Best Options Against Pika's Thunder Jolt Spam

[NamelessHunter]

Thunder spam is annoying and tedious to fight. I always win the projectile spam war, but it always takes up the first 30-45 seconds, and while pika just taps B over and over, I have to space mine so they clank, which is exhausting. What are the better counters to thunder jolt spam?

 

[tr3v]

If you have projectiles, those are always good. Thunder gives invincibility for a few frames (I think it's when the bolt hits Pikachu) but it has pretty long end lag, so you can shield/dodge it and punish with a grab/smash/dash attack or whatever you see fit. Any good Pikachu player will use his thunder sparingly, as it is a valuable kill move, so hopefully punishing it will come easy.

 

[NamelessHunter]

Oops. I meant Thunder Jolt. Sorry about the confusion. Edited the title.

 

[tr3v]

Oops, read it wrong. As for thunder jolt, if Pikachu isn't full hoping the thunder jolts, they have a lot of end lag that can be punished. If he is, there is little to no lag at the end, but that leaves the area closer to Pikachu free of projectiles. You could perfect shield, then get closer, and repeat. If he keeps sending out jolts, you can punish. Once close enough, punish the mis-spaced projectiles with and attack or grab. If he stops sending out projectiles, problem solved, and fight how you normally would. Another option is to hop over the thunder jolts completely and follow up with whatever works with your character.

 

[NamelessHunter]

I tried perfect shielding them while walking closer, but pika has better options than samus when trying this. I don't want to be putting myself at too much of a disadvantage.

I guess I will try SHAD approaching with bair. Is dair a good mix up when doing this?

 

[KayJay]

3/4 charged beam beats the projectile and hits Pikachu afterwards even if Pikachu jumps before it shoots. It's all about timing.
Charge your beam between the projectiles, power shield them.

 

[NamelessHunter]

3/4 charged beam beats the projectile and hits Pikachu afterwards even if Pikachu jumps before it shoots. It's all about timing.
Charge your beam between the projectiles, power shield them.

In hindsight it's almost obvious. Thank you kindly.

 

[-_ellipsis_-]

3/4 charged beam beats the projectile and hits Pikachu afterwards even if Pikachu jumps before it shoots. It's all about timing.
Charge your beam between the projectiles, power shield them.

This is your best option. Pikachu can't do anything about it (he doesn't have landing lag on full hop tjolt, but your CS will still catch him coming down). This will more than likely also get them to quit tjolt spamming. Altogether, tjolt is a really unsafe move against Samus in neutral since we can pretty much just CS on reaction.

 

[Afro Smash]

And you'll probably need a bit less than 3/4 at first, be aware youll need to charge it more the more you use it from staling

 

[Xygonn]

Like everyone said, shield plus build up charge shot, then punish them on unsafe projectile use with a strong enough charge shot to go through. This is also how you beat link spam. Charge, shield, charge, shield, charge, shield, boom. Tedious, sure, but safe, and they'll eventually learn their lesson.

You can also use bomb if they are being really spammy to eat one of their projectiles to give you more charge time. So charge, shield, bomb, charge, shield, bomb, charge, shoot, etc.

 

[Tonetta]

if the pika tends to fall with their jolt and you dont have charge shot ready, the first tick of fair will eliminate the jolt and then hit the unsuspecting pika