Lucina (SSB4)

Lucina in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Fire Emblem
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Critical Hit
Tier	B (18)

“	Lucina Wakes Her Blade?!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Lucina (ルキナ, Lucina) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. She was confirmed during a live stream alongside Captain Falcon and Robin on the official Super Smash Bros. website on July 14th, 2014, making her the only unlockable character to be revealed before SSB4's release. Lucina is a clone of Marth, her ancestor within the Fire Emblem series. While she was originally planned as an alternate costume for him, she was transitioned into being an entirely separate character later in development once her attacks were given differing traits; in a Miiverse post, Masahiro Sakurai explains that "whenever there is even a small difference in abilities, that character gets an actual roster slot", citing her as an example. She was one of three intended alternate costumes to be made separate in this way, with the other two being the returning Dr. Mario and her fellow newcomer Dark Pit. Laura Bailey and Yū Kobayashi reprise their roles as Lucina's English and Japanese voice actors, respectively.

Lucina is currently ranked 18th out of 58 on the tier list, sitting in the B tier; the high tier. This makes her the highest-ranked clone character. Like Marth, Lucina has good overall speed both on the ground and the air, which gives her reliable control in her movement for both approaching and retreating. Her Parallel Falchion also grants her disjointed range and many attacks with minimal start-up, as well as useful combo options in the form of her neutral attack's first hit, her neutral aerial's first hit and Dancing Blade, while also having access to guaranteed horizontal KO set-ups unique to her. Lucina's Parallel Falchion's lack of a tipper sweetspot makes Lucina's attacks less polarized than Marth's and, in turn, grants her several benefits. These include Lucina inflicting higher shieldstun at close range (which makes her slightly more difficult to punish out of shield compared to Marth's sourspotted attacks), her being slightly better at defending against pressure at close range (most notably against rushdown-oriented characters like Captain Falcon), and her KO potential being more consistent at high percentages, with potent KOing options in the form of her forward smash, up smash, back aerial and Shield Breaker.

However, Lucina also shares Marth's flaws. Her attack's long range are offset by short-lasting hitboxes and considerable ending lag (especially aerials), making her susceptible to punishment if her attacks are not spaced well. She also has an arguably poor grab game, with her throws failing to combo reliably starting at mid-percentages or KOing reliably at high percentages (with the exception of up throw). She is vulnerable to edgeguarding, with Dolphin Slash being fairly easy to gimp due to its linearity, and being reliant on her double jump for recovering. Furthermore, she is vulnerable to combos and juggling, due to her lack of reliable anti-pressure options as they leave her just as susceptible to punishment.

Lastly, the lack of a tipper hitbox is also a double-edged sword for her. While Lucina's moveset is safer overall compared to Marth's due to her attacks dealing slightly higher shieldstun at close range and lacking sourspots and low hitlag modifiers, as well as dealing high knockback regardless of the hitbox she hits with, her attacks are more punishable than Marth's if not spaced well, due to Marth benefiting from the higher shieldstun caused by optimally-spaced tippers. As such, in order for Lucina's attacks to be safe on shield, she must still utilize her Parallel Fachion's range in order to space her moves at the blade's medium point or tip. Despite their consistent power, her strongest KOing options are also weaker than Marth's optimally spaced tipper attacks, preventing her from gaining an advantage by clearing early stocks (most notably by comparing her forward smash and Shield Breaker with Marth's sweetspotted versions). Finally, her higher overall knockback removes several noteworthy sourspotted combos that Marth possesses at higher percentages, while her unique KO setups are riskier than those of her ancestor.

As a result of these differences, Lucina has ultimately been viewed by many professionals as being inferior to Marth, and was initially ranked as a bottom-tier character in 47th place. Despite this, Lucina is ranked in the high tier, making her one of the characters to improve the most over the game's lifespan (+29), second only to Marth himself. While Lucina has not achieved the breakout of impressive results that Marth has, several professionals (such as Mr. R, Dabuz, and ZeRo) believe that the gap between her and Marth is not as significant as it seems, if it exists at all, despite her current position on the tier list.

How to unlock

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

• Play 40 VS Matches.
• Complete Classic Mode with Marth without using any continues.

Lucina must then be defeated on Arena Ferox.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

• Clear Classic Mode on 5.5 Intensity or higher.
• Play 30 VS Matches.

Lucina then must be defeated on Coliseum.

Attributes

Lucina's Parallel Falchion lacks a specific sweetspot compared to Marth's Falchion, as seen in the trails of their swords' blades.

Lucina is a clone of Marth, meaning her moveset and animations are primarily based off of his. Like Marth, she boasts great overall mobility, sporting the fastest walking speed in the game, a fast dashing speed, average air speed, above average air acceleration, moderate falling speed, and low gravity, all of which is coupled with slightly below average weight. She is also slightly shorter than Marth, granting her attacks marginally less range, but making her a bit harder to hit.

The primary difference between Lucina and Marth is their swords; Lucina's Parallel Falchion has a consistent damage output throughout its blade, while Marth's Falchion is more powerful when hitting with the tip, but significantly weaker throughout the rest of the blade. Additionally, the power of all her attacks is approximate to the weighted average of Marth's sourspotted and sweetspotted attacks, if not very slightly higher. These traits grant Lucina a few advantages that help her set apart from Marth: her neutral game is overall safer, due to the higher shieldstun on average her moves can inflict, which makes her moves safe on block when spaced correctly. A prime example of this is her forward aerial, which is arguably her most useful spacing tool, since when spaced with the middle or tip of her sword, it is difficult to punish or challenge. Another one of Lucina's advantages is her dependable KO moves: unlike Marth, she does not necessarily need to space her most powerful attacks to KO, while Marth's sourspotted attacks deal mediocre damage and knockback even at high percentages. Worth noting are her up smash, down aerial and Dancing Blade, which are all more powerful than Marth's equivalents in any given case. Although Lucina doesn't have as many intricate sourspot combos or set-ups that Marth can utilize to set up his tippers, she gains more consistent damage off her own combos than Marth due to her lack of such sourspots. She also has her own KO set-ups into other moves different from those of Marth off the first hit of neutral attack, while sharing some of them with him, and those she shares being arguably easier to perform due to a lack of a sourspot on her sword.

There are also many strengths Lucina shares with Marth. Like him, many of her moves possess good range, fast startup, and cover wide arcs, allowing her to pressure the opponent without leaving herself open to punishment. Her special moveset also possesses immense utility, and in two cases, more than that of Marth: Shield Breaker can break shields due to its high shield damage even when uncharged (breaking them much easier than Marth's version due to the lack of a sourspot), and is useful for punishing rolls. It also grants some horizontal movement, which is amplified when fully-charged. Dancing Blade is a four-hit combo that can be used to punish sidesteps and rack up damage effectively; it also has combo and mix-up potential, and at later percents, serves as a very effective KO option. It can also be used to stall in the air, which allows Lucina to mix-up opportunities to recover, land, and edgeguard. In comparison to Marth's version, it doesn't link as well due to each hit's higher knockback, but it has much better KO potential. Dolphin Slash has quick startup, provides intangibility during its startup frames, is relatively strong when it first comes out, and has very high knockback. These attributes make it an excellent out of shield option and combo breaker, and is Lucina's primary method of recovery, as its speed can make it difficult to intercept, and it can stage spike reckless edgeguarders. Lastly, Counter, while situational, provides her with the capability to reverse attacks with 1.2x the damage, KOing if the attack was strong enough; it can also be used against opponents with easily predictable recoveries.

The last strength she shares with Marth is her strong edgeguarding ability: her forward and back aerial's fast startup and good range make them go-to edgeguarding moves. Down aerial is relatively quick, and can strongly meteor smash opponents if it hits at the center of the arc. Forward smash's range makes it a good choice against opponents aiming their recoveries directly towards the ledge, such as Little Mac and Falco, and down tilt's range and speed make it good at exploiting an opponent's 2-frame vulnerability when grabbing the ledge. Both have the ability to hit below the ledge as well.

Nonetheless, Lucina also possesses notable disadvantages compared to Marth. The lack of a tipper is both a good and bad point: while the lack of a tipper does make her combos and rushdown tactics more consistently damaging than Marth's, if Lucina cannot land a KO move, she is left with vastly inferior KO moves compared to Marth's tippered moves; she cannot secure early KOs with hard reads or gain as much positional advantage off precise spacing on enemy approaches or shields. This makes her slightly less threatening in the neutral game; attacking opponents do not have to space their approaches relative to the Parallel Falchion's blade the same way they would with Marth's Falchion, and defending opponents do not need to adjust their spacing to avoid being hit by a tipper. Additionally, opponents do not have to worry about being KO'd early from a powerful and timely tippered attack. Thus, Lucina's ability to pressure opponents is somewhat inferior to Marth's.

She also shares some of the weaknesses Marth does: despite having below average weight and only average falling speed, Lucina is susceptible to combos, and her above average height provides a rather easy target. She also has little defense against juggling, as her aerials are ineffective at relieving pressure. Though her attacks have quick startup, many of them come with high ending and landing lag, and lack lingering hitboxes, making her attacks unsafe to use on shield up close despite their greater power. Her moveset also lacks a projectile, making her struggle against projectile-heavy characters.

While Lucina can pressure characters and force them to hold shield and block her attacks, she often struggles against shields, as improperly spaced aerials leave her susceptible to punishment, and Shield Breaker is highly punishable if predicted. This is further compounded by Lucina's fairly poor grab game, since her throws deal little knockback, fail to combo past medium percentages and fail to KO at realistic percentages, with the exception of up throw. Lastly, she is vulnerable to edgeguarding: Dolphin Slash is her only reliable recovery option, and despite being hard for edgegurders to outcome due to its speed and stage spiking ability, it has a linear path with fixed distance, making it predictable regardless. Due to its below average horizontal distance, she is also vulnerable to semi-spikes. She does have options to mix it up, though: Shield Breaker can aid her horizontal recovery when fully charged, while Dancing Blade stalls her after a midair jump. Even so, she is also heavily reliant on her midair jump for mixing up her recovery, and she is in significant danger and much more prone to gimping if offstage without it, .

Overall, Lucina is a "lower-risk, lower-reward" version of Marth. She trades heavy power and range for more consistent spacing and damage racking abilities, as well as more consistent KO power. Like Mario and Pit, she has a low learning curve due to her straightforward playstyle, since she benefits from spacing at close range while also having several fast, good tools for KOing. Despite this, and due to Marth's better range, KOing and spacing capabilities, she must play more defensively in order to get the most out of her moveset, namely her moves' consistently high knockback, though without getting the extra reward Marth obtains by doing so. While she does possess some advantages that allow her to fare better in certain matchups than Marth does, such as Pikachu and Captain Falcon, she still lacks the main advantages that Marth's tipper provides. Despite her flaws, Lucina's actual level of viability is debatable; while her playerbase is small and she has sparse results in low to mid-level play and poor results in high-level play, she significantly benefits from the same buffs that Marth has received, which have led her to be considered a more viable character like her ancestor.

Differences from Marth

Aesthetics

• Lucina's wields the Parallel Falchion from Fire Emblem Awakening, an alternate timeline variant of Falchion.
• Unlike Falchion, the Parallel Falchion lacks a tipper. This is demonstrated with its trail being translucent and blue during a swing's initial and middle stages and white during the late and final stages. Conversely, Falchion's trail is translucent and blue with an accentuated tip throughout an entire swing.
• Lucina's on-screen appearance is slightly different, due to her removing her mask.
• Lucina's taunts and victory poses are different.
• Unlike Marth, Lucina is dubbed in English for non-Japanese versions of SSB4. She also has unique victory quotes against him and Ike.

Attributes

• Lucina is slightly shorter than Marth. This gives her a smaller hurtbox, but also makes her range shorter than Marth's.
• Due to the Parallel Falchion lacking a tipper like Falchion, its entire blade deals equal damage and knockback. Additionally, while Lucina's attacks deal more damage and knockback than Marth's sourspotted attacks, they deal less damage and knockback than his sweetspotted attacks.
• Aside from her neutral attack, the rest of Lucina's moveset lacks hitlag modifiers.
• Lucina's dashing animation is faster. However, this is merely aesthetic, and is present purely due to Lucina's shorter height than Marth's.
• Lucina's neutral attack, up tilt and sidestep retain her horizontal momentum. This allows for followups Marth lacks.

Ground attacks

• Lucina's neutral attack transitions slower (frame 18 → 19) and its second hit has less knockback scaling (75 → 45).
• Lucina's up tilt damage is based on timing rather than hitbox (6% blade/5% body/9% tip → 7.6% early/8.075% clean).
• Lucina's up tilt does not move her a short distance forwards, unlike Marth.
• Lucina's down tilt has different particle effects.

Special moves

• Lucina's Shield Breaker's animation is much more exaggerated: she leans down more than Marth during startup, shakes more while putting her arm back further from her, and takes a step forward with her right leg instead of leaning forward while raising more her left arm during the attack.
• Lucina may shout when performing Dolphin Slash, whereas Marth does not vocalize when using it.
• Lucina's Counter's stance is different. Additionally, she may say "My turn!" or "You're mine!" when she counterattacks, whereas Marth merely grunts whenever he counterattacks.
• Lucina's Counter stance has her legs not positioned on the ground during the active hitbox window. This is likely a bug and does not affect gameplay.

Update history

Initially a poorly regarded character like her ancestor, Lucina has received noticeable buffs in game updates since update 1.0.6, with most of her buffs being shared with him. These buffs further improved her overall damage output, decreased the ending lag of several combo-oriented moves and increased the knockback of many of her standard attacks, most notably up tilt. Additionally, Dancing Blade was improved due to all of its hits connecting together better, while her punishes became stronger than they were initially.

However, the biggest buffs Lucina received were indirect. Originally, the low shieldstun used in SSB4 made her neutral game quite unsafe, and the fact that her moves (aside from neutral attack) lack hitlag modifiers resulted in them being less safe on shield than Marth's sourspotted attacks. The changes to shield mechanics in update 1.1.1 remedied this, making her moves safer on shield, especially when compared to Marth's and Roy's sourspotted moves. Shield Breaker was nerfed as a trade-off, however, as its shield breaking potential was noticeably worsened.

Update 1.1.4 increased all of the damage outputs for all of Lucina's aerials, which not only improved her aerial combo and juggle potentials, but further closed the gap between her overall damage output and Marth's. Her grounded attacks and aerial attacks' hitboxes were also increased to the point where, like Marth, her range now overreaches certain characters' ranges, such as Sheik's. When coupled with her multitude of buffs, Lucina is much better than she was during SSB4's initial release.

1.0.4

• Neutral attack's first hit deals less knockback (25 base/60 scaling → 20/50). While this does allow it to connect more reliably into the second hit from far ranges, this more importantly prevents it from linking into the second hit until much higher percents, hindering its reliability as well as its safety on hit.
• Fixed a glitch where using Counter after being edge-trumped no longer changes momentum.

1.0.6

• Neutral attack's first hit can be interrupted earlier: frame 29 → 26.
• Forward tilt can be interrupted earlier: frame 39 → 35.
• Down tilt deals 0.5% more damage: 8.075% → 8.575%.
• Forward smash deals 0.55% more damage: 14.725% → 15.275%.
• Down smash's second hit deals 0.5% more damage: 13.775% → 14.275%.
• Forward aerial deals 0.5% more damage: 8.075% → 8.575%.
• Shield Breaker deals more damage: 8.075% (uncharged)/21.85% (fully charged) → 8.575%/22.85%.
• Dancing Blade's first hit can be interrupted earlier: frame 45 → 42 and its hits connect together better.

1.0.8

• Neutral attack's first hit deals 1.425% less damage: 4.75% → 3.325%.
• Neutral attack has been improved. Its first hit launches opponents vertically and transitions faster, which makes both of its hits connect together better. Its first hit has also been given follow-up potential outside of transitioning to the second hit, which is now stronger.
• Neutral attack can no longer jab lock due its first hit's angle alteration.
• Forward tilt deals 0.95% more damage: 9.975% → 10.925%.
• Up tilt has been improved. Its base knockback increased, it launches opponents vertically, and its ending lag decreased.
• Neutral aerial's landing lag decreased.
• Dolphin Slash's knockback scaling increased.
• Dolphin Slash's and Crescent Slash's hitlag multipliers increased.
• In the English version, Lucina may say either "My turn!" or "You're mine!" when using Counter. In the Japanese version, she may say either "そこ!" ("There!") or "つきやり!" ("An opening!") when using Counter.
• Lucina may grunt when using Dolphin Slash.

Technical changelist 1.0.8

Change	Old value	New value
Jab 1 damage	4.75%	3.325%
Jab 1 angle	Sakurai angle	78°/65°/90°
Jab 1 knockback scaling	50/70	30
Jab 1 base knockback	20/30	55
Jab 1 hitlag	1	0.7
Transition from Jab 1 to Jab 2	frame 21	frame 17
Jab 1 ending frame	frame 29	frame 26
Jab 2 angle	Sakurai angle	100°
Jab 2 initial base knockback	50	65
Jab 2 (late) base knockback	40	52
Up tilt angle	Sakurai angle/100°	100°
Forward tilt damage	9.975%	10.925%
Up tilt base knockback	50/40	65/52
Up tilt endlag	42 frames	39 frames
Neutral aerial landing lag	15 frames	12 frames
Dolphin Slash knockback scaling	68	74
Dolphin Slash/Crescent Slash hitlag multiplier	0.5	0.7

1.1.0

• Neutral aerial deals more damage: 2.375% (hit 1)/6.65% (hit 2) → 3.325%/7.6%.
• Up tilt deals more damage: 6.65% (early)/7.125% (late) → 7.6%/8.075% and its ending lag decreased.
• All aerials' landing lag decreased.
• All variations of Shield Breaker have had their ending lag decreased.
• All variations of Dolphin Slash have had their landing lag decreased.
• Dancing Blade's first, second and third hits' input window durations increased by 5 frames. This makes them connect together better, but makes the first hit harder to follow up with an attack other than another hit of Dancing Blade.

Technical changelist 1.1.0

Change	Old value	New value
Up tilt damage	6.65%/7.125%	7.6%/8.075%
Up tilt ending lag	39 frames	36 frames
Neutral aerial damage (1st hit)	2.375%	3.325%
Neutral aerial damage (2nd hit)	6.65%	7.6%
Forward aerial landing lag	18 frames	16 frames
Up aerial landing lag	16 frames	14 frames
Back aerial landing lag	19 frames	17 frames
Down aerial landing lag	28 frames	24 frames
All variations of Shield Breaker ending lag	52 frames	50 frames
All variations of Dolphin Slash landing lag	23 frames	20 frames

1.1.1

• Partially charged Shield Breaker deals less shield damage: 30 → 25.

1.1.3

• Multiple changes to the knockback, hitbox sizes, and damage have made Dancing Blade/Effortless Blade link better.

Technical changelist 1.1.3

Change	Old value	New value
Dancing Blade/Efortless Blade hit 2 forward knockback growth (hitboxes 0/2)	70	30
Dancing Blade/Efortless Blade hit 2 forward knockback growth (hitbox 1)	50	30
Dancing Blade/Efortless Blade hit 2 forward base knockback (all 3 hitboxes)	28	30
Dancing Blade hit 3 down damage (both hitboxes)	3.325%	4.75%
Dancing Blade hit 3 down knockback growth (hitbox 0)	60	28
Dancing Blade hit 3 down knockback growth (hitbox 1)	40	28
Dancing Blade hit 3 down angle (both hitboxes)	20°	44°
Dancing Blade hit 3 down base knockback (both hitboxes)	30	50
Dancing Blade hit 3 down size (hitbox 1)	4.3	4.6

1.1.4

• Neutral attack's first hit has less ending lag: 28 frames → 25.
• Neutral attack's hitbox sizes increased: 6.5u → 7u.
• Forward and up tilt's ending lag decreased: 36 frames → 33.
• Forward tilt's sour x hitbox and main hitbox sizes increased: 2u (sour x)/6.7u (main) → 2.5u/7.7u.
• Down tilt's sour x hitbox and main hitbox sizes increased: 6.7u (main)/15.2u (sour x) → 8.2u/16.7u.
• Down tilt's y hitbox size decreased: 3.2u → 2.7u.
• Down smash's ending lag decreased: 64 frames → 54.
• All aerials deal more damage: 3.345% (neutral hit 1)/7.6% (neutral hit 2), 8.5% (forward), 9.975% (back/up), 11.4% (down sourspot)/13.3% (meteor) → 4.2%/8.5%, 10.5%, 11.8%/11.4%, 12.3%/14.2%.
• Neutral, forward and back aerials' main hitbox sizes increased: 6.7u (neutral hit 1)/6.5u (neutral hit 2), 6.7u (forward, back) → 7.7u/7.5u, 7.7u.
• Dancing Blade has been improved. Its first hit's start-up decreased: 7 → 6 and it had its grounded and aerial ending lag decreased by 1 frame

Moveset

• Generally, Lucina's overall damage output is close to the weighted average of each of the hitboxes of Marth's attacks, based on the sizes of his sweetspots and sourspots. Marth's non-tippered moves are unchanged.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3.325%	Two alternating upward slices. One of Lucina's most effective set-up options, as its first hit can be followed up with itself, tilt attacks, a forward aerial or a dash grab at low percentages, and a forward smash at medium to high percentages.
			4.75%
Forward tilt			10.85%	A lunging upward slice. Covers a very large area, making it useful for spacing. While not remarkably powerful like Marth's sweetspotted forward tilt, it deals noticeably more knockback compared to his sourspotted forward tilt, making it useful for KOs at high percentages near the edge.
Up tilt			7.6% (early), 8.075% (late)	An overhead arcing slash. Deals vertical knockback and has a large hitbox that can even hit opponents behind her. Oddly, its late hit deals more damage but less knockback than its early hit. A good combo starter at low percentages and a viable KOing option at very high percentages.
Down tilt			8.575%	A crouching thrust. Lucina's fastest tilt attack, it is capable of starting tech-chases, especially on heavier characters, and is useful for edgeguarding.
Dash attack			9.975%	A lunging outward slash. A decent follow-up from down tilt and hits grounded opponents, although its moderate ending lag makes it unsafe on shield.
Forward smash			15.275%	Rotates her body to perform a lunging downward slash. Its high base knockback and moderate knockback scaling make it Lucina's most reliable KOing option. However, while it has moderately fast start-up, it has high ending lag.
Up smash			3% (ground), 14.25% (blade)	An overhead thrust. It is a decent anti-air option due to its vertical range and high knockback scaling, while its deceptive horizontal range makes it capable of punishing rolls and landings. As such, it is a fairly reliable KOing option. It is also one of the few attacks in Lucina's moveset that is comparatively more reliable than Marth's, due to the positioning needed to land a sweetspot in his case.
Down smash			9.5% (hit 1), 14.275% (hit 2)	A crouching outward slash in front of herself and then behind herself. The first hit deals weak knockback and it unsafe on shield due to the move's duration. However, the second hit is stronger, making it useful for catching rolls. Oddly, this move launches opponents at a different angle if it is tippered like Marth's, despite the Parallel Falchion's lack of a tipper.
Neutral aerial			4.2% (hit 1), 8.5% (hit 2)	An inward horizontal slash followed by a spinning, outward horizontal slash. A good spacing option and can it can combo into other moves as well. The first hit can chain into other moves if Lucina lands straight after, allowing it to start combos. Deals decent knockback on the second hit, making it useful near the edge of the stage, though it does not start KOing until around 160%. Oddly, it KOs approximately 5% earlier than Roy's neutral aerial, which is almost identical, yet he has to space to get similar power.
Forward aerial			10.5%	A downward slash. It is fast and has good range, which make it very useful for spacing and fending off aerial opponents. However, landing with this move is very unsafe, due to its short duration and 16 frames of landing lag.
Back aerial			11.8%	Rotates her body to perform an upward slice. Very similar to her forward aerial, although it has slightly more damage and knockback. Additionally, the swing starts from below instead of above, which can make it catch grounded enemies more easily. Has the interesting property of turning Lucina around, changing her facing direction. Has the most knockback of all her aerial moves, making it great for edgeguarding.
Up aerial			11.4%	A backflipping, upward arcing slash. Extremely wide arc and decent damage. These factors make it a useful anti-air option and damage racking tool. If timed correctly, a late hit can connect against grounded opponents just before landing, which can lead to aerial combos.
Down aerial			12.3% (non-meteor), 14.2% (meteor)	A downward arcing slash. If struck in the middle of the arc, it deals more damage and meteor smashes opponents, while its other hitboxes deal moderate knockback. However, it has high ending and landing lag, and its meteor smashing hitbox only lasts for 1 frame.
Grab			—	Reaches out with her free hand.
Pummel			2%	A knee strike. A fairly fast pummel.
Forward throw			4%	Spins and flings the opponent forward. It can tech-chase, combo into a forward aerial against heavier characters at low percentages, or combo into Crescent Slash until around 150%.
Back throw			4%	Tosses the opponent behind herself. It has no follow-up or KO potential due to its high ending lag and extremely low knockback scaling. However, it is very effective at launching the opponent off-stage due to its high base knockback.
Up throw			4%	Heaves the opponent upward with her free hand. Lucina's only throw that has KO potential, it starts KOing at 165% and even earlier when Lucina is affected by rage.
Down throw			5%	A one-armed body slam. Aesthetically, it appears almost identical to forward throw, with its only difference being a shockwave effect to indicate the opponent hitting the ground. Mechanically, it functions much differently, as it deals slightly more damage and it launches the opponent vertically rather than diagonally, which enables it to combo into her neutral, forward, back and up aerials at low to medium percentages. However, it quickly loses combo potential at high percentages due to its high knockback scaling, as it will launch opponents too high for Lucina to follow up.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%	Gets up while slashing to the left and then to the right.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%	Gets into a kneeling position and then slices around herself as she gets up.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Hops briskly to her feet and then does a thrust to the left and a slash to the right.
Edge attack Edge getups			7%	Performs an outward slash while climbing up.
Neutral special	Default	Shield Breaker	8.575% (uncharged), 23% (fully charged)	Rears back and then performs a powerful thrust. It is chargeable and, as its name implies, deals a high amount of shield damage and can even instantly break shields when fully charged. It also grants a decent amount of horizontal distance when fully charged in midair.
	Custom 1	Storm Thrust	3.8% (uncharged), 10.45% (fully charged)	The thrust emits a gust of wind from the Parallel Falchion's tip. The gust's pushing strength increases with its charge, but the thrust itself deals noticeably less damage.
	Custom 2	Dashing Assault	5.7%/4.75%/2.85% (grounded uncharged early/mid/late), 6.65%/5.7%/3.8% (aerial uncharged early/mid/late), 15.2%/12.35%/8.55% (grounded fully charged early/mid/late), 16.15%/13.3%/9.5% (aerial fully charged early/mid/late)	The thrust has improved range due to propelling Lucina forward, but it deals less damage.
Side special	Default	Dancing Blade	3.325% (first hit/second forward hit), 4.275% (third forward/upward hits), 3.325% (third downward hit), 5.7% (last forward hit), 6.65% (last upward hit), 2% (last downward hits 1-4), 4.75% (last downward hit 5)	A combination of sword swings, which can be influenced by directional inputs. The finishing swing is one of three options: an upward slice with with good KO power at high percentages but low range (tilting the control stick up), a downward slash with good KO power at high percentages near the edge (no control stick input or tilting the control stick forward), or a flurry of low-angled thrusts that deal the most amount of damage but the least amount of knockback (tilting the control stick down). Like Marth's version, the first hit stalls Lucina while in midair, which can aid her recovery. Surprisingly, it has overall greater KO potential than Marth's due to the Parallel Falchion having higher base damage than Falchion.
	Custom 1	Effortless Blade	2.375% (parts 1-3), 4.275% (part 4)	The swings are easier to chain together, but only the side inputted swings can be used. The first three swings also deal less damage.
	Custom 2	Heavy Blade	7.6% (part 1), 9.5% (part 2), 10.45% (part 3), 13.3% (part 4 up), 14.25% (part 4 side), 2.09% (part 4 down hits 1-4), 11.4% (part 4 down hit 5)	The swings deal considerably more damage and knockback, but are harder to chain together.
Up special	Default	Dolphin Slash	11% (clean), 7% (late blade), 6% (late body)	A jumping upward slash. It deals the most damage during its first few frames and is an excellent out of shield option, due to its fast speed and its ability to be reversed. It is also useful for escaping neutral infinites should the stage have platforms to land safely on. Grants a decent amount of vertical distance, but very little horizontal distance.
	Custom 1	Crescent Slash	7% (clean), 12% (late blade), 6% (late body)	Grants more horizontal distance, but less vertical distance. The clean and late blade hits' damage outputs are also reversed. True combos from forward throw until around 150%.
	Custom 2	Dolphin Jump	—	Grants more vertical distance, but deals no damage.
Down special	Default	Counter	1.2x (min 8%)	Parries and then counterattacks against any incoming attacks with an outward slash. Damage and knockback dealt scale on the move that is countered. It has the same properties as Marth's, along with the custom variations.
	Custom 1	Easy Counter	0.7x (min 4%)	The parrying stance is longer and has a wider trigger window, but the damage multiplier and the counterattack's power are weaker.
	Custom 2	Iai Counter	1.3x (min 6%)	Dashes behind the opponent and slashes them at a blinding speed. Has a stronger damage multiplier, activates faster, launches opponents backward and deals electric damage. However, it has a narrower trigger window.
Final Smash		Critical Hit	60%	Dashes at a blinding speed to perform a lunging outward slash. Its immense knockback enables it to score a one-hit KO on any character. Pressing the button again will bypass its initial animation and immediately trigger the slash.

On-screen appearance

• Warps onto the stage using warp magic and then removes the mask she wore while disguised as Marth.

Taunts

• Up taunt: Twirls the Parallel Falchion and then assumes a stance highly similar to her pose from her official art in Fire Emblem Awakening, saying "Come at me!" (かかってきなさい., "Come bring it if you would.")
• Side taunt: Turns around to have her back face the screen while sheathing the Parallel Falchion and saying "I cannot lose." (負けられませんから., "I won't lose from here on.")
• Down taunt: Puts on the mask she used while disguised as Marth whilst she put her hand on her hip, then removes it.

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Holds her hand to her chest, closes her eyes, and silently takes a breath.
• Brushes her hair out of her face.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Lu-ci-na!	Lu-kin-a!
Pitch	Group chant	Male

Victory poses

An orchestral excerpt of the title theme from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, which has since become the main theme of the Fire Emblem series.

• Points the Parallel Falchion upward and then poses, saying "Father... I won." (勝ちましたよ、お父様)
  • If Ike is present in the match, there is a chance she will instead say "And they call you the Radiant Hero?" (これがそうえんの勇者, "This is the Radiant Hero?")
• Swings the Parallel Falchion, then performs the same pose from her official artwork, saying "The future is not written!" (未来を替えて見せます！, "Watch me change the future!")
• Sheaths the Parallel Falchion, saying "You'll never defeat me!" (負けるはいけません！, "I cannot lose!") After winning a Team Battle, Lucina performs this pose with her back towards the screen if she does not have a point lead.
  • If Marth is present, there is a chance she will instead say "This is the Hero-King?" (これが英雄王の力？, "This is the strength of the Hero King…?")

In competitive play

Official Custom Moveset Project

Character	Custom sets available
Lucina	3113	3123	1123	3133	1133
	3121	1121	3111	1131	3131

Notable players

Active

•  C-Lu
•  Chaos
•  Cookie
•  Kogarasuma - 65th at GENESIS 4, 4th at GUMS 13, 25th at Shine 2016, 13th at Collision XIV.
•  Komorikiri
•  LordXav1er - 6th in Rhode Island.
•  Mr.E - One of the best Marth players in the world, while also having a strong Lucina as a secondary.
•  Nairo
•  Pugwest - One of the best Marth players in the world, uses Lucina sometimes when his Marth fails.
•  Xaltis

Inactive

•  Ryo
•  Salem

Tier placement and history

Upon SSB4's release, Lucina was quickly compared to Marth due to her inheriting many of the flaws he had received in his transition from Brawl, namely the lower damage output, poor grab game and low utility on some of her moves. However, her shorter range compared to Marth's and her Parallel Falchion consistent power being less of a selling point than Marth's powerful tippers resulted in Lucina being regarded worse than Marth, as well as one of the worst chracters in the game. As time went on, however, game updates gradually improved Lucina, with the vast majority of her buffs being shared with Marth (e.g, reducing the lag of her tilts, reducing the landing lag of her aerials, and improving the angles and/or knockback of some of her moves), whereas update 1.1.1 also brought her biggest, albeit indirect, buffs in the form of the changes to the shield mechanics, making her moveset much safer on shield overall, fixing a notable disadvantage and bringing this area more in line with Marth. These changes helped her mitigate some of the problems she initially had, although they were not sufficient enough in comparison to Marth's, who began developing a much more dedicated playerbase than her. As such, Lucina achieved much poorer results despite her improvements, which saw her ranked 47th on the first 4BR tier list, placing her six places below Marth.

However, Lucina continued to improve over time, and gained some other significant buffs in update 1.1.4, with some of them once again being shared with Marth. These improvements allowed Lucina's offense to flow more consistently than before, giving her a niche over Marth in certain matchups. Although these buffs were still not enough to enable her to achieve significant results, even from her best players like C-Lu, they still improved her perception within the community. As a result, Lucina ranked 36th on the second tier list, resulting with her being reassessed as a mid-tier character and gaining the fourth largest rise between the first and second tier lists. Even so, players such as ZeRo and Dabuz considered Lucina's position on the tier list as too low, due to most of her strengths being shared with Marth. Despite her still obscure tournament results, Lucina currently ranks 18th on the third tier list, gaining the largest rise between the second and third tier lists and once again reassessing her status in competitive play, this time to a high-tier character. By extension, this makes Lucina the only bottom-tier character to rise to high tier as opposed to low tier.

Reveal trailer

<youtube>N9ytrX0wweA</youtube>

Trophies

Lucina

Chrom's daughter and the future Princess of Ylisse. When she arrives from a doomed future seeking to prevent it from ever happening, she goes by the name Marth before her identity is revealed. She fights much like her adopted namesake, but more than just the tip of her sword is powerful.

Chrom's daughter and the future Princess of Ylisse. When she arrives from a doomed future seeking to prevent it from ever happening, she goes by the name Marth before her identity is revealed. She fights much like her adopted namesake, but her entire blade is equally powerful instead of having a more powerful tip.

Daughter of Chrom and future Princess of Ylisse. When she comes from the future to prevent a terrible future from unfolding, she goes by the name of Marth, but only until her true identity comes to light. She is a very similar fighter to Marth, except it doesn't actually matter which part of her sword she strikes with.

: Fire Emblem: Awakening (02/2013)

Lucina (Alt.)

Lucina's moves are much like Marth's, but there are subtle differences. With Marth, you need to try to hit with the tip of his sword, but Lucina's sword is equally powerful all along the blade. Her Shield Breaker move lets her attack opponents and break their shields at the same time. Charge it fully to shatter shields in one hit.

Lucina's moves are much like Marth's, but there are subtle differences. With Marth, you need to try to hit with the tip of his sword, but with Lucina, it doesn't matter, making her easier to use. Her Shield Breaker move lets her damage opponents and break their shields at the same time. Charge it fully to shatter shields in one hit.

: Fire Emblem: Awakening (02/2013)

Critical Hit (Lucina)

In Lucina's Final Smash, she raises her sword high before dashing swiftly forward to deliver a deadly blow to whomever she makes contact with first. Even if their damage is low, this strike is powerful enough to take out foes in a single hit. Just make sure you don't dash off the stage when you use it in midair!

In Lucina's Final Smash, she raises her sword high, then dashes swiftly forwards to deliver a deadly blow to whoever stands in her way. Even if their damage is low, this strike is powerful enough to take them out in a single hit. Just be careful not to dash off the stage if you use it in mid-air!

• 

  Classic (3DS)

• LucinaAllStarTrophy3DS.png

  Alt. (3DS)

• 

  Classic (Wii U)

• 

  Alt. (Wii U)

• 

  Critical Hit

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• In the Name of the Hero-King: As Marth, the player must defeat Lucina in a Stamina Battle.
• New Challengers 1: Lucina is among the opponents fought in this event, alongside Rosalina & Luma, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Villager, Duck Hunt and Bowser Jr.

Co-op Events

• Mirror Magic: Lucina and Ike must defeat Ganondorf, who is aided by a giant metal dark Lucina and Ike.
• The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Artwork of Lucina and Robin from the official site.

• 

  Lucina's splash art.

• 

  Lucina's amiibo.

• 

  Lucina in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

• 

  Using Shield Breaker on Link.

• 

  Using Shield Breaker on a Phantom.

• 

  Using Counter.

• 

  Alongside Marth and Ike.

• 

  Fighting Ike on Coliseum.

• 

  On Smash Ball standby alongside Luigi on Coliseum.

• 

  Lucina in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

• 

  Alongside female Robin.

• 

  Laying prone alongside Palutena.

• 

  Using her down taunt alongside Kirby, who is wearing a copy of her mask.

Trivia

• Lucina makes a few references to her home game:
  • Her pose in official art of her for Super Smash Bros. 4 is identical to her pose in official art of her disguised as Marth. Lucina also strikes this pose for her Counter (though she instantly shifts to Marth's Counter stance for an extremely brief moment if her Counter is triggered), her up taunt and a victory pose.
    • Her father, Chrom, also strikes this pose in his official art, albeit mirrored.
  • The battle stance she assumes when her reveal trailer's tagline appears is identical to the stance she and Chrom assume simultaneously during their duel in the Arena Ferox tournament.
  • Her in-game model in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U bears the Brand of Naga in her left eye.
  • The mask she used while disguised as Marth is used for her on-screen appearance and down taunt.
  • Both of her lines emitted after successfully using Counter are the same lines used when she performs a Dual Strike.
• Lucina is the only clone in the entire series whose special moves, including custom variations, all share the same names with the character she is a clone of. She is also only clone to share every single move with the character they are derived from.
• Robin and Lucina are the only playable Fire Emblem characters to originate from the same game in their home series.
• Lucina is the only unlockable character in both versions of SSB4 who was officially revealed prior to the release of SSB4 and the only unlockable character to appear in the opening movie for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
• Lucina is the only one of the three clone characters to not share their counterpart's screen KO animation.
• Lucina and Dr. Mario are the only characters that players are not forced to play as in any single player Event Matches.
• Lucina is the only Fire Emblem character whose Counter does not involve her holding her sword in a reverse grip during either her stance or counterattack. However, as stated earlier, she will instantly shift to Marth's stance for an extremely brief moment when her Counter is triggered.