N64
Smash Champion
How to Win Without a Thunder Stone
A Guide to using Pikachu in Super Smash Brothers Melee
by player N64
Table of Contents
Introduction - [INT0]
Welcome to the Pikachu guide for Super Smash Brothers Melee, by player N64. I am Andy Rhoades, a.k.a. N64, and over the course of this guide it’s my job to teach you everything you need to know to be successful as a competative Pikachu player in SSBM. My hope is that this guide can assist all readers, whether you’re a Melee veteran interested in adding Pikachu to your roster, or you’re completely new to SSBM as a game. While I feel it’s worth everyone’s while to at least skim through every section, the table of contents included at the start of this guide can help you skip to whichever sections you need information from.
Before reading further, I do want to give you an idea of the layout and why I believe it will be the most beneficial to you. As you can see from the table of contents, this guide is divided into five sections after this introduction, and each is important to playing Pikachu. The first is Mindset. This will cover how you need to approach playing Pikachu specifically in a competitive Melee environment. Second is Knowledge. This will cover understanding Pikachu’s moveset and options in most situations. Third is Application. This will integrate what was described in the Knowledge section and go into many of Pikachu’s common combos, setups, and general playstyles. Fourth is Matchups. This will cover matchup-specific information and will be the largest section, as a lot of your strategy will change depending on that character you’re facing. Last is Wrap Up. This will include general or additional information like general terms.
So, here we go!
Mindset - [MST0]
Base Objective: Victory - [MST1]
When playing, you have an objective that you are trying to accomplish. This may seem pretty obvious, but it’s important to recognize and understand. Your objective in Melee is to kill your opponent 4 times before they do the same to you. You accomplish this by knocking them off the top, side, or bottom with enough force to outright kill them, or sending them off the edge and preventing their return to the stage. Each character has their own sets of tools that make them good or bad at each of these, and it’s important to understand how Pikachu specifically gets his kills and avoids getting killed, thus accomplishing his objective.
When reading through this entire guide it’s important to be asking yourself: How is this going to help me accomplish these objectives? How can I use this to put me closer to victory?
Offensive Objective: Racking up kills - [MST2]
Pikachu has two main attributes that stand out when it comes to killing an opponent. First, he has the strongest upsmash in the game. Combined with thunder, this can allow him to kill characters off the top of the screen faster than many other characters. Secondly, his uair’s knockback properties combined with his ability to chase opponents far off the edge to ensure a kill (along with a few other things like bthrow) makes him pretty good at gimping opponents.
What Pikachu is generally not very good at is doing damage. This means it is advantageous to look for opportunities to gimp your opponents or otherwise finish them off at as low a percent as possible. Racking up damage when you can is good, of course, but if you’re unable to gimp and you do end up steadily racking up damage, usmash becomes a kill option and your edgeguarding game becomes steadily easier to use as their damage gets higher.
You will need to do some damage throughout the match, of course, and how Pikachu usually does this is through air combos and a hit-and-run playstyle. His air-to-air game is decent, so trying to knock your opponent into the air and then rack up damage as you prevent them from returning to the ground is pretty crucial. You almost always want to be below your opponent, as it is where Pikachu is most threatening.
As you rack up damage, you’ll likely be taking damage yourself, and as the next section will get into, Pikachu is frail.
Defensive Objective: Surviving - [MST3]
As important as getting kills is, you must stay alive to do so. Pikachu is really light, has a pretty punishable tech, and has the smallest shield in the game. He’s frail, just reiterating, so you need to be relatively terrified of the damage your opponent can do to you. To avoid dying an early death, you need to recognize the tools you have to stay alive.
Mainly, Pikachu is incredibly mobile. He has a good dash speed, great dashdancing game, great jump speed, and relatively small body size. Once you get hit, you’re in trouble, but you have enough mobility to make it tough for the opponent to get that first hit. Use your mobility to weave around your opponent’s attacks and punish his overextensions. Your other great option is having one of the best recoveries in the game. If you do get hit, try to avoid dying straight out, but know that if you get knocked off the edge and don’t immediately die, you can usually get around your opponent’s edgeguarding and recover.
Overall Objective: Hit and Run - [MST4]
What this means for Pikachu overall is that you need to play a very opportunistic hit and run tactic. Weave your way in, do your damage, set up your gimps, and get out before the opponent can retaliate. There is still plenty of room to be more aggressive or defensive to your liking in this, but not recognizing and using Pikachu’s strengths is a bad idea.
That’s your objective. Be mobile. Be uncatchable and be deadly. Next section should help you understand how to do this.
Knowledge - [KNW0]
Basic Moveset - [KNW1]
Credits to Stratocaster and StandardToaster for the images. If you want more information (such as frame data) visit his smashboards post.
Every move Pikachu has is useful. Some of course are much better than others, but you should know that there is a situation for every single move to be used. So, lets understand what every move does and when it should be used.
Neutral A (Jab)
Pikachu quickly juts his head forward a short distance, doing little damage and almost no knockback. Repeatedly jabbing can be done incredibly quickly. There are few situations where Pikachu’s jab is useful, however. It comes out quickly, and you can rapid jab with it pretty easily, but the lag after it is pretty long, meaning it won’t combo into anything. You won’t often be able to use it to apply pressure on your opponent like most characters do, but you can use it occasionally as a “get off me” escape move by rapidly jabbing until your opponent is pushed far enough away that they can’t apply pressure to you before you’re able to shield, roll, or otherwise safely get out. It’s important to note that some chars have moves fast and strong enough to beat your first jab, and some have moves with long enough range that with good reactions they can still reach you and punish the lag after your last jab. The only other real use for it is the occasional opportunity to jab-reset. Overall this move shouldn’t see much use, as it’s often too easily punished and doesn’t often set up anything useful for him.
Ftilt
Pikachu stretches his hind feet out in front of him, doing slight damage and some knockback. This is one of Pikachu’s better moves. It’s relatively quick, has decent range, and can beat or at least trade with a lot of moves. Its main use, however, is for edgeguarding. With correct angling of the control stick, you can angle Pikachu’s ftilt up or down slightly. If you stand a little bit away from the edge, you can do a down-angled ftilt at the edge, and your ftilt will hit below the ledge while leaving you safe from most recovery moves with a hitbox. This effectively prevents most characters from sweetspotting the edge if you space and time your ftilt correctly. In addition, this can often lead to edgeguarding opportunities, by either chasing an opponent off the edge after you prevent their sweetspot, or simply ftilting until they die if their character doesn’t have a recovery option to get around it.
Dtilt
Pikachu swipes his tail in front of him, doing slight damage and little knockback. This move doesn’t really fit well into Pikachu’s game, though it will see occasional use. It reaches further than most of Pikachu’s moves, and still comes out relatively quickly, which is good, but its damage and knockback are pretty lackluster overall. It doesn’t lead into anything for Pikachu, and mostly is just useful as a poking move to either force your opponent into their shield temporarily or just tack on a small amount of damage. Using it often, however, becomes pretty predictable and punishable. Use it occasionally so that your opponent has to respect it, but it won’t be a core of your gameplay.
Utilt
Pikachu carries his tail over his head in a small arc, doing small damage and knocking them upwards slightly. This move is weird and rarely sees more than 2-3 uses per match. Its main drawbacks are its short range and relative slowness. It hits in a short arc and stays out for about a second and a half, which can be easily punished if dodged. Its knockback is at a good angle; it sends them up slightly and leaves them in stun long enough for you to combo off of it. Its slowness can be beneficial, as you can catch downdodges or delayed approaches with it on occasion, but again it’s pretty punishable if it misses or gets shielded, so it’s generally just too risky to use.
Fsmash
Pikachu stretches a little forward and sends out a ball of electricity a short range in front of him, doing decent damage and good knockback forwards. This is Pikachu’s furthest reaching ground move and it does enough knockback to send the opponent off the stage and mid-high percents, but it has a pretty slow startup and lots of lag after. It’s relatively safe if the opponent blocks it, as it has good shield push and shield stun, but it’s easily punishable if it’s dodged. Generally usmash is the better option as it’s faster, a little safer, and will almost always kill earlier, but the slightly better range on fsmash can come in handy.
Dsmash
Pikachu spins around for a couple seconds catching anyone near him in a lightning attack, doing moderate damage and decent knockback upwards. This move is useful occasionally to catch downdodges and tech options, as it stays out for a couple seconds hitting multiple times. If it is avoided, however, it is easily punished. Its knockback is useful for setting up combos at low-mid percents. Generally you should use this sparingly, but it can come in handy on occasion.
Usmash
Pikachu does a backflip swinging his tail up in front of him, doing good damage and great knockback upwards. This is Pikachu’s main kill move, and is pretty safe on block, somewhat safe on whiff. It’s quick and has a little lag, but if you hit with it it’s definitely worth it, so don’t be afraid to throw it out every so often if you’re fishing for a kill. This move will kill light characters at absurdly low percents and will kill most other chars below 100% on most stages. If you usmash a char and it’s not quite enough to kill them, you can jump in the direction they fly and combo into Thunder (downB) which will very often give the extra bit of knockback needed to kill someone off the top. Use this move often.
Dash Attack
Pikachu lunges forward headbutting his opponent, doing poor damage and knockback. This move comes out quick and has decent range, but it’s extremely laggy and unsafe. You should almost never use this move.
Nair
Pikachu spins in air hitting anyone he runs into, doing decent damage and knockback. This is Pikachu’s main aerial for doing damage. It comes out quick, stays out just long enough, recovers quickly, and has decent knockback. It’s a pretty safe aerial with decent rewards. If you hit with it at the start of its animation it can send the opponent relatively far, while if you hit later in the animation it will have a small knockback but can sometimes lead into combos. Use this a lot in your hit-and-run tactics to get in, do some damage, and force your opponent into the air or off the stage.
Fair
Pikachu electrifies the air around him, doing small damage and knockback for a short time. This move is one of his worse aerials, but it definately has its uses. It comes out as fast as nair, has slightly more range, and keeps your opponent close to you rather than knocking them away. This means it can be good for interrupting things and generally tripping up your opponent. If they expect it, many characters can punish the extremely short stun time from this move, but if you throw it in occasionally you can use fair to lead into grabs or other moves. I like it as an air-to-air, as you can travel through them with fair and set up a doublejump rising uair -> combo. Use it when you want to set up another move, like uair or usmash, but aren't in quite the right position.
Dair
Pikachu spins upside down and shocks the area around him, doing good damage and knockback. This moves comes out a little slow and is slightly laggy though, so it’s not as safe as nair. It can occasionally be used to end combos, and is otherwise useful in a few situations such as dealing with crouchcancelling characters, but generally nair is a better option. If you hit the ground with it, there will be an additional hitbox which has almost no knockback and isn't really useful for much, so try to avoid that.
Uair
Pikachu does a frontflip in the air, swinging his tail over his head in an arc, doing little damage and decent knockback. This move is horrible for damage, but it’s one of his best moves because of its knockback. I will go into much more detail in the Application section, but depending on which part of the tail you hit with, you can pop the opponent up and set up combos, or spike them either forwards or backwards to set up edgeguarding opportunities. It’s pretty quick and safe and can offer good rewards, so overall it’s a great move to use.
Bair
Pikachu spins around horizontally, doing good damage and decent knockback. However, this move is incredibly laggy, and its knockback becomes pretty terrible if you don’t hit with the start of it. This makes it a pretty terrible move overall. It’s occasionally good for ending combos, and its hitbox can be awkward enough that people unfamiliar with it can still get caught by it, but don’t rely on it.
Neutral B (Jolt)
Pikachu spits out a jolt in front of him that follows terrain and does a little damage and stun to whoever it hits. As far as projectiles go it’s not great but not bad. You can use it to help cover your approaches or snipe people who are off the edge, but it’s a little too laggy to use as a consistent projectile like most characters.
Forward B (Skull Bash)
Pikachu charges up and then shoots forward a good distance hitting anyone in his path, doing decent damage and knockback. This move is far too slow to use offensively, so its only real use is to help your recovery if you are knocked far off the stage.
Down B (Thunder)
Pikachu calls thunder down in a straight line from the sky, doing decent damage and knockback to anyone it hits. It will come down in a line from wherever Pikachu called it. If it hits Pikachu, and additional hitbox is created around Pikachu that does good damage and high knockback. This move is really slow and incredibly laggy, however, especially if the lightning connects with Pikachu. Your main use for this move will be after landing an usmash at mid-high percent, as it will combo and will probably be the only time you’re able to connect with it. You can use it if your opponent is trying to recover high above you, but after the first or second time you use it like this your opponent will be weary of it.
Up B (Quick Attack)
Pikachu quickly jolts forward in two directions. After hitting upB, you can angle the stick in a direction to choose the first direction he goes, and then quickly choose another distinct direction and he will fly in that direction afterwards. There is a hitbox on his upB but it does almost no damage and has almost no stun or knockback. This move is used almost primarily for recovery, but it’s a really good recovery move.
Grab
Pikachu has the shortest grab range in the game. His throw options against most characters are pretty decent though, so getting a grab can be quite beneficial. To help getting a grab, be sure to use his good dash speed and general mobility options to assist in getting grabs.
Fthrow – Pikachu puts the opponent on his back and shocks them before throwing them forward a short distance. This is probably Pikachu’s least useful throw, but if you manage to grab the opponent facing the edge it can set up an edgeguarding opportunity. It’s a little too laggy to be useful and doesn’t really lead to anything otherwise, so only use it for positioning really.
Bthrow – Pikachu rolls backwards a short distance and then chucks the opponent behind him. This has decent knockback and mainly is great because of the distance he rolls before throwing it. Think of it like Ken’s bthrow in the SF games, it’s great for positioning. Use this if you ever grab an opponent with your back anywhere near an edge. Even if you’re not near an edge, it can throw the opponent to the edge and force them into a position where they don’t have much space to use. Great throw overall.
Dthrow – Pikachu throws the opponent downwards, where they hit the ground and bounce away a bit. Heavier characters and characters at low percents will hit the ground and be forced to tech, creating a techchase opportunity, while other characters can jump out. It’s an alright throw, but usually bthrow or uthrow will serve you better.
Uthrow – Pikachu throws the opponent upwards a short distance. This isn’t usually that great, but it can lead to combos and most importantly puts the opponent above you. On heavy characters you can chainthrow them until high percents if there aren’t platforms in the way, or force them to tech and potentially techchase them if there are.
Advanced Tactics - [KNW2]
There are a few things specific to Pikachu’s moveset that you should understand as well. This is in addition to general Melee ATs like wavedashing. Some of these will be much more useful than others, but it’s good to at least be aware of all of them and what Pikachu is capable of. Now, to start off, probably the most important:
Uair Hitbox Properties
Understanding how Pikachu’s uair works is crucial to his gameplay. Good uair usage nets kills and sets up almost everything scary Pikachu has. So, how does it work? Pikachu’s uair has three distinct hitboxes that come out one after the other as his tail swings around his body. Each hitbox covers a different area and has a different knockback trajectory. Thus, getting the right hitbox to connect depends both on your positioning and timing. The best way to get used to it is just practice with it and get a feel for it.
The first hitbox comes out almost immediately and covers a large portion behind Pikachu from around the base of his tail to the top of his head. This hitbox knocks the opponent straight upwards. This part is great because of the speed it comes out, and it leads to a lot of Pikachu’s combos. For instance, if you shield an opponent’s attack with your back to them, you can jump and uair as soon as you leave the ground, and it will often catch them and send them upwards. You can then double jump and connect another aerial, or land and try to grab the opponent if they’re a fast faller, etc.
The third hitbox covers a large arc above Pikachu's head. This knocks the opponent down and away from you in a pretty steep arc. Depending on which direction they are from you when the move connects, this will either send them behind you or in front of you. Getting it to connect exactly when you want it to can be a little tricky, though, as hitting them the wrong way will knock them onstage rather than offstage for an edgeguard. It sounds simple, but you really have to get a feel for this move before you'll be comfortable connecting the spike/reverse spike how you want. Utilizing this is a huge part of his gimp and edgeguarding game.
The fourth and final hitbox is the least useful, but still can set up some advantageous situations It covers a small area directly in front of Pikachu and knocks the opponent up and slightly over behind Pikachu. The knockback isn’t that substantial, but it stretches out further forward than the rest of pikachu’s aerials and you can occasionally combo it into another uair or usmash if the opponent DIs poorly.
Angling UpB, Understanding its Hitboxes and Hurtboxes, and SWD
As stated earlier, there are two parts to upB. Each of these parts can be angled in one of 16 cardinal directions (imagine any circle cut into 16 equal sized slices). The only catch is that you can’t go the same direction twice (except in rare, mostly useless instances). The only part that is required to do is the first, and if you don’t input a direction for it you will simply go up. If you collide with any terrain on either part, you won’t go the full distance of that part, but you can still do the second part if you collide with terrain on the first part.
It is possible to sweetspot the edge with upB. You simply have to pass close to the edge (the window is pretty large) during any downward angle'd upB. Be sure, however, to not be holding down when your character reaches the edge, or you will simply fall through as you would if you were any char holding down as you passed the edge.
As far as recovering on to the stage with upB, you generally want to try to end your upB so that your character is very slightly off the ground. If you’re too high, there will be a little lag, but if you land on the stage by colliding into it with your upB, there will be a ton of lag. This applies as well to colliding with the stage with the first part of your upB and then using the second to go straight left/right so you don’t get any height.
Now on to upB’s hitboxes and hurtboxes. Its hitbox is pretty easy to explain. On each part of your upB you basically become a hitbox which does a little damage and has almost no knockback or stun. This doesn’t make it an offensive option, but its good to know it has that. For instance, you can use it to go through someone jumping out to try edgeguarding you, thus putting you on the stage and in a position to edgeguard them. It won't beat out anything, though, the actual hitbox is tiny. The hurtbox on it is pretty awful at parts though. After each part of the upB, Pikachu’s body stretches out extremely far vertically and then horizontally for a couple frames for some reason. What this means is for an instant your hurtbox is HUGE and you can get hit by stuff from ridiculously far away. Although this is rare as you’re only like this for a couple frames, it can be pretty surprising when it happens if you’re not used to it. Also anyone who’s familiar with it can potentially use it to their advantage when edgeguarding you. It’s important to note that if you sweetspot the ledge from above, this doesn’t happen as it will cancel the upB animation before these hurtboxes come out.
Somewhat related to this is Pikachu’s SuperWaveDash (SWD). It is called this because, when executed correctly, Pikachu will slide incredibly quickly and pretty far across the stage while remaining in his neutral animation (meaning you can do tilts, smash attacks, etc. while sliding). To do this, you need to collide the hitbox on the second part of your upB with a move of equal strength while on the ground. This cancels each move, but Pikachu’s momentum from the upB is conserved, propelling him forward. Things it will work on include, but are not limited to, most low damage projectiles like Link’s Boomerang and Pikachu’s Jolt (but note it doesn’t work on Fox/Falco Lasers), most characters’ jabs, some tilts, and Fox/Falco’s Shine. Generally it’s too difficult to set up as you have to predict when they’re going to throw out something (it’s kinda slow to just throw out) and if it doesn’t work you’ll be in a ton of lag from the upB. It can be neat to do once like every few matches as a random surprise though. Not that useful, but cool to know about.
Rapid Jabbing in a Corner
This isn’t really an AT, but it’s somewhat Pikachu specific and useful to know about. In a few configurations of Pokemon Stadium (and some other tournament banned stages) there will be places where you can rapidly tap A and keep your opponent constantly stunned. Normally the pushback from jab would eventually knock your opponent far enough away that it would no longer combo, but if there is a wall to both your and your opponent’s backs (or a ledge to your back), like on the branch of the tree in fire transformation or in the cave on the rock transformation, then you can’t be pushed back far enough for it to stop comboing, and your opponent will be constantly stuck in hitstun. Note that this only works in these specific locations, if your opponent is too small then jab will not reach far enough to keep them in hitstun, and if they are a light enough char then they will eventually be able to smash DI up and jump out. It’s definitely not something to rely on, but if you get it early in a transformation it can easily lead to 200%+ in damage.
Application - [APP0]
Ok, now that you know the basic tools Pikachu has, this section will tell you how to put them together to accomplish the objectives we talked about in the first section. Namely we’ll go into when and how you should be offensive and defensive, how to rack up damage, how to edgeguard, how to recover, some general combos and most importantly how to use all this to win. All of this is dependent on your own playstyle, so it’s fine to play very aggressively or very defensively or do things you don’t see other Pikachu players do often, but you can’t just play Pikachu any way you want and expect success. Pikachu still has his strengths and weaknesses, and using these to your advantage is what’s most crucial.
Pikachu is Fast
Pikachu is incredibly mobile, I know I keep mentioning it, but it’s one of the greatest assets to Pikachu’s game. It allows him to quickly close or create space between him and his opponent. This means you can threaten to get in on your opponent pretty quickly, and can chase their defensive/evasive options more easily than other chars. You can also relatively easily get away from your opponent and reset the situation if you need to, or just create that extra bit of space to cause your opponent’s attacks to whiff. Use this.
Offensive Options - [APP1]
Pikachu can be an offensive terror, but you need to know when and how to get in. Your offensive options on their own honestly aren’t that good, but again Pikachu’s speed is a great help, and once you’re in you often have a number of options to keep the pressure on. First, lets go into what your offensive options actually are.
Nair is probably going to be your most common approach option. Dash forward to short hop nair is quick, covers a decent distance, and is usually easy to follow up. It will trade with a lot of things and is rarely ever beaten cleanly. If you space it well, it’s also safe if shielded and can allow you to put on some decent shield pressure. Ideally you want to hit the top of their shield about 3/4ths of the way through your jump, so you land just a little bit behind your opponent. From this position it’s very difficult or impossible for your opponent to retaliate, while you have the option to escape and reset the situation or continue to apply pressure.
Other aerials are situationally useful for approach. Dair comes out a little slow but has good priority and is one of your only tools against crouch cancelling characters. It doesn’t create followups, but it can go through a lot. Fair catches a lot of moves and can pull people into Pikachu to apply pressure, but is pretty easily crouch cancellable and can often be punished at lower percents. Uair is great for approaching from below, but is pretty awkward and gimmicky in other approach options.
Tilts can also be helpful in your approach. Dtilt is pretty quick and covers a good range. It’s useful for throwing out to trip up your opponent, put them in their shield, or at least force them to adjust their movements around it, which can help you get in. Ftilt is also useful as it beats or will clank with some defensive options from your opponent. It’s punishable but not easily if you whiff with it, but hitting with it can put your opponent on the defensive and clanking with it has at least moved you in a little bit.
Jolt is a decent asset as well. If there is plenty of distance between you and your opponent you can full hop forward and jolt at the top of your jump. You’ll land at about the same time as your jolt, and can use it as a hitbox in front of your approach. This forces the opponent to either avoid it, shield it, try to attack through it, or get hit by it. Avoiding it limits their mobility options. If they jump, you can chase them into the air, which Pikachu excels at. If they roll through it or downdodge it, there’s often time to punish this with a grab, dsmash, or other option, especially if you predict it. If they shield it, you can choose to either apply shield pressure or grab them. Some moves will cleanly beat it and still hit you, though, so recognize your opponent's options. For instance, almost anything Marth does will 'eat' the jolt and continue through to you.
Fake approaches are also pivotal to approaching. Fake an approach, let your opponent’s defensive option whiff, and then actually approach during their lag. This can be done in a number of ways. You can use Pikachu’s excellent dashdance, variations of dashing forward and wavedashing back, and jumping forward and then double jumping up/back/around to change your trajectory. These tools can keep your opponent guessing and cause them to react too hastily to a perceived threat, allowing you to get in.
Once you get that hit, you need to get as much out of it as you can. This involves knowing what you can combo with it and when you have to back off.
A Quick Note on Comboing - [APP2]
Combos are going to be very matchup-dependant, but there are a few commonalities across characters. Generally, if you hit with a rising uair (its first hitbox) you can combo it into something. On lighter characters this may only be another uair, but on most characters you’ll get at least a nair, and on heavy chars you can hit with almost any aerial, usmash, or even grab. The best thing about hitting with rising uair is that it puts the opponent above you, so even if you aren’t able to get a damaging combo out of it, you either force the opponent to tech on a platform and risk you chasing their tech, or jump away from you and risk you uair spiking them out of their second jump.
You can usually combo after nair as well. Often this will be from following their trajectory and forcing the tech-or-jump decision and punishing appropriately. In certain situations, you'll actually be able to combo before they can jump. Pikachu’s ground and air mobility are fast enough that you can stick to opponents pretty well and react to their decisions, making your offense that much scarier. This applies for other moves as well. Tripping them up with tilts, spiking them towards the ground with uair, landing a dmsash or usmash, these all put the opponent on the defensive and may not lead to true combos but will often create situations where with good reactions you can land a more solid hit to combo from.
Usmash is also a good combo starter, though mostly on fastfallers. At higher percents or on more floaty opponents you can combo it straight into a thunder (after jumping towards the direction they DI), which will often kill. There’s much more to all of this, but I will address character-specific combos in the matchup section.
You can’t always be on the offensive though. It’s important to know what defensive options you have and when to use them.
Defensive Options - [APP3]
When an opponent is moving towards you, you have to react. Your options are to avoid, shield, or try to intercept. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, risks and rewards.
First, lets talk about avoiding their approach. This works to Pikachu’s strength, mobility. You can dash away, wavedash back, jump away, or downdodge/roll through it. Dashing away quickly creates space. Thanks to Pikachu’s good dash speed and decent dash dance maximum distance, you can successfully avoid many attacks and dash back in during your opponent’s lag to put them on the defensive. The main limitations to this option are that it doesn’t avoid all approach options, namely horizontal projectile approaches, and that it depends on the amount of space you have behind you. If you can’t dash away very far, you may not be able to completely avoid some approaches. If you’re unable to punish their approach after your dash, then you’ve avoided one approach but now you have less space to move around in general.
If you jump away, you create a situation similar to dashing away, except it affects your spacing and punishing options differently, and can avoid different attacks. Jumping better avoids attacks with short hitboxes, such as Marth’s dtilt or the previously mentioned horizontal projectiles, and can allow you to follow this with a falling aerial for pressure or a punish. The main issue with this is short hopping won’t get you over most attacks, and full hopping to fastfalled aerial is often too slow to punish with Pikachu’s short range below him on his aerials. It also obviously won’t dodge all attacks, and sometimes you’ll have to guess at what the opponent is going to do, so guessing wrong and jumping could mean eating a smash attack or aerial.
Your third avoidance option is downdodging or rolling away from the attack. Pikachu’s roll and downdodge aren’t great but aren’t bad. Rolling away isn’t significantly punishable by most characters, but characters with quick runspeeds that expect you to dash away or roll away can chase and catch the end of your roll with decent reactions. Similarly, if they expect you to downdodge they can easily wait for it (if they haven’t already thrown out a laggy aerial or something similar) and punish you in the lag afterwards. Because of this you need to not overuse it or become predictable. Successfully downdodging an attack can allow you to get a grab or usmash, leading to combo opportunities.
The second of your general defensive options is to shield their approach. For Pikachu this is rarely an ideal option. His shield is terrible, one of the worst in the game, getting poked pretty easily. On the other side of this, his options out of shield are actually pretty decent. You can grab out of shield (just keep in mind his super short grab range), upsmash out of shield, immediately nair or, more commonly, uair out of shield, or of course roll/jump away. The main things to use from this are usmash and uair. Each comes out pretty quickly and hit a decent distance ahead and behind him respectively. Usmash can lead to combos or outright kill depending on their percentage and fallspeed. Uair leads to combos or, at worst, gets them above you where Pikachu wants them. For these reasons shielding is a bit higher risk and higher reward than some characters, so being careful specifically for Pikachu to watch how much you rely on shield and make sure to keep it as close to full size as you can.
The last option is to intercept their approach with an attack of your own. Pikachu doesn’t have many good moves for this, as most of his are relatively short range, but he does have options. If he approaches with an aerial, your best options are probably usmash, immediate uair, or nair. Usmash will trade with a lot of aerials, but the kill potential of usmash makes this worth it at mid to high percents. Nair will also trade with some aerials, but will still kill or set up edgeguarding opportunities at high percentages. Just make sure that you can survive the trade as well, and know that other aerials (ex. Marth’s anything, Jiggs’s bair, etc.) will cleanly beat it. If you want your best option for beating an aerial (and some other approaches), then you need to immediately uair with your back to your opponent. Uair’s hitbox behind and above Pikachu is pretty decent, and it can beat many other short-range aerials.
Your other interception options are pretty situational or lackluster. Dsmash hitbox is a little weird and can beat out some unexpected things like Falco’s dair. It lasts a while though, so you can be relatively lenient on the timing with it. It is pretty easily punishable if they expect it, especially because of its poor range, and can be a little awkward to follow up though, so use it sparingly if at all. Ftilt and dtilt can also be ok on opponents dashing in, but don’t expect it to beat out much. It’s mostly just to catch someone if they’re dashing in for a grab or close range move. Fsmash is slow so needs good prediction skills, but can be a decent move for characters that like to wavedash in or have predictable ground approaches. If you hit with it, the damage and knockback are pretty good and can put you in a decent position.
So far all of this talk has been on-stage related. So, lets go into what to do when one of you is off the stage. Lets talk about how to edgeguard and recover.
Edgeguarding - [APP4]
Pikachu has some pretty unique and useful edgeguarding tools, and is overall great at edgeguarding almost all characters. He can cover a variety of recovery angles and has the potential to kill off the stage at very low percentages with the right set up.
One of the main things to get used to with Pikachu’s edgeguarding is that you can afford to chase people far off and/or below the stage, hit them with something, and still make it back thanks to his long upB range. His aerial mobility and speed lets you do this quickly as well, often allowing you to wait until the opponent commits to a few recovery options/paths before you have to jump out and still have the ability to stop him. For a lot of characters with short recoveries or few recovery options, this means you can chase them out and hit them with practically anything, then upB to the ledge, and they’re dead. Pretty much all his aerials are useful in some way for edgeguarding, as well.
Most often, you’ll want to hit with uair if possible when edgeguarding. This requires you to be below your opponent (even if only slightly) so it can be infeasible if the opponent recovers from too low, but it covers a lot of other options. If you ever see the option to land a spike with uair while the opponent is already off the edge, do it. This relies on you being comfortable with uair’s hitboxes, but it’s extremely rewarding as its trajectory is ideal. If you catch someone already off the edge and uair spike them, it will kill practically everyone at any percent. And if it doesn’t kill them (hi jigglypuff) you at least greatly limit their remaining recovery options. This should deter characters from trying to recover over Pikachu, as correct reaction from you means certain death for them, but fortunately Pikachu also has answers for characters that want to recover low.
As mentioned earlier, Pikachu can afford to chase off the edge pretty far. This means you can jump out at an opponent while he’s about level horizontally with the stage and force him to make a choice. Either he uses his jump to avoid you (which you can punish by uair spiking him if you expect it), try to beat you with an aerial (which can either hinder his recovery, or may trade with your aerial and push him far enough that he can’t recover anyway), or fastfall below you and hopefully still have enough length on his recovery to make it back.
When you do jump out at him, your best aerial options if you can’t line up uair are to nair or dair. Nair is pretty safe and comes out quickly, but its knockback if you don’t hit with the start may not be enough to outright kill (and some characters can get out of hitstun and successfully recover still before Pikachu at lower percents). Dair is also useful, but it’s slow to come out so you have to be sure of where they’ll be. If you do hit with it, however, it does more knockback than nair. Fair can be useful on occasion off the edge, but usually it’s just to set up another aerial. For instance, lets say a Peach is floating a bit far off the stage looking for a way to safely get back. You jump out and she floats back a little bit to dodge your nair. You fair instead, reaching slightly further and knocking her out of her float, and then double jump and uair spike her, ensuring her death. You can also run off the stage and dair or nair to try to beat or at least trade with some vertical recoveries. On some stages you can even fastfall this and still make it back thanks to upB.
Jolt is also an alright projectile for edgeguarding. It’s fairly slow, but moves at a diagonally down direction, where most people will want to recover. Because of its somewhat slow speed it can be kind of awkward to get around. The knockback on jolt isn’t that great, but you can catch someone’s jump with it or just limit the space they can use to recover. Another use for it is to just jolt into the stage, and the jolt will bounce down following the side of the stage, potentially catching recoveries. Again, jolt’s knockback isn’t so great, so if it hits someone’s upB in this way it will mostly just mess with the spacing of their next upB and not outright prevent them from recovering.
Sometimes you won’t have the time or positioning to effectively chase someone off the stage, however. While on the stage, you still have a few other edgeguarding options. If you want to hit people who are trying to sweetspot, you can stand about one Pikachu body distance from the edge and do a down-angled ftilt as your opponent upBs. This will beat a lot of options with correct spacing, and while the knockback isn’t great it can help give you time to more properly edgeguard. Fsmash can be an ok option, but you have to be sure they won’t sweetspot.
Ledgehogging is also of course useful, so don’t forget that either. In addition to just wavedashing backwards off a ledge to grab it and ledgehog, Pikachu can also use his upB to quickly reach the ledge from much further inwards on the stage. To do this, you need to be a proper distance in from the ledge (it’s fairly lenient), start your upB straight outwards so it sends you off the stage but right next to the ledge, then angle the second part back toward the stage but also slightly down, and then be sure to let go of the stick just as the second part comes out and you should zip to the ledge and grab it, successfully ledgehogging. If you’re too close to the ledge when you start your upB, Pikachu will be too low from the second part of upB to snap to the ledge, and if you’re too far you won’t be able to make it off the stage. If you continue holding down after your upB, Pikachu will pass by the ledge (as with anyone holding down while passing the ledge) and die. Because of how fast this comes out and how far in from the stage you can do it (and since it’s pretty unique to Pikachu), it can bait people into thinking they can quickly get to the ledge before Pikachu is able to position his edgeguarding options. It’s good to be comfortable with using this tool.
You have a few other edgeguarding options, but they’re pretty situational and matchup dependant, so I’ll go into them in the matchup section.
Recovery - [APP5]
On the other side of this is recovery, or more specifically, avoiding your opponent’s edgeguarding options while still making it back to the stage. This is another of Pikachu’s strengths. While he’s relatively light and can be vulnerable to dying early off the top or sides, as long as you’re able to DI and survive you will rarely be unable to make it back to the stage, and often do so safely.
This is because of Pikachu’s relative floatiness and the range on and versatility of Pikachu’s upB. His upB has two parts which each can be any of 16 cardinal directions around Pikachu. The best thing you can do to make good use of Pikachu’s recovery is to practice using upB in as many different directions as you can. Being accurate with this allows you to do a number of things. First, you can avoid projectiles and opponents who come offstage to edgeguard you, and still make it back to the stage. You can do this by either angling your upB around their edgeguarding attempt, or by stalling your recovery and letting yourself fall fairly far below the stage (to mess up their edgeguarding timing and force them to recover themselves) before you use your long upB to make it back. Play around with upB, exercise your options, get used to recovering to the ledge, to the stage, to platforms, as many options as you can think of. Being able to recover almost anywhere and through a variety of paths makes edgeguarding Pikachu extremely difficult for pretty much anyone.
The only other things to note about Pikachu’s recovery are using jolt and forwardB. If you have enough height while drifting towards the stage, you can send out a jolt or two to help protect the ledge. You can either line it up so that it hits the stage and bounces a little forward to force someone to shield or avoid it (instead of trying to edgeguard you), or so that it hits the edge and forces someone trying to ledgehog you to get off the ledge and allow you to upB to it. ForwardB is useful for getting a little extra distance out of your recovery, but you have to know when and how to use it. When you forwardB, you get the most distance if you mash forward (as opposed to just holding forward). Don’t charge it at all, charging doesn’t improve its range as far as just floating forward would. Also generally the sooner you can do it in your recovery the better, as it takes a while and doing it too late will either limit your recovery options too much or be easy to punish.
Bringing These Tools Together - [APP6]
Now that I’ve told you what you can do, it’s a bit up to you to decide when to use these tools. Pikachu can be played in a few different ways, and as long as you pay attention to his strengths and weaknesses and know what he’s capable of, your playstyle will decide how you play him. There are a few guidelines I can give, but play around with these options and adapt it to how you like to or think you should play the game.
Pikachu has a little trouble getting in on opponents, and at times can have difficulty getting out of pressure. He’s incredibly mobile (have I said this enough yet?) and has a ton of pressure tools, so getting the most out of your opportunities is important. You can use this in a very aggressive style to rely on overwhelming your opponent and not letting him set up his game plan. You can use it for a very defensive style where you try to bait your opponent into overextending, and punish him hard for it. You can play safe and go for guaranteed damage off hits and rely on his superb upsmash for kills. You can be risky and go for flashy off the edge kills or gutsy punishes. All in all your style will be a combination of these, and other, elements. Just remember the obvious goal: take all your opponent’s stock before they can do the same to you.
A Guide to using Pikachu in Super Smash Brothers Melee
by player N64
Table of Contents
- Introduction - [INT0]
- Mindset - [MST0]
a. Base Objective - [MST1]
b. Offensive Objective - [MST2]
c. Defensive Objective - [MST3]
d. Overall Objective - [MST4] - Knowledge - [KNW0]
a. Basic Moveset - [KNW1]
b. Advanced Techniques - [KNW2] - Application - [APP0]
a. Offensive Options - [APP1]
b. A Quick Note on Comboing - [APP2]
c. Defensive Options - [APP3]
d. Edgeguarding - [APP4]
e. Recovery - [APP5]
f. Bringing These Tools Together - [APP6] - Matchups - [MCH00]
a. Bowser - [MCH01]
b. Captain Falcon - [MCH02]
c. Donkey Kong - [MCH03]
d. Dr. Mario - [MCH04]
e. Falco - [MCH05]
f. Fox - [MCH06]
g. Ganondorf - [MCH07]
h. Ice Climbers - [MCH08]
i. Jigglypuff - [MCH09]
j. Kirby - [MCH10]
k. Link - [MCH11]
l. Luigi - [MCH12]
m. Mario - [MCH13]
n. Marth - [MCH14]
o. Mewtwo - [MCH15]
p. Mr. Game & Watch - [MCH16]
q. Ness - [MCH17]
r. Peach - [MCH18]
s. Pichu - [MCH19]
t. Pikachu - [MCH20]
u. Roy - [MCH21]
v. Samus - [MCH22]
w. Sheik - [MCH23]
x. Yoshi - [MCH24]
y. Young Link - [MCH25]
z. Zelda - [MCH26] - Wrap Up - [WRP0]
a. List of Terms - [WRP1]
b. FAQ - [WRP2]
c. Don't Steal Plz & Thanks! - [WRP3]
Introduction - [INT0]
Welcome to the Pikachu guide for Super Smash Brothers Melee, by player N64. I am Andy Rhoades, a.k.a. N64, and over the course of this guide it’s my job to teach you everything you need to know to be successful as a competative Pikachu player in SSBM. My hope is that this guide can assist all readers, whether you’re a Melee veteran interested in adding Pikachu to your roster, or you’re completely new to SSBM as a game. While I feel it’s worth everyone’s while to at least skim through every section, the table of contents included at the start of this guide can help you skip to whichever sections you need information from.
Before reading further, I do want to give you an idea of the layout and why I believe it will be the most beneficial to you. As you can see from the table of contents, this guide is divided into five sections after this introduction, and each is important to playing Pikachu. The first is Mindset. This will cover how you need to approach playing Pikachu specifically in a competitive Melee environment. Second is Knowledge. This will cover understanding Pikachu’s moveset and options in most situations. Third is Application. This will integrate what was described in the Knowledge section and go into many of Pikachu’s common combos, setups, and general playstyles. Fourth is Matchups. This will cover matchup-specific information and will be the largest section, as a lot of your strategy will change depending on that character you’re facing. Last is Wrap Up. This will include general or additional information like general terms.
So, here we go!
Mindset - [MST0]
Base Objective: Victory - [MST1]
When playing, you have an objective that you are trying to accomplish. This may seem pretty obvious, but it’s important to recognize and understand. Your objective in Melee is to kill your opponent 4 times before they do the same to you. You accomplish this by knocking them off the top, side, or bottom with enough force to outright kill them, or sending them off the edge and preventing their return to the stage. Each character has their own sets of tools that make them good or bad at each of these, and it’s important to understand how Pikachu specifically gets his kills and avoids getting killed, thus accomplishing his objective.
When reading through this entire guide it’s important to be asking yourself: How is this going to help me accomplish these objectives? How can I use this to put me closer to victory?
Offensive Objective: Racking up kills - [MST2]
Pikachu has two main attributes that stand out when it comes to killing an opponent. First, he has the strongest upsmash in the game. Combined with thunder, this can allow him to kill characters off the top of the screen faster than many other characters. Secondly, his uair’s knockback properties combined with his ability to chase opponents far off the edge to ensure a kill (along with a few other things like bthrow) makes him pretty good at gimping opponents.
What Pikachu is generally not very good at is doing damage. This means it is advantageous to look for opportunities to gimp your opponents or otherwise finish them off at as low a percent as possible. Racking up damage when you can is good, of course, but if you’re unable to gimp and you do end up steadily racking up damage, usmash becomes a kill option and your edgeguarding game becomes steadily easier to use as their damage gets higher.
You will need to do some damage throughout the match, of course, and how Pikachu usually does this is through air combos and a hit-and-run playstyle. His air-to-air game is decent, so trying to knock your opponent into the air and then rack up damage as you prevent them from returning to the ground is pretty crucial. You almost always want to be below your opponent, as it is where Pikachu is most threatening.
As you rack up damage, you’ll likely be taking damage yourself, and as the next section will get into, Pikachu is frail.
Defensive Objective: Surviving - [MST3]
As important as getting kills is, you must stay alive to do so. Pikachu is really light, has a pretty punishable tech, and has the smallest shield in the game. He’s frail, just reiterating, so you need to be relatively terrified of the damage your opponent can do to you. To avoid dying an early death, you need to recognize the tools you have to stay alive.
Mainly, Pikachu is incredibly mobile. He has a good dash speed, great dashdancing game, great jump speed, and relatively small body size. Once you get hit, you’re in trouble, but you have enough mobility to make it tough for the opponent to get that first hit. Use your mobility to weave around your opponent’s attacks and punish his overextensions. Your other great option is having one of the best recoveries in the game. If you do get hit, try to avoid dying straight out, but know that if you get knocked off the edge and don’t immediately die, you can usually get around your opponent’s edgeguarding and recover.
Overall Objective: Hit and Run - [MST4]
What this means for Pikachu overall is that you need to play a very opportunistic hit and run tactic. Weave your way in, do your damage, set up your gimps, and get out before the opponent can retaliate. There is still plenty of room to be more aggressive or defensive to your liking in this, but not recognizing and using Pikachu’s strengths is a bad idea.
That’s your objective. Be mobile. Be uncatchable and be deadly. Next section should help you understand how to do this.
Knowledge - [KNW0]
Basic Moveset - [KNW1]
Credits to Stratocaster and StandardToaster for the images. If you want more information (such as frame data) visit his smashboards post.
Every move Pikachu has is useful. Some of course are much better than others, but you should know that there is a situation for every single move to be used. So, lets understand what every move does and when it should be used.
Neutral A (Jab)
Pikachu quickly juts his head forward a short distance, doing little damage and almost no knockback. Repeatedly jabbing can be done incredibly quickly. There are few situations where Pikachu’s jab is useful, however. It comes out quickly, and you can rapid jab with it pretty easily, but the lag after it is pretty long, meaning it won’t combo into anything. You won’t often be able to use it to apply pressure on your opponent like most characters do, but you can use it occasionally as a “get off me” escape move by rapidly jabbing until your opponent is pushed far enough away that they can’t apply pressure to you before you’re able to shield, roll, or otherwise safely get out. It’s important to note that some chars have moves fast and strong enough to beat your first jab, and some have moves with long enough range that with good reactions they can still reach you and punish the lag after your last jab. The only other real use for it is the occasional opportunity to jab-reset. Overall this move shouldn’t see much use, as it’s often too easily punished and doesn’t often set up anything useful for him.
Ftilt
Pikachu stretches his hind feet out in front of him, doing slight damage and some knockback. This is one of Pikachu’s better moves. It’s relatively quick, has decent range, and can beat or at least trade with a lot of moves. Its main use, however, is for edgeguarding. With correct angling of the control stick, you can angle Pikachu’s ftilt up or down slightly. If you stand a little bit away from the edge, you can do a down-angled ftilt at the edge, and your ftilt will hit below the ledge while leaving you safe from most recovery moves with a hitbox. This effectively prevents most characters from sweetspotting the edge if you space and time your ftilt correctly. In addition, this can often lead to edgeguarding opportunities, by either chasing an opponent off the edge after you prevent their sweetspot, or simply ftilting until they die if their character doesn’t have a recovery option to get around it.
Dtilt
Pikachu swipes his tail in front of him, doing slight damage and little knockback. This move doesn’t really fit well into Pikachu’s game, though it will see occasional use. It reaches further than most of Pikachu’s moves, and still comes out relatively quickly, which is good, but its damage and knockback are pretty lackluster overall. It doesn’t lead into anything for Pikachu, and mostly is just useful as a poking move to either force your opponent into their shield temporarily or just tack on a small amount of damage. Using it often, however, becomes pretty predictable and punishable. Use it occasionally so that your opponent has to respect it, but it won’t be a core of your gameplay.
Utilt
Pikachu carries his tail over his head in a small arc, doing small damage and knocking them upwards slightly. This move is weird and rarely sees more than 2-3 uses per match. Its main drawbacks are its short range and relative slowness. It hits in a short arc and stays out for about a second and a half, which can be easily punished if dodged. Its knockback is at a good angle; it sends them up slightly and leaves them in stun long enough for you to combo off of it. Its slowness can be beneficial, as you can catch downdodges or delayed approaches with it on occasion, but again it’s pretty punishable if it misses or gets shielded, so it’s generally just too risky to use.
Fsmash
Pikachu stretches a little forward and sends out a ball of electricity a short range in front of him, doing decent damage and good knockback forwards. This is Pikachu’s furthest reaching ground move and it does enough knockback to send the opponent off the stage and mid-high percents, but it has a pretty slow startup and lots of lag after. It’s relatively safe if the opponent blocks it, as it has good shield push and shield stun, but it’s easily punishable if it’s dodged. Generally usmash is the better option as it’s faster, a little safer, and will almost always kill earlier, but the slightly better range on fsmash can come in handy.
Dsmash
Pikachu spins around for a couple seconds catching anyone near him in a lightning attack, doing moderate damage and decent knockback upwards. This move is useful occasionally to catch downdodges and tech options, as it stays out for a couple seconds hitting multiple times. If it is avoided, however, it is easily punished. Its knockback is useful for setting up combos at low-mid percents. Generally you should use this sparingly, but it can come in handy on occasion.
Usmash
Pikachu does a backflip swinging his tail up in front of him, doing good damage and great knockback upwards. This is Pikachu’s main kill move, and is pretty safe on block, somewhat safe on whiff. It’s quick and has a little lag, but if you hit with it it’s definitely worth it, so don’t be afraid to throw it out every so often if you’re fishing for a kill. This move will kill light characters at absurdly low percents and will kill most other chars below 100% on most stages. If you usmash a char and it’s not quite enough to kill them, you can jump in the direction they fly and combo into Thunder (downB) which will very often give the extra bit of knockback needed to kill someone off the top. Use this move often.
Dash Attack
Pikachu lunges forward headbutting his opponent, doing poor damage and knockback. This move comes out quick and has decent range, but it’s extremely laggy and unsafe. You should almost never use this move.
Nair
Pikachu spins in air hitting anyone he runs into, doing decent damage and knockback. This is Pikachu’s main aerial for doing damage. It comes out quick, stays out just long enough, recovers quickly, and has decent knockback. It’s a pretty safe aerial with decent rewards. If you hit with it at the start of its animation it can send the opponent relatively far, while if you hit later in the animation it will have a small knockback but can sometimes lead into combos. Use this a lot in your hit-and-run tactics to get in, do some damage, and force your opponent into the air or off the stage.
Fair
Pikachu electrifies the air around him, doing small damage and knockback for a short time. This move is one of his worse aerials, but it definately has its uses. It comes out as fast as nair, has slightly more range, and keeps your opponent close to you rather than knocking them away. This means it can be good for interrupting things and generally tripping up your opponent. If they expect it, many characters can punish the extremely short stun time from this move, but if you throw it in occasionally you can use fair to lead into grabs or other moves. I like it as an air-to-air, as you can travel through them with fair and set up a doublejump rising uair -> combo. Use it when you want to set up another move, like uair or usmash, but aren't in quite the right position.
Dair
Pikachu spins upside down and shocks the area around him, doing good damage and knockback. This moves comes out a little slow and is slightly laggy though, so it’s not as safe as nair. It can occasionally be used to end combos, and is otherwise useful in a few situations such as dealing with crouchcancelling characters, but generally nair is a better option. If you hit the ground with it, there will be an additional hitbox which has almost no knockback and isn't really useful for much, so try to avoid that.
Uair
Pikachu does a frontflip in the air, swinging his tail over his head in an arc, doing little damage and decent knockback. This move is horrible for damage, but it’s one of his best moves because of its knockback. I will go into much more detail in the Application section, but depending on which part of the tail you hit with, you can pop the opponent up and set up combos, or spike them either forwards or backwards to set up edgeguarding opportunities. It’s pretty quick and safe and can offer good rewards, so overall it’s a great move to use.
Bair
Pikachu spins around horizontally, doing good damage and decent knockback. However, this move is incredibly laggy, and its knockback becomes pretty terrible if you don’t hit with the start of it. This makes it a pretty terrible move overall. It’s occasionally good for ending combos, and its hitbox can be awkward enough that people unfamiliar with it can still get caught by it, but don’t rely on it.
Neutral B (Jolt)
Pikachu spits out a jolt in front of him that follows terrain and does a little damage and stun to whoever it hits. As far as projectiles go it’s not great but not bad. You can use it to help cover your approaches or snipe people who are off the edge, but it’s a little too laggy to use as a consistent projectile like most characters.
Forward B (Skull Bash)
Pikachu charges up and then shoots forward a good distance hitting anyone in his path, doing decent damage and knockback. This move is far too slow to use offensively, so its only real use is to help your recovery if you are knocked far off the stage.
Down B (Thunder)
Pikachu calls thunder down in a straight line from the sky, doing decent damage and knockback to anyone it hits. It will come down in a line from wherever Pikachu called it. If it hits Pikachu, and additional hitbox is created around Pikachu that does good damage and high knockback. This move is really slow and incredibly laggy, however, especially if the lightning connects with Pikachu. Your main use for this move will be after landing an usmash at mid-high percent, as it will combo and will probably be the only time you’re able to connect with it. You can use it if your opponent is trying to recover high above you, but after the first or second time you use it like this your opponent will be weary of it.
Up B (Quick Attack)
Pikachu quickly jolts forward in two directions. After hitting upB, you can angle the stick in a direction to choose the first direction he goes, and then quickly choose another distinct direction and he will fly in that direction afterwards. There is a hitbox on his upB but it does almost no damage and has almost no stun or knockback. This move is used almost primarily for recovery, but it’s a really good recovery move.
Grab
Pikachu has the shortest grab range in the game. His throw options against most characters are pretty decent though, so getting a grab can be quite beneficial. To help getting a grab, be sure to use his good dash speed and general mobility options to assist in getting grabs.
Fthrow – Pikachu puts the opponent on his back and shocks them before throwing them forward a short distance. This is probably Pikachu’s least useful throw, but if you manage to grab the opponent facing the edge it can set up an edgeguarding opportunity. It’s a little too laggy to be useful and doesn’t really lead to anything otherwise, so only use it for positioning really.
Bthrow – Pikachu rolls backwards a short distance and then chucks the opponent behind him. This has decent knockback and mainly is great because of the distance he rolls before throwing it. Think of it like Ken’s bthrow in the SF games, it’s great for positioning. Use this if you ever grab an opponent with your back anywhere near an edge. Even if you’re not near an edge, it can throw the opponent to the edge and force them into a position where they don’t have much space to use. Great throw overall.
Dthrow – Pikachu throws the opponent downwards, where they hit the ground and bounce away a bit. Heavier characters and characters at low percents will hit the ground and be forced to tech, creating a techchase opportunity, while other characters can jump out. It’s an alright throw, but usually bthrow or uthrow will serve you better.
Uthrow – Pikachu throws the opponent upwards a short distance. This isn’t usually that great, but it can lead to combos and most importantly puts the opponent above you. On heavy characters you can chainthrow them until high percents if there aren’t platforms in the way, or force them to tech and potentially techchase them if there are.
Advanced Tactics - [KNW2]
There are a few things specific to Pikachu’s moveset that you should understand as well. This is in addition to general Melee ATs like wavedashing. Some of these will be much more useful than others, but it’s good to at least be aware of all of them and what Pikachu is capable of. Now, to start off, probably the most important:
Uair Hitbox Properties
Understanding how Pikachu’s uair works is crucial to his gameplay. Good uair usage nets kills and sets up almost everything scary Pikachu has. So, how does it work? Pikachu’s uair has three distinct hitboxes that come out one after the other as his tail swings around his body. Each hitbox covers a different area and has a different knockback trajectory. Thus, getting the right hitbox to connect depends both on your positioning and timing. The best way to get used to it is just practice with it and get a feel for it.
The first hitbox comes out almost immediately and covers a large portion behind Pikachu from around the base of his tail to the top of his head. This hitbox knocks the opponent straight upwards. This part is great because of the speed it comes out, and it leads to a lot of Pikachu’s combos. For instance, if you shield an opponent’s attack with your back to them, you can jump and uair as soon as you leave the ground, and it will often catch them and send them upwards. You can then double jump and connect another aerial, or land and try to grab the opponent if they’re a fast faller, etc.
The third hitbox covers a large arc above Pikachu's head. This knocks the opponent down and away from you in a pretty steep arc. Depending on which direction they are from you when the move connects, this will either send them behind you or in front of you. Getting it to connect exactly when you want it to can be a little tricky, though, as hitting them the wrong way will knock them onstage rather than offstage for an edgeguard. It sounds simple, but you really have to get a feel for this move before you'll be comfortable connecting the spike/reverse spike how you want. Utilizing this is a huge part of his gimp and edgeguarding game.
The fourth and final hitbox is the least useful, but still can set up some advantageous situations It covers a small area directly in front of Pikachu and knocks the opponent up and slightly over behind Pikachu. The knockback isn’t that substantial, but it stretches out further forward than the rest of pikachu’s aerials and you can occasionally combo it into another uair or usmash if the opponent DIs poorly.
Angling UpB, Understanding its Hitboxes and Hurtboxes, and SWD
As stated earlier, there are two parts to upB. Each of these parts can be angled in one of 16 cardinal directions (imagine any circle cut into 16 equal sized slices). The only catch is that you can’t go the same direction twice (except in rare, mostly useless instances). The only part that is required to do is the first, and if you don’t input a direction for it you will simply go up. If you collide with any terrain on either part, you won’t go the full distance of that part, but you can still do the second part if you collide with terrain on the first part.
It is possible to sweetspot the edge with upB. You simply have to pass close to the edge (the window is pretty large) during any downward angle'd upB. Be sure, however, to not be holding down when your character reaches the edge, or you will simply fall through as you would if you were any char holding down as you passed the edge.
As far as recovering on to the stage with upB, you generally want to try to end your upB so that your character is very slightly off the ground. If you’re too high, there will be a little lag, but if you land on the stage by colliding into it with your upB, there will be a ton of lag. This applies as well to colliding with the stage with the first part of your upB and then using the second to go straight left/right so you don’t get any height.
Now on to upB’s hitboxes and hurtboxes. Its hitbox is pretty easy to explain. On each part of your upB you basically become a hitbox which does a little damage and has almost no knockback or stun. This doesn’t make it an offensive option, but its good to know it has that. For instance, you can use it to go through someone jumping out to try edgeguarding you, thus putting you on the stage and in a position to edgeguard them. It won't beat out anything, though, the actual hitbox is tiny. The hurtbox on it is pretty awful at parts though. After each part of the upB, Pikachu’s body stretches out extremely far vertically and then horizontally for a couple frames for some reason. What this means is for an instant your hurtbox is HUGE and you can get hit by stuff from ridiculously far away. Although this is rare as you’re only like this for a couple frames, it can be pretty surprising when it happens if you’re not used to it. Also anyone who’s familiar with it can potentially use it to their advantage when edgeguarding you. It’s important to note that if you sweetspot the ledge from above, this doesn’t happen as it will cancel the upB animation before these hurtboxes come out.
Somewhat related to this is Pikachu’s SuperWaveDash (SWD). It is called this because, when executed correctly, Pikachu will slide incredibly quickly and pretty far across the stage while remaining in his neutral animation (meaning you can do tilts, smash attacks, etc. while sliding). To do this, you need to collide the hitbox on the second part of your upB with a move of equal strength while on the ground. This cancels each move, but Pikachu’s momentum from the upB is conserved, propelling him forward. Things it will work on include, but are not limited to, most low damage projectiles like Link’s Boomerang and Pikachu’s Jolt (but note it doesn’t work on Fox/Falco Lasers), most characters’ jabs, some tilts, and Fox/Falco’s Shine. Generally it’s too difficult to set up as you have to predict when they’re going to throw out something (it’s kinda slow to just throw out) and if it doesn’t work you’ll be in a ton of lag from the upB. It can be neat to do once like every few matches as a random surprise though. Not that useful, but cool to know about.
Rapid Jabbing in a Corner
This isn’t really an AT, but it’s somewhat Pikachu specific and useful to know about. In a few configurations of Pokemon Stadium (and some other tournament banned stages) there will be places where you can rapidly tap A and keep your opponent constantly stunned. Normally the pushback from jab would eventually knock your opponent far enough away that it would no longer combo, but if there is a wall to both your and your opponent’s backs (or a ledge to your back), like on the branch of the tree in fire transformation or in the cave on the rock transformation, then you can’t be pushed back far enough for it to stop comboing, and your opponent will be constantly stuck in hitstun. Note that this only works in these specific locations, if your opponent is too small then jab will not reach far enough to keep them in hitstun, and if they are a light enough char then they will eventually be able to smash DI up and jump out. It’s definitely not something to rely on, but if you get it early in a transformation it can easily lead to 200%+ in damage.
Application - [APP0]
Ok, now that you know the basic tools Pikachu has, this section will tell you how to put them together to accomplish the objectives we talked about in the first section. Namely we’ll go into when and how you should be offensive and defensive, how to rack up damage, how to edgeguard, how to recover, some general combos and most importantly how to use all this to win. All of this is dependent on your own playstyle, so it’s fine to play very aggressively or very defensively or do things you don’t see other Pikachu players do often, but you can’t just play Pikachu any way you want and expect success. Pikachu still has his strengths and weaknesses, and using these to your advantage is what’s most crucial.
Pikachu is Fast
Pikachu is incredibly mobile, I know I keep mentioning it, but it’s one of the greatest assets to Pikachu’s game. It allows him to quickly close or create space between him and his opponent. This means you can threaten to get in on your opponent pretty quickly, and can chase their defensive/evasive options more easily than other chars. You can also relatively easily get away from your opponent and reset the situation if you need to, or just create that extra bit of space to cause your opponent’s attacks to whiff. Use this.
Offensive Options - [APP1]
Pikachu can be an offensive terror, but you need to know when and how to get in. Your offensive options on their own honestly aren’t that good, but again Pikachu’s speed is a great help, and once you’re in you often have a number of options to keep the pressure on. First, lets go into what your offensive options actually are.
Nair is probably going to be your most common approach option. Dash forward to short hop nair is quick, covers a decent distance, and is usually easy to follow up. It will trade with a lot of things and is rarely ever beaten cleanly. If you space it well, it’s also safe if shielded and can allow you to put on some decent shield pressure. Ideally you want to hit the top of their shield about 3/4ths of the way through your jump, so you land just a little bit behind your opponent. From this position it’s very difficult or impossible for your opponent to retaliate, while you have the option to escape and reset the situation or continue to apply pressure.
Other aerials are situationally useful for approach. Dair comes out a little slow but has good priority and is one of your only tools against crouch cancelling characters. It doesn’t create followups, but it can go through a lot. Fair catches a lot of moves and can pull people into Pikachu to apply pressure, but is pretty easily crouch cancellable and can often be punished at lower percents. Uair is great for approaching from below, but is pretty awkward and gimmicky in other approach options.
Tilts can also be helpful in your approach. Dtilt is pretty quick and covers a good range. It’s useful for throwing out to trip up your opponent, put them in their shield, or at least force them to adjust their movements around it, which can help you get in. Ftilt is also useful as it beats or will clank with some defensive options from your opponent. It’s punishable but not easily if you whiff with it, but hitting with it can put your opponent on the defensive and clanking with it has at least moved you in a little bit.
Jolt is a decent asset as well. If there is plenty of distance between you and your opponent you can full hop forward and jolt at the top of your jump. You’ll land at about the same time as your jolt, and can use it as a hitbox in front of your approach. This forces the opponent to either avoid it, shield it, try to attack through it, or get hit by it. Avoiding it limits their mobility options. If they jump, you can chase them into the air, which Pikachu excels at. If they roll through it or downdodge it, there’s often time to punish this with a grab, dsmash, or other option, especially if you predict it. If they shield it, you can choose to either apply shield pressure or grab them. Some moves will cleanly beat it and still hit you, though, so recognize your opponent's options. For instance, almost anything Marth does will 'eat' the jolt and continue through to you.
Fake approaches are also pivotal to approaching. Fake an approach, let your opponent’s defensive option whiff, and then actually approach during their lag. This can be done in a number of ways. You can use Pikachu’s excellent dashdance, variations of dashing forward and wavedashing back, and jumping forward and then double jumping up/back/around to change your trajectory. These tools can keep your opponent guessing and cause them to react too hastily to a perceived threat, allowing you to get in.
Once you get that hit, you need to get as much out of it as you can. This involves knowing what you can combo with it and when you have to back off.
A Quick Note on Comboing - [APP2]
Combos are going to be very matchup-dependant, but there are a few commonalities across characters. Generally, if you hit with a rising uair (its first hitbox) you can combo it into something. On lighter characters this may only be another uair, but on most characters you’ll get at least a nair, and on heavy chars you can hit with almost any aerial, usmash, or even grab. The best thing about hitting with rising uair is that it puts the opponent above you, so even if you aren’t able to get a damaging combo out of it, you either force the opponent to tech on a platform and risk you chasing their tech, or jump away from you and risk you uair spiking them out of their second jump.
You can usually combo after nair as well. Often this will be from following their trajectory and forcing the tech-or-jump decision and punishing appropriately. In certain situations, you'll actually be able to combo before they can jump. Pikachu’s ground and air mobility are fast enough that you can stick to opponents pretty well and react to their decisions, making your offense that much scarier. This applies for other moves as well. Tripping them up with tilts, spiking them towards the ground with uair, landing a dmsash or usmash, these all put the opponent on the defensive and may not lead to true combos but will often create situations where with good reactions you can land a more solid hit to combo from.
Usmash is also a good combo starter, though mostly on fastfallers. At higher percents or on more floaty opponents you can combo it straight into a thunder (after jumping towards the direction they DI), which will often kill. There’s much more to all of this, but I will address character-specific combos in the matchup section.
You can’t always be on the offensive though. It’s important to know what defensive options you have and when to use them.
Defensive Options - [APP3]
When an opponent is moving towards you, you have to react. Your options are to avoid, shield, or try to intercept. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, risks and rewards.
First, lets talk about avoiding their approach. This works to Pikachu’s strength, mobility. You can dash away, wavedash back, jump away, or downdodge/roll through it. Dashing away quickly creates space. Thanks to Pikachu’s good dash speed and decent dash dance maximum distance, you can successfully avoid many attacks and dash back in during your opponent’s lag to put them on the defensive. The main limitations to this option are that it doesn’t avoid all approach options, namely horizontal projectile approaches, and that it depends on the amount of space you have behind you. If you can’t dash away very far, you may not be able to completely avoid some approaches. If you’re unable to punish their approach after your dash, then you’ve avoided one approach but now you have less space to move around in general.
If you jump away, you create a situation similar to dashing away, except it affects your spacing and punishing options differently, and can avoid different attacks. Jumping better avoids attacks with short hitboxes, such as Marth’s dtilt or the previously mentioned horizontal projectiles, and can allow you to follow this with a falling aerial for pressure or a punish. The main issue with this is short hopping won’t get you over most attacks, and full hopping to fastfalled aerial is often too slow to punish with Pikachu’s short range below him on his aerials. It also obviously won’t dodge all attacks, and sometimes you’ll have to guess at what the opponent is going to do, so guessing wrong and jumping could mean eating a smash attack or aerial.
Your third avoidance option is downdodging or rolling away from the attack. Pikachu’s roll and downdodge aren’t great but aren’t bad. Rolling away isn’t significantly punishable by most characters, but characters with quick runspeeds that expect you to dash away or roll away can chase and catch the end of your roll with decent reactions. Similarly, if they expect you to downdodge they can easily wait for it (if they haven’t already thrown out a laggy aerial or something similar) and punish you in the lag afterwards. Because of this you need to not overuse it or become predictable. Successfully downdodging an attack can allow you to get a grab or usmash, leading to combo opportunities.
The second of your general defensive options is to shield their approach. For Pikachu this is rarely an ideal option. His shield is terrible, one of the worst in the game, getting poked pretty easily. On the other side of this, his options out of shield are actually pretty decent. You can grab out of shield (just keep in mind his super short grab range), upsmash out of shield, immediately nair or, more commonly, uair out of shield, or of course roll/jump away. The main things to use from this are usmash and uair. Each comes out pretty quickly and hit a decent distance ahead and behind him respectively. Usmash can lead to combos or outright kill depending on their percentage and fallspeed. Uair leads to combos or, at worst, gets them above you where Pikachu wants them. For these reasons shielding is a bit higher risk and higher reward than some characters, so being careful specifically for Pikachu to watch how much you rely on shield and make sure to keep it as close to full size as you can.
The last option is to intercept their approach with an attack of your own. Pikachu doesn’t have many good moves for this, as most of his are relatively short range, but he does have options. If he approaches with an aerial, your best options are probably usmash, immediate uair, or nair. Usmash will trade with a lot of aerials, but the kill potential of usmash makes this worth it at mid to high percents. Nair will also trade with some aerials, but will still kill or set up edgeguarding opportunities at high percentages. Just make sure that you can survive the trade as well, and know that other aerials (ex. Marth’s anything, Jiggs’s bair, etc.) will cleanly beat it. If you want your best option for beating an aerial (and some other approaches), then you need to immediately uair with your back to your opponent. Uair’s hitbox behind and above Pikachu is pretty decent, and it can beat many other short-range aerials.
Your other interception options are pretty situational or lackluster. Dsmash hitbox is a little weird and can beat out some unexpected things like Falco’s dair. It lasts a while though, so you can be relatively lenient on the timing with it. It is pretty easily punishable if they expect it, especially because of its poor range, and can be a little awkward to follow up though, so use it sparingly if at all. Ftilt and dtilt can also be ok on opponents dashing in, but don’t expect it to beat out much. It’s mostly just to catch someone if they’re dashing in for a grab or close range move. Fsmash is slow so needs good prediction skills, but can be a decent move for characters that like to wavedash in or have predictable ground approaches. If you hit with it, the damage and knockback are pretty good and can put you in a decent position.
So far all of this talk has been on-stage related. So, lets go into what to do when one of you is off the stage. Lets talk about how to edgeguard and recover.
Edgeguarding - [APP4]
Pikachu has some pretty unique and useful edgeguarding tools, and is overall great at edgeguarding almost all characters. He can cover a variety of recovery angles and has the potential to kill off the stage at very low percentages with the right set up.
One of the main things to get used to with Pikachu’s edgeguarding is that you can afford to chase people far off and/or below the stage, hit them with something, and still make it back thanks to his long upB range. His aerial mobility and speed lets you do this quickly as well, often allowing you to wait until the opponent commits to a few recovery options/paths before you have to jump out and still have the ability to stop him. For a lot of characters with short recoveries or few recovery options, this means you can chase them out and hit them with practically anything, then upB to the ledge, and they’re dead. Pretty much all his aerials are useful in some way for edgeguarding, as well.
Most often, you’ll want to hit with uair if possible when edgeguarding. This requires you to be below your opponent (even if only slightly) so it can be infeasible if the opponent recovers from too low, but it covers a lot of other options. If you ever see the option to land a spike with uair while the opponent is already off the edge, do it. This relies on you being comfortable with uair’s hitboxes, but it’s extremely rewarding as its trajectory is ideal. If you catch someone already off the edge and uair spike them, it will kill practically everyone at any percent. And if it doesn’t kill them (hi jigglypuff) you at least greatly limit their remaining recovery options. This should deter characters from trying to recover over Pikachu, as correct reaction from you means certain death for them, but fortunately Pikachu also has answers for characters that want to recover low.
As mentioned earlier, Pikachu can afford to chase off the edge pretty far. This means you can jump out at an opponent while he’s about level horizontally with the stage and force him to make a choice. Either he uses his jump to avoid you (which you can punish by uair spiking him if you expect it), try to beat you with an aerial (which can either hinder his recovery, or may trade with your aerial and push him far enough that he can’t recover anyway), or fastfall below you and hopefully still have enough length on his recovery to make it back.
When you do jump out at him, your best aerial options if you can’t line up uair are to nair or dair. Nair is pretty safe and comes out quickly, but its knockback if you don’t hit with the start may not be enough to outright kill (and some characters can get out of hitstun and successfully recover still before Pikachu at lower percents). Dair is also useful, but it’s slow to come out so you have to be sure of where they’ll be. If you do hit with it, however, it does more knockback than nair. Fair can be useful on occasion off the edge, but usually it’s just to set up another aerial. For instance, lets say a Peach is floating a bit far off the stage looking for a way to safely get back. You jump out and she floats back a little bit to dodge your nair. You fair instead, reaching slightly further and knocking her out of her float, and then double jump and uair spike her, ensuring her death. You can also run off the stage and dair or nair to try to beat or at least trade with some vertical recoveries. On some stages you can even fastfall this and still make it back thanks to upB.
Jolt is also an alright projectile for edgeguarding. It’s fairly slow, but moves at a diagonally down direction, where most people will want to recover. Because of its somewhat slow speed it can be kind of awkward to get around. The knockback on jolt isn’t that great, but you can catch someone’s jump with it or just limit the space they can use to recover. Another use for it is to just jolt into the stage, and the jolt will bounce down following the side of the stage, potentially catching recoveries. Again, jolt’s knockback isn’t so great, so if it hits someone’s upB in this way it will mostly just mess with the spacing of their next upB and not outright prevent them from recovering.
Sometimes you won’t have the time or positioning to effectively chase someone off the stage, however. While on the stage, you still have a few other edgeguarding options. If you want to hit people who are trying to sweetspot, you can stand about one Pikachu body distance from the edge and do a down-angled ftilt as your opponent upBs. This will beat a lot of options with correct spacing, and while the knockback isn’t great it can help give you time to more properly edgeguard. Fsmash can be an ok option, but you have to be sure they won’t sweetspot.
Ledgehogging is also of course useful, so don’t forget that either. In addition to just wavedashing backwards off a ledge to grab it and ledgehog, Pikachu can also use his upB to quickly reach the ledge from much further inwards on the stage. To do this, you need to be a proper distance in from the ledge (it’s fairly lenient), start your upB straight outwards so it sends you off the stage but right next to the ledge, then angle the second part back toward the stage but also slightly down, and then be sure to let go of the stick just as the second part comes out and you should zip to the ledge and grab it, successfully ledgehogging. If you’re too close to the ledge when you start your upB, Pikachu will be too low from the second part of upB to snap to the ledge, and if you’re too far you won’t be able to make it off the stage. If you continue holding down after your upB, Pikachu will pass by the ledge (as with anyone holding down while passing the ledge) and die. Because of how fast this comes out and how far in from the stage you can do it (and since it’s pretty unique to Pikachu), it can bait people into thinking they can quickly get to the ledge before Pikachu is able to position his edgeguarding options. It’s good to be comfortable with using this tool.
You have a few other edgeguarding options, but they’re pretty situational and matchup dependant, so I’ll go into them in the matchup section.
Recovery - [APP5]
On the other side of this is recovery, or more specifically, avoiding your opponent’s edgeguarding options while still making it back to the stage. This is another of Pikachu’s strengths. While he’s relatively light and can be vulnerable to dying early off the top or sides, as long as you’re able to DI and survive you will rarely be unable to make it back to the stage, and often do so safely.
This is because of Pikachu’s relative floatiness and the range on and versatility of Pikachu’s upB. His upB has two parts which each can be any of 16 cardinal directions around Pikachu. The best thing you can do to make good use of Pikachu’s recovery is to practice using upB in as many different directions as you can. Being accurate with this allows you to do a number of things. First, you can avoid projectiles and opponents who come offstage to edgeguard you, and still make it back to the stage. You can do this by either angling your upB around their edgeguarding attempt, or by stalling your recovery and letting yourself fall fairly far below the stage (to mess up their edgeguarding timing and force them to recover themselves) before you use your long upB to make it back. Play around with upB, exercise your options, get used to recovering to the ledge, to the stage, to platforms, as many options as you can think of. Being able to recover almost anywhere and through a variety of paths makes edgeguarding Pikachu extremely difficult for pretty much anyone.
The only other things to note about Pikachu’s recovery are using jolt and forwardB. If you have enough height while drifting towards the stage, you can send out a jolt or two to help protect the ledge. You can either line it up so that it hits the stage and bounces a little forward to force someone to shield or avoid it (instead of trying to edgeguard you), or so that it hits the edge and forces someone trying to ledgehog you to get off the ledge and allow you to upB to it. ForwardB is useful for getting a little extra distance out of your recovery, but you have to know when and how to use it. When you forwardB, you get the most distance if you mash forward (as opposed to just holding forward). Don’t charge it at all, charging doesn’t improve its range as far as just floating forward would. Also generally the sooner you can do it in your recovery the better, as it takes a while and doing it too late will either limit your recovery options too much or be easy to punish.
Bringing These Tools Together - [APP6]
Now that I’ve told you what you can do, it’s a bit up to you to decide when to use these tools. Pikachu can be played in a few different ways, and as long as you pay attention to his strengths and weaknesses and know what he’s capable of, your playstyle will decide how you play him. There are a few guidelines I can give, but play around with these options and adapt it to how you like to or think you should play the game.
Pikachu has a little trouble getting in on opponents, and at times can have difficulty getting out of pressure. He’s incredibly mobile (have I said this enough yet?) and has a ton of pressure tools, so getting the most out of your opportunities is important. You can use this in a very aggressive style to rely on overwhelming your opponent and not letting him set up his game plan. You can use it for a very defensive style where you try to bait your opponent into overextending, and punish him hard for it. You can play safe and go for guaranteed damage off hits and rely on his superb upsmash for kills. You can be risky and go for flashy off the edge kills or gutsy punishes. All in all your style will be a combination of these, and other, elements. Just remember the obvious goal: take all your opponent’s stock before they can do the same to you.
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