Lucario (SSBU)

Lucario in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Pokémon
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Aura Storm
Tier	C- (63)

Lucario (ルカリオ, Lucario) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was confirmed as a playable character on June 12th, 2018. As in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is unlockable, instead of being available from the start. Lucario is classified as Fighter #41.

Lucario is once again voiced in different languages provided by different voice actors, with their respective portrayals of Lucario from Super Smash Bros. 4 being repurposed for Ultimate. The voice actors are as follows:

• Sean Schemmel in English
• Daisuke Namikawa in Japanese
• Jean-Marc Delhausse in French
• Carlos Lobo in Spanish
• Gerhard Jilka in German
• Luigi Fantino in Italian

Lucario is ranked 63rd out of 82 on the current tier list, placing it near the top of the C- tier. This is a significant drop from its 17th out of 54 placement in SSB4, making this its worst placement in the series. Lucario has a unique playstyle, playing defensively at lower percents, and at higher percents relying on its Aura to deal massive damage and take stocks quickly using its explosive, high-damage combos, fast movement speed, and quick, powerful kill options. Its smash attacks are all good kill options with respectable knockback and disjointed hitboxes, which become some of the strongest in the game with max aura. Its side special Force Palm is a powerful ranged tool that becomes a powerful command grab up close. Lucario also features a wide array of combo tools, with neutral special having many tech options and being a good combo tool. Its up throw and down throw are also good combo starters, and back throw can kill at higher percents. Its primary recovery option, Extreme Speed, travels very fast and has an extremely long distance at max aura, making it difficult to intercept.

However, despite its numerous strengths, Lucario suffers from some glaring weaknesses. Its reliance on aura can make it difficult for Lucario to make comebacks, as it will already be at a high percent before its combos and kill options open up. This means it must win neutral several times, while its opponent might only have to win neutral once to close out their stock. Lucario also has semi-sluggish frame data, with its smash attacks all coming out after frame 15 and slow aerials outside of forward and down aerial while its range is very low outside of some disjointed aura moves; combined, this makes Lucario's kill power and combos even more inconsistent. Finally, Lucario can have trouble landing, as it is somewhat floaty with a medium-sized hurtbox.

Overall, Lucario is a high-risk, high-reward character, at its most powerful when it is at its most vulnerable. It can put in a lot of pressure when it is at high percents, but struggles at low percents, giving its playstyle very large momentum shifts. Despite its below-average competitive representation, Lucario has seen respectable results from Armadillo and Gachipi.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Lucario being the 27th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Yoshi or anyone in its unlock tree, being the 1st character unlocked.
• Have Lucario join the player's party in World of Light.

Lucario must then be defeated on Spear Pillar (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

In terms of physical attributes, Lucario is a middleweight fighter (same weight as Ice Climbers, Mythra, Steve, Wolf, and Villager, making it on the lower end of middleweights) with average height, a below-average walking speed and an average running speed, a very fast initial dash (tied for 5th fastest with Bowser, Mewtwo, Marth, and Lucina), above-average traction, very high air speed (6th fastest in this category), above-average air acceleration and falling speed, and below-average gravity; Lucario can also crawl, wall jump, and wall cling. These traits make Lucario a somewhat floaty character who can maintain aerial presence for a long time, be it onstage or offstage, while also having decent mobility and control on the ground due to its fast dashing speed and above-average traction; collectively, Lucario's overall mobility meanders between average and above-average.

Lucario's most notable strength comes from its unique fighter ability, Aura, in which damage and knockback multipliers are applied to all of its attacks depending on how much damage Lucario has taken, with the multipliers being directly proportional to its percent; the multiplier is x0.66 at 0%, increases to x1.0 (base power) at 65%, and caps out at 190% with a multiplier of x1.67. Aura multipliers are also affected by differences in stocks, with it increasing when Lucario is behind in stocks and decreasing when it is ahead. Additionally, Aura also affects the properties of its special moves; as Aura increases, the size of Aura Sphere becomes larger when charging, and when fired, the blast from Force Palm has greater range, and Extreme Speed travels a greater distance. In turn, this ability can allow Lucario to rack up large amounts of damage and kill at very early percentages when it has taken a lot of damage, making it useful as a comeback mechanic when Lucario is falling behind. It should be noted that Aura also stacks with rage, further augmenting the increased knockback of Lucario's moves at very high percentages, though to a lesser extent than in the previous game.

In terms of its grounded moveset, while its neutral attack has little to no use due to having low damage output relative to its speed, dealing only 9% at base power despite coming out at frame 5 (for reference, faster jabs such as Mario's come out frame 2 and deal 8% while slower jabs such as Bayonetta's come out frame 9 and deal 21%) its other grounded moves have some utility; forward tilt has its use as a spacing tool due its ability to be angled and kills middleweights at 145% on the edge of Final Destination at base power, up tilt is a combo starter that can combo into itself at low percents and into neutral aerial, forward aerial, and up aerial at mid percents, down tilt can combo into dash attack and forward aerial at mid percents while also having its use as a spacing tool, and dash attack, while not being very useful for killing, is a decent burst option due to it coming out fast as well as because of its fast initial dash.

Its smash attacks also have their uses as disjointed kill options. Up smash has its use as an anti-air that kills middleweights at 105% at base power, and it can also hit grounded opponents up close with its initial scooping hitbox, making it a situational out of shield option against laggy moves. Down smash covers Lucario from both sides and kills middleweights at 115% from center stage at base power. Forward smash has the greatest amount of kill power and horizontal range out of its smash attacks, being able to kill middleweights at 90% from center stage at base power while also having the potential to be safe on shield if spaced well. Its grab game also has utility. Up throw and down throw can be used as combo starters, with the former being able to combo into forward aerial at low percents and neutral aerial at mid percents (as well as up aerial on bigger characters), while the latter can combo into forward aerial at low percents (with down throw > forward air > forward air > up air being its most damaging combo at low percents). Forward throw and back throw don't have much use outside of being positional throws, though the latter can have a situational use as a late kill throw.

Lucario's aerial moveset also has good utility. Neutral aerial hits twice, covers Lucario from both sides, and has a good amount of active frames, making it a useful edgeguarding tool that complements its ability to maintain aerial presence. It is one of the safest aerials in the game. It can also combo into up tilt, down tilt, and dash attack at low and mid percents when SHFF'd. Forward aerial is fast and can combo into itself when SHFF'd, up aerial and back aerial are vertical and horizontal kill options, with the former killing middleweights at 110% at base power near the top blast zone and having situational combo potential into itself and neutral aerial when SHFF'd. The latter kills at 115% from base power at center stage while also being slightly disjointed. Down aerial is also unique in its uses; it is its fastest aerial at frame 4, allowing it to be an out-of-shield option, it stalls its movements, which allows it to mix up its disadvantage and edgeguarding, and it has its use as a kill option, killing middleweights at 135% from the edge of Final Destination at base power.

Lucario's special moveset is highly versatile as well. Aura Sphere is useful as a projectile and as a kill option, with a fully charged one killing middleweights at 150% from center stage at base power. In addition, the move maintains a hitbox behind Lucario as it is charged, making it useful as an approach mix-up and sometimes as a situational kill confirm into back aerial. Force Palm is unique in the fact that it functions as a ranged blast from a distance and as a command grab at point-blank range, giving it use as an out-of-shield option and a kill option, as it kills middleweights at 140% at base power from center stage. Extreme Speed, being its primary recovery option, travels a good distance and has a hitbox that enables it to be used as a mix-up for onstage recoveries. Finally, Double Team is a counter that has greater utility than conventional counters; the distance the move covers allows Lucario to punish the opponent when countering a projectile, and the fact that the strength of the counter is based on Aura as opposed to the strength of the countered move allows it to kill middleweights at 115% at base power regardless of the move being countered.

All in all, these traits give Lucario a decent neutral game with Aura Sphere, good advantage state, edgeguarding capabilities, and a decent disadvantage state thanks to its fast air mobility and versatile special moves, two of which can be B-reversed. Lucario is the only character besides Robin and Mewtwo to have both a chargeable projectile that can be stored and a command grab in their special moveset. It is the only character whose projectile has a hitbox during its charging animation. Its side special functions as both a command grab and a ranged attack, depending on the distance. In addition, Aura gives Lucario the potential to take early stocks and come back from percentage and stock deficits.

However, Lucario also has notable flaws. Ironically, a lot of its flaws come from its most notable strength, Aura, as the fluctuating nature of the ability makes it inconsistent in a few ways. One thing Aura makes inconsistent is how Lucario is rewarded for winning neutral; Aura gives Lucario a x0.66 damage multiplier at zero percent, which means that it starts fresh stocks by dealing relatively low damage. This, in turn, means it must win the neutral game many times and maintain its advantage well to rack up damage, while the opponent can have an easier time closing those percentage deficits. In addition to being burdened by low Aura, it is also difficult for Lucario to make the most out of high Aura because its average weight makes it hard for Lucario to be alive at very high percents, much less at 190% for it to use the highest Aura multiplier of x1.67; this essentially means that Lucario is only at its strongest state when it is also at its most vulnerable. Aura's inconsistency not only affects the way it racks up damage, but also the consistency at which it can kill; the kill percentages mentioned earlier are at base power, when Lucario has already taken at least 65% damage. Those KO percents are far higher when Aura is lower. Another thing that Aura makes inconsistent is its combo game. At the same time, other characters have their bread-and-butter combos and kill confirms at certain percent ranges. Lucario's combos and KO confirms are far less consistent because the knockback of moves will keep fluctuating as Aura increases, making it so those combos at low and mid percents won't always land with high Aura due to too much knockback.

Outside of Aura's inconsistencies, another flaw Lucario has revolves around its frame data as, while it isn't as slow as characters like Ganondorf and King K. Rool, it is still somewhat sluggish; its jab (frame 5) and forward tilt (frame 12) are slow relative to other jabs and forward tilts, while also having poor damage output and kill power with low Aura. All of its smash attacks come out at frame 15 or slower, and all of its aerials, except forward aerial and down aerial, come out at frame 10 or slower, making its already inconsistent kill power even more inconsistent on top of the fact that its throws outside of Force Palm have very little kill power unless it is at high Aura. Its poor frame data hinders its ability to approach, and its somewhat floaty nature worsens this.

Finally, Lucario's special moveset, despite being versatile, doesn't come without its flaws, as Force Palm has hitbox issues that cause the command grab not to be triggered when at close range, and Double Team can put Lucario deeper in disadvantage if used hastily. However, the most glaring flaw in its special moveset is its recovery: while Extreme Speed travels fast and covers a good distance, its 46-frame startup makes it vulnerable to edgeguarding. Additionally, the move is also inconsistent due to not always grabbing the ledge, as well as the fact that the speed and distance change with Aura, making it possible to overshoot its recovery and self-destruct.

Overall, Lucario is a very high-risk, high-reward character. Essentially, being the most powerful when most vulnerable, players need to know when to play recklessly and when to play carefully. Either kill sooner and get killed sooner, or kill later and get killed later. Despite the strengths it has in its special moveset and in its aerial and offstage game, as well as the potential to secure early stocks and comebacks with high Aura, the potency of these strengths is complicated by Aura's many inconsistencies and its damage-reducing multiplier when at percentages less than 65%. On top of that, its below-average frame data and floaty nature make its approaches inconsistent, and its recovery is exploitable due to its long start-up.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Lucario has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. While it was immensely nerfed overall at launch due to a combination of its most powerful attributes, character mechanics, and some of the universal changes to gameplay being detrimental to it, game updates have given Lucario various buffs to help compensate. Regardless, Lucario is still considered to be significantly nerfed overall.

Lucario's biggest nerfs come from its character attributes and changes to the game's engine. Its Aura multiplier is slightly lower than in SSB4, reducing its effectiveness even while accounting for the newly introduced 1v1 multiplier. The weakening of rage also hinders Lucario, due to the mechanic stacking with Lucario's Aura; and its weight is now lighter, disallowing Lucario to take advantage of rage and Aura combined as much as before. Furthermore, the changes in knockback physics and air dodging have had the overall effect of limiting or even outright removing some of Lucario's previously guaranteed throw combos, which were some of the only reliable ways for it to add damage. Its grabs were also nerfed, and while this is a nerf shared with the cast, Lucario's own grabs are also slower, while possessing similar ending lag to characters like Zelda. All in all, Lucario is noticeably less powerful at higher percentages, and it's harder for it to rack up damage conventionally.

Some of Lucario's most reliable moves are also less effective. Aura Sphere can no longer be grab-canceled, and it deals less hitlag, almost eliminating the charge combos the move was capable of. Down aerial halts Lucario's momentum less if used repeteadly, making it a less effective stalling tool. Extreme Speed's controls have been modified to the point where holding down the control stick can accidentally lead to self-destruction, and the move itself covers less distance overall and stops its momentum at the end, worsening Lucario's recovery at lower percentages (though it remains outstanding at high percentages). Double Team has a drastically shorter duration and intangibility, making it significantly easier to punish Lucario for mistiming the move. Finally, back aerial is weaker and has a sourspot that lingers, as opposed to the full move dealing even damage.

However, Lucario did receive some buffs. Many of its attacks in general are faster, notably its neutral attack, forward smash, and forward and back aerials. Other moves have also gained utility, such as neutral aerial now being able to connect into its late hit and having larger hitboxes, and dash attack having a stronger, easy-to-land sweetspot. Its special moves have also been collectively improved; Aura Sphere can now be cancelled into a jump or any ground attack during a charge, allowing for mixup options, Force Palm has more range, Extreme Speed has less ending and landing lag which significantly improves its safety, and Double Team can now home in on opponents and is much faster overall.

Lucario also benefits from a few of the gameplay mechanic changes. Its overall mobility has been greatly improved due to faster horizontal movement, while the universal 3-frame jumpsquat further improves Lucario's ability to traverse the stage. The universal reductions to landing lag have also benefitted Lucario's safety on shield to the point that, at high levels of Aura, its aerials become among the safest in the game (with neutral aerial's clean hit in particular having the potential to be neutral on shield). Lastly, the introduction of the 1v1 multiplier is an overall benefit to Lucario, granting its attacks a far higher damage output than ever before, especially at medium to high levels of Aura.

In the end, Lucario's gameplan is much worse as a result of the nerfs to its attributes, its higher frailty, and the revamped gameplay mechanics; and its few reliable options for racking up damage are less effective, especially after an early game update. Despite Lucario's subsequent buffs from game updates, they do not properly compensate for the numerous nerfs it has received, and this is further pronounced by the numerous buffs other returning veterans have received, as well as the introduction of various powerful DLC characters that perform better than Lucario does, with a few of them proving difficult for it to overcome. As a result, Lucario fares much worse in Ultimate than in SSB4, and is one of the most nerfed characters in the transition.

Aesthetics

• Similar to all veterans returning from Smash 4, Lucario's model has a more subdued color scheme, and its fur has a more detailed texture.
• Aura is now cyan in color instead of indigo at earlier percentages, and its visual effects are smoother. At higher Aura levels, the flames produced are more intense, becoming indigo in color, which leave behind a trail as Lucario moves. Purple electricity starts emanating from its paws, and the spikes on each paw begin to glow white. The appendages on the back of its head also rise up as Aura grows in power.
• Many of Lucario's attacking animations have been updated from SSB4. Notably, Lucario stands on one foot more in its attacks, particularly with its smash attacks and Double Team.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Lucario's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 5).
• Lucario walks slightly faster (1.05 → 1.103).
• Lucario runs faster (1.55 → 1.705).
  • Lucario's initial dash is significantly faster (1.8 → 2.255).
• Lucario's air speed is much higher (1.09 → 1.281), now being on par with Wolf's.
• Lucario's air acceleration is higher 0 → 0.01 (base), 0.07 → 0.08 (additional), 0.07 → 0.09 (max).
• Lucario's traction is higher (0.0736 → 0.116). However, due to traction being significantly increased across the cast, it no longer has the highest traction in the game going from first out of 58 to eighteenth out of 76 characters.
• Lucario is lighter (99 → 92), making it more difficult to survive at higher percents to take advantage of Aura.
• Aura:
  • Aura's baseline damage percent is lower (70% → 65%), allowing Lucario to reach normal strength faster.
  • The ceiling damage multiplier (at 190% damage) is lower (1.7× → 1.67×), reducing Lucario's damage racking and KO potential at the highest Aura level (although it remains considerably above average).
  • Stock Aura has been revised, using a new formula of 1 - 0.085 * rank * players if Lucario is placing higher than opponents, and 1 + 0.2 * rank * players if placing lower than them. As a result, except for a rank of +2 with at least four players, or -2 with more than two players, all the possible multipliers have been increased (-2 rank: 1.333× → 1.4× (2 players); -1 rank: 1.143×-1.231×-1.33× → 1.2×-1.3×-1.4× (2 to 4 players); +1 rank: 0.888×-0.842×-0.8× → 0.915×-0.8725×-0.83×; +2 rank: 0.8×-0.727× → 0.83×-0.745× (2-3 players)), having less of a hindering effect when Lucario is placing ahead.
    • However, the multipliers for a rank of +2 or -2 with at least four players have been reduced, especially the latter (+2 rank: 0.667× → 0.66×; -2 rank: 2× → 1.8×). This reduces the Anubis Combo's extreme comeback factor, making Lucario more reliant on taking damage to reap the benefits of Aura.
• The weakening of rage reduces Lucario's KO potential at high percents. When combined with the changes to Aura and Lucario's reduced weight, it has become considerably less threatening when damaged.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's hits connect much more consistently.
  • All three hits of neutral attack have less ending lag (FAF 34, 38, 41 → 25, 27, 36).
  • The first two hits of neutral attack can jab lock opponents.
  • The first two hits of neutral attack have gained a hitstun modifier of 6.
  • Neutral attack's first hit has less startup (frame 6 → 5).
  • The first hit has fewer active frames (frames 6-8 → 5-6).
  • The final hit has fewer active frames (frames 9-11 → 9-10).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack's singular hitbox has been split into two: one larger hitbox on Lucario's kicking leg, and one smaller hitbox on its other foot, with the larger hitbox acting as the sweetspot. Along with making its overall coverage much larger, it also prevents dash attack from missing smaller opponents.
  • Dash attack's new sweetspot deals more damage (10%) and knockback during its early frames than the rest of the attack, letting it KO earlier.
  • The sourspot of the clean hit does more damage (8% → 8.5%).
  • Dash attack's sweetspot has more range (hitboxes: 3.0u → 3.6u (clean), 2.8u → 2.9u (late)).
  • Lucario now lands on its feet after using dash attack; previously, it fell on its side after the kick.
• Forward tilt:
  • The first hit has higher set knockback (20 → 25/30), and uses the autolink angle against aerial opponents (80° → 361° (grounded)/366° (aerial)), allowing it to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • Forward tilt's second hit deals more knockback (50 base/95 scaling → 57/105).
  • Forward tilt has a new animation, with Lucario leaning back before the palm thrust. In addition, the updated visual on the Aura effect matches the hitboxes much better.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has a new animation; Lucario jumps slightly higher when kicking, and kicks in an overall more animated fashion. It then quickly hops back into place at the end of the attack.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has less startup (frame 9 → 7) and ending lag (FAF 25 → 21). This improves its safety and combo potential.
  • Down tilt's new animation has Lucario crouch low to the ground while kicking. This allows it to lower its profile and dodge more attacks while using down tilt.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash's clean hit has a larger hitbox (5.5u → 5.7u), and greater horizontal extension (Z offset: 4.7-10.2 → 5-11.7), improving its range.
  • Forward smash becomes active earlier (frame 22 → 19).
  • Forward smash has more vibrant Aura effects.
  • Forward smash's animation is more animated and snappy compared to SSB4. It also now ends the attack standing on one foot.
  • The new animation of forward smash has Lucario lean back at the start of the attack, allowing it to evade attacks before retaliating with its own.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has an altered animation, with Lucario raising its leg much higher while releasing the blast of Aura. The charging stance is different, and the blast of Aura is much wider than before to match the hitbox more accurately.
  • Up smash's first hit has more horizontal range (Z offset: -4–4 → -5–5).
  • Up smash's second hitbox is larger (8u → 8.8u), and lower down (Y offset: 25 → 23.5), improving its horizontal range and allowing it to connect better against opponents pulled up from the ground, but reducing its vertical range.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has less startup (frame 19 → 16), with its total duration reduced as well (FAF 55 → 52).
  • Down smash has a new animation; instead of raising its arms into the air and bringing them down, Lucario now briefly stands on one foot before stomping it to the ground while simultaneously releasing Aura from its palms.
  • The charging animation of down smash now has Lucario fold its arms while crouching in front of its chest instead of waving its arms in a circular motion.
    • Due to the change in stance, Lucario is less vulnerable to attack while charging down smash.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial now consists of six hitboxes which surround Lucario rather than consisting of two hitboxes on its right arm (6u/4u (clean)/4.5u/3.3u (late) → 4.6u/4.6u/4.6u/4.6u/3.6u/3.6u (both)). This allows the move to hit behind Lucario much sooner and lead into the second hit; increasing its potency.
    • This also allows the attack to drag opponents forwards if they are behind Lucario, improving its followup potential.
  • It has less landing lag (9 frames → 5).
  • The first hit has more startup lag (frame 8 → 10).
  • The first hit has a longer hitbox duration (frames 8-11 → 10-14).
  • The second hit has less startup lag (frame 22 → 18).
  • The second hit has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 22-29 → 18-21).
    • Altogether, these changes allow both hits to connect much more reliably.
  • It auto-cancels earlier (frame 39 → 36).
  • Its initial auto-cancel window is shorter (frames 1-7 → 1-4).
  • It has a new animation; Lucario spins more quickly than it did in Smash 4.
    • This new animation is longer (54 frames → 56), slightly increasing the amount of time Lucario cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less landing lag (18 frames → 9).
  • Lucario can grab ledges sooner after using forward aerial (64 frames → 52).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has less startup lag (frame 16 → 13).
  • It deals less damage (15% → 14%/13%), hindering its KO potential.
  • It has more ending lag (FAF 49 → 50).
  • Its initial auto-cancel window is longer (frames 1-3 → 1-4).
  • The burst of aura from its animation has better adjusted to more accurately better match its hitboxes.
  • It has a new animation which is slightly shorter than the previous animation (63 frames → 61). This slightly decreases the amount of time Lucario cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less landing lag (22 frames → 13).
  • The clean hit has a larger hitbox (4.0u → 5.0u).
  • The late hit has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 12-15 → 12-13).
  • It has an altered animation, with Lucario backflipping following the initial kick.
    • This new animation is longer (50 frames → 54), slightly increasing the amount of time Lucario cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial stalls Lucario's movement less on successive uses (vertical speed: 0.1 (always) → 0.1/-0.2/-0.5/-0.8/-1.1/-1.4/-1.68).
  • It has more landing lag (9 frames → 12).
  • It has a new animation which is longer than the previous animation (31 frames → 40). This increases the amount of time Lucario cannot grab ledges after performing the move.

Throws and other attacks

• Grab:
  • All grabs have more startup (frame 6 (standing)/8 (dash)/9 (pivot) → 7/10/11) and drastically more ending lag (FAF: 29 (standing)/36 (dash)/34 (pivot) → 40/47/43).
  • Pivot grab has more range (Z-stretch: -15.2 → -16.5).
  • Lucario now grabs and holds the opponent with one palm, as opposed to clinching them.
    • Grab's new animation makes it less disjointed.
• Pummel:
  • It has a new animation, with Lucario attacking with one palm while keeping its stance, as opposed to bashing the opponent with its two palms.
  • It has faster startup (frame 2 → 1).
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 8 → 7), but deals considerably more hitlag (1x (6 frames) → 2.1x (13 frames)), increasing its effective duration.
  • It deals more damage (1% → 1.3%).
    • Relative to the rest of the cast, Lucario's pummel is now average in both damage and speed, as opposed to the fastest but among the weakest.
• Forward throw:
  • It now consists of a two-hit move (8% → 5% hit 1/3% throw), giving the move a collateral hitbox to hit opponents near Lucario (angle: 361°; knockback: 60 base/100 scaling). This gives it utility against bystanders or two-in-one characters.
  • The throw has altered knockback (70 base/55 scaling → 60/92), reducing it overall.
• Up throw:
  • It deals more knockback (70 base/70 scaling → 90/60), significantly hindering its combo potential.

Special moves

• Due to the changes to Lucario's Aura baseline percent and ceiling multiplier, its affected special move attributes (namely the size of Aura Sphere and Force Palm's wave, and Extreme Speed's travel distance) increase faster from low to mid percents, but gain slightly less of an increase with maximum Aura.
• Aura Sphere:
  • Aura Sphere is visually closer to how it appears in recent Pokémon games. It has an "energy absorption" effect while charging and no longer emits a trail of smoke when launched.
  • Aura Sphere can now be jump-canceled, even in the air. Additionally, it can now be canceled into any grounded option while charging with an advanced technique called Charge Storage Cancelling.
    • With Lucario's increased air speed, this makes it possible to edge-guard opponents by charging Aura Sphere and then cancelling it into an aerial, as well as improving its movement when combined with B-Reverses, Wavebounces, etc.
  • Moving the control stick down has Lucario spot dodge, much like how moving it left or right has it roll.
  • Lucario cannot shield immediately out of Aura Sphere, making it less safe to charge.
  • Lucario cannot use its standard grab out of a charging Aura Sphere without shielding, as pressing the Z button fires the Aura Sphere.
  • The aerial charge animation for Aura Sphere was altered; it now more closely resembles the grounded charging animation.
  • Fully charged Aura Sphere has a larger hitbox (2.0u → 2.6u).
• Force Palm:
  • Force Palm has increased grab range.
  • Force Palm's blast deals more knockback (45 base/48 scaling → 48/58).
  • Force Palm's projectile deals less damage with the far hit (7% → ~5%).
  • Force Palm's sweetspot has less range (Z2 offset: 11 → 8), making the sourspot more likely to connect.
  • Force Palm's hitbox now matches its Aura graphics more closely.
  • Force Palm's grab triggers Special Zoom if Lucario has at least around half of its maximum Aura (with a damage multiplier of 1.14× or higher).
  • The animation for Force Palm has been completely changed; instead of pulling its left paw back before thrusting it forward with a stomp to release a blast of Aura, Lucario now moves its paws in a circle around its body while crouching low to the ground before gathering its paws together and releasing a blast of Aura from its left paw.
• Extreme Speed:
  • Extreme Speed has significantly less ending lag and landing lag (60 frames → 35).
  • Extreme Speed now has a hitbox upon directly crashing into the ground or a wall, making it safer to use for recovery.
  • Crashing into a wall now sends Lucario upward as opposed to stopping it in place. This greatly increases the safety of the recovery.
  • Extreme Speed can grab edges after Lucario has grabbed an edge six times. Starting with Ultimate, other special moves can't grab edges after the player has grabbed an edge six times before landing or taking hitstun.
  • Extreme Speed's controls have been modified; the initial flight direction is locked in a short period of time before flight begins, which can lead to unintentional self-destructs.
  • Extreme Speed travels less distance overall.
  • Extreme Speed now halts at the end of the move, making it worse for recovering at low percents.
  • The animation for Extreme Speed has been updated; Lucario now gathers Aura in its paws at the start of the move. If it is grounded, dust ripples appear around Lucario as it gathers Aura. Additionally, the streams of Aura during flight are much bigger and more colorful than before. At the end of the flight, a gust of wind envelops the front of Lucario to indicate the attack portion of the move.
• Double Team:
  • When performing the attack, Lucario now moves into the direction the control stick is being held rather than from it, making the move more intuitive.
  • Double Team deals more damage (11% → 12.5%).
  • Double Team's counterattack activates faster (frame 28 → 16), making the attack much more consistent.
  • Lucario leaves blue-colored afterimages of itself in the location where it stood just before the attack.
  • Double Team has less ending lag on an unsuccessful counter (FAF 80 → 71), decreasing the window of time where Lucario can be punished.
  • Double Team can now track opponents that activate the counterattack; Lucario will teleport to the attacker's location (within a certain range) and start its counterattack.