Shield Urshifu% FAQ

Pokémon Shield Urshifu% FAQ

Q: What is this category?
A: It's a run where I do the Isle of Armor, evolve Kubfu, then use Urshifu for the rest of the Any% run up to Leon (yes, you can beat Leon with Urshifu just as fast as Eternatus)!

Q: How fast is it compared with Any%?
A: Probably an hour longer. I expect it to be around the 5:10-5:15 range.

Q: Single Strike or Rapid Strike Style?
A: I've routed both! But Single Strike is faster.

Q: How good is Urshifu?
A: Really good. Fighting is such a good type for SwSh, it hits the Team Yell and Macro Cosmos fights pretty hard. Urshifu has amazing stats, 130 base Attack, 100 base Defense, 97 base Speed namely. Having 3 guaranteed perfect IVs is nice as well.

For Single Strike style, Urshifu's signature move, Wicked Blow, is nice coverage but unfortunately crits every time which is timeloss (I grab Throat Chop from behind the Tower which is used significantly more). Single Strike Urshifu only struggles against Opal and Bede 4, Fairy moves are very bad!

Rapid Strike style doesn't get hammered quite as hard by the opponents as there is no 4x weakness to Fairy, but move coverage is worse. No access to Dark type moves, and its signature move Surging Strikes is horrible (3 x 25 power, every hit crits, yikes). I grab Liquidation behind the Tower of Waters, and also grab Zen Headbutt from Hyde's Cram-o-matic (memes) to help with Eternatus and a few random other fights. The Tower of Waters is significantly slower, along with a number of other fights.

Q: What pokes do you use other than Urshifu?
A: I start with Sobble for the Isle of Armor as usual, then switch to Urshifu. I will also catch a Route 8 poke (Pawniard or Togedemaru, like Sword Any% does) as a doubles partner.

Q: What stats are you looking for?
A: To beat the Isle of Armor section, I'll need good Speed, I worked it out that only Speed IVs of x / 16+ / 6+ (21 or better at L10) are usable. I will only take neutral or plus Attack, unless it has perfect IV minus Attack (23 or better at L10). Other than that, I've made it so that all other stats are workable.

Sobble wants 14+ Special Attack at L6 which is x / 10+ / 0+ in terms of IVs.

Q: Why are you running this?
A: I was recruited for a community marathon in my chat, and they wanted a 5.5 hour run. I had this as a fun routing experiment on the backburner, and decided it would be a fun run for that!

Q: When would you choose Single over Rapid Strike?
A: Personal preference I guess! Could be a nice bidwar incentive for marathons as well.

Q: Could this be done on Sword?
A: Absolutely. I only have Shield so I routed it on that. Only differences are Bea/Gordie/Bea 2 vs Allister/Melony/Allister 2, where Single Strike may struggle a bit more against the Bea fights.