erico9001
You must find your own path to the future.
Playing fun friendlies? Exploring modes? Even if you are a competitive player (like I am), you might find yourself in a traditionally non-competitive match. As it happens, Shulk has astounding advantages in this field which have not been discussed anywhere else. His unique Monado Arts and powerful counter (Vision) provide several tactics which can be used in casual environments, which are totally unique from all other characters. This thread serves as a guide to how this deep character can exploit casual mechanics. Also, these techniques can be very counter-intuitive, so I was often surprised while finding these things.
Let's start with items. You find an item... what do you do with it?
Deadly Lip's Stick
Most characters are not very excited to find the Lip's Stick item. Sure, it's alright, but they would rather have something else. This is not the case with Shulk at all. A mechanic that has been carried over from Brawl is the more damage that a flower hitbox has, the greater the amount of damage that the flower will do. The amount of after effect the Lip's Stick has while you are in Monado Buster with it is alarming. One dash attack will normally deal 10% damage at first and accumulate to 27% damage. However, in Monado Buster, that turns to 14% at first then accumulating to 40% damage. Yep, that's just one dash attack. Additionally, a fully charged smash attack normally accumulates 60% damage, but that turns into 84% damage with Buster.
Other held items are changed by all Monado Arts too. Your beam sword (with Smash, great for kills if smash attacking), fire bar, Ore Club, Home Run Bat, etc.
Two held items that do not have their damage/knockback changed as a result of monado arts is the hammer and the golden hammer. If you go to Smash before grabbing the hammer thinking it will help you kill people, you are wrong. Since they do not change damage/knockback from the monado arts, the best arts to be in for the hammer and the golden hammer are Monado Speed and Monado Jump. You go quite fast on ground and in air with them. Monado Jump is preferred for the regular hammer, as it has a more vertical knockback angle, allowing for easier kills if you are higher ie in Monado Jump (it's fun to fly around the stage with the hammer btw). If you're getting the golden hammer, Monado Speed is better, as the improved ground speed helps catch up to people for that horizontal kill angle you are trying to get (don't forget you can spam A off-stage with the golden hammer to float).
Smash Ball
Monado Jump or Monado Buster. Jump helps you to actually land hits on it, while Buster actually helps you to destroy it. Avoid Speed/Shield/Smash, as they make it harder to destroy the ball. Buster does improve the damage of the final smash, and if it deactivated while you are attacking with dunban and riki, you will get the usual knockback amount at the end.
Timer
What do you do if you slow down the opponent with the timer? Well, one thing to do is to do the Monado Buster Back Throw -> Back Slash -> Back Slash -> Back Slash -> Deactivate your Monado Art -> Full Hop Back Slash true combo! It kills! If they are already at high percent... well, how about Monado Smash B-throw -> Full Hop Back Slash (Kills Mario at 80% from the far side of FD). You even have time to switch to Monado Smash AFTER you B-throw the opponent, and still true combo kill him.
Bunny Ears:
Monado Speed and Monado Jump have no effect on movement speed or jump height. Neither does Monado Shield. The best art to be in is Monado Shield with bunny ears.
There are much more useful applications to items that I am leaving out, so be sure to look into this thread:
For more info on items:
http://smashboards.com/threads/wip-monado-arts-stats-affect-items.375560/
Smash Run
Thanks to the power of the Monado, Shulk is deadly in Smash Run. When on the Smash Run map, Monado Jump and Monado Speed really help you to get around, and Monado Buster lets you kill enemies much faster. Monado Jump is, obviously, great for the Climb challenge and Monado Speed is great for the Race challenge. With Climb, just be careful you aren't always doing double jumps because you will probably end up in the fire things.
Multi-Man Smash
Monado Smash may seem like the best choice at first, but many of the miis already are killed easily without it. In other words, Smash is sometimes overkill. Since Monado Speed and Monado Shield barely reduce knockback (they are designed to more reduce damage, not knockback, but there is a very slight effect on knockback), those Monado Arts can be used in their respective matters. Shield can improve your survivability in Endless Smash while Speed can help you to if you are using a strategy where you move to the opponent rather than let them move to you.
- Cruel Smash: Use Monado Smash, go to the edge, and try to get them with a forward counter (and possibly jump off stage and hit them with Bair or Fair)
Home Run Contest
Use Buster to rack up damage and switch to Smash just before you hit the sandbag away. A very easy way to get high scores with Shulk is to hit the sandbag with the Home Run Bat while in Monado Buster. You can do this twice. Additionally, if you put yourself in a position where you hit the sandbag behind you for the second hit with the bat, you can even do a third. Then either try to squeeze in some more damage or just hit it away.
Here's a great score with Shulk.
Trophy Rush
Shulk is pretty good at trophy rush thanks to the range of his attacks. Utilize his aerials, side tilt, and up tilt for the best results. Monado Buster allows the Monado to slice through the harder to destroy objects like butter, so is very useful. Monado Jump can also help jump over obstacles that block you from getting to a high stack of objects.
Classic Mode
Buster is nice to start off against metal opponents, and the up tilt seems to be the best option for the multi-man smash (or the other path choice).
Counter is terrific for facing Master Hand/Crazy Hand/Master Core. It does a ton of damage and can be used (with correct timing) to combat against most of crazy/master hand's moves. It works on several of Master Core's moves as well, but not as high of a percentage of them.
- Other than that, the only other noteworthy thing is the fact that items are on.
Using Counter on Items
Shulk's counter is another reason he is great with items on. Here's a list of items Shulk can counter:
--Hammer and Golden Hammer (works greatly!)
-Bob-ombs (great for when they are walking across the ground)
-Bombchus
-Blastbox (rare, but suppose mario used a fireball...)
-Any pummel item (home run bat, fire bar, Ore Club)
-Most projectiles (thrown items, ray gun, ore club's tornado, freezie, etc)
-Hotheads
-Green Shells
-Thrown Springs
-Unira (thrown AND already set-up)
-(probably team healer thrown from enemy)
-POW blocks (even when not thrown at you)
-Boomerangs (actually knocks the boomerange away and prevents it from going back to opponent)
-Cuckoo (but doesn't help anything)
-Bees (thrown item should work I think, but the bees themselves =only when swarm is initially coming at you)
-Various attacks from pokeballs/assist trophies
-Thrown banana peels
-Thrown bumpers
Items that cannot be countered:
-Gooey Bombs (unlike Megaman's crash bomber)
-X-Bomb (the explosion)
-Smart Bomb
-Hocotate Bomb (rocket bomb)
-Deku Nuts
-Dragoon
-Warpstar
-Bullet Bill
-Pitfall
-Banana peels (already on ground)
-Already set up bumpers
-Spiny Shells
-Beetle
Timed Matches
If you need to stall, you can use either MJump and jump out of everyone's reach or MShield and tank hits.
Wii U Advantages
Coin battles - Coins in coin battles depend on damage output, so Monado Buster is what to go to here. Avoid Monado Shield and Monado Smash (unless opponent is at high damage and you want to kill.) In FFAs, MShield would not be very good because you move slower -> Pick up less coins. Also remember that hitting opponents does not steal coins but produces them - coins are only lost at death.
Stamina matches - In FFA Stanima matches, Monado Jump lets you avoid everyone for most of the match. Switch through that and Monado Shield and let everyone else kill each other. Monado Buster probably isn't bad here. Don't use Monado Smash in Stanima.
8-player Smashes - A somewhat similar strategy to Stanima matches can be used in battles with large amounts of people. However, Monado Smash may be good on the occasion you are not at high hp and you see someone with high hp that you want to target.
FFA Stock matches - Stalling With Monado Jump and Monado Shield is again useful here. This especially true for 8-player+ stock matches.
Special Smash mode -
Remember that Bunny Ears null the movement effects of Monado Shield, Monado Jump, and Monado Speed. Therefore, Monado Jump and Monado Speed, due to having greater damage intake and lower damage output respectively, are not good arts to use in this mode. Monado Shield is much improved, however.
Metal - When you are Metal you can replace Short hop -> Neutral air -> fast fall attacks with Short hop -> Neutral air. You can also do Full hop Neutral air and then fast fall for the same effect SH NAir FF normally has. You can also do this in Monado Jump.
Clear - Shulk has a disadvantage here because he is quite visible. You see the graphical effects of the Monado Arts you are using even though you're invisible, and you also see the graphical effect of the Monado's beam when you're attacking. It's kind of cool though.
Rocket Belt, Screw attack, and Squirrel Tail - See what I said about these in the items section
Reflect items - Shulk is typically worse against projectile users, so this should be good for him.
Master Orders - Obviously, Shulk excels at Home Rune Contest due to the Buster/Smash combo. The stuff I said about Stamina battles above often comes into use. Sometimes when doing horde battles it's a good idea to go to Smash if you need extra launch power. Same for coin battles.
Crazy Orders - Shulk's actually really good at doing these. Giant battles are incredibly easy for Shulk - just go to Buster and spam your Utilt. You get the giant opponent really high in hp really fast because they find it hard to deal with the move. I would personally avoid horde battles, but U-tilt is the go to move here. I wouldn't recommend stalling with MJump or MShield in general because you're on a timer. The final battle against crazy hand is pretty easy - utilizing Buster and counters like previously discussed.
Wii U Stages -
Paulutena's Temple - As I thought from the moment I saw the stage, you can definitely stall people out by just running away with Monado Jump. An opponent can't keep up.
Dr. Wily's Castle - Can easily hurt the yellow devil from behind him with Fair, Bair, U-tilt (don't get too close or you'll slide away though), and even Nair. Buster also kills the Yellow Devil faster - takes only 4 Bairs to kill him rather than 6.
Boxing Ring - Monado Buster helps to bring down the lights hanging from the ceiling. You can get up there with two jumps in Monado Jump and to bring it down all it takes is a fully charged down smash and an uncharged down smash. This is thanks to the down smash's multiple hits. Monado Jump also increases your height when jumping on the boxing ring's sides - gets you just enough height to land on the lights.
Mario Circuit (Brawl) - You can counter the racers.
Mario Circuit - You can counter the racers here too.
Norfair - When the big wave of lava comes you can counter that - good damage/knockback. You can counter the other forms of lava too (not sure about the shooting fire) but usually that will just leave you going into the lava.
Pyrosphere - I'm finding it difficult to test whether damage or knockback matters more vs Ridley. I could use help. You can counter Ridley's attacks, however.
Bridge of Eldin - You can run across this faster than Epona if you're in MSpeed. Otherwise you can counter Bulbin - possible surprise attack for your enemies. You can also counter the bomb, but you're not going to hit anyone so there's no point. You can always shield the bomb.
Port Town Aero Dive - You can counter the cars but it's not worth the risk. I tried it in practice mode and following my counter three cars hit me and I died. It's better just to either jump above them (MJump could help) or go to the side to avoid them.
Onett - You can counter the cars that travel by.
Gamer - You can counter 5-Volt's strike (when she catches you). The direction you head is the direction the mom is in proportion to you. This gives very early KOs. Additionally, if the opponent is also caught, the hitstun on the move is long enough that they will actually be hit by both Mom's hit AND your counter.
Gaur Plains - You have awesome Xenoblade music to pump you up. Monado Buster helps defeat Metal Face. You can counter all of Metal Face's attacks (including the beam)... except, I'm not sure about when an opponent kills him and he explodes. Monado Jump and Monado Speed are nice for getting around this large stage
Let's start with items. You find an item... what do you do with it?
Deadly Lip's Stick
Most characters are not very excited to find the Lip's Stick item. Sure, it's alright, but they would rather have something else. This is not the case with Shulk at all. A mechanic that has been carried over from Brawl is the more damage that a flower hitbox has, the greater the amount of damage that the flower will do. The amount of after effect the Lip's Stick has while you are in Monado Buster with it is alarming. One dash attack will normally deal 10% damage at first and accumulate to 27% damage. However, in Monado Buster, that turns to 14% at first then accumulating to 40% damage. Yep, that's just one dash attack. Additionally, a fully charged smash attack normally accumulates 60% damage, but that turns into 84% damage with Buster.
Other held items are changed by all Monado Arts too. Your beam sword (with Smash, great for kills if smash attacking), fire bar, Ore Club, Home Run Bat, etc.
Two held items that do not have their damage/knockback changed as a result of monado arts is the hammer and the golden hammer. If you go to Smash before grabbing the hammer thinking it will help you kill people, you are wrong. Since they do not change damage/knockback from the monado arts, the best arts to be in for the hammer and the golden hammer are Monado Speed and Monado Jump. You go quite fast on ground and in air with them. Monado Jump is preferred for the regular hammer, as it has a more vertical knockback angle, allowing for easier kills if you are higher ie in Monado Jump (it's fun to fly around the stage with the hammer btw). If you're getting the golden hammer, Monado Speed is better, as the improved ground speed helps catch up to people for that horizontal kill angle you are trying to get (don't forget you can spam A off-stage with the golden hammer to float).
Smash Ball
Monado Jump or Monado Buster. Jump helps you to actually land hits on it, while Buster actually helps you to destroy it. Avoid Speed/Shield/Smash, as they make it harder to destroy the ball. Buster does improve the damage of the final smash, and if it deactivated while you are attacking with dunban and riki, you will get the usual knockback amount at the end.
Timer
What do you do if you slow down the opponent with the timer? Well, one thing to do is to do the Monado Buster Back Throw -> Back Slash -> Back Slash -> Back Slash -> Deactivate your Monado Art -> Full Hop Back Slash true combo! It kills! If they are already at high percent... well, how about Monado Smash B-throw -> Full Hop Back Slash (Kills Mario at 80% from the far side of FD). You even have time to switch to Monado Smash AFTER you B-throw the opponent, and still true combo kill him.
Bunny Ears:
Monado Speed and Monado Jump have no effect on movement speed or jump height. Neither does Monado Shield. The best art to be in is Monado Shield with bunny ears.
There are much more useful applications to items that I am leaving out, so be sure to look into this thread:
For more info on items:
http://smashboards.com/threads/wip-monado-arts-stats-affect-items.375560/
Smash Run
Thanks to the power of the Monado, Shulk is deadly in Smash Run. When on the Smash Run map, Monado Jump and Monado Speed really help you to get around, and Monado Buster lets you kill enemies much faster. Monado Jump is, obviously, great for the Climb challenge and Monado Speed is great for the Race challenge. With Climb, just be careful you aren't always doing double jumps because you will probably end up in the fire things.
Multi-Man Smash
Monado Smash may seem like the best choice at first, but many of the miis already are killed easily without it. In other words, Smash is sometimes overkill. Since Monado Speed and Monado Shield barely reduce knockback (they are designed to more reduce damage, not knockback, but there is a very slight effect on knockback), those Monado Arts can be used in their respective matters. Shield can improve your survivability in Endless Smash while Speed can help you to if you are using a strategy where you move to the opponent rather than let them move to you.
- Cruel Smash: Use Monado Smash, go to the edge, and try to get them with a forward counter (and possibly jump off stage and hit them with Bair or Fair)
Home Run Contest
Use Buster to rack up damage and switch to Smash just before you hit the sandbag away. A very easy way to get high scores with Shulk is to hit the sandbag with the Home Run Bat while in Monado Buster. You can do this twice. Additionally, if you put yourself in a position where you hit the sandbag behind you for the second hit with the bat, you can even do a third. Then either try to squeeze in some more damage or just hit it away.
Here's a great score with Shulk.
Shulk is pretty good at trophy rush thanks to the range of his attacks. Utilize his aerials, side tilt, and up tilt for the best results. Monado Buster allows the Monado to slice through the harder to destroy objects like butter, so is very useful. Monado Jump can also help jump over obstacles that block you from getting to a high stack of objects.
Classic Mode
Buster is nice to start off against metal opponents, and the up tilt seems to be the best option for the multi-man smash (or the other path choice).
Counter is terrific for facing Master Hand/Crazy Hand/Master Core. It does a ton of damage and can be used (with correct timing) to combat against most of crazy/master hand's moves. It works on several of Master Core's moves as well, but not as high of a percentage of them.
- Other than that, the only other noteworthy thing is the fact that items are on.
Using Counter on Items
Shulk's counter is another reason he is great with items on. Here's a list of items Shulk can counter:
--Hammer and Golden Hammer (works greatly!)
-Bob-ombs (great for when they are walking across the ground)
-Bombchus
-Blastbox (rare, but suppose mario used a fireball...)
-Any pummel item (home run bat, fire bar, Ore Club)
-Most projectiles (thrown items, ray gun, ore club's tornado, freezie, etc)
-Hotheads
-Green Shells
-Thrown Springs
-Unira (thrown AND already set-up)
-(probably team healer thrown from enemy)
-POW blocks (even when not thrown at you)
-Boomerangs (actually knocks the boomerange away and prevents it from going back to opponent)
-Cuckoo (but doesn't help anything)
-Bees (thrown item should work I think, but the bees themselves =only when swarm is initially coming at you)
-Various attacks from pokeballs/assist trophies
-Thrown banana peels
-Thrown bumpers
Items that cannot be countered:
-Gooey Bombs (unlike Megaman's crash bomber)
-X-Bomb (the explosion)
-Smart Bomb
-Hocotate Bomb (rocket bomb)
-Deku Nuts
-Dragoon
-Warpstar
-Bullet Bill
-Pitfall
-Banana peels (already on ground)
-Already set up bumpers
-Spiny Shells
-Beetle
Timed Matches
If you need to stall, you can use either MJump and jump out of everyone's reach or MShield and tank hits.
- - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - - - - - -
Wii U Advantages
Coin battles - Coins in coin battles depend on damage output, so Monado Buster is what to go to here. Avoid Monado Shield and Monado Smash (unless opponent is at high damage and you want to kill.) In FFAs, MShield would not be very good because you move slower -> Pick up less coins. Also remember that hitting opponents does not steal coins but produces them - coins are only lost at death.
Stamina matches - In FFA Stanima matches, Monado Jump lets you avoid everyone for most of the match. Switch through that and Monado Shield and let everyone else kill each other. Monado Buster probably isn't bad here. Don't use Monado Smash in Stanima.
8-player Smashes - A somewhat similar strategy to Stanima matches can be used in battles with large amounts of people. However, Monado Smash may be good on the occasion you are not at high hp and you see someone with high hp that you want to target.
FFA Stock matches - Stalling With Monado Jump and Monado Shield is again useful here. This especially true for 8-player+ stock matches.
Special Smash mode -
Remember that Bunny Ears null the movement effects of Monado Shield, Monado Jump, and Monado Speed. Therefore, Monado Jump and Monado Speed, due to having greater damage intake and lower damage output respectively, are not good arts to use in this mode. Monado Shield is much improved, however.
Metal - When you are Metal you can replace Short hop -> Neutral air -> fast fall attacks with Short hop -> Neutral air. You can also do Full hop Neutral air and then fast fall for the same effect SH NAir FF normally has. You can also do this in Monado Jump.
Clear - Shulk has a disadvantage here because he is quite visible. You see the graphical effects of the Monado Arts you are using even though you're invisible, and you also see the graphical effect of the Monado's beam when you're attacking. It's kind of cool though.
Rocket Belt, Screw attack, and Squirrel Tail - See what I said about these in the items section
Reflect items - Shulk is typically worse against projectile users, so this should be good for him.
Master Orders - Obviously, Shulk excels at Home Rune Contest due to the Buster/Smash combo. The stuff I said about Stamina battles above often comes into use. Sometimes when doing horde battles it's a good idea to go to Smash if you need extra launch power. Same for coin battles.
Crazy Orders - Shulk's actually really good at doing these. Giant battles are incredibly easy for Shulk - just go to Buster and spam your Utilt. You get the giant opponent really high in hp really fast because they find it hard to deal with the move. I would personally avoid horde battles, but U-tilt is the go to move here. I wouldn't recommend stalling with MJump or MShield in general because you're on a timer. The final battle against crazy hand is pretty easy - utilizing Buster and counters like previously discussed.
Wii U Stages -
Paulutena's Temple - As I thought from the moment I saw the stage, you can definitely stall people out by just running away with Monado Jump. An opponent can't keep up.
Dr. Wily's Castle - Can easily hurt the yellow devil from behind him with Fair, Bair, U-tilt (don't get too close or you'll slide away though), and even Nair. Buster also kills the Yellow Devil faster - takes only 4 Bairs to kill him rather than 6.
Boxing Ring - Monado Buster helps to bring down the lights hanging from the ceiling. You can get up there with two jumps in Monado Jump and to bring it down all it takes is a fully charged down smash and an uncharged down smash. This is thanks to the down smash's multiple hits. Monado Jump also increases your height when jumping on the boxing ring's sides - gets you just enough height to land on the lights.
Mario Circuit (Brawl) - You can counter the racers.
Mario Circuit - You can counter the racers here too.
Norfair - When the big wave of lava comes you can counter that - good damage/knockback. You can counter the other forms of lava too (not sure about the shooting fire) but usually that will just leave you going into the lava.
Pyrosphere - I'm finding it difficult to test whether damage or knockback matters more vs Ridley. I could use help. You can counter Ridley's attacks, however.
Bridge of Eldin - You can run across this faster than Epona if you're in MSpeed. Otherwise you can counter Bulbin - possible surprise attack for your enemies. You can also counter the bomb, but you're not going to hit anyone so there's no point. You can always shield the bomb.
Port Town Aero Dive - You can counter the cars but it's not worth the risk. I tried it in practice mode and following my counter three cars hit me and I died. It's better just to either jump above them (MJump could help) or go to the side to avoid them.
Onett - You can counter the cars that travel by.
Gamer - You can counter 5-Volt's strike (when she catches you). The direction you head is the direction the mom is in proportion to you. This gives very early KOs. Additionally, if the opponent is also caught, the hitstun on the move is long enough that they will actually be hit by both Mom's hit AND your counter.
Gaur Plains - You have awesome Xenoblade music to pump you up. Monado Buster helps defeat Metal Face. You can counter all of Metal Face's attacks (including the beam)... except, I'm not sure about when an opponent kills him and he explodes. Monado Jump and Monado Speed are nice for getting around this large stage
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Imo that's huge because HRB has always been a guaranteed OHKO item since Smash 64. I never tried testing out BSC's Super Armor versus Home-Run Bat but that's another time.