6 Best Elden Ring Shields For Dealing Damage
Are you going to Elden Ring for a shield-only run? Use these because they have the best defense and deal the most damage.
Everyone knows that shields are used to protect yourself from danger. But in Elden Ring, some shields can do a lot more. You might think of something right away like the Jellyfish Shield, which is used in a lot of one-shot builds because it makes your hits do more damage.
Some of Elden Ring’s shields don’t need a strong weapon to do damage. Instead, they have their own special weapon skills and status effects that do damage. Here are some shields to think about if you want to try a run with only shields or want to add some defense to your build without giving up all attack.
Visage Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 44 |
The Visage Shield is to Elden Ring what a flamethrower is to you. Its weapon skill, “Tongues of Fire,” shoots flames out in front of you in a wide area. The damage isn’t very good, especially since it only gets better as the shield itself gets better. But you can block with it, and the Visage Shield has great defense stats, so you can hide behind it and slowly chip away at bosses while blocking. This isn’t the most exciting way to play the game, but you might be surprised at how effective it can be.
If that sounds like a good plan, you can use the Visage Shield almost as soon as the game starts, but you’ll need some skill if that’s your goal. The shield is in Caelid’s Caelem Ruins, and the Mad Pumpkin Head Duo is watching over it. They aren’t the hardest boss in the game, but it won’t be easy to beat them right away.
Fingerprint Stone Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 48 |
The Fingerprint Stone Shield is one of the best defensive shields in Elden Ring. It also has Madness, which makes it one of the best attacking shields as well. This affect can only be caused by three weapons in Elden Ring, and one of them is a Sacred Seal, so it doesn’t really count.
Most of the enemies you’ll face in the Lands Between are immune to Madness, which is bad. But its effect—which is to stun and give a lot of damage to your target—is especially strong against enemies that look like people. You could just hit people with the Fingerprint Shield, doing good damage and slowly building up Madness. However, combining it with the Shield Crash Ash of War is a much better way to use it. This makes you charge forward, stopping incoming damage and hitting the enemy multiple times in quick succession. This shield is under Leyndell in the Cathedral of the Forsaken. It’s a good way to get through the platform game.
One-Eyed Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 36 |
If you use the One-Eyed Shield, it’s like putting a mortar on your arm. Flame Spit is a slow weapon skill, but it gives a Strength build a ranged choice that you can manually aim to hit targets from a surprising distance. Even though the damage doesn’t change unless the shield itself is upgraded, it still hits pretty hard.
And because it does fire damage, it can be boosted by things like Flame, Grant Me Strength, and Golden Vow. The One-Eyed Shield drops from Chief Guardian Arghanthy, a hostile NPC you can find on the top level of the Guardian’s Garrison in the Mountaintops of the Giants. It is like a grenade launcher that can also block enemy hits.
Erdtree Greatshield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 30 |
| Faith | 12 |
The Erdtree Greatshield’s strength comes from its special Weapon Skill, Golden Retaliation, which lets you block spells. And if that was all it did, this shield would be one of the best ways to defend in Slope Game, letting you stop some of the most dangerous boss hits. But its most unique trait, and the reason it’s on this list, is that a good parry will fire a projectile back at the person who cast it, doing very high damage.
This ability also works on your own spells, giving you a surprising way to use spells like Discus of Light, which return to you after you cast them. So, the Erdtree Greatshield can be useful in a number of situations and can also be used to make fun and interesting things. It is dropped by the Tree Sentinel Duo that stands guard at the Altus Plateau doors that lead to the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Site of Grace.
Coil Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 10 |
| Dexterity | 10 |
The Coil Shield’s defense stats aren’t very good, but it’s not just for looks that it looks like a snake. Even though its defensive stats aren’t great, its Weapon Skill, “Viper Bite,” lets the snake hit from a long way away. If the bite hits, it builds up Deadly Poison, which does more damage than standard poison but doesn’t last as long.
The Coil Shield is a good addition to many builds because it doesn’t have many requirements and Viper Bite only needs a couple of hits to work. It can be used to quickly cause poison in builds that focus on that state effect, or it can be used as an extra source of damage. This shield can be used in many ways. It can be found on a dead body in Volcano Cave on the north side of Mount Gelmir.
Spiked Palisade Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 20 |
If you want to build up status effects, the Spiked Palisade Shield isn’t just the best shield for the job; it’s one of the best things, period. It naturally builds up a lot of Bleed and can be given the Poison or Frost Affinities, so it can cause more than one status effect at once. That’s not bad by itself, but things get silly when you use the Shield Crash Ash of War to quickly cause these status effects.
You can use a similar strategy with a few other shields in Elden Ring, but the Spiked Palisade has the best defenses, so it’s the clear choice. Some enemies are, of course, resistant to most or all status effects, so this shield won’t help much against them. But it can be very useful in a number of other situations. You can also get it right at the beginning of the game if you have two Stonesword Keys. It’s west of the Deep Siofra Well Site of Grace in Caelid, at the feet of the first Golem on the way to the Great Jar.
