Pikachu's move analysis

Hey all, its ESAM, and the boards have been kinda dead with discoveries, so I just want to help everybody with how and when moves can be used. I'll add frame data (Mostly just start-up and cool-down)

*Note* FAF means First Actionable Frame (So cooldown is the number shown after FAF minus 1)


Jab:

Hitbox Active: 2-3 (rapid jab hits every 5th frame starting from 2)
FAF: 22 (single jab)

Great for interrupting (Jumps and approaches)
Great for tripping (You can U-smash, grab, or F-smash if you react to the trip)
Great for move refreshing (I sometimes sacrifice myself getting hit so jab them like 7-8 times to refresh my moves)
Decent for Spacing

In general, this moves is best when your opponent is at mid-high % (Like 70 or more) because as damage increases, trip rate increases as does hitstun, so the amount of time in between the jabs that they can do something is less. This makes it much more effective and we can often get a decent amount of damage if they don't start DIing to get out immediately.

Caution: The immense cool-down can lead to some serious punishment, so don't jab too often at high %. It is always a tripping option though.

F-tilt

Hitbox Active: 5-10
FAF: 30

Great for anti-air (Up angle)
Good for really high % kills (170ish)
Good for ledge pressure (Down-tilted hits people off edges)

F-tilt is REALLY good for anti-air. It is my main use for it. It hits a MK trying to approach with fairs from the air (Like falling from off the level). It is great. It can also help you get kills when your opponent is playing pretty safe due to its great start-up (5 frames I believe, I'll have it later) F-tilt angled up is the strongest, so if you are trying to kill with it I recommend using that.

D-tilt

Hitbox Active: 7-9
FAF: 19

Amazing for spacing
Amazing for low-% combos
Amazing for Tripping
Great for shield pressure

D-tilt is amazing at low %s. D-tilt-d-tilt is ALMOST a true combo, so it is possible to get d-tilt d-tilt (trip) to a grab (which can lead to CGs on most of the cast). It is a fast move with good shield pressure and it is Pikachu's 2nd biggest attack horizontally.

Caution: At high %s it is dangerous since you have to hold down. Trading with this move is bad for Pikachu, so be wary of other people's fast options at high %s. You don't want to trade with a MK D-smash.

U-tilt

Hitbox Active: 7-13
FAF: 24

Great for combos
Good for Kills (set-up to thunder)

U-tilt is a situational move, but in the situations it is applicable it is amazing. At low %s it leads to u-tilt u-tilt uair nair, which is like a 34% combo. It also leads to U-tilt thunder, which is one of Pikachu's staple kill move. It has good start-up, but the after lag is pretty bad.

Caution: Don't over-use this at high %, it will get you punished. It has some end-lag, so you can die from it (Although you are DIing correctly for most moves)

Dash Attack

Hitbox Active: 5-16
FAF: 50

Great for Punishing Air-dodges
Great for getting that extra little distance to punish falls

Dash attack is fairly situational, but the situations in which it can be used it flourishes. I love dash-attacking people after they DI a dair up or something, it is so fulfilling. Also, you can use it to punish get-up options, or just somebody DJing onto the level (This works especially well on people with poor recoveries like Olimar and Ivysaur).

Caution: Dash Attack has a lot of end-lag, so if you hit somebody's shield...you will get punished fairly hard. Be wary at high %s of using this move.

F-smash

Hitbox Active: 15-22
From Charge, Hits On: 2
FAF: 50

Great for Killing
AMAZING for spacing
Great for fake-outs (stutter steps and pivots)
Great for Punishing

F-smash has become one of my favorite moves. It has great range, great power, and it is amazing for fake-outs because of the ability to stutter-step and pivot. It isn't even that punishable, most of what you are going to get punished by are dash attacks or grabs.

Caution: Don't use this at high %s against Ness or Lucario, they have pretty good kill throws.

U-smash

Hitbox Active: 9-16
From Charge, Hits On: 5
FAF: 44

Great for low % combos (F-throw U-smash is a staple in Pikachu's game-play)
Good for killing (Alone or followed by thunder)
Good for Anti-air

You can dash under most aerial approaches and U-smash, and it is good because most people will be DIing right/left, which is bad DI for U-smash, so you can get a thunder more often than not.

D-smash

Hitbox Active: 6-7, 9-10, 12-13, 15-16, 18-19, 21-22, 24 (7 hits)
From Charge, Hits On: 2
FAF: 55

GREAT for pressure relieving
Good for kills (If people mess up DIing they go straight up and die from thunder around like 70%)
Great shield pressure
WILL shield stab ANYBODY with a small shield.

D-smash is Pikachu's BEST GTFO move. I started using it a lot recently because long-range is good in most MUs due to our camping/forcing out opponents to approach. It is really REALLY good. It can punish air-dodges (start it earlier so that you can hit them with the last hit). It is a great feeling to have it hit them straight up as they are trying to SDI out (with up) and you kill somebody at like 70-80%. It's fantastic.

Caution: This move has like 20 frames of ending lag at least (I know ZSS can D-smash it OOS) so at high %s you WILL die if you whiff. Also, if somebody is shielding it, they can sidestep the end and punish. Lie did this to me a lot in our MM at Pound 5.

Nair

Hitbox Active: 3-25
FAF: 40
Autocancel: 35-39
Landing Lag: 25 frames

Great Killing
Great Damage move
Great combo move
Great combo breaker

Nair is one of Pikachu's best moves overall. It is tied for 2nd fastest aerial in the game (3 frames), does 12.5 or so %, and it links out of D-throw on every character but lucario, peach, samus, and jiggs at a lot of %. It is good for edgeguarding due to its sour-spot (It can gimp people's jumps, i've gimped Marth with it). The only down-side to this move is its TINY range, it is literally Pikachu's body and nothing else. Other than that, this move is perfect.

Uair:

Hitbox Active: 3-8
FAF: 28
Landing Lag: 24
Autocancel: 1-2, 18-27

Best combo move Pikachu has
GREAT at making positioning advantageous to Pikachu
SUPER fast
Best momentum canceling aerial

Uair is Pikachu's most versatile move. It can hit people that are far away from you in the air, it can link to nair, another uair, or footstool, which is very important. Uair opens a lot of opportunities for Pikachu, and it is very fast start-up and cool-down. Coupled with its good range, it is very hard to punish and is one of Pikachu's best move.


Dair

Hitbox Active: 14-26
Landing Hitbox: 2 frames
FAF: 48
Landing Lag: 40
Autocancel: 39-47

Good damaging
Great at punishing side-steps (SH Dair autocancel)
Good aerial to hit when people are pursuing you in the air
Great at covering ledge-options (It will hit get-up, ledgejump, most <100% get-up attacks, and roll.
Good combo move

Dair is a pretty underused move IMO. It does 12 % with the main hit, and 4% with the ground hitbox. This % is quite advantageous against MK, because if you hit with both parts it is the perfect CG %. Due to Pikachu's giant threat with grab, a lot of people will sidestep if you are dashing towards them. Dair will hit side-steps EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It is great, and it has good hitstun and you can combo into f-tilt, d-tilt or grab. It is also good off the level because the trajectory is strange compared to Pika's other aerials.


Fair

Hitbox Active: 10-12, 14-16, 18-20, 22-24, 26 (5 hits)
FAF: 40
Landing Lag: 15 frames
Autocancel: 1-9, 35-39

Great for combos
Great for shield stab
Great for platform push hits (If somebody is shielding at the edge of the platform, fair will knock them off and then hit them)
Pretty decent spacing
Good speed

Fair is slightly disjointed, and that really helps get a few unexpected opponents sucked into it. At low %s fair DJ uair is a combo (or at least they have to air-dodge, and then you can punish that with another uair). Landing fair combos into grab, nair, D-smash, and u-tilt. It is a pretty good move that I feel is underused, even by me.

Caution: This move is EXTREMELY SDIable, so the above combos aren't actually legit. I have been bair'd by ZSS because Nick Riddle SDI'd behind me and baired before I could u-tilt. You have to gauge the amount of SDI for yourself and make a judgement on if you should try to follow up.

Bair

Great shield stabbing
Hitbox Active: 4-5, 8-9, 12-13, 16-17, 20-21, 24-25, 28-29, 32-37 (8 hits)
Landing Hitbox: 2 frames
FAF: 60
Landing Lag: 30
Autocancel: 1-3, 50-59

Good damage
Great ROFL move
Good shield push move

Bair is a secret great move. It does something like 12% if all hits connect, it is extremely difficult to SDI out of, and it has a pretty good hitbox. It is great for landing if your opponent doesn't have a full shield. It also does weird stuff with Pikachu's momentum. If you are moving one way and bair, Pikachu stops for a little bit...it is strange, but amazing.

T-jolt

Jolt Released On: 19
FAF: 59

Great damage
Great camping potential
Great shield stab
Great edgeguarding

T-jolt is an all around GREAT move. It makes people move where we want them: In the air. Off stage you can make people waste jumps out of fear of getting hit. This can lead to nair edgeguards, uair edgeguards, or even thunder edgeguards.

Caution: This move has a crap-ton of after lag. If you get in a predictable pattern too close, people WILL punish you. Hard. I literally lost to Havok because I never adjusted my T-jolt habit and he hit me at least half of my T-jolts. The only way to get better with gauging the distance is play and get punished. You will learn the area of danger.

Skull Bash

Hitbox Active: 18-? (no charge)
FAF: 91 (no charge)

AMAZING momentum cancel
Good at punishing air dodge
Good for recovery

Skull bash obviously doesn't have many uses. If people get in a predictable air-dodge pattern you can punish them, but it is a mediocre punish. Run nair/dair is better. It is just humiliating to hit people with Skull bash. It is good for recovery if you don't want to risk getting hit out of QA, leading to phantom lag. Skull Bashes hitbox is mediocre so you can still get hit out of it, so beware. Oh, and this move is our best Shield-break punisher. It has the most knockback


Thunder

Hitbox Active: 15-74 (bolt) / 43-74 (shockwave)
FAF: 79 (thunder hits Pika) / 88 (thunder misses Pika)
Invincibility: 43-50 (shockwave only)

Great kill potential
Amazing Really low risk-Really high reward move
Good damage
Good edgeguarding

Thunder is the move people know Pikachu for. It hits slightly higher than blastzone if you Thunder from the floor, so it is obviously great for a finisher after U-smash and U-tilt. You also get blue thunder guaranteed after a jab lock if the people don't SDI away enough. You can put it in between people and if they don't have good air speed they will probably get hit. It is great against fatties.

Quick Attack

Hitbox Active: 15-19 (QA1), 30-34 (QA2)
FAF: ??

Great for recovery
Great ground-coverage.

Quick Attack is a very...strange move. It can overwhelm people if they aren't used to it, but once the novelty is gone is becomes much less effective. It is good for follow-ups (Like somebody DIs away, you QA thunder), but bad to use as an attack. QA ground locks at every %, and it contains a few ledge tricksies.

The most famous thing about QA is the Quick Attack Cancel. It is Pikachu's easiest ISJR, and it can help combo people if they air-dodge preemptively. This is the move that takes the longest to master and takes the longest to understand the appropriate situations. I could write a whole guide on QAC, but I don't like it enough >_>

Caution: Pikachu's hitbox stretches CRAZY far on a few frames of this attack, so you can get hit when you aren't even close to your opponent. It sucks...

Throws

Standing Grab
Hitbox Active: 6-7
FAF: 30

Dash Grab
Hitbox Active: 9-10
FAF: 39

Pivot Grab
Hitbox Active: 10-11
FAF: 36

F-throw

Great for CGs
Great for Combos
Great for setting up edgeguards

Our first known CG was the F-throw CG on a large chunk of the cast. For everybody else, we have F-throw U-smash, a guaranteed 24% on every single person in the game (Besides Marth who can up-b out at 0%, but not 10%). When you grab somebody at the edge when they are at mid-high%, F-throw is your best choice because it sets up edgeguarding and off-stage pressure.

Something amazing about F-throw is the wall CG. Pikachu can CG every character against a big enough wall (Let's say the pictochat % line) from 0-60% (Some characters get caught in it for longer, while others are slightly shorter). This CG leads to footstool which leads to QAL, jab lock, thunder. It is pretty good.

D-throw

Great for CG
Great for Combos
Great for mix-up at high %

Pikachu's best throw. It combos 32 of the 36 characters for a span of ~30% (D-throw nair). It also leads into uair footstool, which can lead to a QAL/Jab lock.

D-throw also has the best CG in the game that literally invalidates some MUs, such as fox, sheik, C.Falcon, Ganondorf, and, to a lesser extent, Wolf and Falco. We can CG a bunch of characters as well, which is great for Damage, but the CG is what makes this throw absolutely fantastic. We can get mock CGs on moving platforms (Ones that are moving up, such as the RC carpets, or even when the Delfino main platform is rising) on a significant amount of people, and it helps get a little more %.

Also, when people are at high %, D-throw will place them right above you. They can DI up and away and jump, but if they don't you can dash u-smash, nair, uair, or just pressure them into using their DJ and then punish their landing. This is pretty hard to incorporate, but it is great when you can start reading your opponent.


B-throw

Great for throwing off-stage/into walls

The main use for B-throw is for throwing people into walls/off-stage. It is our kill throw that will kill MK around 220% from the ledge. Other than that, nothing exceptional

U-throw

Great for GTFO (If you are feeling pressured and you get a grab)
Decent for lulzy thunder (U-throw thunder is legit on characters with bad aerial movement if people don't DI
Good for setting up pressure situations/reads.

Mostly this throw is used to set up landing pressure. Due to Pikachu's small SH and fast aerials and fast dash speed, characters have a lot of trouble landing if we are applying pressure correctly. The only reason U-throw is a part of this is because it gets them in the air.

Caution for Grabs in general: Don't force the grab. if you get too obvious with them it is really easy to punish. At low %s you don't always need the grab, you can just hit them with other things instead of the grab. Obviously if the situation is there, grab, but don't tunnel vision it.

A few gimmicks I'd like to add:

If the opponent spaces enough that a dsmash oos won't get them, a SH bair oos is good, can shield poke and even though it has crap ending lag on the ground you won't be punished most of the time.

If you hop off the stage and make it seem like you're going for a gimp and half charge a skullbash towards the stage and your opponent grabs the ledge first, the hitbox of skullbash will sort of grind the edge and stage spike when their invincibility frames go away.

Utilt can combo into a grab on characters like falco so we can get our cg in.

QAC back and forth through your opponent is great pressure. Most of the time you wont get punished and you get away with around 6% on them lol. They start to catch on after 3 times, so i stop there. I've made people buffer a move in the wrong direction because I stopped and I get a free grab or something in.

I don't want to add GIMMICKS, they aren't exactly a use but a "How slow is your opponent" kind of thing. I could never get away with QA through my brother or seibrik, they would throw out an attack on reaction to me starting QA.

Not even once? It's not like gimmicks will never work on smart players because in high pressure situations people may act differently and be more alert for the most rational things that they know you would do. That's why when you throw out something random or a gimmick and it works its so hilarious. Like the skullbash thing you did on seibrik.

Every move has a immick, but they are so retardedly situational that I don't think they are worth mentioning. The only reason I mentioned the SB thing is because that is basically the ONE application of it other than recovery and shield breaks..

Hmm...I have to add the shield break thing.

man ive been touting BAIR's awesomeness since early two thousand nine lol, one of pikachus best platform pressure moves

also thunder is high risk NO reward???

For surrrre. Fair is better because it has less cooldown.

i prefer bair cause it has better shield poking then fair and either knocks them offstage OR onto another platform for follow up. if you make it low enough so that it barely sticks through the platform it becomes hard to punish even with SDI. also in case you missed my edit thunder is high risk NO reward??

Nice thread. You should add all the throws and dash attack too. You should also point out that ftilt angled up is what you should kill with. It kills much earlier than the other angles.

Jab and SB can be pretty **** for edge guarding.

i love using jab to interrupe jumps and other attempts to anti edge gaurd me then quick snapping the ledge. and random SB offstage too good

Nice thread, ESAM. I'll have to read through the rest after class.

Qac is a great way to mindgame because if they dish out attack for no reason u can punish them but I guess some people keep going or havent mastered qac or just basically are predictable. ANTHER<3

Updated with throws and dash attack.

Updated with frame data I felt was necessary (Shield advantage Id on't think is really necessary, know the D-tilt is the best and everything else is bad.)

ESAM said:

][/B][/SIZE]
Thunder

Great kill potential
Amazing High-risk no-reward

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Is that supposed to say "Amazing no-risk high-award?"

that doesnt make sense either though as thunder is most definitely not no risk, but at the same time it isnt no reward. i would call it highly situational high risk low reward, but if used PROPERLY it is one of pikachu best moves

Loooool my bad, my bad.

also i mentioned this TWICE before now. obviously esam hates me

Yep, **** midwest.

ESAM said:

Yep, **** midwest.

Click to expand...

LOL! NICE PIC XD

anyway nice guide :D

Can some characters punish us out of our uair at low percents? Maybe I'm not using it like I should because I'm starting to feel like uair is one of Pikachu's worst moves. When I uair at low percents, I usually get uaired or faired right back, taking more percent than I gave.

At very low %s yes, they can punish you. Until the uair footstool %s they have frame advantage or frame even.

Bump because I think people should really read this @_@ it is kinda important...

I've read it a few times, I just didn't think I had to post about it xD

Nordal said:

I've read it a few times, I just didn't think I had to post about it xD

Click to expand...

second that. i read almost every post but since i never have any questions...why should i post anything lol :3

Great thread, thanks ESAM!

This is incomplete.

How's it incomplete?

Go to bed Prime.

And some of the decent pikas should be contributing from their own experiences.

For instance, I find dash attack is great for putting certain characters in bad positions off stage, like olimar and snake.

Is it, Tag?

I hear fully charged skullbashes can put opponents in bad positions both on and off stage.

Tagxy said:

Go to bed Prime.

And some of the decent pikas should be contributing from their own experiences.

For instance, I find dash attack is great for putting certain characters in bad positions off stage, like olimar and snake.

Click to expand...

Didn't you just say 'decent'?

I forgot it was my job to add this stuff to the directory, it's been so long since we had something worth adding.

Leaf. said:

Didn't you just say 'decent'? \

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Yes leaf you can contribute too


Dash Attack at mid-high percents when opponents with bad/mediocre/verticle recoveries are close enough to the ledge; its my favorite time to use dash attack since itll knock them offstage for them to take more damage or lose their stock.

Skull Bash if youre caught highish in the air and your opponent is in a good position to punish a stage landing.

Full hop auto-cancelled Dairs. This one is honestly amazing, but I dont see people really using it.

FH dairs are OK. They only really have uses against a few characters (Such as Peach or anybody that likes coming down at angles against you)

I like to use QA to get back to the ground.

Im not sure I explained it well, but I meant using a full hop dair against an opponent on the ground a predictable short hop aerial would get you punished. Its also good at punishing opponents short hop aerials you wouldnt be able to challenge head to head (i.e. marths fair, nair, etc.). The goal is to try and aim for their back, and then have the dair autocancel immediately after. It also opens up other opportunities from full hops.

Tagxy said:

Go to bed Prime.

And some of the decent pikas should be contributing from their own experiences.

For instance, I find dash attack is great for putting certain characters in bad positions off stage, like olimar and snake.

Click to expand...

i like to use this vs olimar actually