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

[PSI.kick]

What's your guys' advice on tap jump for pika? i personally hate it for my mains but i know it can be useful, what would I be missing out on if i had it off?

 

[Ussi]

keep it off if you hate it. Pikachu has no need for up B OoS and usmash OoS is an easy Y > Up + A input (slide thumb from Y to A)

 

[KayLo!]

Tap jump is completely unnecessary.

L jump is legit tho.

 

[global-wolf]

I keep tap jump on because it's easier for me to QAC, and I don't have a problem trying to utilt and jumping instead. 2nd jump isn't essential for Pikachu to recover so it's ok if you waste it by accident.

 

[Roller]

Hmm so many different combinations.

Like I generally allow myself to use Y and R for my "open buttons" since I use X to jump and L to shield. I do find it hard to buffer CG with Z though I also to find it hard to QAC in rapid succession with Tap Jump Off.

The reason I ask this is because I am considering picking up Pikachu to hard counter the spacies' players and sheik main in my area. I know somewhat how to play Pikachu but I was wondering if its feasible/worth it to pick him up just for those MUs when I have 2 characters already. Thoughts?

I just saw this post. =o

You should definitely pick up pika. lol, if you want to get at that sheik main.

If you do honestly want to pick up a pocket pika, I'll help you out at the next smashfest/tourney. Just let me know.

 

[Luckay4Lyphe]

so like is there any time to use skull bash besides recovery

 

[KayLo!]

Clearly you haven't seen Anther's bthrow > Skull Bash shenanigans. =X

 

[PZ]

or K Prime's videos

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

The only real use is if you are predicting somebody to air dodge and move away with it. If they move forward nair or dair is better, but if they move away you won't be able to catch many characters just with moving, so you need to skull bash.

 

[Rizk18]

ESAM, is marth vs pikachu 50-50 now?

 

[Ussi]

Not ESAM, but gonna state my opinion.. 40/60 or 45/55 MUs aren't hard to win. Take more work, but not hard compared to what some other MUs are being 35/65 or worse..

Marth will always have the advantage.

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

I think it is 50:50, nobody has proven that it is worse. Because of people *****ing it would probably end up being 55:45, but I strongly believe it is 50:50

 

[Luckay4Lyphe]

What does pika have over Marth. Thunder kills seems easy since he's on the lighter side of the mid weights and doesn't have the best aerial mobility to dodge it all the time, but doesn't all his aerials outrange ours?

 

[Yikarur]

Brawl is more about timing.
it doesn't matter if he has more range if you have the mobility and the options to get arround that range to land a hit.

 

[PZ]

I bet sliding shield pays here a small bit.

 

[_Kadaj_]

Where can I find Pikachu's frame data?

I didn't see it in the directory thread

 

[Yikarur]

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=223901

 

[Pikabunz]

The Pokelab thread has more up to date frame data.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=244279

I should probably copy paste that to the old frame data thread.

 

[_Kadaj_]

Thanks a lot Kprime

 

[Neo X]

For some reason, whenever I play against a mk, I always have trouble when they walk up to me & spam f-tilt/d-tilt, causing frame trap and shield pressure on pika's shield. Any ideas?

 

[Ussi]

dtilt as he tries to get in (be wary of shield, space dtilt to make it harder to punish) or jump and react according to how he deals with you in the air. Land a fair behind him or FF AD to the ground (behind him is best). If you except tornado, jump higher than normal and then fair/dair from the top. Heck, pika storming (SH dair) would work too OoS against mk's tilts. Its Mk, so you need to mix it up cause he has an answer to everything, but Pikachu does too!

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

D-tilt/F-tilt is the hardest thing about the MK match-up. If MKs don't overcommit (like using all 3 f-tilts at once) it is hard to do anything since if you T-jolt they can react, run under you, and nair. SH fair is the only thing that beats slow F-tilt (or run shield grab) because SH dair will make your hurtbox too low and it will still hit.

When he hits your shield, OOS your options are D-tilt, F-tilt, nair (if you are close enough) uair (if you are close enough and he is behind you) or dair, as Ussi said.

 

[Neo X]

Thanks guys! But I dunno about spacing d-tilt because I usually get out ranged by his f-tilt.

 

[PZ]

For some reason, whenever I play against a mk, I always have trouble when they walk up to me & spam f-tilt/d-tilt, causing frame trap and shield pressure on pika's shield. Any ideas?

Idk how to answer this question to a degree of being a 100% correct but you probably might not even be in the situation if u keep your stage control while camping.

 

[Ussi]

ayi i knew i forgot to mention somethings (OoS options)..

Also, ftilt and dtilt should be appearing if MK knows how to deal with Pika. As ESAM said, its the hardest thing for Pika to deal with when spaced properly.

Also MK has a good dash speed and tornado to stop Pika's camping. You want to be semi-aggresive trying to force errors by not givinf MK time to space and think

 

[Neo X]

MKs can also walk up and powershield every T-Jolt you shoot at them and then try to f-tilt/d-tilt, which is really annoying. But I pretty much understand what to do now.

 

[Tagxy]

D-tilt/F-tilt is the hardest thing about the MK match-up. If MKs don't overcommit (like using all 3 f-tilts at once) it is hard to do anything since if you T-jolt they can react, run under you, and nair. SH fair is the only thing that beats slow F-tilt (or run shield grab) because SH dair will make your hurtbox too low and it will still hit.

When he hits your shield, OOS your options are D-tilt, F-tilt, nair (if you are close enough) uair (if you are close enough and he is behind you) or dair, as Ussi said.

Ftilt isnt that bad. You can dash grab the cooldown on any of the hits, and dash upsmash the cooldown on the last two hits. Dtilt unless you can hit oos, your only offensive option is shield drop jab.

 

[Pikabunz]

They could continue the hits if you try to punish the first 2 hit's cooldown.

 

[Tagxy]

Not on reaction. Even if you guess right half the time its a worthwhile trade.

 

[Pikabunz]

They could probably react to it. Shield drop + dash grab takes 16 frames, and that's if you buffer which is hard to do during shield drop. 16 frames is .266 seconds which is about average reaction time. That's pretty easy to react to, IMO. Realistically, it's gonna take a little more than 16 frames so it's gonna be even easier to react. I'm not gonna say never try to punish ftilt with dash grab, cause they won't always be prepared for it, but once they know you try to punish between hits, they're gonna hit you on reaction every time.

 

[Yikarur]

lol K Prime, be realistic. Average reaction time is about 12 frames.
you can't really react to something that follow-up after the shield drop.
It's not like a shield drop tells you that you're going to dash grab and even then I don't think you can react to this.
It's like saying "you can hit Falco out of sideB by reaction because you can react to the jump start-up"

 

[Pikabunz]

A shield drop tells you that they're dropping their shield and it's one of their only options in that situation. If you hit someone's shield with an MK ftilt, they're either gonna keep shielding or shield drop and do something. So you're only watching for one thing, the shield drop. As soon as you see the sheild disappear just hit A to continue the ftilt. If they're using a slow move out of the shield drop, the ftilt is gonna hit them.

That doesn't sound that unrealistic does it?

 

[Tagxy]

On top of the fact that theyd have to notice the shield drop in the first place which takes several frames on its own, I hiiiighly doubt they have 16 frames to input the 3rd hit. Meaning theyd be stuck in cooldown, and also meaning there would be an extra 3 frames before they can input another ftilt.

Of course we'd know for sure how many frames they have to input the next hit of ftilt (for 1 to 2, and 2 to 3) if someone researched it back when I was curious *cough* *cough*.

 

[KayLo!]

From ftilt1 to ftilt2 - 1 frame
From ftilt2 to ftilt3 - 1 frame

That's the minimum number of frames they have to wait. Dunno the maximum, although it looks like it's any time during cooldown (from a very quick glance at OSA).

 

[Pikabunz]

You only have to wait 1 frame to input the next hit for ftilt and each hit takes 3 frames to come out. Let me check to be sure.

 

[KayLo!]

What Prime said below lol. Don't wanna confuse people.

 

[Pikabunz]

If you do all 3 hits of ftilt as fast as possible it will look like this.

1
2
3 - hit
4
5
6 - hit
7
8
9 - hit

You can input the next hit at any time even a few frames after the cooldown. And if you input after the cooldown the next hit comes out 1 frame faster. So you can actually ftilt, walk a little, and ftilt2.

 

[windrixx]

I tried searching for this, but it's not really a common question. :/

How do you practice fastfalling Pika's fair? I always get thrown by the hitlag when it connects :<

The next question is then how do you (people) input it (I use tap jump to SH and c-stick the fair, then flick the stick down to ff), and what other approach options does Pika have?

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

Uh...I would SH, fair while moving forward (since cross-ups with it are better since u-tilt starts from behind) and then do it. It is never a true combo, but people won't always DI it, but you have to make sure you hit the fair right before you land or you will be in a lot of lag and they won't get hit that extra time.

 

[Zodiark]

Is there a way to Ftilt/Utilt/Dtilt while holding an item?