Talent Art¶

At the beginning of the game, Shulk’s initial Talent Art is called Turn Strike. This inflicts heavy damage to a single target and it will also inflict Break. However, once Shulk gains the Monado, this is replaced by Activate Monado, allowing him to use the Monado Arts. Each Monado Art will deplete the Talent Art gauge at a different rate, but it should take five hits to fill it up completely from empty.

Normal Arts¶

These are all of the normal Arts for Shulk, which are learned as he levels up.

Back Slash¶

Back Slash is one of Shulk’s best damage Arts in the game, especially if you use it from behind the enemy, as it does double the damage. With a relatively short cooldown, you will want to be using this a lot in battles, especially if you’re controlling him.

Light Heal¶

Light Heal is a healing Art and will be your only one for the very beginning of the game, until you get Sharla in your party. Unfortunately, Light Heal isn’t a great healing spell, but can be handy in a pinch. Shulk is usually busy in battle, though, as he wants to be concentrating on providing support in other areas instead of healing.

Slit Edge¶

There’s no doubt that Slit Edge is one of Shulk’s better Arts in the game, due to the fact it can reduce an enemy’s defenses by 50% whenever you use it from the side. If you’re using an all-Physical party, then this should be one of the first Arts you level up.

Stream Edge¶

Stream Edge’s biggest boon comes against a large group of enemies. While it only hits in front of Shulk in a fan-shaped pattern, the fact that it can inflict Break on every enemy means this can be a great skill. Combine this with Monado Cyclone, once he learns it, then Shulk can Break and Topple a lot of enemies at once. Note that the Talent Gauge is filled for each enemy hit with this Art.

Shadow Eye¶

Shadow Eye can be a useful Art if Shulk is dealing a lot of damage, since it reduces the amount of total aggro he has (it doesn’t do anything for aggro after using this). In addition to this, it grants him a Physical Arts Plus buff for five seconds, meaning any Physical-based Arts used in that timeframe will do 50% more damage.

Air Slash¶

Air Slash is another great Art for Shulk, especially with its short cooldown. No matter where you use it, Air Slash always has a chance to inflict Break, but if used on the enemy’s side, then it also has a chance to inflict Slow.

Shaker Edge¶

Shaker Edge is Shulk’s Daze Art and it’s nothing special. The only thing to watch out with this Art is that there’s a bit of a wind-up to it, so you want to unleash it at the beginning of a Topple and not towards the end.

Battle Soul¶

Battle Soul is one of those Arts that you want to use sparingly and might be one you take off of Shulk if the AI is controlling him, as he uses it way too often. For 50% of Shulk’s current HP, the Talent Gauge will increase by a specific amount (determined by the level). The only real situation one would need this is if you quickly need to use a Monado Art and don’t have the full Talent Gauge.

Monado Arts¶

Very early in the main story, Shulk gains the use of the Monado, thus unlocking some Monado Arts. The majority of them will be unlocked during the story, but there are two that require you to do specific sidequests. All of the Monado Arts require the Talent Gauge to be filled, but each one will use up only so much of it, usually ranging from half to all of it. For a portion of the game, you can only level Monado Arts to level 4, but after Prison Island, you will be able to improve them to level 10. There are no Art Books for Monado Arts. All Monado Arts, also, are black in color, meaning they will be able to link to any other kind of Art in Chain Attacks.

Monado Buster¶

You receive the Monado Buster Art whenever you first obtain the Monado for Shulk. It is basically your strongest attack for Monado Arts, and it deals double damage to Mechon. It hits in a straight line. Note that it will fill the Party Gauge if you hit Mechon, so you might want to use this whenever you’re fighting Mechon.

Monado Enchant¶

You receive the Monado Enchant Art whenever you first obtain the Monado for Shulk. What this does is allows other characters to deal their normal damage to Mechon. If it isn’t used, then all attacks will deal a single point of damage (Shulk can still deal damage to Mechon without having to use this). This is an important Art for a good portion of the game, so don’t forget to use it when you’re fighting Mechon.

Monado Shield¶

You will automatically learn this Art during the boss battle in Tephra Cave. What this allows you to do is essentially block the Talent Art of the enemy. Talent Arts are the special attacks in white lettering at the top of the screen, but there is a bit of a catch with them. You will see a Roman numeral at the end of the Talent Art’s name, which indicates its level. Monado Shield needs to be the same level or higher than the level of the Talent Art in order to block it, so you will want to level this Art up during the game.

Monado Speed¶

You will gain this Monado Art during a boss battle on Bionis’ Leg. This Art basically buffs a single character and gives them a lot of physical evade. Use this whenever you see a Physical Art being used by an enemy (they are red); it also allows the character to evade auto-attacks.

Monado Purge¶

You will gain access to this Monado Art during the story portion of Makna Forest. Monado Purge is an art that not only does damage to a single enemy, but it also inflicts them with the debuff, Aura Seal. Auras are basically buffs in this game (think of something like Monado Enchant, which is an aura). Monado Purge also will temporarily remove an enemy’s spike shield, should it have one.

Monado Eater¶

Monado Eater is learned after completing the above sidequest. In addition to dealing damage, it removes all buffs from the enemy, as well as applying Bleed for 20 seconds. This Art isn’t as good as the others and considering how great something like Monado Armour is, it’s better to just spend your Talent Gauge on that instead.

Monado Armour¶

After completing the sidequest above, you will gain access to Monado Armour, which is probably the best Monado Art in terms of utility. This Art basically mitigates the damage of Ether and Physical-based attacks, but not Talent Arts. At the base level, it’s only a 30% reduction, but at max level, it is a whopping 75% reduction. Considering the only cooldown on Monado Arts are you filling the Talent Gauge back up, it might be possible to keep Monado Armour up all the time.

Monado Cyclone¶

You will gain this Monado Art upon defeating the major story boss in Central Factory. This is the second-highest damaging Monado Art, only being behind Monado Buster. The added benefit of Monado Cyclone is that it can also Topple enemies that have been afflicted with Break. While this could be a great combo with Stream Edge, the Talent Art can be used for better Arts.