Highlights
- Upgrading shields in Elden Ring can improve guard boost, affecting how much stamina is used per block, a crucial mechanic many missed.
- With the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC approaching, players are revisiting the game, some fine-tuning builds while others start anew.
- Some players, after 1400 hours of gameplay, discovered the importance of shield upgrades, a mechanic easily overlooked in Elden Ring.
An Elden Ring player came across the OP guard boost feature while upgrading their shield, which gives users much more incentive to use their Smithing Stones on something which might they might not consider their first priority. What's surprising is the fact that they discovered it after 1400 hours in Elden Ring, and many other players missed this mechanic too.
With the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC just a month away, several Elden Ring players are flocking back to the game to prepare for its release. While some are fine-tuning their Elden Ring builds to gear up for the challenge the Land of Shadows will bring, others are just starting from scratch all over again. Amid that, a player has come across a pivotal aspect about shields which is quite easy to miss.
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In a post on the Elden Ring subreddit, user PompousGoblin reveals an interesting discovery they had after spending over a whopping 1400 hours in the game. They highlight that upgrading shields in Elden Ring was something that wasn't on their priority list considering it didn't affect the guard boost, which is by far one of the most crucial attributes of shields. However, since they had an abundance of Smithing Stones, they ended up upgrading it, only to realize that it does indeed affect the guard boost.
Two Years After Its Release, Several Elden Ring Fans Still Unaware of Shield Guard Boost
Guard boost, also known as stability, is a metric that determines how much stamina is used by the players per block. A shield with better guard boost attributes will ensure that players are able to get more blocks without running out of stamina. This affects the meta significantly, considering the fact that players will need to indirectly spend fewer points on increasing their stamina as well. It is quite easy to miss this, since shields only gain a guard boost after every few upgrades, so investing the precious Elden Ring Smithing Stones on shields early on in the game might not seem quite pivotal at first glance.
Surprisingly, many other players seemed to be unaware of this as well. In fact, a few didn't even know what the guard boost mechanic was. That being said, some in the community are not really sold on the idea of upgrading shields merely for guard boost and believe that it is only viable for a few shields in the game, such as Elden Ring's popular Brass Shield. As with a number of other things in Elden Ring, a lot of factors influence this choice, with the overall build and playstyle being the most pivotal aspect.
Elden Ring
Elden Ring is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set in a world co-created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the creator of the influential Dark Souls video game series, and George R.R. Martin, the author of the best-selling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. This collaboration between two renowned creators has resulted in FromSoftware's largest game to date, filled with danger and discovery at every turn. Hidetaka Miyazaki, president and game director of FromSoftware, has a history of directing highly acclaimed games in franchises such as Armored Core and Dark Souls.
- Platform(s)
- PS5 , Xbox One , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , PC
- Released
- February 25, 2022
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment , From Software
