Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong
Fall speed: Fast (10th, same as Sheik)
Weight: 93 (37th)
Air Speed: 52nd (but Monkey Flip increases this dramatically)
Combo breakers: He has fast buttons but nothing to massively respect

Win Condition
-Not let Diddy pull banana.
-Get a huge combo started.
-Kill before my stuff stops comboing.

Lose Condition
-If he gets banana, he can set up into an entire stock’s worth of damage.
-If he gets control of punish game and just racks up loads of damage.
-Get hit by an early Dair.

Neutral
-Bair isn’t great vs Diddy as he’s short and it loses to Fair.
-Be careful about Dash Attacking as Diddy empty hop landing Nair etc. beat that very hard.
-The idea is to stay at a range where Diddy cannot pull Banana. If he moves forward, I move back. Full Hop to go over his potential aerials and then do landing Bairs if he runs in. There’s no need to jump too much - stay grounded to be ready to attack him if necessary on Banana Pull.
-Ideally want to stand at my max range to stuff banana but not close enough to get hit by unreactable Side B.
-Diddy has incredibly good buttons up close so try to get out of that area unless at frame advantage.
-Be VERY careful about committing too much or pushing unsafe buttons on his shield like Dash Attack and Up Tilt - Diddy’s defensive/oos game is ridiculous.
-If he has banana, platform camp until he throws it. Play out of range of banana at all times BUT if he gets too antsy to throw the banana, now is a good time to go in with a sudden burst option. While his neutral is more powerful, it is still somewhat limited and easier to read - be aware of openings the Diddy player creates through impatience. An opening will come eventually as long as I camp safely at safe ranges.

Disadvantage
-Don’t Illusion on-stage so he can reset constantly.
-Be careful not to get hit by random Fairs etc. while attempting to buffer options.
Ledge
-When using Jump, try to wait for Fair first as he’ll mostly do it preemptively.
-Ledgehop Fair sucks vs Diddy but Dair is good.
-Ledge stall mixups can be good but stay aware of his Dair possibly messing that up.
-Illusion on-stage ONLY if he is too close to ledge, otherwise do not bother.
Off stage
-Don’t Up B near the stage and get Dair’d.
-If he has banana, watch for him covering Illusion with it.
-Don’t Illusion on stage for the love of God
Juggling
-Diddy’s reset game is ridiculous - give up stage control if required to get out of it.
-Diddy mostly wants to set up an edgeguard of some sort but he can set that up much easier by just throwing me offstage - as long as I can still play neutral and have access to Illusioning through him, I can still play.
-He’ll often use his frame advantage to get banana. This is safe, do not challenge it and instead take the opportunity to return to neutral and play safe.
-Don’t jump in, he can cover this easily.

Advantage
-Diddy gets vortexed for days so just do that when applicable.
-Try to punish Dash Grabs with landing aerials at kill percentage - do not try and force kills with approaches and instead try to punish his bad approaches.
Ledge
-No idea what to do here. Bair Side B I guess, otherwise wait back and try to punish.
Off stage
-Don’t go offstage.
Juggling
-Try to jump below Diddy to force a Side B.
-When he would B Reverse, punish the option that has him ending up with more stage control. Only do an SH or FH Uair below him then FF AC them - don’t commit too hard to the read.
-Bair to hit Diddy offstage can be better than juggling upwards due to how strong his landing can be with Side B.

Miscellaneous
-Banana will kill confirm solidly at around 105 with no rage.
-If he is closer, he can do Banana walk forward DTilt FSmash at around 70.
-Cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure Diddy doesn’t get banana but also DON’T APPROACH Diddy because more often than not that will just let him get banana.

Stages
BF > DL > T&C > FD > LC = SV
Lylat might be better than I think but it’s kind of aids.
Consider trying FD more too.