Share stock

Sharing stock, also known as life stealing, is the action of transferring a remaining life to a fallen teammate who has no more lives. This puts the character back into action, with one life, and removes one stock from a team member. This is initiated, by the defeated player, by pressing Start/Pause in Super Smash Bros. and Melee and A+B in Brawl and Smash 4 when out of lives. Naturally, this can only be done in a team stock match, where a teammate has more than one stock remaining. In both Brawl and Smash 4, the announcer yells "Share stock!" when this is performed.

If a team has at least two living players, the stock will be taken from the lower-numbered player.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, CPUs will automatically use share stock in a team match once their own stock has been eliminated. This continues until each team member has one stock left. This is most commonly seen in 8-Player Smash.

Strategy

While it may seem like a simple decision, many factors should be taken into account when choosing to share stock. Firstly, it is wise for team members to discuss or ask permission before stealing a life, not only as it may be considered rude not to do so, but for strategic purposes. For example: If one were to steal a life from a teammate with two stock, but a high damage percentage, this would essentially be similar to swapping lives, as they're likely to be knocked off soon afterward. Of course, communication is not always possible during online matches, so sharing stock in these instances may be more of a personal decision.

One should also take the stage into account when determining whether or not to share stock. Large stages like Temple allow partners to survive to much higher damage percentages, while smaller stages like Final Destination don't.

In tournament doubles, one of the two players on a team is often designated as the "stock tank", typically whichever is controlling the character with higher survivability or better camping. General strategy then revolves around the stock tank playing a defensive role, while the other player plays offensively, borrowing stocks as necessary (as they will be KO'd more often), as being caught in a two-on-one with two stocks is worse than having a two-on-two with one stock each.