Autocancelling

[suiname]

So I've been reading through some of the threads and I've seen people talking about autocancelling various moves, specifically with pikachu dair and QA. How is this done? I looked around the internet, it appears that autocancelling removes the landing recovery of an air move by landing during certain frames of the attack, can someone explain this mechanic and tell me how to do it with pikachu? Which moves benefit from this? Thanks in advance.

 

[Yokoblue]

I only know Quick attack cancel with the ledge. Is this what you are talking about ?

QAC: Cancel the lag of quick attack with the ledge and be able to act immediately after and even perform another QA

 

[chainmaillekid]

It has to do with how long after you initiate the move that you land, so that the attack animation has finished by the time you hit.

The only attack of pikachus that actually autocancles, I believe is fair, which doesn't have landing lag after the first couple frames.

I think its easiest to think about from standing at first, rather than from air.

For instance, Bair, if done from standing, you must do a full hop > bair in order for the attack to finish before landing, after which it will auto cancel.

Dair can autocancel if you input the attack fast enough after doing a SH.

Fair, nair, and uair can both autocancel from SH, but both nair and uair will have landing lag if you SH.


Its pretty simple to get the hang of with Pikachu, as everything but bair you can do from a SH.
But kinda get the hang of using the aerials from hops, and you'll have a good idea on the timing to use them while falling and not suffering landing lag.

 

[M15t3R E]

The two above me covered it but I just wanted to expound on it. To autocancel dair, uair, or nair from a short hop you must input the move immediately, before Pikachu begins descending. Interesting difference between them: you can actually fast fall (and should) after a properly timed SH uair. You still won't receive landing lag due to how quickly Pikachu's uair finishes. Do not do this for SH dair or nair, though. It's rarely worth it. Never use bair from a SH if you intend to land on the ground because it will not autocancel. In different situations fair can be used from short hop or full jump and either way it autocancels. This is primarily why it is used as Pikachu's bread and butter aerial approaching move.

I only know Quick attack cancel with the ledge. Is this what you are talking about ?

QAC: Cancel the lag of quick attack with the ledge and be able to act immediately after and even perform another QA

Quick attack cancel (QAC) can also be performed from any sloped surface. Unfortunately this never applies to omega stages or the neutrals, however you can still QAC off of the platform edges or even stage edges if you're feeling lucky.

 

[Emuchu]

The hardest one to input is the short hop Dair. You have to input it immediately as you jump. If you're using tap-jump, you can just flick the left stick up and the right stick down at around the same time. If you're using button-jump, you have to sort of slide your finger from X-to-A, 'cause if you have to lift your thumb between, you're doing it too slow and you'll get the ground-slam. You can also try using R to jump. SH Nair is the next hardest, then SH Fair and SH Uair.

 

[suiname]

That makes sense, so basically if you land before the animation frames of an aerial have completed, there is lag / recovery. Quick question, is the amount of lag / recovery always the same if you land in the middle of an attack, or does is vary depending on how many frames were left in the animation when you landed?

 

[Emuchu]

That makes sense, so basically if you land before the animation frames of an aerial have completed, there is lag / recovery. Quick question, is the amount of lag / recovery always the same if you land in the middle of an attack, or does is vary depending on how many frames were left in the animation when you landed?

The landing recovery depends on what part of the attack animation you land with. Most attacks, when you land with them, have a "landing recovery animation" that is a consistent length. Some attacks even have several of these landing animations, depending on what part of the attack you land during. It's most obvious on Ganondorf (landing before Dair stomp or Bair backhand comes out, vs. landing after), but I haven't tested whether these different animations have different recovery lengths to go with it.

An "auto cancel," in the strictest sense of the term, refers to the ending animation frames of certain attacks, where if you land, there is no landing animation and you can act normally. These days, though, it also refers to any midair attacks you do that end before you hit the ground.

 

[Saviorr]

I'm not sure what's technically considered an autocancel but a landing Fair has hardly any landing lag. A technique I've been using a lot is SH landing Fair into grab. It seems almost impossible to escape the grab after the Fair hits as long as positioning and timing are correct.

The spike hitbox on Fair can be used to catch an opponent out of the air and pull them to the ground and lead into a grab or possibly an up tilt if they don't block.

 

[KurashiDragon]

You can Short hop auto cancel Fair, Nair, Dair, and I think Uair. (I've never tried it though) To auto cancel Bair, you have to do a full hop. of all of them Fair is the easiest to auto cancel and it's not a terrible thing if you don't auto cancel it (Fair has hardly any landing lag) Bair is the second easiest because there's not as much of a strict timing between the jump and Bair. You have to full hop it though. You cant auto cancel Bair off a short hop. There is one advantage to not getting the auto cancel with bair though. It lowers Pikachu's hurtbox in such a way that barely anything can hit you. It's really satisfying. Nair is the 3rd hardest. You have to press the attack button almost immediately after jumping. It may require a button change (as it did for me. my jump is now LZ on the pro controller) Dair is the hardest by far. Even with a button change it require some practice before being able to use consistently. I'm still not sure about Uair. I never need to auto cancel it when I use it so I've never actually practiced auto canceling it. As for quick attack, I think you can only cancel it on ledges. It naturally has very small landing lag though so it's not the end of the world if you don't learn this. Even if ESAM makes it look so good.