LUBBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbUw57tehB8&list=PLcs-Apkv31pTPtrCW4bnVdtAbavgYaT3u
Lubba is a supporting character from Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the leader of the Lumas, directly taking the role of Rosalina who is reduced to nothing but a cameo role in his game. If Lubba was a sexy woman, he probably would’ve been put in the spinoffs and Smash Bros afterwards.
Lubba appears very similar to the hungry Lumas who can be fed star bits to turn into new levels, obviously very fat. Unlike the other hungry Lumas, Lubba does not want to kill himself in order to be “reincarnated” as a planet, having any actual will to live. He ensures that all of the power stars are kept in place and that a steady stream of Lumas are sacrificing themselves regularly in order to become planets, so long as it’s not him.
Playlist
STATISTICS
Aerial Control: 10
Size: 9
Weight: 8.5
Jumps: 8
Aerial Speed: 5
Traction: 4.5
Falling Speed: 4
Ground Movement: 2
Lubba is a heavyweight with an aerial affinity, a very dangerous combination in the vein of Brawl Dedede. While his low falling speed makes him easier to kill off the top than some other heavyweights, the advantages make it more than worth it, and he’s certainly still plenty durable.
Lubba is accompanied by a Hungry Luma at all times in an identical manner to Rosalina, which behave in the same way to the letter with the same mechanics, durability, and respawn time. Hungry Lumas are the size of Kirby, and Lubba becomes a bit more crippled by their deaths than Rosalina, which is nice when killing Rosalina’s Lumas practically does nothing to slow her down. Considering Lubba’s appearance and name are largely based on his weight, it makes sense that he uses Hungry Lumas rather than regular ones.
SPECIALS
NEUTRAL SPECIAL – STAR BITS
A targeting reticle identical to the one in Mario Galaxy appears over Lubba for as long as the button is held. The reticle can move anywhere you want at Captain Falcon’s dashing speed, and star bits will constantly be fired from the foreground at the position of the reticle. It’s almost entirely lagless to fire Star Bits, but it takes them a full second to actually reach the main stage and hit people.
Star bits deal a token 1% and flinching, but Lubba will fire 1 star bit every 2 frames he holds down B, or 30 per second. If a foe stood in place and tanked the star bits, they would take 30% per second, but it’s very easy to DI away from the star bits after only taking about 10 hits. Theoretically if you could predict the foe’s DI perfectly you could infinite them with this move, but the second long delay obviously prevents this.
If star bits are fired at Lubba or a Hungry Luma, they will laglessly consume the star bit regardless of what action they’re doing, even dodging. This will increase their size by 2% per star bit eaten, and their power will be boosted by 1.01x for every 2% their size increases. At 200% size, the cap, they will have 1.5x their regular power.
Nothing special happens to Lubba when he’s max size, but Hungry Lumas will turn into planets. They will hover upwards at least 1.25 Ganondorfs into the air if they weren’t already before they form a solid planet 1.5x Bowser’s size. The forming of the planet is a hitbox that deals 13% and radial knockback that kills at 140%. Lubba will instantly get a new Hungry Luma minion if he turns it into a planet. The Hungry Lumas will refuse to turn into planets if more than 3 Ganondorfs away from the stage, instead flying into range before they do so. This prevents Lubba from stalling on a planet far away from the stage forever.
Planets have their own gravity and are solid. If an aerial character comes within a Mario height of the planet, they will get pulled in at the force of Dedede’s inhale. If they actually stand on the planet, they will be fully affected by its gravity, become able to stand on it, and any “falling speed” will cause them to fall towards the planet rather than downwards. Characters can run around planets and stand on them upside down with how gravity works on them, and projectiles also are bound by the gravity of planets, circling around them if their range allows it. In order to escape a planet’s gravity, characters must move 1.2 Ganondorf heights away from it. Enemies can destroy planets by dealing 75 damage to them, and planets will stick around through Lubba’s stocks.
Summoning star bits only puts Lubba in lag while his Hungry Luma is free to move and do anything that doesn’t require the B button (the only special Hungry Luma can use is Side Special anyway). Hungry Luma cannot shield or dodge and is obviously far more frail than Lubba, but this serves as the most obvious way to desynch it from Lubba. Unlike Rosalina and Luma, Lubba and Hungry Luma are very similar physically, and as such have mostly the same moveset.
SIDE SPECIAL – STAR SPIT
Lubba and Hungry Luma begin spitting a stream of star bits together, traveling the length of Final Destination. Each of them shoot 3 star bits per second by default, which still do 1% and flinching like in the Neutral Special.
If Lubba/Hungry Luma have consumed star bits already, they will spit them out at the same rate they can be fired in Neutral Special, but this will decrease their size as they do so. This is a very powerful stream of projectiles to actually show up on the spot without any kind of delay, but it’s using up a very valuable resource.
If Lubba and Hungry Luma are facing each other, they will consume the star bits they spit at each other before immediately spitting them back out. This can enable Lubba and Hungry Luma to have a constant stream of Star Bits going between each other to keep the set-up forever, though if a foe knocks either one of you out of the way, all the star bits sent flying won’t be caught and will be wasted. So long as Lubba/Hungry Luma are facing the star bits, they can reconsume them regardless of what action they’re in, enabling them to spit projectiles while on a planet and wait for them to circle back around before eating them again.
UP SPECIAL – BLACK HOLE
Lubba forms a black hole in front of himself similar in appearance to the one formed by Rosalina in her fsmash and dsmash. Unlike Rosalina, these actually do things beyond be generic hitboxes and stick around as traps until destroyed with 30 HP. If a character is knocked into a black hole when 2 exist, they will get sucked inside of it for .3 seconds before being shot out of the other one in the opposite direction they were flying before resuming their knockback where they left off. As enemies fly out of the black hole, they are immune to further hitstun for 0.1 seconds if they’re an enemy.
Creating a black hole in the air when one already exists will cause Lubba (and Hungry Luma if he’s synched) to enter it after he finishes creating it, coming out the other side .1 seconds later. If Lubba already had 2 black holes when he input Up Special, he can choose which one he comes out of by holding left or right to go into the leftmost or rightmost black hole, with the one he didn’t use being destroyed. If Lubba already has 2 black holes and he inputs Up Special in front of one of them, he’ll just enter it immediately without going through extra lag to create a new one.
If projectiles enter a black hole when 2 exist, the projectile will be transferred into the other one and be shot out in the opposite direction before resuming its trajectory. In the case of Lubba’s Neutral Special, the star bits will be shot out of the black hole as if they were fired by Lubba’s Side Special. If the black holes are destroyed while projectiles are still inside of them before they are shot out, they will be stored and be shot out of the next black hole that is opened. If a foe’s projectile hits a black hole, it will still be transferred like Lubba’s projectile, but it will deal its damage to the first black hole and will still retain ownership to the foe.
If Lubba (not Hungry Luma) enters a black hole while a foe is inside, he will come out of the black hole when the foe does with them grabbed.
If Lubba inputs Up Special in the air with no black holes created yet, he will stick his lower half into it before firing himself upwards out of it 1.3 Ganondorf heights at a 45 degree angle as a hitbox that deals 13% and knockback that kills at 165% before entering helpless. This means Lubba still has access to a recovery without having to rely on set-up. Lubba of course prefers to have black holes already up, and he has playstyle incentives to keep them out besides recovery when they enable him to better flood the stage with star bits.
DOWN SPECIAL – GRAVITATIONAL PULL
This is similar to Rosalina’s Down Special of the same name – Lubba becomes a center of gravity and causes all projectiles in a 1.5x Bowser width radius around him to levitate in place, constantly staying that specific distance away from him as he moves around. This can nullify enemy projectiles, but will not take ownership of them, and when Lubba takes knockback he will be sent flying faster than he can keep up his pull, enabling him to be knocked into enemy projectiles he has grabbed with this move.
Lubba can fire star bits all around himself to form something of a protective shield around himself that he can use to ram into enemies with a powerful hitbox, but when star bits are so weak they can be destroyed by any enemy attack, so it’s more for offensive purposes than defensive.
This will work on Hungry Luma, causing him to stay a specific distance away from Lubba. This can make his hurtbox not overlap with Lubba and enable him to attack from more advantageous angles. If a foe was within range of this move, they will just be levitated about in place and dealt 6% in an animation very similar to Mewtwo’s Side Special before being free to act again.
If Lubba inputs this move when he already has something grabbed, he will attempt to grab more objects in addition to the ones he already has. If he holds down B, he will be able to rotate the objects around him by holding down left or right. If he smashes Down Special when he has something grabbed, he will cause all of the objects to fly away from him at radial angles directly away from himself. Any projectiles he has caught will have their range reset when fired out like this. This will make enemy projectiles harmful to their owners, but they will still be hurtful to Lubba so as to not be as stupid as the reflectors actually in Smash. If Hungry Luma was fired out with Down Special Smash, he will be fired out a set distance comparably to Rosalina’s Neutral Special in the specified direction.
If Lubba inputs the move as a smash when he has something grabbed already, he will move the gravitational field rather than rotating it as he holds the button, moving about at Mario’s dash speed. The gravitational field will stay wherever it is when Lubba releases it, and Lubba can still input Down Special to move it where it is. If Down Special Smash is input and Lubba, Hungry Luma, or the foe is inside of the ring, it will become synched to that character, prioritizing them in that order if multiple characters are inside of it. The gravitational field will only follow a foe for 10 seconds before it will stop in place and stop following them, and Lubba cannot resynch it to them for 2 more seconds.
If Lubba is moving around the gravitational field and holds shield in addition to B, the radius of the gravitational field will expand outwards/inwards based off whether the right/left shield button was held, though the radius cannot be any smaller than the default. A particularly interesting opportunity this offers is to make a gravitational field that circles a planet perfectly. Shooting star bits around a planet is already nice, but now you can grab them out of thin air and redirect them! The spherical nature of planets prevents foe from just hiding inside the ring of the gravitational field, and Lubba’s moveset is of course well equipped to fight on these planets.
SMASHES
FORWARD SMASH – STAR BALL
Lubba generates star bits in front of himself to form a giant clumped up ball of star bits during the charging before firing it off at Mario’s dashing speed the distance of Final Destination. If Lubba has no Hungry Luma synched to him, he will generate a Kirby-Wario sized star bit ball that deals 15-20% and knockback that kills at 180-160%. Hungry Luma will assist Lubba and help adding star bits to charge the ball, making it be Kirby-Bowser sized, deal 15-25%, and knockback that kills at 180-140%. If any star bits from any source come into contact with the ball as it’s charging or flying forward, they will be added into the ball and adds to its power, charging it up if it was uncharged, or increasing its power and size by up to 1.3x with 20 additional star bits if it was already fully charged with both Lubba and Hungry Luma. If Lubba is undisturbed, firing Neutral Special at his location for a full second before beginning to charge this move will enable him to reach the move’s full potential power.
Hungry Luma counts as “synched” if he is in Lubba’s Down Special Gravitational Pull, in which case they will form the ball between them before firing it in the direction Lubba was originally facing. The ball deals 5 hits of 1% and flinching during charging, so the positioning of Hungry Luma can be relevant, potentially using him and the ball as a meat shield for Lubba during charging.
If Hungry Luma is desynched when using this move, the version he charges will be Pokeball-Mario sized and deal 9-14% with knockback that kills at 215-190%. If two Star Balls meet up with each other, the larger one will absorb the smaller one assuming it’s not at max size already. This version can enable Lubba to get a higher power with less charge time, but obviously leaves them both more vulnerable.
While Lubba/Hungry Luma cannot eat the star ball like individual star bits, if it breaks the star ball will burst back into individual star bits that all fly off at slightly different angles to form a circle around the target they hit. The ball has an amount of star bits in it equal to the amount of damage it would deal. If the star bits hit an actual opponent, they won’t get hit by the star bits as it splits up, as the star bits fly off incredibly quickly at Sonic’s dashing speed and aren’t hitboxes until moving a Marth height away from the original target.
Lubba will want to recollect as many of the star bits as possible, with ways to do that including eating them, having Hungry Luma desynched to eat some on another side, black holes, and having them get sucked into a planet’s gravity and start circling it. If nothing else, this will halt the foe from regaining offensive momentum briefly as they have to wait for the wall of projectiles surrounding them to disperse, as rolling past it will prove quite difficult.
UP SMASH – METEOR
Lubba summons a Wario sized meteor above himself to drop his own width in front of himself. The meteor will spawn at varying heights above Lubba based off charge, 1.5 Ganondorf-3 Ganondorf heights if 99% charged, or spawning at the top blast zone if fully charged. The meteor is immediately a hitbox as it spawns and Lubba can spawn it very quickly, though he takes a bit longer to exit lag. The meteor will begin falling to the ground after spawning, and while it’s weak and slow at first, as it begins to “enter Earth’s atmosphere”, it will begin flaming and become faster and more powerful.
The meteor starts out dealing 10% and knockback that kills at 200%, but for each Ganondorf it falls it will increase in damage by 3% and KO 17% earlier. If the meteor hits the stage, it will explode in an explosion the size of Kirby, increasing in size by half a Kirby radius for every Ganondorf the meteor fell. Half of this explosion will take place inside of the stage, while the other half will be above it as an actual hitbox, but if the meteor fall far enough this will still be bigger than the normal hitbox it has. The meteor retains the normal power here in the explosion, but is boosted as if it had fell yet another Ganondorf height. This caps at 5 Ganondorf heights + the 1 “bonus” for landing on the stage, dealing 28% and killing at 102%.
Any part of the explosion that overlaps the stage will destroy that portion of the stage, leaving a crater, the terrain sloping on either side to enable people to run across from one side of the decimated ground to the other. Lubba cannot destroy edges with this or actually break through to the bottom of a stage. While planets will persist after Lubba’s death, his terraforming done to the main stage will be restored.
Hungry Luma’s version is 0.7x weaker in size and power, and also only goes up 0.7x as high into the air, is unable to spawn at the top blast zone like Lubba’s version, cannot terraform, and falls even more slowly. If Hungry Lumma uses this move alongside Lubba, Lubba’s meteor will crash into Hungry Luma’s and cause both of them to blow up. While this will not stack the power, the explosions will both use the power of Lubba’s meteor rather than Hungry Luma’s. If you want Lubba’s meteor to actually hit the ground and terraform, you’ll want to keep Hungry Luma out of the way with Gravitational Pull.
If one of Lubba’s planets is affected by Warlord brand terraforming (Including any in this moveset of course), slopes will not be created, but instead the amount of ground that would be affected is simply destroyed. Planets will retain their gravity when damaged for the most part, but a percentage of the gravity’s range will vanish that corresponds to the amount of the planet destroyed. While this makes it hard to suck enemies onto the planet against their will, it means you can still stand on it even if there’s very little there. When the planet has less than one fifth of its mass left, it will lose its solid status and fall to the ground as a generic hitbox that does a token 11% and knockback that kills at 160%, vanishing.
Lubba is able to spawn meteors inside of planets if he stands on the main stage below the planet, destroying them from the inside. This can be useful to hit opponents who are merely standing on the planet as you instantly spawn a hitbox on top of them, and for intentionally decreasing the range of the planet’s gravity if you feel like it.
If Lubba positions one black hole directly above another one, he can have the meteor fall into the lower black hole before being transferred to the higher black hole. This will cause the meteor to keep going in a cycle forever and enable it to quickly reach max power. When you want it to actually hit the stage, Lubba merely needs to create a new black hole, though it’s tempting to simply keep it around as a trap. The foe has to destroy one of the black holes to stop this trap, and that can prove very dangerous without risking getting hit by the super strong meteor. This can of course also apply to star bits/star balls, and mixing them in with this can make it even scarier. It may be safer for foes to knock Lubba off the stage to force him to recover to voluntarily remove the potentially very elaborate trap.
If Lubba grabs onto a meteor with his Gravitational Field, it will briefly retain its momentum from falling, visible by how much fire is surrounding the meteor. It won’t just be frozen in place, though, quickly losing its power/momentum, even a fully charged meteor losing all of it in just 2 seconds. If Lubba moves the meteor around in his gravitational field, this will slightly slow down the rate it loses its momentum, 5 seconds for a fully charged meteor to turn to nothing. This can redirect what is otherwise a very slow and predictable projectile, and can also enable you to briefly grab a meteor out of a black hole loop to bat at the enemy before putting it back when you’re satisfied without any loss.
DOWN SMASH – BELLY BUMP
If Lubba and Hungry Luma are desynched, this is a rather generic move where they turn to face the camera and puff out their stomachs to bump enemies away, dealing 10-15%/6-9% and radial knockback that kills at 180-155%/230-205% based off which one did it. If they are synched, they will turn to face each other before belly bumping into each other, forming a hitbox that deals 19-24% and knockback that kills at 145-100%. This will cause the smaller of the two (Hungry Luma by default of course) to be launched a distance that varies based off the size difference between the two characters. At max size, Lubba can launch a minimum size Hungry Luma 1.5x Final Destination’s length at 1.2x Sonic’s dashing speed, making him deal 20% and knockback that kills at 80%. This enables you to easily separate one of them from the other, and the launched one of the two will have very little vulnerability, with the one left behind being the one in more vulnerable lag since they’re not moving and aren’t a hitbox anymore.
By default they would simply fire the other character straight forwards, but if Luba has up a gravitational pull he can choose the angle they fire each other at. If used for defensive purposes, up is a popular option, or at some kind of upward angle if in a pit from usmash to fire them up the side of a slope. This is a very obvious move to desynch the characters, and can enable Lubba to send Hungry Luma out on a gimping mission if Hungry Luma is underfed and replacable anyway.
Alternatively, a fat Hungry Luma could launch Lubba away onto a planet or something to do set-up in relative safety while Hungry Luma fights the foe. If that sounds too difficult to multitask, all Lubba has to do is hold down B for his most direct method of set-up. If Hungry Luma was already fat enough to launch Lubba, he must be close to ready to become a planet anyway, so launching Lubba away to use Neutral Special can be a good way to enable the Hungry Luma to transform in safety while still fighting the foe.
AERIALS
DOWN AERIAL – FALLING STAR
Lubba performs the stereotypical stall then fall, becoming a hitbox that deals 17% and a spike 0.85x weaker than Ganon’s dair. Hungry Luma is much weaker as you’d expect and falls slower to boot, only dealing 9% and knockback that kills at 180%. If Hungry Luma was totally synched to Lubba, he will land on top of him after falling a Ganondorf height and shoot him downwards with the power of this move, making him a hitbox that deals 13% and knockback that kills at 100%. This will cause Lubba to cancel out of the aerial, skipping what would otherwise be bad ending lag.
If Hungry Luma is in a Gravitational Pull he will fall alongside Lubba, unless he was below Lubba at which point he will get crushed when they hit the ground. This can still happen normally if Lubba uses the move less than a Ganondorf height off the ground. If Lubba crushes Hungry Luma into the ground, Hungry Luma will get fully pitfalled inside the stage, having no hurtbox except against earthshaking attacks. This still prevents Lubba from having any kind of ending lag instead of the stereotypical bad landing lag from such moves, and while Hungry Luma will be in very extensive lag, he will be invulnerable during it. Aside from basic desynching/defensive strategy, the Lubba player can potentially send Neutral Special Star Bits where Hungry Luma is going to come out for him to eat as soon as he comes out, with the foe unable to pressure Hungry Luma away from that position since he’s invulnerable. Of course, Lubba now has to find time to set this up while alone, but even that isn’t as difficult as it sounds since he’ll have just created a very threatening hitbox and be free of lag.
If Lubba is bigger when he uses this move from eating star bits, Hungry Luma will stay pitfalled inside the stage for a longer duration. If Lubba is at least 1.5x his normal size, he will terraform when he smashes his fat ass onto the stage in a manner identical to the usmash. At 1.5x size, he will create a pit half as large as the usmash would create based on how far it falls, while at max size Lubba will create pits just as large. Creating slopes in the stage makes one of the best place to desynch a gravitational field besides a planet, letting the lower half of the circle occupy the dip in the stage while the upper half occupies the obvious trail the foe would jump over it with.
This has a very specific interaction if Lubba blows up the insides of a planet with usmash. If Lubba pitfalls Hungry Luma inside a planet with open space on the inside, Hungry Luma will be able to move inside the planet during that time! The main move he has access to in order to actually hit opponents is usmash, but he can also clip outside the planet to hit other foes on the planet if he really feels like it. Of course, foes can also clip their hitboxes to hit Hungry Luma, and given Hungry Luma’s nature he can still die from this despite being completely boxed in. Hungry Luma will still come up out from the inside of the planet after the normal amount of time passes. If you feed Hungry Luma enough Star Bits to make him transform while he’s inside a planet (Since you can still fire them directly to him with Neutral Special), instead of creating another planet he will add onto the size of the existing planet, repairing any destroyed portions, making it twice as big, adding an additional 75 HP, and proportionately increasing the radius of the gravity. This is far from a mandatory playstyle element, but makes it more feasible to keep around a planet throughout the generations of Lubba’s stocks.
NEUTRAL AERIAL - INHALE
Lubba begins inhaling for as long as the button is held down, pulling foes towards his mouth at the extremely nerfed rate of SSB4 Dedede’s Inhale. Lubba can DI while doing this unlike Dedede, and the hitbox is all around Lubba rather than just in front of him, making it a lot more potent for gimping. When Lubba releases A, he will exhale, pushing foes away with 7% and knockback that kills at 200%. Oftentimes Lubba will not want to do the forced exhale, but he can force himself to cancel out of the move by grabbing the ledge to use it better for obnoxious gimping.
If Hungry Luma is completely synched, he will buff the power of the inhale to be as strong as Brawl Dedede’s Inhale. If Hungry Luma is synched by a Gravitional Field, then he will still create his own wind hitbox to the side of Lubba, potentially causing foes to get awkwardly stuck between Lubba and Hungry Luma. They are very easy to interrupt out of this, but it can enable them to briefly drag an enemy, potentially into a planet’s gravity radius. Hungry Luma’s exhale isn’t weakened at all considering Lubba’s is already so weak anyway.
Of course this inhale can grab Star Bits out of the air, and the character will consume them as they’re sucked in. If the character chooses to exhale Star Bits within 15 frames of consuming them, they will exhale them in a circle shape around themselves, shooting them out at Sonic’s dashing speed in an identical fashion to how Star Balls split up with the fsmash.
This is incredibly, incredibly powerful when used in tandem with the fsmash. If you can keep a star ball around long enough for you to get on top of a foe or simply have one of your characters next to that foe when the other one launches it, they can inhale the star bits as they blast away from the foe. They can either eat them to make sure the star bits don’t go to waste, or immediately spit them back out in the foe’s face. When spit out in this fashion, the star bits are immediately a hitbox before they spread out, enabling you to shotgun them on the foe. The main scenario where you’d consider immediately sending them back out instead of eating them is on a foe who shielded the star ball and is still around to be hit. While this might sound predictable, if the two characters are desynched it’s very easy to put enough pressure on the opponent to make them shield at intervals where they’re the ones who are predictable, not you.
If Hungry Luma is ever killed and has eaten any star bits, he will explode in an explosion of the star bits he’s eaten as if he’d exhaled them with nair. It looks quite similar to when Megaman dies, except actually relevant and not just an easter egg. The star bits won’t be a hitbox until they fly a Marth height away from Hungry Luma like in fsmash, so foes won’t just be immediately punished for killing Hungry Luma.
FORWARD AERIAL - BLOAT
Lubba and Hungry Luma puff out their chests and charge forwards, dealing 9/5% and knockback that kills at 140/185%. The move causes the characters to travel forwards slightly, though not enough to be terribly helpful for recovery.
If either character has eaten any star bits, this move reveals its true nature as a very weird counter. Upon being hit, that character will vomit up an amount of star bits equal to the amount of damage the enemy character dealt. The character performing the counter will still take all of the offending attack’s damage and will in fact take even more knockback from the force of their own vomit, 1.2x the knockback of the foe’s attack. The foe simply takes the damage of their own attack and an amount of hitstun that increases based on how much damage they took as more star bits get vomited upon them. If the countering character had less star bits than the damage of the foe’s attack dealt, then they simply vomit all of them.
If Lubba is alone, this is a terrible, terrible counter compared to the existing ones in Smash Bros, as he can’t even capitalize on the foe’s stunned state. With Hungry Luma around, it becomes a lot scarier for the foe if you can desynch the other character well enough to actually punish the foe while they’re busy dealing with the other one. Even if Hungry Luma is synched, this becomes a notable move because it can potentially deal the foe twice the damage of their own attack. Of course, it’s a pretty steep price to pay in star bits and could potentially kill Hungry Luma or even Lubba.
BACK AERIAL – GRAVITATIONAL PUSH
Lubba distorts a Bowser sized clump of air behind himself, pushing anything in it forward with only 5%, but hefty knockback that kills at 115%, along with a high base knockback. If Hungry Luma is synched to Lubba, he will create a push effect in front of Lubba rather than behind him, and it will knock foes behind Lubba into Lubba’s personal hitbox. Hungry Luma’s is only Wario sized and deals 3% and knockback that kills at 200% without the high base knockback. If Hungry Luma is properly desynched, he will make the push effect behind himself.
While this move isn’t the fastest, the rather long hitbox duration is what covers most of the time you’re committed to the move. This is not a bad thing as it enables Lubba and Hungry Luma to push the foe into each other’s hitboxes. Essentially, you want to hit with the opposite hitbox first that you actually want the effect of – hit with Hungry Luma first to make Lubba’s high knockback be what the foe leaves the combo with, or hit with Lubba first in order to keep the foe nearby with Hungry Luma’s weaker knockback.
This move is useful in the context of a planet, as one of the hitboxes can be within one system of gravity while the other hitbox can be in the other one. This makes a decent move to put a foe into another system of gravity, and if Lubba hits first (and his hitbox size makes him easier to), Hungry Luma’s weak knockback will generally not knock the foe out of the new gravity system due to the foe’s awkward new direction they fall. This can lead this move into some “light” combos – this move is particularly obnoxious when you attempt to chain it into itself on a planet as a foe struggles to regain their footing. This works better at low percentages, so it makes keeping a planet around after Lubba dies more valuable. The damage from this move is very low even if both characters hit, though, so you’ll always be wanting to try to transition this into something more ambitious.
UP AERIAL - DIPPERS
Lubba and Hungry Luma turn to face the camera and do a rather generic spin if alone, dealing 10/6 hits of 1% and flinching with the last hit dealing knockback that KOs at 165/210%. If they’re together, Lubba will grab Hungry Luma and start swinging him over his head as a battering weapon. As Hungry Luma is being swung, he always does knockback towards Lubba - when being swung above Lubba he deals knockback downwards and vice versa. Hungry Luma deals 8% and knockback that kills at 170% as he’s being swung about.
At low percentages, this can potentially combo into itself as the foe gets knocked above and below Lubba, but this is rather difficult. The larger either of the characters get, though, the more and more lenient this becomes. If both are maxed, this will actually combo better at higher percentages, potentially letting you hit the foe 3 or 4 times with a powered up Hungry Luma.
If Lubba is interrupted out of this move with Hungry Luma not getting hit, this will cause Lubba to release him and send him flying. Hungry Luma will be thrown in the direction he was currently being swung, with the power being as great as a dsmash if Hungry Luma was at either the top or bottom of the arc. If the foe is hitting you from that angle, this can function as a counter that will not only fit the foe in that direction, but cause Hungry Luma to follow along for more potential followups.
GRAB-GAME
LUBBA/HUNGRY LUMA GRAB – GRAB/LATCH
Lubba’s grab is an animation similar to Mewtwo’s Side Special, where he begins to levitate the foe in place. Hungry Luma’s grab has him leap forward and latch onto the foe like a Pikmin, attaching himself to whatever body part he came in contact with until the foe knocks him off with a move that makes that portion of their body a hitbox. Hungry Luma’s grab does not stun the foe in any way and is not considered a grab by the engine.
If Hungry Luma is fully synched to Lubba, he will automatically “grab” the foe if Lubba does, sticking onto them as Lubba throws them. Hungry Luma will not respond to throw inputs while Lubba has the foe grabbed, only pummel inputs. Once the foe is out of Lubba’s grasp, you can input grab + a direction for Hungry Luma to perform his “throws”, or just grab for pummel. Lubba will not respond to the grab input while Hungry Luma is latched onto the foe. Hungry Luma will not be able to act beyond pummeling until the foe exits stun from Lubba’s throw.
LUBBA PUMMEL - LEVITATE
If the gravitational field was synched to the foe, this move will synch it back to Lubba instead, enabling him to make use of the uthrow. Lubba levitates the foe in a circle around himself, going underneath his body before showing back up in front of him. This will cause them to get levitated past any items Lubba was holding in his Gravitational Field if it was synched to him, automatically hitting them with them. In the case of Star Bits, the foe will not be knocked out of the grab, though anything more powerful will. If Hungry Luma was in the Gravitational Field, this will cause him to latch onto the foe as they pass by him.
This pummel only lasts for as long as Lubba holds/rapidly presses Z. Lubba can stop pummeling at any time to keep the foe at that position in the levitation field. It requires a fairly high percentage on the foe to levitate them entirely around Lubba, so this isn’t as broken of a damage dealer as it first appears. The foe will take 1% per every quarter circle around Lubba they levitate, meaning this still does damage if you have no set-up. If the foe ends up behind Lubba when he’s done pummeling, he will turn around.
HUNGRY LUMA PUMMEL – HUNGRY BITING
Considering Hungry Luma’s limbs are very frail looking, he simply bites into the enemy in order to damage them, dealing 1% in a pummel that takes .4 seconds with no flinching. While this isn’t that great, Hungry Luma’s grab-game is primarily used as a bonus on top of Lubba’s grab. Using it when desynched is largely asking for Hungry Luma to die.
If you feed Hungry Luma enough Star Bits to transform while he has the enemy “grabbed”, he will be able to drag the enemy with him as he goes up to become a planet without being slowed down at all. The foe can still knock Hungry Luma off during this time, and they almost undoubtedly will considering how far Hungry Luma has to travel to become a planet. If they somehow fail to do this, though, they will take 20% and become pitfalled out of the bottom of the planet upside down with the full strength of a pitfall item. While it’s very easy to prevent, if Hungry Luma was low enough on HP that the foe’s attack would kill him, he will explode into star bits like usual. Considering he was about to transform into a planet, the star bits will immediately be hitboxes, and since he was obviously fat there will be a ton of them. If the foe didn’t use an especially fast aerial to enable themselves to air dodge, they’ll be getting hit by all of them, which is potentially more threatening than the pitfall effect.
While this might all sound incredibly situational and dangerous when it requires Hungry Luma’s HP to be low to make it super scary, it’s not especially hard to set-up star bits to fly into Hungry Luma while he’s latched onto the foe. If the star bits are coming from the opposite side of the foe that Hungry Luma is on, the foe will have to dodge or shield the star bits instead of addressing Hungry Luma. If the foe simply dodges the star bits, Hungry Luma will of course eat them instead as their penalty as they pass by their back. If they shield the star bits to destroy them, then Hungry Luma can use one of his throws to shield poke the foe out of the edge of their hurtbox if he was positioned there when he latched on.
HUNGRY LUMA FORWARD THROW – KICK OFF
Hungry Luma kicks off of the foe to deal a generic 4% and knockback that kills at 260% while sending himself flying backwards a set distance of a Bowser width. This throw is nearly instant and mainly functions as a panic button, since all of his other throws/pummeling leaves the Hungry Luma in a lot more danger. This is also the obvious move to lead into an fair counter, as at low percentages Hungry Luma will charge right back at the foe as they hopefully attack where he was. Sadly Hungry Luma cannot use moves when he’s transforming into a planet such as said counter, as hilarious as that would be.
HUNGRY LUMA BACK THROW - SUCTION
Hungry Luma inhales for a lengthy 1.2 seconds, sucking the foe backwards at the force of SSB4 Dedede’s Inhale and causing star bits in front of the foe to get sucked into them faster. If he somehow hasn’t been interrupted during this time, he will do the normal exhale from the nair afterwards, dealing 7% and knockback that kills at 200%, and spitting out anything he just inhaled back into the foe. Aside from providing obvious pressure when you’re sending star bits at the enemy, this can be the extra push needed to knock the foe into a planet’s gravity radius from one of Lubba’s throws.
Hungry Luma’s throws can be dodged, though his pummel can’t. The wind hitbox on the bthrow can’t be dodged, making it a popular choice for the consistent effect regardless of the foe’s behavior.
HUNGRY LUMA UP THROW – GALAXY SPIN
Hungry Luma does the generic Super Mario Galaxy spin that the main Luma does, dealing 6 hits of 1% and flinching before launching the foe upwards with pitiful knockback that kills at 300%. This has a fair bit more start-up than fthrow despite the better damage.
The spin, like in Super Mario Galaxy, will trigger black holes to suck the foe up if they were within a Mario width of them without the foe needed to be sent flying into it at full force. Hungry Luma will remain latched onto the foe on the other side, and will eat any star bits inside the black hole automatically, potentially enabling him to transform into a planet as soon as he comes out the other side with the foe dragged along with him. Be aware that this is quite predictable if near a black hole, and you’d probably be better off having Lubba knock the foe into it instead. If the foe is otherwise occupied by Lubba, though, you can try this out for a spin.
HUNGRY LUMA DOWN THROW - PLOP
Hungry Luma climbs up to the top of the foe briefly, skipping this lag if he was already on top of them, though possibly avoiding some attacks aimed lower down the foe’s body. He then simply goes to crush the enemy under his weight, falling onto his back. This throw deals only 5% and knockback that kills at 230%, but scales massively with Hungry Luma’s size. Instead of the usual 1.5x, this throw can deal up to 16% and knockback that kills at 150%. This throw isn’t really incentive enough to go out of your way to get a fat Hungry Luma on the foe, but the possibility of him turning into a planet during the process makes this otherwise gimmicky sounding throw a lot more realistic to actually incorporate into a game plan. If Hungry Luma is at least 1.5x normal size, he will gain superarmor during the actual fall.
Even if Hungry Luma was already positioned on the foe’s head, this has enough lag it will be fairly consistently dodged by the foe. The real appeal of this throw is that when Hungry Luma is facing upwards with his chest puffed out, Lubba can use his dsmash belly bounce and his dair falling star interactions on Hungry Luma as if he was performing those moves. In the case of dair Hungry Luma will save Lubba from landing lag, and in dsmash the foe will be dragged along with Hungry Luma as he gets sent flying, giving incentive for this throw to be used when Hungry Luma isn’t fat.
LUBBA FORWARD THROW – BELLY BOUNCE
Lubba throws the foe carelessly a small distance in front of himself before belly flopping on top of them, dealing 11% and forwards knockback that kills at 140%. Lubba will bounce off the ground 1-3 Ganondorf heights based off how fat he is. This rarely lets him interact with the foe as they are sent at a different angle, though it is yet another possible throw to use as a retreat. If Lubba uses this on one slope as he sends the foe to the opposite side of the slope, the angling of the slope will cause Lubba to get launched at the other side of the slope, possibly able to punish the opponent in some way. If you want to be really elaborate, you can use the move when under a black hole before using it to chase the foe or just send projectiles straight through it.
This is Lubba’s most straightforward throw, and it’s his only throw that deals direct horizontal knockback. This enables him to throw a foe up a slope to potentially send them into a planet’s gravity, and on a planet this is the throw that will send them flying all the way around it. Lubba bouncing is actually unfortunate when he uses this move on a planet, as it will cause him to get bounced away when the foe could otherwise be knocked right back into his face. If Lubba uses this on the underside of a planet, though, causing him to get bounced to the stage below, it’s more feasible to get back to the planet in time to punish the foe in some way.
LUBBA BACK THROW - WORMHOLE
Lubba forms a black hole next to himself and throws the foe in before squeezing in after them. This causes the foe to be sent out of whatever other remaining black hole there is as they get shot out of it with weak set downwards knockback before Lubba comes out of the black hole to crush them. The foe takes 4% inside the black hole, 4% as they hit the ground, and then 10% as they are crushed by Lubba with knockback that kills at 100%. If there was no black hole already formed for the foe and Lubba to come out of, a second one will be created a Ganondorf above and a Bowser width in front of the first one. Lubba will stop falling after he goes 1.25 Ganondorf heights if he has not hit solid ground yet, and he will banned from using Up Special until he touches ground to prevent bizarre kills with under the stage black holes, you can still suicide kill if you really feel like it, though you’d probably be dying twice to even set up the black hole.
The foe is free to act when they are shot out of the second black hole, able to dodge Lubba. If Lubba makes the second black hole right against the ground, he will be disappointed to find that foes can tech it to also escape the throw (though they’ll still take 4% for hitting the ground). In the least, Lubba is superarmored as he falls to prevent any attempts to punish him for using a throw.
Hungry Luma is required if Lubba expects to land the crushing portion. Hungry Luma’s fthrow is the main move to generically stun the foe if they don’t act, and bthrow will prevent the foe from escaping if they air dodge too fast. Uthrow won’t be able to suck a foe back into a black hole right after they’ve come out of it, there being a cooldown period of 10 frames or so, but if a foe air dodges they can get sucked back into the black hole, giving enough time for Lubba to react in some way. Hungry Luma’s dthrow is another acceptable option for a foe who dodges straight away, which is actually a better damage reward than Lubba falling if Hungry Luma is at max size.
Aside from the sort of “tech chase” going on in this throw, this throw is very useful as it lets you directly send a foe to one of your black holes and perform set-up while having a foe grabbed. If Lubba already has projectiles circling around a planet powered by black holes, this also lets you directly transfer a foe into that.
LUBBA UP THROW – INTO ORBIT
Lubba spins everything in his gravitational field (if synched to him) around himself through the Z plane in a 3D circle, including the foe, before launching them all upwards. Whatever was positioned directly above Lubba in his gravitation field will be launched first, following by everything else in a clockwise pattern. This deals 5%, but KOs as quickly as Mewtwo’s uthrow, which this has a very similar animation to.
The main purpose of this throw aside from KOing is to get the foe to be knocked into other objects in your gravitational field. If the foe’s at a higher percent, you’ll want the objects to be thrown first so the foe’s high knockback will enable them to be launched through them. If the foe’s at a lower percent, the minimal knockback they take will enable them to be pelted by objects behind them. Having a few projectiles on the opposite side is still nice to give a few objects for the foe to dodge.
Since the foe is no longer in the grab, if Hungry Luma was in the gravitation field but hasn’t latched onto the foe yet, he will not do so during this throw. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it can enable him to attack the foe, more easy if he’s launched above them to just use dair or something. If there were a bunch of projectiles being launched at the foe from the throw, Hungry Luma can use his nair to inhale them to cause more of them to hit the foe than would normally. If he was already latched onto the foe, Hungry Luma’s bthrow can have a similar effect, but this will take longer to do since that means Hungry Luma will take longer before he is able to act.
LUBBA DOWN THROW - SMUSH
Lubba goes to sit on the foe like the infamous Brawl Dedede dthrow, immediately dealing 7%. The foe isn’t immediately dealt knockback from this, and instead they are pinned under Lubba as he rubs his buttocks against the ground to attempt to squish them. There’s a reason Lubba is the only Hungry Luma who wears pants! This deals an additional 6 hits of 1% during a very long animation before the foe is sent away with vertical knockback that kills at 200%.
This throw is notable because of the long animation. While the damage is Lubba’s best on his throws, if Hungry Luma was latched onto the foe/underneath Lubba he will get smashed into the ground like in Lubba’s dair during this, preventing him from doing additional damage. This isn’t entirely negative and can be used to Lubba’s advantage if he uses it strategically, of course, as detailed in the dair. The long animation can enable star bits from Neutral Special that were sent flying at Lubba to easily reach him without taking up Lubba’s valuable time. If Lubba is fatter, the damage will still be multiplied at the same rate to make the throw deal up to 1.5x the damage in total (19.5%), but the duration of the throw will also be increased by up to 1.5x to even further emphasize the point of this throw.
This can also delay the foe long enough for a projectile a long ways away to reach the foe, most obviously the usmash meteor. While it’s already very, very nice to pin a foe while waiting for the meteor to crash, this is even more encouraged because the terraforming of the meteor will free Hungry Luma from his pitfall inside the stage.
If this throw is used with a projectile underneath Lubba in his gravitational field, they will get hit by that projectile, not getting knocked out of the throw in the case of star bits. The object will get crushed under Lubba before the foe, causing star balls to explode into pieces and all of the bits of it to fly up into Lubba for him to eat them automatically. Meteors will explode without hurting the foe either, but will terraform the ground underneath Lubba. This will lengthen the throw even further and boost the damage of the initial plop on the foe by 7% before Lubba resumes the rest of the foe. These are useful potential effects, though if you want to actually try to hit the foe with these bigger objects you’ll be wanting to use your uthrow or pummel. It is vaguely possible for the explosion of a meteor to be big enough to hit the foe with dthrow if you had enough momentum on the meteor and quickly used dthrow, but this will cause Lubba to continue his dthrow animation on nothing (Perhaps maybe poor Hungry Luma) as the foe gets sent flying, not the best tactic anyway.
STANDARDS
JAB – SHOOTING STARS
Lubba holds up one arm and spins it around, creating 6 star bits per second above himself that shoot down towards the ground which deal the usual 1% and flinching. The star bits are spawned randomly in a Wario sized area above and behind Lubba before being shot down to the ground at 45 degree angles, landing in front of him. The star bits spawn very quickly, and as soon as one hits something a new one will form, potentially enabling it to spawn more than 6 per second if it hits a foe as the star bits spawn. The position of the hitboxes and their trajectories make this much more potent on a slope or a planet, used on a foe behind you and still punishing foes who attempt to roll in front of you.
This isn’t much of a projectile, but if Lubba is big this will be forced to have a long projectile range, especially if he fires them down slopes. It is difficult to consume star bits made by this attack if your characters aren’t desynched, though if Lubba is already fatter it’s easier to cancel out of the move and take a step forward to eat them before they hit the ground. Hungry Luma will perform the attack alongside Lubba, though he can only create 3 star bits per second. If Hungry Luma is in a gravitational field, it’s quite likely one of the character’s star bits will spawn inside of the other one to eat instantly, though this is much slower than Neutral Special if you have the time for it.
DASHING ATTACK – BELLY FLOP
Lubba collapses forward in a comedic Dedede dashing attack with identical power, though the move is even more absurdly laggy. Hungry Luma will do the same thing, but will slide farther and have the move come out faster than Dedede’s version. Hungry Luma’s belly flop deals a token 4% and flinching, able to stun foes for the big man to plop down. If Hungry Luma reaches 1.5-2x size, his version will instead deal 12-15% and knockback that kills at 150-130%, knocking the foe out of the way of the almighty Lubba but providing foes two powerful hitboxes to dodge.
If this is used on a sloped surface from Lubba’s terraforming, this becomes a keep dashing dash attack. Lubba/Hungry Luma can hold A to slide down the slope for as long as the slope goes. Less fat characters will slide down more quickly, though their increased size will compensate to make them slide down at basically the same speed anyway. All this means is that Hungry Luma will slide significantly faster than Lubba, making way for his glorious arrival on top of foes. Lubba/Hungry Luma can release A to come out of this instead of sliding all the way to the bottom. Fatter characters take longer to get up and require the player to release A for a few more frames, enabling you to have the lighter character get up while the fatter one continues sliding.
If this is used on a planet, the whole thing will be considered a sloped surface, enabling Lubba to slide what would essentially be forever. To prevent it from looking too stupid, Lubba/Hungry Luma will be forced out of this after sliding a maximum of 2 platforms, but this can still enable them to circle a normal planet. The lighter character already acts as an annoying object to dodge while the real threat comes in, but a planet enables them to potentially travel in opposite directions for further chaos, nevermind constantly circling star bits. Hungry Luma can outrun star bits circling a planet in its gravity at minimum size, while Lubba can trail behind it – even just a single star bit can be very useful just to generically stun the foe.
FORWARD TILT – STAR SHOT
The fat star character goes horizontal before flying forwards a bit less than a platform’s distance, dealing 8% and knockback that kills at 170%. This comes out very fast, though the duration’s a bit weirdly long. If your characters are synched, only the fatter one will perform the move while the other one will ride the character being shot forwards. This enables them to use their ground moveset while standing on top of the other character, though if they move at all they will exit this “grounded” state and fall off. Foes cannot stand on Lubba/Hungry Luma. This lets you have something of a “DACUS” with your entire grounded movesets, and gives you a nice move to only very temporarily desynch your characters before the resynch at the end of the move if you don’t want to commit to that.
Some of Lubba’s grounded moveset has new applications when moving like this. Usmash is given some automatic height to power up the move. If dsmash is input by the rider, the character on bottom will stop going forwards and perform dsmash, launching the other character into the air with great force. Some of the momentum from the ftilt will still be in tact, causing the riding character to be launched at something of an angle. Jab will do a great job of covering a retreat, and you can potentially go into the trajectory of the star bits to eat them after they fall down. If nothing else, this functions as a decent way to charge fsmash and usmash in relative safety.
This move gets a lot more appealing if Hungry Luma is the fatter of the two characters, as that will make Lubba the rider, giving you access to specials other than Side Special. If Lubba grabs Hungry Luma out of this move with Down Special, Hungry Luma will circle around Lubba for the remainder of the ftilt’s distance as Lubba falls off of Hungry Luma. If Hungry Luma was already in a Gravitational Field when ftilt was input and Hungry Luma was the fatter character, Lubba will actually manage to ride Hungry Luma as he flies around in a circle, able to use his grounded movesets at bizarre angles. The weirdest move Lubba can use like this is usmash, as it can potentially spawn inside the stage and terraform immediately. The meteor is more powerful when it hits the stage, so this has relevance beyond terraforming, and can hit grounded opponents as Lubba uses Hungry Luma to get into an evasive position. Ftilt can also be used to fly off the stage, so this can have uses for abusing the foe as they attempt to make it to the ledge.
UP TILT – STARRY SKIES
Lubba swings his stubby arm above himself in an arch, distorting the air above himself and causing any foes there to take 4% and be pushed upwards with knockback that kills at 155% with fairly high base knockback. This is fast enough to serve as Lubba’s main antiair, as while his usmash can be used as a quick move, the minimum range makes it a bad move defensively.
This will launch any projectiles in Lubba’s Gravitational Field above Lubba, serving as a direct way to launch them without having to put them into a black hole, having to grab the foe, or eating them. They will be launched directly away from Lubba, enabling you to launch them either at a 45 degree angle, straight up, or anything in-between. Not a very exciting move after the rest of this very extensive moveset, but it adds some basic functionality to Lubba’s mechanics. Lubba can use this move to launch the projectiles in the Gravitational Field at other angles, if he wishes, by making use of the ftilt + Down Special combo. If the Gravitational Field was synched to a planet instead of Lubba, having it be Lubba’s height away from the planet can enable him to use this move more effectively with it.
Hungry Luma will not be launched by the utilt. His hitbox is much the same as Lubba’s, just with a smaller hitbox and KOing at 225%. If Hungry Luma is synched to Lubba, he will provide an extra level of defense to the move for a foe who manages to dodge the main hitbox. Given Hungry Luma is much shorter than Lubba if not very fat, his hitbox will be inside Lubba’s hurtbox. Positioning Hungry Luma at various points in the Gravitational Field can enable you to launch different sets of projectiles in it at different angles without having to painstakingly make use of the ftilt. If you don’t want Hungry Luma to interfere, keeping him synched to Lubba will make Hungry Luma’s hitbox not hit anything in the gravitational field unless he’s very fat, in which case his hitbox will just be almost identical to Lubba’s normal one anyway.
DOWN TILT – LAZING ABOUT
Lubba’s crouch has him lay on his back, staring up at the sky. He does not face the camera like when Dedede does during his crouch, enabling him to get significantly lower to the ground than he is normally when his normal idle has him floating over the ground. For his dtilt, he levitates back up to his normal height while staying horizontal before immediately crashing back down into his crouch, dealing 9% and knockback that kills at 150%. This can enable Lubba to evade attacks quite well as he greatly moves his hurtbox. Hungry Luma deals 7% and knockback that kills at 165%, but given his smaller size is even more likely to evade an attack – even if the foe hits Lubba it’s doubtful Hungry Luma will also get hit.
If a character uses this while riding the other one in ftilt, they will home in the slam on the one they’re riding in order to stay synched. If you do an upside down ftilt with Down Special, this will enable you to use the move upwards. Crouching in general when the other character is using ftilt is quite useful, as when both characters are horizontal even when combined their hurtboxes are fairly small by heavyweight standards.
When Lubba or other characters with similar crouches like Dedede crouch on a slope (not a planet), they will slide down it at the speed of Ganondorf’s dash. This alone is useful, but what makes it stand out from the dashing attack is the ability to stop in the middle of sliding before resuming with the dtilt.
FINAL SMASH – STARSHIP MARIO
The starship Mario appears in the background and rams past the stage 2 seconds later, roughly three quarters as large as the main stage. Anybody hit by the planet is dealt 20% and knocked onto it, and the planet has a gravity radius that reaches out 1.5 Ganondorfs from itself. If anyone is hit by it or pulled in by the gravity, they will be pulled along with it as the stage transitions to a version of the Starship Mario. Starship Mario has gravity comparable to planets created by Hungry Lumas, as you are able to walk around the planet and it has a small pull of gravity in towards itself. Any foes you brought with you are yours to attack for 15 seconds.
The appeal of the Final Smash for Lubba is there’s a horde of Lumas on this new stage. There will be 3 additional Hungry Lumas that will respond to Lubba’s inputs. Only 1 Hungry Luma can be synched to Lubba at a time, but he can change which one is synched to him. When the Final Smash ends, he will take his current Hungry Luma back with him to the main stage, so make sure you’re synched to the fattest one. If a Hungry Luma goes to form a planet during the Final Smash, they will leave the Starship Mario and go make a planet on the main stage where it will actually be useful.
There are 4 regular Lumas in addition to the Hungry Lumas. These Lumas will also respond to your inputs, but use their moveset from Rosalina. 2 of them will be yellow and 2 of them will be blue. If either of them are fed 15 star bits, they will transform into a launch star/pull star based off their color. If a foe is knocked into a launch star, they will be launched towards the nearest blast zone with 10% and knockback that kills at 100%. If Lubba inputs Up Special next to a Launch Star, he can launch himself out of it as far as Rosalina’s recovery, but in any direction and without entering helpless.
Pull stars will extend out a beam to any foes who come within a Ganondorf of themselves, and if they hit they will pull foes in and restrain them with grab difficulty. If Lubba inputs Up Special within this range of a pull star and is not overlapping a black hole or a launch star, the pull star will pull him into itself for a free recovery.
Lumas won’t respawn during the Final Smash unless Lubba somehow runs out of Hungry Lumas. Lubba can feel free to fire his Neutral Special for largely the entire duration of the Final Smash when he has so many desynched Lumas and Hungry Lumas to protect him, turning them into useful constructs.
If Lubba had any black holes present on the main stage and makes one during the Final Smash, if he goes through it he will leave the Starship Mario stage and go back to the main stage. The camera will stay on Starship Mario and let you continue controlling the Luma army while Lubba remains invulnerable. Lubba can still come back if he wants to by inputting Up Special to come back through that black hole if the foe doesn’t destroy it. This does prevent you from using Lubba’s Neutral Special during the Final Smash, but this is a nice option if Lubba is at a very high percentage, as him dying will end the Final Smash early.
PLAYSTYLE SUMMARY
Lubba is a character that largely benefits from infinite set-up, so it is very tempting to use the majority of his moveset in a defensive context. He has plenty of tools for running away and preparing his set-up, and planets/slopes only enable him to do that better. The main thing, of course, is splitting the characters up and trying to get them to cover each other (fair epitomizes this), or just force the foe to hunt you down one at a time. Lubba’s most important commodity is of course star bits, and while it is dangerous to make Lubba a big combo target at low percentages, sometimes it can be smarter to give it to him than Hungry Luma in case he dies before passing it on to a Hungry Luma later when you have plenty of star bits. In any case, you generally want to keep all of the star bits in one of the two characters, as having the other one be small will enable them to much better protect the fat one, this is encouraged by the moveset as several of Lubba’s moves perform better with big size differences between them anyway. Lubba will also want to get fat sooner than later in order to make slopes on the main stage, and he can still give them to Hungry Luma later for a planet. Gravitational Field is the most safe way for Lubba to “store” projectiles forever, doubling them as a constant defensive barrier that the foe has to out-prioritize or run up to and shield, but runs the risk of you losing them more than just consuming them.
Once you have a planet, that’s a very safe place to “store” star bits without having to have them directly invested into one of your characters as they spin around the planets. Having a black hole on the main stage and on the planet easily enables you to store them there regardless of your location, though you’ll have to send one of your characters there eventually to collect them. It’s a lot easier to play keep away and split up in the context of a planet, though it also provides the chance to use your two characters for full offensive potential. Planets are where Lubba will want to stay when he’s at a high percentage, potentially terraforming into the planet to be even harder to kill.
Lubba can be played offensively, most prevalent in the grab-game and on planets, and there’s too much potential in this moveset to really cover it properly in a playstyle section. Lubba can very easily use his star bits as offensive power later on when he’s accumulated enough, powering up his moveset and making tons of massive fsmash star balls. When Lubba’s defensive options are this good, though, it’s too easy to just provoke the foe into attacking before going all out on them. While Neutral Special has a second long delay, it has infinite range, and the delay can sometimes be outright preferable as it enables it to control space even more powerfully as one of the best moves in the game. The nature of neutral special makes it very difficult for foes to properly do their own set-up, and during that time Hungry Luma can be battering the foe as well. Of course, if Lubba’s doing this it means he can’t be shooting star bits at himself or performing other set-up himself, though it’s possible for Hungry Luma to eat up some of them if he’s pressuring the foe.
