I'm new to using Pikachu as my main...

[AquaNinja]

And I am a complete noob. I'm looking to eventually play smash competitively, but I need a lot of practice and maybe some advice. I have been practising for a week now, testing combos in training mode, and fighting level nines frequently. Most level nines I fight now, I win against, but I still am not great with my character and there is a lot of things for myself to learn.

I went through some of the forums here in the Pikachu area, but nothing that I can really use yet, until I learn how to play better.

If anyone can give me any tips on what I should be doing as Pikachu, combos or techniques I should know about, or maybe direct to a helpful thread that I may be able to comprehend, it would help a lot.

If you read this whole thing, then thanks. :D

 

[Angiance]

Ask questions in our Q&A please, thank you

 

[AquaNinja]

Ask questions in our Q&A please, thank you

I wasn't aware there was a Q&A. I must of missed that while browsing the threads. Would you like me to delete this thread? And if yes, then how :3. I'm still new to this site.

 

[Angiance]

I'm unsure of how to delete a thread, but let's let this be the final message here

 

[Thor]

I'm unsure of how to delete a thread, but let's let this be the final message here

Don't be an ***. AquaNinja wants general advice, we can give it to (him? her? I don't know).

stuff

Pikachu has a fair number of tips and tricks to give it the edge. But basics first. Level 9 CPUs give you habits because they are programmed and thus do predictable things. I once 3-stocked a level 9 MK with Ike, taking less than 100% (if you know how much Ike struggles vs MK, I think you'll understand my point). I understand you may not have lots of other options for practice, but playing vs level 9s will build bad habits. I've read that one of the best out there, Mew2King, will spar against a level 3 MK, and he focuses on spacing everything perfectly and never getting hit - in one place I read that if he takes damage he SDs so that it's a contest for him to see if he can remove 99 stocks from MK before taking 99 hits from said MK [no idea if this is true or not]. That's a little extreme, but it probably helps him focus and space everything as carefully as possible while avoiding walking into moves and such. So just doing a regular 3-stock match vs a level 3 might help. You can also do a 2 minute match, and then record it to try to detect any habits you have (2 minutes is kind of short, but they can still show up): if so, you want to try to stop the habit, as habits will be picked up on and used by opponents to beat you.

You should also make sure you're using all your options - make sure you can jump out of shield, shieldgrab, and spotdodge (if you're not shielding, you should know that shielding is really good).

There should be a Pikachu guide somewhere on here called: "It's not very effective... common mistakes, and how to avoid them" or something like that. There's also "Generating a win: an electrifying guide to Pikachu". These are each somewhat older, but they have a ton of useful stuff to know and learn. If you have a tournament, you should also brush up on the "dthrow chaingrab explained in detail" as that will make Fox much easier and give you extra percent versus a lot of characters via fthrow and dthrow.

Specific questions should go in the Q&A thread. I hope this information is more useful than just "go to a Q&A thread," since I know when I first started I wasn't even sure what to ask [but I quickly learned to dump most of the "knowledge" I thought I had about the game so that I didn't stubbornly hold onto bad habits].

Also, if you use dsmash, you probably need to dsmash less. It's really easy to SDI out of. If you don't know what DI and SDI are, you should learn - they'll increase your survivability and help you out against every character in the game.

One other random note: When sent flying horizontally, you want to use an up-air as quickly as possible to end hitstun, then use side+B, or skull bash, to cancel your momentum. This trick lets you live much longer than if you did not end hitstun early. Doing this and DIing lets you live longer than Meta Knight, and about as long as a Marth without a jump.

And with that, good luck working on that Pikachu - having more Pikas to represent in tournaments and have fun with Pika is always a plus.

P.S: If you read those guides, maybe a play a person or two, and try to fight the CPU level 9 again in a week, I'm sure you'll beat the AI handily.

 

[AquaNinja]

Don't be an ***. AquaNinja wants general advice, we can give it to (him? her? I don't know).



Pikachu has a fair number of tips and tricks to give it the edge. But basics first. Level 9 CPUs give you habits because they are programmed and thus do predictable things. I once 3-stocked a level 9 MK with Ike, taking less than 100% (if you know how much Ike struggles vs MK, I think you'll understand my point). I understand you may not have lots of other options for practice, but playing vs level 9s will build bad habits. I've read that one of the best out there, Mew2King, will spar against a level 3 MK, and he focuses on spacing everything perfectly and never getting hit - in one place I read that if he takes damage he SDs so that it's a contest for him to see if he can remove 99 stocks from MK before taking 99 hits from said MK [no idea if this is true or not]. That's a little extreme, but it probably helps him focus and space everything as carefully as possible while avoiding walking into moves and such. So just doing a regular 3-stock match vs a level 3 might help. You can also do a 2 minute match, and then record it to try to detect any habits you have (2 minutes is kind of short, but they can still show up): if so, you want to try to stop the habit, as habits will be picked up on and used by opponents to beat you.

You should also make sure you're using all your options - make sure you can jump out of shield, shieldgrab, and spotdodge (if you're not shielding, you should know that shielding is really good).

There should be a Pikachu guide somewhere on here called: "It's not very effective... common mistakes, and how to avoid them" or something like that. There's also "Generating a win: an electrifying guide to Pikachu". These are each somewhat older, but they have a ton of useful stuff to know and learn. If you have a tournament, you should also brush up on the "dthrow chaingrab explained in detail" as that will make Fox much easier and give you extra percent versus a lot of characters via fthrow and dthrow.

Specific questions should go in the Q&A thread. I hope this information is more useful than just "go to a Q&A thread," since I know when I first started I wasn't even sure what to ask [but I quickly learned to dump most of the "knowledge" I thought I had about the game so that I didn't stubbornly hold onto bad habits].

Also, if you use dsmash, you probably need to dsmash less. It's really easy to SDI out of. If you don't know what DI and SDI are, you should learn - they'll increase your survivability and help you out against every character in the game.

One other random note: When sent flying horizontally, you want to use an up-air as quickly as possible to end hitstun, then use side+B, or skull bash, to cancel your momentum. This trick lets you live much longer than if you did not end hitstun early. Doing this and DIing lets you live longer than Meta Knight, and about as long as a Marth without a jump.

And with that, good luck working on that Pikachu - having more Pikas to represent in tournaments and have fun with Pika is always a plus.

P.S: If you read those guides, maybe a play a person or two, and try to fight the CPU level 9 again in a week, I'm sure you'll beat the AI handily.

Thanks for giving all this advice! :0 There is some things you mentioned that I'm trying to do or do less of (shielding, shield grabbing and spotdodge are being practised a lot). I understand Dling and I don't spam d-smash at all. I only use it when I see the opportunity. One habit I have is that I don't shield enough, because I'm not that good at timing it. I'm still practising daily, and I'm going to read those guides and hopefully learn from them. I don't have too many people to play match against but hopefully I can get better practice than against the A.I. This post was really helpful to me. I will keep practising Pika, until I'm able to compete! Thanks! :D