Shields

**Shields** protect an entity. Shields act as a health buffer that has a defined maximum capacity and regeneration rate at which it refills. However, in Battle Royale, shield regen is zero.

## Properties

### Gem-Backed Shields

Each time either a ship or a station module is hit by a damaging or healing laser, and it still has shields, a shield model will appear around the entity for a few moments. The shield model is essentially just an enlarged version of the base entity model with a transparent texture.

When depleted, the shield model is temporarily hidden until it regenerates. Damage that the shield does not absorb causes the gem cargo to leak.

This kind of mechanic also appears in other games, such as rings in Sonic games (similar to partial crystal drop ratio `crystal_drop` in Pro Deathmatch) and the Magic Armor in *The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD* (similar to zero crystal drop in Rumble).

When non-gem-backed shields are depleted, the entity is destroyed, causing all gem cargo to drop at once.

### Absolute

If the shield is absolute, the shield absorbs all damage, reducing the remaining shield, and the entity does not react to the damage in any other way, such as being destroyed or dropping gems, although a warning will appear if the player ship's shield is reduced to zero, even if the ship does not die or leak gems.

### Visibility

Ships and station modules have health bars showing shield strength. Space stations and aliens show shield strength in the saturation of their color.

Asteroid shields are completely invisible.

## Ship Shield

The current level of shields is shown in the blue bar at the top left of the in-game GUI.

The shields on ships differ in both capacity and regeneration rate between each ship. Both of these statistics can be upgraded in exchange for gems on every ship tier other than tier 7. The **1** key corresponds to the shield capacity and the **2** key corresponds to the shield regeneration rate. Like all other upgrades, these increase linearly by a fixed amount per upgrade, depending on the ship.

When damage is less than the amount of shield remaining, the shield is absolute, taking all of the damage and preventing any gems from being dropped. Otherwise, the ship will receive a much greater amount of knockback, and the shield model will not show up. Any damage that the shield does not absorb will remove gems from the player's cargo. If there are not enough gems, the ship will drop all gems and be destroyed. If both shield and gems drop to exactly 0, the ship can survive.

### Battle Royale

Ship shields act the same in Battle Royale matches, but they have no natural regeneration. The only way to replenish shields is to pick up shield canisters, which will completely fill the shields when used. With this in mind, the player should exhibit caution when ramming into asteroids or taking minuscule amounts of damage that would otherwise be inconsequential, as they can add up and decide the outcome of a duel.

## Station Module Shield

The shields on station modules are similar to those on player ships.

However, station module shield is not absolute. Gems will begin to bleed from station modules as they are weakened. These gems will start to leak slowly, but the rate will increase as the shield level lowers on the module. In normal modes, all gems will be drained before the module is destroyed, but in AOW, the gem capacity is so high that it is possible to destroy a module even when the station still has gems.

Also, like Aliens, the color saturation will show the shield strength.

You can increase and decrease the shield regeneration of all base modules by changing the station regeneration multiplier in the Custom Game Creator or through the mod editor.

Station Module Shield Capacity | Regen/s
 2
 3
 4

## Asteroid Shield

When an asteroid's shield is depleted, the asteroid is destroyed, dropping gems.

Asteroid shields are the only shields that are invisible, and they are the only shields that do not regenerate.

## Alien Shield

Aliens' shields are shown in the saturation of the alien's color. When depleted, the alien is destroyed, dropping gems.