Material degradation is a multibillion-dollar problem which affects all the industries amongst others. The last decades have seen the development of newer and more effective techniques such as Focused-ion beam(FIB), Transmission electron microscopy(TEM), Secondary-ion mass spectroscopy(SIMS), auger electron spectroscopy(AES), X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) , Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS), Photo- stimulated luminescence spectroscopy(PSLS), etc. to study various forms of material degradation. These techniques are now used routinely to obtain information on the chemical state, depth profiling, composition, stress state, etc. to understand the degradation behavior. This paper describes the use of these techniques specifically applied to materials degradation and failure analysis.