Pikachu's Shield and Getting Shield Poked

[FakeSnakeJake]

So, as most of you probably know, Pikachu's shield is relatively small due to the small character. However, very commonly I run into the problem of getting shield poked very easily by what it seems like random moves being thrown out. What makes even less sense is that usually, my shield is full, which should at least absorb one hit before being poked. Some examples of moves that poke for almost no reason are Fox and Falco's shine, up-smash, and forward smash, C. Falcon's down-air, forward air, forward smash, and even a falcon punch (this happened while playing a friend who was the Pikachu at the time. We agreed that the punch shield poked on frame 2 of the shield being out.) And finally, Jigglypuff's back-air. Is there just a certain angle that the shield needs to be at to block these,can you just not block these, or is there maybe something else I'm missing?

 

[ihasabuket]

Shieldstabs occur when a hitbox hits a characters hurtbox without touching the shield. The easiest way to shieldstab is by throwing out a lingering hitbox and falling onto an exposed part of the shielding opponent. It can however be done with precise spacing. Pika is really short and stubby, so most of the time you wont get shieldstabbed from below; his small shield usually exposes his head making shieldstabs from the top more common.

 

[N64]

The start of pikachu's tail sticks out of full shield. You are most likely getting stabbed there. If the shield is depleted at all you can be stabbed pretty much anywhere.

Light shielding can be ok prevention (but limits your oos options). Angling down and behind you can be ok too, but it potentially exposes other areas. Best options is to minimize the situations that you have to shield as much as possible.

 

[FakeSnakeJake]

Shieldstabs occur when a hitbox hits a characters hurtbox without touching the shield. The easiest way to shieldstab is by throwing out a lingering hitbox and falling onto an exposed part of the shielding opponent. It can however be done with precise spacing. Pika is really short and stubby, so most of the time you wont get shieldstabbed from below; his small shield usually exposes his head making shieldstabs from the top more common.

Alright, that makes sense. I'll start covering my top more.

 

[FakeSnakeJake]

The start of pikachu's tail sticks out of full shield. You are most likely getting stabbed there. If the shield is depleted at all you can be stabbed pretty much anywhere.

Light shielding can be ok prevention (but limits your oos options). Angling down and behind you can be ok too, but it potentially exposes other areas. Best options is to minimize the situations that you have to shield as much as possible.

Light shield sounds like an interesting option, I'll have to try it. The main things I do oos are up-smash, up-air and grab so I'll see what works and what doesn't.

 

[N64]

Alright, that makes sense. I'll start covering my top more.

Couldn't find an image of pikachu standing still, so ignore his movement. Just showing that I meant the base of his tail is probably getting stabbed. Notice how when pikachu's standing upright it sticks out a bit from his body. You'll likely have to shield angle down/behind.

 

[FakeSnakeJake]

Couldn't find an image of pikachu standing still, so ignore his movement. Just showing that I meant the base of his tail is probably getting stabbed. Notice how when pikachu's standing upright it sticks out a bit from his body. You'll likely have to shield angle down/behind.

Ok, that makes sense. Could it also depend on the move my opponent is using, like Falco's d-air might needing more coverage towards the top? I see what you mean about making sure my tail isn't an easy target though.

 

[Psyant]

Yeah, his tail sticks out which makes a lot of stuff very likely to shieldstab you from behind.

There's also a very small bit of his head hurtbox that sticks out the top even at full shield, which makes things like Falco's Dair extremely likely to shieldpoke often.

All you can do is get godlike at shield-tilting or slightly lightshielding, pretty much. Pikachu's shield is definitely one of the worst in the game unfortunately.

 

[Synnett]

You can angle your shield, which is good, and you can also lightshield. I guess it's something nice to learn, as you can gauge you shield to the desired size and you can control how far you slide after a hit.

The worst shields are G&W, DK's and Bowser's lmao. For Pikachu it shrink down at a slower pace (since it's already small), so most of the time the angled lightshield will cover everything. Pikachu' is not that bad, but it's important to learn to shield stuff, more than most characters.

It might be awkward at first, but it's rather easy to implement, as you'll stop getting shield poked. It's better to start doing it soon tho.