Pikachu in depth guide, by pictish freak

[robyextreme]

Ive just printed it out, I enjoy reading it and playing at the same time
I'll post regards after im done reading it.

 

[David Zerbe]

Pictish Freak that guide was brilliant thanks, Im a Mrath player and some of the stuff in there really helped my more advanced smash game against Pikachu. These small things make all the difference.

 

[Pikaville]

Oh David!

David as we in the Irish smash community know,you have tried and tried different tactics to defeat me(sometimes resulting in a lucky tipper )but most have been overcome resulting in your defeat, and as for the little things well there is one little thing you cant help................
COMBO KILLER!

 

[bornfidelity.com]

I would've never expected a Scot to be able to teach me anything.

good shiz ^^

 

[Melaf]

Nice guide pictish. I play pika because of that
You do a great work.

 

[tom.]

thankyou for making this guide, it really has helped me alot.

 

[defsithe]

quick question what better dash cancel up smash or jump cancel up smash?

 

[NeeQueoHH]

a jump cancel might be better, becus u cant dash cancel straight from the initial dash.

 

[defsithe]

ic thanks.

 

[pictish freak]

Yeah, I was ignorant of that at the time, appologies. JC u-smash for the win.

 

[shinehex]

I recently picked up Pikachu and I love him. I really found this guide to be very useful. Especially the character matchups.

 

[mcc]

you should mention the characters pikachu can chaingrab

 

[cllzzrd]

I haveno idea if this has been mentioned before, but in hyrule his thunder can be used to "snipe" people that are above the cave. by just normally using thunder, the rain clowd appears rigt on the ground effectively zapping anybody that gets hit, and if you jump you can reach people who are on the second lvl.

 

[mcc]

that place is banned in tournaments, so it's rarely used, even in friendlies. not a great tactic in 1 vs 1 anyways. they could always go to the right side of the stage

 

[cllzzrd]

i never (have) played in a tourny, and i almost always play in 4 person matches (and it is one of our favorate places, but not mine), they just never expect it, it is just funny to see their shock about getting hit from nowhere.

 

[mcc]

next time your friends chase after you in your thunder area, tech like mad. they may not know how and die at 150% while you live to 250%

 

[cllzzrd]

they DO NOT know how to tech, but Pika is my secondary character, after samus, but my freind does this all the time, he hides there, zaps us, we go after him, he runs up, we goa fter him, he flips us and kills us, then goes back down. its really funny, but i am slowly teaching them how to tech.

 

[petre]

nice guide, one thing only though...
when you were talking about JC upsmashes and dash cancel upsmashes, it was something like press up on the control stick and up on the c-stick...i almost never touch the c-stick, for dash cancelled upsmashes i just can go straight from dashing to smashing the control stick up and pressing a (no c-stick at all), and for JC out of sheild, i dont use the c-stick either, just let go of R (or L or whatever) and press up+A at the same time. it always works for me...just thought id simplify the process a little.
but anyway awesome guide, character strategies helped!

 

[Fefnir Cerveau]

Whooo~ nice guide!

 

[Dogysamich]

By pushing both the C-stick and analogue stick up at the same time while shielding, it's possible to smash straight out the shield.

Dude, you dont know how much i love you for putting this in here, lol.

I dont play pikachu, and i havent even been messin around with this, but i've been lookin for this forever.

THANK YOU

 

[Tyros]

Great thanks to both Pictish and Toast (I've read only the first page... sorry for others who gave awesome information that I missed!) This will, hopefully, greatly improve my Pikachu game. Well... I hope so anyway. The limitations get me down sometimes, but I refuse to give up on Pika!

- Tyros

 

[tw0 side]

Great Guide!

Helped me understand Pikachu better as a character, and play better.

 

[All_Characters]

I'm not sure if this is only in ssb, but cant one use a repeated up-tilt on an opponent to rack up lots of damage?

Haven't used my chu in a while, so i cant remember.

 

[Blanco]

I have been playing ssbm for a long time now (obviously with pikachu) and just when I thought I was a good Pikachu user I stumble to some of this videos and techniques.

Compared to most of you im nothing. Its kind of depressing

But this guide is a lot of help.

 

[N64]

I have been playing ssbm for a long time now (obviously with pikachu) and just when I thought I was a good Pikachu user I stumble to some of this videos and techniques.

Compared to most of you im nothing. Its kind of depressing

But this guide is a lot of help.

This guide is old. But still relatively good. A number have things have changed about the metagame since pictish made this, so take it all for what it's worth. Just watch what videos you can find (the more recent the better) and learn what you can from them. Also, get out to tournaments whenever possible, as they're probably the best way to play against an assortment of people/styles and get experience from them.

And about the skill thing, everyone has to start somewhere. Going to tournaments, playing good people, and watching how others play will improve your game so much i'm sure.

 

[Mew3]

Thank you i have been thinking of main pika for a while but I didn't know any real good stratigys

 

[dark-war-cloud]

thanks for the good guide.
"Roy must get closer to bring out the full power of his sword."
i cried in laughter at this part though ._.

 

[Roller]

Thanks for the guide. VERY informative.

 

[Senshi]

Im not sure if its been mentioned yet (alot of pages to thumb through), but I think it should be noted for the matchups that pikachu's thunder can also be caped by mario/doc, not huge, but it would be a nasty surprise to have a thunder flip backfire on you..

 

[tdk_Samurai]

I recently went to a tourney where my opponent banned corneria, and I realized, I didn't have a 2nd counterpick in mind except for dream land against characters with very poor recovery, but what should I do against characters with descent recovery?

I read the stage selection post, but there are many maps that aren't covered. Such as fd, bf, gg, mk2, etc. So what else would be a good stage for pika?

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

i will think pichu, how about pokemon staduim or a yoshi place. that works for pichu nicely other than the fact pichu dies fast or you could go fountain of dreams ,but remember who you fighting and if you are good there. like take bowser you don't want yoshi's story

 

[tdk_Samurai]

yea, I guess FoD would be a good 2nd CP for me, and all my friends say yoshis is the story for me, but I'm so awfull, its a bit too fast pace for me, and if a level doesn't compliment pika's amazing recovery then its really bad for me, cause that is one of the things I feel I have down. And why don't I wanna take bowser to YS?

 

[Kiwikomix]

Yeah, Dream Land is a terrible choice against Samus or Jiggz or the like (which is what I assume you mean by "characters with decent recovery"). So are the counterpick stages with high ceilings (Jungle Japes, Kongo Jungle) and the moving stages.

In general I find it's easiest to Jiggz to a smaller stage. If you don't like Yoshi's then either practice there (recommended) or go to another stage with small blastlines, probably FoD if Corneria's been banned. DON'T go to Mute City or Brinstar.

Both of those stages also lessen Samus' spamming ability, although she's a little harder to counterpick because she beats you up pretty much anywhere. If you're looking to hurt her recovery then I would go with Battlefield, where she can only grapple from one point and is therefore a little easier to edgeguard.

Peach is another tough one to go against. She's slow enough that you can jolt spam against her a little on larger stages (FD, PS). She sort of walks all over you anywhere so choose a stage that you're good on, except Dreamland.

And why don't I wanna take bowser to YS?

Bowser is good on YS because, like Marth, his tilts (specifically utilt) can bother you through platforms. Add the small blastlines to his already impressive KO power and Pika's light weight and you've got a pretty hard match on your hands. Overall he just controls the stage pretty well because he's a large character, and a lot of the stage can at any given point be covered by his range.

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

bowsers have about 5 or 6 movement tricks to go faster and he will gimp you every time (well if you weren't pika) and bowser does best on small stages, because he wouldn't have to run much and you can't spam
and you want to be good at every stage because someone may pick it

 

[Berrial]

Absolutely amazing guide that covers every little bit of information about pikachu.
Excellent read, i hope i can make use of this guide.

 

[oukd]

^ you should also read n64's guide

 

[flashfire]

Thanks for posting this! Not a whole lot of people use pikachu so it was really hard to find a good pikachu guide. I'll definitely have him has a secondary character and maybe even a main for smash 4. Really appreciate this guide!!!