In front you can guard against certain attacks even while you are stunned.

I’ll use “Heavy Finish” frequently as example since it offers a very long stun, however this works with almost all kind of stuns, whether it’s from a Rush Attack, a Ki Blast, a Smash Attack and so on.

Attacks You Can Block Under Stun

1, 2, 3 = for chargeable attacks, it means minimum, medium, max charge level.

Ki Blasts (Neutral/Ascending/Dashing Rush Blasts, Neutral/Ascending/Dashing Smash Blasts 1, 2, 3) can be deflected/absorbed
Throws can be tech’d
First Rush Attack of Comboset 1
Rush In Attack (Neutral/Up/Down)
Smash Attacks 1 (Neutral/Up/Down/Right/Left)
Heavy Finish 1 and 2
Rolling Hammer 1
Lift Strike 1
Ground Slash 1
Flying Kicks

Looking at the list you probably noticed that all Smash Attacks and Rushing Techniques can not be guarded under stun at level 3 of charge.
However, as explained in the momentum guide, you’ll need enough momentum and/or stun for max charge attacks to combo, else your enemy will be able to guard, side step etc. before your attack lands

Ki Blasts

You can deflect or absorb Ki Blasts while stunned, this is true for all types (Neutral/Ascending/Dashing Rush Blasts or Smash Blasts).
You can not reflect Smash Blasts though.

After being hit by a Ki Blast you can still deflect/absorb the next ones.

It’s interesting to note that while in idle, if you are very close to your enemy you can not deflect or absorb ki blasts by holding Guard and then press Left/Right normally (there are other ways to deflect Ki Blasts though).
However, while stunned you are allowed to do so regardless of the distance. You can also press guard and left/right on the same frame to start a deflect/absorption animation!
There is more to know about deflect, but it’s best to keep it for a different article.

Throw

In front, you can tech the grab by pressing guard at the right time even while stunned.

First Rush Attack Of Comboset 1

I’ll do a few more examples for this one because it’s the most frequent case among beginners

After a Smash Blast

After a Rush Blast

After Dash Smash

After Dragon Dash Smash

After Heavy Finish

In the last clip I purposely delayed my Rush Attack after Heavy Finish so that my character would return to comboset 1.
If you input a Rush Attack right after your Heavy Finish you will be in Comboset 2, and the 1st Rush Attack of Comboset 2 IS true combo:

Notice the difference: in the previous clip, after Heavy Finish SS4 Gogeta used a punch (first rush attack of comboset 1 animation) but in the second video a kick (first rush attack comboset 2).

The same applies to Rolling Hammer.

Rush Reset Combo

A somewhat common misunderstanding even among players in the competitive scene: RRCs being true in front
I’ll go more in detail over RRCs in a separate guide, but in short it’s a reset some characters can do to return to Comboset 1 after certain Rush Attacks.

Needless to say at this point, the first Rush Attack is NOT true combo in front, so the enemy can just guard.

Another example, using the Air Combo long stun:

Only The First Rush Attack Can Be Guarded Under Stun

What if we purposely make the first Rush Attack miss and hit the enemy with the 2nd, 3rd or 4th Rush Attack?

That will work!
The 1st Rush Attack missed, SS4 Gogeta was too far from the enemy.
We were close enough for the 2nd Rush Attack though, and the enemy couldn’t guard against that!
2nd, 3rd and 4th Rush Attack of Comboset 1 can not be guarded under stun, only the first one can.

Rush In Attack

The Rush In Attack can have 3 directions: neutral, high, low
To block, we need to guess which one the enemy will go for and use the appropriate defense (respectively: neutral guard, low guard, high guard)

Examples for all 3 directions:

Differently from other attacks, this has a 33% chance of success (3 directions), the odds are in favor of the attacking player. If it works you can continue the combo with the second string.
Try to not be too predictable over the Rush In Attack you’ll use!

Smash Attacks

These are not true combo in front, but only at minimum charge. Medium and Max charge can not be guarded if done in combo.

Rushing Techniques

All vanishable rushing techniques are not true combo in front at minimum charge. Heavy Finish is not true combo at medium charge too.

Heavy Finish

Rolling Hammer

Lift Strike

Ground Slash

A reminder that at minimum (and medium) charge, Lift Strike and Ground Slash can be guarded with neutral guard, you don’t need low guard.
Neutral Guard works against all 4 previous attacks!

Flying Kicks

The only non vanishable Rushing Technique in the list.
For this one, you need Up + Guard.

Contrary to other rushing techniques, guarding Flying Kicks gives a small to no frame advantage at all, depending by the animation
In SS4 Gogeta case, the player that guarded flying kicks will be able to shoot the rush blast 1 frame earlier than the opponent:

Meanwhile, in Goku Early case, there is no frame advantage for either player:

Multi Hit attacks

If you have been hit by Flying Kicks, you can still guard the remaining hits of the move:

The same applies to Ground Slash… or better, it applies to Burter‘s Ground Slash 1, he is the only character in the game that deals multiple hits with the move:

And also Giant Slug and Janemba’s Heavy Finish 1 or 2

However, this won’t work against the first Rush Attack of Comboset 1
There is many characters that deal 2 hits, like SS4 Gogeta, but if you don’t guard the first hit, you can not guard the second one.

Picture + description: SS4 Gogeta 1st rush attack (1 Square does 2 hits, but I must hold Circle on the first one to block).

Same goes for Lift Strike, you can’t guard the second hit.
The only multi-hit Lift Strike in the game are the ones of Syn and Omega Shenron when used against Giants:

Combo Section

Aerial Barrage uses Flying Kicks animation.
The Flying Kicks portion of the string however can be guarded (just like standard flying kicks), if we press Up + Guard we can stop it:

Aerial Barrage also uses an Up Smash animation, but it does not count as a minimum charged one, so you can’t guard against it while stunned.

Quite a few moves in the “Combo” skill list are like this.
Take a good look and you should be able to recognize some of the attacks used in the string, from there it’s easy to figure out whether you can guard or not!

Exceptions

Finally, there are a few cases where you can NOT guard the attacks listed earlier under stun

Stun Barriers

We already talked about how a Rolling Hammer 1 can be guarded in front, but as you can see, this doesn’t work if you are under a barrier stun. Same goes for the other attacks, you can not guard them.
Note that the the enemy can still tech a throw in this situation.

CHECK IF YOU CAN DEFLECT/ABSORB

A barrier stun happens when your character is sent into a wall (clip 1) or body blocked by your opponent (clip 2)

Paralysis & Dizziness

While under Paralysis, you are not allowed to take any action until the effect ends, so obviously you can’t guard attacks, deflect ki blasts or tech the throw.

Same applies under dizziness of course.

Heavy Knock Back

GIANT THROW CLIP HERE

You enter this status after Full Power Smash Attacks, Perfect Smash (like in the clip), Hyper Smash, some Throws (like Goku’s Early Throw… or any character’s Giant Throw) etc.
As you can see from the clip, I could not block the 1st Rush Attack of Comboset 1, so it’s true combo in this case!
Probably it’s the same for the other attacks, but I couldn’t think of a way to perform a Rolling Hammer, Heavy Finish, Throw etc. in combo during an Heavy Knock Back to verify. Obviously you can not deflect/absorb ki blasts.

Grab Stall

The enemy can not guard an Heavy Finish 1 or 2, Rush Attack, break your throw, deflect a ki blast etc. in this situation!

Grab stalling happens after you tech a grab or a blast-2 command grab and you use a blast 1 to cancel the animation of your character.
This isn’t a guide to grab stalling, but if you want to know more, Grand Master Hawk has a video on this, I recommend to you watch it!
If you wonder, to cancel the animation I used Nam’s Afterimage in this video. This way Heavy Finish landed before Goku could get out of his animation.
Nam does not have ki blasts. In their place, when you press Ki Blast he performs an Heavy Finish.

Clarifications

Here I’ll go over some common mistakes and questions.

1. My enemy is under stun bannier, I used a Rush Attack, then Heavy Finish but he guarded it, why?
What’s stunning the enemy now? He can not guard your Rush Attack under stun barrier, but once you land a rush attack your opponent is under the stun of the Rush Attack, not stun barrier, so he can guard an Heavy Finish at minimum or medium charge.
Similarly if you do 3 ki blasts, he can not deflect the first one, but he can deflect the second and third.