I will not apologize for art

Up Smash - Chao Garden

For his Up Smash, Shadow raises his hand to the sky and summons... a Chao! The adorable little ball of what even flies upward with an uppercut, a comically large boxing glove on hand from one of the Chao Garden minigames, doing an adorable 5~7% damage and light upward knockback that scales to become a later KO move. It falls to the ground after, landing adorably on its little duff for a moment before giving off an excited chitter and disappearing. If hit by an attack, the chao will vanish prematurely with a sad noise.

Not exactly doing Up Smash damage, there, but Shadow's got enough effective means to counter aerial opponents between Up Tilt and his cancels out of Up Special that it's not an immediate problem- just something he needs to work around until he unlocks his Chao's true potential. In the meantime, Up Smash works as a slightly slower Up Tilt with decent disjoint to compensate for its pithy damage.

See, the Chao Garden series is all about raising your Chao to be the best it can be, giving it items that increase its strengths or affection toward you, helps it grow, and even gives it animal features by handing it the adorable baby animals you save during the course of playing the assorted levels in the Sonic character-themed minigames attached to each Chao Garden entry. Something similar is in play here; don't worry, you don't have to breed your Chao together or spend a few hours grinding for items or stats or whatnot here- Shadow's Chao summon is influenced by his actions during the match!


For starters, your Chao has Strength, Defense, and Speed stats, which start at level 1 and cap out at level 5. These stats are shown as a graph using segmented horizontal bars of Red, Blue, and Green colors respectively, and will be displayed each time you summon your Chao above Shadow's head (behind the Chao itself, alinged such that the Chao appears in the little ID image box next to the graph as a cute detail).

Each successful hit landed on an opponent this stock by Shadow and company counts towards increasing the Chao's strength. Every five such hits increases its strength level by 1, which in turn increases the base damage of its adorable uppercut by 5%, thus capping the move's damage at a commendable 25~35% damage! The knockback of the move isn't directly buffed, but being able to dish out that much damage in one hit on a foe who's likely already weakened will probably finish the job. Hitting your allies with attacks will count toward this in situations that you can, even if the move wouldn't normally damage them (so you're not just limited to throwing Bob-Ombs). It's just a matter of actually hitting someone. Notably, multi-hit moves count only once for this, and your allies' attacks don't count at all; Shadow has to be brave and take that first step into the world of single parenthood himself.

Defense is gained by successfully dodging, shielding, or armoring through an attack. Each three attacks foiled this way gies Shadow's Chao a level in Defense, which is very important- every level of Defense gives the Chao 2 frames of super armor, a window in which an opposing attack will not overpower it or dismiss it. This window starts early into the Chao's uppercut, so it's key to buff Defense so the Chao's armor will cover it the further it goes from daddy Shadow's grasp. You have to prepare your child to face the world and leave the nest eventually.

Last but not least is Speed, a level of which is gained for every 5 points you accumulate. You get a point for Dashing nonstop for a full second, teleporting, and fast falling at least 3 Units. This does not make the move faster to come out or anything- it's already a fast enough move before accounting for the potential Down Special buff- but increases the speed the Chao moves, and thus how far it travels during the move's active frames, with its uppercut. At level 1 it reaches up 1 Unit above Shadow's head, a bit limited in vertical reach but not as bad as the lacking horizontal coverage the move has. Each level adds 1 Unit to that, though, giving it an amazing 5 Unit reach if at max level! Speed also allows Shadow to better make use of a small trick in the Chao's upper cut: moving the control stick can adjust the Chao's flight path slightly in that direction. A minor quirk at level 1, but it can make for an amazing distance when you're adjusting the angle of a 5 Unit path- the air is not safe from Shreak and Shadow's adoptive child!


That's just the first aspect of Chao-rearing, though. Shadow can carry his Chao child by picking them up like an item before it vanishes, and is free to yeet the baby like a throwing item (5 Units up or 2.5 Units horizontally). This does 3% damage and flinching, with levels in Strength increasing damage by 3% (capping at 15%), Defense levels protecting the Chao for 4 frames of flight each, and Speed levels increasing the distance traveled by 1 Unit vertically or 0.5 Units horizontally. The Chao can't be picked up again until it lands, and spamming the move isn't recommended, as it will lower its Affection by 1 point (or 3 if it falls to its doom off-stage; more on that to come). To avoid that, Shadow can press A to drop it, instead of Grab + a direction to throw it (Grab without a direction we'll get to). Either way, once it's sat down on the ground somewhere, the Chao is desynched from Shadow.

The potential for desyncing is important, as Shadow can perform a less immediately disappointing but less potentially potent attack for his Up Smash if his Chao is present but not on hand or within 1 Unit of him (in which case it'll jump to Shadow and perform its Up Smash). Shadow shoots upward with the standard Sonic game jump sound, curled in a ball and surrounded by a thin barrier of golden energy. This does 11~15.4% damage and modest knockback that kills very late, working more as a juggle enabler or spacer early on. Not a GREAT attack, but something Shadow can use to reliably protect himself thanks to low lag, and enabling him to fight normally by summoning his Chao early and tossing it aside as a ballistic baby missile. The Chao being KOed removes it from play, and leaves Shadow to resummon it on his next use of Up Smash. Don't worry, your progress in buffing up the Chao is retained, and it only resets when Shadow loses a stock.

However, while in this state, any of Shadow's allies can pick up the Chao, and will show it affection whenever he uses his taunt inputs. Shadow himself will even pet the little tyke if he is holding the Chao when he inputs his taunt, both effectively garnering an Affection point.


For every 5 Affection points gained, the Chao will mature, growing slightly, becoming a full-grown adult after two instances of this. At the second stage of its life cycle, a Chao becomes more independant. It'll perform either a Jab-like very short range punch when an opponent comes near (wandering slowly toward them if they're within 2 Units of it), doing 1% (+1 per Strength level after the first) damage and flinching with low start up and longer than is advisable end lag, or its upper cut with some telegraphing as it crouches and flashes (it'll even charge the move if the opponent is high enough above it!). Defense gives it armor frames as normal, the attack being armored from frame 1 to potentially the end of its active frames if

The real trick is when it reaches full growth- it'll become a Light Side Chao, a Neutral Chao, or a Dark Side Chao! Light Side Chao will stick with Shadow and focus on warding off incoming foes with uppercuts (if from above) or stunning them with jabs (at ground level). Dark Side Chao will run headlong at foes, attacking aggressively the moment they're getting close (though it'll initiate with them just out of reach sometimes- they're a little too eager for a fight). Neutral Chao will change their behavior depending on if Shadow is close or not; if within 3 Units, they'll act like Light Side Chao, if not, like Dark Side Chao. All Chao, though, will rush to Shadow's side if he uses a move that involves a Chaos Emerald, as the chaos energy calls to the part of them that connects them to Chaos.

What determines this is simple: who gave it the most affection. Memphis, Sonic.EXE, Rouge the Bat (see 2 paragraphs down), and Vegeta (same) will give it a dark side 'point', while Amy, Silver, Sonic, and Shrek give it light side 'points'. Shadow himself will not give it either, the Affection being effectively useful, UNLESS he is in Rage Mode (which makes it dark) or Peace Mode (light). If the number of light points is 3 higher than dark or more, it'll be a Light Side Chao. If the reverse, it grows up to be a Dark Side Chao. If neither has a notable lead, it'll be a Neutral Chao.

That said, keep in mind that Affection can drop; while a Chao won't shrink back down, its AI will revert through stages- it'd be a shame for your fully grown, carefully customized Chao to sit there and pout because you were a bad parent, though this does give Shadow the ability to make them sit still for a bit to keep them strategically placed. Losing Affection will not change what form the Chao has at its final stage of maturity; that's set in stone until Shadow loses a Stock.

There's one more trick to Affection: if Shadow isn't nearby and Amy, Sonic, and/or Shrek provided at least 5 points of affection to a Chao, it'll move to their side and stick nearby them when they're closer to it than Shadow. Seems they have the joint custody thing figured out; good on them! This works nicely to protect your allies while they're frozen by Neutral Special or otherwise desynched. Light Side Chao take a little more work to make the most of due to their more social nature, while Dark Side Chao require more set up due to Shadow needing to summon Meppppffff or Sonic.EXE with Side Special (taking much longer than the other options) or time Rouge or Vegeta's appearance to throw the Chao into their capable hands (causing them to stick around and provide a little affection before vanishing instead of their usual end lag animation). It's worth it to have an active minion that Shadow need not supervise, though.

This is made easier by the presence of Mephisto, though- since he copies all of Shadow's inputs, Shadow can have him spawn a Chao and take pains to raise it properly... albeit temporarily. Said Chao are lost and reset when Meph-daddy is dismissed by a hit, though, so this requires really playing the long game and micromanaging them! The more immediately useful application is to create a shell game where opponents must try and clear out the field of imitation-raised Chao in the hopes of getting to the real deal's pride and joy. This is lost as your Chao grows, but getting there unobstructed is nice.

Notably, if Shrek is holding rings when he pets his Chao, the rings vanish from his store, and buffs the lowest level stat of the Chao by 1 step! If a tie, it prioritizes Strength, then Defense, then Speed. This is a fast and reliable way to keep buffing up your Chao if your opponent does not take steps to stop you. This is applied once for every 5 rings he holds, the same amount dropped if conditions are met as described in Forward Tilt.


With Chao becoming an active entity on the stage, it's time now to talk about their statistics. Baby (stage 1) Chao are Pikmin-sized, with stage 2 being Purple Pikmin-sized. At stage 3, the full grown Chao becomes the size and shape of Squirtle, being an actually noticeable presence to work with them now taking an active role in the fight. They move around at Incineroar's run speed at stage 2 (stage 1 they simply sit still and wait), and reach Bowser Jr.'s run speed at stage 3. They can jump up to two times with Steve-like heights and air/fall speed at stage 2, and are only slightly better at stage 3 in terms of jumps and air speed.

That's... rather underwhelming for the effort of making them proper minions, isn't it? Not to worry, there's one more aspect of Chao raising that we haven't covered yet: Animals! Handing an animal over to the Chao causes its features to change to better match that animal. When a Chao is in play unattended, adorable little chibi baby animals will appear on stage like items and wander around. They can be picked up and thrown, not doing damage or being attack-able in turn, and you can't pick them up again once thrown until they land. They'll wander in circles where they appear, not doing much at all, and generally will appear near to a Chao.

Aside from the fringe benefit of messing with your opponent as they're forced to pick up and throw the animals to be rid of them and free up certain inputs, Shadow can pick up an animal and, if next to his Chao, drop it instead of throwing it by holding A (grab button will still toss them). The Chao will cuddle adorably with the animal for a moment, then with sparkles and a sound effect, it'll gain the associated 'feature' of that animal! For the sake of brevity, only a few animals will make appearances.

The Cheetah gives the Chao little Cheetah paws for feat, increasing its run speed by X%, where X is 10 times its Speed level. It's a sizable bonus that makes them quite the little speed demon! The Parrot gives the Chao little bird wings on its back, giving it an additional Kirby-sized air jump for each level of speed it has. These are mutually exclusive, as are all traits that run off of a given stat.

A Sheep gives it a wool coat around its torso, letting it survive Defense Level # of attacks before being dismissed after a summon (though it can now take knockback since it doesn't vanish in one hit, starting at Jigglypuff weight and rising to Mario weight at full Defense, using Shadow's damage for its knockback calculations). It'll be stunned in place for a short period after, though, so it won't be defending itself from a properly aggressive opponent. A Skunk gives it a skunk tail and the property of producing a stink cloud when hit, doing 8% damage and flinching in a circle-shaped area, the diameter determined by the Defense Level (0.4 Units per level). The latter has an easter egg, in that it'll heal Shrek- even revive him if he's been KOed and the effect occurs overlapping his unconscious body! He'll only have 8% stamina, but having him back early is worthwhile, and his time spent unconscious counts toward his recovery the next time he drops anyhow. Nifty!

The Gorilla gives the Chao beefy gorilla arms, and increases the reach of its attacks; while it has some reach thanks to its boxing glove prop, it's pretty short all told. Each level of Strength makes the arms a bit bigger and longer (with full size causing the Chao's run animation to incorporate its arms as a fluff detail due to how far they hang down), and can give its attacks actually respectable reach! Not much more than that, but it's appreciated. The tiger instead replaces the boxing glove with a set of claws, and the chao lunges the little bit further for each level of Strength it has. This turns the Chao's attacks into a multi-hit move with 1 additional hit per level of Strength; the total damage is the same, with the last hit doing the normal knockback, but this gives the Chao the ability to shield stun the foe better, and makes the Chao effective from a slightly longer range like the Gorilla in exchange for making it commit longer to its attacks (might want the wool vest and some Defense Levels if going this route!). The Gorilla can be considered a safer offensive buff, while the Tiger puts the Chao in more danger for more of a payoff.

Finally, giving the Chao a Bat or Skeleton Dog will cause its extra traits to vanish, resetting it to a normal Chao; sometimes you just want the default model. These will only appear if your Chao has animal traits to begin with, so as not to obstruct your customization process.


There's three more benefits to all this; if Shadow is holding the Chao when he performs his Chao Grab (just holding the grab button without a direction or pressing grab + B), he'll use it for the Grab instead! The Chao Grab is faster by 1 frame per level of Speed, gives Shadow an armor frame per level of Defense, and will float from his grasp and increase the reach a minuscule amount per level of Strength. A Chao held by allies counts for this mechanic, so feel free to hit foes with a surprise grab with Shrek's indispensable aid!

If at full maturity, Shadow can even order his Chao to perform the grab from its current position if within 1 Unit of him (teleporting back to Shadow in a Chaos Control-like warp if he does so)- a nice extra benefit to having a Light Side Chao if playing defensively or a Dark Side Chao if aggressive. Its Strength score even adds a small 0.2% buff to each hit of its pummel- adds up quicker than you'd think!

It'll keep its animal traits as it acts/is held by Shadow, too, letting it stick around if he whiffs and it gets hit if it has Sheep Wool, giving it more reach or an extra bit of distance via lunge with Gorilla Arms/Tiger Claws respectively, becoming a sort of pseudo-counter if it has a Skunk Tail, and just being a bit faster to come out/getting a little more height to its movement when it moves with Cheetah Paws/Parrot Wings.

The second benefit comes from Back Throw's animation; remember how the Chao will mimic the ki blast animation? Well, with a fully grown Chao, it now has enough Ki to fire off a beam of its own alongside Shadow, Vegeta, and Shrek! This adds 5% damage to whichever version of the beam is produced, and slightly increases the knockback to boot; a four-person beam assault will KO irresponsibly early, and deal hefty damage for a throw besides! Unlike Shadow's assorted posse members, the Chao is not burned away, either.

The third benefit comes from tapping A while not holding a direction; the adorable little tyke will use its jab-like punch as a Jab for Shadow, floating out of his hands to perform it, and then coming back to him for much less lag than it would face on its own. This version of its Jab does light knockback, so there's no Jab locking or always-unsafe Jab shenanigans here. If you haven't built up Shadow's Jab, this is a fine substitute.


In summary, Chao are underwhelming little buggers that can become your most potent allies. The key advantages here over all your other allies are that they don't take nearly the effort to bring back that his copies do once you're done raising them, can't be put into a cooldown from damage like Shrek, are small enough to low-profile your Neutral Special to avoid being accidentally frozen or blocking your shot, and are actively autonomous once they're fully grown. Given everything else Shadow has to manage, that's highly appreciated!


But let's not forget Shadow's life partner! What does he contribute to this move? Normally, he'll perform a simple, slow leaping uppercut not unlike the Chao's, with a hitbox and animation similar to Little Mac's KO Punch, complete with the slight forward horizontal movement that can potentially carry him over a ledge (so you know, watch out for that). It's not nearly as fast, being one of Shrek's slower inputs on the wind-up, and it doesn't hit quite as hard, doing between 20~28% and KOing at a reasonable enough percentage, with the damage being based on Swamp Meter charge- making Up Smash more valuable at higher meter. Shrek does not charge this input, which means he can provide some much appreciated cover for Shadow as he does so, or a follow-up hit as Shadow performs either uncharged Up Smash to catch opponents out of a poorly timed dodge. The end lag is on the lower side, interestingly enough, letting him rejoin Shadow quickly out of whatever his partner chooses to do.

Or you can hand the Chao over to Shrek to take care of, for its own benefits! Parenthood takes teamwork from couples, after all. Toss the Chao to Shrek, or set it down and have Shrek attack while the Chao is next to him, and Shrek will pick the Chao up. He'll never toss the Chao himself, setting it down carefully unlike his more violent partner, and him catching the Chao negates the Affection loss from the throw. If Shrek is holding the Chao, the Chao provides the same overrides to and effects on inputs it does for Shadow, but for Shrek- allowing Shrek to effectively access Shadow's faster Chao Up Smash, Jab, and Chao Grab!

Furthermore, walking the knife's edge and giving Shrek stress isn't terribly in-character for Shadow if he can help it, as mean as he can be. That's where their child Chao once again comes in. If Shrek is in distress, holding the Chao- or having it sit near him as he recovers from his roar- will cause him to recover from his strain, putting on a brave face for his baby. While Shrek is an active combatant, his Swamp Meter drops by 5 seconds worth of charge (so 1/20th a full Swamp Meter) per second of proximity instead of rising. If he is letting out a roar or unconscious, time spent with a Chao within 2 Units- will count double toward his cooldown, letting him return to the fray that much faster and adding incentive to get a Light Side Chao.