Shield
Shield is one of ten basic ship statistics that define your capabilities in the game. Players start with 20 points of shield capacity. Together with Hull, it represents the durability of your ship. Your current Shield strength is represented by a blue bar in the upper left portion of your screen (below the red bar representing your Hull). You can fit up to 5 standard shield modules at once.
Benefits
Shields are your first line of defense against incoming attack damage. Equipping Shield Modules on your ship makes it harder for enemies to do lasting damage or disable your ship because shields take damage first and can automatically recover from it.
Shields form a protective barrier absorbing damage before it reaches your Hull. Player attacks or mission damage will not affect your Hull until your shields are reduced to 0. Once your shields are eliminated, further damage reduces your Hull until it is also reduced to 0 and your ship becomes disabled.
Shields regenerate over time. Even when you are not online. Even after being reduced to 0. How quickly depends on your total shield capacity and your shield recharge rate.
Comparison versus Hull
Pros
- Automatically recharges over time.
- Manual repair is required for Hull, but not for Shield.
- The amount of shield recharged per charge period is a set percentage (2%) of your current shield capacity. The greater your shield capacity, the greater the amount that recharges per "tick".
- Shield charge rate can be increased by installing special Ship Modules that reduce the time between ticks.
- Shields can be quickly refilled with certain Artifacts, by spending Galaxy Points or by increasing rank.
- Shield buff Artifacts provide double the effect compared to Hull buffs. (Shield buff = 100%, Hull buff = 50%)
Cons
- Shield modules provide less capacity per Deck Space than Hull modules. For the greatest amount of damage that a ship can take for a limited amount of deck space adding more Hull is better.
- Shield modules have much higher upkeep costs than comparable hull modules.
- Shields cannot be recharged with Credits.
Improving Shields
- Shield capacity can be increased by installing more or higher technology Shield Modules on your ship. Up to 5 basic shield modules can be installed (in use) at one time. Numerous modules from Missions, NPC battles and the Mission Tier Rewards can be installed to further increase shields.
- Shield recharge rate can be improved by installing Shield Charge Modules on your ship.
- Special Artifacts from resource collection, NPC battles and missions can be used to improve shields for periods of time.
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