Adorable Pichu has been gracing our screens in online and LAN play. Competitors have been struggling against Pichu, especially when they're much larger characters. Pichu's tier placing has been argued ferociously but with players picking Pichu up and storming tournaments, it's hard to believe that Pichu should be anywhere near the bottom. At Schism 3 in particular, the first and fourth place finishers were Pichu players; first place beating out Larry Lurr and securing his place in Grand Finals. Fourth place, a player by the name of MINT, who has been dominating the Irish scene in Melee too, gives his insight on how to play Pichu and what you can do help your Pichu play in the future.

Neutral

Pichu's height is a great advantage as some of the opposing characters miss some of their moves. Pichu's small hurtbox is hard to hit or grab in the first place, but Pichu can make it even harder for opposing characters. In neutral, Pichu can use down-tilt. It has a relatively decent range and it also puts Pichu into a crouching animation, meaning Pichu's hurtbox is even harder to grab or attack.

Furthermore, it has little end lag so it's not easy for an opponent to whiff punish. This can force the opponent to take the air and possibly attack from above, making it easier for Pichu to know where the opponent is going to attack from. With the ability to use tilt stick, it makes it even easier for Pichu players to use down-tilt effectively as you can do the move out of dash. Putting pressure on the opponent when you run in and potentially having the ability to start a full combo makes Pichu a difficult opponent in the neutral to deal with.

MINT says, "It nets you a full combo at most percents and has a really fast startup, making it a great tool to use to whiff punish."

Although it sounds obvious, Pichu's grab is an ideal pick in the neutral; you can roll cancel grab to extend the reach of Pichu's grab. This makes it a fantastic option for dash dance whiff punish or punishing a landing with a dash in, roll cancel grab. Grabbing with Pichu can start some pretty upsetting combos. For instance, down-throw leads into a multitude of combos, depending on the weight of the character. It's one of the best options, along with down-tilt, for starting large combos on your opponent. Additionally, Pichu's fair is a great option in the neutral. Although it doesn't deal a huge amount of damage, it has a great hitbox for poking the opponent.

This move can be made safer by fading back or, alternatively, you can catch your opponent off-guard and overshoot the fair with forward momentum in the aerial drift. You can use the other aerial moves just as efficiently, up-air and back-air catch jumps out really well. With back-air especially, you can send them off-stage and put them in an edgeguard situation. You can also opt for down-air when you're in the air trying to bait your opponent. Down-air auto cancels and can also catch an opponent trying to contest you in the air. Down-air has a reasonably decent lingering hitbox, so when well timed, should have little issue with catching bloodthirsty opponents who may get impatient in the neutral.

MINT says, "There are also certain percents, very low percents depending on the character weight and height, where you can connect multiple forward-airs to send them off-stage for an edgeguard situation."





Punish Game

Pichu gets his punish game starting with grab. Down-throw after grab is wonderful for Pichu. A standard combo for Pichu is down-throw into up-air. You can then fast fall this and go for another up-air and use your double jump and forward-air. This works at low percent and should get you around 36% roughly. At higher percents, in the 110% range, Pichu could opt for an up-throw as you can combo it with Thunder pretty easily if they don't DI. It is possible to react to the DI right or left with a dash into Thunder but it's not very easy and would take practice to react to.

MINT says: "There is a combo called 'Lightning Looping' which is essentially using Pichu's back air at the right time of your double jump and fast falling it on the fifth hit. The fifth hit will drag the opponent down and then you can repeat this with another up-air or up-tilt into another back-air."

Having a great character like Pichu doesn't come without it's practice. Lightning Loop is very tight on timing but if it's practice, it comes with great reward. Sadly, Lightning loop only works on mainly floaty characters. It doesn't work on the heavier characters but it serves as a great combo against the floaty characters. The knockback on Pichu’s down-tilt works similarly to grab in the sense that you can work a down-tilt up-tilt then potentially into an up air into back air or forward. The latter would be decided on whether or not you intended to lightning loop. Down-tilt or grab can also lead to a down-air; meaning if the opponent DIs off stage, you can true combo with it and it’s a great, if not the best, follow-up as they either die or they’re in an awkward position to recover, especially if they’re at a lower percent!

MINT says, "If you predict how the opponent will try and grab ledge, you can predict where they will be before they snap to it. You can do a run off, fast fall up-air and if the right part of up-air hits and they do not DI hard away, you can then either do immediate Thunder or fast fall up-air to double jump Thunder. However, this is percent dependent."

Down-air can also be a fantastic alternative for forward-air or back-air because it sends them downwards. Even if they tech it, sometimes you can fast fall it fast enough that you can cover their tech option and react with a roll cancel grab. This can lead into another combo for Pichu, but the timing is particularly tight. These are just some of the few ways Pichu can optimise his punish game. For beginners, learning his bread and butter combos would be the best start. Grab into down-throw followed my up-air would be the first combo to learn. This would be followed by fast falling the up-air to replenish your jump into a short hop up-air and finishing the full combo with a forward-air. It's not a particularly tricky combo but it does require practice for timing. This combo will deal around 36% damage.





Edgeguard and Recovery

To start off, one of Pichu’s strongest edgeguard tools is back-air. It’s useful because of the length of time the move stays out and you can also drift relatively far off the stage with it. This will allow you to begin the back-air early; this can cover a lot of space and recovery options as it is a powerful move. Providing the last hit of the back-air connects, it should secure the stock against your opponent. This can be used from hanging on the ledge or jumping from the stage into a falling back-air; it can catch and beat out a sweet-spot recovery. Alternatively, you could use down-air but it is harder to catch. The risk/reward on a down-air is much higher as they’ll die at a lower percent, but with practice, providing you know you can hit the timing, it could be worth going for.

For a stylish edgeguard, the potential is there for a run off up-air. It you can catch them still in the air, Pichu can use double jump into Thunder. Thunder will drag the opponent downwards into the strongest hit of the bolt hitbox. If the drag down hitbox doesn’t connect, you can still be successful in killing them but it does depend on the percent and DI.

MINT says, "I mainly like to try two frame; this is just before a character snaps to ledge they have at least two frames where they can be hit before they get invincibility. I personally like to either time a forward-tilt or down-tilt at the ledge to catch them before they snap to ledge with their recovery. At some percents, you can get down-tilt to down-air. At lower percents, you have to do double down-tilt to down-air. Finally you could opt for down-tilt to reverse aerial rush back-air if they are at kill percent because it is more reliable to land."

Aerial rush may take a little practice but overall not a tricky tactic to execute. With timing practiced, it’s a great way to continue your momentum during the edgeguard. Reverse aerial rush is during your turn around animation, you can jump out of it to cancel it. From there, you will be facing the other way, enabling you to do a fast forward drifting back air because it kills and fair does not.

However, we can’t always be on the better side of edgeguarding. Pichu’s recovery has a few mix-ups that can make it tricky for the opponent to read. It’s not too difficult as Pichu has two angles. They can struggle with trying to two frame you as Pichu has the ability to mix up the timing of the snap to ledge.

MINT says, "You can use Thunder to stall for a moment before you use your up-B to recover. This is a great option against aggressive opponents as it will hit them if they try to force aggression off-stage while edgeguarding you."

You can use your side-b move to recover, but it’s better to use it when you are far away from the stage. It’s very easy to punish if it’s used too close to the stage but on occasion, you may need this move for the extra distance. In addition to the multitude of options Pichu has in the toolkit, further mix-ups come from where Pichu players decide to position themselves if they do make it back to the stage. Going for the ledge each time is readable, so you can opt to land on a platform or onto the stage. However, beware that Pichu’s up-B move has some end lag that could be punishable if the opponent is too close to the landing spot.

Luckily, Pichu is a popular character so there is plenty of content such as videos, live streams and combo guides out there to help you shoot through your pools with ease. With multiple matches already out for Ultimate, be sure to stay aware on Pichu’s changes to stay educated about your character. Good luck in pools!