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Q&A Pikachu Q&A Thread (Ask a Quick Question, Get a Quick Answer)

Soul.

 
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Welcome to the Pikachu Q&A thread!

Use this thread to ask any question about Pikachu in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
Please go to this thread if you want to ask a question. We want to help, but we also want the boards to be less cluttered.
Not to be confused with the following threads:
- Pikachu Index Thread
- Pikachu General Discussion (aka Social thread)
- Pikachu Video Thread
- Pikachu Matchup Thread
From here on, the frequently asked questions will be posted. These are to prevent users from asking the same question again and again.
General:

Is this character hard to master?
Basically, yes. Most of its MUs are even, so you have to outplay your opponent to win. To play this character competitively, you'll need to learn a fair share of combos and techniques. You'll spend a lot of time in the lab (aka Training) figuring out how its moves work and how to use them.
Pikachu is a good character, but it has its pros and cons, namely its light weight and lack of range.

Best Pikachu?
N/A

Hardest MUs?
N/A

Best stages?
N/A

Good secondaries?
N/A

------

Gameplay:
What are QAC and QALC?
Quick Attack canceling, often abbreviated as QAC, is a technique usable by Pikachu in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U. It involves using Quick Attack on a flat surface (or dropping in a soft platform) to cancel the lag of the momentum.

In Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U, QAC can no longer be done in flat surfaces. The best stage to practice this technique is Smashville, as its moving platform will let you do it again, again and again. To QAC, all you need to do is use Quick Attack and jump right after.
QALC is simply ledge canceling Quick Attack on a stage. It can be done in platforms, too.

What are Pikachu's best custom moves?
Thunder Wave and Heavy Skull Bash. Thunder Wave lets you set up combos and KOs depending on the percent; Heavy Skull Bash is a strong, frame 15 move that gives Pikachu another way to KO at extremely early percents. It can be used to take a stock early on the match after a jab lock, or it can be used to frame trap. If you use the move just like a Smash Attack (i.e.: smashing the Control Stick/Circle Pad and press B), it will charge faster.

What are the pros and cons of having the C-Stick set to Attack rather than Smash Attack and vice versa?
Having your C-Stick set to Attack instead of Smash Attack makes you have more freedom in movement. Having it in Smash Attack restricts your movement if you use both the Control Stick/Circle Pad and C-Stick at the same time.
Smash is usually the better choice as you can perfect pivot forward smash (although situational) as an example. You really don't gain anything by using Attack on the C-Stick.

What's the momentum glitch?
If Pikachu uses Heavy Skull Bash while in hitstun, it will fly farther.

What is Jab Locking and how do you perform it with Pika?
When an opponent hits the ground after an attack and doesn't tech it, you can go up to them and jab them up to 3 times. After that, the game forces them to get up automatically. During this time, you can charge up a forward smash or Heavy Skull Bash and get a good hit on them while they're vulnerable. A lot of Pikachu's attacks can set up this situation, such as SH DAir and NAir being examples.

What is the method to autocancel SH DAir?
Press X and down A at the same time. Alternatively, you can press the Control Stick/Circle Pad up and the C-Stick down.

Is spamming bad?
Yes. Your opponent will find a pattern and you'll end up losing. New Pikachu try to spam Thunder Jolt, Thunder and down smash when there is no need to. Most, if not all of Pikachu's moves have a use, so be careful.
 
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WolfieXVII ❂

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First.
So would you ever think Raichu could be a viable Final Smash?
Hypothetically for Smash 4
Or is Volt Tackle fine?
 
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Soul.

 
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First.
So would you ever think Raichu would be a viable Final Smash?
Hypothetically for Smash 4
But I was first!
As a trophy. Or Raichu can just pull a Pichu, as in be playable for once in a Smash game.
Volt Tackle is fine lol. I don't even use Final Smashes. xD
 
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WolfieXVII ❂

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But I was first!
As a trophy. Or Raichu can just pull a Pichu, as in be playable for once in a Smash game.
Volt Tackle is fine lol. I don't even use Final Smashes. xD
Chaos you're scaring me, I've never seen you so cheery. Raichu doesn't need a slot over Zoroark. *spits* I'd rather have Darker Pit. Jk
 

Soul.

 
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Chaos you're scaring me, I've never seen you so cheery. Raichu doesn't need a slot over Zoroark. *spits* I'd rather have Darker Pit. Jk
>Cheery. lol
>Zoroark's Gen is over. Next stop is that Greninja is taken out for some reason I don't see that happening.
 

Djent

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Do you think Pikachu will be "better" or "worse" than he was in Brawl? (Determine this using %ile, so like 10-11/49 would be equivalent to 8/37)
 

Sapphire Dragon

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LOL another social for me to stalk and/or derail. I'm on it. ;)

Seriously, though, hyped for Pika social. If this can be as active as the Brawl Pika social has become, it's gonna be amazing.

@ Djent Djent Assuming the Fundamental Law of Percentilism, I'd say that Pikachu will indeed be better than Brawl, by approximately 7 + 1/2+1/4+1/36.
 

CatRaccoonBL

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Yay! My first character social! I'm so excited after lurking through all the other socials from brawl for the past year I've been on this site. Looking forward to chatting with you guys. <3
 
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Soul.

 
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LOL another social for me to stalk and/or derail. I'm on it. ;)

Seriously, though, hyped for Pika social. If this can be as active as the Brawl Pika social has become, it's gonna be amazing.
It will be active for sure. Pika's never had a social thread until now.
Also, good to see that hype. xD
 
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WolfieXVII ❂

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Whelp since Chaos and Sapph are here, I'll stay. I've lurked some character threads but I'll make a permanent nest here. :p @ Soul. Soul.
Here are Pika's changes from Brawl

  • Skull Bash travels farther when charged.
  • Forward aerial has strengthened.
  • Neutral aerial deals much more damage when sweetspotted; it deals 16% as opposed to the 12% it dealt in Brawl.
  • Forward throw deals 1% more damage.
  • Up tilt and up aerial both have drastically less ending lag. The former also has much lower knockback scaling, making it more useful at lower percentages.
  • Down smash is much harder to SDI.
  • Sweetspotted dash attack is slightly stronger.
  • Thunder can now meteor smashopponents who touch the upper part of the bolt near the cloud, quickly sending the opponent back down to Pikachu and allowing a tech-chase or followups such as an up smash.
    • However, this renders Pikachu unable to get early vertical KOs, hindering Thunderspiking in general.
  • Volt Tackle deals less damage and knockback.
    • It lasts slightly longer.
    • It appears to be slower, though it is more controlled.
  • Forward smash, forward tilt, up aerial, and back aerial deal less damage.
  • Down throw appears to have higher knockback growth, limiting Pikachu's followup options.
 
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Sapphire Dragon

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Should definitely take that last bit out about QAC. It's indeed possible on ledges as QALC, and has been confirmed to not have even been in the 3DS demo that was at Best Buy even though it was confirmed to be in Wii U's demo, so it could still be in the release Wii U version. We figured it out in that thread.
 
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CatRaccoonBL

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So yeah, I'm excited to see what there is to be learned about Pikachu.

Played him in the demo so much and I'm already excited to play more of him.

Also hoping for custom moves to be viable as "thunder wave" seems like it would be great for Pikachu.

Lastly, I'm personally going to use Callem's hat for Pikachu.

Making him my main along with Rosalina. <3
 

WolfieXVII ❂

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Should definitely take that last bit out about QAC. It's indeed possible on ledges, and has confirmed to not have even been in the 3DS demo that was at Best Buy along with the Wii U demo, so it could still be in the Wii U version. We figured it out in that thread.
Noted.
Lastly, I'm personally going to use Callem's hat for Pikachu.

Making him my main along with Rosalina. <3
Hoenn headband is best headband.
 

Soul.

 
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I just found this:


Whelp since Chaos and Sapph are here, I'll stay. I've lurked some character threads but I'll make a permanent nest here. :p @ Soul. Soul.
Here are Pika's changes from Brawl. Yes SmashWiki.

- Quick Attack has less lag. Pika can do something once it QA's right from the ledge. It's called "Quick Attack Ledge Cancel."
- Up aerial deals less damage? More combo potential / damage racker.
- Forward smash and Up Smash should K.O if they haven't been used a lot (stale-move negation).
- Turn cancelled forward tilt is "amazing." That's what I heard. TC grabs have a lot of range.
- Down smash may have higher ending lag, but with reduced Smash DI, it should be useful.
- Dash attack may finally have a use. Maybe.
Also:
- FAir, DAir*, and NAir (when Pikachu is running) can autocancel.

*During the rising of the short hop.

So yeah, I'm excited to see what there is to be learned about Pikachu.

Played him in the demo so much and I'm already excited to play more of him.

Also hoping for custom moves to be viable as "thunder wave" seems like it would be great for Pikachu.

Lastly, I'm personally going to use Callem's hat for Pikachu.

Making him my main along with Rosalina. <3
That's great! Nice to see more Pikachu mains. Thunder Jolt (or Stun Jolt) will have a lot of utility. You wanna net a K.O with non-stalled Up Smash? Okay, use Stun Jolt. Opponents are in their stun animation for a longer time once they are at higher percents. lol
 
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Choice Scarf

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Aww yesh, social time. I'm glad Pika still looks like how he plays from the previous titles. Also Party Hat is the best hat, come at me.

Who else thinks Pika will be high tier? Great mobility, great recovery, awesome custom moves, and now that vectoring is apparently a thing Pika's low damage output will actually work in his favor. Screw my previous skepticism about his kill potential I'm definitely maining him. The wait for the US demo to try him out is so painful!
 

Soul.

 
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Aww yesh, social time. I'm glad Pika still looks like how he plays from the previous titles. Also Party Hat is the best hat, come at me.

Who else thinks Pika will be high tier? Great mobility, great recovery, awesome custom moves, and now that vectoring is apparently a thing Pika's low damage output will actually work in his favor. Screw my previous skepticism about his kill potential I'm definitely maining him. The wait for the US demo to try him out is so painful!
Every Pikachu hat is cool. Is Vectoring the new DI or something? Maybe I'm mistaking it with the Down DI.
 

Choice Scarf

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It's probably still under testing but vectoring supposedly explains Down DI. And yeah apparently vectoring replaces DI in sm4sh.

http://smashboards.com/threads/vectoring-the-replacement-to-directional-influence-in-smash-4.368780/

Basically instead of DI'ing you add your own vector of knockback whenever you receive a hit, which you can use to add more knockback to "combo" moves and get a further distance away so that the opponent can't follow up OR subtract knokcback from an opponent's kill move to survive an attack that would otherwise kill. You could still "vector" horizontally to the knockback trajectory, but it still adds together instead of shifting the trajectory by 18 degrees.

The other major thing about it is that your component is proportional to the knockback you receive, so you have can subtract more knockback from more powerful kill moves.But conversely, low damage moves for combos are harder to vector out of, which is exactly what Pika's moves want. So despite the discovery of vectoring Pika's Utilt/Uair chains shouldn't be as affected as other characters' combos since they do pretty low damage in the first place. Well, at least at low percents anyway.
 

Soul.

 
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It's probably still under testing but vectoring supposedly explains Down DI. And yeah apparently vectoring replaces DI in sm4sh.

http://smashboards.com/threads/vectoring-the-replacement-to-directional-influence-in-smash-4.368780/

Basically instead of DI'ing you add your own vector of knockback whenever you receive a hit, which you can use to add more knockback to "combo" moves and get a further distance away so that the opponent can't follow up OR subtract knokcback from an opponent's kill move to survive an attack that would otherwise kill. You could still "vector" horizontally to the knockback trajectory, but it still adds together instead of shifting the trajectory by 18 degrees.

The other major thing about it is that your component is proportional to the knockback you receive, so you have can subtract more knockback from more powerful kill moves. But conversely, low damage moves for combos are harder to vector out of, which is exactly what Pika's moves want. So despite the discovery of vectoring Pika's Utilt/Uair chains shouldn't be as affected as other characters' combos since they do pretty low damage in the first place. Well, at least at low percents anyway.
So that's what vectoring does? I see. Low damage moves shouldn't be affected since they...uh, they have low knockback.
Anyway, the demo will be on the eShop in a few hours. We'll finally be able to try out Pika, lol. I heard it's the fastest character that can quick ledge drop.
 
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So that's what vectoring does? I see. Low damage moves shouldn't be affected since they...uh, they have low knockback.
Anyway, the demo will be on the eShop in a few hours. We'll finally be able to try out Pika, lol. I heard it's the fastest character that can quick ledge drop.
I have the demo, and I've been strictly playing Pikachu. I can confirm this.
Also, if you guys have any questions from now till the time the demo is out....feel free to ask! <3
 

redfeatherraven

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New social? New social. Hype.

Preordered Smash during the Smashfest event as well, both consoles. I imagine that got a lot of the people around here to put money down.

I don't own a Wii U yet, but I own 1/12 of its best game.
 
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Soul.

 
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New social? New social. Hype.

Preordered Smash during the Smashfest event as well, both consoles. I imagine that got a lot of the people around here to put money down.

I don't own a Wii U yet, but I own 1/12 of its best game.
Yes. New social thread hype. For Pikachu mains.
I see. I don't think anyone owns a Wii U yet—well, some do, but it's the games that interest people. I doubt they are interested in the current list of games they have.
 

CatRaccoonBL

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Yes. New social thread hype. For Pikachu mains.
I see. I don't think anyone owns a Wii U yet—well, some do, but it's the games that interest people. I doubt they are interested in the current list of games they have.
I own a wii u and have since the christmas of the year it was launched. :p

I haven't pre-ordered the wii u version yet. I really need to see how I'm doing on money first. Especially since I'm going to buy the version with the gamecube controller adapter. :p
 

redfeatherraven

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List if games isn't horrid, just short. And it's improving.

Mario Kart 8 was a system seller for a minute there.

And of course Smash is going to move consoles like IHOP moves pancakes, but that was always a given, and might even be a bit of a slow burn.

And Hyrule Warriors. Course that game wouldn't move consoles if it knew telekinesis, but still, I'm sure people will buy it.
 
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CatRaccoonBL

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I personally loved 3d World and Pikmin 3. Sonic All-star racing transformed is also my favorite racer.

NintendoLand was decent and I still need to play more WindWaker HD.

I also have quite a bit of eShop games like Little Inferno, (which was ok at best), and mighty switch force 1, (which is awesome).

Got some Virtual console games like Earthbound as well. I'm overall happy with my Wii U. Can't wait to add Smash to it. :3
 

Sapphire Dragon

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I don't have it because moneys, college, and two cats.

That's not really true, but as they said above, the current game list isn't something I'm interested in.

I doubt I'll want a Wii U specifically for Smash (but I've put it onto my wishlist anyway), but I'll definitely want one for when Pokken Tournament comes out in the west. It's basically Tekken except with Pokemon only. It's the closest possible to having an actual Smash Bros with Pokemon only. And the creator even said upon reveal that he wants to "see this game played at tournaments". So, I'm super hyped for that.
 
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WolfieXVII ❂

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I made the mistake of not preordering anything.:lol:
But I hope I'll be able to buy Smash 3DS without any problems on day one.
 

Sapphire Dragon

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So what characters are everyone looking forward to?

Obviously I'm hyped for Pika, but I'm hyped for Charizard too. Robin and DHD look pretty amazing, and Lucina is a curiosity to me.
 

Soul.

 
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Smash Wii U is going to move a lot of Wii U units, yes. Smash 3DS will outsell it, though. Maybe I'm saying that people aren't interested on the Wii U because I'm not interested in it.

About the characters, I'm obviously looking forward to Pikachu. Not sure about the others. I'll have to try them all out.

Anyway, I got the demo. I was using Pikachu, and it's looking pretty good. I was trying to autocancel DAir (of course that's still in), turn cancelling, doing combos and stuff.
 
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CatRaccoonBL

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So what characters are everyone looking forward to?

Obviously I'm hyped for Pika, but I'm hyped for Charizard too. Robin and DHD look pretty amazing, and Lucina is a curiosity to me.
My other two mains are in my profile. Those two being Rosalina & Luma and Shulk. Can't wait for those two. Them combined with Pikachu will make some fun mains. <3
 

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I just realized, doubles is going to take on a whole new meaning. Rosalina & Luma, DHD, Bowser Jr., Villager, Palutena... any of them teamed together would be amazing. XD

Lmfao at Villager and ROB teamed... the team that never dies. Quite literally.
 

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Pikachu feels like he'll be amazing in doubles as long as you have a power based teammate, like Bowser or maybe Dedede.

Though I'd love to try some Shulk/Kirby teams. M O N A D O B O Y Z

As for other characters, I'm surprisingly hyped for Fox, as well as Falcon, Lucina, and Greninja. Oh and the Mii Brawler too. I have to find a Billy Mays Mii just for that.
 

Soul.

 
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Yes, Pika will be great in doubles, just as long as there's a heavyweight helping it or something. The heavyweight character (such as Bowser, for example) is a K.O machine / tank, while Pikachu is the damage racker. That would be a good strategy.
 
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SnorlaxPie500

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Is anyone else not getting pika on random when playing as Pikachu? I just now realized this after playing for a couple hours.
 
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