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Pika Q&A/FAQ Thread: Ask a Quick Question, Get a Quick Answer!

Thor

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Infinite V115 said:
It is worth mentioning, though, that you can still clash with the spindash while it's invincible to just stop Sonic in his tracks (hint hint shoot a jolt when he's charging it at the ledge, or jab him out of the spindash), and he also loses invincibility once the invincispindash leaves the ground (ie when he jumps out of it) or when he turns around in it...so if you shield the spindash and see him turning around towards you (which puts him in a lot of lag btw) then just run up to him and punish with grab/dash attack/usmash/whatever you want really.
Thank you very much for this info. If I have to play that Sonic there because no bans, I will definitely keep this in mind.

I'm good with questions for now (would still like to see stages Sonic gets the glitch, but I can look elsewhere for that). In the words of Bell:

Questions?
 
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D

Deleted member 189823

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Can Pikachu afford to use nice, safe offensive preassure? You know, similiarl to the likes of MK/Marth, who can throw out safe spaced F-Air (an example of a good move for safe preassure.

If so, what moves.
I hope it isn't just T-Jolt. e_e
 

M15t3R E

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Can Pikachu afford to use nice, safe offensive preassure? You know, similiarl to the likes of MK/Marth, who can throw out safe spaced F-Air (an example of a good move for safe preassure.

If so, what moves.
I hope it isn't just T-Jolt. e_e
Pikachu thrives on applying safe and quick offensive pressure. Make sure to space your fairs while moving away and fast falling as you perform it. You'll have no trouble landing within a safe distance away from them. If the fair hits them I tend to follow it up with a grab or d-tilt or f-smash at high percents. If shielded I recommend moving away to reset the situation. T-jolt definitely aids you in safely approaching. Personally, if my t-jolt approach doesn't work in one instance I still don't end up punished for it. In general, your "safe" moves are a properly executed fair, d-tilt, f-smash, u-air and, yes, t-jolt. The way I use thunder, it tends to be very safe as well. Experiment with thunder on-stage and off. As with any move from any character, don't be careless or the move can still get you punished.
 
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[FBC] ESAM

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Pikachu's moves aren't disjointed enough to really have safe pressure, and you don't get enough off of pokes.
 
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Deleted member 189823

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Then he doesn't have safe and reliable approaches...besides T-Jolt? ;~;
 
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Deleted member 189823

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So what makes him stand out, really? You know, beside having solid Grab combos/CGs on people at low percents and going sort of toe-to-toe, against MK...

Someone in another thread he has good approaches thanks to QAC, or something.
 

Player -0

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QACing is bad for pressuring because of the hitbox extensions, it's super easy to just throw out a move and intercept it.

Pikachu has a great recovery and juggles and other stuff.
 

[FBC] ESAM

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Pikachu has one of the most versatile recoveries in the game. His grab game is nuts, his combo game is stellar. His pressure and follow-up game is insane and his mix-ups >>>

However, he isn't safe.
 

Ookami Hajime

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Well said =o
Not to mention he arguably has the best edge guarding tool in the game and that same tool allows him to kill off the top reliably with out ever leaving the ground.
 
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Deleted member 189823

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If you say it like that, it sort of makes him sound like a fantastic character, haha.

I am currently looking for a solid Top tier character. And among the ones I had in mind (MK & Marth), PikaPika, is one of them. He seems like a pretty solid character that is capable of taking tournaments. Thing is, being a relatively 'unexplored' character, I don't know that much about him, besides thing like going even against MK, having a good Grab game and a great recovery. Having -2 against Olimar is really the only let-down, but personally, I don't really mind, being an ex-Bowser/Yoshi main myself.


EDIT: I think that at the bottom of my hipster conciousness, I actually want to take the Pikachu route.
 
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Angiance

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You'll love being able to drop heavy ass combos, while being practically Snake-like in terms of survivability. Your opponents will be PISSED that they got lawnmowed by a small, adorable mouse

HOWEVER, it takes practice...lots of it
 
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Deleted member 189823

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You'll love being able to drop heavy *** combos, while being practically Snake-like in terms of survivability.
lolwut

I take it you mean, combining his great recovery with awright momentum cancelling?
 

PZ

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I doubt you can say his momentum cancelling is alright when compared to most characters. If we actually took a look at moves that cancel momentum and think about what a character has to do to get to that move than pikachu is definitely up there. If I were to do percentages for common characters that have b moves to cancel momentum than it would look like this:
MGW: Bucket :100%
DK: Spinning Kong 80%
Pikachu: Skull Bash 50-60%/Quick Attack 10%
Or at least thats how I see it after watching a lot of matches and TAS videos. There are other characters with good momentum cancelling moves that I am not sure how much momentum they cancel like:
Zelda: wavebounce of neutral b
Fox: wavbounce/b reversal of down-b after uair
Diddy: monkey flip but naner is required although this is easily met
ZSS: down-b in some fashion but to get to the move quicker than uair a item is required
Maybe more but I don't play every character and would only look up info randomly from time to time. Aerials probably cancel a fourth or third of momentum.
DISCLAIMER: I IZ NOOB #LOVESDI
 

Angiance

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@Oz
Well, besides MC/SDI, once you reach high levels with pikachu you start to become ridiculously slippery; the opponent will have a tremendous amount of difficulty landing KO moves, allowing you to survive til pretty high damage
 
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Ookami Hajime

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@Oz: Pikachu is a terrific character who has amazing potential, but his flaws are really big and take lots of work to get past. Few disjoints and crap grab range along with his horrible approach game make people look away from him but he makes up for it with amazing grab shenanigans, a lock that can take someone from 0% to death with consistency, a ridiculous+most versatile recovery in the game, speed, a good projectile, U-AIR, N-air, a solid gimp game, and thunder. I think he's reliable so long as you have a submain who can handle his worst MUs.
 

Angiance

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Well our approach options are actually pretty legitimate; FH T-Jolt, and Walk/Dash-in-Shield Slide rock the block

Our Grab is short ranged, but not our Dash Grab/BPG

Big flaws? I don't think we'd be A tier if we had "big flaws"
 
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Thor

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Pikachu's overall survivability is low - we're only a spot above MK horizontally, and less durable than Falco horizontally. Vertically we also die earlier than Falco (although our high fast-fall speed compared to our regular fall speed means our momentum-cancel is more effective off the top, so we are several spots above MK).

However, Pikachu has a reusable momentum cancel off the sides, and Falco has one jump. In that sense, if a character is hit away from stage twice, Pikachu would live as longer than Marth, about as long as Peach does (because we can MC twice, they can once and then must rely on DI).

Combined with the fact that we can be harder to hit than others, given our ability to avoid charged smashes as we land with QAC, and our momentum cancel doesn't induce helplessness (a luxury few others have - you won't see usually see a Falco try to firebird away, and rarely they'll shortened Phantasm to a side, and Meta Knight Drill Rush MC or DK Spinning Kong MC usually ends up meteored or smashed back into the blastzones), and we can live pretty long.

We still do die about 35% earlier than Snake off either side if both have perfect DI and MC [using a chart I found]. But I think that's less than many people would expect (I'd figured the difference to be about 50% actually).

Fun fact about DI and MC: With it done properly, DK can (on certain stages) survive a baseball bat smash attack (there's a video of him doing so vs Marth cross-stage on FD).
 
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Does RAR U-Air have specific uses? I've thought of it as an approach, of sorts...

EDIT: I love PikaPika's U-Air.
 
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Ookami Hajime

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Approaching someone, especially in the air. Combos into n-air reliably, as you probably know.

Pikapika is a player, by the way. If you keep saying his name, he might show up again =o
 

Angiance

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It's not really an approach, more of a mix up than anything else

Our approaches are: FH T-Jolt > Follow, or Walk in Shield-Slide
 

[FBC] ESAM

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RAR uair is definitely a good approach, it is the most disjointed hitbox we have and can be used to start combos such as uair nair or uair footstool
 

Angiance

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Ugh, Jesus Christ-an APPROACH is something that can be used consistently; FH T-Jolt, Shield-Slide, etc

You're all saying I can consistently RAR U-Air? Really? Aren't you all taking into consideration how far away you have to be for this "approach"?
 

Ookami Hajime

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Or an approach that isn't used as commonly as others.
Calm down, Bell. You're being unreasonable =o

We tend to just seperate approaches between good and bad, or common and uncommon.

Honestly run up n-air, d-air, RAR b-air, QA, walk/run up shield, and SKULL BASH are all considered approaches; it's just that some of them are them aren't all that great.
 
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[FBC] ESAM

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Damn Bell is angry.

The only real approach, if we are using your definition Bell, is moving forward. Everything else is situational because shielding is situational, T-jolts are situtional (Reflector characters/G&W) everything is situational in this game, that's why it is difficult...
 

Angiance

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Bleh, fine-fine!

Question: U-Air beats alot of things vertically, like similar to MK's U-Tilt. Why is this, upper body invincibility or somethin'?

N-Air's initial hitbox seems capable of breaking through stronger hitboxes, making some very strange looking hit confirms, or maybe it's that the hit was landed on a startup frame of the opponent's attack? Explanation?
 
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[FBC] ESAM

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You hit them in the start-up, aerial moves cannot clash/beat ground moves, they trade.

Uair beats things vertically because it is disjointed.
 
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