Pac-Man
Quick MU Navigation
Hydrant Options
Notes:
- This isn't necessarily a list of every character's best option against (Hydrant
), rather their options that instantly launch it, and other moves to watch out for. - To launch (Hydrant ), you need to do 13% in a FFA game, or 15.6% in a 1v1. These values can be checked on the Frame Data page.
- Multihits may be finnicky, some don't do enough on their own to launch (Hydrant ), even if combined they do enough damage to do so, so some multihit moves may be omitted.
- Typically projectiles tend to be good at priming (Hydrant ) due to their lack of commitment, but some can ignore (Hydrant ) entirely and go through.
- Counters can be very annoying against (Hydrant ), watch out for them.
Chrom, 
Hero (With Acceleratle), 
Meta Knight, 
Mythra, 
Roy, 
Shulk (With Speed Art), 
Sonic, 
Wii Fit Trainer (With Deep Breathing), and 
Zero Suit Samus can all easily dash through (Hydrant ).
Joker, 
Kirby, 
Little Mac, Meta Knight, 
Min Min, Mythra, 
Piranha Plant, 
Pyra, 
Sheik, 
Simon/
Richter, 
Wolf, and Zero Suit Samus can all travel through (Hydrant ) with Dash Attack.- The table below does NOT factor in Rage or Short Hop Damage Decrease, it assumes the move is unstaled and done in a fullhop with no rage. Some of them are reliant on sweetspots.
| Character | Tilts | Smash Attacks | Aerials | Specials | Other Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Banjo & Kazooie |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air | Wonderwing | Banjo's tilts can hit you through (Hydrant  ), and he can lob Rear Egg or Egg Firing over (Hydrant ) to hit you from behind.
|
 Bayonetta |
F-Tilt (Full) | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air | None | Bayonetta can go through (Hydrant ) with her Afterburner Kick.
|
 Bowser |
F-Tilt, D-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air, U-Air, D-Air | Bowser Bomb | Fire Breath can hit Pac-Man through (Hydrant ), and Bowser has good range for this on most normals too along with good launch angles as well.
|
 Bowser Jr. |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air | Clown Cannon (Slight charge), Clown Kart Dash (Spinout), Abandon Ship (Explosion and Hammer) | Bowser Jr can go through (Hydrant ) with Clown Kart Dash sometimes or hit through with his disjoints.
|
 Byleth |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air, D-Air | Failnaught (Max), Areadbhar, Aymr | Byleth's huge disjoints makes them adapt at hitting Pac-Man through (Hydrant ). F-Air is also absurdly close to instant launching (Hydrant ) on it's own.
|
 Captain Falcon |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air, D-Air | Falcon Punch (LOL), Falcon Kick | Captain Falcon usually has to use his speed to make Pac-Man's camping worse. |
 Charizard |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air, U-Air, D-Air | Flare Blitz | Charizard's range on B-Air, F-Tilt, and Flame Thrower allow him to hit Pac-Man through (Hydrant ). He can also prime it almost completely with N-Air
|
 Chrom |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash (Back hit) | D-Air | Flare Blade, Dancing Blade | Chrom is amazing at priming (Hydrant ) with D-tilt and his aerials, and good at hitting Pac-Man from behind it due to his range. He can also dash through (Hydrant ).
|
 Cloud |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Only if both hits connect) | F-Air, B-Air, D-Air | Limit Blade Beam, Cross Slash, Limit Cross Slash | Cloud is amazing at priming (Hydrant ) but a lot of his moves won't launch it as often due to staling. Also Limit Blade Beam is inconsistent af at launching (Hydrant ). His great range and speed makes him good at hitting you from behind (Hydrant ).
|
 Corrin |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash (only aerial (Hydrant )), D-Smash |
None (All great at priming it however) | Dragon Fang Shot (Chomp), Pin, Counter | Corrin's aerials are great at priming (Hydrant ) and her range makes her great at catching you by surprise. A lot of her moves for launching it are rather laggy however.
|
 Diddy Kong |
None | F-Smash, slight charged D-Smash | D-Air | Peanut Popgun (Misfire), Monkey Flip (Attack), Rocket Barrel Boost | Diddy Kong is one of the worst characters in the game against (Hydrant ), due to most of his options being laggy.
|
 Donkey Kong |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (on aerial (Hydrant )), D-Smash |
F-Air, B-Air, U-Air, D-Air | Giant Punch (Charged), Hand Slap | Hand Slap is absolutely amazing at launching (Hydrant ) but Donkey Kong also primes it pretty well. Spinning Kong can also go through and catch you offguard, be on the lookout for that as a mixup.
|
 Dr. Mario |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Back Hit) | F-Air, B-Air, D-Air | Super Jump Punch | Doctor Mario likes to lob Megavitamin Pills over (Hydrant ) but he can also use Super Sheet as a gimmick due to it's reflector.
|
 Duck Hunt |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash (Charged) | None | None | Duck Hunt will be using a lot of projectiles at once and priming (Hydrant ) with N-Air and B-Air or harassing you with his other projectiles (which either go over (Hydrant ) or go through it like Wild Gunman) so be careful.
|
 Falco |
D-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air, D-Air | None | Falco is really good at being annoying with his special moves against (Hydrant ). Blaster primes it well, Falco Phantasm outright ignores it a lot of the time and goes through, and Reflector is a spammable hard to punish option against (Hydrant ) because of the fact it only has 10 frames where it doesn't reflect.
|
 Fox |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air, U-Air (Both hits) | Fire Fox | Fox can be similarly annoying and utilize Fox Phantasm and Reflector against (Hydrant ) similarly. He can also camp back with Blaster (Which will never launch (Hydrant )) or use his great fast fall to make priming and launching it easier. He can even travel through with Fox Phantasm
|
 Ganondorf |
F-Tilt, U-Tilt, D-Tilt, Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | N-Air (in theory), F-Air, B-Air, U-Air, D-Air | Warlock Punch, Wizard's Foot | While Ganon has so many moves that instant launch (Hydrant ), most are pretty laggy.
|
 Greninja |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (on aerial (Hydrant )), D-Smash |
F-Air | Substitute | Substitute is great against (Hydrant ), but Greninja can also go through with Shadow Sneak and hit through using his range and Water Shuriken
|
 Hero |
F-Tilt, Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash (on aerial (Hydrant )), D-Smash |
B-Air, D-Air | Frizzle/Kafrizz, Zap/Zapple/Kazap, Bang, Kaboom, Sizz, Sizzle, Kamikazee, Magic Burst, Kaclang, Flame Slash, Kacrackle Slash, Hatchet Man | Most of Hero's moves buffed by Oomph or Psyche Up can instantly launch (Hydrant ). The Zap spells and Snooze are good at hitting Pac-Man through (Hydrant ) along with his good range, and he can even dash through with Acceleratle.
|
 Ice Climbers |
F-Tilt (With Nana), | F-Smash (With Nana or charged slightly), U-Smash (With Nana or charged slightly), D-Smash | F-Air (With Nana), B-Air (With Nana), U-Air (With Nana), D-Air (With Nana) | Squall Hammer (With Nana), Belay, Blizzard (With Nana) | Ice Climbers rely on Nana a lot to help launch (Hydrant ), as Solo Popo has almost nothing to launch it with aside from charged smash attacks. With Nana, (Hydrant ) tends to evaporate very quickly, so be careful.
|
 Ike |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air, D-Air | Eruption (Charged), Quickdraw (Fully charged), Aether (All hits), Counter | Ike's moves do a lot of damage especially his tilts, so it makes him priming (Hydrant ) easier, and he has range to hit you from behind.
|
 Incineroar |
F-Tilt, Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | N-Air, F-Air, B-Air, D-Air | Darkest Lariat, Cross Chop | Revenge will boost the damage output on all of Incineroar's moves making all of them instant launch (Hydrant ).
|
 Inkling |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash (Slightly charged) | None | Splat Bomb | Inkling isn't the great against (Hydrant ), she mainly uses her aerials to prime it or Splat Bomb
|
 Isabelle |
D-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash | None | None | Pocket will make (Hydrant ) deadly and get rid of it, and she can grab you through with Fishing Rod or hit through with Dash Attack. Her aerials are fast and so are her tilts, and she can always Pocket (Hydrant ) so beware.
|
 Ivysaur |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash | U-Air | None | Ivysaur's aerials are big and good at hitting you through (Hydrant ), but Razor Leaf also goes through.
|
 Jigglypuff |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash | B-Air | Rollout (Slightly charged) | Jigglypuff's aerials are decent at priming (Hydrant ) but she isn't the best against it, especially since she needs to full hop to instant launch with B-Air.
|
 Joker |
F-Tilt (Arsene), D-Tilt (Arsene), Dash Attack (Arsene) | F-Smash, U-Smash (Slightly charged or with Arsene), D-Smash (Slightly charged or with Arsene) | F-Air (Arsene), B-Air (Arsene), D-Air (Arsene) | Tetrakarn | Joker's Gun is a large disjointed hitbox that will hit you from behind (Hydrant ), but he generally does better with Arsene against (Hydrant ) than not. He can also Dash Attack through (Hydrant ).
|
 Kazuya |
10 Hit Combo, F-Tilt,Down-Forward Tilt (Tsunami Kick), D-Tilt, Back-Tilt (Flash Tornado), Up-Back Tilt (Jump Side Kick), U-Tilt, Up Forward-Tilt (Roundhouse To Triple Spin Kicks), Side Taunt, Crouch Down-Ftilt (Tombstone Crusher), Dash Attack, Double Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air, D-Air | Wind God Fist, Electric Wind God Fist, Dragon Uppercut, Spinning Demon to Left Hook, Devil Wings, Heaven's Door (After being grabbed), Rage Drive | Devil Blaster goes through (Hydrant ). All of Kazuya's aerials either instantly launch it or prime it for any move after to launch it, and so do most moves that don't launch it. (Hydrant ) evaporates very quickly against Kazuya.
|
 Ken |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air | Focus Attack | Ken can use his special cancels and Focus Attack to mixup against (Hydrant ) along with landing aerials but he is very lackluster against (Hydrant ) for a reason.
|
 King Dedede |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air, D-Air | Gordo, Super Dedede Jump, Jet Hammer | Inhale can take (Hydrant ) out of play temporarily or beat your Fruit punishes. Dedede also has good range to hit you through and fast tilts to use after he primes (Hydrant ) with N-Air
|
 King K. Rool |
F-Tilt, D-Tilt, Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air, U-Air (On aerial (Hydrant ) |
Blunderbuss, Krownerang (Both Hits), Gutcheck | King K. Rool's armor can allow him to armor through hits, and Krownerang is really good at hitting you from behind (Hydrant )
|
 Kirby |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air | Hammer, Stone | Inhale can be used to inhale (Hydrant ) but Kirby's tilts are great at launching (Hydrant ) aftr priming it, and he can Dash Attack through (Hydrant ) as well.
|
 Link |
F-Tilt, Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, U-Air, D-Air | Double Arrow, Spin Attack | Link's many projectiles are great at priming (Hydrant ) or hitting you from behind it (especially Remote Bomb) but N-Air's disjoint will also be amazing at flat out ignoring it when dropped. Returning Boomerang will also ignore (Hydrant ).
|
 Little Mac |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | None | Straight Lunge, K.O. Punch, Jolt Haymaker, Slip Counter | Little Mac is very bad at approaching from the air, so Trampoline is also very effective vs him. He can occasionally Dash Attack through (Hydrant ).
|
 Lucario |
Dash Attack (Full Aura) | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (All smash attacks will launch at any aura if slightly charged, no charge needed past half Aura) | N-Air (Full Aura), B-Air (Half Aura and Above), U-Air(100% and above), D-Air (Above 140%) | Aura Sphere (At Half Aura at half charge, full Aura no charge), Force Palm (Above 85%), Double Team | Double Team is a great option against (Hydrant ) but he can also hit you through with Force Palm B-Air or Extreme Speed. His jumps are also difficult to catch and the more Aura, the more moves instantly launch (Hydrant ).
|
 Lucas |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (First and second hit) | D-Air (If all hits connect) | PK Freeze, PK Thunder 2 | Lucas's sweetspot tilts and aerials landed low are amazing at priming (Hydrant ). Watch out for his projectiles too, which he can use to zone from behind (Hydrant ). PK Freeze can be used to hit you from behind and also watch out for PK Thunder. Lastly, be wary of throwing Fruit to punish Lucas as he can reflect it with F-Smash.
|
 Lucina |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Second hit) | D-Air (Spike) | Shield Breaker, Dancing Blade (All directions) | Lucina's long range makes her pretty great at hitting Pac-Man through (Hydrant ). Her D-Tilt is also exceptional at priming it before launching it, with her tilts and aerials also just being relatively solid for priming too. She can use her range to hit you through or her landing aerials to threaten your charge, and can even counter aggression with Counter.
|
 Luigi |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air | Green Missile (Charged), Super Jump Punch | Luigi's landing aerials (specifically N-Air but applies to others) have very little landing lag making them great at priming (Hydrant ), along with his very lagless D-Tilt. He can also Grab you through (Hydrant ), but his bad air mobility and range make his options predictable. Usually using Trampoline is preferable.
|
 Mario |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, slight charged D-Smash | F-Air | None | Mario's aerials all have very low landing lag aside from F-Air which instantly launches (Hydrant ) anyways, making them great for priming (Hydrant ). Mario can also use Cape to be annoying against (Hydrant ) or toss some Fireballs over it.
|
 Marth |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Second hit) | U-Air, D-Air (Spike) | Shield Breaker, Dancing Blade (All directions) | Marth's tippers put him in a lot more hitlag, making his hits more punishable against (Hydrant ) but they are better at launching and priming it and can catch you offguard easier. Otherwise it's similar to Lucina, aside with a few more moves that launch easier due to tippers.
|
 Mega Man |
U-Tilt | F-Smash (Slightly Charged), U-Smash (All hits), D-Smash | D-Air | Example | D-Tilt, Leaf Shield and Metal Blade will always go through (Hydrant ). Mega Man's projectiles are great at priming (Hydrant ) and it can be difficult at times to counterzone him, so be careful.
|
 Meta Knight |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash (Back Hit) | None | Dimensional Cape (Attack) | Dash Attack, Drill Rush, and Dimensional Cape can go through (Hydrant ), as well as Meta Knight himself being able to dash through it, and Mach Tornado also can in some instances. Meta Knight's landing aerials and quick ground game can be great at priming (Hydrant ), with good options being N-Air to D-Tilt which launch it quickly or prime it very well. His disjointed range can also catch Pac-Man offguard.
|
 Mewtwo |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, , D-Air | Shadow Ball (Charged About Halfway) | Mewtwo's reflector can be tricky and he has good range to hit you from behind (Hydrant ), and his landing aerials aside from N-Air are decent at priming (Hydrant ). Watch out for his many projectiles and his range and you'll likely be fine.
|
 Mii Brawler |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | D-Air | Shot Put, Exploding Side Kick, Onslaught, Burning Drop Kick, Head-On Assault | Mii Brawler's N-Air and B-Air have very little landing lag making them great at priming (Hydrant ). Mii Brawler also has great mobility and has a lot of weird specials that can catch Pac-Man offguard. He can also lob Shot Puts over (Hydrant ) but he is pretty normal compared to the other Mii fighters.
|
 Mii Gunner |
F-Tilt, D-Tilt | F-Smash (All hits), U-Smash (All hits), D-Smash (Second hit) | B-Air, U-Air (If all hits connect somehow), D-Air | Charge Blast (Half Charge or above), Stealth Burst, Super Gunner Missle | Mii Gunner's range on her tilts and projectiles are amazing, allowing her to catch you offguard. She can ignore (Hydrant ) with Stealth Burst but she can also prime (Hydrant ) very noncommittally. Her maze of projectiles can be tricky, make sure to have (Key  ) ready for that reason!
|
 Mii Swordfighter |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (All hits), D-Smash (Second hit) | B-Air, U-Air | Gale Strike, Blurring Blade (Charged), Gale Stab (Charged), Stone Scabbard (All hits), Skyward Slash Dash, Hero's Spin, Power Thrust | Mii Swordfighter has a LOT of moves that hit through (Hydrant ), either due to their long range or the projectiles or other moves that ignore it. Gale Strike, Chakram, Skyward Slash Dash, and Power Thrurst all do, and Mii Swordfighter's aerials and D-Tilt are great at priming (Hydrant ) as well.
|
 Min Min |
None | F-Smash (Dragon and Megawatt), U-Smash, D-Smash | Aerial F-Smash (Dragon and Megawatt) for both F-Air and B-Air, D-Air | F-Smash (Dragon and Megawatt) | Min Min can travel through (Hydrant ) with her Dash Attack and D-Tilt and hit through (Hydrant ) with her arms really easily, making it difficult to sit behind it undisturbed.
|
 Mr. Game & Watch |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air (Both hits), D-Air (Both hits) | Judge (7,8,9), Oil Panic (If they somehow have it on hand) | Mr Game and Watch can hit you through (Hydrant ) with his good range on D-Smash or his Dash Attack. Oil Panic can also hit through but he will very rarely have it on hand, however he may hold the bucket out to reflect (Hydrant ). His tilts can launch it if primed well and he can lob Chef foods over (Hydrant ) but that's really it.
|
 Mythra |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash (Charged) | None | Lightning Buster (Slightly charged) | Mythra is really bad against (Hydrant ), all of her options that launch it are either multihits or laggy. She can dash through it or use her range on her great tilts or use Photon Edge or Dash Attack to travel through or hit you from behind (Hydrant ) but that's all she really has.
|
 Ness |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Slightly charged) | B-Air, U-Air (on (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Air |
PK Flash, PK Fire, PK Thunder 2 | Ness is mediocre against (Hydrant ) due to his multihits. He can hit you from the other side with his aerials or Dash Attack or use his aerials to prime (Hydrant ) well, and he can use aerial PK Fire or PK Thunder to surprise you from the other side but that's it.
|
 Olimar |
None | F-Smash (R, B, Y, P), U-Smash (R, B, Y, P), D-Smash (R, P) | F-Air (P), B-Air (R, P), U-Air (P), D-Air (P) | None | Purple Pikmin are really good at launching (Hydrant ) while White Pikmin Pikmin are the worst at launching it. Olimar's Pikmin moves have a lot a range which can surprise an unwary Pac behind (Hydrant ), but he can also chuck Pikmin over (Hydrant ) with Pikmin Throw or Grab Pac-Man through (Hydrant ).
|
 Pac-Man |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (on aerial (Hydrant )), D-Smash |
D-Air (All hits) | Bonus Fruit (Galaxian, Key), (Hydrant ) (Launched) |
(Bell  ) and Power Pellet can go through (Hydrant ) and Pac-Man can also use his disjointed smash attacks or his Grab to hit you through, but you already likely know what moves launch (Hydrant ) already... unless you are a non Pac-Man checking this section to learn the matchup >:)
|
 Palutena |
F-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | D-Air | Explosive Flame | Palutena is a tricky character with good range. While her options against (Hydrant ) are mediocre, her Explosive Flame is an absolute pain in the behind for Pac-Man to deal with as she can hit him very easily from behind it, and her low lag F-Air and B-Air can also prime it very easily.
|
 Peach |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | N-Air, F-Air | Toad, Vegetables (Wink if thrown far, Dot Eyes, Stitch Face, Bob-omb) | Peach's ground float aerials have very little endlag so she is good at priming (Hydrant ) or tossing Vegetables over, but she is still mediocre at approaching against Pac-Man, especially when he has (Galaxian  ) in hand.
|
 Pichu |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | D-Air | Skull Bash (Charged), Thunder | Pichu is awful against (Hydrant ), most of his best moves to launch it are multihits or laggy and he has lackluster range. Pichu will hard rely on D-Air to launch (Hydrant ) or counterzone with Thunderjolt if he has enough of a lead to pressure you and risk taking the self damage.
|
 Pikachu |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | D-Air | Skull Bash (Charged), Thunder | Pikachu's range is a lot better than Pichu's and he is a lot better at countercamping with Thunderjolt, but he also has a better option to teleport through using Quick Attack but most of the same moves launch (Hydrant ). Pikachu is just a better Pichu against (Hydrant ).
|
 Piranha Plant |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Second hit) | B-Air | Ptooie, Long Stem Strike (Charged) | Dash Attack will send Piranha Plant flying through (Hydrant ) and she can prime it very well with her landing D-Air, U-Air, and F-Air. Poison Breath also primes it noncomittally for her but will never launch it by itself.
|
 Pit |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash | None | Silver Bow (Full Charged, Dark Pit) | Pit and Dark Pit have good range to hit you through (Hydrant ) and have decent landing aerials to prime it in D-Air and F-Air but they don't have too many other gimmicky options other than their reflectors and using Silver Bow and Palutena's Bow to prime it.
|
 Pyra |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (On aerial (Hydrant )), D-Smash (Sweetspot) |
B-Air, D-Air (Spike hitbox) | Flame Nova, Prominence Revolt (Both hits) | Dash Attack and Blazing End can go through (Hydrant ) and her landing aerials and tilts are decent at priming it, and her range can catch Pac-Man offguard.
|
 Ridley |
F-Tilt (Sweetspot), Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | B-Air, U-Air (Sweetspot), D-Air | Fireballs (3), Wing Blitz | Ridley has decent range and a decent landing N-Air and his great tilts, but most of the time he will use his good mobility, Dash Attack, and lob some Fireballs to deal with your camping. |
 R.O.B. |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (On aerial (Hydrant )) |
B-Air | Super Robo Beam | R.O.B's Super Robo Beam and Robo Beam will travel through (Hydrant ). R.O.B has a reflector in Arm Rotor and a projectile in Gyro, and has fast high damaging aerials to prime and lead into his tilts well.
|
 Robin |
None | F-Smash (Levin), U-Smash (On aerial (Hydrant )) (Levin), D-Smash (Levin) |
B-Air (Levin), U-Air (Levin) | Arcthunder, Thoron, Arcfire | Thrown Tomes can travel through (Hydrant ) along with D-Smash and Thoron. Levin Sword aerials and the Levin Sword Item are great at priming (Hydrant ) along with the various Thunders. Robin can also grab you through (Hydrant ) with Nosferatu and their decent range and projectiles just can make them a nuisance to watch out for.
|
 Rosalina & Luma |
U-Tilt (Both Rosalina and Luma) | F-Smash (R+L), U-Smash (R+L), D-Smash (R+L) | N-Air (R+L), B-Air (R+L), U-Air (R+L), D-Air (R+L) | Luma Shot (Mostly fully charged) | When attacking, both Rosalina and Luma have different hitboxes, so they can launch (Hydrant ) together pretty easily, but alone they both are mediocre at it. However, Rosalina has Gravitational Pull to dismantle and make (Hydrant ) disappear or can use Bonus Fruit to hit you through after catching it with Gravitational Pull. Luma can also attack you independently at a distance, or Rosalina can use her solid range to hit you through. Dash Attack can also send Luma flying through. There's a lot to watch out for, but when separated, Rosalina isn't great at launching (Hydrant ) and really doesn't have anything aside from Gravitational Pull to do it for her.
|
 Roy |
Dash Attack | F-Smash (Sweetspot), U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Smash (Sweetspot) |
D-Air (Sweetspot) | Flare Blade (Slightly charged), Dancing Blade | Roy can dash through (Hydrant ) very easily. However his sweetspots leave him in a ton of hitlag, and his range is not as effective as Chrom's, making him a bit less effective on average at dealing with (Hydrant ).
|
 Ryu |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air, B-Air | Shakunetsu Hadoken, Shoriyuken, Focus Attack | Ryu is very similar to Ken but he has better specials against (Hydrant ), due to how great Shakunetsu Hadoken is.
|
 Samus |
Up Tilt | F-Smash, D-Smash (Slightly charged) | B-Air (Sweetspot), D-Air (Sweetspot) | Charge Shot (Slightly Charged) | Samus's Charge Shot, Missiles, and Bombs are fantastic at priming (Hydrant ) along with her low landed aerials. She also can hit Pac-Man through it with Z-Air and she can Grab Pac-Man through it as well.
|
 Sephiroth |
F-Tilt (With Wing) U-Tilt (Tipper), Dash Attack (With Wing) | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air (With Wing), B-Air, U-Air (With Wing), D-Air | Flare, Megaflare, Gigaflare, Octaslash | Every instantly launching move assumes the sweetspots on Sephiroth's Masamune connects. This long reach on Masamune also makes Sephiroth adept at hitting Pac-Man through (Hydrant ). Dash Atatck and his Blade Dash/Octaslash can cause Sephiroth to travel through (Hydrant ), and Sephiroth has a good counter in Scintilla to catch your aggression.
|
 Sheik |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform) |
None | Burst Grenade | Sheik can Dash Attack through (Hydrant ) or use Needles to stuff out Pac-Man's Bonus Fruit charge, but Sheik is one of the worst characters in the game against (Hydrant ), as even her landing aerials don't do enough damage for her to launch it with a tilt aside from maybe B-Air.
|
 Shulk |
F-Tilt, U-Tilt (Buster), D-Tilt (Buster), Dash Attack (Buster) | F-Smash, U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Smash U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform) |
B-Air (Buster), U-Air (Both hits or Buster), D-Air (Buster) | Back Slash (If Pac-Man is facing away or with Buster), Air Slash (Buster), Vision (Buster) | Speed Art can help Shulk dash through (Hydrant ) very easily but with Speed Art, Smash Art, and Shield Art can cause Shulk's moves to not launch (Hydrant ) due to these arts decreasing his damage output. His gianormous range also makes him great at hitting Pac-Man through (Hydrant ), especially with his aerials being great at priming to launch with his tilts.
|
 Simon |
Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Smash (Sweetspot) |
None | Axe | Dash Attack and D-Tilt can go through (Hydrant ) and Simon's whips give him amazing range to hit Pac-Man from behind it. The sweetspots also prime (Hydrant ) very well and Simon has a lot of projectiles to harass Pac-Man with, particularly Cross which goes through.
|
 Snake |
F-Tilt, U-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Back hit) | F-Air, B-Air, U-Air, D-Air (All hits if done out of a shorthop) | Grenade (If Smash Thrown and if the explosion connects afterwards), C4 | Snake has many projectiles to catch Pac-Man offguard and to lob over (Hydrant ), with two Grenades launching it on their own, and C4 being great at launching at (Hydrant ) as well. His tilts prime it very well and most of his aerials launch it very easily as well, making Snake a menace to try to camp with (Hydrant ) if you don't always have (Key ) on hand.
|
 Sonic |
None | F-Smash, D-Smash (Slightly Charged) | B-Air | Homing Attack (Charged) | Sonic is the best character at ignoring (Hydrant ) in the game. He can dash through it very easily, but both Spin Dash and Spin Charge also are great at going through it as well. He doesn't have as many moves to launch (Hydrant ) as other characters but his N-Air is amazing at priming it for any other move to launch it and the fact he ignores it so easily makes him very annoying to camp.
|
 Sora |
F-Tilt (All hits) | F-Smash, U-Smash (On aerial (Hydrant ) or if it's on a platform), D-Smash (Can be done on (Hydrant )) |
N-Air (All hits), F-Air (All hits), B-Air, D-Air | Blizzaga | Sora can hit through (Hydrant ) using his fantasic range or by using Thunderaga or Sonic Blade. Luckily his floatiness and multihit aerials make him less of a threat against (Hydrant ) than he could be.
|
 Squirtle |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | None | Withdraw | Squirtle is really bad against (Hydrant ), his moves that launch it are all very laggy and his other moves don't do enough damage to launch it on their own. N-Air can prime it to launch with a tilt but that's all you really have to watch out for.
|
 Steve |
Dash Attack ( ) |
F-Smash ( ,  ,  ,  , ), U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Smash |
F-Air (, , , ), B-Air (, , , , ), D-Air |
Minecart, Powered Minecart, TNT | Steve is able to Grab Pac-Man through (Hydrant ) or hit him through with Minecart or his good range. He also has many moves that launch it for him and he can chuck Minecarts over or use Block to make his approach trickier. Luckily Steve is also really slow, so his jumps over (Hydrant ) should be easier to stuff out, but his (Hydrant ) options themselves can be really annoying to deal with.
|
 Terry |
F-Tilt (Sweetspot), Dash Attack | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Slightly Charged) | B-Air, D-Air | Burning Knuckle, Power Dunk, Power Geyser | Terry can hit you through (Hydrant ) using Crack Shoot and can prime (Hydrant ) well with his landing aerials and lagless tilts, so he can be a bit annoying to camp out.
|
 Toon Link |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Back hit) | F-Air, U-Air (Sweetspot), D-Air | Spin Attack (Charged) | Returning Boomerang can go through (Hydrant ) and Toon Link can lob many of his projectiles (especially Bomb) over (Hydrant ) to catch Pac-Man offguard, along with being able to Grab Pac-Man through it. Otherwise he is very run of the mill and not too gimmicky, aside from his decent landing aerials and tilts.
|
 Villager |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform) |
U-Air (Three Turnips), U-Air (Three Turnips) | Lloid Rocket (If ridden on), Timber Tree (Growing, Chopped Down), Axe | Villager is able to Grab Pac-Man through (Hydrant ) and also can harass Pac-Man with his Dash Attack that goes through or his many projectiles. Pocket can get rid of (Hydrant ) and make it kill really early, or he can Pocket your Bonus Fruit to use against (Hydrant ), so be careful
|
 Wario |
F-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash | U-Air | Wario Bike (Wheelie to slam down or thrown upwards as an item), Waft (Slightly Past Stage 2 and onwards) | Wario can travel through (Hydrant ) with Wario Bike and has great mobility to make him really difficult to catch, but he'll more than likely be camping for Waft rather than approaching, or he will prime with landing B-Air or his amazing D-Tilt
|
 Wii Fit Trainer |
F-Tilt (With Deep Breathing), D-Tilt | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (Slightly Charged) | N-Air (Both hits), F-Air (With Deep Breathing), B-Air, D-Air | Sun Salutation (Mostly charged, or with Deep Breathing, less charge), Header (Headbutt, or the ball itself with Deep Breathing) | Wii Fit Trainer can dash through (Hydrant ) with Deep Breathing, but they mainly will harass you with Header or their good aerials for priming (Hydrant ).
|
 Wolf |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (On (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Smash |
B-Air, D-Air | Blaster (With the Bayonet hitbox), Wolf Flash, Fire Wolf | Wolf can Dash Attack through (Hydrant ) pretty easily or use his amazing range and landing aerials to prime it or hit you through it. He can also use Blaster very well or mixup with his great mobility or even catch you offguard with his Reflector, so pinning down Wolf isn't always easy.
|
 Yoshi |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash, D-Smash (If slightly charged) | F-Air, D-Air | None | Yoshi can travel through (Hydrant ) using Egg Roll (The most peak strategy of all time) or grab you through using his disjointed Grab or Egg Lay. His ground normals all send (Hydrant ) in weird directions after he primes it with an aerial (Usually N-Air) but he can also use Egg Toss to hit you from behind (Hydrant ) as well, or use his Double Jump Armor and good air mobility to catch you offguard.
|
 Young Link |
None | F-Smash (Slightly Charged), U-Smash, D-Smash | F-Air (Both hits), U-Air, D-Air | Boomerang (Smash Thrown), Spin Attack | Young Link's amazing projectiles make him adept at priming (Hydrant ), along with his amazing all around frame data. Boomerang and returning Boomerang can be annoying to deal with (as the latter goes through (Hydrant )) and his landing aerials have very little endlag, priming it well for his quick ground game. He can also grab Pac-Man through (Hydrant ), so be careful.
|
 Zelda |
None | F-Smash, U-Smash (If the stars align and all hits somehow connect on (Hydrant ) on a platform), D-Smash (Slight charge) |
N-Air (All hits connected), F-Air (Lightning Kick), B-Air, D-Air, U-Air | Din's Fire (Charged a LOT and angled), Phantom (After frame 38) | Zelda's aerials are amazing at launching (Hydrant ) along with her great specials, which include a reflector, a teleporter in Farore's Wind where she can teleport behind (Hydrant ), a projectile that ignores (Hydrant ) in Din's Fire, and Phantom. However, Zelda's slow speed and slow special moves make her options against (Hydrant ) rather predictable.
|
 Zero Suit Samus |
None | F-Smash | None | Flip Kick (Kick) | Zero Suit Samus herself has lackluster (Hydrant ) options, but her amazing mobility makes camping her a Herculanean task. She can dash through (Hydrant ) very easily or Dash Attack through it, or use her large range to hit you through with Z-Air, grab, D-Smash, or Plasma Whip. Her landing aerials (especially B-Air) prime it very well, and she can always use her mobility to make her jumps super difficult to catch, especially with Flip Kick. Tread wisely!
|
Characters who can dash through Hydrant: Mythra, Sonic, Meta Knight, Speed Shulk, Deep Breathing Wii Fit, Zero Suit Samus, Roy, Chrom, Hero with Acceleratle, Mario?
Notes Before Reading
These are not guaranteed methods to beat every character in the game. You still need solid fundies and to outplay your opponent most of the time. This section isn't necessarily a complete guide as to how to beat all of Pac-Man's matchups, but moreso suggestions as to what gameplans you might want to utilize against your opponent and what options they have that you should look out for.
- There is bound to be incorrect information or misinformation here despite the research done. This was largely sourced from personal MU advice ( meeeeee :3 ), usage of other character guides (such as Art of Smash, or character discord discussions), and discussions in the Paccord Matchup Discussion channel. If you have any question regarding any character, it is highly recommended you join the Pac-Man discord and ask in the matchup discussion channel. It is also recommended to specify WHAT you struggle against, rather than just saying that you struggle against X character.
- Do not take all advice at face value, every opponent plays differently. Some struggle matchups might play very predictably around (Hydrant ) so you want to watch out for any predictable habits your opponent has with camping. Additionally, every
Pac-Man plays differently, so not all of this advice is guaranteed to work or might not suit your playstyle.
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Bowser
This matchup is exactly the opposite of what people expect it to be. Generally Even to Unfavorable
Character Notes
- Bowser is a very fast character with good range, so he tends to outrun Pac-Man, making him a bit harder to evade.
- Shielding with Bonus Fruit in hand isn't as effective against Bowser in particular, because of the fact that Flying Slam is a command grab that ignores shields and does high damage.
- Due to his high weight, Bowser is one of the hardest characters to kill in the game, so he will likely live for a long time and exploit rage against you.
- Bowser's tilts are decent at launching (Hydrant ), so watch out for Forward Tilt and Up Tilt in particular. Forward Air and Back Air also work pretty well against (Hydrant ).
Gameplan Notes
- Bowser is a terrifying character if he gets Bonus Fruit, due to his early kill confirms and high damage output along with having Flying Slam to beat your Bonus Fruit counterplay, so be very careful and try to recatch it before using them in neutral against Bowser.
- Abuse Bowser's poor disadvantage state as much as possible. His large size and bad rolls make him very susceptible to tech chases, and he is really easy to combo, so your Fair combos will be a lot more effective against him as well, along with (Galaxian
) combos lasting longer too.
- While Pac's juggling is mediocre, Bowser's landing is very exploitable, especially if you catch his landings with dash back Bonus Fruit or Grab. Make sure to outspace Flying Slam and don't overcommit to avoid Dair and you will generally be fine.
- Bowser is very vulnerable offstage to Down Air or having Whirling Fortress be outspaced by any normal, so punish him hard offstage if you can.
- Landing low with Neutral Air or a spaced Forward Air can bait out a Whirling Fortress for you to punish if you shield all of the hits on time. Additionally, empty land shields also can bait this option out, and you can get a hard punish on this.
- A good Bowser will adapt and start throwing in some Flying Slams to beat your shield, so watch out for the opponent adapting and don't get too predictable.
- DI Flying Slam down and out in most cases. A DI chart for Flying Slam can be found here: (LINK to chart)
- Dashbacks are very effective against Bowser's jump ins, especially with Bonus Fruit in hand, as you will outspace Flying Slam and his solid damaging Neutral Air and you can also punish Flame Breath this way
- Camping Bowser does work, just be careful and watch out for his tilts against (Hydrant ) and stay outside of his range. It's very possible, just not as easy as it is against other characters due to his solid speed and range.
- Your best ways to kill Bowser are by edgeguarding him, ledgetrapping him, or purposely not punishing habits he has to condition him into using them until kill percents, where he is able to be punished. (Bell
) can work, but Bowser will be shielding a lot and is fast, so don't rely on it too much for kills. Pac already struggles to kill in many matchups, but Bowser is even more difficult to kill, so try not to get frustrated and focus on advantage state, and don't let yourself get too hung up over not killing at 200%. Bowser is very good against players who play frustrated or who are nervous, so try your best to be careful and disciplined and to not get too annoyed against him.
Bowser outspeeds and outranges Pac-Man very well, and is a character very solid at punishing Pac-Man offstage with his huge Forward Air. Luckily his disadvantage is very poor and a lot of Bowsers are predictable, so this matchup isn't as bad as it may seem, but many people assume Pac-Man wins for free when that really isn't the case. Be careful, rely on edgeuards and conditioning for kills, and try not to get cheesed.
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Byleth
Wannabe MKLeo puts up a decent fight Generally Even to Winning
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Chrom
Better neutral, way worse disadvantage, pick your poison. Varies, Typically Even
Differences From Roy
- Chrom has more overall consistent range, making him better at spacing on shield. This makes him also better at hitting your through (Hydrant ) with his more consistent reward at range, but he lacks attacks that instant launch (Hydrant ) compared to Roy.
- Chrom is a lot better at juggling Pac-Man, due to how crazy Up Air is. Drifting as far away as possible and saving your resources for when Chrom does something punishable or overcommittal is imperative. Disjoints will beat (Hydrant ) out and Chrom has those in spades, so you have to be more careful against Chrom in disadvantage.
- Chrom's recovery is a lot worse, being vulnerable above or from the back of the move. You can punish this with Fruit or an aerial, but be careful not to get hit by his Soaring Slash move, and watch for airdodges to ledge.
- Slightly different out of shield due to Soaring Slash
Chrom has better neutral, more consistent juggling, and a bit more range and safety on Roy, but his very lackluster recovery is a huge Achille's Heel. Baiting out and punishing the right resource offstage can secure a stock very easily, but this matchup is generally more difficult in neutral than Roy just due to Chrom's more oppressive range. It's more volatile due to his fragility offstage, but that doesn't really make it much really better or worse than Roy. Be careful, and look at the Roy section for further tips!
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Cloud
Unfavorable
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Diddy Kong
"Catch Banana and it's smooth sailing from there" Very Favorable
- Diddy Kong's neutral vs (Hydrant ) is very lackluster. His damage output individually on all of his moves alone is mediocre, and he doesn't have that many ways of noncommittally launching (Hydrant ). His only moves that launch it in one hit are F-Smash, D-Smash when slightly charged, D-Air, the explosion of Rocket Barrels, and the kick of Monkey Flip, all of these being either slow and predictable, launching (Hydrant ) over Pac-Man giving him an easy time punishing, or other problems (Rocket Barrels do self damage, making them very unappealing as a (Hydrant ) option)
- Catching Banana also helps make this matchup very favorable, as Diddy Kong loses one of his main neutral options and is forced to interact with (Hydrant ) if he wants to stop you from charging Fruit or stop you from holding Banana. The fact that you can hold Banana in hand while also charging Fruit is very dangerous, it makes your on hit combo-ability very strong and means you have more mixups in neutral due to your multiple item options.
- A lot of Diddy Kong's (Hydrant ) options are able to be shielded if you are up close, especially Rocket Barrels, which are very unsafe on shield and do self damage, but tossing (Key
) or another Bonus Fruit or dashing under the launched (Hydrant ) and punishing with a Grab or Ftilt also works too. - Pac-Man is a lot more threatening with Banana in hand than Diddy is due to his very strong single hit F-Smash, making it very risky to interact with Pac-Man unsafely if he has Banana.
- Pac-Man's advantage state on Diddy Kong is also really solid, as you have many tools to help you hit Diddy Kong out of Rocket Barrels offstage. N-Air, F-Air, D-Air(Hydrant ), and Fruits are all great at interrupting Diddy's Rocket Barrels and gimping him, and if you whiff any of these just go back to stage and try to ledgetrap.
- Some Diddy Kongs might try to play passively by using Peanut Popgun to attack you behind (Hydrant ), or by using Monkey Flip to approach, but neither of these are that threatening.
Overall, this matchup is very favorable to Pac-Man, as Diddy Kong is not well equipped to deal with Pac-Man's (Hydrant ) camping, and is very vulnerable to having Banana stolen from him and being forced to approach.
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Donkey Kong
"I evaporate (Hydrant ) and your stock if I get in, but I get evaporated when I get hit." Varies, typically Pac-Man favored though.
Character Notes:
- Donkey Kong's disadvantage state is not the best, so be sure to exploit that to the best of your abilities.
- You do not have a spike, so it's not as easy to gimp with Pac-Man as it is with other characters, but (Orange
), (Melon 
), (Key ), Fair, and D-Air still are very usable tools for gimping Donkey Kong. - Donkey Kong has very weak ledge options as long as you watch out for drop down jump Headbutt or Up-Air, so feel free to go crazy here.
- Donkey Kong's landing is also lackluster, making him a character Pac-Man has an easier time comboing and juggling. Up-Air is great for launching DK upwards, and Pac's combos will tend to work a lot better, especially U-Throw to F-Air combos. While DK is landing, just watch out for Down B, Giant Punch as a combo breaker, and of course airdodges. If you are unconfident in juggling Donkey Kong, you can just catch his landing with (Key ) or (Galaxian ).
- You do not have a spike, so it's not as easy to gimp with Pac-Man as it is with other characters, but (Orange
- If you don't have any special moves out, Donkey Kong tends to approach with his big intangible tilts, Dash Attack, grab, or Back Air. He may mix in some Hand Slaps to throw you offguard or not approach at all and start charging Giant Punch in response to your camping, so keep these options in mind.
- Rising Back Air is punishable on Pac-Man's shield with N-Air or Fruit in hand, so take advantage if the situation arises.
Gameplan Notes:
- Donkey Kong is actually very good at destroying (Hydrant ). His Hand Slap and tilts are very good at launching (Hydrant ) in very unpredictable trajectories (Hand Slap launches (Hydrant ) very vertically which can get in the way a lot), and his grounded Up-B actually tends to go through (Hydrant ) half of the time.
- For this reason, it is generally preferred to camp using Trampoline or to keep a distance from (Hydrant ) where you can safely charge Fruit and punish Donkey Kong in his endlag with a Fruit Toss
- When camping with Trampoline, many Donkey Kongs tend to try to destroy it with D-Tilt which you can punish with Fruit or use to buy time to keep charging to (Galaxian ). If they approach from the air, it'll very likely be with Back Air, so be on the lookout for those habits.
- For this reason, it is generally preferred to camp using Trampoline or to keep a distance from (Hydrant
Donkey Kong evaporates (Hydrant ) very easily, but he struggles to approach vs Trampoline and has an exploitable disadvantage state. He can be difficult to kill, so he may cheese you early with rage, but it is not Pac-Man's worst heavy matchup, it just requires patience.
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Hero
Bounce and Buffs go BRRRRR Varies, Generally Even to Unfavorable
Character Notes
- Hero is amazing at launching (Hydrant ) due to how many spells he has with his Command Select and his many projectiles.
- Not only that, Hero can dash through (Hydrant ) if he has Acceleratle active!
- Not only that, Hero can dash through (Hydrant
- Psyche Up will actually go away if Hero hits (Hydrant ), Bonus Fruit, Trampoline, or Power Pellet with any melee move, as this counts as a direct hit. Meanwhile, Oomph will still stay active.
- Hero has a passive shield on his character that will block projectiles. This means that it will block Bonus Fruit or the water from (Hydrant ).
- Hero has many moves that will instantly launch (Hydrant ). Most of his normals when buffed by Oomph or Psyche Up will easily, but his Down Air and Forward Air, Dash Attack, and many of his projectiles are the most notable, along with Zapple outright ignoring it.
Gameplay Notes
- Hero is not a very easy character to camp out. Camping him allows him to generate MP for his spells with Command Select and allows him free selection of what he wants. He can fish for Bounce or Acceleratle or a Buff, or use one of the many projectiles that ignores (Hydrant ) outright, so it's better to camp Hero mainly when you have a sizeable lead, but at the start, it isn't advised.
- You can safely beat out his projectiles typically with ((Key ) typically, but he can also just get Bounce which can be very annoying. Keeping a distance is fine with a lead or in some instances especially with ((Key ) on hand, but it's a lot harder against Hero than it is against many other characters.
- You can safely beat out his projectiles typically with ((Key
- Hero's frame data is really bad. His fastest aerials either have lackluster range and hitboxes (Up Air) or aren't all too fast to begin with (Neutral Air is his fastest, but it isn't going to hit below him for a while). This makes his aerial approaches easy to stuff out.
- However, he has an incredible anti-air in Up Tilt and can dash back punish with projectiles, so don't rely on stuffing his approaches out too much.
- Hero's non Command Select neutral will be very fundies based. He will rely on mixups with his Jab (Among his best neutral options in general due to MP generation and mixup potential) or Forward Tilt grounded with occasional pokes with Down Tilt or intercepting aerial approaches with Up Tilt. He will do landing spaced Neutral Airs or Forward Airs or go for tomahawk grabs as a mixup to get MP. He may use zoning or pressure with Frizz/Frizzle or dash back Zapple but without Command Selection buffs, his neutral can be a bit predictable, especially due to his lackluster mobility.
- Constantly pressuring Hero when he tries to use Command Select is generally a good idea. Do not let him get his spells for free, pressure him with normals or with Bonus Fruit, and stay at a threatening range to make him have to be careful while picking spells. Using (Key ) can help with this.
- Be careful with overaggression against Hero. He has access to a fast out of shield option in Woosh that combos into his Up Tilt for a kill confirm. He can use this to punish many unspaced or rising aerials if they are not landed low.
- When Bounce is active, Pac-Man's best way to ledgetrap Hero is either using Trampoline at ledge or Down Air, as Bonus Fruit is generally unviable to go for for obvious reasons at this time.
- Hero's disadvantage state is generally really not great. His combo breakers are very slow, and his landing options are generally laggy. His recovery from above is very vulnerable from above, so go hard on juggling and edgeguarding him as long as possible.
- Finish later lol.
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Ice Climbers
Very Favorable
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Ike
The most average matchup in the game honestly. Slightly Favorable
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Incineroar
Favorable
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Character Notes
- Inkling is one of the only characters who can dash under grounded Trampoline, the only other character able to do this is
Pichu. - Inkling has exceptional mobility, and a very low dash and ambiguous dash dance, along with a great grab. She also has very safe aerials, making her neutral ambiguous if she ever gets in.
- This means that a good Inkling against (Hydrant ) will less so try to launch it, but moreso bait an option from you to punish herself (for example, baiting out a F-Air from you to stuff out an aerial appraoch, only for her to outrange it and whiff punish you.)
- Many Inklings won't do this, but it is a good thing to keep in mind.
- This means that a good Inkling against (Hydrant
- Inkling has lackluster out of shield options. Her aerials hit mainly above her making her aerials out of shield vulnerable to being low profiled, so all she really has are Grab and Up Smash.
- Inkling's Ink mechanic will multiply her damage output if she has you covered in Ink. This will make her kill confirms kill a bit early and will make her advantage state a bit more of a hassle, but you suffer less from it than other characters do.
Gameplan Notes
- Inkling is very lackluster against (Hydrant ), as her only moves that instantly launch it are Splat Bomb, Forward Smash and slight charged Down Smash. She can chuck Splat Bombs over and prime it well with Back Air and Forward Air, but she lacks many options to deal with your camping.
- Use (Key ) to beat Splatbomb, dash under and punish or pressure Inkling, or just shield or jump over the (Hydrant ).
- Use (Key
- Mixup when you use Power Pellet and how you stall offstage. Inkling is very good at edgeguarding due to the amount of distance she can recover from, as well as having a lingering Forward Air to kill you early if you mess up. Try to mixup your recovery angles to avoid this.
- Also mixup your ledge options and timings to avoid getting Splat Bombed at ledge. She has great mobility and a good grab, but she can't easily cover every option at once, so look for a hole in their coverage and try to escape.
- Abuse Inkling's disadvantage state. Inkling really struggles to kill if she doesn't get an edgeguard, especially on Pac due to the fact that his Booyah (Up Throw to Up Air) window is super small (only working at 109% with no rage or ink), and her advantage state aside from ledgetrapping and edgeguarding is mediocre, so try to outdamage her with your combos. She doesn't have a ton of escape options anyways that you need to be careful of.
- You can edgeguard her with Down Air but it can be difficult, but ledgetrapping is fine.
- Mixup how you deal with Back Air when she does get in. You can stuff her jump out pretty easily especially if she already landed with a Back Air, but watch for what she does after landing it. She may empty land tomahawk grab you, jump and Back Air to stuff out a jump or beat a spotdodge, she may empty land and Jab you to punish a spotdodge as well or catch a shield drop, etc. You can also escape pressure by dashing or rolling away, but this does give away stage control.
- Don't always tech after a Back Air, as Ink Roller will bury you if you tech. Mixup your tech options as well, just so that way you don't give Inkling a free early kill.
- Coming back from a deficit can be difficult against Inkling, as her amazing mobility and Splattershot make her great at evasion, running away, and circle camping. You might have to charge to (Key ) or another fruit that has less reward to punish this, instead of fishing for high reward fruits like (Galaxian ), but be especially careful when throwing Fruit you haven't previously recaught at Inkling, as she can run away with the item for a long time.
Pac-Man is one of Inkling's worst matchups due to how unimpressive Inkling is against (Hydrant ). Not only that, but he outdamages her pretty well in terms of combos, and Inkling can struggle to edgeguard him if he isn't predictable. Inkling can still out neutral you when she gets in and still cheese an early kill with an edgeguard, but just being patient can go a long way.
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Joker
Ready for a slow game? Generally Even
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Kazuya
He may kill you in one hit... but he will rarely get that hit to begin with. Favorable
Character Notes
- Kazuya has a lot of ways to instantly launch (Hydrant ), most of his moves do heavy base damage and instantly launch it without issue.
- HOWEVER, Kazuya also tends to have a lot of endlag after launching (Hydrant ), so he is a bit easier to punish after launching (Hydrant ).
- HOWEVER, Kazuya also tends to have a lot of endlag after launching (Hydrant
- Kazuya has one of the strongest reflectors in the game. He can also accidentally double reflect (Hydrant ) or Bonus Fruit, making them kill at 0%, so be VERY cautious while using any of these moves haphazardly.
- Crouch Dash and Electric Wind God Fist are both tools that Kazuya can use to approach while being invincible, however you can outrange EWGF easily with Bonus Fruit in hand, and while Crouch Dash is an insane approach tool, it does not help Kazuya get around (Hydrant ) or Trampoline.
Gameplan Notes
- Kazuya has very poor aerial mobility and range, making him very susceptible to being camped out from behind Trampoline. He can use Devil's Blaster to punish you behind Trampoline or for setting it up predictably, or use Heaven's Door as an option while jumping over Trampoline, but both of these aren't unbeatable options and you can punish them easier.
- It is also possible to camp Kazuya pretty easily with (Hydrant ) due to the fact that a lot of his moves that launch (Hydrant ) will leave Kazuya with a lot of endlag, but this is generally riskier than Trampoline camping.
- It is also possible to camp Kazuya pretty easily with (Hydrant
- (Galaxian ) in hand or (Key ) can help you punish Kazuya in midrange or at a distance a lot easier. Both moves have great damage and range and can help you punish a whiffed EWGF, or even a Devil's Blaster as a viable trade.
- Be careful, Kazuya can reflect your projectiles and kill you insanely early, so don't be too predictable with your Bonus Fruit.
- Kazuya is also vulnerable to being platform camped on stages with platforms, as he only really has Heaven's Door, Up Air, or Devil Wings to hit above him and try to punish you. Pac-Man is floaty and is very capable of stalling especially with (Hydrant ), and if things go south he can simply drift offstage and recover.
- Kazuya's onstage disadvantage state is very lacking. All he really has to land are Heaven's Door, Fast Fall Neutral Air Dodge, or a fastfall aerial, all of which are usually predictable and punishable. Heaven's Door and Up Air (Frame 4) are his only real options to break out of combos, and he is a large character with a big frame and a good fastfall, so he is very vulnerable to being combo'd as well.
- Up Throw to Fair chains work very well on Kazuya. You can typically do a landing Up Air after the chains to launch him upwards and juggle him.
- Up Air is a decent juggling tool against Kazuya, but you can also catch his landing with Bonus Fruit pretty easily or even just a dashback Grab. Just make sure to watch out for Heaven's Door as it has armor on frame 4 and will beat shields.
- Grab can be effective against Kazuya if he whiffs a move, but this is risky. Due to it's long duration however and Kazuya's big size, it is easier to grab him than other characters if he isn't using a move that turns him invincible.
- When you get hit by Kazuya, do not give up and let Kazuya get his combo for free. Pac-Man has a few escape options to try to minimize damage dealt by Kazuya's insane combos.
- Trampoline comes out frame 1, but isn't able to be interacted with until around frame 4-ish, but it can disrupt Kazuya's combos or boost you out of them in time to evade a followup after EWGF. This is risky as it puts you into free fall, but getting out of a Kazuya combo can easily save a stock and is well worth the risk.
- If you have it in hand, Z-Dropped Bonus Fruit can also come out on frame 1, potentially disrupting Kazuya's combo. However this may just clank with a move and might not help you escape the combo, and you may get unlucky and drop Bonus Fruit from hand due to poor RNG.
- (Hydrant )'s water can disrupt Kazuya enough for you to escape with a double jump. Neutral Air would work if Kazuya didn't have invincibility on EWGF.
- Finally, if none of these are working, try mixing up which direction you DI after getting hit by EWGF, instead of just always DI'ing the same direction everytime. This can potentially challenge the Kazuya and make him mess up his combo due to being launched slightly differenty, but don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work. Kazuya combos are broken for a reason.
- Kazuya is very difficult to kill due to his weight, so try to abuse his disadvantage state as much as possible to put him at kill percent earlier to make finishing the job easier. You can kill him earlier with edgeguards, legdetrapping, or by raw conditioning, but sometimes you might need to rely on patience with (Bell ) or some reads to take a stock.
Pac-Man is a character who can easily camp out Kazuya. He does have to watch out for Devil's Blaster when setting up camp, and Kazuya does launch (Hydrant ) for free most of the time, but Pac-Man still punishes his (Hydrant ) options pretty easily. He also has more ways to get out of Kazuya's combos than most characters, however one slip up can still lead to death very easily. Be cautious and patient more than anything in this matchup but push advantage state when you do get a hit.
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Ken
Ryu... but even easier lol. Very Favorable
Character Notes
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King Dedede
Even to Favorable
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King K. Rool
Favorable
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Kirby
Very Favorable
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Little Mac
You ain't no air fighter Mac! Very Favorable
Character Notes
- Little Mac has surprisingly good airspeed, but has awful air acceleration with a high fast fall speed and lackluster jumps. Not only that, but his aerials are TINY and infamously not too effective for approaching or comboing. He has access to Jolt Haymaker to help give him a decent way to approach in the air but that makes his approach very predictable.
- This makes him very weak against Trampoline as he lacks the mobility or aerial range to help him navigate around it.
- Little Mac's ground game, in contrast, is phenomenal. He has very great grounded mobility and fast and powerful grounded moves, all of which dealing solid damage and knockback. This makes camping him out even more appealing, as he is terrifying up close.
- Little Mac cannot dash through (Hydrant ), but he can, however, Dash Attack through it and catch you offguard.
- Little Mac has some quick combo breaking moves. His
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Lucario
Good luck killing or catching this slippery lil fox. Generally Even
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Lucas
Slightly Favorable
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Luigi
Breaking out of his combos and camping him hard makes this matchup almost free... but he still kills you in one hit. Very Favorable
Character Notes
- Luigi has some of the worst aerial mobility in the game. His airspeed is the second worst, while not having great air acceleration, and his fast fall is awful, making his aerial approach floaty and predictable. He doesn't have great range in the air either aside from Z-Air, making him really lackluster at aerial approaches.
- This is important because (Hydrant ) and Trampoline are amazing at forcing aerial approaches, something that Luigi doesn't have many ways to get around.
- This is important because (Hydrant
- Luigi has a variety of 0 to deaths or insane combos he can do from Grab. He can do his classic 0 to death with Down Air -> Neutral Air -> Down Air -> Up Air to Super Jump Punch, but he can also just do a regrab into Up Air bridges accross the stage. Avoiding his grab is very important.
- You can escape these combos by disrupting his spacing with the water from (Hydrant ), or by mashing Trampoline and mixing up your DI to hope for the best, but this won't guarantee your escape.
- You can escape these combos by disrupting his spacing with the water from (Hydrant
- Luigi has a frame 1 invincible escape option in Luigi Cyclone, so try to bait it out and watch out for it in your combos.
- Watch out for his Super Jump Punch out of shield. It's fast (frame 8) and super deadly, so try to space your landing Forward Airs outside of it's range if you are forced to scrap.
Gameplan Notes
- Luigi is very lackluster against Trampoline camping, due to his aforementioned poor aerial mobility and poor range. He can also struggle to get in against (Hydrant ), but do watch out for Back Air as it instantly launches (Hydrant ), as well as him doing landing Neutral Air to Down Tilt to prime it easily, or his smash attacks.
- If Luigi jumps over Trampoline, you can almost always stuff this out with an aerial or Bonus Fruit. Most of the time he will chuck Fireballs or Z-Airs over Trampoline or try to destroy it with Down Tilt, all of which you can outspace or punish with Fruit.
- Watch out for Luigi grabbing you through (Hydrant ). If he tries to grab you from behind Trampoline, you will land on Trampoline and bounce up to safety.
- You can also effectively platform camp Luigi, using (Hydrant ) and Fruits for downward pressure. Luigi will try to Up Air you, which will take you out of zero to death range effectively, but Luigi isn't equipped with the mobility to deal with platform camping so feel free to do that to extend your lead as well.
- If he's up close, Luigi's neutral will consist of using Fireball, Z-Air, and Down Tilt to pressure you in order to look for a Grab
to start an insane combo. Keeping your distance against all of these is usually a good idea.
- Up close, you can't really punish a lot of Luigi's aerials (aside from Forward Air or Down Air) or his Down Tilt on shield, and trying to punish a safe move out of shield can lead to you getting Super Jump Punched out of shield.
- Do not overcommit to advantage state against Luigi, his frame 1 invincible Luigi Cyclone or frame 3 Neutral Air are good at punishing over extensions.
- Unfortunately for Luigi, his aerial mobility as mentioned is awful and these are the only options he has to land aside from drifting to ledge. Empty hopping to bait an option out and punishing afterwards can work (especially with Luigi Cyclone as it's very unsafe on shield) but just catching his landing by outspacing it also works. Keep him in the air for as long as possible.
- Luigi's offstage game is also lacking. He only has Green Missile, his double jump, and Super Jump Punch for recovery, and all of these have a different sort of fallback.
- Green Missile's momentum will come to a stop if it comes into contact with anything, so any special move or even body blocking Luigi can gimp him completely if he doesn't have a double jump. Additionally he is very vulnerable from above, so you can also hit him with a Down Air. Just watch out for him double jumping and using Green Missile at the same time as a mixup, the momentum he gets is insane and he can recover for free if you don't keep this mixup in mind.
- Super Jump Punch is also lacking in terms of recovery distance, hitting him outside of range to use it can gimp him very solidly. This is most effective with Forward Air or (Orange ).
- Watch out for Luigi's ledgetrapping. He can pressure your ledgehang with Down Tilt fairly easily and with Z-Air as well, and he has a deadly Super Jump Punch out of shield to punish an unsafe attack. Mixup your options accordingly, though (Galaxian ) in hand can help a lot.
- As said in the Character Notes section, Luigi's combos are amazing, but Trampoline and the water from (Hydrant ) can help you escape with prior setup or by mashing Trampoline. You can also use Z-Dropped Fruit in hand, but this is inconsistent and won't be as successful as the other strategies. Additionally mixing up your DI can help you escape too, but don't beat yourself up for not escaping a Luigi combo.
Luigi is a character with an exceptional advantage state but a dreadful disadvantage state and putrid neutral against zoners. Trampoline in particular keeps him at bay, and you have good methods of escaping his combos, making this one of Luigi's worst matchups. However do not get cocky and instead play the matchup seriously and patiently, patient play is important as Luigi is good at close range and capitalizes off of single mistakes really well. Camp, and don't get too big for your britches, and you will do fine.
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Mega Man
The Retro-Mans duke it out in the battle of random projectiles Generally Even
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Palutena
Camping is hard and landing is even harder... but you can somewhat box? Typically Unfavorable
Character Notes
- Palutena has invincibility on her Dash Attack and Back Air, making them beat out a lot of your moves. This especially helps her with catching your landings, as she will ignore any hitboxes you throw downwards.
- Not only that, but Up Air also is a big disjointed multihit, allowing it to EASILY beat out (Hydrant ) while juggling you.
- Not only that, but Up Air also is a big disjointed multihit, allowing it to EASILY beat out (Hydrant
- Palutena is very good at ignoring (Hydrant ) and disrupting you behind it with Explosive Flame, as she can hit you behind it with little committment due to the wall between you and her. You have to always watch out for this and have your hand ready to shield if you can't escape in time.
- Don't always shield this. You will be at the same position as you were before, only with a smaller shield if Palutena keeps pressuring you with it. Usually dodging it with mobility or jumps is better but as said you can't always react to this easily. You can also use (Key ).
- Don't always shield this. You will be at the same position as you were before, only with a smaller shield if Palutena keeps pressuring you with it. Usually dodging it with mobility or jumps is better but as said you can't always react to this easily. You can also use (Key
- Palutena has Counter to punish your recovery but also can 2 frame you with Down Tilt or Up Smash, so you will have to mixup your recovery a lot.
- Forward Air to Neutral Air is very good at catching or poking your shield, so holding shield after a landing Forward Air is ill-advised.
- Palutena tends to either use Neutral Air as a way to catch jumps in neutral or after an empty landing as a mixup, but she also will mixup how she does the move in terms of timing too. She will also look for landing Forward Airs and Back Airs to safely pressure you, or tomahawks to start combos and beat shield.
Gameplan Notes
- Staying grounded vs Palutena helps a lot, as a lot of her best moves are aerials and her ground game is mediocre. It also helps you avoid getting your aerial approach stuffed out by Neutral Air and taking lots of damage, so use this if you can.
- If the Palutena starts adapting by using more landing aerials like Forward Air or Back Air, then you can adapt to this and stuff these moves out earlier. Many of the time when she doesn't do a rising aerial it's because she intends on doing a landing safe Forward Air or Back Air so keep this in mind.
- Palutena's Neutral Air is unsafe on shield rising and landing if unspaced or not crossed up, so you can punish this by staying grounded.
- Drift offstage when in disadvantage against Palutena. SDI is effective at getting out of her combos but can't save you from being continuously juggled over and over again, and her edgeguarding is mediocre aside from her 2-framing, so drifting away from her offstage can help you minimize any damage you take.
- Mixup your SDI directions. You can SDI upwards out of Neutral Air if you are in centerstage, but you can also hold out as a mixup too or up and away. Both of these are punishable if read, so try to mixup which way you SDI out of the move.
- Try to SDI upwards to escape her Up Air, but hold outwards towards the end for survival DI, as DI'ing inwards will make your launch angle more veritcal and lead to you dying earlier.
- Palutena is vulnerable to being shield pressured if you keep her big grab and fast frame 8 Neutral Air in mind.
- (Hydrant ) camping is difficult in this matchup, you might be forced to scrap with her more often than not due to how annoying Explosive Flame is. She also has invincible moves to prime (Hydrant ) to launch for her very easily and is good at baiting a punish attempt and punishing with Neutral Air or Grab. You might be able to charge Fruit offstage but this is also risky due to her great ledgetrapping. You can (Hydrant ) camp her, but it's super annoying and generally not easy to deal with.
- DI down and out to avoid her combos from Down Throw, but DI down and in to survive Back Throw.
- Mixup your corner options and escape timings. Palutena is great at pressuring you in the corner or ledgetrapping with Back Air or using tomahawk Grab as a mixup, and she can hit your ledgehang consistently too. Mixup with shields against Back Air, spotdodges to avoid Grab, and jumps to stuff out her hops.
- Palutena DOES have an exploitable disadvantage state if you are careful. You can empty hop to bait out a Warp and punish with (Key ) or Dash Attack, but she can also use Back Air to cover this well. She is also vulnerable to being 2-framed, so try to use down angled Forward Tilt to beat this. Just watch out for Up Air.
Palutena is a rough matchup for Pac-Man. It's not the hardest matchup he has, but he definitely has to outplay Palutena hard. He can scrap with her if he's careful about being stuffed out with Neutral Air and avoids being pressured or outranged, but one hit can go a long way against him, and Palutena both juggles him very well and is great at ignoring (Hydrant ) too. This is a more aggressive matchup than most but mainly because half the time Palu doesn't lose much from you trying to camp her back.
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Peach
Fruits > Vegetables, tell your pediatrician asap. Favorable
Character Notes
- Peach can ground float and use all of her aerials very close to the ground. These aerials tend to do a lot more damage and lead to longer combos, while also being safer on shield and more likely to low profile your counter attacks out of shield.
- Peach has a very good item projectile in Turnip that gives her a big disjointed combo starter and disadvantage tool. She also abuses these really hard for combos and for edgeguarding.
- Peach has an insane combo game, with her numerous combo starters (Turnip, Down Tilt, Neutral Air, Back Air, Down Air, and Grab) being exceptional combo starters, even if her combos don't work as well against floaties. Her ground float also gives her more ambiguity when approaching, and her ground float aerials are super difficult to punish, so for this reason, brawling and boxing with Peach is highly discouraged.
Gameplan Notes
- Peach may have her amazing float, but that will almost always lose to (Galaxian ) in hand, as it is a disjointed combo starter that will hit her while she's floating. She can try to outspace it with her aerial mobility, but it's very difficult to do this.
- Peach's mobility in general isn't very great aside from Float, so she will be very predictable when approaching, especially since she will tend to not approach using ground moves. Keep this in mind if she tries to approach you before you get (Hydrant ) out.
- Peach's mobility in general isn't very great aside from Float, so she will be very predictable when approaching, especially since she will tend to not approach using ground moves. Keep this in mind if she tries to approach you before you get (Hydrant
- Peach tends to be susceptible to being anti-aired by Fruit or an aerial if she is drifting in completely. She may bait this by floating outside of the range of these moves, but you can just catch her landing with (Galaxian ) or (Key ) pretty easily.
- Try to stay at a distance against (Hydrant ), as to not get hit by Peach's ground float Back Air or Forward Air.
- Peach tends to struggle to approach a lot against (Hydrant ) and she can only really use her ground float aerials to launch it, but you can outspace these and punish with Bonus Fruit in this situation.
- She can instant launch it with her ground float Neutral Air or Forward Air, but this does give you time to charge to (Galaxian ) or (Key ), which you can use to punish her a lot more effectively next time in neutral.
- For this reason, Peach might try to camp and get Turnips in hand instead while you charge Fruit, as these give her a disjoint to throw over (Hydrant ) and to use to whiff punish in neutral. Turnips do lose to (Galaxian ) and (Key ) however.
- She can instant launch it with her ground float Neutral Air or Forward Air, but this does give you time to charge to (Galaxian
- Peach is very light, floaty, and has a mediocre disadvantage state. All she really has to land is her aerials if she outspaces you, Turnips if she has those on hand, or her Float to mixup. You can wait Float out, and usually juggle her or catch her landings with your aerials or Bonus Fruit
- She is also pretty vulnerable offstage if you can hit her out of Float or before she uses Parasol.
- Most of Peach's aerials are very safe on shield or on whiff when done out of a ground float, so do not try to whiff punish them.
- Mixup your recovery options to avoid drop off Forward Air or her Turnips
Bonus Fruit is an absolute nightmare for Peach in neutral. She does have options against (Hydrant ), but the fact you can play very campy and just punish her ground floats and Turnips with (Galaxian ) and (Key ) make neutral very difficult for her. She can still very easily touch of death you, but if you play very patiently and charge to the right Fruits over anything else, you will generally be fine.
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Character Notes
- Pichu is one of the worst characters in the entire game against (Hydrant ). Most of his moves are multihits, meaning he will be put into extra hitlag upon hitting (Hydrant ). Not only tht, but his non-multhits are AWFUL at launching (Hydrant ) because they don't do nearly enough damage to launch (Hydrant ) itself, and all of his moves that do launch (Hydrant ) are very laggy aside from Down Air.
- Pichu can Agility through (Hydrant ) or jump over and pressure you with Thunder Jolt, but both of these options damage himself meaning he can't do these options forever. Agility is also a lot more punishable than Quick Attack due to not having a hitbox.
- Pichu is one of the only characters in the game able to dash under grounded Trampoline, with the other character being
Inkling. - Pichu is the lightest character in the game, and by a significant margin too, making him far easier to kill than many other characters if you can hit him. This means Pac-Man will face less trouble sealing off stocks.
- Pichu is very difficult to hit due to his great mobility and short hurtbox, but this is not as big of a deal due to how effective simply camping him is.
Gameplan Notes
- (Hydrant ) is your go-to gameplan here. Pichu's multihits leave him punishable on reaction against (Hydrant ) and so do any of his attempts to launch it. His only moves that instantly launch (Hydrant ) are Down Air, Forward Smash, and Up Smash
- Down Air sends (Hydrant ) tumbling in place and autocancels, making it the most difficult option he has to punish. You usually want to punish Pichu with a Bonus Fruit or stuff out his jump before he hits (Hydrant ). You can also just ignore this and keep charging Bonus Fruit.
- Forward Smash will put Pichu in MASSIVE amounts of hitlag, so much so that you can react and launch (Hydrant ) while he is still in the animation of F-Smash. You can also dash under the launched (Hydrant ) and grab him in endlag or punish with a Bonus Fruit rather easily however
- Up Smash launches (Hydrant ) upwards, but you can grab him and throw armor through (Hydrant ) or just punish him in endlag with a quick Ftilt or Dash Attack or even easier, a Bonus Fruit.
- Down Air sends (Hydrant
- Pichu, unlike
Pikachu, cannot easily camp back with Thunder Jolt, as it will cause self damage to himself, meaning if he does it too much he will be at kill percent and relinquish the percent lead, but do watch out for jumps over (Hydrant ) with Tjolt. Usually just Pellet Shielding it with Power Pellet, jumping back, or throwing (Key ) through it will punish it, but it is a very good projectile so mixup how you approach it (mix in some shields as well). - You will likely get some earlier kills with ledgetrapping and edgeguarding Pichu. You can 2-frame his Agility easily with downward angled F-Tilt or by throwing out a Neutral Air or Down Air where the ledge is to stuff out the grab, but just watch out for mixups with Skull Bash and Thunder. You can also ledgetrap him easily too, where they will likely kill earlier.
- Pichu can be difficult to hit, especially due to his small size, so only doing landing aerials against him and using Bonus Fruit that hit low can help.
- If your out of shield options are getting pancaked at all, similarly to Pikachu, use Down Air, as it hits low and won't be low profiled and is still a spritely quick frame 9 option out of shield.
- Be safe with your shield pressure, as Pichu has a fast frame 6 Neutral Air out of shield to punish any unsafe and unspaced aggression.
Pichu is very weak against (Hydrant ) camping in particular. A lot of his gameplan just gets shut down by it's prescence and it doesn't help that he's very easy for Pac-Man to kill, alleviating one of his bigger flaws. Even though this matchup is very favorable, don't get cocky, you can still get outplayed hard by a Pichu and caught offguard by his amazing mobility and devastating advantage state, so be careful.
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Character Notes
- Pikachu actually, like Pichu, is very lackluster against (Hydrant ), but he has far more options available to him. All of the same moves instead launch (Hydrant ), but they don't do self damage and have more range making them harder to punish. Pikachu also can countercamp back easier with Thunderjolt due to not inducing self damage, and can Quick Attack through (Hydrant ) easier. Plus, Pikachu is better at edgeguarding Pac-Man offstage, so this is why these two matchups are not the same in terms of ease of play.
- Pikachu will rely on Thunderjolt a lot in neutral but will also look for grabs and Nairs or Bairs to set up for long highly damaging combos, but also Down Tilt due to it's safety.
Gameplan Notes
- (Hydrant ) is also very effective against Pikachu, just watch out for the aforementioned options he has.
- Thunderjolt over (Hydrant ) can be beaten by using Pellet Shield, jumping back, shielding, blocking it with Bonus Fruits, clanking with Neutral Air, etc. Just always mixup your options against Thunderjolt so Pikachu doesn't find habits to punish.
- Make sure to watch out for Quick Attack due to it's added hitbox. You can shield and punish Out of Shield if he lands next to you.
- Forward Smash is a bit harder to punish than Pichu's due to being a single hit that lingers. Wait out the move and punish with Bonus Fruit, or dash under the launched (Hydrant ) and Grab or F-Tilt.
- Thunderjolt over (Hydrant
- Pikachu's aerials are very good at pancaking most options out of shield due to Pikachu's low hitbox landing. For this reason, your best out of shield options are Bonus Fruit out of shield or Down Air as both hit low and can punish the lower hurtboxes.
- To add to this, Pikachu's Forward Air is very safe rising, so try to punish what he does afterwards. Down Tilt is also -4 on shield, so try to wait patiently and see what Pikachu does after hitting your shield.
- Pikachu has really good out of shield options. His Neutral Air is fast but he also has a fast Back Air that combos for a very long time that's frame 7 (slower than Neutral Air by 1 frame) and a strong Up Smash and a fast grab. Be careful about landing unsafely against Pikachu with normals.
- To escape Neutral Air loops, you must be really unpredictable with your DI and SDI. You have to mixup how you DI the grab, and the first Utilt. A lot of people tend to switch directional DIs after the first doesn't work, making the Pikachu have an easy read on your DI option. Try to be more unpredictable with your DI. You won't always escape, but it will make the Pikachu's combos harder, making it easier for them to slip up.
- SDI Hard Left or Hard Right to try to fall behind the Pikachu after the Neutral Air, as this may make them have to turn around to Grab you. In this state you can try to mash Jab to catch them hesitating. It also makes it harder to make the Up Tilt to be true, so after the second Grab, you can try to SDI behind Pikachu and hold shield.
- To DI Pikachu's Back Air, hold out at early percents unless you are really close to the far blast zone. When you are at higher percents, hold in to survive if you are about to die and his Back Air loops won't work anymore.
- However in tournament, Pikachu can react to your SDI and punish if he is adept at his combos, just try to be as unpredictable as possible. It is fair to note that past these percents, DI-ing out of his D-Throw outwards is advised due to many of his confirms from this throw being true on DI in.
- Watchout for his kill confirms. Pikachu has dragdown Neutral Air into Down Smash/Up Smash, confirms from Thunderjolt at close range, and confirms from Down Throw and Up Throw.
- DI D-Throw out and DI U-Throw in at around 100%, but U-Throw will eventually kill so start to hold out after a way.
- Try to throw out a hitbox at ledge or use down angled Forward Tilt to try to 2 frame Pikachu's recovery. Just watch out for Thunder if he recovers low.
- Mixup your recovery as much as possible offstage, as Pikachu is an exceptional edgeguarder who can go out far to gimp you.
Pac-Man is one of Pikachu's worst matchups in the game, as Pac-Man has many tools to contest and beat out Pikachu's best options. However that does not make Pikachu free, Pikachu doesn't really lose many matchups that hard, and it is arguable if Pac-Man even has advantage at all to begin with. Make sure to practice your DI and treat this character as a better Pichu, while also being sure to mixup offstage as much as possible. Also be careful about your autopilot out of shield options, you may need to rely on Bonus Fruit or Down Air out of shield more than you would in other matchups.
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Pit
The most "honest" character. Still does pretty decent though. Even to Slight Favor
Character Notes
- Pit is really hard to juggle due to his fast Neutral Air and his Guradian Orbitars, which you cannot hit him through due to your Up Air hitting the shield first. He also has multiple jumps to make his landing harder and more unpredictable to catch
- You can wait out Guardian Orbitars and fall with him and grab him or punish in endlag, but this is only a hard read option.
- Landing is the hardest aspect of disadvantage to punish however. His offstage game is very vulnerable, all he really has are his multiple jumps and Up Air to defend himself, as Power of Flight leaves him very vulnerable to being hit from above with (Hydrant ), Fruit, or a Down Air. His combo breakers also aren't impressive aside from Neutral Air, so try to pin him down in these other areas of disadvantage to make up for it.
- Many of Pit's moves are multihits, meaning he has less options against (Hydrant ), but this does mean that (Hydrant ) in disadvantage is worse, as his disjointed multihit Up Air will ignore it.
Gameplan Notes
- Pit's moves are very decent at priming (Hydrant ). His Paluetna's Bow is good at priming (Hydrant ) while you are charging Bonus Fruit but he also has a good Back Air and Down Air to prime it and fast ranged tilts that help launch it afterwards, but he is bad at instantly launching (Hydrant ).
- He can hold out Guardian Orbitars or use Upper Dash Arm to launch or reflect (Hydrant ) but both of these leave him very vulnerable, so punish him in endlag.
- He can hold out Guardian Orbitars or use Upper Dash Arm to launch or reflect (Hydrant
- You can Pellet Shield Palutena's Bow or just shield it when it launches (Hydrant ) and then punish with (Key ) when you have it on hand.
- Mixup your DI when you get grabbed at kill percent. His Forward Throw will kill by the ledge on DI out, but his Down Throw will confirm into Up Air on DI in, so mix up which direction you DI to try to throw the Pit off. Playing anti-grab at ledge is also a good way to avoid this, just watch out for Pit reading this and punishing a spotdodge with Back Air
- Pit also has a few other kill confirms, with dragdown Neutral Air and Down Air confirming into smash attacks, and his Up Tilt and Down Tilt confirming into Up Smash. Watch out for these at high percents.
- Pits will often try to mixup in neutral using spaced tilts or his multiple jumps to make his landing aerials more ambiguous, with some grabs mixed in there to start combos. His landing aerials are all pretty safe on shield if spaced, but you can try to catch his landing or punish what he does afterwards. Fruit in hand also helps a lot.
- Backing him into a corner to make his spacing worse also helps a lot.
- Anti-Airing Pit can also help a bit, but this can be difficult due to Pac's lackluster hitboxes above him.
Pit is a relatively honest character with a few main gimmicks to watch out for. It's one of the more simple matchups in the game to learn, but his Palutena's Bow and safe aerials if spaced can be annoying, along with juggling him. Just treat him as an average character.
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Dark Pit
Read Pit's section... Dark Pit's arrows are better at launching (Hydrant )... that's it lol. Even to Slight Favor
Notable Differences
- Dark Pit's Silver Bow is less manueverable but does more damage and knockback, making it better against (Hydrant ).
- Dark Pit's Upper Dash Arm sends outwards, making you die earlier at the ledge but survive longer from center stage..
See the Pit section for how to play against the Pits. Just be careful of Silver Bow as it is way better at launching (Hydrant ), expect it to launch it if it is half charged or with 2 arrows.
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- Low percents, when you are most vulnerable to combos.
- If your opponent has a big focus on neutral, they might lean on Squirtle due to his superior mobility and ability to dance.
- Most PTs will tend to switch off of Squirtle when they struggle too much against (Hydrant ), if they take too much damage, or when they do enough damage to where Squirtle's less useful than the other Pokemon
- Remember, each PT plays very differently and will rely on different Pokemon for different situations, so do not expect each PT to use Squirtle in the same situations another would.
Character Notes
- Squirtle is very similar to Sheik in that many of his normals will not launch (Hydrant ), so he will more than likely try to use his small hurtbox and superior mobility to make his jumps over (Hydrant ) less predictable instead of trying to launch it.
- You can launch (Hydrant ) with (Galaxian ) on reaction to many of Squirtle's normal moves, so just watch for what he does against (Hydrant ) and see if he primes it for you unsafely for you to punish.
- You can launch (Hydrant
- Many Squirtles will approach with rising Fairs and Bairs to start combos, both of which can be beaten by shielding.
- Withdraw can be an annoying armored tool against (Hydrant ), but you can simply grab Squirtle out of the move or footstool his shell to put him in a lot of very punishable lag.
- Squirtle is very easy to kill due to having the third lightest weight in the game, so expect Ivysaur if the Squirtle takes too much damage.
- Ftilt to Grab isn't a true combo, mash Nair, Trampoline, or Jab quickly to escape the combo.
- Squirtle is also one of the more important Pokemon to mixup your ledge options against, because he has great mobility and fast moves, making him solid at punishing predictable escape attempts.
), so the opponent might stick with her for that reason alone.Character Notes
- Ivysaur often likes to zone you out with Razor Leaf while you are camping behind (Hydrant ), as it will ignore (Hydrant ) and go right through it and disrupt your Bonus Fruit charge.
- This isn't a threat at a distance however, as it is easy to parry, or you can punish it directly with (Key )
- This isn't a threat at a distance however, as it is easy to parry, or you can punish it directly with (Key
- Ivysaur's aerials are all unsafe if they are done rising or if they are unspaced, so watch for these mistakes in the Ivy's gameplan and see if you can punish these moves, or what they do afterwards.
- Ivysaur's juggling with Uair is amazing, and Ivysaur will often try to look for moves that setup into it or to anti-air you with it to set up for juggling.
- Against this juggling, your best option is to not challenge it and just drift offstage, watching out for Vine Whip and being careful to avoid getting hit by Dair.
Gameplan Notes
- Camping Ivysaur is possible, but a bit more annoying due to Razor Leaf. Approaching her isn't desirable due to how much reward she gets from intercepting aerial approaches.
- Ivysaur won't use grounded moves too often to approach (Hydrant ) aside from potentially F-Smash, as all of them are very punishable due to not launching (Hydrant ) itself.
- Charging to (Key ) can help you punish Razor Leaf a lot easier if you struggle with parrying it or if it is too disruptive to your gameplan.
- Ivysaur won't use grounded moves too often to approach (Hydrant
- Make sure to mixup your DIInfluence on launch speed and location when grabbed by Ivysaur, Ivysaur can catch all DI options and kill confirm out of Dthrow, but she can't cover all at once, and good mixups can cause her to miss an important kill confirm into Vine Whip or Up Air.
- Ivysaur's mobility and frame data while approaching generally aren't great, so her jump ins are a bit more predictable and vulnerable to being stuffed out, however this puts you at risk of being anti-aired or outspaced with Ivy's better range, so keep this mind and approach stuffing out her jump ins with caution.
- Ivysaur has a lackluster disadvantage with slow landing options, poor speed, and lack of fast escape options aside from Pokemon Switch, so feel free to go ham when you land a hit
), so the opponent might stick with him for longer regardless.Character Notes
- Charizard has a really quick OOS option in Up Smash that kills reasonably early. He also has a long ranged Grab and his quick and super-armored Fly. This makes reckless aggression risky and scary.
- Charizard has high damage output on his individual hits and good range for hitting Pac from behind (Hydrant ). Dash Attack, Smash Attacks, Back Air, Forward Air, and Down Air can all launch (Hydrant ) instantly. Charizard's long range on Back Air and F-Tilt can also catch you by surprise, and his high damage output means he can often launch (Hydrant ) quickly, so be careful and watch out for these options.
- Charizard can be punished in endlag if you dash under the launched (Hydrant ) in time, but this isn't possible against a (Hydrant ) launched with Down Air.
- Charizard can be punished in endlag if you dash under the launched (Hydrant
- Due to his quick ground speed, Charizard is really good at tech chasing, so mixup your tech options and remember to tech to avoid getting dealt hefty damage.
Gameplan Notes
- Due to his large frame and slow escape options, Charizard is very susceptible to being comboed, so if he's being brought out at a lower percent, abuse his awful combo escape options and maximize your Forward Air and Neutral Air combos along with your Fruit combos with (Galaxian ) and Apple.
- Play around Grab as much as possible. Charizard's Grab has huge range and he has a lot of good scary combos off of his throws and a lot of kill throws in addition to this.
- A lot of Charizard's (Hydrant ) options can be punished if predicted, usually with Fruit or a quick Forward Air, but a lot of the strange angles (Hydrant ) might be sent at can be disruptive (specifically with Down Air)
- Many of Charizard's moves are very laggy on whiff or unsafe if unspaced on shield, so do not panic and let Charizard pressure you unsafely, and maximize your punish whenever you get a hit.
- Charizard is also good at ledgetrapping due to his large lingering Nair, his fast speed, his quick Out of Shield options, and his good range. Mixup your ledge options and ledge timings as much as possible.
Squirtle and Ivysaur's ladder combos much more threatening, and give Charizard a better kill throw.Gameplans
Squirtle is the most susceptible to being camped out with (Hydrant ), but his solid mobility and small frame make him a nightmare to hit. He can also use Water Gun in neutral to put you in disadvantage for trying to camp him, so while most of his (Hydrant ) options are predictable, he has the speed to use it against you well and the mobility to be annoying to keep out.
Ivysaur is good at outranging Pac-Man and punishing his aerial approaches, and is one of the better Pokemon at harassing Pac-Man behind (Hydrant ) due to Razor Leaf. She is also the best Pokemon at juggling Pac-Man and abusing his exploitable landing, but her approach itself is predictable and punishable and Razor Leaf is also punishable with (Key ). She is also the most susceptible the being stuffed out. Many Trainers assume she is the best Pokemon against Pac-Man, but this isn't always the case.
Charizard is the best Pokemon at launching (Hydrant ) and the best at taking stocks, but is also the easiest to exploit in disadvantage. Many Trainers will lean on him at higher percents, so be patient and don't let nerves get to you.
Notes About All Pokemon
- All three Pokemon get a lot off of grabs, so be wary about shielding close by them with Fruit in hand.
- All three Pokemon have mediocre recovery options and ledge options, with Charizard being the best offstage but none of them excelling at ledge. Ledgetrapping can be a good source of damage in this matchup for that reason.
- All three Pokemon have access to Pokemon Switch as a frame 1 combo breaker, but this is very exploitable if baited and can be frame trapped with Fair
Overall
All three Pokemon are very simple characters that may have different playstyles depending on your opponent and the percent you are at. None of them really excel at approaching Pac-Man, but each has a little niche that can be annoying to deal with. None of them have great disadvantage states, so ledgetrapping in particular can be effective against all of them. Camping is also a decent gameplan, but you have to keep track of three different characters with different (Hydrant) options, so keep each one in mind and play carefully.
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Pyra & Mythra
We are one of their worst MUs... but they don't have many bad MUs... sooooooo Varies, Typically Even
- Despite being the worse overall character, Pyra is a lot better at dealing with (Hydrant ), due to her higher damage output, better range, and other options she has against it.
- Back Air and Down Air are decent at launching (Hydrant ), but Pyra also can hit you through easier with Dash Attack and Pyra's also better at priming (Hydrant ) and launching it with weird angles with her tilts. She can also throw Blazing End through (Hydrant ) to disrupt you while charging.
- Back Air and Down Air are decent at launching (Hydrant
- Pyra is a lot slower than Mythra, so her jumps over (Hydrant ) are worse, but her moves are way better at hitting you through to compensate.
Gameplan Notes
- Camping behind (Hydrant ) is still effective but you have to watch out for Blazing End and the strange angles that Pyra can launch (Hydrant ). Be ready to react to what Pyra will throw at you.
- Don't be too predictable while landing, as Pyra has a very strong Up Air that can hit you through (Hydrant ) and she has a lot of good moves for catching your landing. Mixup your landing and don't be afraid to drift offstage if you struggle to land.
- Pyra is a lot better at edgeguarding due to Down Air and Flame Nova, but most of the time these are still avoidable with good stalling and timing mixups. Use (Hydrant ) to stall offstage more if you get hit by these moves a lot, or outspace them horizontally with your mobility and try to grab ledge.
- If Pyra uses a double jump in neutral, attempting to stuff it out is generally well worth the risk. She will lose her best disadvantage tool for offstage, and you can potentially net a stock if this translates to an edgeguard.
- Pyra has slow and mediocre options out of shield, so pressuring her shield is a bit easier than most other characters. Don't overcommit too hard against her shield, but it is easier to pressure her than most other characters.
- Pyra's disadvantage state onstage is worse than Mythra's. Her slower aerial mobility makes her landing a lot more predictable, and a lot of her moves landing are slower. However, the threat of her moves landing is a lot greater, with Down Air and her Back Air being particularly potent. It is easy to catch her landings with Fruit, but do not commit too hard to juggling her, or you might get a nasty surprise with a rage Back Air or Down Air to Up Smash.
- Despite her approach against (Hydrant ) being better, Pyra's approach is more telegraphed due to her poor mobility. She is a lot worse at closing gaps, and she can struggle more than Mythra when you camp with the lead.
- Pyra's main kill confirms come from Down Tilt or Down Air. She is better at fishing for raw kill moves like Up Tilt, Dash Attack, Forward Tilt, or her aerials than Mythra is, so watch out for a lot of raw strong spaced moves in neutral at kill percent.
) and lacks many ways to instantly launch it due to her mediocre damage output per hit.
- All she really has to launch it is Forward Smash, but she can hit you through with her disjointed range and she can surprise you with Dash Attack or Photon Edge, though the latter is very very risky and very punishable.
- This means more often than not Mythra will be jumping over (Hydrant ) or using one of the previously mentioned options. She can roll through (Hydrant ) as well but this option is not very common. This makes her easier to stuff out, but her amazing mobility does mean camping her isn't free.
Gameplan Notes
- Camping Mythra out is very effective, due to her previously mentioned struggles with (Hydrant ). It's not necessarily free due to her mobility, but it is generally easier to keep her at bay with (Hydrant ) compared to other top tiers.
- Stuffing out any double jumps will make her very vulnerable offstage. Edgeguarding is one of the top win conditions in this matchup, so if you are able to take away her main resource and source of mixups aside from Swap, it will make taking stocks a lot easier.
- Be careful when you lose neutral however, Mythra is exceptional at juggling due to her very safe and quick Up Air and amazing mobility. You can drift offstage to help mitigate this situation, but Mythra is so fast that she can definitely catch you if you are predictable.
- Mythra's out of shield options are quicker than Pyra's, but are mediocre in speed and reward, so pressuring her shield is also a decent gameplan.
- Cornering Mythra is important, as she will have less stage to use to mixup in neutral and her spacing on shield will be a lot worse too. She also is vulnerable to being killed offstage if hard read, so watch for her habits in the corner and try to punish, and make sure to take stage control whenever possible if it's safe to do so.
- Mythra is lackluster at killing. She can setup for tech chases with her Fthrow really easily and has D-Tilt to Up Smash or Lightning Buster, and she can fish for a raw Forward Smash or Lightning Buster at kill percents or cheese with an Up Air near the top blast zone, but she won't be robbing your stock early. Her damage output on hit is also mediocre, so trading with her is favorable, and you won't die too early vs Mythra in most cases, that's Pyra's job.
Mythra tends to be the neutral character who also gets brought out in advantage when juggling you. However Mythra tends to be weak against (Hydrant ) so... Pyra will tend to be brought out more in the matchup if Mythra is not getting the job done against (Hydrant ). Pyra also tends to come out at later percents to take stocks, or to edgeguard more often due to her better edgeguarding.Relative Advantages Against Aegis
- Both characters tend to be mediocre against (Hydrant ), with Pyra typically being better but still not as solid as she could be.
- Both characters have poor recoveries and are vulnerable in the corner, due to being unable to space safely on shield and being put in danger of being launched offstage.
- Both characters are subpar out of shield, due to having slow options that don't grant much reward, making your shield pressure better.
Weaknesses
- Mythra and Pyra tend to have great range, making it easy for them to hit you through (Hydrant ) and making midrange against them in general miserable.
- Both of the Aegis are adept at juggling you very well, due to having great range and killpower/frame data on their Up Airs that will usually ignore (Hydrant ).
- The Aegis characters tend to have many ways to setup into kills and can be hard to hit due to their range. Pyra is less evasive than Mythra due to worse mobility, but she has way better raw kill moves and more moves to use retreating. Hitting either character can be difficult, especially when they are camping you with a lead if they have caught Bonus Fruit.
Mythra and Pyra are top tiers for a reason, they have a lot of strengths against most of the cast, but against Pac-Man, these strengths don't translate as much as they do against other characters. (Hydrant ) can make neutral an uphill battle for them if you have the lead, but both will absolutely torch you in advantage and both have range to compete in midrange that can be annoying, especially against Bonus Fruit. Pac-Man is definitely one of their weaker matchups, but it is debated if he has advantage or not. This matchup is very doable however for either side, especially due to each character's fraility in disadvantage vs one another.
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Ridley
He has a lot of range... not much else though. Favorable
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Roy
Hitlag my beloved. Varies, Even to Unfavorable
Character Notes
- Roy has exceptional mobility and frame data, so keeping him out while charging Bonus Fruit can be rather tricky.
- Despite this, Roy's sweetspot moves will leave him in a LOT of hitlag against (Hydrant ), so he can be punished slightly easier than a few other characters if he is uncautious with his attacks against (Hydrant ).
- Be careful, this also makes the timing in which (Hydrant ) is launched and the duration of his moves longer, so be careful or you might get hit due to the increased hitlag.
- Be careful, this also makes the timing in which (Hydrant
- Roy does have some good moves against (Hydrant ). His aerials have very low landing lag making them great at priming (Hydrant ) to be launched by a tilt., and a lot of his moves to enough damage to prime (Hydrant ) for anything to launch it. Down Tilt is a very noncommittal way to prime (Hydrant ) to be launched by any move, and Dash Attack, his Smash Attacks, and Down Air all instantly launch it.
- Roy can also Counter (Hydrant ) as a mixup.
Gameplan Notes
- Camping Roy is possible, but be wary of his high damaging moves and how they interact with (Hydrant ).
- It is difficult to keep Roy out due to his insanely strong mobility, so if you struggle to charge Bonus Fruit, jumping offstage to charge or charging while you are in advantage can work (just be wary of getting corner pressured)
- Roy's bad air acceleration and lack of consistent damage on the tipper of his moves make him lackluster at spacing on shield and make his approaches committal, especially against your shield.
- Try to punish what Roy does AFTER a landing aerial, as most of his aerials are very safe if landed low. You can punish rising Fairs but be wary of crossups
- Landing against Roy can be a nightmare, while he is not as good at juggling as Chrom is, his Up Air is still a fantastic juggling and combo tool that can kill you easily, and Roy has the mobility to make him very adept at catching your landings. For this reason, it is usually better to try to drift offstage if you struggle to land.
- Don't rely on this every time you're in disadvantage however, as Roy has amazing ledgetrapping, so do it more as a mixup or if the Roy struggles to deal with (Galaxian ) in hand at ledge.
- Don't rely on this every time you're in disadvantage however, as Roy has amazing ledgetrapping, so do it more as a mixup or if the Roy struggles to deal with (Galaxian
- Mixup your options at ledge a lot, don't panic roll or panic neutral getup from ledge pressure every time. Roy is scary in the corner and has a lot of confirms and ways to pressure you with Jab and Dtilt, watch for patterns in how he uses these moves and mixup your getup timing. (Galaxian ) in hand can help a lot, but be wary of overusing this option as the Roy can catch on and punish.
- Remember to also mixup your recovery, as Roy can Counter Power Pellet and kill you at an absurdly early percentage.
- Roy will often try to punish short hops or full hops after conditioning you to jump with grounded pressure. He is really good at punishing any of these options, but he has to commit to the punish hard rather than being able to punish all safely with one option. Mixup how you deal with his pressure if he gets in. Running away, rolls, holding shields, occasional jumps, dash back punishes with Fruit in hand, etc.
- Lastly, Roy has a mediocre disadvantage state. He is very easy to combo and is exploitable offstage, so try to bait or limit an option out with Fruit and slowly take away his resources. He may have super armor on Blazer, but it is not an unbeatable move offstage.
Roy on paper is not hard to deal with, but his oppressive hitboxes, damage output, and speed along with his insane pressure tools and safe normals can make him difficult to pin down. Keep composure, and ban any small stages if you are afraid of dying early. He's thankfully not too gimmicky, just a character with a lot of solid options in neutral that you have to keep track of.
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Ryu
Ken... with worse mobility, but better neutral Generally Favorable
Character Notes
- Ryu's overall mobility is really really bad, so camping him out will be highly effective.
- Ryu's best tool in neutral vs Pac-Man is Shakunetsu Hadoken, as it is highly damaging, deals good shield damage, and is a versatile neutral tool with good reward. This can mostly be beaten with (Key ) however.
- Many Ryus tend to use Focus Attack to break out of combos or to land. This move will lose to multihits or grabs, so Dair and Grab will typically beat it, but quick Forward Airs can also likely hit Ryu out of it.
Gameplay Notes
- (Hydrant ) is very useful in the MU due to Ryu's lackluster range, mobility, and approach options, so use it to camp as much as you can.
- Watch how Ryu reacts to (Hydrant ). His only moves that can launch it on their own are his smash attacks, Bair, and special versions of Tatsumaki
- Watch how Ryu reacts to (Hydrant
- (Key ) is very useful against Shakunetsu Hadoken.
- Ryu is very exploitable offstage, due to the lack of protection that Tatsumaki provides. He is vulnerable from above, so feel free to rinse repeat edgeguard with Dair and Bair
This is a very run-of-the-mill matchup vs someone who is not good at dealing with Pac-Man's neutral. Ryu does a lot lot better than Ken, but both aren't considered to do all to well to begin with.
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Samus
"You have many options to counter Charge Shot, but that's all you really have" Varies, Generally Even
Character Notes
- Samus's Up Air is a multihit, so it will very likely ignore (Hydrant ) in disadvantage.
- Samus's Z-Air can hit Pac-Man through (Hydrant ) pretty consistently, and Samus can also grab Pac-Man from the other side of (Hydrant ).
- Missiles tend to lose to any hitbox and can be spotdodged or shielded effectively, but they are good at pressuring (Hydrant )
- Trampoline and (Hydrant ) are generally good at blocking Charge Shot. Using Power Pellet to block Charge Shot is also solid, and most Bonus Fruits block it as well, with (Key ) and (Galaxian ) going through most charges comfortably.
- Samus is really good at launching (Hydrant ). Her projectiles do excellent damage, with most half-charged Charge Shots launching it instantly. Her Up Tilt and Down air along with Back Air launch it instantly as well, with her other normals doing decent damage and causing (Hydrant ) to be launched even if it is slightly primed.
Gameplan Notes
- Short Hop Trampoline is really good at blocking Charge Shot along with Pellet Shielding her other projectiles, so this is often Pac's best gameplan to create space while charging Bonus Fruit
- Charging to (Key ) especially helps as it will likely travel through Samus's projectiles and punish her for using them.
- (Hydrant ) is a bit risky to use due to how many options Samus has for launching it, but it can be used to block her projectiles pretty effectively.
- It is very important to mix up your ledge options against Samus, as her ledgetrapping with Charge Shot and Bomb is very dangerous.
- (Bell ) travels through the stage when tossed from underneath, so utilizing it to disrupt Samus's legdetrapping is generally worth the risk.
- Trampoline can be used to block her projectiles at ledge if you are quick, but this leaves you vulnerable.
- (Galaxian ) in hand is generally a good option, but it is resource dependent and can be read by the Samus if relied on too much.
- (Bell
In theory, this matchup is really good for Pac-Man, due to the various amounts of ways he has to deal with Charge Shot. However, that isn't the entirety of the matchup, and Samus has just as many options against his camping, and dealing with Charge Shot is easier said than done. Samus gains more off of a neutral win than Pac-Man typically does, so the Pac-Man needs to be very careful, but this matchup is still very doable.
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Sephiroth
Varies, Generally Even
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Character Notes
- Sheik's single hits do low base damage on their own, which usually isn't a big deal in most matchups, but this makes her very weak at launching (Hydrant ). It will typically take her about 3-4 hits to launch (Hydrant ) at you, so most of her counterplay will be using Needles, her superior mobility, and jumps over (Hydrant ) and callouts to your attempts to stuff those jumps out.
- If Sheik uses an attack vs (Hydrant ), you can almost always use Bonus Fruit on reaction to punish this, assuming she isn't able to shield in time.
- If Sheik uses an attack vs (Hydrant
- Sheik's Up Air is a multihit move that will ignore (Hydrant ), so be cautious when haphazardly utilizing it to land.
Gameplan Notes
- Focus on baiting and punishing aerial approaches from Sheik against (Hydrant ), as she is very weak at launching (Hydrant ) so she will have to use other methods to try to attack you from behind it.
- Watch out for Needles in an attempt to stuff out your Bonus Fruit charge, or Sheik Dash Attacking through (Hydrant ) or baiting an anti-air over (Hydrant ) and stuffing it out, and you should be fine.
- Watch out for Needles in an attempt to stuff out your Bonus Fruit charge, or Sheik Dash Attacking through (Hydrant
- Trades will often be in your favor, as Pac's Neutral Air is frame 3 and does solid damage, so whenever you lose neutral, it isn't the end of the world for this reason.
- Do not try to punish many of Sheik's aerials, as almost all of them are very safe on shield and have very little endlag. Focus on punishing what she does after these moves, or stuffing out her jump-ins preemptively.
Sheik is a relatively honest character aside from her ridiculous neutral, which Pac-Man completely ignores. Sheik often doesn't have the tools to deal with Pac-Man's gameplan aside from Needles, so this is typically regarded as one of Sheik's worst matchups, though that doesn't mean Sheik should be taken lightly, as she can be a real threat in neutral if you don't take her seriously and stop (Hydrant ) camping.
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Shulk
"Monado Arts and long range = misery" Very Unfavorable
Character Notes
- Shulk is very good at hitting Pac-Man through (Hydrant ) with his huge Forward Air and Neutral Air.
- Shulk's Monado Arts are exceptional at helping him abuse (Hydrant ) and escape Pac-Man's combos, while also making him a lot trickier to pin down in neutral and giving Shulk a reason to not approach (as he gets his Monado Arts back and gets more of a free choice of them after camping)
- Shulk is really adept at edgeguarding Pac-Man, as his Forward Air is massive and covers a wide area that can hit Pac-Man before he eats the pellet on his Power Pellet, and Forward Air covers many options at once due to it's great range. Shulk can also use Vision to counter Power Pellet and kill Pac-Man ludicrously early, so Pac-Man has to be really careful offstage to risk not dying.
- Each Monado Arts has a drawback that you can exploit to your advantage, and a use you might want to be familiar with.
- Smash Art makes Shulk's moves very unsafe on shield, so shielding his landing hits makes his landing aerials more punishable if unspaced. However a good Shulk can tomahawk and kill you early with his boosted throws, so don't rely on shield too much. Shulk tends to use this art in advantage to make his F-Air ledgetrapping and edgeguarding more scary, or to help him break out of combos or just in situations where he cannot find the kill and needs one quickly.
- Buster Art makes Shulk take more damage if you do fight back and hit him, so make sure to combo Shulk as much as possible in this art, especially if he doesn't have access to Shield Art or Smash Art to help break him out of any combos. Buster Art is typically used as a pressure art due to it's increased shield damage, so he may use this to exploit shield habits, but he also may use it at lower percents to try to net more damage or after winning neutral with Speed Art
- Jump Art like Buster Art will lead to Shulk taking increased damage if he gets hit, so the same applies, to even bigger extent due to the damage penalty being more punishing. Shulk mainly uses this art for recovery, but he also uses it to make his edgeguarding better, and to circle camp for other arts. It can also be used as a combo breaker due to it making his jump height more drastic.
- Shield Art will make Shulk's neutral considerably worse and make his reward also a lot worse, and he is vulnerable to combos from moves with high hitstun, such as an Up Tilt. Shulk will mainly use this art to escape multihits or to stall or another Art, but this gimps his neutral enough to the point where it is not as massive of a threat as his other arts.
- Speed Art makes Shulk's actual hits less threatening, so getting hit by any move isn't as big of a deal as it is with other arts. However he can switch to Buster Art to make this more of a problem. Speed Art is mainly used in neutral but can also be used to help him approach or stall for other arts.
Gameplan Notes
- Shulk's Forward Air and Neutral Air aren't really possible to punish out of shield due to their range and general safety, but they are slow moves that can be vulnerable to parries. While Neutral Air is still very likely safe on parry especially due to it's range, it can help to move towards the base of his sword to make his spacing unsafe and making punishing what he does after his pressure easier
- Cornering Shulk makes this easier as he will have less stage to use to space his aerials.
- Shulk's aerial approaches are vulnerable to being stuffed out by Forward Air if read, due to how slow his aerial frame data is, so if he doesn't have any Monado Arts active, it might be easier to exploit his approach options.
- However a good Shulk will adapt to being stuffed out and in turn bait a Forward Air from you and anti-air with an U-Tilt or outspace your F-Air with his own, so don't rely too hard on this option.
- If you get hit by Neutral Air at low percentages, remember to DI out, as DI-ing in makes you vulnerable to his combos in Buster and Jump arts.
- Camping his scariest Monado Arts out can be effective. The main ones you might want to consider camping are Buster Art and Smash Art, due to their reward and how terrifying they might be.
- Stalling offstage can help you time out Buster Art and also make it easier to evade Speed Art and Smash Art, however the latter is risky due to the fact that Shulk's F-Air will also kill you a lot earlier due to your positioning if you messup.
- Additionally, Shulk can utilize your evasion to help create time to get his more valuable Monado Arts back so he'll have the correct art for the situation, so keep that in mind against a good Shulk.
- Shulk is vulnerable to being edgeguarded or ledgetrapped without the right Art on hand, so try to maximize your potential damage output lost from his combo breakers here.
Generally this matchup isn't too favorable for Pac-Man, but that doesn't make it unwinnable, it's definitely possible to abuse Shulk's weaknesses and an opponent's exploitable playstyle to make this a lot more manageable.
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Snake
"Two grown men setting up an obstacle course for each other to traverse through" Varies, Usually Even
Character Notes
- Snake will most likely cook Grenades before throwing them. They take 2.5 seconds to detonate so he might walk with them stuck in his hand or he might shield to pick them up as an item afterwards. At a distance, both of these options lose to (Key ) and up close both lose to grab, but approaching against cooked Grenades is not as simple.
- Snake has a frame 1 combo breaker in Grenade, so keep that in mind.
- Pac-Man can dash through Grenades if they are uncooked by the Snake if he chucks them straight forwards, only tanking the 1.5% damage. If the Snake lobs them upwards it's riskier to dash through them due to the slower travel arc.
- C4 will hit underneath platforms.
- To get C4 off of you, your best option is to walk by Snake so it gets stuck to himself. Airdodge also helps, and praying that the Snake miscounts his pummels to make it fall off of you is always an option.
- Snake can use Grenades to drop Bonus Fruit and recatch it infinitely while using Grenades, making him a very scary character if you aren't careful with your Bonus Fruit tosses.
Gameplan Notes
- Your best options vs Grenades to beat it out at a distance are (Key ) and (Galaxian ), as both fruits go through Grenades without clanking and will hit Snake for throwing them. (Key ) is better at hitting Snake himself, but (Galaxian ) has a lot more reward if you're up close
- Grenades aren't as much of a threat from a distance since Pac-Man can react to them if Snakecooks them, you just have to shield them, though this can lead to lost stage control and additional pressure.
- Snakes tend to use C4 when B-reversed to land, but will also stick C4 to you if you're close, or might camp behind it to make him harder to approach.
- Make a mental note of C4, if the Snake sticks C4 to (Hydrant ) you can dash under (Hydrant ) to try to punish them if they're close or just (Key ) on reaction.
- (Hydrant ) will withstand one Grenade explosion, but will be launched by the second.
- Do not stay close to (Hydrant ) when Snake tosses Grenades. Try to just use it as a wall to block Grenades so you have time to charge (Key )
- Utilt, B-Air, F-Tilt, U-Air, F-Air, Nakita, and C4 instant launch (Hydrant ), though most of these are really laggy and easy to punish aside from Utilt. Dtilt primes it really well for Snake to launch.
- If Pac struggles with (Hydrant ), he can just camp with his better mobility instead and try to react to Grenades from a distance.
- Grab is very effective vs Snake while landing and in neutral, because Snakes tends to hold Greandes in hand and shield to prevent being damaged by them while landing or to bait an attack on his shield, and Grab will beat spotdodges.
- Pac-Man can space his U-Air to hit Snake's feet while he is landing with Greande in hand to avoid detonating the Greandes, but Pac is also just decent at catching Snake's landing with (Key ) or the aforementioned Grab.
- B-Air is very good at breaking Cypher or launching Snake out of it, so abuse that when you can.
This matchup is very complicated. The Pac-Man player has to be very attentive to the Snake's habits, but (Key ) does a lot to make this matchup a lot more manageable, and should be a go-to Bonus Fruit for this reason.
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Sonic
"Expect a 45 minute long set... maybe tell spectators to go grab something to eat while they watch" Generally Even
Character Notes
- Sonic can dash through (Hydrant ), which in combination with his fast speed makes it a decent mixup to watch out for.
- He can also use his special moves to go through (Hydrant ) or hit you from behind it pretty effectively, especially his Spin Dashes and Homing Attack
- He can also use his special moves to go through (Hydrant
- Spin Dash will often clank with Bonus Fruit weirdly enough, but will often lose to F-Smash or other disjoints or normal moves if he is not in the earlier frames of the move.
Gameplan Notes
- Punishing what Sonic does AFTER Spin Dash is a very good way to play the matchup, as F-Smash is a committal way to beat out Spin Dash and shouldn't be relied on due to Spin Dash's mixup potential and ability to easily be cancelled.
- Many Sonics will Homing Attack, run away, Jab, or use Spring Jump after hitting your shield with Spin Dash, so keep those in mind and try to punish each of these accordingly.
- Homing Attack can be punished with a well timed spotdodge if the Sonic doesn't mixup their timing, but you can also hold shield and use a quick Forward Air to punish it, you have to be quick while punishing it though.
- Spring Jump itself isn't punishable but Sonic's landing habits can themselves be punished. Watch for any habits he has landing after Spring Jump that you can punish.
- If he runs away, just try to take stage control to make your next time in neutral easier.
- Jab is unsafe on shield, feel free to punish with a quick Out of Shield option after holding shield patiently.
- Be careful while charging Bonus Fruit, as Sonic has many moves that send him through (Hydrant ) which can catch you offguard.
- Sonic is very good at whiff punishing any mistakes you make in neutral, so you have to be very patient and try to not whiff too many moves yourself, which will slow down the game to a snail's pace.
- Sonic is mediocre at killing. He will tend to fish for an edgeguard or a jump read with Back Air, or he may confirm into it with landing weak Neutral Air or after a read from his special moves. He may also try to fish for an F-Smash, but many of these options are predictable. Just be careful to avoid Spin Dash.
- Camping when you have a lead is very effective, as Sonic is mediocre at approaching himself. It's just very difficult to get this lead to begin with.
- Make sure to mixup your recovery offstage, as Sonic has a decent edgeguarding game with how far out he can go with F-Air, which can stuff out a Side-B if you are too predictable offstage.
- Sonic's Up Air hits twice, which means it can ignore (Hydrant ) if you aren't careful.
- There isn't too much to note about this matchup in terms of gimmicks, both players will often just be camping as part of their win condition, so expect a very long game and try to minimize your risks to avoid getting whiff punished.
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Wolf
Unfavorable
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Yoshi
Generally Even
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Young Link
Even
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Character Notes
- Zelda has really poor mobility all around, making her susceptible to being camped out.
- Zelda's main neutral tools tend to be close range aside from Phantom. Usually the best range to be at against Zelda is outside of the range of her quick and strong Dash Attack, good tilts, and dash up F-Air. Pac-Man has the scrapping tools to help out-frame data her pretty easily but her kill power is terrifying so this might not be something many players are comfortable with.
- Zelda has a quick multi-hit reflector that can be used aggressively to catch shield drops, however it is very unsafe on whiff due to it's high endlag.
Gameplan Notes
- Your main goal against Zelda should be to charge to (Key ) whenever possible. This is because of the fact that (Key ) is AMAZING at stuffing out Zelda from charging Phantom on reaction.
- Stuffing out her Phantom approach can incentivize her to eventually approach due to the fact her main gameplan isn't working, something you can capitalize on and punish.
- (Key ) is also great at punishing Zelda's options against (Hydrant ) on reaction due to it's speed and damage.
- Shielding against a lot of Zelda's special moves is very effective, as most are very unsafe on shield with the exception of Phantom.
- (Galaxian ) in hand can help punish Zelda's approaches decently, as you can outspace her approach options using your superior mobility and dash back in with Galaxian to punish her in endlag. It can also be used to whiff punish well and does heft damage.
- Landing and getting back from ledge against Zelda can be annoying, as her U-Air is massively strong and instantly launches falling (Hydrant ). Pac can utilize his superior aerial mobility to help him drift outside of her range. Drifting offstage can help Pac land too, but that leads him to having to deal with her scary Phantom ledgetrapping.
- Be careful against Zelda's shield and don't try to mash too aggressively, she has very strong Out of Shield options such as Forward Air or Farores Wind (Frame 6)
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Zero Suit Samus
"Slow and steady wins the race" Generally Unfavorable
Character Notes:
- Zero Suit Samus is one of the characters you want to be MOST careful about tossing fruit haphazardly around, as if you don't recatch Bonus Fruit before tossing it at her, she can recatch it and camp you out for a very long time.
- Zero Suit Samus has great range on her Z-Air, N-Air, and Plasma Whip, giving her moves that are good at hitting Pac-Man while behind (Hydrant ) and being hard for Pac-Man to punish directly.
- Zero Suit Samus's attributes give her some of the best mobility in the game, which in combination with Flip Jump and her safe pokes makes her very effective at playing effectively. Zero Suit Samus is fine just ignoring Pac-Man's gameplan and is hard for Pac-Man to hit, which can be troublesome when Pac-Man doesn't have the lead.
- Flip Kick is an exceptional disadvantage tool. It makes her very difficult to ledgetrap or juggle, making Pac-Man's advantage state harder to execute.
Gameplan Notes:
- Due to the fact that many ZSS mains will approach with LANDING aerials like low landed N-Air or Z-Air, this means you may be able to stuff out her aerial approach very well with your quick F-Air and N-Air. Be wary of her mixing up with a rising F-Air/U-Air or she can punish your aggression if she catches on with her better mobility.
- You can also jump over her Z-Air and punish if she is too aggressive with her aerial drift, but this isn't always an option.
- Patiently shielding is somewhat effective against Zero Suit Samus, as her grab game is lacking due to her unrewarding throws and slow grab, and she is unable to cross-up and lacks consistent shield breaker combos. Punishing her aerials out of shield isn't necessarily possible, but punishing what she does after a landing aerial generally is.
- Many ZSS players tend to Jab to catch shield drops or dash away to punish aggression, so keep this in mind. Watch for the ZSS player's habits after landing aerials and try to adapt.
- Be careful of letting go of shield too early, as Plasma Whip can be used to beat out an opponent who lets go of shield too early as a mixup due to it's multiple hits.
- Stage control is very important against Zero Suit Samus, as her approach becomes more predictable and her combos become less scary when she is the one who is cornered, so try not to corner yourself too much while charging Bonus Fruit.
This matchup isn't the easiest due to how hard Zero Suit Samus can be to hit due to her superior mobility and range, but it is still very much doable.
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Pac-Man
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• Controls • FAQ •
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• Movement •
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• Damage/Knockback • Frame Data Explanations • States of Play • Universal Strategy • Esoterica •
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