SSBU/Lucas/Resources

Documents
Main centralized Lucas resources: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lCVfUxWdrXDzIJBMYjvxPhJQ4FI0w-owyZkFcIPjUFE/edit#gid=2097575101

Thread of more Lucas resources: https://twitter.com/CutterGT/status/1471444762653831171?t=Q2HZyUrl9_GFloxIREG6Pg&s=19 Lucas threat range visualization: https://twitter.com/dunsparce19/status/1535522820515680256?s=20&t=2Dhxo7qIMEe_GYqUugHmVA

Videos
''You can embed videos of content here, preferably on generally permanent platforms such as YouTube, or via a direct embed.

Plain Text
"1. This should go without saying, but get comfortable with Lucas's moves. Look at [this] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nyjz4vfzazLp_wSVGPlf6yE1_0lSL52DdWjvPsxSZ1g/edit) for a great explanation of what they do. You don't have to master everything, but you shouldn't have to stop and remember what button you need to press in when faced with X. You should know when and how to use PK Fire. In particular, learn your basic PK Thunder recovery angle; it's, more or less, a half circle going (counter)clockwise (whichever way goes behind him).

2. Once you know your buttons, you probably want to start learning all the fancy tech.

Don't. You'll cripple yourself if you try that.

First, get comfortable with your basic stuff.

Learn down throw > fair (only works at 0, shouldn't take long at all) as that's the only throw combo you need to worry about right now.

Learn dtilt combos. These are incredibly simple, two-piece combos which do everything. Down tilt > jab, down tilt > grab, down tilt > f tilt, etc. There's a list of when these become true, but you're a beginner; you don't need to worry about that. All you need to know right now is that dtilt > something is reliable, and you should use it.

2.5. If you don't know how to manually shorthop (short hopping by quickly tapping one jump button), learn it. It's used in every single Smash game with every single character, and if you can't do it you're just hindering yourself for absolutely no reason.

3. Now that you've got the absolute basics down, let's move a bit faster. Lucas has 3 "main" techniques you'll see throw around:

Nair loops (noops) Dair loops (doops) DJCZ (you get the idea).

Of the three, DJCZ is the most "popular" and difficult and Noops are probably the most underutilized. You may be eager to try and master DJCZ. Don't."

"Dw about playing a full aggro Lucas. That's insanely hard to do right, and any little mistake will harm you significantly. You said you struggle to capitalize significantly on any neutral wins, though, which is a common issue.

First off, I'd recommend being comfortable with the following tech: Wavebounce/B Reverse magnet and fire DJCZ Pivot cancel F Tilt (approaching and retreating)

Those are the big 3 I'll be going over. Additionally though, know the timing for FF Nair (Nair Loop timing), how to do Dair Loops and make sure you're doing dtilt > imagination conversions. You probably do already, but again, lurkers.

Now, here's the oft-overlooked secret of what to do after getting a neutral win....

Make the opponent respond. *You* have the advantage; this isn't neutral where you're both poking at each other trying to get a hit, you hold all the cards and whatever your opponent does should either be reacted to or forced by *you*. To illustrate this, I'll use a common example. You've put your opponent off stage with you standing back ledge. Now, do you just stand at a respectful distance and let them get back to ledge/stage for free? Hopefully not. Hopefully you threaten them with your specials or run off aerial or try to 2 frame. If you push your advantage off stage, why not push it on stage?

Now, you've just hit your opponent into a corner on PS2. You don't necessarily have to get up in their face, but you should apply some sort of pressure, whether direct or indirect. Direct pressure would be throwing a move at them (it forces them to respond immediately), indirect would be standing *within* distance to throw an option but not immediately doing anything (forces a mind game in which you have the upper hand). So, you're on PS2 with the enemy in the corner. Where you stand is crucial. If you're standing by center stage, you do technically have stage control, but you're not"

"We get a lot of questions on how to wavebounce in here, probably a close second, if not on par, to the amount of "How I DJCZ??????", but what we very rarely, if ever, see is why do we wavebounce. People see Blucas move, immediately assume that's peak Lucas and that the moment they get the technical skill to move like that, their play will become drastically better.

This isn't accurate.

Lucas is a very unique character in Ult; he requires a lot of creativity, but you'll get out what you put in. Our disadvantage and OoS are inherently poor, our recovery is ostensibly linear, getting past good ledge trapping can be a nightmare, etc. If you're coming to Lucas straight from one of the other ~70 Fire Emblem characters (sans Byleth) in this game and try to apply the same sort of gameplan to Lucas, you'll probably hit a wall real fast in the above weaknesses and start looking for shortcuts. We don't have any.

What we do have is movement.

I firmly believe Lucas easily has the best movement out of the entire cast. Tether tech lets us bypass ledge in ~5 different ways, snake dashing gives us a Melee-esque Wave Dash and Wave Land without staling air dodge, and we benefit more from special reversals (b reverse, wavebounce, turnaround) than any other character, just to name a few. Movement allows us to shore up our poor OoS by just avoiding shield entirely (where a normal character would want to Block, Lucas might be better off with a Snake Dash), movement lets us straight skip juggle situations and a couple other forms of disadvantage, movement allows us to deftly balance offense and defense by weaving in and out of the opponent's threat range with ease while extending our own, movement gives us some insanely strong burst options, the list goes on and on and on.

"Okay, great, so lemme just start wavebounci...."

Hold on a second. Look back over that list. Notice anything all those benefits have in common?" - Gordon Ramsay/Fishly101

"D-Tilt Trapping:

Dtilt>neutral shorthop>DJCZ forward covers a ton of options, can lead to stupid early kills, connects after both tipper and close Dtilt, and offers a reason to space your Dtilts further away

It’s criminally underutilized

Variations on these routes exist but “neutral SH>DJCZ forward>by this time you’re able to have reacted to which hit of Dtilt connected and pick a followup” is the basic idea

Close hit followups include microdash Fsmash and Fair

Tipper followups include PC Ftilt (high%) and dash attack/DJCZ/Fair (low-mid%) " - 40elyK

"30% is the threshold where Sour Zair faintly begins to match or send the opponent further than Lucas’s Maximum Aerial Drift

You may find yourself hitting with sweet zair before your finisher which at higher percents can send quite far away from your finisher Sour zair is much easier to followup with

0%-30% your DJCZ’s can be aimed diagonally downwards so you don’t drift too far infront Around 50%+ you should look to do what Dunsparce said with microdashing Dash > SH > DJCZ > Dash > SH > DJCZ So you can maintain sourspot distance until you choose a finisher

The closer you detonate DJCZ to the ground The greater the frame advantage That means for the next DJCZ you could detonate it in the air a little later to gain more distance In vice versa The later you detonate your DJCZ’s will result in more range and drift but less frame advantage So your next DJCZ will need to be detonated much quicker

Dashing takes a frame or few So it works well with fast DJCZ inputs As it both closes distance and has a great frame advantage

You may need more delayed DJCZ’s to connect against floatier opponents

If you get in the habit of microdashing you will have a much greater degree of control over your DJCZ strings And you can reliably get a good frame advantage and maintain sourspot Which in turn setup for optimal finishers of your choosing" "__For N-air Loops:__ Here is a document that explains how to briefly do N-air Loops at the start https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XQ-KzBfp_d2b5mDFi-6Xa0ZlOl3PoOy73ZEzpVa5_Jk/edit?usp=drivesdk One thing I might reccomend for training is you can attach a regigigas spirit to your opponent in the training room. This will allow your opponent to not flinch. And you can practice Fastfalling N-air(4) between the 3rd and 4th hit for longer. You can also make damage fixed and stale moves off so you can just keep doing it. This is good for the Fastfall portion. The link to the document above can help moreso with followups after you get comfortable with the fastfall timing." "__For N-air Trains:__ Here is the document if you haven't seen it already https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G7mXDGeirAYL8Es3s43Gf2RxPDHvNG7s4vNLzRpipn4/edit N-air has a SDI multiplier of 2.0 which is high

So setting Shuffling to a little or a lot can help you train your drift to respond to your opponent's SDI. You can also practice micro-drifting to position your landing for a more predictable D-tilt followup

DDN-air(1-3) and D-tilt will not send into tumble for the relevant percentages so they cannot be DI'ed

rar n-air is purely for style points. It doesn't save any frames as turnaround D-tilt does not need any additional frames to be inputted (unlike something like Jab or Dsmash). rar does require you to input a very fast turnaround which is one additional frame at the least. Also, some people may find rar easier when landing a D-tilt when you are already facing your opponent.

But I believe the only real reason to implement rar is because when hurtboxes overlap they repulse eachother, so in some select MU's it may make predicting which side your opponent lands on easier to identify" - Gouda Cheese ( they change their tag a lot)

Credit to Gordon Ramsay#4723 for the documented master list of Lucas tether techniques

Snake Skip: Attach tether to ledge, cancel by pressing down on the control stick. Commonly done while going towards or off of stage. While off stage, can be done by holding down, tethering to ledge then rotating the control stick quarter circle back then down. If done properly you'll just kinda stall in the air for a sec during it.

Duster Slide: DJ towards ledge, input tether, manually tether cancel as you go past. If done properly you'll land almost instantly.

Air Slide: While a ways away, but roughly parallel with ledge, hold down on the control stick, double jump then input tether almost immediately after (have a couple frames leniency for the best results). You can hold diagonally in slightly for some extra drift, but it's not needed for this. If done properly you'll instantly land on stage. Tether Twist: Basically an Air Slide from below the stage. Exact positioning is hard to describe, but it's a little bit below and away from ledge. Same inputs. If done properly you'll kinda ride the curve of the Snake upwards and land. Lagless Pull: By far the hardest. If done properly you'll tether to ledge, land on stage instead of grabbing ledge and have 0 frames of lag. Can buffer an action during pull in to start it "frame 0." To replicate, go into training mode, go to ledge in frame by frame and... Short hop, wait 10 frame Drift away 10 frames No drift 10 frames Drift in 3 frames No drift 2 frames Double jump Tether 1 frame after Reel in once tether connects to ledge. It is RTA viable, but it requires a lot of practice and good awareness. You need to be in a certain spot with upwards momentum, and it just so happens this setup fulfills those requirements. Those are the "main ones", the ones I've dumped a good bit of time into labbing and can 100% replicate There are one offs like Toops and full teleporting through the stage But there are also a couple that we can consistently replicate, I just need to lab more. For example, there's Tether Launch.

Ultimate has a mechanic where, if a tether automatically disconnects under certain circumstances, you get a horizontal and vertical boost. This can be used to go past ledge like a snake skip then launch yourself up and over the enemy. If done on a stage like Town and City, you can use the boost to ride up and over the lip to somewhat safely recover There's also a way to ledge snap without the 2 frames of vulnerability. I believe it's done by tethering while roughly in this box