Shields

Active mechanics

Holding down a shield's assigned button holds it up after 0.37 seconds. Attacks that hit the front of the shield are reduced by the shield’s damage absorption percentage (usually 75%) before any other damage reduction effects. Shields’ block damage, listed as their regular damage, is also dealt to enemies using melee attacks.

Tapping a shield's assigned button instead attempts a parry. If no attacks connect within the parry window, the player cannot block or parry again for 0.6 seconds. If a non-shockwave attack hits the shield during the parry window, the attack deals no damage, you can block/parry again immediately, and additional effects occur depending on the attack:

Melee attackers take parry damage, indicated on the shield as its critical damage value.
Ranged attacks are reflected for 80 base damage.
Bombs are reflected for 90 base damage.
Explosions are absorbed without retaliation.
Festering Zombie eggs are turned into biters, which attack enemies.
Any arrows stuck in the parried enemy will return to the player.

Note: Attacks are also automatically parried if they land within the first 0.2 seconds of holding up the shield and the shield's button is still held.

Effect scaling

All Shields’ damage scales with the player's Survival stat, but some also scale with Tactics (e.g Parry Shield and Knockback Shield) or Brutality (e.g Assault Shield and Bloodthirsty Shield).

Damage absorbed while blocking can only be increased by the Shield Absorb affix.

Passive effects

Carrying a shield creates a force field for half a second when the player takes damage. This barrier absorbs most damage, but not damage-over-time from status effects like poison or darkness. Some enemy attacks do not activate the force field, such as that of Lacerators.

Since active force fields reduce the decay recovery by 65%, carrying a shield makes it more difficult to recover recently-lost health.

List of shields

This is a list of all obtainable Shields in the game.

Name	Description	Blueprint location	Base block damage	Base absorbed damage
Old Wooden Shield	Hold to absorb partial damage. Tap to try to parry and block all damage.	Always unlocked	20 (40)	75%
Front Line Shield	Melee attacks inflict 50% extra damage for 6 seconds after a successful parry. The tears of the community are engraved upon the inside of this shield.	Secret area in the Ancient Sewers	25 (50)	75%
Cudgel	Stuns blocked enemies. Stuns lasts longer if a parry is successful.	Always unlocked	20 (40)	75%
Punishment	Blocked attacks inflict damage to nearby enemies. Critical damage if parry is successful.	Puzzle door in Clock Tower; requires Bell Tower Key	40 (64)	75%
Knockback Shield	Blocked attacks knocks enemies back, they take +80 damage if they hit a wall. Double damage for a parry.	Drops from Catchers (0.4%)	40 (80)	75%
Rampart	Absorbs more damage. Generates a force field for 2 sec on a successful melee parry.	Drops from Shieldbearers (0.4%)	20 (40)	85%
Assault Shield	Blocks attacks while charging forward.	Timed door in the Passage before Promenade of the Condemned	33 (66)	75%
Bloodthirsty Shield	Blocked attacks inflict bleeding (15 DPS for 3 sec). Effect extended to nearby enemies on a successful parry.	Drops from Shieldbearers (0.4%)	15 (30) 15 (15) bleeding DPS	75%
Greed Shield	A successful parry knocks out enemies' teeth (1 per enemy every 10 seconds) and transforms arrows into gold.	Always unlocked	50 (100)	75%
Spiked Shield	Inflicts major damage on blocked enemies.	Drops from Cleavers (1.7%)	90 (216)	75%
Parry Shield	Cannot be held up. Blocked grenades and shots are returned with added power.	Secret area in Stilt Village	(52)	0%
Force Shield	Generates a temporary force field when held up. It regenerates slowly when the shield is not held up. Parries speed up the process.	Drops from Festering Zombies (0.4%)	40 (40)	15%
Thunder Shield^RotG	Inflicts 32 electric DPS in front of you for 8 seconds when blocking, or all around you after a successful parry. Use again to stun all nearby enemies. Inflicts 32 shock DPS around for 3 seconds.	Drops from Defenders (100%)	40 (40) 32 (32) shock DPS	50%
Ice Shield	Parrying an attack freezes nearby enemies. Reflected projectiles freeze enemies they hit.	Drops from Shieldbearers (10%)	20 (40)	75%
Alucard's Shield^RtC	Can be used to attack in melee. Deals critical damage after a parry When Alucard uses it in combat, you could say that the dhampir strikes back	Drops from lore room in Castle's Outskirts.	TBA DPS	75%