Kirby's Return to Dream Land/Characters and Copy Abilities/Fighter

Fighter is a very versatile ability, both in combat and mobility. It also has a lot of neat combos that look cool. Spin Kick is slower than slide attacking, but not by much, so use it if you need to go through enemies on ground. Short hops with Double Kick work while running forward as well, to take out enemies from afar.

Sky Kick is good for downward mobility. It's also useful for horizontal aerial mobility, as you can puff-cancel it and maintain horizontal momentum. Use Rising Break for an extra boost in height after a jump, if needed.

For grounded bosses, spamming Insta-hadoukens is fighter's best form of DPS. If you need invincibility or to re-position yourself, Spin Kick is good. Rising Break combos into Sky Kick, so use that in conjunction with Double Kick against Aerial bosses. Also, Foe Grab whenever you can.

Vulcan Jab (Press 1)

• Attack Properties ^[1]

• • 1st hit is an early hit - 10 dmg
  • 1st hit is a late hit - 5 dmg
  • Repeat hits – 4 dmg per hit
  • Vulcan jab's first hit has early/late properties, meaning there's less damage for the hit if Vulcan jab is out longer as opposed to hitting immediately after execution.
  • Mash 1 to continue jabbing

Smash Punch (Hold 1)

• Tips
  • Very useful projectile on the ground. However, outclassed by the insta-hadouken.

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 20 dmg

Leg Sweep (Dash + 1)

• Tips
  • Near useless move, as it slows you down dramatically. Only useful for its invincibility, and even then, you should use spin kick unless you don't want to move far.

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 1st hit – 6 dmg
  • 2nd, 3rd, 4th hit - 5 dmg per hit
  • Total max - 21 dmg
  • Invincible for duration of move

Spin Kick (Dash + Hold 1)

• Tips
  • Sliding is faster than Spin Kick along flat ground; however, spin kick is faster than running, and should be used when enemies and obstacles are in the path preventing sliding
  • For maximum damage, start the move as close as you can to the foe; you shouldn't be using this against bosses/minibosses unless you need to reposition yourself while attacking simultaneously

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 1st hit is an early hit - 20 dmg
  • 1st hit is a late hit - 18 dmg
  • 2nd & 3rd hit - 15 dmg per hit
  • Total max - 50 damage
  • Invincible for the duration of the move

• Distance ^[2]
  • 8.7 blocks for successive, well-timed Spin Kicks on flat ground, making sure to hold forward when falling as the move ends.
  • When going uphill, there will generally be less falling distance as the move ends. Due to the reduced falling distance, the horizontal coverage going uphill is less than 8.7 blocks, but the next Spin Kick can be started more quickly. The latter fact probably means that Spin Kicks become faster when going uphill, but more testing is needed to confirm this.

• Speed ^[2]
  • Flat ground
    • Successive first-frame Spin Kicks seem to be 80 frames apart (not so sure about this, though; it may be a frame or two lower). That's 80/8.7 = 9.2 frames/block.
    • Slower timing, say 86 frames per spin kick on average, would get somewhere between 80/8.7 and 86/8.7 = 9.9 frames/block. It's not exactly 86/8.7 because there is a tiny bit of walking/running between imperfect Spin Kicks.

• Hitlag ^[2]
  • 1, 3, or 5 frames on enemies, depending on which part of the Spin Kick animation hits the enemy: 1 when early in the kick animation, 5 when in the middle, and 3 when late. Enemies are often comboed to be hit two times (one middle, one late) or three times (one early, one middle, one late).
  • 3 frames on breakable blocks, regardless of which part of the Spin Kick animation hits.

Down Kick (1 in air)

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 18 dmg

Double Kick (Hold 1 in air)

• Tips
  • Essentially the same as smash punch except in the air
  • Excellent for defeating enemies while jumping, without stopping your horizontal movement. Use short-hop double kicks to continuously move while defeating generic enemies from far away.

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • Foot - 26 dmg
  • Projectile – 18 dmg

Rising Break (Up + Hold 1)

• Tips
  • Invincible for duration of the move, plus slightly after. The invincibility frames at the end allow you to safely transition into another fast aerial move without taking damage. The best example is Rising Break into Sky Kick on a boss, as Sky Kick bounces you away from the boss to not take damage afterwards.

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 1st hit - 16 dmg
  • 2nd, 3rd hit - 8 dmg per hit
  • 4th hit - 14 dmg
  • Max total - 46 dmg

Sky Kick (Down + 1 in air)

• Tips
  • Like with Ninja Kicks, you can cancel a Sky Kick into a flutter to transfer the Sky Kick's horizontal momentum to the flutter; and by alternating Sky Kicks and flutters repeatedly, Kirby can move horizontally through the air more quickly than with just fluttering. See the Ninja Kick section for more details on how to do this.
    • Unlike the Ninja Kick, the Sky Kick doesn't start descending immediately after the move is executed, so it is quite possible to flutter before Kirby kicks downward at all (and Kirby will still get the kick's horizontal momentum). Thus, it is actually easy to gain height during repeated Sky Kicks and flutters.
  • Sky Kick falls faster than just falling normally.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 18 dmg

• Speed (to do)

Instant Mega Force Blast (Down, Forward + Press 1)

• Tips
  • If the controls above confuse you, think of Hadouken and executing quarter-circle-forward. Or alternate between pressing down and forward+1 in a rhythmic fashion
  • This is fighter's main DPS on the ground, as Insta-Hadoukens are very powerful and spammable, and completely outclass Spark Wave on the ground
  • Avoid spamming this too quickly against bosses/minibosses, or else some Hadoukens will pass through the boss before its invincibility frames are finished. Practice the rhythm such that every Hadouken will hit the boss just as its invincibility finishes from the previous Hadouken

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 36 dmg

Force Blast (LVL 1 Charge, Down + Hold 1, release)

• Tips
  • Never use this, as the instant version outclasses this

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 24 dmg

Mega Force Blast (LVL 2 Charge, Down + Hold 1, release)

• Tips
  • Never use this, as the instant version outclasses this

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 36 dmg

Giga Force Blast (LVL 3 Charge, Down + Hold 1, release)

• Tips
  • This is slightly stronger than Insta-Hadoukens, but requires significant charge-up. Though because it is stronger, it should be used during idle time (i.e. while a miniboss is spawning, or a boss is transitioning phases) then commence spamming Insta-Hadoukens

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 42 dmg

Moon Somersault Kick (Press 1 in air next to foe)

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 16 dmg

Foe Grab (Press 1 on ground next to object)

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • Held Object - 36 dmg

Arm Throw (Press 1 + up, forward, or nothing)

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 45 dmg

Judo Throw (Press 1 + down or back)

• Attack Properties ^[1]
  • 52 dmg

References

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15} An ability and damage guide at the Kirby's Rainbow Resort forums. It's mainly maintained by Plas Durock and contains contributions from several members of the Rainbow Resort forum and the GameFAQs KRtDL forum. http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/935607-kirbys-return-to-dream-land/62398037
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Frame tests by Yoshifan. This involved DVD-recording a test run, and then analyzing the recording frame-by-frame in 60 FPS using VirtualDub. For detailed info on the setup, see this SDA forum post. The block measurements and frames/block tests are particularly prone to inaccuracy, because the human eye is used to count "blocks" in the terrain and figure out exactly how many frames it takes for Kirby to travel a certain amount of blocks. It is estimated that test results may be up to 0.5 frames/block off from the actual values, possibly more if block-counting or math mistakes were made. If one could test on emulator, using a memory value to see what is Kirby's x and y position (or even x and y speed) according to the game, that could result in much more robust tests than these.