The Beginner’s Guide to Training the Banjo & Kazooie Amiibo in Smash Ultimate

by Hictor the Dragon

Welcome to Amiibo Doctor! In addition to training this amiibo, we also have the most cutting-edge guides for nearly every amiibo in the competitive amiibo scene’s many Discord servers. You should also reference our Raid Boss amiibo guides, and if you’re having trouble winning in competitive amiibo, check the official amiibo tier list! Happy training!

My goal of this guide is to give an analysis of Banjo’s behavioral values and how this effects his performance as a whole. Do keep in mind that behavioral values/sliders play a role not only by themselves but also some of them affect each other. I will go more into that as we explore the behavior values/sliders.

Move values are secondary, as in, they should be trained in once you get the ideal behavioral values first. Certain values are set in stone such as Item Collector and Critical Hitter, so raising/lowering them first before training is a solid idea to start with. We won’t look at every single one.

AI Issues

Mainly, the Banjo amiibo likes to spring in the air and on the ground. Luckily, this only happens once in a blue moon.

With regards to spirits, if you max out Meteor Master to alter specific values, Banjo will refuse to attack in the air when recovering or attacking offstage.

Both of these AI issues can be reduced; however, if your Banjo amiibo ever springs in the air or on the ground, restart the match. It’s the best way to prevent springing.

Overall Playstyle

Overall, Banjo as a whole is a pretty interesting character to train. Keep in mind that there is no one way to train Banjo and there are plenty of playstyles yet to be uncovered. How you adjust these behavior sliders is up to you. Bear in mind (pun intended) that my experimentation with Banjo is much more in-depth than most Amiibo Doctor guides, so you may find it helpful to reference our older Banjo amiibo guide instead if you’re not familiar with behavior sliders.

Main Behavior Sliders

Near: Has some variance and probably the lowest priority to get on the spot. Max near (100) is going to lend to great performance but keep in mind that Banjo is solid at spacing a bit too. I wouldn’t go under 90 because the lower you go will cause the amiibo to roll more often. Near is also affected with Feint Master. This slider up (but not too high or else) will help Banjo keep a distance more and wait for you to approach despite having a Near of 100. As a personal recommendation, I advise sticking with higher Near but I did get both to work. There could be other, unexplored builds with lower Near but otherwise, I’d be careful with altering this slider. My Banjo, called Bear-able, has a Near of 90.55 so it does work.

Dash: Controls when the amiibo will utilize running and is affected with Dash Attacker, Feint Master, and Attack Cancel (for the built in Jab Lock). The problem is that Dashing is very risky to mess with, but, using some Dash attacks are not a bad idea. The amiibo will utilize running out of attacks with some Feint Master, so training in Dash isn’t necessary at all.

Offensive: Effects how often the amiibo will attack all together. Keep in mind lower Offense doesn’t mean they will necessarily roll more but it can contribute to that. Too much of the Offensive slider will lead to hyper aggression, so there is a fine balance, and it can vary with numerous playstyles. My Banjo amiibo, Bear-able, has an Offensive of 70 while my other Banjo amiibo, Bearliever, has an Offensive of 55 and both do very well on Amiibots.

Air Offensive: Effects how often the amiibo will attack in the air. The higher the better since you want your Banjo to retaliate when someone tries to attack him in the air, utilizing up air chains and for him to use certain moves to land. Air Offensive also works with the Near slider and lowering Near too much will cause him to not land his strings as consistently.

Grounded: Typically, in the meta, you want this value to be at 100, but all my Banjo amiibo have a grounded value of 93.7. Jumping itself isn’t bad if the amiibo utilizes it out of chains – Up Air chains, Down Throw > Forward Air, or Back Air chains. The tricky part is nailing it down perfectly. Feint Master also affects the jumping to a degree. Banjo will jump to take advantage of hit stun more. Or, if you Up Air chain frequently he will fast fall a lot until the opponent is within the hit box. Grounded doesn’t operate alone.

Cliffer: Controls if the amiibo should hang on the ledge to edge guard. It is ideal to keep Banjo onstage instead of offstage since he is very good at two framing, Egg gimping, and ledge traps.

Attack Off Cliff: Effects how often an amiibo will go offstage to edge guard. Obviously, we want Banjo to stay onstage so having this at 0 is highly encouraged.

Meteor Master: Banjo’s start-up Down Air has a meteor effect and, if landed, will raise Meteor Master. Keep in mind that having this value up will cause Banjo to not retaliate when returning to stage if someone tries to edge guard him. It also can cause the amiibo to go offstage despite not having it built into Down Air offstage (and why would you) without using an attack and recover. So, it is advised to keep this value at 0.

Feint Master: Now this is where things get really interesting. This value controls a variety of behaviors, though be it smaller behaviors such as (but not only) baiting, wave dashing (landing catches if trained), fast falling, footstooling, running out of hit boxes, rolling, shielding, parrying, and moving away. Raising Feint Master too high will hinder your amiibo’s performance. I got 3 Banjos with 0, 5.5, and 15 Feint Master respectively. So, there will be variance with the playstyle. If you are trying to make a human Raid Boss Amiibo, 100 Feint Master is ideal.

Feint Counter: Effects the use of non-projectile attacks for interruption/challenging attacks. I’d try to aim around 50 here. My amiibo, Bear-able, has 55 roughly but there will be variance if you train a more melee-oriented bear vs a Grenade Egg bear, so keep this in mind.

Feint Shooter: If you use a projectile this slider will increase. You don’t have to use it a lot to encourage Egg gimping at ledge as long as this value is up. Egg and Grenade Egg are counted as a projectile.

Item Collector: Controls if the amiibo should go pick up an item. Ideal at 0 and will cause Banjo to ignore his Grenade Egg pick up. Keep in mind character items (Diddy being the only exception of raising the slider) will not raise or lower the Item Collector slider. This makes a grenade build for Banjo worth looking into.

Critical Hitter: Though not linked to any of Banjo’s moves, raising this slider up will cause Banjo to smash attack with Forward Smash more. Bear-able with a 0 Forward Smash value will use it more often than my other bears. Otherwise, the full effect of this slider isn’t fully known yet and needs more extensive research.

Now we move onto the recommended moves. Keep in mind that this is the secondary part of training, and you can be more flexible here.

How to Train the Banjo & Kazooie Amiibo in Smash Ultimate

Moves to Use

Jab: Banjo has it built in to Jab Lock and the multi hit isn’t bad. Jab is optional if you want to train Up Smash cancel but make sure you use the Up Smash out of it without whiffing it.

Forward Smash: Good kill option but isn’t needed in a good Banjo (as proof of Bearliever and Bea-able with a Forward Smash value of 0).

Down Smash: Solid two-frame option and out of Parry option. It’s very fast and hits from both sides. It’s also used primarily with ledge trapping.

Up Smash: Solid anti-air that is built-in out of Jab Lock.

Forward Tilt: Solid out of Parry due to speed and can lead into a up-angled Forward Tilt from Dash attack sometimes. When at ledge, the down-angled version can two-frame.

Down Tilt: An overall great move and can be used for ledge guarding effectively. Down Tilt is a large hit box for Banjo.

Up Tilt: Solid anti air that shouldn’t be used more than Up Smash, but still used.

Wonder Wing: Built-in out of Parry and kills well. Also, it’s a solid landing option in moderate amounts. Overall, this move should be utilized.

Neutral Special: Use only at ledge to Egg gimp. It’s a great way to net kills really early.

Down Special: Great when the Item Collector Slider is 0. Use some lightly onstage, once in a blue moon to land, and lightly offstage to hit too is fine.

Up Special: Avoid at all costs. Banjo has a flaw where he will use it onstage. Do not get hit by it or by an air move when he springs.

Neutral Air: Great landing tool that can drag down into a Grab. Fast falling with it for landings is recommended.

Up Air: When you land an Up Air, try to chain a Back Air or a Forward Air.

Back Air: Another great landing tool. Try to Reverse Grab since the AI can do that, but Slow Smash will make that easier.

Forward Air: A strong attack that is situational. When offstage, try Forward Air and Back Air as you return to stage (you can also Wonder Wing to return too once in a while).

Down Air: Use sparingly or else it can be spammed, and don’t land the Meteor Effect. Sometimes Down Air is the best landing option.

Grab: Banjo has excellent grab game; use it for ledge trapping and drag downs. Banjo’s Down Throw and Back Throw are his best grabs; however, this doesn’t diminish his other grabs for their situational uses.

Why It Works

The Banjo amiibo is pretty flexible depending on how you want to train him. Once you get the main behavioral sliders where you want them, the move values are the next priority. You should try to train both together if you are able to.

Keep training and try out new things!