Shield
Shielding is an key mechanic to keep yourself alive.
After shielding an attack, the defender will enter a state called shieldstun where they are unable to do anything. Both attacker and defender will experience pushback of varying amounts, depending on the damage dealt and whether the attack was parried.
How to Shield
- Press
or 
and hold either trigger button to put up the character's Shield.
Shield Options
While in shield, you have a couple options
Dodges/Rolls/Shielddrop/Shield-grab lockout
Shield HP
After shielding an attack or while holding down shield, your Shield HP will deplete. This is indicated by the shield decreasing in size.
Areas of the character's body that the shield does not cover will be vulnerable to shield poking. You can tilt your shield in various directions with the Analog stick to better defend against exposed areas of the character's body. Only 
Yoshi is immune to this phenomenon, as their shield does not change in size but rather darkens after taking damage.
If the shield's HP hits 0, the character's shield will break.
Shield Break
If the shield takes too much damage, your character will enter a shield-break animation. During this animation, your character launched up, then falls down before entering a stunned animation. The stun animation will end after the opponent uses an attack that makes you flinch, or a period of time passes.
During this period, you are completely inactionable, leaving you vulnerable to a big punish. However, you can mash to marginally decrease the period you are stunned for.
Shield breaks are often done by chaining together several attacks with small gaps between shield stun, or by landing attacks that deal high enough shield damage like 
Marth's Shield Breaker.
The exception to this scenario is 
Jigglypuff, who will instantly be KO'd when their shield breaks.
Perfect Shield (Parry)
- After shielding for at least 3 frames, drop shield when the opponent's attack connects(5 frame window)
The defender will flash white and their eyes will glow yellow, with a special sound effect played. You are locked out of perfect shielding attempts after shielding an attack normally for 3 frames after shieldstun ends.
The benefits of Perfect Shield
- No Shield Damage
- Reduced pushback for the defender
- Bypass shield drop lag
- Attacker is generally more minus.
Perfect Shielding can be attempted anytime after you perfect shield an attack. Think of it as a minigame: you time your shield release to when the opponent's attack hits.
The frame advantage the defender gets from perfect shielding varies on the type of attack.
How to use: Take attack's on shield and add it to the number listed in advantage
| Type of Attack | Advantage |
|---|---|
| ★Direct Non-Projectile (e.g: Most Sword Aerials) | -3 |
Indirect Non-Projectile (e.g:  Zero Suit Samus D-Smash,  Bayonetta Smash Attacks) |
-12 |
Direct Projectile (e.g:  Snake,  Isabelle U-Smash) |
+8 |
Indirect Projectile (e.g: Most Projectiles like  Wolf Lasers ) |
-1 |
- ★Although this number might seem small, reduced pushback and bypassing shield drop makes it worth to parry.
For more detailed explanation on perfect shielding's frame data you can check out SSBWiki here
Takeaways
- Parry normal hits, don't parry projectiles.
Shielddrop
Shield-grab lockout
Invincibility
Intangibility
Dodges
Airdodges
Rolls
Spotdodges
Staling
Armor
super armor
heavy armor
Damage based
KB based
Subtractive
Hit-Based
Passive armor
Defensive Specials
Counters
Reflectors
Absorbers