Meta "This is the Monado's Power" - Metagame Discussion

Masonomace · Sep 21, 2014

(OPs will update gradually)
The first OP you see has:

Shulk jargon to help acquaint you with terms you may not have heard before
Lots of data
Two important game-play mechanics: The Monado arts & The Monado
Shulk's move-set Maximum Horizontal & Vertical Ranges
Move-set damage tables including custom specials

Statistic tables about the Monado arts, Decisive arts, & Hyper arts
About Vision, Dash Vision, & Power Vision
Damage multiplier calculations featuring the Art multipliers & Vision multipliers

Getting a feel for the Monado Arts (Mastering switching the Arts)
Monado arts utility
Shulk's neutral
Shulk's advantage
Shulk's disadvantage
Art synergy
Ledge trapping with the Monado

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Shulk Jargon
Front = the area pertaining to the front-facing damage of Dsmash or Back Slash
Back = the area pertaining to the back-facing damage of Dsmash or Back Slash
Startup = the 1st phase aka hitbox near the beginning of BS
Initial = the 1st portion out of the 2 portions in BS's Startup
Final = the 2nd portion out of the 2 portions in BS's Startup
Falling = the 2nd phase aka hitbox near the middle of BS
Landing = the 3rd phase aka hitbox near the end of BS
Base / Hilt = Rarely occurs, but it's located within the Blade portions of a few attacks
Blade = mostly the sweetspot; the Blade is visually the Monado itself in most of Shulk's attacks
Beam = mostly the sourspot; the Beam is visually located in most of Shulk's attacks
Tipper = Rarely occurs, but it's located within the Beam portions of a few attacks
Fsmash1 = Forward smash first hit
Fsmash2 = Forward smash second hit
Uair1 = Up air first hit
Uair2 = Up air second hit
Dair1 = Down air first hit
Dair2 = Down air second hit
Vanilla = No Monado Art active
MArts = Monado Arts
Monado Jump
Monado Speed
Monado Shield
Monado Buster
Monado Smash
BS = Back Slash
\ = Back Slash
AS = Air Slash
AS1 = Air Slash first hit
AS2 = Air Slash second hit
Vision = Shulk's Down Special counter attack
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Jump Frame Data

Air Times
普 (Vanilla)
SH Air Time = 39 frames
FH Air Time = 60 frames
DJ Air Time = 62 frames

翔 (Monado Jump)
SH Air Time = 43 frames
FH Air Time = 68 frames
DJ Air Time = 70 frames

疾 (Monado Speed)
SH Air Time = 34 frames
FH Air Time = 51 frames
DJ Air Time = 53 frames

盾 (Monado Shield)
SH Air Time = 35 frames
FH Air Time = 52 frames
DJ Air Time = 54 frames

Jump Art Buffer Cancel
Perfect JABD SH Air Time = 57 frames
Perfect JABD FH Air Time = 93 frames
Perfect JABD DJ Air Time = 97 frames

Fast Fall Air Times
普 (Vanilla)
Perfect SHFF Air Time = 27 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 21
Perfect FHFF Air Time = 44 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 30
Perfect DJFF Air Time = 46 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 31

翔 (Monado Jump)
Perfect SHFF Air Time = 31 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 23
Perfect FHFF Air Time = 50 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 32
Perfect DJFF Air Time = 51 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 33

疾 (Monado Speed)
Perfect SHFF Air Time = 23 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 18
Perfect FHFF Air Time = 37 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 26
Perfect DJFF Air Time = 38 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 27

盾 (Monado Shield)
Perfect SHFF Air Time = 24 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 19
Perfect FHFF Air Time = 38 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 27
Perfect DJFF Air Time = 40 frames | Fastfall begins on frame 28

Soft Landing & Hard Landing

Soft Landing Lag is seen on the left side of the image, which looks like he's bending both knees with a small circular wave of smoke that dissipates quickly. This happens when you perform an empty short hop with Vanilla, Speed, & Shield art. However, Shulk can apply a fastfall & still result with Soft Lag if timed correctly.

Hard Landing Lag is seen on the right side of the image below, which looks like he's taking a kneel down with his right knee to the floor upon landing with a larger circular wave of smoke. In any art especially Jump art, this happens when you empty short hop & fast fall too early, full hop with & without fast falling, & doublejumping with & without fast falling.

Either state of landing lag will occur unless an aerial, airdodge, or a special move is used resulting with a different kind of landing. Shulk's airdodge landing lag animation is identical to his Hard Landing Lag state you see on the right, but airdodge landing lag is more suffering. Even the one autocancel that Vanilla Shulk & Jump Shulk share which is full hop forward air suffers Hard Landing Lag, so the one shared Fair autocancel is not very helpful or impressive.

Here's some sort of Venn diagram showing what option gets what kind of lag state:

*NEW* short hop fastfall labbing
I've lead to believe myself this whole time that whenever you input a fastfall during a Short Hop, you'd always get Hard Landing Lag. However, this self-assumption that I've chosen to put trust in due to my lack-off labbing has been recently been debunked, sort of. You can't apply a fastfall early. . .you just have to reserve enough air time frames before you land too quickly. This works with every art except for Monado Jump because Jump art always suffers Hard Lag when you use a short or full hop, so don't worry about trying to get Soft Lag with Jump.

普 (Vanilla): short hop fastfall begins as soon as frame 21 | SH air time is 39 frames.
-Input a fastfall within the frame 33-39 window to get the Soft Landing. Otherwise, a fastfall input within the frame 21-32 window induces Hard Lag.

疾 (Monado Speed): short hop fastfall begins as soon as frame 18 | SH air time is 34 frames.
-Input a fastfall within the frame 27-34 window to get the Soft Landing. Otherwise, a fastfall input within the frame 18-26 induces Hard Lag.

盾 (Monado Shield): short hop fastfall begins as soon as frame 19 | SH air time is 35 frames.
-Input a fastfall within the frame 28-35 window to get the Soft Landing. Otherwise, a fastfall input within the frame 19-27 induces Hard Lag.

Short Hop Airdodge
普 (Vanilla) & 盾 (Monado Shield)
Summary: Both Vanilla & Shield art's SHAD autocancel, which is pretty neat. Vanilla's full-on drifting SHAD has average airspeed that can travel about 1/3 length of FD, while Shield art's full-on drifting SHAD has very poor airspeed that travels about 1/6 length of FD. Rolling overall covers about 1/5 length of FD, so there's that comparison. Shield art's SHAD is meh as a mixup but a decent evade option for if you ever feel like not using your godly bubble shield. Stay grounded like usual, & go for empty hops into surprise dash attack or dash grab. The only differences between Vanilla & Shield art is whether you'd choose to be closer to the ground with smaller short hops traveling less distance, or be in the air for a little longer with a higher short hop traveling more distance. For how defensive Shield art is though, I'll give a quick math rundown: out of the 35 total frames of air time in Shield art's SH, only the first two frames of air time followed by the 7 air time frames after AD intangibility finishes including the two frames of Soft Lag. . .you're only vulnerable for a total of 9 air time frames plus two landing lag frames before holding shield. Vanilla is vulnerable for a total of 12 air time frames plus two landing lag frames before holding shield. The comparison isn't much, & the You decide~

翔 (Monado Jump)
Summary: An empty Short or Full Hop induces Hard Landing so applying fastfall is not a bad option, but there are trade-offs whether you do or don't apply it. Jump art's SHAD autocancels with Hard Lag, but one full-on drifting SHAD covers about 1/2 length of FD using amazing airspeed & the sliding friction across the ground upon landing. With this, you can really make it hard for someone to hit you which is great since you take additional damage from being hit in Jump art anyhow! The cost of using a AD in your SH is that you can't fastfall at all, so you sacrifice mixup aggression that makes Jump art's SH fearsome in Neutral. The trade-off of using SHAD over SHFF is that despite your SHFF mixups become unusable, SHAD is only vulnerable during the first two frames of air time followed by the 15 frames of air time after AD intangibility finishes (this is a total of 17 remaining vulnerable frames of air time out of 43 total frames of air time). The SHAD's landing slide across the ground is large & the defensive nature of the input maintains a high level of safety that not very many characters could contest in hopes to punish you.

疾 (Monado Speed)
Summary: SHAD on its own without anything else is pretty bad because of the fact that you take airdodge landing lag, which is 21 frames. On the other hand, it's not a bad option if you choose to buffer input a doublejump, aerial, or special move before landing so that you don't take airdodge's horrendous landing lag. The better options to input after a SHAD would be Nair for the low landing lag, or to doublejump towards or away from your opponent. Although, a special move given the right moment can be effective too. Mostly though for Speed art you'll want to go for empty hop mixups into an instant landing to running grab or pivot option from out of nowhere for a surprise factor. The SHAD itself will cover a little over 1/3 length of FD (the third SHAD lands on the ground, sliding off the ledge, only suffering some of the airdodge landing lag).

Jump height table with rankings
I used a custom stage consisting of a platform floor, two solid ledges, & platforms stacking upward 1 grid unit apart reaching 27 platforms high. Whichever platform Shulk landed on was how high he reached.

Key
SH = Short Hop
FH = Full Hop
DJ = Double Jump
LJ = Ledge Jump
SBJ = Shield Break Jump (when your shield breaks)
TFJ = Tapped Footstool Jump (when you only tap the jump button during the footstool)
HFJ = Held Footstool Jump (when you hold down the jump button during the footstool)
AS1 = 1st hit of Air Slash
AS2 = 2nd hit of Air Slash
BS = Back Slash

Move | Vanilla | Jump | Speed | Shield | Jump Art Buffer Cancel
SH | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6
FH | 7 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 12
DJ | 7 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 12
LJ | 7 | 9 | 7 | 7 |
SBJ | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
TFJ | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
HFJ | 12 | 9 | 12 | 12 |
AS1 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 9 |
AS2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
BS | 2

Short Hop

Jump Buffered Deactivation
Jump
Vanilla
Shield
Speed

Full Hop

Jump Buffered Deactivation
Jump
Vanilla
Shield
Speed

Double jump

Jump Buffered Deactivation
Jump
Vanilla
Shield
Speed

Ledge jump

Jump
Vanilla, Speed, & Shield

Shield break jump

Vanilla, Speed, & Shield
Jump

Tapped footstool jump

Vanilla, Speed, & Shield
Jump

Held footstool jump

Vanilla, Speed, & Shield
Jump

1st hit of Air Slash

Jump
Vanilla, Speed, & Shield

2nd hit of Air Slash

Jump
Vanilla, Speed, & Shield

Notes:

I used Mega Man holding his Metal Blade item for testing footstool heights. First I had him stand on the platform 1 grid unit below the floor platform, then left him crouching. Next, Shulk stands on the floor platform & walks over to be directly above Mega Man crouching. Shulk doesn't make make Mega Man move, so technically his hurtbox is just below the floor platform's height, & when I have Shulk drop through the floor platform for this testing, I do it as if I'm testing doublejump heights. Thank you @Tuen for this helpful suggestion
Monado arts don't affect the movement for Back Slash

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Movement Frame Data

Dash to Neutral as 普 翔疾 盾斬撃 | Total Frames= 33 / FAF: 34
Dash to Shield as 普 翔疾 盾斬撃 | Total Frames= 10 / FAF: 11

Skid (this happens when you run, but decide to reset the joystick to neutral or tap down on the joystick)
Vanilla skid | Total Frames= 24 / FAF: 25
Jump art skid | Total Frames= 24 / FAF: 25
Speed art skid | Total Frames= 28 / FAF: 29
Shield art skid | Total Frames= 14 / FAF: 15

Slow Run to Skid (this happens when you run & then set your joystick to a diagonal direction, then reset the joystick to neutral or tap down on the joystick)
Vanilla slow run to skid | 15 Total Frames / FAF: 16
Jump art slow run to skid | 15 Total Frames / FAF: 16
Speed art slow run to skid | 17 Total Frames / FAF: 18
Shield art slow run to skid | 8 Total Frames / FAF: 9

Dash Turn to Neutral (all this is, is me turning around & resetting the joystick to neutral until the turn finishes)
Vanilla Dash Turn to Neutral | Total Frames=35 / FAF: 36
Jump art Dash Turn to Neutral | Total Frames=35 / FAF: 36
Speed art Dash Turn to Neutral | Total Frames=39 / FAF: 40
Shield art Dash Turn to Neutral | Total Frames=25 / FAF: 26

Dash Turn to Shield (all this is, is me turning around, holding the joystick the other way to start running in that direction, & then holding shield to see when you can act)
Vanilla Dash Turn to Shield | Total Frames=34 / FAF: 35
Jump art Dash Turn to Shield | Total Frames=34 / FAF: 35
Speed art Dash Turn to Shield | Total Frames=35 / FAF: 36
Shield art Dash Turn to Shield | Total Frames=35 / FAF: 36

A true Dash Turn (this is when you begin a dash turn & hold in that direction to have Shulk come to a halt asap. Then hold shield to see when you can act)
Vanilla | Total Frames=20 / FAF: 21
Jump art | Total Frames=20 / FAF: 21
Speed art | Total Frames=21 / FAF: 22
Shield art | Total Frames=21 / FAF: 22

Floor Frame Data

Floor option | Intangibility | Hitbox Active | Total Frames | FAF
Floor Getup | 1-22 | | 29 | 30
Floor Attack | 1-22 | 17-18 and 21-22 | 45 | 46
Floor Front forward roll | 1-19 | | 35 | 36
Floor Front back roll | 1-24 | | 35 | 36
Floor Back forward roll | 1-21 | | 35 | 36
Floor Back back roll | 1-22 | | 35 | 36

Taunt Frame Data

Throw Frame Data

Throw | hit 1 | Hitlag | Hitlag multiplier | hit 2 | Lag | Total Frames | FAF
Fthrow | frame 15-16 | 7 frames | 1.2x | frame 16 | 21 | 37 | 38
Back throw | frame 18-19 | 7 frames | 1.2x | frame 20 | 24 | 44 | 45
Up throw | frame 20-21 | 9 frames | 1.5x | frame 22 | 25 | 47 | 48
Down throw | frame 23-24 | 7 frames | 1.2x | frame 25 | 18 | 43 | 44

Item Toss Data

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Two important game-play mechanics

1. The Monado Arts 普 » 翔 » 疾 » 盾 » 斬 » 撃 » 翔
Shulk possesses five arts & each one affect his game-play in one way or another. The Monado art's cycle remains the same goes in order seen above. Pressing the special button multiple times will cycle through the arts, & choosing one requires waiting for the art to activate itself, enhancing & reducing several stats for some time.

Monado arts have their respective buffs & debuffs, yet some of the arts appear to possess more drawbacks than strengths. Nonetheless, an art's temporary buffs can be used in conjunction to the current moment in battle we deem it appropriate to our cause. There are moments we can even adapt to & utilize the debuffs as a strength, so as long as we stay conscious & aware of the fight at hand with all of the Monado arts in mind, victory can be assured. Monado arts are truly core to Shulk's metagame.

Key (Unfinished)
-Jump height: the height reached through jumping, mostly affected by a Short Hop, Full Hop, Doublejump, & ledge-jump
-Air speed: the distance traveled moving left or right while in midair
-Fall speed: the distance traveled moving downwards in midair
-Air Slash height: how high Shulk travels when using his Air Slash, Advancing Air Slash, & Mighty Air Slash
-Damage taken: the resistance to taking regular damage
-Ground speed: how fast you move through a grounded movement option. Mostly affects dashing, walking, & running
-Traction: a measure of how long it takes to stop moving from a sideways force when grounded
-Damage dealt: attacking an opponent's hurt-box or their bubble shield. More damage also deals greater shield knockback
-Knockback taken: the amount of knockback the user resists against an attack
-Shield health: the amount of HP your bubble shield has
-Shield regeneration: the rate of HP your bubble shield regenerates per second
-Knockback dealt: the amount of knockback your attack deals to an opponent's hurt-box

Info & tips about the Monado arts (Unfinished)
∙Once you've pressed the special button once displaying Monado Jump, Shulk cannot use his other specials while an art is displayed behind / overhead Shulk. You must wait until the colored kanji character activates with a particular sound being heard including the large flash that occurs, which can also be seen by Shulk's character portrait at the bottom of the screen.

∙It's wise activating an advantageous art while you're off-stage. Pay attention to the activation indicators so that you prevent yourself from ruining Shulk's recovery. Inputting Air Slash too soon before the art's activation results in cycling to the next art in the order, & without a reserved doubeljump, you're in deep trouble. However, it's safe to art shuffle if you know you'll reach the ledge by drifting with a reserved doublejump.

∙Shulk can cycle to or deactivate an art during or while:

Standing, Walking, Dashing, Running, Dash dancing, Drifting, Falling, Fastfalling,
Z-Dropping, Z-Catching
Short hopping, Full hopping, Double jumping, Footstool jumping
Hitstun, Landing Lag, RCO Lag, Multi-hitting attacks, Flinching, Tumble falling, Tumbling after walking off carrying a heavy item, Reeling

∙Shulk cannot cycle to or deactivate an art during or while:

Jump squat animation, Footstool jump squat animation
Skidding, Turning around, Crouching, Reverse Aerial Rushing, Swimming, Platform dropping, Shield platform dropping, Pivot Landing
Staying on the revival platform
Hitlag, Clash, Buried, Frozen, Sleeping
Special falling, Edge slipping tumble falling, Footstool's tumble falling, Shield break falling
Shielding, Perfect shielding, Shield drop, Rolling, Spot dodge, Air dodge, Neutral tech, Rolling tech, Wall tech, Ledge tech, Wall jump tech, Ceiling tech
Standing grab, Dash grab, Pivot grab, All directional throws, Pummel
Any kind of Item Throw
Jabbing, Dash Attack, Tilts, Smashes, Aerials, other Specials, Taunting
Floor Get-Up, Floor Rolling, Floor Attack, Tripping, Trip Attack
Ledge Hanging, Ledge Climbing, Ledge Attacking, Ledge Rolling, Ledge Jumping

∙Although Shulk cannot cycle or deactivate an art during the red inputs you see in the bulletins above, every single one of those red inputs are all potential buffer windows to apply Monado Art Buffer Deactivation (MABD). This includes examples like Speed art's pivot grab as means of buffering the deactivation to retain the ground speed after the endlag from the grab finishes. Or something like Jump art's Up throw & buffering the deactivation followed by using an aerial or airdodge to retain the jump force, yet negating the fall speed attribute thus resulting with longer air time & jump height.

∙Shulk performs a pose for each Monado art, & each pose performed has a intangibility frame window starting from frame 1 - 14. If you interrupt the pose Shulk performs with any input, you reduce the amount of intangibility received from the art's activation.

∙Monado arts have a duration around 16 seconds without deactivation, & after an art deactivates it goes on around a 10 second cooldown before the art refreshes & can be activated again. When you cycle to an art on cooldown, it becomes gray.

∙You can deactivate a Monado art by either pressing the specials button 3 consecutive times, or by holding the button down. Holding the specials button down deactivates the art in exactly 1 second, but you cannot press any other button or move the joystick. Basically, there's limited utility to holding instead of consecutive pressing.

∙Two Monado arts cannot be active at one time nor will a former Monado art's stat effects carry over to the latter Monado art activated.

∙Despite that a Monado art's buffs & debuffs don't carry over to the next art, a mobile-based art such as Jump Speed or Shield that's deactivated airborne or on the ground can still carry over their air speed or ground speed movement to Vanilla Shulk. This is more commonly seen with Monado art buffered deactivation. To do this, you buffer the art's deactivation out of any kind of lag such as a throw, shield drop, dodge option, or an attack by consecutively pressing the special button three times & then proceed to perform your movement option. Examples include:

Jump art buffered deactivation out of Uthrow into Full Hopped Uair
Jump art buffered deactivation out of ledgejump into doublejump + aerial for whatever reason
Jump art buffered deactivation out of shield drop into Short Hopped Fair
Jump art buffered deactivation out of survival DI'ing towards the stage
Speed art buffered deactivation out of Dthrow into dashing jump cancel Usmash
Speed art buffered deactivation out of shield drop into walking forward
Speed art buffered deactivation out of Dtilt into running Full Hopped Fair
Speed art buffered deactivation out of survival DI'ing towards the stage
Shield art buffered deactivation out of Dtilt into slow running mind game dash grab
Anything else

∙After a Monado art buffered deactivation occurs, an additional input of some kind may revert the mobility buff or debuff from Vanilla Shulk. An example of this would be timing the Jump art's deactivation in a way that you're still tumbling & drifting towards the stage with the retained air speed & fall speed from Monado Jump, then using an aerial or airdodge to revert back to Vanilla's air & fall speeds. So some other examples include:

Doublejump (air)
Airdodge or aerial (air) | shield (ground)
Jab, All tilts, Dash attack, All smashes (ground)
A new MArt activated when not in the tumble falling state (air)
Back Slash, Air Slash, or Vision (both)

∙Learn the muscle memory of buffering, cycling, deactivating, & selecting all five Monado arts when pressing the specials button rapidly. Listen to the pitched noise that each Monado art makes while cycling, & know when you can & cannot cycle or deactivate MArts. All of these tips & factors are key to unlocking more potential as well as improving our strategy of the Monado arts in battle.

2. The Monado
The Monado being Shulk's primary weapon is an energy blade granting foresight. However, due to Shulk's frame data & his options, you must have a strong reading potential while knowing your fundamentals & learn a lot about the character's metagame along with possessing mindful spacing & patience. Besides having the ability to cycle between arts & activating or deactivating them in mid-battle, the Monado also has a great advantage which is the long and or wide range within Shulk's attacks. Despite the magnificent range that the Monado possesses, it's not the fastest weapon which is proven by Shulk's staggering frame data. Shulk's Monado has sweetspots & sourspots throughout most of his move-set in different ways. For starters, the Blade aka the sweetspot deals more damage & knockback whereas the Beam aka the sourspot deals less damage & knockback. A very few of Shulk's attacks also possess a Tipper within the Beam & the Base / Hilt within the Blade, but there are other exceptions that don't follow the apparent B&B rule so-to-speak.

Shulk's sweet & sourspots:

★Jab3
Ftilt
Utilt
Dtilt
Fsmash's 2nd hit
Dsmash's 1st 2nd 3rd 4th & 5th hits
★Nair
Fair
Bair
Uair's 2nd hit
★Dair's 1st & 2nd hits
Side-B
Up-B's 1st hit
Down B

Jab's 3rd hit
The sourspot of Jab3 is rare to see since the sweetspot is much more common & easier to land. This sourspot hitbox is only active for 1 frame, deals 4.2%, has a 70°, & has 70 BKB. To see it more often, you'll most likely have to play against floaties, lightweights, have a great amount of Rage, or on players who are holding up / away to try escaping the Jab combo. Although, this sourspot will almost never kill unless Monado Smash is active. When used on characters like Olimar or Zelda who are commonly combo'd into Jab3's sourspot, it becomes quite a deadly surprise option.

Neutral air
Updated Ver. 1.1.3
Unlike most of the spacing from Shulk's moves, Nair is the opposite in that the Blade deals 7.5% & the Beam deals 8.5%. The damage difference is only 1%, but the kill percentage difference is quite large. Nair is one of Shulk's only moves that rewards safe game-play spacing while also rewarding combo opportunities with the Blade sourspot.

Down air's 1st hit
Updated Ver. 1.1.3
Dair's first hit doesn't follow the "B&B" rule. For reasons, Shulk deals different damages if the opponent is grounded or airborne. So your Dair either deals 7.5% to a grounded opponent or 6% to an airborne opponent. The damage difference may leave little to be said, but Vanilla Down air's damage in total can deal the minimum 16.5%, or the maximum 19%.
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The Monado's Maximum Horizontal Range

Update: From finding out that the Luigi's Mansion stage in Foxy's Labbing & Testing thread, the pillars are completely straight & are vertical the whole way up, which gives a greater & more reliable way of testing the horizontal hitbox ranges of a character's moves. So not even the Crate was the best solution to finding the answers.

Groundnear Vision Beam (Originally being airborne but lands on the ground right before Vision attacks)
Vision Beam counterattack from the front - frame ?
Back Slash Landing Tipper - frame 33
Speed Shulk's Instant Dash attack - frame 15
Vanilla Shulk, Jump Shulk, Buster Shulk, or Smash Shulk's Instant Dash attack - frame 15
Shield Shulk's Instant Dash Attack - frame 15
Forwarded Vision Beam behind - frame 29-30
Fsmash2 Beam angled straightforward - frame 23
Fsmash2 Beam angled upward - frame 23
Jab1 > Jab2 > Jab3 Blade - frame 12
(?)Air Slash second hit - frame 15
Fsmash2 Beam angled downward - frame 23
Bair Beam behind - frame 22
Forwarded Vision Blade from the front - frame ?
Fthrow collateral 3% hit front - frame 16
Dsmash Hit 5 Beam front (fifth hit) - frame 41
Air Slash Hit 1 Grounded Startup - frame 10-11
Dtilt Beam - frame 10
Fsmash Hit 1 angled upward - frame 14
Fsmash Hit 1 angled straightforward - frame 14
Ftilt Beam on frame 12 / Fair Beam - frame 16
Fsmash Hit 1 angled downward - frame 14
Dsmash4 Beam behind (fourth hit) - frame 35
Dsmash2 Beam behind (second hit) - frame 23
Dsmash1 Beam front (first hit) - frame 18
Utilt Beam front - frame 13
Dsmash2 Beam front (third hit) - frame 28
Jab1 > Jab2 front - frame 5
Bthrow collateral 3% hit behind - frame 20
(?)Ledge Attack front - frame 24-26
Nair Beam front - frame 21
Jab1 front - frame 5
Utilt Beam behind - frame 23
Utilt Blade front - frame 11
Nair Beam behind - frame 13
Bair Blade front - frame 18
Usmash1 front ground-only knock-up - frame 18
Usmash1 back ground-only knock-up - frame 18
Dair2 Blade front - frame 23
Usmash2 front - frame 30
Uair2 Blade front & behind - frame 24 | ----> Forwarded Vision Beam behind starting point
Dair1 Blade front - frame 14
Uair1 front & behind - frame 14
Usmash2 behind - frame 30
Usmash1 front - frame 18
Dair2 Blade behind - frame 23
Usmash1 behind - frame 30
Dair1 Blade behind - frame 14

The Monado's Maximum Vertical Range (Above)

Note: I'm rating a move's MVR by stars, so 1★ means the 1st platform. If Shulk used Jab1 from the ground, that means he can hit something on the 1st or 2nd platform. I used a custom stage designed for testing MVR along with using the Barrel item by setting it on top of a platform as the "sandbag" to hit.

Note: Monado Jump increases the vertical height of both AS1 & AS2 thus increasing the vertical hit-box range to Air Slash.

Note: "Floor" indicates that the move can hit characters crouching at a height lower than 1 star above the ground. The characters who are revered of doing this include Mr. Game & Watch, Jigglypuff, Kirby, & Wii Fit Trainer. And Wii Fit Trainer has the lowest crouching height, so she was used for the "Floor" testing.

The Monado's Maximum Vertical Range (Below)

The moves listed below are Shulk's only attacks that can hit Wii Fit Trainer crouching on the floor while Shulk's standing on a ★platform from above. These moves also can hit a ledge-hanging opponent.

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Shulk's Move-set Damages with Monado Arts

Move | Vanilla / Jump | Speed | Shield | Buster | Smash Jab Combo
Jab1 / Jab2 / Jab3 sweetspot | 3.5 / 3.5 / 5.3 | 2.8 / 2.8 / 4.24 | 2.45 / 2.45 / 3.71 | 4.9 / 4.9 / 7.42 | 1.75 / 1.75 / 2.65
Jab3 sourspot | 4.2 | 3.36 | 2.94 | 5.88 | 2.1 Dash Attack
Dash Attack | 11.5 | 9.2 | 8.05 | 16.1 | 5.75 Tilts
Ftilt Blade | 13.5 | 10.8 | 9.45 | 18.9 | 6.75
Ftilt Beam | 12 | 9.8 | 8.4 | 16.8 | 6
Utilt Blade | 8.5 | 6.8 | 5.95 | 11.9 | 4.25
Utilt Beam | 7.5 | 6 | 5.25 | 10.5 | 3.75
Dtilt Blade | 9.5 | 7.6 | 6.65 | 13.3 | 4.75
Dtilt Beam | 7.5 | 6 | 5.25 | 10.5 | 3.75 Smashes
Fsmash 1st hit | 5.5 | 4.4 | 3.85 | 7.7 | 2.75
Fsmash 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 13 or 11.5 | 10.4 or 9.2 | 9.1 or 8.05 | 18.2 or 16.1 | 6.5 or 5.75
Usmash 1st hit / 2nd hit | 4.5 / 13.5 | 3.6 / 10.8 | 3.15 / 9.45 | 6.3 / 18.9 | 2.25 / 6.75
Dsmash 1st hit Front Blade | 14 | 11.2 | 9.8 | 19.6 | 7
Dsmash 1st hit Front Beam | 11 | 8.8 | 7.7 | 15.4 | 5.5
Dsmash 2nd hit Back Blade | 12 | 9.6 | 8.4 | 16.8 | 6
Dsmash 2nd hit Back Beam | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5
Dsmash 3rd hit Front Blade | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5
Dsmash 3rd hit Front Beam | 8 | 6.4 | 5.6 | 11.2 | 4
Dsmash 4th hit Back Blade | 8 | 6.4 | 5.6 | 11.2 | 4
Dsmash 4th hit Back Beam | 6 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 8.4 | 3
Dsmash 5th hit Front Blade | 6 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 8.4 | 3
Dsmash 5th hit Front Beam | 4 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 5.6 | 2 Aerials
Nair Blade | 7.5 | 6 | 5.25 | 10.5 | 3.75
Nair Beam | 8.5 | 6.8 | 5.95 | 11.9 | 4.25
Fair Blade | 8 | 6.4 | 5.6 | 11.2 | 4
Fair Beam | 6.5 | 5.2 | 4.55 | 9.1 | 3.25
Bair Blade | 12.5 | 10 | 8.75 | 17.5 | 6.25
Bair Beam | 8.5 | 6.8 | 5.95 | 11.9 | 4.25
Uair 1st hit | 5.5 | 4.4 | 3.85 | 7.7 | 2.75
Uair 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 10.5 or 8 | 8.4 or 6.4 | 7.35 or 5.6 | 14.7 or 11.2 | 5.25 or 4
Dair 1st Ground or 1st Air | 7.5 or 6 | 6 or 4.8 | 5.25 or 4.2 | 10.5 or 8.4 | 3.75 or 3
Dair 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 11.5 or 10.5 | 9.2 or 8.4 | 8.05 or 7.35 | 16.1 or 14.7 | 5.75 or 5.25 Back Slash Startup & Falling
\ Front sweetspot | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5
\ Front sourspot | 9 | 7.2 | 6.3 | 12.6 | 4.5
\ Back sweetspot | 16 | 12.8 | 11.2 | 22.4 | 8
\ Back sourspot | 14 | 11.2 | 9.8 | 19.6 | 7 Landing
\ Front Landing sweetspot | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5
\ Front Landing sourspot | 9 | 7.2 | 6.3 | 12.6 | 4.5
\ Back Landing sweetspot | 15 | 12 | 10.5 | 21 | 7.5
\ Back Landing sourspot | 13 | 10.4 | 9.1 | 18.2 | 6.5 Air Slash
UpB Early 1st hit or Late 1st hit | 6 or 5 | 4.8 or 4 | 4.2 or 3.5 | 8.4 or 7 | 3 or 2.5
UpB 2nd hit | 5.5 | 4.4 | 3.85 | 7.7 | 2.75 Vision
DownB sweetspot | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5
DownB sourspot | 7 | 5.6 | 4.9 | 9.8 | 3.5
DownB Forwarded sweetspot | 13 | 10.4 | 9.1 | 18.2 | 6.5
DownB Forwarded sourspot | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5 Pummel & Throws
Pummel | 3 | 2.4 | 2.1 | 4.2 | 1.5
Fthrow | 3 / 8 | 2.4 / 6.4 | 2.1 / 5.6 | 4.2 / 11.2 | 1.5 / 4
Bthrow | 3 / 9 | 2.4 / 7.2 | 2.1 / 6.3 | 4.2 / 12.6 | 1.5 / 4.5
Uthrow | 3 / 4 | 2.4 / 3.2 | 2.1 / 2.8 | 4.2 / 5.6 | 1.5 / 2
Dthrow | 3 / 4 | 2.4 / 3.2 | 2.1 / 2.8 | 4.2 / 5.6 | 1.5 / 2 Floor Trip & Ledge Attacks
Front & Back Floor Attack | 7 | 5.6 | 4.9 | 9.8 | 3.5
Front & Back Trip Attack | 5 | 4 | 3.5 | 7 | 2.5
Ledge attack | 7 | 5.6 | 4.9 | 9.8 | 3.5

Shulk's On-Hit Freeze-frames with Monado Arts

Move | Hitlag multiplier | Vanilla / Jump | Speed | Shield | Buster | Smash Jab Combo
Jab1 / Jab2 / Jab3 sweetspot | | 6 / 6 / 7 | 6 / 6 / 6 | 5 / 5 / 6 | 6 / 6 / 7 | 5 / 5 / 6
Jab3 sourspot | | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 Dash Attack
Dash Attack | | 9 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 7 Tilts
Ftilt Blade | | 10 | 9 | 8 | 12 | 7
Ftilt Beam | | 9 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 7
Utilt Blade | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Utilt Beam | | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Dtilt Blade | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6
Dtilt Beam | | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6 Smashes
Fsmash 1st hit | 1.5x | 10 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 9

Fsmash 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 2.0x | 20 or 18 | 18 or 17 | 17 or 16 | 24 or 22 | 15 or 14
Usmash 1st hit / 2nd hit | | 6 / 10 | 6 / 9 | 6 / 8 | 7 / 12 | 5 / 7
Dsmash 1st hit Front Blade | | 10 | 9 | 8 | 12 | 7
Dsmash 1st hit Front Beam | | 9 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 7
Dsmash 2nd hit Back Blade | | 9 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 7
Dsmash 2nd hit Back Beam | | 8 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 6
Dsmash 3rd hit Front Blade | | 8 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 6
Dsmash 3rd hit Front Beam | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Dsmash 4th hit Back Blade | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Dsmash 4th hit Back Beam | | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6
Dsmash 5th hit Front Blade | | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6
Dsmash 5th hit Front Beam | | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 Aerials
Nair Blade | | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Nair Beam | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Fair Blade | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6
Fair Beam | | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6
Bair Blade | | 9 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 7
Bair Beam | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 6

Uair 1st hit | 1.2x | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 7

Uair 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 1.2x | 10 or 9 | 9 or 8 | 9 or 8 | 12 or 11 | 8 or 7

Dair 1st Ground or 1st Air | 1.2x | 9 or 8 | 8 or 8 | 8 or 7 | 10 or 9 | 7 or 7
Dair 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | | 9 or 9 | 8 or 8 | 8 or 7 | 11 or 10 | 7 or 7 Back Slash Startup & Falling
\ Front sweetspot (10%) | 0.8x | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 5
\ Front sourspot (9%) | 0.8x | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5
\ Back sweetspot (16%) | 1.5x | 16 | 14 | 13 | 20 | 12
\ Back sourspot (14%) | 1.5x | 15 | 13 | 13 | 18 | 11 Landing
\ Front sweetspot (10%) | 0.8x | 10 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 5
\ Front sourspot (9%) | 0.8x | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5
\ Back sweetspot (15%) | 1.5x | 16 | 14 | 13 | 19 | 11
\ Back sourspot (13%) | 1.5x | 15 | 13 | 12 | 18 | 11 Air Slash
UpB Early 1st hit or Late 1st hit | | 7 or 6 | 6 or 6 | 6 or 6 | 8 or 7 | 6 or 5

UpB 2nd hit | 1.3x | 9 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 7 Vision
DownB sweetspot (10%) | 2.0x | 17 | 16 | 15 | 20 | 12
DownB sourspot (7%) | 2.0x | 16 | 14 | 13 | 20 | 12
DownB Forwarded sweetspot (13%) | 2.0x | 20 | 18 | 17 | 24 | 15
DownB Forwarded sourspot (10%) | 2.0x | 17 | 16 | 15 | 20 | 12 Pummel & Throws
Pummel | 1.5x | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8

Fthrow1 | 1.2x | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6

Bthrow1 | 1.2x | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6

Uthrow1 | 1.5x | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8

Dthrow1 | 1.2x | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 Floor Trip & Ledge Attacks
Front & Back Floor Attack | | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6
Front & Back Trip Attack | | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5
Ledge attack | | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6

Shulk's On-Shield Freeze-frames with Monado Arts

Move | Hitlag multiplier | Vanilla / Jump | Speed | Shield | Buster | Smash Smashes
Fsmash 1st hit | 1.5x | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 7

Fsmash 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 2.0x | 16 or 15 | 14 or 13 | 13 or 12 | 19 or 17 | 12 or 11 Back Slash Startup & Falling
\ Back sweetspot (16%) | 1.5x | 13 | 11 | 11 | 16 | 9
\ Back sourspot (14%) | 1.5x | 12 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 9 Landing
\ Back sweetspot (15%) | 1.5x | 12 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 9
\ Back sourspot (13%) | 1.5x | 12 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 9

UpB 2nd hit | 1.3x | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 Pummel & Throws
Pummel | 1.5x | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6

Shulk's Shieldstun frames with Monado Arts

Move | Vanilla / Jump | Speed | Shield | Buster | Smash Jab Combo
Jab1 / Jab2 / Jab3 sweetspot | 4 / 4 / 5 | 3 / 3 / 4 | 3 / 3 / 4 | 4 / 4 / 6 | 3 / 3 / 3
Jab3 sourspot | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 Dash Attack
Dash Attack | 8 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 5 Tilts
Ftilt Blade | 9 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 5
Ftilt Beam | 8 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 5
Utilt Blade | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Utilt Beam | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Dtilt Blade | 7 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 4
Dtilt Beam | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 Smashes
Fsmash 1st hit | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3
Fsmash 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 9 or 8 | 8 or 7 | 7 or 6 | 12 or 11 | 5 or 5
Usmash 1st hit / 2nd hit | 4 / 9 | 4 / 8 | 3 / 7 | 5 / 12 | 3 / 5
Dsmash 1st hit Front Blade | 10 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 6
Dsmash 1st hit Front Beam | 8 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 5
Dsmash 2nd hit Back Blade | 8 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 5
Dsmash 2nd hit Back Beam | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 4
Dsmash 3rd hit Front Blade | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 4
Dsmash 3rd hit Front Beam | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Dsmash 4th hit Back Blade | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Dsmash 4th hit Back Beam | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3
Dsmash 5th hit Front Blade | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3
Dsmash 5th hit Front Beam | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 Aerials
Nair Blade | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Nair Beam | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Fair Blade | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Fair Beam | 5 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 3
Bair Blade | 9 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 5
Bair Beam | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4
Uair 1st hit | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3
Uair 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 8 or 6 | 6 or 5 | 6 or 5 | 10 or 8 | 5 or 4
Dair 1st Ground or 1st Air | 6 or 5 | 6 or 4 | 6 or 4 | 8 or 6 | 4 or 3
Dair 2nd Blade or 2nd Beam | 8 or 8 | 7 or 6 | 6 or 6 | 11 or 10 | 5 or 5 Back Slash Startup & Falling
\ Front sweetspot (10%) | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 4
\ Front sourspot (9%) | 7 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 4
\ Back sweetspot (16%) | 11 | 9 | 8 | 15 | 6
\ Back sourspot (14%) | 10 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 6 Landing
\ Front sweetspot (10%) | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 4
\ Front sourspot (9%) | 7 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 4
\ Back sweetspot (15%) | 10 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 6
\ Back sourspot (13%) | 9 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 5 Air Slash
UpB Early 1st hit or Late 1st hit | 5 or 4 | 4 or 4 | 4 or 4 | 6 or 6 | 3 or 3
UpB 2nd hit | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3 Vision
DownB sweetspot (10%) | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable
DownB sourspot (7%) | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable
DownB Forwarded sweetspot (13%) | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable
DownB Forwarded sourspot (10%) | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable | Unblockable Pummel & Throws
Pummel | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2
Fthrow | 3 / 6 | 3 / 5 | 3 / 5 | 4 / 8 | 2 / 4
Bthrow | 3 / 7 | 3 / 6 | 3 / 5 | 4 / 9 | 2 / 4
Uthrow | 3 / 4 | 3 / 3 | 3 / 3 | 4 / 5 | 2 / 3
Dthrow | 3 / 4 | 3 / 3 | 3 / 3 | 4 / 5 | 2 / 3 Floor Trip & Ledge Attacks
Front & Back Floor Attack | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 4
Front & Back Trip Attack | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3
Ledge attack | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 4

Masonomace · Sep 21, 2014

(WIP) Note: Thanks a bunch Aerodrome & Meshima, and everyone in general.
MONADO ARTS

Attribute | 翔(Jump) | 疾(Speed) | 盾(Shield) | 斬(Buster) | 撃(Smash)
Walk Acceleration | | | –40% (0.6×) [0] | |
Max Walk Speed | | +70% (1.7×) [1.87] | –40% (0.6×) [0.66] | |
Ground Friction | | +50% (1.5×) [0.066] | | |
Dash Initial Speed | | +70% (1.7×) [2.55?] | –40% (0.6×) [0.9?]
Dash Acceleration | | +70% (1.70×) [?] | –40% (0.6×) [?] |
Max Run Speed | | +70% (1.7×) [2.584] | –40% (0.6×) [0.912] |
Air Acceleration | +50% (1.5×) [0.06] | +30% (1.3×) [0.052] | –40% (0.6×) [0.024] |
Air Speed |+50% (1.5×) [1.59] | +30% (1.3×) [1.378] | –40% (0.6×) [0.636] |
Gravity | +30% (1.3×) [0.1105] |
Fall Speed | +22% (1.22×) [1.83] |
Shield Health | | | +50% (1.5×) [75 HP] |
Shield Regen Speed | | | +30% (1.3×) [0.104] |
Ledge Jump Height | +30% (1.3×) [?] |
Air Slash Height | +30% (1.3×) [?] |
Jump Height |
Damage Received | +22% (1.22×) | | −33% (0.67×) | +13% (1.13×) |
Damage Dealt | | −20% (0.8×) | −30% (0.7×) | +40% (1.4×) | –50% (0.5×)
Knockback Received | | | –22% (0.78×) | | +7% (1.07×)
Knockback Dealt | | | | –32% (0.68×) | +18% (1.18×)

DECISIVE MONADO ARTS

Attribute | D翔(DJump) | D疾(DSpeed) | D盾(DShield) | D斬(DBuster) | D撃(DSmash)
Walk Acceleration | | | –40% (0.6×) [0] | |
Max Walk Speed | | +87% (1.87×) [2.057] | –40% (0.6×) [0.66] | |
Ground Friction | | +65% (1.65×) [0.0726] | | |
Dash Initial Speed | | +87% (1.87×) [2.805?] | –40% (0.6×) [0.9?]
Dash Acceleration | | +87% (1.87×) [?] | –40% (0.6×) [?] |
Max Run Speed | | +87% (1.87×) [2.8424] | –40% (0.6×) [0.912] |
Air Acceleration | +65% (1.65×) [0.066] | +43% (1.43×) [0.0572] | –40% (0.6×) [0.024] |
Air Speed |+65% (1.65×) [1.749] | +43% (1.43×) [1.5158] | –40% (0.6×) [0.636] |
Gravity | +43% (1.43×) [0.12155] | +10% (1.1×) [0.0935] |
Fall Speed | +65.8% (1.342×) [2.013] |
Shield Health | | | +65% (1.65×) [82.5 HP] |
Shield Regen Speed | | | +43% (1.43×) [0.1144] |
Ledge Jump Height | +30% (1.3×) [?] |
Air Slash Height | +43% (1.43×) [?] |
Jump Height |
Damage Received | +22% (1.22×) | | −39.7% (0.603×) | +13% (1.13×) |
Damage Dealt | | −20% (0.8×) | −30% (0.7×) | +54% (1.54×) | –50% (0.5×)
Knockback Received | | | –29.8% (0.702×) | | +7% (1.07×)
Knockback Dealt | | | | –32% (0.68×) | +29.8% (1.298×)

HYPER MONADO ARTS

Attribute | H翔(HJump) | H疾(HSpeed) | H盾(HShield) | H斬(HBuster) | H撃(HSmash)
Walk Acceleration | | | –52% (0.48×) [0] | |
Walk Speed | | +104% (2.04×) [2.244] | –52% (0.48×) [0.528] | |
Ground Friction | | +80% (1.8×) [0.0792] | | |
Dash Initial Speed | | +104% (2.04×) [3.06?] | –52% (0.48×) [0.72?]
Dash Acceleration | | +104% (2.04×) [?] | –52% (0.48×) [?]
Run Speed | | +104% (2.04×) [3.1008] | –52% (0.48×) [0.7296]
Air Acceleration | +80% (1.8×) [0.072] | +56% (1.56×) [0.0624] | –52% (0.48×) [0.0192] |
Air Speed | +80% (1.8×) [1.908] | +56% (1.56×) [1.6536] | –52% (0.48×) [0.5088] |
Gravity | +56% (1.56×) [0.1326] | +20% (1.2×) [0.102] |
Fall Speed | +46.4% (1.464×) [2.196] |
Shield Health | | | +80% (1.8×) [90 HP] |
Shield Regen Speed | | | +56% (1.56×) [0.1248] |
Ledge Jump Height | +30% (1.3×) [?] |
Air Slash Height | +56% (1.56×) [?] |
Jump Height |
Damage Received | +46.4% (1.464×) | | −46.4% (0.536×) | +35.6% (1.356×) |
Damage Dealt | | −36% (0.64×) | −44% (0.56×) | +68% (1.68×) | –60% (0.4×)
Knockback Received | | | –37.6% (0.624×) | | +28.4% (1.284×)
Knockback Dealt | | | | –45.6% (0.544×) | +41.6% (1.416×)

VISION, DASH VISION, & POWER VISION

Vision along with the custom specials Dash Vision & Power Vision are three unblockable counterattacks that deal damage based on the move's damage you'd receive. These counterattacks also possess a hitlag modifier. If the countered move's damage is strong enough, then that move's damage is multiplied by 1.3x for Vision, 1.0x for DVision, or 1.5x for PVision. On the other hand, if the countered move's damage isn't strong enough, then Vision's 10% or 13% base damage, DVision's 8% or 11% base damage, and PVision's 17% or 20% base damage will be applied without their damage multipliers. Inputting toward the direction Shulk will face as he foresees a Vision during the counterattack frame window will execute a different counterattack. This forward counterattack deals stronger base damage & higher knockback growth. However, it can only happen if you're grounded during the attack hitting your counter frame window.

Default Vision:
Standing Counter: 10% for the sweetspot, 7% for the sourspot.
Forward Counter: 13% for the sweetspot, 10% for the sourspot.
Damage Multiplier: 1.3×

Dash Vision:
Standing Counter: 8% for the sweetspot, 5% for the sourspot.
Forward Counter: 11% for the sweetspot, 8% for the sourspot.
Damage Multiplier: 1.0×

Power Vision:
Standing Counter: 17% for the sweetspot, 14% for the sourspot.
Forward Counter: 20% for the sweetspot, 17% for the sourspot.
Damage Multiplier: 1.5×

About Vision
Vision will usually deal 10% base damage or 13% with the Forwarded attack when countering a move dealing around 6% or less, which means the 1.3x multiplier won't apply in the damage calculations. However, countering a move dealing 6.166666665% (let's just say 6.17%) or higher becomes Vision's damage. Therefore, Vision's 10% or 13% base damage gets replaced entirely while also applying the 1.3x multiplier.

Countering a move dealing less than 6.17% with Monado arts
Damage Calculator for Vision: Regular 10% OR Forwarded 13% × Monado art's damage multiplier

Examples:
-Lucario's Jab1 hits Shulk's Vision counter window while Monado Buster is active, granting Shulk 1.4x the damage. Buster Shulk's Vision deals 14% to Lucario.

-Mario Dthrows Shulk & proceeds to Utilt but Shulk has Monado Shield active, granting Shulk 0.7x the damage, & Monado Shield reducing hitstun allows Shulk to input Vision before Mario's Utilt hits. Therefore, Mario's Utilt hits Shield Shulk's Vision counter window & deals 7% to Mario.

Countering a move dealing 6.17% or more with Monado arts
Damage Calculator for Vision: Damage of countered move × 1.3 × Monado art's damage multiplier

Examples:
-Ganon inputs U-tilt near the ledge while Shulk is ledge-hanging with the Smash art active. Right before Ganon's U-tilt starts to unleash his 28% of doom, Smash Shulk quickly ledge-jumps & interrupts the jump with Vision to land on the stage countering the U-tilt. Vision deals 18.2% while KO'ing Ganon in the process.

-Shulk with the Speed art active Short Hops & airdodges through Ness' PK Fire. Then, Ness readies his PKT2 to deal 25% right as Speed Shulk is about to land, except that Speed Shulk can cancel his airdodge's landing lag with a special move, so in this case he'll use Vision to counter PKT2 dealing 26% to Ness.

About Dash Vision
Dash Vision usually deals 8% base damage or 11% with the Forward attack when countering a move that deals less than 6%. However, DVision countering a move dealing 6% or higher becomes DVision's damage. Therefore, the 8% or 11% base damage is not applied & will instead apply the countered attack's damage. Since the damage multiplier is 1.0x, the damage remains constant but an art's multiplier can apply into the calculations.

About Power Vision
Power Vision usually deals 17% base damage or 20% with the Forward attack when countering a move dealing ~6.664999998% (let's just say 6.66%) or less. However, PVision countering a move dealing around ~6.678857143% (let's just say 6.68%) or higher becomes PVision's damage. Therefore, the 17% or 20% base damages will be replaced with the countered attack's damage while also applying the 1.5x multiplier.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Getting the feel for the Monado Arts (Mastering switching arts)

Monado arts utility

I. Vanilla

Vanilla means normal or basic or plain. This stance is boring but at least you don't take more damage or lose weight

outdated (mostly) said:
Shulk's starting stance. Not much to say. He's decent in vanilla stance. His weight is also above average but he's not mobile at all. His air speed isn't much to boast about. The good thing about Shulk in this stance is that he doesn't have any disadvantages involving his internal attributes being affected such as damage received or weight. He still has the same pros and cons.

His damage output in vanilla is decent. His KO power is good in default. His mobility in general is mediocre and his recovery isn't that good. The biggest advantage vanilla has over his other arts is that there aren't really much disadvantages to exploit compared to his other arts

II. Jump

Monado jump basically increases Shulk's jump height and also enhances air slash's recovering ability. In return, the damage received by Shulk is multiplied by 1.22

outdated (mostly) said:
The first use of jump (not really first) is to recover with the art. Your jump height and air slash height are increased by a lot. Although simply jumping back to the stage might not work or it won't be that simple. It's either you recover from a low point or use an aerial attack while jumping. Preferably f-air, b-air or n-air if you're really sure you're gonna land on stage while using n-air

Fun fact about jump, it doesn't reduce your knockback or damage output. Thanks to its increase in jumping and air mobility, Shulk can edgeguard well with his long ranged attacks and recover back on stage easily thanks to his increased jump height and improved recovery. You can go so far off stage because of how much impact jump has on your stats. Because of jump, Shulk's edgeguarding game is amazing and you can even gimp players with this. Combined with your long ranged aerials and high base knockback, Shulk is a deadly foe off stage.

Covering space with Monado jump is incredibly helpful with Shulk. You can jump around and abuse your long ranged aerials while fast falling for as long as you land with n-air to avoid any landing lag. Additionally, you can even mix this up with grabbing. Exampling scenarios can be approaching airborne SH'ing forward, then FF'ing to land behind them crossing-up with turn-around grab. Fast falling with n-air or just fast falling period then grabbing the opponent then throwing them and pulling off a combo... Jump Shulk has a LOT of options when it comes to overwhelming his opponent in the air; going off the stage and jumping back on stage, you can go anywhere with this art

It hasn't been brought up though since Smash Shulk was seen as the best "gimp" stance but Jump can also be used to gimp given which actually all stems back to how jump Shulk is actually great for edgeguarding. It's also the safest to gimp with since Shulk can easily recover back on stage

One more thing to note, Jump is a fragile art. You take 22% more damage than usual which is quite big especially when taking damage from combos or any multi-hitting attack. The best way to use jump is to take advantage of its mobility by dancing around the opponent, baiting them with approaches, empty hopping, and rushing in at the right time. Play defensive first then go into the offense when they're open

For a better reference than reading some wall of text, here are some videos that will probably convince you that what I'm typing isn't bull. Lol. In fact, these videos are actually the reason I made this write-up about Jump Shulk. Credit to @Trela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCY92iqRuck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTMY_PdeE0

Notice how Trela covers the air @3:32, keeping his distance & covers any aerial approaches Denti would of used, & FF's his jumps with N-air, following up with FH > Fair > Fair after a grab setup at @3:42 - @3:45
@1:38 Trela gets a grab in & proceeds to aggressively edge-guarding Denti forcing him to recover low. @1:45 he gets another grab Bthrowing Denti conditioning him to recover low again, Trela answering by exploiting that pathway with a SH+Fair to seal the stock.
@2:36 Trela disengages to switch to Jump mode, using the DJ connecting with a landing Bair launching Denti off-stage. Trela SH's forward with Fair predicting Sheik would DJ early still maintaining aerial presence by DJ'ing backward towards the stage's middle connecting a landing Dair on Denti's shield.
@2:44 He SH's backward+Nair reading the backward roll & strings his combo with a SH+Bair taking the offensive chasing Sheik off-stage with FH+DJ buffered Fair missing, yet DI's back toward the stage with air speed to go back to ledge-guarding with Ftilt proceeding to chase off-screen with Fair sealing the stock.

III. Speed

Monado speed increases Shulk's foot speed such that it makes him the 4th fastest character in the game, however he deals less damage by 20%

outdated (mostly) said:
First of, speed doesn't increase your attack speed however, it does give you a lot of offensive options. Despite the damage decrease, your air mobility, walking and running speed greatly help in sort of "smartly" rushing down. Well, Shulk doesn't have that much rushdown options nor was he even designed to rush down however, with all the buffs given by speed, he can definitely rush down. His grab game is amplified now that he can boost pivot grab with speed activated and due to the jump height nerf, SH N-airs are much easier to execute. SHFF N-airs with speed can be an insanely big deal for Shulk despite the damage. It's great for going in, defending yourself and punishing rolls however, spacing with n-air is the best way to go because it can be shield grabbed. Mixing up SHFF N-airs with grabs, dash dances, and pivot f-tilts (and actually f-smash if you feel like it)--- You get all that with speed. Additionally, speed not only expands Shulk's offensive options but it also gives him options in regards to retreating or playing defensively. Speed, despite its damage nerf, is great for punishing since you dash so fast which allows you to punish from certain distances. Additionally, you can easily rush in and rush out thanks to the dash speed increase you receive. Retreating SHFF N-air comes to mind when it comes to retreating. Yes, N-air is still very useful here. With the ability to dash dance in speed, you can mix up and perform some tricky mind games on your opponent to keep them guessing Speed is not only great for solely rushing down but you can punish very well using speed. Another tactic that can be done thanks to the speed boost is being able to punish from a distance. Shulk is capable of punishing any character with a dash attack, a pivot f-tilt or pivot grab. Also, retreating F-airs/N-airs are very effective with speed Shulk due to the air mobility buff and the jump height decrease which makes it easier to perform SH F-airs or N-airs

IV. Shield

Shield makes you the heaviest character in the game while reducing the damage taken by 33% for about 16 seconds. However, your foot speed, air mobility and damage dealt are reduced

outdated (mostly) said:
The main point of using shield is for survivability and not dying. Whenever you're at a high percentage, it's best to switch to shield to avoid getting KO'd. If you aren't feeling safe with KO'ing with Smash, you can KO with shield to play safe because it doesn't directly reduce Shulk's knockback so you can still KO with shield activated. You can also opt to use this at the start of a match to shrug off damage however, this may not be useful against characters that can easily zone you out

One thing shield does that most people do not know is increase shield health. Shield lives up to its name basically. A Bowser Bomb will NOT break Shield art's shield. Additionally, shield art reduces the damage received by 33% so any character that mostly relies on multi-hitting attacks to rack up damage will find it difficult to build up damage on shield Shulk. Because of shield's survivability, you can build up your % which increases your rage. This can be a double edge sword and that will be felt once shield goes off and you're at a position to get killed.

Using Shield aggressively is a bad idea. The best way of using shield is by turtling, zoning and taking advantage of that shield health. Power shielding, shield grabbing and pivot grabbing are your friends. D-tilt is still really important to use because of its range in general. Same goes for f-air. The problem arises when you're up against a projectile camper. If that happens then using shield art is NOT a good idea at all since they can easily zone you out and exploit your lack of mobility

One more thing to note, don't recover with shield. It reduces air mobility by a lot so you need to quickly switch to jump art once you're knocked off far from the stage.

V. Buster (Full guide: http://smashboards.com/threads/i-ca...er-attacks-safety-on-hit-open-to-help.390561/)

Shulk's damaging art. It increases Shulk's damage by 40% which is a huge buff but in return, Shulk takes 13% more damage and the knockback on all his attacks are reduced which can be both good and bad

VI. Smash

Shulk's KO art. This art reduces Shulk's weight and damage output, however this also increases Shulk's knockback ability by a huge amount.

outdated (mostly) said:
When you activate your smash art, take note that you're VERY capable of KO'ing at low percentages. You have two ways on how to fully utilize this art. You can fish for the kill and punish your opponent. One thing to take note of is that your damage dealt is reduced by 50% which drastically decreases the safety of your attacks on shield. Your best option is to net a KO via punishment. That means using d-smash to punish rolls, f-smash to attack any nearby ledge grabbers, using u-smash when they're at the right position. In addition, Shulk's throws become very efficient KO options. Particularly, back throw and down throw. Down throw is Shulk's highest knockback throw and back throw comes in second. Shield grabbing foes for the KO is another efficient way of netting an easy KO with Shulk. Make sure you perform these near the edge

Another way of KO'ing with smash art is by edgeguarding with it. When used off stage and when you land a hit on them with any aerial, chances are that they're likely to get killed at that point thanks to the smaller blast zones and the fact that vectoring is pretty much mostly gone from Smash 4. Use air slash, f-air, b-air or d-air off stage to get KO's from edgeguarding

Smash KO %'s (Credit to @Nammy12)

Nammy12 said:

Sorry if this has already been discussed but here's a general list of when Shulk's moves kill (lightning effects) when he's in Smash mode.

All of these were tested on Wii U FD on level 3 CPU's. First from the center of FD and then from their starting positions.
Blastzones on the Wii U versions are smaller compared to the 3DS so you'll need about 5%-10% more on the 3DS version.

Smashes were uncharged, but Up-smash was sweet-spotted.
Charging the smash, sweetspots, rage, freshness, DI, crouching and positioning will all be variables in a real match.
Also, I may be off by a couple percents. (Particularly the throws due to positioning)

Heavyweight:

Middle of FD

Forward Smash (Normal)-109%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-97%

Up Smash-84%

Down Smash-101%

Forward Tilt-138%

Air Slash-132%

Back Air-130%

Back Slash (Front)-159%

Back Slash (Back)-100%

Dash Attack-130%

Up Tilt-123%

Edge (starting positions)

Forward Smash (Normal)-86%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-77%

Up Smash-84%

Down Smash-77%

Forward Tilt-111%

Air Slash-102%

Back Air-102%

Back Slash (Front)-128%

Back Slash (Back)-81%

Dash Attack-130%

Up Tilt-123%

Down Throw-158%

Back Throw-145%

Mid-heavy:

Middle of FD

Forward Smash (Normal)-98%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-86%

Up Smash-80%

Down Smash-92%

Forward Tilt-125%

Air Slash-121%

Back Air-117%

Back Slash (Front)-144%

Back Slash (Back)-92%

Dash Attack-128%

Up Tilt-121%

Edge (starting positions)

Forward Smash (Normal)-78%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-69%

Up Smash-80%

Down Smash-70%

Forward Tilt-101%

Air Slash-92%

Back Air-93%

Back Slash (Front)-116%

Back Slash (Back)-73%

Dash Attack-128%

Up Tilt-121%

Down Throw-142%

Back Throw-133%

Midweight:

Middle of FD

Forward Smash (Normal)-94%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-82%

Up Smash-75%

Down Smash--88%

Forward Tilt-119%

Air Slash-115%

Back Air-111%

Back Slash (Front)-104%

Back Slash (Back)-138%

Dash Attack-120%

Up Tilt-114%

Edge (starting positions)

Forward Smash (Normal)-74%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-65%

Up Smash-75%

Down Smash-79%

Forward Tilt-96%

Air Slash-92%

Back Air-88%

Back Slash (Front)-111%

Back Slash (Back)-70%

Dash Attack-120%

Up Tilt-114%

Down Throw-136%

Back Throw-126%

Mid-light:

Middle of FD

Forward Smash (Normal)-84%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-74%

Up Smash-72%

Down Smash-81%

Forward Tilt-109%

Air Slash-110% (CPU set to Jump)

Back Air-102%

Back Slash (Front)-127%

Back Slash (Back)-80%

Dash Attack-118%

Up Tilt-112%

Edge (starting positions)

Forward Smash (Normal)-67%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-60%

Up Smash-72%

Down Smash-66%

Forward Tilt-88%

Air Slash-86% (CPU set to Jump)

Back Air-81%

Back Slash (Front)-102%

Back Slash (Back)-63%

Dash Attack-114%

Up Tilt-112%

Down Throw-129%

Back Throw-119%

Lightweight:

Middle of FD

Forward Smash (Normal)-79%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-70%

Up Smash-57%

Down Smash-74%

Forward Tilt-101%

Air Slash-87%

Back Air-94%

Back Slash (Front)-117%

Back Slash (Back)-74%

Dash Attack-95%

Up Tilt-90%

Edge (starting positions)

Forward Smash (Normal)-62%

Forward Smash (Tilted up)-55%

Up Smash-57%

Down Smash-57%

Forward Tilt-81%

Air Slash-79%

Back Air-75%

Back Slash (Front)-95%

Back Slash (Back)-58%

Dash Attack-95%

Up Tilt-90%

Down Throw-117%

Back Throw-107%

Click to expand...

Shulk's neutral

So, we all know what the neutral is. This is basically and honestly the most important state you need to know because how you play at the neutral will determine whether if you'll be at the advantage or the disadvantage. Smash 4 is very neutral heavy. Don't be surprised if you find yourself in this state in matches. You're going to find yourself having to win at the neutral over and over AND OVER again (if you're good enough), but whatever. Now, let's take a look at Shulk's neutral.

Now, Shulk's options at neutral vary a lot depending on his arts. His arts are made to respond to the situation he's in. Say, if he has to deal with projectiles, his go-to art would be jump and speed. If the opponent is trying to break into his zone, he can either use buster art and attempt to keep the opponent at bay, or he can use speed and jump to stay mobile such that he can keep himself away from the opponent if ever he or she gets too close to Shulk. He can also use shield and take the hit then punish the opponent for actually hitting or even throwing Shulk at low to mid percentages. Your arts will be used for specific situations. You should see them as tools when it comes to dealing with match-ups but there are those times where you need to maximize your utility of the art you're currently using depending on the situation. Shulk's playstyle ultimately is all about footsies/mid-range, unless you're in smash art, in which case, you shouldn't use it at all in the neutral unless you're trying to go for the read.

Knowing Shulk's poking options with each of his arts are extremely important, even in shield and that art decreases Shulk's damage output. Anyway, Shulk's range is amazing. Yeah, you get it. We all get it. Your opponent probably gets it. Abuse it. Use it to your advantage and space the **** out of your opponent. You do not want your opponent to get any closer to you because Shulk's CQC is utter crap. How do you keep them away? What moves do I use with Shulk?

In vanilla
- B-air is pretty safe on shield if well-spaced, if you hit it up close on shield, you're ****ed
- Retreating n-air (tipped) is safe although it requires precision to land
- D-tilt is relatively safe on shield although landing it up close on shield will get you wrecked

In jump
- Cross up n-air is safe on shield
- B-air (if decently spaced) is safe on shield
- Retreating f-air/n-air/b-air is safe on shield

In speed
- Retreating b-air is safe on shield
- Retreating FF f-air is safe on shield
- Retreating n-air is safe on shield
- Cross up n-air is safe on shield

In shield
- Retreating tipped n-air is safe on shield

In buster
- Retreating f-air is safe on shield
- B-air is safe on shield
- Tipped FF n-air is safe on shield
- F-tilt is safe on shield
- D-tilt is safe on shield
- F-smash (possibly) is safe on shield if tipped (?)

In smash
- Nope

So yeah. Those are his options with footsies. Just balance it and mix it up between tilts and aerials. Make sure you aren't predictable with your footsies or the dash to shield grab will happen when they find your obvious patterns. Before I move onto mobility, I'd like to make a special mention for u-tilt because of its amazing vertical coverage. It's great for covering aerial/vertical approaches so take note of that! With buster art, you can even chain u-tilt repeatedly!
Mobility is also an important aspect when it comes to the neutral. As mentioned earlier, mobility is important for mixing up your movement against your opponent. With speed, you can dash dance, dash to shield, jump back and forth, very well while sticking close to the ground while abusing SH n-air, b-airs, pivot f-tilts, and pivot grabs. With jump, the whole stage is basically your playground. You can jump around like an idiot, confuse your opponent with your sheer mobility, perform tomahawks, use n-airs in mid-air or f-airs to gain coverage or catch air dodges, etc. etc. You get the point. Mobility is an amazing tool in Smash Bros. Try it out. Learn how to apply it and abuse it in certain situations

Also, make sure you take note of MALLC. MALLC is a crucial and must-learn tech for Shulk mains since executing it successfully will cancel the landing lag from Shulk's aerials. This is really important in Shulk's neutral since it does and can potentially do the following:

1) Maintain mid-range dominance with the rapid use of MALLC b-air
2) Punish opponents for punishing MALLC
3) Combo'ing into f-tilt, f-smash, jab or dash grab after canceling landing lag

Oh, and yes. MALLC has invincibility. Well, art activation animation already has intangibility to begin with but the window varies depending on which art you use. You still need to space with MALLC though because landing up close with MALLC will still get you punished. Hit with the middle part of the aerial to maximize MALLC's potential

If you ever find yourself feeling like you're on the brink of being at a disadvantage, use jump or speed (mostly jump art) to escape or use shield and take the heat if you think the damage won't be that much. Shield is kinda useless though against those characters who already hit hard to begin with (Bowser, Ike, Ganon, Falcon... sort of, D3, Zard, etc.)

Now Shulk's primary issue in the neutral is the fact that his attacks have commitment. This is easily noticeable especially when you look at his beautifully atrocious frame data. Yeah, there's that. Take note that his attacks have lag so make sure you make the most out of your monstrous range. There's that, and also against defensive opponents with a patient mindset, you'll be forced to approach and Shulk doesn't like to approach. When this happens, just stay away from close-range and stick to mid-range harassment. Shulk is hopeless at CQC (well... almost)

Shulk's advantage

When do you know if you have the advantage? Well, it's quite simple really. If you have the opponent in a combo, if you're opponent is hanging on the ledge, if you opponent is down on the ground, if the opponent is above you, if the opponent is off-stage and trying to recover, and if the match's pace is basically being dictated by you. Shulk's advantage is AMAZING. He gains so much profit from jump art and buster art, most notably. Smash art is also the art to go-to once you have your opponent in a disadvantageous position. Speed art is also decent at advantage due to it having a good number of strings and combos (thanks to its augmented mobility) but the damage is lackluster and unlike jump, your combos are more limited due to your shortened jump height. Even shield art is useful at this state. You can dictate the pace of the match and turn it into a slow crawl by being a defensive *****. The advantaged state can appear in many forms but truth be told, each situation in this state can be optimized depending on a certain set or just one art.
For example, an opponent off-stage trying to recover? Nice! An edgeguarding opportunity! Jump art and smash art are the optimal arts for edgeguarding. Jump art's increased recovering capabilities allow you to go in deep without any fears of self-destructing. Your options while edgeguarding in jump art are f-air, d-air and b-air, although f-air is much more notable, precise and easier to use but anyone can react to it if you're too predictable. Learn how to condition and mix up your movements. Shulk falls fast so you don't really have that much time to think while staying off-stage. With smash art, the increased knockback basically insures death even at surprisingly low percentages (~60-70%). It's a lot easier to aim since you fall slower and n-airing off-stage isn't really a bad idea. Plus, you can even catch air dodges with n-air! You can't really go far though because unlike jump art, Smash art does not augment your recovering capabilities so don't get too crazy.

As far as combos go, landing d-tilt, n-air or d-throw will allow you to follow up very well and rack up a lot of damage but that's detrimental on which art you're using. Buster art, speed art, and jump art are the notable arts when it comes to combos. Buster art combos are incredibly potent and deadly. So deadly, you can rack up an easy 35% damage in 2 hits, and if you land the tighter strings, you can easily rack up ~56% damage or even more than that. It's all thanks to the lowered knockback. With jump art, from ~30%+, you have the potential to basically take the stock from the opponent if you manage to sweep them off-stage with some f-airs. Speed art is basically functions like jump art but it has less combos and it even deals less damage. Speed art combos are good for setting the opponent in a certain position, or in other words: "Speed art combos are good for setting up."

Some notable follow-ups/strings/combos (some are DI/reaction based):
Jump art (N-air > F-air > F-air)
Jump art (D-tilt > F-air > F-air)
Jump art (D-throw > F-air > F-air)
Jump art (N-air > U-tilt > F-air > Air slash)
Jump art (N-air > F-air)
Jump art (N-air > B-air)
Jump art (N-air > D-air)
Buster art (N-air > F-smash)
Buster art (N-air > F-tilt)
Buster art (N-air > d-throw > F-smash)
Buster art (N-air > d-tilt > d-throw > F-smash)
Buster art (D-tilt > D-tilt > D-throw > F-smash)
Buster art (D-tilt > D-throw > F-smash)
Buster art (B-throw > Back slash)
Speed art (N-air > D-throw > F-air)
Speed art (N-air > B-throw > Back slash)
Speed art (D-tilt > F-air)
Speed art (N-air > F-air > F-air)

Now we're done with the combos, let's talk about Shulk's ledge trapping.... It's amazing. It doesn't matter which art you're using but... if you want to rack up damage, use buster when ledge trapping? If you want to KO, use smash. If you want to set up for an edgeguard attempt, smash or jump art works. If you want to have an easier time ledge trapping, use speed because sliding u-smashes and RAR b-airs are great for covering options from the ledge. Pretty much almost all of Shulk's moves are amazing for ledge trapping. The only moves that aren't good for ledge trapping are u-air, d-air, back slash, air slash (due to it being HORRIBLE on whiff), and counter. All his other moves are seriously good for ledge trapping. Most notably, speed art sliding u-smash and u-tilt. You can rack up so much damage with buster just from keeping up the ledge pressure and you can even land the KO with smash art u-tilt or u-smash or f-smash or d-smash. It's all goooood

Shulk's disadvantage

Oh god. This one. Shulk's physical attributes basically make him combo meat in every art sans smash art and shield art. This is one of Shulk's main weaknesses and that isn't the only reason why his disadvantage is pretty bad. His recovery without the help of jump art (and a bit of speed art) is easy to gimp. It's not bad for recovering but it is definitely easy to gimp since it doesn't ledge snap instantly. Knowing how to escape the disadvantaged state is extremely crucial with Shulk because if you don't know your options at the disadvantage, your ****ed and **** can go south reeeeal fast.

Shield art is basically your best panic button for this. You take less damage and you even get the chance of escaping the combo early since you take significantly less hitsun while being in shield art (thank you based defense buff and weight buff!). Also, take note that you should STAY AWAY from this art if you're near the ledge of the stage. Your opponent will most likely attempt to throw you off-stage. Anyway, one more thing about shield. If the tendency of your opponent is to run from shield art, take advantage of that habit and use shield art. They'll run and try to camp you out thus you reset back to the neutral state

Jump art is your go-to art for escaping juggles and recovering back on-stage. With jump art, recovering is MUCH MUCH easier and your vertical recovering ability is godlike. Your jump height is increased and your air mobility is amplified so you can take advantage of that when it comes to getting around edgeguarding attempts (FH air dodge, etc). With regards to using it against juggles, you basically jump away and use your air speed to escape. So yeah. Be careful though with jump, because you take more damage. As in, +22%. That's quite a lot of additional damage you're taking per hit...

Final words

In the end, the best way to handle the 3 states is to know your opponent and the mechanics of the character the opponent is using. Once you learn the opponent's mechanics, determine which art is optimal when you're in a situation wherein the opponent is attempting to exploit a certain mechanic/set-up against you. Should you use jump to jump away? Should you switch to smash and take more knockback to get out much faster? Or use shield and take the hit and punish them? Treat the arts as tools. Maybe there will be times wherein you can treat them as other ways on how to deal with situations (i.e: playing mid-range ALL THE WAY with jump/speed/buster). It really depends. Shulk is a dynamic character and we all have different methods with playing the character

So yeah. Feelin' it

Art synergy

Alriiiiight, so the reason why I summed up the applications that can be taken advantage of with the many effects of the Monado arts is because they all synergize with each other, somehow and basically, it's up to you to get creative. Like for example... You can use smash art to knock the opponent to set-up into jump/buster edgeguarding. Or the classic old-style Shulk play which actually still works: Rack up damage in buster then go into smash for the KO. Bypass camping and head into buster or smash art once you're at mid-range. Get rekt in shield art, punish the opponent out of hitsun, then switch into an art then wreck the opponent as hard as possible. Escape a combo via smash art, then switch into speed art to gain some footing then do whatever afterwards

I'm not gonna list ALL the possible ideas. That's up to you to think of and interpret. You can figure out some neat tricks by just looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each art and seeing what they do then figuring out how to weave each application together into one neat strategy. Make sure you actually try this in an actual match against a good player to see if it's at least situational or practical enough to use and take note of

Jump art

Increased jumping height
- Edgeguarding
- Setting-up for an edgeguarding attempt
- Bypassing projectiles
- Gimping
- Gaining stage control
- COMBOS
- U-throw becomes a good throw, for once

Increased damage taken
- No practical application tbh

Increased air speed
- Escaping juggle situations
- Recovering
- Tech chasing

Increased fall speed
- Safer aerials via FF'ing correctly and spacing correctly

Increased recovery distance
- U-throw > Air slash
- Recovering vertically

Speed art

Increased dash speed
- Bypassing projectiles
- Gaining stage control
- Tech chasing
- Boost pivot grab/f-tilt/f-smash
- Better dash to shield
- Amazing dash grab

Increased walking speed
- Fastest walking speed in the game
- Good for Shulk's grounded mid-range options
- U-tilt juggling is a thing

Decreased damage output
- More potential set-ups and combos due to the lower knockback (directly from decreased damage output)

Decreased jump height
- SH n-airs
- RAR B-airs are easier to aim
- Allows Shulk to be more focused on being grounded

Increased air speed
- Escaping juggle situations
- Recovering horizontally

Shield art

Decreased damage taken
- You take less hitsun so you can act out quickly and punish opponents for hitting or throwing you
- You can laugh at the damage you're taking while in shield art

Increased weight
- You take less hitsun so you can act out quickly and punish opponents for hitting or throwing you
- You're much harder to KO

Increased shield health
- Shield poking is MUCH harder/near impossible against Shulk
- Hiding in shield is pretty much a godlike defensive option

Decreased damage dealt
- Uh

Decreased air speed
- Foes tend to run circles around you so basically, you can slow down the pace of the match by using shield

Decreased ground speed
- Pivot f-tilts are easier to aim/land
- Foes tend to run circles around you so basically, you can slow down the pace of the match by using shield

Decreased jump height
- It's easier to aim with b-air, I guess

Buster art

Increased damage output
- Shield pressure increased (notably tipped n-air, d-tilt, f-tilt, b-air, d-smash, and f-smash)
- Damage output is godlike (whopping +40%)
- Spacing is basically much more rewarded in buster art

Decreased knockback dealt
- More combos and set-ups
- You can keep opponents at mid-range which you want them to remain at
- You can edgeguard with buster, and rack up damage+possibly gimp at the same time!

Increased damage taken
- Meh

Smash art

Increased knockback dealt
- You can KO at earlier percentages (~70%+)
- You can gimp opponents off-stage at surprisingly early percentages (~60%+)
- You can use the knockback to set-up for an edgeguarding attempt
- Kill throws are a thing now

Decreased weight
- You can escape combos using your decreased weight

Decreased damage dealt
- Gross

Ledge trapping with the Monado (Because Shulk is really good at this ****)

So, Shulk's range is ****ing huge. Whoo-pee. It's one of his greatest assets along with the Monado Arts. It's also one of the main reasons why the developers thought it was a brilliant idea to gimp Shulk's frame data but whatever, that's irrelevant to what I'm gonna say. His range is what makes his ledge trapping one of the most feared in the game. Almost all of Shulk's moves can be used for ledge trapping. Now how exactly do you utilize each move in a situation where in your opponent is grabbing the ledge? Which option should you use?

U-tilt is one of your main ledge trapping tools. It's also one of Shulk's fastest moves, so yay. More incentive for you to use this move. With buster art, you can chain u-tilt into itself or you can string into a grab, jab, or any tilt. In smash art, this **** KILLS so yeah. If you're fishing for a kill, ledge trap with smash art u-tilt. Anyway, I'm done with talking about what u-tilt is capable of. How do or when do you use u-tilt? Well, you use u-tilt when they roll from the ledge or when they climb up from the ledge or when they jump from the ledge. You have to time u-tilt though. The only option u-tilt may have trouble against is ledge dropping > SH aerial but u-tilt still may work depending on how well you time and space your attack. If the aerial, however, is maybe something like Villager's f-air/b-air or Mega Man's n-air then u-tilt won't work

Both d-tilt and f-tilt function as solid ledge trapping tools, the latter being somewhat harder to land due to its start up but it's much more rewarding. D-tilt and f-tilt are great options against neutral ledge-get ups and if well-spaced, it's good against ledge attacks. It's not really useful against ledge hops. It's somewhat iffy against ledge rolls unless you pivot f-tilt near the ledge or if you face back then use f-tilt or d-tilt

U-smash is a solid ledge trapping tool and it's obviously the most rewarding since if you land this with smash art, you can basically land a potential early KO. U-smash's first hitbox is deceptive. It's actually has a pretty decent hitbox such that even catches opponents off-guard. U-smash is useful against ledge rolls, ledge get-ups and ledge hops. The "fart box" (aka: the deceptive hitbox) is the main reason why it's really good for ledge rolls and ledge get-ups. Its vertical range makes it good for dealing with ledge hops. The only issue with u-smash is that missing with u-smash will hurt a lot because it has a ton of end lag. U-smash isn't really that great against ledge drops -> aerials

Shulk's aerials (except d-air and u-air) are fantastic for ledge trapping. N-air's hitbox basically covers every ledge option since it can beat out any aerial due to its sheer range, it can also cover ledge hops, rolls, ledge get-ups and ledge attacks with its amazing coverage. The same can be said for f-air and b-air. I'd go in-depth with the aerials but I think it's really easy and it's good enough to sum up their utility with ledge trapping as: "Dat range tho"

So there you have it. I guess

Masonomace · Sep 21, 2014

The picture above shows Shulk about to use Ftilt at close range. He's more than close enough to be spacing it.

Above we see the tip of the Monado Blade itself dealing 13% fresh in training mode. You'll see closely that it is indeed the tip of the Blade hitting even if the Beam is making contact as well. This means that if your Blade portion is in range of a character's hurt-box, it will have more priority than the Beam portion, dealing that blunt %.

Above we see Ftilt barely miss, almost coming in contact. Remember that if the Beam portion hits but the Blade itself doesn't the Beam remains to be the active hit-box.

And now here's when the tip of the blade hits, dealing 10% fresh like we talked about earlier. Notice that the blade's tip isn't touching Mii Fighter, but the tip of the beam does.

Edited Summary: The blunt attack of the Monado blade itself deals more base damage & KB than the beam does in this case of F-tilt including Shulk's entire move-set. So taking Buster mode for example, F-tilt close-ranged early game is risky, but landing a fresh Bladed Ftilt would deal at most 18% while the Beamed Ftilt fresh deals 14%.

MASTERLINKX · Sep 21, 2014

Masonomace said:
Interesting, do you proceed to proc Buster no matter the character you're facing? I bet they're kneeling it.

What KO options do you go for in Smash mode?

I say it's cool to gamble with Buster, given you're the one in the lead taking that chance to dish out extra % before losing your 1 stock lead. But if you're going by risk-reward, wouldn't you prefer to use Smash over Buster in that regard, seeing that a single move ending Shulk's stock I figure it might as well be Smash. Yet with a percent in the 100's, Buster or Smash would benefit from the RageBoost% that's gathered up doing extra knockback.

And finally, do you commit with the blade portion in the F-tilt, or the beam portion in the F-tilt for your fresh KO in Smash Art?

Yes, I will always Buster no matter what Character.
In Smash mode it really depends on the situations, if I grab and back throw off the stage, I'll attempt to chase them down with a Bair, or Fair depending on how I think they'll attempt to get back and what their recovery is.
Reading a roll into DownSmash has worked for me plenty of times, as well as ForwardSmash.

If I see a potential opening when they are above 100% and near a ledge, I will try and Ftilt them. The beam portion is pretty much a bonus reach for me. I don't really commit to one or the other when ftilting. If they leave an opening, I'll use it whether they are in reach of the tip of the beam or right next to me. It usually kills regardless.

I don't seem to use UpSmash as much as I'd like to. If you sweetspot it with the Smash Art, it's very strong.
Sourspotting it though is pretty much what will happen most of the time when using it next to your opponent.
Your opponent needs to be like half a Shulk away from you for your UpSmash to knock them up into the sweetspot of the beam. You could try to read your opponent if they are above you to manually sweetspot them with it as it has a nice reach.

If my opponent is under 80%, I will go with Buster the majority of the time, and risk my lead stock.
If they are above that, of course I'd go with Smash.

Edit
My playstyle has changed since I made this post, I don't use Buster as much as I used to.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Basically, it's just like I said when I was talking about using buster

There ARE players that I watched that know how to safely damage a lot with buster and not get hit with it. I think we wouldn't need to think about which art should we start with against specific characters if we got used to using buster correctly and safely

Edit: And no. I'm not lying to myself

Masonomace · Sep 21, 2014

MASTERLINKX said:
Yes, I will always Buster no matter what Character.
In Smash mode it really depends on the situations, if I grab and back throw off the stage, I'll attempt to chase them down with a Bair, or Fair depending on how I think they'll attempt to get back and what their recovery is.
Reading a roll into DownSmash has worked for me plenty of times, as well as ForwardSmash.

If I see a potential opening when they are above 100% and near a ledge, I will try and Ftilt them. The beam portion is pretty much a bonus reach for me. I don't really commit to one or the other when ftilting. If they leave an opening, I'll use it whether they are in reach of the tip of the beam or right next to me. It usually kills regardless.

I don't seem to use UpSmash as much as I'd like to. If you sweetspot it with the Smash Art, it's very strong.
Sourspotting it though is pretty much what will happen most of the time when using it next to your opponent.
Your opponent needs to be like half a Shulk away from you for your UpSmash to knock them up into the sweetspot of the beam. You could try to read your opponent if they are above you to manually sweetspot them with it as it has a nice reach.

If my opponent is under 80%, I will go with Buster the majority of the time, and risk my lead stock.
If they are above that, of course I'd go with Smash.

I admire your determination to always use Buster regardless the character MatchUp. Interesting. I'd like to see how you'd play online against these MU's with Buster then:

Right on, I like Shulk's B-air to the extent I'd prefer using it as my edge-guarding tool over U-air or D-air, even F-air, though wouldn't N-air provide more aerial coverage than F-air, RAR'ing yourself so the hit-box of N-air starts-up to be behind knocking them away?
I would eggspect DSmash to scoop up rollers, it's 2nd / 3rd spin extends the beam portion outward covering so much area. The crowd control is too much.

Understandable about F-tilt.

USmash, feels underrated to me. It's KO potential is fairly good & when augmented with the Smash mode, it's KO power goes even further beyond that. It's a nice anti-air smash attack, yet reading about USmash sourspotting probably sounds like the worst aside from FSmash double hit whiff. Perhaps picking stages with platforms above the stage would promote the idea of USmashing underneath the platforms for even better Anti-air.

Any character I feel that's under 80% but near that estimate, persay in the 70's %. 70 - 76% would be a decent range, these are the characters I would consider switching out Buster for Smash to wipe their stock off:

, & then I'd stop. Because VI / DI / MC'ing & all the other survival mechanics to be utilized may prevent a KO past 80% from Smash mode.

berserker01 said:
Basically, it's just like I said when I was talking about using buster

There ARE players that I watched that know how to safely damage a lot with buster and not get hit with it. I think we wouldn't need to think about which art should we start with against specific characters if we got used to using buster correctly and safely

Edit: And no. I'm not lying to myself

Bust it!

Albeit, I did put in a lot of time in those brief character explanations with a recommended starting Art stance for the sake of practicing ideas & thoughts ahead for preparation, persay a warm-up towards Shulk's Metagame in MatchUps versus the rest of the Smash cast. I'm getting way ahead of myself, but depending how developed the game gets, where new strategies, different mix-ups, new AT's, all will be discovered later on. Buster Shulk may just be one of those many strategies used in the grand scheme of Shulk entirely, & perhaps Buster mode will be a pinnacle of 2014 in Shulk's game-play-style. Atm Idek what I'm saying anymore, I need to lay down.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

@

Masonomace

You sure shield is good against Jr? I personally think speed or buster should be fine.

Oh and I finished your list. Lol

~ Gheb ~ · Sep 21, 2014

The rage mechanic could prove to be very useful for Shulk. From 150% onwards the multiplier for knockback becomes 1.5+ giving moves a knockback boost of another 50%. With [extreme] Shield Shulk should be able to reach this amount of % pretty consistently making Vision and other moves potentially deadly at relatively low %. The obvious tradeoff for the rage mechanic is that you will be no longer able to perform combos against opponents with low % when you yourself are at high %. This doesn't seem to be a big problem for Shulk who doesn't have a lot of combos anyway though. This makes it all the more important to avoid getting killed early yourself, especially through gimps. They - as well as the rage mechanic itself -will likely make or break a lot of characters and I feel that in Shulk's case it will more likely make than break him.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Back slash has incredibly long range. Pretty obvious.

I wonder if this actually helps in edgeguarding. NO, I don't mean using it while jumping. I meant position yourself from the edge of the stage such that when you use it, your blade will reach off the edge and possibly hit the opponent. Think that might work? I think back slash might have potential for edgeguarding. We know that it's good for punishing also

Gheb_01 said:
The rage mechanic could prove to be very useful for Shulk. From 150% onwards the multiplier for knockback becomes 1.5+ giving moves a knockback boost of another 50%. With [extreme] Shield Shulk should be able to reach this amount of % pretty consistently making Vision and other moves potentially deadly at relatively low %. The obvious tradeoff for the rage mechanic is that you will be no longer able to perform combos against opponents with low % when you yourself are at high %. This doesn't seem to be a big problem for Shulk who doesn't have a lot of combos anyway though. This makes it all the more important to avoid getting killed early yourself, especially through gimps. They - as well as the rage mechanic itself -will likely make or break a lot of characters and I feel that in Shulk's case it will more likely make than break him.

Once shield wears off (because the duration is shorter than usual, but still kinda long regardless), I think Shulk should switch to jump or speed and continue avoiding damage until shield comes back up.

But what should Shulk do at the start of the match (w/ extreme monado)?

I think the only extreme art that's not worth using at all is the Smash art. The very fact that you become the lightest in the game is really risky. I think extreme buster will be fine if you space correctly, use your tilts and punish and most importantly, not get too reckless.

Vanilla Shulk (when using extreme monado arts) is probably the safest option when it comes to racking damage. I doubt Shulk's gonna use extreme smash. Extreme buster does a LOT of damage but the defense debuff is risky which is why I think if you're planning on using buster, you should prepare to switch to shield when you've taking too much damage or just stay as vanilla Shulk

xLemmy_KoopaX · Sep 21, 2014

berserker01 said:
Once shield wears off (because the duration is shorter than usual, but still kinda long regardless), I think Shulk should switch to jump or speed and continue avoiding damage until shield comes back up.

But what should Shulk do at the start of the match (w/ extreme monado)?

I think the only extreme art that's not worth using at all is the Smash art. The very fact that you become the lightest in the game is really risky. I think extreme buster will be fine if you space correctly, use your tilts and punish and most importantly, not get too reckless.

Vanilla Shulk (when using extreme monado arts) is probably the safest option when it comes to racking damage. I doubt Shulk's gonna use extreme smash. Extreme buster does a LOT of damage but the defense debuff is risky which is why I think if you're planning on using buster, you should prepare to switch to shield when you've taking too much damage or just stay as vanilla Shulk

I don't know, Extreme Monado Arts sound very powerful, but the drawbacks are so huge and there is so much risk involved that I'd say the standard ones are better for competitive play. If Vanilla Shulk is indeed the best option at the beginning when you have Extreme Arts I would rather use Normal ones to have a Buster or a Speed buff that is not that risky to use. Those Extreme Monado Arts will be a lot of fun though.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

xLemmy_KoopaX said:
I don't know, Extreme Monado Arts sound very powerful, but the drawbacks are so huge and there is so much risk involved that I'd say the standard ones are better for competitive play. If Vanilla Shulk is indeed the best option at the beginning when you have Extreme Arts I would rather use Normal ones to have a Buster or a Speed buff that is not that risky to use. Those Extreme Monado Arts will be a lot of fun though.

That's the whole point of extreme monado. It's VERY risky but rewarding. That extreme shield strategy though is really good

I can understand your point of view if you'd prefer normal monado arts

Andyjoe522 · Sep 21, 2014

My opinion on the Extreme Monado Arts is that they'll likely be very popular for single player (especially the home run contest, where I'm confident Extreme Shulk will be setting records), but for competitive play it will be up to if you're willing to take the risks involved with them, with most people likely preferring to go with the standard Monado Arts.

Decisive Monado Arts are just... there. Although I guess they might see some use in Smash Run, although even that is questionable.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Andyjoe522 said:
My opinion on the Extreme Monado Arts is that they'll likely be very popular for single player (especially the home run contest, where I'm confident Extreme Shulk will be setting records), but for competitive play it will be up to if you're will to take the risks involved with them, with most people likely preferring to go with the standard Monado Arts.

Decisive Monado Arts are just... there. Although I guess they might see some use in Smash Run, although even that is questionable.

Decisive monado arts is the ultimate shield/jump/speed art. It sucks for buster or smash because lasting that long with a defense (weight and defense for smash) debuff sucks. Lasting long in shield allows you to stock tank better and having a longer duration with jump and speed gives you more time to be harder to hit. Only problem with decisive monado arts is that you can't switch out and that's pretty big.

Oh and gimped damage output

~ Gheb ~ · Sep 21, 2014

Trela just beat Denti's Sheik in a first to 10 set with Shulk. There were lots of fraudulent SDs and lag involved but also some useful things to take note of:

- Shulk utilt seems capable of beating Sheik's new down B consistently
- Backslash has properties that allows it to counter Sheik's new side B
- It seems like Shulk was able to completely avoid getting gimped against Sheik
- Vision is a poor option against fsmash in this matchup and generally not a very good anti-juggle tool
- Monado Speed actually seems too fast to control it properly, walking seems to be better than dashing / running in this case
- Either Sheik has trouble killing, Shulk has a very strong survival game or both. The rage mechanics of the game could theoretically tip the matchup a little in Shulk's favor but that might be a general problem for Sheik and not matchup specific. Good to know though.

FlareHabanero · Sep 21, 2014

I would like to mention a few details.

First off, it would be worth mentioning the double edge sword aspect of Monado Shield. Which is that Shulk receives less knockback, but it also makes him more vulnerable to combos because of that. For example, badly timing Shield will make you more vulnerable to up tilt attacks that can juggle, like Mario's up tilt.

Second, there's the risky tactic of using Monado Jump in order to snipe people while they're close to the blast line for early KO potential. But, again, it's risky because the Shulk player will need to perfectly time his attack of choice, and the opponent will need to be battered enough to where the OK will count. To an lesser extent, it will also depend on the stage itself.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Soul Blazer said:
I would like to mention a few details.

First off, it would be worth mentioning the double edge sword aspect of Monado Shield. Which is that Shulk receives less knockback, but it also makes him more vulnerable to combos because of that. For example, badly timing Shield will make you more vulnerable to up tilt attacks that can juggle, like Mario's up tilt.

Second, there's the risky tactic of using Monado Jump in order to snipe people while they're close to the blast line for early KO potential. But, again, it's risky because the Shulk player will need to perfectly time his attack of choice, and the opponent will need to be battered enough to where the OK will count. To an lesser extent, it will also depend on the stage itself.

I don't think Shulk is that vulnerable to combos while using shield when you're like about above 120% or maybe more, I think 150%+ is a safe guess. Not sure about the exact scale. Of course, using shield at a bad time when let's say you aren't even above 100% is unnecessary. Then again, shield reduces the damage you take by around 30% so you might not take as much damage as expected, but it's still a waste and that will put shield on cooldown.

The real problem with Monado shield is that it's ultra easy to edgeguard. It seems like Monado shield affects your air speed so if by any chance you're knocked off the stage, you might want to make a quick decision and switch to jump.

Without buster or smash affecting Shulk's knockback, I'd say Shulk can KO at around 130-160% if we don't count vision here. I can see where you're getting at about Monado jump being really risky

Gheb_01 said:
- Either Sheik has trouble killing, Shulk has a very strong survival game or both

Sort of both

Sheik has great ways of racking up damage but she doesn't have a lot of solid KO options. Shulk also has a strong survival game. If we're talking about Vanilla Shulk here then he's still above average in terms of weight in comparison to the cast. If we were to include arts in this, he has shield art which helps

Edit: Oh and I'm not sure about this but I think Shield increases your falling speed so if you're knocked off, you really have to be quick about it. Luckily, jump comes first in the monado cycle

Neo Zero · Sep 21, 2014

Honestly, I'm never really feeling Shield. The speed drop, as well as how easy he is to edge guard if Shield is up (its not like you can switch it to Jump instantly after all) is a major turn off for me. I almost never use it myself.

FlareHabanero · Sep 21, 2014

I sort of wished Shield had the additional effect of neutralizing or reflecting projectiles, since it would at least compensate for the reduced mobility. At the moment, it's only useful to avoid a stray KO attempt.

Neo Zero · Sep 21, 2014

That would be nice.

Honestly it more just leads to me getting hit because of how slow Shulk is. Its basically a Monado Art that makes you as slow as Ganondorf is all I see it as. The rest (especially speed) I see good use for though.

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Shurui Tamashi said:
(its not like you can switch it to Jump instantly after all)

Well, actually.... Jump comes first in the monado arts cycle so...

All the tactics we planned for shield usually are to be used when you're at a high percentage. I'm really not sure if there's actually legitimate use for it outside of that. Shield is basically the most situational art among all the arts he has. Yeah, it does kinda suck but it has a lot of uses and it's a great asset at high percentages.

Against those characters that are more direct with their playstyle, shield will work fine. Sure, you deal less damage (-30%) but you can still use your range to your advantage and build a healthy lead while your at it until you get KO'd. Pivot grabbing and f-tilting will be a thing for shield. In fact, you can even get a cheap KO with shield activated given if you racked up enough damage or landed a counter against a strong attack since Shield does not nerf knockback

The only time I think shield might be really iffy or borderline useless is if you're against campers. It's gonna be difficult to get to them. Assume that you KO them and you're still at a high % and they just respawned and they're back to 0. All you're doing is basically stock tanking-- I mean delaying the inevitable at that point and I really doubt you're gonna deal that much damage considering your mobility and Shulk's innately slightly lacking rushdown options

Neo Zero · Sep 21, 2014

Even still, it takes about a second and a half to switch Shield off, and turn on jump. That may as well be an eternity considering where you are in this situation

Berserker. · Sep 21, 2014

Shurui Tamashi said:
Even still, it takes about a second and a half to switch Shield off, and turn on jump. That may as well be an eternity considering where you are in this situation

Well yeah, there's that. Recovering with shield Shulk will be a real pain.

Is it me or does vision counter whiff more often when in mid-air or against air borne players? I'm guessing the reason behind it is that the neutral (no directional input) variation is slow but it's ranged but unfortunately, it's not fast enough. The forward inputted counter seems MUCH faster and even more damaging (plus it has more knockback) but the range is something that needs to be looked into, but if I can take a guess, it probably can only hit the player if he's STRICTLY in front of and really close to Shulk.

Neo Zero · Sep 22, 2014

Ill ask my friend to help me test that later.

Berserker. · Sep 22, 2014

Well, since all data about Shulk will be added here. Might as well leave this here.....

I just used Aero's monado data multiplier for this. This might not be accurate but I got bored anyway and I had too much spare time and I was very curious and I wanted to try making a table so those are my reasons :|

Also, this is based this on some of Chauzu's damage values and Aero's damage values
(Edit: Etikaworldnetwork's video on Shulk also helped. Done in training mode)

UPDATE: 1st hit/2nd hit to avoid confusion

Move|Vanilla| Jump | Speed | Shield | Buster | Smash
Jab 1|3|3|2|2|4|1
Jab 2|3|3|2|2|4|2
Jab 3|4|4|3|3|7|5
Dash attack|10|10|8|7|14|5
F-tilt (Tip)|10|10|7|7|14|5
F-tilt (Not tip)|12|12|8|8|16|6
D-tilt (Tip)|6|6|5|4|8|3
D-tilt (Not tip)|8|8|6|5|11|4
U-tilt (Tip)|6|6|4|4|8|3
U-tilt (Not tip)|7|7|5|4|9|3
F-smash (Uncharged)|5/12|5/12|3/9|3/8|7/17|2/6
F-smash (Fully charged)|7/17|7/17|5/12|5/12|9/24|3/8
U-smash (Uncharged)|4/13|4/13|2/11|2/11|5/18|2/6
U-smash (Fully charged)|5/13|5/13|5/13|4/12|7/25|3/9
D-smash (Uncharged)|13|13|9|9|18|6
D-smash (Fully charged)|18|18|13|12|24|9
N-air (Base)|6|6|4|4|8|3
N-air (Blade)|7|7|5|4|9|3
F-air (Base) |6|6|4|4|9|3
F-air (Tip)|5|5|4|4|8|2
B-air (Base)|11|11|7|7|15|6
B-air (Tip)|7|7|5|4|9|3
U-air|4/9|4/9|3/6|3/6|5/12|2/4
D-air|6/10|6/10|4/7|3/6|5/12|3/5
U-special|5/5|5/5|3/4|3/4|7/7|2/3
F-special (Front, blade)|10|10|7|7|14|5
F-special (Front, base)|9|9|6|6|12|4
F-special (Back, blade)|16|16|11|11|22|8
F-special (Back, base)|14|14|10|9|19|7
D-special (No input, tip)|7|7|5|4|10|4
D-special (No input, not tip)|10|7|7|14|5
D-special (Forward)|13|13|9|9|18|7
Pummel|3|3|2|2|4|1
B-throw|2/9|2/9|2/6|1/6|3/12|1/4
F-throw|2/8|2/8|2/5|2/5|3/11|1/4
U-throw|2/4|2/4|2/3|2/2|3/5|1/2
D-throw|2/4|2/4|2/3|2/2|3/5|1/2

Now let's all laugh at Smash's damage output--- I mean, wait for @

KuroganeHammer to come here and be disappointed

Masonomace · Sep 22, 2014

berserker01 said:
@ Masonomace

You sure shield is good against Jr? I personally think speed or buster should be fine.

Oh and I finished your list. Lol

I updated it just now, check it out & re-edit your OP if you'd like.

Gheb_01 said:
The rage mechanic could prove to be very useful for Shulk. From 150% onwards the multiplier for knockback becomes 1.5+ giving moves a knockback boost of another 50%. With [extreme] Shield Shulk should be able to reach this amount of % pretty consistently making Vision and other moves potentially deadly at relatively low %. The obvious tradeoff for the rage mechanic is that you will be no longer able to perform combos against opponents with low % when you yourself are at high %. This doesn't seem to be a big problem for Shulk who doesn't have a lot of combos anyway though. This makes it all the more important to avoid getting killed early yourself, especially through gimps. They - as well as the rage mechanic itself -will likely make or break a lot of characters and I feel that in Shulk's case it will more likely make than break him.

Niiiice, & I agree that Shulk's combo string potential is fairly low, at best he can string at least 2 - 3 moves together such as SH > Nair > Dtilt, things like that, or Uthrow > Utilt > insert next move here.
RageBoost% with Default Monado Arts Shield alone is impressive, Extreme Shield would be insayian with the RB% with a beefy Vision counter, good call. With his assorted stances to alter his game-play including Shield making the best of RB%, Smash & Buster as well will make Shulk rather than Break him, assuming we play safe & don't gimp ourselves like you said.

berserker01 said:
Back slash has incredibly long range. Pretty obvious.

I wonder if this actually helps in edgeguarding. NO, I don't mean using it while jumping. I meant position yourself from the edge of the stage such that when you use it, your blade will reach off the edge and possibly hit the opponent. Think that might work? I think back slash might have potential for edgeguarding. We know that it's good for punishing also

Once shield wears off (because the duration is shorter than usual, but still kinda long regardless), I think Shulk should switch to jump or speed and continue avoiding damage until shield comes back up.

But what should Shulk do at the start of the match (w/ extreme monado)?

I think the only extreme art that's not worth using at all is the Smash art. The very fact that you become the lightest in the game is really risky. I think extreme buster will be fine if you space correctly, use your tilts and punish and most importantly, not get too reckless.

Vanilla Shulk (when using extreme monado arts) is probably the safest option when it comes to racking damage. I doubt Shulk's gonna use extreme smash. Extreme buster does a LOT of damage but the defense debuff is risky which is why I think if you're planning on using buster, you should prepare to switch to shield when you've taking too much damage or just stay as vanilla Shulk

Not 100% sure about that (but I can see it working, plus if we force them to re-grab the ledge losing their intangibility) because in Brawl, some character's fingers / hands / head on the ledge hanging were easier to hit thanks to their big hurtbox, but assuming this may be a case, I could see Back Slash utilized for grounded edge-guarding. That or Back Slash used for eggstremely hard reads in a ledge-game scenario of the opponent rolling onto the stage, we do a reversed input Back Slash to catch them & do tons of damage & knockback. Or if we break their shield somehow, switch to Smash or Buster Shulk & use Back Slash's meaty hit-box area of the blade to either KO or do tons of damage. Other than that, Back Slash will be used by us & seen a lot more in Team Battles, no doubt about that. The grab setups & combo strings we may see people do launching someone away with a tilt to Shulk's follow-up with a Back Slash from behind.

For Shield depending on the flow of the match, after the stance runs out of active time, switching to Jump or Speed would be a wise move for stalling out them, though I'm not too sure we'd get that kind of bliss to last 16 seconds for Shield to be re-used. Wait are we talking about [Extreme] or [Regular]?

For the start of a match (which I would recommend people to be fully accustomed to [Regular] Monado Arts before trying to touch [Extreme] Monado Arts), I'd say to use none of the [Extreme] Arts. All the advantages get buffed sure, but the setbacks all heavily outweigh the advantages too much. And because all of Shulk's Arts have more setbacks than advantages, they'll be used specifically for a few moments in a match, making them less needed until the right moments to use them in the certain situations happen.When those moments come, [E]Arts will shine brighter tendfold.

[E]Jump gets a tiny bit more jump height, but I'm sure the horizontal & vertical mobility excel far past expectations no doubt. If we launch anyone off-stage & they end up reaching the corners of the screen, we might as well create True Combos with Shulk & FullHop + DoubleJump after them hunting them down KO'ing them right near the Blast Zone side(s). Other than that, [E]Jump along with [E]Smash will make Shulk receive a lot more % damage dealt to him & become thee lightest character in the game, which ofc doesn't sit well with me at all. However, using Jump only for off-stage edge-guarding & / or for recovering from above or way below the stage, it makes no difference, as the mobility Shulk gets in the air is probably god-tier floaty. [E]Jump would do great with huge Blast Zones & a high ceiling.
[E]Speed (Lol. Extreme Speed ) is even more terrifying to play against being that fast able to still cancel some of the movement so quickly with Shield, pivoted tilt, or a pivot grab input from a fair distance in front of the opponent. Based on some testing @Chauzu did on Speed's Pivot Grab potential sliding 0.25 / 0.2 the length of FD, it's very likely grabbing them & sliding to the very end of the stage's ledge for a B-throw edge-guard situation. Despite all the good about [E]Speed being too fast for people to react to, the setbacks limit the usage of Shulk's Art even more like all the other Arts do. Strictly ground-game usage here, going in the air once is taboo, so basically in this stance, you're basically Super & it's recommended that you play on a large stage to have all the space & room you want to run on. Jump height being a debuff for [E]Speed Shulk, aerial mobility & jump height may probably become heavily decreased so much that it would be unsafe to be knocked off-stage. Be ready to grab, pivot tilts, & Running Shield Cancel a lot.

[E]Shield would be used mainly for stock tanking for RageBoost% exploiting like @ ~ Gheb ~ mentioned. Unfortunately I really don't see any other decent use for [E]Shield other than when facing Very-Heavy-Weights or KO powerhouses like 's OHKO?at high% with huge AB% & RB% or to survive. Trying to use [E]Shield in a regular manner for any MU would feel frowned upon, being outclassed in speed & mobility by all of the cast. In Team Battle, I see this [E]Art absolutely useful to be the ultimate stock tank for however long the Art lasts. Adding that huge durability to last that many more seconds at the cost of losing speed & air presence, is worth it as long as you don't get launched off-stage or die, which I fail to see happen to [E]Shield Shulk. Vision Counter will be a great tool to strengthen [E]Shield Shulk's already amazing ground-presence as well. [E]Shield I feel would work great on smaller stages with or without platforms.

[E]Buster is a mode I would almost consider useless imo. Most of the time Buster was used, it was for early game % output even with the knockback decrease, it was managable to an extent. [E]Buster's setbacks amplified become so detrimental to Shulk that he'd be better off reverting after dealing the damage that he did, get punished for it, & move to another Art or stay as Default. Any attack you were to input on somebody. . .even throws, may be too ineffective the character you attacked would instantly recover from whatever hitstun they had for that 0.20 of a second time & proceed to punish you with a grab into a string & send you flying far for it. Shulk's quickest moves AFAIK having low start-up & low ending cooldown are his tilts, his AAA, & his throws, but because of the lessened knockback setback, I imagine Jab1 2 3 & his throws would do more harm than good. Of all the setbacks that come with [E]Buster, Damage taken probably takes the cake. When your goal is to be dealing tons of % damage, the exchange of losing most of your knockback potential, & being launched easier taking more % damage in the aftermath, no longer makes me feel Buster is a double-edged sword, it's seppuku. All I can say is, space the hell out of your moves & be frame perfect to avoid any punishes, because if you make any mistakes, they cost you more than what you're selling.

[E]Smash like all modes wouldn't get used until the very moment in the match you would need to use it for the Extreme risk/reward factor. [E]Shield transitioning to [E]Smash would make the stock tanking you did to have that high % boost you indirectly with the RageBoost%, plus Smash's godlike KO power. With that powerful buff, you become lighter than Jigglypuff, & your % damage output is cut by more than half of your regular output. If you were to put everything into one Vision Counter(Forward) & succeeded, then congratulations you win the game! But again here like I would say for [E]Buster, this art would be useless unless used for the certain moments to seal stocks, or going for early KO's when your % is still low or on a fresh stock.

But yeah, basically [E] Arts become so intense to use that, unless you've fully mastered controlling Arts you prefer, or all of them, they should never be used until the time to use them the right way is now.

Gheb_01 said:
Trela just beat Denti's Sheik in a first to 10 set with Shulk. There were lots of fraudulent SDs and lag involved but also some useful things to take note of:

- Shulk utilt seems capable of beating Sheik's new down B consistently
Yes yes yes I knew Utilt would be a godlike anti-aerial shut-down.
- Backslash has properties that allows it to counter Sheik's new side B
??? Eggsplain please. Does the vortext property from the Burst Grenade become ignored because Back SLash is a suppression attack that forefully leaps forward?
- It seems like Shulk was able to completely avoid getting gimped against Sheik
- Vision is a poor option against fsmash in this matchup and generally not a very good anti-juggle tool
- Monado Speed actually seems too fast to control it properly, walking seems to be better than dashing / running in this case
- Either Sheik has trouble killing, Shulk has a very strong survival game or both. The rage mechanics of the game could theoretically tip the matchup a little in Shulk's favor but that might be a general problem for Sheik and not matchup specific. Good to know though.

Replies are in the quote, though not that many. . .

Shurui Tamashi said:
That would be nice.

Honestly it more just leads to me getting hit because of how slow Shulk is. Its basically a Monado Art that makes you as slow as Ganondorf is all I see it as. The rest (especially speed) I see good use for though.

Shield will be a much better Art utilized in Team Battles. Perhaps in Singles 1v1 competitive play it won't be seen much besides being used for the generic strategy. All of us automatically put 2 & 2 together when seeing it on the trailer, hearing about it & learning what it did, then, within the first second after knowing all about it, we told ourselves, "Oh, yeah, stock tanking".

I actually have a few thoughts wondering if:

Shulk's shield strength increases during the Art's active time, not being popped or shield poked as easily
Rolling improved in some way, like persay his forward & backward roll gained more intangibility
Sidestepping lasting longer
Airdodging lasting longer

As far as every other Art, yeah agreed. Especially Speed.

berserker01 said:
Well, since all data about Shulk will be added here. Might as well leave this here.....

I just used Aero's monado data multiplier for this. This might not be accurate but I got bored anyway and I had too much spare time and I was very curious and I wanted to try making a table so those are my reasons :|

Also, this is based this on some of Chauzu's damage values and Aero's damage values

All smashes are uncharged. Some (or most) of the numbers might not be accurate

Move|Vanilla (x1)| Jump (x1)| Speed (x0.7199..)| Shield (x0.7)| Buster (x1.4)| Smash (x0.5)
Jab 1|3|3|2.2|2.1|4.2|1.5
Jab 2|3|3|2.2|2.1|4.2|1.5
Jab 3 (Tip)|4.3|4.3|3.1|3|6|2.2
Jab 3 (Not tip)|5|5|3.6|3.5|7|2.5
Dash attack|10|10|7.2|7|14|5
F-tilt (Tip)|10|10|7|7.2|14|5
F-tilt (Not tip)|12|12|8.6|8.4|16.8|6
D-tilt (Tip)|6|6|4.3|4.2|8.4|3
D-tilt (Not tip)|8|8|5.8|5.6|11.2|4
U-tilt (Tip)|6|6|4.3|4.2|8.4|3
U-tilt (Not tip)|7|7|5|4.9|9.8|3.5
F-smash|6/13|6/13|4.3/9.4|4.2/9.1|8.4/18.2|3/6.5
U-smash|4/14|4/14|2.9/10|2.8/9.8|5.6/19.6|2/7
D-smash|12(5)|12(5)|8.6(3.6)|8.4(3.5)|16.8(7)|6(2.5)
N-air|6|6|4.3|4.2|9|3
F-air|6|6|4.3|4.2|9|3
B-air|11|11|7.9|7.7|15.4|5.5
U-air|?/?|?/?|?/?|?/?|?/?|?/?
D-air|4/10|4/10|2.9/7.2|2.8/7|5.6/14|2/5
U-special|5/5|5/5|3.5/3.5|3.5/3.5|7/7|2.5/2.5
F-special (Front, tip)|9|9|6.5|6.3|12|4.5
F-special (Front, non-tip)|10|10|7.2|7|14|5
F-special (Back, ??)|16|16|11.5|11.2|22.4|8
D-special (No input, tip)|7|7|5|4.9|9.8|3.5
D-special (No input, not tip)|10|7.2|7|14|5
D-special (Forward)|13|13|9.4|9.1|18.2|6.5
Pummel|3|3|2.2|2.1|4.2|1.5
B-throw|2/9|2/9|1.4/6.5|1.4/6.3|2.8/12|1/4.5
F-throw|2/8|2/8|1.4/5.8|1.4/5.6|2.8/11.2|1/4
U-throw|2/4|2/4|1.4/2.9|1.4/2.8|2.8/5.6|1/2
D-throw|2/4|2/4|1.4/2.9|1.4/2.8|2.8/5.6|1/2

Now let's all laugh at Smash's damage output--- I mean, wait for @ KuroganeHammer to come here and be disappointed

So first thing I noticed that may be wrong is, DSmash's damage. In this VIDEO, the guy tests out Shulk's DSmash at 2:57 with 1 CF in front of him & 1 CF behind him. The CF behind Shulk took 15% damage from the first initial hit of Shulk's first spinning sweep attack, while the CF in front took 14%. However we know already that Shulk's damage output varies when the blade portion hits & the beam portion hits. I'm sure the CF in front got the beam portion & the CF in back got the blade portion. So, yeah that's gonna be weird testing out. I'll edit this particular reply if I see anything else weird.

And don't worry, I know your data is uncharged while the guy's video showed FullyCharged.

And as for the Decisive Arts discussion, that custom special promotes Shulk's defensive game-play rather than his offensive, Idk depends how we look at it.

Berserker. · Sep 22, 2014

Masonomace said:
So first thing I noticed that may be wrong is, DSmash's damage. In this VIDEO, the guy tests out Shulk's DSmash at 2:57 with 1 CF in front of him & 1 CF behind him. The CF behind Shulk took 15% damage from the first initial hit of Shulk's first spinning sweep attack, while the CF in front took 14%. However we know already that Shulk's damage output varies when the blade portion hits & the beam portion hits. I'm sure the CF in front got the beam portion & the CF in back got the blade portion. So, yeah that's gonna be weird testing out. I'll edit this particular reply if I see anything else weird. And don't worry, I know your data is uncharged while the guy's video showed FullyCharged.

And as for the Decisive Arts discussion, that custom special promotes Shulk's defensive game-play rather than his offensive, Idk depends how we look at it.

Oh right. I forgot about the damage behind. Note that the ones in parenthesis are sourspotted

The damage data has went through a lot of editing. Mostly with just the layout

x-Ace-x · Sep 22, 2014

berserker01 said:
Well, this is where we'll discuss Shulk's metagame ey?

Well, I'll just reserve this post so I can put the notable posts from the old thread here

Shulk in general

Monado arts utility

Vanilla

Shulk's starting stance. Not much to say. He's pretty decent in vanilla stance but he's lacking in kill power (if we exclude vision counter) and his damage is alright at best. His weight is also above average but he's not mobile at all. His air speed isn't much to boast about

1) Like what ace posted, there's a chance you might get a cheap kill with vanilla Shulk. *cough* Vision *cough*. Additionally while staying in vanilla Shulk, buster's cooldown will eventually diminish. It's not much but it's worth noting.

2) If you need to create space between you and your opponent to use a Monado art, you're gonna be forced to stay in this stance

Jump

Although people didn't have the feeling that jump would be useful, turns out that it is. Monado jump basically increases Shulk's jump height and also enhances air slash's recovering ability. In return, the damage received by Shulk is multiplied by 1.2 and his weight is decreased by an unknown certain amount

1) Recovering- Alright, here's something.... DON'T USE YOUR SECOND JUMP RIGHT AWAY WHEN OFF STAGE. Switch to monado jump then use it at the right time. Once you've recovered, switch out from Monado jump. That reduced defense really sucks

2) Escaping ledge traps- Ledge traps might be a thing in Smash 4--- No wait, they probably will be (I think). Monado jumping out of these situations really help. The difficult part though is making sure to have a safe time going to the ground. D-air is a bit too narrow BUT IT'S AN OPTION, so you'll have to be precise with it. F-air works too since it actually reaches Shulk's lower area. Vision is actually pretty good too

3) Edgeguarding- Fun fact about jump, it doesn't reduce your knockback or damage output. Thanks to its increase in jumping and air mobility, Shulk can edgeguard well with his long ranged attacks and recover easily thanks to his increased jump height and improved recovery

Speed

Monado speed increases Shulk's foot speed such that it makes him run as fast as Sonic, however he deals less damage by 28% which can be a big bummer

1) Campers- Neutral Shulk will have a tough time going against campers. It's best to have speed on so you can quickly get up to their face and stay on them as much as possible. (Question: Does Monado speed somehow improve Shulk's air speed?)

2) VERY mobile and fast characters- These types of characters are also iffy to deal with if you're thinking about just using buster against them. They're too fast to catch up to and they have a lot of mobility options. Shulk is NOT mobile. You're gonna need Monado speed to catch up with them

3) Follow ups and combos- We all know Monado speed increases Shulk's foot speed. No brainer. At time, your combo sends your opponent off a distance such that you probably won't reach them in time to continuously combo them. Luckily if you have speed on, you can literally just run to them and attack with a quick attack

4) Mind games- Thanks to Masonomace for this. Almost forgot about it but with the speed, you can easily fake out your opponents and confuse them. Also in case if you get in the opponent's average range of their attacks, you can run away fast so you won't take any sort of unwanted damage. This is also a good way to chip in some damage

Shield

The forgotten art (most of the time). Shield makes you the heaviest character in the game for about 18 seconds. However, your foot speed, air mobility and damage take a hit. Quick tip: Don't recover with shield activated. Switch to jump.

1) At high percent- If you have a high percent, you better switch to shield. You become the heaviest character in Smash Bros for a while. Also, your knockback doesn't take a debuff (indirectly though since Shield reduces damage dealt) so in case if your opponent is also at a high percentage, using shield is fine if you're still planning to finish the fight instead of risking it and using smash

2) Heavy hitters- Getting hit by heavy hitters sucks ***. Getting hit by heavy hitters while having Buster or Smash on sucks real hard. If you want to play it safe (Especially against Bowser), you're way better of using shield at the start of a match

3) After KO'ing an opponent- This is related to the first reason. If your percentage is at around 0-89%, you can switch to buster, but above that? Your better off shielding so that you can secure a good lead over the opponent. I'm aware that you can't use shield again once it wears off so after it wears off and assuming your percentage is high, it's fine to use Buster to rack up damage OR you can switch to Smash and attempt to gimp the opponent

4) Performing a comeback- If your opponent has the big lead, your better off tanking and just taking him out with shield stance often. That way, you'll be very difficult to kill and you can still kill your opponent while you're at it

Buster

Shulk's most crucial art and what seems to be the most used. It increases Shulk's damage by 40% which is a HUGE buff but in return, Shulk takes 20% more damage. The double edge sword here is the decreased knockback. On one hand, it's useful because you can perform combos of throws and some tilts. On the down side, the hitsun on Shulk's attacks take a hit which makes performing combos harder. A defensive playstyle fits best with buster art

1) Dealing damage- This is the number one reason you should use buster. It adds a LOT of damage and it's great to combo with thanks to the reduced knockback. Although, play with it carefully because you receive more damage with buster activated

2) Being effective with it and smash- When Shulk was revealed and his moveset details were revealed, his plan was kinda obvious from the get-go. Rack up damage with buster then kill with smash. Although, this doesn't really apply all the time at the start of a match since the art you start with really depends on your opponent

3) If you're feeling it (lol)- If you're feeling cocky and if you feel like you can play it safe against the characters you shouldn't be using buster that often against, go ahead and rack up that damage. Just learn how to space and you'll be fine for the most part. Hopefully. Just don't get crazy. I suggest you start using it when their (certain characters) percentage is at 60%+ AND when your percentage is not that high

4) If the character isn't either a heavy hitter, ultra fast, or camper type....- Starting with buster is a good idea

Smash

Probably Shulk's most risky art. It's also the most vulnerable since it reduces BOTH Shulk's weight and defense (amount of damage received) and to add to that, it reduces Shulk's damage output. However, this also increases Shulk's knockback ability by a huge amount. You're capable of defeating opponents at 80-130% range which is difficult to do in Smash 4

1) Landing a KO- Smash art grants a knockback buff which is awesome. From the damage racked, you can switch to smash and finish the opponent with any of your attacks. Your KO range should be at around (excluding the use of vision counter) 80-130%.

2) Vision counter+Smash = Doom- This one's REALLY scary when combined with Vision counter. Vision counter is one of the stronger counters in the game. Against characters that naturally deal a lot of damage in a hit, it's scary... The higher the damage countered, the higher damage and knockback vision counter deals. Also, smash adds up to the knockback. You can potentially KO enemies at around 25% depending on the attack countered

3) Edgeguarding- The knockback buff from Smash is very impressive. Combine that with your range and you can actually do well in edgeguarding with n-air, f-air and b-air. Oh and, b-air is exceptionally quite powerful and it also has long range. Off stage, it's easily one of (If not the best) Shulk's best edgeguarding tools along with f-air

Extreme Monado data vs Monado data (Credit to @Chauzu )

Fresh vanilla f-tilt tip: 10%
Fresh vanilla f-tilt not tip: 12%
Fresh buster f-tilt tip: 14%
Fresh buster f-tilt not tip: 16%
Fresh extreme buster f-tilt tip: 16%
Fresh extreme buster f-tilt not tip: 19%

Fresh vanilla u-tilt tip: 6%
Fresh vanilla u-tilt not tip: 7%
Fresh buster u-tilt tip: 8%
Fresh buster u-tilt not tip: 9%
Fresh extreme buster u-tilt tip: 9%
Fresh extreme buster u-tilt not tip: 11%

Fresh vanilla d-tilt tip: 6%
Fresh vanilla d-tilt not tip: 8%
Fresh buster d-tilt tip: 8%
Fresh buster d-tilt not tip: 11%
Fresh extreme buster d-tilt tip: 9%
Fresh extreme buster d-tilt not tip: 12%
(as has been mentioned before the way u-tilt deals damage is kinda odd)

Starting arts strategy (Credit to @ Masonomace )

= Shield
A lot of improvements were provided to Bowser's move-kit involving stronger damage, stronger knock-back, & faster game-play overall. Shield reduces all the damage Bowser puts out, I won't discuss about every buff Bowser received though, too many buffs.
= Buster
With Falcon's buffs to his Special moves, the changes done to his D-tilt & U-tilt, & a huge disjoint added to his FSmash, Shield will help against CF. Falcon is practically a rush-down bruiser that received more KO power, so he'll stay close while he can, though if a spaced Shulk shuts him down, changing to a different Art is suggested.
= Shield
Charizard got a few revamps noting his DownB now being Rock Smash, & his replaced SideB with Flare Blitz, which is single-handedly the main reason you wanna stick with Shield stance. Flare Blitz is hard countered by Shield alone, making Charizard mix up his game against Shield Shulk. Mostly Charizard is heavy, hits hard, & now has a reliable horizontal recovery move that can be used recklessly against us.
= Shield
Dedede got heavier, more KO power, & stronger damage % on some of his new aesthetic changes, like all the other Heavies got. Gordo Throw is asking you to VIsion counter it, unknown of what result will come out of that.
= Speed
Generally Jump is an alternative, however with the steady all-around buff Diddy received to all of his aerials becoming faster & stronger, & the nerf to bananas, Diddy's ground game was more nerfed, trading off with improved air-game. It also doesn't help that some of his moves get extended range on them, such as his F-tilt.
= Shield
Like all the Heavy-weights, DK gained more strength in some of his aerials, but mostly his moves come out faster than before, including his general game-speed. Giant Punch wound up 9x KO's fairly early, & since the move comes out faster, this move alone plus DK himself is a threat.
= Buster
The only projectile the doc has is MegaVitamins, & as long as you avoid getting hit by them, you're basically good to go. Dr. Tornado is back & helps the doc recover slightly, including general buffing to several moves by either getting stronger, or more KO power added. Dr. Tornado is a ground option I see docs using, so just Vision Counter this along with any Pills he throws your way while aggressively approaching behind that pill, & you're good.
= Jump
Falco got several changes to some of his aerials that connect better with slightly less landing lag, so his air-game for that matter seems a bit improved, though his D-air's start-up is a lot slower, but more powerful, including his USmash becoming stronger. Falco's Phantasm doesn't leave him helplesss, plus Fire BIrd gets more distance. Use Jump to edge-guard Falco shutting down his buffed recovery & ruining his options. His Lasers landed will lag, & cannot shoot as frequently, cutting his aerial coverage with lasers in half, making Jump an ideal Art to use against him.
= Jump
Same scenario for Falco mostly. His lasers used upon landing have lag, his phantasm doesn't leavel him helpless, Fire Fox's distance is even greater practically to Melee status. Only a few buffs to his KO power & strength I've noticed. Falco = rinse & repeat.
= Shield
Another Heavy-weight scenario in Sm4sh. Heavier, stronger, & faster. A lot of things about Ganon got buffed, but some note-worthy setbacks are present. One notable change is being able to tech off of Flame Choke's slam, teching or tech rolling helps mitigate the chases, but now it becomes a tech chase moment where you can't be too rash & predictable.
= Buster
G&W did get some changes here & there, slightly buffing his ground game & his air-game, but to boot, nothing too spectacular of a gain or loss. Some nerfs were made to his N-air & D-air. U-air got some of a buff, but avoiding damage & dealing it out is recommended. Esepcially since G&W is a very light character. Buster works well against Light-weight cahracters, so let it rip.
= Shield
Things seem unchanged for Ike from a quick briefing, but his QuickDraw not putting Ike in a helpless state, & bodes well for Ike to not be gimped by physical contact halting it previously in Brawl. Yet it's undeniable Ike has KO power, strong attacks, being heavier. Resembling of classic heavy-weight quota.
= Buster
Apparently being called the Queen of Air, yet when she touches the ground, she isn't there for long. A couple of her throws got stronger, few moves got sped up, & her signature B-air got increased KO power, not to mention her Rest can be combo'd more easily while having the ability to stop her Rollout in mid-charge. Overall I feel the few times she makes any move on the ground, it's Dash Attack, Jab, roll to U-tilt, or Rollout, which can be VIsion countered with the forward input to quickly dash through her resulting in a stronger counterattack with more knock-back. Take to the air & overpower the Queen of atmosphere.
= Buster
Inhale, Hammer Flip, Final Cutter, & Stone can all be Vision countered. Yes inhale can too, the wind-box that sucks you in can be countered. Hammer Flip is an easy wait-and-watch move that you just wait for the first active frames of the move proceeding to its hit-box, that's when a forward input Vision wrecks Kirby's world. Final Cutter as a projectile can easily be shielded or Vision countered if you're relatively near Kirby that your regular dash & slash counterattack would reach. Kirby overall moves faster on the ground like others do, & he got buffs to his Uthrow & other moves such as dash attack & USmash, but nerfed on the ground as far as his attacks involving his feet go. On top of his leg attacks shortened & grab range decreased, Kirby's a light-weight character, making Buster more worthwhile against him.
= Speed
Link overall got a large amount of buffs, mainly his clawshot, Master Sword's reach being longer, & his Specials beefed up in some way. His UpB Spin Attack apparently was restored to Melee status. Bow charges quicker doing less damage, Gale Boomerang overall got better, & his bombs doing more damage, yet with added gravity to them, their thrown trajectory shortens weakening the approaches. It's been a while since I've had to respect Link's play-style, but with Speed I can disregard a lot of things, despite being against a character who can zone while walling off with aerials & projectiles making it hard for Shulk.
= Jump
Lucario's ability to camp with Aura Sphere, plus Lucario's ground game feeling improved in Sm4sh, with tilts relatively the same besides Utilt getting KO power & being a lot faster, includes his AB%. One thing to not do against Lucario is use Buster Art unless you know what you're doing, & the Lucario doesn't. The main reasons why Jump is preferred vs Lucario is the Aura augmented to his ExtrememSpeed recovery, reaching very long distances being impossible to reach without using Jump's air speed & jump height to edge-guard & proceed chasing Lucario down while he recovers. Other minor reasons is Lucario being mid-heavy-weight, & his nerfed air-game unable to challenge you too much.
= Speed
Luigi still has strong air-game that can combo like a beast if you let him. Getting tweaks to several of his moves with a few buffs note-worthy, overall appearing the same. Doing less damage on moves like his D-air & his Fire Jump Punch UpB, his KO power feels weaker, but again still combo's like nobody's business, with good air-game & decent ground game. Shooting petty fireballs & Luigi Cyclone are the main specials he'll use for any ground game to approach with, so shield all that or vision counter the fireballs as he approaches towards you behind his fire. Same can be done for a aggressive Cyclone coming your way. Green Missile is esepcially counterable. Outplay Weegee with speed getting grabs off his landing aerails such as N-air, & you're good to go.
= Jump / Buster
He still combo's with Dthrow into Utilts, into USmash or Uairs, landing with Nair. Fireballs are still annoying, Cape & FLUDD gimp extremely hard without Mario trying too hard to rack up %. It's your pick between Jump or Buster, I'd prefer Jump to prevent the gimps by Cape & FLUDD's water push-back, that's what the amazing air speed from Jump is for. Never underestimate FLUDD & if you see it coming your way off-stage, always Vision counter it since you can counter push-back properties. Doing either Counter result will be fine AFAIK. Space some, shield fireballs, & avoid being gimped at all costs. Jump will serve you well.
= Buster
Since Marth's range is shortened, several of his attacks do less damage than they did in Brawl, & all of his throws have high knock-back at an early %, his own throws prevent himself to follow up with anything. Shulk's given range plus extra % damage output bodes well for both swordsman as Marth's counter is much stronger this game, yet the same can be said for Shulk's Vision counter when Marth goes for Shield Breakers to fish for a popping shield, mixed with large knock-back. It comes down to who outspaces who.
= Buster
Being a borderline mid-light character to me, MK gets some reasonable nerfs that are accompanied by several buffs to note, including his larger character size with more reach on his sword attacks possibly. All of MK's specials have been buffed in terms of strength & damage. MK's FSmash & USmash improved becoming stronger, while his Bthrow is stronger that deals more % as well. Though Shuttle Loop doesn't have much KO potential, it is compensated with better damage. Still an aerial fighter, it's best to go with Buster on this one to deal tons of % damage to his light-weight & bigger size.
= Jump
Ness' F-air nerf makes it underused now that it won't be his go-to aerial unless he wants to be close approaching with it. PK Fire being used at further distances doesn't bode well, while PK Thunder's shocktrail hit-box enlarged that also travels faster too. Shulk has no projectiles Ness can absorb with PSI Magnet unless the beam portion of the Monado counts as a Energy-based attack, which would suck very much for us. Ness got more buffs for his ground-game, but not too much buffs for his air-game, making him well-balanced on the ground & in the air. Jump's air speed easily closes the distance & doesn't give Ness any room to setup PK Fire or PK Thunder shenanigans. PK Flash apparently travels slightly faster, but that's nothing a Vision counter can't handle. Be aggressive towards Ness in the air & always edge-guard with Jump rendering Ness' recovery useless.
= Speed
Speed is the go-to Art here for the sole reason to stick beside Olimar most of the time & not letting him get space. When he throws pikmin, they reach farther distances & do more damage(?) but can only has 3 pikmin out at a time, being a major tweak to his metagame. His new UpB called Winged Pikmin, recovers based off the current amount of Pikmin held, so if you have none, you soar higher, while if you have 3 depending on the pikmin's weight values, would weight down the Winged Pikmin making it less effective. Speed keeps the pressure on him, & if Olimar can't keep a fair distance from you, he can't zone you.
= Buster. Peach's buffs puts her in a good spot. Her turnips got nerfed, her Parasol & Peach Bomber both got bufffed compensated wonderfully now that Peach Bomber can hit Shields, but does less % damage. Parasol can stage-spike characters who are ledge-hanging, not to mention Parasol gets a KO potential buff. All of her tilts became weaker, now lacking KO power too, however they all traded off power & % with combo ability, making Peach's tilts combotilts with her better D-throw grab setups. Her air speed & running speed increased, though her F-air being the slowest aerial, is also her most powerful aerial. Buster with Vision counters for her Turnips if she tries approaching with them, along with Peach Bomber being easily countered. Peach isn't exactly a light-weight anymore, since she's considered middle-weight, but stick with Buster & keep your distance from her, she can combo like no other off her tilts & grabs. Several moves of hers got practically restored to Melee status, & that's never good for Shulk.
= Buster
I feel this MU will be decently in Shulk's favor, all that's really needed to be done is Vision countering ThunderJolts coming your way if Pikachu happens to be approaching with them, hitting him in the face for it. Vision proc'd for Thunder & Skull Bash prevents Pikachu from pressuring your shield. Avoid getting grabbed early as Uthrow to a couple of U-tilts to U-airs to a finishing N-air, the lower knock-back of the U-tilts & U-airs increases the string potential due to their lower knockback scaling. Pikachu has some nice buffed aerials like F-air being more powerful, so watch out.
&= Buster
They play the same, but Dark Pit is stronger & doesn't scale as well with knock-back. Both have identical specials & for the most part, & almost the same move-set. Dark Pit has a few game-play differences, but they're practically the same MU. Their new UpperArmDash have super frames somewhere in their dash, so be wary when shield+grabbing or punishing with Vision Counter against it grounded or airborne. Make sure to avoid unnecessary pew pew arrows, & keep racking it up.
= Shield
ROB this time around got so buffed, his heavy-weight set & larger hurtbox gives his moves additional range, which in turn is a setback in favor for us, hitting him just got easier. All of his smash attacks got buffed for the better, Arm Rotor got a finisher that deals strong knock-back, & an improved yet nerfed Laser, including a mixed buffed nerfed Gyro. The Laser's full charge is a huge meaty Laser attack making you shield it, while the Gyro is quicker to charge, but less base % damage. Especially when Glide Tossing was removed from Sm4sh, ROB is hurt without it. Shield the lasers, the gyro, be wary of his Arm Rotor, & especially of his Smash attacks, most of all his USmash. U-air is multi-hit but now with a finisher at the end reliably KO'ing. Get in, & stay in mid-range with caution.
= Speed / Buster
I can't stress enough how much I admire Samus & Link improving this much in Sm4sh! Samus is a lot better & there's plenty of reasons. One her Z-air not only is a two-hit grab aerial, but has reduced landing lag & recovers quite well for a tether. Her CHarge Shot "drastically improved", & her missiles don't take long to reach max speed, with the drawback that firing missiles near the ground have landing lag, while her bombs don't stall her falling speed as much. As if that wasn't bad enough, her Smashes all practically improved with either more knockback, or more % damage, & her already good D-tilt now has even more KO power. Honestly, you either shield the projectiles, destroy them with tilts or aerials due to projectiles being generally weaker, or if you're close enough, Vision countering wisely can land a solid punish. Did I mention she's Heavy weight now?
= Buster
Sheik gets two new moves replacing her Chain & transform, now with Burst Grenade, & Bouncing Fish. Her needle storm no longer causes landing lag, her FSmash improves, & all of her aerials seem to of gotten a buff of whatever kind, be it more knock-back and / or more % damage. Avoid needle chips with shielding then rolling, or jumping. Sheik's may use Burst Grenade to wall you off, which in this case it's about near her area, so position yourself to be close to the blast radius in order to time your perfect Vision counter RIGHT when you notice being pulled in by the vortex effect. When you see yourself moving, instantly Vision counter to proc the pull-back property, & not the detonation itself. Bouncing Fish can be used as a mix-up option when Sheik's ledge-jump on the stage, so either roll away, shield it & wait for her to land, or use an anti-air U-tilt to stop her approach.
= Jump & Speed. You'll need these two Arts to keep up with Sanic. Speed only helps you match Sonic's movement speed, as you two zip across the stage mind-gaming each other. Dash pivoted F-tilts or pivot grabs are for throwing out attacks to space up some sort of wall. When your Speed expires, switch to Jump to combat Sonic with superior air speed versus his movement speed. This match may take a while but be patient. You'll feel it soon enough. Sonic's that get you off-stage while you're in Speed mode is risky due to Speed hindering your jump height, in which case Jump activated mid-way to recover more safely is suggested. Right as you get Sonic off-stage with Jump on, edge-guard him aggressively.
= Speed
Toon Link's buffed Z-air clearly makes his zoning & walling with chain a threat. To add onto that, his arrows take less time charging & travel further distances, along with his boomerang also traveling further as well. Bombs serve an extra purpose being another projectile to watch out for, but don't mind them too much when you can just shield, or VIsion when your nearby TL for a linear-dash punish. Really it's about getting close & staying close preventing TL from outspacing you, even though he'll attempt to space SH Z-airs keeping you out. Dash in & powershield grab if needed, & if that doesn't do it, then be ready to SH N-air all his projectiles & approach him carefully. Last thing to note is his D-air no longer bounces off us, he plummets straight down regardless.
= Buster
Wario being a heavy-weight & some different changes made to some of his moves, Wario still remains dangerous. With sped up tilts, less endling lag on DSmash, & replacing his old USmash with a similar one like the one Mario, Luigi, & Dr. Mario all have. FSmash has more range than before, though the main setback for Wario is unable to break his Bike into tire pieces. Automatically nerfing his item-play, even then, Wario still has his merits. His aerial mobility + your lack of knockback during Buster mode, may or may not mix well. Just be wary of his stronger ground-game, & be aware of his wacky movement. N-airs will keep him out, & if he charges with Bike we Vision counter, simple as that.
= Speed
Yoshi's most notable buff may be his Tail-based attacks reach increased due to it growing larger. Bair Uair & all of his tilts become more reliable thanks to that. Being a heavy character, Yoshi using his Super Armor frames in his DJ can make Yoshi into a revenge-dealing-fighting-dragonosaur. Jab1 can be canceled & lead into USmash if desired, & B-air has a finisher tail attack that can KO while edge-guarding. D-air used on grounded opponents horizontally launches them away when the ending finisher of Flutter kick hits, making the move safe to use landing. Jumping OOS returns to Yoshi at last. When fighting Yoshi, do not use Buster mode early game until you racked up enough % to deal fairly decent knockback preventing Yoshi from using DJ revenge Nair. Yoshi can super armor through a lot of moves besides Heavy hitting Smash attacks or tilts, so be aware.
= Buster
Her new DownB Phantom Slash is an easy Vision counter, proc'ing to do a linear-dash slash attack punishing Zelda for it. Her Dins Fire is also something to shield & move forward, be careful of it. Her F-tilt & D-tilt got buffed, D-tilt having less ending lag while reaching out farther distance. N-air & D-air also got buffed, D-air's horizontal range increased having additional % damage for sweet-spotting. Her USmash getting buffed & her Nayru's Love sped up basically means her ground-game is fairly good, so challenge it with Buster mode & blast her away due to her being a light-weight despite being border line middle-weight.
= Buster
ZSS being a Light-weight, Buster's setback of knockback bodes well to adjust for this MU. Except now she wears Jet boots, which apparently buff all of her kicking attacks. Her whip reaches a bit longer this time, gaining a new Z-air, kind of like Link or Samus' Z-air, not good for us. Her UpB Boost Kick does good % damage & has good KO potential as a combo finisher, meanwhile her FSmash deals more %, & is stronger. Lastly, her Paralyzer & Plasma Whip all zone out Shulk preventing any approaches, along with Flip Jump now able to bury opponents. Running Shield canceling Paralyzer shots to prevent unneeded % damage & paralyzation, while also avoiding DSmash too. Play smart, don't be hasty, & land Vision counters to punish ZSS paralyze shooting or Plasma Whipping.

= Speed / ~~Buster~~
At first I thought Buster was fitting to use against koopaling jr., but considering he's a heavy-weight character with mobile moves with a notable cannon projectile, a DownB puppet trap that grabs onto you exploding, & his SideB linear-dashing Mario Kart move, koopaling jr. would seem to be too much for Buster Shulk even with Shulk's good range & spacing. He's a mix of zoning, rush-down, heavy-weight, floaty, & mobile character with a quirky moveset. Buster Shulk's knockback debuff doesn't help either when koopaling jr.'s a heavy character that could choose to zone you with cannonballs & Mecha traps, hindering Buster's performance. To avoid the zoning scenario, Speed easily fixes that problem, & getting him off-stage next with switching to Jump to edge-guard can work. Keep in mind his SideB Kart dash is a fairly good horizontal recovery option that can clash against the stage's side to bounce off, & his DJ + UpB makes his vertical recovery fairly good. Once you hit him out of his SideB dash, half of his recovery potential goes down the drain.
= Rainbow Cake = Art counterpicking galore = Stay forever perma-Vanilla.
= Speed
Mega Man feels like a poor man's version of a zoning character. His jab, Ftitl, & Nair all are fairly unsafe if Shulk is shielding then dash attacking OOS. Regardless, Mega Man playing with a zoner moveset, he'll do work in zoning you out. The times you are close to Mega Man, take caution of his Utilt being a powerful vertical KO move able to clear your stock off around 90% if you didn't switch to Shield, while his Dtilt initially does a sliding action forward sweeping under you, so be mindful when he slides behind you. His aerials are fairly good not to mention his Smash attacks are quite strong. Know it's not the best idea to be directly above Mega Man as his Uair typhoon can be a anti-air tool, able to scoop you up & potentially Star KO you if you're not careful. Once you get in close to him, there's less to worry about, so rest easy & keep going fast.
(heaviest) = Unknown
(default) = Unknown
= Speed
(lightest) = Unknown
= ??
= Speed / Buster
With a couple of mechanics involving his / her Levin Sword that can be used as aerials with limited times to use, vanishes for a moment. His tomes mostly zone with Arcfire similar to Ness' PK Fire, while charging his Thunder to different levels that do different attacks depending how charged it is. His close-quarters game improves when carrying the Levin Sword, while his Tomes increase augments his range-game, so when Levin Sword vanishes momentarily recharging, go fast & go hard on close-combat. Or If you happen to be relatively close to Robin most of the time perhaps Buster will serve you better. Either or, both Arts can be utilized against Robin decently, so just watch for Robin's tomes & Levin Sword disappearing, that will help you make a move to make him react.
= ??
= ??
= ??
= Speed / Jump
This character heavily controls the stage with his 3 overwhelming projectiles, being hazardous zoning you hard. DuckHunt doesn't have exceptional KO power, that's neither heavy nor light-weight. From all the zoning due to the projectiles, DuckHunt possess tons of stage control that renders Shield & Buster not that useful, & considering DuckHunt starts off the match being away from you most likely planning to zone you out, fat chance Shield or Buster would you help that much in this MU. I only suggest Speed or Jump to close the distance whether approaching from the ground or the air, despite DuckHunt being fairly decent at close-combat.
= Buster
Basically treat the MU like you would when playing against Marth, but without the tipper mechanic. Nothing else to say other than have fun outspacing her with your range & extra damage output. Be wary that her counter mixed with your increased % damage output may lead to hefty return damage back at you. If she gets counter-happy, grabs are your friend.
= Cogitating a lot about this = Things need testing = Fine it's Speed
LM by what I'm aware of, is a fairly great grounded fighter with solid neutral game when playing footsies. Frankly If I were to give a certain stance Shulk would use for LM I wouldn't know. If I had to decide now on one, It'd be Speed for the fast-paced mind-games & getting in grabs to ignoring Super Armor attacks LM has. Not saying any other art would be able to overwhel m LM, just that for this certain MU, it's inconsistent due to LM's lack of aerial presence, yet amazing Neutral ground-game.

Jump for the aerial presence LM barely has, easily able to edge-guard LM off-stage gimping him with ease. You could also approach with Jump slowly & surely as most chances are he won't challenge you airborne until you land.

Speed for mind-games getting in grabs to bypass LM's super armor. Despite the damage debuff, Shulk's quick positioning, & mix-ups to be had at would outclass LM's dashing speed & Neutral ground-game.

Shield tanking, provided with durability against his strong hitting punches & Super Armor moves, we need to test whether Shield survives LM's Power Meter OHKO uppercut move or not ; if Shield miraculously helps Shulk survive the OHKO move, then Shield would be the go-to stance against LM. However, should Shield fail to save us from dying to LM's OHKO move, then Shield isn't useful other than to stock tank at later %.

Buster utilizing more % damage output for LM's light-weight, bodes well to be very effective. Yet with the knockback debuff plus several attacks having Super Armor within them, & LM having solid neutral game on the ground, I see less reasoning to use Buster against LM.

Smash used early sounds baffling, but it certainly helps considering LM is a light-weight & would be susceptible to strong knockback moves that could launch him off-stage set up to be possibly gimped. Though, LM could throw out his counter move or any punch attack he uses on the ground that are fairly powerful to answer back, not boding well for Shulk in Smash mode since he's highly susceptible to being launched.

= Speed / Buster
Rosaluma's a puppeteer kind of fighter that can be considered similar to a play-style to that of Ice Climbers & Olimar. So from that impression already, plus her light-weight & big hurtbox, she's ideally weak against Speed & Buster for taking advantage of her not-so-heavy weight class to be knocked away just enough for Buster to be very effective. Speed closes the distance for you to zip past her Luma if she decides to wall you off.

Shulk's sweetspot is in the base of the sword (Not on the beam or tip) @ Masonomace

This is right before Shulk swings his Monado blade to do an F-tilt input. He's more closer than he needs to be if he were to be spacing himself for a swinging hit.

Shulk is relatively close to Little Mac here, & uses a fresh F-tilt dealing 13% at the very tip of the blade, not the beam as Little Mac is touching the blade's tip, & inside the beam extension. See here:

Here we see a whiffed F-tilt, but notice how the beam barely comes in contact with Mii Fighter, while seeing the blade portion in a side-view frame moment:

And now here's when the tip of the blade hits, dealing 10% fresh like we talked about earlier. Notice that the blade's tip isn't touching Mii Fighter, but the tip of the beam does:

Summary: Basically I'm confident now that there is two separate hit-boxes, being the blade & beam portions. The blunt attack of the Monado blade itself deals more base damage than the beam does in this case pertaining to F-tilt. So involving Buster mode, F-tilt at close range may be risky, but early game landing a fresh meaty F-tilt would deal at most 18%, & the beam-box fresh would deal 14%. Both our inputs on F-tilt from two perspectives both feel correct, & the only explanation I can give for this reasoning behind it is F-tilt having two types of hit-boxes, Beam & Blade.

INITIATING WITH BUSTER ART (For all characters)

Because the art needs its own section because some people are a bit worried about it.

To reiterate, buster art increases your damage output by x1.4 and increases the damage you take by x1.2. It also decreases your knockback which effectively reduces hitsun.

So hearing all this makes you think that the disadvantages of buster outweigh its advantage. Well, for one, it does sound like that but the key to being effective with buster is by playing defensively and safe with it. Note that buster art does NOT do anything with Shulk's mobility which means your rushdown options remain to be lack luster. Learning how to space and not get hit will be the key to dealing a lot of damage with buster

A few notes on how to safely damage with buster:

1) Against ledge rolls or any ledge option, use n-air
2) Use n-air or a well-spaced f-air against aerial attacks
3) The stronger variation of the vision counter might work. Do NOT use the weaker variation
4) Space with your tilts. Punish with f-smash. I don't think d-smash is safe
5) Grabs. Grabs. B-throw. Remember to grab and pummel

You can start out the match with buster art against any character if you want. Make sure you don't take that much damage

Wow amazing work. Thank you.
I think you nailed it with buster art being rather a defensive.

Do we know if Speed art reduce landing lag?

Berserker. · Sep 22, 2014

x-Ace-x said:
Wow amazing work. Thank you.
I think you nailed it with buster art being rather a defensive.

Do we know if Speed art reduce landing lag?

It doesn't

Thanks to Chauzu and Masonomace also for the write up. There were data and opinions in that post that they made

We've come to the conclusion that buster may not be able to combo and that its knockback reduction actually definitely doesn't help, if anything, makes it worse. We can still do like 1-2 hits or possibly 3 and that's about it. Regardless, buster art is still an invaluable art for Shulk due to its 40% damage boost. It's just that we can't be reckless with it, but a patient playstyle will probably fit buster best. Yeah, it kinda hurts that we can't do combos with buster.

x-Ace-x · Sep 22, 2014

berserker01 said:
It doesn't

Thanks to Chauzu and Masonomace also for the write up. There were data and opinions in that post that they made

We've come to the conclusion that buster may not be able to combo and that its knockback reduction actually definitely doesn't help, if anything, makes it worse. We can still do like 1-2 hits or possibly 3 and that's about it. Regardless, buster art is still an invaluable art for Shulk due to its 40% damage boost. It's just that we can't be reckless with it, but a patient playstyle will probably fit buster best. Yeah, it kinda hurts that we can't do combos with buster.

So buster for defense (counter-offensive) and defense is great for attacking?!

Berserker. · Sep 22, 2014

x-Ace-x said:
So buster for defense (counter-offensive) and defense is great for attacking?!

What? No

Shield (Defense) is great for purely stock tanking and maintaining your lead. If anything shield sucks for attacking. Your mobility is massively gimped, your damage is reduced and by any chance you're sent off stage, you'll have a hard time recovering due to your faster falling speed (?) and incredibly slow air speed

Edit: Whelp. I can't believe I misspelled what

x-Ace-x · Sep 22, 2014

berserker01 said:
What? No

Shield (Defense) is great for purely stock tanking and maintaining your lead. If anything shield sucks for attacking. Your mobility is massively gimped, your damage is reduced and by any chance you're sent off stage, you'll have a hard time recovering due to your faster falling speed (?) and incredibly slow air speed

Edit: Whelp. I can't believe I misspelled what

Oh ok sorry, I was actually reading your "character monado strategy". the part for heavy & slow characters.

Berserker. · Sep 22, 2014

x-Ace-x said:
Oh ok sorry, I was actually reading your "character monado strategy". the part for heavy & slow characters.

Oh. Don't take the wat negatively. It's just me staying awake and it's already 30 minutes until midnight in my time zone T_T

Regarding heavy characters, it really depends. The safest bet against characters like Bowser or Dedede is using shield. Buster is simply too risky against heavy hitters unless of course, you know what you're doing with buster. Anyway, the safest option is shield although it might take ages to rack up damage and that's a big negative especially against heavy characters. Luckily, most of the heavy characters are big targets and they're really easy targets to hit. Just get used to combo'ing off your grabs and learn how to tilt and grab. I'm pretty sure the u-throw->u-tilt combo actually functions better with shield than in buster. By function, I meant that it doesn't have reduced hitsun unlike what buster art does

x-Ace-x · Sep 22, 2014

berserker01 said:
Oh. Don't take the wat negatively. It's just me staying awake and it's already 30 minutes until midnight in my time zone T_T

Regarding heavy characters, it really depends. The safest bet against characters like Bowser or Dedede is using shield. Buster is simply too risky against heavy hitters unless of course, you know what you're doing with buster. Anyway, the safest option is shield although it might take ages to rack up damage and that's a big negative especially against heavy characters. Luckily, most of the heavy characters are big targets and they're really easy targets to hit. Just get used to combo'ing off your grabs and learn how to tilt and grab. I'm pretty sure the u-throw->u-tilt combo actually functions better with shield than in buster. By function, I meant that it doesn't have reduced hitsun unlike what buster art does

It's ok.
Really it's a very interesting piece. I feel like we still have so much to understand about the monado arts.

TreK · Sep 22, 2014

I'm pretty sure I read that the rage effect caps at 15% (when you are at 150%), not 50% like I've seen you guys talk about

Berserker. · Sep 22, 2014

x-Ace-x said:
It's ok.
Really it's a very interesting piece. I feel like we still have so much to understand about the monado arts.

You know what Shulk says: "The Monado... I hope I can figure out the secret of its power one day."

Teneban said:
I'm pretty sure I read that the rage effect caps at 15% (when you are at 150%), not 50% like I've seen you guys talk about

Oh right

Aerodrome said:
Rage will affect that, yes.

But rage is only about a 15% bonus, so don't get too hyped.

Ah well. Honestly, it doesn't matter whether it's a 15% bonus or not. What matters is that this helps vision become slightly a tad bit scarier than it originally was. This is a tiny boon especially against characters that hit like a truck (and vision's already scary enough)

If you're wondering why vision can be such a deadly move, it's because it's capable of KO'ing Villager at 24% if timbre is countered and it's capable of nearly KO'ing Bowser at 22% when countering... Any move. Oh and for a counter, it's surprisingly easy to use

Yeah, it's a negligible non-existent buff. A knockback buff is a buff anyway :U

For some reason if I had the game right now, I'm really tempted to push back the circle pad and push it forward then back slash. Not sure if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

Edit:

Quick answer to a question... What the hell is with Shulk's smash damage? 18-20!? For U-smash?

Honestly, I'm not sure. From the footage I got (Syuton vs Suinoko), Syuton instantly used his u-smash and dealt 2% damage for the first hit and 7% on the second hit. From there, I just divided both damage outputs by 0.5 to get the vanilla and jump damage. Fully charged data came from EWNetwork in which he performed fully charged smash attacks

Edit 2:

I found the problem with the u-smash damage. It seems like u-smash's hits when both connected do not count as 2 consecutive hits for some reason in training mode. This isn't to say that anyone can probably avoid Shulk's 2nd hit (I think this is a problem with training mode)

KuroganeHammer · Sep 22, 2014

I am disappointed.

These damage values are wrong. v.v

Neo Zero · Sep 22, 2014

Aerodrome said:
I am disappointed.

These damage values are wrong. v.v

Plus some moves like the aerials don't have their tip/non tip damage among other things.

Also, about the counter thing. For some reason, I couldn't trigger the forward counter in the air. Maybe it's ground only?

KuroganeHammer · Sep 22, 2014

Shurui Tamashi said:
Also, about the counter thing. For some reason, I couldn't trigger the forward counter in the air. Maybe it's ground only?

probs, idk

Masonomace · Sep 23, 2014

Perhaps the Vision counter's linear-dash is a grounded-use exclusive.
So for [E]Arts I see them used for Singles at first not being used that much since it will be more difficult to manage Arts shifting between them ; we'll be seeing Default Shulk for the majority of the match until the right moments to ideally use the certain Arts at their pinnacle of potential. However, when players get accustomed to the custom special, they'll micro-manage their shorter-lasting Arts better than before, shifting between Arts every 6 seconds or less if they decide to use it for a brief moment then revert to Default. (If people have extra things to add-on to the specific moments int he spoiler please do so)

翔Jump -- On the verge of being gimped from edge-guarding, inputting a surprise saved DoubleJump + AirSlash with the insane horizontal & vertical mobility easily making it back. Another tactic is to go deep towards the blast zone where they got launched initially & finish them off. When to effectively use Jump would be when having full stage control, going full-offensive edge-guarding, & recovering defensively.Until fully mastering [E]Arts, try to not use Jump for ground-game during Neutral or approaching head-on.
疾Speed -- Grounded follow-ups when launching someone away, Shulk would read the tech chase & punish with more ground chasing. Mind-games & mix-ups provided with an insane slide while pivot grabbing sort of like Brawl Fox's pivot grab. While launching someone at high % & they still live, run from Point A to Point B closing the whole distance in less than a second for further Stage Control. Never use for aerial purposes off-stage, or jumping in the air during Neutral game.
盾Shield -- Used to survive anywhere past 100% against fighters having great amount of KO potential. Proc Shield to out-live your stock for an easy 6 seconds hindering them from fishing for that kill. Fighters with some or no KO power can be dealt with proc'ing Shield at any % higher than 120. Persay IF your bubble shield were about to break / pop, proc Shield stance to live whatever move they Fully Charge, forcing them to rack up % than KO you for the reasonable trade-off. (Highly situational, chances are you'll barely do this or even think about it) Never use for aerial purposes.
斬Buster -- Use it against mostly light-weights & maybe fighters who're floaty. If you happen to break someone's shield & want to deal massive % damage if their % is too low, you may want to know ahead of time which moves you'll use for that certain situation. Not changing Shulk's basic movement in any way, this Art requires you to space like a pro in order to be safe not getting hit from over-extended yourself. Preferably this art is to be used in a defensive manner to avoid taking any % damage taken. Never use for prolonged combo opportunity follow-ups or for off-stage edge-guarding purposes.

撃Smash -- It's obvious we want to be safe using this stance at relatively low % assuring KO's, but that's just a favorable craving because whether you're at high or low %, this Art's an extreme risk/reward regardless. (RageBoost% is a additional bonus favorable at higher %) Smash will be highly effective against light-weights the most, so I'll guess KO's may range from 70 - 89%, middle-weights around 90 - 109%, heavy-weights around 110% or higher, & very-heavy-weights around 120% or higher. In terms of stage control this Art is mainly effective when having more of it leading to the point of edge-guarding. Going off-stage to edge-guard is optional, but unlike Jump having superior aerial mobility, Smash doesn't, so be mindful when having the lowest weight in the game. Most of the time, never use Smash until the character in their weight-class reaches their range of % to KO them.

For [D]Arts (Decisive), the fact that they're active for 20 seconds steers Shulk towards Doubles in a good direction playing Support Shulk in a defensive play-style manner. SS can still utilize all of his [D]Arts, but his 2 main [D]Arts would be [D]Speed & [D]Shield.
[D]Shield lasting for 20 seconds extends your stock longevity potentially being the most formidable share stocking tank in Sm4sh, while the transition of [D]Shield to [D]Smash reading a grab setup from your partner could seal a stock given your %'s dangerously high.
[D]Speeding around on the stage seems meh for 20 seconds since you could be from one side to the other in less than one second, but 20 seconds as a speed demon keeps the opposing team on their toes having to worry about your cross-stage punishes if they make any landing errors that are unsafe. Transitioning from [D]Speed to [D]Jump for absolute tyranny stage control bodes even better for Support Shulk in Doubles. One final notion is the transition from [D]Speed to [D]Buster is key for any grab setup to rack up a large amount of % damage.

More Doubles Strategies include Shulk & his partner doing grab follow-ups into combos, [D]Buster racking up % with Back Slashes from Bthrows or Fthrows toward Shulk. High % opponent launched by Uthrows, I see [D]Jump going for the follow-up & getting easy Star KO's with his powerful Uair.

Based off these observations, SS will be an amazing ground-fighter in Doubles, with the partner possibility open more towards an aerial-based fighter optionally with impressive off-stage edge-guarding & KO power for the balance of map control. Plus Shulk lacks a mid-long / long-range projectile, so his partner could have some camping game as a bonus.

Reminder: Back Slash is a given in each team idea through any grab setups or throws, & if you want to give some feedback on ideas for Team Battle's synergy, or Ideas on Team duos not shown in the spoiler, that'd be appreciated.

&=Banana for ground solidification for DIddy to go air-mode
&=Stage control with traps / hazards, allowing Support Shulk to go more aerial-based

&

=Copy Shulk's Monado Arts for the unknown bonuses it gives to Kirby. Good mix of Ground+Air
&=Double the counter & Lucario uses a psuedo-Anubis strategy including FCAS camping
&=Crash Bomber transfer, then Vision proc's at the right moment plus Mega Man's camping

&

=Ground+Air mixture. MK may have very good off-stage presence
&=IF & ONLY IF Shulk's beam portion of the Monado heal Ness' PSI Magnet. Decent ground+air coverage

&

=Pikmin Thrown on Shulk can proc his Vision Counter for a mix-up tactic, having solid ground-game
&=Not very aggressive of a team unless Robin felt yolo, plus Robin's projectile-game. Robin & Shulk combo'ing off each other's Bthrows using Nosferatu & Back Slash for the back turned away feature every time they're thrown
&=Perfect blend of Ground-game & Zoning of projectiles poking down.

&

=Phantom Slash as a meat shield. Din's Fire used off-stage against us to either proc our Vision counter for horizontal gain recovering (high up), or, it goes low to hit us off-stage to pop us up in case we're getting edge-guarded. FC Din's fire on-stage can be a free proc for Vision even if the opponent isn't attacking
&=Paralyzer combos, Zoning playing keep-away while Support Shulk provides ZSS with the stage control on top of that. Paralyzes to calculated Back Slashes are key here

High-lighted ones in bold are the teams I feel will be fairly good

Meta "This is the Monado's Power" - Metagame Discussion

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