Monado Cyclone (XC1)

Monado Cyclone (, Monado Cyclone), often shortened to just Cyclone (, Cyclone), is one of 's Monado Arts in Xenoblade Chronicles. It involves Shulk using the Monado to create a vortex of ether energy surrounding him, inflicting on any enemies near him suffering from.

Overview
Monado Cyclone is one of Shulk's most useful Monado Arts for one simple reason: it allows him to Break, Topple, and foes by himself, and unlike other such party members the only extra condition is "requires full talent gauge". Combined with, he can also feasibly topple multiple enemies by himself, which can only be matched by the less-convenient Final Cross.

Other notable benefits include that Cyclone deals high ether damage, which is useful against enemies that are resistant to his preferred physical Arts, and that it hits all enemies around him, which can be great if the party has to deal with a large number of enemies. Cyclone is especially strong during a Chain Attack, both for the usual reason that Talent Arts are able to be used as a wild-card to keep the Chain Attack multiplier going while changing colours, and also because the long animation time before it hits is effectively cut out by the Chain Attack stopping time for enemies, which can make it easier to use to Topple an enemy.

The main downsides of Monado Cyclone are that it uses 100% of the Talent Gauge, which can potentially leave the player unable to use another Monado Art at a critical moment, it deals ether damage and thus will usually do less damage than Buster or another physical Art unless the player uses gems and skill links to compensate for Shulk's other arts boosting his physical damage, and that the long animation before Cyclone hits can both leave him vulnerable to enemy attacks and prevent it from inflicting Topple before the enemy's Break wears off. Also, because it hits all enemies within a certain radius of Shulk and has a high aggro value, it can lead to him drawing a lot of unwanted aggro when he wouldn't otherwise, though this is a potential drawback of all area-of-effect Arts.