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

Fire is one of the best abilities in the game for horizontal mobility. Burn is useful both in ground and in air, and should be used as much as possible. For vertical height, Fire Spin up walls if possible.

For combat, inferno is Fire's best attack. However, Kirby isn't invincibility, and is completely immobile, so finding proper situations for it can be difficult. When not using inferno, use Spinning Fire on bosses.

Fire Breath (Press 1)

• Tips
  • Use this only to attack while preparing for Inferno; otherwise Spinning Fire Breath is stronger and more mobile.
  • Can be aimed by pressing the corresponding direction.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 1st Hit - 8 dmg
  • Repeat hits - 7 dmg per hit

Fireball Inferno (Fire Breath + Hold Back)

• Tips
  • Kirby is completely immobile and not invincible at all while using Fireball Inferno.
  • It has a high vertical hitbox, meaning it can hit sphere doomers, Grand Doomer, Dubior, hopping Water Galboros and Mr. Dooter and sometimes Goriath, Landia, Magolor, and Magolor's Soul.
  • This has one of the highest DPSs in the game, but is very difficult to set up and requires memorization of the boss/miniboss pattern. Further advice is mostly a case-by-case basis.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 40 dmg per hit

Burn (Dash + 1)

• Tips
  • The main reason you'd use fire is this move. Great horizontal speed with invincibility frames. Essentially an inferior Wing's Condor Head.
  • Can be aimed up or down with the control pad. However, during successive aerial Burns, the amount that it can be aimed up diminishes with each Burn.
  • Between successive aerial Burns, holding forward on the control pad actually slows Kirby down. Not touching left or right between Burns will give maximum distance.
  • Running, jumping, and slide attacking with invincible candy are all, on average, faster than using non-frame perfect burnings.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 20 dmg if initiated on the ground
  • 22 dmg if initiated in the air
  • Invincible for the duration of the move
  • Can break metal blocks

• Distance ^[2]
  • Successive, well-timed aerial Burns:
    • 9 blocks apart (not holding left or right between Burns)
    • 8.5 blocks apart (holding forward between Burns)

• Speed ^[2]
  • Successive first-frame aerial Burns are 63 frames apart. That's 63/9 = 7.0 frames/block.
  • Slower timing, say 67 frames on average, gets somewhere between 7.0 and 67/9 = 7.4 frames/block. Kirby is still traveling forward in between Burns, so it's not exactly 7.4 frames/block.

• Hitlag: 5 frames on enemies, 3 frames on breakable blocks. ^[2]

Burning Flame (Press 1 during Burn)

• Tips
  • Not very applicable as an attack, as generally Kirby will fly over the enemies that Burning Flame will damage anyways.
  • Discovered by yoshifan, the Burning Flame can hold down switches, which has its niche uses for certain energy spheres (primarily Level 2-4).

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 1st hit - 6 dmg
  • 2nd hit - 5 dmg
  • Total max per flame - 11 dmg

Spinning Fire Breath (1 in midair)

• Tips
  • To use this move most effectively, if possible, short-hop then press 1 to hit twice. Kirby can repeatedly do this very quickly.
    • Trying to get all 3 hits in is not recommended, as Kirby must do a full-jump and there is a period of time while he ascends that he is not attacking, whereas in the above method, Kirby is almost non-stop attacking.
  • Use this primarily when Inferno is not viable, or when Kirby needs to move while attacking, as this is more versatile and also allows Kirby to be more mobile while attacking.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 1st hit - 12 dmg
  • 2nd & 3rd hit - 10 dmg per hit
  • Total max - 32 dmg

Fireball Spin (Down + 1 in midair)

• Tips
  • To spin up vertical walls, press the direction against the wall after pressing down+1.
  • Climbing straight walls is faster than floating, so use this to your advantage if there is a convenient wall nearby.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 24 dmg
  • Invincible for the duration of the move

• Hitlag: 5 frames on enemies, 3 frames on breakable blocks. ^[2]

Fireball Roll (Hit ground during Fireball Spin)

• Tips
  • When doing a Fireball Roll off of a ledge, get maximum midair distance by not touching forward or back on the control pad.
  • Slower than burning, but handy to use if Kirby is not in running-mode while in the air for a quick boost across the ground (such as when Kirby just enters a room in the air), or when Kirby wants to fling himself across a ledge

• Distance ^[2]
  • This is measured from touching the ground to the end of the move. The distance is the same regardless of whether the Fireball Spin is started just before touching the ground, or some time earlier.
  • Note that doing successive Fireball Rolls along continuous ground (without ledges, stairs, or gaps) requires a short hop between Rolls. Each short hop adds about 34 frames of walking acceleration and speed, if the hop is timed perfectly.
  • Flat ground (roll only): 7.9 blocks

• Speed ^[2]
  • With flat ground and short hops between Rolls:
    • Successive first-frame Fireball Rolls are 74 frames apart. About 40 of these frames are the duration of the Fireball Roll itself, while the remaining frames (about 34) have Kirby accelerating and then moving at walking speed. Unfortunately, more testing is needed to figure out the overall speed this gives for successive Fireball Rolls.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} 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 2.3 2.4 2.5} 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.