Getting Pika buff (Lab Routine)

[jukeb0xer]

Hey guys,

Like I said in my other post, I'm a fairly new player. I've been playing on off only for a couple months and just got myself a Wii U a couple weeks ago. Smash 4 is the only iteration of Smash that I've decided to put time into (other than 64 when I was a wee lad).

I realize that Pikachu has a pretty high learning curve for a new player and Pika mechanics take quite a bit of practice. I feel like it's totally worth it because he is so flashy and adorable (I imagine you can get that crowd-pleaser aura when you actually play with folks IRL, that's a cool bonus). I'm not trying to become pro or anything, I just want to do decently well at some local tournaments and get-togethers with friends.

I've been learning/researching about Smash fundamentals and the nuances of Pikachu, but I was tired of being kind of all over the place while experimenting training mode. There is a lot of information out there and taking it all in at once can be overwhelming. So I've decided to write down an organized routine I can follow that consists of moves and mechanics I wish to learn/get better at.

I'm just sharing this for the hell of it, but I would love to read any thoughts on this. Maybe there or some things I can add or switch around. Also, the time spent on each category can be changed. I work full-time and giving something like this 1:20 minutes is probably the best I can do.

Pikachu Workout Session

Movement - 15 minutes

• Foxtrotting
  
  
• Pivoting
  
  
• Extended Dash-dancing

QA - 30 minutes

• Basic directions
  
  
• QAC on Pika stages (attempting too, in my case)
  

Short Hops – 15 minutes

• Forward airs
  
  
• Down airs
  
  
• RARs
  

Edge guards/recovery – 20 minutes

• Thunders
  
  
• Aerials
  
  
• Getting comfortable with going far off stage
  

 

[jukeb0xer]

Also, this stuff is probably super basic for a lot of you but this is the level that I'm at. It would be cool to see how you super gosu pro Pikachus spend your lab time. If you're doing something similar please share! Thanks <3

 

[w0ah]

I don't find EDD very useful since pikachu can turn around right after his foxtrot. You should practice perfect pivots then perfect pivot out of foxtrot.

 

[Shram]

I'm no pro, but some basic things that you should be practicing or know by now are:
Out of shield options (like dair, bair, nair, fair, usmash, and grab)
Shield dropping and followups (like utilt, ftilt, dtilt, fsmash, and dsmash)
B-reversing, especially useful when combined with thunderjolt. I generally do this like 2-5 times a stock (enough to the point it's actually becoming a bad habit )
Jump cancelled usmash
Jump-cancelled projectile toss (though pikachu doesn't have a projectile, it helps against opponents that do)
Ledge options (Like falling nair, bair, dair, or quick attack after a ledge jump)

Another thing I like to practice is dashing back and forth, shielding as quickly as I can. Then dashing out of shield without rolling.

Some advanced techniques that I'm currently practicing myself:
Perfect Pivots
Roll-Cancelled Grab
Smash DI (Yup, it still exists apparently!)

Hope this helped.

 

[RidlR]

And since I am garbage...

Shram, (or anyone) could you explain or link some threads on how to do some of this stuff? I don't know how to roll cancel grab, jump cancel usmash, or perfect pivot. I hear these words all the time yet I have no idea how to perform them.

 

[Emuchu]

And since I am garbage...

Shram, (or anyone) could you explain or link some threads on how to do some of this stuff? I don't know how to roll cancel grab, jump cancel usmash, or perfect pivot. I hear these words all the time yet I have no idea how to perform them.

• Roll Cancel Grab
  • Essentially, this is a grab with increased horizontal momentum, similar to a turnaround grab. Since you can buffer a couple of things out of shield, the game allows you to cancel the startup of a roll into a grab to avoid input errors. You input this as [Shield] > [Tap Right] > [A], but the inputs should be extremely quick.
• Jump Cancel Usmash (OoS Usmash)
  • Similarly to the roll cancelled grab, you can buffer a jump out of a shield. To avoid people accidentally jumping when they want to Usmash, the game allows you to cancel the starting frames of a jump into Usmash. Using these properties, you can hold your shield, jump, and then cancel your jump into Usmash, effectively allowing you to Usmash out of shield without the shield drop animation. This all sounds complicated, but in practice, while holding shield, you wait for shield stun to end, and then hit [Utap] > [A], or [Utap] > [Jump] > [A] if you have Tap Jump Off. You'll skip the shield drop animation and go right into Usmash. It's great for punished attacks into your shield, especially if you have a great Usmash like Mario, Fox, or Pika.
• Perfect Pivot
  • Watch this video by My Smash Corner:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vaR4RM-qr0&ab_channel=MySmashCorner

 

[DeaDea]

What is the point of extended dash dancing with Pikachu when its faster to just foxtrot left/right?

 

[Shram]

What is the point of extended dash dancing with Pikachu when its faster to just foxtrot left/right?

It's not, extended dash dancing is quicker since foxtrotting in the opposite direction is slower than foxtrotting in the same direction.

Extended dash dancing reverses your momentum in just 1 frame (i think), but foxtrotting forces you to wait before dashing in the other direction.

 

[DeaDea]

Ah I thought it was only useful to do with some characters like Captain Falcon and Little Mac.

Perhaps I am doing it wrong. I am doing ->, -> <-, <-, <- -> (repeat) and it feels slower than foxtrotting left and right.

 

[Shady Shaymin]

go into lab and just throw out all your safest things for a while. for like 20 minutes, just get in the habit of throwing out all his nice autocanceling aerials (fair, dair, nair). this is so important. just keep walking around and dtilting. ftilt, ftilt, ftilt is a great get off me in pressure situations, so you should form a habit of using that in addition to nair. you really wanna get in the habit of throwing out safe moves. since they're all easy to do, you might wonder why you should be practicing. the idea is that forming a habit of using safe things will make you more consistent in a tournament setting.

then, practice quick attack. practice the angle. that one's really important because it takes you far horizontally across the stage and gets you out of the opponent's OOS range. and are important for racking up damage. it won't let you combo since you'll probably end up retreating out of Utilt range, but it's a good mixup. then of course practice recovery. / is your bread and butter of vertical recovery, and possibly the easiest to **** up because of the small difference in angling. esam also uses the angle for horizontal recovery, hard to gimp. all of these should be used in conjunction with skull bask to recover ofc. quick attack ledge cancels are nice too but not needed, and hard to illustrate w/out visuals.

practice the bnb low percent stuff too. not really hard but you should get used to adapting for DI. practice jab locks, get used to buffering a dash into jab. most importantly, practice that RAR thunder kill and set CPU behavior to run, so they DI out of your upthrow.

that's all i can think of. practice pp's and fox trots too i guess.

 

[Shram]

and are important for racking up damage. it won't let you combo since you'll probably end up retreating out of Utilt range,

I think you mean ?