Smash Bros Ultimate: How to Play King K Rool (Moves, Strengths, Weaknesses, Strategies)

How to Play King K Rool in Smash Bros Ultimate

Smash Bros Ultimate brings quite a few new characters into the mix, from famous third-party series to Castlevania to iconic Nintendo villains, like King K Rool. The King of the Kremlings hasn’t appeared in a Nintendo game for nearly ten years, but he makes a glorious return as an entirely original character.

Of course, being brand new King K Rool takes a bit of learning to play, so we’re here to help get you started with him. Here’s how to play King K Rool in Smash Bros Ultimate, including his moves, strengths, weaknesses, and a few strategies.

Attacks and Special Moves

King K Rool’s moveset is very much based around power, and he’s a bit of a risk-reward character. K Rool has the unique ability of having super armor on some of his attacks, meaning that a blow from an opponent won’t interrupt your attack. However, this super armor generally only applies to the area on his belly, so most of his front side.

K Rool’s forward tilt, dash attack, down Smash, and neutral aerial will all grant him super armor. The dash attack, in particular, is especially useful and power as K Rool dives in a belly flop straight ahead. If the enemy has high percentage, and you hit them at the beginning of the dash attack, you can score an instant KO.

Another attack of note is K Rool’s forward Smash attack, which has him equip a giant boxing glove and hit forward. There’s some windup to the attack, but one hit with a forward Smash can cause 20 percent damage alone if you hit the sweet spot.

Neutral Special – Blunderbuss. King K Rool pulls out his blunderbuss and fires a giant cannonball straight ahead that falls quickly. If you hold the button down after shooting the blunderbuss will start vacuuming which can suck up nearby opponents and the cannonball. Anything sucked up will immediately get launched straight and up.

Sucking up enemies can work well to fire an enemy while at an edge, but relaunching the cannonball again will increase its damage and possibly KO an enemy at 70 percent damage or higher.

Side Special – Crownerang. King K Rool throws his crown like a boomerang in a straight line. The crown does less damage while it’s coming back to K Rool, however, it will lose altitude. If the crown fails to come back to you other characters can pick it up as a projectile.

If this happens it’ll come back to your head in 12 seconds, or once K Rool picks it up again.

Up Special – Propellerpack. King K Rool equips a propeller backpack and flies straight up. The propeller blades can cause weak damage to enemies it hits, but once the move ends K Rool will drift down unable to act until he hits the ground.

Down Special – Gut Check. King K Rool puffs up his stomach and uses it to counterattack enemy blows. He can only counter attacks that hit from the front and hit his belly, but the move can also be used to reflect projectiles.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths 

• Has super armor on his belly that can block attacks from the front at times. Can also use down special to counter.
• Despite being a heavyweight, has really good aerial recovery.
• Very high damage and good ability to launch.

Weaknesses

• Large hitbox opens King K Rool up to a lot of attacks, although he can crawl to reduce it.
• Slow movement speed and a fast falling speed can make King K Rool harder to play.
• Super armor on belly can be broken, leaving K Rool dazed and open.

Strategies and Tips

King K Rool’s power is obviously what you’ll want to focus on while playing as him, but his diverse moveset also allows you to keep opponents on their toes, guessing what you might do next.

As we stated above you’ll want to learn, and remember, the moves that give King K Rool his belly armor. These will be the bread and butter of your combos as they’re hard for enemies to counter. However, keep in mind that due to the power behind most of King K Rool’s attacks there’s a brief lag at the end.

This ending lag is especially important to keep in mind with King K Rool’s Smash attacks, as each one can leave you open for whole seconds at a time. Still, if you manage to land hits it’s well worth it as each of King K Rool’s blows will do at least 10 percent damage, if not more.

You’ll also want to take full advantage of your specials. The Blunderbuss is especially useful because of the projectile it fires, but more so because of the vacuum ability. You can actually fall through light platforms while holding down the B button for the vacuum, something most opponents won’t be expecting at all. This is a good way to get the drop on someone, and launch them for good damage.

King K Rool’s crown side special is also valuable for hitting enemies from range, but it’s important to note that he doesn’t have any super armor while throwing it. Don’t rely on your up special to do anything but recover from a launch, as its damage is so minimal.  However, your down special counter is another move you can loop in to throw off the enemy.

King K Rool’s counter isn’t as readable as the Fire Emblem characters, but it is harder to use. A final tip for King K Rool has to do with his downward throw. If you’re able to catch an enemy in your grab, a downward throw will bury them in the ground, leaving them open to another combo. This is also something you can do with his down tilt attack.

These are two attacks important to keep in mind as it’ll help you chain combos together as King K Rool, and maximize damage.

Those are our tips for how to play King K Rool in Smash Bros Ultimate. For more tips, tricks, and guides on the game, make sure to take a look at our Smash Bros Ultimate wiki.

While you’re at it, you can take a look at our guides on how to play the other new characters like Inkling, Simon, Incineroar, and Ridley.