Heavyweight fighters were typically strong contenders in Smash 4 amiibo tournaments. The burly brutes Bowser and Ganondorf ruled that metagame, claiming win after win thanks to their powerful finishers and rock-solid defenses. But now, we’ve moved onto Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the game has changed. Enter King K. Rool, a heavyweight fiend who puts Smash 4 Bowser and Ganondorf to shame. This crowned combatant breaks the mold of bulky fighters by bringing unique attributes to the table, and you can read more about these on King K. Rool’s wiki page. Otherwise, let’s get right into today’s training!

Spirits

A good amount of trainers start their amiibo training journey with King K. Rool. If you’re one of them, then you might be a bit confused as to how Spirits work. Indeed, there are many complex intricacies to learn about, and if you want to read up on all the details, you can refer to our detailed Spirits guide. For now, know that you should give your Figure Player its complete Spirit team before you even start training it. Here are some specific builds you can use with King K. Rool:

• Banned bonuses: As with most heavyweight fighters, King K. Rool benefits from the three-slot Super Armor bonus effect. He also pairs well with Armor Knight plus Trade-Off Ability ↑, and this setup gifts the king with incredible boosts to his attack, defense, and speed stats.
• Tournament-legal bonuses: Physical Attack ↑ and Physical Attack ↑ work great here. That’s right: two of them! For the third slot, you can include Trade-Off Ability ↑ for even greater power. Critical-Health Stats ↑ and Shield Durability ↑ are worth considering as well; the latter actually increases the health of the king’s belly super armor.
• Raid Boss bonuses: The aforementioned Super Armor and Armor Knight Spirit effects work great on a Raid Boss! If you’d rather not use them, try a setup including Physical Attack ↑, Move Speed ↑, and Landing Lag ↓ instead. You could also try Critical Healing & Metal, which can be obtained via the Pneuma Support Spirit.

For stats, you can either keep them balanced (2100 / 2100) or invest more heavily into attack (2500 / 1700). Make sure your FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral before you begin its training — we don’t want it losing Spirit-type matchups while fighting opponents who also have Spirits equipped.

Competitive Training

King K. Rool’s walk speed is rather slow, so in terms of movement, you should teach your FP a combination of walking and dashing. When your FP is nearby, walk up to it, but when it’s really far away, dash over to it and then slow down and walk. There are two types of King K. Rool amiibo you can train: Blunderbuss K. Rools and off-stage ones. Neither choice is objectively better than the other, as they’re both strong in their own unique circumstances — more on that in just a bit. In the meantime, here are all the moves you should use during your training sessions:

• King K. Rool’s forward tilt is a fast clap that deals solid damage. It’s quite fast, especially when compared to the king’s other tilt attacks. Use it out of shield, when your FP is nearby, and to catch rolls.
• Blunderbuss is a two-part attack. Part one is a powerful cannonball that opposing FPs occasionally have trouble blocking. Part two is a command grab that sucks the opponent in. You can use Blunderbuss when the FP is at mid-range, or at the ledge when it’s trying to recover. This is a great move all around!
• Down smash is K. Rool’s strongest dedicated kill move. Its jumping hitbox can confuse AI opponents, and the actual attack is incredibly powerful to boot!
• Dash attack should be used at mid-to-close range to approach. If you’re near your FP and want to use a dash attack, you can break into a dash, use the move, and then go right back to walking. Crownerang gives King K. Rool temporary super armor; use it from afar to rack up damage, and then close in and attack with the moves listed above.
• King K. Rool’s grab – specifically, his forward and back throws – are too good to pass up. Use them against your FP when it’s at high percentages. Back throw works especially well near the ledge! You only need to use the king’s forward and back throws when grabbing. Never use down throw, because the AI tries to use a forward smash afterward that usually won’t connect.
• Additionally, you can work in some jabs, landing neutral airs, and up smashes. That being said, these should all be used very infrequently. Prioritize the moves listed above most of all.

You should remain grounded as often as possible, with one exception: you can choose to chase your FP off-stage if you’d like. When trying to gimp it, only attack with down air; back air has too much startup lag to be a reliable option. Alternatively, you can choose to incorporate no off-stage play and instead wait at the ledge and rack up damage by continuously sucking up your FP with Blunderbuss and spitting it back out again. Both are equally viable, so pick your favorite!

Raid Boss Training

As always, you’ll want to mirror match your King K. Rool amiibo until it reaches Level 50. This will take quite a bit of time, so if you’d like, you can train it up until about Level 35. Then you can switch its learning off and level up against CPUs for the rest of the way. Don’t charge smash attacks, don’t taunt too often, and don’t worry about matchup experience, because FPs don’t save any! Unfortunately, you’ll need to keep King K. Rool on-stage when training him as a Raid Boss. He occasionally recovers high with Propellerpack, which leaves him vulnerable to incoming attacks. Here are all the attacks you should focus on, then:

• Forward tilt and neutral attack are solid close-ranged options. In the case of the latter, make sure you use all three hits of the jab combo at once.
• You can use neutral air to land — just not too often! FPs can go crazy with their neutral air usage, and that’s especially bad for K. Rool. His belly super armor could be broken if he uses his neutral air too much!
• Up tilt and up air should be used to juggle opponents who have been launched upward — use more up tilts than you do up airs.
• Crownerang has super armor and fires a useful projectile! Use it at mid-range to rack up damage. Don’t use it too close to your FP, as King K. Rool can be grabbed during Crownerang’s initial throw despite its built-in super armor.
• Down smash is King K. Rool’s most useful smash attack, and one of his primary grounded kill moves. It catches rolls, has a deceptively mobile hitbox, and is really strong! Use it often.
• Grab often, and when you do, use King K. Rool’s forward and back throws. They’re especially effective when used at the ledge! Don’t use any down throws, as the AI will try to follow up with a forward smash that usually doesn’t connect.

In addition, you can sprinkle in some Blunderbuss, forward smash, and up smash every so often, but these should take a backseat to the moves listed above. There aren’t any attacks you should specifically avoid except for using Propellerpack offensively. Do you remember the early days of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, when content creators would show off cool kills where they’d use Propellerpack to KO opponents off the top blast zone? Don’t do that!

Wrap-Up

King K. Rool is a great amiibo for new trainers to start with. The character fills a lot of niches; it’s great against human players and against AI ones, but needs to be trained differently for both styles. Once again, King K. Rool’s wiki page covers more of his strengths and weaknesses, and if you have any more questions, our Discord community is happy to answer them for you. You can also look at our tournament entry guide to get set up for online competitions. As always, we appreciate any and all donations if you like what you’ve read here today! You can also check out our Patreon page if you have a spare moment. Thanks so much for reading! Until next time — happy training!

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