Luckily My Shield Will Protect Me / Video Games

"Gawrsh."

Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me in Video Games.

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• Ancient Domains of Mystery allows the character to wield two shields. The shields mostly give bonuses to DV, which causes attacks to miss or be blocked, but most of them also have a small PV bonus, which is deduced from damage actually taken. When two shields are wielded, attacking is impossible, but spellcasting isn't — and it isn't hindered by armour in any way, either.
• ANNO: Mutationem: One of Ann's secondary equipment is an energy shield that she can utilize to block and lower damage from enemies. In addition to blocking attacks, the shield can be used to induce a counter-strike once the shield is brought out at the precise moment of an attack to stun an opponent and deliver additional damage as well as reflecting projectiles.
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has an odd take on this where while they can have a one-handed weapon along with a shield, Eivor can just as well Dual Wield shields together.
• Only a handful of classes in Atlantica Online can use a shield. Other classes carry different things in the same slot, such as ammo for ranged and orbs for casters.
• Used by the Player Character in Avalon Code. While it won't be much use at first, it's pretty much the only way to defeat the Big Bad.
• The Bard's Tale Trilogy allows any character to wield to shield. This is basically useless for melee attackers, but perfect for spellcasters, who get all of the defence boosts without hindering their magical capabilities.
• Mooks in Batman: Arkham City will start wielding riot shields about half way through the game as Dr. Hugo Strange starts giving them more and more weaponry. The shields prevent Batman from physically harming them and must be disarmed before actually taking them down. However, the shields can be picked up again, so if one mook loses it, another can pick it up and give Bats a hard time that way! Also, the Shield Bash cannot be countered.
• In Battle Brothers, shields are absolutely crucial for protecting the frontline fighters, being second only to helmets in overall importance. The most viable layout is generally to have half the company form the shieldwall, while the other half stands behind with bows, switching to polearms during the engagements with the Ancient Dead. One of the reasons Orcs are considered the toughest opponent is their ability to outright break shields.
• Bonfire: Hildie's massive tower shield is even more prominent in her design than her Cool Sword, reflecting her role as your Stone Wall.
• Kota from Bound by Blades wields two shields at once - a small, circular one with protrudign blades, and a larger conventional one which deflects all incoming attacks. The latter even doubles as an Attack Reflector.
• In The Binding of Isaac, the Trinity Shield allows Isaac to block all bullet attacks from the front, though it won't work on piercing attacks like the Brimstone blood laser. The shield moves to match the direction Isaac is currently facing.
• A strange subversion in Bloodborne. Being that the game is developed by FromSoftware, makers of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, players may expect to have to use shields because they were borderline essential in From Soft's prior games. But while a shield is present within the game, the game discourages use of shields with the addition of firearms that compete with them for the off-hand slot and the Rally/Regain mechanic, which allows players to replenish lost health by striking back as quickly as possible. Not only that, but a shield's item description subtly mocks players expecting Bloodborne to be like From Software's other games.
  • There is also an early enemy type that uses a shield. It's bright orange, does little damage (on the rare occasions it actually attacks), and takes two hits to kill: one to effortlessly smack the shield away, and one to instantly kill it. All this serves as an early indicator that this isn't a game where shields will help you.
• Bloodline Champions has a very large shield for the Vanguard bloodline. Used for their Shield Bash and Reflect ability.
• Borderlands
  • There are two types of physically shielded enemies in Borderlands. The first, Crimson Lance Defenders, have huge ballistic style shields that pretty much block every single attack. Fortunately they're not super strong and enough continuous hits to the shield will push it aside, leaving them vulnerable. The second are Spiderants, whose armored head functions pretty much the same as a ballistic shield. Again, multiple rapid hits will force them to one side but they are much much easier to outflank and hit from behind (or above).
  • Borderlands 2 has no Crimson Lance, but instead introduces Nomad torturers which use massive shields, sometimes covered in spikes or with a midget strapped to the front (to cover up a hole). BUL loaders use their front plate as a shield aswell, though it's a lot smaller.
  • Ex-Crimson Lance Vault Hunter Athena in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! has, as her Action skill, whipping out a shield that renders her effectively invulnerable to fire from in front of her; when the duration runs out or you press the trigger again, she flings it at an enemy's head, dealing damage. Her Phalanx tree focuses on buffing its effects so that Athena with shields up is a super-tanky regenerating monster capable of dishing out tons of damage while taking none in return, while her Ceraunic Storm lets her shield create firestorms when thrown and call down thunderbolts on people who attack it. (Her third tree, Xiphos, focuses more on her sword.)
• One of the later transformations of the A Boy and His Blob remake is a shield which deflects enemy projectiles and some of the enemies themselves.
• In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Alucard can use various shields—activating them blocks missile attacks, and some of them can be used for magic attacks with the "Shield Rod" or "Mablung Sword" weapons. In the hands of a savvy player, the Alucard Shield turns this into Luckily My Shield Will Win The Whole Game For Me. When you use the Shield Rod or Mablung Sword with the Alucard Shield, your shield gains an unblockable Collision Damage attack that does ludicrously high damage, heals you with every hit, restores your hearts (subweapon ammo) and gives you several seconds of invincibility. Well thought-out, it wasn't.
• A villainous example occurs in Chrono Trigger. Your characters themselves don't carry shields (except for Frog in the official artwork, but that's Gameplay and Story Segregation), but a number of enemies carry shields that make them almost invincible until they lower them to attack.
• City of Heroes introduced the long-awaited Shield Defense powerset for melee classes (except Stalkers) in 2008, meaning that Blue Steel, local Memetic Badass and superhero cop, could finally be represented in-game. The shields usable by players are heavily customisable. For a long time the fan theory for Blue Steel was that his attacks were Shield Offense but this was stated not to be the case by Word of God. When he was finally put into the game as a fightable character (which wasn't until early 2012, less than a year before the game closed), he used the shield for defense and a police baton for attacks.
• In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, the Allied peacekeepers (basic soldiers) look more like riot police then front-line soldiers. Their primary weapon is a Short-Range Shotgun, but they also have a metal shield that they can deploy to protect against bullets, while they slowly walk towards the target (disabling their attack) in order to unleash their weapon.
• Every shield in Conqueror's Blade is a physical object which will physically block incoming attacks as long as it's being held up. Tower-shield units leverage this trope to create huge, impenetrable walls of shields and keep squishier allied units safe behind them.
• In all Counter-Strike games before Source, there was a riot shield that blocked all damage that occurred in front of a player. Although this riot shield would take up both the primary and secondary slots, leaving one with only a knife, and earning one the hatred of professional players.
• Crossed Swords have you playing as a warrior armed with a sword and shield, the latter which can block attack from weapons, projectiles, and even fireballs, energy blasts, and assorted deadly spells. You'll need to use the block button in time for it to work though, and you're unable to attack enemies while blocking.
• In Dark Devotion, the player can equip a shield in their offhand while wielding a one-handed weapon. They can then block enemy attacks at the cost of some stamina, though some attacks are unblockable.
• In Dark Souls, much like Demon's Souls, you will die. But you will die even more without a good shield, preferably one with high stability to prevent you from being staggered. Even then, you'll need to either invest heavily in stamina or get good at dodging and weaving around attacks, because a good, strong hit will likely stagger you, leaving you open to a horrible mangling immediately afterward.
  • Dark Souls II is similar to its two predecessors, only with the addition of a new enemy type that dual-wields massive greatshields. They drop the Orma's and Reeve's Greatshields, the descriptions of which claim that the knights "playfully" crush their opponents into submission.
• When Kris defends in Deltarune, they turn their sword into a shield.
• Demon's Souls allows you to equip anything onto either hands, including two shields. There is a spiked shield that you can use to attack with, but given the difficulty of the game, it's probably better to use a real weapon.
  • It is also possible to dual-wield anything in the game, blocking with a shield while doing so has them cowering behind it.
• Diablo II, in respect of being a Fantasy RPG, features shields. Notably, the Paladin class has both a handful of special shields as his class items and a few abilities that require shield use.
  • Specifically the build known as the Smitadin revolved around shields. The build focuses on the ability Smite, which is a Shield Bash that knocks back and stuns enemies and does damage based on what type of shield you have equipped and your defensive stats. It's already a very fast attack and can be augmented further with the Fanaticism Aura, allowing for multiple hits per second. Things get really over the top when all stats (beyond those needed to equip gear) are focused defensively. The Smitadin turns into a walking juggernaut with a 95% chance to dodge and a 90% reduction in damage taken, becoming the only build that can tank Duriel face to face and even stand in Diablo's fire lightning, as well as one of only a handful of builds capable of easily soloing Hell difficulty — only running into problems when faced with physical immune enemies.
• Doom Eternal: The Marauder carries an energy shield that can block all of the Doom Slayer's attacks, even from the BFG 9000 and the Crucible. He's still vulnerable to splash damage from explosions and he leaves himself open when he swings his axe.
• Dota 2 has its share of shields. The first hero with a prominent shield is Dragon Knight, who possess a shield bash and plenty of tankiness (although the whole "infused with dragon blood" thing helps with the latter). Mars, on the other hand, uses his shield to block damage from the front with his Bulwark ability. Activating this ability will lock the direction Mars is facing, allowing him to block even when retreating from enemies, and will redirect attack projectiles toward him, at the cost of putting his spear away and leaving him unable to attack normally. It's also used for bashing people in front of him, so he's not completely harmless with Bulwark activated.
  • The basic Stout Shield gives a chance to reduce damage from basic attacks; useful to help mitigate harass in laning. Agility heroes can tack on a couple of Slippers of Agility to turn the item into a Poor Man's Shield, combining the agility from the two slippers into one item and always reducing damage from an enemy hero's basic attacks. Both of these items have since been scrapped after it became clear that no melee hero would leave home without them; the Poor Man's Shield was eventually re-added as a Random Drop from neutral creeps (limiting it to one per team at most, since it was a bit too busted when everybody could have one) while Stout Shield's protection was given to all melee heroes as an innate ability.
  • Vanguard is the alternate build path for the Stout Shield (until Stout Shield was removed and Vanguard was made a stand-alone item), providing a bigger version of the damage block passive and some extra health for good measure. Vanguard itself can be built into a couple of more expensive items, neither of which are shields.
  • Buckler passively bestows an aura that gives bonus armor to all nearby allies, making it a case of "my shield will protect everyone around me", and can be upgraded into a couple of items with the same armor-granting effect (but are not actually shields). It can also be toggled to only affect heroes if you don't feel like pushing your lane too close to the enemy's tower early in the game. Formerly, it gave a temporary area-of-effect armor buff when activated and also upgraded into items that similarly gave armor bonuses when used.
• Dragon Age:
  • Dragon Age: Origins has shields equipable by all classes, but only the warrior gets special skills to use them. As with Dwarf Fortress and Final Fantasy XII, shields in DA boosts the chance of avoiding damage rather than reduce damage received. The special abilities include bashing enemies with them, becoming immune to flanking, reducing damage, and further increasing the evasion rate, amongst others. The style has far less offensive options than two-weapon style and two handed weapon style, but the stacking defensive buffs you get at high levels make a weapon-and-shield warrior practically invulnerable. It's a supreme case of Boring, but Practical.
  • Dragon Age II also has weapon-and-shield as a Warrior build, and when combined with her class talent, a few strategically-placed points in Defender, and a whole-party Arcane Shield buff, Aveline is effectively invincible.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition also features this as a Warrior build. While you can build any of your warrior companions however you like, Cassandra and Blackwall are the ones depicted with shields in promo material and when you first meet them. Commander Cullen also uses a shield during his brief stints as a Guest-Star Party Member.
• In Dragon Quest IX, shields are among the strongest skills to learn, and highly recommended to master first, as it makes even your wizards, Fragile Speedsters, and healers noticeably durable in pinches. Mastering them allows you to equip one regardless of class, and with one equipped, grants a passive +6% evasion, gives you access to powerful defensive skills like 'Defending Champion' (a 3mp ability that reduces ALL damage taken that turn by roughly 90%), Magic Mirror (a 4mp skill that reflects all harmful spells back at the user for several turns), Holy Impregnable (a skill that protect the user from all status effects for several turns, and Immense Defence (Increases block chance for several turns). Mastering this skill also grants you access to a sidequest that awards a scroll that, when held in a character's inventory, stops any and all Critical Hits from harming them, which is godly for tanks, healers, and solo hero runs (sadly it gotten rather late outside of a grotto).
  • Shield is a critical equipment in Dragon Quest Swords, as it's the only way to avoid or reduce direct damage done by an enemy. You need to use an item to repair your broken-down shield on the fly if you don't want to be overwheimed by powerful attacks since you can't dodge any attacks and the only other defensive option is to swat enemy projectiles back at them.
• Dungeon Crawl takes this trope pretty seriously, as using a shield gives you a separate SH score instead of just adding to your AC. The higher your SH score, the better chances you have of outright blocking attacks. Certain magical shields (or a type of magical amulet) can even allow you to reflect ranged attacks back at your attackers! Of course, this being Dungeon Crawl, there are drawbacks — several kinds of attacks cannot be blocked by a shield at all (such as area-of-effect spells or enchantments), blocking gets harder the more attacks you have to deal with (meaning you can still get overwhelmed when fighting multiple foes), and using a shield makes it harder to use magic and impossible to use the more damaging two-handed weapons.
• An important feature in Dwarf Fortress, with realistic mechanics: they increase the wearer's chance to block an attack entirely rather than reducing damage, as DF has a separate parry roll instead of abstracting it into the armour stat. They alo have a useful secondary function as a surprisingly effective Improvised Weapon, and learning how to use a shield is a separate skill from both weapons and armor use.
  • Less realistically, a long-standing bug with how carrying multiple weapons is handled lets adventure mode players equip 20 or more shields, each with a chance of blocking every attack. Even without this glitch, creatures with many grasping limbs can still equip multiple shields, one per grasper, making them extremely hard to hit.
  • You can also block any attack besides a charge entirely even if it makes no sense; shields are currently all indestructible, even the wood ones, and can block streams of fire or gas and hits from things much, much larger than the shield's holder.
• The Dynasty Warriors franchise contains several characters that sport shields. The shields are mainly used as part of a character's moveset, such as tossing it at foes or bashing enemies' heads in. Since all characters are able to block/guard anyway, having a shield doesn't offer any extra defense than without one. It simply is an aesthetic change, since they'll raise their shield to defend against attacks.
  • The main Dynasty Warriors series has Cao Ren and Xing Cai. Lu Linqi will also carry a shield in the 9th entry.
  • The Samurai Warriors games have Muneshige Tachibana, who wields a sword and shield.
  • Hyrule Warriors has the sword and shield moveset for Link.
  • The Arslan crossover game has Zaravant, who carries a shield with his spear.
  • Warriors: Legends of Troy has many shield-toting characters.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • The series' has included the use of shields since its inception, though their use changes drastically over the course of the series. One universal trait is that using a shield limits you to the use of one-handed weapons. To note:
    • In Arena and Daggerfall, shields are treated as a piece of armor and range from bucklers to tower shields, with the size of the shield dictating how much of the character's body is protected.
    • Morrowind introduces the "Block" skill and, while shields are still considered a piece of armor which counts toward your overall armor rating, it is also the first to give them the ability to block an incoming non-magical attack (with the damage instead being taken out of the shield's condition). This is not an "active" ability however, and the chance that it triggers is based on the Block skill and Luck attribute.
    • Oblivion follows Morrowinds lead, but allows for active blocking with the shield. The Block skill, as well as the quality of the shield, determine how much damage the shield block will absorb. You also cannot attack while actively blocking with your shield.
    • Skyrim expands greatly on Oblivion's use of shields by giving the Block skill its own perk tree and some revamped mechanics. In addition to blocking attacks as in previous games, shields now have a bash attack that has a chance to stagger an opponent and interrupt power attacks if used as a counter-attack. The perk tree expands further on shield usage with extra bonuses like a major boost to elemental resistance (which is especially handy in dragon fights) and the ability to negate damage from arrows. To add to the hilarity, damage reduced by blocking compounds with damage reduced by your armor, which can both go up to 80%, meaning that any physical attack that you block with a maximum block and armor rating is essentially reduced to 3% effectiveness.
  • The series' has a few legendary "artifact" shields of note:
    • Spell Breaker is an artifact shield associated with the Daedric Prince Peryite. It has made several appearances in the series, typically being an Infinity +1 Shield which can also block incoming magic attacks. (Standard shields typically do nothing against magical attacks.)
    • Eleidon's Ward is another artifact shield, taking the form of a large white tower shield which can heal the bearer. In ages past, Breton baron spent all of his riches to have it crafted and enchanted as a reward for a knight who rescued his daughter.
• The End Times: Vermintide and Vermintide II:
  • Bardin the dwarf and Markus the imperial soldier can both wield shields for extra damage-tanking capability. Weapon-and-shield combinations have extra Stamina for blocking and shoving, plus the ability to block special attacks like a Ratling Gun barrage.
  • Some armored Elite Mooks in the sequel carry shields, which helps them No-Sell poorly aimed attacks from the heroes and protect weaker units around them.
• Eternal Card Game features a few shields, which mostly boost your units' health.
• Etrian Odyssey: The Protector class uses shields, which is visually more prominent than their swords◊. The shield is used for most of their special abilities, particularly when it is used as a weapon for the powerful Smite attack.
• Paladins in Fantasy Life can use their shield to greatly reduce or block damage for a cost in stamina.
• Fate/Grand Order:
  • Mash, being summoned as a unique "Shielder"-class Servant, carries around an enormous shield. As one might expect, she's mostly a defensive-based character, though she can smack enemies around with the shield as an attack. The shield is also her Noble Phantasm, and when it's used to its full power, there's very little that can break through it. Even Saber's Excalibur, one of the stronger offensive Noble Phantasms in the story, was deflected. One thing that makes the shield especially noteworthy is that the shield is "a shield of heart"; as long as her heart never falters, it would hold forever. That's why it can survive Gorgon's petrifying gaze while Leonidas' shield couldn't; Leonidas' shield is a physical shield unlike hers. This attribute is also why her shield could withstand an attack that is said capable of destroying 3000 years worth of human history. By the time the attack subsides, she gets disintegrated and only her shield remains because "her body gave up before her will did".
  • Bradamante, one of Charlemagne's 12 Paladins, has a shield made of light that she pilfers from the evil wizard Atlantes. It, combined with her other magical artifacts, makes her almost completely immune of magic and curses.
• Final Fantasy goes back and forth on shields.
  • In the original Final Fantasy, shields are simply defense-boosting armor. The remakes, however, give shields a chance of blocking physical attacks, which is counted as a miss on the enemy's part. Strangely, shields can block poison damage too.
  • Final Fantasy II allowed characters to dual-wield shields. This made it impossible for them to attack in melee, but made them extremely fast in early game through raising their Evasion-%, which in turn raises their turn order in battle. It also gives enough of an Evasion-% boost to equip the heaviest armor while retaining max Evasion-%, making it ideal for characters who rely on magic for offense.
  • Dual Wielding shields is one of the most viable ways to use the Viking class in Final Fantasy III, whose specialty is drawing physical attacks towards itself.
  • In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Dual Wielding a certain set of shields can be game breaking for Black Mages. Equipping the Fire Shield (absorbs fire), the Frost Shield (absorbs ice), and the Thunder Robes (absorbs lightning) allow a Black Mage to heal himself with his highly damaging spells. Area of effect often means a close range Black Mage can deal damage and heal at the same time, and the two shields make being in close range a lot more viable. This tactic is used against you in a few missions where a recurring enemy Black Mage absorbs fire, ice, and lightning based on this tactic.
    • Units that can use a shield can also dual wield shields for high evasion, but no weapons equipped means the unit will be quite weak unless their strength is extremely high. The Master Monk job can use this tactic to great effect since the class has a pretty nice evasion stat and by equipping two copies of the shields that give the most evasion bonus, the unit can pretty much reduce the chances of attacks hitting him by half! Moreover, it attacks the best when it's bare-handed, and equipping two shields still counts as being bare-handed.
  • One peculiar shield in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, the Adamant Shield, is usable by all characters in the game, including those who can't normally use shields. Those characters who can wield two weapons have the option of using two of these shields. While this cripples the attack of the two ninjas who can do this, the monks are still perfectly capable of punching at full strength even while equipping a pair of these shields. Given the massive stat benefits of this shield, it's actually a useful tactic — if you managed to grind enough to get two of them, that is.
  • Final Fantasy VI had possibly the most useful shields in the series, given that they not only boosted characters' evasion, but also gave substantial defense bonuses as well. They would be even more useful in the original if the Evade stat actually did anything.
  • The Warrior of Light, Dissidia's combination Knight in Shining Armor-Cape, is one of only two members of the cast to retain a shield. Very rarely is it actually used to guard attack, though; our buddy WoL seems to be taking cues from another well-known cape and using it as a projectile weapon more than anything.
    • Firion, meanwhile, has a small buckler. He doesn't use it to bash enemies with, however. Instead, he uses it to invoke a Beehive Barrier to block and counter attacks with.
  • Shields in Final Fantasy XI can be used by Paladins to smack an enemy in the face, with the job also having a bonus while blocking with it, and a spell to boost the blocking rate as well as reflect damage back to the enemy. There's even an Infinity Plus One Shield, which isn't as mind-numbingly bad to get compared to the other relics. Other classes can use some shields as well, although Dual Wielding is normally favored instead of using a shield.
  • Final Fantasy XII shields do not boost defense, but rather evasion—since you can equip as well armor with a very high defensive stat, plus certain weapons and accessories that boost your evasion even more, well...you can see where this is heading.
    • Except for enemies (read: any monster where a high evasion would be helpful) that can ignore evasion, making shields useless sans their added effects & magic evasion.
  • Final Fantasy XIV has shields that are used by Gladiators and their job counterpart Paladins. Shields can parry most attacks, which reduces incoming damage to the player. Shields are also used in the job's Shield Bash and Shield Swipe moves which causes Stun and Pacification respectively. Casters and healers were also able to use shields, but they were phased out in later patches.
• In Fire Emblem games, Paladins and knights may or may not carry shields depending on the game. For knights/Armors (slow, heavily armored foot soldiers) from the GBA games, the shield is actually their massive breastplate, which comes off and can be carried in the hand for some reason. The RNG can make those shields either useless or unbreakable. Armors and Soldiers in Radiant Dawn and the DS installments also block attacks as their 'Miss' animation.
  • The Fire Emblem in the first and third game (and their remakes) is an Ancestral Shield.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden, characters have the option to equip a shield for extra defense, instead of a more powerful weapon or accessory.
  • The Hero class unit gets a shield, and has extra defense stats over the Swordmaster to go with it. They don't do much with them, though, aside from throwing them into their air for their critical hits in the GBA games: judging from the rest of their attack animation, it also either doubles as a sheath for their sword or they hold their swords behind their shields. They do block in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem and in the DS titles as their 'Miss' animation though.
  • Shields make a return as equippable items in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, providing boosts to defensive stats at the cost of reducing Attack Speed.
• Some of the hero classes in For Honor wield shields in addition to their weapon; the Conqueror from the Knights, and the Warlord and Valkyrie from the Vikings. Their shields give them improved defensive ability and can also be used to smash into enemies, stunning them or knocking them over. The regular soldier mooks from each faction also wield shields but they might as well be made of paper for how well they go up against hero characters. The Samurai are the only faction to have no shield-using heroes.
• The Front Mission series has shields as one of the more common pieces of Wanzer equipment, but they're mounted to the shoulders. Pretty useful, since quite a few of the available arms didn't have hands.
• Triss, the leader of the Full Metal Furies, carries a concave metal shield.
• Hailey in Gamer 2 has a deflector plate that will block a single attack, but go bouncing away as a result. She'll have to retrieve it or remain a One-Hit-Point Wonder until she reaches a Checkpoint.
• In Gears of War players can use metal retractable shields that block all bullets. They also block large and non-humanoid enemies from passing in single player and hoard mode.
  • In the second game players can also use fallen enemies as human shields, but they eventually break apart if shot enough.
• The Girl and the Robot: The robot carries around a shield it can use to protect itself from attacks.
• The SRPG Gladius has the Myrmidon, who has a skill pool devoted almost entirely to shield use (including the ability to throw their shield a la Captain America for large amounts of damage), as well as special, sometimes rather powerful, shields that only they can use. The downside to this is shields have durability in this game, and if the shield breaks it is gone for good, so one may end up having to spend a lot of money re-equiping the Myrmidon, and once their shield is broken, the Myrmidon is pretty much crippled for the fight. That said, there are unbreakable shields for the Myrmidon. Once you get those, only very specific skills can ever disarm them.
• Most Knight Borgs in Gotcha Force wield shields as well as their weapon of choice. The Imperial and Dark Knights, however, wield ''two'' shields, with extendable swords inside.
• Shields are very useful in Grim Dawn. Not only can they block a portion of physical damage, they can also block magical ones. It also has a Cooldown between uses. The Soldier class has many abilities that require a shield, and the Oathkeeper benefits both defensively and offensively from having one.
• Shields are commonly used by Warriors and Paragons in Guild Wars. Depending on the build of the player, however, any class can find a shield handy if engaging in melee combat.
• In Gunz 2 the new class called Shield Trooper (whose NPC identity is named Max) utilizes Shields to deflect gunfire and advance on enemies, and also has bashing attacks with it.
• In Hades, protagonist Zagreus can wield Aegis, the shield of Zeus, into battle. It can be used to attack with a Shield Bash or thrown at enemies, or Zagreus can hold down the attack button for a Dash Attack that makes him immune to attacks from the front while charging.
• The Hunters of Halo carry giant nigh-impenetrable metal shields made up of the same material the Covenant use to make their spaceships.
  • Most Jackals (all but the snipers and marksmen) are equipped with a handheld energy shield. It's not invulnerable and will fail under sustained fire (especially from energy weapons) and melee attacks, but it's more efficient to either flank them or shoot through a notch in the shield and take advantage of the opening when the Jackal flinches.
  • Skirmisher Murmillones wield two shields, one at each arm, which are much smaller but still effective at deflecting fire, and allow the Skirmisher to remain highly mobile, making an already hard target even more frustrating.
  • Elites in the expanded universe have been shown to wield various types of handheld shields, but are reluctant to do so out of a misplaced sense of honor save in the most necessary circumstances such as when Rtas 'Vadumee and his Elite squadron were forced to activate them to get through a group of Flood during the events of The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor.
  • Forerunners utilized a Hard Light Shield, featured in Halo 4 as both an Armor Ability players can pick up and a defensive measure produced by Watchers. It's nigh-invulnerable to every weapon in the game but has a limited (rechargeable) battery.
• Hearthstone:
  • Warrior's hero power, Armor Up!, grants two armor each time it's used and shows a shield as its icon. Warriors also have access to spells like Shield Slam which deals damage to a minion based on how much armor they have, and Shield Block that grants 5 armor and draws a card.
  • Taunt minions protect your non-Taunt minions and hero from being attacked, and their border is shaped like a shield while on the board. Many Taunt minions are shown holding shields, such as the iconic Sen'jin Shieldmasta.
  • Bulwark of Azzinoth is a legendary Warrior weapon that prevents all incoming damage, but loses one durability each time it blocks a hit. Great against burst damage, but nearly useless against Death of a Thousand Cuts attacks.
  • Paladins have a minion called Goody Two-Shields, which is a dwarf that's holding a shield in each hand. Naturally, her effect gives her Divine Shield (prevents damage once then breaks) and lets her gain a second Divine Shield the first time you cast a spell. Humourously, that same dwarf can be seen accidentally dropping her shield in the artwork for the Warrior card In Formation, explaining why she now carries two.
  • The paladin Hero card Lightforged Cariel equips you with The Immovable Object, a 2/5 shield that halves all incoming damage and never loses durability.
• Shields in Helen's Mysterious Castle have no offensive capability (save for one that acts as an Attack Reflector) but have the highest raw Defense stats out of any item Helen can use. Pulling out a shield right before your opponent attacks is a common tactic in the game's Combatant Cooldown System.
• In Heroes of Might and Magic V, some units use shields to reduce damage taken from enemy ranged attacks. Some can even use it to protect nearby allies and use them offensively by smacking them into the face of the enemy, stunning them.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Goofy exclusively uses a shield; the manual explains this by saying he despises weapons. Notably, in the first game, many of his shields fall into one of two categories: those meant for defending and those meant for bashing.
  • The first game also lets Sora get in on the action if he picks the Dream Shield during the Dive to the Heart tutorial, representing the power of the guardian. Goofy can wield this shield in the first game and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days.
  • Kingdom Hearts III: Sora can Formchange the Hero's Origin and Grand Chef Keyblades into shields. They allow him to guard while moving, and successfully blocking enemy attacks with it charges up energy that can be unleashed in a powerful counterattack.
  • Vexen's weapon in Chain of Memories is a giant shield. It also has five huge spikes, the longest of which is pointing upwards, and longer than his head. Considering how he wields it, the shield can be used for punch-stabbing. In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, a copy of Vexen's shield can be synthesized as a weapon for Goofy.
  • Among The Heartless, you have Defenders, who utilize shields as their main weapon, which Goofy can also wield.
• Turtle Tamers in the Kingdom of Loathing can use their shield as a weapon with the Shieldbutt skill. And if they have the "Hero of the Half Shell" skill, the shield dramatically reduces the damage inflicted (by using the primary stat Muscle in place of Moxie for defence when calculating damage).
• Shields of a variety of sizes can be used in The Last Remnant, from bucklers to giant things too heavy for a human to lift. They are generally overlooked, as they force the user to use only one-handed weapons, rather than the more powerful power-grip, two-handed or dual-wield combat arts. Still useful; not only do they give a huge bonus to physical and mystic evasion and resistance, any character which blocks an attack with a shield will immediately perform a shield bash, blacking out the attacker for the rest of the round.
• La-Mulana has a few shields with varying degrees of protection. A few enemies also use shields.
• League of Legends has its share of shield users:
  • Pantheon, being a Spartan in all but name, carries around a large shield. He can not only deliver a jumping slam with the shield to stun enemies and stab them, but another skill causes him to bring his shield into a defensive position, allowing him to No-Sell most incoming damage from minions, monsters and champions while peppering them with spear stabs.
  • Leona also carries a shield, and uses it while charging her Eclipse skill to give her large defense boosts. Also has a shield-based stun.
  • Braum easily outclasses both in the shield department. Even though his shield is the least shield-like of all (it's a enchanted door), he certainly makes full use of it. He can not only project ice from the shield, he has a minor variant of the stunning shield attack where his allies can assist in the stun and a shield projection skill that reduces damage and catches projectiles, including ultimates. He even has special quotes upon blocking them.
  • In spite of carrying a shield around, Singed is an aversion. While he is tough and tanky and he certainly uses his shield for normal offense, that is not what he mainly uses in combat. He is mainly using his chemical poison to kill his enemies and Psycho Serum augmentation on himself to improve himself.
  • Taric similarly had a shield which he uses only offensively, projecting a stunning particle of light from the gem at its center (or merely using it to wallop enemies). His defense comes from his wall of gemstones, and he can shatter that into his foes' faces too. Averted since his gameplay and visual update.
  • There are also a few shield items: The basic Doran's Shield which grants health and reduced enemy autoattack damage, Randuin's Omen which slows enemies and is very effective against enemy autoattacks, and Aegis of the Legion for protecting the team from magical damage. (Braum seems amused whenever you buy a shield for his shield).
• Left 4 Dead 2 had a riot shield made, but was Dummied Out for unknown reasons. Modded servers and custom maps have the riot shield fully usable and it is used a melee weapon to bash zombies with rather than actual protection.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Link has a series of different shields in each game, able to deflect increasingly powerful attacks. The shield became very prominent in the move to 3D, with some games including puzzles that can only be solved through some use of the shield.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: Link's shield is so amazing that raising it can somehow protect him from his face exploding with the Bomb Mask. That said, the Bomb Mask doesn't appear to make Link's face explode so much as it just creates an explosion in front of the wearer when they will it to do so. Thus Link can protect himself from the blast with the shield.
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: Link uses his family's ancestral shield, and him equipping it the first time is one of the game's sadder moments.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess repositions the shield button so that it only activates while targeting an enemy, but also lets you gain a Shield Bash move to stun the enemy and leave them open to attack. The shields are so good, that even attacks such as Diababa's bites are blocked just by targeting!
    • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword changed the shield mechanics significantly: you can put out your shield any time you have your sword out, but you have to thrust it out with proper timing to actually deflect an attack—simply holding it out prevents damage, but will still cause you to stagger and damages your shield.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Link can reflect any projectile with any shield in the game by parrying, so it's perfectly possible to use a wooden pot lid to send back a Guardian's laser blast. Though if he messes up the timing, both the shield and Link will take damage. In a case of Gameplay and Story Integration, it's mentioned in the "Champions' Ballad" DLC that being able to do this is why he was chosen to be Zelda's personal bodyguard.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages: During the first phase of its battle, the Armor Warrior defends itself with a tower shield that shrugs off all of Link's attacks.
• Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars: Armored opponents carry huge shields that can block the Spider Queen's web beam, so they can only be attacked from behind or the sides. The shields are apparently heavy because they walk really slowly, but if they are not defeated quickly, they will lose patience and drop their shields to sprint at the player.
• Olaf the Stout from The Lost Vikings is armed with only a shield. In the first game, the wooden shield was able to stop stone blocks the size of Olaf himself provided the shield was facing the right way. In the second, it was changed to titanium, with an added feature to allow Olaf to shrink to squeeze through passages. In both games, the shield doubled as a hang glider and a temporary platform. Olaf remains the only character in both games who is unable to attack enemies.
• Characters in Mabinogi can be equipped with shields, which substantially enhance their defense stat and the effectiveness of the Defense skill. Shields can be upgraded to provide even higher levels of defense. Elves and Humans equipped with a shield can use the Charge skill to deliver a high-powered shield-bash, knocking-back and stunning the enemy (Giants do not need a shield to use Charge, due to their size).
• The Marvel Ultimate Alliance and X-Men Legends games have shielded enemies who cannot be damaged so long as they're holding their shields, so you have to run up and tear it out of their hands.
• Mario Party: Star Rush: In Bowser's Hit or Missile Mania, each player's space station comes with a shield that they can raise with the B button to block Bowser's incoming attacks. As long as their shields are raised, they can no longer charge up their own missile attacks, so they will ideally want to keep their shield out for as little time as possible.
• Mass Effect:
  • In Mass Effect 2, the Shadow Broker uses a presumably-then-prototype shield later used by N7 Paladins in the third game. It offers full protection from weapons and powers (and melee attacks, unlike his more Deflector Shield-like stasis barrier) but isn't big enough to fully cover him, allowing Shep to score hits with a modicum of accuracy.
  • Cerberus Guardians in Mass Effect 3 use virtually impenetrable heavy alloy shields, wielding a M-358 Talon in the other hand. There's a few ways to deal with them; flank them, throw explosives past them, shoot through the viewing slot in the shield, use an armor-piercing weapon to shoot through the shield, or just use biotics to rip it out of their hands.
  • A DLC pack allows players to use the N7 Paladin class in multiplayer, which comes with a shield-shaped energy field that can be switched on to absorb damage while in the open. It can be upgraded to burn or freeze enemies it hits. The Geth Juggernaut has the Hex Shield power, which deploys a temporary barrier that blocks a certain amount of enemy fire before being used up. It doesn't move with the Juggernaut, but it can be deployed in doorways or other choke points to great effect. It can also be upgraded to electrocute nearby enemies.
• Proto Man in the Mega Man (Classic) series carries one of these around, aptly named the Proto Shield. In his playable appearances, he can only use it while standing still or in midair, since he slings it on his back while running.
  • The various Sniper Joe models also have these, though they have to put them away to attack.
  • Mega Man himself (and Mega Man X) has several types of "Shield" copy weapons, which typically absorb one hit if not thrown as an attack. They also tend to be made of ridiculous things, like leaves, petals, bits of junk, gems, or water droplets. Mega Man 7 lets Mega Man borrow the Proto Shield for a while, provided you defeat Proto Man.
  • In the Mega Man Battle Network series, Mega Man can utilize a shield while using his Shield style in the second game, or while he has the Shield or Reflect program equipped. It blocks most attacks, but requires fairly precise timing to use, due to it being active for just a fraction of a second.
  • The shield is always usable and a necessity in Mega Man Star Force, as some attacks are unavoidable otherwise. Fortunately, it stays active a lot longer then in the aforementioned series, and you're also allowed to move and attack immediately after blocking something to reduce your risk of getting hit once it vanishes.
  • Zero in the Mega Man Zero series has the Shield Boomerang, which can be thrown when charged up. Fun fact: it's actually made by spinning Zero's Z-Saber around really fast.
• Riesbyfe Stridberg of Melty Blood uses a giant cello-shaped shield as her main weapon, although the shield is big and sharp enough to be a BFS.
• Metal Fatigue had various shield based arms which could be added to the customizable Humongous Mecha the game was based around.
  • Two shields, to be precise: the Neuropa K-Shield which looks like a huge riot shield and protects against kinetic weapons as well as the buckler-like Rimtech Power Shield which protects against energy weapons.
• Certain Mooks in the Metal Slug series carry large metal shields that can take several pistol rounds before breaking. They panic once the shield's gone, so you can finally kill them.
• Shields were added to Minecraft in version 1.9. At first they only reduced damage further than the old sword blocking, but were gradually buffed to the point where they can neutralize all damage from the front, even a Charged Creeper explosion – bar none the most damaging attack in the game, capable of one-shotting as much as a fully diamond-armored player with maximum Blast Protection –, and also bounce off incoming arrows even if they're Arrows on Fire. It's breakable, like all other tools and weapons, but durability on it is so high it's not a concern in the short term.
• Modern Warfare 2 added the Riot Shield as a weapon. It can be used to both deflect bullets and bash enemies into submission, but it takes up a whole weapon slot, is vulnerable to explosive weapons and can be tough to use on more open maps. Strangely, although it is bulletproof (mostly), it is a clear shield. Most real-life man-portable shields rated to deflect gunfire are the opaque type with the small viewing port. These are usually referred to as Ballistic shields, and even then, ones rated to stop rifle rounds in Real Life are too heavy to carry around. The shield returns with similar characteristics in Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops II (this time the "Assault Shield"), and Ghosts, differing mostly in its look (BOII and Ghosts have an all metal lower half with a see-through top half) and in its secondary functions, with Black Ops II allowing you to plant your shield in place (allowing for a slightly wider protection radius so long as you're hiding behind it) and Ghosts allowing for actual attachments to be unlocked for it, like a titanium frame to lighten it and make melee bashes faster or a portable radar to show close-range enemies on your minimap.
• Monster Hunter
  • Several weapons in the series come with a shield (Sword and Shield, Lance, Gunlance, optional on the Heavy Bowgun, the Greatsword can double as a shield in a pinch), which can be incredibly useful especially when paired with the right skills/items (Guard skill + Mega Juice). This can lead to the "turtling" tactic for lances and gunlances. Amusingly, shields and Greatswords will block things that, logically, should not be blockable with a shield, such as loud roars and stun-inducing flashes. Of course, having the shield is no guarantee of safety since Vespoid will hit you from behind, or you get hit by an unblockable attack, or your stamina runs out, etc. Basically, like everything else in Monster Hunter, it all depends on the player's skill.
  • Monster Hunter 4 and 4 Ultimate introduce the Charge Blade, which looks like a much bigger and heavier sword and shield at first brush. Except the shield is bladed on the sides; jam it onto the end of that sword, which helpfully doubles in length, and suddenly you have a greataxe. Secondly, a few of the weapon's techniques have "Guard points", moments during an attack when the shield is bared. Being hit at this moment counts as blocking without costing stamina, plus the momentum of the attack prevents you getting knocked back so far.
  • Monster Hunter: World has the Kulu-Ya-Ku, a monster which will dig up rocks periodically and use them as shields. This will deflect most player attacks from the front until the rock is either broken or the monster is forced to drop it.
• Mount & Blade allows the equipping of many different kinds of shields, from giant shields as tall and wide as a person, to round shields of varying sizes, to small diamond shaped heater shields. Though you can parry melee blows with any other melee weapon, a shield is your only bet for stopping arrows or couched lances. They also can't be wielded in tandem with any weapon that uses two hands, and, if subject to too much abuse, will break (though they'll be back in your inventory perfectly repaired after the battle). They can't be used as weapons either, somewhat unusually for a game that otherwise is pretty accurate to medieval warfare — several popular mods rectify this by adding a shield bash ability, though.
• NetHack: Shields are at first a useful way of getting several extra points of negative AC^note The lower a player's or enemy's AC is, the less likely they are to get successfully hit by anything. One of the things that makes Valkyries so powerful from the start is their shield, which reduces AC by 1 on its own, but is also enchanted to +3 (with +5 being the realistic maximum), providing -4 reduction on its own. For comparison, this is similar to the protection Knights and Samurai get from carrying far heavier plate/splint armour. It is also the same protection as one afforded by the basic helmet, boots and leather armor combined — which Valkyrie can easily wear alongside her shield.
  • In late-game, though, most players tend to junk the shield, having already gained enough AC to have most attacks harmlessly glance off them through enchanting all the other armor, and preferring far greater damage afforded from Dual Wielding. An exception are usually the builds carrying Shield of Reflection for the extraordinarily useful magic reflection property, gray dragonscale mail for magic resistance ^note which is different from reflection: the latter harmlessly deflects ranged magic like those from staffs and breath attacks back at the caster; the latter degrades the effect of melee magic, making spells like touch of death an annoyance instead of an One-Hit Kill., amulet of life saving and an oilskin cloak to prevent sea monsters from immediately drowning the character.
  • The downside of this build is the reduced melee damage and worsened spellcasting; shields immediately slash spell success chances, and since shield of reflection is metal as well, even opting for magic-boosting robe over oilskin cloak may not be enough to offset this. Many players instead dual-wield and get reflection from either the amulet of reflection or silver dragonscale armor, replacing robe/oilskin cloak with cloak of magic resistance if doing the latter.
• Noblemen: 1896 from Foursaken Media, the Shield Infantry unit and the Nobleman (depending on what armour he has) can deploy a slab-like shield from their backs and take cover from behind it. This soaks all firepower directed at it until the shield breaks. However while kneeling behind the shield, opposing infantry can use a melee rush action to charge around the shield and get in a free swipe. Another type of shield in this game are Gun Shields, Shock Troopers and some Officers have rifle or shotguns that have a steel gun shield that provides a boost to the unit's armor rating.
• Pankapu can use a shield to protect himself against attacks from enemies equipped The Bravery Aegis.
• PAYDAY: The Heist features Special Units that are literally named Shields. They carry riot shields which can and will shrug off any form of gunfire. They can be killed if outflanked, and are quite fragile.
  • PAYDAY 2 ratchets things up a bit with the Shields. On Very Hard and higher, a variant of the Shield appears carrying a much bigger shield with "FBI" across it. It makes shooting past them a lot harder. Then, when Captain Winters and his lackeys show up, they carry even bigger shields which cannot be shot past at all. Though there are more ways of dealing with Shields in this game. Not only can players outflank them again, but they don't stand up terribly well to explosions or fire, and the players also have access to specific weapons or ammo types that pierce through those shields (with much-reduced damage, but still enough that you can usually kill them in one or two shots to the head).
  • PAYDAY 3 weakens them slighlty - now, they have a visor on their shield which can be shot through with any weapon.
• Kanji in Persona 4 smacks enemies with large objects including a folding chair, pieces of wood, school desks, and steel riot shields. One particular weapon, the Death Scuderro, is, in fact, a round shield with a spike in the center of it. However, none of the weapons are used for protection, as the character much prefers to smash things with them, or throw them really hard at things.
  • When told to guard, Kanji will drop his shield and protect himself by crossing his arms. Smart one, Kanji.
• Phantasy Star games allow characters to wield two shields at once. Like in the other examples, this is by far the most useful for spellcasters.
• PlanetSide 2 allows New Conglomerate MAX users to equip the Aegis shield ability. When activated, the player raises up their right arm and deploys an energy shield that resembles a modern riot shield, complete with a viewhole. It will block all incoming damage from in front, though it doesn't give any side, rear, or top protection, and disables the user's weapons. The New Conglomerate's tank, the Vanguard, can activate an all-encompassing energy shield which makes it invincible for up to 7 seconds, though it likewise disables weapon fire. The Engineer class can deploy a MANA anti-infantry turret, which has a small energy shield around the turret's receiver to protect the user's body from weapons fire from incoming weapons fire, but it annoyingly lacks a shield to protect the user's head.
• The Pokémon series contains a Pokémon called Bastiodon, whose case is unique in that it has a shield as a face. It's in the top 10 for both defensive stats, but all of its other stats are terrible. Sadly, its defensive capabilities are all but destroyed by double weaknesses to two of the most common attacking types in the game, Fighting and Ground. Luckily, as of Generation V, Sturdy was buffed to leave the Pokémon with 1 Hit Point and Bastidon can learn Metal Burst which deals 50% of the damage the Pokémon suffered to its opponent. This means anyone trying to attack a Bastiodon with a Fighting or Ground type move as of Generation V is getting a chunk of their health blasted off.
  • Pokémon X and Y introduces Aegislash, a Ghost/Steel BFS holding a shield. In its Shield Forme, it has extreme defense but low offense while Sword Forme swaps offenses with defenses. Its Signature Move "King's Shield" both protects it against a damaging attack and harshly lowers the attack of a foe that makes contact (weapons break on the shield), while also swapping it back to Shield Forme.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield introduces Zamazenta, a Legendary Pokémon who wears a shield around its head and is the basis for the "Shield" part of the games' name.
• In [PROTOTYPE] the first of Alex's two defensive powers gives him a shield of biomass. It shatters after taking a certain amount of damage and experiences some downtime regenerating. That said, since it outright blocks damage and doesn't affect Alex's diverolling, unlike the Armour that reduces, it isn't completely obsolete.
  • [PROTOTYPE 2] now gives Heller two shields. He is unable to move when using them however they are now indestructible and if timed right send the rockets right back at the them.
• There are shields aplenty in Puzzle Quest, but only the Broken Shield actually protects from direct attack damage (and even then at a 10% rate). The rest do things like inflict damage on opponents with every attack, temporarily boost our attack or spell resistance stats, fill your mana gauges, or restore health.
  • In PQ2, shields (from lowly Bucklers to the mighty [Templar-only] Tower Shields) add to your overall defensive stats and add a temporary additional boost when used in battle.
• The shield is a major piece of equipment for the Fighter and Paladin in the Quest for Glory series, providing him with much better defense in melee combat over the Thief and Wizard (who must rely on evading attacks unless they put skill points into the Parry skill, which allows them to block with their weapon). You can go without your shield in the EGA version of Quest for Glory I (by dropping it. the VGA remake doesn't allow you to do this) and Quest for Glory V, (by just not equipping it) but all other games in the series force the player to use their shield, and it is vital to the Fighter in the end game of Quest for Glory III.
  • Ironically, the Weaponmaster in Quest for Glory I espouses Shields Are Useless in his fighting style, and talks down on the player's character for using a shield.
• Ragnarok Online has shields available for all of their classes... although some are restricted to certain classes. Paladins can use a skill called "shield boomerang" (no points for guessing what it does). This trope is played straight as it is possible to become immune to all magic if you add some phlebotinum to your shield.
• In Ravensword: Shadowlands, the game features a couple of shields you can use to protect yourself. It's a very sensible thing to do, considering that every melee weapon in the game is one-handed and there's no dual-wielding, not to mention that the shields provide a way higher Defense bonus than any other piece of armor.
• Crisis Zone as well as its Spiritual Sequel Razing Storm give the player a riot shield to defend from enemy attacks. It can completely defend the player from More Dakka, Beam Spam, Ramming from a Humongous Mecha, Macross Missile Massacre, Wave Motion Guns, and loose concrete.
• In Ready or Not, the Ballistic Shield is a Long Tactical equipment option. While holding it out, it protects your head and upper body from gunfire, but you're limited to using your sidearm with reduced accuracy and no aiming down sights, you can't interact with objects or people, and your legs and shooting arm remain partially exposed. It can also protect your back when unequipped, since you sling it on your back instead of putting it in Hammerspace.
• Game Mod Red Alert 3: Paradox, along with Peacekeepers, also has a Gundam-inspired mecha with a shield, the Hanzo Z.
• In the first Red Faction, players get a riot shield.
• Rengoku: One of the possible arm equipments are shields that reduce damage at the cost of durability.
• In Rogue Legacy only the Paladin class comes with the ability to use their shield, which has the rather handy ability to block all damage at a cost of 25 MP per hit taken. In a game where MP is slightly easier to come by than healing, this isn't such a bad tradeoff.
• Shields in RuneScape decrease the chance that an enemy will hit the player, and there are several kinds of shields that are mostly used for a variety of defensive abilities, such as reflecting damage back to attackers, becoming totally immune to damage, and even bringing you Back from the Dead. Some shields also have special abilities; for instance, one shield is mainly used to protect its user from dragon breath, and its upgraded version can store the breath and throw it again against the opponent. Another type of shield can reduce incoming damage by a considerable amount, albeit at the cost of prayer points.
• Both Sinjid and his enemies can equip shields in Sinjid: Shadow of the Warrior, and they function by protecting the wielder from all damage until they get broken. However, they tend to be specialized (a shield that's great at taking magic damage will most likely fall apart when hit with a physical attack, and vice versa), and the more efficient ones require a great amount of Strength to wield, which can be troublesome for the less durable classes.
• Songs of Conquest: Units with the Shielded ability, like the Arleon Footman or the Rana Chelun, are more resilient to ranged attacks.
• Sonic 1 Game Mod, Sonic Thehedgehog Megamix, creates a shield system for Mighty the Armadillo. He uses Sonic's entire moveset from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, allowing him to use his Insta-Shield, and all of the jump actions of that game's 3 elemental shields. A new ability is being able to store up to 4 shields of any combination of those 3 and the regular shield from Sonic 1, allowing Mighty to switch between any of them on the fly to take advantage of the attacks and immunities each of the elemental shields will grant him.
• Soulcalibur:
  • Sophitia and Cassandra use shields and shortswords. Several moves (moreso with Cassandra than Sophitia) involve hitting enemies with the shield.
  • Lizardman also carries a shield from Soul Calibur II to IV.
  • In Soul Calibur V, Sophitia is succeeded by her children Patroklos and Pyrrha. Naturally, they both use shields. Lizardman drops his shield in favor of Dual Wielding axes in this game, however.
• In the Brood War expansion for Starcraft, Medics come equipped with a shield. Compared to other Terran infantry, Medics are the most durable of the lot, though not by much.
  • Starcraft II's Marines have the option to be upgraded with combat shields which increase overall hp by 10.
• Splatoon
  • Some Octotrooper variants have a large shield protecting their front; while outright impervious to most attacks in the first game, subsequent entries allow them to eventually destroyed by any weapon (though they're still resilient enough that this should only be done as a last resort).
  • Splatoon 2 introduces the Brella class of weapons, which are weaponized umbrellas whose canopies can block attacks. All variants except one shoot a single shot of ink at a time, with the canopy popping up if you keep the trigger held down after a shot. If you hold the trigger long enough, the canopy will launch off, leaving a path of ink behind it as it travels. Opponents hit by the canopy will receive chip damage, but its primary function is to serve as a mobile shield allowing you and your allies to push forward safely. The Undercover Brella, on the other hand, keeps the canopy up at all times when shooting and doesn't launch it, but it also hosts the weakest shield of its class.
• Sunrider: Several ryders have large metal shields mounted on one or both arms. These include PACT Elites, Kryska's Paladin, and Kuushana's Wolf-1. In the first two games shields are mostly cosmetic, but in Sunrider 4 a shield translates to a high armor rating on that side of the machine.
• Super Panda Adventures: Some Mecha-Mooks have shields that they use to block your attacks.
• The Super Robot Wars series, featuring Humongous Mecha from all of anime history, of course uses this. Normally, pilots who use shield-bearing mecha will earn a skill called Shield Defense, which causes their mech to randomly pull out the shield and reduce the damage from an oncoming attack (the chance of activation increasing as you level the skill). In Super Robot Wars Advance (and only that game), shields were essentially an extension of the lifebar, activating automatically and having their own HP which had to be depleted before you started hurting the mecha. And of course, pretty much any giant robot example listed in the Anime section above pops up here too.
• Super Smash Bros.
  • All characters have access to a shield, which forms a protective bubble of energy that blocks any attack that's not a grab (unless it's unblockable). Holding the shield up too long causes it to shrink (so it doesn't cover their whole body) and eventually break, leaving them temporarily defenseless. Yoshi is the exception, as he uses an egg instead, which doesn't shrink, but instead darkens as it comes closer to naturally breaking.
  • The versions of Link also have their own personal shields, which can block projectiles with no effort.
  • Pit has the Mirror Shield as a special move, which can reflect projectiles and block even attacks that are otherwise unblockable under normal circumstances, such as Final Smashes.
  • Hero has the ability to block weaker projectiles while standing still, much like with Link.
• Tales Series:
  • A pair of villains in the second half of Tales of Hearts are twin robots. One of them uses a pair of cleavers. The other one wields two shields, and uses them to defend himself while casting powerful spells. Of course you fight them both at once.
  • Tales of Arise: Kisara uses a huge shield as her primary weapon, which makes her the only character able to block attacks, rather than dodge them. Her special attack involves projecting an even bigger energy shield, which instantly knocks down any enemy that attempts to use a Dash Attack. She does have a mace for offence, but she also has an even larger amount of various Shield Bashes and martial arts.
• Team Fortress 2 has the Sniper able to unlock the Razorback, an Aboriginal-styled wooden shield (with a car battery taped to it) that protects him from the Spy's Back Stab, stuns the Spy and makes a sound to alert the wearer.
  • Rather counter-intuitively, the Razorback is actually the most frail "weapon" in the game, as weapons don't break and the Razorback shatters when stabbed. As a result, the real reason Snipers use the item is not the fact that it extends their lifespan by one stab; it's the paralyzing electric shock it delivers to the overzealous spook.
    • Even then, competent Spies will just resort to the Revolver or Ambassador instead of the Knife.
  • The Sniper now gets the thematically-named Darwin's Danger Shield, which reduces fire damage and makes him immune to afterburn.
  • The Demoman's second unlock is the Chargin' Targe, and while it does offer him resistances to fire and explosive damage (+50% and +30%, respectively), it requires... other incentives in order to make the average Scotsman choose it over a weapon.
    "If I were to pick up this cowering-plate, I would have to put down my second sword," a Scotsman thinks. "And surely that is madness." The Chargin' Targe solves this riddle by turning the useless shield into a deadly weapon you can run at people with and then bludgeon to death.
  • In other words, it has a large spike protruding from the centre. When the charge is stretched out to its maximum duration, an actual shield bash for 50 damage (characters' HP ranges from 125 to 300) is performed. The charge itself also critboosts any weapon attack done immediately after, which at 195 damage for a melee attack kills all but two classes at full HP.
  • There's now also the Splendid Screen, a smaller shield which provides less protection (only +20% to both fire and explosive damage) but can do damage with a charge from any distance, does 85 damage instead of 50 and guarantees a critical hit with a melee weapon on a successful bash.
    • In addition, both of the above shields can receive buffs to their damage after killing enemies with a haunted sword, haunted battle axe or a golf club, each of which collect heads on each kill.
  • The Demoman's Tide Turner is, inexplicably, a broken old fashioned ship's wheel. It has the lowest amount of explosive and fire resistance at +15%, but provides full turn-during-charge control. It doesn't actually resemble a shield, but acts the part, and lays about opponents like no one's business thanks to its charge recovery feature.
• Terraria: There are various shield accessories that, among other things, increase the wearer's defense. The Brand of the Inferno allows a player to actually raise these shields, further increasing their defense.
• Shields are prominently used by melee fighters in Titan Quest. They give the wielder the ability to block a portion of damage from the occasional blow. The Defender class is also specifically meant to wield a shield both for offense and defense.
• The shield men of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator can take a lot of punishment from the front, including a head-on collision with a cannon ball. Their attacks are very weak, unfortunately.
• In one of the Ultima games, it was possible to give a character two spiked shields and a spiked helmet, for three (weak) attacks.
• Once you get past the prologue in Unworthy, your first equipment is a sword and a shield. The latter will automatically block incoming attacks at the cost of a considerable chunk of stamina, leaving you helpless once it runs out.
• In Urban Chaos: Riot Response, the shield is one of the most prominent mechanics. You are essentially invincible so long as you keep the shield up between you and anything trying to kill you, although many players prefer not using the shield as it makes the game too easy.
• Lenneth Valkyrie from Valkyrie Profile uses two shields and a sword. The shields bob in the air around her, allowing her to hold her sword with two hands. Lenneth can even use a bow with those floating shields!
• In Vandal Hearts, one of the few classes to use a shield was the protagonist's 'Hero' class. For the most part, it's just a basic Kite Shield, which nonetheless helps make him one of the best units in the game, since it affords him good protection without limiting his mobility, the way the Big Frackin' Shields of the Defender-class does... but when/if you upgrade him to the Game-Breaker 'Vandal' class, he replaces it with an umbrella-like green forcefield shield that pops out of his left hand at will.
  • In Vandal Hearts 2, amongst the weapon classes, "shield" is a separate class. They mostly fill into the Boring, but Practical role as shields increase blocking capability tremendously (even against arrows/projectiles). Some shields have spikes studded in them, but are heavy like lead and cumbersome. Then you get the Killer Shield, which is like the aforementioned spiked shield, except much lighter in weight. And then, you can get the Zebra Shield, which teaches you the very rare Re-Animator skill.
• Fiona, your defensive warrior in Vindictus uses sword-and-board in contrast to Lann's Dual Wielding, Evie's magic and staff/scythe work, Karok's two-handed weapons, and Kai's bow. Using skills like Guard and Heavy Stander, she can stand toe-to-toe against even the hardest-hitting bosses, and her Counterattack skill, which requires a successful Guard, is one of her hardest-hitting attacks. She needs to keep an eye on her shield's integrity though — too much damage to the shield without some way of regenerating (such as campfires) will break it and leave her at a severe disadvantage.
• In World of Warcraft, Both Paladins and Warriors can use shields. The former can throw them Captain America style, and the latter can use them to stun enemies. They are also wildly variable in size and style, from bucklers to giant, spiky slabs of iron.
  • In fact, for paladins and warriors specialized in protection, many of their signature moves can't be done without shields, and Dual Wielding shields has been requested for paladins by a vocal minority of players.
  • Additionally in order to avert Shields Are Useless for a tanking Warrior or Paladin their shield provides a very large percentage of their armor compared to other items. For example the current top level plate chest pieces have a base armor in the 5700's while the equivalent level shield has a base armor value in the 18,000's.
  • As far as blocking with shields go as one of 3 defensive mechanics, it's fairly common (both classes can greatly increase their chance to block with tanking abilities) but only reduces the incoming damage by a certain amount whereas dodge and parry negate all of it. Blocking tends to be more effective against many weak attacks as a result.
    • Prior to the Northrend expansion drastically changing shield mechanics, the amount of damage mitigated by blocking was absolutely pathetic, but it served another purpose. Blocks out-prioritized crushing blows on an enemy's hit roll, turning what would have been an extra-damage hit that could instantly smash a tank's entire HP bar into a mostly normal hit that could be survived.
  • Shields are also used by Shamans of certain builds, as well, although they almost never use them to actually block blows and are valued for their spellcasting boosts rather than the defensive ones, although all shields provide a significant armor boost.
  • In a rather humorous reversal of the trope, while death knights are designed and balanced around using either a BFS or Dual Wielding to tank, it's not uncommon to hear bad players lament or even blame their personal deficiencies on the class's inability to use shields.
  • In Warcraft III, the Footman unit could use his shield to greatly reduce damage taken from ranged enemies, though this also slows it. Several other units have shields but do not have defensive abilities like these.
• We Who Are About to Die: The game offers a variety of shields for gladiators to use. The physics-based combat makes them very useful, as they're almost always in the way of any given attack, ensuring you survive longer. There is a caveat, though: The crowds hate them. Smaller shields are usually (mostly) fine, but bigger ones will cut deeply into your Fame earnings. There are some shields that are both protective and flashy enough to compensate, but they're also expensive.
• In Xenonauts soldiers can be equipped with a riot shield. While this limits them to batons, grenades or pistols, the shield can tank at least one hit from all but the strongest alien firearms, making them very useful for breaching alien craft.

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