Defense

## Guarding

To perform a Guard, press and hold the Guard button (). This can also be done while jumping to perform an Air Guard.

Guarding (or also called blocking) is vital to defending against opponent's attacks. In Wishmere, guarding an attack will not cause any damage to your character, regardless of the type of move that is guarded. Instead, holding Guard will slowly decrease your Guard Gauge. When successfully blocking an attack, the Guard Gauge will take 'chip damage' from the attack. Your Guard Gauge replenishes slowly after a brief cooldown of not using Guard (irregardless of whether you are attacking or even taking damage).

If you are thrown while guarding, the opponent's throw will become an Unbreakable Throw. An unbreakable throw is denoted by the red 'X' appearing on top of the opponent, rendering the throw inescapable, so be aware to release the Guard button () when defending against a throw.

Do note that characters have a specific amounts of Guard Gauge. Below is a table denoting each character's Guard Gauge amount.

 39
 35
 30

For all characters, an emptied out Guard Gauge (where the character has not been Guard Crushed) takes 40 seconds to completely refill.

As a defensive option other than guarding, you can perform a backdash, which can only be performed while guarding. Check the backdash section for more info.

## Guard Crush

When your Guard Gauge is near zero, it will flash white. When it is fully depleted, guarding the next attack will cause your character to be Guard Crushed. When Guard Crushed, your character is vulnerable and wide open to attacks while they are reeling back. After being Guard Crushed, you will be unable to guard until the Guard Gauge has fully replenished.

After being Guard Crushed, your character will be unable to guard for a 10 seconds, which is called Guard Gauge Cooldown. During the cooldown, the Guard Gauge will automatically refill to maximum. Once filled to maximum, the character will be able to guard once again.

Getting Guard Crushed not only leaves you wide open to be attacked, but it also strips you of being able to guard during the Guard Gauge cooldown. As such an unfavorable position to be in, the only way to avoid getting Guard Crushed is to manage your Guard Gauge well:

* Don't guard while your Guard Gauge is critically
* Rely on your character's defensive tools to defend from an opponent's offensive
* Use movement to avoid attacks and keep away from the opponent

## Quick Getup

Quick Getup is a maneuver used to rise off the ground immediately after being knocked down. During a Quick Getup, your character flashes white and is fully invincible to all attacks for a brief period of time.

There are 2 types of Quick Getups: Ground or Air:

To perform a Ground Quick Getup, hold  while your character is floored.

To perform an Air Quick Getup, hold ,  or  while your character is floored. Holding  will make your character do an Air Quick Getup straight up in the air, while holding  or  will make your character performed an Air Quick Getup Backward or Forward respectively.

The Quick Getup can only be performed in the early frames of when your character is knocked down.

A Quick Getup is a tool that can be used to nullify your opponent's attempts to place setups over you or to throw off an offensive player's timing, as they might be expecting you to get up at default speed. A Quick Getup may not be favorable if your opponent has predicted your chosen Quick Getup and thus start their offensive string of attack again, or if they have predicted an Air Quick Getup and perform an anti-air on you, countering your Quick Getup.

Knowing your opponent's character, the matchup and your opponent's habits may dictate if it is best to perform a Ground or an Air Quick Getup or to settle for a default recovery. Though it may seem to be the best course of action to perform a Quick Getup all the time, it may play right into the opponent's hands and they might place you into a setplay.

## Throw Break

Throw Breaks are the only way to escape a throw that has made contact with you. When successfully breaking a throw, both characters will break off and slide backwards simultaneously. Both characters will be at an even ground frame-wise. You can also throw break air throws.

To perform a throw break, press  +  when your character is just about to thrown. To perform a throw break on an air throw, press Light Attack + Hard Attack when your character is just about to thrown in the air.

Only normal throws can be broken, while Ability / Super throws (like Spritz's Juggernaut Explosion) cannot be broken. You are also unable to break Unbreakable Throws.