King K. Rool (SSBU)/Up smash

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

Overview

A rising headbutt, followed by K. Rool falling on his belly. Up smash is incredibly strong knockback-wise while being reasonably well-protected and even frame 6, with intangibility and Belly Super Armor backing it up, making it near-unchallengable on its own. Up smash has an extremely long-lasting hitbox despite appearances, which combined with amazing kill power makes it among the best ways to punish bury popouts. As a result, the move has a solid place in King K. Rool's kit.

Up smash is an amazing tool for ending stocks from mashing punishes out of down throw, hitting opponents during the 12 frames of popout lag through its impressive active frames. Using a dash into up smash out of down throw is a cornerstone of down throw's mash deterrent game and its power cannot be understated. This was only buffed when the bury time was changed in 2.0.0, making up smash even more consistent against mashing opponents, to the point the so-called nerf has been retroactively seen as a buff by the K. Rool playerbase. The same up smash out of bury concept can be described for down tilt, though the length of time the bury gives tends to make it less favorable.

Being frame 6, up smash can be used as a decent out of shield option to deny aerial crossups on shield. This acts as a very strong deterrent overall, and the lingering hitbox combined with supreme protection makes it surprisingly consistent in this role. Using this after cancelling a run with shield can be a decent commitment, especially when mixing it up with dash cancelled shieldgrabs.

Up smash is relatively consistent at shieldpoking below platforms, which makes it fair game for platform pressure. The damaged shield can then be pressured by K. Rool's stronger attacks while the opponent is likely cornered by the knockback, giving K. Rool an unorthodox way to gain an advantage. However, the overall weak hits make its utility ambiguous. Regardless, it sees play in high-level gameplay.

However, the move has many issues. For starters, while the armor is useful, the move's damage can be used against it through counters. Vision with Buster, Tetrakarn and Gut Check can severely damage the armor, or even break it if it's taken damage. The move is also monumentally laggy after its first hit, with an FAF of 72. The hits after the first hit are generally quite useless outside of shield poking, with the 2nd hit's mid hit having the weakest meteor smash in the game and the 3rd hit never landing KOs. As an out of shield option, up smash only works on aerial opponents due to the jostling mechanics, which makes it mediocre in this department overall. Generally, if not used for mash punishes out of down throw, up smash tends to falter.

Update History

8.0.0

• Up smash's first hit deals more damage (15% → 17%) without full compensation on knockback (32 base/95 scaling → 31/90), improving its KO potential.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Hit 1 Early
1	1	0	17.0%	0		Standard	31	90	0		8.0	bust	7.5	1.0	0.0	1.2×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Hit 1 Late
1	1	0	8.0%	0		Standard	32	84	0		6.5	bust	7.5	1.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Hit 2 Early
0	1	0	8.0%	0		Standard	60	45	0		4.0	bust	7.0	1.0	0.0	0.5×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Hit 2 Meteor Smash
0	1	0	3.0%	0		Standard	80	5	0		4.0	bust	7.0	1.0	0.0	0.0×	0.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Hit 2 Late
0	1	0	3.0%	0		Standard	30	20	0		4.0	bust	7.0	1.0	0.0	0.0×	0.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Hit 3
0	0	0	10.0%	0		Standard	70	50	0		5.0	top	0.0	5.0	0.0 to 14.0	1.2×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	10.0%	0		Standard	70	50	0		2.0	top	0.0	8.0	6.0 to 15.0	1.2×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All

Timing

Charges between	3-4
Belly Super Armor Frames	6-21
Head Intangibility	6-11
Hit 1 Early	6-9
Hit 1 Late	10-11
Hit 2 Early	19
Hit 2 Meteor Smash	20
Hit 2 Late	21
Hit 3 Early	22-23
Interruptible	72
Animation length	85

Hitboxes

Belly Super Armor

Intangibility

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Charge interval

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Vulnerable

Intangible

Armour

Interruptible

Trivia

• Interestingly, Hit 1's hits has an ID of 1 rather than 0, implying that there were meant to be sweetspots/sourspots on the move at some point in development.

King K. Rool's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Floor attack (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Edge attack
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash