Super Armor

Super Armor is a property that certain attacks have. Introduced in Street Fighter IV, it is the ability to absorb a single attack without being hurt or even being stunned. When struck while employing Super Armor, the armor disappears but damage is not done. Instead, a portion of the user's Health Meter is greyed out as "provisional damage", instead of losing it outright. The health meter recovers gradually to what it was, with health slowly filling the grey segment, if the player is not hit again. If the player is hit again while recovering heath, however, the amount of health represented by the grey segment which has not yet recovered is permanently lost, as well as whatever other damage the second attack inflicts.

Super Armor is most commonly bestowed upon a character in the middle of a Focus Attack. However, certain other moves - such as Balrog's Dash Straight - also give the user Super Armor. One of its most advantageous qualities is that the being hit once does not interrupt whatever attack the armored character is performing; he or she simply ignores the first strike. The armor is not without its flaws, however; in addition to the very real danger of being hit twice (which does cause the previously armored character to be stunned), the user must also beware certain special attacks which possess the Armor Break property.

Armor Break

In the Street Fighter IV series, most characters have at least one Armor Break attack (such as M. Bison's Psycho Crusher or Guile's Flash Kick) with which to counter Super Armor by stunning and inflicting damage to the Armored character regardless of armor. Moves with this property completely ignore Super Armor to deal damage. When a character with Super Armor is struck by an Armor-Breaking attack, there is a sound of glass shattering and a visual effect to the same effect. The attack proceeds as normal.