Skylanders: Swap Force - Lightcore Smolderdash Score: 96% Developer: Activision Device Type: Accessory

Stats: Lightcore Smolderdash Element: Fire Health: 280 Speed: 43 Armor: 12 Critical Hit: 8 Elemental Power: 25

Attacks: Lightcore Smolderdash starts out with two attacks, Flame Whip and Solar Orb. When you press the button for Flame Whip, you can guess what is going to happen. A whip made of fire is used to attack your enemies. When you press the button once for Solar Orb, a fireball will shoot out of her hands. Press the button again to explode the fireball, damaging any enemies nearby. Lightcore Smolderdash has 4 upgrades before you have to choose a path. Her "third attack" upgrade isn’t really an attack yet. After you buy Eclipse, when you press the button for it, all of her attacks will become stronger, for a short period of time. You have to wait a bit to use it again as it needs time to refresh. When you buy Solar Powered, her speed is increased. Buying Sunrise will let you hold down the button for Flame Whip to charge it up and then when you let go, she will jump in the air and slam down a sun onto your enemies. The last upgrade before choosing a path is Whip It! which makes your Flame Whip attack stronger. Lightcore Smolderdash’s two upgrade paths affect different attacks and base stats. The upper path has Super Giant, which will let you hold the button down for Solar Orb and it’ll be a much bigger and more damaging fireball. Solar Flare is a passive upgrade which will permanently upgrade her critical hit. Sun Splitter gives Lightcore Smolderdash a combo attack ability. It will let her first use Solar Orb and then press the button for Flame Whip to speed up the fireball. When the fireball hits, it will split into three small balls of flame. On the lower path, first you have Solar Blast, which basically super charges Sunrise and makes it split into five fireballs when it hits. Next is Sunny Armor, which is a passive upgrade that permanently increases her armor. Finally there is a combo attack called Sun’s Core. With it, first you use Solar Orb and then press the button for Flame Whip, which will whip the fireball and give Lightcore Smolderdash an aura of flame that will hurt enemies. Lightcore Smolderdash’s Soul Gem (found in Woodburrow) ability makes it so that you can call Eclipse and then press the button again to perform an extremely powerful attack called Smolder Dash.

Features: Series 1 Compatible with: Skylanders: Swap Force

Comments: One thing that is different about Lightcore Smolderdash than most of the other characters is that until you get her Soul Gem Ability, she does not have a third method of attack. Personally, I found that Eclipse proved to be more handy in lots of situations than a third attack would be as it makes her other attacks so much more powerful. Granted, you can’t use it all the time, but the cool down time isn’t too long so you can use it a lot of the time. Lightcore Smolderdash’s eyes, forehead, and hair all light up when you put her on the portal. It really looks like she has fire inside of her. On-screen, she does walk, but it’s almost as if her feet never really touch the ground. While a lot of the hats don’t look bad on her, I found that the Roundlet just seemed to look like it belonged on her head. Granted, her spiked head goes through the hat but it still seems to work in an odd way. Lightcore Smolderdash is a character that I keep coming back to over and over. Her whip is a powerful melee weapon that only gets stronger as you upgrade it. While her fireball is a bit of a slow projectile, it is still a ranged weapon which can be leveled up to be extremely powerful. This means that Lightcore Smolderdash is both a powerful ranged and a powerful melee character, which is handy in any situation no matter how you look at it.

-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl

Related Links: Game Vortex's Coverage of Skylanders Buy Lightcore Smolderdash at Amazon