I'm still seeing a lot of (imo) bad habits when I watch Pac-Man players play. Here's a list of things I think his players need to start/stop doing in order to progress the character.
STOP
00: You've just landed a hit as Pac-Man, and instead of rushing after the reeling opponent and/or taking stage control, you remain where you are and charge fruit. Or even worse, you GIVE UP STAGE CONTROL to go mess with your hydrant or charge fruit.
I see a fundamental disconnection between Pac-Man players and the rest of the game. I don't see other character users willingly give up or not rush to take stage control, but I constantly see Pac-Man players opt for some goofy setup or fruit charging instead of establishing some sort of threatening presence.
You need to realize that you are playing Pac-Man, and some of his specials are hydrant and fruit. You are not playing fruit + hydrant with Pac-Man behind them. They are strong tools, but not so strong that they can carry your entire game. Your special moves aren't so good that you can throw the fundamentals of smash out of the window. Pac-Man or not, the fundamentals come first.
What are these fundamentals I'm talking about? Go watch grand finals matches at big tournaments like EVO, Big House, KTAR, etc. Let me make this easy and give some example sets:
0: When offstage, doing Double jump -> Fruit charge when not directly below the ledge, or double jump -> fruit charge while above the opponent.
I want people to learn the MU faster so they can KO pac man players for doing this. It's beyond bad, but I still see people do it, and the reason you get away with it is because people do not understand how limited Pac-Man is when he's charging. Doing this constantly shows that you don't understand neutral fundamentals well (See point 00).
At 3:58:53, Zage goes for a fruit charge that doesn't get him directly punished, but it forces him to grab the ledge => giving up more stage control.
I think you're getting the idea. The last point I'll highlight is 4:01:01. Zage got hit, and charges fruit immediately, leaving himself completely open to pressure when wadi jumps out at him. Since he committed to the fruit charge instead of getting out of the disadvantaged position, he was forced to drift back. He power pellets from afar and gets dunked yet again. Hopefully you can see what I'm trying to illustrate.
When you double jump -> fruit charge, you've just given yourself to the opponent on a silver platter if they understand how Pac-Man works. Even if you've mastered the BF charge -> BF charge cancel, there's still a good amount of frames where your options are very limited. Charging bonus fruit is not worth putting yourself above the opponent or lingering offstage. An opponent who understands how limited you are will capatilize on this, and probably gimp you once you're forced to power pellet far from the stage.
1: Opponent is off stage, you are more than about a roll's distance from the ledge, charging fruit, and not setting up a hydrant trap or actively pressuring their return
I see this as letting the opponent back to the stage for free, and this is a huge problem as pac man because he struggles to secure KOs to begin with. He needs to press his advantages as hard as possible. The ledge needs to be one of the spots where Pac-Man goes in as hard as possible. Since he can create independent hitboxes that linger and KO (bouncing hydrant), he should be taking full advantage of this when people are on the ledge. The only reason pac man shouldn't be super close to the ledge pressuring it is if he's trying to read a burst movement option towards the stage.
I still see pac man players knock people offstage and instead of pressuring the ledge as hard as possible, they stay where they are and charge fruit. I see this only as a good choice if you have godlike spacing with your bells, and even then, I think a hydrant ledge trap is better because you can cover more options at once. Pressuring people at the ledge is a critical part of smash 4 at high level, and it's one area Pac-Man can excel in. Players need to push this more and focus less on Bonus Fruit.
2: Pac-Man is holding a bell right next to the opponent, who is blocking, and the pac-man player doesn't trampoline the player and instead goes for the hard read with the bell.
I get it. You want the KO, but this extremely difficult to pull off. If the player is smart, they will jump OoS and airdodge to get out of this situation. That's their jump squat + airdodge startup, so 8 frames of vulnerability in a general case; 7 for F4 jump squats. This is impossible to react to, and as I said, going for the bell is a hard read. Good luck landing it.
Instead, I think pac-man should take the trampoline hit, THEN try to hit them with the bell on their landing or something. If they keep hiding in shield, keep using the trampoline.
3: Opponent is holding Pac-Man's fruit, and Pac-Man does not use the trampoline to help control their ground movements, or stationary hydrant to push them towards the ledge.
When an opponent has your fruit and intends to keep it, they begin to play in a very obvious fashion. Most people will shield a lot and focus on avoiding you.
What I fail to see Pac-Man players utilize is trampoline to help combat this. If the player is focusing on holding your fruit, they're going to be defensive when you get close. Why not make things easier for yourself when trying to regain your fruit by placing a trampoline to limit their options some? Picture this scenario:
___opponent with fruit_____________center stage_____Pac-man_____
Go right past center stage and place a trampoline. If you can hit the opponent with it, great, but it doesn't really matter if you miss (variable danger depending on opponent obviously). This makes the situation:
__opponent______trampoline_____center_____Pac-Man
Now do something like Fair launch a hydrant at them, and jump over the trampoline to follow it. Now you have the trampoline covering some of the ground. If they go into it, they get forced airborne. Even if you miss your initial attempt to get close, them getting forced airborne will give you more time to catch them as you chase them down.
Another tool to consider in this situation is hydrant water. Remember that it is unblockable and will push opponents even if they shield. What do people like to do when they're holding Pac's fruit?
In this situation:
opponent w/fruit _____Hydrant_____Pac-Man
Pac-Man can easily get more stage control in this situation. Set the hydrant down and let the water come out, then see how the opponent reacts to it. Keep in mind since they're holding your fruit, they can't use tilts or smashes. Their means of launching the hydrant at you are diminished, so you don't have to worry about them launching it as much. If they do nothing or block the water, they'll get pushed towards the ledge giving them no ground to retreat to if they keep trying to run away from you. They could jump over the water, but then they've left the ground, and if you've primed the hydrant for a launch, you can now put them in a bad spot. If they run to counter the water push, there isn't much for you to capitalize on unfortunately, but most players won't think to do this while holding pac man's fruit.
4: Going to FD or DH
This one may be controversial, but I don't think these stages do as much for Pac-Man as the others do.
Trampoline is as unsafe as it will ever get on these two stages (moreso FD) because there are no reliable platforms available to break Pac-Man's fall. It's unsafe on hit vs a lot of characters on FD for a good bit of %.
Trampoline also loses defensive power when platforms aren't involved. When you put a trampoline below and next to a platform, but not directly under it so your opponent can't platform cancel off of it, it's nigh impossible for anyone to approach Pac-Man safely in that situation. The platform above Pac-Man protects him from falling aerials, and the trampoline forces people airborne. You don't get this setup power on FD or DH.
Considering worst case scenarios, FD and DH give the opponent the most room to run away from Pac-Man when they have his fruit. Consider the possibility of this happening when you pick this stage.
START
1: Using the trampoline on shielding opponents on platforms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hby_IMpG4fU
We all know trampoline ignores shields, but we tend to forget that property when people are shielding above pac man on a platform. Remember that trampoline will beat shield as long as you place it near the opposing character's feet, so aim well and show them platforms are not safe. It's only 7%, but it's a free, low risk 7% that no one sees coming. If the opponent starts catching on and preemptively (and i mean early since trampoline will still catch them if they're close) roll, hit them with an aerial instead.
2: When holding the Key in hand, taking free Key hits as opposed to looking for shield breaks or fancy z drop stuff
I'll reference a match for this one. Tea vs Shuton from the japanese big house qualifier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KMF37fNjY0). In game 1 of the set, Tea gets the key in his hand and does some fancy z drop stuff. This is around 2:17 in the video. He baits shuton into doing things, one of which I know includes Olimar's Nair. Instead of looking for the reaction (the nair was a huge commitment from shuton) and chucking the key at olimar for a free 15%, Tea didn't, ended getting hit for ~26% and getting his key stolen. Let me also point out that right before he got hit by olimar's Fsmash, he did a z drop hydrant launch at a terrible spot because it had zero chance to hit unless Shuton moved into it.
I'm all for instant launch hydrants with z drop Key because it is pretty good for forcing reactions. However, unless Pac-Man has a lead, he needs to hit the opponent to make progress, and that's difficult to do when your instant launch hydrants follow a set trajectory that's not hard to avoid.
What is hard to avoid is a key thrown from hand. It has low startup, travels fast, can be done at any time, even OoS, and is completely safe since fruit thrown from hand can't be picked up again. Keep in mind the option to just throw the key at people, especially if they're expecting you to go for fancy stuff. Use instant launch hydrants to get yourself into a range where your opponent can't react to the thrown key.
3: Using perfect pivots to perform reverse Utilts on approaching opponents
Pac-Man's utilt has a ridiculous disjoint above him, but it's hard to get under the opponent in order to utilize this. I'm speaking mostly from the perspective of this situation:
opponent_______trampoline_____Pac-Man
Most characters have to go airborne to get to Pac-Man in this situation. If Pac-Man players can master on reaction PP Utilt as an anti air, his defensive game would become that much stronger.
4: trampoline/hydrant sandwich technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1GkeeP02vM
This is a trick I still don't see any pac man players go for. I'm not going to lie: it's probably only going to work once on a smart player, but I have yet to have it not work once the first time I've tried it on someone. No one expects this, honestly.
5: Master Fruit Cancelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9VD-TBgAck
I don't know what the pac man jargon has come to, but I'm referring to charging BF -> special cancel into another BF -> cancel that BF before pac man starts charging to return to a neutral state. This is important to master if you insist on air charging because it means that you don't have to do a special or airdodge once you commit to charging BF in the air. Less predictable = better.
6: When someone is trying to time Pac-Man out, actively avoiding conflict and giving Pac-Man time, adapt your style and abuse the time given to you.
Reference match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt0HrJt1tw4
Pac-Man should not get timed out when the opponent gives him the entire stage to work with. Methods to combat safe play include:
-Use the trampoline repeatedly: Players going for timeouts play safe. When up against Pac-Man, this means abusing shield a lot because his grab is so weak. The only consistent answer Pac-Man has to this type of play is his trampoline. It's only 7% a hit, but you have to take the safe % because falling further behind is too risky. Once the opponent hits higher %s, employ the other strategies below to seal the deal. OR just keep hitting them with the trampoline if they insist on running up to you and blocking. It'll KO eventually.
- Getting the Key in your hand: Key thrown from hand can't be stolen/caught, giving Pac-Man a less risky method to secure KOs. Key from hand can be thrown OoS, allowing Pac-Man to punish a much larger amount of moves on block for a KO than he could otherwise. It also gives you access to instant launch hydrants, which can force the opponent to pick some action in order to avoid the hydrant that gets them hit with the key. At close range, no opponent should be able to react to pac man throwing the key. Slowly close the distance to get this point in order to scare your opponent into doing something. Keep in mind that fruits never stale, meaning spamming fruits if your opponent keeps letting you get them will let you regain a lead while still being able to KO. Pac-Man players should be comfortable with getting the key in their hand on every legal stage.
-Using delayed, off-screen hydrant launches to back up your KO attempts or net KOs themselves: Players bent on timing Pac-Man out tend to give him complete stage control. He can abuse this space/time by getting a fruit in his hand, and using it to launch his hydrant while neither player can see it. I recommend using the Apple, Bell, Galaxian, or Key to do this. After priming the hydrant (not necessary if using Key), stand on top of it and wait for a vertical water spurt. When the water comes, z drop the fruit. It will be shot up by the water and come back down a bit later, launching the hydrant in the direction Pac-Man was facing when he z dropped the fruit (assuming he didn't move before z dropping the fruit into the water), with the trajectory changing depending on which fruit is used. ( I say Fromundaman mention this first, so thanks to him for reminding me of it)
Although this is predictable and telegraphed, this still forces the opponent to do something in order to not die. The opponent can't see the hydrant being launched if Pac-Man closes the distance between them, meaning it's not as easy for them to avoid the incoming hydrant. The delayed launch also allows Pac-Man to take a greater risk for securing the KO knowing that his hydrant is coming to protect him.
If the opponent tries to jump over pac man, they risk running into the launched hydrant, which has a different trajectory depending on which fruit pac man used to launch it (no one will be ready for every launch, get creative). Pac-Man players need to be familiar with how each fruit launches the hydrant from a z drop.
-Using delayed gushed Apple as a sweeping hitbox to KO people: When thrown up or down from pac man's hand, the apple will bounce ~11 times as long as it hit something from its first toss (throw it at the hydrant first). This is enough time for Pac-Man to get an apple in his hand, set a hydrant down, run off and throw the apple upwards, and have the apple come bouncing across the ground a bit later after the hydrant water pushes it.
The bouncing apple can catch people off guard, and much like the delayed hydrant launch, can serve as cover for Pac-Man to attempt a riskier KO option.
7. Fair -> Key
I believe I saw PEPESPAIN advocating this the most. Fair to Key is true on all of the cast at the right % range. Learn where this range is and enjoy your KO confirm.
However, this loses to block. Which people are inclined to do against Pac-Man. Find ways to convince them not to shield first.
Also pay attention to how people fly away from your Fair. If you Fair someone on the ground and they go into the untechable reel animation, that's a free KO with the Key. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i6-mldGJog)
8. Footstools
https://twitter.com/chibiT2169/status/735184642819526656?lang=en
https://twitter.com/chibiT2169/status/762318425498669056
Mastering the Key infinite would be ideal.
https://twitter.com/Teitoku_Admiral/status/666602543955361794
However, even if you can't or don't want to get the infinite down, a simple footstool -> z drop key -> hydrant does ~37% and will KO at high %.
An easier, non infinite variation of Tea's galaxian infinite that does good damage is (i'll see if I can get a video of it tonight):
Footstool -> z drop galaxian (hits them) -> Footstool -> FF late Nair for a lock -> charged Fsmash if close enough, or dash up charge Usmash / power pellet.
At the right %s, this can KO and isn't that hard to pull off. However, it doesn't work forever since Nair won't lock when the opponent gets ~100% or so.
Kamemushi has footstooled top level Sheik players at top level. There's no more room for excuses, Pac-Man players need to work on getting his footstool combos down.
9. Using Pac-Man's Dash Grab
I've been sleeping on this myself. Pac-Man's grab is awful, but he has a unique quirk: all variations of his grab have the same frame data. Couple this with how far Pac-Man moves when he goes for a dash grab and you can punish a lot of moves that you wouldn't think Pac-Man could punish with a grab.
Look here for reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...WFwy_dg04Rrq4a-YF9-VDOhZI/edit#gid=1478544066
For any move that is around -12 or worse on shield drop, practice using buffered dash grab as a punish option against it, unless you can get dash up smash of course. If your timing is good enough, you can guaranteed punishes that would've otherwise required having a fruit in your hand. You need to practice and be spot on with these grab punishes though, because missing = eating a hard punish yourself. This is worth practicing because players often think they can get away with buttons on Pac-Man's shield because his grab is so bad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll keep updating this as I see fit. Pac-Man is still largely a gimmick character imo, but there's still some things his players could be doing to make him a bit more threatening.
Take a look at this playbook for more info:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QSKLquAYqc2NvkyDPruXWZmUZvv0zFijx5gSaxHdxzU/edit
STOP
00: You've just landed a hit as Pac-Man, and instead of rushing after the reeling opponent and/or taking stage control, you remain where you are and charge fruit. Or even worse, you GIVE UP STAGE CONTROL to go mess with your hydrant or charge fruit.
I see a fundamental disconnection between Pac-Man players and the rest of the game. I don't see other character users willingly give up or not rush to take stage control, but I constantly see Pac-Man players opt for some goofy setup or fruit charging instead of establishing some sort of threatening presence.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=161
Don't mess with your hydrant after landing hits. Go and edgeguard or at least pressure the landing.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=273
Pac-Man goes for the setup here...that takes a while to set up. Why not instead go offstage and pressure Mario with Fair, especially considering he has no quick forward facing attack in the air? Instead mario gets back on stage for free while pac man is try to set something up, missed edgeguard right there.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=349
Pac-Man gets a nice grab and throws mario offstage. Instead of pressuring him and going for the edge guard like any top player would do, he lets mario back on for free essentially. Maybe he planned for the water push to but him back on near the ledge. Touche, but my response to that fact is that he's still stuck in the BF charge animation and has to spend frames in order to do something else. Heck, the resulting water pushed him so far that mario easily reversed the situation.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=499
Landed a hit and instead of taking stage control, opted to charge fruit and let Mario take it.
Don't mess with your hydrant after landing hits. Go and edgeguard or at least pressure the landing.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=273
Pac-Man goes for the setup here...that takes a while to set up. Why not instead go offstage and pressure Mario with Fair, especially considering he has no quick forward facing attack in the air? Instead mario gets back on stage for free while pac man is try to set something up, missed edgeguard right there.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=349
Pac-Man gets a nice grab and throws mario offstage. Instead of pressuring him and going for the edge guard like any top player would do, he lets mario back on for free essentially. Maybe he planned for the water push to but him back on near the ledge. Touche, but my response to that fact is that he's still stuck in the BF charge animation and has to spend frames in order to do something else. Heck, the resulting water pushed him so far that mario easily reversed the situation.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=499
Landed a hit and instead of taking stage control, opted to charge fruit and let Mario take it.
You need to realize that you are playing Pac-Man, and some of his specials are hydrant and fruit. You are not playing fruit + hydrant with Pac-Man behind them. They are strong tools, but not so strong that they can carry your entire game. Your special moves aren't so good that you can throw the fundamentals of smash out of the window. Pac-Man or not, the fundamentals come first.
What are these fundamentals I'm talking about? Go watch grand finals matches at big tournaments like EVO, Big House, KTAR, etc. Let me make this easy and give some example sets:
Ally vs mkLeo, GFs of canada cup 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI0rwsQaMOo
There is a not a single time in this set that you'll see Ally double jump while above Leo and proceed to charge FLUDD. You won't see him give up stage control or edgeguards to charge FLUDD. Ally understands that FLUDD is just one of Mario's tools and other fundamental concepts like edgeguarding, stage control, getting to the ground / out of a disadvantaged position, etc. are more important than always charging FLUDD.
Abadango vs KEN, WFs of TUS6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGrgGjviuck
Abadango never expends his double jump while above KEN in order to charge shadow ball because he understands that getting out of disadvantage is more important than getting his shadow ball. Also notice that @3:41, he hits KEN, and runs to where KEN is going to land in order to apply pressure, then he charges when he realizes he has spare time. Shortly after Abadango grabs a rolling KEN because he is pressured, and nets a kill from it. A pac-man player would've probably let KEN land for free, and then get killed by some rage smash attack (https://youtu.be/jGRXYAPM-CI?t=287). The fundamentals come first!
At 4:12, you know what Abadango didn't do? He didn't expend his double jump to charge shadow ball. He got to the ground!
Abadango vs KEN, WFs of TUS6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGrgGjviuck
Abadango never expends his double jump while above KEN in order to charge shadow ball because he understands that getting out of disadvantage is more important than getting his shadow ball. Also notice that @3:41, he hits KEN, and runs to where KEN is going to land in order to apply pressure, then he charges when he realizes he has spare time. Shortly after Abadango grabs a rolling KEN because he is pressured, and nets a kill from it. A pac-man player would've probably let KEN land for free, and then get killed by some rage smash attack (https://youtu.be/jGRXYAPM-CI?t=287). The fundamentals come first!
At 4:12, you know what Abadango didn't do? He didn't expend his double jump to charge shadow ball. He got to the ground!
0: When offstage, doing Double jump -> Fruit charge when not directly below the ledge, or double jump -> fruit charge while above the opponent.
I want people to learn the MU faster so they can KO pac man players for doing this. It's beyond bad, but I still see people do it, and the reason you get away with it is because people do not understand how limited Pac-Man is when he's charging. Doing this constantly shows that you don't understand neutral fundamentals well (See point 00).
good example(s) of why this is bad: https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=50
Pac-Man charges fruit when he needs to instead focus on landing, and promptly forces himself to take an action out of the charge animation (airdodge) that ultimately gets him punished.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=314
Pac-Man starts charging instead of getting to the ground, forcing himself to eat the fireball and subsequent damage. Stage Control > Fruit.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=373
If mario wouldn't have committed to the fireball, pac man could've died. Regardless, he still forced himself to recover low right there.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=504
Double jump fruit chage -> force himself to airdodge and go to the ledge. Dies before he can take control again.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=539
The only thing that fruit charge accomplished was limiting pac man's options.
Another set example, zage vs Wadi from S@X 174: https://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp/v/98474461 ; look around 3:30:30
At 3:56:56 -> Zage gets strung offstage, and immediately double jumps -> charge fruit. Because of this,
Pac-Man charges fruit when he needs to instead focus on landing, and promptly forces himself to take an action out of the charge animation (airdodge) that ultimately gets him punished.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=314
Pac-Man starts charging instead of getting to the ground, forcing himself to eat the fireball and subsequent damage. Stage Control > Fruit.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=373
If mario wouldn't have committed to the fireball, pac man could've died. Regardless, he still forced himself to recover low right there.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=504
Double jump fruit chage -> force himself to airdodge and go to the ledge. Dies before he can take control again.
https://youtu.be/a98yFevIJp8?t=539
The only thing that fruit charge accomplished was limiting pac man's options.
Another set example, zage vs Wadi from S@X 174: https://www.twitch.tv/vgbootcamp/v/98474461 ; look around 3:30:30
At 3:56:56 -> Zage gets strung offstage, and immediately double jumps -> charge fruit. Because of this,
he can't drift until he does something else. He airdodges out of the charge and drifts back in case Wadi tries to hit him, and is forced to power pellet from afar. What happens? Gets dunked.
At 3:57:36, Zage gets hit, and instead getting to the ground like Ally or Abadango, expends his double jump to charge fruit. Airdodges right into Wadi after and is fortunate not to eat a punish.
At 3:58:18, the first thing zage does instead of trying to get stage control is charge fruit? Result? Gets dash attacked and ends up offstage. What's he do once offstage? Double jump fruit charge, then airdodges towards Wadi yet again and is lucky to not get dunked again. Let me point out that Wadi kept charging shadow ball when Zage was charging, and this is what I referring to when I say that "people don't understand how limited Pac-Man is when he's charging".
At 3:57:36, Zage gets hit, and instead getting to the ground like Ally or Abadango, expends his double jump to charge fruit. Airdodges right into Wadi after and is fortunate not to eat a punish.
At 3:58:18, the first thing zage does instead of trying to get stage control is charge fruit? Result? Gets dash attacked and ends up offstage. What's he do once offstage? Double jump fruit charge, then airdodges towards Wadi yet again and is lucky to not get dunked again. Let me point out that Wadi kept charging shadow ball when Zage was charging, and this is what I referring to when I say that "people don't understand how limited Pac-Man is when he's charging".
At 3:58:53, Zage goes for a fruit charge that doesn't get him directly punished, but it forces him to grab the ledge => giving up more stage control.
I think you're getting the idea. The last point I'll highlight is 4:01:01. Zage got hit, and charges fruit immediately, leaving himself completely open to pressure when wadi jumps out at him. Since he committed to the fruit charge instead of getting out of the disadvantaged position, he was forced to drift back. He power pellets from afar and gets dunked yet again. Hopefully you can see what I'm trying to illustrate.
When you double jump -> fruit charge, you've just given yourself to the opponent on a silver platter if they understand how Pac-Man works. Even if you've mastered the BF charge -> BF charge cancel, there's still a good amount of frames where your options are very limited. Charging bonus fruit is not worth putting yourself above the opponent or lingering offstage. An opponent who understands how limited you are will capatilize on this, and probably gimp you once you're forced to power pellet far from the stage.
1: Opponent is off stage, you are more than about a roll's distance from the ledge, charging fruit, and not setting up a hydrant trap or actively pressuring their return
I see this as letting the opponent back to the stage for free, and this is a huge problem as pac man because he struggles to secure KOs to begin with. He needs to press his advantages as hard as possible. The ledge needs to be one of the spots where Pac-Man goes in as hard as possible. Since he can create independent hitboxes that linger and KO (bouncing hydrant), he should be taking full advantage of this when people are on the ledge. The only reason pac man shouldn't be super close to the ledge pressuring it is if he's trying to read a burst movement option towards the stage.
I still see pac man players knock people offstage and instead of pressuring the ledge as hard as possible, they stay where they are and charge fruit. I see this only as a good choice if you have godlike spacing with your bells, and even then, I think a hydrant ledge trap is better because you can cover more options at once. Pressuring people at the ledge is a critical part of smash 4 at high level, and it's one area Pac-Man can excel in. Players need to push this more and focus less on Bonus Fruit.
2: Pac-Man is holding a bell right next to the opponent, who is blocking, and the pac-man player doesn't trampoline the player and instead goes for the hard read with the bell.
I get it. You want the KO, but this extremely difficult to pull off. If the player is smart, they will jump OoS and airdodge to get out of this situation. That's their jump squat + airdodge startup, so 8 frames of vulnerability in a general case; 7 for F4 jump squats. This is impossible to react to, and as I said, going for the bell is a hard read. Good luck landing it.
Instead, I think pac-man should take the trampoline hit, THEN try to hit them with the bell on their landing or something. If they keep hiding in shield, keep using the trampoline.
3: Opponent is holding Pac-Man's fruit, and Pac-Man does not use the trampoline to help control their ground movements, or stationary hydrant to push them towards the ledge.
When an opponent has your fruit and intends to keep it, they begin to play in a very obvious fashion. Most people will shield a lot and focus on avoiding you.
What I fail to see Pac-Man players utilize is trampoline to help combat this. If the player is focusing on holding your fruit, they're going to be defensive when you get close. Why not make things easier for yourself when trying to regain your fruit by placing a trampoline to limit their options some? Picture this scenario:
___opponent with fruit_____________center stage_____Pac-man_____
Go right past center stage and place a trampoline. If you can hit the opponent with it, great, but it doesn't really matter if you miss (variable danger depending on opponent obviously). This makes the situation:
__opponent______trampoline_____center_____Pac-Man
Now do something like Fair launch a hydrant at them, and jump over the trampoline to follow it. Now you have the trampoline covering some of the ground. If they go into it, they get forced airborne. Even if you miss your initial attempt to get close, them getting forced airborne will give you more time to catch them as you chase them down.
Another tool to consider in this situation is hydrant water. Remember that it is unblockable and will push opponents even if they shield. What do people like to do when they're holding Pac's fruit?
In this situation:
opponent w/fruit _____Hydrant_____Pac-Man
Pac-Man can easily get more stage control in this situation. Set the hydrant down and let the water come out, then see how the opponent reacts to it. Keep in mind since they're holding your fruit, they can't use tilts or smashes. Their means of launching the hydrant at you are diminished, so you don't have to worry about them launching it as much. If they do nothing or block the water, they'll get pushed towards the ledge giving them no ground to retreat to if they keep trying to run away from you. They could jump over the water, but then they've left the ground, and if you've primed the hydrant for a launch, you can now put them in a bad spot. If they run to counter the water push, there isn't much for you to capitalize on unfortunately, but most players won't think to do this while holding pac man's fruit.
4: Going to FD or DH
This one may be controversial, but I don't think these stages do as much for Pac-Man as the others do.
Trampoline is as unsafe as it will ever get on these two stages (moreso FD) because there are no reliable platforms available to break Pac-Man's fall. It's unsafe on hit vs a lot of characters on FD for a good bit of %.
Trampoline also loses defensive power when platforms aren't involved. When you put a trampoline below and next to a platform, but not directly under it so your opponent can't platform cancel off of it, it's nigh impossible for anyone to approach Pac-Man safely in that situation. The platform above Pac-Man protects him from falling aerials, and the trampoline forces people airborne. You don't get this setup power on FD or DH.
Considering worst case scenarios, FD and DH give the opponent the most room to run away from Pac-Man when they have his fruit. Consider the possibility of this happening when you pick this stage.
START
1: Using the trampoline on shielding opponents on platforms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hby_IMpG4fU
We all know trampoline ignores shields, but we tend to forget that property when people are shielding above pac man on a platform. Remember that trampoline will beat shield as long as you place it near the opposing character's feet, so aim well and show them platforms are not safe. It's only 7%, but it's a free, low risk 7% that no one sees coming. If the opponent starts catching on and preemptively (and i mean early since trampoline will still catch them if they're close) roll, hit them with an aerial instead.
2: When holding the Key in hand, taking free Key hits as opposed to looking for shield breaks or fancy z drop stuff
I'll reference a match for this one. Tea vs Shuton from the japanese big house qualifier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KMF37fNjY0). In game 1 of the set, Tea gets the key in his hand and does some fancy z drop stuff. This is around 2:17 in the video. He baits shuton into doing things, one of which I know includes Olimar's Nair. Instead of looking for the reaction (the nair was a huge commitment from shuton) and chucking the key at olimar for a free 15%, Tea didn't, ended getting hit for ~26% and getting his key stolen. Let me also point out that right before he got hit by olimar's Fsmash, he did a z drop hydrant launch at a terrible spot because it had zero chance to hit unless Shuton moved into it.
I'm all for instant launch hydrants with z drop Key because it is pretty good for forcing reactions. However, unless Pac-Man has a lead, he needs to hit the opponent to make progress, and that's difficult to do when your instant launch hydrants follow a set trajectory that's not hard to avoid.
What is hard to avoid is a key thrown from hand. It has low startup, travels fast, can be done at any time, even OoS, and is completely safe since fruit thrown from hand can't be picked up again. Keep in mind the option to just throw the key at people, especially if they're expecting you to go for fancy stuff. Use instant launch hydrants to get yourself into a range where your opponent can't react to the thrown key.
3: Using perfect pivots to perform reverse Utilts on approaching opponents
Pac-Man's utilt has a ridiculous disjoint above him, but it's hard to get under the opponent in order to utilize this. I'm speaking mostly from the perspective of this situation:
opponent_______trampoline_____Pac-Man
Most characters have to go airborne to get to Pac-Man in this situation. If Pac-Man players can master on reaction PP Utilt as an anti air, his defensive game would become that much stronger.
4: trampoline/hydrant sandwich technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1GkeeP02vM
This is a trick I still don't see any pac man players go for. I'm not going to lie: it's probably only going to work once on a smart player, but I have yet to have it not work once the first time I've tried it on someone. No one expects this, honestly.
5: Master Fruit Cancelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9VD-TBgAck
I don't know what the pac man jargon has come to, but I'm referring to charging BF -> special cancel into another BF -> cancel that BF before pac man starts charging to return to a neutral state. This is important to master if you insist on air charging because it means that you don't have to do a special or airdodge once you commit to charging BF in the air. Less predictable = better.
6: When someone is trying to time Pac-Man out, actively avoiding conflict and giving Pac-Man time, adapt your style and abuse the time given to you.
Reference match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt0HrJt1tw4
Pac-Man should not get timed out when the opponent gives him the entire stage to work with. Methods to combat safe play include:
-Use the trampoline repeatedly: Players going for timeouts play safe. When up against Pac-Man, this means abusing shield a lot because his grab is so weak. The only consistent answer Pac-Man has to this type of play is his trampoline. It's only 7% a hit, but you have to take the safe % because falling further behind is too risky. Once the opponent hits higher %s, employ the other strategies below to seal the deal. OR just keep hitting them with the trampoline if they insist on running up to you and blocking. It'll KO eventually.
- Getting the Key in your hand: Key thrown from hand can't be stolen/caught, giving Pac-Man a less risky method to secure KOs. Key from hand can be thrown OoS, allowing Pac-Man to punish a much larger amount of moves on block for a KO than he could otherwise. It also gives you access to instant launch hydrants, which can force the opponent to pick some action in order to avoid the hydrant that gets them hit with the key. At close range, no opponent should be able to react to pac man throwing the key. Slowly close the distance to get this point in order to scare your opponent into doing something. Keep in mind that fruits never stale, meaning spamming fruits if your opponent keeps letting you get them will let you regain a lead while still being able to KO. Pac-Man players should be comfortable with getting the key in their hand on every legal stage.
-Using delayed, off-screen hydrant launches to back up your KO attempts or net KOs themselves: Players bent on timing Pac-Man out tend to give him complete stage control. He can abuse this space/time by getting a fruit in his hand, and using it to launch his hydrant while neither player can see it. I recommend using the Apple, Bell, Galaxian, or Key to do this. After priming the hydrant (not necessary if using Key), stand on top of it and wait for a vertical water spurt. When the water comes, z drop the fruit. It will be shot up by the water and come back down a bit later, launching the hydrant in the direction Pac-Man was facing when he z dropped the fruit (assuming he didn't move before z dropping the fruit into the water), with the trajectory changing depending on which fruit is used. ( I say Fromundaman mention this first, so thanks to him for reminding me of it)
Although this is predictable and telegraphed, this still forces the opponent to do something in order to not die. The opponent can't see the hydrant being launched if Pac-Man closes the distance between them, meaning it's not as easy for them to avoid the incoming hydrant. The delayed launch also allows Pac-Man to take a greater risk for securing the KO knowing that his hydrant is coming to protect him.
If the opponent tries to jump over pac man, they risk running into the launched hydrant, which has a different trajectory depending on which fruit pac man used to launch it (no one will be ready for every launch, get creative). Pac-Man players need to be familiar with how each fruit launches the hydrant from a z drop.
-Using delayed gushed Apple as a sweeping hitbox to KO people: When thrown up or down from pac man's hand, the apple will bounce ~11 times as long as it hit something from its first toss (throw it at the hydrant first). This is enough time for Pac-Man to get an apple in his hand, set a hydrant down, run off and throw the apple upwards, and have the apple come bouncing across the ground a bit later after the hydrant water pushes it.
The bouncing apple can catch people off guard, and much like the delayed hydrant launch, can serve as cover for Pac-Man to attempt a riskier KO option.
7. Fair -> Key
I believe I saw PEPESPAIN advocating this the most. Fair to Key is true on all of the cast at the right % range. Learn where this range is and enjoy your KO confirm.
However, this loses to block. Which people are inclined to do against Pac-Man. Find ways to convince them not to shield first.
Also pay attention to how people fly away from your Fair. If you Fair someone on the ground and they go into the untechable reel animation, that's a free KO with the Key. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i6-mldGJog)
8. Footstools
https://twitter.com/chibiT2169/status/735184642819526656?lang=en
https://twitter.com/chibiT2169/status/762318425498669056
Mastering the Key infinite would be ideal.
https://twitter.com/Teitoku_Admiral/status/666602543955361794
However, even if you can't or don't want to get the infinite down, a simple footstool -> z drop key -> hydrant does ~37% and will KO at high %.
An easier, non infinite variation of Tea's galaxian infinite that does good damage is (i'll see if I can get a video of it tonight):
Footstool -> z drop galaxian (hits them) -> Footstool -> FF late Nair for a lock -> charged Fsmash if close enough, or dash up charge Usmash / power pellet.
At the right %s, this can KO and isn't that hard to pull off. However, it doesn't work forever since Nair won't lock when the opponent gets ~100% or so.
Kamemushi has footstooled top level Sheik players at top level. There's no more room for excuses, Pac-Man players need to work on getting his footstool combos down.
9. Using Pac-Man's Dash Grab
I've been sleeping on this myself. Pac-Man's grab is awful, but he has a unique quirk: all variations of his grab have the same frame data. Couple this with how far Pac-Man moves when he goes for a dash grab and you can punish a lot of moves that you wouldn't think Pac-Man could punish with a grab.
Look here for reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...WFwy_dg04Rrq4a-YF9-VDOhZI/edit#gid=1478544066
For any move that is around -12 or worse on shield drop, practice using buffered dash grab as a punish option against it, unless you can get dash up smash of course. If your timing is good enough, you can guaranteed punishes that would've otherwise required having a fruit in your hand. You need to practice and be spot on with these grab punishes though, because missing = eating a hard punish yourself. This is worth practicing because players often think they can get away with buttons on Pac-Man's shield because his grab is so bad.
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I'll keep updating this as I see fit. Pac-Man is still largely a gimmick character imo, but there's still some things his players could be doing to make him a bit more threatening.
Take a look at this playbook for more info:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QSKLquAYqc2NvkyDPruXWZmUZvv0zFijx5gSaxHdxzU/edit
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