Shadow Fight Arena - Beginner’s Guide to Jack Bulwark
In Shadow Fight Arena, there are a variety of characters, of which every single one has their own unique playstyle, movesets, and passive talents. Some of these are more straightforward and easy to understand, while others require lots of practice and knowledge in order to achieve the same results. Depending on your preferred gaming style, you can either go for the more direct characters. However, if you like to challenge yourself, you’ll go for the more technical fighters, as mastering these and dominating your foes with them is often very satisfying.
Case in point, Jack Bulwark is arguably the most difficult character to play with in this game, considering that he’s almost purely a counter-attacker that relies heavily on responding correctly to the enemy, as well as reading their attacks in order to mitigate damage and exploit openings. Despite these difficulties, we placed Jack as one of the top 5 characters in Shadow Fight Arena, just because of how powerful he is when you learn to play him effectively.
While Jack Bulwark is a character that requires quite a bit of practice to master, we must first start with the basics, which is what we intend to achieve with this guide. In the following paragraphs, you’ll find an introduction to this fighter, as well as a few tips on how to use him effectively.
Introduction to Jack Bulwark
Jack Bulwark is first unlocked at account level 6, after which you can start collecting his cards in order to recruit him. Armed with his powerful flail and sturdy shield, his attacks are quite slow, but have good range, allowing you to both zone your enemy out, while also pre-emptively launching attacks to block their assaults mid-way. Of course, this means that proper timing is a required skill for those who intend to master Jack and all his nuances.
And speaking of timing, being precise with Jack Bulwark is especially important as this will allow you to mitigate lots of incoming damage, while countering with your own attacks and breaking through the enemy’s guard. Most of Jack’s attacks have an Unbreakable component during their animations, which means that, during these short periods, he cannot be staggered, and he takes significantly reduced damage from most attacks. In this regard, good Jack Bulwark players can combine a powerful offense with a good defense, blocking lots of damage while keeping the pressure up.
Like every other character, Jack has a wide variety of moves in combat, though we only want to focus on the more important ones as these are his bread and butter during most of his matches:
His standing neutral attack consists of a three-hit combo swinging the weight of his flail. It’s pretty basic, but it has long active times, and the first two hits of the combo have an Unbreakable effect. This attack is great for trading damage against the enemy since, if they also attack at the same time, there’s a good chance that Jack will come out mostly undamaged, while the enemy might be interrupted and punished harshly.
His special attack is fantastic, especially as a follow-up after a successful throw. This move consists of a weak shield bash, followed by a shield charge that covers a long distance. This move is great for catching enemies off guard as it can close the gap surprisingly quick, and it also has an Unbreakable effect for its entire duration. If used after a throw, and the enemy doesn’t roll away, you will hit them with the initial bash, and then with the subsequent tackle as they are getting up. And even if your enemy rolls away, they’ll be forced to block to avoid getting hit by the second part of the attack.
The low attack is a fast upward swing of the flail which, as usual, has an Unbreakable effect. This move is fast and is useful for interrupting enemies that like to spam heavy attacks and other slow moves. Keep in mind that, in some cases, such as against enemy Azumas who like to spam the spin move, Jack’s low attack can duck under the enemy’s weapon and strike back without trading damage.
Jack Bulwark’s Specialty: Unyielding Defense and Escalating Damage
As you can probably tell by now, Jack is built to withstand the most powerful assaults, but only if you manage to time his defensive moves right. This fact is further enhanced with his passive trait, Shadow Fortress, which automatically makes him invulnerable whenever he attacks while his enemy is in shadow form. In other words, instead of making him Unbreakable, this passive makes him take no damage, but only when his enemies are in shadow form.
Furthermore, he can passively apply stacks of Fracture on his opponent whenever he manages to hit them with his attacks. Each of these stacks increase the damage taken by the target, and when combined with one of Jack’s talents, can also boost the damage of the character after reaching 10 stacks.
Speaking of which, let’s take a look at Jack’s talents:
Level 2
- Superior Protection: Further reduces the damage taken while Unbreakable.
- Aggression: Jack gradually gains increased attacks when his enemy has at least 10 Fracture stacks.
Level 4
- Incredible Endurance: Whenever Jack gets low on health, his Shadow Fortress passive activates even when the enemy is out of shadow form.
- Thrill of the Battle: Restores HP after winning a round, based on the number of Fractures inflicted on the enemy.
Level 6
- Fortress of Healing: Jack regains HP whenever he blocks attacks with Shadow Fortress.
- Inevitability: Inflicts Fractures even when the enemy blocks the attacks.
Level 8
- Great Reaction: Shadow Fortress now blocks ranged attacks.
- Persistent Bone Breaker: Jack can now inflict an infinite number of Fractures on the enemy.
Level 10
- Assault Fortress: Jack can now activate Shadow Fortress whenever he is in shadow form.
- Fortress of the Legion: Whenever Jack blocks an attack with Shadow Fortress, he automatically knocks the opponent out of shadow form.
Dominating with Jack Bulwark is all about getting the timing of the Unbreakable and shield blocks just right in order to avoid damage, while opening up the enemy’s defenses. As the battle progresses, and he manages to inflict an increasing number of Fractures on his opponent, Jack can potentially start dealing massive damage with every attack, especially with his shadow form moves. This all takes practice, so don’t feel too bad if you lose lots of matches when you first pick up Jack—this is one of those heroes where practice can yield tons of benefits.
