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DerfMW's Big Ass Pichu guide

DerfMidWest

Fresh ******
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
4,063
Location
Cleveland, OH
Slippi.gg
SOFA#941
[Updated: 12-3-14]

Introduction:
Pichu, the tiny mouse Pokemon. What a cool guy. However, fascinating as he may be, Pichu has the lowest base stat total of all electric Pokemon, and there are no soothe bells in Melee. With these facts in mind, it becomes clear that, for success, one must obtain vast character knowledge in order to achieve total mastery.

This is a working guide (in progress) to using Pichu in competitive play. Once completed, you, the reader, can expect to find several things in this thread:
A) An in-depth look at Pichu's entire moveset and the practical uses of each tool at Pichu's disposal
B) A guide to general strategy in competitive play
C) Written explanations of all advanced techniques, both general and Pichu specific, and their true practicality, complimenting my video series

While I will provide very general match-up tips or specific uses of moves in particular match-ups, this guide will not provide in-depth break-downs of said match-ups, and instead I will refer readers to the official match-up thread.

As this thread is a work in progress, I will be updating frequently, adding more information when convenient for myself. I will not follow a schedule or update in any form of order, but rather add sections that I feel like writing about at any particular point in time.

Now let's get started.​

Expected of the Reader
I do not find it necessary to explain the fundamental advanced techniques in Melee, however I will reference many of these techniques throughout the topic. In order to understand what I am talking about, I highly recommend that new players watch Wak's Advanced How to Play videos before continuing further into this guide.

Preface: An Objective Overview
Pichu is a fast, fun to play, and entertaining character. However underrated he may be, I ask that all readers remove all bias or personal opinion in reading the following statement: Pichu is currently considered to be one of, if not the, worst characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee. What this means is that by using this character in competitive play you must be able to totally outclass your opponent in order to win. This requires extensive self-knowledge in regards to the character, match-up awareness, advanced technical mastery, and, most importantly, the one thing that cannot be taught; fundamentals.

Section 1: The Arsenal
  • Neutral Air:
Ah, Nair. I put this move at the top of the list because it is, by far, the most important, versatile tool that you possess. It is your approach, your combo move, your edgeguard tool, your fastest aerial, it's safe on shields, etc. etc. etc.
Learning to love, use, and abuse this move is key to any Pichu's functionality.

Now let's talk about approaches. When we refer to approaching, in melee, or in any fighting game, it simply means the way in which you initiate engagement with your opponent. So, for example, if I run up to my opponent and use a dash attack, the dash attack is my approach.
Now, in theory, any move can be used as an approach, however, certain situations and positions deem an approach either safe, or unsafe.
In a two dimensional world, it's like a game of rock paper scissors. Shield beats attack, grab beats shield, and attack beats grab. The problem with this view, although it is viable to an extent, is that melee is a very complex game with many angles to it. Certain attacks will beat others, some cannot be punished on shields, etc.
So we find that nair is by far the safest, most versatile approach that Pichu has.

The reason for this is that nair has quick startup (The hitbox is active on frame* 3) and the lowest landing lag of all your aerials (6 frames when Lcancelled*)
The other thing that makes nair amazing as an approach is that a late nair on shield (basically when done right before hitting the ground), when Lcancelled, yields a frame advantage of +1. (Whereas the rest of your moves yield +0 or -1)
This is kind of hard to understand for new players, so I'll do my best to explain. Essentially, late l-cancelled nair on shield would give Pichu 6 frames of landing lag before he can act, but it would give his opponent 7 frames of shield stun (time in which they could not act), this means you could put out another move, i.e. grab, 1 frame earlier than your opponent, and thus; get the grab before your opponent could act.
There are move angles to shields and shield pressure than this, and I will cover them later in this guide, but for now, that simplified explanation will do.
Nair also has a ton of priority, meaning that it can challenge many other moves well.

Now, the major draw-back of Pichu's nair approach is, as with any of Pichu's moves, it's lack of range.
So, say you were playing against a marth and tried to approach with nair while he was just standing there and marth sees this and throws out a forward smash. Marth's forward smash has more range than Pichu's nair, meaning that he will hit you out of it before you even get close.
Later on in this topic I will talk about baiting and other ways to play around Pichu's range problem, but for now, be aware that it exists and prevents you from just approaching whenever you want without punishment.

Nair has more than one purpose. It is also a combo starter. This means that if you connect a nair, it often allows you to chain it into another move. The most common follow ups to nair are these:
uair, utilt, usmash, jab, ftilt, dtilt, grab, fsmash, dsmash, and even, my personal favorite, another nair.
As you can see, that's a lot of moves and depending on your opponent's DI* and percent, it can lead to even more.
At higher percents, it even acts as a combo finisher or a kill move.
Because of nair's quick startup (frame 3), it is also commonly used at a combo breaker, thrown out to interrupt an opponents attack chain on Pichu. The downside is, again, it's lack of range.

Similarly, the quick startup also makes it an effective move out of shield (OoS) to deal with shield pressure. Pichu has a 3 frame jumpsquat animation before he leaves the ground, tied for the fastest jumpsquat in the game, this means he can have a hitbox (nair) out in a total of 6 frames (3 frame jumpsquat+3 frame startup), not counting the shieldstun added before you can begin the jump animation.
TL;DR - it's your fastest option sans roll or spot-dodge.
But we'll talk all about shield stuff later.

The final important use I want to talk about for now is as an edgeguard tool.
Like I said earlier, nair has a lot of priority. This means it will beat out many other moves, including a lot of recovery moves.
For this example, I want to use Falco's upB.
So imagine you hit falco offstage, and he's trying to get back with upB. If you time your nair correctly (its priority and power decrease the later you hit with it) falco will be hit out of his upB, and you will not take damage, either resetting falco's position, or moving him to an even worse one, possible one in which there is no way for him to reach the stage.
Nair doesn't last very long, so you can often go pretty deep offstage, nair to gimp your opponent, than recover (Pichu's upB will go pretty far)

So yeah, that's your general overview of nair, which again, is pichu's overall best, most versatile move.

*Frames: The game runs at 60 frames per second, 1 frame is equivalent to 1/60 of a second.
*Lcancel - Lag Cancel. An advanced technique to halve the landing lag of aerial moves.
*DI - Directional Influence. Influence over the trajectory of a move that hits you.

  • Up Air:
Uair is a cute little move and an utterly fantastic combo tool.
It is a very quick little thing, with an active hitbox on frame 4 (just 1 frame later than nair) making it just about as viable as nair in terms of being a safe OoS option or combo breaker.

On top of it's quick startup, it only lasts 27 frames, meaning you can make another input very quickly after using it. You can actually uair twice in a single short hop.

So let's talk about the uses. Like I said, it's a solid OoS option, but it's most commonly used as a combo tool or an anti-air.

Up air hits opponents up to a range that is really optimal for Pichu to combo off of.
A lot of more old-school Pichus really loved juggling (keeping an opponent airborne) with uair. I think it's solid to try and gain positional advantage, because it's pretty cool to be underneath opponents in most scenarions, but as a whole I really prefer other moves.
While it is a fantastic combo starter, as well as a combo extender, I do not like to just keep chaining it into itself for very long. The reason for this is that the move only does like 3% (I think 2% when stale*, but I have to check that). While just connecting a million uairs is the easiest combo to do with pichu, it takes a long time to build percent and is basically equivalent to just comboing someone with a million little pokes, so I opt to use just one or two uairs to get my opponent into a desirable position and then start using other moves.

I mentioned that the move is a great anti-air. This is because the thing is super disjointed. What that means is that the hitbox (the part that hits) of the move is not connected to Pichu's hurtbox (the part that gets hit).
This property lets you hit opponents out of their moves, coming down on you, without you getting hit.

It's disjointed property on top of it's quick startup makes shield drop* uairs an effective option to escape pressure and flip the momentum in Pichu's favor.

Obviously, I do not recommend attempting to use this against sword characters, since their moves are also disjointed and out-range yours.
Anyway, it's a super effective tool to stop approaches from above you. It will even beat out moves like falco's down air if spaced correctly (incorrect spacing results in a trade*, essentially just resetting the position)

*Stale moves - When a move is used too many times it does less damage
*Shield Drop - a technique to drop through platforms from a shield
*Trade - When two moves collide and both parties get hit

  • Forward Air:
Forward air is one of my favorite moves with Pichu. It's a drill type move, meaning that it has multiple really weak hits.
This effect is awesome because it lets you do some really cool things in regards to combos and such.

The move tends to drag opponents down with it, so a common use is to hit an opponent up, then jump up and use fair to drag them back to the ground, then grab or tilt or something. This is sometimes referred to as Pichu's pillaring.
Fair is a great way to set aerial opponents up for a grab, and it is frequently used to intercept opponents from their jumps.

As a combo extender, you can use fair to reset grounded opponents who have missed a tech, which can lead to a hard punish like a charged upsmash.

Fair is also sometimes good as a way to get back from the ledge, although it is punishable, it has a little more reach than your other aerials, and you can sometimes catch opponents off-guard and get a grab by the ledge with it (which is a very good thing for pichu to have)

The move is also useful offstage. Because it hits so weak, and tends to drag opponents with it, you can combo fair into your other aerials very easily (primarily nair in gimping* situations).
A lot of the time you can also just use fair to pull opponents down just far enough that they can't recover. This is especially easy on characters with shorter recoveries like Falco or Captain Falcon.

As a caveat, know that Fair is susceptible to SDI*, since it's a multi-hitting move.
It is also unsafe on shields or crouch canceling* opponents.

*Gimp - A low percent edgeguard
*Smash DI (SDI) - Another form of directional influence
*Crouch Cancel (CC) - crouching to reduce the knock back of a move


  • Down Air:
Dair is a very strange move that can be challenging to learn to use correctly. The hitbox isn't active until frame 14, making it Pichu's slowest aerial, then the move lasts until frame 57. It also has 13 frames of Lcancelled landing lag (26 when not Lcancelled), making it Pichu's laggiest aerial upon landing.
The move has an electric effect, which does 1% self-damage to Pichu when he uses it. It will do an additional 1% if you hit the ground or a platform while the move is active.

The move sends opponents at a pretty odd trajectory. It has an ANG of 361, which in normal people words basically just means it hits people at what looks like a 45 degree angle upwards, heavily dependent on their DI. At lower percents, you can combo off of that on many characters, but once you get to mid-high percents, it's a lot harder.

It has some use offstage, at relatively low percents, you can ftilt or rapid jab people out of their recoveries (especially their doublejumps) and then follow their DI with a falling Dair, then follow that up with a rising nair or something if they don't DI away. It's kind of gimmicky, but stuff like that will work on a lot of people.
It's really never your best option offstage, and I only really use it the way I described in specific situations, primarily on Dreamland or Fountain of Dreams, since you can go down really deep on those stages, but offstage dair edgeguards are mostly for flash.
Dair is a pretty cool looking move, even if it doesn't do much.

The main thing I use Dair for is as a grab setup. When you hit the ground with a Dair, it causes a little "quake" hitbox to come out for 1 frame after landing. This hitbox isn't very big, but it is incredibly useful.
As you may already know, Pichu has a really hard time dealing with crouch cancelling opponents. However, because of that little quake, Dair becomes a powerful tool Pichu can use to handle that situation. When you hit a crouching opponent (sometimes you can do this even if they aren't CCing), if you Lcancel, you can connect the dair quake into a grab. It's very important that you Lcancel though, because it shouldn't work otherwise.

The only issue with using Dair as I just described is that it does have a little slower startup, which means your opponent is able to react to it. The move doesn't have a lot of range, so your opponent could just wavedash* back and punish it. It also is not safe on shields, so if they shield it, they can grab you.
But, most of the time, as long as you don't use this approach too often, it's pretty safe.

The other use that I, as well as a few other Pichu players (most notably Unknown522), started to explore a few years back was the use of dair on platforms. It really opened a lot of weird combo extenders and things of that sort. Most of which are easier to set up at lower percents.
Generally, you could use dair to punish missed techs (it can reset), or read a tech roll onto a platform and grab out of it.
At a little higher percents you can connect it to moves like your tilts or dsmash.
My favorite way to use it is to follow an opponent who DIs past a platform, or who tries to waveland off of a platform, and Edge Cancel* a Dair (which still has a quake hitbox) into another aerial like uair or nair (or even another dair if possible).

Unknown had been experimenting with Dair's uses on platforms a lot before he retired, but unfortunately, he never shared any of this information with any Pichu players, so nobody really knows if he found anything else we could use, but he was especially famous for stringing Dairs together in combos.

*Wavedash - A movement technique based around air-dodging into the ground
*Edge Cancel (Ledge Cancel) - Canceling landing lag by hitting the very edge of a stage or platform and sliding off

  • Back Air:
Back Air is not a frequently used move. For the most part, it serves the exact same purpose as nair, but it comes out on frame 4, lasts 20 frames longer, has 3 more frames of landing lag, and isn't safe on shields.
So that means it comes out a frame later, lasts almost twice as long, is noticeably laggier, and can easily be punished by shielding.

Bair has almost no use offstage because of how long it lasts (which can often result in Pichu falling too far to recover), and it often hits a little too far or has a little too much lag to combo (it still does, just not as well as nair)

This doesn't mean the move is useless, just that, in most cases, nair is a better option.

Bair has a weird way of contorting Pichu's body and it has a really irregular way of flinging him around. Because of this, a lot of Pichu players like to use it to sneak up underneath opponents moves (like Marth's fair). I'm not the biggest fan of this use of the move, but it does work sometimes.

The amount of time bair stays out can also be useful. The weak hit of bair (knockback decreases the later a move hits) is stronger than the weak hit of nair, so you can throw it out early and intercept opponents without as much precision (primarily in cases like intercepting a spacey's sideB)

Bair also has a little more reach than nair, which is useful if you have to hit something behind you.
Usually you see this in cases where Pichu dashes away then jumps backwards with a spaced bair to hit opponents away.
You also sometimes see it used out of shield if an opponent lands behind Pichu's shield.

Because it does hit a little harder than nair, sometimes Pichu players will edgecancel a late bair to have the strong hit out and then avoid the extra landing lag.
I sometimes use this technique to help pressure an opponent shielding on a platform, although you have to be wary of a shield drop punish.
  • Rapid Jab:
Rapid Jab is a fun move.
A single headbutt lasts 21 frames total, hitting on frame 2-3.
You can have another headbutt out as early as frame 5.
Everytime you do another jab, the move is basically just resetting itself, so when you stop jabbing, you still have to wait until the 21 frames are up.

But because you can throw out so many jabs so quickly, when you see an opponent who missed a tech, you can jab them several times before resetting them to standing position (where as most characters can only jab once)
which is a cute way to get a little bit extra percent.

A lot of times, if you start rapid jabbing an opponent out of a combo, they'll try to just DI away and shield, or buffer a roll out, which either resets the situation to neutral or puts your opponent in a bad position. But this is punishable, so don't do it too often. Jabbing more than once on a shield is usually a bad idea, unless they are up against a ledge, in which case you can push them off the stage. Or if you're against a wall like in the pit of the rock transformation of stadium, where you can actually lock a lot of characters into their shields.

Normally, rapid jab will push you back if your opponent is trapped against a wall. But if your back is to another wall, or the end of a platform, you won't slide at all. Such a position exists in the pit of pokemon stadium.
If you initiate rapid jab in the pit, you'll be able to wrack up a lot of percent very quickly. Most characters should be able to escape if they SDI correctly, but there are several characters who can't (falcon and link come to mind).
You see this used by Axe (the Pikachu player) in a couple of sets.
Axe also found that at a certain percent (I believe it was over 200 or 300%) that you could combo the rapid jabs against the wall into an ftilt (Pichu and Pikachu's fastest grounded move other than jab)

In doubles, rapid jab gains another use if your partner grabs an opponent. You can start rapid jabbing and the opponent will not be able to break out of the grab. In this scenario, pichu will not get pushed back and it is an infinite. This is considered a wobble, so you will have to check the tournament rules regarding wobbling before using this in a tournament setting.

rapid jab is also excellent for setting up edgeguards. Pichu players will often use rapid jabs to intercept certain characters recovering from bellow the stage. The weak hits will trap the opponent, until the DI/SDI out, which resets them to a bad position, which you can usually follow up with a falling nair or something.
  • Up Tilt:
Up tilt is basically a uair on the ground. It hits on frame 7, which is exactly the same as if you were to do an instant uair off the ground (uair comes out frame 4, +Pichu's 3 frame jump squat animation. 4+3=7)
Its also super disjointed, like up air.

I'm personally a huge fan of utilt, it's a great combo starter, similar to uair, you can use it to intercept approached from above, but it hits even further in front of Pichu than his uair does, so it's a little better for intercepting more horizontal approaches, like fox's shffl'd* nair.

Utilt will combo into basically anything, most importantly grab, usmash, uair, fair, and nair. You can also just string it into itself for awhile if you want to wrack up a little percent.

Two of the more technical uses of the move that I like to talk about frequently are a dash cancelled and pivot uptilts. These will be covered later in this guide.

*SHFFL - Short Hop Fast Fall Lcancel
  • Forward Tilt:
Pichu's Ftilt is one of my favorite moves.
It's super fast and comes out on frame 5, making it your fastest grounded move other than Jab.
It does last a few frames longer than utilt or dtilt, but that doesn't really matter since they are all pretty fast.

What's really cool about ftilt is that it has a ton of priority for no reason. That basically just means it beats out other moves really well.
This lets you do some pretty cool things like ftilt through most projectiles, which really helps Pichu out in a few matchups like samus.
Not lasers though, because they have what is called transcendent priority, similar to moves like mario's cape, which just means they can't clank or be beaten out by any other moves.

Ftilt also has this great mechanic where you can angle it up or down, this is really helpful for edgeguarding or intercepting other moves.
For example, down-angled ftilt is often used to intercept falco's recovery to the ledge, whereas up-angled ftilt is often used to clank with marth's fsmash.

Primarily, Pichu uses ftilt in an onstage edgeguard situation because it's high priority will beat out a lot of character's recoveries and it usually will set up a follow up. At lower percents, ftilt can usually combo into a falling nair or another aerial.

Generally, ftilt isn't used as a combo move since it's hard to follow up and rarely chains into other moves. Sometimes it's used as a combo finisher to poke the opponent off the stage or into a knockdown position.
  • Down Tilt:
Dtilt is awesome.
My Pichu was notorious for using this move way more than anyone ever should.
Down tilt comes out on frame 7 and lasts until frame 21.
But what's awesome is that it can be interrupted (IASA*) as early as frame 19.

The move is most commonly used for edgeguarding, it's a low angled move, and it swats people away from the ledge. It's weak enough that you can usually combo off it in edgeguard situations.
It basically does the same thing as ftilt, but it can be followed up easier than ftilt at higher percents.

you can also use it to knock opponents down, again, similar to ftilt, but better at higher percent.

I often use dtilts to reset positioning and put opponents in the grounded state.

*IASA - Interrupt As Soon As. Some moves have special frames in which you can interrupt them with another action
  • Dash Attack:
This move is a cool little tool. It is not a good approach, and I don't ever recommend using it in neutral.
The move lasts for 49 frames and hits on frame 5.
It will also cover a decent amount of space.
So basically its a move that you can get out really fast and cover a lot of ground with.

It's actually pretty strong and has pretty good priority.
The main problem with it is just the insane amount of cool-down it has. It's only an active hitbox from frames 5-16, then you are in a cool down animation for 33 frames.
So this makes it really unsafe on shields or against crouch canceling (at high percents it will knock ccing opponents down, however).

Generally, you won't be able to combo out of it onstage, since it usually knocks people down, but you have too much cooldown to follow it up.
But it will often set up an edgeguard on recovering opponents.
I primarily find myself using this move against characters like Fox/Falco/Falcon/Ganon. These characters generally either recovery from bellow the stage or in a straight line to the ledge.

Often Pichu's will find themselves in a situation where the opponent is recovering and they are running to the ledge, trying to get there in time, and just can't quite make it. This is usually where you would use dash attack, since it will cover a lot of space. Usually, it's never your best option, but sometimes it is your only one.
Even if you can't combo off of it for an edgeguard, it will at least reset the situation with you opponent a little below the stage with no doublejump.

Another property of this move that is kind of fun to play with is when you dash attack by the ledge, it will stop your forward movement, but if you keep holding forward, once the animation is completed, you'll keep all the momentum and pop off the stage a little bit.
This is fun because you can dash attack into an instant nair and gimp a lot of lazy recoveries that way.
It's also possible to walljump out of this and keep your doublejump, similar to captain falcon's instant walljump out of his dash attack, but the timing is very strict. I, personally, am not very good at these, but they are possible.
On stages with flat sides (Yoshi's is the only tournament legal one, but fountain has mostly flat sides too) it's more lenient because you can just let your momentum carry you, fall a little bit, then walljump.

Another frequent thing I will use it for is at mid-percent, if an opponent is on the ledge, I'll be dash dancing* right inside of their range to bait a roll or aerial from the ledge.
With many characters, if they try to jump up and hit you with an aerial, you can actually dive right underneath them and hit them out of their double jump if you are fast enough. You have to be careful if they refresh their invincibility however, since certain characters will be invincible for at least a few frames after they leave the ledge.

This move is also surprisingly good against floatier characters. Specifically, pichu, kirby, game&watch, and mewtwo (as well as a few others). Dash attack will send these characters pretty far, so at mid-high percents its a decent combo finisher when you can't hit with anything else.
It's really strong, so it will send them far enough to be annoying, and generally this puts them in a bad position.

*Dash Dance - abusing the initial dash animation to run back and forth quickly
  • Up Smash:
Up smash is Pichu's most guaranteed kill move. It's particularly effective against floatier characters.
It's a total of 43 frames (IASA 41) and hits on frame 9.

Generally it's used as a kill move, but it's also frequently seen as a combo move at low percents, as a tech-chase* option, and as an out of shield option.

At lower percents, it's very effective during combos since it pops people up and usually acts as a grab set up.
At mid-percents, it won't combo into grab, but can still be followed up by uair or another aerial.

Jumps off the ground are interesting in melee. Before leaving the ground, a character enters what is called the Jump-squat animation. This is the window a character has to release the jump button during in order to short hop.
But the jump squat animation is funny because it can be cancelled by an up smash or a grab (as well as certain other moves for some characters, like fox or falco's shine, or certain upBs). This is called a Jump Cancel (JC).

Pichu has a 3 frame jump squat (tied with Fox, Sheik, and the Ice Climbers for the fastest in the game). In order to JC Grab or JC Up Smash, Pichu must input the grab or up smash within that 3 frame animation.

What this let's you do, since players can jump directly out of a run or out of a shield, is up smash instantly out of shield or the dash animation.

This is incredibly useful for Pichu as a tech-chasing tool, since it lets him start a combo, or ever kill, after following an opponents tech roll.

It also gives Pichu a powerful out of shield option. Since doesn't hit until frame 9, it's a little slower than nair or uair oos, but it's usually a stronger punish to laggy or poorly spaced moves on Pichu's shield. Often times, this can even let Pichu kill opponents directly from shield.

Up smash is a very versatile move, and serves many other purposes, but in general, these are the main ways in which Pichu players are seen using it.
  • Forward Smash (Side Smash):
Fsmash is one of those moves that is either amazing or terrible.
The reason I say this is because it's an incredibly powerful kill move, but it's also easily escaped.

So here are the great things about this move:
1. It hits really low to the ground, making it especially effective for edgeguarding
2. It's a multi-hitting move, which means it's extremely difficult to ledgetech it
3. The final hit is like getting smacked by the ****ing Mjölnir

The big issues with the move are these:
There isn't a hitbox out until frame 16, and the multi-hitting nature allows it to be escaped via SDI.
And obviously, the self-damage part isn't optimal either.

So generally, this move is used more on fast fallers and/or super heavy characters like Bowser or DK.
It's actually really easy for Pichu to combo into fsmash on a lot of characters, usually from dthrow, uair, or nair.

Most of the time, I will only use the move against people who aren't particularly experienced with the matchup, because they usually won't SDI the move correctly at least the first couple times they get hit by it.

This is one of those move that newer players (and most of the oldschool Pichu players) like to use way too much because at a lower level, people don't really SDI. Every new Pichu player learns how great this move is, then starts throwing it out like every chance they get. Then when they go to a tournament, they are often unpleasantly surprised when the move stops working as well.
I don't advise throwing this move out too often, because then people start looking for it, and that's bad because they'll escape like every time.

Generally, I will almost never use the move onstage, unless I'm punishing a roll or something and can time it so only the final hit connects.
However, against recovering opponents, this move becomes incredible.

Most characters, even if they SDI out of the move, are put into a bad position, without their double jump.

Against many recoveries, you can also time fsmash so that only the final hit connects.
This is easiest for me, personally, to do against spacies and falcon/ganon.
  • Down Smash:
Let's talk about this really cool move that nobody really has any idea how to use. So dsmash actually comes out on frame 7, making it the earliest active hitbox of any of your smashes. The hitbox stays active until frame 13, but then you go into cool down until frame 54 (can interrupted at 51), making it your longest lasting smash attack.
But here are the awesome things about this attack:
1. It comes out super fast
2. It will always send opponents to the opposite side they get hit (similar to Samus' dsmash)
3. It acts as a semi-spike. Opponents are hit down and away (affected by DI, of course)

But the most interesting thing about this move is that from frames 7-10, you are invincible.
Moves with invincibility frames go a long way.

A few years ago, Kirbykaze was talking about pichu's downsmash and how he was interested in the invincibility that it has and at the time, this is when I was first starting, I found it interesting, but was not at a level where I could really abuse it.
Early on I tried to experiment with the move and find all the situations that it was best in, etc. I found that at mid-percents, dthrow->dsmash near the ledge was a very good way to put people, especially fast fallers, in a bad position.
I learned that, while it is incredibly easy to tech, if an opponent recovers from bellow and misses their tech, they will get stage spiked.
Finally, I learned that the move was absolute garbage at low percents.

There are three important drawbacks to this move. First, it lasts a long time, so if you miss, your opponent can easily punish. Second, if your opponent DIs correctly, they can tech and often punish. Finally, like I said before, the move basically just doesn't work at low percent.

With these pros and cons in mind, we move on to how to properly use this move.
Generally speaking, it's a mix-up. A very powerful mix-up.
General background: I'm a psychology major, and I absolutely love to condition and manipulate people in game.
And smashers are one of the greatest examples of Pavlov's dogs.

Let me explain further; In melee, we are constantly challenged to read and adapt to out opponent's playstyle, habits, mistakes, etc. Because of this, we are instinctively looking for patterns. The point of a mix-up is to completely turn that adaptation around on itself.
For example, if you just dthrow into upsmash every time, your opponent starts picking up on it, and DIing for the usmash. Then, after awhile, you'll mix it up with dthrow into dsmash, and the DI will be incorrect.

There are a couple ways that I really enjoy abusing this move as a mix-up.
My favorite is as an edgeguard. Obviously, you don't want to use it too often, because it is easy to ledge-tech.
Anyway, this move is best when opponents recover from bellow. Most commonly fox, falco, falcon, ganon are the characters you use this on.
So when I notice that an opponent likes to recover from bellow, usually, I will time a forward smash so that my opponent only touches the final hit, making it impossible to SDI out of the move.
However, that's not always possible.
So usually, if my opponent is in a weird position like that, I'll throw out a couple of fsmashes, generally against more experienced opponents, they'll start to SDI them and it resets the position, and we do that whole thing a couple times. Sometimes I'll throw in some rapid jabs, and it serves the same purpose.
Anyway, after awhile, my opponent will start anticipating an fsmash to intercept them, and won't really be looking for a ledge-tech, since you can't tech the fsmash.
When I feel they are at that point, I throw out a dsmash, which, since it's so fast, is very hard to react to, and usually when it's used as a mix-up like that, your opponent will get stage-spiked and pretty much die.

Another common way I'll work this move in is when I'm playing against an aggressive falco. So falco players love to be lazy. Generally, they'll just approach with shffld dair or nair and you can cover that pretty consistently with utilt if you learn when they like to use them and react to it (if you over-commit, they like to bait with their double jump, so watch for that). Once you kind of show falco that he can't just run at you, they like to start using the laser approaches.
This one is kind of hard to do, but when you can predict a laser approach, and you time your dsmash, the laser will hit during the invincibility frames and falco gets bopped by a dsmash.
If you're near a ledge it's actually pretty funny too, because falco will generally be inputting down and forward, which is the worst possible way to DI a downsmash, so sometimes you'll be able to set up stupid gimps from it.
anyway, the caveat to this one is that falco can start spacing his lasers a little better, but you can kind of react to where he's gonna land.
  • Grab:
Pichu's grab is awesome. Pichu is a super grabby character. Your throws (which I'll be talking about right after this) are all very useful and are great setups for combos, edgeguards, and positioning in general.

Pichu doesn't have the greatest grab range in the game, but it is deceiving. The grab box is bigger than Pichu's head, and it's extended kind of far forward, which makes it look like he can grab you from further than he should be able to.
He can actually grab from further in front of him than fox can.
The downside to this is that he doesn't have any backwards grab range like some characters do, but this isn't a big deal at all.

So in regards to grabbing, Pichu's standing grab is far superior to his running grab.
It comes out on frame 7 and the animation ends by frame 30 (10 frames earlier than dash grab).

So there is really no reason at all to use Pichu's running grab. In order to grab out of a run, Pichu usually uses a JC Grab (described earlier in the Up Smash section).
This lets Pichu preform a standing grab from his run.

Once you have a grab, Pichu rarely pummels before throwing. The reason for this is that it deals 1% in self damage, and yields little reward. Occasionally, Pichu will pummel once or twice when an opponent is at just a few percent too low for a specific combo or followup or something.

Later on in this guide, I'll cover some grab mechanics that Pichu can really take advantage of.
  • Up Throw:
Up throw is usually used for combos and positioning.

Almost always, Pichu will be able to follow an up throw with an up air or any of his other aerials.
It's also frequently used to throw an opponent up onto a platform, where Pichu can punish the tech/get up options.

One of the most notable functions of uthrow is as a Chaingrab* on fast fallers (Fox, Falco, Falcon).
This is usually only seen on final destination, or occasionally on dreamland or on top of a platform.
This cg can combo from 0% to death if done properly. In order for it to work correctly, Pichu must be able to JC Grab.
Primarily, converting to a kill is done through uthrow->charged usmash, occasionally followed by thunder.

*Chaingrab (Chain Throw, Chain Toss, CG) - A method of throwing an opponent then re-grabbing them without being able to jump or attack to escape
  • Forward Throw:
Fthrow isn't a very common choice by Pichu players.
It's a very weak, low knockback move that sends opponents in front of Pichu.
Generally, Pichu can't combo off of it very well.
Occasionally it's used to toss opponents offstage, but generally it doesn't see a lot more use than that.
It's Pichu's only electric throw, so it will do self damage.

It does have some more gimmicky uses though.

On peach, sheik, zelda, and a few other characters, fthrow can be used as a pseudo-chain grab at low-mid percents.
This means Pichu can fthrow, dash->JC regrab. But players can escape by DIing away, then buffering* a roll out.

The other, less common use is as a wall infinite against peach, zelda, and a few other mid-weights. It will work on sheik and marth as well, but they can escape more easily.

*Buffer - holding specific inputs (rolls or jumps) with the c-stick in order to preform them on the earliest frame possible
  • Down Throw:
Down throw is a very important move to learn how to use.
Pichu may not be able to chaingrab very many characters, but he can tech-chase the majority of the cast from his dthrow.
This is more difficult on characters like sheik or falco who have very fast tech rolls, but it's still very effective if you can predict their roll.

At mid-high percent, dthrow is also a very effective combo tool on floatier or mid-weight characters.
Dthrow is often used to combo into usmash as a kill setup.
  • Back Throw:
Back throw is excellent for setting up gimps.
Being back thrown by Pichu is generally a terrifying experience for many characters because it puts them in a terrible position and can very easily lead to a low percent KO.
It's especially effective on fast fallers and heavier characters, but it's still very strong against most mid-weights and can be used put floaties in a bad position.

generally, bthrow is followed by an onstage edgeguard at low percents, a jolt to cover character's doublejump option, or an offstage nair.

A little Pichu trick generally referred to as the "Falco Slayer" is to bthrow into immediate sideB.
What this does is cover falco's immediate doublejump, which a lot of players panic and use right away.
Once it connects, it can be followed with an immediate nair, which is an auto-kill since falco will no longer be able to recover to the stage.
You can also combo into your other aerials if you choose, since you can keep your double jump, you'd be able to follow them up with another aerial.
A common one is fair->rising nair.

This trick will also work on falcon and fox, and occasionally on a few other characters, but it isn't a guaranteed kill.
The Falco slayer only works if they doublejump immediately, and it only works at very low percents.
I don't advise abusing it too often. I usually only use it if I notice a falco player has a habit of double jumping right away out of my back throw consistently. It's more of a hard read, since if you miss the sideB, you lose a lot of safer edgeguard options and will probably completely drop the edgeguard.
  • Neutral B (Thunder Jolt):
Jolts are Pichu's primary projectile (really his only one, but thunder is counted as a projectile).
It's pretty hard to use onstage, since it doesn't come out until frame 18, then the animation lasts a total of 57 frames.
The projectile will stay out a total of 99 frames.

It doesn't have the best priority, so most moves will beat it out.

Generally, it's used as an edgeguarding tool to hit opponents out of their double jumps or certain UpB recoveries.

Onstage, it's used more as a zoning tool to interrupt opponent's movement. Generally, I advise players to use it when retreating onto platforms, this makes it harder to punish.

You should almost never approach with jolts (there are situations where it's ok, but they are rare, so just try to avoid even thinking it's an option). You opponent can actually just use a smash attack to go through it and hit you as well.

Offstage it can be really cool as a combo move. Like I said, it's usually used to hit people out of their double jump, so if Pichu forces an opponent into a situation where they have to double jump, he can jump over there with a jolt and then combo it into a rising nair (or another aerial, but nair is the best).

Jolts have that interesting effect where they wrap around platforms and stuff. This can be useful for little gimmicks like having a jolt wrap around a platform and fastfalling so you land underneath it.
Stuff like that is cool, but usually yields a pretty low reward for the risk involved.

I might go more in depth about some of my jolt tricks later in this guide.

But as a rule, Pichu doesn't want to use jolts too often, because they are easy to avoid, punishable, and they hurt him.
  • Up B (Agility):
Agility is something I can talk about for pages and pages. There have been plenty of guides solely dedicated to Agility and the advanced agility techniques. I will cover these later in this guide, and reference a few sources that will go even more in depth on the subject.

For now, you just need to know that Agility is a great recovery move.
Unlike Pikachu's, it does not have a hitbox.
It does hurt Pichu though, so keep that in mind when zipping all over the place.

So the necessary information:
1st zip starts moving on frame 13 and lasts a total of 71 frames.
If you do a second zip, it ends on frame 87.
Pichu has 29 frames after the first zip to aim the second one.
Pichu can preform a second zip (usually... I'll talk about that later) by aiming in a different direction.

It has 12 frames of landlag, but only 1 frame of special land fall lag. I'll explain what that means later on in this guide as well.

That's all I'm going to say about agility right now. Just know that it's incredibly important and paramount to the vast majority of Pichu's advanced play.
  • Side B (Skullbash):
Before I get started with this move, I'm just going to say this: It sucks.
It has some very gimmicky uses, it can be used for offstage edgeguards and combos (I mentioned at very simplistic sideB trap in the bthrow section)
But in general, Pichu really shouldn't use this move ever.

The frame data of the move is kind of hard to decipher, but basically, you have a minimum of 14 frames before the move starts moving (you can begin charging it on frame 14) then, once it is moving, the hitbox isn't out for 5 more frames. The earliest you can have a hitbox out is frame 19, and that hitbox (with no charge) is nearly useless, except for in rare cases to hit an opponent out of their double jump.

The move can be charged for up to 161 frames.

To compare it to other "rocket" type moves:
Luigi's Green Missile can charge for a total of 71 frames
Pikachu's skullbash can be charged for a total of 90 frames

And for even more perspective, Peach's float last a total of 150 frames.

So it goes without saying, generally, a fully charged skullbash from Pichu never happens in real play.

Except in one specific scenario. Jigglypuff's rest lasts a total of 249 frames. This means, if you begin charging early enough, you can punish a missed rest with a fully charged skullbash.

This is basically skullbash's only real purpose. If puff misses a rest, skullbash is pichu's best punish.
It will deal up to 39%.
On Yoshi's, it will kill if puff has over about 14%
It kills on dreamland if puff has around 25% or more

Skullbash is also used for recovery (the more obvious function). I hate using it unless I absolutely have to. It has 34 frames of recovery time in the air, which makes it incredibly punishable if used too close to the stage.
Generally, I don't charge skullbash when recovering. Pichu's recovery is really so good that he shouldn't need to use more than one of two skullbashes in order to be close enough to the stage to recover with upB anyway.

you can also do some fancy platform stuff with skullbash, but it's not practical at all and only used for flash.
  • Down B (Thunder):
Thunder is an interesting move. It's a bit wonky, and kind of hard to explain, so I'll just keep this real bare-bones.

Thunder is primarily used to create a wall between you and your opponent. This works best if the thunder does not hit Pichu, as he will have significantly reduced endlag. It also does no self-damage if it misses Pichu.

Generally, thunder does not combo into anything, but it does put opponents in an awkward position, which can often be capitalized off of.

Occasionally, thunder is used to create a wall right over the ledge. This interrupts a lot of recoveries from bellow the stage in particular.

In very specific situations, the strong hit of thunder is used as a KO move (this is when the thunder hit's Pichu and creates a strong hitbox around his body). This is mostly used for style points and as a hard read. It's really sub-optimal, hard to land, and easy to punish. But if it's landed it as a punish, it's pretty impressive and definitely gets a crowd reaction.

One of Pichu's (and Pika's) most basic kill combos is called the "thunder flip."
This is when Pichu upsmashes, then follows the opponent's DI and thunders, resulting in a slightly early KO, or at the very least, tacking on a bit more percent.

I'll explain a few of my more gimmicky uses of thunder later in this guide.

Section 2: Strategy

[More to Come]


If this guide hasn't answered all your questions, or you are still looking for more information about Pichu, I will refer you to some of the older Pichu guides.
Please keep in mind, these guides are severely outdated, but they do contain a lot of information that I may not have covered.


ICG's How to **** - 2008
(This guide is incomprehensible, but it has a lot of information)


T0MMY's Pichu Paradigm - 2007

How to Hatch a Healthy and Taunty Pichu by Coen - 2005
 
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DerfMidWest

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SOFA#941
Update Log:
9-22-14: Thread created. Added section on Dsmash and Nair.
9-23-14: Added section on Uair.
12-2-14: Completed all Aerials. Added Rapid Jab. Added all Tilts. Added Dash Attack. Completed all Smashes. Added all Throws. Added Jolt and Agility (introduction).
12-3-14: Completed all Moves.
 
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Rotomatic

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Update Log:
9-22-14: Thread created. Added section on Dsmash and Nair.
9-23-14: Added section on Uair.
Looking good so far. Can Pichu really chaingrab spacies? I've always thought spacies could DI out of Pichu's but not Pika's.
 

Comet7

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Looking good so far. Can Pichu really chaingrab spacies? I've always thought spacies could DI out of Pichu's but not Pika's.
pichu can, and he can actually do it longer than pika iirc, not that it matters because you can combo it into up smash and they'll die. the opponent can mess with you and di a bit, so it's like sheik's chaingrabs in that regard.
 

Rotomatic

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pichu can, and he can actually do it longer than pika iirc, not that it matters because you can combo it into up smash and they'll die. the opponent can mess with you and di a bit, so it's like sheik's chaingrabs in that regard.
That's pretty nice then, I assumed spacies could DI out of it. I guess that makes FD 20-80 for Pichu instead of 10-90 lol
 

DerfMidWest

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pichu can do it slightly longer I think, I'm pretty sure it's only like 10% more. It doesn't matter much. Pika's is still better since he can kill with thunder flip directly out of the CG.
Pichu's isn't bad though.
 

DerfMidWest

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I also updated the thread again. I feel like writing, so I might add some more stuff later tonight too.

edit: I wrote a lot of **** tonight. I'll probably finish the section about Pichu's moves sometime soon and start writing about general strategy.

I'll have to get around to a better name for this stupid thing at some point too.
 
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DerfMidWest

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oh my god i just read ICG's guide and he has some legitimate stuff about thunder.
yeah dude, ICG may be impossible to understand sometimes and has one of the least consistent pichus on the planet... and be delusional sometimes, but he knows his stuff for sure.
ICG and myself did waaay more theory crafting for pichu than anyone else ever has (or should) back in our time.
 
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MudkipUniverse

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FINALLY

Somebody mentions Pichu's chaingrabs. The ganon boards have the same problems

AND the double agility.
 
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PD | Lewd

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Hey! Perfect guide for an aspiring melee player. I'll be hopping into the lab tonight to work on some Pichu stuff and I'll see if I can't pick some stuff out that I'd like to know more about. Thanks for the guide!
 

DerfMidWest

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Hey! Perfect guide for an aspiring melee player. I'll be hopping into the lab tonight to work on some Pichu stuff and I'll see if I can't pick some stuff out that I'd like to know more about. Thanks for the guide!
feel free to post any questions you have here.
 

the muted smasher

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You don't even know how wacky of stuff I do I've been holding the c stick back or at a 45 degree angle while nairing to avoid sheik f tilt combos and ics double hits

Sadly I haven't been able to test it yet only fought marth's lately where it's not useful.

Pichu, s throws all have a small amount less kb than pika's notable ly b throw but why You can't chain throw good di till 25% but the chain throw lasts a little longer.

I wish I could double check f throw for both but I don't have the master hand program anymore
 

20LC

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Does anyone know what the latest actionable frame for Pichu's second jab is?

edit: Jab has two frames of hit lag right?
 
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Comet7

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I'm guessing that it's for the whole jab after frame 5? I don't know about the amount of hitlag for any of Pichu's moves, I'll have to test that out tomorrow.

Edit: I'm just going to calculate anything that comes to my mind for a bit.

Hitlag for Pichu:
Jab 3
Dash attack 5
Nair 7
Nair (Weak) 6
Fair
Up air 4
Dair
Dair (Quake)
Bair 6
F smash 3
F smash (Strong) 5
D Smash 7
Up Smash 8
F tilt (high) 6
F tilt (side) 5
F tilt (low) 5
Up tilt 5
Down tilt 5
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder (Hits Pichu) 7

Hitlag for Receiver:
Anything not specified is the same as hitlag for Pichu. The differences are due to electric properties.
Fair
Dair
Dair (Quake)
F smash 4
F smash (Strong) 7
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder 6
Thunder (Hits Pichu) 10
Thunder Jolt

Shieldstun:
Jab 2
Dash attack 5
Nair 7
Nair (Weak) 6
Fair 2
Up air 3
Dair
Dair (Quake)
Bair 6
F smash 2
F smash (Strong) 4
D Smash 7
Up Smash 9
F tilt (high) 6
F tilt (side) 5
F tilt (low) 5
Up tilt 4
Down tilt 5
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder
Thunder (Hits Pichu) 7
Thunder Jolt

Advantage on shield:
Jab -19 -- -20
Nair
Nair (Weak) 0
Nair (Landing) +1
Nair (Weak Landing)
Fair
Fair (Landing) -5
Up air
Up air (Landing) -6
Bair
Bair (Landing) -3
Dair
Dair (Landing)
Dair (Quake)
F smash
F smash (Strong)
D Smash -41 -- -47
Up Smash -31 -- -33
F tilt (high) -15 -- -24
F tilt (side) -15 -- -24
F tilt (low) -15 -- -24
Up tilt -10 -- -17
Down tilt -12 -- -14
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder
Thunder (Hits Pichu)
Thunder Jolt

Note: All these numbers assume that there is no stale move negation.

Other (random stuff that you may or may not know):
Sound effect for thunder is active on frame 1. Fox has nothing on us.
Thunder's location, when used in the air, depends on where Pichu is when the end of the animation for a state called 316 ends. It is 17 frames total.
Up tilt has a hitbox that has 5 less BKB than the other two hitboxes. I'm guessing this is the hitbox with the least disjoint. I'm pretty sure it's the one near Pichu's butt since it's the smallest.
High angled f tilt does 9 damage, side angled does 8, and low does 7.
One of up smash's hitboxes has 10 less BKB than the other.
Fair is an underrated gimmick for chaining stuff.
 
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20LC

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I'm guessing that it's for the whole jab after frame 5? I don't know about the amount of hitlag for any of Pichu's moves, I'll have to test that out tomorrow.

Edit: I'm just going to calculate anything that comes to my mind for a bit.

Hitlag for Pichu:
Jab 3
Nair 7
Nair (Weak) 6
Fair
Up air 4
Dair
Dair (Quake)
Bair 6
F smash
F smash (Strong)
D Smash
Up Smash
F tilt
Up tilt
Down tilt
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder (Hits Pichu) 7

Hitlag for Receiver:
Anything not specified is the same as hitlag for Pichu. The differences are due to electric properties.
Fair
Dair
Dair (Quake)
F smash
F smash (Strong)
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder 6
Thunder (Hits Pichu) 10
Thunder Jolt

Shieldstun:
Jab
Nair 7
Nair (Weak) 6
Fair 2
Up air 3
Dair
Dair (Quake)
Bair 6
F smash
F smash (Strong)
D Smash
Up Smash
F tilt
Up tilt
Down tilt
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder
Thunder (Hits Pichu) 7
Thunder Jolt

Advantage on shield:
Jab
Nair
Nair (Weak) 0
Nair (Landing) +1
Nair (Weak Landing)
Fair
Fair (Landing) -5
Up air
Up air (Landing) -6
Bair
Bair (Landing) -3
Dair
Dair (Landing)
Dair (Quake)
F smash
F smash (Strong)
D Smash
Up Smash
F tilt
Up tilt
Down tilt
i might calculate skull bash, idk
Thunder
Thunder (Hits Pichu)
Thunder Jolt

Other:
Sound effect for thunder is active on frame 1. Fox has nothing on us.
Thunder's location, when used in the air, depends on where Pichu is when the end of the animation for a state called 316 ends. It is 17 frames total.
Thank you, I highly appreciate any data that you provide. Do you think that it would be bad if I recorded notes here too? I'm worried that I might end up repeating information that we already have.
 

the muted smasher

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Like the thing is its hard to make a worth while guide, You could explain nair but it's so experience based it's what it is.

And we don't have the time to make percent guides. But i would like more gimmick ideas

Gimmicks+ reads are solid
 
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