| Monado Arts | |
|---|---|
 Activating the Smash Art | |
| User | Shulk |
| Universe | Xenoblade |
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 temporarily enhancing 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 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. If Shulk activates an Art while staying still, he poses and announces the activated Art's name upon activation; this animation grants intangibility during the first few frames. While an Art is activated, Shulk receives buffs to certain stats while also receiving nerfs to others.
| Kanji | Monado Art | Color | Affected stats | Activation pose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 翔* | Jump (ジャンプ) | Green |  Increased jump height, air speed, falling speed, and Air Slash height More damage taken (22% more), more knockback takenAn 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. However, this Art gives Shulk the most damage vulnerability out of all other Arts, including Buster, and also reduces his survivability, and it is advised to switch out of it if being knocked around. |
 |
| 疾* | Speed (スピード) | Blue | Increased movement speed, air speed Lower jump height, less damage dealt (20% less) Lower TractionAn Art that improves Shulk's approach, spacing options and short hops, but lowers damage dealt. 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 attacks. Lowered jump height can be an issue if recovering, 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. |
 |
| 盾 | Shield (シールド) | Yellow | Increased weight, less knockback and damage taken (33% less), higher shield longevity Lower jump height, air speed, and movement speed, less damage dealt (30% less) An Art focused on defense and survivability, but cripples movement speed, damage and offstage recovery. A solely defensive Art, as Shulk can survive to extreme percentages, but reduced damage and mobility makes it difficult to gain 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). |
 |
| 斬* | Buster (バスター) | Purple | More damage dealt, increased shield damage given, higher freeze frames on hit More damage taken (13% more) Less knockback dealt A high-risk Art that allows Shulk to deal high damage in a short amount of time while lowering his KO potential and defense. His throws open up highly-damaging combo opportunities, and his attacks deal increased shield push and shield damage, making him less prone to shield grabs and allows him to break shields. However, his KO power becomes extremely low, and this art makes Shulk incredibly vulnerable to opponent's combos which can easily send his percentage up significantly if he is careless. |
 |
| 撃* | Smash (スマッシュ) | Red | More knockback dealt Less damage dealt (50% less), decreased shield damage given, more knockback taken, less freeze frames on hit A high-risk Art generally for KO options and edgeguarding, which makes almost all of Shulk's moves low damage, high knockback finishing moves. Shulk's down throw becomes the strongest down throw in the game and his smash attacks can KO as early as 70%, although shield stun is reduced and makes all his attacks more punishable, while Shulk's survivability becomes as low as Jigglypuff's. |
 |
- *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/Dash!), 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. Monado Arts can be cancelled by pressing the special button three times, or by holding down the special button for one full second. Once an Art activates or is cancelled 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 KO'd. 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.
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.
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, as Jump gives him high jumps that can easily pass the upper blast line after three jumps, and Buster can trap opponents in a chain of attacks far past basic KO percentage; particularly his up tilt which can juggle most characters for longer than usual to rack up large amounts of damage. However, unlike Shulk's up B moves, Kirby's gain no benefit from Jump mode.
Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling
An advanced technique, named Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling, or 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.
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.
This technique is especially beneficial to Shulk because majority of his aerials have noticeable ending lag (excluding his neutral air) and none of his aerials regularly cancel out of a full jump (and most do not cancel even from a double jump). Shulk's back aerial benefits greatly from this, as it suffers from the most ending lag of all his aerials, while having the longest range and good KO power. 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 an opponent with Shield mode 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.
Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the known 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." |
- Monado Arts: Default.
- Decisive Monado Arts: Arts last for 5 more seconds and recharge 5 seconds sooner, but once an Art is activated, it cannot be canceled or changed for another Art.
- Hyper Monado Arts: Both positive and negative effects of Arts are amplified, but the Arts have a shorter duration time of 5 seconds. Recharging will also take 5 seconds longer.
Origin
In Xenoblade Chronicles, the wielder of the Monado has access to two additional Arts, with more being unlocked as the story progresses.
- Monado Buster is one of the Arts available from the start, acting as a powerful slash attack with an extended blade that deals additional damage to Mechon (the main antagonists of the game, which can't be damaged by weapons other than the Monado). The Smash 4 behaviour 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 Smash 4 behaviour of decreasing damage taken is more akin to Monado Armour, 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.
- 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 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 an 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.
Trivia
- This is the only neutral special move that cannot be performed while on a revival platform. It is also the only special move in the entire series 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 his Final Smash, Ultra Sword.
- 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 max 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.
