Shields

Shields are equipment that can fully block incoming attacks against a character if they are equipped in the second Weapon slot. Shields equipped anywhere else will not function. Shields can still block even if their durability is 0. Shields can only block attacks when they have released the evasion ability for the incoming attack's property. The shield only needs to be able to evade one property of the attack if it has multiples in order to block it.

Shield Advantages over Weapon Parrying

At the beginning of the game, Shields can seem inferior to weapons with parrying abilities because their block rate is much smaller. But as you obtain better shields, release their abilities, and equip characters with Shield Arts Skill Panels, shields will surpass the blocking ability of parrying with weapons.

While parrying abilities have a fixed deflection rate, each type of shield has its own blocking rate. This blocking rate can be boosted by having a Shield Arts panel. Shields can also block many attacks that weapons cannot. Shields with Heat Evasion, Lightning Evasion, and HIL Evasion are able to block attacks with Hot, Cold, and/or Shocking properties, while weapons can only deflect attacks with Slashing, Bludgeoning, or Piercing properties. Monster Arts also have different blocking bypass rates for weapons compared to shields. In all cases where they differ, Monster Arts are more likely to bypass weapon parrying abilities, making them less useful. There are even more than 60 Monster Arts that are impossible to block with weapons due to a 100% bypass rate which are possible to block with shields. In most of these cases, the shield bypass rate is fairly low, so they are likely to be blocked by a shield.

Because of these factors, Shields with released abilities on a character with a Shield Arts panel are much more likely to block attacks and can block a wider variety of attacks than weapons with parrying abilities. Shields also do not lose their blocking abilities (except for Dragonscale Shiled losing HIL Evasion) if you put magic arts on them, so you are able to channel Magic Arts on a shield and continue to block with it, whereas weapons with parrying abilities will lose their ability to block attacks altogether if you channel Magic Arts through them.

Block Rate

Shields have a base block rate based on the material they are made out of, but this block rate is improved during battle if the character equipped with the shield also has a Shield Arts Skill Panel. The higher the level of Shield Arts, the higher the multiplier to the block rate. The block rate is not absolute, as whether or not the shield actually blocks takes into account both the base block rate and the enemy's art's shield bypass rate. The shield has to pass a block check and the monster art needs to fail the bypass check in order for the block to occur. The exact bypass rates are unknown at this time, but are ranked on a scale from A (impossible to block) to F (easy to block).

The chart to the right shows the bonus multiplier applied to shields' block rate per level of Shield Arts, as well as the minimum base block rate of a shield needed to surpass the base block rate of weapons while having that level of Shield Arts panel. These calculations only take into account the raw block rate of each item; because of enemy parry bypass and increased evasion coverage of shields, a shield with a block rate slightly lower than listed will still likely outperform the weapons. Without a Shield Arts panel, shields with 25% block rate and up will likely perform at least as well as weapons, as well as have the ability to block more types of attacks and channel Magic Arts if desired. These comparisons do not necessarily apply to the Hydra Skin Buckler, as it lacks the Pierce Evasion ability present on most other shields, despite its 22% block rate.

Recommended Shields

There are few shields with special abilities, so usually shield choice will go solely off the block rate compared to weapons at the time. But there are some shields worth looking out for.

Dragonscale Shield is probably the all-around best shield in the game. Its block rate is slightly lower than the Black Shield, but with Slash Evasion, Pierce Evasion, and HIL Evasion, it blocks all damage properties except for the Light property. The Mind Lock Magic Art is capable of blocking monster arts without damage properties, so combined, they could protect against almost everything in the game. The Aegis Shield Magic Art has the same blocking coverage as Dragonscale Shield as well as the ability to block the Light property, and can reach a block rate of up to 90%. Combined with Dragonscale Shield, most enemy arts would have little chance of hitting the character.

Roadster and Bilqs may take time to acquire, but they have good block rates without as much punishment to HP Recovery. Roadster is capable of blocking Shocking damage, while Bilqs can block Hot damage. Neither has an ability in the fourth slot, making it open to channel Magic Arts without feeling like you had to sacrifice something. The Hot property is significantly more common than Shocking amongst monster arts, making the Bilqs slightly more desirable overall, but many of Chaos's attacks have the Shocking property, making Roadster a good choice to save and swap for the final battle.

Silver Circos is notable for its low HP Recovery loss and having the Water Support ability in the fourth slot. While this means its usefulness is lost if you try to channel Magic Arts through it, it can be good for a character heavily-focused on Water Arts who needs more stacked Water Support. And it comes with the benefit of being able to block a lot of attacks, keeping their HP high for casting Water Arts!

Black Shield is the best if you're wanting to get the highest pure block rate from a shield. You won't have access to any coverage outside of the normal Slashing, Bludgeoning, and Piercing damage, but you will block with an incredibly high rate. Even without a Shield Arts panel, Black Shield will protect better than weapons overall. You can also keep them in your inventory for boss battles that involve primarily those three types of damage to decrease the damage you sustain in battle.

Common Shields

Unique Shields