Shield Dust has no effect on status moves (such as Thunder Wave or Leech Seed) or Max Moves. It also doesn't prevent additional effects that apply to the user, so for example a Pokémon using Flame Charge will still be able to increase its own Speed even if it hits a target that has Shield Dust.
Shield Dust prevents a Pokémon's burn being cured by Sparkling Aria if it is the only target of the attack (even in battles such as Double Battles, as long as there are no other targets of Sparkling Aria); however, if the attack has multiple targets, all targets will be cured on burn even if they have Shield Dust. (Wake-Up Slap and Smelling Salts, which also cure status conditions, are not considered to have additional effects and thus are not affected by Shield Dust.) This behavior is unique to Sparkling Aria—for example, Shield Dust prevents a Pokémon from being paralyzed by Discharge regardless of the number of targets.
Shield Dust effectively prevents the Pokémon from being frozen in battle by any Pokémon (except those with Mold Breaker or one of its variants), as the Freeze status ailment is always caused as a secondary effect of an opponent's move, and the status cannot be passed to another Pokémon via Baton Pass or Synchronize.
Similarly, Shield Dust prevents the Pokémon from flinching as it is always caused as a secondary effect of an opponent's move.
Every Pokémon that can have Shield Dust as an Ability is Bug-type.
Shield Dust is replaced with Shed Skin for the middle stage of every three-stage evolutionary line that has it. Notably, these middle stage Pokémon are all based on cocoons or (in Spewpa's case) cased larvae.
