What exactly can I do with Skull Bash?

[FalcoFear]

It seems like a slower, less punishable, less damaging, charging version of flare blitz

 

[Ogopogo]

Let's see...



recover.

That's it.
Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Angiance]

It's a magnificent way to escape pressure; jump up high after getting hit and Skullbash offstage!

It's also good for going under the stage, for defensive reasons

But you can also full charge it every once in a while onstage, sometimes the opponent falls for it (do not recommend)

 

[XCounter]

• Recover
• Retreat

And that's about it. There are better options if you read a roll or want to punish a move with a lot of cooldown, and it's not really worth going for as a surprise attack.

 

[choknater]

it's really good for recovery, if you shoot a little low, pikachu will still snap to the ledge.

i also use it as a meaty edgeguard. "meaty" meaning the duration lasts very very long so it will often hit characters trying to recover low, and it will also hit them out of their 1 frame ledge grab vulnerability

this is how i do it:

when i'm hanging on the ledge, i flick away from the ledge to let go of it, and then i immediately skull bash toward the ledge. when you do this, pikachu does a skull bash that sticks to the ledge, and then grabs the ledge again. if you time it right, you can hit certain up-B attacks that recover from a low angle, like fox, falcon, pit, and even ness.

it seems extremely risky vs ness but i swear i sometimes hit him out of his PKT2 haha

 

[Lange]

It's a good move to mix things up and if you need to cover a lot of ground quickly to score a hit or a punish. I find sometimes just sitting there charging it is a good rouse pressure technique because it does do some shield pressure and knocks your opponent back enough to avoid punish. It has its uses and I personally find it pretty usefull just depends on your playstyle.

 

[Balgorxz]

use heavy skull bash instead

 

[Saviorr]

For some reason there's actually no startup lag on Skull Bash when performed directly after a back air. In this situation Skull Bash still has no chance of reliably hitting and being a viable attack. Also this trick only works when using an uncharged Skull Bash.
So like everyone said just use it as a recovery move or for getting a positional advantage.

 

[KurashiDragon]

What exactly can you do with Skull bash? Trade it out for Heavy skull bash so at the very least you have something that's not entirely useless/outclassed in every way. If you want to retreat a situation, quick attack works really well as it does for recovery and you're not killing with the thing unless you fully charge it. It's also extremely easy to punish on shield. I guess it could be used as a positional advantage in a different way than quick attack but I feel it's just outclassed/useless in pretty much every way possible.

 

[NairWizard]

Skull bash offstage to avoid using up your QA when someone is pressuring you from beneath/trying to juggle you. Then, once you're offstage, just QA to the ledge or back to the stage. But yes, Heavy Skull Bash is way better, since it's actually a kill option in addition to being a good retreat.

You should rarely use Skull Bash to recover unless you want to get KO'ed. It's very linear.

 

[JayWon]

I said this many times before but Skullbash should be seen as a mid-long range forward smash which you can also use in the air. You know all the times you whiffed a forward smash cuz the opponent was a bit too far away? Skullbash would have hit. There's also a "sweet spot" range skullbash is very optimal for (about 2 forward smash length). Skull bash is too slow close range and can be seen from miles away if trying to hit far, but no move is more efficient/ quicker than skullbash for throwing out a decent hitbox on that "sweet spot" mid/long range. You can stop approaches with skullbash spaced/timed properly for that sweet spot length (people will tend to try shielding in front of you or dash attack, but before they get that close skullbashing can catch them still dashing towards you). This is poorly worded but I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.

Overall we are WAY too spoiled by all the rest of pikachu's moves! Other characters toolkit have move sets that are majorily composed of moves that have similar "slow" frame data properties like skull bash which they primarily depend on. Sure we have the luxury to always have better options than using a move like skullbash offensively, but stop please stop talking so much **** about skullbash.

 

[JayWon]

Here is a very crappy pic I made on my phone showing the most efficient "sweet spot" for using skullbash offensively. The middle of the red box is most optimal.

Anything closer, skull bash is way too slow and weak. why not use a forward smash?

Anything farther, people can see from a mile ahead and can react and punish very easily.

 

[Saviorr]

pikapikapi

 

[Soul.]

The point of normal Skull Bash is to recover.
Heavy Skull Bash has offensive value once you jab lock someone since it's faster (someone correct me if I'm wrong) than FSmash. That, and recover. Distance doesn't matter because Quick Attack exists. Not sure about Shocking Skull Bash. No one is going to use that move so...

 

[JayWon]

[deleted] .

 

[Emuchu]

This isn't true or at the very least misleading.
People say that Pikachu has a Quick Attack ledge cancel because if spaced properly Pikachu won't go into free fall after using Quick Attack off a ledge.
Pikachu's Skull Bash does not force Pikachu into free fall. This means that a ledge would not cancel anything.

Do think Skull Bash is useful offensively outside of reads/mindgames? Using Skull Bash offensively can be a good trick/gimmick but it just doesn't seem practical if the opponent understands the spacing and timing of the attack.

I find Skull Bash occasionally good as a once-every-few-games gimmick. It's risky as heck on the ground and will get you punished with anything from a dash-grab to a Mario Fsmash / Fox Usmash if you don't call your shots properly. In the air, it's unique as a sudden momentum shift, and is more useful as an attack since you don't have to worry about shields in air-to-air combat, and you still have some air control on your landing.

Besides that, though, it's not very strong, and won't kill anyone, so there's isn't much reason to fear it. I mostly use it to shoot under stages, to shoot way over a stage with my QAttack still intact, or as a slightly aggressive ledge-snap option. Just don't ever give your opponent any reason to expect a Skull Bash, and you can probably get away with shooting out a Skull Bash. But that's the thing, for me: Skull Bash feels like something I "get away" with, rather than something that I should actually do.

For every combat situation where Skull Bash might be useful, I feel like a TJolt or QAttack in the same situation will be useful, whether for repositioning Pika or for forcing a reaction from my opponent.

 

[JayWon]

I find Skull Bash occasionally good as a once-every-few-games gimmick. It's risky as heck on the ground and will get you punished with anything from a dash-grab to a Mario Fsmash / Fox Usmash if you don't call your shots properly. In the air, it's unique as a sudden momentum shift, and is more useful as an attack since you don't have to worry about shields in air-to-air combat, and you still have some air control on your landing.

Besides that, though, it's not very strong, and won't kill anyone, so there's isn't much reason to fear it. I mostly use it to shoot under stages, to shoot way over a stage with my QAttack still intact, or as a slightly aggressive ledge-snap option. Just don't ever give your opponent any reason to expect a Skull Bash, and you can probably get away with shooting out a Skull Bash. But that's the thing, for me: Skull Bash feels like something I "get away" with, rather than something that I should actually do.

For every combat situation where Skull Bash might be useful, I feel like a TJolt or QAttack in the same situation will be useful, whether for repositioning Pika or for forcing a reaction from my opponent.

Definitely agree with all of what you said!

What I posted earlier about Skullbash is not me promoting or persuading you that Skull bash is an AMAZING offensive options. I am merely stating the fact that the most optimal situation for an aggressive use of Skull bash is to know the spacing of that sweetspot range. The ratio of the "start lag" to "the distance the hitbox covers " is most efficient for that tight sweetspot range. This sweetspot area is where you will most likely get away with skull bash and surprise your opponents the most since Skull Bash is very effective in attacking that area quite well. Hope this makes sense!

 

[Emuchu]

Definitely agree with all of what you said!

What I posted earlier about Skullbash is not me promoting or persuading you that Skull bash is an AMAZING offensive options. I am merely stating the fact that the most optimal situation for an aggressive use of Skull bash is to know the spacing of that sweetspot range. The ratio of the "start lag" to "the distance the hitbox covers " is most efficient for that tight sweetspot range. This sweetspot area is where you will most likely get away with skull bash and surprise your opponents the most since Skull Bash is very effective in attacking that area quite well. Hope this makes sense!

Oh yeah, I definitely understood what you were saying. I guess my post was more of a, "Considering all the risk, I sure wish this move hurt more or something" kind of post. Skull Bash is probably the only reason Pika players even care about Customs, haha.

 

[Saviorr]

pikachu is cool

 

[JayWon]

You seem irritated. I saw the video and think you're a decent Pikachu main.
I just don't understand how it cancels end lag. When I tried it and when I watched your video it looks like by the time Pikachu hits the ledge the end lag is already over.

And I did reread what you wrote about the sweetspot distance. Have you ever been able to use that technique without a hard read?

Yes.

 

[Saviorr]

pikachuchu

 

[Shaymin slicker]

Recover, that's it. Don't use it for anything else really.