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

[Wiscus]

Hello guys it's Wiscus with another lame question!
How do you time a buffered jump t-jolt? Like in some of Yone's or Moko's matches. I know t-jolts animation has to stop before you hit the ground, right?
I know you can also do it with all the aerials... I just want some more things to do when I'm in training mode.

 

[Kantō]

usuasly mix mine up with SH TJ, full hop TJ and Double jump TJ.

 

[KayLo!]

How do you time a buffered jump t-jolt? Like in some of Yone's or Moko's matches. I know t-jolts animation has to stop before you hit the ground, right?
I know you can also do it with all the aerials... I just want some more things to do when I'm in training mode.

Uhh.... are you sure buffered is the word you want? Or do you mean lagless?

Tjolt is lagless on a full hop..... if you initiate the move as you jump (an ascending tjolt, basically), you'll have time to double jump before you hit the ground, which is useful for intercepting people with aerials if they try to punish you. Also useful for staying in the air while camping vs. characters like Diddy.

Buffering in general is just inputting a move before your previous move is over. There's a 10-frame window for it. So if you really do mean buffering a tjolt..... just input the tjolt command during the last 10 frames of another move.

 

[Wiscus]

Hmm I know about the lagless, I mean like.... using t-jolt with the infinte jump or super jump. I'll try to find an exact point in a vid or something (except youtube does not want to load for me now, argh!). I know I worded that horribly, sorry.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=172824

I've been playing around trying to find a way to implement this into my gameplay with Yoshi...so I was wondering about my other characters.

Edit: Hmm the timing is very hard, I was just able to do it but can't do it again. Hmm nevermind then, I guess. Dang hard timing. Uh sorry for the waste of time..

 

[Stealth Raptor]

ive actually wondered about it working with tjolt for a long time, considering that my theory on why tjolt cancels the lag from QAC is because it ISJR's, thus making us land normally, i havent been able to get it to work though, having infinite jumps using tjolt

there is a smashfest im going to tonight (OMFG!!!) ill try again and see if i can get it working. if it was going to work i was going to unveil it at oh snap last year, but sadly i couldnt get it to work at that time

 

[KayLo!]

Ohhh, I see what you mean now. The word "buffer" in your original question threw me off, Wiscus, sorry. ><

Being able to infinite jump with tjolts would be pretty sick even if the timing is strict..... I mean, at worst we'd just land, which would be lagless (?) anyways since tjolt is lagless on a full hop. Right? I hope I'm picturing this correctly.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

actually in my studies i actually got tjolt off too early a couple times and i landed with lag so buffering wont help at all. ill study it a bit more tonight

 

[KayLo!]

Yaaaay, Professor Raptor to the rescue!

 

[Wiscus]

Yay! Go Stealth go!
Thank you for answers/understanding what I meant. It seems like it would be useful.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

it would be very useful, but the lack of a buffer for this will make it harder to time, though ive never had problems timing lagless tjolts out of qac, so we shall see

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

No matter what with the QA you should have lag. You would be canceling the QA with the ISJR (Even if you don't actually jump you are still canceling it and you would still have the QA lag on you...QA is so useless *sigh*

 

[Stealth Raptor]

you can cancel it with tjolt esam, when timed right you will land after the tjolt and have no lag, i do this all the time to disguise the ending lag. smart players can pshield the tjolt and punish anyways

 

[Pikabunz]

I'm pretty sure you still have the lag if you jolt.

 

[tha_carter]

Whats the best way to deal with a really campy snake?

I usually aim a thunderjolt to the head, but they powershield, and dash attack before i land. They grabs straight out of there grenades. And they uptilt aerial approaches.

Snakes are usually not a problem unless they get campy, any ideas? Any body having similar issues?

 

[Stealth Raptor]

havent we been over this about tjolt lag? do i really need to make a video proving it? i will if yall make me >:o

tried it out a few times, couldnt get a jump after the tjolt, but i didnt really have much time, and no wii is a *****. others are more then welcome to try though

 

[altairian]

Whats the best way to deal with a really campy snake?

I usually aim a thunderjolt to the head, but they powershield, and dash attack before i land. They grabs straight out of there grenades. And they uptilt aerial approaches.

Snakes are usually not a problem unless they get campy, any ideas? Any body having similar issues?

Approaching snake is a *****. Hopefully people can give you more specific advice than I can give since snake is one of my worst MU's, but in a nutshell you just have to be unpredictable. Mix up your approaches like crazy so he doesn't know what to expect. And I'd definitely advise against using tjolts as an approach with any sort of frequency, since it's very punishable on a pshield, which is very easy to time.

edit: also make sure you have the CG down. It's actually very easy to get the CG on any snake that's not at the very top of the metagame at least once per match. Just make sure you don't focus on getting the grab or he'll make you pay for it!

 

[Pikabunz]

havent we been over this about tjolt lag? do i really need to make a video proving it? i will if yall make me >:o

tried it out a few times, couldnt get a jump after the tjolt, but i didnt really have much time, and no wii is a *****. others are more then welcome to try though

The only way to get rid of QA lag is to land normally or land using an aerial/air dodge. Using a jolt before landing will not get rid of it. It will make that landing lagless, but you'll still have the QA lag waiting for you on the next time you land.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

really? i have never noticed any lag after i did the tjolt

 

[Pikabunz]

Okay, let's say you QAC with a jump and jolt at the right time and land. You will have no lag for that landing because of Pika's jolt animation. But the next time you jump and land, you will suffer the QA lag. So using jolt does get rid of land lag, but only for that landing you used jolt.

 

[Kenrawr]

Whats the best way to deal with a really campy snake?

I usually aim a thunderjolt to the head, but they powershield, and dash attack before i land. They grabs straight out of there grenades. And they uptilt aerial approaches.

Snakes are usually not a problem unless they get campy, any ideas? Any body having similar issues?

Bet you could receive a lot more help if you could get some vids up. o=!

 

[KayLo!]

Not everyone can just throw vids up..... -_- Stop being lazy!

Anyways, @carter: if they're dash attacking you out of your tjolt cooldown, you're tjolting too close to them. At that range, focus more on bait + punish to get inside Snake's range, because his tilts do wall Pika out pretty effectively due to superior range and disjoint.

Perfect shielding his ftilt + punishing is another really good way to approach, but it requires prediction.

Pretty much rely on your speed and unpredictability to get you inside his range. Snake is slow enough for us to punish him easily if he whiffs something, and he's gonna have to move eventually to keep you out of his face, so it's a matter of tricking the player into doing something you can capitalize on.

 

[gallax]

Bet you could receive a lot more help if you could get some vids up. o=!

i agree with k-9. lets see some vids so we can pick your playstyle apart.

but learning the snake matchup is all about experience imo. never use tjotls when your up close cuz you will get punished(only exception being if you can land offstage). always make to to FH them. reason for this being you can DI right or left and dodge nades better.

@kaylo- i think there should be a thread for pikas who want to get to the next level after learning pikas moveset. would you mind if i could write a sample and give it to you then see if you wouldnt mind putting it up?

 

[KayLo!]

@kaylo- i think there should be a thread for pikas who want to get to the next level after learning pikas moveset. would you mind if i could write a sample and give it to you then see if you wouldnt mind putting it up?

Sure, that's fine. You don't really need to send it to me first unless you particularly want someone to give it a quick read over.... just post a new thread whenever it's ready.

We need more people writing up some good content, especially with the guide being outdated. Can't wait to see it.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

sorry, i tried a whole bunch of times and i could not trigger an isjr using tjolt out of qac, even buffering the jump.

 

[tha_carter]

Thanks, Kaylo! kinda helpful
i could upload some... but its pretty much the best snake, so i doubt it would be pretty ahaha

vs a campy snake i rather go samus =(

I was mainly looking for ways to explod the grenades without getting hit by them or hitting the shield without exploding the nade. Or general talk about how to get around his stage control.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

rather go samus? vs a snake?? O.o i sorta second samus, and i would never go samus vs snake if my life depended on it lol

 

[tha_carter]

its not THAT bad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFCeMqy-gOU

And i specifically said campy snake, up close snake samus isnt pretty....

 

[Wiscus]

Thanks for trying Stealth

 

[KayLo!]

Carter, you just need to learn the matchup. Pika vs. Snake is a lot better than Samus vs. Snake whether he's campy or not.

 

[altairian]

I was mainly looking for ways to explod the grenades without getting hit by them

tjolts will blow them up if they're on the ground. Although that's so slow that it doesn't really benefit you much since it will explode soon after you can hit it anyway. You are very maneuverable though so it shouldn't be too difficult to just avoid them.

or hitting the shield without exploding the nade.

No way around that one, though. Getting port priority will help (some tourneys allow you to counterpick ports ). You just have to expect it and avoid hitting him with a grenade in hand/at his feet.

edit: lol just realized you're actually playing Ally. Uh...you're a pretty beastly player (at least with samus) judging by that video. Other than fairing his shield off the ledge close enough to be grabbed/utilted you pretty much ***** that game. I'm sure you could dominate any non-Ally snakes pretty easily, for advice on beating him specifically you might need to talk to M2K or maybe Holy lol.

 

[gallax]

when we played ally down here in the dirty south we saw a fwe things ally could do better, like camp more. he is definately vulnerable and beatable. you need to get that in your head first and foremost.

secondmost, you need to learn two things about ally. he likes to approach and fight you with snake and he loves to hit you in the air if he can. use this to beat him. when he tilts he will never finish if you are shielding. he will stop and keep applying pressure.

another thing, you will need to master the cg. ally will not be beaten easily and pika needs the cg to beat that fool.

EDIT: yo i just watched that vid carter. i just wanna say that ally was fooling around a lot against you. you are gonna need to read him better and put yourself in better positions. i know hes ally, but hes beatable.

 

[tha_carter]

im not trying to figure out how to beat him specifically. Ive played him tonnes....like alot ahahaha besides that vid is old as hell. I can take new ones vs my pika if that'll help. He's here.

But extremely campy snakes. That seems to be thier strategy nowadays against my pika.

And since aksing ive been finding out ways to be aggressive and successful against these tactics;
1) d-tilt out ranges snakes grab, and doesnt explode the nade.
2) SH Fair does a good job of of poking threw his sheild. I try to time it so that the nade explodes and my move ends, because if properly spaced, the explosion will NOT hit pika.
3) QACing like this " <" . Can explode the nade without dealing pika any damage sometimes. (not sure why...)
4) QAC behind him as he shield drops the nade and jump+airdodge to pick up the nade. ( i usually just throw it down at him, but you can do whatever)
5) Stay JUST out of snakes f-tilt range when the nade is about to explode! Theres two things that they will do, shield, or sidestep the explosion. both can result in a grab. (especially shielding, because of shield stun) Just predicting these two has gotten me 90% of my grabs.....

 

[altairian]

So after watching a couple vids of a guy in my region that's awful at this game and I can stomp all over do way better than me in tourney because he plays falco and laser camps, I've determined that I don't play nearly gay enough.

So my question is, how can pika be played gayer (other than tjolt spam)?

 

[KayLo!]

Uhhhh.

Tjolt camp + run/QAC away a lot.
Plank.
Uair > footstool combos.
CG whenever possible.
Kill exclusively with thunder (not really good advice, just super lame and annoying for the other person).

Besides tjolt camp, Pikachu doesn't have anything that's really stupid and mindlessly effective. He doesn't autopilot as well as characters like Falco, DDD, and MK do.

Almost everything lame you could possibly do still requires a setup or skill/luck to pull off.

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

Chaingrabbing doesn't really require skill...just timing...then again I'm a samus main in melee so all i had to memorize was timing...

 

[KayLo!]

CGing is also really character-situational, and if the opponent knows they can get CG'd, they'll do whatever it takes to avoid/bait the grab. There's a reason why CG matchups aren't considered 100:0 or anything near as extreme as that.

Planking's not that hard either.

But they're definitely not the same kind of gay as Falco's laser camp, which he can literally do for an entire match if he wants to without having to set it up, worry about ledge grab rules, or what have you. (Although as Pika you can just crouch, but that's besides the point I'm making.)

 

[Pika_Cam]

Best stages to counterpick against Snake and Olimar? Best stages to strike?

 

[KayLo!]

I like CPing Frigate vs. Snake. And I ban Halberd. (Pika does well there too, but dying ridiculously early to utilt just isn't worth it.)

Dunno for Olimar..... I haven't played a good one in a while. I'd say ban Frigate or FD.... then just take him wherever you're feeling the most comfortable that day.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

also strike BF and SV. FD really isnt that bad, olimars **** more with platforms.

 

[Pika_Cam]

I've heard Lylat is better for Oli than Battlefield.