Shulk (SSBU)

Shulk (, Shulk) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Shulk is classified as Fighter #57.

and 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 and 's reveal trailer.

Shulk is ranked 19th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him at the bottom of the S- 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 Shulk 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 the amount of strengths, Shulk is not flawless. He still retains his sluggish frame data and startup of a 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 if it gets disrupted, he can lose his stock fairly early if he has used his midair jump, even with Jump Art in store. Speaking of Monado Arts, despite giving Shulk upgrades, they also grant multiples downsides. For example, while Smash Art gives him better KO power, it also greatly increases knockback taken, giving Shulk a worse endurance than even Pichu while in Smash Art, giving it some risk to using it. Finally, Shulk is one of the most difficult characters to master since he has a lot of advanced techniques, and properly using Monado Arts mid-match has to account for fast decision-making to see which art is best suited for each situation.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: Shulk must then be defeated on Gaur Plain (the Ω form is used in World of Light).
 * Play VS. matches, with Shulk being the 22nd character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in its unlock tree, being the 2nd character unlocked after.
 * Have Shulk join the player's party 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, 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 possess 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 makes 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, 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 usually average ground speed 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 in order 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 ing. 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 punish 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, which bypasses edge get-up animations while protecting the user with brief intangibility. When mastered, Shulk's Monado Art techniques can be very effective and unpredictable mix-up options that are inaccessible by 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 from, 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 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 (with the exception of 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 inputted 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 his other attributes to drop, weakening some of his 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 high 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 lowers his endurance, 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 in order 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 skill 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 got a mix of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate, but he was buffed overall. Just like, his infamously sluggish moveset has been sped up: the universal reduction of landing lag and the endlag reduction to his dash attack grant 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 one of his biggest weaknesses in SSB4, as his aerial landings were notoriously punishable. In addition, the implementation of cancelling a dash with any ground move allows him to approach with his high-ranged tilts, and the addition of pseudo-dash dancing alleviates his previously low traction and turnaround time.

Shulk's defining Monado Arts have also been altered significantly, now performing more like Hyper Monado Arts from SSB4. Their benefits have been boosted: Buster now grants Shulk true throw combos, alleviating the loss of Speed ones due to the new knockback physics, Shield allows him to stay grounded even after smash attacks at low percents, and Smash now buffs Shulk's KO potential to such an extent that he is capable of KOing very early with tilts, aerials and smash attacks. Moreover, 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, by switching to Shield or Smash arts.

Shulk's nerfs were noticeable, however. His previously heavy weight has been reduced, his very damaging neutral attack has been significantly toned down and its reach was further nerfed, his back aerial has lost its large early body hitbox and has smaller hitboxes, and his throws are all less damaging and have less knockback, except up throw (which will not KO below 300% under normal circumstances anyways), with down throw no longer being the strongest in the game. His infamous Vision had its knockback scaling slightly reduced, it is no longer unblockable and the counterattack hits less reliably under some circumstances, like activating it in the air or countering a projectile. While the changes to his Monado Arts improve its strengths, they last significantly shorter, have much longer cooldown times, and their drawbacks have been significantly amplified, making each Art much riskier to use and more susceptible to counterplay such as camping and shielding. Lastly, Shulk still has most of his noticeable flaws, such as a poor approach, poor frame data, poor out of shield options, poor disadvantage (especially when Shield Art is on cooldown) and trouble landing.

As a result, Shulk's playstyle revolves less around taking advantage of Monado Arts at all times, and he now depends on using his improved kit to make use of his stronger, shorter-lasting Monado Art abilities when he is able to get an opening.

Update history
Shulk received a mix of buffs, glitch fixes and a single nerf via game updates. Update 2.0.0 enabled forward aerial to autocancel slightly earlier and decreased its edge lockout duration, the latter of which was also applied to up aerial. Update 3.0.0 increased the ranges of Shulk's floor and edge attacks, while update 3.1.0 did the same for neutral attack's second hit. Interestingly, update 8.0.0 granted Shulk a buff that was not mentioned in the official patch notes: aerial Vision's counterattack now grants Shulk intangibility on frame 1.

Update 9.0.0 increased the knockback scaling of Vision's counterattack, which restored most of the strength it lost in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. The central hitbox of up smash's first hit gained more hitstun, which enables it to connect more reliably into the second hit. Lastly, the Shield Art's multiplier for knockback received was increased, which worsened its renowned durability and Shulk's disadvantage state.

Overall, Shulk fares similarly well as he did at the launch of Ultimate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Shulk's hitboxes, see here.
 * Shulk's damage outputs and knockback can be manipulated by Monado Arts. The following moveset list details the properties of his attacks when he has no active Monado Arts.
 * With the exception of neutral attack, up smash, throws, and getup attacks, all of Shulk's attacks that use the Monado have a sweetspot on the blade itself and a sourspot on the beam, much like 's reverse tipper mechanic. For simplicity, if for example, such an attack deals 10% damage with the blade and 9% with the beam, its damage output is listed as 10%/9%.

On-screen appearance

 * Jumps down onto the stage while performing a downward slash using the Monado. Shulk then quickly turns his back to the screen and places the Monado on his back while Buster's symbol flashes briefly.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Holds his right hand out and says while shaking his head, "Now it's Shulk time!" (, Not being gentle, huh?). The animation itself resembles the one Shulk performs when engaging in a conversation in Xenoblade Chronicles. The English phrase is a reference to Reyn, his best friend and one of his party members, who utters the phrase "Now it's Reyn time!" whenever his Talent Art gauge is completely filled during combat. The Japanese phrase similarly references a popular phrase in Japan; in this case, a line Shulk commonly says when accepting quests.
 * Side taunt: Grips the Monado's handle with his right hand while triumphantly pumping his left fist and announcing "I'm really feeling it!" (, Gradually getting the hang of it!). This is one of the lines Shulk may announce in Xenoblade Chronicles when his tension level increases in combat.
 * Down taunt: Grips the Monado with both hands, activates it, and poses similarly to when he activates Buster while saying "This is the Monado's power!" (, The Monado's power! / The power of the Monado!). If timed correctly, it can dodge certain projectiles, such as, Bow and Arrows, and Palutena Bow. This is one of the lines Shulk may announce when he uses his "Activate Monado" Talent Art in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Idle poses

 * Taps his foot while thinking about something. It is based on his idle animation from Xenoblade Chronicles.
 * Tenses and quickly looks behind himself, then in front of himself before easing up.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Raises the Monado, activates it, and swings it in an outward, downward arc. He then deactivates it and places it on his back, saying either "I got through that pretty good!" (, All good, it's been quite resolved.) or "This is a good result!" (, It was a splendid completion, huh?).
 * Up: Swings the Monado twice while it is active (the first swing is inward with both hands, and the second is an outward swing with his right arm). Then he holds it level to his head (horizontally lengthwise) as it deactivates, saying either "The future is ours to decide." (, Everyone's feelings have been coming through!) or "I've got a good rhythm going!" (, For real, this makes it a good flow!).
 * Right: Bows down with the Monado held lengthwise, with the Monado activating before Shulk holds it in a reverse grip, saying either "I can feel the power!" (, Hmm, I feel the power.) or "I can change the future." (, The future… I can change it!).

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Shulk players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Shulk players in the United States. Placed 3rd at, 4th at , 5th at , 17th at , and 49th at with wins over players such as  and.
 * - The best Shulk player in Mexico. Placed 9th at both and, 13th at , and 33rd at  with wins over players such as , , and . Currently ranked 30th on the Mexican Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Shulk players in the United States. Placed 1st at, 2nd at , 5th at both and , and 13th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Formerly ranked 2nd on the Oregon Power Rankings.
 * - The best Shulk player in the world. Placed 1st at, 2nd at , , and , and 3rd at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 25th on the Fall 2019 PGRU.
 * - One of the best Shulk players in the world in the early metagame. Placed 1st at, 2nd at , 5th at , 13th at , and 17th at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 36th on the Fall 2019 PGRU
 * - Used Shulk alongside and, and was considered one of the best Shulk players in the world before he was banned. Placed 7th at , 13th at , 17th at , and 25th at  with wins over players such as  and . Ranked 30th on the Fall 2019 PGRU.
 * - One of the best Shulk players in Europe. Placed 1st at, 4th at both and , 7th at , and 9th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 11th on the European Smash Rankings.
 * - The best Shulk player in Florida. Placed 9th at both and, 17th at , and 25th at both  and  with wins over players such as , , and.

Tier placement and history
Throughout Ultimate's lifespan, many players placed Shulk as a high tier or even a top tier character in their own tier lists; this is due to the many buffs he received from the previous games that gave him better frame data and stronger Monado Arts. However, due to a high learning curve and reliance of advanced techniques such as dial storage, Shulk's playerbase has remained rather small compared to other top and high tier characters; his representation has hovered around the top 30 for most of the game's competitive lifespan. Despite his small playerbase, his best players have historically performed well with the character. Shulk was represented in the early metagame by and, both of whom were ultimately ranked on the Fall 2019 PGRU. Although Nicko became less active nationally after the online metagame, Kome continued to see strong, albeit inconsistent, results at majors, while also achieved some good placements in the United States. As such, despite the smaller playerbase, his strong performances from dedicated mains led to him being ranked 19th on the current tier list, at the end of the top tier.

: Witness the Monado's Power
Shulk's opponents represent one of the Monado Arts and are fought in the cycling order of each Art in Super Smash Bros. 4. The penultimate battle against continues the theme by having Mega Man represent Monado Enchant from Xenoblade Chronicles (represented by the kanji for "Machine"), which references that Art's ability of allowing Shulk's party to damage  with conventional weapons.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Shulk has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Shulk was among the fighters that were summoned to fight the army of Master Hands.

After the Master Hands begin turning into energy for Galeem to absorb, Shulk experiences a where all of the fighters are annihilated and the universe engulfed in light. Shulk turns back attempting to warn everyone, but before he can tell the other fighters what he foresaw, his vision comes true when Galeem unleashes a shower of light that vaporizes Shulk off-screen and imprisons him with the rest of the fighters except for.

In the mode proper, he can be found right over a cliff that leads to a waterfall. The area Shulk can be found at is rocky and grassy with many water features, reminiscent to the appearance of Gaur Plain. The Camilla spirit must be defeated right before he can be challenged.

Spirit
Shulk's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Shulk has been unlocked. Unlocking Shulk in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Shulk's pose in his official render resembles the pose he assumes when selecting Monado Arts from the move's menu.
 * Shulk's artwork was one of the three that have been updated on the official site, alongside and . In his case, the lighting on his hair and face have been modified, making his features appear less flat.
 * In the Gourmet Race section of the World of Light, a visual glitch occurs when the "New Record!" announcement appears. After it shows, Shulk will run with the Monado in hand until he performs another action.
 * Despite fighting mechanical foes in his game, Galleom does not appear as a boss in Shulk's Classic Mode route.
 * In Shulk's right victory pose, his mouth will either be open or closed during the actual pose depending on what quote he is saying. His mouth will be closed if the "I can change the future!" quote plays, while it will be open if his "I can feel the power!" quote is played.
 * Shulk appears in the most Legend-rank spirit battles as an ally, at a total of four.
 * Specifically, he appears in the Mecha-Fiora, Pyra, Mythra, and spirit battles.

Shulk (SSBU)