Lucario (SSBU)/Neutral special

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Overview

Lucario shifts inward while bringing its hands together, creating a blue sphere of aura with energy flowing around it. As Lucario charges the blue ball of energy, the sphere itself can damage opponents or lock someone in shield when close by. Its hair flares upward while the aura ball starts growing in size between the paws. When the time is right, the projectile can be fired to let loose, traveling for approximately a whole second toward the opponent. Lucario can also fire smaller orbs that travel slower, yet curve in their trajectory to be tricky and assert stage presence in neutral game. As Lucario's aura grows, Aura Sphere's damage gets stronger as well as the properties such as the size and projectile speed increasing.

Aura Sphere is like a signal that tells the player how strong Lucario currently is. Going from the size, and especially the sounds it makes while charging and fired can tell a lot about aura. When Lucario reaches certain percents, different sounds become milestones that show aura's progress depending on Lucario's lead or deficit. Unlike most projectiles, Lucario does not have an exclusive animation when charges frames are completely channeled. Instead, Lucario will not stop charging, and will endlessly remain in a charge state even after maxing it out. But like most projectiles, it can be canceled with a dodge, shielding, or now jumping. Pressing an attack button again while at any point will make Lucario fire the sphere.

Thanks to the aura ball being a hitbox, canceling it quickly after hitting an opponent with the charging portion can combo into almost every move Lucario can use. Going from jab, to tilts, to smashes, aerials, and even specials. This is further improved by how its size and damage scales greatly with aura, with high Aura allowing the sphere to cover most of Lucario's hurtbox. From center stage on Final Destination, it can even start KOing around 55% at max aura.

Knowing when to use Aura Sphere comes from realizing the lead or deficit Lucario has, and some good examples of aura's power augmenting the projectile include:

• Having fewer KOs than opponents
• Having been KO'd more
• Taking damage
• Losing HP in stamina mode

Aura Sphere may get bigger as aura grows, but the speed unfortunately won't scale to be faster. The projectile itself being charged is what gets it to be so fast. Once 90 frames of charge are met, the projectile goes as fast as it can, regardless if Lucario's at 0%, or 190%.

Due to Lucario's top-class air speed, running off the stage and using Aura Sphere is possible with edge-guarding opponents. Once the edge-guard is successful, canceling the charge into an aerial like back air is a strong option especially when considering advanced techniques such as B-Reverses, and Wavebounces.

Aura Sphere's biggest flaw

Lucario has the blessing to play up close or from afar if needed, and Aura Sphere projects that concept perfectly. The charge is a close-up hitbox starting on frame 9 from behind. Meanwhile, the projectile can be a long-ranged option that fires on frame 9 during charge or on frame 17 out of charge. While this may sound amazing, a playstyle that overly focuses on both aspects heavily reduces the projectile's power. Players that delve with Lucario may often struggle with managing Aura Sphere, which strongly stems from Stale Moves. When Aura Sphere's charge hitbox makes contact with an opponent directly, or while they're shielding, it will also stale the projectile's damage when launched. For example:

• When Lucario's at base aura (65%), a fresh fully charged Aura Sphere deals ~21.7% one-on-one. A fresh use of charging up close deals ~0.8% each tick without canceling the charge state.
  • However, if the charge hitbox is used once to hit x amount of times, then the next full charged Aura Sphere fired only deals ~18.8%. On the flip side, firing an Aura Sphere before charging up close to someone will only deal ~0.7% on each tick.

Depending on Lucario's lead or deficit at low, medium, or high aura, it's more beneficial to overuse the charge hitbox over the projectile, and vice-versa. Thus, a good plan is generally using the projectile often enough to rack up damage in order for charging near the opponent leading into combos at high percent, which can kill confirm into forward tilt, smash attacks, back air, or up air.

Charge state optimization

In general, Lucario benefits from firing Aura Sphere during charge and out of charge. One substantial difference between in or out comes down to raw damage. Of the 90 frames to charge, lets use Lucario at base aura (65%) with 3+ players, and start charging for 45 frames as an example:

• If Lucario charged for 45 frames, and then fired Aura Sphere during charge state on the 46th frame, it deals ~12.9%.
• However, if Lucario charged for 45 frames, store it on frame 46, and then fire Aura Sphere quickly out of charge? It only deals ~12.0% despite spending the same time charging.
  • Humoring this, now say Lucario charges 45 frames, cancels on frame 46, then charges a second time. In order to match the damage, Aura Sphere must charge a second time for 8 more charge frames(frames 9-16) before canceling the next frame for storage. When fired quickly in this instance? It deals ~12.9%.

In conclusion, Aura Sphere becomes weaker from a playstyle that consecutively charges and cancels the move before launching it quickly out of charge. If the charge amount is the same, then it's better to simply charge and fire the move for more damage than the former example. This results with a shift in decision-making of how Aura Sphere is used wisely, especially when high aura is on the table.

Dealing more raw damage is great, but there are other niche secrets to both Lucario's and Kirby's Aura Sphere. Once again, the projectile launched during charge state can be further abused. For data's sake, here's charge info:

• charging starts on frame 9
• takes 90 frames to fully charge (charge window: 9-98)

However, Aura Sphere gives a 'full charge' visual cue in-game after 90 frames as seen by the gleam appearing in Lucario's eye in the damage meter on the 91st frame. Yet, full charge is technically 90 frames. If Lucario or Kirby continue charging on frame 90 and cancel on frame 91, then the gleam won't appear in their damage meter. Though, if successful, inputting neutral b again launches a full charged Aura Sphere, rather than charging for one more frame.

One frame helps, but firing from charge state has yet another benefit. Lucario, Kirby, and even Mewtwo can inflict maximum power when either ball is fired slightly earlier, rather than needing maximum charge time. As mentioned earlier, either ball(when not at maximum charge) fired during charge deals more damage than one equally charged, stored, and quickly fired out of charge. All three fighters share a similarity in that their projectile is capable of canceling and storing, but don't have a successful fully stored animation. They remain in an endless charge animation until canceled and stored. So for some mysterious reason, both Aura Sphere and Shadow Ball 'cap' earlier, inflicting maximum potential with a slightly less amount of charge time than the full max.

• Aura Sphere: Lucario and Kirby only need 82 out of the 90 charge frames(frames 9-90 out of 98), and fire it on the next frame(83- onward) to achieve max power.
• Shadow Ball: Mewtwo and Kirby only need 117 out of the 120 charge frames(frames 13-129 out of 132), and fire it on the next frame(118- onward) to achieve max power.

As a result, Mewtwo and Kirby benefit less from the tighter window, but all three gain these advantages, and show why firing during charge is both faster and stronger too. The truth is that most projectiles scale frame by frame, and they must be charged at max. Maximum charge is shown visually with a character's unique fully stored animation with the gleam in their damage meter. Though, the three don't have a "checkpoint" to wait for, so their spherical projectiles will apply stronger pressure because they can be fired at will preemptively and earlier than expected.

Aura Sphere's scaling

• While Lucario (also Mewtwo and Kirby) may not have an automatic full charge storing animation to cancel the charge state, the move still scales frame by frame like other chargeable projectiles, including the aura ball's launch angle changing as well. When they're charging Aura Sphere for 1-36 charge frames(9-44), and then firing the ball on the next frame(2-37, frames 9-45 of charge), it results with the expected 361° launch angle. To make the aura ball launch in a higher angle, both Lucario and Kirby require 37 charges frames or more(frames 9-45 and onward), and then fire the projectile on frame 38 or onward, altering the launch angle to go from 361° → 47°. Lucario's damages at different levels of aura ranges between:

Charging 37 - 90 frames

Aura %	Min dmg	Max dmg
Floor	~7.9%	11.385%
Base	~12.0%	17.25%
Ceiling	~20.1%	28.8075%

As a result, Aura Sphere interestingly doesn't even require half the charge time (45 out of 90 frames) to alter Lucario and Kirby's aura ball launch angle. The percent for both Lucario and the opponent do not matter. Full charge is in fact not required to acquire this higher angle, which helps the concept of using Aura Sphere for early knockdowns and play off missed techs. Here's an example of Lucario firing the minimum 37-frame aura ball to cause tumbling on another Lucario:

• Lucario at 144% aura can cause tumbling knockdown with full charged Aura Sphere against another Lucario at 0%.

Aura Sphere tumbling percents:

Aura %	Min charge tumble	Max charge tumble
Floor	108%	37%
Base	70%	17%
Ceiling	32%	0%

Update History

2.0.0

• Aura Sphere has less hitlag during the charge (0.78× → 0.5×), allowing characters to escape it much easier.

3.0.0

• Aura Sphere deals reduced shield damage
  • Uncharged Aura Sphere fired goes from 0 → –2.3.
  • Fully charged Aura Sphere fired goes from 3 → –4.
  • At the cost of less shield damage, Aura Sphere fired at higher aura received slightly increased shield hitlag, becoming safer on-block.

3.1.0

• Aura Sphere's charging hitbox induces less shield pushback, in which opponents aren't pushed away as much while charging..
• Aura Sphere's max charge hitbox grew larger (2.0u → 2.6u).
• Aura Sphere travels farther.
• Aura Sphere fired has reduced total frames.
  • fired from charge stance goes from 48 → 43.
  • fired from non-charge stance goes from 56 → 51.

Hitboxes

Aura Sphere's hitbox damage multiplier is 0.69x. That means the charge damage is 0.69%. Firing uncharged damage is 6.9%. And firing full charged damage is 17.25%.

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Charging
0	0	0	1.0%	0		Standard	10	93	0		2.0	top	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.78×	1.0×	0%							Fire		All	All
Charging while max
0	0	0	1.0%	0		Standard	10	93	0		2.6	top	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5×	1.0×	0%							Fire		All	All
Firing
0	0	0	10.0%	-2.3		Forward	14	42	0		2.2	top	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Fire		All	All
1	0	0	25.0%	-4		Forward	35	69	0		2.2	top	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Fire		All	All

Timing

Aura Sphere charge

Charge hitboxes	1-3
Loops after	5

The charging hitbox loops throughout the charge. When releasing, it continues the loop until the Sphere is released on frame 9 of the firing animation.

Aura Sphere charge cancel

• Charge-canceling the move incurs 4 frames of lag before the selected action (5 frames for doublejump). Canceling Aura Sphere's charge can be done as early as frame 9 grounded (most of the time), or frame 10 airborne. After charge canceling, Lucario is actionable:

"ASCC"

Grounded	5
Airdodge	5
Jump	6
Grounded animation length	16

Ground

Airdodge

Airjump

Aura Sphere

Charge	8-9
Aura Sphere	8 + 9-68
Interruptible	8 + 44
Animation length	8 + 61

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Charge interval

Hitbox

Loop point

Prop event

Interruptible

Differences for Kirby's Copy Ability

Comparing the knockback difference between Lucario's and Kirby's Aura Sphere

When Kirby copies Aura Sphere, the aura mechanic isn't retained, but the copy ability differs in many ways:

• His aura ball remains at a fixed power, resembling Lucario's at base aura strength (65% damage).
• Kirby's Copy Abilities have a 1.2× damage multiplier applied to all hitboxes, giving him greater damage output with both the charge and projectile than Lucario (Lucario: 17.25%. Kirby: 20.7%).
• Normally, Kirby's copied ability would have slightly more kill power than the original counterpart. However, Kirby lacking the aura mechanic means he must rely on Rage effect to boost the Aura Sphere's knockback. Eventually, Lucario with aura will scale better than Kirby.
  • Ultimately, Lucario's aura ball starts having higher knockback than Kirby's once Lucario's even stock-aura reaches 84%.
• From the informative video comparing Aura Sphere knockback:
  • Kirby at 0% basically matches Lucario at 64%.
  • since rage starts at 35%, Kirby at 41% matches Lucario at 65%.
    • with extensive testing from this example, aura gives interesting results. Lucario's Aura Sphere at 65% will always launch the Lucario opponent at 100% farther at every staled phase than Kirby. Even when both have fully staled their aura ball, Lucario at 63% launches the opponent farther than Kirby's by a very small margin.
  • Kirby at 65% basically matches Lucario at 69%.
  • Kirby with 150% max rage ties with Lucario with aura at approximately ~83.4%.
  • To match Kirby's aura ball damage, Lucario must at least be at 102% to deal 20.67102%.
• Kirby's Aura Sphere is fixed to be at base aura strength, but the aura ball's sound effects are quite different:
  • When Kirby charges Aura Sphere and remains in max charge state, it resembles Lucario's terrifying sound levels at high aura percents starting at 112%.
  • Funnily enough, Kirby firing the aura ball resembles Lucario's softer sound levels at low aura percents starting at 0%.
• Copied Aura Sphere may be fixed at base aura including all its parameters (speed, size, lifetime, mechanics) but Kirby's proportions make the size of the aura ball smaller than Lucario's. Kirby's charging is also offset to Lucario's charge position as well.
  • The way Kirby shifts and charges his aura ball is not only lower to the ground, but Kirby also preemptively readies the aura ball in front of him much earlier than Lucario does.
  • example: while during charge, Kirby can get his aura ball directly in front of him during frames 5-8 (charging hitbox frames) without firing it on frame 9. Lucario doesn't shift forward noticeably to place its aura ball in front of it until frame 9, which is the first frame the projectile generates and is a hitbox.
  • Due to Kirby's proportions, his aura ball size is reduced down to closely resemble Lucario's when at 33% aura. Ironically, this would be the "middle" between aura's floor and base.
  • Kirby's aura ball is generated closer to him while it's fired, so his Aura Sphere will always be ~5 training mode units behind Lucario's in every instance (e.g. uncharged, charged, full charged).
  • The aerial recoil pushback after firing Aura Sphere at max charge is uniform for both Lucario and Kirby. However, Kirby's grounded recoil pushback is considerably less than Lucario's regardless of aura.
• The charge storage cancel animation is uniform between Lucario and Kirby. However:
• Kirby's Aura Sphere fired uncharged, or fired from full storage out of charge both have a slightly longer grounded animation (69 frames → 72), increasing the time it takes to activate a held Assist Trophy after using it, or the hitbox of a Hammer to initiate.
• Kirby's Aura Sphere fired uncharged, or fired from full storage out of charge both have a slightly shorter aerial animation (69 frames → 65), reducing the time it takes for him to fast fall on frame 66, grab ledge on frame 67, or activate a held Assist Trophy after using it.
• Kirby's Aura Sphere fired during the charge state will have a slightly longer grounded animation (61 frames → 64), increasing the time it takes to activate a held Assist Trophy after using it, or the hitbox of a Hammer to initiate.
• Kirby's Aura Sphere fired during the charge state will have a slightly shorter aerial animation (61 frames → 57), reducing the time it takes for him to fast fall on frame 58, grab ledge on frame 59, or activate a held Assist Trophy after using it.

Parameters

Damage

	Charging	Fired, uncharged	Fired, full charged
Minium (0%)	0.4554%	4.554%	11.385%
Base (65%)	0.69%	6.9%	17.25%
Max (190%)	1.1523%	11.523%	28.8075%

Pushback

After firing Aura Sphere, Lucario will receive some pushback. The more charge frames stored, the more pushback Lucario gets.

Total charge time	90 frames
Grounded pushback	Min: 0
	Max: 1.05
Aerial pushback	Min: 0
	Max: 1.4
Aerial friction	0.06

Auraball

• While a few of these parameters are unknown to the general public, a few of them are new, or have increased from Smash 4 to Ultimate:
  • "Charging maximum hitbox scale" was increased from 4 → 4.5.
  • "Full charge hold maximum hitbox scale", "Fired uncharged scale", and "Fired full charge scale" are all brand new parameters that weren't in Smash 4 but were added to Ultimate.

Hitbox damage multiplier	0.69x
Max Aura Sphere size coefficient	2.6	$0.66\times {\text{coeff}}\times \left({\frac {1}{\text{scale}}}+{\frac {\text{frame}}{90}}\right)+{\frac {\text{add}}{\text{scale}}}$ "frame" maxes out at 89
Max Aura Sphere size add	0.5
Max Aura Sphere size scale	3.5
Charging minimum hitbox scale	1
Charging maximum hitbox scale	4.5
Full charge hold maximum hitbox scale	2
Fired uncharged scale	1
Fired full charge scale	4
Lifetime	60 frames
Initial travel angle	0°
Minimum speed	1.0
Maximum speed	2.5
Steepest angle that it can slide across	20°
Period between random trajectory curves	6 frames
Max angle deviation speed between curves	8°
Min curve randomness modifier (uncharged)	0.5
Max curve randomness modifier (full charged)	0.2
Can pierce opponents	No

Similar moves

• Mewtwo's Neutral special

Lucario's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · 2 · 3) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash