DEF

DEF
Japanese	守 (しゅ) 備 (び) 力 (りょく)
Japanese (ruby)	しゅびりょく
Japanese (base text)	守備力
Japanese (romanized)	Shubiryoku
Japanese (translated)	Defense Strength
English	DEF (Defense Points)
Other names French: DEF (Valeur de Défense) German: DEF (Verteidigungspunkte) Italian: DEF (Punti Difesa) Portuguese: DEF (Pontos de Defesa) Spanish: DEF (Puntos de Defensa) Korean: 수비력 (守備力) Subiryeok Traditional Chinese: 守備力 Shǒubèilì / Sau2 bei6 lik6 Formerly: 防守力 Fángshǒulì Simplified Chinese: 守备力 Shǒubèilì

DEF (守 (しゅ) 備 (び) 力 (りょく) Shubiryoku; Chinese: 守備力 Shǒubèilì / Sau2 bei6 lik6, formerly 防守力 Fángshǒulì on the old Chinese-printed Japanese "Dark Magician" and "Blue-Eyes White Dragon") are the points that determine a monster's defense when defending against your opponent's Monster Cards. DEF is short for Defense Points.

If a monster attacks another with an ATK that is greater than the DEF of that monster, the Defense Position monster is destroyed, but the controller of the Defense Position monster takes no Battle Damage unless the attacking monster has a "piercing" effect where the difference between ATK and DEF is dealt as Battle Damage.

If the same situation is reversed, where the ATK is lower than or equal to the opponent's monster's DEF, both monsters remain on the field, but the controller of the attacking monster takes Battle Damage equal to the difference between the ATK and DEF values.

Link Monsters do not have DEF and thus cannot be changed to Defense Position.