- Game Versions
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
P.S.
Just to make it easier on myself I’ll call the side b when you press attack side b kick and when you don’t side b grab.
Moveset Percents
- Jab
- 1%, 1.2%, 1.2%, 0-1% multi hits, 3% final hit
- F-tilt
- 10% (strong), 7% (weak)
- U-tilt
- 6%
- D-tilt
- 5.5%
- Dash Attack
- 2%, 2%, 3%
- F-smash
- 16% uncharged, 22.5% fully charged.
- U-smash
- 11% UC, 15.5% FC.
- D-smash
- Front 12% UC, 16.5% FC. Back 15% UC, 21% FC.
- Fair
- 10% first frames 8% late frames (26 frames of landing lag)
- Bair
- 9% (12 frames of landing lag)
- Uair
- 6% (21 frames of landing lag)
- Dair
- 13% strong, 10% weak (28 frames of landing lag)
- Nair
- 6% all frames (13 frames of landing lag)
- Side Special
- Kick: 14% first frames, 12% mid, 10% after
- Grab: 1% each pummel, 10% final hit, 8% jump off
- Up Special
- 10% first frames, 8% mid, 6% after, explosion causes 18%, also causes 5% to Diddy
- Down Special
- 5-6% when smash thrown, 4% when tilt thrown, 3-4% regular down b, 4-5% smash down b
- Neutral Special
- 3-4% weakest charge, 10-11% full charge (when he grabs his hat), 23% when it blows up
- Down Throw
- 7%
- Up Throw
- 5%
- Back Throw
- 12%
- Forward Throw
- 9%
- Pummel
- 2%
1.0.6
So this update might as well be called the Great Diddy Nerf of 2015. Seriously, Nintendo said they weren’t going to do another patch and then they realized they made DIddy way too good so we got 1.0.6. This is pretty much the bane of all Diddy main’s existence since it gave Diddy a whopping 4 nerfs. The first 3 you can deal with and aren’t too bad, just a damage reduction on up and down throw along with fair, but nerfing up air is what really hit hard. This move not only does 1 less percent but also has MUCH less knock back. This one nerf effectively took Diddy out of the top tier. This went from his most effective kill move to a so-so kill move at best. This effectively changes the fundamental way that one plays this cap wearing monkey, but I’ll address the major change later on in the kill power section, since that’s what the update affected the most.
Throws
Down Throw-
Well first of all, the Hoo Hah still works, and perhaps even better than before. Wow I had this whole section written and then 1.0.8 came out. Soooo the Hoo Hah is not better than before. It’s much worse, so easy to DI out of, you can’t get more than one confirmed up air (sometimes 2) and other bad stuff. The only good part of this is that it sets up for a potential frame trap if you up air them once and then wait for them to air dodge before throwing another up air or jumping and dairing, whatever you want really. Since the knockback on up air was lowered, this means that it is easier to string one up air into another even if it isn’t as confirmed as before. You can also down throw into dair, which sets up well for another grab or depending on where you land maybe d tilt or f tilt, or an up air if they bounce off the ground. By the edge this will kill, so if they air dodge or you’re fast enough that they don’t react then pretty much free kill. At low percent down throw<full hop<bair<fast fall(if necessary)<bair<jump (sometimes land first only if necessary)<bair<jump if needed assuming you landed first<bair is a very good combo to use and can rack up damage very fast. The most bairs I’ve landed from one down throw is 4… It’s definitely more damage than an up throw fair but it could take a bit of practice. At mid percents when you down throw into bair, you want to use side b (usually initiating the kick) after to get extra damage. This works very well since at mid percent people typically don’t expect more than one attack after a down throw. Just be sure to remember that when you use the kick after side b you can use your jump if you still have it but you will not be able to use up b so your recovery will be very limited. At mid percent you typically want to go with up throw so don’t worry about down throw. There really isn’t a lot to say about down throw, it is simple to combo into at low percent (maybe not as easy as pre-1.0.6) and gives you free damage.
Up Throw-
Diddy’s up throw is basically an easier to follow up off of down throw that does 2% more. This is the throw that you will be using mostly when people are DI’ing away from your down throw, you are in the middle of the stage so you can’t use f or b throw to throw your opponent offstage, or you don’t want to stale your f or b throw to use them as a possible kill move. You can also use it if you just prefer it over the down throw, it can be easier to get a fair follow up but you won’t get two bairs. One good use of this move is if you think your opponent will air dodge, at low percent (depending on weight) you can jump (double jump at mid percent) above them and if they air dodge you get a free dair. This sets up for the same things a dair from a down throw does, so I won’t go over the options again. You can also use any aerial besides dair to follow up an up throw at low percents if your opponent doesn’t air dodge, but at higher percents only up air will work. After a while, you kind of just hope that your opponent air dodges every single up throw you do and gets hit by your up air every time and never learns. You can do the ultimate mix up and do up throw<jump<jump<down b at a percent when you can’t jump high enough for the up air to hit but you have to have seriously good spacing for that to work. Up b works as well, but leaves you prone so isn’t as useful. The good thing is that if your opponent jumps away to avoid a follow up then they don’t have a jump left so you can simply double jump as a bait and make them waste their jump, putting them in a worse position when landing. You can also at specific percents and depending on weight throw your opponent up onto a platform (typically done on Battlefield’s middle platform) and if they don’t react quick enough and jump away or miss a tech then you can get an easy follow up. You can also do lots of u throws into nairs at high percent or even just u throw to purposefully stale it so that you can get a u throw<u air combo at kill percent more easily.
Forward Throw-
I would say that forward throw is Diddy’s least useful throw. It doesn’t do much besides the obvious throwing offstage for stage positioning. At low percents it does combo into short hop fair which can be very useful in giving you stage positioning and possibly set up for other things such as another grab or another short hop fair. It is helpful if you condition people to DI to your back to escape a d throw follow up because that makes your f throw combo better. It kills at 165% from the edge of the stage and 245% from middle unstaled if your opponent doesn’t DI, but it is still worse at killing then back throw. Not much else to say about f throw.
Back Throw-
Diddy’s back throw is only good for two things, killing and throwing people off stage. It kills at 155% from the edge of the stage and 230% from the middle unstaled if your opponent doesn’t DI, making it Diddy’s main kill throw. Other than those two things it’s pretty much useless. It does 1 more percent than u throw u air although it u throw<u air puts your opponent into the air where you can possibly get more damage off of a landing trap. However if you don't want to stale your u air then you can go for b throw instead.
Combos
Diddy’s combos are pretty crazy in this iteration of smash, so there is quite a bit to go over here. This section is for his combos from regular moves that don’t stem from a throw, so things you can set up from a d tilt and so on (this also doesn’t address special moves, most notably banana). First of all Diddy’s dash attack is extremely bad, I don’t have to explain this to mains of this character, but for those of you who aren’t the hitbox is very weird so it flat out misses sometimes, it’s terrible for covering landings, and it has really bad end lag for a dash attack, and is overall worse than grabbing. Diddy’s easiest combo tools on the ground are down tilt and up tilt (remember, not including banana), so I’ll start with up tilt.
Up Tilt-
At low percent this move is akin to Pikachu and Fox’s up tilts, it combos into itself. Fox’s up tilt strings can end with a smash attack, but Diddy’s are more similar to Pikachu’s, ending with one or more up airs. You can end it with a smash attack especially if you read an air dodge, but not as consistently as with Fox so typically just end with an aerial (usually but not restricted to up air). Also if your opponent has a very quick aerial like Luigi’s nair then use one up tilt then shield their attack and shield grab, but if your opponent is playing a character with no quick option like Bowser then just spam away. Remember that they have to jump away or air dodge, if they do the first then they won't have a jump and you can bait an air dodge, and if they do the latter then you can continue the up tilt spam.
Down Tilt-
Diddy’s next comboing tilt is his down tilt. This little clap is a very effective combo starter and has several follow ups. It can combo into another down tilt, an up tilt, short hop fair, RAR bair, any smash attack, and a grab. It does combo into other things like f tilt and u air but the ones listed above have the most practical use. Also know that you can typically only land two down tilts in a row, not the 4+ that you can get from up tilt. At kill percent f smash is a very good choice, and at low percent u tilt or another d tilt then grab are both good picks. This has many set ups but you must be quick about it, so just do as you choose. If you hard read an air dodge then you can do a b reversed banana to get a free anything since you will be right next to them.
Bair-
Diddy’s bair actually does have combo capability, and although it doesn’t come up often it can still be useful since every percent counts. The easiest combo from bair is another bair, although this only works at low percent. I said this earlier, but bair does combo into side b kick at mid-ish percents. At very low percent you can even bair then down b, but this is a bit harder to land since down b has starting lag and if they time it correctly your opponent can even take your banana for their own. There isn’t too much more you can do out of bair, so that will conclude this section.
Fair-
If you are impeccable with your fast falls, you can short hop<fair<fast fall<repeat<run forward if needed all while moving forward and string together as many fairs as their is stage left. This only works at low percent, depends heavily on weight, and is nearly always if not always not a true combo. You can bait people into air dodging after one or two fairs as a mind game but it has little use other than that. Fair really has no other follow ups, so that's the end of that.
Nair-
This move combos well into pretty much any aerial Diddy has, the easiest being up air since nair has very little end lag and puts opponents right above you. Landing with a nair behind your opponent can be a good option since if they get hit then they get hit and if they don’t then you have a chance to grab them unless they quickly shield drop and do a turn around grab, f tilt, or jab. This is probably Diddy’s worst aerial but it still can set up combos so don’t completely disregard it.
Up Air-
Up air<Up air<Up air. But seriously bair and fair are better options so try to use those if you can depending on which way the up sends your opponent. If you read an air dodge after an up air then you can do a regular or b reversed down b depending on where they get sent, or charge an up b (especially if you’re using the OP custom).
Peanut Popgun-
This move doesn’t set up combos too well but if you use it on an opponent’s shield then you might have time to get a grab especially if you start it in the air. It is very slow however and they must stay in shield the whole time. The popgun is very punishable and barely has any priority so you won’t be using it often for combos.
Edge Guarding
Diddy Kong has decent edgeguarding skills in this game but nothing close to the caliber of Sheik or Pac-Man. His typical tools in this realm are run off fair/bair, the obvious dair spike, down b, neutral b, and to some extent side b and nair (also of course trumps). Running off the stage and immediately fairing is actually a very good option if your opponent is the right position as is the same but with bair. If you land bair then your opponent must tech or they will die (unless they are at low percent) and landing fair has lots of killing potential especially against light characters. These are both useful options against characters with many jumps who like to use those instead of their recovery to recover.
The next option is fairly self explanatory. Dair spikes. You can go for super style points and do a run off dair as well but this puts you into a pretty bad position especially if you miss. If you are above someone you can scare them into air dodging especially if you have spiked them earlier in the match.
Diddy’s banana is his easiest edgeguarding tool, all you have to do is go to the edge, turn around, then use the move. Remember that you can either smash input it by pressing down and b at the same time or soft input it by holding down then pressing b. Smash inputting this move sends the banana further horizontally and vertically which doesn’t really help you so I would stick with soft inputting it. All you have to do is figure out the correct spacing from the ledge to make it go barely over the edge and not hit the stage. This is actually a very good option since if your opponent air dodges to avoid the banana then you can be right there to bair them for a stage spike or dair for a meteor smash. If you put a banana perfectly as your opponent is moving downwards to get below the ledge for a low recovery there is almost nothing they can do to except get hit then get daired or air dodge it and still get daired, making it an effective frame trap. If you want you can also get a banana in your hand then just jump over the edge and Z drop it or throw it downwards if you feel like it. Those do allow you more control over where the nanner goes but throwing it downwards also makes it go faster resulting in less time where it can disrupt people.
Neutral b is an edgeguarding tool you can use if you don’t want to risk anything. Just space yourself so that the peanuts will go just barely over the edge of the stage and spam the b button. This will hit people who like to stay on the ledge for a long time, and if they do a regular get up then shield (which happens often) then predict when they will do this and instead of firing another peanut just run up and grab them. Rolling off the ledge can pose a problem for you so be careful and use a smash or tilt if you see it coming. If they jump off then just do what Diddy does best, up air (Man, I wrote that pre-patch. Just use any aerial…). Also, if you shoot a peanut so that it will hit just as your opponent loses their ledge invincibility, you can know exactly when they will do their get up option which makes it so you only have to read which option they will do and not when they will do it. ZeRo demonstrates this well here.
When playing Diddy you can use side b off the stage since it is very hard to see coming but you shouldn’t use the kick, you should grab them and then press up to jump off their head putting you very high in the air and making them go downwards. This is extremely situational however so it won’t come up much, but when it does it can be good to know. Also if you ever happen to grab someone with your side b offstage remember to always press up and not attack (unless they’re at very high percent when the attack will kill).
The last semi-decent offstage option is nair. This is just useful for putting out an easy lasting hitbox anywhere you want it. You can run off the stage and nair, jump up and nair, whatever you want. The downside of this however is that it sends your opponent upwards which makes it easier for them to recover. The last option is ledge trumping which every character can do. I explained it in my Sheik guide so I won’t go over it again. In my opinion Diddy’s best option after a trump is pressing away from the ledge and then bairing which can kill. However if you read an air dodge after your trump you can also get a dair.
Spacing
Diddy typically doesn’t have much of a problem spacing. His fair walls are fairly effective (wow I just read that), the move has little lag, can be spammed out of a short hop, and has a very long hitbox. Diddy can also do two bairs out of a short hop, another effective spacing method although consider that the hitbox isn't as long as fair. Another good spacing attack is down tilt, it has little lag and can set up into another move if hit. F tilt can be a long range poke but has noticeably more lag than down tilt.
One thing Diddy has going for him is that just having a banana in hand is a very effective form of spacing. One thing you should notice is that while you’re holding a banana people will typically either spam projectiles, shield, rush you, or try to jump. Each person typically has a certain amount of time they will wait for you to move before trying to approach, so learning this can give you an advantage since you’ll know when they will approach. Projectiles can be jumped over or perfect shielded, but shield and jump are what you want to look out for. When faced with a banana most people shield for the same amount of time, about a second and a half to two seconds. Now in this situation you don't want to throw your banana yet because you have all the control in this situation. What you want to look out for is what option they use after they decide you won't throw it. More advanced players will typically jump, the other options being rolling and spot dodging. You can go for a hard read on one of these options if you want, such as jumping and throwing the banana then fairing to catch a jump OOS, or a side b kick to catch a roll towards or away from you depending on your positioning. The side b by itself is a decent command grab and can be used if you read a shield but this is the obvious option and can be read.
One option is using a jump canceled glide toss (JCGT for short) which I will explain how to perform later. This will slide you forward while throwing the banana. After this there are a few scenarios that could play out. They block the banana and shield grab you, they don't react fast enough and you grab them after throwing the banana giving you a grab, they jump OOS and you either react to it and up air them or they punish you, they drop their shield and get hit by the banana and you still grab them or react to it and go for a smash attack instead, or they spot dodge roll etc and escape, possibly punishing you. A roll back however will sometimes still get hit by the banana giving you a punish. After doing this once or twice you should change strategies since your opponent will catch on and start adapting, perhaps predict a jump out of shield or a spot dodge after the banana hits their shield.
Kill Power
The most important part of smash, killing. Luckily for you, Diddy has no small amount of kill moves for your pleasure. Those are: All smash attacks, all aerials excluding nair, up b, side b kick, neutral b explosion, f throw, and b throw.
Up smash is useful since it kills off the top, although it’s weaker than f smash.
You can get a running up smash if you throw a banana fairly close to your opponent although u smash has a tendency to sometimes miss the last hit, especially when done out of a run so be careful. D tilt also combos into u smash which is very useful since you should be spacing with d tilt a lot in the neutral, so If you manage to land one then you can get a kill off of it. If you are close enough to your opponent then you typically want to go for f smash since it’s stronger. If you’re a bit away then do a dash canceled f smash by dashing then immediately f smashing, and if you’re even further away then use a perfect pivot f smash. F smash is extremely useful because of it’s low amount of end lag. You can use this move when your opponent is on the ledge to try and catch a jump, and then shield nearly every time if they try to punish with a get up attack. The low amount of lag also makes it safer than other smashes to throw out in the neutral.
D smash is an extremely quick option to throw out, has good reach, and shrinks your hurtbox for a moment, but it is the weakest of all Diddy’s smashes. U air kills off the top obviously, although while it used to kill at 140% on a standing opponent now it barely kills at 140% after an up throw. This used to be your best kill move overall, netting kills earlier than 100% but now you have to be craftier and rely on other options. All the other aerials kill best offstage, bair killing better than fair, and dair obviously killing earliest (and nair doesn’t kill, it’s more for combos).
Up b has a big amount of knockback on the first few frames it comes out, making it a good option if someone misses a tech or a risky option to try for a stage spike. The other aspect of up b that kills is the explosion when Diddy collides with something. This can be hard to aim and sometimes you may accidentally slide instead of blowing up, so make sure to hit the stage perpendicular to the floor. I find the most use in this when I’m falling and my landing continuously gets punished with a f smash or pivot grab so I use the up b at the last second as both a stall and an attack by avoiding the attack and then aiming it downwards to hit my would be attacker.
Side b kick is just another move that kills, the bonus of this is that it stays out for a long time and has tons of priority. The downsides are that it has a ton of lag unless you use it a bit in the air and it can be easy to see coming. The attack after grabbing can kill but not as early as the kick.
In case you didn’t know, neutral b explodes when charges fully. This is pretty much only a disrespectful kill if you get a shield break, which isn't common for Diddy. It does kill earlier than f smash though so in the unlikely case of a shield break it’s the best option. Finally, there’s f and b throw. Nothing much to say, they kill. B throw kills earlier than f.
Peanut Popgun
The popgun, Diddy’s only projectile (assuming banana is an item), is the main way Diddy camps. The peanut has a slight arc, and goes straighter the more you charge it, similar to Link’s arrows. Characters with short hurtboxes while running like Pikachu and Little Mac can run under the peanut, so if you’re spamming it on the ground don’t get predictable with your timing.
The charging of this move can be canceled by shielding, so it isn’t something you have to commit to. You can also cancel it in the air the same way with an air dodge, although there is a way to cancel it without air dodging. If you are holding shield in the air then b reverse the popgun it will auto cancel itself (make sure to hold b until after it cancels). This allows you to quickly change your momentum then throw out an aerial, land and use an attack, or even b reverse again. If you choose to reverse again you can do it with a down b to get a banana out and try to stop a punish.
This move has a bit of lag, so a good strategy is using it to camp a bit and then reading when your opponent will continue to be aggressive. They will typically run up and shield to try and block the peanuts so I recommend using a grab or side b as your read option. You can (double) jump and then shoot peanuts to change the way they fly, but this is easily punished by any fast character and you typically shouldn’t go higher than a short hop. This move can condition your opponent to shield although the lag on it makes it hard to effectively get a punish off of someone shielding it like Luigi, it’s more like the Sheik effect, you’ve seen so many SH fairs that when a tomahawk grab comes it’s super hard to see coming.
I’ve clocked over 10,000 matches in Smash 4 (likely more since I wrote this a while ago) and have only killed someone that didn’t have a broken shield with the popgun exploding once. That should give you a pretty good example of how useful the move is. Take the effectiveness of Fox’s shine in Melee and think of the complete opposite, and you have how useful the exploding popgun is. Diddy will grab his hat right before exploding, so this is basically him telling you to release the b button right away. The move has tons of lag and takes a while to charge. And it’s not like a Samus neutral b where you can save it up then let it loose whenever you feel like it, you have to charge it all the way like Greninja’s shuriken. You can bait people to shield and then at the last second cancel this to shield and grab but that’s not very safe. I already went over how this move can be used to edgeguard so that’ll be it.
Monkey Flip
A command grab, hurrah! Not the best one out there, but any command grab is useful especially if having an item in your hand is a key part of the neutral. Shields are an integral part of smash, and having two options to beat them in your arsenal is a great tool to have. This move is useful for both attacking and evading, and one of its defining characteristics is the insane priority on the move. It will out prioritize Samus’s charge shot at all charges except for max charge and can beat out dash attacks with ease. Also it can edge cancel so you can use it as an extra movement options once you get the spacing down to cancel it.
Grabbing
The first use for the monkey flip, attacking, comes in two forms. The kick, and the command grab. The grab is excellent since it allows you to still have an option that beats shields even while holding a banana. Although it’s laggy and not as useful as a typical grab, it’s more than say Peach can do while holding a turnip. Note that this is not some move you just throw out every time you pluck a nanner, it’s got a significant amount of lag and is pretty easily punished. It’s a good mix up, but you shouldn’t rely on it. Now after saying that, there are times when you can just throw it out. One of the things I find this most useful is beating people who run to shield a lot, specifically Captain Falcon and Sonic to name a couple. You have to be careful however, people who like to weave in and out a lot in the neutral can easily avoid this move and then punish you, but people who rely solely on running to shield as an approach (especially while you’re holding a banana) can fall for this move quite often. This move stresses watching when your opponent shields, and capitalizing on noticing patterns that they automatically stick to.
This move is especially useful to grab people who shield on platforms. This isn’t melee where you can just waveland onto a platform and then grab, you have to get a bit more creative. It’s pretty simple, you just side b wherever they are for a grab. This isn’t a very popular tactic, I noticed ZeRo try it once at Evo on Battlefield (although it didn’t work out) so it’s a fairly safe option that not many people will have the foresight to see coming unless they’ve been shielding on the platform for a few seconds and have had time to think about their next option. Finally, if you ever happen to get a grab with this offstage you want to press up instead of attack to launch yourself up and your opponent down, like I said in the edgeguarding section.
You can also crawl backwards quickly after a short hop flip. Just start crawling the other way immediately after flipping. You can even use a move while moving back so flipping towards someone shielding then using a d tilt while crawling back is a very safe option. This only works when flipping right and crawling back left so it’s only useful half the time. You can look at the beginning of this video for a good explanation of this tech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igJDgsio8Rg
Attacking
You press A to make side b kick. Not exactly at the tech caliber of a waveshine or the Lucas 0 to death. This move is very useful to stuff out approaches from opponents, and when reading rolls or techs away from you. This isn’t too useful because of the high lag, but will beat out many moves and if you know that your opponent won’t shield it’s a great option. This move sorta combos into fair at low percent but don’t count on it and if you do go for it be very fast. Also you can’t use your barrels after using the kick, only your double jump if you still have it so you shouldn’t be doing this offstage. Really though if you could up b after this then Luigi’s trying to recover with side b would get so rekt by Diddy.
Rocketbarrel Boost
Barrels! Anyone who’s played DK Country knows about these explosive buddies that are every Diddy’s best friend. Move around on a creative flight path and explode in your enemies’ faces. Not the best recovery move, but also not the worst. So there are typically two ways to use this move. The first is for recovery (obviously), and the second is offensively.
Recovery
The barrels leave a lot of room for creativity when getting back to the stage. You can go under the stage by charging them up and letting yourself fall down before blasting to the other side, send yourself in a loopy pattern through the skies, or be boring and position yourself right under the ledge and go straight up. This is a very risky recovery move since one touch will send you to your doom so it takes a lot of practice to get used to.
When using this move under the ledge straight up, you have a lot to watch out for. If anyone comes offstage and drops a bair on you, then you’re done. Gone. See ya later. People with items can screw you over, a Peach dropping a turnip or Mega Man throwing down a metal blade will screw you over. To avoid this, you have to make your barrel flight a half circle like a capital C. But this makes things a bit complicated. If you come at the ledge at a perpendicular angle, then you will most likely blow up ensuring instant death. So, the optimal way is to either land on stage (although this will get punished, there isn’t a chance of your barrels exploding offstage) or do the shape of an upside down question mark like this ¿. You should go left, up, right, then up again (this is assuming you’re below the left ledge). This will make it so that you avoid the projectile while having a lower risk of your barrels exploding. You should practice making this shape on both edges on your own and also have a friend play as mega man and throw metal blades as you while you try to avoid them. However this only works well if you have a substantial amount of charge, so if you just have a bit of charge you have to go straight for the ledge and hope you make it. Diddy has it rough recovering, since using a side b is extremely readable and if you don’t then you’re super vulnerable. Make sure to practice a lot in many different patterns to get the hang of it. You can also mix people up by looking like you’ll go up and instead turning and going under the stage to recover to the opposite ledge. This is a good option if you feel a lot of pressure but you shouldn’t do it unless you have full charge and it should be practiced.
Using this move from high in a corner is very useful since it’s difficult for your opponent to interrupt it and there’s a lot of things you can do with it. You typically will charge it up until you’re level with the stage then blast toward it. Many people will go all the way on the other side of the stage to try to punish your landing, so you should try to shoot into the ground and explode your barrels to end your flight early. I wouldn’t go for the ledge this way though, since you will usually end up having your barrels explode from going at a bad angle which will cost you a stock. On T&C or Smashville you can go for one of the platforms if there is one near you but you have to be very precise and if your opponent is anywhere near you then you’ll eat a punish. You should get used to moving around in wavy patterns before landing to try to confuse people as much as possible. You can also go straight for them and then explode your barrels right next to them to try and get a hit or shield pressure. After you bounce up after exploding, if they shielded then you have a mix up of either moving away to distance yourself from them, or read that they will read you doing that and press toward them. On that note, let’s move over to the offensive portion of this move.
Offense
So the barrels explode! Pretty useful in a fighting game. This is useful as an OOS (out of shield) option, a quick way to go over a ground attack and retaliate, or a mix up when recovering. So as an OOS option it’s pretty good but loses to u smash OOS most of the time. The best use for this is when someone lands behind you where u smash might miss or if you don’t want to stale u smash. Another way to use this is when you’ve expended your side b and jump recovering, and are a bit above the ledge but won’t be able to grab it without your up b. Here, most people will assume that you’ll drop below the ledge and up b, although you have a mix up here where you can up b early then explode the barrels onstage, right on your opponent. This is extremely unexpected but still try to do it as fast as you can. The last way these are typically used offensively is to quickly avoid an attack and then come in with an attack of your own. If you read someone using a smash to punish you, a tilt, anything really, then you can just fly right over it and come back down for a hefty amount of damage. This is a pretty hard read so you shouldn’t go for it often but it keeps your other moves from staling and is pretty useful. One of my favorite ways to use this move offensively is to avoid landing traps. Many characters have a move they use to cover landings like Fox’s dash attack. Using up b right before landing helps to avoid the attack, then come back down for your own offensive. Just remember that you have to angle it either to the left or right and not straight up because if the barrels aren’t perpendicular to the ground then they won’t explode and since this requires them to be uncharged, you need to hit the ground ASAP. I have landed kills this way before and it is a great option when landing is one of the most difficult things in this game.
Banana Peel
Who doesn’t love a good nanner? Diddy mains in particular are partial to this little leftover tripper upper. This one move completely controls the neutral game. You don’t even need to throw it, just having it in your hand makes people cautious. Since your dash attack isn’t the best, you can use this to cover landings giving you a free punish. However if people start to read you using this option and fast fall into shield more, run at them while holding a banana and use Diddy’s side b command grab. Oh, and did I mention every hit banana gives you a free punish? You can get an up smash, grab, d tilt, f tilt, u tilt (might need to perfect pivot into it), d smash, jab (it’s possible but never use this option unless you’re styling), or even f smash if you’re close enough. This brings up another interesting topic, jump canceled glide tossing.
The JCGT is a tech where you input to whichever side you want to go in, jump, and then attack (and a direction if you want) soon after. This can be done by any character with any item but is particularly useful with Diddy. This allows him to get close enough to someone to punish with an f smash if the banana hits, or grab if they shield. If you’re still too far away even after this then you should do a dash canceled f smash to further increase your distance by dashing in the direction you want to go then immediately inputting f smash. This tech makes it very easy to simply stand in front of a shielding opponent with a banana in hand, which forces their hand. Eventually they will get scared and will have to use an option, which you can cover. They may try to drop shield then dash attack or dash grab you, which you can punish with a pivot banana throw by running away then throwing your banana. If they jump, then you can either jump, drop your banana by pressing grab, then immediately fair (which will regrab the banana) or you can JCGT your banana upwards and follow with an up air or any other aerial. If they roll just follow it and throw your banana, and same with spot dodge. No one wants to be in this position and this is a great way to force an option.
When an opponent is recovering, you can put a banana right on the ledge which takes away their regular get up and get up attack options. So all you have to cover is roll and jump, making edgeguarding much easier. You can try to bait one of the options for example by SH fairing then turning around and doing a f smash to cover the roll after baiting them to stay away from jumping. Some characters’ get up attacks will have a hitbox and some of them will trip on the banana before the hitbox comes out. This may depend on the character and the exact placement of the banana but I don’t have any specifics so just try to stay out of the range of get up attacks. Keep in mind that they can still use the instant item toss tech by pressing away from the ledge, jumping, pressing the grab button, then immediately throwing the banana, so watch out for that and don’t get caught off guard (although very few people actually use this tech). A couple final things here. When your opponent whiffs an attack on the ledge when you have a banana in your hand, make sure to JCGT it upwards or downwards because if it hits them then they will fall off the stage. This way you can get close enough for an f smash punish without blowing the punish. Also, when you down b you should soft toss it, then jump backward and press the grab button. This is the most efficient and quickest way to get a banana that’s plausible in-game. Many people air dodge to catch it but if you press the grab button then there will be no lag. Finally, while shielding if you press A while holding a banana just as you would for a shield grab, it will throw the banana straight out of your shield so you can skip the shield drop frames. This works for all items but is especially helpful with Diddy obviously.
Playstyle
Diddy’s playstyle is pretty simple, you want to bait people a lot with bananas, use lots of SH aerials, and force people to approach or approach a lot. Also you can still use aerials while holding a banana by pressing grab to drop it then immediately use an aerial which will pick it back up. You should practice being able to move around the stage using aerials so that it’s second nature while in battle. You should read ppl airdodging to avoid combos and punish with a dair, especially after throws (I mean, we all know what happened at Evo Grand Finals). You play Diddy similar to DDD in the respect that you have to use other options besides dash attack to approach so you have to force people into shield and then punish with high damage throw combos. You can cross people up with bair and approach with his super long fair. Crawling around the stage is useful, since Diddy has a tiny hurtbox while doing this, and it makes a burst option more surprising. The thing about Diddy is that because he used to be super top tier, many people know the MU so you should try to mix up your playstyle as much as possible. And remember to pick a walled omega stage instead of FD so you can utilize your wall cling. Happy hoo hahing!
R.I.P. PP Diddy...
We will forever enjoy your company on the Gamestop set-ups that never update.
