Oh, how the mighty have fallen. In the late Super Smash Bros. 4 metagame, Lucina was unarguably the strongest fighter available. All she needed was Dancing Blade and forward smash — it only took those two moves to rip almost every other character to shreds. That’s no longer the case in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, though; instead of being top-tier, she’s merely mid-tier. If you’d like to learn more about her metagame history, please read her wiki page. Otherwise, let’s jump right into today’s training!
Special thanks to Bananika for contributing Lucina’s training information!
Spirits
If Spirits are your thing, then you’re in luck: this is the section for you! If you’d rather not use a Spirit team, you’re welcome to skip ahead to either of our training sections — competitive or Raid Boss. To those of you new to amiibo training, you might want to read our full Spirits guide to develop a basic understanding of how Spirits work in this game. Then, when you’re done, you can come back to this section and read up on Lucina’s best Spirit builds:
- Banned bonuses: Lucina’s best setup is a simple one: Armor Knight plus Trade-Off Ability ↑. To be honest, this is the best setup available for almost every fighter in Ultimate, and of course Lucina is no exception. You can obtain Armor Knight via the Halberd Support Spirit, which in turn can be found in Funky Kong’s shop (which is first accessed through World of Light).
- Tournament-legal bonuses: Lucina’s next-best setups are also rather simple: pick any combination of Weapon Attack ↑ (applied either once or twice), Move Speed ↑, Trade-Off Ability ↑, Critical-Health Stats ↑, and Air Defense ↑. Each of these skills can come in handy, but it’s up to you to pick the ones that sound most appealing!
- Raid Boss bonuses: Each of the bonus combinations listed above works well for a Raid Boss Lucina. You could also try out a setup including Weapon Attack ↑, Air Defense ↑, and Move Speed ↑; we did recommend that in the last paragraph but it’s especially strong on Raid Bosses.
Once you’ve picked your three bonus effects, you’ll have to round out your FP’s stat spread. We recommend either a balanced build (2100 / 2100) or a slightly more offensive one (2500 / 1700). Once that’s all said and done, you’ll need to make sure your FP’s Spirit-type is Neutral. If it’s anything else, then it runs the risk of losing Spirit-type matchups if it ever fights other FPs later on down the line. Be careful!
Competitive Training
We have good news and bad news: Lucina’s optimal training strategy is pretty simple. Whether that’s good news or bad news depends on who you ask, but hey — at least she’s easy to train! As always, try your very best to walk at all times and keep rolling and air dodging to an absolute minimum. For more information on why that is, check out our general guide! Here’s every move an optimal Lucina should use:
- Forward smash is the bread and butter of an ideal Lucina. It’s extremely fast, works as an anti-air and can score decently early KOs. You can also use down smash as another option, but forward smash is preferred.
- Down tilt is a great poking tool. Decent range, and it’s generally very safe thanks to its ability to keep out grounded opponents. You can use it along with forward tilt to unstale forward smash.
- When your FP is in the air above you, use an up air or forward smash to catch its landing. When you’re in the air above your FP, you can use both forward air and back air to clear the way for a safe landing. Neutral air is okay too, but Lucina’s forward and back aerials do this job better.
- Edgeguarding is a bit risky, but if you decide you want to, do so with forward airs and ledge-trumped back airs. Otherwise, stand at the ledge and poke at it with down tilt.
- Finally, you can sprinkle in just a little bit of Dancing Blade and dash attack at a distance. Go light on these moves, only using them occasionally.
There are quite a few moves to avoid here: up tilt, up smash, Shield Breaker, and Counter. Lucina’s AI likes chaining up tilt into another up tilt regardless of the opponent’s damage percentage; in the case of up smash, the sourspot is usually the one that connects and it doesn’t accomplish much.
Raid Boss Training
Lucina is actually a really decent Raid Boss! Decent range, decent power — and it’ll all wind up being boosted even further by a Spirit team. She’ll need to use a wide variety of moves to succeed, and – just to be clear – it’s totally fine to teach a Raid Boss to dash and run around (which is the opposite of what our competitive section suggests). Here’s a complete list of every move you should teach to your FP as it levels up:
- Lots of neutral options here! Forward tilt, neutral attack, grab, some up tilt and down tilt, and then some short-hopped aerials. These include forward air, neutral air, back air, and up air. When using short-hopped air attacks, don’t use the short hop macro (which is the jump button and then attack button at the same time) — FPs don’t recognize aerials when their opponent uses them via the button shortcut. Press the jump button and then the attack button.
- When both you and your FP are in the air, you can attack with any of your aerial moves. You can use down air too, but you’ll want to avoid spiking with it on-stage lest the AI start to spam it.
- Up tilt, up air, and forward smash are your anti-airs. Up smash is a bit too thin to function as a consistent anti-air; in other words, its horizontal range is too small. You can also use forward smash and a tiny bit of dash attack for grounded KOs.
As you may know, Lucina’s up special kind of halts and kills momentum after its final hitbox, and it’s in this moment that an opponent can follow up and strike with a meteor smash. For that reason, it’s best to avoid edgeguarding off-stage where Lucina is left vulnerable. The same goes for Marth, too! By the way: our Marth and Lucina guides actually aren’t identical. Read our Marth guide instead if you’re training him!
Wrap-Up
Sure, Lucina has fallen from grace, but she’s still rather strong and she’s certainly easier to train. Her consistent hitboxes make her a better fighter than Marth, for the most part, so if you’re stuck between deciding which one to train you might want to go with Lucina. If you have any questions, please direct them to our Discord community! You can also check out our Patreon and donation box if you’re interested. Until next time — happy training!
If you would like to read more amiibo training guides, please follow this link.
