Shield belt

The shield belt is a defensive utility item that generates a bubble of energy to absorb projectiles. It blocks projectile attacks both from the outside and from within, meaning colonists will not fire ranged weapons with an equipped shield belt, and instead are limited to melee weapons only.
== Acquisition ==
Alternatively, they can be received as a quest reward, purchased from traders, or found on raiders.
== Summary ==
Shield belts are worn at the waist, and use their own charge to stop damage from incoming ranged attacks and explosions (except flame explosions, which penetrate). The amount of charge is dependent on the belt's quality, with the default being 110 points. This charge is depleted at a rate of 3.3 charge per 1 point of damage from attacks. If an attack would be sufficient to completely deplete the shield's charge, then the rest of its damage is negated, and the shield temporarily broken. The shield does not prevent pawns from being set on fire, explosions from detonating, or being staggered from weapons with sufficient stopping power. 
Shield belts constantly recharge at a rate dependent on their quality, so long as they are not broken. However, once a shield's charge is completely expended, the shield will break and the belt will be temporarily disabled. Similarly, upon being hit by an EMP from any source they instantly lose all power and the shield will break. In either case, it takes after breaking before it begins to recharge again. They will recharge starting from 20 points, meaning they can be easily broken once again.
Wearing a shield belt prevents the user from firing, but not equipping, ranged weapons. They can still use them as blunt melee weapons. The ranged weapons integrated into the grenadier armor and phoenix armor are also disabled, though a sanguophage's piercing spine is not. Note that shield belt wearers will not fire even if a shield belt is inactivated by damage or EMP.
Enemies can also wear shield belts and use them. For example, even upon being resurrected as a shambler, pawns with a shield belt equipped will still use it as normal.
=== Quality table ===
The following table lists how much protection a shield belt provides at each quality level.
Quality 	Awful	Poor	Normal	Good	Excellent	Masterwork	Legendary
Maximum charge 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Damage capacity 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Recharge rate (energy per second)	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Market Value 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
=== Visuals ===
The shield takes the form of a white bubble around them, which will shrink and diminish as the charge reduces and will vanish if the shield is downed. It shows up when the colonist is drafted, or under ranged attack.
File:Shielded colonists example.png|Shielded colonists (left) and unshielded ones (right).
File:Depleted shield.png|Full shield (left) compared to nearly depleted shield (right).
== Analysis ==
Shield belt is an important component for any melee fighter. As these belts constantly recharge until broken, shielded pawns are effectively invulnerable when facing enemies that have a DPS below 1/3.3x the recharge rate of their belt.
Shield belt users can engage enemies without worrying about friendly fire. They can be used to bait enemy fire away from your other fighters. If enemy DPS is low enough, it's better for shield users to stand around to be shot by enemy while your shooter shoot them from far away, than engaging them in melee combat.
The shield belt can be used in combination with locust armor to provide an equivalent to the jump pack while still being able to equip the shield belt, while the shield belt is used to compensate for the low sharp protection of the locust armor. Note that the shield belt will only protect against ranged fire, so a jump pack and more protective armor is superior when facing melee enemies.
== Trivia ==
* Shield belts bear some similarity to shields in the Dune franchise, mainly in that they do not allow any high-speed object to enter or exit the shield, rendering guns useless to shield belt users.
== Version history ==
* 0.9.722 - Added as the Personal shield.
* Alpha 17 - Renamed from Personal shield to Shield belt. Now has a crafting recipe and also gained a slight retexture.
* Beta 19 - its crafting cost and market value is greatly reduced.
* 1.2.2900 or earlier - Shields used to block attacks from Spike traps as if they were ranged attacks, however this is no longer the case.
* 1.3.3066 - Wearing a shield belt now prevents firing the integrated launcher in the grenadier armor and phoenix armor . Previously they could be fired but could only target only adjacent squares (including diagonals).
* Unknown version after Version/1.3.3101 - Shield belts are now defined as having Spacer tech level. Previously, they were defined as having an medieval tech level despite requiring an industrial research project and obviously being a high tech piece of equipment. 
* 1.4.3523 - Fix: Explosive projectiles disappear when impacting a shield. They now detonate when impacting.
* 1.4.3531 - Children can now wear shield belts.
* 1.4.3682 - Fix: Error when shield belt on ground is hit by EMP explosion.
PersonalShield.png|Original Personal Shield sprite
Category:Utility