Shantotto

Standing in the meta

Tier B 23rd of 30 — 2017 tournament tier list from dissidia.wiki (half matchup values, half expert player votes).

Ranked 23rd (tier B) on the 2017 competitive tier list. The wiki page provides no overview text with which to put that placement in context.

Overview

Shantotto is a mage of conversion and patience: almost any hit turns into HP damage, and her whole game pivots on Stun — instant at 13 frames, dealing no damage, cancelling the opponent's attack and cancellable into an attack on hit. Players of the day summed the character up in a formula: Stun into anything — Stun > Stone on the ground, Stun > Aero in the air, Stun > Bio or a bravery attack depending on the situation. Her Spirit Magic gains a tier of power and hitbox at 2000 then 4000 bravery, hence the value of high base bravery sets for staying at the upper tier.

The move to Duodecim reworked her deeply, and the threads of the day take stock. On the buffs: Stun now chains into her attacks, Retribution goes through active guards (Exdeath's Delta Attack, for instance), A Couple Attacks became markedly faster, and connecting with a spell speeds up the casting of the following ones — which makes complete chains achievable. On the nerfs: the Manafont of her EX Mode was heavily weakened (it now only restores bravery after a successful HP attack, far from the permanent abuse of the first Dissidia), Bio is reflected on block and Bind no longer staggers an opponent in mid-attack.

Her standing divided the community of the day: some judged her nerfed and poor, others one of the most formidable characters — the latter pointing out that she was finally useful outside EX Mode. All agreed on the substance: she is the patience character par excellence, one who punishes the opponent's mistakes rather than imposing her own pace, and rewards execution with big, earned spells.

Sources: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/605802-dissidia-012-duodecim-fi · gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/605802-dissidia-012-duodecim-fi

Stats & speeds

Moves

Bravery attacks

Ground

A Couple Attacks 19FMelee Low

A simple three-hit sceptre combo, Melee Low in 19 frames, with a forward hop on the first hit. The third hit causes a Wall Rush and throws the opponent far away horizontally and low down, preventing them from using an aerial recovery.

Base damage	7, 7, 16 (30)
Startup	19F
Type	Physical
Priority	Melee Low
EX Force	30
Effects	Wall Rush
Cancels	Dodge
CP (mastered)	30 (15)

Bind 65FRanged Low

A slow Ranged Low special move (65 frames) that immobilises the opponent; they are released as soon as another hit connects. Ground and air versions.

Startup	65F
Priority	Ranged Low
EX Force	0
CP (mastered)	30 (15)

Bio 33FRanged Low

A Ranged Low projectile (33 frames): darkness eats away at the opponent and steals their bravery continuously for a set duration (4 x 11). A poisoned opponent who hits Shantotto with an HP attack is instantly broken, which allows her to deter them from using any.

Base damage	4 x 11 (44)
Startup	33F
Type	Magical
Priority	Ranged Low
EX Force	0
CP (mastered)	30 (15)

Aerial

Retribution 41FMelee Mid

A two-handed spinning attack, Melee Mid in 41 frames, with a Chase effect and 90 EX Force — her only aerial melee attack and one of her big EX generators. Careful: it covers Shantotto's flanks poorly.

Base damage	15, 15 (30)
Startup	41F
Type	Physical
Priority	Melee Mid
EX Force	90
Effects	Chase
Cancels	Dodge
CP (mastered)	30 (15)

Stun 13FRanged Low

An instant Ranged Low special move (13 frames, her fastest bravery attack) dealing no damage: it cancels the opponent's attack. A different attack releases the opponent. It exists on the ground and in the air, cancellable into a dodge or into an attack on hit — the whiff punish tool cited among her strengths, which combos into an HP attack.

Startup	13F
Priority	Ranged Low
EX Force	0
Cancels	Dodge, Attack (Hit)
CP (mastered)	30 (15)

HP attacks

Ground

Aerial

EX Mode: Two-Hour Ability! & EX Burst

The “Two-Hour Ability!” EX Mode grants Regen, Critical Boost and Manafont: as long as EX Mode is active, Shantotto's bravery is instantly restored after every successful HP attack.

EX Burst : “Play Rough”: select the spells from a dedicated menu, in the order Flare > Flood > Burst > Quake > Tornado > Freeze (each spell requires two presses of the d-pad, about 5 seconds in total; only Flare's position is shuffled, the rest is always spell > down > spell > down). Good, even above-average damage — with no health scaling as with Cloud or Tidus, but far from the weakest burst in the game. Auto EX Command Ω makes the input trivial.

Unique mechanic

The Spirit Magic tiers: Shantotto's HP attacks grow stronger with her accumulated bravery. Each Spirit Magic has three tiers (Stone, then Stonega, then Quake for Spirit Magic: Earth, for instance), with the higher tiers gaining markedly larger hitboxes.

Her bravery is therefore both her offensive resource and her arsenal: the higher it is, the more space her HP attacks cover — and losing it to a break disarms her twice over.

Gameplan & advanced tech

The sources provide no written overview, but the strengths/weaknesses table sketches out the gameplan: convert almost any hit into HP damage with a little execution, then extend with assists. Stun, instant at 13 frames, serves as the pivot of her whiff punishing by comboing into the Spirit Magic; all her HP attacks and Retribution generate a lot of EX Force, which accumulates all the faster the better her combos are executed.

Bio adds a unique control lever: a poisoned opponent is instantly broken if they hit Shantotto with an HP attack, which allows her, outside a match point situation, to deprive them of their HP attacks for a period. In exchange, she has to live with the absence of a Wall Rush on her HP attacks, an enormous recovery, the vulnerability of almost all her attacks to assist punishes and heavy exposure to Glutton on EX absorption at medium range.

Character-specific tech

Universal techniques (blodge, dash feint, lock off, dodge punishment): see the Techniques & glitches page.

Matchups

No matchup chart has survived for Shantotto (the wiki page is a stub): the threads of the day reason by opponent profile. Against rushdown characters who stick to her (up-in-your-face fighters), A Couple Attacks serves as an escape move — its third hit throws them far and low, with no aerial recovery possible — and Stun, placed on the startup of an opponent's attack, turns the aggression around: it is her best defensive argument. Against characters with active guards, Retribution is the tool: it goes through blocks of the Exdeath Delta Attack type.

Her difficult matchups follow from her structural weaknesses more than from named opponents: any character punishing with a raw assist exploits the vulnerability of almost all her attacks, and anyone who pressures her after a dodge takes advantage of her lack of a fast aerial melee move. Bio remains a double-edged lever: it deters the opponent's HP attacks (an instant break if the poisoned opponent hits her with one), but it is reflected on block — the players of the day kept it for after a block or for guaranteed hits in a combo.

Sources: gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/605802-dissidia-012-duodecim-fi · dissidia.wiki/Shantotto_(Dissidia_012)

Match videos: Replay Theater — Shantotto matches.

Builds

The documented hybrid build rests on the Equip Glitch (the total CP cost assumes it has been performed) and on the Best Dresser extra ability for +100 base bravery — consistent with the high base bravery sets she usually runs (1444 BRV here). It pairs the Yuna assist, the Heaven's Cloud weapon, Hero's Shield, Thornlet and Maximillian, with booster-oriented accessories (Dismay Shock, Battle Hammer, BRV = 0, Summon Unused, Blue Gem, Tenacious Attacker, Glutton, First to Victory, Hero's Seal, Miracle Shoes) and Rubicante as the summon.

The bravery and HP attack slots of the build are not filled in in the data, and the second build (“Build #2”) is an empty template.

Build and check a Shantotto loadout slot by slot: build creator (CP gauge, ability exclusions and tournament rules applied).

Assist synergies

Shantotto as an assist

As an assist, Shantotto is ranked alone in the Bottom tier of Muggshotter's assist tier list — the worst placement in the roster. The sources on her page give no further detail on her use as an assist.

Recommended assists

• Kuja — The page simply states that Shantotto works well with the Kuja, Yuna and Jecht assists, with no further detail.
• Yuna — Cited among the assists that work well with her; she is also the assist chosen in the documented hybrid build.
• Jecht — Cited among the assists that work well with her, with no further detail in the sources.

Community tech

Sources

• https://dissidia.wiki/Shantotto_(Dissidia_012)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmezZmn7Aow
• https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/605802-dissidia-012-duodecim-final-fantasy/58899666
• https://pastebin.com/8FWDXjvJ
• https://pastebin.com/dKSWgUQ6
• https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/605802-dissidia-012-duodecim-final-fantasy/58696836
• https://dissidia.wiki/Tier_List_(Dissidia_012)
• https://dissidia.wiki/Tier_List_(Assist)

Known limits

• No overview text on the wiki page (only the strengths/weaknesses table is filled in): the overview is reconstructed from the GameFAQs threads of the day (2011, listed in sourcesBySection) and the gameplan solely from the wiki's table.
• No matchup chart per character: the wiki page is a stub, and the matchups summary rests on the archetypal markers from the threads of the day, cross-referenced with the weaknesses documented by the wiki.
• No combos section filled in on the wiki side (the Solo subsection is empty) despite conversion being presented as her main strength; the advanced techniques come from a single GameFAQs thread (2011).
• Detailed usage notes are absent for most moves (Stun, Bind, Bio, Retribution and the six Spirit Magic have only the in-game description and the frame data); the A Couple Attacks note is truncated in the source data.
• No “Unique Mechanics” section is documented: the field is left as null.
• The assist section is undocumented beyond a single sentence; the assist gain values are absent from the move tables; the wiki's References section is empty.
• The community's empty chase record is undated (the solo combo record that accompanies it is dated December 2022): how current it is cannot be established.
• The community record designates Shantotto's Spirit Magic by the names of their tier 1 spells (Water, Stone, Aero, Blizzard): the correspondence — Water → Spirit Magic: Water, Stone → Earth, Aero → Air, Blizzard → Ice — is confirmed by the Shantotto page on the Final Fantasy Wiki, which also recalls that the Spirit Magic are her HP attacks (Fire, Earth and Thunder on the ground; Air, Water and Ice in the air).