Shields are a system that projects a protective barrier around your ship, which absorbs damage until it is removed.
Overview[]
- Sustains up to 4 damage-absorbing barriers around your ship.
- Some enemies can have level 9 or 10 shields (up to 5 shield layers).
- Each barrier blocks one shot regardless of the shot's damage. Lasers, flak, and asteroids will remove one layer of shields or damage the ship if shields are down.
- Beams cannot reduce shield layers by hitting them, but can damage ships through shields if they are strong enough.
- For example, the Glaive Beam does three damage to each room it hits, or two damage per room through one shield layer, or one damage per room though two shield layers.
- Missiles, bombs, and the Artillery Beam bypass all shields.
- Crew Teleporters, hacking and boarding drones ignore shields entirely.
- Crystal weapons and Heavy Pierce Laser bypass 1 layer of shields.
- Ion weapons apply full ion damage to shield system, and can stack; hence, ions can remove multiple barriers.
- Having shields up reduces number of fires and hull/system damage due to solar flares.
- Upgrading will increase your maximum barrier count by 1 for every 2 system levels.
- Shields system must be powered to support shields barriers.
- Shields base regeneration rate: 1 and 2 layers restore in 2 seconds, 3rd layer - in 1.72, 4th - in 1.5, 5th - in 1.33 seconds.
- Recharge time is the inverse of recharge rate.
- Manning increases shield recharge rate (10->20->30%, depending on the crew member's level of experience). Fully trained shields crew multiplies the recharge time by (1 / 1.3).
- Shield Charge Booster augmentation improves recharge rate by 15% each, and can stack additively - so three of them improve recharge by 45%. Three Shield Charge Boosters multiply the recharge time by (1 / 1.45).
- Shields crew skill and Shield Charge Boosters bonuses are calculated separately and then multiplied together. The maximum bonus is (1 / (1.3 * 1.45)) = 0.531 multiplier. (the 1st/2nd shield layer takes just over 1 second to recharge) (Shield layer recharge time calculator)
Notes[]
- If the ship (all Stealth Cruisers) doesn't have Shields system, it is guaranteed to be available in stores if the store is selling systems.
- There are no blue options for the Shields system, however, in few events the system can be disabled by the enemy. While the player Shields system is malfunctioning, its console cannot be manned but the blocked system levels still serve as damage buffers.
- Auto-ship carrying shield virus (occurs only in the Civilian sector - not just in any sector belonging to the green Civilian sector category which includes Civilian, Engi and Zoltan sectors, but only in a Civilian sector type, including the starting sector) halves Shields system levels; can be countered with Hacking system, in which case it is completely disabled instead for the duration of the fight.
- Slug hacker (choice) allows to choose the Shields as a target system for the enemy hack; Shields system levels are halved. Other enemy hack options include Weapon Control and Oxygen (either of which is halved); the hack can be countered with the player Hacking system (in which case it is completely disabled instead for the duration of the fight) or the enemy can be paid off (with 35 scrap) to avoid the fight altogether. Worth noting that the Shields option can be chosen despite not having the system on the player ship, and the reward for defeating the enemy ship depends on the chosen option and the method (in some cases) for defeating the enemy.
- In the Engi virus the Shields (and Engines) are halved only if you choose the first option "1. Hold on! Let us try to purge the system code!".
- While an important system for survival of a ship, it is completely possible to win the game without Shields, especially if supported by some other systems, augmentations, weapons.
Enemy ships with increased Shields system levels[]
While Auto-Scout and Auto-Surveyor have optional (i.e. not guaranteed) Shields system, the following ships have or may have Shields-4 as early as in sector 1 or 2 on Hard difficulty:
- Rebel Elite Fighter, Rebel Elite Assault - at Rebel Fleet overtaken beacons and in the Hidden Federation Base/Federation Base Assist sub-event of the Encrypted federation signal event (Rebel Elite Fighter only, 1/8 possibility). (sector 1+)
- Engi Bomber, Engi Hacker. (sector 2+)
- Slug Light-Cruiser / Pirate Light-Cruiser, Slug Light-Surveyor / Pirate Light-Surveyor. (sector 2+)
- Mantis Bomber - in the 2nd encounter of the Mantis ship-collectors event. (sector 2+)
System Upgrades[]
| Level | Cost | Shield |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | |
| 2 | 100*/125** 
|
1 layer |
| 3 | 20
|
|
| 4 | 30
|
2 layers |
| 5 | 40
|
|
| 6 | 60
|
3 layers |
| 7 | 80
|
|
| 8 | 100
|
4 layers |
* Zoltan Cruiser Noether (Layout B) starts with Shields system at level 1 (or, simply, Shields-1), which can be upgraded to Shields-2 for 100 scrap without a need to visit a store.
** Stealth Cruisers start without Shields system, and can buy one at a store for 125 scrap. This gives them Shields-2.