Crownerang
| Crownerang | |
|---|---|
 King K. Rool using Crownerang in Ultimate. | |
| User | King K. Rool |
| Universe | Donkey Kong |
| Article on Super Mario Wiki | Crownerang |
Crownerang (クラウンスロー, Crown Throw) is King K. Rool's side special move.
Overview
K. Rool takes his crown off his head and flings it forward as a projectile. True to its name, the crown acts like a boomerang. During the throw, K. Rool is granted damage-based armor to moves dealing less than 12% on frames 8-63, which is distinct from his character-specific Belly Super Armor and is not be confused with it. While the crown is in play, King K. Rool will not be able to use the move again until he retrieves it.
The crown has very, very high priority while being thrown by K. Rool, with it having the first hit negated at worst when colliding with a projectile (except moves with transcendent priority, such as Wolf's Blaster). As a result, the move can be used as a form of projectile defense rather than just as a zoning tool. Nothing will stop the Crown from moving in its general direction unless it is reflected, thus making it a very consistent and reliable attack when used correctly.
If K. Rool doesn't retrieve the crown and it hits the floor, it can be picked up as an item if K. Rool fails to pick it up quickly. As a result, it can also be pocketed, pulled in by Gravitational Pull, or abused by other item-related moves. Should this happen, K. Rool will be unable to use the attack again until he regains his crown, or in the case of it being pocketed, the opponent losing the stock. The Crown deals 9% to King K. Rool when smash thrown at an opponent as an item, and deals a decent amount of knockback. However, it does not have the same priority as being thrown by K. Rool anymore, instead being cancelled out even by the Blunderbuss Kannonballs.
When a player has the crown, generally it is seen as one of the worst (albeit preventable) things that can happen to a King K. Rool player. He has very few counterplay options to the crown, as the move is his main form of defense against projectiles in the first place. Gut Check reflecting the crown is usually his only option. However, he can also dash attack through while also executing a Crown Cancel, shield, or jump out of the way and attempt a punish. However, all of these have a heavy commitment behind them, unlike the opponent throwing it. In many matchups, this can not only generate more projectile pressure than usual, but also lock K. Rool out of a lot of his options. This is not only due to being a whole special move down, but also because the crown itself locks down K. Rool extremely hard.
If the crown is thrown by another player, it will act as a normal item, constantly respawning whenever it crosses a blast zone or disappears over time, although it is usually close to K. Rool, often in a way he won't need to put in much effort to find it. If K. Rool touches the crown in general, he will perform a short, 17 frame uninterruptible animation of him placing it back on his head (unless he is performing another uninterruptible animation, such as another attack, reeling, jumpsquat, shielding). However, there are roughly 30 frames prior to this that K. Rool can pick it up with no lag. Due to these prior factors, K. Rool is unable to pick up his own crown like a normal throwing item, as any contact will result in the crown being put back on his head; he can pick up a crown from another K. Rool as a throwing item, however.
Crownerang also requires good precision to not be punishable. If used from close range, the 26 frame startup - while there's the aforementioned armor from Frame 8 all the way to Frame 63 - it isn't infallible. Players can simply jump over or shield the crown and punish it for misuse, often taking K. Rool out of the projectile range and causing it to become an item. It's not difficult to jump over, grab him, and abuse throw invincibility to force the crown back onto his head either, neutralizing the threat completely. As a result, a King K. Rool player should always be using the move from mid to long range depending on the matchup to ensure they aren't punished.
Once Crownerang is out, high level players typically think of it as an "option select" situation: generally a player will have a multitude of opportunities presented by Crownerang's interactions with King K. Rool. He has a multitude of advanced techniques, and sometimes jumping over the crown and attacking a player attempting to punish is seen as a good option. There's also Crown Cancelling through attacks such as forward tilt or forward aerial in a way that increases his overall defense while retrieving the crown. Awaiting a returning crown hit and capitalizing on it is also one of the best options K. Rool has available, especially in tandem with the advanced techniques he has. Forward throw can also combo into the returning hit for high damage combos. Option awareness is one of the most important aspects of the crown, and should be taken into consideration when playing the character.
Instructional quote
 Move List |
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Throws his crown like it's a boomerang. Can't be thrown again until it is picked up. |
Techniques
King K. Rool's Crownerang, while simple in execution, holds numerous advanced techniques. These tend to make use of the Crown Pickup animation from execution (with a FAF of 18, which at 0% from a Returning Crown Hit results in +8 hit advantage), which is not to be confused with the animation from the item pickup (with a FAF of 28). These techniques all have unique uses and execution, although they vary in viability.
Players looking to make use of K. Rool's technical side tend to lean towards Crown Sliding and Crown Bouncing for their utility in neutral. Many of these techniques abuse the fact that picking up the Crown, regardless of animation type, is considered a special move by the game. As such, techniques such as Crown bouncing can be considered forced b-reverses and wavebounces, though they have unique caveats.
Crownerang's advanced techniques are a mainstay in King K. Rool's metagame for their strong reward if executed in the right situation, such as KO confirms, combos and massive shifts in game state. However, if executed poorly, they often have severe consequences due to the lag on Crownerang and the animations being abused.
Crownless Bounce
This tech makes use of King K. Rool's "No Crown" animation. Through executing a Short or Full Hop at a specific point with Side Special, it's possible to execute different jumps. Crownless Bounces can be very useful when combined with Crown Landing, turning them into movement options. The pivot jump can allow for some very useful platform control, as K. Rool will land at the perfect time for his landing lag to cancel on Battlefield's side platforms Due to the utility of this maneuver, it's been dubbed Crownless Bouncing.
It is also possible to Crown Bounce via C-Stick Macro Specials[1] while not having the crown at all (thus using the crown pickup animation). This is known as a C-Stick Macro Crownless Bounce. This allows for a wavebounce or pivot jump depending on the inputs; the traditional input causes the pivot jump, while inputting two forward or backward inputs instead of the traditional way causes the wavebounce to occur. While the pivot jump is a movement mixup at best (most notably for back aerial meteor smashes), the wavebounce is notable for how far it sends K. Rool back. This aids him in zoning, being able to follow up with a wavebounce into Blunderbuss after throwing the crown out.
However, Crownless Bouncing on its own comes with risks. The "No Crown" animation lasts 36 Frames: there is a lot of lag to this when it's executed. Thus, Crown Landing must be executed correctly whenever it is being performed, or there is a very real risk of being punished. While options can be buffered through it, it's not necessarily helpful when an opponent is on the offense. This means that the technique on its own is limited to slower matchups or situations where opponents can't stop him.
Crownless Bouncing allows for great use of up tilt to anti-air, or control the top platform if the Pivot Jump is used. The wavebounce allows for many funky approach or retreat options, such as the aforementioned Blunderbuss zoning. It can also allow for approaches with neutral attack, instant dash attack (forward + forward on c-stick), or the previously mentioned up tilt. It can also function as a tomahawk option, allowing for interesting reads and plays.
The Short Hop variant of Crownless Bouncing has been used along with a thrown Crownerang to quickly collect it, and then proceed to continue moving due to it triggering a Crown Pickup Crown Landing. This almost always triggers 0 landing lag, and the Crown Pickup allows for buffer strategies as well. Thanks to this, K. Rool gets another movement setup that is surprisingly quick and very applicable in certain matchups. This adds a new layer of options out of the attack, such as the aforementioned Jab or Grab. There are also very good shield cross-ups here, especially when used with Pivot Grabs.
Giant Crown Glitch
When K. Rool throws his crown, and the crown touches solid ground while he is in an egg from Yoshi's Egg Lay, the crown will become almost as large as Yoshi himself.[2] The crown will retain its massive size even if an opponent holds and throws it as an item, and it will only revert back to normal size if the K. Rool picks up his own crown. The glitch is functionally similar to previous Egg Lay-related glitches, such as the one which increases the size of Jigglypuff under the effects of the regenerating terrain glitch, and a glitch in Smash 4's Multi-Man Smash that caused giant opponents to turn gargantuan if caught by Egg Lay.
This glitch was fixed in 3.0.0.
See also
Origin
This move is based on King K. Rool's main attack from the final boss fight against him in Donkey Kong Country. In the fight, K. Rool would throw his crown to attack the Kongs, usually to conclude a cycle of other attacks, especially later in the fight. True to K. Rool's bumbling nature, this attack also provided the only opening for the Kongs to damage him, as he was completely invincible at all other times.
Gallery
Crownerang as shown by the Move List in Ultimate.
