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Pikachu Quick Attack Aerials

Gabriel - Jthor

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
14
Location
São Paulo, Brazil
3DS FC
2981-6298-8464
So, I was messing around with Pikachu on training mode and noticed that he can waveland out of the first half of the Quick Attack(without QAC) and that got me thinking, can he use aerial moves too? the answer? YES, ALL of them.

The uses i've found for this are:
-Approaching with a QA Nair, just like you would with a SHFFL Nair.
-Lifting opponents with a crossup QA Uair.(can be followed up with a bair at high percents, so it's a kill combo)
-Pushing opponents away with the landing hitbox of the Dair.
-You can Fair out of it for a beautiful 2% of damage.

here's a video(don't mind the quality, I couldn't hold the camera while playing):
https://youtu.be/5ypht7e8aaA


I wanted to know if this is a known thing in the Pikachu meta, and if it is as useful as I think it might be.
 

Choice Scarf

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Apr 3, 2014
Messages
482
Location
Albany, NY
This has been known for a while but sure let's talk about them.

QAC aerials are kind of like a mix up of the SHFFL aerials primarily because they go roughly the same distance without the continued momentum from your dash (preventing you from attacking and evading). It is also a mix up for QAC Jump -> aerial, which you can think of like the difference between DJC aerials vs rising aerials for characters like Ness and Yoshi.

The primary benefit of QAC aerial is the low endlag after the move. Each aerial without any further user manipulation will last 8 frames before collision with the ground and going into the aerial's endlag animation. Fun fact is that you can (and therefore should) L-cancel QAC aerials to speed this up even faster. You can also fast fall the aerials and cut down on how long the move will last, though whether that's good or bad depends on the aerial.

Nair and Uair start off early (frame 3) and are probably going to be the main things you will do. Nair has enough time for the active hitboxes to complete about one rotation before landing (following Pika's back), and Uair fits all 3 of its hitboxes, ending its last low horizontal sending one just before Pika lands. Fast falling this would decrease your coverage so you would want to aim for cross-ups and hit then with your back (where there should be guaranteed hitboxes).

Bair happens to begin on frame 8, so you shouldn't fast fall this one or the move won't come out at all. in the current 3.5 version, QAC Fair suffers from a related problem where it actually doesn't have active hitboxes because it comes out on frame 10 normally (meaning there's no hit no matter what you do), but it landing will autocancel instead of using Fair's landing lag, so you can kind of use QAC Fair as a pump fake and then grab or smash or something instead,

Dair is a special case - the regular hit doesn't come out until frame 14, but because of the landing hitboxes it is actually better to have maximum fastfall on this, and there will always be hitboxes. This is perhaps the easiest aerial to do since you would hold down, so it's a good move to practice when first figuring out the tech.

Usage wise, SHFFL aerials have much more variable spacing to fit Pika's hit and run tactics, while QAC aerials also have more limited zoning because of the inability to travel backwards (where Bair, Uair, and Nair have safer hitbox placement). But if you want to land at point blank range and follow up with more shield pressure this QAC aerials are a good alternative. It just requires the player to aim for the ground as all QAC tech does. It's good for flash too.
 

Gabriel - Jthor

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
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Location
São Paulo, Brazil
3DS FC
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That was the best response i could have gotten! Thanks man, really helps to know about these things. Definetely going to make my interest for Pikachu even bigger. He's really tough to play as because of his poor range and sub-par wavedash. Discovering this tech got me really excited because I thought about all of the possibilities of being almost instantly inside the opponent's area with a fast hitbox to go with it. Going to implement this in my playstyle for sure, being able to punish enemies in a distance with a kill combo is just one of the amazing things that keep me wanting to get better with this character.
Thanks again!
 
Last edited:

X Riptide X

Smash Cadet
Joined
Mar 24, 2015
Messages
73
I'm pretty upset about Pikachu's QAC nerf in 3.5- I tend to use it a lot. Here's a tip- a mixup I often liked to do was, instead of using QA to try and sweetspot the ledge, doing it onto the stage and QAC into another QA to get some extra breathing room. What I tend to do now is resorting to ledgesnap, then trying to do a jump cancelled QA for the same reason as my previous method. I haven't attended many tournaments, so I don't know how useful my new method is in competitive play. Any thoughts on this?
 

Gabriel - Jthor

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 25, 2015
Messages
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Location
São Paulo, Brazil
3DS FC
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That may be punishable because QA has so much delay before the move actually starts, but as a mixup seems like a nice thing to implement in my playstyle. I think you can waveland backwards with the second QA to get some up tilt punishes too. The more I think about it the more uses i find for this, but it should remain as a mixup, because if it gets read, it can get you punished really hard.
 

Choice Scarf

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Apr 3, 2014
Messages
482
Location
Albany, NY
If you mean letting go of the ledge and then immediately QAing then I think if you're fast enough you can stay safe with the ledge invincibility. I'd double check how many frames of invincibility you get though.

It should be okay to use every now and then since the 12/14 frames of start-up is usually fast enough. It's just that you'd have to aim for a platform to edge cancel or jump above the stage to get enough height to QA diagonally into the ground for a QAC. Really depends on where the opponent is, though in most cases it's less threatening than an aerial.

If you mean tournament winner (straight ledge jump) to QA then that's too laggy to retain ledge invincibility, so that would be a riskier mix-up.

Anyway not exactly sure how relevant this is to the thread topic of QAC aerials - not that discussion is bad but you may want to start a new thread or just ask one of the bigger threads (Social, Metagame, FAQ, etc.)
 
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