King K. Rool (SSBU)/Up aerial

Hitbox visualization showing King K. Rool's up aerial.

Overview

A rising headbutt, before K. Rool begins laughing as he falls. Originally considered to be among the worst moves in the game, updates have made the move substantially better. This move is one of the most difficult to challenge up aerials in the game, with intangibility on the head and Belly Super Armor during the initial hit. In addition to this, the move is exceedingly strong, being able to KO as low as 60% with poor DI from a top Battlefield platform.

Hitting with up aerial before cancelling the lag on a platform is a popular technique used by K. Rool players, due to the good situations it provides. It can be used to "steal" a platform, and then provide a good situation for an up tilt followup or reads. If shielded, players can swerve away from pressure to potentially escape a punish as well. Belly Super Armor also adds to the safety of this as well.

Up aerial is one of the only aerials in the game that provide recovery utility, with one notable other example being Corrin's back aerial. King K. Rool's provides a small amount of vertical drift, which can be influenced with the control stick. While there is high lag, Propellerpack allows K. Rool to recover from just above the blast zone on any legal stage in the game, so long as he doesn't swerve. As a result, K. Rool does not need to burn his double jump unless he is forced into a difficult situation (such as being hit to the "dead zone"). Given the power and difficulty to challenge on startup, this recovery method has received substantial success, with smashers such as Ben Gold actively using the technique.

Up aerial is a niche disadvantage tool due to the Frame 7 Belly Super Armor and Head Intangibility, making it useful for breaking poor combos. This is compounded by the fact that unlike "stall and fall" aerials, up aerial did not receive the change removing movement out of hitstun. This means up aerial won't move if used out of hitstun, making it a defensive tool if used in such a way. Due to this, opponents can hit the armor or even get hit by up aerial itself, flipping disadvantage on its head. It is very committal due to the endlag however, and neutral aerial is usually a better option.

However, despite its power and incredible protection, up aerial has a glaring weakness: it is extremely laggy. The high endlag makes a whiffed up aerial one of the easiest moves to punish in the game, even with K. Rool's amazing fall speed mitigating it. This also makes it very difficult to shark or juggle with, due to K. Rool having to cancel the endlag on a platform, wait for the landing lag to finish, and jump up again to try again. This gives opponents ample time to try and get down, worsening his air game significantly. Essentially forfeiting a juggle game for a massively powerful kill move, up aerial is a very mixed bag of a move that requires a lot of consideration to use properly.

Update History

3.0.0

Up aerial has less ending lag (FAF 82 → 72). This makes it less likely to self-destruct after using it offstage, allowing it to be used as an option to stall recoveries.

3.1.0

Up aerial grabs the ledge more quickly when using the move (Ledge lockout: 102 → 96). As an example of the change, full hop double jump up aerial will now cancel on the ledge during the endlag.

6.0.0

- Up aerial has a longer hitbox duration (frames 7-8 (clean)/9-16 (late) → 7-13/14-19), with the clean hit now lasting until the head intangibility ends.
- The clean hit also deals more knockback (85 base/56 scaling → 84/60), KOing at around 135% from ground level.