Lucario (SSBU)/Air dodge

Hitbox visualization showing Lucario's Airdodge.

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Overview

Essentially as an midair spot dodge, Lucario begins to lean back before rotating its body back toward and rightward out of the way to evade any attacks. While intangible, Lucario stares down the area in front of it before rotating its body to spin right as intangibility finishes. After spinning once, Lucario reverts to its idle freefall animation, having its left arm out and in front, its right knee bent upward, the right arm reared back, and its left leg fully straight.

As a technique that was first introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee, air dodge has undergone many mechanical changes between different game titles, but currently, it has a plethora of merits in Ultimate.

• neutral air dodge and directional air dodge both:
  • evade aerial threats while drifting.
  • reset tumble fall back to regular falling state.
  • possess hitstun canceling.
    • despite canceling hitstun earlier than aerials, neutral air dodge doesn't cancel the initial momentum too well. Directional air dodge will shift backward in the opposite direction before the intended direction.
      • Either air dodge choice could be a deadly mistake at potential kill percents.
    • using an aerial cancels hitstun later, but it can save a life at times. Doublejumping toward stage absolutely helps survive a few percent longer.
  • catch items with the early startup.
    • both neutral and directional air dodges are frames 1-6.
  • used for canceling Aura Sphere charging in the air.
    • Interestingly, both shield and grab register as air dodge in the air, but it's a bit different for Aura Sphere:
      • if Aura Sphere still needs to charge, shield becomes air dodge. Though, grab fires the Aura Sphere.
      • however, once Aura Sphere is fully charged in still in charge state while midair, both shield and grab register as air dodge.
• neutral air dodge:
  • intangibility is reminiscent to Lucario's in Brawl[4-29], having 26 intangible frames to use for effective aerial avoidance in Ultimate[3-28].
  • landing between frames 2-48 of neutral air dodge only suffers 10 frames of landing lag. Great for landing with minimal risk of punishment.
    • autocancel is 49+.
    • in combination of great airspeed and moderately fast fall speed, Lucario can opt to land quickly.
• directional air dodge:
  • landing with any directional variant suffers anywhere between 10-19 frames of landing lag. Landing lag varies on air time. The earlier Lucario lands, the more lag suffered. Later landing equals less landing lag.
    • however, a side ←→, diagonal upward ↖↗, or just upward ↑ direction will rarely ever get the full 19 landing lag frames from landing early. 19 frames is more realistic from down ↓ and diagonal downward ↙↘ directions, such as from wavelanding onto platform.
  • the return of directional air dodge adds layers to recovering by grabbing ledge shortly after intangibility finishes. Doesn't cause helplessness either.
  • wavedashing across the floor and wavelanding onto platforms are now options too.
  • with the inclusion of footstool combos, directional air dodging promotes Lucario's gameplay capitalizing on someone who doesn't tech.

While air dodge mechanics have changed over time in the span of Smash titles, it's still true that air dodges have built-in hitstun canceling in Ultimate, and it always often cancels earlier than aerials can. However, the use of a neutral air dodge or a directional air dodge is risky for survival. Due to neutral air dodge's air physics, it won't be effective in canceling momentum enough to be seriously considered over aerials, nothing, or a doublejump toward stage. The problem with a directional air dodge for survival is that one pressed toward stage will shift backward in a slingshot fashion during frames 1-5 before moving toward stage starting frame 6. This backward shifting can cause Lucario to die needlessly at times when knockback received is too strong.

Both neutral and directional air dodge serve many functions with more pros and cons over the other, but the core merit about neutral air dodge is the low landing lag helping Lucario land safely when opting to fall like a brick to stage if desired, whereas directional air dodges are primarily the most useful when recovering to ledge within close distance. After all, Lucario already has massive recovery ability in the form of Extreme Speed. However, air dodge has some drawbacks as well:

• only one use during airtime. E.g. using a neutral air dodge means a directional air dodge is unable to be used and vice-versa, until landing on stage, grabbing ledge, or getting hit.
• the staleness mechanic to rolls and spot dodge also apply to both variants of air dodge. [Intangible windows shorten, but the total frames remain the same.]
• having more total frames and animation length makes them weaker defensive tools at avoiding juggles and grabbing ledge. Lucario's not even able to short hop air dodge and retaliate.
• the increased traction in Ultimate has made wavedashing very weak, and wavelanding isn't as prominent since air dodges cannot allow Lucario to ledge-cancel them.
• directional air dodges have massive ending lag depending on direction, making them quite punishable against aggressive edge guarding.

Despite these limitations, Lucario can charge-cancel Aura Sphere using a neutral air dodge or directional air dodge. The most prominent example is when Lucario with high levels of aura recovers toward stage, charging Aura Sphere, and then suddenly canceling the charge with directional air dodge going to ledge. It's a fake-out tactic that instills the fear that Aura Sphere can be fired, or, it won't be fired regardless if it's fully charged or still charging during charge state. That limited yet dangerous factor alone can convince why respect can be given to Lucario grabbing ledge.

Timing

Neutral air dodge

• autocancel is 49+.
• neutral air dodge grabs ledge on frame 60+.

Intangible	varies
Item Catch	1-6
Interruptible	49
Animation length	58

Staled x0, fresh use

Intangibility	3-28

Staled x1

Intangibility	3-27

Staled x2

Intangibility	4-27