Sharing stock, also known aslife stealing, is the action of taking a remainingstock from a teammate while having no more stocks of one's own. This causes the player to respawn with one stock, and removes one stock from a team member. This is initiated by the defeated player by pressingStart/Pause inSuper Smash Bros. andSuper Smash Bros. Melee, andA+B inSuper Smash Bros. Brawl and onward when out of stocks. Naturally, this can only be done in ateam stock battle, and it requires that at least one teammate has more than one stock remaining. In bothBrawl andSSB4, theannouncer will say "Share Stock!" ("Share Player Stock!" in the Japanese version) when this action is performed; inUltimate, he will instead say "Restocked!".

If a team has multiple living players, the stock will be taken from the player with the lowest-numberedport. If multiple players try to steal a stock simultaneously when there aren’t enough stocks for all of them, port priority determines that the lowest-numbered player gets the stock.

Starting withSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U, CPUs will always take a teammate CPU’s stock at every opportunity until no more are available. WhenSSB4 was released, CPUs would take the stock immediately after being KO'd; a later update introduced a realistic delay. In previous games, CPUs never use the share stock function, although players can manually have CPUs share stock inMelee by pressing on a controller connected to the same port as the defeated CPU.

Strategy

Knowing if and when to share stock is considered a critical strategy in team matches. It is generally preferred, if possible, to discuss with one's teammates whether or not to share stock, as doing so without warning may not only be considered rude, but could put their team in a worse position. For example, if one were to steal a stock from a teammate with two stocks and a highdamage percentage, the players would essentially be swapping lives, as that teammate is likely to beKO'd soon afterward (although this may be preferred in case the player "swapping in" has a better chance against the opposing team). Thestage is also an important factor, as larger stages likeTemple allow players to survive to much higher damagepercentages compared to smaller stages likeFinal Destination. When communication is not possible, such as duringonline play, players either use their own judgements or abstain from using the technique entirely.

Intournament doubles, one of the two players on a team is sometimes designated as the "stock tank", typically whichever is controlling the character with higher survivability and/or bettercamping. 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.

Transport glitch

Thetransport glitch is aglitch inSuper Smash Bros. Melee. If one team member has lost all of their stocks, the other teammate jumps a little higher to where the character would re-appear after falling. Then, the screen is paused, and the defeated teammate simultaneously shares stock. If performed correctly, the character that was defeated should instantly appear on screen when the game is unpaused.

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