Shulk (SSBU)

Shulk in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Xenoblade Chronicles
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Chain Attack
Tier	A- (32)

Shulk (シュルク, Shulk) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Like all veterans, he was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Shulk is classified as Fighter #57.

Adam Howden and Shintarō Asanuma reprise their roles as Shulk's voice actors in the English and Japanese versions respectively, mostly through recycled voice clips from Super Smash Bros. 4. Howden and Asanuma also reprised their roles for Shulk's appearance in Pyra and Mythra's reveal trailer.

Shulk is ranked 32nd out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the middle of the A- tier. This is a significant improvement from his 34th out of 54 placement in SSB4. One of Shulk's greatest strengths is his enormous disjointed range, courtesy of the Monado. This allows him to outrange almost every fighter in the game, which gives him one of the most effective spacing capabilities relative to the rest of the cast. Shulk can further enhance his strengths through the usage of Monado Arts. They allow him to change his stats on command, depending on the Art selected. To name a few, Speed Art allows him to run faster and improve his approach and Buster Art gives him increased damage output in exchange for less knockback, allowing for high-damaging combos. Shield Art, in particular, is notorious for breaking out of combos due to decrease knockback taken.

Despite his strengths, Shulk is not flawless. He still retains his sluggish frame data and startup on majority of his moves, making him prone to getting parry punished or overwhelmed by faster moves. His recovery is also fairly exploitable due to Air Slash being his only main recovery option, and his recovery mixups are dependent on having his double jump even if he has the Jump Art active. Despite Shulk's Monado Arts giving him upgrades, they also grant multiple downsides. For example, while the Smash Art significantly improves his KO potential, it also greatly reduces his damage output and gives him the lowest endurance of the roster while it is active. Finally, Shulk is one of the most difficult characters to master since he has many advanced techniques, and properly using Monado Arts mid-match has to account for fast decision-making to determine which Art is best suited for each situation.

Overall, Shulk is seen as a perfectly viable, albeit difficult character to play at a top level, which has led to a merely average representation across the board. Despite this, Shulk has attained strong tournament results, most notably under Kome, jaredisking1, and Akio, the former placing 2nd at EVO Japan 2020, one of the largest Ultimate tournaments of all time.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Shulk being the 22nd character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Pikachu or any character in its unlock tree, being the 2nd character unlocked after Villager.
• Have Shulk join the player's party in World of Light.

Shulk must then be defeated on Gaur Plain (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

Shulk is a middleweight swordsman who sports average walking speed, dashing speed, falling speed, and gravity. When coupled with his above-average air speed and his below-average air acceleration, Shulk's overall mobility is average to the point of lacking any obvious advantages or disadvantages.

Shulk's greatest asset is his disjointed range: thanks to the Monado, Shulk possesses some of the longest overall disjoints in the game. Shulk's excellent range allows him to punish careless moves by retaliating at a distance, or create space by challenging his opponent with his disjointed attacks. His most useful grounded moves are his up tilt and smash attacks, each of which possesses distinct perks. His up tilt boasts outstanding vertical range, can cover multiple get-up options from the edge, and can KO at very high percentages, whereas his smash attacks boast high power and long ranges.

Shulk also boasts a very strong aerial game as his powerful aerials have a great combination of large hitbox size, long hitbox duration, and low landing lag, which plays a key role in his approach and spacing games. Both his neutral and forward aerials possess wide-arced ranges with low landing lag, making them Shulk's best approach options. The former is useful for anything from starting combos to covering landing options thanks to its long-lasting hitbox and low landing lag, while the latter's wide range and dependable speed make it a very good edge-guarding and spacing option. His back aerial is a capable KOing option due to it being Shulk's most powerful aerial, with its high horizontal range also allowing it to space or poke from a distance. Lastly, his up and down aerials are, like his back aerial, thrusts instead of slashes. As such, they have minimal horizontal ranges, but can KO surprisingly early should they hit, with the former being potent near the upper blast line, whereas the latter is capable of meteor smashing.

Much like in his home game, Xenoblade Chronicles, Shulk is a character who revolves around adapting to different situations with his attribute-enhancing Monado Arts. Each Art tweaks his attributes considerably for a certain amount of time (10 seconds for Buster, 8 seconds for Speed and Smash, and 6 seconds for Jump and Shield) and can be manually canceled at any time, even immediately after hitstun ends or during landing lag. With this freedom, Shulk can activate an Art to open up options for virtually any situation while still being able to switch or cancel them if he is in a challenging position. Jump grants him significant aerial mobility by making his jumps the highest in the game while improving both his air speed and Air Slash's height. This grants him an incredible recovery, allowing him to recover from almost anywhere off-stage, edge-guard more aggressively, and even perform several KO combos, such as a wall of pain leading to a sacrificial Air Slash at medium percentages.

Speed amplifies his typically average grounded mobility while reducing his jump height, making his ground-to-air transitions more efficient for aerial combos and spacing, while allowing him to approach and retreat noncommittally. It also lowers traction, making Shulk's pivot grab amongst the longest in the game for its duration. These two Arts grant him outstanding mobility, and when combined with the large hitboxes of his attacks, Shulk can effectively space opponents out of a specific side of the stage with either Jump or Speed, making him very difficult to approach on stages with platforms.

Shield bolsters Shulk's defensive game by reducing both damage and knockback received, which allows him to survive for a much longer period of time and resist getting trapped in combos. His shield also becomes much more durable, making it harder to break with shield-breaking attacks such as Bowser Bomb. Buster reduces his overall knockback but increases his overall damage output, allowing him to rack up damage extremely quickly. Buster also makes up and down throws effective and damaging combo starters at 0%, while the increased damage and shieldstun make Shulk's moves both safer on shield and capable of pressuring shields. Lastly, Smash boosts his entire moveset's knockback, making almost all of Shulk's attacks into viable KOing options (especially with rage), and his down throw becomes the strongest in the game while it is active. Despite his fastest aerial coming out on frame 13 and starting behind him, Shulk has a particular strength in combo breaking. The Shield Art is among the best combo breakers in the game, since it makes him fall out of all combos. He can also switch to the Smash Art at low percentages as another way to escape combos, thanks to it noticeably heightening the knockback he receives.

Thanks to the Monado Arts, Shulk is highly adaptive and usually has an easier time mixing up his playstyle compared to other characters, so long as his Arts are used effectively and in tandem with his powerful air game. Such an example would be constantly switching from Jump and Shield to stall a losing match, or activating different arts while being juggled to affect Shulk's falling speed, and hence mess up an opponent's combo. It also allows him to use rage effectively, especially when combined with Shield to survive and accumulate rage, or with Smash for a risky, yet powerful boost in knockback.

Due to the technical aspects of activating Monado Arts, Shulk also has access to multiple unique advanced techniques, the most notable of which is known as Monado Art landing lag canceling. By jumping and timing the activation of an Art just before landing, Shulk can reduce the landing lag of his aerials to 5 frames while gaining intangibility for 14 frames (1 frame less than the length granted by his sidestep). While difficult to perform, it allows Shulk to avoid punishment before immediately responding with a punishment of his own, or start shield break combos, such as an Art canceled back aerial to forward smash. It can even let him retreat by pivoting in midair, or extend the invincibility of air dodging via an aerial Art activation. This technique is the only viable way to make some of Shulk's moves (such as back aerial) safe on shield against faster characters.

Several other techniques include the Monado Purge, a 50/50 KO set-up consisting of an up throw to up aerial at high percentages, and Monado Art ledge snap, which bypasses edge get-up animations while protecting the user with brief intangibility. When mastered, Shulk's Monado Art techniques can be a very effective and unpredictable mix-up option that is inaccessible to any other character.

Excluding his Arts, Shulk's special moveset shares his overall high range, and all have their own forms of utility. Back Slash is very powerful when striking the opponent's back and has long range regardless, making it a great surprise attack as well as a decent spacing tool. Air Slash grants a good amount of vertical distance, comes out quickly, and has strong knockback growth, making it a good recovery move and an even better out of shield option. The distance and knockback of Air Slash can additionally be affected by the Jump and Smash Arts, respectively, allowing the move to gain even more vertical distance, or be used as a combo finisher in the air or a KO option out of shield. Lastly, Vision is tied with Double Team for having the longest-lasting counterattack window in the game when fresh, while also having the longest range, both of which give Shulk one of the most effective counters of any character. Its alternate counterattack, which is performed when Shulk inputs the direction from which the triggered attack came, also rivals Counter Surge as the strongest counterattack in the game.

However, Shulk has some exploitable weaknesses. Despite being buffed in Ultimate, his moveset is still mostly sluggish. Aside from his neutral attack, standing grab, and Vision, all his other attacks do not hit before frame 10, and the majority of his moveset has more than 25 frames of ending lag. Like the aforementioned heavyweights, this means he has to rely on careful reads to land a hit, as a missed attack can easily be capitalized upon. This is made worse by the low shieldstun of his attacks (unless Buster is active), making his attacks inherently unsafe up close and on shield, while still unsafe if spaced against faster characters prevalent in the metagame. Additionally, despite his excellent range, most of Shulk's moves deal more damage with the Monado's blade rather than its beam blade, while several of his strongest combos (such as a landing neutral aerial to a grab or a forward aerial wall of pain) rely on him being extremely close to his opponent/affected by rage to be inescapable, due to his beam blade's lower hitstun. As a result, Shulk is required to take risks before he can start performing any significant combos.

His sluggish frame data also extends to his aerials. Shulk is the only character who cannot auto-cancel any of his aerials before their entire duration is over, forcing him to endure landing lag every time he starts an aerial attack, even from a double jump (except forward aerial). While Monado Art landing lag canceling can negate this, it is considerably more complicated to perform compared to auto-canceling, making it very difficult and unwieldy to perform consistently. Essentially, this makes every attack very committal, and makes it important for Shulk to space his attacks carefully, as he can easily be punished for missing. Additionally, moves such as back aerial or up aerial are unsafe to use upon landing; unlike many other characters' aerials, their hitboxes only appear after a pause, making it possible to land before an attack even comes out, while causing Shulk to suffer from landing lag.

His lack of a projectile and anti-projectile options also makes it difficult to pressure his opponent from a distance, while making it hard for him to approach against projectile users as well. Even pressure on the ground can be hard to escape from, as Shulk has the fifth lowest traction in the game. This gives him a poor out-of-shield game without Air Slash, which is punishable when missed. Shulk's special attacks are also flawed in some ways. Back Slash's knockback is exceptionally weak if hitting the opponent's front, being unsafe on hit at low percentages, has considerable ending lag, and is notorious for its inability to edge sweetspot. Air Slash provides very minimal horizontal momentum and does not sweetspot edges immediately unless the second slash is input right beside an edge, thus making his recovery predictable, even with Jump. Lastly, Vision's counter window decays upon consecutive use, which discourages frequent usage.

The Monado Arts also have debuffs to compensate for their buffs: if an Art is active, it causes some of its other attributes to drop, weakening some of its abilities. A careful opponent can potentially take advantage of them to gain the upper hand, making his Arts a double-edged sword due to his reliance on them to approach and/or perform combos. Jump makes him take very serious damage, and when combined with his slow moveset, makes it even riskier to whiff a move. Speed lowers his damage output, requiring him to deal more hits for the same amount of damage, and reduces his jump force to the point of hindering his vertical mobility.

Shield drastically reduces his mobility and damage output to the point of making his recovery and offensive potential among the worst in the game. When coupled with his worsened mobility, Shield's increased knockback defense also leaves Shulk heavily susceptible to combos and juggling. Buster increases his vulnerability to damage to the same degree as Jump, while its lower knockback drastically lowers Shulk's KO potential to the point that his smash attacks will not KO until past 150%. Finally, Smash drastically increases the knockback taken, hinders his combo game, and makes his attacks the least damaging in the game.

Even having no Arts active is disadvantageous, as Shulk's balanced attributes do not allow him to easily approach or catch up with opponents. Having no Arts active also hinders him offensively: very few of Shulk's moves possess combo potential past low percentages, and all his smash attacks are punishable because of their high ending lag. This forces Shulk to be reliant on edge-guarding and spacing while waiting for an Art to refresh, and requires him to capitalize on the duration of a needed Art to the fullest to perform certain techniques (such as combo strings or approaching), compared to other characters who may have the ability to do so at any time.

Overall, Shulk's optimal playstyle consists of warding off pressure and having extensive knowledge of his opponent. His range, unique toolkit, and versatile tech grant him powerful abilities when mastered, with some being inaccessible to any other character in the roster; however, players must have reliable spacing skills as whiffing one of his moves can leave him wide open and vulnerable to heavy damage. While his weaknesses are exploitable when fighting head-on, his adaptability allows him to excel when played patiently and while exploiting openings. Regardless, Shulk has an extremely high learning curve because of a combination of sluggish attacks and very demanding techniques, as extensive knowledge of Monado Arts, proper spacing, reads, and patient play are each required for him to thrive.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Shulk has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate, but he was buffed overall. Some of his most notable weaknesses have been alleviated to some degree, and the changes to the game physics have granted many of his options greater utility to go with his faster moveset.

A large portion of the revamped game physics benefits Shulk. The universal reduction of landing lag grants him a safer approach game, and he has gained the ability to autocancel some aerials (a trait he was previously notable for lacking). This alleviates his punishable landings, one of his biggest weaknesses in SSB4. The universally faster mobility also improves Shulk overall, as it improves the ease of approaching and retreating, the implementation of dash-canceling with any ground move allows him to approach with his high-ranged tilts, and the readdition of pseudo-dash dancing alleviates his previously low traction and turnaround time. Finally, the changes to knockback benefit Back Slash, as opponents no longer turn around when hit from behind with a move that causes tumbling, making the sweetspot safer to land.

In addition to lower landing lag and faster mobility, a few of Shulk's moves possess less ending lag, such as dash attack and neutral air. Combined, this grants Shulk a much more reliable approach, which was another weakness that plagued him in SSB4 due to his moveset's slow speed and his trouble at landing. Aside from his Monado Arts, Shulk's special moves have seen some buffs, with Back Slash now grabbing ledges after some time, Air Slash executing faster and grabbing edges faster, and Vision having larger hitboxes and less lag after a successful counter.

Shulk's nerfs were noticeable, however. Most notably, his previously heavy weight has been reduced, which, coupled with his lack of options to relieve pressure, makes him easier to KO, especially after a combo. His renowned back aerial has lost its large early body hitbox and has smaller hitboxes, now strictly mapping its range to behind Shulk himself and removing its situational usage for KOing in front of him. His grab game, already below average without Monado Arts active, is even less powerful, with Shulk's grabs having less range in addition to suffering from the universal nerfs to grabs, thus making them more punishable; moreover, all of his throws (except for up throw) deal less damage and knockback, with down throw no longer being the strongest in the game with Smash Art active, further necessitating an active Art for his throws to be useful.

Other nerfs include his very damaging neutral attack, which deals much less damage, and its first two hits' range was reduced. In exchange for faster execution and larger hitboxes, a successful Vision's counterattack is less powerful and no longer unblockable, and remains unreliable under multiple circumstances, like activating it while airborne or countering a projectile. While he mostly benefits from the game physics changes, a few of them also hurt Shulk, as the increased mobility makes it easier for opponents to pressure Shulk without his Arts active, and the reduced landing lag worsens his already poor out-of-shield game.

Shulk's defining Monado Arts have been altered significantly. They no longer take their damage multiplier into account for the opponent's final percentage, helping Speed preserve its knockback and further improving Smash's KO power. They also now perform more like Hyper Monado Arts from SSB4, with both their benefits and detriments being amplified: Jump has faster air mobility and further increases the distance of Air Slash, but further increases damage taken by Shulk; Speed offers much faster mobility, but further reduces damage; Shield improves his defense even more to the point he can survive smash attacks even past 200%, but his moves now deal less knockback alongside their lowered damage, and Shield's duration lowers significantly if he is hit; Buster's lower knockback multiplier now grants Shulk true throw combos (which compensates for the loss of Speed ones), but it also increases damage taken by Shulk; and Smash now buffs Shulk's KO potential to such an extent that he is easily capable of KOing opponents very early below 100%, but causes his endurance to be the absolute worst in the game. Shulk retains the ability to switch Monado Arts while in hitstun, which can allow him to disrupt or outright escape true combos and KO setups, and he can now instantly access them at any time by holding the special button and selecting an art instead of pressing it multiple times (though said feature is still present). However, all of his individual Arts last significantly shorter and have much longer cooldown times, which, combined with their amplified drawbacks, make them riskier to use and more susceptible to counterplay. Finally, the multitude of advanced techniques that can be performed with Monado Arts have been altered significantly, with engine changes causing some to be completely removed (such as Buffered Deactivation), while introducing new ones (Dial Storage).

As a result of these changes, Shulk's strengths and weaknesses are more defined, and his playstyle has been drastically altered to be more dynamic. It revolves less around taking advantage of Monado Arts at all times, now depending on using his improved kit to make use of his stronger, shorter-lasting Monado Art abilities when he can get an opening. His faster mobility, lower landing lag, and the changes to dash-canceling now help him with approaching, but he has to be more careful with dealing with opposing pressure. He still has some of his most noticeable flaws from SSB4, such as a poor approach, frame data, out of shield options, and disadvantage (especially when Shield Art is on cooldown), and a lack of options to deal with pressure. Regardless, Shulk's buffs outweigh the nerfs he has received, and he is a better character in Ultimate.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetics used in Ultimate, Shulk's model features a more subdued color scheme. In addition to losing most of the glossy sheen from his clothes and hair, Shulk's clothing now features simple detailing, his face is more defined, and his hair is somewhat less tousled.
• Shulk's alternate costumes now alter his hair color to match each party member they represent.
  • His hair colors are now dirty blonde, black, auburn, black, silver, and orange for the palette swaps of Fiora, Dunban, Reyn, Sharla, Melia, and Riki respectively.
• Shulk's muscles are more prominently defined in his shirtless alternate costume.
• Shulk's idle stance has been slightly altered, as his chest now visibly moves as he breathes.
• The Monado's blue glow during certain moves (such as the first hits of up smash and up aerial) has been made brighter and more noticeable.
• Shulk's second jump freefall animation has been altered, with his limbs no longer being straightened out. This brings it closer to how Shulk jumps in Xenoblade Chronicles.
• During Shulk's hip-posing victory pose, the Monado now glows with a sword trail when swung, and Shulk gives a wide grin at the end.
• Shulk now grins when applauding the winner after a match.
• The Monado's beam blade no longer becomes misaligned on stages with a 2D effect, like Flat Zone X.
• Shulk's armorless costume no longer causes his neck to extend during certain animations, although it still causes the Monado Arts' symbols to flash above Shulk's neck during hitstun.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Shulk's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 5).
• Shulk is lighter (102 → 97), bringing him down from a semi-heavyweight to a middleweight, tied with Luigi and Byleth. This worsens his endurance.
• Shulk walks faster (1.1 → 1.155).
• Shulk runs faster (1.52 → 1.672).
  • His initial dash is much faster (1.5 → 1.87).
• Shulk's air speed is faster (1.06 → 1.113).
• Shulk falls faster (1.5 → 1.58).
  • His fast falling speed is faster (2.4 → 2.528), leaving him less susceptible to juggling.
• Shulk's gravity is higher (0.085 → 0.098). This improves his vertical mobility and leaves him less vulnerable to juggles, but worsens his horizontal endurance.
• Shulk's jump height is lower (34.8 → 33.5), slightly hindering his vertical recovery, but slightly improves his aerial game.
• Shulk's traction has been increased (0.044 → 0.094), improving his ability to punish out of shield.
• Forward roll has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 30).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-17 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-17 → 5-16), and more ending lag (FAF 30 → 35).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 28 → 26).
• Spot dodge grants less intangibility (frames 3-18 → 3-17).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-28 → 3-30).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 34 → 50).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first and second hits have altered angles (70°/60°/88° → 361°/180° (hit 1), 66°/70°/80° → 361° (hit 2)) to keep opponents on the ground, akin to other neutral attacks. They also no longer use set knockback, but deal less knockback until very high percents (40 set/100 scaling → 35/25 base/10 scaling (hit 1), 52 set/100 scaling → 40/35 base/10 scaling (hit 2)), and have gained hitstun modifiers (0 → 2 (hit 1), 5 (hit 2)). This allows them to connect much more reliably and jab lock.
  • All hits except the late third hit deal less damage (3.5% → 2% (hit 1), 3.5% → 1.5% (hit 2), 5.3% → 5% (hit 3, clean)). This greatly reduces the move's total damage (12.3% → 8.5%), no longer being the most damaging non-infinite neutral attack in the game.
  • Hit 1:
    • It transitions faster into the second hit (frame 12 → 11).
    • It has an altered animation where Shulk doesn't lunge forward as far. It also uses four hitboxes instead of three, which are smaller (3u/2.5u/3.5u → 1.8u/1.8u/2u/2u). In combination with its altered animation, this noticeably reduces its range.
    • It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 5-6 → frame 5).
    • It has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.4× ), making it easier to SDI.
    • Consecutive uses of the first hit are slower (12 frames → 15).
  • Hit 2:
    • Its animation has been changed to a full roundhouse kick.
    • Its middle hitbox is larger (3u → 3.2u), but the farthest hitbox is smaller (4u → 3.4u), reducing its range overall.
    • It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 5-7 → frame 5).
  • Hit 3:
    • It has less startup (frame 12 → 6). In combination with the aforementioned changes, this allows it to connect much better from the second hit, no longer requiring specific timing against floaty or highly-damaged opponents.
      • However, its total duration remains the same, increasing its ending lag.
    • It is placed farther horizontally (Z offset: 12.8u-7.8u → 14u-10u (clean), 12.8u → 14u (late)) and higher (Y offset: 9u → 10u), with the late hit also stretching more vertically (Y offset: 15u-12u → 16.5u-12u), increasing its range.
    • It has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 2×), making it easier to DI.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt deals more damage (8.5%/7.5% → 10%/9%), with knockback scaling compensated (90/85 → 80/75).
  • The move's ending animation has been altered, with Shulk crouching lower, allowing him to duck under some attacks like certain rising aerials.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has less startup (frame 15 → 12) and much less ending lag (FAF 53 → 41).
  • It has a sweetspot near the base of the Monado, much like Shulk's other moves that use it, which deals more damage (11.5% → 12.5%) and is larger (3.2u → 3.7u).
  • It launches at a higher angle (60° → 65°), improving its juggling ability.
  • Due to the changes to jostling, the move can no longer miss opponents at point-blank range.
  • It does not propel Shulk as far forward, reducing its range.
  • The sourspot deals less damage (11.5% → 11%) and is marginally smaller (3.2u → 3.1u).
  • It has less knockback scaling (80 → 68), hindering its KO potential despite its higher launch angle and the sweetspot's higher damage.
• Up smash:
  • The first hit launches at angles more towards Shulk (92°/105° → 92°/95°/112°) and is weight-independent, with the ground-only hitboxes also having lower set knockback (110 → 92). This allows it to connect more reliably into the second hit.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (10 frames → 6 (neutral), 16 → 10 (forward), 19 → 11 (back), 15 → 9 (up), 23 → 14 (down)).
• All aerials auto-cancel earlier (frame 80 → 54 (neutral), 57 → 42 (forward), 79 → 43 (back), 79 → 53 (up), 78 → 52 (down)). This allows back aerial to auto-cancel in a full hop, and all aerials except forward aerial to auto-cancel before their interruptibility frames.
  • Additionally, all aerials have gained initial auto-cancel windows (frames 1-2 (neutral, back, down), 1-4 (forward), 1-3 (up)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has significantly less ending lag (FAF 71 → 60), making it safer to use offstage.
  • The animation executes faster with no change in hitbox duration. This allows the move to hit more effectively around Shulk and cover a full 360 degrees, no longer possessing a blindspot directly behind him, but makes it less effective for keeping out opponents in front of him.
  • The sweetspot and sourspot's placements has been swapped, with the former being located on the Monado's base instead of the beam blade, much like Shulk's other moves. This increases the move's damage output at close range, but reduces it from a distance.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial can no longer send opponents behind Shulk. This improves its consistency for edgeguarding, but removes some of its combos and situational stage spiking ability.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial has more startup (frame 18 → 19). Coupled with the changes to the Speed Monado Art, this makes short hop back aerials more timing-specific in the Speed Art, as Shulk has to perform the back aerial immediately out of a short hop.
  • The hitbox is set to a static position behind Shulk instead of following the Monado, and is smaller (5.5u → 3.6u (clean), 4u → 2.6u (late)). This reduces its horizontal range, and removes its ability to hit in front of Shulk.
  • The hitbox has been adjusted to be parallel to the ground instead of slanted upward, making it less likely to overshoot grounded opponents, but easier to avoid by jumping.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less ending lag (FAF 60 → 55).
  • Both hits have a longer duration (frames 14-15 → 14-16 (hit 1), 24-25 → 24-26 (hit 2)).
  • The first hit has received an additional hitbox on the Monado, with the previously existing two being larger (6.2u/6u → 6.5u/6.3u), and they launch at angles more towards Shulk (100°/96° → 102°/111°/104°) with lower set knockback (80/60 → 60/60/40). This allows it to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • The second hit's sourspot stretches a slightly shorter distance vertically (Y offset: 40u-15u → 39u-15u), reducing its vertical range despite the hitbox being larger (3.8u → 4u).
• Down aerial:
  • Both hits have a longer duration (frames 14-15 → 14-16 (hit 1), 23-24 → 23-25 (hit 2)).
  • The first hit's hitboxes are larger (5u → 5.3u), and the aerial-only hitbox launches at a lower angle (172° → 215°) with lower set knockback (20 → 15). This increases its range and allows it to connect more reliably into the second hit.
  • The second hit's meteor hitbox and sweetspot have more base knockback, especially the latter (10 → 15/50), improving the move's KO potential.
  • The second hit's sourspot is larger (3.5u → 3.7u).

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have more ending lag (FAF 30 → 37 (standing), 37 → 45 (dash), 35 → 40 (pivot)).
  • They have reduced horizontal range (Z2 offset: 9.5u → 9u (standing), 11.5u → 10.7u (dash), -16u → -15.3u (pivot)).
  • Dash and pivot grab have more startup (frame 9 → 10 (dash), 10 → 11 (pivot)).
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals more hitlag (8 frames → 14), but has less startup (frame 5 → 1) and significantly less ending lag (FAF 27 → 7), noticeably shortening its duration. This makes it much more reliable for racking up damage.
  • It deals much less damage (3% → 1.3%).
• Forward throw:
  • The throw portion deals less damage (8% → 5%; 11% total → 8%), with knockback scaling not fully compensated (70 → 95), slightly hindering its KO potential.
• Back throw:
  • The throw portion deals less damage (9% → 6%; 12% total → 9%), with knockback scaling not fully compensated (63 → 83), slightly hindering its KO potential.
• Up throw:
  • Due to the new knockback speed up effect decreasing hitstun for higher knockback values, up throw has lost its KO setups into up aerial at high percents with the Jump Art active.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw launches at a higher angle (50° → 60°). Coupled with the Buster Art's lower knockback multiplier, down throw is now effective for combos until mid-high percents with Buster active.
  • The throw portion deals less damage (4% → 2.5%; 7% total → 5.5%) and knockback (75 base/115 scaling → 85/105), making it significantly weaker overall. Notably, it is no longer the strongest down throw in the game by a large margin with the Smash Art active.
  • Due to the new knockback speed up effect, it has lost its true combos into forward aerial at low to mid percents with the Speed Art active.
  • It has a snappier animation, with Shulk physically thrusting the Monado into the ground with both hands and performing a short jump before the main hit.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

• Monado Arts:
  • Monado Arts possess a new feature, where all Arts appear in a wheel around Shulk if the special move button is held, then can be selected by tilting the control stick in the appropriate direction and releasing the button. The Arts are mapped to the following directions: up for Smash, upper left for Jump, lower left for Speed, upper right for Buster, and lower right for Shield. The previous method of selecting Monado Arts can still be used by tapping the button.
    • This new method allows Shulk to select and activate Monado Arts significantly faster, as well as switch them without needing to cancel the current one. This opens up more flexibility in using the different Monado Arts, making them an even more important aspect of Shulk's moveset. Additionally, if the original method to select Arts has been initiated, it can be canceled by activating the wheel without tilting the control stick in any direction, preventing accidental activations of Arts.
    • Due to Monado Arts being usable out of hitstun, this faster method allows Shulk to escape combos and disadvantage much more effectively by using the intangibility from activating the Arts, then he can select either the Shield Art to survive potential KOs or the Buster/Smash Art to punish the opponent.
  • When calculating knockback, Monado Arts no longer take their damage multiplier into account for the opponent's final percentage. This overall benefits them, allowing Speed to fully preserve knockback instead of marginally reducing it, and further improving Smash's KO potential, while Shield and Buster have lower knockback multipliers that render this effect negligible.
  • Arts that are on cooldown have a gradually regenerating bar under them to indicate how much time is left until they can be used again. Likewise, a gradually depleting bar appears below the active Art in Shulk's damage meter to indicate how much is left until it deactivates.
  • Monado Arts activate significantly faster when selected individually.
  • Monado Art landing lag canceling can still be performed, though it has a different window due to the faster activation time. Additionally, its usage to reduce landing lag is negligible due to the universal reduction to landing lag.
    • The addition of selecting Arts through the Art wheel allows Shulk access to MALLC at any time, without having to time landings with his jumps. It also grants access to the dial storage technique.
  • The kanji graphics are stylized and shown in solid colored, thick-outlined text. Upon activation, the kanji flashes with a cartoon-styled burst.
  • Highlighted Arts display their name in addition to the kanji, like in Shulk's damage meter.
  • Switching or deactivating Arts immediately resets Shulk's movement attributes. For example, he no longer has increased run speed if he is running when the Speed Art expires.
    • This removes some advanced techniques such as Monado Art run cancel, Monado Art buffered deactivation, and MonaDACUS.
  • Monado Arts have significantly amplified strengths and weaknesses, alongside much shorter durations and longer cooldowns, making the move similar to one of Shulk's previous custom moves, Hyper Monado Arts.
  • Jump Art:
    • It grants higher air speed (1.5× → 1.7×), falling speed (1.22× → 1.4×), and gravity (1.3× → 1.4×), making it far more effective for aerial movement.
    • It lasts significantly shorter (16s → 6s) and has a longer cooldown (10s → 18s).
    • It increases damage taken even more (1.22× → 1.3×).
  • Speed Art:
    • It grants Shulk higher initial dash and run speeds (1.7× → 2×), and a higher air speed (1.3× → 1.4×). Combined with the reduced landing lag of Shulk's aerials, Speed is a more effective aerial rushdown and spacing tool.