Common wisdom will tell you that shields are for protecting yourself from damage. In Elden Ring though, some shields can do far more than that. You might immediately think of something like the Jellyfish Shield, which you’ll see in quite a few one-shot builds thanks to its ability to boost the damage of your attacks.
Some of Elden Ring's shields don’t require the help of a powerful weapon, dealing damage with their own unique weapon skills and status effects. Whether you’re trying your hand at a shields-only run, or want to add some defense to your build without completely sacrificing offense, here are a few shields worth considering.
6 Visage Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 44 |
The Visage Shield is Elden Ring’s equivalent to a flamethrower. Its weapon skill, Tongues of Fire, sprays flame in a wide area in front of you. The damage isn’t great, especially since it only scales by upgrading the shield itself. However, you can block while using it, and the Visage Shield has excellent defensive stats, allowing you to steadily chip away at bosses while hiding behind it. This isn't exactly the most dynamic way to play the game, but you’d be surprised how powerful it can be.
If that sounds like an appealing strategy, you can start using the Visage Shield almost immediately after starting the game, although you’ll need some skill if that’s your aim. The shield is located in Caelid’s Caelem Ruins, guarded by the Mad Pumpkin Head Duo. They aren’t exactly the most difficult boss in the game, but fighting them right away won’t be easy.
5 Fingerprint Stone Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 48 |
In addition to being one of the best defensive shields in Elden Ring, the Fingerprint Stone Shield has one notable advantage that makes it a powerful offensive option as well: Madness. There are just three weapons in Elden Ring that can inflict this status effect, and one of those is a Sacred Seal, so it doesn’t really count.
Unfortunately, almost all the enemies you’ll encounter in the Lands Between are immune to Madness. However, its effect—stunning and dealing significant damage to your target—is exceptionally strong against humanoid enemies. While you could just whack people with the Fingerprint Shield, dealing decent damage and steadily building up Madness, a far more efficient option is to combine it with the Shield Crash Ash of War. This causes you to charge forward, blocking incoming damage and hitting the enemy multiple times in rapid succession. You can find this shield in the Cathedral of the Forsaken, beneath Leyndell. It’s a decent way down the platforming puzzle.
4 One-Eyed Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 36 |
Using the One-Eyed Shield is the equivalent of strapping a mortar to your arm. Its weapon skill, Flame Spit, is slow, but it gives a ranged option for a Strength build, one you can aim manually to hit targets from a surprising distance. While the damage doesn’t scale with anything other than upgrading the shield itself, it still hits pretty hard.
And since it deals fire damage, it can be buffed by a variety of sources, such as Flame, Grant Me Strength, and Golden Vow. If you want the fantasy equivalent of a grenade launcher that can also block enemy hits, 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.
3 Erdtree Greatshield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 30 |
| Faith | 12 |
The strength of the Erdtree Greatshield comes down to its unique Weapon Skill, Golden Retaliation, which allows you to parry spells. And if that was all it did, this shield would be one of the better defensive options in the game, allowing you to nullify some of the most dangerous boss attacks. But its most unique feature, and the reason it’s on this list, is that a successful parry will fire a projectile back at the one who cast it, dealing impressively high damage.
This ability also works on your own spells, allowing for some surprising synergy something like Discus of Light, which returns to you after you cast them. As a result, the Erdtree Greatshield is both practical in a variety of scenarios and has the potential to be used in fun and interesting builds. It is dropped by the Tree Sentinel Duo that guards the doors leading to the Outer Wall Phantom Tree Site of Grace in the Altus Plateau.
2 Coil Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 10 |
| Dexterity | 10 |
The Coil Shield’s defensive stats aren’t particularly impressive, but looking like a snake isn’t just for appearances. Its defensive stats might be poor, but its Weapon Skill, Viper Bite, causes the snake to strike at a significant distance. If the bite lands, it builds up Deadly Poison, which deals more damage than regular poison but doesn’t last as long.
The Coil Shield’s low requirements, and the fact that Viper Bite only needs a couple of hits to take effect, make it a decent addition to a variety of builds. It can be used to quickly trigger poison in builds focused around the status effect, or just used as an additional damage source. This versatile shield is found on a corpse in Volcano Cave, on the northern side of Mt. Gelmir.
1 Spiked Palisade Shield
| Stat | Requirement |
| Strength | 20 |
If your goal is to cause status buildup, the Spiked Palisade Shield isn’t just the best shield for the job; it’s one of the best items, period. It has high innate Bleed buildup and can be given the Poison or Frost Affinities, allowing it to trigger multiple status effects at once. That’s not bad on its own, but things start to get silly when using the Shield Crash Ash of War to quickly trigger those status effects.
There are a few other shields in Elden Ring you can utilize a similar strategy with, but the Spiked Palisade has the best defenses of them, making it the obvious choice. Of course, some enemies are immune to most or all status effects, so this shield won’t be of much use in those scenarios. However, it can be exceptionally effective in a variety of other cases. It can also be picked up right from the start 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 path to the Great Jar.