gallax
Smash Hero
Olimar
General Discussion
Olimar is certainly one of the most unique characters in the game. His game focus' on pikmin which he plucks out of the ground. It doesn't revolve around a sword or hand to hand combat, but on projectiles which have their own minds. If he does run out of pikmin he can still attack, but he will be outranged and outprioritzed by almost every character in the game. Although this most certainly will not happen, it still gives you perspective how important pikmin really are. But watch out, they are dangerous and are like the ex girlfriend who, when becomes attatched to you, is hard to get rid of.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Pika has a projectile that outranges olimars
2.) Pika's nair>oli's fair/bair/dair
3.) More awesome recovery
4.) Can easily gimp olimar's recovery
5.) Pika's dsmash can pull olimar into the smash while oli is trying to grab you
6.) Olimar has few kill moves
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) Grab is outranged
2.) Attacks can be diminished by attacking pikmin
3.) Ground game is outranged by pikmin
4.) It just plain difficult to get to olimar behind those little devils
5.) Pika doesn't have any pikmin for defense/offense
Strategy for Winning
General
First off, olimar's are gonna have different styles in general, some will bombard you with pikmin from a distance, others will pressure you with fsmash and dsmash and his high priority aerials. Basically you need to be able to tell what type of mode they're in and pick a proper reaction. You really just need to have a diverse approach game, because any single approach from Pikachu gets beat very easily by most characters, and this is amplified by Olimar by his very solid and easy to perform counters to Pikastrats.This means that you should really pay attention to everything that is said here. It is a complilation of many different opinions and many different Olimar matchups.
Now, you don't want Olimar on the ground in this matchup. He's annoying and his ground game beats pika's in damage output by a bit. You can semi pressure him with jolts, but him throwing pikmin is one of the rare situations where a projectile will be better than yours =].
Grabbing
One thing, because of the way he tosses pikmin around, it doesn't seem like he's very vulnerable to grabs, but a lot of olimars will sheild like most chars if you begin a short hop fair approach. That's when you want to get your grabs in. Dash in and shield his attack into a grab or land behind him and grab. Grabs are you friend! When you grab him, this is where you want to get off a lot of damage on the guy. At very low percents you can fthrow and probably catch him again as most people don't exactly expect it the first time at least. Usually you want to follow up a fthrow with a dash into an upsmash. After that you just wanna basically juggle him with utilts, uairs, or whatever aerials keep him above you. Chase his landing spots and shield -> dsmash. Shielding will protect you from any aerials he might throw and the dsmash will probably throw him back into the air. You can also dthrow>utilt/usmash>uair>uair. The dthrow allows you to stay underneath oli and therefor make it a bit easier for you when he is at higher percentages.
Killing Pikmin
Killing pikmin can't be a concentration for how you attack olimar. It's counter productive to you 100%. Attacking pikmin will diminish your stronger attacks. If you get a white Pikmin latched onto you, make it your top priority to get it off though! The other Pikmin types aren't as bad, but a single white Pikmin can do 40-50 damage alone. Throwing out an uair/nair can be useful for detaching them, especially if you are on the offensive. Also, try to use pika's utilt in place of dsmash at lower percents. Also, something that you need to know, an uncharged dsmash does not kill the yellow pikmin, even when struck by thunder or the tjolt they fly straight through them hitting you unhindered. The yellow pikmin are 100% resistant to electric attacks. To kill them you need to rely more on you utilt/usmash. Be more prone to use the utilt though since it isn't one of your kill moves and you do not want to diminish your usmash. It also has fast startup time and can be used relatively faster than most other pika attacks.
Yellow Pikmin
As a side note about the yellow pikmin, if you do decide to use your dsmash to kill off the pikmin, and olimar keeps plucking more pikmin out and tossing them onto you and you return the favor by doing another dsmash(or electric attack), the olmiar will end up with mostly(if not all) yellow pikmin at his disposal. And now, you have to worry about a diminished dsmash along with horribly annoying yellow pikmin which are very dangerous.
Approaching
As for approaching Olimar, this can be quite difficult. Since Olimar has disposable shields called Pikmin there are only a few ways to approach him without your attacks getting absorbed, or worse out-prioritized. You must get in close. However, when you do, his dsmash, usmash, and grab are very hard to avoid. Basically, the options are as followed: dash at him and shield, then aerial or grab him; dash into a spotdodge into a dsmash; straight up run at him and grab when he gets on a pikmin spamming spree.
These approaches are very predictable at times though. Any good Olimar player will use his exceptional grab distance to beat you in these approaches. So, right when you notice the Olimar going for a grab, do a quick dodge. It doesnt matter whether you roll behind him, or spot doge, but once you do, punish him for his mistake with a smash or a well placed grab. If you spot dodged, you should be perfect distance for a fsmash or ftilt, but this does depend on the timing of his failed grab attempt and your dodge. Regardless of the option you chose, dsmash will work great, first it will draw him in since he will be in range from his grab, second, it'll get rid of one of his pikmin that have been released from their cage(i.e. thrown and are returning as long as they are not yellow). It is a small benefit, but thats one less pikmin he can throw at you.
The next possible apparoach is a short/full hopped aerial. PLEASE, anyone who attempts this, be on the look out for his up B and up smash. Try to get in from a 45 degree to fake-out an Up-B from Olimar, it has a huge amount of lag at the end that can be punished if dodged correctly (and most Olimar players seem to forget about Up-B as an offensive move)
When going for this attack you must make sure you are positioning yourself at an angle as to fly either right between the two possible attacks, or to make sure he launches a Pikmin first in an up smash attempt which is counterable with any of your aerials minus your up aerial. The fair can lead into a down smash or grab if you land behind him. A bair can rack up some well needed damage with some considerable knockback if you get the last hitbox to connect.
The QAC
Now im not going to go in depth with the QAC, but just be assured, it can be quite useful in this matchup. It gets you in close and fast. Quite punishable of course though. One use of this that you should watch out for is if oli has gone airborn. Use the QAC to get underneath and cancel it into a SH uair/nair.
Going to the Air
If olimar decides to take to the air, get under him or near him and shield. IF you get under him try and juggle with some airiels and/or use your bair for damage purposes and time it so that you cna get zero lag from the landing and you can keep applying pressure once you hit the ground. From shield you can usmash, dsmash, utilt, or grab if you are in range.
Another interesting strategy that one player said, is that once you've got olimar in the air, you can keep pressure on him by not trying to continue attacking him in the air... but by running to his new potential landing location and shielding again and reacting accordingly. If olimar doesn't beat you to the spot he's about to land, he's in bad shape. If he does, just surrender the spot and try to reset.
Oli's Grabs
When closing in on ollie, watch out for pivot grabs. Olimar has a very dangerous grab game. He throws out a pikmin and draws you in. A dsmash can pull an olimar in so be sure to try that out a few times to condition them to stop grabbing as much. But, if you do get grabbed, you will more than likely be dthrowed. If you get (down)grabbed, there re a few things Olimar can do, he can chase you for an Usmash, Pikmin tether immediatly for some quick damage, or if you're at low percent Fsmash to grab again. Really your best option is just to jump immediatly after being released or do an airdodge.
Killing/Edgeguarding
The one very good thing that pika has going for him in this matchup is killing olimar. His recovery is probably the worst in the game, and he is low weight. It may be difficuly to set up a kill or a gimp, but it is very possible and makes this matchup so much easier.
As for killing olimar, a well placed smash or nair will end his life at around 100%. It shouldn't take too much effort. However, you might easily get this character to 150% when going for the kill since it is very hard to land a smash on a good olimar player. Don't feel ashamed if this happens lol. You can also try to usmash him and tie a thunder combo into it. Be creative.
The most obvious choice of taking stocks away from olimar should be edgeguarding. If you grab onto the ledge they cannot grab a hold of it and will fall to their doom when using the tether recovery. Watch out though since the tether can still hit you and spike you off the edge if you do not have invincibility frames. The other thing to worry for is when Olimar is approaching from above, they will more then likely toss a pikmin at you to get you off the edge. Tapping Down and immediately tapping up will resolve this.
When olimar is going in for a kill, he will most likely use his usmash or dsmash since they are his best kill moves. When you are at higher percentages be sure to be on the watch for these moves. They are going to try and get you in close and force you onto the ground or directly above them. Olimar has a great hyphen smash so if you see him runnig towards you, it is probably because he is going to use his hyphen smash.
Helpful Video's
Soon to Come
Overall Matchup
Olimar has a slight advantage.
General Discussion
Olimar is certainly one of the most unique characters in the game. His game focus' on pikmin which he plucks out of the ground. It doesn't revolve around a sword or hand to hand combat, but on projectiles which have their own minds. If he does run out of pikmin he can still attack, but he will be outranged and outprioritzed by almost every character in the game. Although this most certainly will not happen, it still gives you perspective how important pikmin really are. But watch out, they are dangerous and are like the ex girlfriend who, when becomes attatched to you, is hard to get rid of.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Pika has a projectile that outranges olimars
2.) Pika's nair>oli's fair/bair/dair
3.) More awesome recovery
4.) Can easily gimp olimar's recovery
5.) Pika's dsmash can pull olimar into the smash while oli is trying to grab you
6.) Olimar has few kill moves
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) Grab is outranged
2.) Attacks can be diminished by attacking pikmin
3.) Ground game is outranged by pikmin
4.) It just plain difficult to get to olimar behind those little devils
5.) Pika doesn't have any pikmin for defense/offense
Strategy for Winning
General
First off, olimar's are gonna have different styles in general, some will bombard you with pikmin from a distance, others will pressure you with fsmash and dsmash and his high priority aerials. Basically you need to be able to tell what type of mode they're in and pick a proper reaction. You really just need to have a diverse approach game, because any single approach from Pikachu gets beat very easily by most characters, and this is amplified by Olimar by his very solid and easy to perform counters to Pikastrats.This means that you should really pay attention to everything that is said here. It is a complilation of many different opinions and many different Olimar matchups.
Now, you don't want Olimar on the ground in this matchup. He's annoying and his ground game beats pika's in damage output by a bit. You can semi pressure him with jolts, but him throwing pikmin is one of the rare situations where a projectile will be better than yours =].
Grabbing
One thing, because of the way he tosses pikmin around, it doesn't seem like he's very vulnerable to grabs, but a lot of olimars will sheild like most chars if you begin a short hop fair approach. That's when you want to get your grabs in. Dash in and shield his attack into a grab or land behind him and grab. Grabs are you friend! When you grab him, this is where you want to get off a lot of damage on the guy. At very low percents you can fthrow and probably catch him again as most people don't exactly expect it the first time at least. Usually you want to follow up a fthrow with a dash into an upsmash. After that you just wanna basically juggle him with utilts, uairs, or whatever aerials keep him above you. Chase his landing spots and shield -> dsmash. Shielding will protect you from any aerials he might throw and the dsmash will probably throw him back into the air. You can also dthrow>utilt/usmash>uair>uair. The dthrow allows you to stay underneath oli and therefor make it a bit easier for you when he is at higher percentages.
Killing Pikmin
Killing pikmin can't be a concentration for how you attack olimar. It's counter productive to you 100%. Attacking pikmin will diminish your stronger attacks. If you get a white Pikmin latched onto you, make it your top priority to get it off though! The other Pikmin types aren't as bad, but a single white Pikmin can do 40-50 damage alone. Throwing out an uair/nair can be useful for detaching them, especially if you are on the offensive. Also, try to use pika's utilt in place of dsmash at lower percents. Also, something that you need to know, an uncharged dsmash does not kill the yellow pikmin, even when struck by thunder or the tjolt they fly straight through them hitting you unhindered. The yellow pikmin are 100% resistant to electric attacks. To kill them you need to rely more on you utilt/usmash. Be more prone to use the utilt though since it isn't one of your kill moves and you do not want to diminish your usmash. It also has fast startup time and can be used relatively faster than most other pika attacks.
Yellow Pikmin
As a side note about the yellow pikmin, if you do decide to use your dsmash to kill off the pikmin, and olimar keeps plucking more pikmin out and tossing them onto you and you return the favor by doing another dsmash(or electric attack), the olmiar will end up with mostly(if not all) yellow pikmin at his disposal. And now, you have to worry about a diminished dsmash along with horribly annoying yellow pikmin which are very dangerous.
Approaching
As for approaching Olimar, this can be quite difficult. Since Olimar has disposable shields called Pikmin there are only a few ways to approach him without your attacks getting absorbed, or worse out-prioritized. You must get in close. However, when you do, his dsmash, usmash, and grab are very hard to avoid. Basically, the options are as followed: dash at him and shield, then aerial or grab him; dash into a spotdodge into a dsmash; straight up run at him and grab when he gets on a pikmin spamming spree.
These approaches are very predictable at times though. Any good Olimar player will use his exceptional grab distance to beat you in these approaches. So, right when you notice the Olimar going for a grab, do a quick dodge. It doesnt matter whether you roll behind him, or spot doge, but once you do, punish him for his mistake with a smash or a well placed grab. If you spot dodged, you should be perfect distance for a fsmash or ftilt, but this does depend on the timing of his failed grab attempt and your dodge. Regardless of the option you chose, dsmash will work great, first it will draw him in since he will be in range from his grab, second, it'll get rid of one of his pikmin that have been released from their cage(i.e. thrown and are returning as long as they are not yellow). It is a small benefit, but thats one less pikmin he can throw at you.
The next possible apparoach is a short/full hopped aerial. PLEASE, anyone who attempts this, be on the look out for his up B and up smash. Try to get in from a 45 degree to fake-out an Up-B from Olimar, it has a huge amount of lag at the end that can be punished if dodged correctly (and most Olimar players seem to forget about Up-B as an offensive move)
When going for this attack you must make sure you are positioning yourself at an angle as to fly either right between the two possible attacks, or to make sure he launches a Pikmin first in an up smash attempt which is counterable with any of your aerials minus your up aerial. The fair can lead into a down smash or grab if you land behind him. A bair can rack up some well needed damage with some considerable knockback if you get the last hitbox to connect.
The QAC
Now im not going to go in depth with the QAC, but just be assured, it can be quite useful in this matchup. It gets you in close and fast. Quite punishable of course though. One use of this that you should watch out for is if oli has gone airborn. Use the QAC to get underneath and cancel it into a SH uair/nair.
Going to the Air
If olimar decides to take to the air, get under him or near him and shield. IF you get under him try and juggle with some airiels and/or use your bair for damage purposes and time it so that you cna get zero lag from the landing and you can keep applying pressure once you hit the ground. From shield you can usmash, dsmash, utilt, or grab if you are in range.
Another interesting strategy that one player said, is that once you've got olimar in the air, you can keep pressure on him by not trying to continue attacking him in the air... but by running to his new potential landing location and shielding again and reacting accordingly. If olimar doesn't beat you to the spot he's about to land, he's in bad shape. If he does, just surrender the spot and try to reset.
Oli's Grabs
When closing in on ollie, watch out for pivot grabs. Olimar has a very dangerous grab game. He throws out a pikmin and draws you in. A dsmash can pull an olimar in so be sure to try that out a few times to condition them to stop grabbing as much. But, if you do get grabbed, you will more than likely be dthrowed. If you get (down)grabbed, there re a few things Olimar can do, he can chase you for an Usmash, Pikmin tether immediatly for some quick damage, or if you're at low percent Fsmash to grab again. Really your best option is just to jump immediatly after being released or do an airdodge.
Killing/Edgeguarding
The one very good thing that pika has going for him in this matchup is killing olimar. His recovery is probably the worst in the game, and he is low weight. It may be difficuly to set up a kill or a gimp, but it is very possible and makes this matchup so much easier.
As for killing olimar, a well placed smash or nair will end his life at around 100%. It shouldn't take too much effort. However, you might easily get this character to 150% when going for the kill since it is very hard to land a smash on a good olimar player. Don't feel ashamed if this happens lol. You can also try to usmash him and tie a thunder combo into it. Be creative.
The most obvious choice of taking stocks away from olimar should be edgeguarding. If you grab onto the ledge they cannot grab a hold of it and will fall to their doom when using the tether recovery. Watch out though since the tether can still hit you and spike you off the edge if you do not have invincibility frames. The other thing to worry for is when Olimar is approaching from above, they will more then likely toss a pikmin at you to get you off the edge. Tapping Down and immediately tapping up will resolve this.
When olimar is going in for a kill, he will most likely use his usmash or dsmash since they are his best kill moves. When you are at higher percentages be sure to be on the watch for these moves. They are going to try and get you in close and force you onto the ground or directly above them. Olimar has a great hyphen smash so if you see him runnig towards you, it is probably because he is going to use his hyphen smash.
Helpful Video's
Soon to Come
Overall Matchup
Olimar has a slight advantage.