Shield

Sander Huisman from De Verraders (Netherlands)/Season 3 wears the Shield at Breakfast.

## Gameplay Mechanic

### Description

Protects its winner from being Murdered on the same night (and Banishment in *The Traitors (Australia)/Season 1*).

### Appearances

All

The **Shield** is a game power that has appeared in every season of the show.

## Mechanics

When obtained, it protects its holder from the next Murder, although it is unclear if it also protects its holder from being placed On Trial. An unused Shield will expire, and cannot be carried over to the next round or transferred to another contestant. Notably, the Shield **does not** confer Immunity during Banishments (except for the Australian version).

The Shield is usually obtained as a potential Armoury reward (and separate from the Dagger if both are present), although both have occupied the same Armoury slot on more than one occasion. In *De Verraders (Netherlands)/Season 1*, the Shields were also publicly awarded, making it clear the few people who were safe at night, however in most versions it is up to the winner whether or not they choose to reveal it - for example the contestants in Series 1 of the UK version made a pact not to reveal who had the shield.

In some versions, notably Australia S1, UK S2 and US S2, the shield is won as a side quest during missions, instead of via a random draw at the Armoury.

## Twists

* **Shield Challenge:** First introduced in Episode 4 of *The Traitors (Australia)/Season 1*. Instead of being located in the Armoury like in other versions, the Shield was obtained through Shield Challenges, where the contestants competed with one another to win some sort of physical or skill contest.
* **Enhanced Shield:** Because of the Shield's public nature and that it had to be competed for rather than drawn by chance, it also protected its holder at the next Banishment.
* **Double Shields:** First introduced in Episode 8 of *Os Traidores/Season 1*. There were two Shields up for grabs in the Armoury, instead of the usual one Shield.

## Strategy

While contestants were initially motivated to do well in Missions to increase the prize fund, they have increasingly cited an opportunity to visit the Armoury as being a more important outcome for Missions to gain a Shield and hence Immunity. Contestants (especially Traitors) may also choose to sabotage others specifically during Missions, to prevent them from going to the Armoury.

The current metagame typically sees contestants entering the Armoury agreeing not to divulge if they won specific powers (especially the Shield) until the next day, effectively protecting them as the Traitors do not know who has the Shield and could risk 'wasting' a Murder by targeting someone who went into the Armoury. This is the case even if the Shield was somehow obtained by a Traitor, as it could put a target on their back due to speculation about how the Traitors knew who to avoid Murdering.

Traitors have often devised schemes involving the Shield, especially when they are in possession of it, to cover for some other event that happened overnight (most typically a Recruitment) or try and deflect suspicion from themselves. These plans typically have a low (but non-zero) rate of success.

## Trivia

* The very first Shields were received by Francis van Broekhuizen and Jörgen Raymann in *De Verraders (Netherlands)/Season 1* for completing their part of the opening Mission successfully.
* The first Traitor to win a Shield was Samantha Steenwijk from the same season.
* The very first Shield drawn from the Armoury was won by Jenny Drougas in *Les Traîtres (Belgium)/Season 1*.
* The first Traitor to deliberately Murder themselves while holding the Shield was Thijs Zeeman in *De Verraders (Netherlands)/Videoland Edition*.
* The first Faithful to be protected from Murder by the Shield was Niels Albert in *De Verraders (Belgium)/Season 1*.