Luigi (SSBU)

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Luigi in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Poltergust G-00

“	He can jump higher than his brother, Mario. His Up Special, Super Jump Punch, will gain maximum damage and launching power when hitting the opponent right at the start. It truly is a "Special" move. He also uses his new Poltergust for his throw!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Luigi (ルイージ, Luigi) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was revealed along with the rest of the roster on June 12th, 2018. Like in games prior to Super Smash Bros. 4, he reprises his role as an unlockable character instead of a starter character. Luigi is classified as fighter #09, just behind the eight starter characters.

As in Smash 4, Charles Martinet's portrayal of Luigi from Super Smash Bros. Brawl was repurposed for Ultimate.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Luigi being the 33rd character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the fifth character unlocked after Ike.
• Have Luigi join the player's party in World of Light in the dark world.

With the exception of the third method, Luigi must then be defeated on Luigi's Mansion.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

In spite of being a high-tier character (ranking 18th out of 55), Luigi has been buffed in the transition from Smash 4 to Ultimate. A notable buff to Luigi is his faster mobility, which both contributes to his approach and recovery; his faster dash, and the ability to now use any grounded attack out of a run, allows Luigi to overwhelm his opponents with fast attacks; Luigi's improved air speed, combined with his high jumps, allows him to easily traverse great aerial distances. Luigi's air game is also improved, due to his aforementioned air speed, the reduced short hop timing, and the decreased landing lag in his aerials. Thus, Luigi's aerials have greater safety, and easier times setting up combos on opponents.

Luigi's down tilt and dash attack also have much less ending lag, resulting in better combo potential for both attacks, in spite of the former's drastic damage decrease; the latter, however, deals significantly more damage now. Some of Luigi's main KOing options are buffed: his forward smash, perhaps one of Luigi's best finishers, has its knockback increased when inputting its standard and down angled versions, making its KO potential more consistent; Luigi's down smash, another one of his best KOing attacks, has its sweestspots outprioritize its sourspots, resulting in more consistent KOing ability; lastly, his down aerial now spikes grounded opponents, resulting in a damage increase.

Luigi also receives a tether grab in the form of his Poltergust G-00, offering much greater range than his former grab, but in exchange for greater startup and ending lag. The Poltergust G-00 can also be used in the air, but it has much greater ending lag, and it cannot be used to recover with. However, it fires a toilet plunger, which can aid in edgeguarding. Luigi's Fireballs have greater range, and come out quicker, increasing their utility. Luigi's Super Jump Punch travels higher, making it a better recovery option, while its landing lag is also decreased. Luigi Cyclone is more rebalanced, however: it deals greater damage, grants Luigi intangibility on its early frames, its hits connect better, it gains a windbox that drags opponents into the attack, and comes with less ending lag. However, Luigi Cyclone has its horizontal distance decreased, while button mashing causes it to gain significantly less vertical distance; thus, it is worse at recovering.

Aesthetics

• As with all veterans returning from Smash 4, Luigi's model features a more subdued color scheme. His hair and clothing now features simple detailing, similar to his design in Brawl.
• Like most of the returning roster, Luigi has become much more expressive than in the previous games.
• Luigi has a new walking animation and a new spot dodge animation. Luigi also has a new dashing animation akin to how he runs in Luigi's Mansion.
  • Luigi's backward jumping animations were slightly altered: he now performs one backflip instead of two; he flips less times during his backward midair jumping animation.
• Luigi's attacks that involve fire, such as his Fireball, have been given brighter, flashier particle effects.
• Luigi's victory animation where he throws rapid punches was slightly altered, with a different animation for gasping.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Luigi's jumpsquat animation now takes 3 frames to complete (down from 5).
• Luigi walks faster (1.08 → 1.134).
• Luigi runs faster (1.5 → 1.65).
  • Luigi's initial dash is significantly faster (1.28 → 1.815).
• Luigi's air speed is slightly higher (0.7341766 → 0.77).
• Luigi falls faster (1.25 → 1.32). This improves his vertical endurance, but makes him more susceptible to combos.
• Luigi's fast falling speed is faster (2 → 2.112). This improves his air mobility and makes him less susceptible to juggles.
• Luigi has significantly higher traction (0.024 → 0.096), no longer being the lowest in the game. This allows him to punish out of shield much more easily.
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 30).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-17 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-17 → 5-16), and more ending lag (FAF 31 → 35).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 27 → 26).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-27 → 3-29).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 33 → 58).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first hit can be held for a consecutive jab, akin to Mario's.
  • The first and third hits deal less damage (3% → 2% (hit 1), 5% → 4% (hit 3)), with the third hit also dealing less knockback.
  • The first and second hits have altered angles and knockback to keep opponents close to Luigi, akin to other neutral attacks. This allows them to connect better and jab lock, but removes their guaranteed jab cancel setups.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has an altered animation, now being a side kick instead of a roundhouse kick.
  • It deals more damage (8% → 9%).
  • It has more base knockback, increasing its safety on hit at low percents.
• Up tilt:
  • Luigi has a new up tilt, a short uppercut, similar to the one he possessed in the original Super Smash Bros..
  • It has more vertical range in front of Luigi, now being able to hit opponents on the lower platforms of Battlefield.
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 28), improving its combo potential.
  • It can no longer hit opponents behind Luigi.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has significantly less ending lag (FAF 27 → 14), dramatically improving its safety and granting it combo ability.
  • It deals less damage (8% → 5%), although with knockback compensated.
  • It no longer has a bonus trip chance.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has drastically less ending lag (FAF 76 → 48).
  • It consists of five hits instead of seven, which deal drastically more damage (1% (hits 1-6), 2% (hit 7) → 2% (hits 1-4), 4% (hit 5)), improving its KO potential.
• Forward smash:
  • Non-angled and downward angled forward smash deal more knockback.
• Up smash:
  • Luigi's nose is now intangible along with his head while the hitboxes is active, instead of only his head being intangible.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's sweetspots on both hits take priority over the sourspots, making them easier to land.
  • The front hit launches opponents away from Luigi rather than towards him. This improves its edgeguarding potential, but hinders its setup potential.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have reduced landing lag (14 frames → 8 (neutral), 22 frames → 13 (forward), 16 frames → 10 (back), 12 frames → 7 (up), 20 frames → 12 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has one frame less ending lag (FAF 46 → 45).
  • Luigi's head is slightly repositioned when using it.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial now always launches opponents towards Luigi's back, akin to most other back aerials, improving its reliability for edgeguarding.
  • Its sweetspot is larger.
  • It has one frame less ending lag (FAF 46 → 45).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less ending lag (FAF 30 → 27), improving its combo potential. This also allows Luigi to perform two up aerials in a short hop and autocancel the second one, like in Brawl and Smash 64.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial's clean hit now affects grounded opponents, allowing the move to deal more damage to them (8% → 10%) and meteor smash them. Combined with the removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes, this drastically improves its combo potential, now even possessing a KO setup into sweetspotted Super Jump Punch.
  • The clean hit deals more knockback.
• Luigi now has a grab aerial, effectively gaining an extra attack. Unlike other grab aerials, it has considerable landing lag and cannot be used as a tether recovery, but produces a projectile in the form of a plunger that drops a distance downward, and can be shot even during landing lag depending on timing, allowing it to be used for edgeguarding and low percent setups.

Throws/other attacks

• Luigi now has a tether grab, using his new Poltergust G-00 from Luigi's Mansion 3 and shooting a plunger attached to a rope. His pummel and all his throws except down throw have also received new animations reflecting this change.
  • Because of this, all grabs have much longer range, as well as a longer duration (2 frames → 7).
  • However, all grabs have noticeably increased startup (frame 6/8/9 (standing/dash/pivot) → 14/16/17) and ending lag (FAF 29/36/34 → 48/50/52), making them riskier to use at close range, and easier to punish if they miss.
• Pummel:
  • Pummel now has Luigi squeeze the opponent with the Poltergust.
  • It is faster, but deals significantly less damage (3.2% → 1.3%).
• Luigi's throws are no longer weight-dependent. This improves their combo potential on heavyweights, but reduces it on lightweights.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw now has Luigi slam the opponent onto the ground in front of him.
  • It releases opponents slower (frame 13 → 19) and has more ending lag (15 frames → 23).
• Back throw:
  • Back throw now has Luigi turn around to slam the opponent onto the ground behind him.
  • It releases opponents much faster (frame 44 → 19), making it harder to DI.
  • Its collateral hitbox has been removed. As a result, it can no longer hit bystanders.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw now has Luigi shoot opponents upward with the Poltergust.
  • It has increased combo ability due to Luigi's faster jumpsquat and jump speed.
  • It has gained a collateral hitbox in front of Luigi that deals 6% damage and has similar knockback to the throw, allowing it to hit and even start combos against bystanders.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw now has a hitbox before the throw, akin to Peach's, with its damage redistributed (6% → 3% (hit 1 and throw)) and knockback compensated on the throw. This allows it to hit bystanders.
  • It has less ending lag (21 → 12 frames), further improving its combo potential at higher percents.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

• Fireball:
  • Fireball travels slightly faster, making it more likely to hit opponents. It also covers slightly more range.
• Green Missile:
  • Green Missile has less ending lag in the air (FAF 86 → 81) and on hit (FAF 42 → 33).
  • Luigi's charging animation has been changed, and he now spins when the move misfires. In addition, he has an angrier expression while charging the move.
• Super Jump Punch:
  • Super Jump Punch has significantly decreased landing lag (68 frames → 45).
  • It grants more vertical distance.
  • It has less aerial drift when Luigi starts facing downwards, making it riskier to use farther away from the ledge.
  • The grounded version's sweetspot is fairly harder to land.
  • Like several other powerful attacks in the game, the grounded version's sweetspot triggers the Special Zoom when it successfully hits an opponent.
• Luigi Cyclone:
  • Luigi Cyclone now grants Luigi full invincibility on frames 4-8 for the grounded version and frames 1-7 for the aerial version. This allows it to tank through opposing attacks and break combos very effectively.
  • The last hit comes out faster (frame 44 → 40), allowing it to connect more reliably, and giving the move faster interruptibility as a result (FAF 90 → 86).
  • It deals more damage (1.5% → 2% (hits 1-4), 3% → 4% (hit 5); 9% → 12% (total)) with knockback not fully compensated on the last hit, improving its KO potential.
  • It has gained a windbox that pulls opponents into the move, and its linking hits have lower, set knockback, allowing it to connect more reliably.
  • Luigi Cyclone has much less horizontal maneuverability on the ground.
  • It gains significantly less height from button mashing, hindering its usefulness in recovery.
  • The addition of the windbox to the move and the linking hits' lower knockback completely remove its ability to gimp opponents offstage.
  • Luigi Cyclone now has a more opaque vortex form around Luigi when used.
  • The aerial version now uses the same ending lag animation as the grounded version.
• Final Smash:
  • While Luigi's Final Smash is the same as in Smash 4, he uses his new Poltergust from Luigi's Mansion 3, the Poltergust G-00.

Moveset

• Luigi can crawl.

The following damage values were calculated without the 1.2x damage multiplier that is activated during one-on-one fights.

For aerial attacks, full hop damage values are shown. Hovering over them shows the short hop damage values (aerial attacks performed during a short hop have a 0.85x multiplier.) Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	A one-two combo, followed by a hip thrust. It hits on frame 2 and its last hit slightly moves Luigi forward, making it a safe option at close range. The first two hits can also be used for jab locking opponents. The first two hits originate from the Punch + Punch + Kick combo.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt			9%	A side kick. It can be angled and is useful for locking opponents.
Up tilt			6%	A leaping uppercut, similar to Mario's, but more in front of Luigi rather than directly above himself. It is a potent combo starter, leading into itself at low percents and all of Luigi's aerials at mid to high percents. Compared to Mario's, it deals more damage, has more frontal range and less ending lag, but its much lower base knockback makes it less safe at very low percents.
Down tilt			5%	A crouching kick. It has short range, and deals low damage and knockback. However, its very minimal lag allows it to be quickly used in succession to combo into itself and whittle down shields if the opponent is close enough to Luigi.
Dash attack			2% (hits 1-4), 4% (hit 5)	Performs a flurry of punches, all while wincing nervously. It has been considerably buffed from previous games, having significantly less ending lag and dealing both more damage and knockback, while still being one of the fastest dash attacks in the game in terms of startup.
Forward smash			15%	A knifehand thrust. Luigi's most powerful smash attack, dealing high damage and knockback on all angles. However, it is also his slowest smash attack, and has short range, making it difficult to land.
Up smash		Lead Headbutt	14% (clean), 12% (late)	An upward arcing headbutt. It is quite fast for a smash attack, making it one of Luigi's fastest KO options, and launches opponents at a vertical angle towards him. Like Mario and Dr. Mario's up smashes, it renders his head intangible throughout its duration. Unlike theirs, however, it consists of a sweetspot and a sourspot, the latter which is located closer to Luigi.
Down smash			15% (body), 14% (legs)	A breakdancing kick, hitting on both sides of himself. Luigi's fastest smash attack, rivaling his tilts in speed, but also his weakest. In an opposite fashion to his up smash, both hits possess sweetspots located closed to Luigi, with the sourspots covering the rest of his legs.
Neutral aerial		Luigi Kick	12% (clean), 6% (late)	A flying kick. It has the fastest startup out of Luigi's aerials, making it very useful for breaking out of combos. It also launches at a vertical angle, allowing it to start combos when SHFF'd, especially with its late hit. The clean hit possesses decent KO ability.
Forward aerial			8%	A downward knifehand strike. It is a reliable followup from down throw at low to medium percents, and is useful for edgeguarding and approaching due to its low ending lag. Its hitbox is positioned not only on Luigi's hand, but also slightly around his body.
Back aerial			14% (clean), 8% (late)	A dropkick. The clean hit's sweetspot deals high damage and knockback, making it one of Luigi's best KOing options. Conversely, the clean hit's sourspot and the late hit deal much less damage and knockback.
Up aerial			11% (clean), 7% (late)	A bicycle kick. It is useful for combos like Mario's up aerial, due to its low ending and landing lag, while dealing above-average damage for a combo move. However, it launches at a lower angle than Mario's, which makes it less effective for combos and juggling past low percents.
Down aerial			10% (clean), 8% (late)	A diagonal corkscrew dropkick. It has low ending and landing lag, and its clean hit is a meteor smash. This allows it to start combos, as well as extend them when performed out of a down throw or neutral aerial, while also having respectable standalone power offstage. At mid percents, it can most notably combo into a grounded Super Jump Punch as a KO setup. However, the clean hit has very short range and only lasts one frame, whereas the late hit is much less reliable due to launching opponents horizontally away from Luigi.
Grab aerial			5%	Fires a plunger from his Poltergust G-00. It behaves unusually from other grab aerials in that it cannot be used as a tether recovery, and the plunger alongside its string detach from the Poltergust G-00 after being fired forward, behaving as a projectile that is affected by gravity and cannot be reflected or absorbed, which makes it useful for edgeguarding. The plunger falls down until either landing on the ground or traveling a set distance, disappearing afterwards, and does not restrict Luigi from using his grab while active. Unlike other grab aerials, this move has a much higher landing lag of 20 frames, but if Luigi lands before firing the plunger, it can come out and hit opponents during landing lag, allowing it to combo into several ground attacks at close enough range.
Grab			—	Fires a plunger from his Poltergust G-00. Has shorter range than other extended grabs, but less ending lag, with Luigi being able to act out of it before the plunger disappears.
Pummel			1.3%	Squeezes the opponent with the Poltergust G-00.
Forward throw			9%	Slams the opponent forward with the Poltergust G-00. Luigi's second most damaging throw, but has very minimal utility outside of dealing damage and setting up edge-guards at high percents.
Back throw			10%	Turns around to slam the opponent behind himself with the Poltergust G-00. It is Luigi's most damaging and strongest throw, being able to KO middleweights under 120% at the edge.
Up throw			8% (throw), 6% (collateral)	Swings the Poltergust G-00 upwards. It can combo into a forward aerial or up aerial at low to mid percents, and possesses a collateral hitbox that launches bystanders upwards alongside the thrown opponent.
Down throw			3% (hit 1 and throw)	Shoves the opponent under himself and Ground Pounds them. It is Luigi's most useful move and one of the most effective combo starters in the game, thanks to its average knockback, low ending lag and mostly vertical angle. It can combo into several moves, including an up tilt or up smash at low percents, and any of Luigi's aerials or Luigi Cyclone at low and up to high percents, as well as an aerial sweetspotted Super Jump Punch. Its most effective followup at lower percents is a clean down aerial, which can then be followed up by a neutral aerial into another clean down aerial to repeat the cycle and rack up more damage, though this is difficult to pull off due to the clean hit's small hitbox. At higher percents, it has several potential KO setups, including an aerial Super Jump Punch, a back aerial near the edge, and Luigi Cyclone on platforms.
Floor attack (front)			7%	Performs a breakdancing kick before getting up.
Floor attack (back)			7%	Punches behind himself and then in front of himself while getting up.
Floor attack (trip)			5%	Performs a wheel kick while getting up.
Edge attack			9%	Performs a double-footed legsweep while climbing up.
Neutral special		Fireball	6% (clean), 5% (late)	Throws a Green Fireball. It is fairly spammable, which enables it to pressure opponents from afar and hinder approaches. It deals more damage than Mario's Fireballs, but due to being unaffected by gravity, it is less suitable for edge-guarding.
Side special		Green Missile	≈6.16% (uncharged), ≈21% (fully charged), 25% (misfired)	Crouches and then shoots himself forward to perform a flying battering ram. It takes more than a full second to fully charge, but deals impressive damage upon doing so. Upon reaching full charge, it can be held for some time before being automatically canceled. It also has a 10% chance to misfire, which deals considerably more damage and knockback, KOing opponents at around 60% from the center of Final Destination. A misfired Green Missile also grants intangibility on frames 18-22, and always travels the same distance regardless of the charge. However, its considerable ending lag makes it punishable whether it is used for offense or recovering, which makes reads very important in order to use it effectively.
Up special		Super Jump Punch	25% (grounded sweetspot), 20% (aerial sweetspot), 1% (sourspot)	A jumping uppercut. Its grounded sweetspot emits a ping sound and triggers a Special Zoom upon hitting, and boasts excellent damage output with impressive knockback, KOing opponents as early as 60% from ground level. Its aerial sweetspot is larger, yet deals less damage and knockback (though it is still powerful), and does not have the special effects of the grounded sweetspot. Both versions also grant intangibility on frames 8-10. However, it is very punishable because of its considerable landing lag, while its abysmally weak sourspot lacks KO potential.
Down special		Luigi Cyclone	2% (hits 1-4), 4% (hit 5)	Rapidly spins around as a vortex generates around himself, trapping the opponent and damaging them with a series of discus clotheslines and spinning backfists before assuming a spread-eagle position to launch them. It allows Luigi to move horizontally on the ground, as well as rise by mashing the special move button, although both abilities are considerably weaker than in previous games. It also grants Luigi invincibility during startup (frames 4-8 grounded and 1-7 midair), and has windboxes around Luigi to pull opponents into the attack, making it a potent combo breaker that, compared to his neutral aerial, is more effective but slightly less rewarding. The final hit has respectable power, with the grounded version KOing middleweights at around 160%.
Final Smash		Poltergust G-00	30.1% (maximum captured), 10% (ejection)	Wields the Poltergust G-00 to vacuum nearby opponents into it before powerfully ejecting them diagonally. Opponents will accumulate more damage the earlier they are vacuumed in. It has decent range, and is capable of vacuuming opponents from a variety of angles.

Update history

1.2.0

• The plunger from his grab aerial now disappears when used while crossing a platform instead of getting stuck inside it.

Classic Mode: Luigi's Nightmares

All of Luigi's opponents are creepy or scary characters or a character using a scary alternate costume.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	4 (Dark) Toon Links	Luigi's Mansion	Main Theme - Luigi's Mansion (Brawl)	Despite all enemies sharing the same costume, their models weren't brightened or darkened to differ them.
2	Giant Ridley	Brinstar	Sector 1
3	Bayonetta	Umbra Clock Tower	The Legend of Aesir
4	6 Mii Fighters	Luigi's Mansion (Battlefield form)	Main Theme - Luigi's Mansion (Brawl)
5	(Dark) Link	Midgar	Death Mountain
6	(Wireframe) Little Mac, then Giant Mr. Game & Watch	Luigi's Mansion (Ω form)	On the Hunt -Gloomy Manor Ver- (Instrumental)
Bonus Stage
Final	Dracula	?	Nothing to Lose

Role in World of Light

Although Luigi does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Luigi was one of the many fighters that fell under Dharkon's control upon Galeem's first defeat, and he can be found in the Mysterious Dimension being guarded by the Link (The Legend of Zelda) spirit after Meta Knight has been awakened.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Luigi's fighter card.

• 

  Luigi taunting on Magicant.

• 

  Launching Cloud with a sweetspotted Super Jump Punch on Battlefield.

• 

  Tossing a Fireball on Skyloft.

• 

  Attacking Snake with his neutral jab on Coliseum.

• 

  Raccoon Luigi with Bewear on Pilotwings.

• 

  Attacking Wario with his neutral aerial on Bridge of Eldin.

• 

  Taunting next to Pikmin and Olimar on Distant Planet.

• 

  Splatted by Inkling on Luigi's Mansion.

• 

  Grabbed by Sukapon.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• In Simon's reveal trailer, Luigi was shown having his soul taken by Death, which led to humorous posts from the community claiming that Luigi had been officially "killed off". In turn, BBC News wrote a mock obituary for Luigi. Nintendo UK eventually responded with a short message of "Luigi is okay" as a nod to this event.
  • Luigi was not shown from the rest of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct (not counting menus and the like) of August 8th, 2018. Despite this, Mario and Mega Man were present in this Direct, even after what happened in Ridley's reveal trailer.
    • Luigi is also one of three characters to not appear in any in-battle footage in the Direct, the others being R.O.B. and the Mii Fighters.
• Luigi's Mansion 3 was teased before it was officially announced through Simon's trailer, as Luigi can be seen using the new Poltergust from the aforementioned game.
• Luigi's pose in the panoramic artwork for Ultimate is reminiscent of his pose in a group artwork for Melee.
• Luigi is the first and only veteran in the series to have his standard grab be changed into a tether grab between installments.
• In a promo screenshot for the game depicting Luigi in his Waluigi-inspired costume, the L on his cap was green, but in the final game it is purple, like in Super Smash Bros. 4.
• Luigi is the only character to represent an upcoming game through his moveset.
  • Yoshi also holds this distinction, though only through his Yoshi's Crafted World alternate costume and not through an actual moveset change.
• Luigi's yellow alternate costume has a light blue L on his cap in-game, as apposed to it being yellow and matching the rest of the cap in his render. The head icon, however, properly colors the L.