Olimar Matchup Thread

Olimar




General Discussion

Olimar is certainly one of the most unique characters in the game. His game focus' on pikmin which he plucks out of the ground. It doesn't revolve around a sword or hand to hand combat, but on projectiles which have their own minds. If he does run out of pikmin he can still attack, but he will be outranged and outprioritzed by almost every character in the game. Although this most certainly will not happen, it still gives you perspective how important pikmin really are. But watch out, they are dangerous and are like the ex girlfriend who, when becomes attatched to you, is hard to get rid of.

Pika's Advantages

1.) Pika has a projectile that outranges olimars
2.) Pika's nair>oli's fair/bair/dair
3.) More awesome recovery
4.) Can easily gimp olimar's recovery
5.) Pika's dsmash can pull olimar into the smash while oli is trying to grab you
6.) Olimar has few kill moves

Pika's Disadvantages

1.) Grab is outranged
2.) Attacks can be diminished by attacking pikmin
3.) Ground game is outranged by pikmin
4.) It just plain difficult to get to olimar behind those little devils
5.) Pika doesn't have any pikmin for defense/offense

Strategy for Winning

General

First off, 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. 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.This means that you should really pay attention to everything that is said here. It is a complilation of many different opinions and many different Olimar matchups.

Now, 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 =].

Grabbing

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. 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. You can also dthrow>utilt/usmash>uair>uair. The dthrow allows you to stay underneath oli and therefor make it a bit easier for you when he is at higher percentages.

Killing Pikmin

Killing pikmin can't be a concentration for how you attack olimar. It's counter productive to you 100%. Attacking pikmin will diminish your stronger attacks. If you get a white Pikmin latched onto you, make it your top priority to get it off though! The other Pikmin types aren't as bad, but a single white Pikmin can do 40-50 damage alone. Throwing out an uair/nair can be useful for detaching them, especially if you are on the offensive. Also, try to use pika's utilt in place of dsmash at lower percents. Also, something that you need to know, an uncharged dsmash does not kill the yellow pikmin, even when struck by thunder or the tjolt they fly straight through them hitting you unhindered. The yellow pikmin are 100% resistant to electric attacks. To kill them you need to rely more on you utilt/usmash. Be more prone to use the utilt though since it isn't one of your kill moves and you do not want to diminish your usmash. It also has fast startup time and can be used relatively faster than most other pika attacks.

Yellow Pikmin

As a side note about the yellow pikmin, if you do decide to use your dsmash to kill off the pikmin, and olimar keeps plucking more pikmin out and tossing them onto you and you return the favor by doing another dsmash(or electric attack), the olmiar will end up with mostly(if not all) yellow pikmin at his disposal. And now, you have to worry about a diminished dsmash along with horribly annoying yellow pikmin which are very dangerous.

Approaching

As for approaching Olimar, this can be quite difficult. Since Olimar has disposable shields called Pikmin there are only a few ways to approach him without your attacks getting absorbed, or worse out-prioritized. You must get in close. However, when you do, his dsmash, usmash, and grab are very hard to avoid. Basically, the options are as followed: 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.

These approaches are very predictable at times though. Any good Olimar player will use his exceptional grab distance to beat you in these approaches. So, right when you notice the Olimar going for a grab, do a quick dodge. It doesnt matter whether you roll behind him, or spot doge, but once you do, punish him for his mistake with a smash or a well placed grab. If you spot dodged, you should be perfect distance for a fsmash or ftilt, but this does depend on the timing of his failed grab attempt and your dodge. Regardless of the option you chose, dsmash will work great, first it will draw him in since he will be in range from his grab, second, it'll get rid of one of his pikmin that have been released from their cage(i.e. thrown and are returning as long as they are not yellow). It is a small benefit, but thats one less pikmin he can throw at you.

The next possible apparoach is a short/full hopped aerial. PLEASE, anyone who attempts this, be on the look out for his up B and up smash. Try to get in from a 45 degree to fake-out an Up-B from Olimar, it has a huge amount of lag at the end that can be punished if dodged correctly (and most Olimar players seem to forget about Up-B as an offensive move)
When going for this attack you must make sure you are positioning yourself at an angle as to fly either right between the two possible attacks, or to make sure he launches a Pikmin first in an up smash attempt which is counterable with any of your aerials minus your up aerial. The fair can lead into a down smash or grab if you land behind him. A bair can rack up some well needed damage with some considerable knockback if you get the last hitbox to connect.

The QAC

Now im not going to go in depth with the QAC, but just be assured, it can be quite useful in this matchup. It gets you in close and fast. Quite punishable of course though. One use of this that you should watch out for is if oli has gone airborn. Use the QAC to get underneath and cancel it into a SH uair/nair.

Going to the Air

If olimar decides to take to the air, get under him or near him and shield. IF you get under him try and juggle with some airiels and/or use your bair for damage purposes and time it so that you cna get zero lag from the landing and you can keep applying pressure once you hit the ground. From shield you can usmash, dsmash, utilt, or grab if you are in range.

Another interesting strategy that one player said, is that once you've got olimar in the air, you can keep pressure on him by not trying to continue attacking him in the air... but by running to his new potential landing location and shielding again and reacting accordingly. If olimar doesn't beat you to the spot he's about to land, he's in bad shape. If he does, just surrender the spot and try to reset.

Oli's Grabs

When closing in on ollie, watch out for pivot grabs. Olimar has a very dangerous grab game. He throws out a pikmin and draws you in. A dsmash can pull an olimar in so be sure to try that out a few times to condition them to stop grabbing as much. But, if you do get grabbed, you will more than likely be dthrowed. If you get (down)grabbed, there re a few things Olimar can do, he can chase you for an Usmash, Pikmin tether immediatly for some quick damage, or if you're at low percent Fsmash to grab again. Really your best option is just to jump immediatly after being released or do an airdodge.

Killing/Edgeguarding

The one very good thing that pika has going for him in this matchup is killing olimar. His recovery is probably the worst in the game, and he is low weight. It may be difficuly to set up a kill or a gimp, but it is very possible and makes this matchup so much easier.

As for killing olimar, a well placed smash or nair will end his life at around 100%. It shouldn't take too much effort. However, you might easily get this character to 150% when going for the kill since it is very hard to land a smash on a good olimar player. Don't feel ashamed if this happens lol. You can also try to usmash him and tie a thunder combo into it. Be creative.

The most obvious choice of taking stocks away from olimar should be edgeguarding. If you grab onto the ledge they cannot grab a hold of it and will fall to their doom when using the tether recovery. Watch out though since the tether can still hit you and spike you off the edge if you do not have invincibility frames. The other thing to worry for is when Olimar is approaching from above, they will more then likely toss a pikmin at you to get you off the edge. Tapping Down and immediately tapping up will resolve this.

When olimar is going in for a kill, he will most likely use his usmash or dsmash since they are his best kill moves. When you are at higher percentages be sure to be on the watch for these moves. They are going to try and get you in close and force you onto the ground or directly above them. Olimar has a great hyphen smash so if you see him runnig towards you, it is probably because he is going to use his hyphen smash.


Helpful Video's

Soon to Come

Overall Matchup

Olimar has a slight advantage.

I KNEW IT HA HA HA!!!! Anyway, I think its pretty neutral, but I do know that if he tries to grab into your d-smash, he gets sucked in...lets see, electric pikmin stick to you and gotta do a NON electric attack with enough dmg to kill them, otherwise your boned...T-jolts will get absorbed by a good Olimar, and his Dsmash has good range and priority. his recovery is pretty gimpable, but what they try to do is throw the purples while floating toward the stage to hit you off the edge then Up+b to live, so anticipate this and roll, drop, jump, something to avoid the hit, and still be able to prevent them from reaching the edge. At higher percents, t-jolt has significant knockback and that should be used strategically, since pushing him further away from the stage usually ends up in death. Platforms are bad against olimar, since he will spam his hyphen-smashes all day and get you that way, also, i found out that his Whistle has super armor frames right at the beginning, so just something else to watch out for. That being said, Pikas range and speed should allow for the matchup to go even, and remember his pikmin can be attacked when running back to him, but not while following, so take advantage of a mis-thrown pikmin and kill it. He cannot do any smashes / aerials except like one w/o any pikmin, so keep the pressure on when he's low on em, and you can give yourself an advantage

I'm just gonna copy and past what I posted in another thread

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When I'm fighting olimar I tend to jump to bait pikmin throwing.
If he throws pikmin from the ground I just jump.
If he jumps with me to throw, I use rising nairs to hit the pikmin to keep em from latching on. Don't do the nair too early though... you can also move forward and backwards to change ur positioning in case ollie tries to get closer while throwing.
You can keep a fairly mid range distance to an olimar that's in spam mode with this
(About 1 1/2 ollie fsmashes lol)
Keeping this range will allow you to toss in jolts in between ollie goin for more pikmin.
When closing in on ollie, watch out for pivot grabs.
If he takes to the air, get under him or near him and shield. From shield you can usmash, dsmash, utilt, grab.
Once you've got olimar in the air, you can keep pressure on him by not trying to continue attacking him in the air... but by running to his new potential landing location and shielding again and reacting accordingly.
If olimar doesn't beat you to the spot he's about to land, he's in bad shape. If he does, just surrender the spot and try to reset.
Also when olimar is recovering keep in mind that most of the time they try to save that second jump.
You might go for an attack and get jumped over and spiked/slapped away and wonder what the hell happened?
Instead try to bait that jump out of em and then force em to recover on the stage.
If they make it back w/o using the tether just come back on the stage and position yourself under him w/ ur shield (like mentioned above)
If they get back and have used the tether already, just use a finisher if % allows or use an attack to put them back over the edge again.

Also pika's nair can go through olimar's fair and bairs w/o taking damage.

Can also go through some dairs. I haven't tested the pikmin colors on the dair. For the fair and bair, that applies to all the pikmin colors.

God I hate fighting Olimars. Here are my notes...

Olimar

*Very hard to approach
Since Olimar has disposable shields called Pikmin., there are only a few ways to approach him without your attacks getting absorbed, or worse out-prioritized. You must get in close, there is no way around this! However, when you do, his down smash and grab are very hard to avoid.
The first possible approach is a dash straight toward him, but any good Olimar player will use his exceptional grab distance. So, right when you notice the Olimar going for a grab, do a quick dodge. It doesnt matter whether you roll behind him, or spot doge, but once you do, punish him for his mistake with a smash. If you spot dodged, you should be perfect distance for a Fsmash, but this does depend on the timing of his failed grab attempt and your dodge. Regardless of the option you chose, Down Smash will work great, first it will draw him in since he will be in range, second, it'll get rid of one of his ****ed Pikmin. Yes a small benefit, but thats one less vegetable he can throw at you.
The next possible apparoach and my favorite is a short or tall hopped aerial. PLEASE, anyone who attempts this, be on the look out for his up B and up smash. When going for this attack you must make sure you are positioning yourself at an angle as to fly either right between the two possible attacks, or to make sure he launches a Pikmin first in an up smash attempt which is counterable with any of your aerials minus your up aerial. I personally like the side aerial since it leads into a down smash, again getting rid of his pikmin.
The next approach is useable against any character really if you know what you're doing. The famous QAC! This can be used for one hell of a mind game setting. If done correctly your opponent will be going "Oh Crap! MIND GAMES! " and will be powerless lol. QAC into an up aerial is good if you want to rack damage since it'll lead to a few combos, but if going for the kill, position your QAC to end behind the character so as to Neutral Air him into the closest edge of the screen. If you're feeling lucky just knock him off the edge if not going for a kill with this, and hope that you'll edge guard him correctly.
The last approach I use is the dash short hopped thuner jolt into any smash. The reason why I hate this is because it's easily blockable and also easily punishable. Only use this if you have no other option.

*Medium-Light Weight resulting in Low Percentage Kills
A well placed smash or neutral air will end his life at around 100%. It shouldn't take too much effort. However, you might easily get this character to 150% when going for the kill since it is very hard to land a smash on a good olimar player. Don't feel ashamed if this happens lol.
Edge Guarding should be an obvious choice against this character. The only thing to worry for is if the Olimar is approaching from above, they will more then likely toss a pikmin at you to get you off the edge. Tapping Down and immediately tapping up will resolve this.

* Do not get into a projectile fight with this character
Try to remove his range advantage by staying close. But watch out for his Down Smash, it hardly has start up lag, and has a wide close range.

Hmm...I'll by sure to post again when I figure out more things to write about.

Os

One thing i will add is a good defense against the oli grab it to dsmash. it somehow pulls him in no matter what the distance if the pikmin touches you while he grabs. the only exception is if it is yellow.

wow. you guys covered a lot in 4 posts. one thing i want to say is that i read that the yellow pikmin have like a 70% resistance to electric moves. this means the usmash will be the best bet for killing them.

70% resistance? i am pretty sure they are immune to electricty. thunders wont remove them.

I get rid of them with Usmash. I get 9/10 kills on Olimar by edgegrabbing. Simple, easy to remember, works. Everything else I would say has already been said.

hey scissors sir...i forgot that there was already a pik vs. oli thread. why didnt you remind us!!!! its like 3 pages long and even anther commented like 3 times. but a lot of info.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=164602

i found the link too!!!!!!

(I have no idea why I'm doing this )

Olimar's weaknesses are as follows:

-Few kill moves, watch out for up-smash
-Bad recovery, obviously
-Easily juggled.

That being said, Olimar has terrific ground game, it's a fight for the low ground! Olimar's U-smash is his best killing move and his Uair can easily juggle and bring up the damage.

Let's see, approaching may be a bit tricky. if you just run up too him expect a Fsmash or a grab, rolling behind him would be the best option. Out of pure laziness most Olimar players will go for a Dsmash if the ennemy is directly behind them, spot dodge and punish (Dsmash would probably be your best option). When approaching from the air, try to get in from a 45 degree to fake-out an Up-B from Olimar, it has a huge amount of lag at the end that can be punished if dodged correctly (and most Olimar players seem to forget about Up-B as an offensive move)

If you get a white Pikmin latched onto, make it your top priority to get it off! The other Pikmin types aren't as bad, but a single white Pikmin can do 40-50 damage alone.

If you get (down)grabbed, there is a few things Olimar can do, he can chase you for an Usmash, Pikmin tether immediatly for some quick damage, or if you're at low percent Fsmash to grab again. Really your best option is just to jump immediatly after being released.

hey guys. i know i only put this up last night...but we already have a **** good first page plus another thread already created with some excellent information combining to make around 4 pages of olimar info. i think we can already move onto the next character...lol. any votes?

Look in the Olimar boards' weekly matchup thread. They already wrote about Pikachu weeks ago.

Oh, nice. Really informative post. This is exactly what I wanted to talk about.

Zap657 said:

If you get (down)grabbed, there is a few things Olimar can do, he can chase you for an Usmash, Pikmin tether immediatly for some quick damage, or if you're at low percent Fsmash to grab again. Really your best option is just to jump immediatly after being released.

Click to expand...

Actually the best way to get out of a dthrow combo is to just air dodge. virtually little an oli can do to continu off of that. only real thing he can do is nair you, or perhaps hyphen smash, either one can be avoided by DI'ing correctly

It is finished finally. Whew. I did a lot of copy/paste then rewording, but man, this took a lot of work. So much information to decode. Tell me what you guys think and if there are any problems when reading it because ive already read it like 5 times and i know i missed a few things.

Hey, just had a couple things I'd like to say, from the olly stand point, that might help you out.

Pika has a projectile that outranges olimars"

Click to expand...

I'd like to think pikmin out range thundershock, but I think later in your guide you contradicted this, so idk what you're trying to say.

Pika's nair>oli's fair/bair/dair

Click to expand...

It all depend on the angle of impact, and color pikmin. Yellow pikmin have ridiculous priority, and should get you every time. Fair and Dair will, for the most part, not work against pika's Nair, but I believe olimar's bair gets pika due to a larger hit box (it goes below and behind).

Attacks can be diminished by attacking pikmin

Click to expand...

I was curious where you found this out at. For all I know it could be true, I honestly don't know. I was under the impression that killing pikmin (although incredibly INHUMANE!!!!) didn't diminish attacks, such as attacking the pillars on luigi's mansion.

I think you also said something about the pikmin chain having a lot of lag afterwards. It's becoming more used, but still not prevalent in a lot of olly play, but there is a land cancelled PC. By that I mean, you get the small hop from the PC and land before the chain comes back, letting you immediately jump or attack out of it. Usually this is only done on platforms, since you have to initially be in the air to get the boost, it's a lot easier.

Also, you might want to advise about desynced smashing .

Hope I helped !!


~Fino

I've noticed that when fthrowing an olimar, the olimar can bair you pretty quick, if your going for a cg.

I actually would choose to CP an Olimar with my Peach given the chance. I dislike fighting Olimar with my Pika.

Okay, whatever you do, don't dash over to an Olimar hoping to break through his defenses. Olimar has a plethora of moves to punish most approaches- most notably his grabs. If you rush in without thinking, you'll get owned every time unless the Olimar flat-out sucks.

What you should do is approach Olimar from slightly above ground. Switch it up between dropping in behind him with a FF fair and landing next to him followed by an immediate d-smash. Before you land, you may want to try to lob a well-timed t-jolt at him. If he shields it in time, no problem. It'll at least confuse him to allow you to drop down and d-smash or grab him.

In the air, you're at a disadvantage directly above Olimar. It's pretty much neutral if you're right below Olimar. You're also at a slight disadvantage if you're directly to the sides of Olimar. Good news is your nair is faster than any of his aerials, so use it if you can.

I find Olimars win in the event of Pikachu and Olimar spamming their projectiles. So if an Olimar spams that pikmin throw, rush in at him! Shake off his pikmin with a quick nair if needs be.

Sadly, Olimar can punish a slightly off QAC to Thunder better than most characters, so use that and other QAC combos at your own risk.

All in all, this is a tough match-up but manageable. The toughest part about it is approaching, but once you can start to read the opponent Olimar, it'll become so much easier. The Cap'n owns.
55/45 Olimar

full jump nair
don't get grabbed
airdodge/shield/spotdodge a lot, utilt or grab (grabs are really short ranged though so)
thunderjolt is ok, but pikmin just take it lol
pika's bair i think works well

ehhh IDK, Olimar is hard for me

i appreciate all the new responses guys but i have to say something that really irks me. READ THE MATCHUP BEFORE YOU POST. Most, if not all, of what you guys just said was already said in the matchup guide. Post NEW ideas. Not old ones. THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Dsmash sucks in Olimar?! :O

if you are semi close yes. if you are at the edge or if they grab with yellow no.

Bumping for great justice! i think the muttering behind close doors about this matchup is enough to warrant a rediscussion.

I've played this match before.

Ftilt is your friend in this matchup, and I have no idea why.

The epic matches against no. 2 of NC vs. me.... -_-....

NC-echo... I would prefer other matches but... My one thought:

1) Hate yellow pikmin. Why? 80 ish % of pika's moves have electric affinity. Even against purple, if you space f-air/d-air/u-air/QA right, you can pretty much outbeat all of olimar's aerials (maybe not b-air that fino talked about cuz NC-echo doesn't do that a lot) and smash attacks. Yellow's don't care. If you got for anything other than tilts/u-smash/u-air the move will ALWAYS get beat by yellow. Yellows have bigger hitbox and more hitstun, and can lead to a 0% > deathspike>edgehog if done over the edge (recently found that out o_o). Due to how yellows normally fly they tend to get stuck on pika's face (NO T-jolts... darn olimar... i luv t-jolts). *remembers facing NC-Echo with 5 yellow pikmin and 1 purple T_T*

2) Hate grabs.... 'nuff said. From my experience, I can no longer airdodge against olimar's d-throw at lower percents. The olimar i regularly brawl against does tons of techchase, foxtrot, pivit grab stuffs that leads to more d-throws and more damage. I just jump... don't care anymore... cuz at the worst case scenario, i'll get about 30 damage from u-smash/u-air/up- b/f-air if I DI the hits right whereas airdodging into constant grabs just gives free damage and I must decide all over again to jump or airdodge. One note, once the olimar gets real good at Powershielding all t-jolts, they'll be able to grab/pivotgrab your landing spots, so remember QaC is like your 3rd jump in spacing your landing spot. Realizing that was real critical for me in the matchup.

3) Killing pikmin will diminish the moves that you use to kill it. It counts as living objects from what i remember. At least, i feel like my n-air's are weaker in killing olimar most of the time.

4) If you are an expert, b-air is your friend against olimar offstage. If you are not, edgehog. If you are stealth, thunderedgeguard/thunair crap.... lol

Edit: I've got some rough vids so if anyone wants to view them (with me winning)... i'll get them up on youtube.

I was reading over this matchup again, and I think a lot of the approaching section is incorrect. QAC approaches are a no-no in this matchup. Olimar has a million and one ways he can punish a qac approach. He can nair, utilt, usmash, pivot grab. There is no great way to approach olimar in all honesty. The best thing to do is to mix it up. Tjolt can be handy if you want to distract an olimar. You can tjolt > aerial or even tjolt > land behind and dsmash. Some Olimars you can bait into full hopping pikmin from a distance, then you can get under them when they try to camp and punish their landing. These things work sometimes, but none of them are very consistent unless you mix it up and stay unpredictable.

The most important thing to do is to watch the olimar's patterns. Most olimars it will be like a reflex to pivot grab or dodge in a certain situation. You have to watch and punish these things by landing in the right spot and getting that one hit that starts a combo. Once you get a hit on olimar, you need to try and get several before he can gain his positioning again. When he regains his ground control, you have to be patient and look for openings.

Another thing, edgeguarding olimars is a little bit more complicated than just grabbing the ledge. Olimar is still a fairly floaty character that can get back even if you are on the ledge. Good olimars will not use their second jump unless they are recovering, so count on them having that. The up B also gives them a little extra jump to get back on. That's not all though. If you have been on the edge for too long, olimar can just uair you to get you off or throw a purple pikmin and then tether. Oli is still very vulnerable off the edge however. Bair and thunder are useful if you want to knock him back again. Also, you can find the spot were he will land and punish with a dsmash or grab. You can punish his landing with other moves, but be careful of his whistle. If he superarmors right through your attack, he can probably punish with a grab, not to mention he's regained his ground position.

Everything else looks okay I think.

yeah this needs to be re-written. maybe i will do some re-writing at work today...

when oliamr throws a pikmin at pikachu when he is doing QAC it gives pika extra frames or freezes him could be bad could be good idk...............................

So I have a problem with my Olimar. the ones i play roll until they have an advantage to grab. I win always if I play campy but is there anyway to be more aggressive?

if they roll a lot it should be pretty predictable, olimar doesnt have a good roll

Dsmash and tjolt him until he stops rolling.

(psst you should lock this kay since its 08 old)