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

[Soul.]

NAir is one of the best OoS options we have. It's good at doing the role of a "leave me alone" thing. OoS NAir is just great at doing that.

Never heard of OoS Utilt. Huh. Guess it's time for me to go to the lab (a.k.a Training).

OoS USmash is also a thing. Good at KOing; if you want to use it early on the match you're honestly better off using NAir.

Also Neutral B has a broad range of uses as you said. For one, it is one of our projectiles (2nd being Thunder). Jolts still do what they did before. They let us camp, they help us edgeguard characters with bad recoveries and are good in general.

 

[Angiance]

@ SirroMinus1
Let me give you this powerful advice: never drop your shield, always OoS your next option if possible (jump an aerial, or roll/side step while holding the shield button; don't let go of the shield button until you've done the above)

OoS SH Dair is good after your shield gets hit, because it has decent range and can go right over their next attack

OoS SH Bair can be amazing or a curse, as it has insane range but ridiculous landing lag (Bair travels across half of the stage, or close to it at least)

OoS SH/FH Fair can be decent after they hit your shield, since it has range

OoS SH Retreating Airdodge is a fairly powerful defensive option, especially if you're trapped at the edge and need to get offstage

As for the joltz, you should focus on having the spacing to set out a ground jolt from a FH, since you'll land with no lag and have stage control. By following Ground Jolt after landing...

You can combo from the ground jolt depending on what the opponent does. If they shield the Ground Jolt, you can Dash Grab their shield as they're in that tiny bit of shieldstun; or they may roll/side step to avoid Ground Jolt, which sets up a frame trap (they do an evasive action > you dash in to catch them out of their evasive action with SH Nair/Dair, Dtilt, Dash Grab, or Usmash if they're at KO percent

or they may swat the jolt away, which will allow us to dash in and SH Fair, Dtilt their landing if they SH an aerial, or anything you can come up with really

 

[Soul.]

Shield dropping is bad. What exactly do you gain from them lol? I think nothing.
OoS is best.

 

[Hoenn]

Whats your Favorite Shield Drop Options? I like Short Hop N-Air & Up Tilts. N-air is good for resetting the situations, Up-tilt can be good for combos and other situations.

And i would like to know how you use Pikachus Neutral B because there's a broad range of uses for it.

Perfect pivot Utilt I love perfect pivot Up tilt out of shield!

 

[Angiance]

For clarification

OoS (Out of Shield) means -without letting go of the shield button- you jump, or roll/sidestep to sort of cancel the shield, avoiding the 7 frame animation that occurs when you release the shield button

tl;dr Utilt OoS is impossible; what you're doing is dropping your shield, then Utilting

 

[SirroMinus1]

NAir is one of the best OoS options we have. It's good at doing the role of a "leave me alone" thing. OoS NAir is just great at doing that.

Never heard of OoS Utilt. Huh. Guess it's time for me to go to the lab (a.k.a Training).

OoS USmash is also a thing. Good at KOing; if you want to use it early on the match you're honestly better off using NAir.

Also Neutral B has a broad range of uses as you said. For one, it is one of our projectiles (2nd being Thunder). Jolts still do what they did before. They let us camp, they help us edgeguard characters with bad recoveries and are good in general.

I don't spend to much time here remembering terminology. but i think i was doing things out of shield & shield dropping when it calls for it. I was more so referring to dropping shield after a perfect shield on punishable attacks. I just thought they where 1 in the same
(totally wrong)

@ Angiance Dang that sux. idk how i was hitting people with it then. I really gotta find better people to play against and have a good understanding of the game if i can get away with stuff like that

@ Soul. There's a use for everything in certain situations (IMO)

Also what about a grab follow up after Neutral B that hits
& how do you guys feel about grab release opponents on the ledge

 

[Hoenn]

If there is enough lag from the move that hits your shield, then you should always go for the optimal punish if you can.
I don't think we should be limiting our shield play to only Oos punishes. Sometimes shield drop punishes punish much much harder.
The harder our punishes are, the less smart we have to play to win. The harder your punish game, the less dependent on neutral you have to be.
Shield drop PP utilt or shield drop utilt are AMAZING punishes because they start combos and chain into themselves at low percents. You can get like 25-40% usually if you get an utilt at 0%, as apposed to just punishing with a shield grab (oos) and a getting 20% punish at max. Shield drop punishes have their uses

Unless of course we are talking about our options when they are pressuring us without hitting our shield, then I think I would jump away or like SH/FH Dair away from them



Grab release near the ledge is something I personally do A LOT, especially on diddy kong and characters with bad recovery, because if they don't hold away, they basically give up their stock. So they only have 1 option that doesn't lead to death and that option still puts them in a really sticky situation (it also puts them in range to be thunder jolted so you can cover the double jump back to the stage)

 

[Psyant]

Hoenn is right. This isn't Melee or Brawl; the shield-stun is so minor in this game that if your shield is hit with a laggy attack, like a smash attack, you CAN just drop your shield and do anything back to them, notably up tilt or forward smash, which can give better rewards than your usual out of shield options depending on their spacing from you.

Being able to drop shield to punish laggy attacks is less useful for Pikachu overall than many characters because he already has a strong up smash out of shield as well as other good OoS options and a powerful combo throw, but if your opponent hits your shield and you have time to drop it and hit them with an up tilt at 0%, or a sweetspotted Fsmash at kill %s? Take their charity for all it's worth instead of settling for a lesser punish.

 

[SirroMinus1]

Thanks for the insight. i will take this information to heart when i go into battle.

 

[TWILTHERO]

Hello everyone, I've been using Pikachu (as my sub with my Shulk main for his problematic matchups), and I've grown to love using the little guy.

How should I be using Pikachu's jab (outside from jab locking when my opponent misses their ground tech)? Everytime I attempt to use it, I always seem to get hit out of it pretty easily. I heard on different Smash 4 streams that it supposedly randomly trips sometimes, but I've never had it happen to me...

 

[Coastward]

does pikachu have any proper setups after dthrow at 0%? i feel like i shouldn't be using that throw ever lmao

 

[SirroMinus1]

does pikachu have any proper setups after dthrow at 0%? i feel like i shouldn't be using that throw ever lmao

dThrow - Utilt Utilt (possibly a third) up air second jump up air or forward air.
or you can possible follow up with a Fair after the up tilts
but this probably wont work on some of the smaller/light weight characters in the game

but in short you wanna mix up Up tilts up airs & forward airs. Watch for bad air dodges and you can probably punish accordingly

 

[Hoenn]

I know that if they DI away, if you hit them with the front hitbox of Uair, I am pretty sure that you get a guaranteed landing fair out of that (Don't quote me on that), but generally the front hit of Uair combos into fair

Personally, I think Dthrow is our best throw in A LOT of matchups
Like, I was losing to this lucina today and I realized that lucina could not land, so I just kept doing Dthrow to Uair string -> Fastfell to the ground and kept juggling her. In other words, I was getting like 50% off of every down throw. I was winning the matchup very hard

Some characters you won't need to do the hardest combos on with down throw, just Uair them, and as long as you don't over extend, you will be in a big position advantage. I think that throws are extremely matchup dependent

 

[Hoenn]

Wooops double post

 

[M15t3R E]

Hello everyone, I've been using Pikachu (as my sub with my Shulk main for his problematic matchups), and I've grown to love using the little guy.

How should I be using Pikachu's jab (outside from jab locking when my opponent misses their ground tech)? Everytime I attempt to use it, I always seem to get hit out of it pretty easily. I heard on different Smash 4 streams that it supposedly randomly trips sometimes, but I've never had it happen to me...

It is effective at any percent to get the opponent away from you when you need the quickest attack possible (i.e. you believe they are about to jab you). It is also one option to interrupt a spotdodge-happy opponent. Other than that, it is outclassed by other moves in every situation.

 

[Angiance]

Are you all freaking nuts?!

Utilt has ZERO RANGE, your opponent has to have either a terrible zoning technique, or horrible spacing for Utilt to be connecting in that instance.

 

[HenryXLII]

Hey so I just picked up Pikachu for the first time since Brawl and I love him in this game! What are his best moves? And what are the ones to avoid? Skull bash seems pretty useless but every else all seems good. Also what are the best grab follow ups? I know at after 100% you can throw up into thunder but it seems a bit unreliable considering they usually just DI out of it. Lastly any good kill moves besides his smashes? Sorry if it seems like I am asking for an entire guild on the character, I kind of am cause I do not see any on this website. If there is one it would helpful if you linked it.

 

[Soul.]

I don't spend to much time here remembering terminology. but i think i was doing things out of shield & shield dropping when it calls for it. I was more so referring to dropping shield after a perfect shield on punishable attacks. I just thought they where 1 in the same
(totally wrong)

@ Angiance Dang that sux. idk how i was hitting people with it then. I really gotta find better people to play against and have a good understanding of the game if i can get away with stuff like that

@ Soul. There's a use for everything in certain situations (IMO)

Also what about a grab follow up after Neutral B that hits
& how do you guys feel about grab release opponents on the ledge

Grab releasing isn't a good option in this game. You're better off doing a throw, such as up throw and follow it up with Thunder to get the KO near the blast zone. Back throw also works.

Hey so I just picked up Pikachu for the first time since Brawl and I love him in this game! What are his best moves? And what are the ones to avoid? Skull bash seems pretty useless but every else all seems good. Also what are the best grab follow ups? I know at after 100% you can throw up into thunder but it seems a bit unreliable considering they usually just DI out of it. Lastly any good kill moves besides his smashes? Sorry if it seems like I am asking for an entire guild on the character, I kind of am cause I do not see any on this website. If there is one it would helpful if you linked it.

Up throw to Thunder is reliable when your opponent doesn't expect it. The thing with Pikachu is that to me, I try to keep my grabs as unpredictable as possible. Except down throw because that's our "follow up" throw.
Forward air is a KO if you're near the blast zone. BAir is good as a stage spike option. Thunder is a KO option when followed up with an up throw. Back throw (apparently) KOs if you're near the blast zone.

 

[Leaf.]

Are you all freaking nuts?!

Utilt has ZERO RANGE, your opponent has to have either a terrible zoning technique, or horrible spacing for Utilt to be connecting in that instance.

Heeeey, I found Bell. Neat.

 

[HenryXLII]

. Except down throw because that's our "follow up" throw.
.

Did you put that in quotes because Pikachu does not have any ture combos out of down throw? Or am I just mistiming it? Also does Skull Bash have any use what so ever? It seems like a pretty bad move. Also whats the best use of the jab combo? I know it can be used for some cool set ups but they always attack me out of it.

 

[Soul.]

Did you put that in quotes because Pikachu does not have any ture combos out of down throw? Or am I just mistiming it? Also does Skull Bash have any use what so ever? It seems like a pretty bad move.

Pikachu has true combos out of a down throw, yes. Down throw → UAir is one. Dthrow → FAir is also one. Dthrow → NAir is also one but I think that one depends on DI.
Skull Bash is only used as a recovery move. If you wanted to use it on stage, there's Heavy Skull Bash which is good after a jab lock.

 

[CarbuncleHero]

Sorry to bring this up again but in the competitive impressions thread they are discussing a technique I mentioned a while ago. I said this very exact thing (although maybe not as clearly...) about pika and it's a wonderful tool for pikachu.
I am now absolutely certain it isn't too slow. SHairdodge>uair invincibility frames come out on f2 and lasts until frame 19. There are only 3 frames of vulnerability at the end, so airdodge into rising nair leaves only 6 frames of vulnerabilty, uair 7.

Everything mentioned in that post pikachu can do, minus specials (they aren't worth it i've tried ), except nair to cancel endlag isn't necessary but can be replaced by pika's fair if you accidentally start airdodge too late.
Footstool AFAIK is 1 frame, and it is absolutely safe from anything buffered out of AD, but characters (like mario) with extremely quick u/f tilts might be able to link attacks fast enough to land a hit, but it's absolutely nothing to worry about.
Pikachu can do aerials without rising, the endlag, i'm positive now, is not significant so long as you aren't predictable and you don't land directly in front of the opponent. Oddly enough, pikachu's nair has a shorter animation than uair by 1 frame, even though to me it doesn't look that way. But there is zero followup potential because of the higher knockback.

I recommend trying to incorporate this into your gameplay. It's not as useful as I initially thought it would be, mostly because if you could airdodge>an attack, why not just attack? But it isn't short on uses either. SH Airdodge works best only if you predict an attack, grab/spotdodge, or shield. Basically the idea is to wait out their reaction and punish accordingly. I cannot stress that enough, if you do this in front of an opponent that didn't react you will be hilariously punished (If this happens,DI away or footstool out).
Also a video was posted in that thread about using AD to punish ledge getups. Pika can do this with SHAD>footstool nair on some characters (sheik, sonic, yoshi, mario,etc), and although i never considered using it like that I have tried making it work for punishing landings in the same way, because putting the opponent into the footstool animation is much harder than it seems given they always react when you get close.
Sorry for the wall, again. Any thoughts?

 

[HenryXLII]

What is the best use of Pikachu's jab attack? I know it can displace the enemy and even knock them off the edge, but sometimes when I do it they break out of the first jab and instantly counter. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Soul.]

Sorry to bring this up again but in the competitive impressions thread they are discussing a technique I mentioned a while ago. I said this exact exact very thing (although maybe not as clearly...) about pika and it's a wonderful.
I am now absolutely certain it isn't too slow. SHairdodge>uair invincibility frames come out on f2 and lasts until frame 19. There are only 3 frames of vulnerability at the end, so airdodge into rising nair leaves only 6 frames of vulnerabilty, uair 7.

Everything mentioned in that post pikachu can do, minus specials (they aren't worth it i've tried ), except nair to cancel endlag isn't necessary but can be replaced by pika's fair if you accidentally start airdodge too late.
Footstool AFAIK is 1 frame, and it is absolutely safe from anything buffered out of AD, but characters with extremely quick (~10 frames) u/f tilts might be able to act fast enough to land a hit, but it's absolutely nothing to worry about.
Pikachu can do aerials without rising, the endlag, i'm positive now, is not significant so long as you aren't predictable and you don't land directly in front of the opponent. Oddly, enough pikachu's nair has a shorter animation than uair by 1 frame, even though to me it doesn't look that way. But there is zero followup potential because of the higher knockback.

I recommend trying to incorporate this into your gameplay. It's not as useful as I initially thought it would be, mostly because if you could airdodge>an attack, why not just attack? But it isn't short on uses either. SH Airdodge works best if only if you predict an attack, grab/spotdodge, or shield. Basically the idea is to wait out their reaction and punish accordingly. I cannot stress that enough, if you do this in front of an opponent that didn't react you will be hilariously punished (If this happens,DI away or footstool out).
Also a video was posted in that thread about using AD to punish ledge getups. Pika can do this with SHAD>footstool on some characters (sheik, sonic, yoshi, mario,etc), and though i never considered using it like that I have tried making it work for punishing landings in the same way, because putting the opponent into the footstool animation is much harder than it seems given they always react when you get close.
Sorry for the wall, again. Any thoughts?

So it is possible to SH, airdodge and use an aerial at the same time. Huh.
I was actually trying this out a a while ago; never thought you could do almost every move out of a SH airdodge. Guess I'll be on the lab.

Also the wall of text is fine.

What is the best use of Pikachu's jab attack? I know it can displace the enemy and even knock them off the edge, but sometimes when I do it they break out of the first jab and instantly counter. What am I doing wrong?

Its best use is to knock away your opponent so that either you don't get grabbed, or use it after a FF FAir if you don't have time to follow up with another move like utilt.

You should never use jab outside of what I just mentioned. @ M15t3R E has a post regarding jab on this very page, even though it is essentially what I just said, albeit different in some ways.

 

[Zajice]

I'm posting because I like Pikachu but haven't posted here yet.

 

[redfeatherraven]

I'm posting because I like Pikachu but haven't posted here yet.

Welcome to the future homie.

 

[American JEDI]

Never thought I'd end up maining Pikachu....

But, I just love this little guy now: Great movement/approach/zoning options (feels speedier overall), amazing recovery game, and such a combo heavy character! Switching over from Meta Knight (after all the nerfs) just felt natural.
Pikachu has crazy potential, and I know we'll be seeing a Pikachu main winning at the big tournaments soon... me of course :-)

 

[Leaf.]

I'm posting because I like Pikachu but haven't posted here yet.

Go away.
Hi Zaj.

 

[redfeatherraven]

I know we'll be seeing a Pikachu main winning at the big tournaments soon... me of course :-)

Somebody's gotta cram it up the chimp's hoo-hah, looking forward to seeing if it's you.

Welcome aboard.

 

[Korsario]

Guys I'm kinda new to this whole competitive smash thing and I really like Pikachu, so I have a few questions.

1. What are some techniques that are useful for Pikachu and how do you apply them (e.g. foxtrotting or wavedashing or something idk).
2. How do you punish people that constantly roll?
3. How should I play my neutral game, I've heard Pikachu has a good one but I have trouble getting in and putting myself in an advantageous position.
4. How do you deal with people with like range like Megaman, Toon Link that constantly spam or people who with good range and spacing like Shulk and Marth that constantly have hitboxes around them?

I know this is a lot but any help would be appreciated. I found a love for Pikachu in this game and he's everything I want in a character but my inexperience and lack of fundamentals combined with my lack of knowledge of what moves are best for what kind of situations are kinda damping my ability to be better. I see people like Esam play and I understand what they are doing but it's hard to either replicate or apply those things for me in game. Thanks for all and any help I get in advance.

P.D. I also forgot, how do I deal with people like Mario that can stop my air combos with a hitbox of his own?

 

[Regralht]

Heya, I made a Skype chat for MU discussion and friendlies, I'll be trying to gather people from every char specific group.

Here's the link. For some reason, it keeps autocorrecting it to something else when I try to post it. Just copy and paste it.

skype:?chat&blob=8dWUcz__4ed4SlQymHkEdKXQzCIElq_cW318zWNGWFxg03IFNk28BI1AaOBZVy2rL-bn0H7LQmXTlxTRXxmo9jE

 

[Hoenn]

Heya, I made a Skype chat for MU discussion and friendlies, I'll be trying to gather people from every char specific group. Here it is.

That link is not working for me

@ K Korsario I learned a lot of the little tricks that pikachu can do by watching ESAM videos.
To punish rolls, you can do one of 3 things, when you think the person will roll, just wait and react to it, then punish it, but you have to be fast. the second thing you can do is run to where you think they will roll then charge a smash and hit them hard, or thirdly, you can do a down smash or a move that covers the rolling option. I personally only do the first and second, and I kind of recommend punishing them those ways

Neutral game in a nutshell, Quick attack, short hop Forward Air, short hop down air. down titlt, Dash in shield
You can watch ESAM if you want to see a good neutral pikachu as an example, I also may be posting a pikachu tutorial soon on my youtube, but I will probably put that here anyway

The reason why I feel that a lot of pikachu players struggle to catch up to ESAM is because we do not properly react to situations. If you have trouble applying what ESAM does, just play friendlies with people and try to get better at reacting to the situations where you think these tools would be useful. Overtime it will all settle into your gameplay

Against characters like luigi, ness, and mario, you should only hit them with moves that you know 100% will hit, if you think they will use an aerial to try and escape, you can fade out or drop to the ground and punish the cooldown from the aerial they throw out

 

[Regralht]

That link is not working for me

Ah thanks for telling me, for some reason it keeps autocorrecting it to that, when I post the actual link. I edited it.

 

[Hoenn]

Ah thanks for telling me, for some reason it keeps autocorrecting it to that, when I post the actual link. I edited it.

What exactly do I add to the link to make it work, I know you took out some characters to remove the hyperlink, I just do not know what you removed

 

[Regralht]

What exactly do I add to the link to make it work, I know you took out some characters to remove the hyperlink, I just do not know what you removed

Simply just pasting it into your browser address bar should make it autojoin the group on skype.

 

[NekoJubei]

Er can somebody please explain to me how the heck this happened?
This happened a long time ago and I still haven't pulled off another one
It looks very useful but I can't do it again!
youtu.be/1hDxeptD_9E

 

[Hoenn]

Simply just pasting it into your browser address bar should make it autojoin the group on skype.

I did, did not work

Edit: nvm It just does not work in chrome, I put it in IE and it worked, thank you

 

[Soul.]

Er can somebody please explain to me how the heck this happened?
This happened a long time ago and I still haven't pulled off another one
It looks very useful but I can't do it again!
youtu.be/1hDxeptD_9E

Never heard of this.
I suppose this gives Pikachu an option against whiffed edgeguards on the ground.

 

[Hoenn]

Never heard of this.
I suppose this gives Pikachu an option against whiffed edgeguards on the ground.

We gotta figure out how to do it though >.<

Also, what moves combo out of quick attack?

 

[ZTD | TECHnology]

Today's results:

I wasn't able to make it in time for doubles but I did get to do singles. 7th out of 53. Got knocked out by one of my training partners who also plays Pikachu. Very close games. Had so much fun and I've got another tournament tomorrow.

I'm seeing noticeable improvement every tournament! Feels good!