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

[Angiance]

F.Air isn't mediocre, it's amazing~

 

[isaiah :)]

pika's fair gets destroyed by shieks effortless hitbox's

 

[Dark 3nergy]

If you fast fall fair when you land a hit the timing is more lenient for whatever reason.

If you don't get the spike hit of fair, it does combo into usmash about 60% of the time but it's not reliable. It's kind of ok though because you can tell beforehand if it'll combo.

The problem is you rarely hit a good opponent in the ground with fair because it's mediocre.

How can you tell if it'll combo or not in that situation?

@ Angiance Fair is combo filler honestly. Uair and Nair are the bread n' butter of my punish air game. If I'm not using them in combos I'm using those to nickel and dime damage onto my opponent. For as much as I like Fair, it takes too long to complete animation wise and hitbox wise for me to consider it a safe option to take out in risky situations. And by the time I'm going for a kill move...I want the safest option possible.

 

[Azteck_Omega]

How do I qac in smash 4?

 

[Angiance]

@ isaiah :)
@ Dark 3nergy
F.Air is crazy good because it breaks zones, gives us an aggressive approach option, has mild landing lag unlike our other aerials which increases it's flexibility, and gives fairly good stage control

You all talk about how it gets beat by other hitboxes, but that's the thing, you really shouldn't be >directly< challenging hitboxes with it considering it's startup and hitbox size; however, *none* of our aerials can directly challenge hitboxes, so you're all simply not giving F.Air enough credit

 

[Cassio]

Already said this somewhere else but fair is only good in neutral if the opponent isnt familiar with pikachu. Ill admit I say fair is mediocre in the context of pikachus overall tools, and simply having fair cuts off a lot of opponents options, but many pikachus ruin their neutral by using this move too much. Fair can annihilate an opponent IF you have your punishment game down by maximizing every percent you can off a successful hit, opponents should be scared of getting hit by this move and you should use that fear against them.

Fair will combo into upsmash under two conditions
1) It doesnt spike
2) They arent hit up enough to jump out

Its one of those situation where theyre hit off the ground but dont have enough time to do anything before they land. Knowing if you got the spike hit or not is easy. Knowing if they can jump out is visual but with practice you can sort of tell if they have enough time to jump away or not.

Itd be pretty good except that hitting with fair near the ground in the first place is hard.

 

[Angiance]

@ Cassio
Even if the opponent understands Pikachu, that still doesn't take away the overall passive ability of F.Air (which is the only way it should be used really), because it is a mental thing. This passive aggression it allows us to have gives us a horrifying neutral game-let's be honest, *NO ONE* doesn't take getting hit by F.Air seriously

Thanks to F.Air, you can happily approach your opponent keeping D.Tilt/U.Tilt in mind to compliment what F.Air passively gives you

 

[Soul.]

How do I qac in smash 4?

It's been answered a lot before.

To QAC, all you need to do is use Quick Attack and jump right after. It is best done in Smashville because of its moving platform.

I suggest you take a look at the frequently asked questions on this thread, in the first page to be specific, if you want to know more about it.

 

[Angiance]

@soul
Only because players will typically skip it so that they can ask their own variation of the same question

 

[Dark 3nergy]

@ Angiance To add to the Fair discussion, it also has a 'uncomfrotable' hit box at the end of the move. The thing has a lot of stun on it and I just isn't safe even on shield. I would rather save Fair for situations I know I can kill with it or combo filler. It is simply not a safe approach option. In fact, we shouldn't be approaching with air normal's to begin with. We should be approaching either 1. Run+Shield, 2. QA, 3. Playing footies with Dtilt, some times Utilt and spacing thunder jolt. Pikachu loses if he cannot keep pressure with his projectile. He needs to use it to close space, create approaches and open up opportunities for the punish into combos. He has to play that way because he dies quickly.

@ Cassio I noticed something similar to default thunder jolt > + any follow up, described as you said it works but has a weird timing. I'll take what you said into the lab and try to science it a bit.

 

[Kaladin]

So, I practice things like jab-locking on FG because it's a tech free zone. What characters cannot jump out of Fthrow before they hit the ground at 0%? I wanna know when to go for the lock. Thanks!

 

[Angiance]

@ Angiance To add to the Fair discussion, it also has a 'uncomfrotable' hit box at the end of the move. The thing has a lot of stun on it and I just isn't safe even on shield. I would rather save Fair for situations I know I can kill with it or combo filler. It is simply not a safe approach option. In fact, we shouldn't be approaching with air normal's to begin with. We should be approaching either 1. Run+Shield, 2. QA, 3. Playing footies with Dtilt, some times Utilt and spacing thunder jolt. Pikachu loses if he cannot keep pressure with his projectile. He needs to use it to close space, create approaches and open up opportunities for the punish into combos. He has to play that way because he dies quickly.

@ Cassio I noticed something similar to default thunder jolt > + any follow up, described as you said it works but has a weird timing. I'll take what you said into the lab and try to science it a bit.

Apparentely you don't know how to use F.Air smartly

You can hit shields easy, you just have to weave out after it hits the shield, that way you'll avoid the last hit

F.Air is an absolutely incredible approach option, what the **** are you even talking about

Btw, if your opponent's are actually dumb enough to consistentely fall for QA used from so far that your mind interprets it as an approach option, then I'm sorry but-play better people

F.Air is a monsterous spacing weapon for us since it has mild landing lag and minor aerial endlag, plus it is amazing at hitting blindspots of hitboxes and it gives us an incredible option to do out of a dash

We have no other aerial for spacing in neutral honestly, unless you want to count U.Air which is only if they are above you

N.Air has zero range as well as D.Air

B.Air is a ridiculous mix up option, but definitely not to be used for spacing

T.Jolt has GIGANTIC startup, and will end up with you cornered in many scenarios if you try to space with it considering how much stage is needed to shoot one-it's very easy to react to and counter

Like I said, play stronger opponents

 

[Lange]

Anyone have any advice for Pika vs Sonic? I thought the matchup is in theory considered even, but to me it seems I get destroyed vs a good Sonic. Just seems that Sonic really outspeeds pika and hard to get hits in maybe im doing it wrong in playing too aggressive? Do I need to play more defensively? Thanks for the advice.

 

[Kaladin]

Anyone have any advice for Pika vs Sonic? I thought the matchup is in theory considered even, but to me it seems I get destroyed vs a good Sonic. Just seems that Sonic really outspeeds pika and hard to get hits in maybe im doing it wrong in playing too aggressive? Do I need to play more defensively? Thanks for the advice.

Sonic outspeeds everyone. I think the idea is to let sonic do his whole rolling around and sprining thing, then just punish his landings really hard.

 

[Uncle Honey]

Does pikachu have anything that beats out or trades with bouncing fish?

 

[Dee-SmashinBoss]

Um whats the best way to edge guard Pika? Mainly if they were using QA to recover if they have no options, but its so weird how huge the hitbox is when he warps

 

[ZephyrZ]

What is the best way to input Pikachu's quick attack? I've been trying to get the hang of that move for ages, but with no avail. I keep making input errors, especially when trying to activate the second hit of the attack. The time frame is just too small.

Should I set the C-stick to specials? Or is it down to tedious muscle memory training? If I can't get the hang of that move soon, I may just give up Pikachu as a secondary all together and find someone else who takes less technical skill. That move just feels too important to give up.

 

[Pikabunz]

Just keep practicing till you get it right. Using QA is like not technical at all. You can input the 2nd QA as soon as you start moving from the 1st QA.

 

[ZephyrZ]

Just keep practicing till you get it right. Using QA is like not technical at all. You can input the 2nd QA as soon as you start moving from the 1st QA.

Does the controller I use matter that much? I've heard people criticize the game pad for being less then ideal, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes.

 

[Pikabunz]

It probably does. The gamecube controller makes it easy to do the 8 basic QA angles. If your QA's aren't more than a certain amount of degrees apart then your 2nd QA won't come out. I could see that happening more on a gamepad.

 

[Thor]

Fair to dash attack combos, but you can't buffer into dash attack from fair so your timing has to be perfect.

Are you positive you can't buffer dash attacks from fair? I rarely do it, but it's useful as Ganondorf to buffer dash attack OoS, which is release shield -> hit left or right -> c-stick down. This does a dash attack on the first possible frame [you dash for a frame and then immediately dash attack].

 

[Pikabunz]

In this game you can only buffer one action at a time and dash attack requires two actions to do (dash + A). With Ganondorf you were just buffering a dash then pressing down-c after the shield drop ended.

 

[Soul.]

What can we do so that it doesn't seem like we're trying to get up smash KOs at percents as early as 80% - 130%? I'm asking this because fishing for up smash KOs often leads to a punish from the opponent, and I don't know what to think about it. The opponent starts to expect up smash at these percents and they... Uh, well, punish.

 

[Pogoshark]

What can we do so that it doesn't seem like we're trying to get up smash KOs at percents as early as 80% - 130%? I'm asking this because fishing for up smash KOs often leads to a punish from the opponent, and I don't know what to think about it. The opponent starts to expect up smash at these percents and they... Uh, well, punish.

I usually find the way I get kills is forcing an off stage opponent to recover high to avoid thunderjolts and then spacing an fsmash to net the stock when they land.
Pikachu is very light so it might help to play a bit more campy and force a reaction you can punish, rather than you being forced to approach yourself.
I rarely use upsmash outside of combo finishers and hard punishes.

 

[Kaladin]

Regarding the discussion about QA-

I use the gamepad, and rarely make input errors, soooo git gud lol. Seriously though, I doubt the controller matters much. Honestly, QA is just an intuitive thing for me, and I think it works how it seems like it should work. Don't pause between inputting the two directions, and I gaurentee you'll get it.

 

[Thor]

What can we do so that it doesn't seem like we're trying to get up smash KOs at percents as early as 80% - 130%? I'm asking this because fishing for up smash KOs often leads to a punish from the opponent, and I don't know what to think about it. The opponent starts to expect up smash at these percents and they... Uh, well, punish.

Just build them to 170% and kill them with uthrow on the first stock.

Then they'll think they're safe second stock, needing like 70 more percent to die, and BAM!

More seriously... Don't fish? I dunno, not fishing is a fundamental aspect of this game [even fishing for utilts as Fox/Falco in Melee can be dangerous in spacie dittos], so... just don't usmash as much? Try to usmash a landing or usmash a roll or spotdodge as a hard read, but don't expect them to be dumb either. You could try to bait a roll from the ledge and usmash that or something.

 

[Soul.]

Just build them to 170% and kill them with uthrow on the first stock.

Then they'll think they're safe second stock, needing like 70 more percent to die, and BAM!

More seriously... Don't fish? I dunno, not fishing is a fundamental aspect of this game [even fishing for utilts as Fox/Falco in Melee can be dangerous in spacie dittos], so... just don't usmash as much? Try to usmash a landing or usmash a roll or spotdodge as a hard read, but don't expect them to be dumb either. You could try to bait a roll from the ledge and usmash that or something.

I really don't fish for up smash; to be quite honest I was asking this question because some people think that Pikachu players in general fish for up smash, which leads to punishes from the opponent. Thanks for the advice, though. I will keep that in mind just in case.

 

[Jaguar360]

Did D-throw change its trajectory in the latest patch? I can't get D-throw --> Thunder working at all now since it also sends the opponent in front of Pikachu now. Unfortunate if so.

 

[Thor]

Did D-throw change its trajectory in the latest patch? I can't get D-throw --> Thunder working at all now since it also sends the opponent in front of Pikachu now. Unfortunate if so.

Dthrow -> thunder works if your opponent is DIing behind you. So just use uthrow and chase after them until they start DIing behind you, then... shock... them with the mixup when you need a KO.

And some people just always DI in front of Pikachu. We have a term for them. It's "smart". Fortunately, they're easier to chase with double jumps since we know where they'll be going most of the time.

 

[Ritronaut]

Alright, I have kind of a noob question, how exactly does Bair work? I sometimes use it facing towards the stage expecting a stage spike, but then they get launched away from the stage. Exactly how do the hitboxes work, and what should I aim for when I want to stage spike and kill?

 

[Thor]

Alright, I have kind of a noob question, how exactly does Bair work? I sometimes use it facing towards the stage expecting a stage spike, but then they get launched away from the stage. Exactly how do the hitboxes work, and what should I aim for when I want to stage spike and kill?

I can't say I'm correct so someone feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but from what I can tell, if they're on the left side of Pikachu when it ends, they go left, and if they're on the right side of Pikachu when it ends, they go right. If they're in the middle, I don't know. This is just what I've observed while playing.

 

[Kaladin]

I can't say I'm correct so someone feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but from what I can tell, if they're on the left side of Pikachu when it ends, they go left, and if they're on the right side of Pikachu when it ends, they go right. If they're in the middle, I don't know. This is just what I've observed while playing.

Yup, this is correct. We can control where they come out by DIing during the move.

Could someone give me a synopsis of Pika's best/simplest frame traps? I'm considerinrg actually getting into competative smash, and I'm not sure how I ought to be frame trapping with Pika. Thanks!

 

[bakku-shann]

so I have been playing pikachu a lot ( on the 3ds) and I was wondering how in the world do you setup for jab locks? I have no ideal. I see esam so it all the time and I was wondering how does he do that. also im kind of new to smash so I was wondering what in the world all this frame data stuff meant. it is useless to me.

 

[Angiance]

so I have been playing pikachu a lot ( on the 3ds) and I was wondering how in the world do you setup for jab locks? I have no ideal. I see esam so it all the time and I was wondering how does he do that. also im kind of new to smash so I was wondering what in the world all this frame data stuff meant. it is useless to me.

Jab locks can be setup from N.Air, D.Tilt and D.Air

Frame data is to understand the overall duration of specific aspects of an action

Ex. D.Tilt has a 6 frame startup, so it's quick to come out; it's hitbox is active for 2 frames, so you have to be precise with it; it's recovery is 10 frames, so it's pretty safe if you miss

 

[bakku-shann]

`oh that makes sense. so its pretty much helps you know what moves are safe or not. like if mario throws out a f smash and u spot dodge it frame data will allow you to pick the best moves to punish with

 

[Angiance]

`oh that makes sense. so its pretty much helps you know what moves are safe or not. like if mario throws out a f smash and u spot dodge it frame data will allow you to pick the best moves to punish with

Well, it also helps you better understand your moveset and better build your fighting style

 

[busken]

How do you guys play pikachu in neutral? What tools do you abuse?

 

[Angiance]

How do you guys play pikachu in neutral? What tools do you abuse?

Space the opponent out with D.Tilt, Falling F.Air, and U.Tilt if they try and go over you or around you

Use Quick Attack as a mix to counter projectile spacing in neutral
neutral

You can also dash in and do a sh F.Air but weave out if it hits shield and then space with D.Tilt

 

[Jaguar360]

How do you guys play pikachu in neutral? What tools do you abuse?

Angiance answered well. To add:

Retreating thunder jolts to get them to approach, d-tilt for spacing, try to get in with Quick Attack or just move around the stage with it. Falling f-air is good for getting them to block, as you can get some good followups off of it and it has pretty low endlag. Also try for u-tilts since it's your best combo move. Really fast and a good anti-air move as well.

 

[busken]

Pikachu also has a high learning curve. Learning how to control QA and all its variations is very important. Mastering FH TJ mix-ups are important to because it basically gives you a free read with 0 commitment because it forces a defenisve option. In combination, with QA you can create a plethora of mix-up just of FH TJ. Mastering FH TJ+QA and reading their options practically makes your spacing second to none. I think D-tilt is one of pikachu's best moves because it great for spacing and can be acted out of very quickly. If they shield it they are forced to jump OOS which can be beaten by N-air which is also safe on shield. D-tilt+nair covers so many options since they are both safe on shield and come out super fast. Once you nair you can fall with TJ which leads to even more mix-ups. Pikachu's neutral game really comes together with his normals and specials.