Attacks You Can Block While Stunned
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 type of stuns, whether it’s from a Rush Attack, Ki Blast, Smash Attack and so on.
Here is a list of these attacks:
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
- The above moves when used as part of a string (check “Combo” section in the skill list)
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 pressing Left/Right (though there are other ways to deflect Ki Blasts that will work even point blank range).
However, while stunned you are allowed to deflect regardless of distance, so in this regard deflect is actually even better while stunned!
There are other differences to deflect while in idle vs stunned, but I’ll go more in detail about the deflect mechanic in a separate 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 multiple examples for this one because it’s the very frequent among beginners to not guard in these situations.
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
And finally, RRCs also aren’t true in front. The point of that tech is to go back to the primary comboset, so as you’d expect you can just guard.
Air Combo
The 4th rush attack of the air combo has quite a long stun, so the enemy can use it to go back to the primary combo set to extend, however as per usual you can just guard.
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, you 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:
Try to not be too predictable over the Rush In Attack you’ll use! Since you have 3 directions, the odds are you in favor!
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 rushing technique except Blaster Wave, Kiai Cannon, Rush Ki Wave can be guarded in front while stunned.
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 Kick
This is the only non vanishable Rushing Technique in the list.
For this one, you need to block High, Up + Guard.
Note that compared to other rushing techniques or smashes, guarding Flying Kicks gives a small to no frame advantage at all (it depends by the animation), so despite being guardable under stun it’s usually nowhere as bad as the others.
Attacks With Multiple Hits
For most of the moves mentioned above, if the enemy character deals multiple hits, you are allowed to guard even after the initial portion of the move hit you.
Here some examples:
If you have been hit by Flying Kicks, you can still guard the remaining hits of the move:
The same applies to Burter’s Ground Slash 1, he is the only character in the game that deals multiple hits with the move:
And finally, Giant Slug and Janemba’s Heavy Finish 1 and 2:
There are two exceptions to this rule:
The first Rush Attack of Comboset 1. Certain characters (such as SS4 Gogeta) deal two hits with it, however you can not guard the second one if the first hits you
Also, fun fact, in Tenkaichi 2 you could!
Picture + description: SS4 Gogeta 1st rush attack (1 Square does 2 hits, but I must hold Circle on the first one to block).
The second exception is 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, else the second hit will just miss):
Combo Section
Aerial Barrage uses Flying Kick 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 mentioned earlier while stunned
Stun Barrier
Stun barrier happens when your character is sent into a wall (clip 1) or body blocked by your opponent (clip 2)
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 stun barrier. Same goes for the other attacks, you can not guard them.
Note that the the enemy can still tech a throw in this situation.
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
You enter this status after Full Power Smash Attacks, Perfect Smash (like in the clip), Hyper Smash, certain Throws (such as Goku Early’s Throw), 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 even think of a way to perform a Rolling Hammer, Heavy Finish, Throw etc. during an Heavy Knock Back to verify.
Obviously you can not deflect/absorb ki blasts in this status either.
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.
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.
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?
He can not guard your Rush Attack under stun barrier, but once you land a rush attack your opponent is under the Rush Attack stun, not stun barrier, so he can guard an Heavy Finish at minimum or medium charge.
Similarly if you shot 3 ki blasts, he can not deflect the first one under stun barrier, but he can deflect the second and third.