An Experimental Training Method Has Solved Pichu’s AI Problem

by Doc – Owner, Founder, Kinda Surprised It Took Us This Long To Figure Out Pichu’s Thunder

The Pichu amiibo has traditionally had a problem with using Thunder in a way that we’d like it to. Scattered reports indicate it would sometimes use Thunder at the ledge if most of its training revolves around that, or it would use it offstage for an SD, but that’s pretty rare in a match because the amiibo just doesn’t like it, and it’s not great competitively when we do have some success with it. We’ve just not had success getting Pichu to use Thunder with the traditional training methods that most people use.

The ideal situation for Pichu would be a Pichu that can use Thunder to snipe opponents out of the air that are above him. That’s been a dream up until now.

Please stay tuned to the Amiibo Doctor Youtube channel for video proof of this Pichu. Many trainers have already seen it and have a copy, but my video backlog, and my life, is so backed up that I can’t get a video on this together in a timely manner.

Pichu Amiibo Using Thunder

I’ve talked before about the SSST methods of amiibo training, and posted a guide to training amiibo with it. The Semi-SSST method is still under heavy research by a dedicated group of trainers, and has an element of randomness to its outcomes, so it’s not as easily replicable as one might hope. We don’t even understand a lot of the weird pieces of amiibo behavior data that it affects, let alone how it affects them, so please understand that there’s lots of room for interpretation and research on how Semi-SSST impacts amiibo.

The other day I used Semi-SSST to train a Pichu amiibo that intelligently and frequently uses Thunder. I’ve passed around this Pichu amiibo to several experienced amiibo trainers, and given them permission to distribute it as they see fit on the condition that I’m identified as the owner, and still nobody’s really sure what’s causing it to use Thunder despite having a lot of eyes examining it.

Here’s what I did.

The image below is my in-the-moment recollection of how I trained it.

Basically, its first few levels were trained under a typical ruleset as recommended in our main guide. I taught it its up-close options and parrying as best I could for a few levels. This part was basically a traditional Pichu training regimen, minus any real aerial training.

Then I ran it through multiple Semi-SSST matches, on this custom stage:

This stage is generally considered the “OG” SSST stage, and it forces both amiibo in very close quarters and bounces them off a large number of walls. Amiibo that are trained on this stage almost always come out with excessive rolling and shielding problems. I noticed those problems, and they were pretty permeating across all the amiibo’s behaviors. After doing a few Semi-SSST matches, I went back to the traditional training ruleset, and made it a point to use a lot of Thunder.

Here’s the rub: when I trained Pichu to use Thunder, I didn’t snipe the Pichu amiibo out of the air with it. I instead hit him with the large body hitbox that is created when the thunder hits Pichu.

Finally, after a few matches of that, I turned learning off. I then leveled him up in real-time and watched him fight, noticing that he originally used Thunder’s body hitbox at lower levels but eventually used it solely to snipe opponents from above him when onstage at higher levels. Pichu now uses Thunder’s lightning bolt hitbox (and sometimes the cloud) to hit opponents that are far above him, but he only does it when standing on the stage. He doesn’t do it in the air or offstage, and he uses it several times a match. The resulting Pichu isn’t a good Pichu by any means. He’ll still get his butt handed to him in most matches. The point here is that we at least now know that Thunder is possible to use in a smart way.

All of this was just tinkering and experimentation: I had heard of Semi-SSST-trained amiibo ending up using bizarre, complicated behaviors that were otherwise hard to train, including combos in amiibo that were previously not known to exist. I figured that I might get something out of Pichu, so I blindly threw Pichu at the wall to see what stuck. Apparently it stuck.

This is all of the behavior data of my Pichu amiibo, laid out byte by byte. You’ll notice that Semi-SSST seems to have raised the majority of his item values for some reason.

Pichu Amiibo’s Behavior Bytes

Near: 100
Offensive: 99.2126
Grounded: 100
Attack Out Cliff: 15.873016
Dash: 0
Return To Cliff: 0
Air Offensive: 90.47619
Cliffer: 80.952385
Feint Master: 0
Feint Counter: 53.543304
Feint Shooter: 42.519684
Catcher: 89.76378
100 Attacker: 49.20635
100 Keeper: 49.20635
Attack Cancel: 49.20635
Smash Holder: 0
Dash Attacker: 18.897638
Critical Hitter: 49.20635
Meteor Master: 69.84127
Shield Master: 46.45669
Just Shield Master: 66.66667
Shield Catch Master: 47.61905
Item Collector: 48.387096
Item Throw to Target: 48.387096
Dragoon Collector: 46.666668
Smashball Collector: 46.666668
Hammer Collector: 46.666668
Special Flagger: 46.666668
Item Swinger: 48.387096
Homerun Batter: 46.666668
Club Swinger: 46.666668
Death Swinger: 46.666668
Item Shooter: 48.387096
Carrier Broker: 48.387096
Charger: 48.387096
Appeal: 0
Fighter_1: 49.6063
Fighter_2: 49.6063
Fighter_3: 49.6063
Fighter_4: 49.6063
Fighter_5: 49.6063
Advantageous Fighter: 24.409449
Weaken Fighter: 24.409449
Revenge: 24.409449
Forward Tilt: 9.286412
Up Tilt: 0
Down Tilt: 32.258064
Forward Smash: 17.986315
Up Smash: 6.060606
Down Smash: 0
Neutral Special: 2.2482893
Side Special: 0
Up Special: 0
Down Special: 16.911047
Forward Air: 4.3052835
Back Air: 12.915852
Up Air: 5.6751466
Down Air: 49.902153
Neutral Special Air: 2.9354208
Side Special Air: 0
Up Special Air: 0
Down Special Air: 8.023483
Front Air Dodge: 21.960785
Back Air Dodge: 22.352942
APPEAL_HI: 33.070866
APPEAL_LW: 33.070866

What This Means for the Amiibo Meta

One of Pichu’s greatest weaknesses is that he is both very light and very short-ranged, so any damage he builds is done at the risk of getting swatted like a fly. However, Pichu amiibo also have Up Tilt combos that can easily get an opponent into the air. Having Thunder available to Pichu means that he can pick off airborne opponents without running that risk, and he can use it in conjunction with his aerial combos to KO opponents earlier than he otherwise would.

This isn’t going to send shockwaves across the entire amiibo meta or anything dramatic like that, but this does present Pichu with a rare opportunity to move up in the tier list when his placement would otherwise be considered pretty unanimously low. At this point, it’s up to trainers more skilled than I (a large group) to figure out how to replicate this in their amiibo, and then modify existing Pichu strategies to accommodate his use of Thunder.

Best of luck, folks.

P.S. – Yes, we brain transplanted it to a Pikachu, and the resulting Pikachu did not use Thunder.