SSBU/Ken/Matchups

This page includes write ups and various other notes from Shotocord. The names of who wrote the matchup write up will be listed.

Banjo & Kazooie
From Bean!:

Neutral
The key to this matchup is patience, and being able to weave around his projectiles to get behind him and really start dealing damage. Banjo has 2 projectiles: Down B and neutral B, both of which are decently fast and annoying to get hit by, which may coerce you into jumping in. These projectiles set up traps that Banjo can use to shield break you, deal around 55 percent if he hits, or if you run away, reset neutral. TL;DR: Banjo’s projectiles control the flow of the game, and try to mix up how you deal with them.

Banjo’s neutral consists of a few things. Grenade Spam, Egg spam, and using FAir and other chunky moves to whack you for approaching at all. What you’re gonna want to do is FADC over his wall of projectiles if he is trying to wall you out, and to NEVER SHIELD HIS BOMBS. They combo right into FAir and if you keep holding shield its gonna get popped. Play it safe, play it patient, and approach with extreme caution.

Dealing With WonderWing: Its annoying, its huge, and its invincible. Wonderwing is an extremely volatile kill move, it 2 frames us very well, if Banjo does it to ledge and doesn’t instantly grab ledge consider your stock erased, and he can confirm into it. You can shield it and try to get a glimpse of the Banjo’s cover option afterward, since they usually chuck out an option to counter faulty punishes. Or you can try to focus 3 tank it and get a Real Mans Punish but that requires an ultra hard read so stick with shield or hop over it for a grab or cute little BnB.

Advantage
Killing Banjo isn’t rocket science, but most likely you’re only gonna be able to get a sliding tilt or aerial in on him when he doesn’t expect it. I recommend Ken HIGHLY for this matchup, since you can go full unga bunga without having to care much since Shoryu kills him so early. The way you’re gonna work around his projectiles to get said kill is like the Samus MU. His projectiles have a small amount of endlag, so you’ll be able to punish them hard if you catch him in his endlag frames. I recommend sliding under him and doing a TSRK if he tries to do full hop grenade. Reasoning for this is because if he does grenade, he’s holding the control stick straight down, which means that he’s gonna get shot right up and die pretty easily.

Since he’s of decent weight, I recommend keeping strands to a decent length, straying from fancy aerial extensions and sticking to that closer more simplified ken. Best strand to use here = PJab xx CK > RH. A couple of these or trying for an uptilt PJab xx CK > DAir at ledge will secure you the stock. TL;DR: Keep it simple, keep it safe, don’t be a donut and NAir in.

Ledge Trapping Banjo This is where Ken really gets to shine. Once Banjo is at ledge he’s most likely gonna do drop ledge grenade to get back on stage. Stay 1.5 roll distance away, throw out hado, and if they jump its money for the taking.

Disadvantage
How to climb out of Disadvantage Against Banjo You’re not. But in all seriousness, its veeeery difficult since this bear holds onto the stage tighter than Winnie the Pooh with a honey jar. Try your hardest to keep stage control, keep steady damage, and don’t get angsty or greedy, otherwise you can kiss your stocks bye bye.

Bayonetta
Matchup notes from Bill Bill Bill:


 * Ken tatsu can condition Bayo by making her use witch time or jab (both of which are frame 8 and 9 respectively). You can condition her to shield, jump, or attempt to attack, which you can all avoid and punish. Remember though, Ken tatsu is pretty bad, and since she's slim and light, she can easily fall out of it.
 * Fireballs can be low profiled with her side b. Ryu will need to think of how to use his fireballs.
 * Ken struggles here a bit with combos as most of his strings are very untrue, and Bayo has a frame 1 air dodge. Ryu too, a bit, since her hurtbox is slim and she changes positions a lot during hitstun.
 * Ryu might have a better time recovering with tatsu, since both his legs have intangibility instead of Ken having just one. Plus, the hitboxes are slightly bigger and launch Bayo far enough to make her unable to punish Ryu.
 * Ken has a better anti air with his DP, but Bayo doesn't really approach in the air, unless it's with aerial side b angled down. The only way you'd punish that OOS is with a parry, since she bounces off your shield and pretty far, too. Force her to be in the air.
 * Her edge guarding game is pretty good, too. NAir is deceptively good against us. It's big, lasts long, and can make us lose our jumps. Be careful with that.

Ike
From Lernonad:

Neutral
Because of Ike's range, releasing shield trying to parry and doing tilts can easily be countered by out spacing us then using dtilt which can combo and kill confirm, so try parrying with caution. The only other option that is good is anti-airing, or because of his range, air-to-airing. You can do so with both Ken and Ryu by doing full hop immediate nair, fair, or short hop buffered uair, which then you can combo off of. If he sees that you are consistently going for full hop air-to-airs he will start doing short hop reverse up air, which you can just beat by doing short hop buffered aerial then combo or by doing a grounded anti-air. To do this you have to jump at the same time Ike does. You can practice by turning the CPU to jump in training mode. Or, if you have the training mod pack, set the CPU to do falling NAir. You should mostly be doing these in neutral. If you get caught in shield you gotta mixup what you do. You can parry and do a tilt but it might not reach. Releasing shield into tilt will not work, so keep in mind that you can also jump OOS or after a parry and do an aerial.

Advantage
When juggling Ike he can double jump out or air dodge through. He might also try using side b to try and go to ledge. When going to ledge Ike can do side b to recover high and get to center stage or use up b to get to ledge. To counter side b you can do bair to hit him or hado to force him to go lower. If you hit him out of side b then he is forced to go to ledge with up b. To counter up b you have to throw a hitbox when Ike throws his sword. By the time Ike rises the hitbox will be out. Dsmash is easiest to counter up b. When Ike is at ledge there aren't a lot of Ike specific mixups. I've only seen drop off double jump side b. Be careful when attacking his shield since his up b has armor and has good knockback to kill at around 100%. Shotos can counter with doing a tilt string canceled to focus to tank the Up B then dash cancel out of the way and punish. If he doesn't Up B then dash cancel away before he reacts and grabs.

Disadvantage
If you are being juggled you can jump out as Ike is about to uair, then you have to fast fall neutral air dodge to get past up air again and get below Ike. If you do get below Ike via this then you can get a chance to hit him as he lands, but shotos add another option of FADC. It works the same as air dodge most of the time. If you're going to ledge from below Ike has DAir and eruption. Once on ledge NAir, DTilt, and DSmash can hit shoto's ledge hang. If he is spamming NAir then aair-to-air with a ledge jump aerial. Its the same timing from ledge as it is anywhere else.

Richter
From ImBad:

Neutral
Getting in on the Belmonts is going to be somewhat difficult due to our lower air and ground speed. We need to be able to make the most out of the openings we do get. I would recommend Ken for this reason, but Ryu can somewhat counter zone. Belmonts are on the heavy end weighing in at 107 units. Keep this in mind when going for kill confirms.

Belmonts neutral will consist mostly of FTilts(dash back or otherwise), FAir/BAir, and cross. These aren’t safe on shield per say being -6 to -8 depending on what move it is, but spaced well they are nearly impossible for us to punish on shield. FTilt will also eat through hado and has a trample effect so using tatsu to beat it isn’t reliable. RESIST THE URGE TO JUMP/RUN STRAIGHT AT THE BELMONT AFTER THEY HIT YOUR SHIELD WITH AN FTILT there is more than likely another one coming. When you finally close the gap to the point they shield watch out for upb oos its frame 6 and has intangibility on frames 5-6 (poor man's shoryuken).

Advantage
Lucky for us Belmonts are very susceptible to our combos. For Ken CK > DSmash will work. If you have a Belmont above you in juggle watch for them to do DAir. It has a poor hitbox and will be beaten out by HUTilt. The Belmonts frame data is bad so we can abuse that if they try mashing after being hit. If they are off stage all you have to do is intercept their recovery with NAir and they most likely wont make it back. When they are on ledge watch for ledge drop FAir or jump FAir. Both will hit us.

Disadvantage
Belmonts are going to look to put you in tech chase situations at low % by using FTilt(this starts at 0). They can cover multiple get up options with cross at one time. You need to mix up what you do here to avoid eating cross. If you roll in they can holy water you which will set us up to take 50% from falling UAir shenanigans. UAir is decent for keeping us in the air due to our lower air speed. It is possible to focus through UAir, FAir, and BAir. However, keep an eye out for crosses or axes. Belmonts have crazy ledge trapping and can force you off the ledge with many things.

Simon
From ImBad:

Neutral
Getting in on the Belmonts is going to be somewhat difficult due to our lower air and ground speed. We need to be able to make the most out of the openings we do get. I would recommend Ken for this reason, but Ryu can somewhat counter zone. Belmonts are on the heavy end weighing in at 107 units. Keep this in mind when going for kill confirms.

Belmonts neutral will consist mostly of FTilts(dash back or otherwise), FAir/BAir, and cross. These aren’t safe on shield per say being -6 to -8 depending on what move it is, but spaced well they are nearly impossible for us to punish on shield. FTilt will also eat through hado and has a trample effect so using tatsu to beat it isn’t reliable. RESIST THE URGE TO JUMP/RUN STRAIGHT AT THE BELMONT AFTER THEY HIT YOUR SHIELD WITH AN FTILT there is more than likely another one coming. When you finally close the gap to the point they shield watch out for upb oos its frame 6 and has intangibility on frames 5-6 (poor man's shoryuken).

Advantage
Lucky for us Belmonts are very susceptible to our combos. For Ken CK > DSmash will work. If you have a Belmont above you in juggle watch for them to do DAir. It has a poor hitbox and will be beaten out by HUTilt. The Belmonts frame data is bad so we can abuse that if they try mashing after being hit. If they are off stage all you have to do is intercept their recovery with NAir and they most likely wont make it back. When they are on ledge watch for ledge drop FAir or jump FAir. Both will hit us.

Disadvantage
Belmonts are going to look to put you in tech chase situations at low % by using FTilt(this starts at 0). They can cover multiple get up options with cross at one time. You need to mix up what you do here to avoid eating cross. If you roll in they can holy water you which will set us up to take 50% from falling UAir shenanigans. UAir is decent for keeping us in the air due to our lower air speed. It is possible to focus through UAir, FAir, and BAir. However, keep an eye out for crosses or axes. Belmonts have crazy ledge trapping and can force you off the ledge with many things.