Uair and Quick Attack sweet spotting?

[Mystic-]

Is there a guide/diagrams of the spacing for each part of uair? Which part is the spike, which part pops up, which part is the semi spike etc.

My questions about quick attack are two fold. One, I have to be above the ledge to sweetspot it right? I don't really know the mechanics behind that since I've only ever really played Falcon lol. Two, what are good drills to learn the angles/how long does it take to get comfortable using them? I know Axe used to practice for hours but I just mean the bread and butter stuff (sweetspotting to ledge, recovering from as deep as possible not necessarily ledge cancels and other harder angles)

Those two things are really important to Pika and their difficulty is a big part of what has kept me from investing time in the character so far (as they are character specific and I don't really understand either of them) so any tips or advice at all would be appreciated!

 

[Kuralesache]

Here's a quick diagram I drew describing the hitboxes of upair and the directions they send your opponent. This is drawn with pikachu facing left, so his tail goes from the purple hitbox to green to red to blue, and then there's no hitbox directly below and in front of him. The green hitbox is the reverse tailspike, red is the forward tailspike, purple is the one that lifts your opponent for juggling (the one you'll use the most often probably, for doing stuff out of your shield or just in neutral), and the last blue one sends your opponent at a weird angle up and behind you, which is most notable as a tool for clipping your opponent when you're getting back on stage, and putting them in a situation where you can edgeguard them. It's also good in neutral because it reaches so far in front of you, so you can use it to approach people from the air if you want to do something safer than nair.

For quick-attack, the idea is actually really simple. If your quick-attack (1st or second, doesn't matter) is traveling down and it passes a ledge, you will grab the ledge as soon as you reach it, and have fewer vulnerable frames. If you approach the edge from a horizontal angle or from below, the quick attack will last the full duration and you will stay vulnerable for longer, as well as getting the ridiculously huge vulnerable frames near the end of the attack (see: http://i.imgur.com/pktM6.gif you can get hit from a million miles away when your body extends horizontally and vertically near the end of the animation). Every time you go to the ledge, you should try to approach it from above, though obviously this is not always possible, and there's probably an exception that proves the rule or whatever.

If you literally have never done it, I recommend picking Fox, because his animation is much slower, and practicing a few times with him just jumping off the stage, then press up-B to go into firefox, and angling it toward the ledge at a 45 degree angle. His firefox animation will cancel in exactly the same way. Once you've done that a few times, do the same thing with pikachu - jump off the ledge until you're at a 45 degree angle above and away from it, and then do an up-b and try to hit the ledge. Finally, once you get it with one quick-attack, you can practice with 2 quick-attacks. The bread-and-butter recovery is quick attack up, then 2nd quick attack at a 45 degree angle down, the same one that I've been talking about. So to practice that, position yourself below and away from the stage, then quick attack vertically up, and then toward the ledge. Once you can do that, you'll have the most basic recovery down, and it should be easy to expand from there! The trick is not to know a billion angles (though it helps), but to know how to put yourself in the position where you can do the angle consistently. Generally quick-attacks to the ledge are done from just a couple of different places off the stage, and you can use your double jump and DI to the place you want to be to quick-attack from.

Sorry for the wall of text, hope it helps!

 

[N64]

Kuralesache's uair diagram is pretty accurate. It's important to remember that pikachu's tail travels quickly in an arc around himself, and the hitbox is fairly large, so both timing it correctly and positioning it correctly are important. There aren't many real setups for it, you mostly just have to get a feel for it.

As for upB, I posted a quick mspaint thing in this thread ( http://smashboards.com/threads/pika-ledge-game-focus.361510/ ) that shows some common QA angles. I explain more on it in the thread itself, but mainly to sweetspot ensure that you're passing the edge while going in a downward angle (but not still holding down as you pass it).

 

[Kuralesache]

Ha, I completely forgot to mention the fact that you have to let go of the angle before you go to the ledge or you'll move past it. Fun tip though, you can also hold up on the stick, which is what I always do. that way if you miss it somehow with your first attack, you will go up to the ledge or the stage. I also find it's faster to slam up on the stick rather than let go, and you don't have the problem of the stick bouncing a weird direction or anything.

 

[MekBEASY]

Sorry for the wall of text, hope it helps!

This was absolutely awesome! Thank you! This helps me a lot!

 

[CannaSwiss]

Can you sweet spot from directly above the ledge? As in if your first or second quick attack is at a 90 degree angle to the ledge?

 

[Phez_]

its kinda strict and precise, but yes

 

[Modesty]

Sorry for the wall of text, hope it helps!

Very nice graph, thank you for posting it!