Lucas (SSB4)

Lucas in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	EarthBound
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	PK Starstorm
Tier	C (28-29)

“	Lucas Comes Out of Nowhere!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Lucas (リュカ, Lucas) is a downloadable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Initially absent from the base roster, Lucas's return to the series was announced during a Nintendo Direct on April 1st, 2015. He was made available on June 14th, 2015, alongside Roy and Ryu. Lani Minella's voice clips for Lucas from Brawl were recycled, some of them having been slightly sped up.

As was true in Brawl, Lucas was developed using Ness as a base. He remains a pseudo-clone of him, but restarting his creation from scratch causes him to lack some of his former differentiations, most notably his now-cloned Final Smash and certain common animations.

Lucas is ranked 28th/29th out of 54 on the tier list, tied with Ness at the bottom of the C tier. This is a significant improvement over Lucas' lower-mid tier placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 30th out of 38 and is his best placement in the series. Lucas's greatest strength is his grab game; Rope Snake has the lowest ending lag out of all tether grabs, while Lucas possesses several strong KO throws, with his up throw and back throw being two of the best KO throws in the game. Complementing his throw game is his combo game, as his down throw can combo into a variety of aerials up until high percents, allowing Lucas to rack up damage rather easily. Finally, Lucas possesses a strong zoning game thanks to PK Fire and his grab aerial, while most of his moves have disjoints, granting him decent range.

However, Lucas also has several weaknesses. Lucas possesses slow ground mobility and average frame data, giving him a lackluster neutral game, poor approach options, and a recovery that is occasionally susceptible to gimps and edgeguarding, making him especially vulnerable to fast, mobile characters that can overwhelm him. Lucas also lacks any great landing options, allows characters with disjointed ranges (such as Marth and Cloud) to give him a hard time landing. Finally, his best KO moves often have downsides, such as a blindspot (up air), slow startup (grab), or being easily punishable (his smash attacks). As such, despite a plethora of KO options, Lucas may have some trouble KOing on-stage.

Initially, Lucas was poorly regarded when he was first released, but the buffs he received from game updates have allowed him to achieve decent results. This has been most evident with the efforts of Taiheita, whose strong performances led many to question whether Lucas could be better than Ness. Although Lucas' results became stagnant after Taiheita's hiatus, most players still agree that Lucas is a viable character and much better than initially perceived.

Attributes

Lucas' attributes remain largely unchanged since Brawl. He is a middleweight who has a very slow walking speed, slightly below average dashing speed, average gravity, above average air speed, and below average falling speed. However, his air and fast falling speeds have become faster since Brawl, both of which somewhat improve his aerial mobility. While Lucas' mobility speed is rather unimpressive, his attack speed compensates for it; notable examples include his neutral attack, which comes out on frame 2, and his down tilt, which comes out on frame 3 and is tied with Ness, Little Mac, R.O.B., and Meta Knight's down tilts for being the fastest down tilt in the game. As a result, Lucas' attacks are useful for damage racking and initiating combos, while several of his ground attacks are safe in many situations due to their minimal ending lag.

Despite his short stature and lack of a weapon outside of his forward smash, Lucas possesses good range courtesy of disjointed hitboxes. All of his smash attacks, nearly all of his aerial attacks, and some of his ground attacks are disjointed, which can be further supplemented by his projectiles. In addition to their disjointed hitboxes, Lucas's smash attacks are among the strongest in the game. Like in Brawl, his up smash is among the strongest up smashes in the game while also possessing both a large disjointed hitbox and the ability to KO as low as 54% when fully charged (or 70% for heavyweights). The first hit of his down smash is also one of the strongest in the game and is an intimidating edgeguarding option, while his forward smash has decent speed, good KO potential, and can even reflect projectiles.

However, Lucas's greatest strength is his grab game. Despite having the shortest-ranged tether grab in the game, his Rope Snake has the lowest amount of ending lag among all tether grabs and respectable range, while he also possesses arguably the strongest set of throws in the game. Lucas' up and back throws are among the most powerful of their kind in the game, making them two of his best KOing options. His forward throw is tied with Bowser's for the strongest of its kind, although it is significantly weaker as a KOing option in comparison to his up and back throws. His down throw benefits significantly from both its considerably reduced knockback and the changes to hitstun canceling, both of which have re-purposed it into a reliable combo starter that can be followed up with his neutral and forward aerials from 0% up until high percents (even up to the early 90% range for neutral aerial), while its combo into up aerial is a confirmed KO set-up until 100%. While these changes have removed his down throw's KO potential, this is completely mitigated due to his up and back throws' aforementioned power. Lastly, his pummel is tied with Ness, Kirby and Fox's as the third fastest in the game, which makes it ideal for quick damage racking before a throw.

Lucas also boasts a strong zoning game that is essential to his success. PK Fire and grab aerial are both powerful spacing tools with their own specific uses, the latter being able to lead into a grab or forward tilt. Lucas' combo game is also very strong. His down tilt is a good combo starter, as it can combo into itself, neutral attack, and most importantly, his grab. His neutral and forward aerials can combo into themselves at low percents, while the former can also do so into other aerials (except for his back aerial) at low percents.

Like Ness, Lucas's special moveset boasts versatility in the form of PSI-based attacks, three of which are projectiles. PK Freeze can freeze his opponents, has very minimal ending lag, and is viable, yet situational, as an edgeguarding option. While his PK Fire does not repeatedly hit opponents and potentially trap them like Ness' PK Fire, Lucas's deals decent knockback and can be used to give Lucas some space as it also provides a minimal amount of recoil, both on the ground and in the air. PK Thunder does not disappear like Ness' PK Thunder when it hits opponents, but instead hits them multiple times, alongside boasting tighter control, while PK Thunder 2 grants Lucas farther distance. Lastly, PSI Magnet allows Lucas to deal with camping opponents that carry powerful, absorbable projectiles. However, its defensive utility also extends to Lucas' recovery, thanks to its ability to stall his descent. Unlike Ness', it also has offensive utility, thanks to it dealing damage and being a semi-spike.

However, Lucas does have his flaws. With his aforementioned sub-par mobility, fast characters such as Zero Suit Samus and Sonic can give Lucas a difficult time. Another problem is a predictable approach, reliance on his zoning tools (which can be overcome), and occasionally a lack of range in spite of his tether grab. Some of his moves require precision at times; his up aerial, whose hitbox is static and significantly smaller than it was in Brawl, can miss large opponents like Bowser due to its glaring blindspot ddirectlyin front of him. Another prominent example is his down smash, whose three hits are all mutually exclusive and thus give opponents a perfect opportunity to punish Lucas if they manage to shield it. Lucas can also have problems scoring KOs despite his smash attacks' impressive strengths, as they mainly require effective reading and should be used wisely as a result. He also has poor approach options, as his dash attack is slow, and as all his aerials except for back aerial have worse autocancel windows compared to Brawl, none of them can autocancel in a short hop. Although Lucas has a reliable tether recovery, his other method of recovery is also gimpable because of its having much slower priority than Ness, and it can still be reflected or absorbed, most infamously by Rosalina & Luma. Like his fellow DLC characters, Lucas does not have any custom moves, which limits him in tournaments that allow character customization.

Altogether, Lucas' pros slightly outweigh his cons. He has an excellent damage-racking game along with some good approach options, though his approach in general is predictable and can be faulty at times. He can also have a hard time KOing opponents outside of edgeguarding, and he is not as effective when his zoning tools can be nullified.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Lucas was seen as a low tier character as while he had numerous fairly solid attacks, a solid recovery, strong and effective specials (including a strong projectile in PK Fire and a powerful and surprisingly versatile absorption move in PSI Magnet) and a whole bunch of useful advanced techniques, he suffered from having short range, an unspectacular grab, limited/difficult to land KO moves and he was very exploitable to grab release followups. His grounded grab release was 10 frames longer than almost every other character, making him vulnerable to inescapable chain grabs and KO setups, while his aerial grab release was also fairly exploitable. As a result, Lucas struggled against a majority of the cast (especially since numerous characters simply outclassed him or abused chain grabs against him) and he overall saw limited success within the singles meta, although he was much more effective in doubles, as his grab release was less exploitable and when paired with the right teammate, his PSI Magnet became an incredibly powerful and abusable tool.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, Lucas received a mix of buffs and nerfs, and while he did receive more nerfs overall, he is considered to be noticeably buffed, due to the game's numerous universal changes significantly benefitting him, along with him receiving some very useful buffs.

One of the most notable improvements he received was the removal of the 10 extra frames that were a part of his grounded grab release animation, which was one of his most significant flaws. This is further supplemented by the removal of chaingrabbing, which was a large part as to why his grab release was extremely exploitable. Lucas' recovery, outside of advanced techniques, has been improved, as both PK Thunder 2 and Rope Snake now cover more distance. Rope Snake has also received more utility as a zoning option due toitst receiving a hitbox when used as a grab aerial.

Lucas has also been indirectly buffed from the changes to Smash 4's mechanics not only due to the removal of chaingrabbing, but also because of the changes to hitstun canceling combined with the weakening of DI, which has giving him a very strong combo game which is most evident with the modifications to his down throw having resulted in it becoming one of his best combo starters and comboing into all of his aerials as well as footstools for extending combos. A few of his moves also have improved KO potential (most notably up aerial, which also has greater juggling potential), and the introduction of rage only further improves his KO potential. The combination of his down throw's combo potential and the mechanics of rage allowed him to secure stocks when he's at later percents (such as comboing his down throw into his up air with rage, which will KO off the top blast zone rather early if he properly predicts the opponent's DI).

However, Lucas has seen a plethora of nerfs as well, with his direct changes outside of his shorter grab release animation nerfing him overall. He can no longer use the Zap Jump or the Magnet Pull exploits, which were his two most pivotal techniques in Brawl, although the aforementioned buffs to PK Thunder 2 and Rope Snake can somewhat compensate for this off stage, at least in terms of recovery. In addition, many of his attacks have seen their damage, knockback, and range reduced, while some of them have had their startup/ending lag increased. This is most notably seen with his aerials: his neutral, forward and up aerials lost their ability to auto-cancel in a short hop (although the landing lag of both is minimal), his down aerial has increased start-up lag and is no longer able to reliably set up for the infamous down tilt lock, and his up aerial has notably less range while also being slower and having static, all of which significantly hinders his already poor approach and landing options. He additionally has a slightly harder time KOing because of various of his previous KO moves like his forward smash, up smash, forward tilt, and down throw having reduced knockback (although, down throw has KO setups to compensate), alongside the loss of some of his advanced techniques. He is also slower on the ground relative to the cast, as he is one of the only returning veterans whose dash (and walk) speed was not increased. His falling speed and gravity are also the same, being lower relative to the cast, although this has both positives and negatives.

Overall, while his moveset has not significantly improved from Brawl due to seeing many direct nerfs, Lucas greatly benefits from Smash 4's mechanics and one of his main issues in Brawl was fixed. Due to the mechanics of chain grabbing and Lucas's very vulnerable grab release, he was largely invalidated in most matchups competitively in Brawl. With the changes to chain grabbing across games and the removal of Lucas's overly vulnerable grab release, Lucas now gets to actually enact a gameplan in Smash 4 without being almost universally exploited by the cast, which is a drastic structural improvement for him, even though his moveset saw more overall nerfs than buffs.

Due to many of Smash 4's mechanics benefitting Lucas, Lucas performs significantly better in Smash 4 overall. He was initially worse when he was first released, but as of update 1.1.3, he is considered to be moderately better than how he was when he was initially released in SSB4, due to the buffs he received up to and including that update.

Aesthetics

• Lucas' design has changed. He is slightly taller and has a slightly larger head; slightly longer hair; a slightly smaller nose; a sharper jawline; and his eyes no longer have a blue tint. Additionally, Lucas' shoes are smaller, and each of his shirts's stripes are equally horizontal. Lastly, the aesthetic used in SSB4 has resulted in Lucas having a sleeker design, and his overall color scheme being more vibrant.
• Lucas' blue, green, and purple alternate costumes have been updated. The blue costume's white stripes are now orange, instead of white. The green and purple costumes are now jungle green and purple, respectively; feature a sprite of Boney's head and a baby Drago as their designs, respectively; and have a single white stripe on each sleeve. Lucas has also received two new alternate costumes. The first is based on the Masked Man, and the second is based on Duster.
• Lucas is more expressive and, unlike in Brawl, significantly less depressive. He now consistently smiles and scowls during some attacks.
• Many of Lucas' animations have been changed to match Ness'.
• PK-based attacks have updated visual and sound effects.
• Side taunt's animation has slightly changed. Lucas now keeps his eyes open while using it, instead of closing them.
• Due to the aesthetic used in SSB4, Rope Snake's skin is of a significantly higher visual quality than in Brawl.
• Lucas' previously unused damage yells from Brawl's Sound Test are now heard when taking high knockback.

Attributes

• Lucas' air speed is faster (1.05 → 1.1).
• Lucas' fast falling speed is faster (1.918 → 2.192), although relative to the cast, it has gone from the 19th lowest out of 38 characters to the 16th lowest out of 58.
• Lucas' grounded grab release has less ending lag (FAF 41 → 30), now matching the rest of the cast. When combined with the removal of chain grabbing, this significantly improves his endurance, as he is no longer vulnerable to guaranteed follow-ups or chain grabs after a grab release.
  • Much like the rest of the cast, Lucas' aerial grab releases also have less ending lag (FAF 51 → 40), making him much less susceptible to air release follow-ups.
• Rolls have less ending lag (FAF 32 → 31).
• Rolls have a shorter duration (frames 4-19 → 4-17).
• Air dodge has less startup (frame 4 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 49 → 34).
• Spot dodge has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 2-20 → 3-18) and it has more ending lag (FAF 26 → 28).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack's first two hits' mid and far hitboxes now launch opponents at higher angles (40°/80° → 66°/87° (hit 1), 60°/80° → 70°/88° (hit 2)) with altered set knockback (20/10 → 18/16), allowing them to connect more reliably into the later hits.
  • The first two hits deal less damage (3% (both) → 2.5% (hit 1)/2% (hit 2)).
  • The first hit has smaller hitboxes (3.5u/3.5u/4u → 2.8u/2.8u/3.5u).
  • The second hit's near and mid hitboxes are smaller (3.5u/3.5u → 3.2u/3.2u).
  • The third hit launches opponents at a less favorable angle (361° → 48°).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 6-9 → 7-9).
  • Forward tilt has more ending lag (FAF 23 → 26).
  • The sourspot deals less damage (9% → 7.5%) and has much lower knockback scaling (100 → 60), making it much weaker.
  • The sourspot now takes priority over the sweetspot (ID# 2/3 → 0), making the move harder to sweetspot with.
  • The sourspot now uses one small extended hitbox (3.5u/3.5u → 2.2u) and the body hitbox has been removed. This significantly reduces the move's range behind Lucas.
    • However, this does make the sweetspot easier to land, because the sourspot now takes priority.
  • The sweetspot now uses a static hitbox. This gives it a more consistent range in front of Lucas, but hinders its ability to hit opponents who are far into the Z axis.
  • The sweetspot deals less knockback (12/16 (base), 100 (scaling) → 30/75).
  • The sweetspot has increased hitlag (0.5x → 1x), making it easier to DI.
  • Forward smash now only has one sweetspot hitbox (4u/4u → 4.7u), with the further away sweetspot being removed. This noticeably reduces the sweetspot's range.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has less ending lag (FAF 40 → 37).
  • Up tilt's first hit has a shorter duration (frames 4-6 → 4).
  • The first hit deals less damage (3% → 1.5%).
  • The first hit's hitboxes are positioned closer to Lucas (z offset: 7.5/-7.5 → 6.5/-6.5), reducing their range.
  • The second hit's clean hit has a longer duration (frames 7-9 → 7-10).
  • The second hit's clean hit has larger hitboxes (5u/4.5u → 5.5u/5u).
  • The second hit's clean hit launches opponents at a slightly more favorable angle (95° → 93°).
  • The second hit's clean hit has more base knockback but less knockback scaling (40 (base), 105 (scaling) → 50/100).
  • The second hit's head hitbox has been removed, giving the move less range below Lucas.
    • In addition to this, the late hit's leg hitbox has also been removed, greatly hindering its range below Lucas.
  • The second hit's clean hit's spark hitbox has increased hitlag (0.5x → 1x).
  • The second hit's late hit deals more damage (4% → 5%) and has increased base knockback (10 → 50).
  • The second hit's late hit now consistently launches opponents towards Lucas (90°/93° → 100°).
  • The second hit's late hit has a shorter duration (frames 10-17 → 11-14).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt's near and mid hitboxes deal more knockback (6 (base), 22 (scaling) → (18/10)/(50/45)) and have altered angles (0° → 76°/40°). This makes the move much safer on hit, and it grants it follow-up potential.
    • However, this also removes their ability to lock, making Lucas' down tilt lock setups more precise, as he now has to lock with the far hitbox. This is further exacerbated by down tilt's reduced damage and the new three-hit lock limit.
  • The near hit now always launches opponents in the direction Lucas is facing, allowing it to lead more reliably into follow-ups.
  • The far hit deals more knockback (6 (base), 22 (scaling) → 8/40).
    • This makes it safer on hit at higher percents.
    • However, this also hinders its ability to potentially chain into itself.
  • Down tilt now hasweight-independentt knockback.
  • Down tilt has more ending lag (FAF 14 → 16).
  • Down tilt deals much less damage (6% → 3%).
  • Down tilt has increased hitlag (0.4x → 0.7x).
    • Altogether, these changes combined with the changes to shields (mainly the homogenisation of shield hitlag based on attack hitlag) noticeably hinder the move's safety on shield, with the move no longer being completely safe on shield.
  • Down tilt has smaller hitboxes (3.5u/3.5u/3.5u → 2.8u/2.8u/2.8u), with the far hitbox also being positioned closer to Lucas (x offset: 8 → 7.2), reducing its range.
  • The far hit no longer has a extra trip chance (40% → 0%). This prevents the far hit from tripping opponents right up until beyond Sudden Death percents, greatly hindering its follow-up potential.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has less startup lag (frame 17 → 15), with its total duration subsequently reduced (FAF 42 → 40).
  • The sweetspot deals more damage (12% → 13%).
  • The sourspot has much more knockback scaling (40 → 76).
  • Dash attack now always launches opponents in the direction Lucas is facing.
  • Dash attack's hitboxes have swapped positions, with the sweetspot now being further away from Lucas than the sourspot, rather than the sweetspot being closer to him than the sourspot.
    • The sourspot is positioned closer to Lucas compared to the previous sweetspot (z offset: 6 → 1.2), giving the move more range inside of Lucas.
    • However, the sweetspot is positioned closer to Lucas compared to the previous sourspot (z offset: 15 → 12), giving the move less range overall.
  • The sweetspot launches opponents at a lower angle (75° → 46°).
    • This improves its KO potential near the horizontal blastzone.
    • However, this also hinders its overall KO potential, even from the centre of tournament legal stages.
  • The sourspot is positioned slightly higher (y offset: 5 → 5.5).
  • Dash attack has a shorter duration (frames 17-21 → 15-16), reducing its range.
  • Dash attack has smaller hitboxes, especially the sourspot (6u/5u → 5.8u/2.5u), although the sourspot now uses an extended hitbox, which mostly compensates for its horizontal range.
  • The sweetspot has decreased knockback scaling (76 → 70), slightly hindering its KO potential despite its higher damage output.
  • The sweetspot has increased hitlag (1x → 1.2x).
  • The sourspot deals less damage (10% → 9%).
  • The sourspot now takes priority over the sweetspot (ID# 1 → 0), making the move harder to sweetspot with.
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash's reflector has less startup lag with a longer duration (frames 12-18 → 10-19).
  • Forward smash produces a bat crack sound effect when it connects rather than a kicking sound.
  • The near hit deals less damage (15% → 14%) and has decreased base knockback (60/55 → 50), hindering its KO potential and turning it into a sourspot, with the hitbox at the tip having the lowest priority as well.
  • Forward smash now uses two smaller extended hitboxes rather than four normal hitboxes (4.5u/4.5u/4.5u/4u → 3.7u/3.7u). This gives the move less range overall, both in front of and behind Lucas, and makes the hitbox narrower.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's second hit's clean, early mid and mid hitboxes have been positioned higher (y offset: 10/16/23 → 14/19/25). This gives them more range above Lucas but less range below him.
  • The second hit deals less knockback (50/45/40/35/30 (base), 85 (scaling) → (48/42/37/32/27)/77), hindering its KO potential.
  • The second hit has smaller hitboxes (14u/13u/12u/10u/10u → 12u/11u/10u/8u/6.5u).
    • When combined with the higher placement of the second hit's clean/early mid/mid hits, this means that the first hit can no longer reliably lead into the second hit against edge-hanging opponents.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has less ending lag (FAF 64 → 60).
  • The first hit has increased base knockback (40 → 43), slightly improving its KO potential.
  • Down smash has smaller hitboxes (10u/12u/14u → 8u/9.8u/12u), reducing its range, both in front of and behind Lucas.
  • Down smash now has one hitbox, which simply despawns and respawns with altered properties rather than having three separate hits. This means that the move can now only connect once, greatly reducing its maximum damage output (42% → 17%).
    • This also makes the move easier for shielding opponents to intercept, as they can now run through the later hits if they shield the first hit.
  • Down smash no longer has an extra trip chance (40% → 0%), making the later hits trip opponents much less reliably.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has less landing lag (18 frames → 13).
  • Neutral aerial now always launches opponents in the direction Lucas is facing, making it more consistent. This noticeably benefits the move, as it is a multi-hitting aerial.
  • The loop hits now use an autolink angle (105° → 367°), allowing them to connect more reliably.
  • The loop hits now consist of one hitbox with a rehit rate, rather than multiple separate hitboxes. This makes the loop hits consistently active (frame 5/8/11/14/17/20/23 → 7-23).
  • The final hit deals more damage (3% → 4%).
  • Neutral aerial now uses static hitboxes, and their position was not fully compensated (y offset: 0 → 5). This gives neutral aerial more range below and in front of Lucas, but less range above and behind him.
  • The final hit has decreased base knockback (70 → 40) and launches opponents at a higher angle (361° → 60°). This grants its combo potential but hinders its KO potential.
  • Neutral aerial has more startup (frame 5 → 7) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 45).
  • Neutral aerial has a new, more exaggerated animation. This new animation is much longer (44 frames → 71), increasing the amount of time Lucas cannot grab ledges after performing the move.
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels later (frame 28 → 37), no longer doing so in a short hop, let alone almost straight after the hitboxes are no longer active. This noticeably hinders neutral aerial's approach potential and safety.
  • Neutral aerial no longer has an initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-4 → 0).
  • Neutral aerial now only has four loop hits instead of seven, considerably reducing its maximum damage (17% → 12%).
  • The loop hits are smaller (6u → 5.3u).
  • The loop hits have an increased hitlag (0.5x → 1x) and SDI multiplier (1× → 2×).
    • However, despite this, neutral aerial is still more difficult to escape due to the loop hits now having an autolink angle.
  • The final hit deals much more hitlag (0.5x → 1.5x). This makes neutral aerial much easier to DI, and while this would make it noticeably benefit from the introduction of frame canceling, neutral aerial cannot be frame canceled, making the higher hitlag detrimental overall.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less landing lag (15 frames → 12).
  • Forward aerial has a slightly altered animation with altered hitbox placements, giving it more range.
  • The sweetspot has a longer duration (frames 9-10 → 9-12).
  • The sweetspot deals more knockback (10 (base), 100 (scaling) → 30/97).
  • Forward aerial has increased hitlag (0.5x (sweetspot)/0.5x/1x (sourspot) → 1.2x/0.8x). This makes it benefit from the introduction of frame canceling, but this also makes it easier to DI.
  • Forward aerial now always launches opponents in the direction Lucas is facing.
  • Forward aerial no longer has a late hit, shortening its duration (frames 9-10 (clean)/11-15 (late) → 9-10 (sourspot)/9-12 (sweetspot).
  • Forward aerial auto-cancels later (frame 32 → 38), no longer doing so in a short hop.
  • Forward aerial has a shorter initial auto-cancel window (frames 1-4 → 1).
  • Forward aerial deals less damage (12%/10% → 11.5%/9%). The sourspot's knockback was not compensated, hindering its KO potential.
  • Forward aerial has smaller hitboxes (5.5u/4.5u/3.5u → 5u/3.3u), with the move covering less of Lucas' body.
  • The sweetspot launches opponents at a higher angle (361° → 46°), making it more susceptible to DI and hindering its overall KO potential, despite its increased knockback.
  • The sourspot now takes priority over the sweetspot (ID# 1/2 → 0), making the move harder to sweetspot with.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial's grounded sweetspot deals more damage (10% → 12%), improving its KO potential.
  • The sweetspot is larger (4u → 4.5u).
  • The removal of meteor canceling significantly improves back aerials' reliability.
  • Back aerial now always launches opponents in the opposite direction Lucas is facing.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial launches opponents at a higher angle (62° → 80°), improving its juggling and KO potential and making it much less susceptible to DI.
  • Up aerial has increased hitlag (1× → 1.1×).
  • Up aerial now uses a static hitbox, rather than being attached to Lucas' head. The hitbox is positioned higher to compensate (y offset: 4 → 14).
    • This gives up aerial more vertical range overall, and gives it more consistent vertical range.