Belly Super Armor (referred in the Techniques menu as Belly Power) is King K. Rool’s fighter ability. During attacks where his belly sticks out, his gold-plated stomach armor grants a special form of super armor.
Despite King K. Rool always wearing this piece of armor, Belly Super Armor is not active when idle or during attacks that do not involve King K. Rool expanding his stomach. As such, it is never active unless he executes certain attacks, such as his forward tilt. While the Belly Super Armor is inactive, it will not take damage and K. Rool will be hit as normal, although it will still restore HP. Attacks that hit K. Rool's Belly Super Armor make a loud, distinct clanging sound as an audio cue. If K. Rool's armor blocks an attack that triggers a Special Zoom, the attack will be blocked as normal, but the zoom still occurs.
When an attack is blocked by Belly Super Armor, there is a minimum 16 frames of hitlag. As a result, it is possible for options such as fast falling through it. K. Rool's neutral aerial often uses this against multihits to aid landing. If Belly Super Armor is broken, there is a universal 1.8x hitlag multiplier as well.
Belly Super Armor has its own hurtbox, centered on his waist and jutting out slightly. As a result, this can be taken as a hurtbox extension. Due to this, K. Rool's armor can be attacked when K. Rool himself usually would not be. This adds a degree of protection against longer lasting hitboxes, but multihits and short ranged hitboxes typically become better against it due to this as well.
HP System
The armor has 14.01 HP (18 HP in version 8.0.0 onwards), but since the incoming damage is split 50/50 between K. Rool and his belly, it is effectively 28.02 HP (36 HP) (often referred to by % in this case by the K. Rool playerbase to differentiate). Belly Super Armor regenerates 0.08 HP every 16 frames, or around 0.3 HP per second. As a result, it takes 4 seconds to recover 1.12 HP, in a more easy-to-scale format. Overall, it will take 47 seconds (60 in version 8.0.0 onwards) to recover all of Belly Super Armor's HP. Managing armor's health is pivotal in being successful with King K. Rool.
While Belly Super Armor is very powerful, it is a double-edged sword. If his armor takes enough damage, the camera will Special Zoom on King K. Rool as he is flung into the air on the spot and will become temporarily dizzy, using shield break mechanics. If his armor is broken in midair, King K. Rool will slowly descend until he lands on a platform or stage base, while also being intangible thanks to shield break mechanics. These mechanics applying mean he can potentially be KO'd by having his armor break off-stage, or if he's pushed off during the descent. As with shields and other forms of armor, Belly Super Armor cannot block unblockable attacks, grabs or hit-grabs, such as Terry's Buster Wolf becoming a grab upon the first hit connecting. If the armor is broken and then K. Rool is hit, the armor will restore at full HP again, unlike shields which restore at half health.
Unlike other forms of armor that use damage for thresholds in Ultimate, Belly Super Armor is affected by the increased damage caused by the 1v1 multiplier, as unlike other attacks it must first split the incoming damage before it can decide whether to break (and thus requires the final post-multiplier damage). As a result, it cannot withstand some moves in 1v1 matches, such as Falcon Punch, that it could otherwise. Armor is also affected by other damage multipliers such as Monado Arts, Revenge and Ink, making the armor deceptively easy to break for some characters. This is worsened by the stale-move negation mechanics strengthening fresh moves by 1.05x, allowing moves that deal as low as 22.5% at base to break armor in 1v1 if they come out fresh. However, moves staling can also help the armor due to decreased damage otherwise.
Due to the armor's active frames, it is also possible to destroy it through counters. However, forward tilt and down smash are impervious to this due to their armor specifically being out before the hitbox. Joker's Tetrakarn and other K. Rool's Gut Checks are particularly notorious for instant armor breaks due to their high multipliers, instantly breaking dash attack and up smash's armor on hit. Shulk's Vision with Buster can also break these, along with early up aerial[1].
Crack Stages
Unlike most forms of armor, K. Rool's belly armor actually reduces the damage K. Rool takes from attacks, cutting the damage in half. The amount of damage the armor has taken is roughly visible as a crack in his belly. Small cracks appear when the armor has 11.5 HP left, and large cracks appearing when it has 6.1 HP left. Thus, a K. Rool player can use this as a way to help manage the armor during a match, prioritizing different moves accordingly based on the matchup. Shielding (sometimes also tilting the shield) is the most common method of checking the armor crack due to it visualizing the armor almost completely. Neutral aerial is also used for it expands the belly, though this is risky as it also has the armor become active.
| 14.01 HP (28.02 HP w/Armor Split) | 11.5 HP (23 HP w/Armor Split) | 6.1 HP (12.2 HP w/Armor Split) |
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List of attacks that have Belly Super Armor
| Move | Notes | Frames active |
|---|---|---|
| Forward tilt | Before the clap. Due to being a tilt that can be angled on frames 1-10, the armor hurtbox can shift to block different attacks. Most notably, low angled forward tilt can block ledge attacks. | 5-11 |
| Up smash | Before the plank, when he hops. Has intangibility on the head. | 6-19 |
| Down smash | After the jump, before he lands. | 8-21 |
| Dash attack | When he leaps forward, extending his belly. Lingers for 3 frames after the hitbox ends. | 7-28 |
| Neutral aerial | When his stomach expands. Aids in landing. | 6-30 |
| Down aerial | As the stomp happens. | 14-25 |
| Up aerial | Just before he rises for the headbutt. Has intangibility on the head, making it difficult to challenge. | 6-20 |
| Side taunt | Right before he pats his belly. | 9-20 |
Trivia
- Oddly, Belly Super Armor will not regenerate health if the game speed is altered, either via Special Smash or Training Mode. The cause of this glitch is unknown.
- The Techniques menu does not list King K. Rool's up air, down air, and side taunt as moves possessing Belly Super Armor. Interestingly it does list Gut Check which, as a counterattack, does not utilize armor at all.
- Parameters reveal that using Gut Check was meant to have K. Rool take Belly Super Armor damage at some point during development, with a specific damage multiplier. However, this multiplier is 0, making it not occur at all. His scripts also request for damage to the Belly Super Armor, but they do not occur. It can be theorized that the clanging sound during Gut Check comes from this feature.
- Contrary to popular belief, Crownerang does not use Belly Super Armor. Instead, it has standard damage-based armor against anything that does equal to or less than 6% damage. As the belly is not involved, King K. Rool receives the full amount of any damage that was armored as with normal damage-based armor.
- ^ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QiWT63mHFBLbKn9594ahe1ee22Gf_aowCjrK6Heushk/edit#gid=0 armor compendium, has counter scaling as well