Lucas (PM)

Lucas in Project M and Project+
Universe	EarthBound
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Lucas (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Masked Man Lucas

Lucas is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. He has been given new options and moves in his recreation from Brawl to Project M.

Attributes

Overview

In Project M, Lucas boasts excellent mobility with fast, low commitment neutral tools, versatile combo tools, and insanely powerful smash attacks. The most notable of his neutral tools is his PSI Magnet, which can be jump cancelled like Fox's shine, making the attack safe on block when combined with his wavedash. Chaining multiple magnets together can help break crouch cancel, or be used on shield to provoke reactions or eventually shieldbreak. Lucas performs daring acrobatic stunts for his regular attacks. While he has less range than most fighters, he incorporates PSI into most of his attacks, meaning they have disjointed sweetspots which do extra damage. His forward aerial is a great example, as it does 13% on the strong hit, and 9-10 on the weak hit. In the right hands, Lucas has the ability to combo every member of the cast into his gigantic Offense-Up Up Smash. Lucas has an excellent dashdance and has a relatively long wavedash. Although following up at high percents becomes difficult for him, if Lucas can land a grab he can use his up-throw to bring a swift end to his opponent.

Strengths

Lucas has excellent grounded mobility for weaving in and out of threat ranges.

Lucas's DJC aerials allow for some interesting yet committal aerial mobility.

With jump cancelled PSI Magnet, his great wavedash, and DJC aerials, Lucas boasts safe and creative shield pressure.

Lucas's DACUS allows him to threaten vertically or follow up from nearly the entire length of the stage.

Lucas's PK Freeze is an ok projectile. Though it can be hit or CC'd, it can lead into followups like DACUS.

Lucas combo game is exceptionally versatile, allowing him to follow up on both knockdown and airborne opponents.

Lucas can go deep offstage horizontally and vertically while still being able to make it back to ledge, and he also has a plethora of recovery mixups.

Lucas has a vertical kill throw that ignores weight, killing floatier characters easily.

Lucas can respond to camping by absorbing projectiles like lasers or fireballs, or charging his Offense Up.

Weaknesses

Lucas's short range means he must be careful around characters with long reaching attacks.

Lucas's tether grab is quite laggy, and slower to come out than other grabs.

Lucas's combo weight and bad tech roll make him an easy target for chain grabs, tech chases, and juggles.

Lucas's edgeguards are less than stellar, and he often relies on a read to secure the kill.

Lucas's struggles against platform camping, with the initial dip in his double jump giving him trouble quickly reaching the highest platform.

Ledge Options

Lucas has decent ledge options. Once he is on ledge, Lucas can stall with PK Thunder, quickly refresh invincibility (once) with his ropesnake, threaten those too close with ledge hop PSI magnet, and has a passable ledgedash. There are also rumors of a legendary "snekdash" which, while bewildering in its technical difficulty, gives Lucas completely invincible options coming off of the ledge.

Offense Up

While Lucas had powerful smash attacks in Brawl, they can be even more deadly in Project M with the help of his new Neutral Special move, Offense Up. This move increases the strength of his smash attacks, allowing him to KO faster from on stage. It also increases the vertical reach and overall size of Up Smash, necessary for finishing a combo on floatier characters like Luigi. Unlike most charge moves, as long as you don't miss with a smash attack, you continue to keep the move charged.

Matchups

Lucas can do well in every matchup thanks to his good mobility, OK projectile and low commitment pokes.

He is an excellent counterpick to characters that struggle against whiff punish or have bad out of shield options, like Ganon, or getting early KOs on characters who would otherwise live to high percents, like DK or Ness.

However, he still struggles against range from characters like Marth and Mewtwo, chaingrabs such as Mario's and Ganon's, and tech chases from characters like Meta Knight or Sheik.

His aboslute worst matchup is Sheik, whose oppressive tech-chases can quickly bring him to kill percent, and whose needles completely smother his recovery.

Though the matchup is positive for Lucas, Ganon can easily chaingrab Lucas beyond 110% into a KO with Ganon's Upsmash.

Lucas' alternate costume.

Changes from Brawl to PM

Lucas was heavily buffed from Brawl to Project M, as he was given many new options to combo and KO opponents on-stage. While it may seem Lucas's recovery has been nerfed due to the shorter distance that his up special travels, the new air dodge and tether mechanics allow him to come back on stage with greater ease than before.

Aesthetics

• Up throw and PK Fire now use freezing graphics instead of PSI and fire graphics, respectively.
• When using Lucas's up taunt, holding the input will actually make him trip, allowing situational mindgames.

Attributes

• Lucas has gained a long wavedash thanks to Project M's new physics and his low traction, greatly improving his approach and positioning.
• Lucas can now double jump cancel with the same mechanics as Ness, making his combo game even more deadly.
• Lucas's additional lag from a grounded grab release has been removed; he is no longer vulnerable to grab release infinites.
• Double jump travels slightly less distance, and can no longer Zap Jump.

Ground Attacks

• Lucas has a new neutral attack, he creates a spark of PSI in one hand, and then spins around and creates a spark of PSI in the same hand. It is better combo opener than his old neutral attack.
• Forward tilt has less knockback, allowing for easier followups out of it.
• Up tilt is now a flash kick in an arc-like fashion in front of him, which has more range and utility than his previous up tilt, and it can easily lead-up into combos or a down aerial.
• Down tilt pushes back the opponent, resetting the close quarters situation into neutral. It can lead into grab or ftilt if the opponent doesn't react in time.
• Down tilt can no longer infinite.
• Dash attack is much faster and can now be canceled, giving Lucas a very fast and long-ranged DACUS.
• Up smash has decreased startup time, but has drastically less range and slightly less power.
• Down smash has much less starting and ending lag; its second hit is now optional, performed by pressing the attack button again. This allows Lucas to preform a quick smash attack in with a single hit, or punish crouch cancelers and pressure shields with a double hit, while before Lucas was forced to stay in place for a long time due to the attack's long duration.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial links more fluidly and has less hits, while still dealing consistent damage.
• Forward aerial does slightly more damage and boasts improved combo utility.
• Back aerial does much more damage and is a much stronger KO move, and is slightly easier to sweetspot and spikes, making it a more reliable offstage finisher and edgeguarding option.
• Up aerial was given more juggling potential.
• Up aerial is no longer a reliable KOing option near the ceiling.
• Down aerial now only hits three times and thus has less damage potential, but it no longer changes Lucas's momentum, is much faster, has a strong downwards trajectory on the third hit, and links into subsequent hits more fluidly. This makes it have more utility in combos, either as a starter or finisher.
• Zair now has a damaging hitbox, and is also generally better for recovering, as it can be used after an air dodge and ignores edge-hoggers thanks to Project M's new tether recovery mechanics.

Grabs and Throws

• Standing grab animation is slightly faster, and has less endlag.
• All throws have been sped up.
• Lucas's new up throw has very high KO potential, and is the strongest up throw in Project M.
• Forward throw has less knockback, which improves its combo utility.
• Down throw has greatly decreased knockback scaling, and is no longer a KO move.
• Down throw's lowered knockback combined with the removal of hitstun canceling significantly improves its comboing capabilities.

Special Moves

• Lucas' neutral special, PK Freeze is replaced with a new special move, Offense Up (a move that Lucas can actually perform in Mother 3), a charging move with storable charge similar to Giant Punch or Needle Storm, that increases the power of Lucas's smash attacks and stays active as long as Lucas connects said boosted attacks. This new addition over the generally competitively non-viable PK Freeze is considered a buff as it can allow stronger Lucas players to gain many quick and efficient KOs.
• PK Freeze is now moved to side special, replacing PK Fire, but functions the same as the latter.
• PK Freeze inflicts more hitlag and less knockback, and autocancels upon landing, giving Lucas better follow-ups out of the move.
• PK Thunder is now noticeably shorter, and PK Thunder 2's maximum damage was decreased. PK Thunder 2 no longer reliably links into itself, reducing its KO potential greatly.
• PSI Magnet can now be jump-canceled and has more hitboxes above Lucas, giving him a quick and deadly combo option. It also deals damage consecutively for the entire duration of the move, making it less punishable.
• PSI Magnet is less effective at edgeguarding, and its absorbing hitbox's radius was reduced. It also no longer turns Lucas around to absorb projectiles behind him.

Revisions

v2.5b

• PK Thunder no longer disappears when entering the side blast zones, and does not clip stages as easily.
• PK Thunder no longer disappears when Lucas is hit, and instead becomes unfriendly towards any player and continuing in the same direction before he got hit.
• PKT2 ending is not as short and is able to grab the edge backwards.
• PK Freeze has less hitlag and is now SDIable.
• Tether no longer has a hitbox attached to it when it is grabbing the ledge.
• Cliff jump height slightly reduced.
• Air jump animations cleaned up.
• Boost smash window adjusted to be more appropriate for his jump speed.
• Forward smash angled up does slightly more damage while angled down does slightly less.
• Down smash is two parts just like Link's forward smash.
• Neutral air now uses weight dependent set knockback on linking hits and is slightly more SDIable.
• Forward air has normal hitlag.
• Back air now uses the new light element effect.
• Up air has normal hitlag, and now has a sweetspot that uses the new light element effect.
• Grab animations edited to not look as awkward.
• PSI Magnet has an actual start up animation, allowing reversals, but the hit and jump cancel timings remain the same as before.

v2.6b

• Double jump animation tweaked to better evade chain grabs.
• Forward air electric sweetspot hitbox knockback improved to increase its kill potential. Damage is also slightly increased.
• Neutral B while holding Offense Up (OU) now has a quick burst hitbox that retains OU if the hit lands.
• PK Freeze on the ground has reduced endlag.
• PSI Magnet can be released during the absorb lag to go into the end animation afterwards, preventing rapid hitting projectiles like Fox's standing laser that can re-hit before the absorb lag ends from being able to trap him in it.
• PSI Magnet time to act after absorbing a projectile has been reduced.
• Forward smash non-Offense Up has reduced knockback growth.
• Forward smash non-Offense Up projectile reflection active frames reduced.
• Up smash non-Offense Up has reduced knockback growth.
• Jab has been changed to be two hits with minor changes in functionality.
• Up tilt hitboxes slightly tweaked so it makes more sense with the animation, also polished the move aesthetically.
• Down tilt animation angled slightly lower to shield poke better, also removed the sparkle graphic.
• Forward smash Offense Up graphics shrunk.
• Up smash non-Offense Up graphics shrunk to better match the hitboxes.
• Up smash Offense Up electric graphics shrunk to better match hitboxes, also illuminates Lucas.
• Neutral air animation has a more centered axis of rotation about Lucas's body and uses stationary hitboxes for more consistent coverage. Multi-hit trajectories are now location dependent and generate the proper amount of hitstun for their knockback.
• Neutral air landing hitbox tweaked a bit to better reflect the animation, and now sends opponents behind Lucas backwards, instead of forwards.
• Back and down air has been completely revamped to reflect his Brawl animation.
• Dash grab tweaked slightly to have the grab better match the animation.
• Up throw hitboxes now cannot be clanked, fixing a bug that would have him freeze up similar to Diddy's up throw.
• Up throw animation has been improved aesthetically.
• Lucas's upper body cannot be hit during tether reel-in.
• Ledge roll 100+ works properly on edges with steep slopes like Yoshi's Island: Brawl.
• PK Thunder bolt altered slightly so that the tail flinch hits no longer overwrite the head hit.
• PKT2 multi-hits now use fixed knock-back. The hitboxes refresh every few frames but are now always out and active instead of turning off to refresh.
• PSI Magnet time between refresh hits is slightly reduced.
• PSI Magnet refresh hits in the air now pulls an aerial opponent down and towards him.
• PSI Magnet multi-hit range more accurately matches release hitbox range.
• PSI Magnet aesthetically changed to illuminate Lucas while active.
• PSI Magnet release graphic no longer anchored to Lucas.
• Up taunt makes Lucas behave as if he actually tripped if held.
• Fixed a bug with powershield reflect collision size.

v3.0

• PSI Magnet shield damage was significantly reduced.
• PSI Magnet repeating hitbox refresh rate was reduced.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the >100% ledge roll animation from completing.

v3.5

• Up tilt now has a sweetspot and deals less damage around the body.
• Down tilt deals slightly less damage.
• Up smash attack has been weakened overall.
• Forward aerial has a bigger sweetspot.
  • It now deals one percent less damage.
• Back aerial has more endlag.
• Up aerial causes more damage and knockback.
• Down aerial has more endlag.
  • The first two hits of the attack cause less knockback, and are smaller.
• Up throw causes less knockback, weakening its KO potential.
• Down throw causes more knockback.
• Down tilt has been changed to one resembling Lucas' Brawl down tilt.
• When using Lucas' Masked Man costume, forward smash attacks now have sword effects.

v3.6

• Lucas has a Smash Taunt, based off the Osohe Dance performed by Wess in Mother 3.
  • If performed without interruption, the ending pose deals 50% of damage to the opponents with paralysis. After all paralysis clears away from the opponent, the move is a one-hit KO.

Full

• The hitlag caused by his Smash Taunt has been significantly reduced.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Lucas throws out one hand creating a spark of PSI energy, then spins and throws out the same hand, creating another spark of PSI energy. The second hit moves Lucas a small distance forward.
			3%
Forward tilt			11% (sweetspot), 9% (sourspot)	Lucas does a palm thrust that launches a small burst of PSI energy. This move can be angled up or down.
Up tilt			8% (sourspot), 11% (sweetspot clean), 9% (sweetspot late)	Lucas does a back flipkick charged with PSI. Can chain into itself at lower percents.
Down tilt			6% (foot), 4% (leg)	Lucas crouches and spins while sticking his leg out. Hitting at Lucas's foot knocks opponents away, dealing strong set knockback.
Dash attack			10% (clean), 7% (late)	Lucas slides forward, shooting out a burst of PSI energy from his hand.
Forward smash			Normal: 16% Offensive Up: 24%	Lucas attacks nearby foes by swinging his stick (energy sword when using the Masked Man costume) horizontally forward. The tip of the stick launches enemies at a more horizontal angle. Can reflect projectiles. This move can be angled up or down.
Up smash			Normal: 20% (clean), 16% (late) Offensive Up: 30% (clean), 24% (late)	Lucas releases a small burst of PSI that erupts above his head. It has slow start-up and leaves horrid lag afterwards, rendering it very easily punished. It is however compensated by its large knockback and range, which is even stronger through Offense Up. When fully charged, it can KO at 62%, and when fully charged through Offense Up, it can KO as early as 45%.
Down smash			Normal: 17% Offensive Up: 26%	Lucas points at the ground and shoots a burst of PSI energy in front of his feet. It's possible for Lucas to unleash a second burst by pressing the attack button right after the first. It is unlikely that both hits will connect on the same enemy.
			Normal: 14% Offensive Up: 21%
Neutral aerial			2% (hits 1-4), 6% (hit 5), 4% (landing)	Lucas spins in a gyro pattern with PSI energy around him, with the last hit having decent knockback.
Forward aerial			Clean: 12% (sweetspot), 8% (sourspot) Late: 8% (sweetspot), 7% (sourspot)	Lucas kicks one foot forward, launching a burst of PSI energy. Can even be linked into itself or even into a down aerial for a Ken combo.
Back aerial			15% (foot), 12% (body)	Lucas does a backflip and kicks one foot downwards with a stream of small PSI energy. Has good KO potential and spikes if one connects with the final hit during the attack's animation.
Up aerial			10%	Does a quick headbutt that deals low knockback. Has a bit of ending lag.
Down aerial			5% (hits 1-3)	Lucas thrusts his feet downwards and creates several quick flashes of PSI energy. The third hit meteor smashes weakly. Can be followed up with another aerial or an up smash when the opponent bounces off the floor. Can also set up a combo using his down tilt followed by a smash attack, if the opponent doesn't tech the meteor smash. Although it has fast start-up, it possesses considerable ending lag if it is not autocanceled.
Grab aerial			8%	Lucas sends Duster's Rope Snake forward to damage nearby enemies.
Grab			—	Lucas sends Duster's Rope Snake forward to grab nearby enemies. Has noticeable ending lag if it misses.
Pummel			3%	Headbutts the enemy.
Forward throw			10%	Lucas telekinetically tosses the opponent forward.
Back throw			10%	Lucas telekinetically tosses the opponent behind him. Can KO at high percent, especially as a mixup if the opponent is expecting to DI behind for Down throw.
Up throw			1% (hits 1-4), 8% (throw)	Lucas telekinetically whirls the opponent around his head, then throws them straight up. Has very high KO potential. Kill % based on fall speed, not weight.
Down throw			7%	Lucas telekinetically slams the opponent down, then launches them upwards. Hard behind DI will limit Lucas's followups, especially if sent offstage.
Floor attack (front)			6%	Gets up and does a low kick going from back to front.
Floor attack (back)			6%	Gets up and does a low kick going from back to front.
Floor attack (trip)			5%	Kicks with both of his feet from back to front while getting up.
Edge attack (fast)			8% (foot), 6% (body)	Lucas flips onto the stage and does a sweep kick.
Edge attack (slow)			10%	Lucas slowly climbs up onto stage and throws out a punch.
Smash taunt			50%	Performs the Osohe Dance performed by Wess from Mother 3. Lasts for an incredibly long duration (over 1000 frames), but whenever the dance is successfully performed without any interruption, the ending pose produces a shockwave that deals a a ton of damage, shocking opponents with paralysis before launching them, being capable on landing a one-hit KO on any character, regardless of damage.
Neutral special		Offense Up	10% (spark)	When the special button is held, Lucas begins channeling psychic power, complete with a weak wind effect that pushes nearby foes. After a few seconds, Lucas's hands glow with power and the next smash attack that he performs deals greater damage, shield damage, and knockback. While Offense Up is charged, Lucas can also press the special button to produce an spark-like attack around himself that can damage foes with little to no startup. Hitting with a smash attack or the spark will allow Lucas to keep the charge, whereas missing will deplete the charge.
Side special		PK Freeze	5%	Lucas shoots out an icy projectile that flies horizontally forward. This move goes about half the distance of Final Destination when used on the ground and can be used to edge-guard.
Up special		PK Thunder	10% (PK Thunder head), 1% (PK Thunder tail) PK Thunder 2: 8% (hit 1), 3% (hits 2-7), 8% (hit 8)	Lucas generates a ball of lightning which can be directed with the the control stick/d-pad. Like Ness's PK Thunder, it can be directed into Lucas to launch him. Unlike Ness's version, however, it does not fizzle out after hitting a foe and instead causes repeated damage. The latter also applies to his PK Thunder 2. As such, using PK Thunder will result in Lucas not being able to move or defend, because the control stick/d-pad is used to aim the projectile. This move can also be used to interrupt recoveries.
Down special		PSI Magnet	2% (loop), 6% (release), heals 1x the damage of absorbed projectiles	Lucas holds out his hand and creates a small electrical field in front of him that absorbs any energy projectiles shot against him, healing Lucas's by the damage the projectile would have normally dealt. As an attack, it does a small amount of damage to enemies that make contact with the orb, and deals more damage and launches them behind Lucas when he releases it. When used in the air, it halts Lucas's falling speed, similar to Fox's reflector from Brawl, but will do so less often after each repeated use.
Final Smash		PK Starstorm	14% (each star)	Lucas calls down a rain of stars from the sky, yelling "PK... Starstorm!"

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Hyperflame (PMRank 2016 #8)
•  Kip
•  Kaito
•  Pink Fresh
•  lloD
•  Neon
•  Oracle
•  Frost
•  Plasma
•  Spaz
•  HammerTime

Alternate costumes

Lucas has been given an alternate costume based on a segment in Mother 3 where Lucas is mistaken for the Pigmasks' general, the Masked Man, and passes as him for a while. Lucas's costume features no changes to the visual effects of his attacks, other than that his forward smash now uses the Masked Man's energy sword instead of a stick.

Lucas's alternate costumes in PM

Trivia

Lucas's back aerial in previous versions of Project M.

• In previous incarnations, Lucas's back aerial in Project M was replaced with an aerial roundhouse kick (similar to Ness's forward tilt) that dealt great knockback with high knockback scaling, while his down aerial, a guaranteed meteor smash, had him perform a flip kick downwards. While very powerful, they were not considered versatile enough for competitive play, and were later removed for subsequent versions of the mod in favor of their Brawl iterations, but with many new buffs (as described above).
• In 3.6, Lucas holds the record for the longest Smash Taunt, exceeding 1,000 frames.