Sure, man. Pacman is all about the spacing game. The hydrant is your friend. You can use it to protect yourself from falling into an incoming usmash or aerial followup. You can also use it to protect the ledge from an oncoming opponent. Or just throw it in the middle of the stage. The key here is, well, the key. The hydrant gives you time to charge your key, which you pretty much always want. It's a great mindgame too, as your opponent sometimes forgets you have it, and they're constantly on edge.
Be careful with the hydrant, as the opponent can use it against you by attacking it. A good strategy is to use it when your sure the opponent isn't going to be able to use it against you. Placing a hydrant to edgeguard and then knocking it towards the opponent ensures the opponent has to either dodge or jump again to avoid it. This is a great time to follow up with the key. The possibilities are endless with this simple combination. Basically, hydrant + key are your go-to kill moves.
As far as smashes go, Pacman is no slouch but definitely isn't the strongest. Hydrant dashing is a good technique to use. Pacmans downsmash is great and covers a wide area. With a hydrant in the middle of the stage you can charge your dsmash while you slide towards an opponent using the water from the hydrant. This is a great technique for when your opponent is stalling or rolling away, as it you can release it when they put their guard back down and it's sometimes quite unexpected. Usmash isn't too good, but fine for defense, I suppose. Fsmash is your basic forward smash. It's got some more range than your regular characters, but in most situations dsmash is better. I believe fsmash is a bit stronger, though.
Apart from, that, general tipes:
- Always space your opponent out, if you can.
- Charge the key whenever you can
- Don't be afraid to use regular bonus fruit to ward your opponent away
- Pac's jab is great for wacking your opponent away
- Pacman has a pretty good air game with fair, bair and nair. You can usually get an fair in after a dthrow, a jab or a dash attack, sometimes even followed up with an nair.
- Bair is a kill move if you can hit with it. It's got some good range, too.
- Pac-man's dash attack is great, and has little lag. Great way to approach without a lot of risk.
- Side B has super armor after a few frames. Super useful for getting back on the stage and as a mix up. Can KO at high percents, too. You can also Side-B into your hydrant for even more damage.
- Dair isn't super useful, but is pretty good if your opponent is trying tilts and you short hop into a dair above them.
- Pacman's tilts aren't too bad, but his jab is where it's at. His dtilt is the best, and great for quick pokes.
- Finally, his up-b is a decent recovery, but you got to be careful with it. Best to go with side-b to recover, followed by up-b, as side-b doesn't put you into helpless. Up-b is also a great "trap" tool. If you place a springboard in the middle of the stage your opponent is forced to either jump over it or jump on it, which you can follow-up in a number of ways.
All around, great character. Super fun to practice with.
