Pikachu

[Pikabunz]

You can DI the uthrow to avoid the thunder cloud.

 

[Leaf.]

It isn't, you can DI left or right while he is doing the throw and you will escape.
Prime's message, or this page even, didn't show up until just now.

 

[Psyant]

Yeah up-throw thunder is pretty easy to get out of. The only time I try it is against huge characters like Bowser who're more reliable to land it on as slight DI isn't enough for them to escape.

One minor thing I've forgotten to mention for a while is that Pikachu's pummel is amazing in this game. Builds damage so fast. They've been buffed across the board, probably because it's easier to get out of grabs now, but Pikachu's seems pretty exceptional for damage building.

 

[Coq1]

Okay thanks guys, I always DI when I get hit but never think about it for throws. I was spamming air dodge to no avail xD

 

[Nocally]

SH D-Air's startup has pika curling up in a ball sorta, and that's actually a very amazing trait Pikachu has with many of his attacks too; they shrink his hurtbox allowing him to slip past hitboxes from the opponent; lookin like a Smooth Criminal

Something I have noticed too is Pikachu´s hurtbox is (obviously) smaller when he is down-tilting. I was fighting a fox, and every time he would initiate his jab combo, I would just hold down the control button, escape it and counter with either a down-air or down tilt. Pikachu seems to be able to avoid a decent amount of attacks just by crouching and down-tilting.

 

[Angiance]

Crouching to avoid things is somethin we could abuse in Brawl as well

 

[Leaf.]

Landing with Bair does the same thing. It's really cool and can protect you from a few punishes if they choose wrong.

I just won a local wifi tournament that was on the Houston FB group. It was a lot of fun. The more I play Pika, the more confident I am in this character in general. I'm not sure if it's just that the game is new, but it's getting increasingly easier to gimp as I practice and get better in general. Pika can get outranged and outkilled super hard but catching people off guard with things like U-throw to Thunder could really help. The increased speed of things like thunder make it a lot easier than it was in Brawl to actually hit that, and it can kill if you use it right.

I'll try to find a way to upload some of the replays I've gotten so far.

 

[Angiance]

Ooooooo, replays. That's good cause it's pretty difficult to find good Pikachu play

 

[Krysco]

I don't know if this has been said already and I don't even know if this is the right place (I don't see a stickied moveset analysis thread) but I randomly found out that Pikachu moves backwards a bit when he uses his utilt. That never happened in Brawl to my knowledge and I actually used Pika in brawl. Found out by spamming it for 100-man Smash. I doubt it has much use but because it pushes him back a bit it might be able to dodge attacks barely, idk. Sorry if that's common knowledge!

 

[Angiance]

I don't know if this has been said already and I don't even know if this is the right place (I don't see a stickied moveset analysis thread) but I randomly found out that Pikachu moves backwards a bit when he uses his utilt. That never happened in Brawl to my knowledge and I actually used Pika in brawl. Found out by spamming it for 100-man Smash. I doubt it has much use but because it pushes him back a bit it might be able to dodge attacks barely, idk. Sorry if that's common knowledge!

Oh no, that's interesting. But it's depends on how far he slides, and if that momentum carries over into anything

 

[Leaf.]

So, I had some issues. My 3DS broke, but I went and got another.
But all those replays are gone, conveniently. I had some really cool stuff in them, too. :/

 

[creep]

So, I had some issues. My 3DS broke, but I went and got another.
But all those replays are gone, conveniently. I had some really cool stuff in them, too. :/

They should be saved on your SD card...?

 

[Leaf.]

Yeah, but its not showing up at all. No replay data. Maybe I'll pull it up on my computer and see if I can find the files on the SD card, at least.

 

[Krysco]

Just found a neat use for that utilt thing I mentioned before. If you have Pika be right up against a ledge with his back facing towards it and do utilt > thunder he goes off stage to do the thunder. I tried it with his other specials and he stayed on stage. I was trying to see if it could be like dtilt from brawl where you could do dtilt > sh > thunder but in this case the sh isn't even needed although it does help.

Just did utilt > sh > thunder x3 > double jump > thunder x2 and got back with both uses of QA. So utilt might be the new dtilt.

Edit: Also works with both Thunder customs but Thunder Burst has way too much lag and doesn't keep Pika in the air so you can't even pull off 1 without sding. Can be used on the edge of any platform. Was able to get 2 distant thunders with and without a sh and 3 distant thunders with a fh.

Should also mention that I tested this on Battlefield so the numbers might change depending what stage you try it on.

 

[~Radiance~]

Due to dsmash being nerfed uthrow to thunder reminds me of the new dsmash in that if they don't DI use it. Dsmash tech reads are still around tho, and teaching feels way more vital in this iteration so get good at reading techs yo

Oh also hai old pika pals, I'm maining pika again most likely so here I am again lol

 

[BluePikmin11]

Because I felt like it.
Feel free to use for whatever purpose you want.

 

[Angiance]

Oh, cool! A drawing of Pikachu's B-Air landing

 

[Reila]

Why is it so hard to drop Pikachu? I was convinced I wasn't going to play Pikachu in Smash 4 but I find myself picking him more often than not D:

Adorable drawing btw, RedPikmin

 

[infomon]

There's so much speculation now about what Sakurai might change to "character balance" in the 1.0.4 update... anyone think Pika will get any nerfs/buffs?

 

[Choice Scarf]

I hope the smash attacks come up faster or have less cool down. Pika feels weird having relatively laggier smash attacks considering how much less damage they do. Otherwise he's fine.

 

[infomon]

Ya but mario doesn't quite have Pika's mobility, either. Gotta balance it somehow.

But honestly pika can feel really slow in some matchups, when you're zoned out to oblivion, or when stupid tiny mii brawlers are overall faster than pika...

 

[Soul.]

There's so much speculation now about what Sakurai might change to "character balance" in the 1.0.4 update... anyone think Pika will get any nerfs/buffs?

I would like NAir to receive a power buff. At least Brawl levels of power.
Basically, just give Pikachu more KO options.

 

[Psyant]

Even a slight boost to up smash's kill power would go a long way. That'd be the ideal improvement imo, besides stronger nair. I think if they change anything with Pikachu it's likely to be strength boosts to his strongest moves like smashes, dash attack and T2, to help him kill easier.

That said I'm only expecting a few too good characters to be toned down a little bit with this patch. I doubt they're gonna be changing lots of characters at this point.

 

[Mykelism]

I agree that I'd like to see a buffed nair. Though I'd selfishly like to see QAC back on all stages to make Pika godlike.

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

Don't worry, it's not selfish. Pika needs it, we're talking about that lots in the 3.5 changes thread.

 

[san.]

I used Pikachu as a fun tertiary in Brawl and just now started to try out Pikachu as a possible secondary in Smash 4. I'm really liking pivot+buffered uair as an approach. Is this a good option for Pikachu?

 

[~Radiance~]

uair has good range and leads into combos. id say its viable so long as the pivot animation before a RAR uair comes out is decent

also its nice to see you in here san, what are your opinions on ike this time around? ive heard people say hes really bad, but as someone who loves playing ike, i feel like he seems to be about the same minus jab cancels

 

[Soul.]

Thunder is no longer frame 1 after hitstun. Wow. Rush cancelling isn't frame 1 either.
Not sure if this hurts Pika, but then again, the character is already good. I'll leave another video just so we can see how will Pikachu play on the Wii U version lol.

 

[Pikabunz]

http://smashboards.com/threads/pikachu-1-0-4-changes.378398/

 

[saviorslegacy]

So since there is no Sheik Amiibo I decided to get a Pikachu one. I was messing around with Pika some and noticed that you can do this with Pikachu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNT1AfT1KGE

Kind of hard to control but pretty much makes Bair, Fair, Uair and Nair combo since he gets 0 landing lag.

Is this already known?

 

[dettadeus]

it's called edge cancelling, you could do it with quick attack in like every game lol

 

[LunarWingCloud]

I'm loving Pikachu in Smash Wii U. While KOs do indeed happen later in percents than usual I'm noticing KOs aren't actually that much more difficult to get, I guess the 3DS controls are just, I dunno.

 

[saviorslegacy]

it's called edge cancelling, you could do it with quick attack in like every game lol

Thanks, wasn't sure about it.

What practical uses does it have?

 

[DavidAgile]

I hope this is the thread to post this in, but you can QAC to your hearts content on Lylat Cruise. And it happened to work on the moving platform on Smashville as well.

 

[dettadeus]

I hope this is the thread to post this in, but you can QAC to your hearts content on Lylat Cruise. And it happened to work on the moving platform on Smashville as well.

QAC works on all slopes and moving platforms, although i think platforms that only move vertically are harder, like you can only QAC and fall through them while they're moving up, as opposed to having all your usual options.

 

[Funkermonster]

Kind of a weird story, but Since Greninja and Charizard don't have any amiibos at the moment and I couldn't find one for Marth, I bought a Pikachu one a few days ago even though I don't really play the character that much (I did use him a lot in the 3DS demo though). It was already bodying me by the time it got to level 40s after all it learned from me even though I hardly play him, but I don't think I was feeding it good information and it would probably get destroyed if I pit it against another amiibo or a better player than myself since I don't now too much about . I reset it back to level 1 and made it forget everything so I can re-teach it to be an even bigger threat so it knows just what to do, and it also slightly inspires me to play Pikachu myself sometimes. Trouble is though since I don't know all that much about the char, I don't know the first thing to try and teach it (besides spamming Thunder Jolt to camp, and use Usmash as its primary kill move).

So I'm just wondering, whenever anyone starts learning Pika, what would you say the first thing to practice with? Also for a non-amiibo question, what are his best aerials? What kinda turns me off about this character in all the smash games (besides N64 and Project M) is that his aerials feel kinda strange to me and I dunno how to utilize them well.

 

[JayWon]

I know F-tilt does more damage than D-tilt and they have different knockback but if someone can give a much more detailed, hard facts comparison between F-tilt and D-tilt that would be great.

Is D-tilt slightly faster or have slightly better range? and how do you guys follow up when you trip the opponent with a D-tilt?
I noticed if I spam F-tilt when an opponent is in range and they are shielding it, they can squeeze in a hit and interrupt my F-tilts with their faster tilts. But if I were to spam D-tilt and they were shielding it, it seems like they cannot squeeze in an attack compared to F-tilts.

 

[Pikabunz]

Ftilt comes out on frame 6 and dtilt on frame 7. Dtilt has more range and is less laggy, so it's a much safer option for spacing than ftilt.

 

[Killtrox]

Hey folks, I'm trying to get used to Pikachu as a secondary character, but I sometimes have difficulty with the recovery. It seems like maybe 1/10 of the time, the second quick-attack simply doesn't happen. As in, I'll do up, and then up-right, and instead I just fall straight down. Is this an issue for anyone else? Is it lag? Is it me?

 

[Emuchu]

Hey folks, I'm trying to get used to Pikachu as a secondary character, but I sometimes have difficulty with the recovery. It seems like maybe 1/10 of the time, the second quick-attack simply doesn't happen. As in, I'll do up, and then up-right, and instead I just fall straight down. Is this an issue for anyone else? Is it lag? Is it me?

There are a couple things it could be. The first quirk of Quick Attack is that there's a minimum angle difference requirement between the two parts of the move. Moving from the Wii Classic Pro, with an octagon gate, to the WiiU Gamepad or a 3DS, with a circle gate, occasionally causes me to flub inputs and die to this.

The second possibility, as you said, is lag. The timing of the second quick attack is a little tight, compared to most recoveries, so you have to make sure you're correcting for the timing difference if you can detect any net lag... and I hate to admit it, but sometimes my inputs just get sloppy when I panic, and either my directions or my timing goes out the window, killing me at 10% after some attempted quick-fall Nair or b-reverse Thunder shenanigans or whatever.

By and large, though, I usually have no trouble getting Quick Attack to consistently do what I want in For Glory, so it's certainly something you can adapt to.