Force Palm

Force Palm (, Force Discharge) is Lucario's side special move. When used, Lucario thrusts its paw in front of itself, briefly charges up aura, then unleashes it in a large area in front of its palm. The move becomes a grab at point blank range, which deals substantially more knockback.

Overview
Force Palm bears some similarities to Lucario's forward smash, except that it exhibits more range and less knockback. If Force Palm is initiated close to an opponent, it changes to a grabbing attack with more power, unless Lucario is in the air. With a high enough Aura level, the grab serves as a remarkable KO option. Force Palm's range also makes it a viable edgeguarding move, although it is generally risky to use offstage due to its high ending lag. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Force Palm can also be used repeatedly at low percents as a chain grab, much like Lucario's up throw.

Force Palm's attack has a few unintuitive properties. The blast produced by it is technically a projectile that can be reflected and absorbed, but it does not move by itself, and so reflecting it cannot hurt the original user unless Lucario is pushed into it at the same time. By contrast, it is also a direct attack, so Subspace Emissary enemies do not resist it, and it triggers the effects of items that ignore indirect attacks (such as Metal Boxes). It is also the only command grab in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that causes to lose a portion of his Limit Gauge when grabbed out of Limit Charge, rather than gaining more charge.

Force Palm also causes light-bending graphics for a portion of its animation, where Lucario stands in a readying-stance with a single hand out and the other one placed upon its wrist, firing the blast with stationary recoil. When used as a grab, it grabs the opponent with its leading hand and places its free hand onto the other (in a quick thrusting motion) to blast them in a violent gesture.

Aura effect
From Super Smash Bros. 4 onward, the size of Force Palm's blast increases in proportion with Lucario's Aura, becoming much larger at high percents. For this, the blast's scale is multiplied by the result of the formula, so for example, in Smash 4 without Stock Aura, it is at 0.6192× of its default size with 0% damage, and 1.784× with 190% damage, for a proportional increase of 2.881×. This gives the move exceptional range, reaching almost half the length of Final Destination, which makes it a significantly better spacing option than in Brawl. Prior to version 1.0.4 in Smash 4, the formula was, resulting in a scale multiplier of 0.592× at 0% damage and 1.84× at 190% damage, for a proportional increase of 3.108×. Force Palm also gains more powerful sound effects as Lucario's aura level increases, starting as a soft whoosh effect at low percents and turning into a loud explosive boom at high percents; furthermore, at 100% or higher, its aura gains an aesthetic explosive shockwave around Lucario.

In Ultimate, as an additional aesthetic effect, Force Palm's throw causes Special Zoom if used when Lucario's Aura damage multiplier is 1.14× or higher. With Stock Aura taken into account, the minimum percentages for Lucario to trigger the effect correspond to the following:

Force Palm can be escaped via button mashing. The grab duration is the same as from a standard grab, as is the effect of mashing. Since the move takes a fixed 28 frames between grabbing the opponent and throwing them, the number of inputs required to escape is consistent with percent, although escaping it is only feasible at low percents and with quick enough mashing speed. The number of button inputs required to escape is summarised for low percents below:

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the known variations:


 * 1) Force Palm: Default.
 * 2) Advancing Force Palm: Dashes forward while using Force Palm. It will leave the player open if it misses. It deals less damage.
 * 3) Long-Distance Force Palm: The projectile has more range, but deals less damage. The grab deals more knockback.

Origin
In the games, Force Palm is a physical Fighting-type attack that was introduced in Generation IV. While not very strong at 60 base power, it has a 30% chance of paralyzing the target.

Lucario can learn this move by leveling up in Generations IV, V and VIII. While Lucario can't learn the move by leveling up in Generation VI and VII due to learning Power-Up Punch in its place, its pre-evolved form can, and therefore Lucario can retain the move as it evolves. In Sword and Shield, Lucario can learn the move at level one.

Force Palm's depiction in Smash would later influence how it's shown in the anime.

In Japanese, the term "fajin" (発勁) is the naming basis for the attack's Japanese name, being a term used in Chinese martial arts that involves use of internal energies for explosive force, being the backbone for a majority of the one-shot-power-based blows from such fighting styles. "Hakkei" is the term read in on'yomi.

Trivia

 * Force Palm is the only command grab that can't grab airborne opponents.
 * In the Tips section in Ultimate, Force Palm is described to be a one-hit KO if connected with high enough aura. However, this is not the case.