SSBU/Lucina

Overview

Combos

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Overview

Lucina
Weight:	90
Spotdodge:The duration and intangibility of this character's on-spot dodges.	25F (3~17F intangible)
Air Dodge:The intangibility of this character's air dodges, both neutral and directional.	3~29F intangible (Neutral) 3~21F intangible (Directional)
Fastest OOS:	Up B (5F)

Overview

[[File:SSBU/Lucina_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=SSBU/Lucina/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[SSBU/Lucina/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]] (ルキナ) is an Echo Fighter of Marth, and like other characters based on Marth boasts stellar hitboxes, framedata, and mobility, with which she can bully the opponent in the midrange. Her suite of tools all share large, disjointed hitboxes and quick framedata. Walling with falling aerials, anti-airing with f tilt, and air-to-airing with Nair and Fair make for a strong midrange anti-approach game yet amazing out of shield options such as Dolphin Slash (Up B), Fair, and Bair also force opponents to respect her space up-close. Against more passive foes, her falling Nair is a powerful approach option that is safe on shield, setting up her intimidating shield pressure that is complemented by the threat of Shieldbreaker. Offstage a combination of her quick aerials and Down B Counter can give her opponents trouble, yet her own recovery move, Dolphin Slash is virtually unchallengeable for most characters, being a frame 1 invincible attack with a large hitbox that is also devastatingly quick.

However, that is not to say Lucina is a character without fault; her air attributes, while having some benefits in juggling and recovery, give her problems in disadvantage and sometimes in neutral. Lucina's low gravity and max fall speed give opponents plenty of time to hit her while she is trying to land onstage after being hit upwards, and her poor airspeed further telegraphs her landings. This also means she cannot use jumps to escape pressure or the ledge as freely as other characters. In neutral, the floatiness can make it easier for her jumps and aerials to be punished, and her lack of airspeed can make it difficult to overshoot her attacks to deal with evasive opponents. Additionally, although her damage per hit is good, she has few combos past very low percents and this is exacerbated by Rage. Most of Lucina's KOing attacks have high base knockback but lower knockback growth than would be expected, meaning she can struggle to kill midstage and relies more on edgeguards and ledgetraps for KOs than other characters. This further cements Lucina's gameplan of holding stage control and keeping her opponents in the corner.

Summary

Lucina is a well-rounded sword character who can excel at both rush down and zoning depending on the match-up.
Pros	Cons
Amazing Normals: As a swordieShorthand for "sword character", but typically used to refer to Fire Emblem characters in particular., Lucina's weapon of choice gives her many notable disjoints on her attacks, and she has great frame data and base damage on top of them. Brutal Juggle Game: Lucina's fast and disjointed upward attacks and floatiness allows her to continue juggles and catch landings to rack up percent. Devastating Edgeguarding: With a combination of F-Air, B-Air, and her Counter special leading to borderline 'checkmate' scenarios against some recoveries, Lucina is very proficient at edgeguarding opponents. Virtually Unchallengeable Offstage: Lucina's recovery move Dolphin Slash is one of the most effective in the game, having frame 1 invincibility with great vertical reach and sending any contesting opponents flying into the stage. Lucina's low gravity allows her stall out many edgeguarding attempts made against her. Strong Shield: Lucina has among the strongest set of out-of-shield attacks in the game. She has her incredibly fast and semi-invincible Dolphin Slash to punish some of the safest moves, and F-Air and B-Air, and U-Smash to deal with shield cross-ups.	Poor Air Attributes: Exceptionally low gravity, middling max fall speed, and poor airspeed can leave Lucina very vulnerable in the air. This can lead to problems landing back onstage from above. She can also have trouble in neutral as her jumps are more punishable than other characters, and she can struggle to overshoot aerial attacks to chase retreating opponents. Few Combos: Lucina can only get solid conversions from most of her kit at percents close to 0. When Lucina herself is at high percent, Rage can prevent even these low percent combos from working on all but the heaviest characters. Lucinitis: Few of Lucina's moves KO upwards from ground level at reasonable percents, so she almost always needs to land attacks close to the blastzone with her horizontal KO moves to score KOs.

Normal Moves

Jab

Jab 1

Jab 2

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Tied with Dolphin Slash for Lucina's fastest attack, this is a standard get-off-me tool that is generally outclassed by Lucina's tilts. While unsafe and low reward, it has a niche in shield pressure for quickly punishing responses out of shield such as short hops or some slow attacks. If the first hit hits shield, the second can be delayed as a mix up, though this is quite unsafe.

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Jab 1

• Can be used to jab lock most characters

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Jab 2

• Can be used to check if the opponent will try to drop shield or do a defensive option after jab 1

Forward Tilt

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Virtually uncontested as a grounded anti-air in Ultimate, Lucina's FTilt allows her to easily punish jump-ins, especially short hops. The move also has great utility as a whiff punisher when combined with her great dash speed, and even a burst option when pivot cancelled; indeed pivot cancel FTilt will generally replace her dash attack as her go-to burst option. At low percents, when the move does not send into tumble, it is quite low reward beyond its high base damage, though it can set up a mix up where you can cover the opponent's defensive option with dash up shield or a short hop. In shield pressure it can be used to stuff jumps or slow attacks out of shield. It is quite useful in ledgetrapping, as its long range and active frames make it ideal for covering neutral get up. At high percents, it can even be a decent late kill option near the ledge.

Though this is a versatile tool that excels in many aspects, it has relatively high endlag, and care must be taken to avoid hitting shield with it versus characters with high range out of shield options such Shulk, Chrom, and Lucina herself.

Up Tilt

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Another strong anti-air in Lucina's arsenal, though this one is generally more limited to advantage state as it only hits directly above her, and most opponents will approach with jumps diagonally in neutral. It is however very effective in juggling situations, being able to combo into itself or up air to rack up high damage and keep the juggle going.

It should be noted that use of this move to catch a landing does require a bit of a read on the opponent's drift and timing, so smart players may double jump or directional airdodge away at the last second and Lucina will be unable to punish because of the relatively high endlag; if you have time to set up a falling up air instead, that may be the better option. It is also more difficult to time and generally not as effective versus characters with high fall speed that also have aerial attacks that hit below them, such as Fox or Wolf.

Down Tilt

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A stellar poke that dominates the ground game while being safe enough to start shield pressure. It can be used to stuff dashes, approach grounded opponents, or when used out of a dash back, whiff punish. At low percent this move doesn't do much on hit, but it does lend enough frame advantage to set up a mix up where you can cover the opponent's defensive option with dash up shield or a short hop. At higher percents when this move sends into tumble, it leads to a very strong tech chase situation on all but the floatiest of characters. Tech options can be punished with side B, another DTilt, F-Smash, or DSmash. A slightly charged DSmash will cover everything besides tech roll away and can KO, making this a reliable kill set up at later percents.

Dash Attack

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Almost universally agreed to be Lucina's worst move, dash attack is slow, punishable, and does not KO particularly early. It has some niche use in tech chases to punish tech roll away and catching opponents who drift slightly offstage to avoid a juggle, but is generally outclassed by pivot cancel FTilt or other ground moves out of dash.

Forward Smash

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Tied for the fastest forward smash in the game, this is an effective hard punish tool that when complemented by Lucina's high dash speed is great for punishing rolls and airdodges. It can also punish laggy attacks on shield that are -21 or worse (which includes most ledge attacks!) where other characters would not be able to get as hard a punish. At the ledge, F-Smash is effective at punishing neutral get up thanks to its active frames, especially large characters such as Ridley or Bowser.

However F-Smash is highly punishable on shield, and thanks to a nerf to its knockback, will rarely KO across stage and can even struggle at centre stage till later percents.

Up Smash

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Contrary to the animation and Hero's version of the move, the attack hits the ground on both sides of Lucina, which will push the opponent into the main hitbox. This makes it ideal for covering ledgeroll at spacings where neutral get up can be covered by FTilt, and it also has niche use as an out of shield punish, particularly on dash attacks where it is ambiguous on whether they will cross up or not, such as Mr. Game and Watch's.

Beware that the very edge of either of the launch hitboxes will fail to combo into the main hitbox, but this is consistent and avoidable with proper spacing.

Down Smash

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Lucina's fastest smash attack, this is ideal for tech chases as the second swing covers tech roll in. It can also be used to punish laggy moves on shield that are -17 or worse when F-Smash would not be possible. The second hit is stronger and safer than the first, but comes out much later.

Aerials

Neutral Aerial

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A key neutral and pressure tool that is ideal as both a rising aerial to air-to-air jumps and a falling aerial to pressure shield and deal with more grounded opponents. It is also one of Lucina's most reliable options for scoring KOs. Timing the move well during a short hop can make it difficult to intercept as the first hit will cover Lucina as she is jumping while the second will hit low to the ground to cover her landing; this makes Nair a strong approach option, though it is also well suited to defensive walling due to its range, activity, and low landing lag. It is her safest aerial and landing it very low against shield creates a very strong situation for her where any attempt to escape is punishable.

The move can be used at ledge to safely cover neutral get up and ledgejump, though it is not particularly consistent at true punishing either of those options. It can be strong against ledge attack however, and it can also beat out many ledgedrop aerials, especially if Lucina drifts back while using it.

Landing just the first hit can pop the opponent up slightly and allow for combos into F-Tilt or even F-Smash for a KO, though due to Lucina's fall speed this requires a lot of respect from the opponent, but it is ideal for punishing parry attempts.

Note that this move is unfortunately very prone to failure in certain situations: when used as a rising aerial, the first hit can fail to combo into the second and so the opponent will not be launched away. This is especially common when using the move to punish ledgejump.

Forward Aerial

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Less safe on shield and whiff than Nair, and generally will not KO at reasonable percents, but still has many advantages. For one, when used as a falling aerial it is less vulnerable to low profiling or whiffing against shorter characters. Furthermore its lower knockback makes it a more reliable combo tool allowing for conversions into Dancing Blade or grab. Due this lower knockback however, it is not safe on hit as a rising aerial until later percents. The move also has fairly low aerial lag, allowing Lucina to perform two in one full hop, and this can also be useful offstage to 'frametrap' airdodges and other options.

Back Aerial

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• Using this move will turn Lucina around mid-air, preventing continuous use of it in one direction.

A reliable KO option that is ideal for hard calling out ledgejumps or other aerial attempts to escape the corner. Offstage this move's upwards arc make it well suited to catching double jumps. Though safe on shield, this is only situationally useful as a falling aerial as the hitbox at Lucina's feet is quite small.

Up Aerial

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A high damage juggle tool and combo starter that has niche use in neutral. Using a falling Up Air out of a shorthop is an effective, rewarding, and low risk way of catching a landing. Even if it fails to hit its mark because the opponent double jumped away or airdodged, Lucina will often be able to punish or keep the juggle going because of the low endlag. The only problem is that this requires some set up compared to simply using Up Tilt, so that may be the better option when time is short. The attack can also be used to intercept the opponent in the air, and this can be ideal against characters like King Dedede who like to stall out juggle attempts with their air options.

In neutral Up Air also has situational use, such as to anti-air full hops or to cross up the opponent's shield

Down Aerial

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Lucina's best combo starter, though unsafe and generally impractical in neutral. It can see use to punish heavy commitments, such as dash attacks, or as an occasional timing mix up on shield. The move also sees use in disadvantage to make opponents respect her landing; it is more well suited to this than most Dairs in the game because of its comparatively privileged speed and disjoint. Offstage is where the move is most threatening, as the centre hitbox is a devastating spike, though only for a single frame. It is especially effective against slow, telegraphed recoveries such as Fox's Fire Fox and Bowser's Whirling Fortress. Note that due to its high aerial lag it is best used close to stage, such as run off double jump Dair, which allows Lucina to drift back onstage and remain safe afterwards.

Specials

Shield Breaker

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Dolphin Slash

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Counter

Counter stance

Riposte

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In neutral this move is not advisable due to its high endlag; you almost always have safer and less timing dependant ways to punish the opponent trying to attack you directly, such as dash back, out-of-shield options, parry, f-tilt, roll-in, walling with falling aerials etc. In disadvantage it can be used as an occasional mix up to punish overzealous opponents, especially offstage or at the ledge, but be aware that its use when being juggled is very limited as the counter attack does not hit far below Lucina. In advantageous juggle situations the move can be sometimes used to punish long lasting aerials such as the 'sex kick' Nairs of Wolf or Fox but even then there can be more reliable and rewarding options than Counter.

Offstage, however, is where the move truly shines; it is a highly effective punish on almost any recovery move with a hitbox. It is particularly effective when used out of a ledgedrop or ledgeslip, and against slower and more telegraphed recoveries such as Donkey Kong's Spinning Kong or Fox's Fire Fox it can spell certain doom. However, it is best to only use this if you are all but certain the opponent will use their recovery move when you think they will, as if not knocked too far offstage they can often hug the stage, delay their recovery move, or use just a double jump and directional airdodge to recover.

Grabs & Throws

Grabs & Pummel

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• Frame 10 out of shield, can be used to punish poorly spaced ground moves and some aerials

Lucina's only attack that does not use her sword. This grab is as fast as grabs can be while also boasting generous range in comparison to other grabs of its speed. It complements the rest of Lucina's kit well, being a strong whiff punish tool, especially out of a pivot, and is of course great at calling out shield use. While her throws lead to good positioning, their damage is pitiful. This can be mitigated with pummels somewhat, especially at higher percents, but capitalizing on the resulting advantage state is crucial for making the most of Lucina's grab.

Forward Throw

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Back Throw

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Up Throw

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Down Throw

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Misc Attacks

Ledge Attack

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Getup Attack

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Trip Attack

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Navigation

To edit frame data, edit values in SSBU/Lucina/Data.

[[File:SSBU_{{{2}}}_Stock.png|link=SSBU/{{{2}}}|x25px|alt=]] [[SSBU/{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]

Overview

Combos

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Navigation