Lucina (SSBU)

**Lucina** (Template:Ja, *Lucina*) is a playable character in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*. She was confirmed as a playable character on June 12th, 2018. She is an Echo Fighter of Marth, thus being classified as fighter #21ε.

Laura Bailey and Yū Kobayashi's portrayals of Lucina from *SSB4* were repurposed for the English and Japanese versions of *Ultimate*, respectively.

## How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

* Play VS. matches, with Lucina being the 23rd character to be unlocked.
* Clear Classic Mode with Yoshi or any character in his unlock tree, being the fifth character unlocked after Ganondorf.
* Have Lucina join the player's party in World of Light.

Lucina must then be defeated on Arena Ferox for all three methods.

## Attributes

As in *SSB4*, the primary difference between Lucina and Marth is that Lucina lacks a tipper, meaning that her sword attacks deal equal damage throughout her blade. While her sword attacks deal more damage and knockback than Marth's weak sourspots, they deal less damage and knockback than his powerful tipper sweetspots. Theoretically, Marth deals more overall damage when played optimally and can kill earlier, but Lucina can deal consistent damage and kill more reliably without worrying about precise spacing, and her KOing potential is significantly more consistent in comparison, especially at higher percents.

Overall, whether a person wants to use Lucina or Marth is based on their playstyle. Marth relies on spacing, more defensive play, and early KOs with his powerful tippers. Lucina can be played more aggressively, and relies on her more effective combos to increase the damage enough so she can KO the opponent. Marth can be more rewarding if used right, but Lucina's consistent damage and knockback gives her a stronger up-close game, makes her attacks significantly safer on shield and on hit than Marth's sourspotted moves, and gives her better matchups against smaller or faster characters that Marth can have a hard time landing his tippers against, such as Pikachu or Fox. Even without a tipper, Lucina is still extremely effective at spacing. She also shares Marth's other strengths, such as his decent mobility, above-average frame data, strong juggling and edgeguarding capabilities, and decent out of shield options. As such, she is considered to be one of the easiest and most versatile characters in the game, even when compared to Marth.

Despite her strengths and versatility, Lucina is not without flaws, most of them shared with Marth. As a solely sword-based character, her otherwise-excellent neutral game suffers from her lack of a projectile, and she can struggle against projectile-heavy characters and playstyles. This ties in with her vulnerability once she loses the neutral game, as despite having a below-average weight and only average falling speed, Lucina is susceptible to combos, and her tall hurtbox provides an easy target. Dolphin Slash is her only reliable combo-breaker, but as it leaves her helpless, it can inadvertently put her in an even worse position. Also, while Counter can be used defensively, it leaves Lucina extremely vulnerable to punishment should it whiff. Lucina also has little defense against juggling, as her aerials are ineffective at relieving pressure; though her attacks have quick startup, many of them come with high ending lag, and also suffer from short hitbox durations.

Like with Marth, Lucina's weak throws are another notable weakness. Except for her up throw, they have low knockback scaling, preventing them from KOing at realistic percents, while up throw can only KO starting at 160% if Lucina has no rage. Her throw game is poor as well; aside from having a fairly fast pummel, Lucina's throws deal low damage and have high base knockback, making them poor for combos and damage-racking outside of very low percents, such as aerials at 0%. However, it should be noted that the high base knockback of her throws allow Lucina to take advantage of her good edgeguarding capability, especially at the edge.

Lucina herself is somewhat vulnerable to edgeguarding, though she has options for mix-ups with her recovery. Dolphin Slash is her only reliable vertical recovery option, and while it is still a threat to edgeguarders due to its speed and high stage spike ability, its path is linear and its distance fixed, making it fairly predictable. Additionally, since this move grants little horizontal distance, Lucina is vulnerable to semi-spikes. While Shield Breaker can aid her horizontal recovery, it covers little distance without charging. Lucina is also heavily reliant on her double jump for mix-ups in his recovery, and is in significant danger if offstage without it.

## Differences from Marth

As mentioned above, the primary difference between Lucina and Marth is that Lucina lacks a tipper, meaning that her sword attacks deal equal damage throughout her blade. This means that Lucina will be able to rack up damage and KO much more consistently, but in turn does not have the option to Ko as early as Marth does.

Lucina was also slightly recloned from her previous appearance in *SSB4*, as she is no longer smaller than Marth (which increases the size of her hurtbox but improves her range), her up tilt will now move her forward slightly, and she no longer keeps her momentum on her neutral attack and up tilt. Despite losing these somewhat negligible differences, she keeps one other difference from *SSB4*: her up tilt has a unique sweetspot based on how late into the swing the opponent is hit. This ensures that she can rack up damage more easily with her up tilt as long as she is facing away from her opponent.

While Lucina and Marth have largely identical attacks, mobility attributes and frame data, the lack of a tipper spreads across Lucina's entire moveset, making her one of the more unique Echo Fighters alongside her father Chrom and Ken. As such, these three characters are expected to have their own spots on the tier list, and are expected to be permitted to be used alongside their base fighters in Squad Strike. Lucina has obtained excellent results and representation early in the *Ultimate* metagame, especially compared to Marth; as such, she is near-universally considered to be the best swordfighter in the game.

### Aesthetics

* As with all other Echo Fighters, Lucina has different taunts and victory animations.
* Lucina's on-screen appearance is slightly different from that of Marth, as she removes her mask. She also has a different No Contest animation as well.
* Unlike all other Echo Fighters, Lucina's Screen KO animation is different from Marth's.
* Lucina's victory theme is different from that of Marth, being a remix of the *Fire Emblem Awakening* song "Id (Purpose)."
* Lucina's sword trails are completely opaque, while Marth's are only opaque at the tip of his blade.

### Attributes

* Unlike the Falchion, the Parallel Falchion lacks a tipper. As such, its entire blade deals equal damage and knockback on most attacks, equal to the weighted average of Marth's sweetspotted and sourspotted attacks.
	+ Moves that move Lucina forward, such as Dancing Blade, are more effective than Marth's variants, due to the forward movement counteracting with the tipper.
	+ Lucina can rack up damage more easily than Marth, as most of his Falchion is composed of its sourspot.
	+ This makes Lucina's combos, edgeguarding and KOing ability much more consistent, and gives her a significantly better up-close game.
	+ Lucina's damage output and knockback values are lower than Marth's sweetspots. This renders her incapable of securing extremely early KOs like Marth can.
* Aside from her neutral attack, the rest of Lucina's moveset lacks hitlag modifiers.
* Lucina's sidestep retains her horizontal momentum, granting it follow-ups that Marth's lacks.

### Ground attacks

* Lucina's up tilt (named "Anti-air Slash" in the in-game tips) has a unique timing-based sweetspot. On the later half of the slash, the attack does more damage while also having weaker knockback. The combination of less knockback and more damage allows her up tilt to rack more damage than Marth's as long as she is facing away from her opponent.
	+ Since the timing-based sweetspot deals less knockback, it cannot be used to reliably KO as much as Marth's variant.

### Special moves

* Shield Breaker:
	+ Lucina's Shield Breaker's animation is different. She leans farther back during its start-up; trembles more exaggeratedly while rearing her arm back; and takes a step forward during its thrust. This marginally improves Lucina's horizontal recovery potential compared to Marth's, due to her hitbox being slightly wider when using this move. This change is also reflected when Kirby copies the move.
* Dolphin Slash:
	+ Lucina may shout when using Dolphin Slash, whereas Marth does not vocalize when using it.
* Counter:
	+ Lucina's Counter's stance is different. She also has different quotes when she counterattacks, saying either "My turn!" or "You're mine!"
* Critical Hit:
	+ Lucina utters "Time to change fate!" when using her Final Smash, whereas Marth merely grunts.

==Changes from *Super Smash Bros. (universe)*

* Lucina now occasionally vocalizes when performing her first jump.
* Lucina's victory theme is now a snippet of the *Fire Emblem Awakening* song, "Id (Purpose)". [1]

### Attributes

* Like all characters, Lucina's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 5).
* Lucina walks faster (1.5 → 1.575).
* Lucina runs significantly faster (1.785 → 1.964).
	+ Lucina's initial dash is significantly faster (1.5 → 2.255).
* Lucina's air speed is faster (1.02 → 1.071).
* Lucina's traction is much higher (0.055 → 0.114).
* Forward roll has less
* Neutral attack:
	+ Neutral attack does not retain her horizontal momentum anymore. Like Marth, Lucina will now stop her horizontal momentum if she uses her neutral attack.
	+ Both hits have shorter durations (first hit: frame 5-7 → 5-6, second hit: frame 3-5 → 4-5).
	+ The first hit transitions into the second hit faster (frame 19 → 11), allowing it to connect better.
	+ The first hit has altered angles (78°/65°/90° → 361°/361°/180°/361°) and knockback (55 base/30 scaling → 30 base/15/12/12/12 scaling) to keep opponents close to Lucina, akin to other neutral attacks. This allows it to connect more reliably and jab lock much like in *SSB4* before the 1.0.8 update, but most importantly removes all its guaranteed jab cancel setups.
	+ The second hit has more startup (frame 3 → 4).

```
a slightly more horizontal arc.

```

* Forward tilt:
	+ Forward tilt deals slightly more damage (10.925% → 11%), albeit with knockback scaling compensated (77 → 74).
* Up tilt:
	+ Up tilt does not retain her horizontal momentum anymore. Like Marth, Lucina will stop her horizontal momentum if she uses her up tilt.
	+ The late hit sends opponents at a consistent angle (85°/100°/100°/85° → 85°).
	+ Lucina's up tilt has her move forward just like Marth's. This improves its horizontal range and gives it the same spacing potential as Marth's. However, this in turn makes it harder to repeatedly land the stronger late hit.
* Forward smash:
	+ Forward smash has less knockback scaling (80 → 73).

frames → 10 (forward), 17 frames → 10 (back), 14 frames → 8 (up), 24 frames → 14 (down)).}}

* Neutral aerial:
	+ Neutral aerial's first hit has more base knockback (30 → 45/45/35) and altered angles (80°/75°/65°/90° → 75°/80°/90°), allowing it to connect into the second hit while rising, and improving its combo potential on landing when combined with its lower landing lag.
	+ It deals slightly more damage (4.2% → 4.275% (hit 1), 8.5% → 8.55% (hit 2)).
* Forward aerial:
	+ Forward aerial has altered hitbox placements (2u/0u/7.7u → 3.5u/0u/7.5u (Z-offset), 0u/0u/0u → 1u/1u/1u (X-offset)), and the hitboxes are smaller overall (3.5u/3.5u/3.5u → 3u/3.8u/3u), reducing its range.
	+ Forward aerial has less knockback scaling (85 → 77), improving its combo potential, but hindering its KO potential.
* Back aerial:
	+ Back aerial has altered hitbox placements (2.0u/0u/7.7u → 3.7u/0u/7u (Z-offset), 0u/0u/0u → 0u/2u/0u (X-offset)), reducing its range.

* Down aerial:
	+ The removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes improves down aerial's combo potential onstage, compounded further by its lower landing lag.
	+ It deals slightly more damage (12.3% → 12.35% (non-meteor), 14.2% → 14.25% (meteor)).

### Throws and other attacks

* Standing grab has less startup (frame 7 → 6).
* Dash and pivot grab have more startup (frame 8 → 9 (dash), 9 → 10 (pivot)).
* All grabs have increased ending lag (FAF 30 → 35 (standing), 37 → 43 (dash), 35 → 38 (pivot)).
* Lucina's throws are no longer weight-dependent. This improves her down throw's combo potential on heavyweights, but reduces it on lightweights.
* All of Lucina's throws except up throw release the opponent slower (frame 15 → 18 (forward), 9 → 19 (back), 16 → 20 (down)), making them easier to DI.
* Pummel:
	+ Pummel deals less damage (2% → 1.3%).
	+ It deals more hitlag (4 frames → 14), but has much less startup (frame 6 → 1) and ending lag (FAF 16 → 7).
* Forward throw:
	+ Lucina has a new forward throw, a quick elbow strike to the opponent's chest.
	+ Due to the faster knockback physics and reduced hitstun for higher knockback values, it has lost its combo potential.
* Up throw:
	+ Up throw deals more damage (4% → 5%), with its knockback scaling compensated (120 → 102).
* Down throw:
	+ Down throw deals less damage (5% → 4%), with its knockback scaling compensated (50 → 57).
	+ Its animation has been changed slightly, with Lucina slamming the opponent onto the ground with a more exaggerated throw.
* Edge attack:
	+ Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Shulk's Shield Monado Art, it can still be teched at very low percentages.}}

## Update history

Unlike Marth, who has remained largely intact, Lucina has been slightly nerfed overall, likely as a result of her perceived top-tier status. Update 3.0.0 increased the range of her dash grab, much like Marth, Roy and her father, which was infamous for not grabbing through shields, making it easier for her to reliably grab opponents. The nerfs to the shield damage of various projectiles also benefits Lucina, making it easier for her to overcome projectile camping from various characters. However, update 3.1.0 reduced the knockback scaling of Lucina's forward smash and forward aerial, somewhat hindering her KOing ability, though forward aerial's combo potential has somewhat improved as a result.

 **1.1.0**

* The animation for swinging with a battering weapon has been updated.

 **3.0.0**

* Dash grab has more range.

 **3.1.0**

* Forward smash has less knockback scaling (77 → 73).
* Forward aerial has less knockback scaling (81 → 77), hindering its edgeguarding and KO potential, but slightly improving its combo potential.
* Lucina's head size increased a lot but body size decreased, causing hurtbox size to overall remain the same.

## Moveset

* Lucina's overall damage output is close to the weighted average of each of the hitboxes of Marth's attacks.

*Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.*

Dancing Blade