Shugo Chara-verse Strategy Guide

 

How to be OP in Shugo Chara

Local Scale Threat:

Sometimes we are one person on the outside that others know, and a different person inside. Who are these other us? All children have in the hearts the heart's egg, an egg containing their potential and dreams, within resides a fairy called a Guardian Character, the person they want to be. If the emotion and desire to be them is strong enough, the Guardian Character can manifest to the person to guide them to their dream, or even fuse with the in a process known as "Character Transformation."

The verse's fighters are the organization called Easter and their rivals the Elementary school age "Guardians" who use the power of their Guardian Characters to protect the dreams of children.

Most of the cast are at least upper wall level. This comes from feats like early Amu jumping far above every building in their city and destroying some human sized robots, and the characters not being much weaker then the stronger fighters. The stronger fighters are likely in the low building range coming from Tadase's forcefield "Holy Crown" being able to catch a falling helicopter and Death Rebel being able to do signifigant damage to an amusent park with singular attacks. Amu also claims at one point that her newfound strength makes her feel light as a feather, which is probably a figure of speech but if literal would basically just support the characters being at low building level.

In terms of speed, the characters are subsonic speed. There are numerous gag feats of characters moving as blurs that would likely be subsonic and the guardian characters who are absolutely not powerhouses alone can move as blurs as well. Also Kairi without even using character transformation is able to attack with a sword fast enough there appeared to be many swords at once, yet Amu was able to dodge them all at close range and Amu and Uatu were able to catch up to a helicopter. The verse's speed might be higher as Utau somehow traveled from Hawaii to Japan in a not massive timeframe, but the mechanism is unknown as is the exact timeframe. 

The verse has x-eggs, which are heart's eggs corrupted by a person giving up their dreams and their inner self. The guardian characters inside become small imp-ish creatures that can manipulate the heart's eggs, repeatedly referred to as the soul of the person, and can transmute entitites like turning a dog into a evil wolf capable of fighting Amu transformed.

These are stopped by the Guardians, an elementary school council of magic-wielding heroes using the power of the characters to purify the x-eggs back into vibrant heart's eggs and protect the dreams of children. At any time there's 4 members; the king, queen, jack, and the ace, as well as sometimes the returning graduated members when the younger members need help. Their character changes gives them access to enhanced versions of mundane abilities like a superhuman sense of someone's character, able to read their true nature. Each member has unique powers related to what they wished to be.

Kukai wished to be a sports star and so can fuse with guardian character Daichi to become physically proficient at all sports. The immature Yaya wished to be adored and get her parents attention like her baby brother so she can fuse with Pepe to get childish powers as Dear Baby like summoning and controlling a swarm of rubbie duckies whose power was able to stop the aforementioned x-egg wolf, and can induce sleep with the technique "Merry Merry." Rima the serious never-smiling little girl wished to be able to make her parents smile again and show her silly side can fuse with the clownish Kusokuso to get circus performer abilities as Clown Drop like tieing enemies up with a tightrope and expert juggling abilities. Kairi who was a bookish nerdy type wished to be strong and to protect the weak fused with Musashi to become the great samurai Samurai Soul who can imbue his blade with lightning. The androgynous Nagi developed the incredible condition of having two guardian characters representing their conflicting desires to be feminine to please their family and to be his true masculine self and can thus fuse with Temari and Rhythm to become the feminine and masculine Yamato Maihime and Beat Jumper respectively.

Leading them is Tadase, a shy weak-willed boy who wished to be strong-willed and confident and can fuse with his guardian character Kiseki to become Platinum Royale, the confident and regal. He is a skilled user of his staff which can turn into his royal blade and can create a forcefield called Holy Crown capable of stopping a helicopter. The Guardians can purify x-eggs back into heart's eggs. 

The Guardians also seek out the Embryo, an egg said to be able to grant wishes to grant Kiseki's wish to rule the world. They are opposed by Easter who also seek Embryo, to grant the wish of their mysterious ruler. Easter has several agents, but among the strongest is Utau. Utau is one of the only two characters known to have two guardian characters along with Nagi earlier. Utau's characters reflect her internal divide; El the angelic sweet character and Il the devilish mischevious character with which she can transform into Seraphic Charm and Lunatic Charm. Seraphic Charm has purification, able to restore x-eggs and can attack with angelic feathers called White Wing which immobilize an enemy. Lunatic Charm can attack via summoning dark butterflies or with her dark trident. Lunatic Charm can also turn hearts eggs into x-eggs purposefully, including a stadium full of people showing building scale soul manipulation. It may be important to note that manipulating the soul in Shugo Chara does not kill the target but it does render them unconcious and for all purposes defenseless.

An agent with even more power then Utau but even less loyal to Easter's cause is Ikuto. Ikuto was bonded by duty to Easter but wished to be free representing it in the mischeivous cat guardian character Yoru. When they fuse they become Black Claw. Skilled, graceful, and tricky with the agility, balance and senses of a cat, Black Lynx is hard to pin down reflecting his wish to be free. While he doesn't tend to fight directly, he does have an attack called "Slash Claw" where he enhances his claw transformation to slash at an enemy with an energy slash capable of hitting at range. When Easter used brainwashing sound waves to control Ikuto he became the stronger dark entity Death Rebel who can corrupt hearts eggs, can attack with a scythe with such power as to threaten Platinum Royal's shield and do signifigant damage to an amusemnt park. When Amu unlocked the Humpty Lock with the Dumpty Key Ikuto reached an even greater level of power becoming Seven Seas Treasure who substitues his old claw for a pirate sword he can make energy slashes with and is probably the strongest character in this tier in terms of raw power. Seven Seas Treasure also has astral psychometry, able to sense emotions associated with an object.

The biggest outright threat is the giant x-egg monster seen in the final battle with Easter made by combining many smaller x-eggs stated to be capable of manipulating the heart's eggs (souls) of the entire city, and possibly the whole world. 

While seemingly difficult and tiring and so rarely done, it is also possible for a person to undergo character change with another person's guardian character when their feelings reach each other. It should be noted that everyone with a guardian character can resist soul manipulation even on the level of the giant x-egg monster and can physically interact with guardian character, souls. 

So in terms of threats, this verse excels in soul manipulation; both corruption/stealing and purification with the characters being able to effect a stadium of people and the biggest threat being a potential planetary soul manipulator. The verse also has numerous forms of immobilization; from Clown Drop tie-ing up enemies with tightrope, Seraphic Charm immobilizing enemies with angel feathers, Dear Baby's rubber duckie swarm, or knocking enemies unconcious via taking their heart's egg or Merry Merry.

However while the degree of soul manipulation might be intimidating the verse has a bunch of weaknesses. Probably most prominently is the verse's lack of stamina. Several things in the series are noted to drain stamina including character change, the most basic form of gaining powers. The characters are drawing from the power of their emotions and emotional surges are brief temporary things that can't be maintained forever.

Another weakness is manipulation and intelligence strategies. The cast is comprised entirely of elementary to middle school age children and are not the most emotionally composed.

Another weakness is the lack of killing abilities in the verse. If you can match the stats of the tier, they can't actually kill very well, especially if one has some way around soul manipulation, as their attack potency seems to be relatively low compared to their durability. Ikuto has the most lethal moves of the cast and he doesn't seem to use it that way usually. 

The final weakness I'd note for the verse is just taking the guardian characters, keeping the characters from transforming. Guardian Characters are tiny and actually quite weak to the point 2 struggled to lift a present, and three of them can be used as toys against their will by Amu's baby sister. They are invisible but can be seen by children. 

All this suggests a defensive related strategy would be really strong, just outlasting the characters and possibly outwitting them via endurance. 

So who would be a good counter? The first option would be

A Beowulf from RWBY

Depending on how you scale the Beowulf, it's stats would be on the higher end for this tier. It should be comparable to Lancers who can survive building level explosions and in large numbers can be a threat for building level Huntsmen and Huntresses. Their reflexes are also developed enough to catch hypersonic fighters in motion meaning they would have no risk of being blitzed.

Beowulfs are grimm, meaning they have no soul and would be immune to any soul manipulation. It's claws should easily pack the same level of lethality as Black Lynx's attack despite it being a casual strike and given grimms' ability to track negative emotion it's very likely a beowulf could easily track any of the fighters in the verse via the incredible emotion of their hearts' eggs.

That said it is possible even the lowest Beowulf scale to full building level and to hypersonic momement speed which would require a higher balled Shugo Chara local tier to be fair. For a counter whose stats are definitely in line you could use

Angel from the Buffy-verse.

Angel is able to endurance close range grenades with minimal damage, and cut vampires in half. This means that he would be at least on par with the lower part of this tier and able to compete with the stronger fighers here. In terms of speed Angel can not only move as a blur, but even move as a blur to other vampires who themselves are subsonic, suggesting he would be a speedster to the tier.

Angel as a vampire lacks a soul and would be immune to soul manipulation as well as resisting mind hax that affected an entire building suggesting not even Easter's brainwashing tech would be able to stop him. Angel also has a regen factor strong enough to regrow limbs, meaning it would be nigh-impossible for the verse to put him down even ignoring that he's a superhuman skilled fighter and master manipulator that would run mental circles around the tier.

Lesser vampires are able to track humans across a city with scent and Angel himself can hit far away targets with pinpoint accuracy giving him a large sensory/attack range over eveyone in the verse. The only real danger for him is if the purification of the verse can restore him to humanity, making him vulnerable. I don't think this would happen but just in case I have probably the most optimal counter.

The Beast from Over the Garden Wall.

The Beast scales far above Papa who was the size of a small building and a dog corrupted his presence became...a.....dark.....wolf.......huh....... who was able to withstand force that dealt signifigant damage to a mill. He's also as fast as Wirt who was able to leave a clearing before teardrops reached him, these teardrops filling the clearing in seconds, putting the Beast at similar stats to the tier. 

The Beast's soul is within his lantern and takes the form of fire meaning the verse likely couldn't target with their form of soul manipulation, and even if they could, they wouldn't know to target them. 

Simple tricks like darkness manipulation and ventriloquism combined with the Beast's master manipulation abilities would allow him to easily control the cast, even likely convincing them to trust him. There's also many characters in Easter he could likely trick into serving him as he did to the Woodsman such as Uatu and Ikuto whose father left them and was never seen again. The Beast could easily manipulate them by changing his soul in the lantern to resemble their father and tell them they need to serve him to keep their father alive. 

Most disturbingly is the interaction of x-eggs and the Beast's form of transmutation. A heart's egg turning into an x-egg represents the loss of hope in one's dream and one's self, and with their forced transmutation The Beast can force it into a permenant transformation by absorbing the afflicted into edelwood to be absorbed. The Beast can perfectly take advantage of the weaknesses of the verse.

Regional/Planetary Scale Threat:

The founding king of the guardians passed down an item called the Humpty Lock, saying that it should only go to the person who has the unprecedented 3 guardian characters. This was Amu. Amu was a girl who everyone thought was cool and above it all but this left her feeling lonely without being able to share her true self with others. She wished to find the the real her and the complexity of her emotions caused 3 guardian characters to appear for her; Ran, Miki and Su. 

Amu by the end of the series is the top tier of the verse having been able to combine the dumpty key with the humpty lock to unlock the road of stars. The road of stars is a dimension transcending space and time, with waves of stars traveling at lightspeed. Due to the way things are drawn in this manga I can't tell if this is supposed to be literal stars or things that just appear to be stars, but if they are literal stars this would make Amu at least star system level, possibly low galaxy level in attack potency for being able to send an opponent into the power of the road of stars. She's durable enough to survive falling into the energy of a shooting star zone, and she travels on the road of stars moving at the speed of light, capable of reacting to outside events while traveling. The road of stars transcending spacetime allows her to travel to any point in space and time that she wants as well as unlock the heart of anyone seeing their memories, even herself. Amu can also take others into the Road of Stars at will BFR-ing them anywhere in space and time, manipulating the Embryo within to reality-warping via wish-granting, or looking their memories, unlocking their heart.

Amu can use the abilities granted by her guardian characters. By fusing with Ran Amu can become Amulet Heart which gives her masterful athletic ability including superleaping and balancing on phone lines, pom-poms to block attacks and a baton which she can throw like a boomerang or shoot pink energy out off. Ran can also break the fourth wall mentioning to the audience that an event happened in the extra chapter. She can fuse with Miki to become Amulet Spade gain mastery of artistic abilities, able to make completely lifelike paintings, and can create a flood of paint that can immobilize an enemy. When she fuses with Suu, she becomes Amulet Clover she gains domestic abilities including the ability to use a pan to block attacks and can heal or restore any object to it's peak. Suu was also able to create a stamina drink for Amu, though it apparently tasted awful. More powerful then these she can fuse with her hidden fourth character Dia to become Amulet Diamond. Amulet Diamond can attack with a shower of stars and create a star shield to defend her. She can create bright lights and fly freely. Amulet Diamond can also use her stars to move objects around or hold them in place.

Beyond all this Amu wished to be all she could be, allowed her to character transform into Amulet Fortune, a being with the powers of all her character transformations. 

Fighting Amu is pretty difficult at this tier due to her being able to travel at lightspeed outside space and time. Most of her abilities aren't actually that broken per se, it's just there was a sudden jump in power and hax in one of the final chapters at the end. 

The best tactic would hypothetically be blitzing her before she goes into the road of stars but due to how a strategy guide works, outstating is not one of the potential strategies. This leaves very limited options.

One of the best ones is to use stealth to hit her without her noticing. She doesn't have much in the way of anti-stealth outside of looking into their memories something she doesn't do passively, and if someone can take her guardian characters, they would leave her defenseless. Beyond that she doesn't seem to have that strong a control of her abilities and has never shown acausality, meaning a proficient enough time traveler could possibly stop her from unlocking the road of stars.

So who would be a good counter? My first idea was

Cure Amour from Pretty Cure

Cure Amour is a Pretty Cure Android from the Future. In terms of speed she should be relative to Cure Blossom who could intercept light from a camera putting her at the same speed range.

She is a genius intellect with the information of the future and advanced scanning technology that would instantly tell her all relevant information about Amu and how to counter it. But couldn't Amu do the same in reverse? Actually no, Cure Amour has resistance to memory manipulation as Criasu Corporation was unable to erase her memories of her friends from her database. This means she can hide herself as a normal human as is normal modus operandi and stealth against Amu.

Pretty Cure have shown the ability to affect intangible entities, and Cure Amour should be able to trap the guardian characters. She could also erase Amu's memories with her own memories. And in a time travel war, while neither is acausal, Cure Amour is a far more accomplished time travler who at least has some resistance to time manipulation meaning Amu may not be able to BFR her thanks to Amour Asupower, the power of the Hugtto Cures that let them resist time manipulation from Criasu Corporations.

That said if Amu did catch onto her, Amu would probably be able to destroy Amour via raw power. For a counter that can fight her more directly, you could use

Crowley from Good Omens.

Crowley was able to help finish a nebula and he can fight while traveling as information waves moving through a computer against Hastur requiring relativistic reactions, suggesting he would be able to fight Amu directly.

Crowley would easily run mental circles around the idealistic Amu given he was the manipulative serpent in the garden, tricked the managers of Hell, and has the human power of imagination. Simple things like disguising himself as one of her friends would likely fool her, unless she for some reason decided to look into their memories. Crowley can time freeze at will, which would allow him to hit Amu and just one hit from him would put her down, let alone all his other offensive haxes like transmutation or sealing people inside cyberspace.

Even if Amu did destroy Crowley's physical form, which it's quite reasonable to think she could if they came to blows, Crowley can come back from having his body destroyed or just possess someone on Earth. Crowley has his own dimensional travel to get out of the Road of Stars if she tried to trap him within, and if she tried to go back to his past she wouldn't find anything as angels and demons existed at the beginning of the universe.

That said Amu can force a stalemate by exiting spacetime and it's possible her purification would work on him, as for a demon he's quite the affable sort. For what I believe is the perfect counter I would suggest 

Clockwork from Danny Phantom.

Clockwork scales easily to the relativistic speed of ghost rays suggesting he would be comparable to Amu in raw speed. But beyond that he is perfectly suited to exploiting every single one of Amu's weaknesses.

Stealth? Ghosts can turn invisible or possess people to get close to others. Stealing away the guardian characters. Ghosts can interact with each other despite some being literal ghosts. A lesser ghost sealed Danny's Soul in his body in the past, and Clockwork should be able to easily BFR the guardian characters in time and space to keep Amu from transforming.

If Amu attacked him, while she easily has the attack potency to one-shot Clockwork, anything but a direct hit will let him just regen if he doesn't avoid beyond phasing intangible or freezing time. Clockwork meanwhile has better time travel then Amu, acausality, and general time manipulation experiency centuries beyond her. Amu might be able to see Clockwork's memories but Clockwork sees all events in the past, present and all future, a precog literally infinitely stronger.

Amu can try to seal Clockwork in the Road of Stars but weaker ghosts have escaped the sealing of things like Fenton Thermos and given that all of Amu's forms rely on equipment like the hairpieces showing which guardian character is in control, Clockwork could imbue part of any of them with a piece of his energy as Kitty did to her clothing so he could possess her even if he was to be somehow destroyed. Even the Embryo's wish-granting may not work as strong enough ghosts seem to have some resistance to the wish-granting reality-warping of the ghost Desiree.

Overall Clockwork has Amu's strongest ability, but is far more accomplished with it essentially being a beginner of a skill vs the complete master of it, has far more broken abilities, and can exploit every single one of her weaknesses as his default tactic.

And that's how to be OP in the Shugo Chara-verse.