Overview

The shield is one of the essential pieces of defense available for a player, the other being the armor suit. It has its own dedicated slot in the equipment hotbar to the bottom left side of the screen, which it shares with other utility holdables such as lanterns. When paired together with the armor suit, the set provides a substantial amount of resistance, increasing multiplicatively (diminishing returns) according to armor tier.

General Combat Tips

• When in combat with any weapon, make sure that you have shiftlock enabled. This gives you more control over your weapon and makes it easier for you to hit your enemy, avoiding the need to constantly readjust your camera as you turn. Do not use first person either as you'll be unable to see what's around you.
• When in combat with a sword, keep in mind that its (large) damaging hitbox does damage on touch to any body part. This means you want to spam your lunge attack at all times in combat while moving your mouse left and right so as to 'cut' through the enemy's body hitbox, ensuring you are hitting the maximum amount of parts possible as the sword goes through. For more tips on this, look into generic swordfighting combat.
• When using a spear, keep in mind that the thrusting animation does not hit your enemy if they are too close to you - this is due to the very small hitbox on the tip. The spear is best used when chasing someone for the longer range or when trying to ward someone off as they chase you, forcing them to relinquish distance so they aren't poked to death while you walk backwards.
• When using ranged weapons in combat, don't. Lag and constant strafing/jumping make it almost impossible for any shot to hit unless you are quite literally breathing down the neck of your enemy, in which case you should be using a melee weapon. Ranged weapons also slow you down when reloading and also while you aim, giving the person distance to run away from you and disengage or to get closer to you as you hopelessly try to hit them.
• Using armor is paramount to your success, as well as shields, together. Never use one or the other separately, as their defense/DR bonuses need to stack to be able to give any meaningful protection. Even Volcadon armor or shield, when worn separately, aren't powerful enough to protect you effectively from someone using a full copper set plus weapons.
• Hiding your armor and shield is a good strategy to test the character of any given person, or just to get them by surprise when they aren't looking because of the 'noob' impression.
• Experienced players will often retreat when they are in a losing fight. It is up to your discretion whether it is worth it to chase or to ambush them somewhere else where you have the advantage. Inspect your surroundings - are there boats they can use to escape, catapults, other enemies, etc.? Look around and pay attention before making a decision.
• In regards to ambushes, it is always best to have the advantage before entering combat. If you must attack someone who is always surrounded by friends and/or takes care not to leave their backs open for attack, lie in wait until an opportunity arises and engage in combat when they least expect it. Such tactics will almost always end up with the person panicking, and if not, with a severe health point disadvantage which you can then exploit in order to win the duel.
• Never go straight up to an experienced player, full armor and weapons in view, expecting to win any fight. They will be prepared to do all it takes to force either a tie, a very close win/loss or retreat, none of which are good for you especially when they have allies around.

Strategy

There isn't much "strategy" to speak of regarding armor, other than always equipping the shield together with a suit no matter what type so the two different DRs stack. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Be careful with your shield in active combat situations. If you are in need of light or other utility and you plan on engaging the enemy, consider using a backlantern instead of a holdable lantern to save time and prevent situations where you take free damage as you try to equip your shield back.
• Shields are one of the few items that can be customized with decals. With this in mind, it is a viable strategy to set up an ambush where you lay down a shield with a funny or attention-grabbing decal - once your prey gives in to curiosity and checks it out, you can come out of hiding and get them from behind. Bonus points if you dye a lower-tiered shield with black or purple, as greedy players will be even more likely to fall for it hook, line and sinker.
• As mentioned before, damage resistance is calculated multiplicatively. This means that the resistance % is not added on top of the next tier, but multiplied by the base value however many times is needed to reach the final value depending on armor tier. This means that while 20% is given for each tier as resistance, you will not cap out at 100% DR when you reach Steel tier, but rather at ~70%. Take this data with a grain of salt as it has not been (extensively) tested.
• Hiding your armor, as said in the general tips, is a good way of deceiving players. If they are not paying attention at all, you can catch them off guard by equipping your armor at the worst possible time and executing them on the spot, such as when they are typing or busy with crafting. Taunting players and/or provoking them into chasing you only for you to equip your armor and turn it back at them is also a popular tactic players use to justify aggression.

Other Stats (shared with the Armor page)

In the table below, you can see how the damage reduction for (full set) armor works. This data was gathered while the target player was being shot at by a copper crossbow using bolts:

This data is accurate for all crossbows in regards to bolt damage and armor reduction. It may not be entirely (or at all) accurate when it comes to melee combat, as it is not an easy task to conduct experiments for. Nevertheless, we may add a table for melee weapon DR later on if we notice anything out of the ordinary.