Shield Breaker

This page refers to one of Marth's attacks. For the hitbox property that allows fast shield breaking, see shield damage. For information regarding combos that break shields, see shield break combo.

Shield Breaker
File:Sheild Breaker.jpg Shield Breaker in Brawl.
User	Marth
Universe	Fire Emblem

“	[Marth's] Shield Breaker gains power the longer it's held.	”
—Marth's trophy description in Melee

The Shield Breaker (シールドブレイカー Shīrudobureikā) is Marth's neutral special move. It is functionally similar to Roy's Flare Blade. Compared to Flare Blade, Shield Breaker does not deliver as much damage and knockback and lacks an explosion effect, but charges much faster and does not deal any recoil to Marth when released at full charge. True to its name, it deals high shield damage, and will break any shield when fully charged. Despite being able to break any normal shield, however, it may be perfect shielded without any penalty to the receiver.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the move has had a change in animation. Instead of an overhead vertical slash with a large arc area, it has become a single powerful stab. The style used now is much more in kind with Marth's battle animations in the Fire Emblem games. This is to reference Marth's game: Fire Emblem, released in Japan only. Brawl's Shield Breaker deals the same damage as Melee's, charges faster, releases faster, and is easier to sweetspot. It also moves Marth forward slightly, allowing him to use a fully charged Shield Breaker to aid in recovery. Its range, however, makes it harder to strike an enemy with, and as such decreases its efficiency as an edgeguarding tool. The attack is also more predictable because it now makes a small sound during the attack; a not fully charged attack makes a single clashing sound, but a fully charged one makes a louder clash that seems to echo.

Shield Breaker's power has been increased in Super Smash Bros. 4, in order to break shields more effectively.

Reverse Shield Breaker

In Brawl, most neutral special moves can be reversed by tapping the control stick in the opposite direction a few frames after the neutral special move has been activated. Marth's Shield Breaker can be reversed with no increase to damage or knockback and has no reverse animation; this makes reversing only useful if it is used to attack an enemy who has moved behind Marth. It is interesting to note that when Marth activates a reverse Shield Breaker during his running animation, he will turn around and slide forward slightly while charging or releasing the attack. This is probably because the running momentum has switched direction with Marth since there is no animation for the reverse Shield Breaker and pushed him forward as if he didn't turn around at all.

Stages

In Brawl Shield Breaker has stages of damage and knockback, the stages change when the attack is charged until it reaches the last stage then the attack will commence. There are four stages in total with Shield Breaker, stages 1-3 are during the charging process, these stages always do the same damage even if the attack is tipped, tipping these stages will only increase knockback. Stage 4 is when the move is fully charged, this attack has multiple hitboxes which get stronger to the tip of the sword. The stages on can be determined by listening to the "clack" sounds Shield Breaker makes, stage two commences on the third "clack" and stage three can be performed by predicting the fifth "clack". Stage three is difficult to perform because there are only a few frames before the shield breaker is fully charged, attacking in these frames will let the player use this attack. Stage four is when the attack is fully charged, this attack is the strongest in both knockback and damage (unlike most chargeable moves, which have the penultimate stage as the strongest).

Stage	Damage	KO percent (base)	KO percent (tip)
Stage 1	8%	216%	184%
Stage 2	13%	136%	115%
Stage 3	18%	94%	78%
Stage 4	18%-24%	68%	50%

Gallery

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  Shield Breaker in Melee

Marth's special moves

Neutral special	Shield Breaker
Side special	Dancing Blade
Up special	Dolphin Slash
Down special	Counter
Final Smash	—	Critical Hit