King K. Rool (SSBU)/Forward aerial

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

Overview

A powerful drop-kick, that also serves as a sex kick. Forward aerial is long and far one of K. Rool's best moves, due to the reasonable speed, damage output, shield safety, range and reward on hit. Forward aerial has 7 active frames, with sweetspots and sourspots, as well as transitions between early, mid and late hits. Each of these have extremely good uses and benefit K. Rool in different ways.

Forward aerial is one of K. Rool's best neutral tools, due to its wide range and slight disjoint reminiscent of Diddy Kong's forward aerial from Smash 4. It is -5 on shield with the tipper early hitbox, and -6 otherwise, making it reasonably safe to throw out. It is also one of the only reliable safe on whiff tools K. Rool has in midrange, further helping him in this situation. Due to the angle, forward aerial is almost always advantage or even a ledgetrap situation on hit. Due to all these factors, this is one of K. Rool's main options in neutral and absolutely must be acknowledged by any K. Rool player.

Forward aerial deals a very high amount of damage, while also being K. Rool's best combo starter. Not sending into tumble at 0% while being +15 on hit with the tipper makes it extremely threatening, confirming grabs. Due to non-tumble hitstun, this cannot be DI'd, removing all interaction on the opponent's end. This can lead into up throw or forward throw into instant dash attack on characters with particularly wide ranges. The move can also confirm dash attack or neutral attack on its own, should grabbing not be favorable for the player. Even if retreating with full momentum, it will confirm forward tilt at 0%, making it exceptionally useful. If the player lands frame perfectly at 0% or builds up a small amount of damage, then down tilt is very possible. Furthermore, due to the slight disjoint, it can clank with projectiles, significantly aiding K. Rool's approach, and due to the active frames allowing him to easily land a hit. This is one of the most important aspects of approaching as K. Rool as a result of this, as well as the advantage on hit making it very rewarding to the player.

The late hit on forward aerial doesn't send into tumble for extremely long periods of time (around 65%), while giving sizable hit advantage prior. As a result, this can serve as a secondary form of 0% forward aerial. This can allow for kill confirms if it connects, due to grabs and dash attack once again being perfectly viable followups. While 6.0.0 unintentionally dampened the viability of this, it is still perfectly usable and is important when ledgetrapping.

Once it starts sending into tumble (around 25%), tech chases can be done for even more damage, such as locking with down aerial. It also serves as one of the best Blunderbuss and Crownerang setups possible as well, due to the almost always horizontal launch angle. This often leads to vortex-esque situations, which can be difficult for the opponent to get out of. Forward aerial is also one of the best moves for sending characters into K. Rool's projectiles; returning Crownerang allows for up tilt or dash attack followups, and Blunderbuss Kannonballs mean generally big damage as well as reinforcing the opponent's acknowledgement of the space and situations they make.

Forward aerial is key in ledgetrapping as K. Rool, due to its high active frames and ability to cover many ledge options at once. Depending on positioning, it can cover jump, roll, virtually anything the opponent has as long as the player positions it correctly. Due to the comboability of the move, at Mid%s there can be further plays after it connects. Or, if the late hit connects, a stock.

Forward aerial's active frames as well as low hitbox does make it a niche landing option, and coming down from platforms and fast falling makes it virtually always at max hit advantage. Thus, forward aerial can be used to relieve platform pressure as well as challenge opponents who lack disjoints when juggling him.

However, forward aerial does have weaknesses. For starters, the FAF is extremely high at 58, making use offstage difficult to even being a stock. The move also doesn't autocancel out of a short hop, making rising forward aerial's utility strictly for sending into tumble. It is also much less safe when used in this way, being a free punish if it whiffs. Furthermore, it can cause an SD if fast falled offstage with.

On top of this, despite the disjoint, forward aerial is extremely weak to disjointed attacks itself. This is because the disjoint is generally quite small. Against swordfighter aerials, K. Rool has to strictly attempt to outrange them, and while this is possible it can be difficult with constant pressure.

Update History

3.0.0

• Forward aerial's sweetspots and sourspot IDs were swapped, as well as the sweetspot's range being increased.
  • The sweetspot's increased size improves its effective range and safety, granting King K. Rool better spacing capabilities.

6.0.0

• Forward aerial's early and mid hits deal more damage (14%/12% → 15.5%/13.5%) with knockback not fully compensated (40 base/78 scaling (clean), 35/80 (mid) → 36/76), improving their KO potential.
  • The damage buff also made the tipper hitbox a frame safer on shield, becoming -5 landing. This allows K. Rool to mix up and pressure shield more consistently.
  • However, the damage buff makes it send into tumble earlier, hindering grab confirms at Low percents.
• The clean and mid hits' sweetspot is larger (5.5u → 6.5u) and placed higher (Y offset: 7.5u → 8.5u (clean), 10.5u → 11.5u (mid)), increasing its range.
• The mid hit lasts longer (frames 11 (early)/12-13 (mid)/14-17 (late) → 11/12-14/15-17).
  • Due to the mid hit lasting an extra frame, the late hit lasts one less frame (frames 14-17 -> 15-17). This makes getting late hit confirms at high%s slightly more difficult.

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
Early
0	0	0	15.5%	0		Standard	36	76	0		6.5	top	0.0	8.5	13.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
0	0	0	13.5%	0		Standard	36	76	0		7.0	top	0.0	6.2	6.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Mid
0	0	0	15.5%	0		Standard	36	76	0		6.5	top	0.0	11.5	17.5	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
0	0	0	13.5%	0		Standard	36	76	0		7.0	top	0.0	10.5	12.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Late
0	0	0	10.0%	0		Standard	30	70	0		4.7	top	0.0	15.0	13.5	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
1	0	0	8.0%	0		Standard	30	70	0		6.0	top	0.0	11.0	6.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-2
Early Hit	11
Mid hit	12-14
Late Hit	15-17
Ending autocancel	40-
Interruptible	58
Animation length	58

Landing lag

Animation length	49
Interruptible	11

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Interruptible

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
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash