Monday, September 19, 2022

Lucina (Fire Emblem) | DEATH ANALYSIS

 

What to expect from this blog

  • Getting the obvious elephant in the room out of the way first and foremost, this blog is not going to present an argument for or against the inclusion of Fire Emblem Heroes, whether it be for simply cross-scaling to unrelated main series games or for using feats exclusive to Heroes. That’s just not the point here. Instead, I’ll be offering a comprehensive look at everything that could be relevant to Lucina; you can, of course, keep your opinions on whether or not certain items would apply to a Death Battle. 


  • Heroes and Warriors will be used primarily for weapons, skills, items, etc. Non-canon crossovers like Smash, Project X Zone, and Codename: STEAM will follow suit in a similar fashion. In terms of which specific Lucina is being focused on, both the ‘main’ Lucina from Awakening as well as the Future Past’s iteration of Lucina are the primary characters at the core of this analysis.


Scaling

  • With the above notice about FEH and scaling in mind, I’ll be organizing the feats a little bit differently here. For characters that Lucina cross-scales to without FEH, they will be included in the normal feats section. The Scaling category will focus only on characters that require FEH for a connection to Lucina, or are from non-mainline games.This is basically my way of having cake and eating it, too; if you want to ignore any scaling or feats involved with FEH, then you can just focus on the main stat sections. And to be clear, the mainline games that Lucina has a direct connection to without using FEH are as follows:

  • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Fire Emblem:: Mystery of the Emblem

    • Self explanatory, these are the originals + remakes of Marth’s games which is explicitly set in the same world as Awakening.

  • Fire Emblem: Gaiden, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

    • Valentia similarly exists in the same continuity as the Archanea saga, which means it has the same direct connection to Awakening

  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

    • While technically not 10000% confirmed, there is ample evidence to suggest Archanea and Jugdral share a world. The Deadlords, as well as many legendary weapons from Jugdral, make appearances in Awakening. Some lore has brought direct lineage between Sigurd and Chrom into question, though that’s getting more into speculative territory. 

  • Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation

    • Not only does Lucina appear playable as an Amiibo character (technically her Smash incarnation but shut up for a second), the game itself features characters from Awakening traveling to the Fates world. There are even maps that have the reverse, wherein the  Fates cast travel to the Awakening world. This connection has more strings attached than the above, but it should still count.

  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

    • Technically fairly arguable, as the 10 year old debate around the legitimacy of Priam’s claiming to be Ike’s descendent will no doubt prove. Still, there’s probably enough evidence to say Priam does at least come from a Tellius timeline, so that’s good enough for me. Notably though, Priam comes well after the events of Ike’s era, so keep that in mind.


Oh, and as per what seems to be the DB way of going about RPG and JRPG characters, we’re giving Lucina just about damn near everything possible. That means access to every class she could possibly attain, every item she can acquire, every skill she can learn or inherit, etc.

Background

“By father’s sword, and my own hands… I will save our future!”


Throughout history, countless tales have chronicled the awe-inspiring exploits of Heroes chosen to defend the world from encroaching darkness. For most, these records are myths, nothing more than stories of a bygone era. But for those forsaken by their Heroes, left in a desolate world of ruin, a Legendary Hero-King is more than just a tall tale. Such a story, an icon, becomes a symbol of hope. 


The Halidom of Ylisse suffered an irreparable blow when her Exalt, Chrom, met his demise at the hands of his closest friend. With his death, a great evil spread throughout the land, and soon, the entire continent; Grima, the Fell Dragon. Served by an army of pseudo-zombies, the Risen, Grima utterly conquered and destroyed everything in sight. There would be no Hero-King for this story; the heroes lost, and the world fell to ruin.


But hope, as some say, may never truly die. For in truth, Chrom’s bloodline didn’t die with him; he left behind a daughter, who inherited his sword, his Shepherd militia, and his sense of duty. Her name, of course, is Lucina.

Living most of her life in what is essentially a zombie apocalypse, Lucina quickly became a skilled survivor and fierce fighter. More importantly, she had the role of leader thrust upon her, as she found herself among her father’s friend’s children. This rag-tag group of teens traveled near and far, hoping to find legendary artifacts, the Gemstones, in order to complete the Fire Emblem. With this, those with Exalted Blood, like Lucina, could be bestowed immense power from the Divine Dragon, Naga, and slay the demonic beast that had rendered the world asunder. It seemed as though the children, through the skin of their teeth, managed to acquire the necessary Gemstones… if not for the fact that one had been permanently lost. Their salvation, once again, offered no hope in the darkest of hours.


And yet, once more, hope refused to perish. Rather than use the incomplete Fire Emblem to oppose Grima, the Divine Dragon herself offered Lucina the opportunity to travel back in time. In doing so, she could prevent her father’s untimely death from ever occurring, defeating the Fell Dragon before it could gain ultimate power. She could save their world from a terrible future… but her own would not change.


Still, Lucina’s resolve wouldn’t waver. The children agreed to Naga’s proposition, and began their mission to change the future. With a special mask from her friend Gerome, picked out by her other friend Severa, Lucina donned the identity of the Hero-King, Marth. Not only would this ruse prevent people from finding out her identity (and likely freaking out), it would allow Lucina to take on the guise of a capable leader, someone she knew could get the job done and inspire hope into her friends. Because for all she had endured, all she had already proven, Lucina couldn’t bring herself to bear such an immeasurable weight - the lives of an entire nation - on her shoulders alone.


Eventually, Lucina found her father and used her knowledge of future events to carefully guide people into what she believed were safer, more favorable positions. She initially succeeded, but the flow of time refused to be diverted for long. Emmeryn, the Exalt, still seemingly succumbed to a cruel fate; Basilio, the West Khan, unable to stop himself from marching into death’s embrace. In time, Chrom even discovered the truth of her identity. Lucina had to face reality; she could not handle this alone. 


She had taken Marth’s name in hopes of gaining strength; Marth, the man known above all else for uniting the people and valuing his friends and allies’ strength above his own. By refusing to let anyone else grapple with the weight of the world, Lucina had ironically become weaker, rather than the reverse. In order to change the future, the future-witness had to let go of her reservations and trust in her father, no matter how much the fear of losing him again shook her to the core.


It was a well-learned lesson. Though she believed herself to have failed time and time again, the actions she had taken were not in vain. Her warning saved Basilio’s life, allowing the man to fake his death at the hands of the Conqueror he was fated to die at. Her actions, hasty though they may have been sometimes, allowed Robin to anticipate the Fell Dragon’s influence, developing bonds powerful enough to save the tactician from giving in to Grima’s control. This was the push needed for Robin to defeat the ruinous dragon once and for all, eradicating it from the world. Thanks to Lucina, not Marth, the future - for at least some people - was saved.


In the end, Lucina’s fate is not known for certain. According to some, she met her infant self, wishing the child a brighter and happier life than the future Lucina had lived, before departing to a destination unknown. Some worlds hold records of a Masked swordsman taking the name Marth, appearing amidst a Tempest of chaos to guide legendary Heroes. Other worlds chronicle the smashing tales of an ultimate sword fighter, their feats echoing throughout the ages. And yet more continue to depict the Princess Exalt herself, lending her blade to aid otherworldly kingdoms in their darkest hours. Whatever the story may be, one thing for Lucina is certain: so long as she challenges fate, hope will never die.

Experience & Combat Prowess

Having lived the majority of her years in an apocalyptic wasteland, Lucina has been fighting for her life… most of her life. As the direct child of the Exalt of Ylisse, she also had leadership thrust upon her for basically all that time as well. In the ruined future, Lucina fought undead zombies, avoided a giant death dragon, and managed to keep a decent amount of people alive for quite some time. In terms of skill, Lucina was trained by Chrom in swordsmanship. Their brand (heh) of swordplay seems to revolve around fast, heavy blows, with Lucina in particular favoring thrusts and lunges. She utilizes her acrobatics quite a bit, making her equal parts agile and powerful.

She’s matched Chrom blow-for-blow in a one-on-one duel, and later seems to have surpassed him, indicated by how she intentionally threw a sparring match against him in hopes of making him think she needed more lessons from him. Additionally, she’s defeated the likes of Lon’qu, a champion swordmaster who literally represents (half of) a nation in battle. Needless to say, Lucina is an extremely skilled sword fighter - a master in her own right -  with an intense training regimen, to boot.

In gameplay, Lucina is often characterized as a bit of a glass cannon, with consistently great speed, good attack and lower-than-average defenses. Whether it's in Smash, Warriors, Codename STEAM, Project X Zone, or the Fire Emblem games themselves, this is generally very consistent. She excels at close range combat like you’d expect, but she’s also surprisingly adept at long-range as well, utilizing a mix of magic and archery almost as much as her standard swordplay. 

Classes

Classes in Fire Emblem are basically specialized fields a character can spec into, determining what library of weapons, skills, and magic they’re capable of using. Lucina can use a Second Seal to access most classes in Fire Emblem: Awakening, granting her a large variety of options to choose from. Technically, she can even use Second Seals in the midst of battle, allowing her to change arsenals, acquire heavy armor, or even gain mounts entirely. These range from the armored Paladin and Great Knight to the high-flying Pegasus Knights.

And in case there’s any doubt about it, Lucina can in fact reclass even in the middle of battle. Project X Zone 2 shows what this would look like in real-time, as opposed to the turn-based presentation in mainline Fire Emblem.

Arsenal & Equipment

Falchion

Forged from the fang of the Divine Dragon, Lucina inherited this iconic blade from her father Chrom. The sword is specifically designed to slay dragons, a failsafe from Naga unto humanity for when the gods would inevitably go mad over time. While it may seem to be the same as Chrom’s sword to start, technically, it’s likely Lucina unlocked more of the blade’s capabilities when attempting the incomplete Awakening ritual in the future. This is why even at ‘base’, Lucina’s Falchion can heal her (with no upper limit), whereas Chrom’s initially cannot.

Exalted Falchion

After performing the Awakening, Lucina unlocked the full power of the now Exalted Falchion. In this state, the Exalted Falchion possesses the ability to seal dragons away for thousands of years, and retains its self-healing capabilities. As the blade is at its peak potential, it should likely regain abilities it once had under Marth’s ownership, and compare to other Falchions made by Naga, such as Alm’s. Their blades, respectively, have the power to kill gods such as Duma. Interestingly, when using the Exalted Falchion, the Divine Dragon (this time, Tiki) states that the blade will “wipe the Fell Dragon from existence.” 

Fire Emblem (Binding Shield)

A shield fit for an Exalt, the Binding Shield contains five powerful gemstones that grant the shield special capabilities. For instance, simply having the shield in ones’ possession can dispel illusions, and it somehow works as a universal treasure chest key.

Aside from that, the Binding Shield has the ability to seal away foes such as Earth Dragons, making it a perfect match for Falchion which can do similar.  

Gemstones

In order to complete the Binding Shield, five gemstones are necessary to activate its full power. When Marth was in the process of filling out the shield, he demonstrated the use of the stones individually. Technically, there should be no reason Lucina couldn’t do the same, as she, too, possesses the Binding Shield and by proxy, all of the gemstones. Still, she has never done so in any canon, so your mileage here will vary.

When Chrom assembled the Binding Shield himself, he could still feel the power of a Gemstone flowing within him, and obviously, can still power up the Falchion, so there’s not much reason to assume they’re drastically weaker than when Marth used them.


Thögn

A bow adorned by Lucina during her time in Askr. Apparently, it’s become a weapon of choice for her, even eclipsing her Falchion in certain historical records. In combat, the bow grants Lucina additional offensive and defensive stats, and debuffs her opponent based on any existing debuffs they may already have. 

Geirskögul

Acquired in the Kingdom of Askr to commemorate her victory in the first ever Choose Your Legends event, this lance is super-effective against dragons.

Gerbera Axe

A special axe decorated for the Day of Devotion, Lucina wields this weapon with equal parts grace and strength. The axe is unique in that it has the potential to nullify any ‘bonuses’ or buffs her opponent applies to themselves. Additionally, Lucina gains extra stats, and reduces the damage she takes from her foes’ attacks by 40%. 

Summer Strikers

Acquired during a summer celebration, Lucina’s Summer Striker is a throwable dagger-like weapon that increases her offensive stats when fighting and reduces the damage of oncoming attacks by 75%. Also applies a debuff to her target’s defenses after being struck by this weapon.

Blue Egg

Hand-painted by Lucina herself, the Blue Egg is actually a magical weapon in disguise. In combat, it apparently fires off a beam of electricity… for some reason. After using the Egg in combat, Lucina also enjoys a small amount of healing.

Brave Bow

The Brave Bow is specially designed to be lightweight, allowing the user to fire off more shots in quick succession to compensate for weaker individual hits.

Levin Sword

She can only use ordinary weapons so many times, which is why she carries her Levin Sword! This magic sword can fire off electrical projectiles from afar, or be used up close and personal like an ordinary sword. And apparently, it makes for a hell of a projectile when just straight up thrown at someone, too.

Weapons

Aside from the weapons we’ve seen Lucina use, through the various Classes she can opt into, she technically has access to just about every weapon in her game, barring Dragonstones. As a result, there is quite a ton to list out; most of it would be filler though, so if you want a full list, it can be found here. For this blog, only a select few are notable enough to warrant a description.


Note: Lucina is also playable in Fire Emblem: Fates, but her available class options are much more limited. She specifically has access to the Dark Falcon, Witch, and Dread Fighter classes, which allow her access to axes, daggers, and tomes, on top of swords and lances from her own Great Lord class. A list of everything, including weapons not worth mentioning, can be found here.

  • Swords:

    • Armorslayer - Especially effective against heavily armored foes

    • Soothing Sword - Heals the user frequently

    • Superior Edge - Especially effective against other swords in combat, drastically reducing the accuracy of rival swordsmen.

    • Sol - Grants the user the skill Sol in combat

    • Amatsu - Can be chucked like a javelin for ranged combat. Somehow respawns in the users’ hand after being thrown.

    • Ragnell - A worn out version of Ike’s sword. As the blessing of the Goddess has worn out, it is no longer unbreakable, and seems to have lost its ability to send shockwave projectiles. But like Amatsu, apparently it makes for a fine javelin substitute.

    • Wakizashi - A sword specifically meant to be thrown from afar, not used for up-close combat.

    • Axe Splitter - A pair of katana’s designed to dominate axes in battle, dealing effective damage against them. In turn, they are much weaker and less accurate against any other kind of weapon.

    • Dual Katana - Is effective against lances, but in turn performs worse against axes.

    • Spirit Katana - Effective against monsters, and heals the user frequently

    • Raider Katana - Has the potential to strip enemies of their clothing in battle. Look, this is the game with head rubbing in it, just roll with it.

    • Leo’s Iceblade - Deals magic damage instead of physical. 

  • Lances:

    • Silver Javelin - The best of its kind, a series of lances designed to be thrown from afar for ranged combat. 

    • Beast Killer - Effective against horse and beast units, weak against everything else.

    • Blessed Lance - Effective against monsters and restores health to the user frequently.

    • Shockstick - Basically the lance version of Levin sword

    • Superior Lance - Does particularly well against other lances in combat

    • Luna - Allows the user access to the skill, Luna, even without learning it naturally

    • Gradivus - Fully restores the users’ health and can be thrown from afar for ranged combat. 

    • Swordcatcher - As the name would suggest, this naginata is designed to dominate swords in combat.

    • Dual Naginata - Effective against axes, but weak to swords.

  • Axes:

    • Tomahawk - An axe designed to be thrown from afar for ranged combat.

    • Hammer - Not exactly an axe, really, but apparently really good for busting up heavy armor.

    • Volant Axe - Deals effective damage to airborne foes, like Pegasus Knights or Wyvern riders

    • Superior Axe - Effective against other axes

    • Titania’s Axe - Allows the user access to the Patience skill as long as they use this axe

    • Vengeance - Allows the user access to the Vengeance skill as long as they use this axe

    • Hauteclere - Can fully heal the user on-command

    • Frying Pan -  Can also be used as a drying pan

  • Bows:

    • Blessed Bow - Effective against monsters and the undead, and heals the user frequently

    • Longbow - A bow designed to be used from even further away than a normal bow.

    • Underdog Bow - Grants the user access to the Underdog skill when equipped with this bow

    • Superior Bow - Effective against other bows in combat, drastically reducing their accuracy in combat

    • Wolt’s Bow - Can heal the user in-combat on command.

    • Astra - Allows the user access to the Astra skill while using this bow.

  • Daggers/Shurikens:

    • Spy’s Shuriken - An extra long range, lightweight projectile. Ideal for sniping foes from afar, debuffing their stats safely before moving in for the kill.

    • Flame Shuriken - A magical shuriken that deals, you guessed it, magic damage.

    • Fruit Knife - Can heal the user

    • Kris Knife - Effective against monsters and heals the user passively over time

    • Stale Bread - Yet another weapon that heals the user after initiating combat

    • Votive Candle - If Lucina is at all above 1HP, gives her a chance to withstand any lethal attack.

  • Staves:

    • Recover - Fully heals the target.

    • Rescue - Can teleport the target across the battlefield

    • Ward - Increases the target’s resistance to magic by a fair amount 

    • Hammerne - Can be used to repair damaged weapons

  • Magic Tomes:

    • Valflame - The strongest fire magic. Increases the user’s magic power. Great for barbecue.

    • Mjolnir - The strongest lightning magic. Has a high critical hit ratio.

    • Forseti - The strongest wind magic. Increases the user’s speed and deals effective damage against airborne foes. 

    • Book of Naga - Powerful light magic, effective against Dragons. Can bypass powers that reduce the damage dealt by user’s attacks.

    • Goetia - The strongest dark magic. 

    • Mire - Extremely long range dark magic.

    • Superior Jolt - Effective against other magic, increasing the user’s evasion and hit rate by 50%.

    • Aversa’s Night - Heals the user by half of the damage dealt this tome.

    • Disrobing Gale - A magic tome designed to strip foes of their armor and clothes.

    • Moonlight - The user recovers health after initiating combat.

Items & Seals

Similarly to the weapons, Lucina has access to a ton of miscellaneous items. The following are the most significant of those items, but a full list of them can be found here and here. Similarly, a list of Sacred Seals from Heroes can be found here.

  • Class Seals - Allow Lucina to change into a large variety of combat classes whenever she feels like it 

  • Elixir - Heals the user by a significant amount upon consumption

  • Tonics - Can increase all of the user’s stats for a specific battle

  • Reeking Box - Can summon the Risen onto the battlefield.

  • Rift Door - Summons one of the many Anna’s from the Outrealms onto the battlefield.

  • Bonus Doubler (FEH) - As the name suggests, doubles any buffs or stat boosts Lucina currently has applied

  • Mystic Boost (FEH) - Heals Lucina throughout a battle

  • Chill Seals (FEH) - Applies a flat debuff to her opponent before combat is initiated

  • Deflect Seals (FEH) - If Lucina receives consecutive attacks, she will reduce incoming damage by 80%

  • Panic Ploy (FEH) - Any buffs or stat bonuses applied on a foe will be converted into a debuff before combat is initiated

  • Renewal (FEH) - Frequently heals Lucina passively with no set upper limit to the number of times the heal can be applied

Skills

Once again, Lucina theoretically has access to a lot (but technically, not all) of the skills in Fire Emblem: Awakening, and a decent amount from Fates. In Fire Emblem Warriors, she outright can have every skill in the game (if you’re willing to grind hundreds of hours). This section will, again, only highlight the most relevant. Lists for all skills from Awakening, Fates, and Warriors can be found in those respective embeds. Every version of Lucina in Heroes, along with the skills she has, can be found here.

  • Aether - A two-hit combo, the first strike healing Lucina and the second strike ignoring half of her foes’ defenses.

  • Ignis - A considerably strong special move that deals extra damage

  • Outdoor Fighter/Indoor Fighter - Lucina becomes more evasive when fighting outdoors or indoors (or both)

  • Aegis - Reduces magic and general projectile damage Lucina takes by 50%

  • Pavise - Reduces physical damage Lucina takes by 50%

  • Swordfaire - Increases damage done by swords

  • Lancefaire - Increases damage done by lances

  • Bowfaire - Increases damage done by bows

  • Tomefaire - Increases damage done by tomes

  • Lethality - Allows the user to instantly kill their target, regardless of stats

  • Armsthrift - Prevents weapons from deteriorating after combat

  • Sol - Heals the user by a percentage of the damage they deal to an opponent

  • Swordbreaker - Lucina becomes exponentially more accurate and evasive against sword-wielding foes

  • Axebreaker - Lucina becomes exponentially more accurate and evasive against axe-wielding foes

  • Lancebreaker - Lucina becomes exponentially more accurate and evasive against lance-wielding foes

  • Tomebreaker - Lucina becomes exponentially more accurate and evasive against magic-wielding foes

  • Bowbreaker -Lucina becomes exponentially more accurate and evasive against bow-wielding foes

  • Prescience - Makes Lucina more accurate and harder to hit

  • Hex - Reduces the Avoid of all foes nearby, making them less likely to be able to dodge Lucina’s attacks

  • Anathema - Reduces the Avoid of all foes in a larger radius

  • Vengeance - Deals extra damage based on how much damage Lucina herself has sustained. 

  • Slow Burn - Lucina becomes gradually more accurate and harder to hit as a battle goes on

  • Miracle - If Lucina’s anywhere above 1 HP, Miracle will guarantee that she survives any lethal hit, regardless of how overkill it is.

  • Renewal - Passively and frequently heals Lucina over time with no upper limit to how many heals it can offer.

  • Relief - Lucina passively heals frequently with no upper limit to the number of times she heals

  • Tantivy - Makes Lucina more accurate and harder to hit

  • Quick Burn - Lucina begins a fight with a bonus to her ability to avoid hits and accuracy, though this wears off over time

  • Warp (Fates) - Allows the user to teleport across the map

  • Live to Serve (Warriors) - When using a healing staff, the user heals themselves as well

  • Astra (Warriors) - Increases Lucina’s attack speed greatly

  • Awakening (Warriors) - Increases damage done when in Awakening mode

  • Trample (Warriors) - Deals more damage to foes that fight on-foot

  • Armored Blow (Warriors) - Makes the user much more difficult to interrupt mid-combat

  • Counter (Warriors) - Creates a powerful shockwave to damage foes when blocking attacks

  • Iote’s Shield (Warriors) - Removes any inherent effectiveness weaknesses the user may have.

  • Savvy Fighter (Heroes) - If Lucina is faster than her opponent, she takes 30% less damage from foes in combat.

Powers & Abilities

Shield Breaker

Turns out being mischaracterized in one of the most popular and best selling games you’ll ever be featured in has at least some benefits, like gaining this powerful technique. It may seem like a simple charge attack, but as anyone who’s played Smash will tell you, Lucina’s brand (heh) in particular will shatter your shield even without a full charge.

Storm Thrust

An alternate version of the Shield Breaker, trading its shield-shattering properties for the ability to conjure up a mini-whirlwind in the direction of the sword stab.

Dashing Assault

An alternate Shield Breaker that trades power for mobility, launching the user across the terrain whilst thrusting forward. 

Dancing Blade

By the time Lucina appears in the series, the Dancing Blade is more or less just a flurry of sword strikes. Nothing particularly fancy, but effective at overwhelming at a close range.

Effortless Blade

The Dancing Blade, but trades power and versatility for a singular combo. Typing it out like that kinda emphasizes why it’s so bad.

Heavy Blade

A Dancing Blade tuned up to 11 for extra power. Harder to combo, but not that much harder if you’ve played any Smash before 4.

Dolphin Slash

A rising slash that comes out incredibly quickly. Particularly useful as an emergency ‘escape’ option from dangerous situations.

Crescent Slash

An alternate Dolphin Slash that goes in a far more pronounced arc, dealing more damage but lacking vertical reach. 

Dolphin Jump

An alternate Dolphin Slash that trades the slash for a jump. That’s it, just a jump. 

Counter

Despite sharing a name with the Fire Emblem franchise’s Counter skill, this technique is functionally a parry, rather than straight damage reflection. As long as her timing is on point, Lucina can parry just about any kind of attack, even ones much stronger than herself, and return a counter-strike that scales off the power of whatever she just parried.

Easy Counter

This alternate Counter has a larger window for activating its parry, though its considerably weaker on delivering a counter-hit.

Iai Counter

A much faster, albeit weaker, alternative to the Counter technique.

Critical Hit

A straight-forward, blisteringly fast dash packed with all the might you’d expect from a game-ending critical hit. This attack ignores shields and any instance of armor, though it can narrowly be avoided, sending Lucina flying forward with reckless abandon, vulnerable to counters in the cooldown period.

Awakening Mode

Essentially a super-mode Lucina can tap into, increasing her attack speed and power. Additionally, she gains an advantage against all weapon types, allowing her to break defensive gauges and deal critical blows much more reliably. Once the mode depletes entirely, she unleashes her most powerful special attack.

Acrobatics

Not exactly a power, sure, but it’s weirdly consistent how acrobatic Chrom and Lucina are in battle. Both have been shown to be capable of leaping extremely highly into the air, somehow performing a spin in the process. In Lucina’s case, she utilizes this agility to traverse battlefields, leaping into advantageous positions in a matter of seconds.

Weapon Conjuration

Aside from her physical weapons, Lucina can also  conjure a bow made of some kind of light energy for use in battle. The arrows seem to be imbued or made entirely out of electricity. 

Electricity Infusion

When showing off her full might, Lucina has shown the ability to imbue her swords with vicious electricity.

Healing

Lucina has a frankly ridiculous amount of avenues from which she can heal herself, whether they be consumable items, weapons that have no upper limit to their healing, or effects from weapons and skills. Certain games such as Fates have shown that healing from staves can completely heal fatal wounds, as seen when Gunter intended to succumb to such an attack.


With just how many options Lucina has, ranging from unlimited uses, passive activation, and fully healing her all at once, she should never be hurting for recovery.

Sealing

Aside from simply slaying dragons, Falchion and the Binding Shield possess the ability to seal them away. On multiple occasions, it’s been shown and said that those sealed by Falchion are put into a deep slumber. However, when Chrom seals Grima (including Robin’s physical body) away, he seemingly disperses or transports Grima’s human vessel… somewhere. When the Binding Shield seals its’ targets, we at least see them get sucked into the ground, so that much is clear.

Power Nullification

Most notably demonstrated when Rudolf, wielding the Valentian Falchion, sealed away Mila’s powers, according to one of Mila’s attendants. Marth’s Falchion also showed the ability to nullify attacks from ordinary foes, with the only exceptions being magic.

Summoning

Thanks to the Reeking Box, Lucina can summon a group of Risen onto the battlefield at any time. These pseudo-zombies will attack anyone indiscriminately, so Lucina still has to be weary of that. It’s not all bad, though, as Lucina can also summon an Anna merchant onto the field. While not every Anna is equal in combat prowess, most at the very least come with some basic combat awareness and weaponry, and will defend themselves if attacked.

Teleportation

By using an item dropped by a Witch, or simply reclassing into one herself, Lucina can equip the Warp skill, which allows her to teleport across entire battlefields in an instant.

Notably, some skills found in Heroes, like Escape Route and Wings of Mercy, give their users similar teleportation abilities. It’s weirdly becoming more common, just a little interesting tidbit.

Limited Durability Negation

Lucina has access to skills such as Aether and Luna, skills that explicitly ignore half of the opponent’s defenses when dealing damage. She also has Lethality, an outright instant-kill move, provided the attack lands.


Note that Lethality isn’t consistently portrayed as an instant kill. Heroes and Warriors’ iterations of the skill lack that explicit phrasing and have the capacity to miss kills on opponents when activated. Awakening is technically the primary material, so with that in mind, It’s more likely that Lethality acts as some degree of durability negation, but only if the opponent is relative in stats to Lucina. In some games, skills like Luna and Aether can also deal 0 damage if the disparity in stats is drastic enough.

Non-Physical Interaction

In the Archanea saga and related Fateslandia arcs, every character has the ability to fight spirits such as Gharnef in the former case, and Vallite soldiers in the latter. Technically, the Vallites aren’t confirmed to be ghosts or spirits or anything, but they do materialize out of thin air and are usually invisible. Contextually, many of the characters depicted this way have canonically died, such as Makoto, Scarlet, and Arete, so it’s not far-fetched to believe they’re spirits.

If you really wanna go further, characters that can be fought in Heroes such as Legendary Sigurd and Legendary Deirdre are explicitly taken from after their canonical deaths, and their art seems to imply they’re ghost-like. This is accurate to Genealogy of the Holy War itself; obviously, Seliph doesn’t fight his parents when he sees them, but the fact that he, well, sees them at all is good supporting evidence.

Lastly, in the Future Past, we actually see yet another similar case of Tiki becoming a spirit after her physical death at the hands of Grima. This is interesting, because Tiki only becomes the new ‘Naga’ after Grima also kills, well, Naga. If we’re to assume Tiki as a spirit is comparable to how Naga was, it could be construed that Grima killed Naga’s spirit, and then you could relate that to Lucina for being comparable to Grima and Naga with the Exalted Falchion. 

Feats

Overall

Strength

Speed

Durability

Scaling

Strength & Durability

  • Directly aided in the defeat of Velezark, a dragon that consumes entire dimensions. She can, of course, take some of Velezark’s powerful attacks to the face, or just shield them entirely.

  • As a Legendary Hero, Lucina is generally held to be comparable to the likes of Sothis, who once flooded the entire world

    • Lucina can also defeat Sothis and Brave Byleth, both of whom attack by creating and then destroying a planet directly on their opponent.

  • In Mythic Hero Battles, Lucina can contend with both Yune and Ashera, who make up two halves of a being that flooded the world of Tellius

  • In Mythic Hero Battles, Lucina can also contend with Elmine, one of the Eight Legends of Elibe. As a wielder of an Elibean Legendary Weapon, Elmine contributed to the Ending Winter, a natural disaster that altered the weather, caused by the battle between the Legends and Dragons.

    • It is confirmed later that the Legendary weapons are much weaker by the time Roy and his army wield them, making it unlikely Lucina can scale to this power simply through Roy in FEH, or as an Einherjar. 

    • On the other hand, the Binding Blade is far superior to the combined might of the Legendary weapons that caused the Ending Winter; it could be argued the sword should at least be comparable to that level of power by the time Roy gets it.

    • Additional note; while Idunn did technically survive the Binding Blade, the sword has a special property that matches its’ users intentions. Idunn’s foe didn’t wish to kill her, so the blade spared her. As such, it’s doubtful Idunn could be a connective character from which to scale Roy and co. to the Binding Blade in its’ prime.

Speed

Flaws

Real comic btw, source is the official Art of Fire Emblem Awakening (Knights of Iris) art book


As you might expect from a young girl robbed of her childhood and forced to outlive her parents in a hellscape apocalypse, Lucina has a couple issues. Namely, she severely lacks self-confidence in her capabilities. This is why she took on the identity of Marth to begin with, and she has constantly struggled with imposter syndrome after the fact. 

While she did eventually get better, Lucina will likely always be a bit antsy when it comes to the fate of the future, and this fear has distracted her in crucial moments, such as when Grima was resurrected. It was only thanks to Chrom that the two evaded a magic lightning strike; Lucina was understandably a bit too shaken up to be aware of anything other than impending doom.

And of course, while Lucina has many useful weapons, items, skills and such, she is ultimately still a human at the end of the day. Well, okay, not like a normal human in terms of physical capabilities, obviously, but she lacks many inherent supernatural abilities of her own. Most of her might comes from her gear; she has Skills, but if you can disarm her of her weapons or remove her important artifacts, she’ll be exponentially weaker.

Summary

“I prayed to the Hero-King for a small part of the strength he used to save the world. But I need this subterfuge no longer. I choose to fight as Lucina now. The name that reminds me of the strength in the man and woman who chose it.”

Strengths

  • Has a fuck ton of healing options. At her maximum potential, she’s practically (or just outright) healing to full health extremely frequently from like, 5 different sources in her arsenal.

    • This becomes even more dangerous when you combine it with the Miracle skill. Assuming it activates (which a maximum potential Lucina will very likely do), she can survive any fatal blow with 1 HP, and then just heal completely back to full right after. Seeing as how Miracle has no set number of times it can activate, this combo speaks for itself.

  • Weirdly enough, likely able to damage and defeat spirits, and her own spirit is more fortified than you’d likely expect.

  • With magic spells and bows, has surprisingly good range

  • Possible that the Darksphere may work to her favor as its in her possession

  • Even if disarmed, she technically has natural skills, acrobatics, and some weapon conjuration to help her in a pinch

  • Can teleport across an entire battlefield

  • The Falchion and Binding Shield possess the abilities to seal foes away, which is always useful

  • While not guaranteed to exactly help, it’s at least interesting that she can summon Risen onto the battlefield. Given her experience with them, and how casually she views them later on (seen in DLC maps like Hot Spring Scramble), this could very well surprise or shock any opponent she faces whilst she remains collected.

  • Extremely skilled swordmaster with plenty of experience in life-or-death situations


Weaknesses

  • Items are technically finite

  • While her weapons are unbreakable, weapons are technically droppable in Fire Emblem, and can even be stolen sometimes. Without a few key artifacts, it’s undeniable that Lucina would become substantially weaker in battle

  • Needs therapy desperately
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