Ultra Instinct Guide (Updated May 2024)

So, here's the raw numbers analysis copied over from my Definitive Transformations guide. Tl;Dr: this transformation doesn't buff your damage output whatsoever. It really just adds new and unique features for your character to utilise in a fight.

Benefits:
- Ultra Instinct auto-dodge becomes enabled (roughly at a cost of 1/2 bar of stamina per basic attack)
- Can activate a unique counter move with additional input while dodging
- Unique counter move activates if you are attacked while transforming
- Regular ki blasts were added back to the transformation as of May 2024, with Soaring Fist and spirit pulse still being available depending on level of charge applied and player movement inputs.
- Surging Spirit charge move is available while blocking, no longer need to take up a move slot just to charge on your character

Drawbacks:
- No attack buffs whatsoever
- No noticeable change in speed
- Dodging attacks drain stamina
- Requires 500 ki to transform
- You revert to base form when stamina is broken
- Ultra Instinct ki blasts may actually turn out to be weaker than regular ki blasts, as it appears to count basic ki bast damage boosters rather than super or strike buffs

Ultra Instinct is basically just another way to freshen up the gameplay of Xenoverse 2, similar to Beast. It brings new features to the game, and adds a much-needed fresh coat of paint to your CaC. But, is it actually any good? I'll save you some time, NO.

But it can be a fun way to freshen up a 10 year old game, so let's discuss it anyways.

I'll be ranking each CaC type from greatest Ultra Instinct use potential to least throughout this guide.

Pros: INSANE stamina break recovery

Cons: 150% damage taken during the short window when stamina broken.

As previously noted, your character can fall out of UI once their stamina is broken. Female Majins are notorious for having insane stamina break recovery speed, which is further broken by having super souls with stamina break recovery buffs such as "GAAAH" and "I like you better when you're mad". Considering that stamina breaks are one of the biggest weaknesses of this transformation, Female Majins basically sidestep this pitfall altogether. You still need to front the ki cost of re-entering Ultra Instinct, but otherwise the stamina related concerns are negligible for this CaC.

Ultra instinct is a welcome improvement for Female Majin CaC's, as Purification tends to be an unpopular choice for them.

Pros: Stamina recovery during combos

Cons: Lower health than other characters

Frieza race tends to be tricky for deciding which transformation to use; most people stick with Potential Unleashed, as it has no downsides to its use. Golden isn't as viable as it used to be, as it exclusively buffs ki use while reducing ki recovery and damage resilience. Beast is fine for Parallel Quests, provided you can find a 20-second window to transform without being stamina broken. But what about UI?

Ultra Instinct shines for Frieza race for a somewhat similar reason to Female Majins; stamina management. Frieza CaCs have the unique benefit of being able to recover stamina during their basic combos. Considering that stamina breaks are the main pitfall of this form, Frieza CaCs have the potential to stay dominant throughout the entire fight by being able to auto-dodge AND recover stamina when they regain the attack initiative. Auto-dodge is also handy considering they have the lowest CaC health pool, too.

Pros: Auto ki-recovery, balanced damage potential

Cons: Stamina management a potential concern

The placement of Humans on this list is debatable, as both Namekians and Male Saiyans bring a lot to the table that could make them a higher placement on this list. But here's a big flaw of Ultra Instinct when compared to other transformations; Damage Output. Earthlings have the advantage of versatility in their damage-dealing means. Ultra Instinct has no inherent strengths for offence, therefore it is nice to have versatility for dealing damage to your opponent. UI doesn't change combo strings either, so Earthlings get to keep all of their OP combo cheesing potential.

Additionally, Ultra Instinct's charge ability is surging Spirit, which is slow to start and hard to get significant gains out of if your opponent is putting a lot of pressure on you. Having Earthling auto-recovery with this transformation means you can continue to keep the pressure on your opponent with ki and strike attacks. Retaining the offensive advantage helps in reducing the tax of your opponent's attacks on your auto-dodge/stamina drain.

Pros: Inherently high combo/strike damage

Cons: Vulnerable to ki depletion, stamina mismanagement

Male Saiyans were hard to place on this list, but I settled on a lower position for a few reasons. First, they have better options for transformation. Any of the Super Saiyan God transformations are a better choice, as they not only enhance a Saiyan's strengths but they offer much more in terms of resource management. SSG offers amazing ki recovery, whereas SSB/SSBE have stamina recovery so high that it might as well be Ultra Instinct with how many more evasive you can use.

Don't get me wrong, I love UI on my Saiyan CaC. It's just not really an option that makes sense outside of personal enjoyment considering the better options they already have.

Pros: Higher than average stamina recovery, healing when at critical health

Cons: Everything else

I can already hear people yelling at me in the comments about this lower placement. But hear me out; the biggest pitfall for Namekians always has been, and always will be, having the weakest all-around damage output. Their combos are slower and vulnerable to incorrect hit detection, even with the stretchy arms (though sometimes the hit detection can be absurdly generous too). Ultra Instinct does not help with this problem on these CaCs. If anything, it makes them less viable for the following reasons:

- UI has increased risk of stamina break, therefore makes the CaC more vulnerable. Health regeneration doesn't help a lot if you are stamina broken and vulnerable to ultimates.

- Their stamina recovery is put to better use when paired with Potential Unleashed, or even Beast if you get the opportunity to transform without dying.

- Giant Namekian is a better option if we're talking about stamina draining transformations. Super Armor, tankiness, mad ki recovery, fun and effective attacks. This transformation is pretty busted particularity for Online PvP.

Pros: high ki attack damage

Cons: Low health pool, slower combos with larger vulnerability windows

Many common complaints about this CaC type have been a) their slow combos, b) less versatile damage options being largely reliant on their ki attacks, and c) they have a very low health pool. I wouldn't say this makes them explicitly a bad option for Ultra Instinct, it's more to do with the fact that it's just the least practical choice for them. Female Saiyans already have a lot of vulnerability built into them, so you are better off making use of their strengths in other ways.

Like with the Male Saiyans, pretty much any of their other transformations are more practical. And even then, you're going to want to gravitate towards things that boost their ki damage like Super Vegeta, Potential Unleashed, or SSGSS/SSBE. Female Saiyans shine best with any of these options, as they are built to be more on the offensive with their high ki damage. The stamina recovery and damage reduction offered by the blue forms helps them a great deal with their vulnerability.

One important caveat: The level and skill cap increases from the recent updates has been a huge game changer. I have noticed my female Saiyan has a more comparable health pool to other CaCs at the new max level.

Pros: Very silly

Cons: EXTREMELY vulnerable during stamina breaks (150% damage taken).

Here's the thing about Male Majins; they start out very tanky, and progressively lose damage resilience the lower their stamina gets. This is interesting on paper, but in reality much of the fighting in this game is done with 50% of your stamina or less. So ultimately you are actually taking more bonus damage with this CaC than you are resisting with its racial trait. Unless you're at high stamina most of the time, this effect is useless.

So, compounding that glaring weakness with the issue of UI's stamina management, and you're setting yourself up for failure. Not to mention that Male Majins take double damage when they are stamina broken, which this form is quite liable to do more often than not.

The biggest kicker here is that Purification makes the most sense pretty much exclusively for Male Majins. In many ways, it's the only transformation that makes sense. Male Majin combos are slow, but Purification gives you a new move set. Combined with the super soul "Eee hee hee" your damage output, ki recovery, and benefits of tankiness all go through the roof with their race-inherent transformation.

Tl;Dr: UI with Male Majins is basically self-sabotage.

I will say, however, that the auto-dodge animations with Male Majins are absolutely comical. Do check those out at least once just to see how they look.

Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments. What follows is simply various things I have experimented with in order to make UI fun to use.

Optimal Super Souls for UI:

"I think I'm finally warmed up!" - ki recovery, 15% speed bonus, 10% damage to all attacks. A little bit of everything to round out the areas in which UI lacks (i.e. damage output, or really any bonuses that transforming usually gives you.)

"Damn... Gonna have to go all out!"- XXL (30%) bonus to ALL attacks and movement speed after 1 minute in exchange for 10% increased damage taken. Probably the best way to make UI actually have damage capacity.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this"- Always gives 10% ki recovery bonus, and 15% stamina recovery when below 50% health.

"I'm a whole new me"- a better version of "I think I'm getting the hang of this" in my opinion, you get 10% stamina recovery and ki auto recovery when below 50% health, and you keep this buff even if you use a capsule to get your health back.

"Something deadly is going to happen"- activates health and stamina recovery when your opponent is above 80% of their max ki. This one is nice because it helps compensate for CaC's with low stamina capacity.

"Goku! Time for Dinner!'- Always prevents sleep, and you get health/ki/stamina auto recovery for a brief time when below 50% health. More ideal for PvP than PvE.

"GAAAH or "I like you better when you're mad"- speeds guard break recovery drastically. "I like you better when you're mad" has slightly less recovery speed, but gives you a couple bars of ki to help you get back into UI when your stamina is fully recovered.

"I'll surpass you as I am, with my OWN power!" as of DLC 17 is the best super soul on this list, bar none. Your stamina break time is reduced by a large amount, similar to "GAAAH" which rivals Female Majin recovery (or stacks to a nasty extent with Female Majin CaCs). On top of that, every stamina break gives you a medium (10%) boost to all attacks and stamina recovery, stacking up to 3 times. The more you get stamina broken, the stronger you get. Great for PvE, and even PvP to a lesser extent.


Fun UI Builds w/ themes

Mastered GoD UI Build
Outfit: Beerus or Champa, as most of these moves suit Sphere of Destruction/GoD color palette

Type 1- Stamina/Health Recovery
- Use "Something dangerous is going to happen" super soul for health and stamina
- Use Audacious laugh to slow your enemy enough to land God of Destruction's Anger, stall your opponent's movements as much as possible
- Use moves to keep their ki high, such as Toppo's Destructive Flare for fast attacking ki generation (keep your opponent's ki up for Super Soul )
- A great ultimate for stamina breaks is Dodoria Blaster because it has a long animation to hold them while you regain health
- Prominence Flash or Heat Dome Attack for flame/yellow ki theme
- Super explosive wave evasive (2 bar/ God ki theme)

Type 2- "I have no points invested in ki or stamina"
- Use super soul "Power! Alotta power! It's Great!" to give you 4 bars of additional ki and stamina
- Supers: Death wave (for speedy damage), Murder Grenade (holds opponents still for stamina recovery or ultimates), Senko ki Blast (helps evade opponent without burning stamina), Shadow Crusher (breaks opponent stamina when they use a ki ultimate)
- Ultimates: Special Beam Cannon, Destructive Fission (can be used together)
- Evasives: Really anything 2-bar, I use Mach Dash, Super Explosive Wave, Spirit Explosion

UI Goku ToP Inspired Build

Outfit: Goku's Damaged Turtle Hermit Gi

Super soul: Any of the ones I mention in the list above. Personally I like ones that give me better damage.

Moveset Suggestions: - Any blue attacks (kamehameha variants, Die Die Missile Barrage, Big Bang attack, Focus Flash, Demon Ray, Tyrant Lancer, Split Finger Shot, Justice Blade, Savage Strike, Freedom Kick, Hawk Charge)
- Any white or sparkling strike moves (Soaring Fist, Spirit Pulse, Ultrasonic Blitz, Punisher Drive)

Ultimates: Super Kamehameha, Warp Kamehameha, Perfect Kamehameha, Full Power Energy Blast Volley, Sign of Awakening, Godly Display, Special Beam Cannon (Beast)

Evasive: Spirit Explosion

Lately I have been thinking, what is one key thing it can do that the other transformations can't? Well, it has it's own built in counter ability during your dodge animations (using a vanish while you dodge your opponents attacks triggers this). So I thought, what if there are moves you can use to follow up after you send your opponent flying with the UI counter? Here's a list of strike moves and ultimates I tested with the following criteria:

- They land reliably after the UI counter (<70% of the time)
- They activate and land as soon as the counter animation is over so you can continue chaining moves into your combo. Most attacks land/track your opponent better if you are in the middle of a combo string, so my method takes advantage of this mechanic.

Here's what I came up with.

Supers

Freedom kick
Sonic rush
Gigantic omega
Variant drive (though it leaves your opponent time to block before it lands)
Sneaky strike
Justice kick
Kaioken assualt
Crimson edge

Ultimates

Victory rush
Burning strike
Instant severance
Brave sword attack
Power rush
Final rampage

I tested some ki supers, but found 99% of the time it comes down to timing (it was inconsistent at best even with the fastest blast attacks). As for ultimates, pretty much only 4x Kaioken Kamehameha and Full Power Energy Barrage were fast enough to land without leaving you open to a stamina break.

No. Use UI or UI -Sign- Goku instead. But if you want to join me in beating this dead horse, here's an exhaustive list for why Ultra Instinct is not very ultra:

No Real Benefits
- all you get is auto dodge for 500 ki build up and a long transformation animation that leaves you vulnerable if your opponent knows how to punish it.
- you revert to base when your stamina is broken and thus have to risk the transformation animation AGAIN to get back into it.
- the built in Ki blasts aren't very versatile. You get stuck in the animation while using them, and yu are better off usink ki blast supers to deal better damage with less risk.
- the other player (or AI) can break your stamina simply by spamming normal ki blasts to force your dodge animations.
- the built in counter does not offer much opportunity to follow up with additional damage. Some select super attacks can work (like Freedom Kick), but even then it would be preferable to use a move such as Ultrasonic Blitz so you can immediately follow up with a combo string.

Other Transformations are Drastically Superior
- SSBE has crazy stamina recovery and insane damage that UI (a supposedly more powerful transformation) simply can't compete with.
- Same story with SSB, SSJ 1/2/3, Potential Unleashed, Golden, Purification, Beast, even Giant. All of them help you offensively and defensively in some way, with varying tradeoffs between them. UI is only a gimmick to flex your skill at the game.
- Even kaioken is comparatively superior if you use the super soul "I've been saving this one! Kaioken!!". You get good ki recovery, 20% basic attack damage, reduced stamina costs for vanishes, and if you stick to Kaioken x1 you get slow stamina recovery AT ALL TIMES, even during combos. Normal methods of stamina recovery are inhibited, however.

UI and UI -Sign- Goku give a Better Experience of this Transformation
- UI for CaCs do not get any unique combos that make you feel like you are in Ultra Instinct. By contrast, both the Goku variations make you feel every impact of his punches.
- Both Goku variations look cooler, feel more thematic, and still manage to have a good damage output relative to other cast characters. They don't feel downgraded in this form like CaCs do when they have so many better transformation options.
- Neither Goku variant lose the transformation from a stamina break.

"We have ultra instinct at home"
- If you pair Data Input + Meditation (in that order), you can have the auto dodge effect while still having good transformations like SSBE available to you. If you aren't aware, Meditation's timer (20s secondslast I checked) will override the timer of other reinforcement skills, effectively extending their duration and effect while Meditation is active (most reinforcement skills are 10-15 seconds at best). While not good for PvP due to the long animation time, for PvE it's a lot of fun and helps make better use of reinforcement skills that otherwise don't have a lot of utility in Xenoverse 2.