Choice Scarfed Chu: Playing with Quick Attack

[~Radiance~]

Weclome to the most useful thread ive ever written #sarcasm. In brawl pikachu was cute. It was a time of bliss and much QAC that was overabused by players that didnt understand stuff like this could happen due to extended hurtboxes on up b:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Egx0bgALiA#t=196

This only lasted a short time, and then pikachu learned some other useless move like flash or growl and forgot QAC. But through some divine intervention of Arceus, he was granted the ability to QAC under specific conditions.

Condition one: thou must be on a slope

Condition two: thou must be on a moving platform

Condition three: Thou will not recieve any cosplay pikachu costumes as alternative skins. RIP in Pepperoni's Luchachu fans.

This thread will highlight through use of video and text the viable stages we can use QAC and Quick Attack Ledge Canceling on.

QAC and QA Ledge Cancels
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Essentialy this thread will cover how to do the two of the above QA tricks

Quick Attack Ledge Canceling

QA Ledge Canceling is performed by QA'ing to a ledge at an angle and it will cancel the animation right as you hit the ledge, allowing you to follow up with a jump, aerial, or anything you want. It simply cancels your animation and ending lag of QA
Quick Attack Canceling

QAC is performed by QA'ing into a moving platform or a slope at any angle, and then inputing either another QA or Jump to cancel the the lag on QA.

Stage Specified Tactics
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Now that we have the basic premise down lets look at what stages we can implement this on. Essentialy any stage that has a slope or moving platform can be QAC'd, and EVERY stage can be ledge canceled. First we are going to look at Neutral since they are most important, and because Battlefield and Smashville are OMGROFLCOPTER fun to mess with using these tricks.

I will not be covering FD. you can only ledge cancel on it and really needs no explanation.

Neutrals



Battlefield

Smashville

Counter Picks



Castle Siege

Delfino

Duck Hunt

Halberd

Kongo Jungle

Lylat Cruise

Pilot Wings

Skyloft

Town and City

Why Learn This?
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You may be wondering what use this can have, as it can only bee done in specific instances. This technique is really useful on every stage, even if you can only ledge cancel. You can use this to QA to a ledge and nair your opponent or bair them when they are offstage. You can use the QAC aspect to land QA to nair combos. All of Lylat Cruise becomes a playground for QAC which means great mobility and the ability to hit people with aerials out of your recovery. Play around with it,use it aggressively, its quick and can make for beautiful punishes.

Good? Bad? Completely Useless and way too many videos to click on? Let me know and I can fix anything, or if I missed something important I can add it. Happy Pika'ing!

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[M15t3R E]

Great job taking the time to make this guide. I would like to point out that in Smash 4, QA delivers much more knockback and hitstun which makes QAC to aerial attack combos even easier and more fun. QA and edge canceling with it is so fast and effective that your opponent will need to either make a hard read or have super human reflexes to respond appropriately to a well placed platform edge canceled fair/nair and the follow-ups from it, as seen in your videos. This is something all competitive Pikachu players need to practice!

 

[~Radiance~]

Agreed. Qac and qalc I think will be an integral part of pikas meta now. Given that edge canceling I'd way easier since you don't have to move the controller to neutral to avoid SDing it's way more applicable and less risky. Also good to see you again mister e, I was the player at APEX 2010 that made the pika headbands :3

 

[ZTD | TECHnology]

Thanks for posting this thread. Well done too. The successful Pikachu player is going to need to know how to utilize QAC to the fullest so this guide is certainly worth a look.

 

[M15t3R E]

Agreed. Qac and qalc I think will be an integral part of pikas meta now. Given that edge canceling I'd way easier since you don't have to move the controller to neutral to avoid SDing it's way more applicable and less risky. Also good to see you again mister e, I was the player at APEX 2010 that made the pika headbands :3

Oh, it's you! It's good to see you again too! I took a long hiatus from the competitive scene in early 2012. Now that we have a new game and I've been trying to get back into it, I feel it is my obligation to make a big splash in Smash 4 sometime soon. Should have more time this year. We need to keep threads like this one coming.

 

[Smog Frog]

can i still play pikachu even if my hands are too slow for this

and if i cant, could i do some carpal tunnel exercises to make them go faster

 

[Soul.]

can i still play pikachu even if my hands are too slow for this

and if i cant, could i do some carpal tunnel exercises to make them go faster

You can play every character even if your hands are slow. If that doesn't work, you could make them go faster.
Pikachu just requires a lot of practice is all, but this isn't to say that you can use it—you can. It may take a lot of time to get better but yeah, it's up to you.

 

[~Radiance~]

can i still play pikachu even if my hands are too slow for this

and if i cant, could i do some carpal tunnel exercises to make them go faster

QA in general takes quite a long time to be proficient at. Ive mained pika since 2009 so ive had a long time to do and it really is muscle memory at this point. I can look at platforms and know if ill be able to cancel or not at the distance im at and ill be able to tell what directions to input every time. Don't get discouraged, pika takes work but its worth it

 

[CURRY]

QA in general takes quite a long time to be proficient at. Ive mained pika since 2009 so ive had a long time to do and it really is muscle memory at this point. I can look at platforms and know if ill be able to cancel or not at the distance im at and ill be able to tell what directions to input every time. Don't get discouraged, pika takes work but its worth it

Do you find yourself when tilting your stick all the way (to the walls and corners of the octagon around the analog) or not all the way when QAing?
I find getting to the weird, tiny angles easier when not tilting the stick all the way, but I still can't master it and SD sometimes, heh. And it feels a lot more relaxed to not tilt the stick all the way too.
I also find myself jamming the analog really hard to one side when I feel pressure, so is it probably better to practice not tilting all the way? I find myself retricted to the 0°/45°/90°/135°/180° etc angles when I'm tilting it all the way.
Which method is better, if there is a superior? Which one do you use?

I'm sorry if I'm asking questions that were addressed in one of the videos, since I've only watched the introductory and Battlefield one. Definitely going to look at all of them next weekend.

 

[Angiance]

@ CURRY
Well, sir, how far you press the analog stick actually affects the distance of your QA zip. Tilting the stick for your QA zips is useful because it helps us snap the ledge from some preeeeeeetty craxy angles, and is also helpful for clean ledge cancels

So, in short, tilt for a shorter zip; push fully for a longer zip

 

[~Radiance~]

in brawl wolf had 8 cardinal directions he could go, which is up, down, left, right, upright, upleft, down right, down left. You could also go in angles inbetween those 8 grooves. Pikachu can do that as well, so you have 16 directions to play with so its better imo to just go to the groove and learn it that way and then practice the angles in between. its just something that takes a lot of practice. i still generally attack people with the same angle pattern which is either left/right thru them and then down left/down right back into them.

 

[Angiance]

^ This is incorrect, we -do- in fact have 24 directions we can go. These sharp angles allow us to travel even further horizontally/vertically-which is useful for reaching platforms from afar, or recovering to the ledge from very low places; sharp QA angling is also useful for long distance ledge cancels

 

[~Radiance~]

yes this is true, i must have been super tired when i wrote that lol

 

[Hoenn]

You can ledge scar in this game btw
I will upload video of it later

 

[~Radiance~]

You can ledge scar in this game btw
I will upload video of it later

i would really love to see that, i havent been able to do that yet

 

[Hoenn]

i would really love to see that, i havent been able to do that yet

This is just an example. I have seen this happen with less lag too
https://youtu.be/joNnFqR12_g?t=1m53s

Every time I do it, it is on accident, and on town and city
my capture card is not working atm, so this is the best example I can give you lol

 

[CURRY]

Well, ESAM uploaded a video of the cheese you can do on BF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz0s7CSg40g&feature=em-uploademail&ab_channel=imESAM

Add it to the OP? I dunno, it could be overwhelming if people contribute too many videos to this thread.
Where should I post?

EDIT:
And another???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvggcnv6520&feature=em-uploademail&ab_channel=imESAM
He covers SV, Town and City, Halberd, Castle Siege and Delfino.

 

[~Radiance~]

no no this sounds good, ill add it :3

 

[busken]

Amazing tool. We should learn how to use quick attack to punish defensive options(roll,shield, spot dodge, jump, etc) as well. Since the sheer speed and unpredictability make it so safe. I myself need to maximize my competence with QA since it's so strong in Pikachu's gameplay.