Donkey Kong (SSBU)

Donkey Kong (, Donkey Kong) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Initially teased in the then-unnamed Ultimate's announcement trailer, Donkey Kong was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Donkey Kong is classified as Fighter #02.

Donkey Kong retains his gorilla-like grunts and roars from Super Smash Bros. 4, instead of using his voice actor, Takashi Nagasako.

Donkey Kong is ranked 70th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the C- tier. This is a significant drop from his 22nd out of 54 placement in SSB4, and is his worst placement in the series to date. Donkey Kong has surprisingly good mobility for a superheavyweight, having both a good dash and air speed. He also has a strong set of normals in his moveset. His down tilt has a chance to trip; his up tilt is a solid anti air that can kill at high percents, and his forward tilt is a good spacing tool. His aerials are all good as they serve their purpose in Donkey Kong's strong advantage state, with back aerial as a good walling and edgeguarding option, up air as a strong juggling and KO tool, down aerial and forward aerial for spiking opponents offstage, and neutral aerial as a good get off me or landing option. Donkey Kong also has a strong grab game, with cargo throw, being his main way of throwing opponents offstage, which is a reason why he does fine against a lot of characters with poor to mediocre recoveries. His specials are also improved as Giant Punch became a more viable move to challenge opponents; Headbutt has the ability to break shields; Spinning Kong can be a useful out of shield option;; and Hand Slap can be used to set up for kill confirms.

Donkey Kong has a lot of flaws to counteract his strengths. Despite having a strong advantage state, his disadvantage state is among one of the worst in the game. Donkey Kong has little to no option to escape from combos due to his frame 4 air dodge, and not having many moves that are fast enough to combo break. As a result, this makes him one of the easiest characters to juggle. His recovery is also one of the most exploitable in the game, as a simple spike is enough for Donkey Kong to lose his stock since Spinning Kong offers very little vertical distance.

Donkey Kong is a character who can do a lot of damage and get early KOs but one simple mistake might make it hard for him to get back into the game. He has seen some results from players, such as and, taking him decently far in tournaments.

Attributes
Donkey Kong is unsurprisingly a large super heavyweight, having the same weight value as, and is the third-heaviest character in the game behind and. Despite this, he's one of the fastest heavy characters in the game, both in terms of general mobility and attack speed. He has the 10th fastest walking speed, the 29th fastest dashing speed, the 16th highest traction, above average falling speed and jumping force, and is tied with, , , and for the 13th fastest air speed. In contrast, he has below average gravity and moderately slow air acceleration.

A typical heavyweight is expected to possess moves with high power, and Donkey Kong is no exception to this - it is possibly his greatest attribute. Donkey Kong has no problem with setting up into KOs with moves that have both high power and decent range: his sweetspotted up tilt, smash attacks, aerials, back throw, Giant Punch, and grounded Spinning Kong are all prime examples. His ability to take stocks with his powerful attacks is made easier with his decent approach. His mobility and size work together to give him an effective grounded approach and longer range, respectively. All of these attributes combined allow him to have an easier time fighting in close quarters and landing attacks on his opponents. He also has very strong survivability thanks to his aforementioned high weight and above average falling speed, which is also common for his archetype. In total, Donkey Kong's attributes give him some of the best overall endurance in the game, with only and  surpassing him horizontally.

Donkey Kong works well with his grounded moveset. His neutral attack has decent damage and startup. Forward tilt's long range makes it one of his main spacing tools and works better with its intangibility. Up tilt is a safe move to interrupt his opponents, with the move covering Donkey Kong's entire body, acting as an anti-air, and hitting through low platforms such as the ones on. Down tilt gives him a long range crouching option and has a chance to trip opponents. His dash attack works as a combo starter and a situational KO option at low and very high percentages, respectively. All of his smash attacks are notoriously strong and relatively fast, making them his go-to options for hard reads and scoring KOs. His aerial options also have considerable utility. His forward and down aerials are some of his best edgeguarding tools due to both of them being meteor smashes. His neutral aerial is hard to interrupt, helps him break out of combos, and is one of the strongest of its type in the game when hit clean. His up aerial serves as an effective vertical KO option (if the situation he's in allows for it) thanks to its high knockback, and it is also safe, as his head is intangible during it and it has modest end lag. His back aerial is his fastest aerial and is debatably an even better spacing tool than his forward tilt, being fast, long-ranged, and having a sex kick-like hitbox, with a long duration and high knockback when hit clean. His air speed allows his aerial moves to be used at their fullest potential and, with the exception of forward aerial, they’re all decently fast.

A well-known part of his playstyle is his grab game, as he has a long grab that allows for setups into the rest of his moves. Although his down throw has little to no use, every other option does to some extent. His pummel is slower compared to many others in the cast, but deals decent damage. Up throw has combo potential into his aerials and back throw is his primary kill throw, but his forward throw is easily his most useful one and possibly the most unique part of his character. During his forward throw, Donkey Kong can move, jump, and walk off the stage while having the opponent in his hands, acting like he usually would outside of a typical grab (aside from being unable to use his other moves and having only one jump). Forward throw also gives Donkey Kong different types of throws based on what direction is pressed, basically giving him eight throws; these are commonly known as the "cargo throws." Cargo forward and down throw both work as niche edgeguarding options, with cargo down throw even being a semi-spike. Cargo back throw does good damage and is a very solid kill throw. It also has utility as a stage spike unless his opponent is able to properly tech it. Finally, cargo up throw has more combo potential than his vanilla up throw, being able to combo into his aerials at low percents. Cargo up throw also possesses fairly good kill power, since Donkey Kong can jump and then heave his opponents for additional height.

Donkey Kong's special moves are also helpful for his gameplan. Giant Punch is his surprise KO and punish move, can be used to pressure the opponent, and has super armor if fully charged. Headbutt can bury opponents, which can allow him to setup into KOs, and spikes in the air. It has super armor during the move's startup and deals very high shield damage while also having deceptively long range, giving him a shield pressure option and the ability to call out poor shield positioning. Grounded Hand Slap has very long range and allows for stage control, but has no usage for aerial opponents, as it leaves Donkey Kong immobile and its hitbox only deals damage to grounded opponents. The aerial Hand Slap is his last move which can meteor smash and is fast, making it effective and easy to land. His final special move, Spinning Kong, acts similarly to Bowser's Whirling Fortress as his primary out of shield option. It is hard to disrupt and is a multi-hit move with high damage. In the air, it works as an incredibly fast horizontal recovery option and deals a lot of damage if all the hits connect. Due to the speed Spinning Kong has in the air, it can work as an effective combo breaker.

However, despite his versatile moveset and high power, Donkey Kong falls into a plethora of problems. His defensive game is very poor, a common issue for characters of his size. While his massive weight gives him very high endurance and his large frame is the reason his range is better than characters like and, it becomes a problem when having to dodge attacks which is hard for him because he is a very large target. His tie hurtbox is also extremely large, further exacerbating the issue. Coincidentally, just like those two previously mentioned fighters, he has frequent trouble dealing with characters that have disjoints due to his lack of projectiles, primarily against swordfighters such as and, hitboxes on moves such as 's up and back aerials, or fast multi-hits such as 's neutral air. Donkey Kong's size also makes him vulnerable to combos and juggling, which is worsened by his lack of combo breakers (outside of neutral aerial and up special). The reintroduction of directional air dodges makes his aerial defense even more linear, and the new air dodge's increased ending lag hurts all characters; it debatably hurts a character such as Donkey Kong the most. Moreover, his otherwise great forward throw (cargo throw) also has certain drawbacks - notably, the risk of trying to slam the opponent into the ledge with a backward cargo throw. Due to Donkey Kong's horrid vertical recovery, if the opponent either DIs fast enough, squat jumps on him or simply has better air reach, this attempt for an easy KO may backfire. The trajectory of both forward and back cargo throw also possess a minor challenge. Unlike traditional forward and back throws, Donkey Kong sends the opponent at a high vertical angle instead of horizontal. This makes it more situational if they will KO or not, especially cargo forward throw. Cargo back throw ironically has more vertical range than his cargo up throw and therefore has more usage KOing at the top of the screen than the side. Thus, the player may find more reliability in a normal back throw near the edge.

Despite many of his moves having fast startup, Donkey Kong's moveset is made much slower by its ending lag, and most of his moves are not safe on hit at low percents. This forces him to be more careful with the moves he uses, as he can be heavily punished just for putting out one attack (a situation that can rapidly snowball due to his poor defensive options). Unlike the all-around heavyweight Bowser, perhaps Donkey Kong's most glaring weakness is his lack of out-of-shield options. Neither his neutral attack nor his tilts are enough to distance himself from an aggressive opponent if the player forces him to remain in shield. His forward tilt has good range, but lacks the power or perks of other super heavyweights, like Bowser's Tough Guy or King K. Rool's Belly Armour. A lot of his moves are also limited in some way despite their strengths: his smash attacks are slow and have very linear hitboxes; a chunk of his throws, despite their variety, don't have much utility; Giant Punch forces Donkey Kong to get up-close to the opponent to land the attack and needs to be charged for it to be effective; Headbutt and Hand Slap are both slow, causing them to be difficult to use for their intended purposes; and Spinning Kong, while it has decently long horizontal recovery distance, offers almost no vertical recovery and is prone to edgeguarding against meteor smashes, like and 's down aerials.

All in all, Donkey Kong's mixture of fast mobility, fairly long range, high weight, decent combo potential, and excellent kill power make him adept and flexible in many different situations, but killing and pressuring opponents stand out as his biggest strengths. Despite this, DK's high weight, large hurtbox, and lack of good escape tools make him vulnerable to many combos. In addition, his recovery is extremely poor, and his moveset is frequently punishable due to the end lag on many of his moves. As such, Donkey Kong has to capitalize on his power and range to limit opponents' approaches in order to win matches.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Donkey Kong received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. Though he received more buffs than nerfs, the latter are more prominent than the former, as they either weakened or removed some of his best traits from SSB4. Because of this, Donkey Kong has been nerfed overall.

Donkey Kong has received several useful buffs, with those to his special moves being among the most notable. Giant Punch charges faster no longer leaves him helpless when used in the air, giving him a new edgeguarding option. Headbutt now grants him super armor before the hit comes, and moves also deal their full knockback when opponents are buried, both changes of which improve the moves' versatility. Grounded Spinning Kong has less difficulty linking its multi-hits and has faster super armor, while the aerial version is now a proper multi-hitting move with a finishing hit, making it safer. Hand Slap is generally faster and the aerial version has reduced landing lag, which gives Donkey Kong a useful combo starter and allows it to confirm into KOs at high percentages. Particularly, both it and Headbutt alleviate some of DK's difficulty with landing safely.

His biggest buff, however, comes from a vastly improved forward throw (cargo throw), which is much harder to mash out of and has had its cargo throws' properties improved; this grants him much more options and turns it into his most versatile throw, and arguably the best throw in the game overall. His dash attack also has less ending lag, giving him another combo starter if the late hit is landed and making it much safer if shielded. Donkey Kong's already impressive KO power has been further increased as well, as most of his moves deal more knockback. Further miscellaneous buffs include up smash's previously infamous hitboxes being larger, making the move much easier to land.

Finally, Donkey Kong also benefits to some of the universal changes, as his already great mobility has improved from faster walking and dashing speeds, the universal 3-frame jumpsquat change improves his ground-to-air out of shield game and allows him for with combo opportunities, and the increased shieldstun and reduced landing lag on aerial attacks makes his attacks even safer on shield (despite the reduced shieldstun on aerials).

However, the few direct nerfs Donkey Kong received were severe enough to eclipse his buffs. Like, his biggest nerf is to his previously infamous combo throw — his cargo up throw now has more knockback, which makes its combo potential more strict and noticeably neuters the effectiveness of its infamous "Ding Dong" KO confirm at high percentages unless it's initiated on a platform, often requiring a specific amount of rage to work. Although his grab game was overall buffed, Donkey Kong is one of the characters who suffers the most from the universal nerfing of grabs, making them less safe for him to use. His pummel was nerfed as well, making it less reliable for racking up damage. Thus, this makes it less feasible for Donkey Kong to rely on his grab as his main way to rack up damage, forcing him to use other methods to do so.

Among his other direct nerfs, Donkey Kong's up aerial has had its animation altered, which shortens its range and hinders its versatility. Spinning Kong now gains less horizontal distance and no longer grants intangibility on startup, worsening his already poor recovery. Many of Donkey Kong's attacks, such as his tilts and his up aerial, no longer have disproportionately long intangibility, now only matching their hitbox duration.

Although he has gained some notable benefits from them, the universal changes to gameplay mechanics hamper Donkey Kong more than they help him. While the universal increase in mobility, faster jumpsquat, and reduced landing lag on aerials improve his own mobility and combo game, it also means opponents are more likely to close the distance on him, giving them more combo opportunities. The increased shieldstun, reduced landing lag, and the universal nerfing of grabs also make it harder for Donkey Kong to react to a shielded attack; the universal nerfing of grabs is especially harmful, as it's one of the key points to his gameplan. Altogether, this hinders his grounded out-of-shield game, limiting him to directly contesting them by making use of his moves' super armor to muscle through them, which can be risky despite his large weight. Lastly, the changes to air dodging worsen Donkey Kong's recovery, as they give him less protection and make him easier to edgeguard. All of these changes worsen Donkey Kong's defensive game, which is further notable since the game's engine prioritizes more aggressive playstyles than defensive ones. This forces him not only to approach more, but to be more unpredictable at doing so.

In the end, Donkey Kong has potentially received many more options for racking up damage and being less predictable, but the neutering of his KO confirm and grabs means he can no longer close out stocks as reliably as before. While both Donkey Kong's strengths and weaknesses are more defined, the gameplay mechanics accentuate his weaknesses more when compared to his strengths, which has subsequently caused his nerfs to overshadow his buffs. While Donkey Kong was initially believed to be improved from his already good standing from Smash 4 (doing exceptionally well in early tournaments), the metagame's evolution has resulted in his overall results and perception in competitive play to be below-average overall, despite the numerous buffs he received in game updates. As a result, Donkey Kong fares worse in Ultimate than he did in Smash 4.

Update history
Donkey Kong has been buffed via game updates. Initially, his most noteworthy buffs were to inconsistencies of two moves: forward aerial now autocancels properly (an issue that had been present since Melee) and Giant Punch's hitbox no longer shifts into the Z-axis, which would result in it missing opponents at point-blank range. Donkey Kong also benefits from the universal nerf on projectiles dealing less shield damage in update 3.0.0.

After only receiving minor buffs for the first few game patches, update 6.0.0 gave Donkey Kong more noticeable buffs. His forward tilt deals significantly more knockback to the point of becoming a viable KO move, his neutral aerial deals more damage and knockback and has more range, and his Giant Punch reaches the maximum charge even faster than before and deals slightly more knockback. Spinning Kong was also improved, as the move's super armor starts three frames faster, it connects more reliably against airborne opponents, and the last hit deals more knockback. Finally, Hand Slap on the ground has less startup and less ending lag.

After receiving some minor buffs, patch 13.0.1 buffed Donkey Kong yet again. The second hit of Donkey Kong’s neutral attack was given more active frames and had it’s ending lag reduced. Giant Punch was given more super armor on both the ground and in the air. Most notably, Donkey Kong’s down tilt was given 5 additional frames of hitstun, this allows him to follow up with another attack in certain situations.

Overall, Donkey Kong has improved by a decent margin compared to how he fared during Ultimate's initial release. However, in comparison to the buffs gained by other lukewarmly received characters, Donkey Kong's buffs are fairly minor, so how much he has benefited from these changes is debatable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Donkey Kong's hitboxes, see here.

On-screen appearance

 * Bursts out of a DK Barrel, frontflips thrice, lands and strikes a flexing pose.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Beats his chest rapidly while scowling.
 * Side taunt: Shakes himself with a humorous expression as if he is drying off.
 * Down taunt: Faces the camera and shrugs while bellowing confusedly with a humorously shocked expression.

Idle poses

 * Leans forward slightly and assumes a cross-eyed expression, as if trying to stare at his own nose.
 * Lightly punches his open hand and then does a rotational shoulder stretch.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Does a backflip and flexes his arms (his "character chosen" animation in Super Smash Bros.).
 * Up: Holds his hands above his head and shakes them (his animation upon completing a bonus game in Donkey Kong Country). He then continues to shake his hands while constantly looking left to right, as if thanking an offscreen crowd.
 * Right: Angrily beats his chest with a scowl and then looks at the camera.

Tier placement and history
Donkey Kong was met in the E3 demo build with a degree of cautious optimism. Although players could no longer easily perform most of Donkey Kong's throw-based kill confirms from Smash 4, including his infamous "Ding-Dong" combo, Donkey Kong players were willing to do away with this in favor of better frame data, speed, damage, and hitboxes, most notably on his tilts and dash attack, and hoped that he would play differently from. Though DK was considered one of the worst heavyweights from the demo, thought to be only marginally better than, players were excited for Donkey Kong's opportunities in competitive play.

Upon the game's release, however, Donkey Kong fell out of favor very quickly, for a number of reasons. The biggest issue is his low-percent safety: many of Donkey Kong's moves are punishable on hit at early percents, making his neutral rather egregious in a meta favoring speed and punish games. His already poor disadvantage state was also made even worse due to his larger hurtbox and his out of shield options remaining poor. Although Donkey Kong has been buffed in patches, none of Donkey Kong's biggest flaws were addressed. As a result, despite efforts from dedicated players such as and  pre-pandemic,  briefly post-pandemic, and  online, Donkey Kong was mostly used as an occasional counterpick during the early metagame. As such, he is commonly ranked as a low tier, with some players such as, and  ranking him as one of the absolute worst characters in the entire game. Regardless, he is ranked 70th on the first and current tier list.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Donkey Kong players (SSBU)


 * - The current best Donkey Kong player in the world. Placed 13th at, 17th at , 25th at , and 33rd at both and  with wins over players such as , , and . He is also the best online Donkey Kong player in the United States, placing 2nd at both  and , 9th at both  and , and 13th at . Formerly ranked 44th on the Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v6.
 * - The best Donkey Kong in Australia during the early metagame, but has since been banned. Placed 5th at both and, 7th at , and 9th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Currently ranked 8th on the Australian Power Rankings.
 * - Tri-mains and  with Donkey Kong and was the best Donkey Kong player in the world prior to his retirement. Placed 3rd at, 5th at , 9th at , 13th at , and 17th at  with wins over players such as , , and.
 * - One of the best Donkey Kong players in the world during the early metagame. Placed 5th at, 9th at , , and , and 17th at with wins over players such as , , and.
 * - One of the best Donkey Kong players in the United States during the early metagame. Placed 9th at, 13th at , 25th at , and 65th at with wins over players such as , , and.

: Journey to New Donk City
Donkey Kong's path chronicles Donkey Kong traveling via plane (Pilotwings) from the jungle (his home stages) to New Donk City (through urban stages, Onett and Moray Towers). After defeating Diddy Kong, he becomes Donkey Kong's partner for the rest of the mode, referencing the original Donkey Kong Country.

Note: Every stage until Round 6 plays a track from the universe, no matter what universe the stage originates from.

Note 2: In Round 3, the music and stage also reference the Rocket Barrel levels in Donkey Kong Country Returns, with Gear Getaway being among them.

Note 3: In Round 5, the stage references 25m.

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

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

Each character can be unlocked by clearing Donkey Kong'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
Donkey Kong was among the fighters that were summoned to fight against the army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Donkey Kong was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Galeem's light beams vaporized Donkey Kong offscreen, placing him under Galeem's imprisonment along with the other fighters, excluding.

He can be rescued in a jungle segment of The Light Realm, on a space that looks like the treehouse where he lives on his series.

Spirits
Donkey Kong's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold. Unlocking Donkey Kong in World of Light 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, Donkey Kong makes an appearance in a few primary (albeit in name only) and support spirits.

Trivia

 * Donkey Kong's pose in his official render resembles the pose he assumes after using Giant Punch.
 * Donkey Kong, and  are the only characters to face Master Hand and Crazy Hand on a stage other than Final Destination, not counting the Master Hand glitch in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * Donkey Kong is the only one of those three who is not a DLC character.
 * Though Donkey Kong's Final Smash has been updated to Jungle Rush, the DK Bongos from his previous Final Smash, Konga Beat, remain within his character files. Despite being unused, the model's textures have been updated.
 * The tip of Donkey Kong's second tuft of hair is not closed off, letting players see inside his model with the camera.