Aura
Aura (Japanese: 波導 wave-guiding) is Lucario’s fighter ability that modifies the damage and knockback of Lucario's moves based on its current damage, being weakened when Lucario is at low damage and strengthened when Lucario is at high damage. The aura mechanic only applies to Lucario (even if another character uses an aura attack), and starting in Smash 4, applies to all of Lucario's attacks regardless of whether they have the aura effect. When Kirby copies Lucario's Aura Sphere, he does not copy the aura mechanic; his Aura Sphere remains fixed at the power it would have if Lucario were at base aura strength (75% damage in Brawl, 70% damage in Smash 4, and 65% in Ultimate).
Lucario's aura
Functionality
Lucario's aura is a special ability possessed by Lucario and there are various factors which determine how it works. Aura has three main stages; a floor percentage, a baseline percentage and a ceiling percentage. Each stage also has a damage multiplier, which determines how much damage an attack will deal compared to how much damage the attack is programmed to deal. The damage is calculated into the knockback formula, so aura can also have a rather drastic effect on knockback as well as damage. These stage percentages and multipliers vary from game to game, and the amount of damage Lucario's attacks deal is calculated by a mathematical equation, based on these percentages/multipliers. It is worth noting that in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, aura stacks with rage, enhancing by an even further degree the knockback inflicted by Lucario.
Aura starts off at the floor percentage, where Lucario's attacks are much weaker than they are designed to deal. If Lucario is either at or below the floor percentage, the power of its attacks will match the floor multiplier. Once Lucario exceeds the floor percentage, its attacks will gradually become stronger as Lucario takes more damage.
When Lucario reaches the baseline percentage, all of its attacks will be at 1× power, matching the damage they were programmed to deal. Once Lucario exceeds the baseline percentage, the power of its attacks will continue to increase until it reaches the ceiling percentage, where its attacks will be much stronger than they normally would be. Once Lucario reaches the ceiling percentage, its aura cannot increase any further, regardless of how much more damage Lucario takes.
There is also an additional factor that affects how much aura Lucario has; the amount of stocks Lucario has in comparison to its opponents. If Lucario does not have the same amount of stocks as its opponents, it will have an additional aura damage multiplier. If Lucario has more stocks than its opponent, this multiplier will be below 1×, making its attacks weaker. If Lucario has less stocks than its opponents however, this multiplier will be above 1×, making Lucario's attacks stronger. This allows Lucario to have an even larger or lower aura multiplier, although Lucario also has a minimum and maximum aura multiplier, to prevent Lucario from building up incredibly high amounts of aura. These multipliers are 0.6× and 1.8× respectively (in every game as of Ultimate).
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Brawl, all of Lucario's aura-effect attacks are affected by the aura mechanic, which are most of its attacks. Lucario's attacks without an aura effect (including Extreme Speed, dash attack, back throw, down throw, and floor attacks) are not affected by aura, so they will always deal a set amount of damage. The strength formula is as follows:
where r is the percentage of the damage dealt (for example, if r is 80, the attack is at 0.8× strength) and d is Lucario's current damage. As a result of this formula:
- Lucario's floor percentage is at 20% and its floor multiplier is 0.7×, so all of Lucario's aura attacks deal 0.7× their normal damage if Lucario is at 20% or lower.
- Lucario's baseline percentage is at 75%, so all of Lucario's aura attacks will deal their normal amount of damage if Lucario is at 75%.
- Lucario's ceiling percentage is at 170% and its floor multiplier is 1.4×, so all of Lucario's aura attacks deal 1.4× their normal damage if Lucario is at 170% or higher.
- In Stamina mode, aura still uses three baseline values for its damage scaling, but they are instead based on Lucario's remaining HP relative to its starting amount: the minimum multiplier (0.7×) is used when Lucario has full HP, the base multiplier (1×) is used when it reaches 50% of its starting HP, and the maximum multiplier (1.4×) is used when it reaches 10% of its starting HP.
In addition to the above, the multiplier is multiplied again with a complicated factor based on Lucario's placing in the match and how many players there are (excluding CPUs). When Lucario's position changes, it takes 6.25 seconds for the new value to scale into full effect; if Lucario's position changes again during this time, the multiplier immediately skips to its new value. The mechanic is named Stock aura by players. The extra multiplier that Lucario receives from Stock aura is determined by the following formula.
File:Aura stock formula SSB4.svg
In this formula:
- p is the number of players in the game, excluding CPUs, with a maximum of 4. It does not count eliminated players or take team affiliation into account.
- t is the number of stocks Lucario is trailing the leader of the match by, with a maximum of 2.
- l is the number of stocks Lucario is leading the trailer of the match by, with a maximum of 2.
This formula has an additional wrinkle in modes other than stock. In time mode, Lucario's lead/trail is equal to 1 until the difference between it and the leader/trailer is 5, at which point the lead/trail is 2. In coin mode, the value is 0 when Lucario is even and 2 otherwise.
For practical purposes, the most common multipliers in serious play are thus:
| Placing | Multiplier (2 players) | Multiplier (3 players) | Multiplier (4+ players) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahead by 2 | 0.8× | 0.727× | 0.667× |
| Ahead by 1 | 0.888× | 0.842× | 0.8× |
| Even | 1× | 1× | 1× |
| Behind by 1 | 1.143× | 1.231× | 1.333× |
| Behind by 2 | 1.333× | 1.6× | 2× |
Despite these multipliers, the minimum amount of aura Lucario can have is at 0.6× power, while the maximum is at 1.8× power.
In Super Smash Bros. 4
In Smash 4, the effect of aura has been increased overall. All of Lucario's attacks are now affected by aura, regardless of whether they have an aura hit effect or not. The stage percentages have been changed, in addition to the floor/ceiling multipliers also being changed. As a result, the aura formula has been changed, which can be seen below:
- Lucario's floor percentage is now at 0%, although its floor multiplier is now only at 0.66×, so all of Lucario's attacks deal 0.66× their normal damage if Lucario is at 0%.
- Lucario's baseline percentage is now at 70%, so all of Lucario's attacks will deal their normal amount of damage if Lucario is at 70%.
- Lucario's ceiling percentage is now at a higher 190% however, its floor multiplier is now at a much higher 1.7×, so all of Lucario's attacks deal 1.7× their normal damage if Lucario is at 190% or higher.
- Stamina mode still uses 100%, 50%, and 10% of Lucario's starting HP amount in place of the respective percents, albeit with the damage multipliers modified accordingly.
Overall, this amounts to a buff compared to Brawl, except when Lucario is at a minuscule 8% damage or lower. This is because Lucario's Aura builds up faster and it maxes out at a much higher number without a stock deficit.
The aura stock formula remains unchanged, along with the minimum and maximum aura multipliers, although Lucario's Aura still scales differently due to the different formula.
Mega Lucario's aura attacks always deal 1.8× damage regardless of its current damage percentage. This is because Mega Lucario's minimum damage multiplier is at 1.8× rather than 0.6×, causing Mega Lucario to always be at 1.8× power, despite all other factors of its Aura being the same as regular Lucario.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
In Ultimate, Aura has been slightly changed from how it worked in Smash 4:
- Lucario now reaches base power at 65%, down from 70%.
- Ignoring placing / stock differences, the maximum multiplier of its aura is now 1.67× (up from 1.6 before patch 9.0), down from 1.7×, which is still reached at 190%.
As a result, the new formulae are r = 66 + (34/65)d for d ≤ 65 and r = 100 + 0.536(d - 65) for 65 ≤ d ≤ 190 (r = 100 + 0.48(d - 65) for 65 ≤ d ≤ 190 before patch 9.0).
- The values of the "Stock Aura" effect have also been revised.
- In a 1v1 match, when Lucario is one stock behind it receives an Aura multiplier of 1.2×, but the Aura caps at around 170% damage. If it is two or more stocks behind, the multiplier value is 1.4×, capping around 120% damage.
- If it is one stock ahead, the multiplier value is 0.9×, except below 12.5% damage, where Aura keeps the 12.5% value. During the match Aura effectively only starts to rise after 12.5% damage. If it is several stocks ahead, the multiplier value is 0.8× and aura starts to rise at around 25% damage.
- These values are still different when there are more fighters. In a 2v2 match, when Lucario is one or several stocks behind it always receives an Aura multiplier of 1.4×, capping at 120% damage. If it is one stock ahead, the multiplier value is 0.8×. If it is several stocks ahead, the multiplier value is 0.66×.
Origin
Aura is a concept in the Pokémon franchise associated with Lucario, in particular in the movie Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. It functions as a supernatural sense and can be channeled into the attack Aura Sphere.
Unlike in Super Smash Bros., aura in the Pokémon franchise has no relationship to becoming more powerful when damaged. It has very little mechanical significance in the Pokémon games, mainly being mentioned in Pokédex entries and the name of Aura Sphere. Oftentimes, the existence of aura is presented as a theme when present, rather than a material ability. A black aura is associated with the corrupted Shadow Pokémon in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. The player's aura is also read during the personality quiz in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, as well as Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky prior to becoming a Pokémon.
The only mechanical relevance of aura in the core series games is the ability Mega Launcher, which powers up "aura" and "pulse" moves such as Aura Sphere and Dark Pulse, collectively referred to in Japanese with the term Hadō (はどう). However, this ability is not available to Lucario, instead being given to artillery-themed Pokémon like Mega Blastoise and Clawitzer.
The moves Flail and Reversal work similarly to how works Aura in Smash, being moves that increase in power when the Pokémon has less HP, going up to 200 base power, among the highest amounts possible prior to being boosted by other effects. Reversal has been learnable by Lucario since Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, being learned at level 19 by Riolu; however, Lucario never directly learned it until Pokémon Sword and Shield via Move Reminder in Pokémon Centers or TR21.
Notes
- In Brawl, it is a common misconception that aura attacks reach maximum power at 182% damage instead of 170%. This is due to Event 25: The Aura Is With Me placing Lucario at 182% to start the match, implying that 182% is the maximum.
- A less common misconception is that each of Lucario's attacks has an individual aura cap. This is due to the game not displaying or otherwise acknowledging the presence of decimal figures, so for example an attack dealing a maximum of 9.8 damage can be believed to have capped earlier than one dealing a maximum of 9.0 damage.
- In Smash 4, high defense stats cause Lucario's aura to scale more slowly. For each point in defense, Lucario needs to receive 1% more damage to reach maximum aura.
- The Ultimate tip about Lucario's Aura states its Aura becomes 2.5× when at maximum. This does not refer to the ratio between max Aura and the base damage, but rather the net multiplier from 0% to 190% damage, not counting placement.
