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Shulk

*Note: Shulk's frame advantage on shield changes with all of his Monado Arts except for Jump Monado. Normal Shulk will be this color, Speed Shulk will be this color, Shield Shulk will be this color, Buster Shulk will be this color, and Smash Shulk will be this color.

Jab1 (-17/-17/-18/-16/-18) & Jab2 (-25/-26/-26/-25/-26):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)

Jab3 (-32/-32/-33/-30/-33):
FSmash (Frame 26)

FTilt (-19/-22/-24/-14/-26):
Grab (Frame 16)
(This move can be spaced out)

UTilt (-18/-19/-21/-14/-22):
Grab (Frame 16)

DTilt (-12/-14/-16/-9/-17):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move can be spaced out)

Dash Attack (-12/-19/-21/-12/-23):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)

FSmash (-35/-37/-39/-32/-40):
FSmash (Frame 26)

USmash (-28/-30/-32/-25/-33):
FSmash (Frame 26)

DSmash (-37):
FSmash (Frame 26)

NAir (-2/-3/-4/-1/-4):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)

FAir (-6/-7/-7/-6/-8):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield, can be spaced)

BAir (-6/-7/-8/-5/-9):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield, can be spaced)

UAir (-5/-6/-6/-4/-7):
Unpunishable
(Safe on shield)
(This move will never hit a grounded opponent when landing)

DAir (-9/-10/-11/-8/-12):
NAir (Frame 7)
GSA (Frame 9)
(This move can be made safer with drift)

Monado Arts (--):
--

Back Slash (-29/-32/-33/-26/-35 Front, -25/-29/-31/-21/-34 Back):
GSA (Frame 9)
USmash (Frame 10)
Grab (Frame 16)
DSmash (Frame 20)

Air Slash (--):
--

Vision (--):
--

• Neutral Moves: NAir, FAir, BAir, Tilts, Monado Arts.

• Kill Moves: BAir, FAir, UAir, DAir, FTilt/UTilt/Dash Attack with Smash Monado, Smash Attacks, Air Slash, Back Slash.

• Kill Confirms: Buster DThrow > Smash Monado Air Slash, landing UAir > DJ UAir.

• Shulk has average mobility with extremely high range on his sword attacks, in all 3 directions; horizontal, diagonal, and vertical swings. His range is similar to the likes of Byleth and Sephiroth. What sets Shulk apart is his Monado Arts, which alter Shulk’s stats drastically and give him strong neutral/advantage options, held back by high startup on most of his moves with few up-close options.

• Shulk’s NAir is a go-to neutral tool in covering aerial space entirely around him. It has a wide reach both horizontally and vertically due to the disjoint of the Monado. Shulk’s NAir is safe on shield, meaning that Young Link can’t even shield and punish. Young Link has to move around Shulk’s NAir and whiff punish, or beat the move on startup. NAir is what defines Shulk’s burst range in the air.

• Because of the high startup and lingering hitbox, Shulk needs to full hop/double jump from a short hop/jump off of a platform to make full use of the coverage of NAir while landing.

• Alternatively, Shulk can also use FAir to control airspace. FAir starts above Shulk and then swipes down, which makes FAir better suited for anti-airing (even full hops can be hit while short hopping) when compared to NAir. FAir has more horizontal range than NAir, meaning that Shulk can space it to hit opponents dashing in/jumping in, and/or space pressure on shield. FAir can be used to beat YL’s rising aerials, but loses to shielding.

• Shulk can mix up his NAir usage by approaching with reverse NAir. This utilizes the starting hit of NAir, which is faster than the spaced front hit. Shulk can use the reverse hit of NAir to combat Young Link’s close range aerials and keep up with their speed. As a downside, Shulk drifting in with NAir is more vulnerable to whiff punishes, such as Fire Arrow, Dash Attack, and Grab.

• Shulk’s BAir is a thin, long disjointed sword attack. Shulk thrusts the Monado horizontally for farther reach in exchange for less coverage. The spaced hit (the beam) has higher killpower than the base of the sword. Shulk can space and land with this hitbox to catch Young Link dashing back and/or using projectiles on the ground.

• Shulk lacks a single fast boxing option outside of Grab and Jab (which has the lowest range of all Jabs in the entire game). This can force Shulk to space at times or even read what the opponent will do since the opponent can’t intuitively react with safe, fast pressure in close situations with Shulk that other sword characters can, such as Marth/Lucina and Roy/Chrom with their DTilt.

Other Effects of Shulk’s Slow Aerial Frame Data:

• There’s a point in Shulk’s full hop where he can’t throw out an aerial due to the high startup. At this point, Shulk must do a landing Tilt/tomahawk Grab to exert pressure with an offensive option. This can make tomahawk options somewhat linear from Shulk (once the height is identified).

• If Shulk wants to extend pressure, he must jump to do so reliably, even when Young Link parries a spaced aerial and can’t directly punish. Parrying then allows for Young Link to set up pressure.

• This window becomes unreactable with Monado Arts.

• Reverse NAir is reactable, since the reverse hit has a 30 frame startup. This makes it possible to parry on reaction.

• Shulk has limited use with rising aerials due to the low window in which he can execute them.

• Reactionary movement around Shulk's aerial pressure is possible due to the high startup of his moves. Young Link can see an incoming NAir/FAir and then move out of range and whiff punish, move closer and parry, etc.

• By not committing to a projectile in a situation where Young Link can react with movement, the opponent is left to guess/make a read on what Young Link will do, since there is no clear commitment, and Shulk can’t jump in on Young Link freely if Young Link doesn’t commit.

• BAir and NAir are crucial to neutral. Because of the advantage in startup, Young Link can repeatedly throw out short hop/full hop BAirs and NAirs to stuff out Shulk’s aerials on startup and catch his movement. Shulk will have to start aerials earlier or space moves, which means being more unsafe/easier to whiff punish, take space the opponent gives to work with, or give up more stage control to space moves reliably.

• FAir is also a strong boxing tool, specifically because Shulk’s moves are slow like FAir. This makes the rising FAir1 -> falling FAir2 more oppressive, since Shulk can’t attack his way out with a faster move reliably.

• Shulk can punish rising NAir/BAir out of shield with Air Slash, a frame 10 out of shield option that can kill.

• Remember to keep track of what Monado Arts they don’t have.

• Dial Storage allows Shulk to switch arts mid-hitstun/combo.

Jump Monado:

• Jump doubles Shulk's jump height and increases airspeed by an extreme multiplier (1.7x). Shulk also gains more movement overall in exchange for taking more damage.

• Jump also extends the distance of Air Slash’s recovery vertically.

• Jump also extends Shulk's burst range, due to the increase in jump height and airspeed increase. Because of the wide burst range increase, Shulk can threaten wide coverage with aerials, or threaten tomahawk Grabs on shields conditioned to cover aerials.

Speed Monado:

• Speed increases Shulk’s movement speed overall, including a high airspeed multiplier (1.4x).

• Speed effectively makes Shulk’s burst range 3/4ths of the stage, and full-stage on smaller stages. When combined with NAir, the coverage of Shulk’s NAir increases drastically due to the increased air drift and airspeed.

• Avoid jumping against Speed Shulk. Young Link doesn’t cover much space, and Shulk can cover a wide amount of space in the air just off of the sheer speed boost and NAir alone.

• Speed forces a lot of preemptive play due to the drastically increased burst range that Shulk has access to, and that Shulk’s tomahawks become unreactable.

Shield Monado:

• Shield makes Shulk take very little knockback, damage, or hitstun in exchange for a significant speed drop and losing a lot of damage/launch power on his moves. Shulk in Shield also takes very little shield damage.

• Holding down Rapid Jab fully removes Shield. Fire Arrows can also be repeatedly used to remove Shield.

• Shield pressure is useless since his shield is twice as effective and regens twice as fast. So many moves becomes negative on hit.

Buster Monado:

• Shulk’s FAir is at best -6 on shield in Buster, meaning that FAir is unpunishable, even if Shulk doesn’t space the move.

• Buster decreases the knockback of Shulk’s attacks, but increases the damage they deal, in return taking more damage on hit. This leads to conditions for high combo damage.

• Shulk’s Grab game becomes much stronger with Buster. He can condition opponents to shield with aerials, and then go for a Buster DThrow, which places the opponent right in front of Shulk for combos.

• Since Buster increases Shulk’s reward on hit, it’s best to play long range away from Shulk and avoid getting hit.

• As a mix-up, use fast attacks to interrupt Shulk during his approach.

Smash Monado:

• Smash lowers the damage of Shulk’s attacks, but drastically increases the knockback that Shulk’s attacks deal, and the knockback Shulk receives. Interactions become very risky with Shulk, since moves like FAir and BAir have significantly increased killpower.

• Shulk can punish boxing attempts by whiff punishing/out of shield punishing with Air Slash. Air Slash is Frame 10 out of shield, which can also catch Young Link attempting to mash followup buttons/unsafe moves on block.

• Generally, stay at long range/do not interact with Smash Shulk. At times when you are forced to interact with Shulk, holding shield is fine, since Shulk can’t pressure a stock off of a throw from center stage. As a mix-up, use a quick attack to interrupt him.

• However, if you have a stock lead and they are at risk, it could be worth risking the interactions, as the modifier applies to Shulk as well, meaning he dies much earlier than you’d expect him to.

• Smash lasts for 8 seconds.

Boxing
(How do I escape this situation?):

• On hit, Shulk’s NAir can set up for tech chases. DI-ing up can give Young Link enough time to buffer an aerial out of tumble (NAir/autocancel DAir/option select ZAir).

• Shulk can use NAir/FAir to cover air space in the corner, and anti-air both short hops and full hops at the same time in some instances.

• Shulk can use BAir to punish projectile usage in the corner from a safe distance. The long range allows Shulk to punish projectiles from around a dash away.

• Shulk can contest ground space with FTilt/DTilt/Dash Attack. This isn’t as reliable as using Grab/aerials, since Shulk’s Tilts have shorter range than his aerials, and that his Tilts are unsafe on shield if they're not spaced.

• Young Link can box Shulk out from the corner, with moves such as rising NAir/BAir, to contest Shulk’s swings. Shulk, however, has more mix-ups with spacing, as he has stage control to work with.

• Full hop straight up/slightly back when in the corner to shift away from a Shulk FAir. Double jump over it can work as a mix-up.

Platform Pressure
(What tools do they have? How can we escape this pressure?):

• Shulk can cover platforms with UTilt and USmash from below the platform on the ground.

• Shulk can cover wide space on the platforms with NAir/FAir/BAir. The range allows Shulk to cover multiple or all platform tech options at once. Mix up timings on platform options to escape.

• Shulk can use UAir to catch full hops off of the platform.

Landing
(How do they cover it? What are my best options?):

• Jump Monado and Speed Monado give Shulk near-instant pressure in juggling, since Shulk can either instantly move left and right to catch/pressure landings, or use Jump to directly air-to-air opponents at a high altitude in the air.

• Shulk can cover landing aerials with his own wide sword slashes. Young Link's DAir is extremely committal, due to Shulk’s wide range.

• Land away from Shulk, or use airdodge/different fall timings to weave around Shulk’s hitboxes.

Offstage
(How Do I Escape This Position And What Do I Look Out For?):

• Shulk’s FAir is his prime edgeguarding tool. It can catch higher recoveries at the start of the move, and then additionally recover air-to-air and low recoveries by the end of the window. Young Link will most likely have to move above or below FAir, or airdodge through it.

• Air Slash can be used as an edgeguard near ledge to beat out all options if Young Link is low forced enough. This is used as a sort of “checkmate” edgeguard, beating everything once Shulk has exhausted all of Young Link’s resources and forces Young Link to recover at a predictable angle.

• To avoid checkmate scenarios, Young Link needs to have enough options in air drift and enough time to mix up his recovery multiple times in one go. DI up if possible when sent offstage for extra recovery options.

• One way to get around Shulk’s FAir edgeguard is to go for a low recovery to get under the arc of the FAir. Shulk can use ledge slip DAir to cover this low angle, though.

• Ledge slip in this manner helps with both FAir and DAir, since Shulk can crouch at ledge before using either, which shrinks the window in which Young Link can mix up his air drift to avoid either aerial.

Ledge:

• Shulk’s FAir hits ledge and 2-frames. Shulk can use FAir to catch ledge jumps, ledge hangs, neutral getup and roll. Counterplay is mostly timing based, due to the startup of Shulk’s FAir.

• Shulk’s ledgetrapping with Smash Monado can quickly become problematic. Almost all of Shulk’s moves will kill Young Link, and since Shulk has wide range and Young Link has short range, Shulk can option select Young Link in multiple ways, covering multiple options with simple sword aerials like FAir and BAir, while risking little to nothing.

• Committing out of the corner is really risky against Shulk with Smash Monado, and using projectiles there can be a death sentence. Using normals/aerials to poke at Smash Shulk can lead to a neutral reset, but still is high risk.

• Sometimes, the best course of action against Smash Shulk is to shield and take the Smash FThrow, assuming it won’t kill. Doing this will drain a significant amount of time from the Smash Monado meter, but it forces another recovery/ledgetrap disadvantage scenario. That can be deadly, but ultimately worth the risk at times when compared to dying to Smash FAir/BAir.

• Rolling isn’t much of an option from the ledge/corner against Shulk, since he’ll cover the roll with the same FAir/NAir. If and only if Shulk is going to the very ledge to Grab, would ledge roll then provide some merit to avoid Shulk’s pressure, which is a very limited situation.

Juggling/Boxing:

• Shulk’s fast out of shield options are rather limited without parrying. Shulk’s two fastest out of shield options include Grab and Air Slash, both of which are Frame 10. Young Link can maintain shield pressure on Shulk because of this, unless he is using Shield Monado.

• Shulk can still use Air Slash to punish Young Link for mashing on shield (catching the startup of another move) with Air Slash, assuming Young Link is spaced outside of his Grab range. This leaves Shulk wide open to a full hop DAir punish if Shulk guesses wrong with Air Slash.

• Giving Shulk space comes with the risk of giving Shulk the opportunity to space aerials, which Young Link can’t contest. Ideally, Young Link wants to pressure Shulk up close, or catch Shulk’s movement with projectiles. Whiff punishing Shulk is tricky with good spacing, and giving space can also give Shulk time to use Speed/Jump Monado to escape disadvantage.

• Corner pressuring Shulk is best split into two categories: within his sword’s range, and outside of it. It’s difficult to corner pressure Shulk at the max range of his sword since projectiles are risky to use so close, and aerials will get stuffed out by the disjoint of Shulk’s sword.

• Pressuring Shulk within his sword range is best when he’s backed into the corner. Young Link can use quick frame data to stuff out Shulk before he attacks, which can condition some defensive option like roll.

• From standing outside of his sword range, catch Shulk’s movement with projectiles/use them as a bait to bait out an aerial/commitment and whiff punish.

• Shulk can use Dash Attack as an aggressive mix-up out of the corner on the ground, in addition to NAir/FAir.

• If Shulk has Jump/Speed Monado active, it’s unlikely that Shulk will stay in the corner, let alone be easy to contain in the corner. Shield incoming aerials/spotdodge tomahawk Grabs, and stay grounded.

• Shulk can land with NAir/FAir/DAir to cover the space around him while landing. DAir will outrange Young Link’s UAir. The issue with using these attacks is their high startup, meaning that Young Link can either block and punish out of shield, or beat the attack on startup with a NAir/BAir.

• Shulk’s Back Slash locks Shulk into the move as Shulk falls down quickly to hit the ground. Shulk can use Back Slash as a quick, aggressive reversal when trying to land. Back Slash is punishable on block.

• When Shulk has Monado Arts to land with (Jump/Speed), Shulk’s unreactable range with aerials becomes much larger. Young Link may be forced to shield in a juggling situation at times. Push Shulk to the corner and take positional advantage, since lining up an UAir/NAir can be difficult against Jump/Speed Monado Shulk.

• Shulk can use Shield Monado to escape kill confirms (and even prevent FAir from killing). If Shulk still has access to Shield Monado, it’s high-risk to commit to kill confirms that leave Young Link vulnerable (ASA, FAir) as Shulk could immediately reversal Young Link afterwards. It’s possible to bait out Shield Monado using a combo that won’t kill, but Young Link can’t close stocks as freely due to this.

• It’s possible to punish Shield Monado at low %s out of certain moves (reading directional airdodge out of GSA) and in some cases, high %s (USmash after a BAir at high %s, DThrow > USmash as well).

• Smash Monado increases the knockback Shulk takes from attacks significantly. In a pinch without Shield Monado, Shulk can use Smash Monado to escape projectile confirms by being launched further away from the projectile.

Offstage:

• Shulk’s recovery without Monado Arts is rather limited. Air Slash only travels directly up, meaning that Shulk needs to make it to the ledge at a low angle to maximize his recovery. There is a 9 frame gap between Air Slash 1 and 2, since Air Slash 2 has a 9 frame startup.

• Air Slash 1 doesn’t cover Shulk’s body, and Air Slash 2 doesn’t cover Shulk’s body entirely. This leaves Shulk vulnerable to attacks from above and behind (although if Young Link were to consistently hit aerials from behind, Shulk could use reverse Air Slash to reversal Young Link).

• Realistically though, Shulk will always have access to one of Jump Monado or Speed Monado while recovering.

• Jump Monado enables Shulk to reliably recover high. Young Link doesn’t have the vertical burst range within his kit to challenge Shulk going high. Instead, trap Shulk’s landing, and either contest a landing with a projectile, and/or whiff punish a landing aerial from Shulk.

• Boomerang at a high diagonal angle or Bomb thrown directly upwards can either hit Shulk and leave him vulnerable to a reset situation/combo followup, or Shulk will have to airdodge/attack to get around the projectile, leaving Shulk open to a frametrap/whiff punish respectively.

• Speed Monado doesn’t allow Shulk to jump as high for high recoveries, but it still allows Shulk to bypass grabbing ledge and being ledgetrapped. Intercept Shulk’s air drift with an aerial or the pressure of it (bait out the aerial and whiff punish). Using a projectile likely won’t work, since Shulk can clank the projectile and hit Young Link standing at the ledge at the same time, since Young Link is in the way of Shulk’s path back onstage.

• Shulk can use FAir/NAir from a ledge jump or double jump off of the ledge.

• Shulk has wide reach with the Monado, meaning he can space an aerial in disadvantage and pressure opponents in it's range that don’t approach.

• Ledgetrapping Shulk is best divided into two categories because of this. Either pressure Shulk from within his sword range with faster frame data (standing directly at/next to the ledge to threaten NAir/DTilt/Jab/BAir/etc.), or standing at roll distance outside of the range of Shulk’s aerials off of ledge. When standing this far away, approach the ledgetrap as a strong corner pressure scenario.

• Shulk can get off of the ledge fast with Jump/Speed Monado. At that point, Shulk’s burst range is so wide off of the ledge, that it’s most consistent to take the corner pressure scenario.

Ledge Info:

XLR8’s Spreadsheet Young Link Ledge Info:

DTilt: Hits

DSmash: Hits

FTilt: Hits

Most Reliable Move: All

Animation Info: N/A

Note: Normal spacing, FTilt reaches farthest.

• FD DTilt > ASA %s: 112, 102 (no Monado)

• FD FThrow Ledge %s: 179, 151 (no Monado)

• FD Milkshake %s: 105-150, 94-126 (no Monado)

• Shulk Kill Throws: FThrow/BThrow with Smash Monado

• Shulk’s BThrow launches opponents facing away from the ledge, meaning that Young Link can’t tether to the ledge right away after getting hit by BThrow.

• On parry, Young Link can punish Shulk's landing NAir with Jab, and punish FAir/BAir with DSmash.

Jump Monado:

• Jump Height: x2

• Air Speed: x1.7

• Fall Speed/Gravity: x1.4

• Air Slash Height: x1.5

• Ledge Jump Height: x1.3

• Damage Taken: x1.3

• Duration: 6 Seconds

• Cooldown: 18 Seconds

Speed Monado:

• Run/Dash/Friction: x2

• Walk Speed: x1.7

• Air Speed: x1.4

• Gravity: x1.2

• Dash Attack Speed: x1.5

• Jump Height: x0.7

• Damage Dealt: x0.7

• Duration: 8 Seconds

• Cooldown: 16 Seconds

Shield Monado:

• Damage/Knockback Taken: x0.5

• Shield Strength/Regeneration: x2

• Damage Dealt: x0.5

• Knockback Dealt: x0.8

• Run/Walk/Air Speed: x0.6

• Dash/Dash Attack Speed: x0.7

• Jump Height: x0.8

• Duration: 6 Seconds

• Cooldown: 18 Seconds

Buster Monado:

• Damage Dealt: x1.4

• Knockback Dealt: x0.65

• Damage Taken: x1.3

• Duration: 10 Seconds

• Cooldown: 14 Seconds

Smash Monado:

• Knockback Dealt: x1.25

• Damage Dealt: x0.3

• Knockback Taken: x1.2

• Duration: 8 Seconds

• Cooldown: 16 Seconds

• Battlefield:
  Indifferent. This stage isn’t an immediate pick, since Shulk can cover Young Link offstage well with the amount of time Shulk has to set up edgeguards. Strong pick for neutral, but can be a volatile stage in disadvantage.

• Small Battlefield:
  Indifferent. This stage is also rather neutral, near-interchangeable with PS2. Picking one over the other is a situational thing, mainly depending on if you need to camp or rushdown the specific Shulk player more, or if DSR is in effect, preventing the other stage’s use.

• Final Destination:
  Terrible. Shulk prefers flat stages, since he’s able to cover wide spaces in the air with NAir/FAir. Without platforms, opponents can’t land on platforms and shield to alleviate aerial pressure. Shulk has to full hop some of his aerials too, and platforms would normally interrupt that. The lack of platforms gives Shulk noticeable flexibility.

• Smashville:
  Indifferent. While this stage does have a platform that makes it awkward for Shulk to use full hop landing aerials and leaves little space for Shulk to run, Speed Monado and Jump Monado's burst range covers the entire stage. It becomes an incredibly volatile stage pick as a result.

• Town & City:
  Terrible. Same reasoning as FD/Kalos. It can be more difficult to recover back to the ledge here as well, since Shulk has more time to set up edgeguards. The low side blast zones make Smash Monado FThrow and FAir kill earlier as well.

• Lylat Cruise:
  Good. This stage is volatile in it's lack of space like SV, but the extended range of Fire Arrows is a significant benefactor to Young Link’s neutral. It’ll force Shulk to shield/jump more often.

• Pokémon Stadium 2:
  Indifferent. Neutral stage overall. PS2 strikes a balance of giving space to zone Shulk, and some platform coverage to limit where and how Shulk can use full hop landing aerials.

• Kalos Pokémon League:
  Terrible. Same reasoning as FD. Additionally, the higher ceiling, side platforms, and increased air space can make it more difficult to catch Jump Monado Shulk while juggling/catching Shulk’s landings.

• Yoshi’s Story:
  Good. Shulk can use the center airspace here to land with full hop aerials as pressure, but it’s rather limited and linear. Young Link can still box well with Shulk on this stage and kill him earlier than average. Shulk can take stocks incredibly early with Air Slash on this stage, however.

• Hollow Bastion:
  Good. This stage is effectively SV, but just wide enough to where Shulk’s burst range with Jump and Speed Monado is not the entire stage, which gives some breathing room to reduce the volatility of SV.

• Young Link vs Shulk Matchup VoD Playlist: YL vs Shulk VODs

• Mace & ArtAtk's Shulk (SSBU) general frame data (has frame advantage on shield for Monado Arts)