Rosalina & Luma (SSBU)

This article is about Rosalina & Luma's appearances in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For the characters in other contexts, see Rosalina and Luma.

Rosalina & Luma in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Grand Star
Tier	B+ (44)

Rosalina & Luma (ロゼッタ&チコ, Rosetta & Chiko) are playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They were revealed along with King Dedede and the rest of the veterans on June 12th, 2018, now as unlockable fighters. Although they are a team, Rosalina & Luma are collectively classified as Fighter #48.

Kerri Kane's portrayal of Rosalina from Mario Kart 7, Mario Golf: World Tour, and Super Smash Bros. 4 was repurposed for Ultimate in all regions in place of Laura Faye Smith, who currently voices Rosalina across various pieces of Mario media. Yuya Takezawa's portrayal of Luma from Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2 that was used in SSB4 was also repurposed for Ultimate in all regions.

Rosalina & Luma are currently ranked 44th out of 82 characters, placing them close to the end of the B+ tier. This is a a drastic drop from their 5th out of 54 placement in SSB4. Rosalina & Luma are notable for their tag team mechanic, which grants Rosalina the ability to control Luma almost anywhere on the stage, giving her access to advanced techniques such as the Lunar Landing. Together, their attacks possess disjointed range, allowing them to wall out stubby characters.

Luma also can function as a shield of sorts, as it does not share Rosalina's damage meter. Rosalina herself has a very effective aerial game, very flexible aerial movement thanks to her high air acceleration, and a strong juggling option in the form of her up aerial. Finally, her recovery is long and flexible thanks to Launch Star's quick speed and long travel distance, while Gravitational Pull allows her to deal with characters who try camping her out with projectiles.

However, Rosalina & Luma have some significant flaws. Luma's endurance is hindered by its inability to act out of a tumble and its lack of defensive options, such as shielding and rolling. Without Luma, Rosalina's attacks are noticeably weaker and possess less generous hitbox placements, and she loses access to some of her techniques and two of her special moves. In addition, Rosalina's disadvantage state is poor due to her tall stature, low gravity, and slow falling speed, while her light weight makes her susceptible to early KOs. Finally, Rosalina & Luma often have difficulty playing against characters that have better disjoints and/or can outrange their attacks.

Overall, Rosalina & Luma's strengths rely on understanding how to make the most use out of their unique mechanic, which leads to a high learning curve. Despite having below-average representation in the current metagame, Rosalina & Luma continue to see success from players such as Dabuz, Homika, and yuzu.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Rosalina & Luma being the 45th characters to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Donkey Kong or any character in his unlock tree, being the 3rd character unlocked after Pokémon Trainer.
• Have Rosalina & Luma join the player's party in World of Light.

Rosalina & Luma must then be defeated on Mario Galaxy (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

Rosalina is a tall and floaty lightweight, much like Mewtwo and Zelda. Rosalina is tied with Falco for being the 14th lightest character in the game; unlike Peach or Zelda, however, her overall grounded mobility is decent, thanks to her above-average initial dashing speed and slightly above-average walking and dashing speeds. Rosalina has average air speed, the 2nd highest additional air acceleration values in the game (tied with Mega Man and surpassed only by Palutena), and both her jump and double jump have significant height. Additionally, her falling and fast falling speeds are among the slowest, while her gravity is the 2nd lowest in the game. Lastly, the combination of Rosalina's high jump height, low gravity, and slow falling speed gives her the longest jump duration among the cast, allowing her more than 1 second (71 frames) in the air with an uninterrupted full hop. As a result of these attributes, Rosalina is a very floaty character with superb aerial mobility and the ability to remain airborne longer than most other characters in the game.

Due to being allied with Luma, Rosalina also follows the tag team archetype established by the Ice Climbers and perpetuated by Olimar. Luma can remain next to Rosalina to attack with her, or it can be sent away with Luma Shot to attack from a distance. This allows Rosalina numerous possibilities to attack opponents, as she can essentially create combos by "pinballing" opponents back and forth between herself and Luma. This ability also grants Rosalina the largest and most unique range in the roster, as Luma can attack from across the stage or far above/below while Rosalina remains safely out of harm's way.

Luma mechanically functions like a blend of Pikmin and the Ice Climbers' partner climber: it uses hit points (HP) like the Pikmin, in which it will be KO'd if it is dealt 40%, and it responds to player inputs like the partner Ice Climber. Unlike Olimar, Rosalina cannot immediately summon Luma once it is KO'd, which forces her to wait 10 seconds (7 seconds if 3 players are present, and 5 seconds if 4 or more players are present) until another Luma appears. Luma also cannot experience status effects, such as stun or sleep, which can allow it to attack and/or fend off opponents if Rosalina happens to find herself put under a status effect that renders her unable to move or attack. Luma also cannot be grabbed and can act when Rosalina herself gets grabbed.

While they are largely defensive characters, Rosalina & Luma have several offensive options that allow them to rack up damage if given the opportunity. They have many attacks with disjointed hitboxes, most notably each of Rosalina's aerials, which are also useful for racking up damage. Their neutral aerial is a fast, low-commitment option with upwards knockback, perfectly complementing their aerial and juggling-oriented fighting style. Her forward aerial keeps the opponent in place, hits multiple times, and combos well with her down throw like Ness's same combo. Despite having a large multi-hitting hitbox, it has the longest amount of landing lag out of her aerials and is generally unsafe on shield. Her and Luma's back aerials are quick semi-spikes and can be used in a wide range of scenarios, such as edge-guarding and spacing. Due to their back aerial being fairly disjointed, it can allow the duo to effectively wall out certain opponents that cannot contest the move, such as opponents that lack greater disjoints. Their up aerial is a capable attack, as it possesses outstanding disjointed range and can KO off the top of some stages when used properly. Although their slowest, down aerial is also a very potent edge-guarding option: Rosalina's hitbox is very large, hard to challenge from below due to its duration, and capable of meteor smashing, whereas Luma's hitbox can easily KO outright thanks to its very high knockback growth and sending opponents directly outward.

Rosalina also has access to a unique advanced technique called Lunar Landing. If Rosalina inputs an aerial attack right as she lands, the aerial will not come out, and she will land without enduring any landing lag (Unless using down aerial), but Luma will continue performing its respective aerial attack. This allows for greater mix-up and follow-up potential, as well as mind games, but requires Luma to actually be performed. Their dash grab also has a similar occurrence, where if Rosalina performs a dash attack and instantly grabs, Rosalina will perform a dash grab while Luma will perform its respective dash attack. This makes their dash grab a lot safer, and means they can deal an extra 3% just by landing the grab. Rosalina can also use Lunar Landing to access her advantage state by inputting Luma's respective back aerial or forward aerial as she lands which gives her the ability to clang the Lunar Landing with various projectiles or grounded moves without Rosalina herself having any ending lag, giving her an easier time landing back on stage and also providing a consistent option for her to punish certain attacks and even projectiles. When coupled with Rosalina's reliable set of throws, these traits give her and Luma even greater mix-up potential, as well as more approaching and punishing options. Using the attack canceling feature built into Ultimate's mechanics, Rosalina can perform one move while Luma does a tilt or dash attack. This also allows for multiple combos and mind games.

Rosalina's throws possess a variety of useful increments that she can effectively utilize to set up into punishes or direct follow-ups. This produces convenient methods for her to cause a great deal of damage to her opponent very early in a stock. Rosalina's up throw constructively acts as her main combo throw, which allows for exceedingly effective setups for combos into various attacks. Such attacks, most notably, both Rosalina and Luma's aerials, can usually either combo into each other or other moves, allowing for great utilization of setups that lead into a wide variety of methods to output damage. Rosalina can consistently use her up throw to combo into her and Luma's neutral aerial, up tilt, and up aerial. This allows for Rosalina to find easy methods to rack up damage by using her up throw to set up further combos or juggle her opponents with her neutral aerial or up aerial. Her forward throw is a potent tool for setting up edge-guarding when throwing an opponent off the edge, or it can act as a KO throw when used at the edge at very high percentages. Her forward throw even obtains further use with it, allowing her to throw her opponent into a detethered Luma's attacks, effectively being able to use her forward throw to "pinball" her opponent at lower percentages. Her back throw is most commonly used as her primary KO throw when at higher percentages, although it can provide an opportunity to edge trap or edge-guard the opponent if it is used on the edge. However, her down throw, due to its high base knockback and ending lag, is the least useful of her throws and has very limited combo potential, as it can only potentially combo into her forward aerial at very low percentages.

Rosalina and Luma can obtain numerous uses with their tilt attacks, primarily when Luma is detethered from Rosalina with the use of Luma Shot. This makes it so that the duo's tilt attacks can potentially be used as a measure to tactfully place Rosalina into advantage state if she uses a detethered Luma's to cover the stage, with any of Luma's tilt attacks being able to effective place an opponent out of advantage state and possibly allowing Rosalina to escape a situation where she is stuck in disadvantage, greatly strengthening her defensive capabilities. Rosalina has a fairly quick startup on both her forward tilt and down tilt, as well as notable range on both moves when combined with Luma's. Specifically, their forward tilt allows them to use their range as a poking tool or to knock opponents forward and set up tech-chasing at lower percentages. Rosalina's down tilt can set up for tech-chasing at mid-percentages and can effectively ledgetrap certain characters. Luma's down tilt obtains a noteworthy range both when attached and detached to Rosalina's, and it can act as a combo finisher, poking tool, and Rosalina can use it gimp certain recoveries if Luma's down tilt is used while it is detached from Rosalina at the ledge or offstage. Rosalina and Luma's up tilt is not only an effective combo starting tool but even a decent combo extender, primarily by allowing a follow-up into any of their aerials, and their up tilt can act as a useful anti-air. However, Rosalina's up tilt does not possess a hitbox in front of her, which can lead to a direct punish if it's not used correctly, making it best used as an anti-air when Rosalina does not have Luma. Luma's respective up tilt can hit opponents when they are both grounded and in the air, with Luma's up tilt even being a functional move to KO grounded opponents at high percentages.

Rosalina & Luma are also gifted with a good set of smash attacks. Their forward smash possesses a large amount of range, making it very useful to finish off opponents. While it has the highest knockback growth out of Rosalina's attacks, it requires Luma's involvement to achieve its true KO potential and range, which is among the best in the game. Their up smash has minimal start-up and, while it possesses less range, is still a great KOing option regardless due to rendering Rosalina's head intangible throughout its duration. Lastly, their down smash is a useful anti-pressure option thanks to its having less start-up and especially ending lag in comparison to their other smashes. Due to it also being a semi-spike, it can also be used for edge-guarding. As of update 13.0.0, it is strong enough to KO reliably, which further bolsters its utility. Luma can also perform smash attacks while away from Rosalina; thus, in a scenario where it is not safe to approach the opponent to KO, Rosalina can still attempt to KO by sending Luma out.

Rosalina and Luma's special moves give them special utility inaccessible to any other character. Luma Shot gives Rosalina a method to attack safely from a distance and gives them superior ledge guarding capabilities. Star Bits, their side special move, is a very good tool for keeping opponents away. It cannot be clanked with and has long-lasting hitboxes, allowing it to stop fast approaches like a Sonic Spin Dash. It can be a primary tool for spacing, camping, and disrupting approaches if it is coupled with Luma Shot, where Luma is detethered from Rosalina. When used properly, Rosalina is practically immune to projectiles via Gravitational Pull. While it does not deal damage, it causes Rosalina to completely nullify any projectile near her. Despite not being a reflector, it shares the same ability as making incoming items and projectiles come under Rosalina's ownership, which means any opponents can be damaged by the orbiting item or projectile if they are too close. In addition, Gravitational Pull activates on frame 4, making it an effective tool for nullifying projectiles that are sent at her from a variety of ranges on the stage. This allows Rosalina to virtually shut down projectile-reliant playstyles of zoning-oriented characters such as Villager, as their over-reliance on projectiles causes them to have a difficult time fighting her so long as Gravitational Pull is properly used. Although situational, Gravitational Pull can also gimp certain recoveries, with the best examples being PK Thunder; Rosalina can immediately pull it away before Ness or Lucas can use it to recover, rendering them helpless as a result. However, Gravitational Pull is not impervious. Rosalina can be heavily punished if she mistimes the move or if it is used on a projectile that is sent by an opponent at a close enough distance to attack her, as it does not produce damage or knockback to repel an opponent attempting to punish her, or when the move ends, and Rosalina is left vulnerable with its notable frames of ending lag. Aside from Gravitational Pull, Luma can also be used to block projectiles, especially with proper use of Luma Shot, where Luma can be at a distance in front of Rosalina to block intercepting projectiles from hitting her, although this comes at the cost of depleting its HP. Launch Star provides one of the longest and fastest-traveling recovery moves in the game, which, when coupled with Rosalina’s extremely slow falling speed and high acceleration, makes her less reliant on her double jump offstage, allowing her to travel far out from the sides of the stage while almost always being able to make it back with proper aim and timing.

Despite her various strengths, Rosalina has noticeable weaknesses. Her tall height sometimes makes it very hard to avoid attacks, while her light weight causes her to be very susceptible to early KOs. Although Launch Star provides an extremely long-distanced recovery, it lacks any sort of hitbox (until Luma can act at the end of the move), making her vulnerable to meteor smashes; to add insult to injury, the move can be difficult to aim directly upward, which can cause players to SD if they find themselves in a scramble situation directly beneath the ledge. Her disadvantage state is extremely poor, as she cannot deal with juggling very well, thanks to her slow falling speed and average air speed, though her very high air acceleration, invisible neutral air dodge, and hard-to-contest aerials can allow her some control over mixing up her landing.

Her biggest flaw, however, is that she is drastically weakened without Luma, as her respective attacks' knockback values are unimpressive, and both Luma Shot and Star Bits are rendered useless. Although Luma will inevitably respawn, the 10 seconds it takes to do so can be more than enough time for the opponent to land a combo or score a KO on Rosalina. This is further compounded by Luma's inability to act out of a tumble until landing on the ground, as attacks that knock Luma off-stage will result in it being inevitably KO'd, regardless of how much HP it has. Most of the cast also has a reliable move to use to KO Luma and thus avoid the risk of being punished by Rosalina. Luma's vulnerability is coupled with Luma possessing no way to shield on its own, with the only way to protect it being through Rosalina's shield. Luma's lack of any shield can potentially put it at risk whenever it is tethered away from Rosalina, making it so that some characters with strong projectiles can easily KO a de-tethered Luma. Luma's lack of rolls, a spotdodge, or an airdodge makes it very easy for opponents to pressure it if Rosalina is forced to dodge an attack. Luma's lack of a grab also makes it have difficulty pressuring shields without being tethered to Rosalina. Additionally, both Rosalina and Luma have a particularly difficult time against characters with larger disjoints or fast moves that deal high base knockback, especially because Luma takes more knockback than it did in SSB4. Characters with swords or other long, disjointed hitboxes will have no problem using their weapons to easily outrange both her and Luma, challenge her attempts at aerial pressure, and juggle her, making it difficult for her to wall them out and putting Rosalina in a position where a mistake could easily result in her taking a large amount of damage or even losing a stock.

Overall, Rosalina & Luma have a high learning curve, where players must become comfortable with using her aerial bait-and-punish abilities as well as her grounded keep-away options. Players must also learn when to separate Rosalina from Luma, as well as when to protect each during the course of a match with their various options. Mastering her unique playstyle allows for creating impressive tag-team combos and scoring KOs through strong pressure.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Rosalina & Luma were considered one of the best characters in SSB4 thanks to their oppressive zoning options, and each character's own strengths; with Rosalina's own long-ranged, disjointed hitboxes, damage output, and counter-zoning options; and Luma's own drastic power, and hit-taking potential to protect Rosalina, complemented by "regenerative" abilities. Likely as a result, Rosalina & Luma were drastically nerfed during the initial release of Ultimate; however, game updates have remedied many of these nerfs to a degree. Regardless, the duo is still considered to be noticeably nerfed overall in their transition from SSB4 to Ultimate.

Both members of the duo have seen numerous buffs. Star Bits has more range, enhancing its zoning utility. Gravitational Pull now auto-equips items, which makes it easier for Rosalina to retaliate with throwable objects (such as Metal Blades, Gyros, Remote Bombs, and Vegetables). Rosalina's new neutral aerial has much less ending lag and offers better protection when Luma is gone, while her forward aerial is much faster, especially in terms of ending lag. Her aerials have altered autocancel windows, allowing neutral and forward aerials to autocancel in a short hop, and the former can even do so in a short hop fast fall, improving her approach when combined with the universal improvement to mobility.

Luma's respawn time has been shortened, and instead of always respawning after a fixed period of time in all modes of play, the respawn time now depends on the number of players present in a match, being significantly shorter if there are at least four players in a match. Luma also receives a new damage boost when detethered from Rosalina. This incentivizes Rosalina players to send Luma out and take advantage of her zoning potential.

Some of the changes to the engine benefit the duo. The introduction of attack canceling benefits Rosalina & Luma the most out of any returning veteran, as the duo can perform desynced attacks together (such as Luma using a grounded attack while Rosalina performs an aerial), giving the two unique attack options they didn't have before, and which are not shared with the rest of the cast. Aside from this, the universal reductions to landing lag allow them to chain their moves with more ease, and the changes to air dodges allow the duo to juggle and gimp opponents more easily, while Rosalina can now use a directional air dodge to recover more easily thanks to her floatiness.

On the other hand, Rosalina & Luma also received some severe nerfs to their potent movesets. Rosalina's new neutral aerial has fewer active frames, and Luma's own has a slower startup, which makes them less useful options for approaching and disrupting opponents, respectively. Rosalina's notorious up aerial had its endlag increased and doesn't last as long, meaning that it can no longer chain into itself as easily, with the increased safety on its late hit failing to compensate. Gravitational Pull is slower and has a lower range, making it unsafe against characters with fast projectiles. Luma also does not move forward as much when using its neutral attack, which severely impedes Rosalina's ability to halt approaches, ledge trap, and zone her opponents. Finally, the biggest nerf involves Luma, who is now frailer than ever, as it not only has less HP, but also takes more knockback from attacks, making it much easier to KO.

Aside from this, some of the gameplay changes have hurt Rosalina & Luma. The changes to air dodges give them some of the slowest among the cast, which, combined with the inability to use more than one per air time, makes it more difficult for them to land and hampers their chances to get back to the stage. The reductions to landing lag, while giving the duo a more potent combo game, have also strengthened other characters' own combo and spacing games, hurting Rosalina's disadvantage state due to her lack of options to break pressure at close range. Lastly, the universal increase to mobility is especially harmful to the duo, as while they benefit from it as much as the returning cast, it makes it more difficult for Luma to effectively disrupt approaches when combined with its shorter range, which can leave Rosalina more vulnerable.

Due to the significant changes to their moveset, Rosalina & Luma are forced to play more aggressively compared to in SSB4, which changes their playstyle substantially. Said playstyle is generally considered to be less effective than that of their previous iteration, as the duo is no longer able to wall out faster opponents as easily as before, and Rosalina's disadvantage state is harder to endure. Luma receiving more knockback and having lower HP makes it easier to contest and thus leaves Rosalina more vulnerable; however, since Luma does not benefit from its additional damage multiplier when tethered to Rosalina, the duo is thus incentivized to be paired with each other less and use their unique strengths more frequently, which can generate a variety of mix-ups and mind games. The two have received significant buffs from balance patches, which have helped to negate some of their previous nerfs, but these don't entirely compensate for their further defined weaknesses. As a result, Rosalina & Luma fare worse in Ultimate, being one of the most nerfed characters in the transition from SSB4.

Aesthetics

• As with all veterans returning from SSB4, Rosalina & Luma's models feature a more subdued color scheme. Rosalina's gown now features simple textile detailing, and has a more turquoise color, consistent with her appearances outside of Smash Bros.
• Rosalina's heels are now their usual silver, rather than matching the shade of her dress.
• As with Peach, default Rosalina's crown in her stock icon is its usual silver, rather than cyan like her dress.
• Luma always faces the screen regardless of the direction it turns towards; Rosalina's stance, however, is not mirrored.
• As with Peach, Zelda, and Palutena, Rosalina's dress now has independent physics.
  • To compensate for her revised dress physics, Rosalina's crouching animation has been altered; her dress fans out behind her rather than moving in front. However, this does not apply when holding a small item.
• Rosalina's airdodge and rolls now cause a bright light to appear as she steps right or left. Additionally, her sidestep animation now features more effects as she teleports.
• Luma now cries out at the end of its jab, smash attacks, and during down taunt.
• During Rosalina's Star KO, Luma starts shrinking before exploding in a burst of stars once she is KOed.
• When Luma has low HP, it will have a tired idle animation.
• Luma is slightly less expressive, as it no longer blinks when idle as well as during all of Rosalina's victory poses.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Rosalina's jumpsquat animation takes three frames to complete (down from 5).
• Luma has less HP (50 → 40).
• Luma's respawn time has shortened and is dependent on the amount of players in the battle (12.5 seconds → 10 (2 players), 7 (3 players), 5 (>3 players)).
• Luma's attacks benefit from a 1.5x damage amplifier when Rosalina launches it away.
• When Luma is launched, it receives roughly 25% less knockback, improving its survivability.
• When opponents get near a detethered Luma, it autofaces them, in a similar way to Ryu's mechanic.
• Rosalina's air speed is slightly faster (1 → 1.05).
• Rosalina walks faster (1.0835 → 1.138).
• Rosalina dashes faster (1.632 → 1.795). Her initial dash is also much faster (1.5 → 2.035).
• Rosalina has higher traction (0.068 → 0.099). However, it is significantly slower relative to the cast, going from the 6th highest out of 58 characters to the 63rd highest out of 89 characters.
• The introduction of attack canceling benefits Rosalina more than other returning veterans, as she can make Luma perform a grounded attack while she performs an aerial, giving her unique attack options.
• Luma receives more knockback in general, making it easier to KO.
• Luma no longer stalls in place as long when performing attacks airborne.
• Rosalina is heavier (77 → 82), weighing as much as Falco. This increases her survivability.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first hit of Rosalina's jab has less startup lag (frame 8 → 5), The second hit of her jab deals more damage (1% → 2%) and both third hits of jab have less startup lag (frame 9 → 7). Both first hits of jab also have less ending lag (frame 23 → 21).
  • The first two hits of Luma's jab deals less damage (2% → 1%).
  • Luma's jab movement and range have decreased significantly, no longer pushing Luma forward. This hinders Rosalina's ability to space with jab.
  • Luma's jab 3 knockback growth greatly decreased, removing its KO potential. Jab 3 also has a shorter duration (frames 9-11 (Rosa), 9-13 (Luma) → 7-8 (both)).
  • Luma's rapid jab knockback growth greatly increased, making it a good killing option near the ledge. The final hit also has less startup lag (frame 9 (Rosa), 8 (Luma) → 6 (both)).
  • Rapid jab deals much less damage (1.7% (Rosa), 1.2% (Luma) → 0.3% (Rosa), 0.1% (Luma)) greatly hindering its damage racking potential. The final hit also has a shorter duration (frames 9-11 (Rosa), 8-12 (Luma) → 6-7 (both)).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt deals more damage (6%/5% → 7.5%/6.7% (Rosa), 4.3% → 6.7%/4.5% (Luma)). Luma's forward tilt also has less ending lag (frame 39 → 38).
  • Luma's forward tilt has a shorter duration (frames 8-11 → 8-10).
• Up tilt:
  • Rosalina's up tilt has a larger horizontal hitbox, deals more damage when hit clean (8% → 10%) and has decreased startup lag with a longer duration (frames 9-17 → 7-17). Luma's up tilt also deals more damage (8%/4%/3% → 12%/6%/4.5%).
  • Rosalina's up tilt has a weaker late hit and has less intangibility (frames 4-11 → 4-10). Luma's up tilt has more ending lag (frame 31 → 41).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt deals more damage (4.5% → 5.5% (Rosa), 3.5% → 5.2% (Luma)).
  • Luma's down tilt has more ending lag (frame 32 → 33).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has less ending lag (FAF 48 → 41).
• Forward smash:
  • Luma's forward smash hitbox has less range but has increased knockback to compensate for the change.
• Up smash:
  • Rosalina's up smash hitbox has increased knockback scaling (90 → 94) and Luma's up smash hitbox has increased base knockback (60 → 65).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has an altered animation that is more floaty and graceful.
  • It has more range (size and Y offsets 3.5 → 4.7) despite being placed closer to Rosalina (Z offsets 19.0—9.0/-19.0—-9.0 → 18.0—8.0/-18.0—-8.0).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (11 frames → 8 (neutral), 20 → 16 (forward), 16 → 10 (back), 18 → 11 (up), 20 → 12 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Rosalina has a new neutral aerial: she spins her wand around herself. It now hits in front of Rosalina first and the animation is much faster, improving its safety. Because of this, it has significantly decreased ending lag (FAF 66 → 44) and the second hit of Luma's neutral aerial comes out twice as fast (frame 26 → 13). It auto-cancels drastically earlier (60 → 33), allowing it to auto-cancel in a short hop fast fall and when the hitboxes cease, and Luma can perform two neutral aerials in a short hop. It also deals more damage (5% → 10% (Rosa early), 7.5% → 8% (Rosa late), 4% (Luma front), 3% (Luma back) → 4.5% (Luma)). This makes it much faster, safer and versatile than the old neutral aerial.
  • Luma's neutral aerial has increased startup lag for the first hit and both neutral aerials have a shorter duration (frames 9-34 (clean), 35-46 (late) → 9-26/27-33 (Rosa), frames 3-6 (Luma hit 1), frames 26-29 (Luma hit 2) → 7-9/13-14)).
  • Both neutral aerials have different angles (361° → 60°/72° (Rosalina)/ 74° (Luma)).
• Forward aerial:
  • Rosalina's forward aerial has less startup (frame 11 → 10) and much less ending lag (frame 76 → 55).
  • It auto-cancels much earlier (67 → 50), allowing it to do so in a short hop.
  • Luma's forward aerial has a shorter duration (frames 11-14 → 11-13) and has more ending lag (frame 58 → 60).
• Back aerial:
  • It auto-cancels later (46→ 50), although it can still auto-cancel in a short hop.
• Up aerial:
  • Luma has a new up aerial: an uppercut, instead of an upwards kick.
  • Rosalina's late up aerial has drastically higher knockback scaling (30 → 98). It also auto-cancels slightly earlier (45 → 42).
  • Luma's up aerial has more startup lag and both up aerials have a shorter duration (frames 8-29 → 8-19 (Rosa), frames 3-10 → 6-11 (Luma)). Up aerial's ending lag has also increased (FAF 42 → 50), significantly worsening its juggling potential.
• Down aerial:
  • Luma's down aerial has increased startup lag (frame 8 → 15) and ending lag (FAF 42 → 50).
  • It auto-cancels one frame later, matching its new interruptibility (49 → 50).

Throws and other attacks

• Rosalina's animation when holding a Super Scope or Gust Bellows has been altered, as she now holds the item in a manner similar to a rifle.

Special moves

• Luma Shot:
  • Luma Shot has less ending lag when sending out (FAF 44 → 35) and calling back Luma (FAF 38 → 22)
  • Luma Shot travels less distance, and Luma halts all momentum at the end of the move.
  • Luma Shot can no longer be held indefinitely.
• Star Bits:
  • The first two Star Bits have less startup lag (13/17 → 10/16).
  • Star Bits have greatly increased range.
  • Star Bits deal more damage (2.8% → 3%).
  • The last Star Bit has more startup lag (21 → 22).
  • Star Bits are now projectiles, rather than moving hitboxes connected to Luma. As such, once a Star Bit is fired, its movement is independent of Luma.
    • As projectiles, the Star Bits are pocketable and are set to be reflectable but not absorbable.
    • The Star Bits are now affected by the reduced shieldstun for projectiles, and like most projectiles have reduced shield damage (0 → -1.5).
    • However, this also means Luma does not sustain hitlag when the star bits connect, improving their safety on hit, especially when combined with the universal increase to hitlag.
• Launch Star:
  • Rosalina's head does not poke out during her 2-frame animation, making it safer when snapping the ledge.
• Gravitational Pull:
  • Gravitational Pull equips items, instead of only pulling them in.
  • Gravitational Pull has less ending lag (FAF 45 → 40).
  • Gravitational Pull can absorb and kill any of Olimar's Pikmin thrown using Pikmin Throw, as opposed to only Purple Pikmin.
  • Gravitational Pull has slower startup and fewer active frames (frame 2–60 → 5–39), no longer pulling objects after the animation has ended.
  • Gravitational Pull's range has been reduced.
• Final Smash:
  • Rosalina's Final Smash uses a Grand Star during her Final Smash, and the name was changed to accommodate for that, going from Power Star to Grand Star. The change however, is only aesthetic, and the move overall functions the same as it did in SSB4.
  • During Grand Star, an outer space backdrop temporarily appears.
  • Grand Star pulls opponents in towards the multi-hitting star, making it more effective as a damage dealing attack. The Grand Star itself also covers more area, and grows significantly faster.
  • The smaller stars that fly off of the grand star travel a shorter distance before disappearing, and deal less damage (3% → 1%). They also no longer spawn from inside the power star, and thus cannot deal additional damage to opponents caught in the star. This drastically reduces the move's maximum damage potential.
  • The explosion at the end of the move deals less damage (12% → 11%), and has altered knockback (50 (base)/118 (scaling) → 80/105), dealing less knockback overall. Combined with the above change, this removes the ability for the move to KO opponents starting at 0% damage.

Update history

Rosalina & Luma received a mix of buffs, nerfs and glitch fixes via game updates, but were buffed significantly overall. Most notably, Luma's physics were reverted almost entirely to how they functioned in SSB4. In addition to undoing undesired behavior changes that it gained in the transition to Ultimate, this also restored Luma's renowned reverse aerial rushed back aerial. Aside from the reversion to its physics, Luma's re-spawn time was shortened even further, and some of its moves received minor buffs to their knockback and lag, with the latter improvements helping it synchronize better with Rosalina. Update 13.0.1 also notably reduced Luma's speed when it is launched by an attack; this allows it to tank hits it previously could not have. However, Luma also received minor nerfs: Luma Shot and Star Bits had their shield damage outputs lowered due to a near-universal nerf to projectiles in update 3.0.0, and its hit points were decreased from 50 to 40 in update 3.1.0.

Although Rosalina's buffs are not as drastic as Luma's, they are nevertheless worthwhile. Launch Star's safety issues were alleviated in two ways: update 2.0.0 enabled Rosalina to grab edges more reliably throughout its duration, and update 3.1.0 increased her fast falling speed upon using it. Neutral aerial's start-up lag was decreased slightly (a buff shared with Luma) and its hitboxes were improved, which improved its utility for approaching and starting combos. In comparison, down aerial's meteor smashing hitbox now functions consistently because of its sourspot being removed. Aside from these changes, Rosalina also received slight lag decreases for her grabs and forward aerial, shortened edge lockout times for her neutral and forward aerials, a larger shield as part of a near-universal buff, and improved hitboxes for her forward aerial.

Overall, Rosalina & Luma fare significantly better than they did at the launch of Ultimate.

2.0.0

• Luma's physics have been reverted to those from Super Smash Bros. 4 for the most part, giving it access to options that were removed in patch 1.0.0.
• Luma now advances once again with jabs thanks to the mechanical changes in its physics, albeit way less than Smash 4 jabs.
• Luma's up tilt deals more knockback.
• Down tilt sends Luma farther forward, increasing the range. This also removes a bug that made Luma bonk its head on the floor while performing the move.
• Dash attack connects more reliably.
• Rosalina can grab ledges faster after using neutral (frame 68 → 67) and forward aerial (frame 84 → 83).
• Neutral aerial start up for both Rosalina and Luma has been reduced (frame 10 → 9 and frame 8 → 7) respectively.
• Neutral aerial hitboxes for Rosalina have been fixed for the most part, making the move connect more reliably.
• Smash 4 RAR back aerial that makes Luma launch forward when performed is back.
• Down aerial's meteor hitbox on frame 17 has no sourspot anymore, making it always spike despite the positioning.
• Luma Shot:
  • No charge ending lag frame 40 → 35, all charges ending lag frame 34 → 29.
  • Grounded call back ending lag frame 26 → 22, aerial call back ending lag frame 28 → 24.
• Launch Star ledge grab size increased, (17, 27.5, -8, 13) → (17, 30.5, -14, 13) during the launch animation, (17, 27.5, -8, 13) → (17, 30.5, -11, 13) when the move ends.
• Grand Star's looping hits can no longer be SDIed.

3.0.0

• If Luma is close, Luma will move in front of Rosalina when using a reversed down tilt or forward tilt.
• The glitch that allowed Chrom’s Awakening Aether to slow down Luma has been fixed.
• Luma Shot deals less shield damage (0 → -2.5)
• Star Bits deal less shield damage (0 → -1.5).
• At the start of Grand Star, nearby opponents will be slowed more (6 → 15), and for longer (60 frames → 70).

3.1.0