Is Lucas' PK Thunder only good for recovery?

[McDeathstrider]

I only ask this because I've rammed into many a foe and haven't killed them, but got them of the stage. I HAVE gotten them when they tried to spike me, but rarely does it kill. Is there any good time to use Lucas' PKT2 to kill or is it not a viable option?

 

[JesterJaded]

It's been -suggested- as a suicide move to take your opponent with you when you're up a stock by covering the ledge and your opponent's recovery space, but it's practical use is... debatable.

 

[EarthBoundEnigma]

If they're recovering from below or the side (such as Fox/Falco side B), you can hit and drag them into the stage for a stage spike.

Also, you can use it on PK Frozen opponents.

 

[PKBeam]

If they're recovering from below or the side (such as Fox/Falco side B), you can hit and drag them into the stage for a stage spike.

Do this,

use it on PK Frozen opponents.

But don't do this. If they're frozen your best follow up is to charge up another Freeze and try to hit them as soon as they pop out.

Alternatively you can try to tailwhip them and bring PKT back to Lucas to hit him out of range. Unsuspecting people with mediocre reflexes are really vulnerable to tailwhip gimps.

 

[EarthBoundEnigma]

I should clarify. PK Frozen opponents can be killed off the top with PKT2, since it drags them up and off the top with a pop.
PKT and PKT2 both drag frozen opponents.

 

[PKBeam]

Well that's fair enough then.

 

[JohnnyB]

You can use it as long as you hit yourself with it to cancel the endlag. You can hit yourself away from the opponent (only if you aren't going to carry yourself offstage!), or hit yourself on the head and pkt2 directly into the ground. You'll end up on the floor but at least you can roll or getup attack instead of just standing there waiting to get hit. You might even be able to tech it if you get the timing right, but i have never done it. I wouldn't recommend doing any of this in a serious game though. Pkt onstage is only a mixup and a really bad one at that.

I find the best way to get stage spikes is to hit them with just the head of the pkt. It does knockback just like Nesse does, but they usually get caught in the tail and don't go very far. Try to make the first or last hit you get with it be the head.

Edit: Should have read the op better, this is about pkt2 not pkt1 oh well =P

 

[A Polar Bear]

It's good for a lot of things, like breaking physics, and killing your brother

 

[AuraWielder007]

It's good for a lot of things, like breaking physics, and killing your brother

What the...
Pikachu was so far from Lucas, though?

 

[PKBeam]

Pikachu's hurtboxes stretch weirdly during QA.
If you open up BrawlBox you can see an example.

 

[JosePollo]

It's janky, dangerous, and unreliable, but if you're good at sweetspotting the ledge you can get some strange gimps by angling yourself downward toward the ledge when you're recovering high (like a Falco/Fox sweetspotting the ledge in Melee). If an opponent jumps to try to get you and you catch them with any hitbox between hits 2-11, you'll grab the ledge and your opponent will be sent under the stage at high speed due to the autolink angle of the hits (which causes them to be pushed in whatever direction you're going--down diagonally, in this case) and them falling out of it. It's risky and takes a lot of precision, but I've gotten kills at like 10% against people this way (I almost took a game off of FOW's Ness at one of our weeklies like this lol).

Just don't try this move against Mario (FLUDD), Rosalina/Villager (they can absorb it), or characters with a Counter (and you should be avoiding having to use PKT2 to recover against them already, anyway)

 

[Lunacywastaken]

PKT1 edgeguarding isn't as effective as Ness' since it has tremendous end lag. I would suggest only edgeguarding with it if the character is very far from the ledge and has poor recovery. Also hitting the character with the ball of the PK Thunder can send them horizontally, so it gimps them easier.

P.S. Lucas' PK Thunder gimps Ness' PK Thunder. Have fun gimping Ness boys.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

Rarely usable, honestly. I remember getting some lucky hits in merely now and then when trying to recover, and since it's killing power's wonky compared to Ness's + can even kill you off in shorter stages due it's length, there's not much merit or reward to use it during battle.
They got to lower the endlag tremendously for starters and perhaps make the hitbox more trapping enemies inside as due the PKT Bolt's molasses-like speed has your opponent just hop or avoid easily over it during recovering to edge.I remember losing momentum easily or even getting punished hard due this move.