Shielding

*Shielding* is a technique present in all Meteos games.

## Synopsis

*Shielding* is the act of setting up a screen-wide stack, similar as to what one would do to perform a screen clear, but instead of launching the stack off the screen, keeping it's lowermost rows on the screen. The stack should then fall back down to the bottom of the screen, and be launched again. If the process is done properly, this will end up with Meteos constantly being pushed off of the screen.

This technique can only be applied to planets with low gravity and ignition strength, and is most effective on Brabbit, as shown to the right. Though *Shielding* is a difficult technique to learn, it can have a devastating effect on whichever planet is receiving the launched Meteos, and can easily accumulate hundreds of thousands of points.

In Meteos Wars, several methods were introduced to help combat shielding, mostly through the use of Planet Impacts, overall limiting it's effectiveness, while still keeping it a viable technique, in some situations.

## Practical Uses

### Shielding and the Speeder

*Shielding* can be used to even greater effect by combining it with rigorous Speeder use, and is where most of it's effectiveness as a tactic comes from, allowing for attacks greater than 100 Meteos, especially when Meteos start falling at their maximum density. This is actually best seen on Bavoom, despite the fact that Bavoom cannot actually shield at all.

## Notable Planets

Below is a list of planets that possess the capability to shield.

* Brabbit

The planet most notorious for this technique, Brabbit can easily create a shield, and keep it in the air for several launches. This allows Brabbit to remain essentially invulnerable for the entire match, pushing back any and all Burnt Meteos sent to it without much effort. However, any player will need to have the stack land eventually, but it can be rebuilt quickly, allowing Brabbit to be almost invincible in the right hands.

* Wuud

Though Wuud doesn't have as good of a shield as Brabbit, it still can use the technique to great effect.

In Meteos Wars, it was also given the ability to keep the stack in the air for the entire match (three minutes), though this is an incredibly strenuous task, even for an incredibly skilled player, and this implies your opponent's planet is not armed with Armageddon or Tempest.

* Grannest

Although Grannest can shield just like Brabbit and Wuud, it can be harder to maintain as the stack rise and fall speed is affected by the speeder, unlike Brabbit, and the high ignition strength can make it hard to keep a good number of possible ignitions before they are exhausted into burnt meteos. That combined with the high meteo weight can make it even harder to maintain during late game, and for that reason Brabbit and Wuud are generally preferred to Grannest as a shielding planet.

* Dawndus

Seemingly an odd planet to mention and one which otherwise doesn't have any remarkable abilities, Dawndus is surprisingly able to shield as well, though only under very specific conditions. After the 11th ignition, ignition power doesn't rise any higher, and provided the meteo fall rate is high enough or there is extraplanetary interference (such as incoming burnt meteos from an opponent), those ignitions won't be quite strong enough to leave the planet. That combined with Dawndus having an extremely long burnout timer means that it can be arguably the strongest shielding planet so far when talking about Deluge and scoring, but not as popular during short PvP matches where it can't shield right away.

* Gigagush and Mekks

Even though these planets do not have a "proper" shield, their mechanic of all stacks launching with the same amounts of power to a fixed height allows them to perform a similar technique, looking more like a piston than a shield. It can be much harder to maintain a shield in Gigagush though, due to its higher falling speed.