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Pac-Man

Jab1 (-12) & Jab2 (-14):
NAir (Frame 7)

Jab3 (-24):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)

FTilt (-17):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

UTilt (-10):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move won't hit you if you're right next to him)

DTilt (-13):
GSA (Frame 9)

Dash Attack (-3):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

FSmash (-25):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)

USmash (-24):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)

DSmash (-30):
FSmash (Frame 26)

NAir (-3):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

FAir (-6):
Unpunishable
Safe on shield)

BAir (-8):
NAir (Frame 7)

UAir (-6):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

DAir (-9):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Bonus Fruit (-22 Cherry, -20 Strawberry, -19 Orange, -17 Apple, -16 Melon, -18 Galaga, -19 Bell, -14 Key):
Unpunishable
(Projectile usage)

Power Pellet Dash (-42 to -54):
Unpunishable
(Way too many methods of angling for consistent punishes, also crosses you up effortlessly)

Pac-Jump (--):
--

Fire Hydrant (-11):
Unpunishable
(Projectile usage)

• Neutral Moves: Fire Hydrant, Bonus Fruit, Aerials, Tilts, Jab.

• Kill Moves: BAir, Key, Smash Attacks, Power Pellet Dash, Melon, Apple, Fire Hydrant.

• Kill Confirms: Bell > Anything.

• Like us, Pac-Man has a really great set of close-up aerials. He can air-to-air with us and has NAir out of shield to work with.

• Fire Hydrant is at the core of Pac-Man’s neutral. He will lay that down whenever he can. It exerts stage control on the ground, and can be hit and knocked around as a lethal projectile.

• Don’t tunnel vision towards Fire Hydrant, though. Keep your eyes on Pac-Man, Fire Hydrant, and the water from it, as well as Pac-Man’s current Bonus Fruit.

• Simply playing around it is EXACTLY what Pac-Man wants. You essentially box yourself in, or your approach becomes linear. You’ll need to mix up ways of knocking over Fire Hydrant.

• Knocking over Fire Hydrant gives the player a chance to extend stage control and take advantage.

• Fire Hydrant has 15.6% HP in 1v1. Know the damage of Young Link's moves well. Remember, you want to take down the Fire Hydrant in a way that you’ll benefit from its displacement.

• Bombs in this MU are useful, since you can pull them while Pac-Man is charging Bonus Fruit, and Boomerang loses to those anyway. Bombs, in this sense, are a punish to passive play.

• Likewise, lots of Fire Arrows are important to disrupt Pac-Man when the Fire Hydrant isn’t down. This is important because Pac-Man can win the projectile wars with Key, Galaxian, and Bell, so you have to deny those when possible.

• Bomb is safer to pull since Pac-Man wants to charge Bonus Fruit, and it helps in removing Fire Hydrants. Short hop and soft toss to toss the Bomb over the Fire Hydrant's water.

• Boomerang is still good, just extremely risky vs Pac-Man when he’s not far away.

• FAir is Pac-Man’s main anti-air tool. It’s fast and has range, and always sets up for tech chases. He’ll mostly use it when rising in close quarters combat.

• All of Pac-Man’s aerials demand respect in close quarters combat. NAir them on startup, or whiff punish.

• Keep tabs on which Bonus Fruit Pac-Man has. After you hit one with a projectile, it’ll bounce up in the air (except for Bell, Galaxian, and Key).

• Be careful vs Key, as he can kill you for mashing projectiles onto Fire Hydrant.

• You can NAir through Galaga and Melon.

Fire Hydrant Interactions

• Only DSmash and DAir can OHKO it, though both are punishable.

• Dash Attack, FTilt, early NAir, and FAir launch Fire Hydrant at an angle that makes it launch onto BF and PS2 platforms, but puts you in endlag, this is a callout move.

• ZAir does little damage, but recreates this arc with less killpower.

• DTilt launches the Fire Hydrant up at an angle at which it’ll go onto platforms.

• Fire Arrow and Boomerang barely launch Fire Hydrant anywhere.

• Bomb launches it nowhere, slowly bouncing the Fire Hydrant at a low height at a rather stationary position.

• Using projectiles will reset neutral by removing Fire Hydrant. Use them (including slightly charged Fire Arrow) to sometimes destroy it, but more importantly soften up the Fire Hydrant for other moves to remove it.

• Pac-Man's projectiles will usually beat out our projectiles or clank, with Boomerang losing to all of them.

• Visualize these interactions in training mode for better application.

Boxing

(How do I escape this situation?):

• Pac-Man can use both his aerials and setplay in boxing.

• As mentioned before, FAir is his best way of anti-airing the opponent in the corner, alongside BAir for killing on jump reads.

• As for Bonus Fruit: Orange can be used like Fire Arrow in the corner, but sets up for ledgetraps/edgeguards, Melons lead to Grab setplay, and Bell/Key are used for kill callouts in the corner. Have shield in mind when those options are present, as Pac-Man can’t Grab and keep Bell as a held item.

• Fire Hydrant can be used as a projectile approach to double Pac-Man’s pressure in the corner. Take this into account as soon as the Fire Hydrant is placed.

• Match Pac-Man’s pace. Being offensive is reckless when he is trapping, as it can backfire. Zoning/being too patient is reckless when he’s using his aerials to apply pressure.

Platform Pressure

(What tools do they have? How can we escape this pressure?):

• Pac-Man’s normals aren’t high priority; you can trade with them. Go high to avoid them or fall through the platform. Be wary of BAir.

• Fire Hydrant is scary, though. Find a safe angle to play around it, and be ready to react with shield if they launch it and you don’t.

• Likewise, Pac-Man can snipe you with Bell, Apple, or Key.

Landing

(How do they cover it? What are my best options?):

• Pac-Man doesn’t have any great tools to directly challenge you vertically. His UAir kills quite late, and gets beat out by Young Link's DAir. Power Pellet Dash is very linear, and easy to avoid outside of a combo.

• He’ll try to horizontally catch you landing, with BAir or FSmash.

• Watch out for Bell when landing.

• What you must be wary of is FSmash. Pac-Man shifts his hurtbox back during the move, and it’s strong. Dashback FSmash is common.

Offstage

(How Do I Escape This Position And What Do I Look Out For?):

• Be wary of Fire Hydrant stagespikes.

• Pac-Man can use his Bonus Fruit to take your jump and gimp you. Note what Bonus Fruit he has, and adjust around its angle accordingly.

• Namely Key, which he can snipe you with. Escape tumble before he throws it.

• He can also gimp you with FAir or DAir.

• If you ASA right under Pac-Man, his DAir will still hit you. Space ASA horizontally to hit Pac-Man and recover.

Ledge:

• Young Link can’t ledge roll through trampoline at ledge.

• Pac-Man’s FSmash lasts for a long time, so if he throws it out, it might just cover the ledge long enough to hit you.

• He can mess with Fire Hydrant in so many ways to hit you, you’ll learn all the ways he can mess with them as you play against him more and more.

• Ledge Jump airdodge is a way to avoid Fire Hydrants.

• Take into account Pac-Man’s current Bonus Fruit when at ledge.

• He can throw Bell or Apple to hit you at the ledge. Like FSmash, Bell also lasts a long time at ledge.

• Pac-Man’s FSmash and DSmash hit ledge, and his downwards angle FTilt/DTilt 2-frame.

• Mix-up ledge options, being wary of Pac-Man using FSmash.

Juggling/Boxing:

• Between Fire Hydrant, UAir to stall, Power Pellet Dash, DAir, NAir, and fast fall airdodge, Pac-Man has a lot of options to work with.

• Most of the time though, Pac-Man likes dropping Fire Hydrant when he’s above you, and then landing with an aerial. UAir is the best way to challenge Pac-Man landing with an aerial from that high.

• Once you condition them to airdodge in order to avoid Uair, start punishing it by baiting it and then attacking or breaking the Fire Hydrant they put down.

• Use Boomerang to break Power Pellet Dash’s chain, or cover him horizontally.

• Don’t over-commit on UAir though, he can airdodge through you.

• If you take stage control as he sets a Fire Hydrant, note of how they react. Some might play defensive and shield, or throw out an attack.

Offstage:

• Pac-Man has a lot of resources to get back to stage, so eliminate them one by one.

• First, eliminate the chain of Power Pellet Dash. If he tries to recover high, and if you want to frame trap him, use Bomb for that.

• He’s unable to do anything while using Pac-Jump. Intercept with a Bomb combo or FAir.

• If he’s using Pac-Jump, he’s likely below the stage.

• If he gets to the ledge with Power Pellet Dash, he’ll have consumed the pellet, meaning he has 8 frames of super armor. This does not give armor to his 2-frame animation, however.

• If Pac-Man grabs the ledge with Power Pellet Dash from below, that’s a free Bomb 2-frame.

• If Pac-Man needs the third bounce of his trampoline to make it back to the ledge, you can go down there and break the trampoline, and he can’t do anything about it.

• Pac-Man could double jump Bonus Fruit or FAir from the ledge.

• Use the space behind you. Pac-Man’s floatiness makes it somewhat easier to trap him in the corner with projectiles, which makes up for our inability to stand still and ledgetrap well.

• Use FAir to contest rising aerials as a killing read.

Pac-Jump:

• 3 stages: blue, yellow, red.

• Touching the red trampoline will put you in freefall.

• Hitting the trampoline with damage lowers its stage. You could hit it with a Bomb to lower its stage, if Pac-Man needs the red bounce.

Ledge Info:

XLR8’s Spreadsheet Young Link Ledge Info:

DTilt: Hits

DSmash: Hits

FTilt: Hits

Most Reliable Move: All

Animation Info: N/A

Note: Normal difficulty, requires good spacing.

• FD DTilt > ASA %s: 112, 99

• FD FThrow @ Ledge %s: 174. 155

• FD Milkshake %s: 102-140, 92-119

• Pac-Man Kill Throws: BThrow

• Don’t mash airdodge or jump out of Galaga combos, mash NAir instead.

• Battlefield:
  Great. Battlefield messes with a lot of Pac’s setplay surrounding Fire Hydrant. The platforms get in the way of putting it down, and there’s a lot of room to avoid his Bonus Fruit. We may not like this stage too much, but our core gameplan vs Pac-Man is not too affected.

• Final Destination:
  Indifferent. Close quarters combat plays a larger role in boxing for both characters. Fire Hydrant exerts more pressure when used offensively, but it's is a tool that can be wielded by both players in neutral in this MU.

• Smashville:
  Great. Pac-Man can’t exercise as much control with center stage Fire Hydrant as he normally can. The small space makes it really easy to box him, and to take advantage of Fire Hydrants.

• Town & City:
  Terrible. Pac-Man gets way too much out of this stage in the MU. With all the space, airspace, and platforms, Pac-Man can play his wall and trap game very well, making it a struggle to track him down and hit him.

• Lylat Cruise:
  Great. Same reasons as BF, and a hotbed for our combos.

• Pokémon Stadium 2:
  Indifferent. Both characters benefit by roughly the same amount.

• Kalos Pokémon League:
  Terrible. Just like Town, Kalos gives Pac-Man way too much airspace, which makes it hard to push advantage at all. Pac-Man can camp from platform to platform, which makes it difficult to hit him.

• Yoshi’s Story:
  Indifferent. Triplats mess up Pac-Man (same reasons as BF, though not as drastic). Smaller zones are also nice.