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

[Eonn]

Fair is a Fair-ly difficult move to space properly! You have to get used to the idea that Pika's Fair is a disjointed move--the part that hits you extends ahead of his body by a good amount, so if you space it so that only the very tip of the move hits your opponent, then many characters won't be able to shield grab your landing frames, whereupon you can punish their grab recovery with your own throw, or with Ftilt / Dtilt / Usmash / Fsmash. Notice the qualifications! Some characters, such as those with tether grabs (and Olimar) might still be able to reach you, and depending on your spacing, someone like Shiek might still be able to shield-drop > dash-grab you. It's important to know the precise range of the move, so get into practice against Mario or someone and try doing neutral Short Hop Fair FF at a range where it will definitely whiff. Now, nudge Pika over a hair and try it again and again until you hit with it. Once you understand your maximum range, you can move on to the hard part: trying to maintain that spacing while jumping forward, and then the *really* hard part: trying to nail that spacing while jumping forward at someone who's running around.

The second part of this idea is that you have to make your opponent guess at whether you're really planning to land with Fair FF or not. The reason that ESAM can usually get away with Fair FF is that his opponent has to make additional guesses over whether ESAM is really landing with Fair FF, or if he's doing empty-jump FF Grab, retreating Fair / Dair AC, crossup Fair / Dair AC, or SH Quick Attack (which is a whole ball of wax on its own). This means that, for his opponent, punishing Fair FF is not an automatic reaction, but a conscious decision that has to be made, meaning, in practice, that they're either guessing over what ESAM's Pika might be up to and pressing buttons preemptively, leaving them open to punishment if they guess wrong, or reacting to a gamut of possible choices, making it much more slow and difficult to punish the Fair FF, which is actually very frequently unsafe.

... I'll type up a blurb on Quick Attack later.

Thanks for the write up! Is cross up fair ever safe though? It seems like it would be easy to punish with a grab on reaction. Anyway, I look forward to your blurb on QA!

On an unrelated note, how do you determine frame advantage on shield? Is it just if the move has less endlag the time it takes to drop shield and counter attack (7 frames + a variable amount I believe?)?

 

[Hoenn]

@ Eonn I wrote a reply on the previous page and decided to tag you in it

Wasn't sure if it would notify that but it will give you some info relating to that

Pikachu Fair is (From my experience) Never safe on shield, but they do not get get a guaranteed punish
They have to read where you land in order to punish it

They cannot react to it because human reaction time is not instant, its like 15 frames (Give or take) and they do not have time to react

Its literally a reaction mixup, I asked ESAM this directly

 

[ConCeal12]

How do you kill with Pikachu's up throw downB when the opponent DIs? I think I've seen esam following the opponents DI and getting the pull down and thunder crash. I always fly out of the thunder area when I try to follow DI

 

[Angiance]

@ ConCeal12

You need to run under and reverse fh Thunder so that the cloud stays low and your dash momentum gets countered by your reverse-causing you to stay in line with the falling thunder

Now, if your U.Throw places them high, you can just run under and sh/fh then ah (air hop) Thunder; your ah will cancel all of your foward momentum

 

[ConCeal12]

Whoa. News to me I will give this a shot. Thank you good sir

 

[The_Devious]

i can't hit the opponent with the thundercloud, how do you do it?

 

[Angiance]

It depends on the percentage...but it also depends on how they're knocked back

 

[ConCeal12]

I think I'm doing something wrong here. Now I'm momentum canceling the other direction still away from the thunder zone

 

[Angiance]

What d'you mean the thunder zone?

 

[ConCeal12]

The area that Thunder falls at so it can hit pikachu

 

[Angiance]

From your dash you quickly press the opposite direction and then drop your thunder. If you're moving too far then you just need to practice it

 

[isaiah :)]

for most characters uthrow to thunder will connect between 100-140 roughly depending on weight but hat's the average medium, anyway, sounds like you may not be timing correctly, just practice it on cpu's once you get it down, you can start doing it on opponent's and adjusting to DI accordingly, just keep your eye on that sucker you threw up.


any who, i have no issue with using pikachu's move's just getting in my opponent's space, which is common for pikachu's, i just think perfect shielding OS may be pikachu's gate way to the inner circle of all character's defenses. haha they are screwed.

btw luigi's fireball neutral is actually easy to fight with perfect shielding making the match up a little more interesting.

 

[circuspig]

How do I get good with Pikachu? As soon as I pick him up, what should I immediately begin practicing?

 

[isaiah :)]

How do I get good with Pikachu? As soon as I pick him up, what should I immediately begin practicing?

go in to training mode and practice QA, SH dair autocaceled, and down thrown to upB because that's what everyone seems to have the most issue with without putting any real practice in, but those movesrequire practice.

 

[Soul.]

down thrown to upB

Wait, I don't understand. Is down throw to Quick Attack a real thing? Or were you trying to say down throw to Thunder?

 

[M15t3R E]

How do I get good with Pikachu? As soon as I pick him up, what should I immediately begin practicing?

Practice reading your opponent and then pouncing with a mix of aerials, jolts, and grabs. Practice juggling against a variety of characters. Practice common aerial follow-ups from d-throw such as u-air and f-air and learn to anticipate their DI when doing so. Practice your off-stage gameplay such as aerial and thunder edgeguarding. Also off-stage, practice returning to the stage and the edge through every possible
angle of QA. Practice this on-stage too, and using it offensively occasionally. Then try trickier things like auto-canceling d-air, getting the thunder cloud spike, and running off-stage for the b-air stage spike.
There's a lot to this character. I hope Pikachu interests you enough to make the commitment. He's worth the effort.

 

[circuspig]

Thanks. One more question, how do I tell what aerials I should use for each situation? As Pikachu I would usually dthrow -> uair, but I see it's more common to nair. Is it because of more coverage? less knockback? When someone recovers high (meaning onstage), is it better to nair, fair dair or bair?

 

[Angiance]

If they recover high then use U.Air since it's one of our quickest moves in general

 

[circuspig]

Hey, thanks!
I was playing alright today, when I play Pika quickly/correctly and when I'm constantly attacking and landing hits, it feels awesome. I get this speedy-like rush, haha.

 

[Angiance]

Of course you do, it's what Pikachu is all about

 

[M15t3R E]

Hey, thanks!
I was playing alright today, when I play Pika quickly/correctly and when I'm constantly attacking and landing hits, it feels awesome. I get this speedy-like rush, haha.

That rush you feel is what playing Pikachu is all about. It's immensely fun to play with momentum and when your opponent cannot slow your momentum, you win. It's that simple.

 

[circuspig]

Sounds great. I want to be good enough to always feel the rush. Sometimes I don't feel it, like when I play people I think aren't very good at the game, and sometimes I even end up losing because of it.

 

[iVoltage]

So I need some controller help. I'm using the pro controller but I'm not sure what the best way to set it up. Is there anything special or anything I need to set while playing pika? I don't like the default much.

 

[isaiah :)]

Wait, I don't understand. Is down throw to Quick Attack a real thing? Or were you trying to say down throw to Thunder?

sorry i meant up throw, i was in a rush, but yes it is at high precent's with proper DI reading. lol

So I need some controller help. I'm using the pro controller but I'm not sure what the best way to set it up. Is there anything special or anything I need to set while playing pika? I don't like the default much.

well with a pro controller you don't need much since it's easier to perfect shield with it, however, yo u can swap your C-stick to attack. it will allow better juggling once you get use to it.

 

[Angiance]

@ iVoltage
Set 'Jump' to 'R' for an easy fh T.Jolt

For controls that resemble the GCC...
'a' to 'Jump'; 'b' to 'Attack'; 'x' to 'Grab'; 'y' to 'Special'

 

[NotAsian]

Can I ask how to DI up throw thunder? I'm holding right but I'm going straight up I don't know what I'm doing wrong and I'm dying very early to this move it's frustrating. Am I DIing too Earl? Can you not buffer Di? Thank-you

 

[Pikabunz]

You have to DI before you are thrown.

 

[iVoltage]

Hey so me again, I got the game and got my controls setup and I'm ready to start with pika. What some of his bread and butter basics that I would need to know to start off? Also a side question how can you cancel a dash without the slide? Its been just getting me hit alot when I try to block.

 

[M15t3R E]

Check out my above comment about what to practice:

...

About dash cancelling, you can cancel it with shield.

 

[Sonic94]

Is pikachu's goggle alt a digimon reference?

 

[Soul.]

Last I checked the goggle alt was a reference to the Swimmer Trainer class from the Pokémon games.

 

[M15t3R E]

Online it says it is a reference to trainer Gold's goggles from Gen. 2.

 

[Sonic94]

Last I checked the goggle alt was a reference to the Swimmer Trainer class from the Pokémon games.

That seems an extraordinarily random way to replace the classic party hat.
Even so the resemblence uncanny.....

Online it says it is a reference to trainer Gold's goggles from Gen. 2.

Gold doesn't have goggles......

 

[iVoltage]

Gold is the black and yellow hat

 

[Soul.]

That seems an extraordinarily random way to replace the classic party hat.
Even so the resemblence uncanny.....

I personally didn't care much if they replaced the party hat, but all that matters is that both alts are in.

Don't double post though lol

 

[Sonic94]

I personally didn't care much if they replaced the party hat, but all that matters is that both alts are in.

Don't double post though lol

But I gotta post fast......

 

[M15t3R E]

Gold doesn't have goggles......

Then the internet is wrong on multiple sites. But we all know the internet is never wrong... *shudders*

 

[Sonic94]

Then the intetnet is wrong on multiple sites. But we all know the internet is never wrong... *shudders*

I have the original game and he doesn't have them.

 

[Soul.]

But I gotta post fast......

If you want, you can take this kind of discussion to the social thread in our boards, as this is mainly a competitive Q&A thread.

 

[iVoltage]

We needed brendan s hat from gen 3, the one you can't tell is hair or not