Q&A Ask about Pikachu! Hosted by Axe and N64! feat. dkuo!

[Popertop]

I forgot, one of the most important things to practice for playing Pikachu

is Up-B angles

 

[BlindSpot]

Thank you so much for your reply :D

 

[_trix_]

Yeah I would say that half of pikachus matchups in top tier are just relatively even at any level, and the other half go from being complete ass(I.E. sheik) at low level to arguably winning matchups at the very highest level. You just have to stick with it.

 

[BlindSpot]

Just got back from a tournament and placed 13th with pika. eh.. anyways, thought I'd ask some questions here that i stumbled across in bracket.

#1) What % can i start cging fast falllers? And what % do i stop to usmash?

#2) When I have fox or falco off stage, can you list several scenarios and what I should do in each?

 

[Popertop]

#1) Generally you can Usmash right away. I'm not certain about the percents where it starts/stops though (usually cg's in this game start around 15% and go to about 80-90%, char specifics can vary)

#2) Pika can cover various situations

Ftilt is really good for covering side-b level with the stage
You need to angle it up/down depending on when exactly they side-b, and if they shorten the timing will be different
Dtilt can also work, but does not hit below the edge like down-angle Ftilt or even regular Ftilt
Even jab stuff Side-B, but they will grab the edge (unless you are in the teetering position)

Jolt can hit side-b, and can cover low up-b recoveries
Generally you can throw out a jolt, in case they drift down
And then edge-hog

If they are really far out, and they start to Up-B:
You can jump out with a super far Nair
You can drop down and try to interrupt their angle with a Uair
You can jump out like you are trying to Nair, and sweetspot Up-B back (this can work vs side-b as well)

If they drop below ledge and you didn't manage to jolt:
Sometimes you can drop down and Fair > Uair spike
Try to beat their Up-B clean with a Dair
Try to stage spike a steep angled Firefox/bird with a Bair (along the stage wall)



Again this all might just be terrible advice, but the great thing is-
You can try things like this, and see what works for you

The main thing is getting comfortable with your own gameplan

EDIT:
Pls take some video of your play
Analyzing video is an ez way to improve

 

[BlindSpot]

This helped a lot, thank you!
I guess up throw into up smash if i grab at 0, and after 15% cg. I'll practice my edgeguarding more and try to develope an optimal style.

Puff, Samus, and Peach seem so hard!!! lol
Next tournament or fest I'll try getting some games to put on here for analysis.

 

[_trix_]

Just got back from a tournament and placed 13th with pika. eh.. anyways, thought I'd ask some questions here that i stumbled across in bracket.

#1) What % can i start cging fast falllers? And what % do i stop to usmash?

#2) When I have fox or falco off stage, can you list several scenarios and what I should do in each?

Chaingrab starts at 0% on spacies (frame perfect) and is a little easier around 12%. Goes till 120%, just upsmash at 100 though. Falcon same thing but its easier at low percents. Upthrow upsmash starts at around 12% on spacies(difficult) and 0% on falcon(P easy). The 2nd answer I would literally have to write a 10 page essay(not an exaggeration, seriously), so I'll just say try to find ways to use reactions to cover as much as possible.

 

[_trix_]

Edgeguarding is very very complicated, but if you try and focus on just covering as much as possible via reaction and try to figure it out yourself, I believe you can figure it out (:

 

[BlindSpot]

Thank you for the percentage info :D
Yeah, I was a sheik main so i get the concept, it's just a little harder with Pikachu, but worth because i feel he can cover pretty much everything and make it back.
My girlfriend just started playing, and chose Pikachu, and im about a week into the character, so we'll take some videos to post here. Thank y'all so much

 

[Popertop]

Hey trix, was any of what I said correct?

I completely agree with reinforcing self-discovery, as thats the only real way to learn

I understand there is a lot that goes into it, but I don't want to be giving out false information (even though I only ever talk about first-hand experience, there can be nuances that I'm missing)

 

[_trix_]

Popertop what you said about edge guarding was good. It's kind of an ambiguous topic so they're really not many wrong answers. Two thumbs up

 

[Popertop]

thx trix.

I find edgeguarding easier to theorize, because you have less options (there isn't grounded movement, you literally only have DI and drift, as long as whatever variation your move has, in order to mix up where you are going), the complicated part is staying safe, because a lot of the time, you can end up in the situation your opp was just in.

Pika at least has the luxury of being able to force jumps (Jolt), similar to Peach (turnips)

as well as being able to snap to ledge with Up-B from a super wide variety of positions
(the hard part there is practicing all those crazy angles and not dying)

 

[Popertop]

Bump here

Having a lot of trouble lately getting caught in my backdashes, because of Pika's tail hurtbox.
Any common solutions?

One I can think of is shield stop, or pivot

But I feel like I'm missing some important detail

Probably dashdancing too close like a dumb dumb

 

[atara]

What are the best ways to take ledge? I feel like I miss a lot of potential kills because I don't get to the ledge fast enough. I guess I need to get better at run up -> wavedash forward -> pivot [-> fastfall], but I know there are some up-b shenanigans (that often get me killed) and maybe some other stuff to know as well? It seems like PC dropping is hard with Pika because of his traction.

Also I don't know what everyone else is doing but I've done better against floaties than spacies... just got really good at punishing bad techs with upsmash and using walking ftilt all the time. Of course I know you can't do this as much at high levels.

Catching turnips is *way* easier than I thought it would be. If you're not doing this to Peach I think you're playing the matchup wrong. I don't know what it is about Pikachu exactly but I do it all the time. Does anyone know what happened to the catchbox pictures or what Pikachu's catchbox on turnips looks like?

 

[Challs16]

Is this forum still active? Cause I have a few questions as a kind new Pika main.

 

[dkuo]

Popertop this isnt a perfect solution but, pikachu's tail retracts when you sh and waveland. so whenever youre on the retreating side of your dd (or just in general) you could do a sh/fh/wd if you really wanna make sure you dont get clipped

heres what i mean http://imgur.com/cmBIE4r

EDIT: in action (using the same dd frames for all of these)
no sh: https://gfycat.com/EveryEnergeticBedbug
sh: https://gfycat.com/TimelyObeseEyelashpitviper
wd: https://gfycat.com/PopularMealyAlpaca
all: https://gfycat.com/SomeGrandBelugawhale

A atara i recommend spending time to grind the upb hog from onstage

holy **** i havent posted here in a good minute
kinda crazy to think that i started posting in this thread 7 years ago

 

[soju]

dkuo you're an old man here

Also I'll be on more often if anyone wants to ask an old rat questions

 

[Proxfrd]

1. What are some ways Pika can deal with crouch cancels? I'm talking about mainly samus, but in general I've been having trouble dealing with CCs from most of the cast.
2. How can I tell when there is a grab opening. I'm a new Pika main and am having trouble with the short range