Lucas (SSBU): Difference between revisions

|tier = C-

|ranking = 61

'''Lucas''' ({{ja|リュカ|Ryuka}}, ''Lucas'') is a playable character in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]''. He was revealed along with fellow ''EarthBound'' fighter {{SSBU|Ness}} and all other veterans on June 12th, 2018 and is classified as [[Fighter number|Fighter #37]].

As in ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', {{s|wikipedia|Lani Minella}}'s portrayal of Lucas from ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' was repurposed for ''Ultimate''.

Lucas is ranked 61st out of 82 on the current [[tier list]], placing him at the top of the C- tier. This is a sizable drop from his 28th/29th out of 54 placement in ''Smash 4'', where he was tied with {{SSB4|Ness}}.

Being a pseudo-clone of {{SSBU|Ness}}, Lucas shares attributes with him in terms of special moves. However, the two are very different from each other in gameplay. Lucas is a middleweight that has slow [[walking]] speed, average [[dashing]] speed and [[gravity]], fast [[air speed]], and below-average [[falling speed]]. He makes up for his lack of ground mobility with the speed of his attacks, with many possessing low lag, allowing him to rack up damage quickly and safely, while he also boasts a large number of high-damaging and powerful attacks that can KO at early percents.

Arguably Lucas's greatest strength is his extremely dangerous edgeguarding game, which is among the greatest in ''Ultimate'', and allows him to easily KO off-stage opponents at unusually early percentages. PK Freeze freezes opponents and now launches opponents horizontally with powerful knockback, enabling it to KO off-stage opponents at ludicrously low % and making it one of his most infamous edge-guarding techniques. Its incredibly large hitbox makes it an excellent 2-frame punish tool, can be used to punish rolls or techs, and can also be used as a deadly stage spike and ledgetrapping option. PK Fire can be used to snipe offstage opponents for a KO. The orb of PK-Thunder has very high base knockback and hitstun making it extremely useful for dragging the opponent to the blastline, stage spiking them, and sending off-stage opponents far enough from the stage to completely prevent them from recovering. PK Thunder is especially effective against characters with poor horizontal recoveries, who rely on tether recoveries or characters who recover from below, and Lucas can nearly effortlessly gimp them at awkwardly early percents (as low as 0%), while he remains almost completely safely on-stage. PSI Magnet contains a windbox at the start-up of the move that will pull opponents closer to Lucas, in the air, the strength of the windbox scales based on the opponents percentage, which can be useful for setting up an edge-guard situation or even outright gimping opponents. The move's semi-spike hitbox can KO off-stage opponents at reasonable percentages or put them in a bad position off-stage. Alongside his special moves, Lucas has some of the strongest smash attacks that are also excellent at edgeguarding and KOing, especially his down smash; the first hit is among the most powerful in the game and can KO under 60% at the ledge. Similarily to PK Freeze, it has an extremely large hitbox and a long duration that make it an incredibly deadly tool for 2-frame punishes, and ledgetrapping, while it can successfully catch opponents under certain stages and punish rolling or teching opponents. Also, a reverse down smash can potentially stage spike opponents at the edge, and all 3 hits can even sometimes land if the opponents don't tech the individual hits successfully. Lucas's forward smash is a strong and quick smash attack that can efficiently KO opponents who recklessly air dodge towards the stage. Lucas's up smash is among the absolute strongest and has invincibility on frames 1-7, which allows it to punish ledge attacks with proper timing (although it is situational), and can catch some characters hanging on the edge (although it doesn't work on about half of the cast). Lucas's back and forward throws are strong (with the former being among the strongest) and can force edgeguarding situations and KO at high percentages at the ledge. Lucas also possesses two meteor smash aerials, his back and down aerials, while his forward aerial deals strong knockback and is a reliable KOing option. Overall, Lucas has one of the best 2-frame punish abilities in ''Ultimate'', with his PK Freeze, down smash, forward tilt, dash attack, and down tilt being very efficient (especially the former three), while forward tilt and dash attack are surprisingly powerful for attacks of their type.

Alongside his great edgeguarding potential, Lucas' recovery is among the longest and most flexible in the game, thanks to his Zair tether recovery, his long directional air dodge, and his long-distanced PK Thunder 2. His PK Thunder travels in a tighter arc than Ness' and doesn't disappear when hitting an enemy, unlike the latter, while his PK Thunder 2 sends him a much greater distance, allowing him to safely go far off to the sides or far below the stage to edge-guard his opponents and quickly recover on-stage after efficiently edgeguarding or gimping them. Additionally, if he bumps into part of the stage or a wall, he can use his PK Thunder a second time for a limited time, making his recovery even longer overall. However, it can still be exploited by some characters, as it is rather slow overall and his [[PK Thunder]] can be absorbed or reflected by some characters, while projectiles can disrupt it efficiently. His [[PK Thunder 2]] also can occasionally have some angling issues, and has long ending lag, making Lucas vulnerable to gimps and punishes by some characters.  

Another one of Lucas's greatest strengths lies in his excellent comboing capabilities. Thanks to his ability to loop his moves into each other fairly easily, Lucas's combo game is incredibly dangerous and can be heavily mixed-up. At low to mid percents, neutral air combos into itself, which was mostly popularized by {{Sm|Remi|}}, and all of his aerials, being one of his best combo starters. His forward air also has the ability to chain into itself at low percents. Because Lucas can cancel his jump by using an technique called "double jump cancel zair", the tether grab can combo into itself across the entire stage and can lead to potentially unavoidable and heavily damaging combos, as well as dangerous edgeguarding situations. Up air can also combo into itself multiple times; when utilized alongside platforms for assistance, it can potentially rack up to 70%. Down tilt is fast enough to be able to loop into itself, jab, forward tilt, forward air, a grab or even forward smash, especially against fast-fallers like {{SSBU|Fox}} or {{SSBU|Greninja}} and large characters like {{SSBU|Bowser}}. Because of changes in the engine from ''SSB4'' to ''Ultimate'', grounded spikes cannot be teched. This gives Lucas the ability to loop [[Lucas (SSBU)/Down aerial|down air into itself]] and finish the opponents off with forward smash, down smash, forward air, or another off-stage down air if used close enough to the edge. Lastly, aerial spikes aren't techable if they reach a certain [[knockback]] this causes back aerial to loop into itself and his other aerials as well at around 60%, and can even lead to an off-stage meteor smash KO when used close enough to the ledge, even though this is more niche and harder to pull off as all the other loops. To compliment his great combo potential, Lucas has many reliable combo finishers; most notably, his powerful and quick forward smash, as well as his exceedingly powerful down smash, are extremely useful for ending jab lock combos as well as down aerial loops.  

Lucas also possesses some strong ground moves, primarily down tilt and forward tilt are worth noticing. Down tilt doesn't have a lot of range but it makes up for it by being just as fast as {{SSBU|R.O.B.}}'s down tilt and only being 1 frame laggier. Combined with the fact that the close hitbox can combo into jab, forward tilt, forward air, and (at high percents or against fast-fallers) a grab, it's definitely a grounded move to respect.

Forward tilt is a strong disjointed poking tool that when angled up can anti air a plethora of moves. It can also easily 2-frame recoveries when angled down. It's also extremely safe on shield and can only be punished by {{SSBU|Link}}'s [[Spin Attack]] from out of shield. Up tilt is also used to pop opponents out of the air similar to forward tilt but can combo into up air if they are around 30%. Tap jump is advised in order to do so as that's the only way to bypass the short hop macro. Jab is a useful "get off me" and combo tool, but overall outclassed by down tilt's frame data and utility. Dash attack comes out fairly slow, and slows Lucas' ground speed while executing it. However, its hitbox is pretty large and can 2-frame or hit an opponent on the edge. Unlike most dash attacks, it can function as a reasonably strong KO option, as its sweetspot is strong enough to KO {{SSBU|Mario}} at 105% at the edge. In comparison, its sourspot is much weaker, yet dash attack's decent interruptbility and its sourspot's higher launching angle make it serviceable for setting up aerial pressure. While his forward smash is not nearly as strong as his other smash attacks in terms of range and knockback, it makes up for it by being his fastest smash attack, while still being powerful; this move also has the ability to [[reflect]] projectiles and is a great combo finisher. Lastly, forward smash also has a tipper hitbox that KOs a lot earlier. Down smash has Lucas strike the ground three times in front of him; each hit getting progressively larger, but also getting progressively weaker (with the first hit of the move being one of the strongest down smashes in the game). The move is incredibly useful for ending jab lock combos, ledgetrapping and [[Edge#2 frame punish|2-frame punishes]]. It also has a large hitbox that enables it to catch opponents directly below certain stages, thus being one of his best KOing moves. His up smash has invincibility on frame 1-7 (also avoiding grabs) which therefore allows it to be used as a situational counter-attack tool. It also has extremely high knockback that can KO reliably at low percentages. However, the start-up and recovery is extremely high thus making it a "high risk, high reward" read and punish option. Alongside his forward and back throws, his up throw is also among the strongest and can KO reliably at high percentages.

Outside of edgeguarding, Lucas has very versatile special moves, PK Freeze has great maneuverability and can be a useful pressuring and anti-air attack. PK Fire sends a fiery bolt straight forward which explodes on contact. It doesn't explode on shields however. It's a decent spacing tool that deals moderate knockback and can sometimes be used as a combo extender. PK Thunder does not disappear upon hitting an opponent like Ness's but instead the tail hits multiple times. This, coupled with its very high hitstun, makes it possible to combo into itself and is a great damage-racking and shield poking tool. It does disappear when it collides with a hard [[platform]] or wall. It also disappears when an opponent hits Lucas while he is doing the attack. PK Thunder 2, while lacking the early KO potential of Ness's, deals an extreme amount of damage and is also strong enough to KO at the top blast line at reasonably low percents. PSI Magnet absorbs energy based [[projectile]]s. The amount of damage it heals depends on the projectile's power as it heals 1.66x more as the projectile capping at 30%. This makes the move useful for improving Lucas' survivability and to discourage projectile camping from characters with energy projectiles. If projectiles are absorbed while grounded, the end lag after the absorption can be cancelled on the same frame as the absorption with a jump, dodge, or spot dodge, improving the move's safety on the ground. The move also has a semi-spike hitbox upon releasing the special button. Said hitbox is also one of the safest non projectile moves on shield in the game (being +0 on block), and can lead into some combos at low percentages (PSI Magnet into dash attack or grab aerial being some examples). Finally, Lucas has strong wavebouncing abilities, as each of his special moves (except for PK Thunder) gives him a significant recoil which can be very useful for mindgames.

However, Lucas is not without his drawbacks. While he has a powerful pressuring game and can force opponents in a disadvantage state fairly easily, Lucas, himself, has almost non-existent anti-pressuring options, thus, his biggest flaw is his horrible defensive game. Because grabs out of shield have an additional 4 frames of start-up in ''Ultimate'' and Lucas lacks a fast grab, up special and up smash, while none of his aerials hit before frame 7, his out of shield game is among the worst in the cast. Additionally, because his overall grounded mobility is average at best, and some of his attacks have rather short range, Lucas primarily struggles with rushdowns, as he can find it difficult to keep out the opponent with forward air and forward tilt, especially if the opponent has superior range and priority than Lucas. He also struggles when put high above his opponents, as he doesn't have a good hitbox under him to force landings and being floaty makes him extremely susceptible to getting juggled, while Lucas is nearly incapable of escaping juggles against characters with great juggling abilities (such as {{SSBU|Mario}}) due to him lacking a useful combo-breaking move. As such, Lucas overall has a terrible disadvantage state and one single mistake can potentially cause him the loss of a stock rather quickly.   

Outside of his lack of defensive options, despite Lucas having a solid neutral game thanks to his strong zoning options in his PK Fire, his forward aerial and his Zair, he is otherwise over-reliant on those aforementioned moves to force approaches, which leads to his approach becoming predictable and leaving him with few reliable options, especially against fast characters and characters with even longer and more disjointed attacks, as most of his other attacks suffer from relatively short range despite being disjointed, which can result in him getting overwhelmed by many of those characters and forcing him to rely on his overused zoning options and his underwhelming out of shield options. Also, Lucas notably struggles against characters without energy-based projectiles (most notably {{SSBU|Link}}), as he cannot make use of his PSI Magnet to heal himself against them, and although he has a reflector in his forward smash, it cannot be used in the air, severely hindering his neutral game, while Lucas is virtually unable to successfully approach without getting hit by a single projectile, while his own PK Fire is too laggy and short-ranged to be useful in camping in those matchups, preventing him of winning any projectile wars against characters  

without energy-based projectiles.

Despite his powerful throws, Lucas's grab game has its issues. Despite having decent range, his grab is slow and is easily punishable, while his throws have little utility outside of edgeguarding and KOing. His down throw, in particular, which has been severely nerfed from SSB4, is completely unreliable at setting up follow-ups above low percentages, while it is by far his weakest throw and cannot KO reliably at realistic percentages. Additionally, his DJCZ, while extremely dangerous when mastered, requires perfect timing as to correctly chain it. As such, Lucas' combo game, while extremely deadly, is very hard to master and thus requires good reads and additional high execution in order to get high damage started, and gives him a relatively high learning curve.  

In the end, Lucas is gifted with an extremely versatile moveset, with one of the best edgeguarding games in the game, some of the most powerful smash attacks and throws, a long and flexible recovery and great comboing and pressuring tools, Lucas has an excellent advantage state and can rack up damage very easily with his highly-damaging combo strings or with his high-damaging and powerful moves, while he usually does not have much trouble KOing opponents at early percents either with edgeguarding or with his powerful smash attacks. Lucas fits best into the mix-up type. He has useful zoning options and he can be effective when controlling foes' space and options thanks to his PK Fire, quick disjointed normals, and Rope Snake. However, he can be a formidable foe at close-ranged combat thanks to his amazing comboing and KOing ability, along with his great aerial game. Lucas players must take advantage of his deadly edgeguarding tools by forcing his opponent off-stage with his powerful throws, with many of his aerials, his smash attacks and his special moves being powerful enough to gimp or KO his opponent at exceedingly early percents. However, they must be careful in approaching because his zoning options can quickly become predictable, and he can quickly become overwhelmed by his opponents if he is not careful enough, as his decidely average mobility and underwhelming defensive game can easily be exploited due to his almost non-existent out of shield options, while his floatiness and lack of a reliable hitbox under him can make him very vulnerable to juggles. As a result of this, Lucas is especially vulnerable against characters with superior mobility and longer disjointed range (such as {{SSBU|Shulk}} or {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}), superior zoning abilities (most notably {{SSBU|Link}}) or great recoveries that are difficult to edgeguard (such as {{SSBU|Peach}}), and has an extremely high learning curve.

Lucas has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from ''SSB4'' to ''Ultimate''; although he received much more buffs, it's hard to determine whether he has been buffed or nerfed overall. Some of Lucas's biggest strengths from the previous game have been noticeably nerfed, but his moveset as a whole is much more consistent.

Lucas has received comparatively few nerfs, though most of them have been heavy. The most notable of these nerfs is to his [[down throw]], which has more knockback and ending lag; which significantly hinders his previously guaranteed combos past low percentages, no longer having access to semi-guaranteed KO set-ups (into back aerial at the edge, or to up aerial at high percentages). The universally [[tech]]able [[footstool]]s and changes to [[lock]]ing have also drastically neutered the more intrincate setups his down throw had. Overall, Lucas no longer has access to guaranteed high damage from his throws, and his footstool-based combos are much less useful unless the opponent isn't able to tech in time. Aside from these nerfs, [[PK Thunder 2]] now has halted momentum at the end of its animation, which shortens his recovery. Lucas also has a slightly harder time landing due to [[PSI Magnet]] no longer halting his momentum in the air.

In spite of these nerfs, Lucas has predominantly received many more significant buffs. His frame data and damage output have all been strengthened as a whole, which has made his attacks generally safer (especially if sweetspotted, due to their [[electric]] effect). Lucas's approach and aerial game are much more effective, as his [[forward aerial|forward]], [[back aerial|back]] and [[up aerial]]s all are now capable of [[autocancel]]ing from a short hop, the former is a much more viable move for KOing, and the latter's hitbox now matches its animation more correctly. His [[grab aerial]] can now be [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA1bVZEyPQ0 double-jump canceled] as well, which now gives him an additional option for approaching as well as retreating and can be chained into itself repeatedly or forward air, giving it great combo ability. [[Down aerial]] can now loop into itself at mid to high percentages, and can now set up kill confirms (most notably forward and down smash, and forward air), and the inability to tech grounded meteor smashes benefits his back aerial, which can also loop into itself and his other aerials. Thanks to these buffs, the aforementioned nerfs to his combo game have been somewhat compensated, with the latter and his mix-up options still being extremely effective in his metagame.

Altogether, Lucas is a less polarized character than in ''Smash 4''. He no longer has access to KO setups from his down throw and his footstool and locking-based combos are less effective, but many of his most glaring weaknesses were notably improved, some of his less potent moves became much stronger, the significant buffs to his edgeguarding game and his much more powerful and damaging finishers have significantly improved his KOing ability, and the changes to the game's pace have provided more flexibility for him, granting him far options than he had in ''Smash 4''. As a result of this, Lucas has a relatively higher learning curve, and now plays better with a mix-up playstyle. However, given the various buffs to other returning veterans, and the introduction of DLC characters that Lucas struggles against, it's generally agreed that his buffs were not significant enough to improve Lucas, and he is worse relative to the cast than he was in ''Smash 4''.

Lucas was buffed slightly via game updates. Initially, update 2.0.0 only slightly decreased neutral aerial's landing lag and edge lockout duration. Following this, update 4.0.0 buffed Lucas in a few more noticeable ways. Forward tilt's sweetspot gained a larger hitbox (albeit only during the first 2 frames) and higher base knockback; both of these buffs make it a deceptively useful KO option, especially when it is angled upward when used as a follow-up from down tilt.

Dash attack gained additional active frames, although its sourspot was inadvertently nerfed slightly, due to it becoming less advantageous on hit by 2 frames. Up smash gained more invincibility frames during start-up, while up aerial and [[PK Fire]] had their ending lag decreased and landing lag decreased, respectively. Lastly, update 8.0.0 improved the consistency of Lucas' pivot grab by adjusting its axis positioning.

*Lucas possesses a special jump. When jumping in midair, Lucas will ascend in a floatier, curved trajectory. The upward momentum of Lucas' double jump can be [[double jump cancel|canceled]] by inputting a special move or throwing an item. This trait is shared with {{SSBU|Ness}}, {{SSBU|Mewtwo}}, {{SSBU|Kazuya}}, and {{SSBU|Sora}}.

|neutraldesc=A right-legged roundhouse kick, followed by a right-legged hook kick, followed by a left-legged reverse roundhouse kick. The last hit has slightly more range. Hits first on frame 2, making it Lucas' fastest ground attack. The first and second hits can [[jab lock]], but might miss on very thin characters like {{SSBU|Joker}} and {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}. The second hit can be interrupted sooner than in ''SSB4'', and lead into a grab or aerial attack.

|ftiltdesc=Twirls with his arm extended to emit a small blast of PSI energy from his hand. It can be angled and has a [[disjointed hitbox]], although its sweetspot is located inside of the blast. It has overall low lag, disjointed range, and the ability to be angled, all of which make it very useful for 2-framing an opponent. In addition, its sweetspot is powerful enough to KO reliably, whereas its sourspot can [[lock]] opponents at low percents. Due to these traits, it is one of Lucas' best KO options, and is generally considered one of the best forward tilts in the game.

|dsmashdesc=Aims his arm diagonally downward and emits three consecutive blasts of PSI energy towards the ground while holding his hand in a finger gun gesture. With each blast, its range increases at the expense of damage and knockback. It is one of the strongest down smashes in the game when clean, as it is able to KO as low as 60% near the edge depending on the opponent's weight and DI. If well timed, it can also catch recovering opponents before they grab the edge. Has a bit of start-up lag, but surprisingly low ending lag for its power. Unlike in ''Smash 4'', each blast is treated as its own hitbox, meaning that it can potentially hit multiple times at low percents, and damages shields more than once, though its shield damage is low for each hit to compensate.

| jumpsquat=3 | rjumpsquat=2-89

|Lu - cas! || Ryuuuu - ka! || Lu - cas! *claps 3 times* || Lucas! Go Lucas! || Luuuuu - cas!

*{{Sm|Nitox|France}} - One of the best Lucas players in the world, and one of two Lucas players ever ranked in the top 100 on a notable global ranking, with his highest ranking being 84th on the [[OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse]]. His 9th place finish at the major {{Trn|COLOSSEL 2022}} is tied for the highest placement for a Lucas player at a major event.

Likely due to his high learning curve and being outclassed by other characters with a similar archetype, Lucas's representation has been somewhat below average throughout most of the competitive lifespan. Although he has seen notable representation at a regional level thanks to the likes of {{Sm|Mekos}} and {{Sm|WhYYZ}}, his results at a major level were notably more scarce, although they have since been improving in the post-online metagame thanks to the efforts of players such as {{Sm|ChocoTaco}}, {{Sm|Nitox}}. and {{Sm|Regalo}}. As a result, most players consider Lucas to be in the mid-tier, which is reflected in Lucas's placement in the current tier list, where he is ranked 61st as the highest character in the C- tier.