Kirby Fighters 2 has plenty of fighters to pick from, but you won’t have access to all of them when you start the game. You begin the game with a choice between Sword, Bomb, and Staff Kirby, and you will only have access to one Buddy, Bandana Waddle Dee. There are 18 more different fighters to unlock, including three more buddies.
To unlock them, you will need to grind away at the game’s story mode. Getting through levels and climbing the tower in the story mode will earn you experience. As your fighter ranks up, you will unlock new fighters as rewards at specific ranks.
You can find all the fighters, and exactly how to unlock them, shown in the table below.
There are only two fighters that you cannot unlock by ranking up, Meta Knight and King Dedede. Meta Knight will be unlocked when you complete Chapter 5 of the story. King Dedede is a much tougher challenge, however. To unlock this Buddy, you will need to finish 50 secret levels that you will only get access to after you finish the story. You will need to finish all of them to add King Dedede to your collection of fighters.