Best shields in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

When deciding which items to acquire and find, shields might be one of the last things on your mind in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Don’t underestimate a good defense though, as a good shield can be the difference between blocking a devastating attack or dying and having to restart a crucial fight.

While any shield is a good shield, a few are a cut above the rest especially when it comes to taking on bosses or the end-game sections. There is nothing that compares and after nearly 100 hours of gameplay, these are the ones I have narrowed down as the quintessential shields to add to your arsenal.

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All these shields are breakable though, so keeping a good amount of each of them on you is crucial. Don’t forget to Fuse Shields together too to increase the amount of hits you can take.

Mighty Zonaite Shield

A relatively strong shield that is mainly found in Shrines, this shield has one big advantage over anything on this list that shares the same strength—it can’t be affected by Lightning. So if you find yourself in a storm and only have metal shields, having a spare Might Zonaite Shield on hand will be crucial to keeping you protected against infrequent storms or Lightning-based enemies.

Royal Shield, Royal Guard’s Shield

These shields are in abundance around Hyrule Castle and the depths below and are arguably one of the easiest to acquire and best to keep hold of when it comes to shields. These things become pretty common the deeper you go into Hyrule Castle, so if you are skilled enough you can stock up on a lot of them with relative ease, including the lesser known, but still equally as good, Knight’s Shield.

Hylian Shield

There can be no discussion against the fact that the Hylian Shield is the best Shield in the entire game. With the biggest defense statistic of all, the Shield is in its own class which is why it’s a pity it can also break after a lot of uses. Don’t be discouraged though, if you need to rebuy it you can go to Hateno Village and rebuy the shield from Cece in Cece’s store.

First thing’s first though, you will need to actually get the shield. You can find the Hylian shield by heading on over to Hyrule Castle and doing some specific setup to unlock it.