Monado Arts

Monado Arts
Activating the Smash Art
User	Shulk
Universe	Xenoblade

“	Press to cycle through Arts. Arts increase particular stats.	”
—Smash for 3DS's foldout

Monado Arts (モナドアーツ, Monado Arts) is Shulk's neutral special move. Shulk has access to five Arts: Jump, Speed, Shield, Buster, and Smash, with each Art acting as a buff-type move that temporarily enhances certain abilities in exchange for weakening others.

Overview

Each of the five Arts is indicated by a colored kanji character. When the special button is pressed, a character will appear behind him, beginning with Jump and following the order of Speed, Shield, Buster, and Smash for each consecutive button press. To activate an Art, the special button must not be pressed for a few frames until the colored aura appears on Shulk. While scrolling through the Arts, he will be unable to perform any other special moves until one is activated, although Shulk can still move, dodge and attack normally. If Shulk activates an Art while staying still, he poses and announces the activated Art's name upon activation; this animation grants 14 frames of intangibility (unless canceled into another action), and Shulk will perfect shield any attack that connects with his body during that period should he raise his shield. While an Art is active, several of Shulk's attributes are modified for the duration of its effect, which vary based on the Art chosen.

Kanji	Monado Art	Color	Affected stats	Activation pose
翔*	Jump (ジャンプ)	Green	Increased jump height, air speed (1.5x faster), and Air Slash height More damage taken (1.22x more) Increased falling speed (1.22x faster) An Art focused on aerial mobility, compensated by lowered defense. Makes him faster and more mobile in the air than any other character, and allows him to edgeguard offstage efficiently since Shulk can use any aerial attack offstage and still recover safely. One KO combo is possible that consists of a down tilt followed by repeated forward aerials ending with Air Slash, which can clear a risky yet early stock. Another KO combo is a 50-50 in which Shulk utilizes the buffer period when canceling the Jump Art during his up throw to follow up with an up aerial (which can be seen here), though this combo is not as consistent as the former. However, despite these options, this Art gives Shulk the most damage vulnerability out of all other Arts including Buster, and also slightly reduces his survivability due to increased damage, and it is advised to switch out if he is being knocked around.	Holds his hand in the air
疾*	Speed (スピード)	Blue	Increased movement speed (1.7x faster) and air speed (1.3x faster) Less damage dealt (0.8x less) Lower jumps, lower traction An Art that improves Shulk's approach and spacing options, short hops and overall combo ability, but lowers his overall damage output. More efficient short hops allow Shulk to space much more effectively, and a better approach speed makes this Art a good combo starter against slower characters. Decreased damage means Shulk has to land more attacks to compensate for the speed boost, but experienced players can rely on the speed to trap opponents with barrages of aerial attacks. Lowered traction significantly improves his pivot grab range (becoming one of the longest in the game), but it also leaves him highly punishable when coming to a stop. Lowered jump height can be an issue if recovering vertically, but the speed boost applies to Shulk's air speed as well, allowing him to quickly get close to the stage before changing to Jump to help his recovery.	Leans forward, ready to run
盾	Shield (シールド)	Yellow	Increased weight, less knockback taken (0.78x less) and damage taken (0.67x less), higher shield health (1.5x more) Lower jump height, air speed, and movement speed (all 0.67x less), less damage dealt (0.7x less) An Art focused on defense and survivability, but cripples movement speed, damage output and recovery. A solely defensive Art, as Shulk can survive to extreme percentages, but reduced damage and mobility makes it difficult to gain a percentage lead while in this Art. Reduced knockback can potentially mess up opponent's combos (such as Sheik's aerial combos), but makes him more vulnerable to multi-hitting attacks, notably juggling moves like Kirby's up tilt. Also allows Shulk's shield to survive attacks that would normally break it (e.g. Bowser Bomb).	Crosses his arms in a defensive pose
斬*	Buster (バスター)	Purple	More damage dealt (1.4x more) More damage taken (1.13x more) Less knockback dealt (0.68x less) A high-risk Art that allows Shulk to deal high damage in a short amount of time while lowering his KO power and damage defense. His throws open up highly-damaging combo opportunities, and the increase in damage output also makes his attacks deal increased shieldstun and shield damage, making him less prone to shield grabs and allows him to more easily break shields. A notable shield break combo is a MALLC back air into reversed forward smash. However, his KO power becomes extremely low, and this Art makes Shulk incredibly vulnerable to damage which can easily send his percentage up significantly if he is careless, discouraging reckless use.	Holds the Monado in front of him, much like his down taunt
撃*	Smash (スマッシュ)	Red	More knockback dealt (1.18x more) Less damage dealt (0.5x less), more knockback taken (1.07x more) A high-risk Art generally for KO options and edgeguarding, which reduces Shulk's damage output, but also making most of his moves viable KO moves at under 100%. Shulk's down throw becomes the strongest down throw in the game and his smash attacks can KO as early as 70% even when uncharged. Smash also allows Shulk to mess up certain throw combos at lower percents (e.g. Sheik and Diddy Kong) by launching him slightly further than normal. However, due to the reduced damage, shieldstun and hitlag are reduced as well, and thus makes all of his attacks even more punishable on shield while Shulk's survivability becomes as low as Mewtwo's for the Art's duration.	Points the Monado to the sky

*Barring "shield", all of the Japanese kanji are stylized in different English translations than what they actually translate to.

Also, for all Arts in the Japanese version, Shulk yells out for each respective one: 跳ぶ (Soar!), 走る! (Run!), 守る! (Protect/Defend!), 叩く! (Thrash!), 打っ飛ばす! (Blow away/Fly away!)

Each Art lasts for 15 seconds before stats return to normal. The Arts can be cancelled by pressing the special button three times in succession, or by holding down the special button for about one full second. Once an Art activates or is canceled early, it cannot be activated again until 10 seconds has passed. Before then, its corresponding kanji character will be grayed out when selecting another Art. The cooldown on all Monado Arts resets when Shulk is knocked out. No two Monado Arts can run at the same time; if one is active, and a different Art is chosen, the previous Art is overwritten and enters cooldown.

When an Art is activated, colored auras appear in areas of Shulk's body that pertain to the effect of the Art itself. For example, Jump and Speed have an aura around Shulk's shoes, while Buster's aura will appear around the Monado. Shield's aura will appear around Shulk's body and Smash's aura appears around Shulk's hands. Also, in the Wii U version, the Art's kanji appears at the top left corner of Shulk's portrait (which blinks faster and faster when the Art is almost ready to deactivate), and Shulk additionally gains a colored trailing aura effect while he moves.

Shulk's Final Smash, Chain Attack, is also affected by the Monado Arts. With Buster, this attack becomes highly damaging, often likely sending the opponent into KO percents if the Art lasts the duration of the full attack, but cannot KO as effectively. With Smash, Shulk can KO at significantly earlier percents but should the attack not clear the stock, Shulk will have hardly done as much damage to the opponent as desired, making it arguably riskier than with Buster. Speed and Shield will only reduce its effectiveness while Jump has no effect whatsoever. Interestingly, the Arts can run out in the middle of the Final Smash, so awareness of their durations and the situation is advised.

Kirby is able to copy the Monado Arts with his Inhale and can receive effects from these Arts when he uses this Copy Ability. This can give Kirby incredible benefits and new previously-unseen options, as Jump gives him high jumps that can easily pass the upper blast line after three jumps and, as a result, can extend his throw combos to pursue his opponent. Buster can trap opponents in a string of attacks far past realistic KO percentages; particularly his up tilt which can juggle most characters for longer than usual to rack up large amounts of damage. Speed also gives Kirby the longest perfect pivot in the game. Like Shulk, Kirby's Ultra Sword Final Smash can be affected by the Monado Arts in all of their respective ways to alter its damage and knockback properties. Conversely, both Speed and Shield make Kirby's jumps the most ineffective in the game, and Smash makes him the lightest fighter in the game. And unlike Shulk, Kirby's up special moves gain no benefit from the Jump Art.

Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling

Landing lag comparisons of Shulk's back aerial, with (left) and without (right) MALLC. The Shulk on the left can cancel the Jump pose into any action due to a successful landing lag cancel.

An advanced technique, named Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling (abbreviated MALLC) allows Shulk to remove part of landing lag of his aerials or air dodge, which allows him to apply safer pressure with his aerials, escape from juggles, perform longer combos or strings, and even take advantage of the few frames of intangibility during art activation to land safely onto stage. As Shulk cannot act out of an Art's pose for 5 frames, this technique does not fully eliminate landing lag, but reduces it significantly.

To perform this the player should start the activation of any Monado Art while in midair, use an aerial attack, and land with the aerial just before the Art fully activates. Shulk performs a pose after any Art activates (provided he isn't in a non landing lag animation), and this pose will replace the landing lag animation. The pose can be immediately canceled as if Shulk is standing still, allowing him to bypass the usually high landing lag of his aerials. Advanced players can even use this technique to pivot in midair, which gives opportunities for unique combos or a quick getaway.

MALLC's timings are affected by what the player hits: if Shulk misses or clashes against a shield (regardless if perfect shielded), he will cancel successfully, but if Shulk hits an opponent, it will cause more hitlag and cause him to land with ending lag. Therefore, MALLCs are safer if the opponent dodges or shields, as it grants Shulk more options straight after (i.e dodging a punish with intangibility), while MALLC on hit is less safe, but grants Shulk more combo options.

This technique is especially beneficial to Shulk because none of his aerials regularly cancel out of a full jump (and most do not cancel even from a double jump). In particular, his back aerial benefits the most from this, as it suffers from high landing lag while having the longest range and good KO power, while his up and down aerials are difficult to Art-cancel as connecting both hits of these moves cause too much hitlag to land at the correct time. This technique comes with the added benefit of giving Shulk a few frames of intangibility right when he poses, allowing him a chance to dodge possible punishes from his opponents.

Due to the changes to shield mechanics made in 1.1.1, cancelling a back air into Buster, and immediately following with a forward smash can instantly break a full-health shield without giving the target a chance to drop shield, provided the initial attack isn't perfect shielded, or aimed at another Shulk or Kirby with the Shield Art active.

Erico9001 first explained the timings of MALLC in his YouTube video here.

Later, Jerm provided a more in-depth video guide on the timings and added details of the technique, which can be found here.

Finally, Paradigm/Erico9001 uploaded a video providing the exact frames to successful Art Cancel different moves on varying stages, which can be seen here.

Customization

Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:

1. Monado Arts	2. Decisive Monado Arts	3. Hyper Monado Arts
"Activate one of five different Arts, each of which provides a different advantage."	"Activate stronger Arts that last longer. However, they can't be canceled once used."	"Your Arts are much stronger, but the drawbacks are too. Doesn't last as long."

1. Monado Arts: Default.
2. Decisive Monado Arts: Arts last for 5 more seconds, recharge 5 seconds sooner, and boosts positive effects of Arts, but once an Art is activated, it cannot be canceled or changed for another Art. A slightly longer pause is added before an Art becomes active, allowing the user to consider whether they want to be temporarily stuck with an Art. This allows the user to take advantage of a specific art for much longer, at the cost of the inability to switch Arts once it becomes disadvantageous.
3. Hyper Monado Arts: Both positive and negative effects of Arts are amplified, but the Arts have a shorter duration of 5 seconds. Recharging will also take 5 seconds longer. Becomes a short-duration, high risk and reward ability, as the strengths and weaknesses of each Art become some of the most extreme in the game: an example is Hyper Buster, which makes Shulk's moves immensely more damaging than even Ganondorf's, but reduces his KO power to almost nothing even at high percents.

Origin

Shulk using Monado Buster during a cutscene in Xenoblade Chronicles. Here, the Art is one single, giant slash with the beam blade, in contrast to its status as a damage buff in Smash Bros.

In Xenoblade Chronicles, all special attacks and abilities are categorized as Arts, and the term is used as such to describe both playable and enemy character abilities. The wielder of the Monado has access to two additional Arts that are accessed by using their signature ability (or "Talent Art"), "Activate Monado", with more being unlocked as the story progresses for an ending total of eight, three of which return for Super Smash Bros. Unlike what SSB4 depicts, not all Monado Arts are buff-type moves, as several are status-inducing skills or powerful attacks. In addition two Monado Arts, Jump and Smash, were tailor-made for the Smash Bros. series and as such do not exist in the original game.

• Monado Buster is one of the Arts available from the start, acting as a single powerful slash attack with an extended purplish beam that deals additional damage to Mechon (the antagonists of the game, which cannot be damaged by normal weapons without support from the Monado). The Smash 4 behavior of raising attack power is more akin to Monado Enchant, the second starter Art which improves damage and allows other party members' normal weapons to damage Mechon.
• Monado Shield creates a barrier around all three party members that blocks a single enemy's Talent Art, as long as Shulk has upgraded the Art to a level that matches or exceeds the enemy's Art. The SSB4 behavior of decreasing damage taken is more akin to Monado Armor, an Art that raises the party's defenses.
• Monado Speed greatly increases the agility of one party member, raising both accuracy and evasion for physical attacks. This is somewhat modified for Smash 4 as it gives Shulk increased movement speed instead of evasion and accuracy, although the Art's attributes are reflected in this game as it does give Shulk much more agility, making dodging much easier, and allows him to approach and retreat quickly, mimicking the increased evasion that the Speed Art grants in Xenoblade Chronicles.
• As mentioned above, the Jump and Smash Arts are unique to Smash 4, although both use a color that matches an existing Art in his origin game: Jump uses the green shade of Monado Purge, which applies a status called "Aura Seal" on opponents, removing any existing auras and preventing them from activating any auras or spike abilities for the duration (coincidentally, Shulk does a jump before activating the Art in his origin game), while Smash uses a similar shade of red to Monado Eater, an Art that removes enemy buffs and inflicts Bleed on victims, causing damage over time.

Battle Arts in Xenoblade Chronicles have cooldown times, with different Arts having differing cooldown times. However, this only applies to Battle Arts; Monado Arts are part of Shulk's Talent Art, "Activate Monado", and instead require Shulk to use part of his Talent Gauge to activate them, which can only be refilled by auto-attacking enemies.

Gallery

• 

  A clear view of the Monado Jump Art kanji.

• 

  A clear view of the Monado Speed Art kanji.

• 

  A clear view of the Monado Shield Art kanji.

• 

  A clear view of the Monado Buster Art kanji.

• 

  A clear view of the Monado Smash Art kanji.

Trivia

• This is the only neutral special move that cannot be performed while on a revival platform, and the only special move that cannot be performed from a revival platform that can be performed in the air.
• Monado Arts are the only neutral special Kirby can copy which can affect a move other than his neutral special.
• Despite having a copy of the Monado equipped after copying Shulk using Inhale, Kirby only uses it to pose after activating an Art, and also blurts out the Art's name after activating it.
• The attribute effects of Monado Arts reach several extremes:
  • Kirby becomes the lightest character in SSB4 with the Smash Art activated, as well as the character with the longest vertical recovery with the Jump Art, surpassing even Villager's.
  • Hyper Monado Arts makes Shulk the heaviest character while in Shield, makes his throws the strongest in the game while in the Smash Art, along with giving him the hardest-hitting counter if in Hyper Smash while using Power Vision, with power only rivaled by Lucario's Double Team at maximum Aura. The Hyper Shield Art also gives Shulk the slowest dash speed in SSB4.
• While most of Shulk's Monado Art poses are unique to Smash 4, he uses a pose reminiscent of the Shadow Eye Art from Xenoblade Chronicles when activating Speed.
• Even if Shulk is KO'd while selecting Arts, the sound effect of his last selected Art being activated will play after his KO sounds.
• Surprisingly, the Monado Art's effects also affects Shulk's attacking power with battering items like the Beam Sword. For example, Smash reduces hitlag and damage while increasing knockback.
• Shulk's mobility does not reset when an Art expires unless he lets go of a directional key, meaning that Shulk will keep his high dash speed even when the Speed Art expires so long as he keeps dashing, and no increased air speed is granted if Shulk holds down the forward key and switches from the Shield Art to the Jump Art.
• The Monado Arts that alter damage dealt also raise or lower the counterattack damage cap with Vision instead of the regular 50%. In Speed, Vision will deal a maximum of 40% damage; in Shield, 35% damage; in Buster, 70% damage; and in Smash, 25% damage.

Shulk's special moves

Neutral special	Monado Arts
Side special	Back Slash
Up special	Air Slash
Down special	Vision
Final Smash	Chain Attack