Kirby's Return to Dream Land/Characters and Copy Abilities/Hi-Jump

Hi-Jump (Press 1)

• Tips
  • After a hi-jump ends, there is a delay until Kirby can hi-jump again. During this time, Kirby normally descends a little. However, at the end of the hi-jump, Kirby can puff and release to cancel the descent, and then use another hi-jump with almost no delay.
    • Puff-cancelling greatly benefits upward movement because Kirby does not descend between jumps.
    • Puff-cancelling does not allow Kirby to hi-jump more rapidly than normal, so puff-cancelling is actually slightly slower when using hi-jumps for horizontal movement (such as in the dark room of 7-2).
    • Most of the vertical rooms designed for hi-jump are built around not using puff-cancelling, which may cause Kirby to overshoot his target at the end of the room. Thus, even for vertical movement, whether to puff-cancel hi-jumps or not is a case-by-case basis.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 24 dmg

• Distance
  • Horizontal movement ^[2]
    • No air pellets between jumps: 8.9 blocks between consecutive, well-timed Hi-Jumps, when continuously holding forward.
    • With air pellets between jumps: 8.9 blocks between consecutive, well-timed Hi-Jumps, when continuously holding forward.
  • Vertical movement (to do)

• Speed
  • Horizontal movement ^[2]
    • No air pellets between jumps
      • First-frame Hi-Jumps seem to be 74 frames apart. That's 74/8.9 = 8.3 frames/block.
      • With slower timing, perhaps 78 frames apart, it's 78/8.9 = 8.8 frames/block.
    • With air pellets between jumps
      • Fastest achieved during testing is a Hi-Jump every 78 frames, but due to the number of timed button presses required (1 to Hi-Jump, 2 to flutter, 1 for the air pellet), it's quite possible that it can be done faster. With 78, though, it's 78/8.9 = 8.8 frames/block.
      • With slower timing, perhaps 84 frames apart, it's 84/8.9 = 9.4 frames/block.
  • Vertical movement (to do)

• Hitlag: 3 frames for both enemies and breakable blocks. ^[2]

Rocket Hi-Jump (LVL 1 Hold 1, release)

• Tips
  • Practically useless. If you have time to charge against a boss, might as well use Mega Hi Jump. If there is no idling time, just use normal hi jumps as they're more spammable.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 30 dmg
  • Explosion - 18 dmg

Mega Hi-Jump (LVL 2 Hold 1, release)

• Tips
  • Near useless. Only useful if you have idling time against a boss to charge, and it's not much more damage either.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 38 dmg
  • Explosion - 24 dmg

Rocket Dive (Down + 1 in air)

• Tips
  • Due to the slow start-up, Rocket Dive should not be used over just falling if there are no obstacles
  • Ideally used when traveling down with many obstacles in the way that Kirby can't just fall through; most notably in the Hi-Jump Challenge Room.

• Attack properties ^[1]
  • 20 dmg
  • Explosion - 16 dmg

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} 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.