Brawler Arsenal

Grounded Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Neutral Attacks

Shulk delivers a quick jab and follows up with a high roundhouse kick, then finishes the sequence with an uppercut slash of the Monado. On whiff, holding neutral attack allows for repeated jabs. Alternatively, repeated pressing neutral attack on whiff results in the punch, kick, slash “auto-combo.”

This jab combo is best reserved as a quick input-buffered punish tool (after shielding incoming attacks, for instance), and to relieve offensive pressure by the opponent. In rare instances, you may get some mileage out of using the follow-up roundhouse and Monado slash attacks on whiff in your ground game, but for the most part, you want to stay off the ground and in the air, as Shulk’s aerial moves are so powerful and effective.

Dash Attack

While dashing, Shulk mightily swings the Monado in front of him, sending foes flying up and away into the sky.

Shulk’s dash attack boasts impressive range and extends an intangible hitbox, out-prioritizing incoming attacks. However, it’s highly punishable when shielded or if you miss with it. You can make it safer by spacing it, forcing the enemy to shield the tip of the Monado. However, hits at this range only cause a “sour” hit (although these non-critical hits deal considerable damage nonetheless).

Defensive Attacks

Tilts

Side Tilt

Shulk swipes the area in front of him with the Monado. The range on this horizontal blade attack makes it effective and safe to throw out in most ground-to-ground scenarios or as an edge-guarding tool. There’s a slight start-up period before it hits, so it may be difficult to implement in combos, but it’s one of your most important attacks due to its relatively decent recovery and lag. Like most of Shulk’s Monado attacks, his side tilt benefits from Speed Art while maintaining respectable damage. Use side tilt to check grounded and shielding enemies and as a follow-up attack to a short hop forward air attack sequence.

Up Tilt

Shulk swings the Monado in a wide arc above him. Up tilt is a quintessential anti-air attack with a pronounced vertical attack effect. It can hit foes directly in front of you, but doesn’t quite reach to the rear, making it a situational attack in the ground game. The main advantage to this attack is its vertical reach, giving you incredible anti-air juggle and combo control against descending enemies, such as off of up throw setups.

Up tilt is an excellent kill move against foes at high damage and should be one of your staple ground attacks. Your tilt attacks make for excellent complementary attacks, especially as follow-ups after your forward and neutral air attacks. While you don’t usually get a guaranteed combo after up tilt hits against grounded foes, it puts the enemy directly above you, prime for follow-up mix-ups and juggle opportunities.

Down Tilt

Shulk sweeps the ground in front of him with the Monado. Down tilt is primarily used against shorter fighters like Pikachu and Kirby, but decently effective against other fighters because of its range advantage over side tilt.

Smashes

Side Smash

Shulk activates the Monado’s energy-extension blade and delivers a mighty thrust in front of him. Thanks to its incredible range, Shulk’s side smash is a decent poke tool. However, as with most smash attacks, it comes with the price of considerable lag, making it relatively dangerous to use often. You’re generally better off using neutral air and forward air attacks as pokes since they’re safer and allow you to remain mobile.

Up Smash

Shulk thrusts the Monado blade straight into the air, piercing foes above him. Up smash is the vertical variant of side smash and should be used sparingly. While these smash attacks deal incredible damage, they leave you highly vulnerable. High-speed fighters are sure to punish your whiffed smash attacks, so try to stick to using your tilt and air attacks.

Down Smash

With the Monado’s projected energy blade, Shulk performs a 360-degree floor-sweeping spin attack. This sword sweep is a clear-out attack, potentially hitting multiple surrounding enemies. Naturally, it’s enormously unsafe on shield and whiff, but has its niche use, particularly in free-for-all battles within a constrained skirmish.

Grabs

Grabs

Shulk’s grab attack consists of bashing his victim with the butt of the Monado. Each of Shulk’s grab follow-up options has situational uses, with his up and down throws being the most effective for setting up combos and dealing extra damage. For instance, with his down throw, you can set up 50/50 situations: down throw, dash/run and jump toward the opponent, then from here you can force out an air dodge (which you can punish heavily), or if they mess up their air tech, you can simply hit them with forward air attack.

While Speed Art is active, you can usually hit a guaranteed combo off of down throw with neutral air if you’re fast enough.

At high enemy-damage values, your back and forward throws have much higher knockout potential while Smash Art is active. While situational, having Smash active can make a big difference in a match, since being able to grab and knock out with a throw is a powerful ability.

Aerial Attacks

Aerials

Neutral Air Attack

Shulk swings the Monado all around him in an exaggerated arc, clearing out nearby foes. Neutral air attack is one of your best attacks as you jockey for position and poke at foes. It covers all angles, with the initial active frames starting below you and its ending active frames behind you. Generally, using neutral air over forward air is better for covering your rear and upper body, while forward air is better in most other situations.

Neutral air attack has the least amount of fixed landing lag out of Shulk’s aerial attacks.

Forward Air Attack

Shulk delivers an overhead swing, swiping the Monado in a giant arc in front of him and ending slightly behind. Forward air attack will likely be your most-used attack. It excels in most situations and has uses in combos and setups. It’s relatively safe, especially considering its decent speed and incredible hitbox angle. Short hop into forward air should be a staple attack and defense sequence. Performing a retreating forward air attack (moving away while simultaneously attacking with forward air) is also incredibly strong, as it gives you added safety while you have your giant sword hitbox out in front of you. To seamlessly execute this technique, use toward on the C-stick while holding back on the control stick during your hop.

Once you condition the opponent with this attack, you can start opening them up with short hop fake-outs. For instance, if you can get the enemy to put up their shield as you jump at them, you can switch it up by going for an empty hop fast fall into an immediate grab, punishing their shield attempt. From there, you can go for an up or down throw with potential combo follow-up.

Back Air Attack

While airborne, Shulk thrusts the Monado far behind him, devastating enemies caught in its path. This is your best horizontal poke in the neutral game. It’s a safe option against the majority of the cast, and only leaves you vulnerable against the fastest of fighters.

It boasts incredible horizontal range, and it’s safe on shield with proper spacing. It has considerable landing lag, so take care not to be too predictable with it, especially against high-speed fighters like Sonic. Mix up your pokes with forward air and back air attacks to keep foes on their toes, then start going for your dash-in throw mix-ups as your opponent goes into a defensive posture.

Up Air Attack

While hopping, Shulk activates the Monado blade and thrusts it far into the air above him. This attack is also known as the “Monado Purge.” Up air attack is one of your strongest knockout attacks because of its huge vertical attack effect, naturally used as a follow-up to pop-up attacks like your down/up throw, Air Slash, and up tilt. While it’s not the ideal move to use as a poke, if you can connect with a raw up air attack, you can set up combos and 50/50s as you launch the foe directly above you. With Jump Art active, you can combo repeated up air attacks at higher-damage counts.

Down Air Attack

Shulk does his best Link impersonation, performing a down-thrust attack with the Monado that dunks enemies below him. While this attack is visually similar to Link’s Down Thrust, it’s much more difficult to use and hit accurately. Its start-up is considerably slow, its active window is relatively short, and the hitbox of the Monado isn’t too impressive. Shulk’s other air attacks are much more effective in most circumstances.

Furthermore, it causes the longest landing lag out of all of Shulk’s air attacks, leaving you vulnerable if you use it haphazardly.

Special Moves

Special Moves

Neutral Special: Monado Arts

Shulk cycles through and toggles on a Monado Art, increasing and decreasing certain attributes depending on which Art is chosen. There are two methods of selecting Monado Arts: Tapping neutral special quickly cycles through them in order (Jump > Speed > Shield > Buster > Smash), automatically activating an Art when you stop cycling (takes around one second). Alternatively, you can bring up the Monado Arts wheel by holding neutral special and then using the control stick to select an Art. Selecting certain Monado Arts using the wheel can be much quicker than cycling. For instance, using neutral special (hold) and immediately tapping is much faster and more accurate than cycling through to the Smash Art with repeated Special taps.

You can manually disable and cancel the active Monado Art by tapping neutral special three times quickly in succession. Monado Arts can even be activated while you’re in hitstun. For instance, if you’re launched into the air and off a ledge, you can quickly activate Jump Art for a boost in jump height to help you recover.

Side Special: Back Slash

Shulk leaps forward and chops his foes down with a jumping sword attack. Deals bonus damage if striking enemies from behind. Back Slash is a high-risk, moderate-reward special that deals bonus damage if you can connect the Monado with an opponent’s rear side (i.e., hitting an enemy from behind). This jumping attack persists until landing, so if you execute it from a high altitude, you remain vulnerable in a locked attack animation until you hit the floor.

Back Slash should be used sparingly (save for as a recovery tool) since it leaves you open to attacks, particularly against fighters with high horizontal move speeds. Note that you can slightly modify your trajectory during Back Slash by tilting the control stick left or right.

Up Special: Air Slash

Shulk drives the Monado skyward, launching enemies into the air with a rising slash, then striking them out of the sky with a horizontal air swing.

Air Slash is a high-velocity uppercut slash with a bonus hit that can be performed on hit (for a combo-finisher) and on whiff. Air Slash is an outstanding out-of-shield option: straight from a shielding posture, jump-cancel your shield and immediately transition into a lightning-fast Air Slash to punish aggressive enemies.

Air Slash is naturally an excellent combo tool, thanks to its angle and range of attack, complementing Shulk’s up/down throw and up tilt combo setups.

As a recovery tool, Air Slash lacks horizontal range, so you have to be close to the ledge before launching to it. If you execute the follow-up midair attack, you can boost yourself a bit farther.

Down Special: Vision

Shulk evades an incoming attack with a backstep, then lunges forward with an upward swing of the Monado. This parry-type move is straightforward. If you can predict and call out an enemy attack, you can punish them with a high-damage retaliation attack. Enemies attacking into the parry freeze in place for a short duration while Shulk winds up and hits them with his swing. You can input the stick toward the enemy during a successful counter to swing at them from the other side. The activation timing window becomes smaller and stricter with repeated use.

Final Smash: Chain Attack

Shulk quickly fires off a bright circle of light in front of him, then calls upon his friends to unleash a coordinated cinematic attack, dealing an amount of damage that depends on the active Monado Art.