Many homes are entirely sheathed in plywood or oriented strand board (OSB) during framing, however not every sheathed wall is a shear wall.
Shear walls are exterior or interior walls at key locations that are designed to resist extreme seismic or wind forces. The direction of the forces resisted is parallel to the long axis of the wall.
Shear walls have specific anchoring and fastening requirements designed by structural engineers. They are not fastened to the floor with nails or steel pins, but with anchor bolts on specified spacings. 12" to 32" is not unusual. Bolt size can also vary. Other hardware, such as structural straps or hold-downs connected to posts may also be specified.
Hold downs have specific fastener and bolt diameter requirements and often must be mounted within a specific height range above the floor.
Nails through the panels into the studs are typically 8d gun nails. Ring shank may be specified. Occasionally 10d nails may be specified. Other fasteners (like yellow deck screws!) may not have adequate shear strength.
The nailing schedule may be 2” to 6" (or anything in between) along the panel edges, and 12" in the field (middle of each panel). Typical nailing for non-shear wall panels in most jurisdictions is 6" & 12".
Nails should not break the veneer, since that reduces the effective thickness of the shear panel. Nail guns in which the pressure is set too high can cause nails to be over-driven. When shooting into nominal lumber (not engineered lumber) stud hardness can vary, making pressure adjustment alone a difficult way to ensure that nails are not over-driven. A better way to control nailing is to use a flush nailing device that limits the stroke of the gun driver blade that strikes the head of the nail.