Pikachu (SSBU)

Pikachu (, Pikachu) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Like all veterans, it was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Pikachu is classified as Fighter #08.

As in Super Smash Bros. 4, 's portrayals of Pikachu from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl were repurposed for Ultimate.

Pikachu is ranked 13th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing it in the S- tier. This is a notable improvement from its 15th out of 54 placement in SSB4. Pikachu's strengths come from its overall great mobility all around. Its most prominent strengths are in its neutral and edgeguarding game, due to the fast startup, low endlag of all its aerial attacks, and its ability to recover far from the stage thanks to Skull Bash and Quick Attack. All of its aerials also auto-cancel on a short hop, which grants it utility for out of shield punishes and potential zero-to-death combos. Despite its poor range, Pikachu also possesses a strong grab game: its back and forward throws allow it to set up combos leading to edgeguards while its down throw is a valuable combo starter. Finally, Pikachu possesses a strong, far-travelling projectile in Thunder Jolt, which is used to help Pikachu's approach and edgeguards.

However, Pikachu has some notable weaknesses. Due to being one of the lightest fighters in the game, its survivability is hindered against characters with strong finishers. Pikachu also struggles to KO effectively due to none of its aerials having the ability to KO onstage, while most of its KO moves are either only effective at high percents or have notable downsides such as sourspots or high ending lag. Lastly, its poor range and lack of disjoints gives it few options to approach aside from Thunder Jolt; its reliance on the projectile provide it with a noticeable disadvantage against characters who can properly deal with it.

Overall, Pikachu's strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Even before the release of Ultimate, many players saw Pikachu as a top tier character, and its strengths have been proven by strong performances from players such as and. However, Pikachu's playerbase is rather small while its overall results are mediocre compared to other top tiers, with both ESAM and ShinyMark seeing high highs but mediocre lows. As such, Pikachu status as a top tier character has been subject to debate, with opinions on the character varying wildly depending on region.

Attributes
Pikachu is a lightweight with a small hurtbox, tied with Kirby, Olimar, Sephiroth, and Mewtwo for the seventh lightest fighter. It has overall good mobility, possessing fast walking and dashing speeds, high jumps, is tied for the ninth-highest air acceleration, and has the fourth-highest traction, but slightly above average falling speed and gravity and below-average air speed. Due to its fast mobility, a strong projectile in Thunder Jolt, exceptional frame data, and among the fastest defensive options, Pikachu has an exceptional neutral game and rarely struggles to approach.

Pikachu's main strengths are its fast frame data and dominant edgeguarding game, with each being considered among the best of the cast. This is mainly due to Pikachu's aerials, each of which can autocancel in a short hop. Its neutral, forward, back, and up aerials are fast, all of them except for up aerial being multihit attacks that can combo into each other and most of Pikachu's other moves, with their extremely low ending lag making them excellent for combos, edgeguarding, and potential zero-to-deaths. Forward and back aerials in particular are notoriously effective as neutral options due to their animation low-profiling Pikachu's already small hurtbox, which makes them notably hard for most characters to punish out of shield. Up aerial is a fantastic juggling option to boot, while neutral aerial notably converts into both up smash and down smash if used while landing, making it Pikachu's most reliable method of confirming KOs at high percentages. Down aerial can meteor smash in its first two active frames and is fast for a move of its category, with its long-lasting hitbox making it an extremely potent edgeguarding option as well. Down aerial also is its only aerial with over 20 frames of ending lag, though it still has relatively low lag compared to other meteor smashes of its kind.

Another notable strength Pikachu has is its ability to escape pressure. It boasts a frame 2 air dodge and an incredibly small hurtbox, which combined with its light weight and fantastic frame data make it among the most difficult characters to combo. The speed and versatility of its up special Quick Attack makes it trivial to land and escape disadvantage compared to the majority of the cast, while its aforementioned frame data gives it one of the strongest out-of-shield games through its neutral aerial, back aerial, and up smash. It additionally boasts a phenomenal recovery, with Quick Attack's long distance and multiple angles (there must be a difference of 30 degrees between each jolt's arc, or the second jolt will not come out) making it exceptionally difficult to edgeguard, and its side special Skull Bash providing additional horizontal distance if necessary despite being risky to use. All in all, Pikachu boasts an incredible disadvantage state that allows him to rapidly and effectively reverse the situation on the opponent if they make a single mistake.

Pikachu has a potent grab and throw game despite its poor grab range. It has a fast pummel and its forward and back throws are good for setting up edgeguards, with back throw also being able to KO near the ledge at high percents. Its up throw can combo into down special Thunder and reliably KOs middleweights around 170%. Down throw is a fantastic combo starter, being able to combo into Thunder and all of Pikachu's aerials setting up "nair loops" which involves using dragdown nair and up tilt to rack up damage while reacting to the DI of the opponent to continue the combo. It can also lead into various combos and kill confirms depending on the opponent's DI, including up air bridges which can take the opponent all the way offstage before Pikachu KOs them with a forward air. Extending Pikachu's notorious combo game revolves around using its aerial attacks to drag the opponent down, thereby extending the combo further. Thunder Jolt also complements its advantage state nicely as it can combo into any of Pikachu's moveset or be used to pressure the opponent and make them hesitatingly pick options while under pressure.

Pikachu is not without weaknesses, however. All of its normal attacks excluding forward smash have poor range, with most of said attacks being barely disjointed or not at all. Because of its lack of range, Pikachu tends to rely on using Thunder Jolt to help it approach the opponent. It gets KO'd relatively early due to its diminutive weight, and it also bears inconsistent raw KO power itself. Dash attack is powerful but extremely unsafe if whiffed, up throw doesn't KO under 170% without rage, and its forward and up smashes are burdened by several sourspots that make them unwieldy to use. Beyond this, none of its aerials are strong enough to KO reliably while onstage, and its other KO moves (down smash, forward tilt, and back throw) are unfit for KOing until around 150% by the ledge. While Thunder is powerful, it has slow start-up and high ending lag that limits its usage to be a situational combo finisher and edgeguarding option. A notable weakness in Pikachu's otherwise potent neutral is its inability to trade due to many of its aerials being multihits, meaning that if a trade occurs Pikachu will deal about 1% while taking the full damage of the move it trades with, a substantial weakness considering how light the character is.

Overall, Pikachu's strengths outweigh its weaknesses and it is universally considered to be a top-tier character, with many proclaiming it as a top 3 character.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Pikachu has been heavily buffed in its transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. All of its moveset's aspects were greatly improved during its transition, in addition to its moveset benefiting noticeably from the changes to gameplay mechanics.

Pikachu's largest buffs arguably come from its improved speed: its already above-average mobility has been increased, many of its moves have less ending lag, and its aerials have drastically reduced landing lag; while the former and latter buffs are shared with the rest of the cast, they especially benefit Pikachu, the former due to its small size and the latter since its aerials had among the highest landing lag in SSB4. These buffs improve Pikachu's neutral game and overall comboing capabilities; plus, due to its "pancaking" during many of their landing animations, allow it to avoid mistimed attacks with more ease and retaliate. To further complement this, its already great air game was enhanced as well: Pikachu has a new neutral aerial that hits multiple times and has much more combo potential; both its forward and up aerials have increased KO power, alleviating one of Pikachu's biggest weaknesses in SSB4; its back aerial auto-cancels from a short hop, now consistently launches opponents behind Pikachu, and has a faster animation, which gives it combo potential into itself several times at low percentages, to the point that it is able to perform a pseudo-Wall of Pain with the move; and its down aerial now has a clean hitbox that meteor smashes opponents, further improving Pikachu's aerial KOing ability.

Although not as buffed as its aerial game, Pikachu's other moves have also seen noteworthy improvements. In particular, its dash attack has increased KO power and significantly increased shieldstun, to the point it can be unpunishable on shield at certain distances depending on the character. Its forward smash has increased range, making it a more dangerous tool for trapping opponents on the edge; its up smash's strong hit lasts longer, making it more reliable for KOing; and its down smash will always send opponents in the direction Pikachu faces and at a lower angle, making it more useful, as well as gaining a KO confirm into it from Pikachu's new neutral aerial. Pikachu's standing grab extends farther; its down throw now inflicts additional hit lag on the opponent on release, improving its combo ability; and its up throw has increased knockback, allowing it to KO at high percentages. On top of this, some of its special moves were significantly buffed, as Thunder Jolt has less ending lag, which improves Pikachu's neutral game and grants it a trapping option if opponents shield it from far away; Skull Bash has drastically reduced ending lag on hit, making it much safer unless it is perfect shielded; and Thunder's cloud hitbox deals set knockback, allowing it to connect consistently into the discharge, which also inflicts much more knockback.

Finally, Pikachu notably benefits from the changes to game mechanics. The new limits to air dodges and smaller edge sweetspot sizes make Pikachu's already great edgeguarding prowess more dangerous, especially with its down aerial's new meteor smash hitbox, its stronger aerial attacks all-around, and improved primary projectile in Thunder Jolt; they also don't impair its disadvantage state much thanks to its long-distanced and unpredictable recovery. The changes to air dodging also make its on-stage offense even more effective, which combined with its improved mobility, streamlined jumpsquat, and reintroduction of dash-dancing allow it to chase opponents, giving it an excellent combo game that has the potential of causing zero-to-death combos. The nerfs to rage also notably improves its poor endurance, while not nerfing its KOing ability due to its stronger moveset.

In spite of mostly receiving drastic buffs, Pikachu is not without a few nerfs. Most significantly, the removal of Quick Attack canceling noticeably reduces Pikachu's mobility and approach options, making it more predictable. The changes to neutral aerial, in lieu of an improved combo game, also remove its KO potential. The increased startup and ending lag on its grabs, and dash grab and pivot grab not reaching as far, limit the benefits its grab game has received. Lastly, up throw's altered knockback, while giving it KO potential, makes it more difficult for Pikachu to combo into Thunder. Outside of these nerfs, however, other nerfs Pikachu received have generally been minor, while a good amount of the buffs it received make up for said shortcomings, most notably its improved neutral game.

In the end, Pikachu's entire moveset has seen drastic improvements all around, it benefits significantly from the new engine, and its limited KOing ability was mostly alleviated, causing its buffs to severely outweigh the nerfs it received. Although Pikachu still suffers from the same weaknesses that plagued it in SSB4, such as short range, poor endurance, and still limited KOing ability, its improved strengths now more than compensate for its shortcomings, allowing Pikachu to fare better than in SSB4 and once again cementing it as one of the most viable "fragile speedster" characters. This has led to a positive perception of Pikachu since release, and has performed significantly better overall than in previous games (save for its appearance in SSB).

Update history
Pikachu was slightly buffed via game updates. Its grab game was slightly improved, thanks to a faster pummel and larger grabboxes. The only nerf it has received is Thunder Jolt's shield damage being slightly decreased as part of a near-universal nerf to projectiles. His shield size was also increased as a part of a near-universal buffs to shields.

While Pikachu does fare slightly better since the launch of Ultimate, the changes it received were very minor overall, and as a result, the general opinion of Pikachu being a very powerful and top tier character in the competitive scene has remained the same since day one.

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Pikachu's hitboxes, see here.
 * Pikachu can crawl.
 * Pikachu can wall jump.

On-screen appearance

 * Emerges from a Poké Ball, then briefly discharges electricity around itself.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Charges up its cheeks with electricity and glares at the screen, saying "Piii..."
 * Side taunt: Waves at the screen with one paw, yelling "Pika Pika!"
 * Down taunt: Lies on the ground, curls and rolls around, saying "Pikaaa...!"

Idle poses

 * Scratches its right ear.
 * Stands up straight, then looks left, and then right, twitching its ears.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Backflips, spins, and faces the screen with a happy expression. This resembles its "character chosen" animation in Super Smash Bros..
 * Up: Looks up with a surprised expression as its ears perk. It then scratches its right ear and smiles.
 * Right: Sleeps while muttering "Piii...ka."

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Pikachu players (SSBU)


 * - The second-best Pikachu player in the early metagame, having achieved several top 32 placements at majors/supermajors such as 13th at and 25th at, , and , and was also ranked 50th on the Spring 2019 PGRU. He has since dropped Pikachu in favor of.
 * - The best Pikachu player until 2022 and was a major innovator on Pikachu's metagame. He is currently the only Pikachu player who has won a major/supermajor, winning and . At his peak, ESAM was ranked 14th on the Fall 2019 PGRU.
 * 🇺🇸 USA / - One of the best Pikachu players in the United States, having placed 13th at  and 17th at . Since 2023 he has been studying abroad in Japan, and is also considered the best Pikachu player in Japan, notably placing 1st at  and 33rd at.
 * - The best Pikachu player in Japan in the early metagame and during the pandemic period, placing top 32 at several majors/supermajors such as 13th at, 17th at , and 25th at . He went inactive in late-2021 and has only made a handful of tournament appearances since.
 * - The best Pikachu player in Europe. His 7th-place finish at was the first top 8 at a national-level event for a Pikachu player other than ESAM; he has also placed well at several majors/supermajors, including 13th at  and 25th at both  and.
 * - The best Pikachu player in the world since 2022. He is the only Pikachu player other than ESAM who has placed top 8 at multiple majors/supermajors, having placed 3rd at, 5th at , and 7th at.

Tier placement and history
Opinions of Pikachu have remained strong throughout the game's competitive lifespan. This is due to several favorable adjustments, such as its new and potent neutral aerial, as well as its strengths, including its ability to pancake (crouch under) a lot of moves, its strong recovery and zoning options, and it possessing some of the best zero-to-death combos in the game. As a result, some players saw Pikachu as one of the best characters in the game, an outlook that only improved following nerfs to the early metagame's best characters, as well as strong performances from prior to and immediately following the online metagame.

However, Pikachu noticeably lacked the results other contenders for best in the game had. ESAM largely spearheaded Pikachu's results for the first few years of the game's competitive lifespan, and despite seeing high highs, was often brought down by mediocre results. For example, ESAM saw a career-defining victory over at  but underperformed at most of his other majors in 2021. The post-online metagame also saw the rise of a couple other Pikachu players such as, , and ; the latter especially has seen performances that were on par with ESAM's, which included two top 8 finishes at supermajors. These results, however, were often countered with the players' inconsistency or a lack of results from outside their region. As a result, per OrionRank's character rankings, Pikachu was 25th in results in 2021, and then fell to 43rd in 2022 , a far cry from its top tier perception. Furthermore, Pikachu's position in the post-pandemic metagame became less secure due to the increase in strong players at top level play as well as new metagame standards, with more people preferring to use characters that have easier time racking up damage and KOing, such as and.

Overall, opinions on Pikachu have varied greatly. Some players, particularly in North America, continue to argue that Pikachu is one of the best characters despite its underwhelming results due to its thereotical strength, while others, particularly in Japan, believe that Pikachu is overrated due to its mediocre results compared to other top and high tier characters. As it stands, Pikachu is ranked 13th on the current UltRank tier list, with the character notably having the greatest standard deviation in its tier list voting; the character was ranked in the top 5 in Latin America, and top 10 in the United States and Canada, but conversely was not even ranked in the top 25 in Japan.

: I Choose You!
Pikachu fights against other Pokémon on various Pokémon stages, with Poké Balls as the only available item. Excluding Mewtwo, the opponents are ordered by their National Pokédex number. The title is a reference to 's signature catchphrase in the Pokémon anime, which doubles as the title of the first episode and the 20th movie.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Pikachu has  accompany the credits.

Character unlock tree
Pikachu's Classic Mode character unlock tree includes the following characters in order:

Each character can be unlocked by clearing Pikachu's Classic Mode, or the Classic Mode of any preceding character, if all preceding characters have been unlocked. Once all the above characters are unlocked, clearing Classic Mode with any of them will default to 's character unlock tree, starting with.

Role in World of Light
Pikachu was among the fighters summoned to the cliffside to fight an army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Pikachu was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. While attempting to run away, Pikachu was noticed by, who slowed down for Pikachu in an attempt to save it. However, both of them were vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters, except for.

Pikachu can later be found stuck on an island that can only be accessed by falling into the current of a waterfall, then the player must confront the spirit of Esna before they can battle to awaken it.

Spirits
Pikachu's default fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold. Unlocking Pikachu in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Its Pikachu Libre outfit has a fighter spirit of its own, available through the shop. Each fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, Pikachu makes an appearance in a few support spirits.

In Spirit Battles
Conditions in italic aren't listed on the Spirit Battle preview screen.

Trivia

 * This is the first time Pikachu was not the first Pokémon character to be explicitly announced for a new Smash title, with being confirmed before it.
 * Pikachu's pose in its official artwork resembles its front sprite in Generation III Pokémon games.
 * In the E3 demo of the game, Pikachu's portrait used its in-game model as opposed to its official artwork. This was also the case with, and.
 * Coincidentally, all four of these characters were playable in the demo.
 * Pikachu's alternate costume featuring goggles has been removed and returned to, who was the original owner of said palette swap in Melee.
 * Pikachu, compared to the other starters, has the least number of characters in its unlock tree, having only seven characters as opposed to the standard eight.
 * Pikachu is one of the few characters in the entire roster to have different facial expressions when attempting different types of grabs and missing them, being its standing grab (a scared expression) vs. its dash grab (a rather irritated expression) vs. its pivot grab (neutral expression).
 * Others include (standing vs. dash & pivot) and  (standing & dash vs. pivot)
 * Due to its new Pikachu Libre costume and another one of its alternate costumes, Pikachu is now the only member of the Original 12 to change sex between costumes, as well as the first of the Original 12 to technically be a different character in one of its costumes.
 * It is possible that Pikachu's stock icon is a reference to the Pokémon's 20th Anniversary emblem, which features a simplified Pikachu face formed from the starter Pokémon, including Pikachu, from Generation I to Generation VI.
 * On the Sound Test, Pikachu's voice clips are ordered differently from other non-DLC characters, as they all are ordered by the abbreviations of their internal codenames. shares a similar distinction, but with a few minor adjustments.
 * Additionally, both of its victory lines are displayed while they should be omitted due to identical voice clips already existing (both of Pikachu's victory quotes come from its jumping and sleeping voice clips).