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King Dedede

Jab1 (-18) & Jab2 (-13):
Unpunishable
(Impossible when spaced)

Jab Finisher (-41):
FSmash (Frame 26)

FTilt (-21):
Unpunishable
(Impossible when spaced)

UTilt (-21):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

DTilt (-21):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

Dash Attack (-26):
FSmash (Frame 26)

FSmash (-18):
Grab (Frame 16)
(This move deals massive shield damage)

USmash (-39):
FSmash (Frame 26)

DSmash (-31/-23):
GSA (Frame 9)
Grab (Frame 16)

NAir (-4):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

FAir (-13):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

BAir (-8):
Unpunishable
(Impossible when spaced)

UAir (-10):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

DAir (-13):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Inhale:
Command Grab

Gordo Throw (-11):
Unpunishable
(Projectile usage)

Super Dedede Jump (-46):
FSmash (Frame 26)
(This move does massive shield damage, also watch for the star projectiles)

Jet Hammer (-39 Uncharged, -24 Partial , -26 Charged):
FSmash (Frame 26)
(This move does massive shield damage, full charge will shatter it easily)

• Neutral Moves: Gordo Throw, BAir, FTilt, Retreating FAir, Jab, NAir.

• Kill Moves: Dash Attack, Smash Attacks, Aerials, UTilt.

• Kill Confirms: Back hit of NAir > BAir, Gordo Throw, NAir > UAir/DThrow > UAir on bad DI.

• Gordo is a great tool for King Dedede. A large part of neutral is consistently hitting Gordo back. We can do this through mainly NAir, Fire Arrow, and Boomerang.

• Be careful when near him, though. He can just plop Gordo out in your face.

• King Dedede can’t really approach from the air with his abysmal airspeed, which means he’ll opt for the ground or Gordo cover.

• He will also shield dash a lot.

• The use of Fire Arrows and UAir are best at walling Dedede. Boomerang is slower, but also useful. It hits Gordo with max velocity.

• King Dedede has a lot of range. so respect it.

• Try to hold center stage, and deny his Gordo game.

• BAir is an important neutral tool for King Dedede, and he will be landing with it on your shield a lot.

Boxing

(How do I escape this situation?):

• Watch out for jump read BAir.

• King Dedede can use Gordo Throw to corner pressure. Hit it back to avoid it.

Platform Pressure

(What tools do they have? How can we escape this pressure?):

• UAir is giant and will easily pressure you if you're on a platform. You can DI it a lot though, down and away.

• USmash is exactly this too, but kills.

Landing

(How do they cover it? What are my best options?):

• King Dedede can cover a landing with any of his platform pressure options.

• Don’t pull a Bomb if you’re near him while landing.

• Airdodge through his laggy attacks.

• Inhale is a mix-up that King Dedede can use based on how the opponent reacts.

Offstage

(How Do I Escape This Position And What Do I Look Out For?):

• King Dedede can throw his Gordo offstage, so drift around it.

• Watch out for any of his huge aerial, including his DAir spike.

• Drift around the Gordo/do some sick timing with tether to get back to ledge.

Ledge:

• This is definitely the scariest part of the MU. King Dedede has so many options.

• Time your getups around Gordo. You definitely don’t want to be hit by it.

• Wait too long, though, and Dash Attack will hit you. It also 2-frames for about 10 frames.

• King Dedede can cover jump with BAir.

• Try to roll if he commits to dash forward.

Juggling/Boxing:

• UAir can be spammed against most heavies, since they can’t really escape it and it lasts forever.

• Hitting a Gordo back and it hitting will get you advantage. He can Inhale it, though, so watch out.

• Young Link doesn’t want to be up close, so box him with projectiles and deny Gordo.

Offstage:

• King Dedede has a lot of airtime, and will just smack you for trying to go over to him offstage.

• Use a Bomb to get hitstun, and then combo him.

• Super Dedede Jump has super armor.

• We can’t really contest King Dedede's hitboxes.

• However, he is big and slow. Stay back and cover with projectiles/Grab.

Ledge Info:

XLR8’s Spreadsheet Young Link Ledge Info:

DTilt: Hits

DSmash: Hits

FTilt: Hits

Most Reliable Move: All

Animation Info: N/A

Note: Normal, FTilt reaches farthest.

• FD DTilt ASA %s: 134, 122

• FD FThrow Ledge %s: 212, 185

• Milkshake %s: 126-157, 113, 142

• King Dedede Kill Throws: FThrow (150%~ at ledge)

• Watch out for King Dedede Inhaling projectiles.

• Watch out for USmash out of shield.

• Jet hammer has 16.8% of Armor, it pops when fully charged.

• Don’t get hit by his Super Dedede Jump.

• Dedede can read jump out of Inhale star.

• Inhale has a wind box.

• Battlefield:
  Great. Platforms ruin a lot of Gordo setplay, and are difficult for King Dedede to maneuver.

• Final Destination:
  Indifferent. King Dedede has no platforms to worry about, and the stage has good enough blast zones. It's a bit harder to zone him here, though.

• Smashville:
  Good. Not a lot of space, but enough to contest Gordos and overwhelm King Dedede in midrange.

• Town & City:
  Great. Not Kalos blast zones, and enough space to work with.

• Lylat Cruise:
  Terrible. Dash Attack is very easy for King Dedede to 2-frame with. Ban this stage.

• Pokémon Stadium 2:
  Great. Tons of space to work with, and King Dedede is very slow, so there is enough time to override his setplay.

• Kalos Pokémon League:
  Terrible. King Dedede lives forever here, and ledgetrapping is overall a lot harder, and it’s harder to escape.

• Yoshi’s Story:
  Great. Battlefield but better.

• Biddy vs Atomsk: PSS S4:E2 - W2W | Biddy (Young Link) Vs. Atomsk (King Dedede, Little Mac)) - L Quarterfinals

• (Text File) Anti-Dedede Notes from King Dedede Main Ono#4451: Anti_D3_Guide_2_1.txt

• Edgeguarding King Dedede Textwall (Ono#4451): Offstage disadvantage for DDD is much like his landing, very unique but this time actually fairly good. His up-b is one of the best recoveries in the game, sporting super armor on every frame except when he's at his peak, goes a large amount of distance, has a very strong landing hitbox and some annoying stars, and is overall a big thorn in the back for any player or character that relies heavily on edgeguarding. However, it does have a big downside due to the fact our ledgegrab is the worst in the game, allowing us to get 2 frame from moves such as ridley f-smash or olimar grab. This is not a downside that cannot be overcome though, as we have options to prevent this from happening, two in fact. First one, we can Jdawg and just straight armor through a 2 frame with our super armor frames, it cannot be done from the max vertical length of up-b but it can be done during the frames of up-b that have super armor. Second one, this one is really risky but hard punishes over committal 2 frames and mu unfamiliarity, up-b onto stage. It's very strong on the sweetspot and even the sour spot but the stars are unsafe on hit till pretty high percent's and it has a ton of endlag. Seriously, you can warlock punch up-b onto stage it has that much endlag. You usually shouldn't try and edgeguard DDD unless they start having a really predictable jump pattern, mostly go for 2 frames on them and ledgetrap them. Now we do have some strong sharking tools but if you stay at a bit more then your swords length then you should be able to avoid our aggressive ledge options effectively and punish them hard.

• Covering King Dedede’s Landing Textwall (Ono#4451): Landing as DDD is rather okay, very unique but overall nothing more then just middling. However, this doesn't mean we don't have a bunch of tools in it, the opposite really. The only reason why our landing is okay is cuz we got tons of mixups, landing mixups such as inhale (and b-reverse inhale), bair, nair, retreating fair, gordo, and ff neutral airdodge (which has the least amount of endlag of any neutral airdodge in the game). Along with our top tier fastfall speed makes for a landing that can be tricky to cover. However, DDD has bottom tier air speed and is still a fastfaller with a massive hurtbox, so he's not exactly great at landing either. Counting in as well that a main fault of his landing is that none of his non niche landing options cover directly below him, which can be rough to play around as ddd, especially if they have really disjointed upairs. Main thing when trying to cover landing is not to hold shield usually and contest him from below at all times while respecting his top tier fall speed and massive hitboxes.