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 rally effect’s 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.
| Icon | Name | Description | Blueprint location | Base block damage | Base absorbed damage | Scaling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Old Wooden Shield]] | Hold to absorb partial damage. Tap to try to parry and block all damage. | Always unlocked | 20 (40) | 75% | 
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% | 
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Cudgel]] | Stuns blocked enemies. Stuns lasts longer if a parry is successful. | Always unlocked | 20 (40) |
| |
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% | 
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Rampart]] | Absorbs more damage. Generates a force field for 2 sec on a successful melee parry. | Drops from Shieldbearers (0.4%) | 20 (40) | 85% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Assault Shield]] | Blocks attacks while charging forward. | Timed Door Room in Promenade of the Condemned | 33 (66) | 75% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Spiked Shield]] | Inflicts major damage on blocked enemies. | Drops from Cleavers (1.7%) | 90 (216) | 75% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Parry Shield]] | Cannot be held up. Blocked grenades and shots are returned with added power. | Secret area in Stilt Village | (52) | 0% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|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% |
|
|
[[{{{_pageName}}}|Ice Shield]] | Parrying an attack freezes nearby enemies. Reflected projectiles freeze enemies they hit. | Drops from Shieldbearers (10%) | 20 (40) | 75% |
|
- RotG: Rise of the Giant DLC
- TBS: The Bad Seed DLC
- FF: Fatal Falls DLC
- TQatS: The Queen and the Sea DLC