How to Train Pichu Amiibo to Use Thunder (& So, So Much More)

by Doc, Using Notes and Research Written by Nurf and His Research Partners

Since we were training amiibo in Smash 4, we always discounted the idea that items played a role in amiibo AI. The Smash 4 amiibo community was notoriously close-minded in its research, and parts of that close-mindedness carried over to Smash Ultimate’s early meta. During that time, the traditional “no items, normal stage” mindset was formed and became the foundation of modern amiibo training.

That’s still a good foundation, but there’s a problem: Nintendo made it so that the regions of an amiibo’s training data that revolve around items are also the only things that can activate certain otherwise-missing behaviors. Case in point: Pichu’s Thunder.

You probably remember a few weeks ago when I accidentally got Pichu to use Thunder. We didn’t know exactly what caused it to do that besides that it was a byproduct of the Semi-SSST Training I put it through. Now we’ve narrowed down the two values that cause it to use Thunder. These values are only raised by using items… which we’ve never made it a practice to train with.

The following tutorial is my understanding of the information Nurf and the other researchers have provided me. Nurf initially discovered this, but many researchers have been collaborating to solve the problem of Pichu’s Thunder.

Update: It appears that the listed values may not cause Thunder. Further research is required – it’s currently theorized that the Meteor Masher value is what causes it, but results are heavily inconsistent across trainers.

There’s a few pieces of information you need to know:

• Amiibo behavior is based off of values. These values are raised and lowered according to what the amiibo encounters in its environment. Amiibo “training” is just manipulating these values so the amiibo plays Smash in a different way.
• Some of these values pertain to specific items in Smash. It’s not always clear what values pertain to what items. Collectively these are referred to as the “item values”.
• Item values have historically been ignored and presumed to not impact the amiibo behavior in any way if items are not present in the match.
• “Item Shooter” and “Carrier Breaker” are two item values that appear to impact how the Pichu amiibo uses Thunder. By raising Item Shooter and lowering Carrier Breaker, for some inexplicable reason, Pichu will use Thunder.
• Item Shooter can be raised by firing Rage Blaster repeatedly in several matches. It takes a lot of firing to accomplish this, and is estimated to be about 20 stocks’ worth of gameplay.
• Carrier Breaker can be lowered by throwing lots of containers in several matches. It takes a lot of throwing to accomplish this, and is estimated to be about 20 stocks’ worth of gameplay.
• Alternatively, adding a single Phantom Thieves of Hearts spirit will both raise Item Shooter and lower Carrier Breaker, but adding spirits to amiibo often has unpredictable side effects.
• When these values are set to their extremities, Pichu will start to use Thunder as an anti-air option. This Pichu will use Thunder as an anti-air more frequently than mine did; I conclude that this is due to my Pichu having less extreme values in these two bytes than what this method would produce.

This method has been reproduced across several trainers already, and more are trying it as I write.

Going Forward

First, please understand that amiibo AI is often arcane and ridiculous. It’s entirely possible that some other variable has been lurking in the shadows to cause this kind of behavior, and that future amiibo trainers will figure out what is actually causing this. This method is a hypothesis with very solid and reproducible results, but that doesn’t mean we have clarity as to all the moving parts in this.

Second, this means that there is a consistent and reliable way to get Pichu to use Thunder and it doesn’t rely on RNG-based methods like Semi-SSST. Trainers can incorporate this into their Pichu and then train the rest of its desired behaviors to finally give Pichu access to a useful anti-air. Further testing will be needed to see if it can be used as part of a combo. Pichu trainers rejoice!

Third, this means that it cannot be refuted that item values do play a role in amiibo behavior. This connection is not easy to spot, but it absolutely exists and this discovery proves it. (Cause, y’know… it’s hard to ignore Pichu suddenly using Thunder after only raising item values.) The general role of item values seems to pertain mostly to the more character-specific behaviors and unusual moves, but more research is being done and conclusions have yet to be drawn.

Personally my theory is that the devs locked some of the behaviors behind the item values because they expected the typical amiibo trainer to use less restricted rulesets that included items and Smash Balls. After all, there’s no point in programming an amiibo designed for children to only play on rulesets that teenagers and adults would be interested in.

Time to get researching!