Pichu (SSBM): Difference between revisions

{{Disambig2|Pichu's appearance in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee''|the character in other contexts|Pichu}}

|game=SSBM

|ssbgame1=SSBU

|tier = D

|ranking = 22

Pichu is voiced by Satomi Kōrogi, who also voiced one of the {{s|bulbapedia|Pichu Brothers}} in the ''Pokémon'' anime.

Pichu is currently ranked 22nd in the D tier. Pichu has solid overall movement, complemented with some very quick attacks and an excellent neutral air. It also possesses a surprising amount of power for its weight class, with good [[chaingrab]]bing ability and a handful of strong finishers, some even more powerful than those of its counterpart, Pikachu. However, all of Pichu's strengths are severely outweighed by its weaknesses. It has abysmal range and very poor endurance due to its light weight, and is unusually prone to chaingrabs itself despite its small size, due to the unusually high amounts of hitstun it sustains as a result of being the game's lightest character. It also takes [[recoil damage]] from its electric-based moves, including its own recovery move [[Agility]], further hampering its defensive game. As a result, Pichu suffers from abysmal matchups; nearly the entire cast can take advantage of its fragility and low range.

Although it is no longer considered a contender for the worst character competitively, it appears that Pichu was ''intended'' to be a sub-par character in general, since its trophy descriptions mention that it is "''top of the class in weakness''" and it is "''best suited for handicapped matches.''" Indeed, this was confirmed in a development news update, shortly after the game's release.<ref>''[http://sourcegaming.info/2015/09/24/meleepichusite/ News Flash! Smash Bros. Dojo: Pichu]'' (translated 2015-09-24; [https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1211/index.html original] posted 2001-12-11)</ref>

Pichu must be defeated in battle before it can be unlocked. There are two ways the player can encounter Pichu:

*One way is to complete [[Event 37: Legendary Pokémon]]. If the player fails to defeat Pichu, they can re-fight it by completing the event again.

*Another way is to play 200 VS. matches to completion. If the player fails to defeat Pichu, they can re-fight it by playing another VS. match to completion. If this method is used, fighters with lower VS. match quotas must be unlocked before Pichu can be fought.

Upon meeting either requirement, the player will fight against Pichu on Pokémon Stadium, with "Battle Theme" playing.

Pichu, as a character, falls under the archetype of being nimble, yet relatively fragile. Due to its high traction and average falling speed, Pichu has a rather short wavedash; additionally, its quick and low-lag aerials also give Pichu a good SHFFL, much like Pikachu's. As such, Pichu can easily maneuver around stages, with very low landing lag, a small frame and a rather fast dash, as well as decent jumping power, making it surprisingly difficult to hit in the hands of a capable player. However, its poor endurance due to its very light weight ensures that opponents will not have to find too many openings against it to secure KOs.

One of Pichu's main advantages is its perhaps surprising power. While its moveset generally consists of attacks that deal much lower damage and knockback than its clone {{SSBM|Pikachu}} or most other characters in the cast, the few strong moves it possesses can be deadly if utilized properly. Pichu's smashes are all of short range, but all are unusually powerful; its up smash and forward smash contain incredible power, being able to KO characters reliably at as little as 70 to 80 percent, while its down smash semi-spikes opponents and has invincibility frames. Pichu also has decent throws; its forward and back throws can knock opponents off stage or set up combos, while its up and down throws can chain throw fastfallers and tech chase characters respectively.

Pichu's best tool, however, is not its powerful set of smash attacks, but rather its neutral aerial, which is considered the central attack to its [[metagame]]. Pichu's neutral aerial comes out very quickly and has very low ending and landing lag, especially when L-canceled. This move serves as a viable [[approach]] option, can rack up respectable damage with long strings of just itself, and can create a pseudo-[[wall of pain]] if the player is allowed to continue the strings off-stage. Pichu's up aerial complements neutral aerial's utility, allowing it to juggle enemies into the air. Its other aerials are lackluster, but these two moves alone give Pichu quite a force in the air.

Pichu also boasts an excellent recovery. Its up special, [[Agility]], can travel in many different directions and cover very large distances; while Pikachu's [[Quick Attack]] is superior in speed and distance, Agility is still a solid recovery tool in its own right. Pichu's [[Skull Bash]] also further aids its horizontal recovery, with surprising power and distance when charged; at full power, it deals a massive 39% damage and guarantees KOs at very low percentages. With Agility being able to seamlessly mix up edgeguarders, and Skull Bash's potential strength serving as a direct deterrent to attempted edgeguards, Pichu has one of the best recoveries in the game.

Pichu's greatest flaw, however, is its very poor range. All of its best and most powerful attacks are very close to its body, and it lacks a full set of tools to consistently approach enemies to make use of these moves, making it very difficult for Pichu to KO or even find any openings against its opponents (especially against characters with disjointed hitboxes). Its neutral aerial and [[Thunder Jolt]] projectile are among its only reliable options, making Pichu's overall [[neutral game]] play very predictable; the latter also inflicts [[recoil damage]] to it, making it unreliable long-term. Pichu's grab game is also heavily hampered by its short range, at the third shortest in the game, making it difficult for players to consistently take advantage of Pichu's decent throws. Many of Pichu's poorest matchups stem from it being unable to deal with individual moves of characters (such as {{SSBM|Sheik}}'s forward tilt or a large portion of {{SSBM|Marth}}'s moveset) because it lacks tools that have enough range to counter the attacks.

Pichu's defensive game is also notoriously poor. Although it has a rather large shield for its size, it is saddled with short tech rolls and a slow, short ledge roll, making it very easy for enemies to extend punishes on Pichu with little that the Pichu player can do to escape. Furthermore, despite being a lightweight, Pichu is also quite vulnerable to combos (some of which are either infinite or [[zero-death]], such as {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}'s chain throw) due to its abnormally high hitstun and average falling speed. These traits exacerbate Pichu's range issues; its problems in the neutral game are very reminiscent of Pikachu's, but Pichu is punished harder for losing exchanges by several orders of magnitude, making the risk-reward of its approaching heavily skewed against it in the vast majority of situations.

Finally, Pichu suffers from the infamous recoil damage it receives from using almost any of its attacks involving electrical hitboxes. In several of Pichu's attacks, especially those that involve electricity, at least one percent of damage is directly inflicted onto it; using Agility to recover alone adds four percent to Pichu each time it is used. While most of Pichu's best moves do not use electricity, making this a lesser problem at higher levels of play, the threat of recoil damage further limits the small amount of utility its electric-based attacks have, and there is no way at all for Pichu to avoid recoil when recovering. If players are not careful with balancing Pichu's electrical and non-electrical attacks, the recoil damage can add up quickly, which can be especially crippling to Pichu. With the lowest weight in the game (being lighter than ''Jigglypuff'') and average falling speed, Pichu's survivability is already among the worst in the game, meaning that this extra damage makes it even more trivial for opponents to put Pichu in KO range. Outside of making Pichu even easier to KO, the extra damage taken through recoil also reduces how long it can utilize [[crouch cancel]]ling.

Overall, Pichu is a very poor character at all levels of play, with its few advantages being thoroughly outweighed by its numerous deficiencies. While Pichu has the potential to pose a threat to the opponent with its speed and power, it simply lacks the tools to put those positive traits to consistent use against competent opponents. The vast majority of the ''Melee'' cast can easily outrange and out-punish Pichu in nearly every instance, regardless of whatever trickery the Pichu player may attempt. As such, Pichu is almost never seen at any level of play.

Pichu not only performs significantly worse than Pikachu, but is considered a low-tiered character and sometimes even referred to as a joke character. Pichu inherits Pikachu's range issues, but has very few positive traits to compensate for such problems, and it is generally outclassed in most areas by Pikachu otherwise. The raw power increase on a few of its finishers is not enough to outweigh not only the overall power and utility loss across its entire moveset, but also the added [[recoil damage]] on several of its moves that automatically make such moves riskier than Pikachu's. Perhaps the single most negatively impactful change is Pichu's lack of a semi-spike hitbox on its up aerial, which makes it vastly inferior to Pikachu in terms of [[edgeguard]]ing. Pichu's loss of such an integral edgeguarding tool harms its viability significantly, as edgeguarding is considered one of Pikachu's biggest strengths, and one of the main reasons that it can stand up to the top ''Melee'' characters at the highest levels of play.

 

As a result of its major flaws, it is arguably the worst clone in the game, and overall one of the worst clones in the series.

*{{nerf|Pichu [[run]]s slower than Pikachu (1.8 → 1.72).}}

*{{nerf|Pichu's [[fast fall]] speed is lower (2.7 → 2.5).}}

*{{change|Pichu's [[traction]] is higher than Pikachu's (0.09 → 0.1). This makes it easier for Pichu to punish out of shield but it also gives Pichu a shorter [[wavedash]].}}

*{{nerf|Pichu is significantly [[Weight|lighter]] than Pikachu (80 → 55), giving it a much lower survivability.}}

*{{buff|Pichu's [[roll]]s go slightly further than Pikachu's.}}

*{{nerf|Pichu's [[jab]], [[forward tilt|forward]] and [[down tilt]]s have shorter reach than Pikachu's.}}

*{{nerf|All three of Pichu's [[smash attack]]s deal less damage and have less reach than Pikachu's.}}

**{{buff|Up tilt becomes significantly more disjointed than Pikachu's from the fourth active frame onwards.}}

**{{nerf|It deals less damage (7%/6% → 6%) and has lower knockback (45 (base)/124 (scaling) → 25/120).}}

**{{nerf|It is a multi hitting move making it far less reliable than Pikachu's. It also deals less damage (21% (early), 19% (mid), 18% (late) → 2% (hits 1-5), 6% (hit 6), 14% (total)).}}

**{{change|The final hit has increased knockback values (25 (base)/92 (scaling) → 90/140). Combined with the lower damage value, this results in the move's knockback being more base-heavy, improving its KO potential near the horizontal blastline, while worsening its KO potential from further away.}}

**{{nerf|It causes recoil damage (2%).}}

**{{change|Up smash is completely different; it hits the opponent with its head. Similar to {{SSBM|Mario}} and his clones.}}

**{{buff|Its sweetspot has a much larger hitbox than Pikachu's (2u/3.2u/4.8u → 5.6u).}}

**{{nerf|It has more startup lag with a shorter duration due to it lacking a late hit (frames 8-17 → 9-11). It also deals less damage than Pikachu's clean hit (19%/18%/17% → 16%) and knockback (40 (base)/110/100 (scaling) → (50/40)/105).}}

**{{buff|Down smash is more reliable due to consisting of a single hit and it is a semi spike (70° → 160°, sending opponents behind it, like the first hit of Ganondorf's down smash), giving it edge-guarding ability, as long as Pichu is close to the edge while facing its opponent. It also has intangibility on frames 7-10 and it deals more damage than the final hit of Pikachu's down smash (3% → 13%)).}}

**{{change|It has one hit and it's non-electrical.}}

**{{nerf|Its different angle has removed its combo potential. It also deals slightly less damage than Pikachu's (13.83% → 13%).}}

**{{nerf|Despite dealing more damage than the final hit of Pikachu's down smash, it is significantly weaker than Pikachu's down smash, due to its lowered knockback values (70 (base)/170 (scaling) → 30/70).}}

**{{nerf|It causes recoil damage (4% (1% per hit)).}}

**{{nerf|Back aerial deals less damage (12%/9% → 9%).}}

**{{buff|It has significantly less landing lag (30 → 18).}}

**{{nerf|Up aerial has a consistent angle throughout the entire attack (80°/0°/120° → 80°), slightly improving its combo ability against fast-fallers, but entirely removing its gimping ability due to not being able to [[semi-spike]].}}

**{{nerf|It has slightly more start-up (frame 3 → 4).}}

**{{buff|Down aerial has significantly less landing lag (40 → 26).}}

**{{nerf|It causes recoil damage (1% (aerial hitbox), 1% (landing), total: 2%).}}

*{{buff|[[Grab]] range is slightly longer than Pikachu's, although it is still one of the shortest in the game.}}

*{{nerf|[[Pummel]] and [[forward throw]] cause recoil damage (1%).}}

**{{nerf|It has more ending lag than Pikachu's.}}

**{{nerf|It causes recoil damage (1%).}}

**{{buff|It can go in more directions than Quick Attack.}}

**{{nerf|It causes recoil damage (1% (first zip), 3% (second zip), total: 4%).}}

**{{nerf|Thunder's lightning bolt does less damage than Pikachu's and is a multi-hit move (hitting up to 4 times), allowing opponents to [[Smash DI]] out of the move.}}

**{{change|Its lightning bolt has a vertical knockback angle unlike Pikachu's (70° → 94°).}}

**{{nerf|Thunder's discharge hitbox size was slightly reduced (3,000 → 2,800).}}

|neutralname=Headbutt ({{ja|ずつき|Zutsuki}})

|ftiltname=Pichu Kick ({{ja|ピチューキック|Pichū Kikku}})

|utiltname=Tail Smack ({{ja|テールスマック|Tēru Sumakku}})

|dtiltname=Tail Sweep ({{ja|あしばらい|Shippo Barai}})

|dashname=Running Headbutt ({{ja|ジャンプずつき|Janpu Zutsuki}}, ''Jump Headbutt'')

|fsmashname=Thundershock ({{ja|ショートでんげき|Shōto Dengeki}}, ''Electrical Short'')

|usmashname=Jumping Headbutt ({{ja|ジャンピングヘッドバット|Janpingu Heddobatto}})

|usmashdesc=Headbutts upwards similar to Mario's up smash, except that Pichu's head has no intangibility frames. One of his best finishers and one of the strongest up smashes in the game.

|dsmashname=Spinning Mouse ({{ja|スピニングマウス|Supiningu Mausu}})

|nairname=Pichu Roll ({{ja|ピチュースピン|Pichū Rōru}})

|nairdesc=Curls up in a ball and does somersaults in the air. Notorious for effectively comboing into itself at almost any percent. One of the best neutral airs overall for its speed and combo ability.

|fairname=Electric Drill ({{ja|でんげきドリル|Dengeki Doriru}})

|bairname=Glider ({{ja|グライダー|Guraidā}})

|uairname=Tail Chop ({{ja|しっぽはたき|Shippo Hitaki}})

|dairname=Electric Screw ({{ja|でんげきスクリュー|Dengeki Sukuryū}})

|grabname=Grab ({{ja|つかみ|Tsukami}})

|pummelname=Electric Shock ({{ja|電気ショック|Denki Shokku}})

|fthrowname=Electrocution ({{ja|感電死|Kanden shi}})

|bthrowname=Submission ({{ja|じごくぐるま|Jigoku Gurama}}, ''Hell Wheel'')

|uthrowname=Electric Skull ({{ja|エレクトリックスカル|Erekutorikku Sukaru}})

|dthrowname=Electric Slam ({{ja|エレクトリックスラム|Erekutorikku Suramu}})

==In [[competitive play]]==

===Most historically significant players===

<!--This character has a ten player limit for this section. Before adding and/or removing a player, read these guidelines: https://www.ssbwiki.com/SmashWiki:Notability#%22Most_historically_significant_players%22_guidelines -->

:''See also: [[:Category:Pichu players (SSBM)]]''

*{{Sm|Codeman|USA}} - Has taken sets off players such as {{Sm|Wes}}, and games off players such as {{Sm|Panda|p=Florida}}, {{Sm|2saint}} and {{Sm|S2J}}. Currently considered the best active solo main of the character, and among the very few to reach genuine competitive notability with the character. Placed 65th at {{Trn|Get On My Level 2018}} and 49th at {{Trn|Shine 2022}}, the best result at any [[major]] achieved by a Pichu player.

===Tier placement and history===

Pichu was developed as an intentional joke character, and has historically been seen as such by the competitive ''Melee'' community. From the start, many noted that it was completely outclassed by {{SSBM|Pikachu}}, who was already considered a below-average character at the time. With its poor [[approach]] coupled with many attacks that damaged itself, including its own [[recovery]], as well as its terrible overall [[reach]], extremely light [[weight]], and difficulty in putting [[pressure]] on the opponent, many professionals doubted that Pichu could ever develop a deep metagame or gain any notable professional players. Because of this, Pichu has been almost never seen outside of sandbagging or low-tier exhibitions. Pichu's initial placements on each [[tier list]] reflected its stance, typically shifting between 25th and 26th for over a decade of ''Melee''{{'}}s lifespan, competing with characters such as {{SSBM|Bowser}}, {{SSBM|Kirby}}, and {{SSBM|Mewtwo}} for the lowest placement on the tier list, before placing 24th on the twelfth tier list in 2015.

While still considered to be an awful character and unused outside of [[sandbagging]], players began to recognize Pichu's strengths, namely its agility and decent set of normals. Several professionals, such as {{Sm|Mew2King}} and {{Sm|Armada}}, believe that while Pichu is still unviable, they believe that other characters, like {{SSBM|Kirby}}, {{SSBM|Zelda}}, and {{SSBM|Bowser}}, are even worse than it, [http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2014/may/02/kirby-and-zelda-are-two-worst-characters-melee-pichu-highly-underrated-mew2king-discusses-his-super-smash-bros-tier-list-pt-1/ ranking it 19th] and [https://youtu.be/17n7Tcjrifg?t=264 22nd], respectively. Pikachu's rise in the competitive scene also helped Pichu's ascent out of the bottom tier, with players noting that Pichu shared a few of the tools that ultimately made Pikachu a solid pick. Despite Pichu's theoretically worse matchup spread and barren results, most players believed that the former was attributed to a different metagame and the latter has other bottom-tier characters have also failed to achieve significant results.  

With its strengths being recognized better, it is currently ranked 22nd on the current tier list. While universally not considered a contender for the worst character in the game, Pichu is still considered to be non-viable choice in the metagame with a terrible matchup spread, with its playerbase and results only marginally improving compared to the early metagame.

==In 1-P Mode==

*'''[[Event 48: Pikachu and Pichu]]''': In this match, the player must fight against a team of two Pichu and one Pikachu. The goal is for the player to KO the two Pichu in the shortest time possible; Pikachu has infinite stocks, while the player has two and the Pichu have one. The stage used is {{SSB|Dream Land}}, making the event the only one in the game to take place on a Past Stage.

*'''[[Event 49: All-Star Match Deluxe]]''': Pichu is the third opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles it on the [[Pokémon Stadium]] stage with a stock of 2 while Pichu has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat it and the other five characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage: {{SSBM|Dr. Mario}}, {{SSBM|Falco}}, {{SSBM|Young Link}}, {{SSBM|Roy}} and {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}.

==[[Trophies]]==

|image=Pichu Trophy Melee.png

|desc=(1.0/1.01 NTSC) A baby Electric-type Pokémon identifiable by its big ears, Pichu evolves into Pikachu. It's not very skilled at storing up electrical energy and will sometimes discharge it if jarred. Although it's small, it has enough electrical power to give even an adult quite a shock. It's often startled by its own power.

:(1.02 NTSC/PAL) A Tiny Mouse Pokémon identifiable by its big ears, Pichu evolves into Pikachu. It's not very skilled at storing up electrical energy and will sometimes discharge it if jarred. Although it's small, it has enough electrical power to give even an adult quite a shock. It's often startled by its own power.

|gamelist={{Trophy games|game1=Pokémon Gold & Silver|release1=10/00}}

{{clrl}}

|image=Pichu Trophy (Smash).png

|mode=Adventure

 

|image=Pichu Trophy (Smash 2).png

|mode=All Star