EZVega
Smash Cadet
What's up guys? I got plenty of good information to share about Pikachu after playing with him for a couple of weeks competitively. Out of all the starting characters, Pikachu was the most fluid to me and I'm here to lay it down and tell everyone why. First, I'd like to say most of my wins online and in person have come from using Pikachu's arsenal of baits and quick entry.
Since I've posted this guide, I've made some new discoveries and will continue to make discoveries as we all play the game. This also means I'll be updating when the Wii U version is released.
Various Combo Options:
Having issues knowing what you could possibly do with the Chu? Here's some ideas I've put to good use.
Bump them up off the ground with an up-tilt. This is the easiest combo to do with Pikachu that can be chainlinked to another series of attacks. Example of one you can do on heavies like Ganondorf: U-tilt (3-4x) -> f-tilt. (Mix it up. I make variations of this all the time.)
Another thing you can combo from is Pikachu's f-throw from 0%. Rack up some hits with the shocker then jump into f-air. Fastfall land and then f-air again as needed. Be careful though. Players will often throw out their interrupter and punish you upon landing, so be wary of how your opponent handles their air game.
For floaties, it's really fun to start up an assault from Pikachu's up-throw. Now they don't have to be super floaty for it to work well. In some cases, more resilient characters will need to be popped up at around 60~80%. Up-throwing can directly flow into Pikachu's Thunder (down-b). If your opponent gets bumped up into the cloud, you can spike your opponent down into Pikachu's body which becomes an active hitbox with a lot of power. On mid to lightweight, this will KO at the edge at around 110%.
Pikachu's f-air is probably one of the most reliable airs you can use for combo starters, but I wouldn't recommend it if your opponent is grounded. It will be easy to shieldgrab and punish due to the little amount of landing lag you get from it; it's enough to get slammed.
When the gimps in the crib, ma?
Throw out some neutral b's to keep 'em back if you're horizontal from or above them, if you're playing edge game. Stun them enough to where you can just fall down and u-air. Unless you're feeling lucky, then footstool them and edgeguard with d-airs. If you're confident your opponent is panicking enough to try immediately recovering from off-edge, d-air them back to the blast zone.
I know there's a lot of heat right now about Little Mac, but I've played both sides of the coin with him and he is a pain train for Pikachu. Pikachu is fairly light in weight compared to Little Mac's hits, so whatever you do, don't get an uppercut anywhere past 60%. Taking some f-smashes can be done. VI as much as possible if you have difficulties surviving against them.
To handle a Little Mac with Pikachu, use neutral b's (but do NOT stand there doing it) to rack up some small damage. You can quick attack them a couple of times to bait them into attacking the air. Grab them and back-throw them off the edge. They can be gimped easily with a small aerial neutral-b or n-air. I recommend n-air because it'd push him back enough to keep him from even reaching the edge. Be cautious with the physical approach, though. If you're feeling confident in fighting a Little Mac on stage, don't go challenging any of his attacks. Use grabs, pop-ups like u-tilt and quick attacks to bait (this will be covered further down).
Approaching Options:
Pikachu has enough speed that he can simply dash in and get a good grab. For middleweight characters like Mario, it's pretty easy to space them out with neutral b's from both the ground and air. It wouldn't matter if they were reflected by a cape or Reflector, it'll be easy to jump right over them or have the following thunderjolt cancel the reflected jolt. When your opponent is starting off from 0% it's not a bad idea to rack up damage anyway you can. Space them out with the jolts and pay close attention to their movements. This will let you know whether a player is good at spacing and approaching or not. They can't even approach you with dodgerolls and spotdodges if you neutral b back and forth within a short space. Pikachu doesn't get much landing lag from hitting the ground after neutral b's so it's reliable enough to give you the opponent's body when they try to attack you up close.
His f-air and u-air make good approaching tools as well. It helps to mix them up since, again his aerials don't have much landing lag unless you're trying to approach with d-airs (don't do that unless you're edgeguarding). If you get the f-air in, you can go straight into a grab. At the same time, you risk getting shieldgrabbed, so pay close attention to the player's movements and their character. I like to f-air first, and if it rams a shield, I'll spotdodge within the next 2 frames in case of shieldgrabs. Every so often, I'll empty jump if I'm within f-smash range, bait them into shielding and get the grab.
Delta QA's:
Quick Attacks are super-sexy in this game. We've seen how some players in PM would quick attack from left to right, to get a good hit confirm on an opponent or enter their space. The concept is about the same. It does enough hitstun to where you can quick attack into your opponent (granted, you're not getting shielded) and u-tilt. It's good if you want to pop an enemy off the ground. You can another set of quick attacks into your opponent and down into the ground beneath their predicted landing zone. You can set up for:
Want some really good bait with that dish of pain?
QA in place. Perform the QA action (up-b of course) up then down within the first 2 frames of startup. Don't worry about doing it in front of your opponent, it will scare them into trying to chase you elsewhere and you can punish them for it. There's minimal lag penalty for doing this. If your enemy is close enough after you've done this in place, down-b them. If they grab you, they get shocked. If they attack you and they're too slow to punish you entirely, they get shocked. If an opponent is rolling around you or trying to approach you dead-on, QA in place.
Pikachu's hitbox for QA'ing in place is deceptively big. It'll knock them off the ground which will immediately combo into a down-b if their damage is high and they're floaty. U-Smash if they're fast fallers or at lower damage. If you want to just rack up damage after they've lifted off the ground. QA into them and then back to the ground.
But there's no Quick Attack Cancel?
Wrong. They're there, but it requires a little work. Zipping into the ground at a 45 degree angle on a slope I believe will allow you to pop back up and attack again. It's easy work in previous Smashes, but this will take a little practice to get down. This sets up for quick get-aways or you could pop your opponent off the ground and DACUS* them into submission.
*For those who don't know what DACUS means: http://www.ssbwiki.com/Dash_attack_canceled_up_smash
Match-ups:
If some of the matchups don't seem quite right, let me know. All of this is based on experience with skilled and witty players. However, there are some characters I have not fought so not all of them will be listed.
Top Matches:
Since I've posted this guide, I've made some new discoveries and will continue to make discoveries as we all play the game. This also means I'll be updating when the Wii U version is released.
Various Combo Options:
Having issues knowing what you could possibly do with the Chu? Here's some ideas I've put to good use.
Bump them up off the ground with an up-tilt. This is the easiest combo to do with Pikachu that can be chainlinked to another series of attacks. Example of one you can do on heavies like Ganondorf: U-tilt (3-4x) -> f-tilt. (Mix it up. I make variations of this all the time.)
Another thing you can combo from is Pikachu's f-throw from 0%. Rack up some hits with the shocker then jump into f-air. Fastfall land and then f-air again as needed. Be careful though. Players will often throw out their interrupter and punish you upon landing, so be wary of how your opponent handles their air game.
For floaties, it's really fun to start up an assault from Pikachu's up-throw. Now they don't have to be super floaty for it to work well. In some cases, more resilient characters will need to be popped up at around 60~80%. Up-throwing can directly flow into Pikachu's Thunder (down-b). If your opponent gets bumped up into the cloud, you can spike your opponent down into Pikachu's body which becomes an active hitbox with a lot of power. On mid to lightweight, this will KO at the edge at around 110%.
Pikachu's f-air is probably one of the most reliable airs you can use for combo starters, but I wouldn't recommend it if your opponent is grounded. It will be easy to shieldgrab and punish due to the little amount of landing lag you get from it; it's enough to get slammed.
When the gimps in the crib, ma?
Throw out some neutral b's to keep 'em back if you're horizontal from or above them, if you're playing edge game. Stun them enough to where you can just fall down and u-air. Unless you're feeling lucky, then footstool them and edgeguard with d-airs. If you're confident your opponent is panicking enough to try immediately recovering from off-edge, d-air them back to the blast zone.
I know there's a lot of heat right now about Little Mac, but I've played both sides of the coin with him and he is a pain train for Pikachu. Pikachu is fairly light in weight compared to Little Mac's hits, so whatever you do, don't get an uppercut anywhere past 60%. Taking some f-smashes can be done. VI as much as possible if you have difficulties surviving against them.
To handle a Little Mac with Pikachu, use neutral b's (but do NOT stand there doing it) to rack up some small damage. You can quick attack them a couple of times to bait them into attacking the air. Grab them and back-throw them off the edge. They can be gimped easily with a small aerial neutral-b or n-air. I recommend n-air because it'd push him back enough to keep him from even reaching the edge. Be cautious with the physical approach, though. If you're feeling confident in fighting a Little Mac on stage, don't go challenging any of his attacks. Use grabs, pop-ups like u-tilt and quick attacks to bait (this will be covered further down).
Approaching Options:
Pikachu has enough speed that he can simply dash in and get a good grab. For middleweight characters like Mario, it's pretty easy to space them out with neutral b's from both the ground and air. It wouldn't matter if they were reflected by a cape or Reflector, it'll be easy to jump right over them or have the following thunderjolt cancel the reflected jolt. When your opponent is starting off from 0% it's not a bad idea to rack up damage anyway you can. Space them out with the jolts and pay close attention to their movements. This will let you know whether a player is good at spacing and approaching or not. They can't even approach you with dodgerolls and spotdodges if you neutral b back and forth within a short space. Pikachu doesn't get much landing lag from hitting the ground after neutral b's so it's reliable enough to give you the opponent's body when they try to attack you up close.
His f-air and u-air make good approaching tools as well. It helps to mix them up since, again his aerials don't have much landing lag unless you're trying to approach with d-airs (don't do that unless you're edgeguarding). If you get the f-air in, you can go straight into a grab. At the same time, you risk getting shieldgrabbed, so pay close attention to the player's movements and their character. I like to f-air first, and if it rams a shield, I'll spotdodge within the next 2 frames in case of shieldgrabs. Every so often, I'll empty jump if I'm within f-smash range, bait them into shielding and get the grab.
Delta QA's:
Quick Attacks are super-sexy in this game. We've seen how some players in PM would quick attack from left to right, to get a good hit confirm on an opponent or enter their space. The concept is about the same. It does enough hitstun to where you can quick attack into your opponent (granted, you're not getting shielded) and u-tilt. It's good if you want to pop an enemy off the ground. You can another set of quick attacks into your opponent and down into the ground beneath their predicted landing zone. You can set up for:
- F-smash if they're going to fall in front of you, but I recommend waiting for a tech-chase
- U-smash if they're going to fall on top of you or two short spaces in front of you
- Tech-chase grab into b-throw off the edge, gimp with f-air if they're horizontal from or above the ledge. Gimp with d-air if below.
- Jump away down-b. You don't want to stand in place and get struck by your own Thunder if you can save yourself the punishment time after lag with a smash.
- D-Smash, but I rarely do this for falling opponents.
Want some really good bait with that dish of pain?
QA in place. Perform the QA action (up-b of course) up then down within the first 2 frames of startup. Don't worry about doing it in front of your opponent, it will scare them into trying to chase you elsewhere and you can punish them for it. There's minimal lag penalty for doing this. If your enemy is close enough after you've done this in place, down-b them. If they grab you, they get shocked. If they attack you and they're too slow to punish you entirely, they get shocked. If an opponent is rolling around you or trying to approach you dead-on, QA in place.
Pikachu's hitbox for QA'ing in place is deceptively big. It'll knock them off the ground which will immediately combo into a down-b if their damage is high and they're floaty. U-Smash if they're fast fallers or at lower damage. If you want to just rack up damage after they've lifted off the ground. QA into them and then back to the ground.
But there's no Quick Attack Cancel?
Wrong. They're there, but it requires a little work. Zipping into the ground at a 45 degree angle on a slope I believe will allow you to pop back up and attack again. It's easy work in previous Smashes, but this will take a little practice to get down. This sets up for quick get-aways or you could pop your opponent off the ground and DACUS* them into submission.
*For those who don't know what DACUS means: http://www.ssbwiki.com/Dash_attack_canceled_up_smash
Match-ups:
If some of the matchups don't seem quite right, let me know. All of this is based on experience with skilled and witty players. However, there are some characters I have not fought so not all of them will be listed.
Top Matches:
- Lucina
- Dark Pit
- Donkey Kong
- Marth
- Luigi
- Olimar and Alph
- R.O.B.
- Mii Gunner
- Jigglypuff
- Captain Falcon
- Fox
- Little Mac (*Very player dependent)
- Yoshi
- Diddy Kong
- Zelda
- Shulk
- Charizard
- Peach
- Mario
- Greninja
- Palutena
- Ganondorf
- King Dedede
- Mii Brawler
- Pit
- Link
- Toon Link
- Villager
- Pikachu
- Pac-Man
- Fox
- Falco
- Mega Man
- Ness
- Wii Fit Trainer
- Bowser
- Lucario
- Dr. Mario
- Mario
- Sheik
- Duck Hunt
- Metaknight
- Samus
- Sonic
- Mii Swordsman
- Zero Suit Samus
- Rosalina & Luma (It's doable but you have to be extra cautious)
- Link
- Robin
- Bowser Jr.
- Wario
- Mr. Game and Watch
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