Sorry HR, but we badly need another moveset
#448 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It has the ability to sense the Auras of all things. It understands human speech.
By catching the Aura emanating from others, it can read their thoughts and movements.
A well-trained one can sense auras to identify and take in the feelings of creatures over half a mile away.
Lucario is a fighting-steel type type Pokémon, first appearing in the fourth generation. Lucario is known as the Aura Pokémon. He evolves from Riolu. While Lucario does learn some bread-and-butter fighting and steel type moves, he learns some rather strange moves- one of only two non-legendaries to wield Aura Sphere, as well as the Dark-type Dark Pulse and Dragon-type Dragon Pulse- perhaps due to their associations with aura.
Aura ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some moves will refer to a certain quantity of units of aura being lodged onto the foe; well, what
is aura? Certain moves, when landed, cause several small bits of aura to be lodged onto the foe, indicated by them trailing the blue fire (more thickly with more aura), just like after hit with an aura attack in Brawl. Each individual unit of aura will stay on for a second before fading away. Each unit of aura on the opponent causes them to take an additional 1% from attacks plus a little more flinching or hitstun (no more knockback, however) while it's around. Up to seven units may be on the opponent at once, and 7% extra plus more hitstun can be helpful to a Lucario player. Aura will last longer if more aura is already on the opponent when lodged, each one raising the new one's lifespan and its own by half a second; that's a maximum of a four second lifespan (since you won't be able to land aura on an opponent with seven units already). Note that even with aura, Lucario's non-damaging attacks will still deal no damage. Only the final hit will gain the extra damage on a multi-hit attack. Aura is greatly beneficial to a Lucario player, as you'll soon see.
Statistics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5 Power - Run 4
8 Speed - Traction 9
5 Range - Jump 7
3 Weight - Fall 2
Special ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neutral Special - Aura Sphere
Lucario's trademark attack. This is chargeable and storable, and it takes about as long as in Brawl to charge. Firing the sphere has the same lag as in Brawl, and has the size of a 100% Lucario Aura Sphere in Brawl, as well as having similar speed and range. Firing it sees Lucario flick his finger to send it flying forward, and this deals 1%-18% depending on charge with two units of aura.
Unremarkable on its own, of course, but you can fire this out of other attacks. Simply press B during the lag, and the sphere is launched forward with the same lag but no animation, no matter which attack you're doing. You can't fire this out of things like hitstun or grab-release, just attacks. If you use it too late in the move, the ending lag will increase due to having to complete the rest of the animation, but this is a useful tool for cancelling end lag or building up aura safely.
Side Special - Dark Pulse
A Dark-Type move, but one of Lucario's trademark aura-based attacks. Lucario points his hands forward, as a sickly purple ball the size of Lucario's fully charged Aura Sphere at 0% in Brawl appears in a flash. After the startup lag (comparable to Meta Knight's forward smash) the orb begins letting loose smaller orbs each the size of an uncharged Aura Sphere, which fire forward at the speed of Wolf's Blaster and deal 4% on contact. The rate of fire is almost three per second, so this is difficult to escape at the best of times. This can be held until eight orbs are fired, but Lucario will suffer from ending lag relative to the time he held Dark Pulse for; with eight balls fired it's comparable to Lucas's Up Smash! Of course, the more you've fired the further they are away and the harder this is to punish.
Dark Pulse is a difficult to land attack with a dramatic effect, which must be comboed into to have a hope at landing it on a competent foe. Most of Lucario's moves following this pattern are finishers; however, Dark Pulse is more of a damage dealer. It's a dramatic one, but it leaves the opponent much too far away to follow up. This is valuable for a final damage dealer to end a combo.
Up Special - ExtremeSpeed
The name is reused, but this move works in a somewhat different fashion to ExtremeSpeed in Brawl. Lucario clasps his hands together for startup lag identical to it in Brawl before launching upwards at a blinding speed- even quicker than Sonic in his Final Smash! He travels a little further than in Brawl, and he can sweetspot ledges and go into a wall cling or wall jump out of this. The biggest difference from Brawl is that Lucario literally has perfect control over his trajectory. Tilting the Control Stick in any direction at all at any time will cause Lucario to direct his momentum that way, not suffering from any lag and not losing any of his momentum. This allows Lucario a very safe recovery, agily dodging edgeguarders.
While this deals neither damage nor knockback (or aura), it's quite valuable as a comboer. If Lucario ever hits an opponent, they automatically flinch. Lucario can weave back into the opponent for punishment if he's approaching the end of ExtremeSpeed's duration, but the flinching won't stack or renew or anything. This means you'll need to weave in at the very end of the flinch, rendering the opponent unable to escape and leading into a move! A tricky to use move, but it can start a combo and lead into a somewhat difficult-to-land move to a certain extent (the flinching is not long, as it goes) if you use it right.
Down Special - Dragon Pulse
A Dragon-Type move, but like the Side Special, one of Lucario's trademark aura-based attacks. Lucario crosses his legs and floats in midair in meditation as a light blue ball of aura appears in his hands for startup lag identical to Side Special, remaining out for nearly half a second before disappearing. Lucario has super armor to take advantage of as he enters this state. However, this serves a very different purpose than Side Special. Opponents within a Bowser around Lucario are suddenly pushed away from the orb with the force of Ness's PK Shove (the ending frames of his Down Special), with the same speed and knockback. By default this will knock opponents away from the orb, but by tilting the Control Stick the push can be aimed in any other direction. In any case, after the shove, the opponent suffers from stun equivalent to Falco's laser. This deals no damage, though it does latch on one unit of aura.
While casual players may find this move to be quite useless, it's actually one of Lucario's most useful moves. Why? It's an amazing combo move. Leading into loads of moves, this is one of the only ways Lucario can get his most difficult to land combo finishers like Forward Smash to land properly. Of course, this is quite difficult to land itself! Mix it up or use it after a move with significant hitstun- which isn't difficult to find with Lucario.
Standard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neutral Attack - Force Palm
Lucario performs a simple palm thrust, dealing 3% with flinching knockback and one unit of aura for each hit. When first used this is a little laggy for a jab (though it's still easy to land, as a jab), but after using it once Lucario can initiate it again out of the ending lag, allowing it to be landed multiple times in a row (though three is the max). This doesn't deal that much hitstun, but the duration of the move is a hair shorter than the hitstun, and by landing this multiple times in a row, the hitstun will stack. This doesn't add up into too much hitstun, but it's a safe way to lead into several moves, most notably Metal Claw (see below). This also has impressive priority, though as a jab it's nothing too special.
Forward Tilt - Metal Claw
Lucario thrusts his arm forward with his palm tilted back, attacking opponents with the metallic cone on the back of his hand. This is surprisingly laggy- the startup lag is comparable to an average Smash Attack- and there's a low payoff, 11% with okay knockback, but since Lucario has ways to put his opponents into hitstun he can land it easier than one might think. This causes a good bit of hitstun to the opponent, but this can only be followed up easily at low percentages, as otherwise the opponent is too far away for the hitstun to be capitalized upon. The claw is disjointed as well, with good priority, which may come in handy sometime. Overall, this is one of the main things you want to try and combo into, as it's a tad difficult to land otherwise... though the effect isn't that impressive.
Up Tilt - Karate Chop
Lucario holds an open palm beside his head, standing on one leg, then abruptly stomps forward with his palm outstretched to perform a karate chop. As it sounds, this has startup lag, though not quite as bad as Forward Tilt. There is nearly no ending lag, however. Similarly to the Up Tilts of Captain Falcon and Samus, this has a hitbox in front of rather than above Lucario. The move itself has two hitboxes: the stomp and the karate chop. Opponents hit by the "sourspot" stomp take a mere 5% and take knockback behind Lucario, with a bit of hitstun. Despite being a sourspot, this actually has its uses comboing. Still, it's generally preferable to land with the sweetspot, as it deals a nice 15% and set knockback which might lead into a Dash Attack landed just right, though nothing else. The sweetspot also deals hitlag comparable to Samus's Charge Shot... out of which you can use Aura Sphere...
Down Tilt - Cross Chop
Similarly to the charging animation of Sheik's Up Smash, Lucario raises his arms into an X above his head. Upon release, he chops his arms past each other, to form another X crossing each other- hence, Cross Chop. This move has a bit of startup lag comparable to the above Up Tilt. Each arm is a separate hitbox dealing 8% with low horizontal knockback which can't be followed up on and rather poor hitstun: it won't lead into combos, it will actually allow the opponent to combo you due to the ending lag!
However, landing both arms as they cross each other allows both hitboxes to merge! This deals 16% with no knockback but a good level of hitstun. This move has a surprising bit of ending lag so it can't be followed up on as efficiently as one might wish, but it can lead into a grab: which is fortunate, as it leaves Lucario in a disadvantageous situation otherwise.
Dash Attack - Close Combat
Lucario does a floaty leap forward the length of a Battlefield platform, peaking at half the height of Kirby before floating toward the ahead ground with speed identical to a Lucario in Brawl performing the motion. Lucario can jump (but not direct the preceding jump) to cancel this, being a nice way to combo into an aerial, but the attack doesn't come in unless Lucario lands. Once he does land, he lets out a stream of close-ranged punches and kicks. Each punch or kick is an individual hitbox dealing 2% with very low upwards set knockback and okay hitstun. There are eight attacks in total, the move lasting a lengthy second. This means a 16% payoff if every hit lands, which is often, as this is quite difficult to DI out of. The final hit does nice upwards knockback; in fact, it's Lucario's only reliable way to get into the air.
A very tricky move to land. A good opponent will usually be able to predict this despite the potential for cancelling it with a jump or performing an actual jump into an aerial, so it can't really be landed out of the blue. Still, by comboing into it with moves like Neutral Special, Up Tilt, and Forward Aerial this can be consistently landed despite the predictability. One would do well to learn so, as again, this is Lucario's only reliable way to get the opponent into the air.
Smash ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forward Smash - Brick Break
The animation for this Smash Attack is rather simple; Lucario opens the palm of his hand and holds it behind his head, performing a karate chop when the charge is released. This deals an excellent 18% to 32% with good to great knockback depending on charge, but there's a catch: this has very bad startup lag, about two-thirds that of Dedede's Forward Smash! Thankfully, an opponent is sure to die once hit by it, and the special property of instantly halving to breaking shields, going through reflectors and other defensive moves and ignoring super armor/invincibility frames may come in handy sometime. Also, like Lucario's Up Tilt, this has exceptional hitlag.
Up Smash - Bullet Punch
Lucario holds his arm to his side and hunches down like a spring as he charges, then lets out a straight-upwards spinning punch in an instant upon release, holding it up for a period before returning to his idle stance. This literally has no startup lag, and the ending lag is minimal, but the duration of almost a second may be punished, albeit not strongly. The punch itself deals rather low damage, 8% to 18%, but the knockback is always decent enough and can KO, though not very early at all. What makes this so useful is the exceptionally long hitlag, even longer than Zelda's Forward and Back Aerials or Samus's Charge Shot.
This could be followed up on in theory, but in practice the duration is too long to follow up on... but with more units of aura on the opponent, there's more hitlag. With seven units it's possible to even C-Stick (but not charge)a Forward Smash, and even with two or three a Neutral Attack is possible. A valuable combo tool, if you can set it up right.
Down Smash - Counter
Lucario crosses his legs and floats in the air in a meditative stance for 1-3 seconds, having a little extra ending lag if he lands without the effect coming into play. This doesn't have any startup lag, however. If Lucario is hit by an attack other than a projectile in this state, he will take full damage from it... but he lets out a simple arm thrust in the direction he was hit, having excellent range. It deals no knockback, but 1.5X the damage the attack dealt to Lucario, as well as hitstun and aura dependant on the damage taken by Lucario (specifically, it's one unit for every 10% dealt). Lucario's arm has good range, about as long as Marth's sword. Still, you don't want to try and use this against exceptionally well-ranged attacks as Lucario takes damage and does none back!
While this is a very effective move at first, note that it is horrible to spam this. This loses effectiveness when stale, losing .1 of the multiplier for the arm thrust. That's half the damage of the initial attack fully staled! In addition, this can quickly become predictable: and once it does, Lucario is vulnerable to grabs, and the opponent can use the time to charge up a Smash Attack to land once Lucario ends the move. This has its uses but should still be used sparingly.
Aerial ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neutral Aerial - Focus Punch
Lucario tightens his fist and holds his arm to his side, tingling with aura, for a brief period before letting out a simple, straight-ahead punch. This has a sourspot and sweetspot; hitting anywhere but the fully extended fist deals 7% and nearly no knockback and hitstun, but this has its uses; Lucario's fully extended fist deals a nice 15% with no knockback but solid hitstun with a single unit of aura. Still, the startup lag is about that of a Smash Attack, so this isn't nearly as useful as it could be.
But by holding the A button, Lucario can hold in the punch- he can negate the startup lag this way, immediately punching once the A button is released. Lucario can't move in this state, but he does retain all momentum: and as you should recall, Lucario is floaty with excellent aerial movement, making this double as an approach. Master the use of this, and as far as combo starters go, you'll find this quickly becoming your bread and butter.
Forward Aerial - Focus Kick
Lucario extends a leg before him angled upward, similarly to his Forward Aerial in Brawl. In fact, it looks almost exactly the same. Being hit by Lucario's outstretched leg will deal 8% and low upwards knockback that can't really be comboed off of, but the flash of aura when his leg is fully extended deals 14% with low knockback, but impressive hitstun and a single unit of aura. However, at first glance the long duration of this attack (almost two-thirds a second) makes it useless.
However, by holding the A button Lucario will hold out his leg, allowing him to keep the attack out until he hits the ground. It becomes a sex kick this way, decaying to 4% or 10% after held out for an addition two-thirds of a second. It loses some hitstun too, but not too much. Lucario retains all horizontal momentum, so this is a potential combo starter or approach if you can use it properly (holding it out to take advantage of the nonexistent ending lag).
Back Aerial - Pushoff
Lucario kicks backwards in what is at first glance a generic back kick in the vein of virtually every character in the game. However, this works a little differently; it deals damage and knockback (11% and set of around half a Battlefield platform), but Lucario uses the opponent's body to push off an equivalent half of a Battlefield platform, if he lands it, of course. In theory this is a quite excellent way of spacing for a Dash Attack, but in practice this can be teched out of with the proper timing (easier than usual) and it leaves Lucario's back to the foe, and he has to turn around and dash before starting that Dash Attack which may be dodged or miss altogether.
However, by pressing the jump button when Lucario hits the opponent, he'll instead footstool them and propel himself upward the distance of his (powerful) second jump. This is an excellent setup for a Down Aerial because, while it can be teched just as easily as the primary version, it's easy for the opponent to DI wrong (forward). Mix up these two attacks and you'll find this a valuable, albeit a tad unreliable, combo mechanism.
Up Aerial - Hammer Arm
This move looks quite similarly to Lucario's Up Tilt; he holds his hand at the side of his head before slamming it horizontally forward. However, Lucario's fist is clenched, making his arm look like a hammer as it swings down. It's a powerful hitbox, dealing 16% and a powerful meteor smash, and the opponent will take exceptional hitstun if they hit the ground: but this has bad startup lag, around 1.5X that of Lucario's Up Tilt, Karate Chop. However, by mashing buttons Lucario can delay his swing by up to a second, simply holding his clenched fist behind his head and occasionally twitching it forward, which could psych out the opponent. If you do manage to land this, this is an excellent way to lead into a Forward Smash finish. Of course, landing it is the hard part.
Down Aerial - Aura Bullet
Lucario slams down in a
stall-then fall fall (no startup lag to speak of) at the speed and at the angle of a midair Falcon Kick, engulfed in aura to make his body (and hence this move's hitbox) slightly bigger. This is angled forward slightly in the direction Lucario was facing like Falcon Kick again, but Lucario can angle himself in either direction without lagging at all by tilting the analog stick. However, he can only go in two directions: angled to the left or right. Opponents caught in the move itself take rapid multiple hits- 1% eight times a second- and a unit of aura every second they're caught. This is very difficult to DI out of, but since Lucario is falling so fast it won't deal too much damage anyways.
Once Lucario and his opponent hit the ground, he takes no landing lag but the opponent takes a bit of hitstun for every eighth of a second they were caught in Lucario's rushing body. It's about a quarter that of Falco's laser for each hit, and by imputting it immediately after hitting the ground, this can lead into a C-Sticked Forward Smash if the opponent was caught for a second or more. This means starting it up high off the ground. It's far from a problem for Lucario to get there what with his powerful jumps, floatiness and amazing aerial DI, but getting the opponent there is more difficult seeing as he is limited in terms of upward-hitting attacks.
Grab ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grab - Aura Grasp
Lucario simply brushes his hands ahead of himself in a rather standard grab; this has very short range but is very quick (albeit the grab hitbox stays out very briefly). However, each unit of aura on an opponent will add range to the move; an aura-d opponent will be dragged towards Lucario if he grabs them from a distance, about .2 Stage Builder Blocks for each unit. This means that Lucario's grab has quite exceptional range on a fully aura-d opponent.
Pummel - Twist
Lucario simply twists his hand on his opponent's face. This isn't nearly as spammable as Lucario's pummel in Brawl, but it is still pretty quick. Deals no damage but latches on a single unit of aura (remember non-damaging attacks won't do some with aura, no damage with this at all).
Forward Throw - Rolling Kick
Lucario tosses the opponent forward with set knockback of around 2/3 a Battlefield platform and 1%, with a bit of hitstun. Immediately after them hitting the ground, Lucario curls up into a ball the size of Kirby, and becomes controllable to move in any direction with controls identical to that of Jigglypuff's fully charged Rollout. However, the roll ends if Lucario stays in this state for more than 1.5 seconds or turns around more than once. Slamming into the opponent merely does 3% with very low set knockback, but by pressing the A button Lucario immediately cancels the roll into a kick that looks similar to his Dash Attack in Brawl. It deals an impressive 14% and good set knockback of around a Battlefield platform with good range. This can't be followed up on at all combo-wise due to the lack of hitstun, but it can score cheap KOs on walk-off stages.
Backward Throw - Reversal
In a rather unremarkable throw, Lucario turns around and punches the opponent; the power is unremarkable as well, 6% with low knockback and hitstun. This is a half-decent combo starter, but Lucario has better ways of doing this; best used in FFAs for its speed, right? If Lucario is behind in the match (3rd or lower in an FFA), his fist is imbued with aura as he punches, making this do 12% and a unit of aura with lengthy hitstun, though the duration is a tad longer than it was before. This leaves the opponent downed, so it's tricky to follow up, but it's long hitstun and it's a safe start for a hopefully long combo.
Up Throw - Mach Punch
A very simplistic throw, but it
has to be to be so utterly reliable. Lucario simply uppercuts the opponent for 6% and set upwards knockback. Used correctly, from here you can chain some Aura Spheres, or just Dragon Pulse the opponent upward, to start a midair combo: difficult, with Lucario, traditionally. A rather important move.
Down Throw - Metal Sound
Lucario lowers the opponent to the ground in their downed position, and clashes his metallic claws together above them about half a second later. From here they're technically released from the grab; they can roll away, get up, do nothing or use their Downed Attack (not their rising attack, which doesn't actually exist). If they rise up by getting up or using their Downed Attack, they are hit by the twin claws take 6% and little hitstun (but Lucario suffers from no ending lag), and if they roll away or do nothing, Lucario's claws make a horrific sound like nails on a chalkboard to stun every other player in the match with the strength of a Deku Nut (Lucario suffers from bad ending lag from this version, however). Win-win situation, right?
Final ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Super Attack Final Smash - Aura Finish
Lucario enters a meditative stance, floating over the ground with his legs crossed. 2/3 of a second later, he flashes a deep blue color for one frame (a single frame, that's 1/60th of a second!). Opponents overlapping his body, similarly to Jigglypuff's Rest, will take 32% with obscene knockback and a full seven units of aura. For all intents and purposes, this is an OHKO.
However, despite being so powerful, this move has two things holding it back. First, the ridiculously specific hitbox mentioned above- but second, the meditative stance is not a cinematic. It's startup lag. That's right, Lucario can be hit out of this just like a standard attack. These two things make Aura Finish notoriously difficult to land...
...Unless you do what Lucario was meant to do to land it. If you somehow haven't picked up on it, that's comboing. While it's far from easy to combo into Aura Finish, Lucario can do it. It's usually comboable into in the same manner of one of Lucario's few finishers. If you do manage to learn the use of this Final Smash correctly, it could be quite useful. Note that, to compensate having to combo into this, it's three times as difficult to knock the Smash Ball out of Lucario as it would be with other characters, and he can switch between this and Aura Sphere with a spotdodge (though he remains glowing, and he can still lose the Smash Ball).
Playstyle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The one word that can sum up Lucario is
flow. With the Aura Pokémon you are not seeking to camp with projectiles, nor do you focus on blowing away the opponent in single, powerful hits. What Lucario is trying to do is trying to flow across the battlefield. All of his moves are near useless on their own, and must be used in conjunction with other attacks.
What this means is that Lucario is an utterly ferocious combo character. Simply put, Lucario's attacks do the hitstun and weak knockback one needs to follow up with. The most vital thing about Lucario's comboing is his aura, the blue fire certain attacks latch onto the opponent. Aura, while short-lived, will make comboing both easier and more potent. The problem is that it's rather rare. Lucario's moves that induce aura are rather thinly spread, and many of them require a sweetspot or need to be comboed into themselves. The one exception is Aura Sphere. It's a rather dodgable projectile on its own, but it's still possible to get some aura on the opponent before a combo to make it more powerful. That said, it's most valuable within a combo. The fact that Lucario can initiate Aura Sphere during literally any other attack can be scary. Still, it's rather hard to handle, as initiating and directing it may be too much to handle, given the complex button imputs a Lucario player must learn to combo. Still, it can add lots of damage and ease of use to a combo, once mastered.
The flipside of this is that Lucario has difficulty KOing, and unlike certain characters he isn't a master gimper to make up for it, though he certainly is capable of gimping (Dragon Pulse is capable, but has too much startup lag to be amazing). Lucario's KO moves are powerful, and if you land them they're assured to remove a stock from the opponent: but the problem is landing them. His main KO move, Forward Smash, is full of power, but it has lots of startup lag. Up Smash is certainly a possibility, but it isn't very powerful at all and is punishable. Down Smash is just too unreliable. Whenever you can you should try to find ways around it with gimping (works well on Ness and Lucas due to their slow Up Specials) and chaining off the stage (works well with large-hurtbox heaviweights), but most of the time he's forced to find a way to finish the opponent off.
What you should be trying to do to land that KO move is to combo into it. As stated before, Lucario is a combo beast; however, building up to a KO move may take a while and is escapable. Using Aura Sphere during it makes it easier, but this is difficult to do. Basically, you're flowing into a KO move: stack the hitstun of a Neutral Attack into a Side Tilt or Up Tilt to space properly for a Dash Attack which leaves the opponent in position for a Down Aerial... well, you get the idea. Then the opponent is helpless before even a laggy move.
Lucario has some powerful damage dealers to flow into, too. The most notable of these is his Side Special, Dark Pulse. It's virtually interchangeable with Forward Smash in how you use it: build up the hitstun on the foe to finish them off with a menacing move, except this time you aren't actually finishing them off. Another is Down Aerial, which can deal lots of damage when initiated high up and combo into something else itself.
This means Lucario always wants to have a goal in mind, something to build towards, as he combos. Lucario's combos are powerful on their own, but by building up to one final finisher they can border on ridiculous. What should be important is what you build towards, not how you do it.
Lucario is a character full of potential. Without practice he is a rather mediocre character, but anyone who puts in enough time (and that's a lot of time) into him, they can find him being a highly effective character. While there are few Lucario mains, those that exist will be practiced, making their Lucarios a truly menacing force.
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