Pikachu vs. Olimar

[Achelion]

I'm going out of my mind trying to fight my Olimar friend. Skill wise we're almost exactly on the same level, but when we play Pikachu (my main) vs. Olimar (his main) I have no chance in hell. Its like Olimar is the ultimate anti-Pikachu. My thunder shocks get soaked up by his Pikmin who don't nearly never die from it. He'll sit at range and bombard me with Pikmin until I'm forced to get up close. In the event I get close its d-Smash heaven for him. Its range and power are ridiculous, and I don't have a snowballs chance in hell of pulling anything off that will hit him (as opposed to his Pikmin) before his d-Smash sends me rocketing. I need some help BAD seeing as there is a tourney at my college coming up on Saturday. I'd be hyped up if it wasn't for my friend, his Olimar is proving to be an anti-Pikachu.

I consider myself a really solid Pikachu player, in fact, when I play Pikachu It's pretty much an easy win for me except against his Olimar. I've been playing Pikachu since N64 and I don't want to have to switch characters just to counter Olimar.

 

[therofl]

hohohohohohohohohohho sorry double post

 

[therofl]

fool! attack him diagonally with thunder shock! he can defend above and beside himself, but not diagonally! make sure your spacing is correct

use aerials also.. just avoid being shield grabbed

 

[Anther]

This is by far one of the trickiest matchups in my opinion for Pikachu. I'm not entirely sure of my approach game vs olimar but I have some observations that I've made that semi work... and help a bit with the matchup. Though I also might not be telling you anything that you don't already know about the matchup since you play it so often =[.

Olimar's are gonna have different styles in general, some will bombard you with pikmin from a distance, others will pressure you with fsmash and dsmash and his high priority aerials. Basically you need to be able to tell what type of mode they're in and pick a proper reaction. In the event that they're tossing pikmin, you want to charge him and get your sheild up/spotdodge when you get close, and if he fsmashed you, you can release the sheild into a dsmash or ... whatever seems right.

Coming in diganally with fair works/landing behind him with it even better... course he can simply walk back and grab or whatever... and that's bad..

Projectile spam occasionaly to see if you can get him to approach, otherwise it's really a game of looking for openings, finding opportunities to get inside his force field and grab/dsmash him, and not running into all his various tricks. Sadly it's a bit easier for him to get to yours that you to his =].

Also, something else that helps once you get a bit more used to the matchup, is to glance at his pikmin order right before you approach. It'll help eventually in that you won't be caught off guard by purple pikmin owning you out of nowhere.

But uh... yeah.. x.x..

 

[indianunit]

Olimar seems to be hard to hit not just from pikachu but basically from any character due to the fact that he is surrounded by pikman and is hard to even locate him. I would use quick air moves against him. Thunder shock him as well since thats basically the only way to attack him from a far (that and maybe with thunder). Always put the pressure on him, don't let him put the pressure on you, and by that i mean keep attacking don't defend too much. also imo the stage has a huge part in how you play against the pikman and olimar. A stage with ample space is fine but anywhere where you could be stopped instantly may be a problem since olimar can just throw his pikman at you at that very moment.

 

[Achelion]

My friends play style highly involves Pikmin projectile spam which forces me into close range. As soon as I get into range its fSmash, uSmash, and dSmash spam from there on. If I dodge roll in I'm met with Smashes galore (usually Olimar's dSmash) and if I try to get a ground approach I'm bombarded with Pikmin and knocked back by the purple one which screws with my charge. I feel like Olimar is the "perfect" character to combat Pikachu and its severely annoying me.

 

[Robostrike]

Olimar is a tricky character, so sending him away and doing edge guarding won't be too efficient because of his up B. However, remember that Pikman have HP, and the longer they stay alive, their strength increases as well as their HP. When far away, do some thunder shocking. When above just spam thunder. Some QACing aerials will send him away. Don't try to grab him because his grabs has movement range unless if he's falling on you. When he's lashing Pikmin at you, just spam down A or do attacks that has full 360 area damage to knock the pikman off. Other than that, Olimar has a defined set of moves that seem to follow a pattern. Use the pattern to counter accordingly.

 

[KloudMunky]

Here are the steps you should follow to beat Olimar:

1) When the match begins, charge in with multiple attacks.

2) Begin avoiding all of Olimar's attacks, landing some hits when you can.

3) Sooner or later, a Smash Ball is bound to appear. When it does, smash the crap outta that thing.

4) Blow the living hell out of Olimar with Volt Tackle.

The opening swarm of attacks is to build damage up in preperation for the appearence of a Smash Ball. The second step is just a bunch of stalling.

This works for me every time. Hope I helped.

 

[EdreesesPieces]

Have you tried skull bashing his pikmin? You might be too stunned to recovery though. I haven't tried this matchup yet.

 

[Achelion]

Olimar is a tricky character, so sending him away and doing edge guarding won't be too efficient because of his up B. However, remember that Pikman have HP, and the longer they stay alive, their strength increases as well as their HP. When far away, do some thunder shocking. When above just spam thunder. Some QACing aerials will send him away. Don't try to grab him because his grabs has movement range unless if he's falling on you. When he's lashing Pikmin at you, just spam down A or do attacks that has full 360 area damage to knock the pikman off. Other than that, Olimar has a defined set of moves that seem to follow a pattern. Use the pattern to counter accordingly.

Electric Pikmin are a ridiculous counter to Pikachu. The problem is the electric ones are immune to most of my attacks (if I am correct), and as I kill off his other elemental Pikmin there winds up being more and more electric ones (natural selection). It severely pisses me off that I can't hurt them but they can hurt me =|

 

[Ammeren]

-I find that when the match starts, a grab works well. They are too busy pulling out pikmin, the same works for when u have just killed them.
-The way i vs an olimar player is with tonnes of spot dodges trying to get them to miss a grab so i can punish the hell out of them, and with down smashes to stop them from getting away via rolls
-Thunderjolts from an angle seem to work well, an approaching fair never, ever works for me unless u do a fair so that I land behind them
-And juggling them with uairs and u-tilts seem to work well, annoy them until they try to down air u -dodge, then punish them some more
-I think in general try never to be in a position where you have to run up to him, cause he will just chuck a few pikmin, roll and fsmash or dsmash. A dashing shield seems really usefull...

 

[TehBo49]

D-smash is your best friend in this match. Unless he spaces really well, d-smash will outprioritize his pikmin & suck him into it. If you camp him, chaingrab when you can, & use the d-smash strategy, the matchup is a lot easier. Also, to shake off yellow pikmin, use b-air or u-smash.

 

[Dark Crimson]

Thunder and bair own pikmin as far as I've seen. It hurts. ._. And Pika has a lot of spinny moves, so pikmin throw isn't good.

 

[shrinkray21]

That's really funny - us in the Olly forums rate you as one of the top 3 worst matchups for us...we just shouldn't fight each other at all

 

[Rapid_Assassin]

Eh, I wouldn't put Pikachu in the top 3 most annoying. Wolf, Falco, and Metaknight are way more annoying than Pikachu. Maybe I'm just lucky and get mostly yellows...

 

[OmniOstrich]

I basically SH+spam thunderbolts until i get Olimar jumping, if he is smart he will just SH and throw pikmin/use a priority aerial. If he isnt he will double jump assuming you will keep spamming.

In the event of a double jumper i either SH/FF depending on where im at and then DAC+SH+Uair+Nair and proceed from there with aerial combos, supplemented by utilt/usmash/dsmash to keep him above me, and finish with a stage spike/ledge cover.

If he breaks my combs sometimes you can DAC+spot dodge+ugrab and then start the air game again.

 

[DanGR]

Olimar is a tricky character, so sending him away and doing edge guarding won't be too efficient because of his up B. However, remember that Pikman have HP, and the longer they stay alive, their strength increases as well as their HP. When far away, do some thunder shocking. When above just spam thunder. Some QACing aerials will send him away. Don't try to grab him because his grabs has movement range unless if he's falling on you. When he's lashing Pikmin at you, just spam down A or do attacks that has full 360 area damage to knock the pikman off. Other than that, Olimar has a defined set of moves that seem to follow a pattern. Use the pattern to counter accordingly.

You're funny. pikmen don't get more hp the longer they stay alive, they don't get more strength either. The flowers you ask? they're our trophies. thundershocking when far away...haha, this is great stuff. keep on lying to your pikachu friends. ha, a defined moveset... hmmm... so does pikachu, shiek, wolf, DK, MK, PT, pit, etc. Who can do any move in the game, i ask?

 

[Achelion]

You're funny. pikmen don't get more hp the longer they stay alive, they don't get more strength either. The flowers you ask? they're our trophies. thundershocking when far away...haha, this is great stuff. keep on lying to your pikachu friends. ha, a defined moveset... hmmm... so does pikachu, shiek, wolf, DK, MK, PT, pit, etc. Who can do any move in the game, i ask?

I'd give you help, but I play pikachu and olimar and I'd feel bad for revealing any secrets about facing the other. Sorry

Cause I'm sure you're just a god at Pikachu and Olimar.

/endsarcasm

 

[DanGR]

sorry about that raid. I find it humorous though that noone knows anything about my main. I shouldn't be so prideful i guess...
check out the olimar forums. some people have trouble fighting pikachu! look at the tactics they used against olimar. try some of them out. good luck!

 

[Achelion]

sorry about that raid. I find it humorous though that noone knows anything about my main. I shouldn't be so prideful i guess...
check out the olimar forums. some people have trouble fighting pikachu! look at the tactics they used against olimar. try some of them out. good luck!

Now thats a good suggestion. I'm going to check that out.

 

[DanGR]

i couldn't find many of the discussions, but here's one i managed to find:

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=166235&highlight=pikachu+olimar

 

[Kai_]

D-smash is your best friend in this match. Unless he spaces really well, d-smash will outprioritize his pikmin & suck him into it.

The way most Olimar players fool around, that won't really work.

I absolutely despise Olimar players while being Pika.

 

[Achelion]

The Olimars I have played all keep their space very well. Its so hard to get an approach that It makes it impossible to get into his grill.

And FFS, yellow pikmin? If he's immune to 80% of my attacks I should take 80% less damage from yellow pikmin. Deal or no deal?

 

[Anther]

Hmm, this is in no way absolute but just some observations I've made about the matchup. If something sounds wrong then I take it back. My take is that Pika isn't really disadvantaged in this matchup just because he has some pretty solid approaches and kill options vs Olimar.

You don't want Olimar on the ground in this matchup. He's annoying and his ground game beats pika's in damage output by a bit. You can semi pressure him with jolts, but him throwing pikmin is one of the rare situations where a projectile will be better than yours =].

One thing, because of the way he tosses pikmin around, it doesn't seem like he's very vulnerable to grabs, but a lot of olimars will sheild like most chars if you begin a short hop fair approach. That's when you want to get your grabs in. Dash in and shield his attack into a grab or land behind him and grab... just...!... grabs are you friend. When you grab him, this is where you want to get off a lot of damage on the guy. At very low percents you can fthrow and probably catch him again as most people don't exactly expect it the first time at least. Usually you want to follow up a fthrow with a dash into an upsmash. After that you just wanna basically juggle him with utilts, uairs, or whatever aerials keep him above you. Chase his landing spots and shield -> dsmash. Shielding will protect you from any aerials he might throw and the dsmash will probably throw him back into the air.

Basically you want to make it as hard as possible for him to be on the ground, and if he is, you want to have a high pressure game involving landing behind him with fairs and figuring when you can get your grabs in =].

Once you knock him off stage, his recovery options are pretty varied. You all know how to gimp him, but the tricky part is making sure you knock him off far enough so that he can't recover with his uair or other magical things he does off the edge.

Don't do things that'll get you upsmashed t.t.

 

[Muhznit]

Main weapons for me are Up and F Smash, Nair, and of Course, Thunder.

•Dash->Roll is good for setting up F Smash. Spaced Right, it outranges Olimar's Down Smash.
•Keeping him in the air is critical to prevent him from gaining more Pikmin. Up Smash outshines Down Smash here because not only can it be used out of a dash, but also because it's a good setup for Thunder kills AND it kills Yellow Pikmin.

 

[DanGR]

good job anther. you have successfully broken the matchup. being an olimar main, i'd have to agree with you on everything you said.

just keep in mind that olimar has a nasty air game as well. try to stay under him when he's in the air as his dair ha low priority. His fair on the other hand has more priority over any move pikachu has in the air.

 

[Pikaville]

I like to jolt>airdodge>land>into instant grab.The airdodge when timed well willmake him miss you and give you a free super fast grab on landing.HORRAY FOR NEW AIRDOGE SYSTEM!

Also f air>land behind him>pivot grab or smash works well too(as long as your quick otherwise d smash will r**e you)

 

[Achelion]

I'm big into air game. Playing in the air is my specialty (I also main PT, Marth, and Sheik who all have beautiful air game), so getting Oli in the air would probably do me good. I sometimes have trouble pressuring from the ground and forcing them into the air. I feel like some players just glue themselves to the stage.

 

[BbqCombo]

Im not sure about this, but cant you Utilt his pikmen away? its fast and it dosnt use electricity. Also, when he throws pikmen at you, dodge and kill them since when they land, you can kill them since they're far away from olimar

 

[Viewtiful-FX]

A friend of mine could kick my *** with Olimar and Olimar isn't even his main. The problem as I see it, is that Olimar is hard to read, and he as a player is unpredictable anyways.

But with Olimar, you just need to rush him, and just keep the pressure on him. Don't let him just range you the whole time, and watch out for those purples. Seems to work fairly well.

 

[gallax]

What i find is that since olimar can rack up damage so easily its best to kill him as fast as possible because his smashes are so freaking crazy. what i try to do when spamming thuderjolts isnt working is get in close and shield. i wait for most of his pikmin to get in near me and down smash them. they die...leaving olimar with very little pikmin. but you have to get in close. from there on its easier because if they arent careful they run out of pikmin. i love doing this. i try and manipluate them near the edge then get in close and shield. afterwards i either dsmash or grab olimar...trying to get him off the stage. edgeguard him a little..just enough to get him far away from the stage. since he doesnt have a lot of pikmin he wont be able to recover from a long distance. as long as you get close and kill most of his pikmin then olimar is a lot easier if u get really aggressive. u will get damage though.

 

[DarkBlueHated]

Well, I lost a tourney at my college today to an Olimar. I mean really, to me Olimar is so much harder than G&W (<- just haven't encountered a good one I'm sure)... I usually just cruise around reading the threads to improve my pikachu and yes it's been quite helpful. Everything but Olimar. The tourney was 4 stock single elimination and by my third stock he had like 4 yellow pikmin. It was terrible when he latched them onto me. I mean I really feel like I couldn't do anything.

Things I want to mention to people, ONE uncharged down smash does not kill the yellow pikmin, even when struck by thunder or the jolt they fly straight through them hitting you unhindered (created a thunder wall to kill some pikmin). ONE fair does not kill them. Fsmash doesn't kill them (obviously). And other moves used to kill them when latched on gave the Olimar I played against opportunity to grab/smash me.

Like I tried the bair like people mentioned in this thread and he ran under me and upsmashed or he up-b me. He ran in and grab me with his insanely fast long ranged grab when I was trying to kill the pikmin with tilts.

Even when I tried to approach using jolt he'd just jump and latch pikmin on me OR he'd just block and roll away.. he'd also block my fair approach and roll away. When I pursued he'd just spam down smash until I messed up my spot dodge. >_< I guess he really knew how to deal with Pikachu. :/ Oh, and apparently Olimar has a pseudo chain grab on Pikachu from 0-40%.

Is there anything I can do to Olimar, a sure way to kill yellow pikmin instantly (or really fast) while also keeping me safe? I guess I have the same problem as Achelion, I do pretty good against everyone but Olimar, he really feels like a good counter pick.

Edit: Oh yeah <3 Anther he's my idol!!! RAWR!!! Anyways, was wondering if you had any Olimar match up vids with your Pika, or would you use Lucario? O_o

 

[gallax]

uh... you just need to get better with pika. as long as you kill most of the pikmin then your chances get better because his reach gets smaller allowing you to get in closer. try tjolt in the air and and using the QAC(but more for mind games and getting him to miss throwing pikmin). more dmash and less umash to kill the pikmin. when you get in close shield/dodge/grab>throw toward the edge. olimar is EASILY gimped. just hang onto the edge and olimars' upB will not be able to grab. you will get hit by it...but he will still die.

 

[The Halloween Captain]

Whatever you do, don't fight Olimar on final destination. That's pretty much his best course.

 

[Anther]

lol thanks DBH =P.
I greatly prefer Pika to Lucario against Olimar at the moment.

Plus killing pikmin can't be a concentration for how you attack olimar at all. It's just counter productive to you 100%. Number 1, I think attacking pikmin will diminish your stronger attacks, so I usually jab them if I catch them running back because that supposedly takes 2 attacks off of the list, but I'm really not going to attack with the intention of killing them. I think throwing out uair will detach pikmin that are clung to you, though usually I'm approaching and your offensive game will usually keep them from doing too much damage. (It's his projectile, don't get flustered that it's doing damage when you get hit by it.) Also, try to use pika's utilt in place of dsmash at lower percents. That'll keep you from getting ***** from the thing that happens when some pikmin get caught in it and it leaving you open for a Fsmash or grab.

You really just need to have a diverse approach game, because any single approach from Pikachu gets beat very easily by most characters, and this is amplified by Olimar by his very solid and easy to perform counters to Pikastrats. Luckily his counters are easily beat by approaching differently and basically not giving up and throwing yourself at him mindlessly. Dash at him and Shield, then aerial or grab him. Dash into a spotdodge into a dsmash. Straight up run at him and grab when he gets on a pikmin spamming spree. Fthrow -> usmash works pretty well on him at low percents when you do get your grabs. Fsmash is just great when they try to approach you from the ground. Just try out lots of things and do things he won't expect is what it sums up to XD... Don't land above him at any percent over 80!!! T__T.

 

[DarkBlueHated]

Thanks Anther, that should help. And definitely right about the not staying above him after a high %, 3 out of the 4 kills he made on me were from up smash... D:

Well, I guess I'm just going to have to mix it up even more (I felt that I did relatively solid >_<) ... there's a tourney here every quarter and I'll probably see him in the next one. So yeah I guess I'm going to have to just polish up my overall playing style. Thanks for the help everyone. :embarrass

 

[DanGR]

Tip of the day: FD isn't a good olimar stage. Any stage with platforms like battlefield can be a great place to nest. It somewhat protects him from aerial attacks and the platforms make great cover from thundershock.

 

[Rapid_Assassin]

Whatever you do, don't fight Olimar on final destination. That's pretty much his best course.

I disagree with this one. He's good on platforms.

 

[gallax]

i agrees with rapid on this one. most of the olimar fights on places like battlefield allows for olmiar to camp and then move around to gather more pikmin if you kill some of them.

 

[TehBo49]

I find it easier to play against Olimar on Final Destination than on Battlefield. The platforms are bad if your above him. FD is more straightforward & it's easier to use thunder jolt.