New pikachu, where to get started?

[Fabulous32]

Hey all, I just started looking into pikachu, and was curious where to start practicing with the character? I'm coming from a falcon background, so I've got basics down (sh buffered aerials, shff, etc), but was looking for a good place to get started with pikachu? I'm finding quick attack to be hard to handle, but anything else to practice would be appreciated. Also how to train on QA would be nice if anyone has any tips.

 

[w0ah]

Fair fastfall follow ups are good to learn since thats your biggest combo starter because it can lead into tilts up smashes and grabs. Pikachu gains a lot from grabs especially around 20% with Dthrow, you can combo up air into Fair out of it then fastfall the fair for another grab. Practice quick attack enough to know where you're going to end up after it so you know where you're able to ledge cancel. (this is hard I still overshoot the ledge and freefall).)

 

[The_Devious]

Go to battlefield and practise quick attack angles. You will obviously need it for recovering, but it is also useful for approaching, getting out of tight spots and chipping damage. If you have trouble controlling quick attack, try practising controlling 's hydro pump. It's slower so it allows more time for the inputs I mention below. Once you are comfortable with controlling hydro pump, speed up the inputs you practised with hydro pump when you use quick attack.

Here's an input for quick attack:

+++=
Let's break this down. When you input +, pikachu will make a noise and crouch before he moves into the air. Before pikachu moves up, you need to input for it to come out as your first direction. As pikachu moves in , input , your second direction.

Make sure that you don't alter your first direction if you wish to move then another direction, or it will come out as one direction.

If you have are recovering and need a moment to figure out what directions are needed to get back to the stage, hit yourself with thunder. Don't use this all the time though, as opponents will punish you for it.

 

[The_Devious]

The second direction needs to be at least 38 different from the first to work.

Quick attack Inputs for some situations:

Recovering: +++
Tight spots: +++
Approaching:+++
Chipping damage: +++

Skull bash is another recovery option (and it's only use when you aren't using the heavy skull bash custom). It is slower than quick attack, so figure out the horizontal distance quick attack will cover and decide when you need to use skull bash.

 

[Fabulous32]

The second direction needs to be at least 38 different from the first to work.

Quick attack Inputs for some situations:

Recovering: +++
Tight spots: +++
Approaching:+++
Chipping damage: +++

Skull bash is another recovery option (and it's only use when you aren't using the heavy skull bash custom). It is slower than quick attack, so figure out the horizontal distance quick attack will cover and decide when you need to use skull bash.

I thought you could only do quick attack into the ground once, so your tight spot combo wouldn't work?

Also is there any difference between and in terms of end lag? I hear a lot of people say chip damage should be:
+++
So you get the faster end lag?

 

[The_Devious]

I thought you could only do quick attack into the ground once, so your tight spot combo wouldn't work?

Also is there any difference between and in terms of end lag? I hear a lot of people say chip damage should be:
+++
So you get the faster end lag?

I was wrong about getting out of tight spots, so I'll tell you this: other options to break combos are nair and the bolt part of thunder.

True about chip damage, but you can still use the input I suggested as a mixup.

 

[Fabulous32]

Fair fastfall follow ups are good to learn since thats your biggest combo starter because it can lead into tilts up smashes and grabs. Pikachu gains a lot from grabs especially around 20% with Dthrow, you can combo up air into Fair out of it then fastfall the fair for another grab. Practice quick attack enough to know where you're going to end up after it so you know where you're able to ledge cancel. (this is hard I still overshoot the ledge and freefall).)

When you do the fastfall fair, do you delay the fair until right before you fast fall? That's the only way I've been able to get follow ups and that doesn't auto cancel, so it seems like an unsafe move (although it leaves a small so do for the opponent to punish). If you fair right away it's safe, but I haven't found a way to fast fall the fair, have follow ups, and have it auto cancel. Is there something I'm missing?

 

[w0ah]

When you do the fastfall fair, do you delay the fair until right before you fast fall? That's the only way I've been able to get follow ups and that doesn't auto cancel, so it seems like an unsafe move (although it leaves a small so do for the opponent to punish). If you fair right away it's safe, but I haven't found a way to fast fall the fair, have follow ups, and have it auto cancel. Is there something I'm missing?

Just do your regular auto canceled fairs and when one hits fast fall it. they you can go for a grab, tilt, or upsmash. the closer your are to the ground when the next fair hitbox comes out the more frames you get.

 

[Fabulous32]

Just do your regular auto canceled fairs and when one hits fast fall it. they you can go for a grab, tilt, or upsmash. the closer your are to the ground when the next fair hitbox comes out the more frames you get.

So just to clarify, doing a buffered fair and fastfalling on the first hit will prevent the full knockback so I can get followups? Is there a video of this I can watch just to get a better idea of the timing?

 

[w0ah]

Is there a video of this I can watch just to get a better idea of the timing?

You can watch almost any Pikachu game lol. I think Esam goes over in in part 1 of his guide.

 

[Fabulous32]

You can watch almost any Pikachu game lol. I think Esam goes over in in part 1 of his guide.

So looking at Esam's guide, it looks like he doesn't fair until about the peak of the short hop that way it cancels before the last hit. So you can't do this with the buffered fairs he shows to space on neutral.

 

[w0ah]

So looking at Esam's guide, it looks like he doesn't fair until about the peak of the short hop that way it cancels before the last hit. So you can't do this with the buffered fairs he shows to space on neutral.

You have to buffer it otherwise it won't auto cancel.

 

[Fabulous32]

You have to buffer it otherwise it won't auto cancel.

So what I've seen is if the fair finishes, the last hit pushes opponents too far away to follow up with a tilt, jab, or grab. Therefore, if you auto cancel the fair, you get the last hit preventing follow ups. Is this not correct?

 

[lmntolp]

This is correct. You can't both autocancel and get grounded followups. If you land before the last hit, you'll have landing lag, although it's not much. Against heavies at low %s, autocancel fair can lead to another autocancel fair though.