Shielding

Shielding is a technique in Super Smash Flash 2 that is performed when the player holds the shield input down, causing a bubble of energy to surround the character. Shielding renders the character invincible to all attacks except grabs and certain unblockable moves. The bubble shrinks the more it gets hit and the longer the player shields. If the player shields for too long, or if the opponent hits the shield enough to destroy it, the bubble will break and the character will perform a shield jump, in which they will be knocked into the air and stunned for a short period of time, or until receiving knockback.

The color of a shield depends on the player shielding. For computer players, shields are always gray in color. For player-controlled characters, shields are normally red, blue, yellow, and green for players one, two, three and four respectively, and in Team Battle, shields are colored after the player's team color.

Yoshi's shield
has a unique shield that works differently in comparison to the normal shield. Instead of a bubble, he completely surrounds himself in an egg. The egg does not shrink, but instead darkens from white to dark red. Due to this property, Yoshi is immune to shield stabbing, as his shield will always completely envelop him.

Krystal's shield
's shield works very similarly to Yoshi's, in that she creates a bright force field that completely surrounds herself. The force field does not shrink, but instead darkens overtime. Like with Yoshi's shield, this makes Krystal immune to shield stabbing.

Jigglypuff's shield
has a large shield compared to its body, which shrinks at a slower rate than other characters' shields. However, if its shield is broken, the force of the knockback will send Jigglypuff soaring into the air and, without a ceiling, cause it to be Star KO'ed.

Shield grabbing
A shield grab is the act of grabbing while shielding. It is used to punish attacks when they are blocked because the attacker will be caught in the lag of their attacks and the defender's grab can connect with little trouble. Shield grabs allow a character to get around the delay of dropping the shield.

Input-wise, grabbing is the same as shielding and attacking at the same time, so shield grabs can also be done just by pushing the attack input while shielding, instead of pressing the grab button.

Running shield
Running shield, also known as dashing shield is a technique that is preformed by shielding while running (not in the initial dash animation), which makes the shielding character slide a short distance. Sliding versions of out-of-shield techniques can come from this, such as dashing shield grab. Running shield can work similarly to a dash cancel.

Shield poke
A shield poke, also known as a shield stab, is the event of finding a damageable portion of a character slightly outside of their shield and striking it bypassing their attempt to shield. This is a useful technique because it can used to strike an otherwise defended enemy.

Some characters are easier to shield stab then others. and are too tall for a spherical bubble to cover properly, while characters who are too short or round such as  and Jigglypuff are hard to shield stab for similar reasons.

Some moves are more suited for shield poking than others. Multi-hit moves like the Mach Tornado when used at their maximum range can deplete a shield with the first few hits and then hit the opponent on the next few. The hitbox shape of a move also affects its shield stabbing viability; for instance, 's down tilt hits very low to the ground, and it could hit the opponent's uncovered feet without touching their shield center.

As mentioned above, due Yoshi's and Krystal's unique shields, they cannot be normally shield stabbed.

Shield stun
Shield stun, also known as shield hitlag, is the effect a character experiences when their shield is hit and they begin to slide. During this time, the shielding player will not be able to do anything. This ends up becoming a problem when the opponent consistently hits a player's shield, creating shield pressure. The shielding player will be unable to react or prevent the opponent from breaking their shield.

Trivia

 * In v0.5b of the demo, had his own unique shield similar to Yoshi's and Krystal's in which he would surround himself with a force field in addition to his normal shield. However, this was cut in v0.6.