Shield jump


 * Not to be confused with Shield break jump, or jump out of shield.

A shield jump occurs when a fighter's shield is broken in any  game. The fighter is sent a short distance upward before falling back down. Fighters cannot be controlled during their shield jump or the stun they suffer afterward.

Shield jumps cannot be canceled or interrupted, as the character is intangible during the shield jump (except in Brawl). If a fighter's shield breaks near a ledge, they may fall off the stage and be unable to recover.

Jigglypuff's shield jump
Jigglypuff has the most notable shield jump out of every character. In every Smash Bros. title, breaking Jigglypuff's shield makes it shield jump extremely high, due to a large amount of knockback from the break. Under most circumstances, Jigglypuff passes the upper blast line and gets KOed. This can only be prevented by an overhead obstruction or if another character inflicts knockback on Jigglypuff as it flies.

Due to changes with the upper blast line's behaviour in Smash 4, Jigglypuff can only be Blast KO'd, unless it is tiny on a large stage like Palutena's Temple. Star KOs or Screen KOs are mostly ineffective against Jigglypuff from a shield jump because of its jumping speed. This appears to have been reverted in Ultimate.

It is never officially explained within the games why Jigglypuff has a high shield jump.

Advantages
The first noticeable advantage is in Melee's Adventure Mode, when the player has to escape the exploding Brinstar. This stage consists of a vertical climb, which can be completed a lot faster from shield jumping. However, as this technique requires shield breaking, the Shield Stupidity bonus, worth -2000 points, is awarded to the player. The shield jump enables to reach areas in Brawl's Subspace Emissary that few others could, and complete stages, such as Glacial Peak, in record time.

Custom stages in Brawl
Brawl's introduction of custom stages created a new use for shield jumping: a platform high above the main battlefield can provide Jigglypuff a spot that few other characters can reach or hit with ranged attacks. Only and  can reach a similar height normally. Jigglypuff can be potentially threatened by and 's throws, and other characters can use the bomb jump.

The Super Jiggly Jump
When Jigglypuff's shield breaks, it flies upward with its hitstun animation for a period of time. During this period, Jigglypuff can be KOed from the upper blast zone. If Jigglypuff does not reach the upper blast line until after this period, it continues to fly upwards and beyond the blast line as if it had simply jumped very high. This move is easiest to perform on a ceiling that Jigglypuff only gets stuck on for a short period of time, or with accurate timing as it is pushed away from the ceiling.

One easy way of doing this is on the Brawl stage New Pork City. For this to be executed, Jigglypuff must stand along the right side of the floating structure closest to the middle and shield until it jumps. If Jigglypuff is close enough to the right wall, it skims the wall and continues to be KOed. If a character uses either the Mushroom or the Poison Mushroom, it may possibly escape the stun as it reverts to normal size. This enables the player to move freely during the fall.

It can also be performed underneath certain blocks in the Mushroomy Kingdom stage.

Trivia

 * In Smash 64,, , and use their Star KO voice clips when their shield is broken; all other characters use one of their voice clips for taking heavy knockback.
 * If a shield is broken in the last 5 seconds of a match, the intagilbility is not given.