KatAM:Abilities

General

Hitlag

Abilities such as Burning, Parasol, Tornado, Fighter, Sword, Smash, Stone, Hammer, and most importantly, Wheel, experience hitlag when moving through enemies. Hitlag can be mitigated by reducing the amount of contact with enemies, most often simply making sure to dodge them. Each hit causes you to pause 3 frames, with up to 2-4 hits per enemy on average. This means for every enemy you hit with these abilities, you lose a bit of time, and that adds up quickly over the course of an entire run.

In the case of abilities like Smash, starting your attack close to the ground will ensure your attack will get cancelled once you land, avoid extra contact. Attacking early and letting only the end of your attack connect also works.

For abilities like Wheel or Burning, changing the position where you start your ability affects the amount of hits you deal to an enemy. For example, moving before activating wheel in a room could deal 4 hits to a certain enemy, while standing still before activating wheel would only deal 2 hits to that same enemy.

Speed Summary

("Speed" meaning moving from point A to point B under ideal circumstances, not the actual max speed value.)

Abilities roughly in order of horizontal speed:

1. Wheel
2. Parasol
3. Missile
4. Burning
5. Fighter
6. Tornado
7. UFO
8. Normal

Abilities in order of ascending speed:

1. Missile
2. UFO
3. Cupid
4. Normal

Abilities in order of descending speed:

1. Stone/Smash
2. Sword/Smash
3. Fighter
4. Missile
5. Normal

Wheel

Recoil

When you activate wheel, you will briefly be sent backwards. One way to mitigate this is by activating Wheel on the ground and not in the air, since the ground has more friction. You can also stop your recoil using a wall placed behind yourself.

Wheel Jump

If you jump right before activating Wheel, you will perform a Wheel Jump. Unlike a normal jump while using Wheel, a Wheel Jump gives you the full height of a normal jump while still activating Wheel.

Invincibility

Wheel is invincible unless you are activating the ability or turning. Therefore when fighting bosses, only turn when outside of their hitbox.

Turning Around

If you need to deactivate Wheel and go the opposite direction, make sure to deactivate Wheel while turning around to cancel the turning around animation and instantly start moving the opposite way. This also helps preventing you from skidding on the ground.

Ceiling Clip

You can wheel into a ceiling to remain longer in the air. Although precise, it can be used to dodge enemies or reach further geometry without reactivating wheel. This is easier to perform when jumping into a downwards slope.

Hitlag

If you need to deactivate wheel around an enemy, you can time a wheel cancel right as you hit an enemy in order to only deal 1 hit. This keeps the enemy alive, but that's fine since you can move through it without getting damaged.

ExpandWheel 1-hit

Missile

Directional Speed

Diagonal speed preserves the max speed of both directions, so long as you have both directions held. Missile will continue to go at max speed in your last held direction, regardless if it's still pressed. This means that you can simply tap when moving in a straight line, but when moving diagonally you need to have both directions pressed. This applies to optimal turning as well.

Missile happens to be slightly faster moving downwards with a speed of 690 compared to your base falling speed of 640, excluding recoil.

Missile's upward speed isn't faster than your jumping speed, so make sure to jump before activating Missile for upwards movement.

Drift

Missile's major difficulty is in managing its wide drifting. In order to mitigate drift, counter it by holding the opposite direction for several frames. This is especially crucial when making 90° turns, where you need to completely halt your movement before going in a new direction.

Recoil & Knockback

When activating Missile, Kirby will recoil backwards before he starts moving forward. You can hold the opposite direction of your intended direction during Missile's activation sequence to reverse this initial recoil and save a little bit of time.

ExpandMissile recoil

The knockback from blowing up with Missile produces significantly more recoil. Before exiting Missile, reverse your direction until you fully start moving the other way, then press A or B, then your original direction, to fully launch yourself the right way using the Missile's knockback.

ExpandMissile Knockback

When moving upwards, you can also use this knockback to redirect your Missile exit and launch yourself sideways almost instantly.

Bomb Blocks

When moving through bomb blocks, tap back for atleast one frame after hitting the bomb block before resuming your main direction. You move at the same speed as the clearing of the barrier blocks, so as long as you don't move diagonally you shouldn't hit anything.

Ceiling Clip

You will explode on the ceiling if you attempt to drift out of a ceiling clip.

Version Difference

On the Japanese version compared to the other versions, Missile's direct hit causes 6 damage instead of 2, and for indirect hits 2 damage instead of 1.

Parasol

Passive Hitbox

Parasol has a passive hitbox that deals damage even when the ability is not in use. This hitbox is better than using the attack for a few reasons. Unlike the attack, the passive hitbox has no wind-up time, and doesn't slow you down. The hitbox is more maneuverable as well. The passive hitbox deals 4 damage per hit, while the attack randomly alternates between 4 and 1 damage per hit. This means the passive hitbox is faster than attacking for fighting bosses. The only downside is that the passive hitbox has far less horizontal range, meaning it's risky to use during bosses.

Momentum Preservation

If you let go of all directional buttons right before you press A to blow up, you will preserve your horizontal speed. When gliding with Parasol, you gain a flat boost of 308 to your speed, before slowing down significantly after 8 frames. Thus, when you float immediately after a glide with Parasol with your direction buttons released, the amount of momentum preserved is significantly amplified thanks to Parasol's glide boost. Since gliding applies a flat boost and not a set value, you can stack your momentum preservation indefinitely with every subsequent float. You will start gliding faster if you aren't moving upwards when you puff, although this requires you to tap A very briefly to pull off.

Thus, in order to move quickly with Parasol: jump, glide, let go and float as soon as your glide boosts you, puff as soon as possible while trying not to move too high, then repeat the process without pressing anymore directional buttons. In practice, this means briefly tapping A, puffing with B, then waiting for your glide to boost you. All these steps take up around the same amount of time in the sequence when broken down. If you do this too slowly or go too low, you'll need to reset the sequence by holding left or right again, and in the latter case hold your float for longer.

ExpandParasol movement

However, this movement is difficult to pull off. A more reliable method is to hold the directional button up until the float each time instead of just the first glide, and float for longer. Aside from that, the most basic way to move with Parasol is to substitute the float after the glide with an attack instead, or simply float fully to the ground.

This momentum can also be preserved with an attack, however you lose speed faster and need to wait for your attack to stop. It is a viable option if you need to attack through an enemy without a puff. Keep in mind the ground has more friction, so try and attack in the air when doing so.

Descending

Parasol has the downside of being hard to descend with. The simplest way to do so is to dive, however you need to control your dives so that you don't accidentally bounce off of any hitboxes. Alternatively, attacking also works.

UFO

Diagonal Movement

Unlike Missile, moving diagonally actually decreases your individual directional speed from 512 to 416. As a result, you want to avoid diagonal movement whenever possible. There are a few things you can use to support this:

• Slopes: Move into slopes whenever possible. They will automatically push you in the additional direction without sacrificing your movement speed. Make sure to tap down when moving horizontally into downwards slopes to avoid getting stuck at the very bottom.
• Ceiling Clips: By clipping into a ceiling, then moving down and getting pushed out, you save a tiny bit of vertical movement.
• Floor Nudges: Similar to Ceiling clips, you can get slightly displaced vertically when moving into a floor from lower than its surface. This is especially true moving into the bottom of upwards slopes.

Fighter

Movement

The fastest way to move horizontally is to press B without dashing, and vertically by pressing down B.

Cancel Platform Collision

If you dive while ducking through a platform, you can dive straight through any other 2-way platforms.

Force Blast Combo

If you briefly hold B during a combo attack after mashing B, you can instantly release a Force Blast after the second or third attack.

Mega Force Blast

Your Force Blast becomes more powerful if you're on 1 hp.

Other Abilities

Burning

Unlike Wheel, you are immediately active after a bonk. This lets you gain height, skip the long unwind animation, or instantly entering doors next to walls using bonks.

Throw

Invincible when holding something.

Sword

Final cutter preserves your momentum, meaning you can Up B off ledges as well as turn around if needed.

Fire

Can be tilted in all directions, including backwards and diagonal. This is important when aiming at bomb blocks.

Ice

Will not slide on ice.

Hammer

When using neutral or aerial B, the Hammer appears behind you before going to your front. Therefore, use these attacks backwards whenever speed or multiple hits are needed.

For bosses, there is a 3-pixel range right next to the boss where the wind up hitbox deals damage. In addition, this sweet spot can be used to set up double-hits using Up B.

Stone

Cancelling your ability a few tiles above the floor allows you to reach the floor with your movement unlocked, while avoiding the jump off the floor that occurs if you cancel stone on the ground.

Holding left or right ensures that Stone preserves your momentum before it drops. On the other hand, releasing both left and right ensures that all your momentum is cancelled and you drop straight down.

ExpandStone mechanics
Left: Momentum stone & early deactivation. Right: No momentum & grounded deactivation.

Moveset Data

All Blade element attacks, plus Master, can cut string platforms. All Fire element attacks, plus Crash, can light fused cannons. Most attacks can damage bosses as well, except for those that defeat enemies instantly (∞), and ability-less attacks such as slides, puffs, dives, tumbles, and contact damage.

Ability	Attack/Input	Damage (~max hits per attack)	Element	Use underwater	Break star block	Break metal block	Pound stump	Shake screen	CollapsePenetrate walls?
Normal	Inhale	∞	Normal		✔				✔
Normal	Star Bullet	10	Normal	✔	✔
Normal	Double Star	18	Normal	✔	✔
Normal	Slide	2	Normal		✔
Normal	Puff	2	Normal	✔	✔
Normal	Water Gun	2	Normal		✔
Normal	Dive	2	Normal		✔
Normal	Tumble	2	Normal
Normal	Footstool Jump	2	Normal		✔
Normal	Contact	1	Normal	✔
Normal	Candy	7	Normal	✔
Normal	Cannon	28	?	✔	✔	✔		✔
Fire	-	5	Fire		✔				✔
Spark	-	3	Electric		✔				✔
Cutter	-	4	Blade		✔
Sword	B	6	Blade	✔	✔				✔
Sword	B×3 (“Chopping Sword”)	1(×7)	Blade	✔	✔				✔
Sword	B, after Chopping Sword	6	Blade	✔	✔				✔
Sword	Up B (ascending)	2(×2)	Blade	✔	✔				✔
Sword	Up B (descending)	6(×2)	Blade	✔	✔			✔	✔
Sword	Up B (wave)	2	Normal	✔	✔				✔
Sword	Down B/A	4	Blade		✔				✔
Fighter	B	1(×3)	Normal		✔				✔
Fighter	B	2	Normal		✔				✔
Fighter	B	1(×5)	Normal		✔				✔
Fighter	Held B	2	Normal		✔
Fighter	Fully held B	4	Normal		✔
Fighter	Held B on 1 hp	6(×2)	Normal		✔				✔
Fighter	Side B or B (aerial)	2(×3)	Normal		✔
Fighter	Dash B	3	Normal		✔
Fighter	Up B (hitbox)	2(×4)	Normal		✔				✔
Fighter	Up B (onset)	1	Normal		✔				✔
Fighter	Down B (aerial)	4	Normal		✔
Laser	-	2	Fire		✔
Cupid	B	3	Blade		✔
Cupid	Fully held B	5 + 3 + 3	Blade		✔
Ice	-	4	Ice		✔				✔
Hammer	B	5(×2)	Normal	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hammer	B (aerial)	5(×2)	Normal	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Hammer	Dash B	2(×6)	Normal		✔	✔	✔		✔
Hammer	Up B (hitbox)	25(×2)	Normal, Fire		✔	✔	✔		✔
Hammer	Up B (onset)	2(×2)	Normal, Fire						✔
Parasol	Hitbox	4	Normal	✔	✔				✔
Parasol	B	1	Normal	✔	✔				✔
Magic	Meta Knight	4 + 4 + 22	Blade						✔
Magic	Food or 1-up	∞	-						✔
Wheel	-	2	Normal		✔			✔
Cook	-	∞	-						✔
Burning	-	2	Normal, Fire		✔	✔		✔
Beam	-	3(×3)	Electric		✔				✔
Stone	Hitbox	10	Normal	~	✔	✔	✔	✔
Stone	Shockwave	4	Normal	~
Smash	B	1(×2)	Normal		✔				✔
Smash	B (aerial)	2(×6)	Normal		✔				✔
Smash	Side B	10(×2)	Normal		✔	✔	✔		✔
Smash	Side B (aerial)	9(×3)	Normal		✔	✔	✔		✔
Smash	Up B (ascending)	2(×2)	Blade		✔				✔
Smash	Up B (descending)	6(×2)	Blade		✔				✔
Smash	Up B (wave)	2	Normal		✔				✔
Smash	Down B (hitbox)	10	Normal	~	✔	✔	✔	✔
Smash	Down B (shockwave)	4	Normal	~
Tornado	-	2	Normal
Crash	-	29	Normal		✔				✔
Bomb	Small explosion	5	Fire		✔
Bomb	Medium explosion	2	Fire						✔
Bomb	Large explosion	1	Fire						✔
Missile	Small explosion	6/4	Normal	~	✔	✔
Missile	Large explosion	2/1	Normal	~					✔
Throw	Inhale	∞	-		✔				✔
Throw	Hitbox and throw	12	Normal		✔	✔			~
UFO	B	4	Electric	✔	✔				✔
UFO	Briefly hold B	4	Fire	✔	✔
UFO	Hold B	10	Fire	✔	✔
UFO	Fully hold B	18	Normal, Fire	✔	✔	✔			✔
Master	B	8	Fire	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	B	1(×6)	Fire	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	B	8	Fire	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	Hold B	8	Fire	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	Dash B	3(×7)	Fire		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Master	Up B	8	Fire	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	Up B after slide (ascending)	2	Fire		✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	Up B after slide (descending)	6	Fire		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Master	Up B after slide (wave)	2	Fire		✔				✔
Master	Down B	2(×4)	Fire		✔	✔	✔		✔
Master	Down B (aerial)	4(×2)	Fire	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔