Shields

Mechanics

You will encounter many enemies in Abyss that have some form of shield ability. Knowing how to properly deal with the shields is important in clearing certain floors.

Elemental Effectiveness

Elements have different levels of effectiveness against certain shields. Knowing these interactions is important when choosing which characters to bring for a particular floor/chamber where shields are present.

Shield	Most Effective	Medium	Least Effective	Not Effective
				All non

Elemental Gauge

Shields often do not have HP like regular monsters. They instead have a specific amount of Elemental Gauge Units that can be depleted by triggering Reactions. Once these units are depleted, then the shield will be broken. How quickly you take down a shield depends on several factors:

• How effective the element is against the shield. Refer to the section above on Elemental Effectiveness.

• How strong the ability used against the shield is at applying the element.

• The cooldown of the skill used to apply the element and/or the frequency that it applies the element.

Does character damage affect shieldbreaking?

For Elemental Armor and Physical Shields, damage does not factor into shieldbreaking at all. On Elemental Shields, damage is factored in, however the amount of damage you need to close to Reaction damage is extremely high, so in practice, you can also treat it as being unimportant.

This means that a completely un-invested character will be as effective as a fully invested character when it comes to shieldbreaking ability. As long as you can keep them alive, don't be afraid to bring your un-invested characters along to help with shields in specific chambers.

For more in depth information on Elemental Gauges, please see the Resources section at the bottom of this page.

Infused attacks that apply an element have a special cooldown referred to as Internal Cooldown (ICD). This means that faster Normal Attacks do not necessarily mean you will apply the element any faster.

You can get around this restriction by swapping characters between attacks (which resets ICD), or using Charged/Plunging Attacks, which do not have an ICD.=

Geo Shields

Unlike other shields, can also be broken without using elemental reactions. You can use:

• Crystallize reactions

• damage
• Claymore attacks

• **Overload **(+)
• Other explosive attacks (Klee)

Shield Types

Different types of shields will block damage in different ways.

Elemental Shields

These shields block all damage until the shield is destroyed.

Tips

• These type of shields often have very high Elemental Gauge. Repeatable sources of elemental application work best.

• Make sure to save your high damage abilities until after the shield goes down.

Enemies that use Elemental Shields

	Enemy	Shield HP (U)
	Pyro Abyss Mage	12
	Hydro Abyss Mage	12
	Cryo Abyss Mage	12
	Electro Abyss Mage
	Abyss Herald	36
	Abyss Lector	36
	Electro Cicin Mage	8
	Cryo Cicin Mage	4 - 12
	Cryo Slime	8
	Geo Slime

Note that Abyss Lector shields do not obey the Elemental Effectiveness table. and are both equally effective.

Elemental Armor

These shields reduce damage until the shield is destroyed.

Tips

• The mechanics of these shields vary greatly depending on the enemy. Make sure to check the help page for the enemy for how the shield works.

• Make sure to save your high damage abilities until after the shield goes down.

Enemies that use Elemental Armor

	Enemy	Shield HP (U)	Shield Effect
	Electrohammer Vanguard	4	+100% ALL RES
	Cryogunner Legionnaire	4	+100% ALL RES
	Hydrogunner Legionnaire	4	+100% ALL RES
	Pyrogunner	4	+100% ALL RES
	Geochanter	4	+100% ALL RES
	Stonehide Lawachurl		None
	Frostarm Lawachurl	30	-80% DMG
	Pyro Whopperflower	2	None
	Cryo Whopperflower	2	None
	Electro Whopperflower	2	None

Note that Fatui shields do not obey the Elemental Effectiveness table. They will only take damage from elements that are most effective against their shield. All other elements have greatly reduced effectiveness. The Hydrogunner is a special case since there is not an effective element against shields. Their shields are weak to.

Physical Shields

These shields block all damage from the direction the shield is facing.

Tips

• Enemies will be vulnerable when performing their attacks. You can use these windows to get damage in.

• Taunt abilities can draw aggro and make the enemies face away from you. Attacks from behind will not be blocked.

• Enemies that are Frozen will not be able to block damage from any direction. You can use this to bypass shield damage entirely.

• Some Charged Attacks and Plunging Attacks can bypass enemy shields.

• Enemies will still take damage from Elemental Reactions

Shields can come in different types

Wooden Shields

• Useto apply Burning which applies a DoT to these shields.
• Repeated application ofwill not make the shield HP go down faster.

	Wooden Shield Hilichurl
	Wooden Shield Mitachurl

Geo Shields

• Similar to other shields (see above section)

	Rockshield Hilichurl
	Rockshield Mitachurl

Cryo Shields

• is the most effective way of breaking through these shields.
• These shields will regenerate their HP over time

	Iceshield Hilichurl
	Iceshield Mitachurl

Resources

For more in depth reading on shields, please check out these additional resources

Enemy Shields and Armor - KQM Theorycrafting Library

**Elemental Gauges **(list of all Character Talents and strength)

**Shield Damage in Genshin Impact **(in depth mechanics of shields)