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
![](http://static.miraheze.org/dragdownwiki/thumb/8/85/SSBU_Shielding.png/250px-SSBU_Shielding.png)
- Press
or
and hold either trigger button to put up the character's Shield.
Shield Options
While in shield and not in shieldstun, you have a few options to exit shield and counterattack. Such options are described as Out of Shield(OoS) options.
Exiting shield results in a universal shield drop lag of 11 frames. Players will usually opt to bypass this shield drop lag by using Jump, Grab, Up-Bs or Up-Smashes, as they reduce the lag between dropping shield and attacking.
Good offensive OoS options are ones that have
- Fast Startup
- Wide Hitboxes
Type | Notes | Effective Startup |
---|---|---|
Jump Attacks | Has 3F of Jumpsquat before startup of attack. | Startup of Aerial Attack + 3F Jumpsquat |
Up-B | Has no shield drop lag. | Startup of Up-B |
Up-Smash | Has no shield drop lag. | Startup of Up-Smash |
Grab | 4F of shield grab lockout. | Startup of Grab + 4F |
Shield Drop Attack | 11F of shield drop lag. The slowest option. | Startup of attack + 11F |
Other than these offensive options, you also have the ability to Spotdodge, Roll and Jump towards or away to escape shield pressure.
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
![](http://static.miraheze.org/dragdownwiki/thumb/6/68/SSBU_ShieldBreak.png/250px-SSBU_ShieldBreak.png)
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
- Increased hitlag, giving time to react and punish
- Reduced pushback for the defender
- Bypass shield drop lag, giving the defender more options for punishing
- Attacker is generally more minus.
Think of parrying as a minigame: you time your shield release to when the opponent's attack hits. For multihitting moves, you generally want to parry the last hit of the move as it always comes out on a consistent timing. However, this does not apply for all multihit moves(insert moves that can and cannot here)
Perfect Shielding attacks can allow you to punish moves that were either:
- Safe on block
- Unsafe on block but have a lot of pushback that made them unpunishable OoS
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: ![]() ![]() |
-12 |
Direct Projectile (e.g: ![]() ![]() |
+8 |
Indirect Projectile (e.g: Most Projectiles like ![]() |
-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 and why these numbers are the way they are, you can check out SSBWiki here
Takeaways
- Parry normal hits, don't parry projectiles.
- Not all multihit moves can be parried on the last hit
Dodges
Other than shielding on the ground, there are other evasive manouvers that you can take to avoid attacks. They are useful to get out of shield pressure, make an opponent's attack whiff or escape an airborne string of attacks.
Rolls
- Press
or
and flick the Analog Stick Left/Right
/
Spot Dodge
![](http://static.miraheze.org/dragdownwiki/thumb/7/7d/SSBU_SpotDodge.png/250px-SSBU_SpotDodge.png)
- Press
or
and flick the Analog Stick Down
Air Dodges
- While Airborne, press
or
with or without moving the Analog Stick
(PlaceHolder)
Staling (Dodge)
Directional Influence (DI)
- While in hitlag, move and hold the Analog Stick in a direction
(PlaceHolder)
Smash Directional Influence (SDI)
- While in hitlag, move the Analog Stick
(PlaceHolder)
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