Shulk (SSB4)

Shulk in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Xenoblade Chronicles
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Chain Attack
Tier	De best! (38)

“	Shulk Foresees a Fight!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Shulk (シュルク, Shulk) is bestest playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4! Of course this only because Riki not actually playable and other friends not either.

Shulk is numbered 38 on official list of bestness. Shulk have long sword range and can do other many things with Monado! Monado Arts let Shulk be heavy or be light, and have super damage attack power! Also give visions for when big bad attack incoming! But Shulk is still brain man, not muscle man. He no move fast and rather learn than do. These not bad things!

Attributes

Ooooog too much words here for poor Riki to make better. He leave them alone for now.

Much like in his home game, Shulk is a character who revolves around adapting to different situations with his attribute-enhancing Monado Arts. In comparison to the extreme changes granted by his Arts, most of Shulk's characteristics are relatively balanced: his walking, falling speeds and gravity are all average, his dashing is slightly below average, his air speed is above average and his air acceleration is below average. Shulk is also a heavyweight, which by extension makes him the third heaviest sword-wielder in the game behind Ike and Link. Thanks to these attributes, Shulk has relatively good mobility for a character of his weight class, especially in the air, although they do not grant him too many obvious advantages or disadvantages.

Shulk's greatest strength is his disjointed range. The Monado's range grants him the single longest disjointed melee attacks in the series, even surpassing Ike and Cloud's, with most of his normal attacks having overall long ranges. Shulk's excellent range allows him to punish careless moves by retaliating at a distance, or create space by challenging his opponent with his disjointed attacks. His most useful grounded moves are his neutral attack, up tilt and smash attacks, each of which possess distinct perks. His neutral attack is the most damaging non-infinite neutral attack in the game, even without Buster. His up tilt boasts outstanding vertical range and can cover multiple get-up options from the edge. Lastly, his smash attacks boast high power and long ranges; his forward smash is particularly notable due to being the third longest ranged forward smash in the game, being surpassed only by Corrin and Mii Gunner's.

His range also applies to his aerial moves, and collectively grant him a powerful air game. Both his neutral and forward aerials possess wide-arced ranges with low landing lag, making them Shulk's best approach options. The former is useful for anything from starting combos to covering landing options due to its long-lasting hitbox and low landing lag, while the latter lasts shorter and has slightly more landing lag, but ends faster making it a very good edgeguarding and spacing option. His back aerial is a capable KOing option thanks to its great range and being his most powerful aerial. Lastly, his up and down aerials are, like his back aerial, thrusts rather than slashes. As such, they have minimal horizontal ranges, but can KO surprisingly early should they hit, with the former being potent near the upper blast line and the latter being capable of meteor smashing.

Shulk's defining abilities are his Monado Arts. Each Art tweaks his attributes considerably for 16 seconds and can be manually canceled at any time, even during hitstun. With this freedom, Shulk can activate an Art to open up options for virtually any situation while still being able to switch or cancel them if he is in a bad position. Jump grants him significant aerial mobility by making his jumps the highest in the game while improving both his air speed and Air Slash's height. This allows him to recover from almost anywhere off-stage, edgeguard more aggressively and even perform several KO combos, such as a wall of pain leading to a sacrificial Air Slash at moderate percentages. Speed amplifies his usually average ground speed while reducing his jump height, making his short hopped aerials more efficient for combos and spacing, while allowing him to approach and retreat noncommittally. It also lowers traction, making Shulk's pivot grab the third longest in the game (tied with Meta Knight) for its duration. These two Arts grant him outstanding mobility for a heavyweight, and when combined with the large hitboxes of his attacks, Shulk can effectively space opponents out of a specific side of the stage with either Jump or Speed, making him very difficult to approach on stages with platforms.

Shield bolsters Shulk's defensive game by reducing both damage and knockback taken, which allows him to survive for a much longer period of time and resist getting trapped in combos. His shield also becomes much more durable, making it harder to break with shield-breaking attacks such as Bowser Bomb. Buster reduces his overall knockback, but increases his overall damage output, allowing him to rack up damage extremely quickly. Buster also makes up and down throws into effective and damaging combo starters at 0%, while the increased damage and shieldstun make Shulk's moves both safer on shield and capable of pressuring shields. Lastly, Smash boosts his entire moveset's knockback, making almost all of Shulk's attacks KOing options (especially with rage), and his down throw becomes the strongest in the game while it is active. With access to these attribute-changing abilities, Shulk is highly adaptive, and usually has an easier time mixing up his playstyle compared to other characters so long as his Arts are used effectively and in tandem with his powerful air game. Such an example would be constantly switching from Jump and Shield to stall a losing match, or activating different arts while being juggled to affect Shulk's falling speed, and hence mess up an opponent's combo.

Due to the technical aspects of activating Monado Arts, Shulk also has access to multiple unique advanced techniques, the most notable of which is known as Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling. By jumping and timing the activation of an Art just before landing, Shulk can reduce the landing lag of his aerials to 5 frames while gaining intangibility for 14 frames (1 frame less than the length granted by his sidestep). While difficult to perform, it allows Shulk to avoid a punish before immediately responding with a punish of his own, or start shield break combos, such as an Art canceled back aerial to forward smash. It can even let him retreat by pivoting in midair, or extend the invincibility of air dodging via an aerial Art activation. This technique is the only viable way to make some of Shulk's moves (such as back aerial) safe on shield against faster characters. Several other techniques include the Monado Purge, a 50-50 KO combo consisting of a buffer canceled up throw to up aerial at high percentages, and Monado Art Ledge Snapping, which bypasses ledge getup animations while protecting the user with brief intangibility. If mastered, Shulk's Monado Art techniques can be very effective and unpredictable mix-up options inaccessible to any other character in the game.

Excluding his Arts, Shulk's special moveset shares his overall high range, and all have their own forms of utility. Back Slash is very powerful when striking the opponent's back and has long range regardless, making it a great surprise attack as well as a decent spacing tool. Air Slash grants a good amount of vertical distance, comes out quickly, and has strong knockback growth, making it a good recovery move and an even better out of shield option. The distance and knockback of Air Slash can additionally be affected by the Jump and Smash Arts respectively, allowing the move to gain even more vertical distance, or be used as a combo finisher in the air or a KO option out-of-shield. Lastly, Vision is tied with Double Team for having the longest lasting counterattack window in the game when fresh while also having the longest range, both of which give Shulk one of the most effective counters of any character. Its alternate counterattack, which is performed when Shulk inputs the direction from which the triggered attack came from, also rivals Corrin's Counter Surge as the strongest counterattack in the game.

However, Shulk has some glaring and exploitable weaknesses. Despite his outstanding range, his moveset is infamously sluggish to compensate, being among the slowest in the game along with King Dedede and Ganondorf's movesets. Barring his neutral attack, standing grab and Vision, none of his attacks come out before frame 9, while only his down tilt has less than 25 frames of ending lag. Like the aforementioned heavyweights, this means he has to rely on careful reads to land a hit, as a missed attack can easily be capitalized upon . This is made worse by the low shieldstun of his attacks (unless Buster is active), making his attacks inherently unsafe up close and on shield, while still unsafe if spaced against faster characters prevalent in the metagame. Additionally, most of Shulk's moves deal more damage with the Monado's blade rather than its beam blade, while several of his strongest combos (such as a landing neutral aerial to a grab or a forward aerial wall of pain) rely on him being extremely close to his opponent to be inescapable. As a result, Shulk is somewhat reliant on being at a punishable distance to start dealing any significant damage.

His sluggish frame data also extends to his aerials. While he is uniquely the only character who can interrupt the ending lag of his aerials with a jump, air dodge or another air attack, all of Shulk's aerials have disproportionately high ending lag, with neutral aerial in particular having 71 frames of ending lag. In addition, Shulk is the only character who cannot autocancel any of his aerials, forcing him to endure landing lag every time he starts an aerial attack, even from a full hop. While Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling can negate this, it is considerably more complicated to perform compared to autocanceling, making it very difficult and unwieldy to perform consistently. Essentially, this makes every attack very committal, and makes it important for Shulk to space his attacks carefully as he can easily be punished for missing. Additionally, moves such as back aerial or up aerial are unsafe to use upon landing, unlike many other characters' aerials.

Due to his weight and stature, Shulk is an easy target for combos and juggles, as his tall frame, slow air acceleration, and lack of quick combo breakers (with his fastest aerial, neutral aerial, coming out on frame 13 and beginning behind himself) makes it difficult to break out of combos. His lack of a projectile and anti-projectile options also makes it difficult to pressure his opponent from a distance, while making it hard for him to approach against projectile users as well. Even pressure on the ground can be hard to escape from, as Shulk has the fifth lowest traction in the game. This gives him a poor out of shield game without Air Slash, which is punishable when missed. Shulk's special attacks are also flawed in some ways. Back Slash's knockback is exceptionally weak if hitting the opponent's front, has considerable ending lag, and is notorious for its inability to edge sweetspot. Air Slash provides very little horizontal momentum and does not sweetspot edges immediately if the second slash is used, thus making his recovery predictable, even with Jump. Lastly, Vision's counter window decays upon consecutive use, which discourages frequent usage.

The Monado Arts also have debuffs to compensate for their buffs: if an Art is active, it causes some of his other attributes to drop, weakening some of his abilities. A careful opponent can potentially take advantage of them to gain the upper hand, making his Arts a double-edged sword due to his reliance on them to approach and/or perform combos. Jump makes him very vulnerable to damage, and when combined with his slow moveset, makes it even riskier to whiff a move. Speed lowers his damage output, requiring him to deal more hits for the same amount of damage and reduces his jump force to the point of hindering his vertical mobility. Shield drastically reduces his mobility and damage output to the point of making his recovery and offensive potential among the worst in the game, respectively. Shield's increased knockback defense also leaves Shulk heavily susceptible to combos and juggling that can be difficult to escape from due to his decreased mobility. Buster increases his vulnerability to damage (although not to the same extent as Jump) and the lower knockback makes it nearly impossible to KO opponents without smash attacks, and then even they only do so well past 150%. Finally, Smash severely reduces his survivability, hinders his combo game, and make his attacks the least damaging in the game.

Even having no Arts active is disadvantageous, as his balanced attributes do not allow him to easily approach or catch up with opponents. Having no Arts active also hinders Shulk offensively: very few of his moves possess combo potential past low percentages, and all his smash attacks have high ending lag, making them very punishable. This forces Shulk to be reliant on edgeguarding and spacing while waiting for an Art to refresh, and requires him to capitalize on the duration of a needed Art to the fullest in order to perform certain techniques (such as combo strings or approaching), compared to other characters who may have the ability to do so at any time.

Shulk's custom moves grant him various options. Decisive Monado Arts last longer and have amplified effects, but cannot be changed. This makes them great for regaining neutral or claiming stage control, but at the cost of their dynamic flexibility in the middle of the match. Hyper Monado Arts last much shorter and with even harsher debuffs, but their buffs are even more powerful, which allows him to briefly boost a needed stat to the extreme and capitalize upon its benefits in a much shorter time. Back Slash Leap offers quicker start-up and more vertical range, at the cost of some horizontal range and more ending lag. Advancing Air Slash gives more horizontal distance and the second hit is stronger, but it gives less vertical distance. Mighty Air Slash is more powerful, but has only half the range, making it difficult to connect the second hit. Dash Vision is weaker than normal, but it has much more range, is much faster upon activation, and gives Shulk both his only anti-projectile option and another recovery option. Lastly, Power Vision has much more start-up upon counterattacking and a much stricter counter window if used repeatedly, but the counterattack itself is immensely powerful and capable of generating one-hit KOs, especially with Smash.

Overall, Shulk functions much like in his home game, as his optimal playstyle consists of warding off pressure and having extensive knowledge of his opponent. While his weaknesses are exploitable if fighting head-on, his adaptability and array of wildcard-like tools allow him to excel if played patiently and while exploiting openings. However, due to his uncommonly sluggish attacks and very demanding techniques, he is arguably one of the hardest characters to master. While he has a notable playerbase that constantly discover and improve on the unique mechanics granted by his Monado Arts, his weaknesses have resulted in him garnering low representation and only some degree of competitive success despite his potential, with most of his representation coming from dedicated mains like Nicko and Darkwolf.

Update history

Riki is back typing!

Shulk get better as game moves on. Game numbers 1.0.4, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, and 1.1.3 made Shulk better in total. Shulk now even betterer than he was!

And...oh no, even more big words! Riki is okay with this, words full of funny numbers that only Shulk and Melly understand. (And Sharla and Fiora? Math not so good for us others. Riki can barely count littlepon!)

1.0.4

• Neutral attack deals more damage: 3% → 3.5% (hit 1, hit 2), 4.3%/3.2% → 5.3%/4.2% (clean hit 3/late hit 3).
• All tilt attacks deal 1% more damage: 12%/10.5% → 13%/11.5% (forward), 7%/6% → 8%/7% (up), 8%/6% → 9%/7% (down).
• Forward tilt's knockback growth decreased: 100 → 92, slightly hindering its KO ability despite its increased damage.
• Down tilt's second hitbox's position has changed: bone 25, offset [0,2,-1] → bone 0, offset [0,5.5,5.5]. This removes the move's point blank blind spot.
• Dash attack deals 1% more damage: 10% → 11%.
• Dash attack's ending lag decreased: frame 57 → 53.
• Forward and up smash deal more damage: 5%, 12.5%/11% → 5.5%, 13%/11.5% (forward), 4%, 13% → 4.5%, 13.5% (up).
• Forward smash has been improved. It received a variety of changes to enable both of its hits to connect together better.
• Forward smash's first hit's angles altered: 40° (upward)/75° (forward)/84° (downward) → 78°/10°/40°.
• Forward smash's first hit's fixed knockback values decreased: 45/45/31 → 28/28/28.
• Forward smash's first hit's radii decreased: 4/4/4 → 2/2/4.
• Forward smash's first hit's positions elevated: [-2,0,1]/[4.1,0,1]/[10,0,1] → [11–4,0,2]/[11–4,0,-0.5]/[-2,0,1].
• Forward smash's second hit's radii increased: 3.5/2 → 4/3.
• Forward smash's second hit's first hitbox X-offset decreased: 22–0 → 21–0.
• Down smash deals 1% more damage: 13%/10%, 11%/9%, 9%/7%, 7%/5%, 5%/3% → 14%/11%, 12%/10%, 10%/8%, 8%/6%, 6%/4%.
• All aerial attacks deal more damage: 6%/7% → 7%/8% (neutral), 6.5%/5% → 7.5%/6% (forward), 11%/7% → 12%/8% (back), 4%, 9%/6.5% → 5%, 10%/7.5% (up), 6%/4%, 10%/9% → 7%/5%, 11%/10% (down).
• Forward aerial's landing lag decreased: 21 → 18 frames.
• All throws' first hits deal 1% more damage: 2% → 3%.
• Monado Speed's damage output multiplier increased for all variations: 0.72x (default, Decisive)/0.576x (Hyper) → 0.8x/0.64x.
• Monado Buster's damage input multiplier decreased for all variations: 1.2x (default, Decisive)/1.44x (Hyper) → 1.13x/1.356x.
• All variations of Air Slash deal 1% more damage on the first hit: 5%/4% → 6%/5% (Air Slash, Advancing Air Slash), 8%/6% → 9%/7% (Mighty Air Slash).
• All variations of Vision have had their Y-offsets increased: 8 → 9.

1.1.0

• Back Slash's start-up lag decreased: 31 frames → 22.
• Aerial Back Slash travels slower.
• Up aerial's first hit now launches opponents at 96° and its second hit's hitbox sizes increased: 3.5u/5.5u → 3.8u/6.5u. These changes make its hits connect together better.

1.1.1

• Dash Vision's knockback growth increased: 84 (standard)/94 (alternate) → 89
• Dash Vision's angle altered: 35° → 32°.

1.1.3

• Dash attack deals 0.5% more damage: 11% → 11.5%.
• All tilt attacks deal 0.5% more damage: 13%/11.5% → 13.5%/12% (forward), 8%/7% → 8.5%/7.5% (up), 9%/7% → 9.5%/7.5% (down).
• All aerial attacks deal more damage: 7%/8% → 7.5%/8.5% (neutral), 7.5%/6% → 8%/6.5% (forward), 12%/8% → 12.5%/8.5% (back), 5%, 10%/7.5% → 5.5%, 10.5%/8% (up), 5%/7%, 11%/10% → 6%/7.5%, 11.5%/10.5% (down).
• All aerials' landing lag decreased: 12 frames → 10 (neutral), 18 frames → 16 (forward), 21 frames → 19 (back), 17 frames → 15 (up), 25 frames → 23 (down).

Moveset

Shulk do many different things with how baddies get hit.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3.5%	Shulk pow with fist then spin with kick, and swish Monado up. Good fast and good bang, use all the time.
			3.5%
			5.3% (clean), 4.2% (late)
Forward tilt			13.5% (blade), 12% (beam)	Flat Monado swing. Good for hitting a long way but kind of small.
Up tilt			8.5% (blade), 7.5% (beam)	Swing Monado in air for big big range, hit anything close. Shulk good at juggling with this, but no hit anyone on ground.
Down tilt			9.5% (blade), 7.5% (beam)	Crouch foot swing. Fastish.
Dash attack			11.5%	Normal slow-down attack. Riki not think it good at all.
Forward smash			5.5% (hit 1), 13% (hit 2 blade), 11.5% (hit 2 beam)	Slit Edge! Shulk poke baddies and blast away! Shulk have trouble getting back to standing after but that no problem.
Up smash			4.5% (hit 1), 13.5% (hit 2)	Shulk bang Monado on ground for air attack, Riki not get it but there it is. Again slow but super flight power.
Down smash			14% (hit 1 blade), 11% (hit 1 beam), 12% (hit 2 blade), 10% (hit 2 beam), 10% (hit 3 blade), 8% (hit 3 beam), 8% (hit 4 blade), 6% (hit 4 beam), 6% (hit 5 blade), 4% (hit 5 beam)	Shulk spin spin spins for getting baddies away. Make Shulk dizzy, but destroy shields like butter!
Neutral aerial			7.5% (blade), 8.5% (beam)	Funny circle swing. Very big hit place but long time to end.
Forward aerial			8% (blade), 6.5% (beam)	Fastish slash. Shulk like to swing and then swing again for carrying baddies away.
Back aerial			12.5% (clean), 8.5% (late)	Shulk poke Monado behind. Surprise big range. Reyn say it look like kayak paddle.
Up aerial			5.5% (hit 1), 10.5% (hit 2 blade), 8% (hit 2 beam)	Poke up. Good blastpow but boring to see.
Down aerial			7.5% (hit 1 grounded), 6% (hit 1 aerial), 11.5% (hit 2 blade), 10.5% (hit 2 beam)	Opposite poke as poke up. Fun to hit baddies into pits, but real hard to do.
Grab			—	Yoink!
Pummel			3%	Shulk bonk baddie in head.
Forward throw			3% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2)	Shulk push baddie forward. Not impressive.
Back throw			3% (hit 1), 9% (hit 2)	Backward push. Shulk use to ready Back Slash or just toss baddies away.
Up throw			3% (hit 1), 4% (hit 2)	Shulk poke up again. Shulk's creativity a bit thin now.
Down throw			3% (hit 1), 4% (hit 2)	Shulk poke baddie into ground. Shulk like this move as surprise blast-away at edge.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			7%	Shulk can attack while toppled? Wow! Teach Riki!
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			7%	Is this same as above?
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Oh this one weaker. Why?
Edge attack Edge getups			7%	Reyn say Shulk has weak wrists, so how he grab edge?
Neutral special	Default	Monado Arts	—	Shulk pick a Monado Art and use it to put aura on self! Shulk can also then do many silly things in unintended ways! Shulk say he has "connections" with virtual worlds.
	Custom 1	Decisive Monado Arts	—	If Shulk do this instead, Arts do more but no can be turned off early.
	Custom 2	Hyper Monado Arts	—	If Shulk do this instead, Arts do more but have worse cooldown. Why would Shulk do this!?
Side special	Default	Back Slash	10%/9% (front, front landing), 16%/14% (back), 15%/13% (back landing)	Back Slash! Shulk strike from behind for big big big damage!
	Custom 1	Back Slash Leap	10%/8% (front), 16%/14% (back)	If Shulk do this instead, he go up high but move not much at all.
	Custom 2	Back Slash Charge	4% (front), 13%/11% (back)	If Shulk do this instead, he go super-rock-stiff and not get budged until he done. But it then do nothing from front and much much slow.
Up special	Default	Air Slash	6% (hit 1 clean), 5% (hit 1 late), 5.5% (hit 2)	Air Slash! Shulk jump up even if already in air! Then slash and slash again! But Reyn and Dunban not here to topple. Sad.
	Custom 1	Advancing Air Slash	6% (hit 1 clean), 5% (hit 1 late), 8% (hit 2)	If Shulk do this instead, he go all funny directions.
	Custom 2	Mighty Air Slash	9% (hit 1 clean), 7% (hit 1 late), 10% (hit 2)	If Shulk do this instead, he do more owies but less jumps.
Down special	Default	Vision	1.3x (min 10%/7% (standard), min 13%/10% (alternate))	Shulk see attack and avoid, then counter with big power slash! Nyapakapow!
	Custom 1	Dash Vision	1x (min 8%/5% (standard), min 11%/8% (alternate))	If Shulk do this instead, he slash faster but with less boom.
	Custom 2	Power Vision	1.5x (min 17%/14% (standard), min 20%/17% (alternate))	If Shulk do this instead, he slash slower and with even more super big boom power!
Final Smash		Chain Attack	3% (hit 1), 2% (hits 2-12), 12% (hit 13), 5% (hit 14)	Riki finally appear to help Shulk with Chain Attack! Dundun here too.

On-screen appearance

• Jump down from nowhere without fall damage! Wow.

Taunts

• Up taunt: "Now it's Shulk time!" Reyn confused when he first heard - be angry or proud for stealing?
• Side taunt: "I'm really feeling it!" Shulk always feel it!
• Down taunt: "This is the Monado's power!" As always!

Up taunt	Side taunt	Down taunt

Idle poses

• Foot tap. Shulk bored.
• Look around to find Riki for help!

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Shulk! Shulk! Shulk!	Shuruku!
Pitch	Group chant	Female

Victory poses

Good part of You Will Know Our Names!

• "The future is ours to decide." or "I've got a good rhythm going!" Shulk either deep or shallow. It funny.
• "I got through that pretty good!" or "This is a good result!" Shulk good at voice taunt.
• "I can change the future!" or "I can feel the power!" Bit deep.

In competitive play

Oh boy many more words here than Riki can handle. Break time!

Official Custom Moveset Project

Character	Custom sets available
Shulk	1113	2113	3113	1123	3123
	3213	1122	3122	1213	2123

Notable players

Active

•  Darkwolf - The best Shulk player in Canada. Placed 13th at Get On My Level 2016 and has achieved numerous top placings at regionals, including 5th at Smash INTENSIFIES 2 and 9th at Nexus 2. Ranked 6th on the Montreal Power Rankings.
•  Erico - Placed 17th at Kings Of The North 4. Notable for researching and expanding on Shulk's techniques by publishing video tutorials. Introduced Vision Sliding and the Monado Art Buffered Deactivation technique, which led to the discovery of the Monado Purge combo and MonaDACUS. Co-owns the official Shulk Discord with Paradigm.
•  FuerzaDON - Considered the best Shulk player in Mexico, and one of the first to consistently perform the Monado Art Landing Lag Cancel (MALLC). Placed 13th at True Combo 2015, where he took seven stocks in a crew match, and placed 7th at ConComics Guadalajara 2016. Also won four "Colony 9 Cup" tournaments, which were hosted by the official Shulk Discord and he took sixteen stocks in the Discord JMU Crew Battle: Shulk vs. Cloud. Notable victories: Chag, Regi, Cloudy, Klein and Richi.
• Jerm - Ranked 3rd on the Ottawa Power Rankings. Host of the Distant Kingdom, which focuses on Shulk techniques and matchups. Made the first official video guide for MALLC.
•  Kome - Considered the best Shulk in Japan and possibly the world, with wins over players such as komorikiri, Shuton, and You3.
•  M - Placed 3rd at B.E.A.S.T 7, beating iStudying and Glutonny.
•  Masha - Considered the one of the best Shulk players in Japan. Placed 17th at Umebura 25, 13th at Karisuma 10 and 9th at Sumabato 14.
•  Nicko - Considered one of the best Shulk players in the world. Ranked 11th on the SoCal Power Rankings. Placed 17th at 2GGT: Mexico Saga, 65th at EVO 2016, and 25th at 2GGT: Abadango Saga.
• Paradigm - Introduced and researched notable Shulk techniques, such as Vision Sliding and the Monado Purge combo, alongside Erico. Co-owns the official Shulk Discord with Erico.
•  Soronie - Ranked 6th on the NorCal Power Rankings. Placed 7th at Don't You Dair 3 and 49th at 2GGT: Abadango Saga.
•  Tremendo Dude - Considered the best Shulk player in Florida. Placed 3rd at Glitch (low-tier) and 9th at Glitch 2 (low-tier).

Inactive

•  9B - Ranked 8th on the JAPAN Power Rankings. The first player to show mastery of MALLC in a tournament setting.
•  Artryuu - Ranked 1st and 10th on the Ottawa Smash 4 Power Rankings in May 2015 and 2016, respectively. Placed 33rd at Get On My Level 2016, 25th at Nexus 2 and 4th at Back 2 School: Battle Royale.
•  Trela

Tier placement and history

Opinions on Shulk's overall viability in the metagame have greatly fluctuated throughout SSB4's lifespan. During the initial release of SSB4, Shulk was quickly discovered to be very flawed due to his moveset being burdened with very sluggish frame data (with aerials incapable of autocanceling throughout their animations), a below average overall damage output, and the fact that some of his moves, such as forward smash, failed to work properly, among other issues. As a result, Shulk was quickly considered to be one of the worst characters in the game. However, update 1.0.4 significantly buffed Shulk, which mainly addressed many of his aforementioned issues. When these buffs were coupled with the discovery of Monado Art Landing Lag Canceling (MALLC), his own signature advanced technique, Shulk's position on the tier list became a hot topic of debate among players due to his perceived potential. Despite retaining his poor frame data, many considered him as a possible high-tier character on the grounds that, if someone could master him, he would be a serious competitive threat.

As time went on, however, players' opinions of Shulk drastically dropped. Despite the benefits of his Monado Arts, Shulk failed to achieve high placings at major tournaments. In addition to this, the metagame's development revealed that Shulk's weaknesses, mostly his poor frame data, were much more detrimental than originally thought. As a result, Shulk was perceived to be a low-tier character and was left with a small, albeit dedicated, playerbase. Despite receiving some buffs in future updates, most notably update 1.1.3, they have not addressed his poor frame data and failed to compensate for it. As such, Shulk was ranked 40th on the first tier list, placing him in the G tier and confirming his status as a low-tier character.

Shulk's representation and results have been largely stagnant for a time, largely due to his sluggish attacks being viewed as a significant issue and too inconsistent for high-level play. This resulted in Shulk being ranked 44th on the second tier list, which saw him remain in the G tier and was a slight drop from his previous ranking. However, this may be attributable to the addition of Corrin and Bayonetta. Despite his low-tier status, Shulk's playerbase have consistently discovered more Monado Art-based techniques that allow his moveset and options to flow better than before (such as MALS and Monado Purge). This in turn have allowed him to garner better results in recent times, with dedicated mains achieving top 13 placing at a more consistent rate within their respective regions. Additionally, M, Nicko and Darkwolf have achieved notable placings at the national level, such as 3rd at B.E.A.S.T 7, 17th at 2GGT: Mexico Saga and 13th at Get On My Level 2016, respectively. This rise in results is reflected in Shulk's third and current tier placement at 38th, a slight rise from his initial ranking. Overall, some believe Shulk might be underrated in the current metagame, partly due to his obscurity and very steep learning curve.

Trophies

Shulk

In Xenoblade Chronicles, this young lad's colony is attacked by the Mechon, so he and his friends set off to take them down. In Smash Bros., his Monado Arts let him change his specialization during battle. You can choose to boost a stat—his jump or attack, for example—but other stats might drop as a result, so choose wisely.

In Xenoblade Chronicles, this young lad's colony is attacked by the Mechon, so he and his friends set off to take them down. In this game, his Monado Arts let him change his specialisation during battle. You can choose to boost a stat—his jump or attack, for example—but other stats might drop as a result, so choose wisely.

: Xenoblade Chronicles (4/2012)

Shulk (Alt.)

Shulk's up special Air Slash is an upward slash done during a jump. Press the button again quickly to launch opponents sideways. His side special Back Slash, on the other hand, is a downward swing with a very wide range, though using it leaves Shulk wide open. Try hitting foes from behind with this!

Shulk's up special, Air Slash, is an upward slash done during a jump. Press the button again quickly to launch opponents sideways. His side special, Back Slash, on the other hand, is a downward swing with a very wide range, although using it leaves Shulk wide open. Try hitting foes from behind with this to do more damage!

: Xenoblade Chronicles (4/2012)

Chain Attack

In Xenoblade Chronicles, building up the party's team spirit would let them unleash a chain attack, using multiple Arts in a row to deal massive damage. In this game, Shulk's Final Smash calls party members Dunban and Riki to help obliterate an unlucky target... or multiple targets if you catch more than one in the circle of light!

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  Classic (3DS)

• ShulkAllStarTrophy3DS.png

  Alt. (3DS)

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  Classic (Wii U)

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  Alt. (Wii U)

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  Chain Attack

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Mechanical Menace: Shulk must defeat a metal R.O.B., a metal Mega Man and Metal Face in a Stamina Battle.
• New Challengers 2: Shulk is one of the opponents fought in this event, alongside Greninja, Palutena, Robin, Dark Pit, Mega Man and Pac-Man.
• The Ultimate Swordsman: As Ike, the player must defeat Shulk, Link, Marth, Meta Knight, Toon Link, male Robin and female Robin. All of the opponents wield swords.

Co-op Events

• The Ultimate Battle: Two players select a character and must defeat the entire roster.

Alternate costumes

With the exception of his first and last alternate costumes, all of Shulk's palette swaps correspond with one of his traveling companions in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Gallery

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  Shulk's poster.

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  Shulk's splash art.

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  Shulk's amiibo.

• Shulk Alt.png

  Shulk's armorless alternate costume.

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  The Pic of the Day revealing Shulk's inclusion in SSB4.

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  Using his forward smash on Sheik.

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  Activating the Smash Art.

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  Activating the Buster Art.

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  Using his up smash on Captain Falcon while activating Smash.

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  Using Back Slash on Donkey Kong and Link.

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  Using his down smash.

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  Using his down taunt alongside two Villagers using their down taunts.

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  Using his forward aerial on Link.

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  Using Chain Attack, his Final Smash, which features Dunban and Riki.

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  With Luigi on Boxing Ring.

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  Shulk and Riki in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  On Smash Ball standby on Final Destination.

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  Using his side taunt alongside Riki.

Reveal trailer

<youtube>GUl1EkUJ46k</youtube>

Trivia

• Shulk not use Light Heal in Smash Bros. game because he know it not fair. Same with other arts.
• When Riki came to Shulk page it full of trivia that basically "Shulk here is like Shulk from home". Over and over. Like Oka's complaining of Riki! (Riki sadded himself.)