Shield

A shield is a spherical bubble that covers the user, protecting them from all attacks besides grabs, command grabs, and certain special moves that pass through shields. Shields cannot be held indefinitely; they have limited health that depletes when being held, or when being attacked.

Shield HP
Shields take 75% damage from attacks (a move that deals 12% would deal 9 shleid HP).

Shieldstun
When a shield is attacked, the shielder will be put into shieldstun; you cannot lower the shield, roll, or sidestep within 20 frames of getting hit. This will be cut to 10 frames if a powershield is initiated.

Shield knockback
Shields will take knockback and cause the user to be pushed back depending on the base knockback of the move used. For example, a high base knockback move (such as Mr. Game and Watch's Judge 9) will cause the shield to slide far, while a low knockback move (such as Falco's Blaster) will cause the shield to slide a low distance.

If pushed off the stage, the shielder will be autosnapped to the ledge. From there, the shielder will be forced to do a neutral ledge get-up.

Powershielding
If the shield is put up 4 frames before a hitbox connects with it, the move will be powershielded. The user will take one third of the shield damage they normally would, and will be put into 1/4th of the shieldstun. If a shielder powershields a projectile, the projectile will be deflected at a 45 degree angle above the angle it hits at. The deflected projectile will not do any increased damage.

Out-of-shield (OoS) options
There are several options a character can do out of shield. Rolls and sidesteps will stale, meaning that the invincibility provided will diminish more and more as more are used. They are on different counters, which show up on the character HUD.
 * Shield jump: Every character can jump (but not short hop) out of shield. This jump is no different than the character's default ground jump (DJC characters are the exception, as they do their double jump as their shield jump).
 * Shield grab: Every character can grab out of shield. The speed of the grab varies based on the HP of the shield (high health = fast shield grab, low health = slow shield grab).
 * Roll: Every character has a forward and backward roll. Despite normally being aesthetically different, there is no functional difference between them. Rolls provide 30 invincibility frames. Rolls take 15 frames to initiate, and 15 frames to end. The distance traveled is dependent on the character. You cannot be grabbed out of a roll.
 * Spot dodge: Every character has a spot dodge. Spot dodges provide 10 invincibility frames, take 10 frames to initiate, and 10 frames to end. You cannot be grabbed out of a sidestep.
 * Shield drop: If you have your shield up, you can simply put down your shield. It takes 30 frames to just drop a shield.

After 2 rolls, the counter will deplete by 5 invincibility frames per use until the invincibility frames run out, where you will be unable to use a roll.

After 4 sidesteps, the counter will deplete by 2 invincibility frames per use until the invincibility frames run out, where you will be unable to use a roll.

Shield stabbing
As shields deplete, they leave the user more and more open. After a shield's HP has been depleted enough, the user is vulnerable to moves done at the feet and head. The smaller the shield gets, the more open the shielder is. The technique of rapidly applying shield damage to try and poke your opponent out of shield is called shield stabbing.

Shield break
If a shield loses all of its HP, it will break. A break will cause the user to be dizzy, leaving them wide-open for attacks. Unlike the previous games however, there is no shield break jump. Shield breaks will leave the user dizzy for 10 seconds at 0%, and 5 seconds at 100%, where it then reaches minimum dizziness length.

Yoshi
Yoshi has a very unique shield. Instead of a bubble, Yoshi uses an egg to protect itself. This egg turns from white to dark red when taking damage, instead of shrinking like a normal shield. The shield's health is still the same as any other shield, however.

Yoshi's shield takes double the shield knockback, making it harder to punish OoS, but easier to avoid shield breaks.

Kirby
Kirby's shield, being based off of Mirror Kirby, will reflect projectiles as long as it is held. Powershielding reflects projectiles twice as hard.

Double Jump Cancel
Every character with a DJC (Yoshi, Ness, Lucas, and Mewtwo) will do their double jump as their shield jump, instead of their ground jump.

Colors
The shield has varying colors depending on the player:

P1: Red

P2: Blue

P3: Yellow

P4: Green

CPU: Gray