tilts, grab, or even a smash attack. It can also be used as a combo finisher and can be used as a KO move at high percents. Due to the move lasting longer compared to his other aerials, it can safely pressure shields. Forward aerial is a powerful combo tool, can pressure shields, be used as a respectable KOing option, and its first two hits can allow additional follow-ups due to its low landing lag. Up aerial has good vertical knockback, low landing lag and a fairly quick auto-cancel window, allowing for many potential follow-ups and even opportunities to KO when near the upper blast line. Back aerial has decent range, high knockback on the clean hit, and is Kirby's fastest aerial, making it one of his strongest options overall. Lastly, down aerial has considerable startup, but has multiple hits that drag opponents downward before the final hit meteor smashes them and has low ending lag, making it a deceptively powerful edgeguarding tool as well as a reliable combo starter with follow-ups on grounded opponents.

Kirby's special moves can provide some unique strengths. is his most notable example; it allows him to either copy the neutral special move of any character he inhales, or spit them out as a weight-dependent projectile. Depending on what character he inhales, the copy ability can give Kirby a move that helps him in matchups to various degrees, such as useful projectiles to counter-camp his opponent (Needle Storm, Charge Shot, 's ), powerful punish options (Giant Punch, Homing Attack), a reflector (Nayru's Love), or other benefits (Monado Arts). In addition, Kirby's version of the opponent's neutral special has a 1.2x damage multiplier. Kirby can also inhale projectiles; smaller projectiles will be swallowed, allowing him to heal himself, while larger ones (such as a fully-charged Charge Shot) can be stored in his mouth and spat out, essentially giving Kirby a reflector. The spat projectiles can be used to punish opponents at mid-range and can launch them away with high knockback. Inhale can also be used to Kirbycide or spit the opponent out offstage, although the opponent can escape by mashing. Hammer Flip is very powerful, especially when fully charged, and Kirby can move and jump while charging. However, its high startup and endlag, along with its short range and Kirby's already-sluggish movement being further slowed when charging, makes it difficult to land outside of a shield break, covering ledge options, or after a jab lock. Final Cutter is his primary recovery move, granting good vertical distance, as well as a disjoint in front of him during his ascent and descent. It also emits a shockwave projectile upon landing, making it difficult to punish if the opponent is not behind Kirby. Lastly, Stone causes Kirby to turn into an object and ignore up to 25% damage. It is also a strong attack, especially in the air, and can be canceled shortly after Kirby begins his descent, although these benefits are limited by its slow startup and ending lag, and Kirby is still vulnerable to grabs while transformed.

Kirby’s most notable flaw, however, is his poor approach. Characters who have high mobility or who can camp with projectiles can wall out Kirby, such as and. Kirby's lack of reliable burst options makes his approach in these matchups problematic and sometimes predictable. In addition, characters with long disjointed hitboxes such as can outrange and wall out Kirby since his range is short relative to the cast. Final Cutter's projectile has decent range and moves quickly, but has somewhat slow startup due to it requiring Kirby to perform the entire rising and falling portions of the move beforehand, and he lacks other projectiles outside of spitting inhaled projectiles/opponents, or from a copy ability. This requires conscientious use to avoid punishment. Despite having great air acceleration, Kirby's air speed is also too slow for him to take advantage of it, hindering his aerial approach and recovery despite possessing five midair jumps. Kirby also has several KO moves, but some can be hard to land without a setup due to their short range. Rage further compounds these issues, as Kirby will be launched even further by a high-damage opponent, and his low weight means he will sometimes not survive long enough to take advantage of his own rage.

In addition, Kirby also has poor endurance. While being light and floaty can help him escape combos from other characters, this also means he risks getting KOed earlier. He is also vulnerable to juggling, due to his aforementioned slow falling and air speeds. This imposes as a risk in approaching opponents in the air, while also preventing Kirby's aerials from being used effectively when in a disadvantage state, often forcing him to rely on his jumps, Stone, or neutral aerial to escape and return to the ground or ledge.

Overall, Kirby tends to run hot and cold. He can inflict an impressive amount of damage if he gets close to his opponent thanks to his excellent frame data and potent combo game, but doing so is challenging for him due to his poor approach. As such, Kirby functions well with a bait-and-punish playstyle, although being unprepared for an opponent's approach can be hazardous due to his low survivability.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Near the end of SSB4's metagame, Kirby had been considered a low-tier character due to a combination of lackluster attributes and underwhelming moveset despite its power. Likely owing to this, Kirby has been granted a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Ultimate, being overall buffed, though not enough to raise his tier standing.

Kirby's buffs lie in the increased utility of his moveset as a whole, with overall improved frame data and KO power on his finishers. The first two hits of his neutral attack can now jab lock and connect better into the looping hits (albeit at the cost of reduced damage output), while forward tilt is a stronger poke and KO option due to its reduced endlag and its increased knockback. His dash attack has been mostly reverted back to its Melee iteration — however, it is significantly faster and stronger, has less startup and a far longer duration compared to his previous dash attack in SSB4, can cross-up on shields, covers more distance, and is more reliable for catching opponents thanks to only consisting of a single, long-lasting hit; these changes make it a stronger punish tool and a much more versatile move overall. His smash attacks are now stronger punish options, with forward smash having much more range, up smash having faster start-up, and down smash's regained its semi-spike angle restoring its utility at edgeguarding; all three also have improved KO power, with forward and up smash dealing more knockback, and down smash's altered angle KOing earlier at the edge despite its reduced knockback). Many of Kirby's attacks, such as up tilt and all his aerials except for up aerial also have more range, partially reducing one of his weaknesses from SSB4.

The universal reduction to landing lag has also exponentially benefitted his aerials, which already had among the lowest landing lag in SSB4; his aerials are not only safer, but now capable of leading into followups, with forward aerial's first two hits now being able to follow up into a grab or forward smash. His neutral and up aerials —the former being one of his most situational attacks— are now faster, deal more knockback (with the former's clean hit being one of the strongest neutral aerials in Ultimate, and the latter had some of its lost KO power restored from Melee) and have less ending lag; neutral aerial also has more range, and up aerial deals higher damage.

For Kirby's special moves, Inhale has been significantly buffed with faster startup, less ending lag, a much longer grace period in which Kirby cannot lose his Copy Ability, a lower probability of losing said ability after this period has ended, and a new 1.2× multiplier to his copied neutral special compared to his opponent (albeit without a corresponding increase to knockback), giving him a greater incentive and a higher reward from inhaling opponents. Furthermore, he can now eat the projectiles he swallows to heal himself (and store certain ones in his mouth as well, enabling him to spit them out as stars). Hammer Flip now renders Kirby nigh-impossible to stop for a longer time as long as he's grounded; Final Cutter is faster and its landing hit is much more powerful, which improves its utility; and Stone's aerial variant now has super armor during its startup, making it more difficult to interrupt Kirby out of the attack, as in previous Smash games he could be interrupted even when he fully transformed.

However, Kirby has also received several noteworthy nerfs. The most notable were to his already below-average grab game: his already mediocre grab range has been worsened (most notably on his pivot grab), and forward throw has him jump up higher after the throw, which runs the risk of possibly landing on top of a soft platform, negating all follow-ups when it happens too early (although following up neutral air or up aerial can allow more follow-ups), while back throw has lost most of its combo setups due to changes to the animation. Altogether, this grants Kirby a less effective combo game off of his grabs overall. Other nerfs include Stone no longer hitting shielding opponents twice, reducing its shield pressure considerably; back aerial deals less knockback (although the clean hit now lasts for slightly longer to compensate); and down aerial, one of his most reliable combo starters in SSB4, has more range on the looping hits, but slightly less on the final hit and is less advantageous on landing due to the removal of frame canceling, reducing the effectiveness of its follow-ups since its landing lag was not reduced enough to compensate properly. Furthermore, Kirby still retains many of the same issues that plagued him in SSB4, with mediocre range, sluggish aerial mobility and a high susceptibility to being camped.

The changes to gameplay mechanics both help and hinder Kirby. The revamped air dodge mechanics have significantly improved his innate ability to edgeguard opponents more effectively, and directional air dodges have also given him a secondary recovery option, but this also makes him more susceptible to juggling and edgeguarding as well, due to his short-ranged aerials and predictable landing options. The changes to downwards velocity KOing opponents faster from the bottom blast line now render Final Cutter as a significantly more deadly edgeguarding and sacrificial KO option, further improving its utility. The increased shieldstun and increased startup on shield grabbing notably benefits Kirby's safety on hit, due to his moves' natural high damage and low ending lag, making him harder to shrug off and punish accordingly. Conversely, the changes to grabs' ending lag make Kirby's own grab riskier to throw out, as their ending lag can prove more punishable. The increase in mobility is a mixed bag for Kirby, as while his mobility has improved overall relative to the cast (most notably his aerial mobility), his problems with camping from the previous incarnation remain, exhibited with the increased prevalence of zoners. Overall, his edgeguarding and defensive options have been improved at the cost of his range issues becoming even more prevalent than in SSB4.

In the end, Kirby's changes now render his punish game much more deadly, make him much harder to shake off once he gains the advantage, and allow him to seal stocks at much more varied percentages, but the universal changes to the game's engine have made it slightly easier for opponents to keep him away and have rendered said punishment game slightly more inconsistent. Because of this, Kirby is agreed to have not significantly improved from his appearance in SSB4, which combined with several veterans being buffed to varying degrees has resulted in Kirby being in a similar position overall, despite several game updates handing Kirby a myriad of buffs.

Update history
Aside from glitch fixes, Kirby has been buffed significantly via game updates. Update 2.0.0 improved his ground game by reducing the ending lag of his forward tilt, along with granting it increased base knockback, giving it newfound KO potential at very high percentages, while also boosting its safety at low percents. Dash attack's clean hit was also given a larger hitbox, and its damage output was increased overall. Update 3.0.0 improved the duration of his up smash's clean hit, making it easier to land on aerial opponents, and reduced the ending lag on his neutral aerial. 's Copy Ability grace period was also extended, allowing Kirby to safely keep his abilities for longer, and the probability of him losing them when receiving damage was also reduced. Furthermore, his down throw's damage output was increased, and Final Cutter can grab ledges earlier, making it safer for recovery.

Update 6.0.0 granted Kirby some of his most significant improvements. Both neutral and up aerials had their startup reduced and their knockback increased, improving their combo and KO potential. Inhale had its startup reduced as well, and the grace period for Copy Ability was further increased, along with a further reduction to the probability of losing his abilities. Up smash's sourspot had its knockback increased, improving its consistency, and neutral attack's startup was reduced by 1 frame. Following this, update 7.0.0 enlarged Kirby's shield, making him much less susceptible to shield pokes.

Kirby has been buffed once more in update 8.0.0, strengthening a handful of his finishers such as down smash, back aerial, and Stone, with the former having decreased start-up, alleviating the nerfs they initially received in the transition to Ultimate. Dash attack had its clean hit's knockback increased and its previously high endlag reduced, with cross-ups now being much safer and as well as giving the late hit follow-up potential. Although forward aerial's increased damage output and knockback makes it harder for him to follow up with his combos at low percents, it is an overall benefit since it renders his finishers to be more potent, while indirectly giving his other combo tools more flexibility. Update 13.0.1 added a minor buff/bug fix of Kirby's version of Lightning Buster less ending lag to match Mythra.

Overall, Kirby fares significantly better than he did at the launch of Ultimate, with his combo potential and mobility being greatly improved, as well as the combos doing more damage, which makes his neutral game more viable and leaves him less reliant on gimmicks to consistently close stocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Kirby's hitboxes, see here.
 * Kirby can perform 5 double jumps, tied with and  for most double jumps in the game.

Stats
Kirby's gravity and falling speed are set to 0.068544 and 1.8, respectively, during hitstun when launched at angles between 70°-110°.

On-screen appearance

 * Kirby rides in on his classic Warp Star, followed by a small explosion while flipping off of it.

Taunts
All taunts remove Kirby's Copy Ability if he has one.


 * Up taunt: Smiles and poses, producing a star.
 * Side taunt: Spins around playfully, then says "Nyum!" while standing on one foot. Based on his "character chosen" animation in the original Super Smash Bros.
 * Down taunt: Leans toward the screen and says "Hi!" while waving his arms.

Idle poses

 * Dozes off, then shakes his head awake.
 * Turns to face away from the screen, then turns back.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses
Note: Outside of team battles, Kirby's victory poses have three separate Kirbys, referencing the from his home series.


 * Left: Moonwalks to the left, twists, slides to the right, and jumps into a pose where he stands on one foot. Based on Kirby's dances in Kirby's Return to Dream Land and ends with a pose similar to his Brawl render and his character select animation in Super Smash Bros.
 * Up: Cartwheels to the left twice, wiggles, and does a front flip before posing. The ending pose originated from the Kirby Dance in Kirby's Adventure.
 * Right: Jumps twice, shuffles backwards, does a breakdance, and poses while facing away from the camera. Based on Kirby's dances in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, with the ending pose also appearing in said game.

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Kirby players (SSBU)


 * - Although his overall activity has been limited, he notably placed 17th at the major, which is tied for the highest placement for a Kirby player at a major.
 * - One of the two best Kirby players in the post-online metagame, consistently placing highly at Mexican events including 2nd at the regional while upsetting . His 17th-place finish at the major  is tied for the highest placement for a Kirby player at a major.
 * - One of the two best Kirby players in the post-online metagame, having placed well at many events including 33rd at the supermajors and . In addition, his 17th-place finish at  is tied for the highest placement for a Kirby player at a major.
 * - One of the best Kirby players in the world in the early metagame who regularly placed highly at European events, including 2nd at the regional upsetting  and 13th at the superregional.
 * - One of the best Kirby players in the world in the post-online metagame. Although his placements have been less consistent than JeJaJeJa, his 17th place finish at the supermajor is the highest placement for a Kirby player at a supermajor.

Tier placement and history
Since the release of Ultimate, many professionals immediately noticed Kirby's significant flaws from the previous installment had been retained, in spite of the mechanics suiting him better in comparison to SSB4. In addition, players noted his vulnerability to being camped, poor range, slow air speed, as well as platforms potentially negating all follow-ups should he start a combo with a forward throw. Despite some representation from players such as and, many players considered Kirby to be a low or bottom tier in the early metagame, with some going as far as to consider Kirby could be one of the worst characters in the game.

Patches 6.0.0 and 8.0.0 gave Kirby some major improvements, including more KO power and versatility to his aerial attacks, partially restoring his ability to follow-up on platforms, and gaining additional options for kill confirms. In addition, although Kirby's representation remained rather small and was often in the bottom 10, he began seeing more success from players such as and  both online and offline. These small positives were enough to raise opinions on the character slightly. As such, although Kirby continues to have little impact on the metagame, he is no longer considered a candidate for the worst character in the game. This is reflected in Kirby's placement on the current tier list, where he is ranked 76th as a low-tier character, although gradually improving results from dedicated players have led a few players to believe Kirby should be ranked higher.

: Gourmet Clash
Kirby's opponents are characters who, like him, are known for their gluttonous appetites in their respective series. For each battle, Kirby and his opponent each spawn with 35% damage and several food items appear on the stage as the match begins.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Kirby has  accompany the credits.

Character unlock tree
Kirby's Classic Mode character unlock tree includes the following characters in order:

Each character can be unlocked by clearing Kirby's Classic Mode, or the Classic Mode of any preceding character, if all preceding characters have been unlocked. Once all the above characters are unlocked, clearing Classic Mode with any of them will default to 's character unlock tree, starting with.

Role in World of Light
Kirby was among the fighters summoned to the cliffside to assist in defeating an army of Master Hands.

After Galeem absorbed all of the Master Hands during the opening cutscene, he began to unleash beams of light that vaporized all of the fighters and later imprisoned all of them. Kirby was the sole survivor after escaping on his Warp Star, barely warping away from the beams before they could engulf him. Despite being the sole survivor, Kirby is still seen as a puppet in a few areas of the mode. It was later explained that Galeem had analyzed Kirby at some point during the story and was able to make puppet fighters in his image without needing Kirby himself.

Kirby crash-lands in a canyon area, and begins his quest to save the other fighters as the initial starting protagonist.

He is later seen alongside several other fighters, as they make their final stand against Galeem and Dharkon.

Spirits
Kirby's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold. Starting World of Light and playing as Kirby allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, Kirby makes an appearance in various support spirits.

Trivia

 * Kirby's stock icon is one of only six to show eyes (the others being, , , Zombie, and Enderman). The most likely reason is to actually tell that it is his stock icon, as it is otherwise a simplistic pink circle.
 * It also greatly resembles his stock icon in the original Super Smash Bros.
 * This is also not counting or Larry, as the eyes depicted for the former are not his actual eyes, and the latter lacks his irises.
 * Kirby's pose resembles his character artwork in Kirby Super Star, but rotated to slightly face the screen. Coincidentally, this was also used for his character select artwork in the original Super Smash Bros.
 * Coincidentally, his pose is also used for his Wrestler artwork in Kirby Fighters 2 (with the difference between the mask and the angry frown).
 * Kirby is the only Kirby series character to keep his Final Smash between Smash 4 and Ultimate.
 * Since Kirby is the starter character of World of Light and part of the starter roster, he is the only character that is not unlockable in the game for any mode.
 * This also makes Kirby the only character in the entire series that is never unlocked in any mode.
 * This means it is impossible to see the message saying that "Kirby Joins the Battle!". Modding the game to display this message (through setting Kirby's fighter spirit to rematchable) will reveal that Kirby does not have a text string for this instance, and the message will simply read "Joins the Battle!"
 * Despite his status as the mode's starter character and the closest thing to the main character, Kirby's depiction in marketing or artwork for Ultimate is no more prominent than any of the other starter characters, apart from and  who collectively serve as the game's mascots.
 * Due to his various Copy Abilities, Kirby has the highest amount of voice clips for any character in the game, with 95 clips (121 if DLC is included).
 * Because of the copy ability, Kirby has the most unique character models for any character in the game. There are 81 different models, with 648 models if alternate costumes are counted.
 * Barring who is the only fighter of the  series, Kirby is the only starter character in Ultimate whose universe has more than one character to not include any characters in their  unlock table, as Meta Knight is in Link's, and  is in 's.
 * Unlike other characters, Kirby can actually taunt online when playing outside of arenas, but only to discard his copy ability.
 * As a result of not being captured, Kirby is one of the few characters that doesn't have copies of him produced by Dharkon or Galeem during their boss fights.
 * Since Kirby was never possessed by Galeem like everyone else, his presence in many spirit battles went unclear for some time, until Masahiro Sakurai addressed this in an interview; stating that Galeem managed to analyze Kirby halfway through the story, making it possible to create puppets of him.
 * Ironically, Kirby has the most spirit battle appearances of all characters, with 60 total.
 * Kirby is one of the five veterans from Smash 4 to have their Boxing Ring alias changed in Ultimate, the others being Link, King Dedede,, and.