In this Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shulk Guide, we will guide you on how to play if you choose Shulk as your character of choice in a fight. We will highlight all the moves that are specific to Shulk, plus his defending moves, special moves and his final smash. In addition, this guide will also give you a better understanding of his moves, for if you find yourself fighting against Shulk.

This guide will focus on Shulk’s attacks like neutral attacks, special attacks, and grounded attacks. We will also detailed the amount of damage each attack deals to an opponent. In the end, we will finish off with what his final smash looks like and what it does to your foe.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shulk Guide

Below we have listed all the attacks that are specific and special to Shulk. Refer to each attack for a better understanding of how Shulk combats in the stage.

Introduction

Shulk is a brawler that wields the legendary Monado sword and his features revolve around activating Monado Arts, which modify his attributes in many ways. Most of Shulk’s attacks cover large area with exaggerated angles and arc swings.

When his Monado blade is activated during Shulk’s attacks, its range increases dramatically, enhancing his area control. He has constant landing lag no matter when you land during his attack animations.

Grounded Attacks

This section of the guide contains all the grounded attacks that Shulk can perform while on the stage.

Neutral Attacks

Shulk has three Neutral Attacks. The first is a quick jab that deals 2 damage, which is followed by a roundhouse kick that deals 1.5 damage. The third attack which finishes the whole sequence is an uppercut slash of the Monado dealing 5 damage.

Defensive Attacks

Shulk has two Defensive Attacks. The first is the Ledge attack that deals 9 damage, while the Wake-up attack deals 7 damage.

Dash Attack

Shulk’s Dash attack deals 12.5 damage where while dashing he swings the Monado in front of him, sending opponents flying up and away into the sky.

His Dash attack has good range and works best on incoming attacks. But if it is shielded. It can be punishable, which is why keeping a bit of distance between Shulk and the opponent is highly advised.

Smashes

Shulk has three smash attacks.

Side Smash

This attack deals 5.5, 13 damage, where Shulk activates his Monado into an energy extension blade, and thrusts in front of him. This attack has incredible range which makes it a decent poke tool.

Though it can deal high damage, it does have a lot of lag, making it relatively dangerous to use it often. You are better off using a neutral air attack and forward air attack if you want to be safe and allow yourself to remain mobile

Up Smash

This attack deals 4.5, 13.5 damage, where 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

This attack deals 14 damage, where Shulk, with the Monado blade, 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.

Tilts

Shulk has three Tilt Attacks.

Side Tilt

This attack deals 13.5 damage, where Shulk uses Monado to swipe in front of him, for a ground to ground fight or an edge guarding tool.

The attack has a brief start up period before it hits, so setting up a combo would be difficult. You can use this attack to check grounded and shielding enemies as it deals high damage, and follow up with a short hop air attack.

Up Tilt

This attack deals 10 damage, where Shulk swings the Monado up above him in an arc. This attack is best to hit opponents above you, and also cover the area in front of you. The greatest thing about this attack is how much of a reach it has above, as it will give you an incredible anti ai juggle and combo against descending enemies.

This is a staple ground attack as it deals high damage, while also allowing you potential follow up attacks. Though you don’t usually get a guaranteed combo after this attack hits against grounded enemies, it at least puts them directly above you for a follow up attack opportunities.

Down Tilt

This attack deals 9.5 damage, where Shulk sweeps the ground in front of him with the Monado. This attack has good range and works best against shorter length brawlers like Kirby and Pikachu.

Grabs

Shulk has 5 Grab Attacks. His first grab deals 1.3 damage. The Front and Back Throw deal 8 and 9 damage respectively. The Up throw deals 7 damage, and the Down throw deals 5.5 damage.

Shulk’s grab attack consist of him bashing his victims with the butt side of the blade of Monado. Both his Up and Down throws set you up for a combo. When talking about the front and back throws, at high enemy damage values, you have a much higher knockout potential with them when Smash Art is active.

Aerial Attacks

This section of the guide will cover all the Aerial attacks that Shulk has.

Neutral Air Attack

This attack deals 8.5 damage, where Shulk swings the Monado all around him. This attack clears out any nearby enemy. This attack covers all angles where the move begins from below Shulk, going all the way around to his back.

This attack has the least amount of fixed landing lag out of any other aerial attack os Shulk’s.

Forward Air Attack

This attack deals 8 damage, where Shulk produces an overhead swing, swiping the Monado with a swipe that starts from the front and slightly ends in the back. This attack is relatively safe and has decent speed with an incredible hitbox angle.

Back Air Attack

This attack deals 12.5 damage. While airborne, Shulk thrusts the Monado far behind him, hitting and dealing high damage to opponents caught in the path of the blade.

This attack has incredible range and is safe on shield if you have enough space between Shulk and the opponents. It has high landing lag, so you cant let yourself be too predictable with this attack.

Up Air Attack

This attack deals 5.5, 10.5 damage, where Shulk activates the Monado blade and thrusts it far into the air above him. 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

This attack deals 6, 11.5 damage, where Shulk performs 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

Shulk has 4 special moves. All of them are detailed below.

Neutral Special – Monado Arts

This special attack has a lot of variants in it. Where your input decides what kind of special ability you want activated. If you decide to cancel the active Monado art, you can tap neutral special three times quickly in succession. Below we have listed all the Monado arts and their effects.

Jump: Jump height increased by 60%, damage taken increased by 29%. Jump Art is one of the best Monado Arts for the neutral game. The extra jump height is great both offensively and defensively. With Jump Art active, you can traverse beneath the Battlefield platform, evading your opponent while your other Monado Arts are cooling down. It also allows for higher combo potential (up air into jump up air is a combo in many circumstances).

Speed: Movement speed increased by 80%, damage dealt decreased by 30%, jump height decreased by 20%. Activating Speed Art should be your priority when you’re ready to go on the offense, and when the opponent is at a low-damage count. It also enables certain combos, such as down throw into immediate forward air.

Shield: Damage taken reduced by 50%, weight increased by 20%, damage dealt decreased by 50%, movement speed decreased by 40%.Shield Art keeps you resilient and is highly effective for stalling out the match. Use Shield Art to hold on to a stock lead or to kill time while your more offensive neutral-based Monado Art timers come back online. Not only do you receive less damage, but you’re much more difficult to knock out thanks to your increased weight.

Buster: Damage dealt increased by 40%, damage taken increased by 50%, launch power decreased by 60%. Buster is the ultimate offensive Monado Art. Your attack power is increased, but the damage you receive is multiplied. Buster Art shines when you need to mount a comeback or bump up the enemy’s damage percentage from medium to high.

Smash: Launch power increased by 60%, damage dealt reduced by 70%, launch resistance decreased by 30%. Smash Art is the most situational out of the five Monado Arts. It’s used specifically to break knockout thresholds. Since your damage is reduced heavily and you become vulnerable to knockouts, activating Smash Art can be a huge detriment. Essentially, you want to activate Smash Art when you have a specific knockout attack in mind, such as back/forward throw, or up tilt.

Side Special – Back Slash

This attack deals 10 (16.8) damage, where Shulk leaps in front and chops his victims with a jumping sword attack. This attack deals more damage if you hit them from behind.

Since this jumping attack stays active until you land, activating it while airborne, can have you stuck until you land, which can be risky.

Up Special – Air Slash

This attack deals 6, 5.5 damage, where 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.

Down Special – Vision

This attack deals 10 damage, where 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

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.

For other characters, check out our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Characters Guide.

Read more Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Guides.

This concludes our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shulk Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shulk Guide – How to Play, Attack Moves

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shulk Guide

Introduction