Dune Awakening: How to get a Shield

Getting a Shield in Dune Awakening is a top priority once you reach the Vermillius Gap. The caves, outposts, and dungeons from here on out are teeming with a much greater number of scavengers. What's worse: a new, durable enemy archetype will mow you down with a machine gun. To protect yourself from these projectiles, a Shield is an important element of defense, especially if you're a melee weapon user.

In this Dune Awakening guide, we'll explain how the Shield works in this game and how you can get one for yourself.

How to get yourself a Shield in Dune Awakening

The first shields are not that hard to craft (Image via Funcom)

The first Shield you can craft in Dune Awakening is the Holtzman Shield Mk II. This can actually be purchased from the vendor in Anvil right away when you get to Vermillius Gap. It will set you back 5800 Solari.

If you want to craft it yourself, you'll need to research it first and then get Iron Ingots and Holtzman Actuators. Here's the recipe for the Mk II starter shield; it requires a basic Fabricator to craft:

15x Iron Ingot
10x Holtzman Actuator
10x Particle Capacitator

Iron Ingots must be made with Iron Ore and Water in an ore refinery. However, the other two resources have to be found through exploration.

Particle Capacitators are a blue resource, so they can exclusively be found in Imperial Testing Stations. If you have done a couple of runs of Imperial Station No. 2 back in Hagga Basin South, you might already have enough. If you haven't, don't worry - there are Imperial Stations in every region of Hagga Basin, such as Imperial Station No. 10 in Eastern Vermillus Gap.

Meanwhile, to get Holtzman Actuators, you'll have to find Ornithaptor wrecks out in the sands. These can be salvaged with a cutteray, and fully mining can give you 50+ Holtzman Actuators.

Once you get the Shield, it goes in its dedicated equipment slot and requires a Power Pack to function. You should also craft a Power Pack Mk I to stay up to date with the current level of progression.

How do Shields work in Dune Awakening?

Shields worn by the player actually work about the same as enemy shields in Dune Awakening. You can press H (default keybind on keyboard) to activate or deactivate it at will.

When your Shield is up, it will block all incoming projectiles and drain power for the amount of damage it absorbed. The better your Shield and Power Pack tier, the more absorption you get.
Your shields will be automatically be disabled for a few seconds once you start firing a ranged weapon. However, it stays up when you swing melee weapons.
Getting your Power Pack battery fully drained will disable the shields till your Power is back up to full.
You are especially vulnerable to charged attacks from enemy swordsmen when the Shields are up, so make sure to dodge out of their way.

That's all about getting and using Shields in Dune Awakening. Always remember to disable them when crossing open sands, as they increase the vibrations you make to attract the sandworm.

Check out our other guides on the game:

About the author

Sambit Pal is an esports Journalist on Gaming and MMO at Sportskeeda. He has Master's degree in English Literature. In his spare time, he is an amateur sleuth trying to trace the Riven Mafia in Warframe, and a recovering Bethesda modding addict. He also secretly enjoys action Roguelites, a severe lack of gitting gud notwithstanding.

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Edited by Sambit Pal