Overview

Pichus are pre-evolution Pikachus. A lot of what will become Pikachu’s sparking toolkit is seen in nascent form with Pichu. Pichu is learning to harness electricity still and hasn’t yet mastered it. This means that some of Pichu’s attacks are stronger than Pikachu’s, but also that some of Pichu’s moves backfire a bit, hurting the baby Pokémon with every use.

Pichu hurts itself during side tilt, side/down smash, front throw, front/back/down air, and all special moves. This means it’s best to form a core game plan around the moves that don’t hurt Pichu: up/down tilt, up smash, neutral/up air, and throws that aren’t front throw. Luckily, these attacks are fantastic, and poking with down tilt goes well with using a forward crawl to move in low under some shots and attacks.

Be choosy when using the attacks that hurt Pichu. Sure, you have to use Skull Bash and Agility for recovery at times, but don’t do so cavalierly. And using a painful normal move should be for a good reason (like that down smash can knock away onrushers on both sides, or that down air attack can spike targets down).

Pichu Vitals

Movement Options

Movement Ranks