- Game Versions
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
Introduction:
I'm not at all a very good writer so I'll just get right to it. These are just a few general tips to keep in mind while playing Pit that can mostly also be applied to Pittoo. As this is my time ever writing a guide, please give me your feedback and try not to mind how unorganized this might end up. Just kindly let me know what you think and I'll definitely keep it in mind the next time I write something up.
This guide assumes you already know the basic properties of Pit's moves. There is already another guide by TheBurningBadger that goes over that stuff so I won't be going through all his moves. Here, I'll just be talking about how to apply those moves. People have been pretty harsh to his guide but I think used alongside mine it's quite helpful. You can find it here http://smashboards.com/guides/practicing-with-pit.110/
If you have a comment on something that you think should be in the guide or would like a better explanation on something, please check the discussion! If you can correct something or give me insight to something I was missing, I would love to add it to this guide. I check back here often so I'll try to reply as timely as possible.
Edge-gaurding:
Down B is a surprisingly good tool for keeping your opponents off stage. It totally screws with Little Mac's Side B recovery and you can really mess over the Links and Mario with it. If Villager's Side B touches it, they'll go flying off in the other direction likely killing themselves like with other reflectors. This also destroys Ness trying to recover with his PK Thunder if you do it off stage. He'll crash right into your orbitars and fall right on the spot. This move has quite a bit of recovery frames on it though so make sure you don't accidentally fast fall or you'll be finished.
If you're going to chase off stage, (which you really should since this character's recovery is probably the best thing about him) shoot an arrow first to bait your opponent into air dodging that instead of your upcoming fair/bair. Go for dair spikes whenever you feel like it. You can even stage spike with this on FD, Battlefield, and certain Omega stages. Seriously though your recovery is so good you will basically ALWAYS come back. On opponents that like to recover low, you could dash off the stage and do a fair. It's quick, unexpected, and if they're already this low, pushing them away with the fair is sure to make their recovery extremely difficult unless it's someone like Lucario or another Pit. Of course you can do a bair for a stage spike as well but I don't think Pit's bair range is anything to write home about.
Neutral:
Weird that this isn't the first section. I didn't think about that while I was writing. Anyway, I see lots of players forgetting about ftilt with the Pits. This is an amazing spacing tool. It's seriously got good range on it. I think it might even beat out Marth's. Funny enough with the Marth comparison, Pit's ftilt also does slightly more damage and knockback when you hit your opponent with the tip of it. Be cautious that Dark Pit's ftilt is not quite as good Pit's. You're rarely killing with Dark Pit's. Don't throw it out completely though because it's still the same range.
Dtilt is another quick move with decent range you might be sleeping on. It's range is similar to ftilt but the recovery is faster at the cost of having much less knockback. This move will usually pop your opponent up into the air at higher percents so feel free to try to try and chase after them with a fair, uair, or for the safest option you could just shoot an arrow after them. The arrow option won't do much in all honesty but with only 2 stocks in competitive play, I think every little percent matters in Smash 4. It'll add up over time.
Feel free to constantly harass your opponent with arrows to force them to approach you. Up close is where Pit is at his best. Keep in mind though that your arrows aren't great against other projectiles since they're quite slow. Villager, Links, Robin, and other projectile focused characters can out zone you quite easily and your best bet would be bringing the fight to them by jumping over their stuff and fast falling into shield or spot dodge. You don't wanna approach with an aerial straight up. Pit's aerials all have quite a lot of landing lag. But there are ways do get aerials in there. Some players that prefer zoning characters like to fire a projectile just as you hit the ground because they're expecting you to have landing lag. Lucky for you though, Down B can be activated in midair so you can land with your orbitars already out ready to deflect that obvious charged shot that Samus was so confident in. To be honest with you this is probably only gonna work one time if you opponent has a brain in that skull of his so keep that in mind.
It's actually possible to stay above the opponent and pressure their shield with dairs since Pit can jump multiple times. This could be considered a pretty situational technique but when practiced it could be used effectively and I think it might be the closest thing you'll have to real shield pressure in Smash 4.. You can see Nairo using this very approach here around the 30 second mark
As you can see he's throwing that dair out a lot. Maybe a little too much for my liking but this is good visual aid for what I'm talking about and I think all Pit players should check out some more matches with Nairo since he appears to the only top player using Pit.
Close Range:
Pit's throws are definitely going to be your best option at close range. They have a decent pivot grab range with a rather quick recovery if you manage to miss. dthrow -> usmash works at low percents but keep in mind you'll have to dash forward a little bit to connect with all the hits in usmash. At higher percents you wanna go with dthrow -> uair. Now, I understand some people recommend going for a fair instead of uair but hear me out here. Not only have I found that uair hits way more consistently, but you get the opportunity to follow up with more uairs. It's a really great move for juggling. This racks up the damage way quicker than going for a fair would so I really recommend you give it a try. Keep in mind that you do have to get a fair in there eventually or else your opponent will know what coming and adapt. Keep them on their toes.
After a while you're gonna wanna start going with fthrow and chasing with an arrow and fair because dthrow -> uair is gonna stop working so hot. Unlike most characters, fthrow is Pit's kill throw. You ain't killing anything with bthrow. Get very aggressive with fthrow. As soon as Pit tosses the oppnent you wanna be in the air after them. You wanna fire that arrow in midair and start using your aerials. You want to make it a living hell for them to come back from fthrow.
You may have noticed that I left out the fthrow -> dash attack -> usmash combo. Now I'm not saying this is a bad combo. It gets good damage when you pull if off but truthfully it's not likely you're going to. In competitive play I think consistency is of the utmost importance. You don't want to go with something that you're unsure of and lose the match because of it. Since this combo requires both you and your opponent to be at very low percent, I don't really see it happening any time after the first like 10 seconds of a match if you happen to get a quick grab on them before anything else happens. Use at your own risk.
Recovery:
Pit's a pretty light guy. He's gonna get knocked off the stage at some point. First off, if you're below the stage, do not Side B. It's possible to use Side B if you're on level with the ledge or above it, but that's it. A little more on Side B in the next section.
Pit's got an extra 3 jumps after his first one. So 1 on the stage, 3 in the air which we'll call his air jumps, and Up B for a total of basically 5 jumps. I like to think this is because the power of flight only last for 5 minutes!
For the most part, I find using the 3 air jumps to get horizontal distance and then up B to recover low to be the most successful option. Of course you don't wanna do this with Villager trying to drop bowling balls on your head or Sonic dropping his springs on you. It is of extreme importance that you don't miss the ledge while recovering with Up B. If Pit overshoots the ledge you're gonna be up in the air for a while and the landing lag is gonna be tremendous. You can angle this but a lot of people sometimes make the mistake of doing Side B by accident. To avoid this most unfavourable situation, you can activate Up B and then immediately push the stick in the direction you want Pit to go. You don't wanna have Pit's back towards the ledge while you do this because you're missing that ledge.
Side B:
Finally, the most auto pilot inducing move in Pit's arsenal, the Side B. Yes, I felt like this move deserved it's own section. You're pretty free to a punish if this gets blocked on the ground. Alright not just pretty free. You're really free. You're eating big damage for missing this. Your opponent can go get a drink and still comeback in time to punish this. You only want to use this as a punish or to catch your opponent off guard when they think you've just let them block an unsafe move. I mean look at it this way if you already messed up and are going to get punished you might as well throw out this Side B, right? I've had great success having my fsmash blocked only to follow up with Side B to stuff my opponent's attempt at a punish and keep the momentum in my favor. Like any tactic however, don't be obvious with this. You're really gonna get messed up if your opponent catches on to what you're doing here. Doing it once or twice is about all you need to have your opponent scared.
You can chase rolls with this move but it's quite risky and not recommended until you're really in your opponent's head. I mentioned in the recovery section that this also can be applied to your recovery. You can also exploit the super armor on this move to grab the ledge without fear of getting spiked. You need to be extremely careful with this though. If you miss the ledge you're either finished or getting punished my friend.
Well that's really all I got I guess. Never was good at finishing things so pardon this ending. I hope that even one person found even one sentence of this guide useful. If I've accomplished that, then I'm happy.
I'm not at all a very good writer so I'll just get right to it. These are just a few general tips to keep in mind while playing Pit that can mostly also be applied to Pittoo. As this is my time ever writing a guide, please give me your feedback and try not to mind how unorganized this might end up. Just kindly let me know what you think and I'll definitely keep it in mind the next time I write something up.
This guide assumes you already know the basic properties of Pit's moves. There is already another guide by TheBurningBadger that goes over that stuff so I won't be going through all his moves. Here, I'll just be talking about how to apply those moves. People have been pretty harsh to his guide but I think used alongside mine it's quite helpful. You can find it here http://smashboards.com/guides/practicing-with-pit.110/
If you have a comment on something that you think should be in the guide or would like a better explanation on something, please check the discussion! If you can correct something or give me insight to something I was missing, I would love to add it to this guide. I check back here often so I'll try to reply as timely as possible.
Edge-gaurding:
Down B is a surprisingly good tool for keeping your opponents off stage. It totally screws with Little Mac's Side B recovery and you can really mess over the Links and Mario with it. If Villager's Side B touches it, they'll go flying off in the other direction likely killing themselves like with other reflectors. This also destroys Ness trying to recover with his PK Thunder if you do it off stage. He'll crash right into your orbitars and fall right on the spot. This move has quite a bit of recovery frames on it though so make sure you don't accidentally fast fall or you'll be finished.
If you're going to chase off stage, (which you really should since this character's recovery is probably the best thing about him) shoot an arrow first to bait your opponent into air dodging that instead of your upcoming fair/bair. Go for dair spikes whenever you feel like it. You can even stage spike with this on FD, Battlefield, and certain Omega stages. Seriously though your recovery is so good you will basically ALWAYS come back. On opponents that like to recover low, you could dash off the stage and do a fair. It's quick, unexpected, and if they're already this low, pushing them away with the fair is sure to make their recovery extremely difficult unless it's someone like Lucario or another Pit. Of course you can do a bair for a stage spike as well but I don't think Pit's bair range is anything to write home about.
Neutral:
Weird that this isn't the first section. I didn't think about that while I was writing. Anyway, I see lots of players forgetting about ftilt with the Pits. This is an amazing spacing tool. It's seriously got good range on it. I think it might even beat out Marth's. Funny enough with the Marth comparison, Pit's ftilt also does slightly more damage and knockback when you hit your opponent with the tip of it. Be cautious that Dark Pit's ftilt is not quite as good Pit's. You're rarely killing with Dark Pit's. Don't throw it out completely though because it's still the same range.
Dtilt is another quick move with decent range you might be sleeping on. It's range is similar to ftilt but the recovery is faster at the cost of having much less knockback. This move will usually pop your opponent up into the air at higher percents so feel free to try to try and chase after them with a fair, uair, or for the safest option you could just shoot an arrow after them. The arrow option won't do much in all honesty but with only 2 stocks in competitive play, I think every little percent matters in Smash 4. It'll add up over time.
Feel free to constantly harass your opponent with arrows to force them to approach you. Up close is where Pit is at his best. Keep in mind though that your arrows aren't great against other projectiles since they're quite slow. Villager, Links, Robin, and other projectile focused characters can out zone you quite easily and your best bet would be bringing the fight to them by jumping over their stuff and fast falling into shield or spot dodge. You don't wanna approach with an aerial straight up. Pit's aerials all have quite a lot of landing lag. But there are ways do get aerials in there. Some players that prefer zoning characters like to fire a projectile just as you hit the ground because they're expecting you to have landing lag. Lucky for you though, Down B can be activated in midair so you can land with your orbitars already out ready to deflect that obvious charged shot that Samus was so confident in. To be honest with you this is probably only gonna work one time if you opponent has a brain in that skull of his so keep that in mind.
It's actually possible to stay above the opponent and pressure their shield with dairs since Pit can jump multiple times. This could be considered a pretty situational technique but when practiced it could be used effectively and I think it might be the closest thing you'll have to real shield pressure in Smash 4.. You can see Nairo using this very approach here around the 30 second mark
Close Range:
Pit's throws are definitely going to be your best option at close range. They have a decent pivot grab range with a rather quick recovery if you manage to miss. dthrow -> usmash works at low percents but keep in mind you'll have to dash forward a little bit to connect with all the hits in usmash. At higher percents you wanna go with dthrow -> uair. Now, I understand some people recommend going for a fair instead of uair but hear me out here. Not only have I found that uair hits way more consistently, but you get the opportunity to follow up with more uairs. It's a really great move for juggling. This racks up the damage way quicker than going for a fair would so I really recommend you give it a try. Keep in mind that you do have to get a fair in there eventually or else your opponent will know what coming and adapt. Keep them on their toes.
After a while you're gonna wanna start going with fthrow and chasing with an arrow and fair because dthrow -> uair is gonna stop working so hot. Unlike most characters, fthrow is Pit's kill throw. You ain't killing anything with bthrow. Get very aggressive with fthrow. As soon as Pit tosses the oppnent you wanna be in the air after them. You wanna fire that arrow in midair and start using your aerials. You want to make it a living hell for them to come back from fthrow.
You may have noticed that I left out the fthrow -> dash attack -> usmash combo. Now I'm not saying this is a bad combo. It gets good damage when you pull if off but truthfully it's not likely you're going to. In competitive play I think consistency is of the utmost importance. You don't want to go with something that you're unsure of and lose the match because of it. Since this combo requires both you and your opponent to be at very low percent, I don't really see it happening any time after the first like 10 seconds of a match if you happen to get a quick grab on them before anything else happens. Use at your own risk.
Recovery:
Pit's a pretty light guy. He's gonna get knocked off the stage at some point. First off, if you're below the stage, do not Side B. It's possible to use Side B if you're on level with the ledge or above it, but that's it. A little more on Side B in the next section.
Pit's got an extra 3 jumps after his first one. So 1 on the stage, 3 in the air which we'll call his air jumps, and Up B for a total of basically 5 jumps. I like to think this is because the power of flight only last for 5 minutes!
For the most part, I find using the 3 air jumps to get horizontal distance and then up B to recover low to be the most successful option. Of course you don't wanna do this with Villager trying to drop bowling balls on your head or Sonic dropping his springs on you. It is of extreme importance that you don't miss the ledge while recovering with Up B. If Pit overshoots the ledge you're gonna be up in the air for a while and the landing lag is gonna be tremendous. You can angle this but a lot of people sometimes make the mistake of doing Side B by accident. To avoid this most unfavourable situation, you can activate Up B and then immediately push the stick in the direction you want Pit to go. You don't wanna have Pit's back towards the ledge while you do this because you're missing that ledge.
Side B:
Finally, the most auto pilot inducing move in Pit's arsenal, the Side B. Yes, I felt like this move deserved it's own section. You're pretty free to a punish if this gets blocked on the ground. Alright not just pretty free. You're really free. You're eating big damage for missing this. Your opponent can go get a drink and still comeback in time to punish this. You only want to use this as a punish or to catch your opponent off guard when they think you've just let them block an unsafe move. I mean look at it this way if you already messed up and are going to get punished you might as well throw out this Side B, right? I've had great success having my fsmash blocked only to follow up with Side B to stuff my opponent's attempt at a punish and keep the momentum in my favor. Like any tactic however, don't be obvious with this. You're really gonna get messed up if your opponent catches on to what you're doing here. Doing it once or twice is about all you need to have your opponent scared.
You can chase rolls with this move but it's quite risky and not recommended until you're really in your opponent's head. I mentioned in the recovery section that this also can be applied to your recovery. You can also exploit the super armor on this move to grab the ledge without fear of getting spiked. You need to be extremely careful with this though. If you miss the ledge you're either finished or getting punished my friend.
Well that's really all I got I guess. Never was good at finishing things so pardon this ending. I hope that even one person found even one sentence of this guide useful. If I've accomplished that, then I'm happy.
