Greatshields are defensive equipment in Dark Souls and Dark Souls Remastered. These heavy unrelenting shields resemble more a wall than anything else. Weighing as much as 26.0 units these aren't your regular shield. These shields are too heavy for light characters to even consider wielding without sacrificing mobility or dedicated rings to lighten their load. However any character with a strong endurance who doesn't mind the heavy burden will find the best protection behind these shields. Not only do they give a major damage reduction boost against all types of damage and have the greatest Stability of all shields, they typically have the highest rates of deflection causing even heavy hitters to recoil. Small hits shouldn't even drain your stamina and even large hits and combos can be blocked without your guard being broken. Sadly the drawback is that large shields can't be used for parrying and instead have a shield bash as their secondary attack. While it can be used for breaking the enemies guard it's slow speed limits its use and is quickly redundant if your weapon of choice allows you to kick. The Greatshield of Artorias has a total of 88 stability, but the Crystal Tower Shield +5 has 90 stability which is the highest currently available, if impractical.
Greatshields
| Attack Power Damage Reduction (%) |
Stats Requirements Param Bonus |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image | Name |   |
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  |
  |
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 |
 |
 |
 |
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Deflection | Bash | Acquired From Notes |
 |
Greatshield of Artorias | 88 100 |
0 50 |
0 80 |
0 40 |
100 88 |
34 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
600 16.0 |
Heavy | Bash | Ascended: any Shield +10 and Soul of Sif, at the Giant Blacksmith in Anor Londo. *Attacks blocked with the Greatshield of Artorias do not cause any status effect |
 |
Eagle Shield | 62 95 |
0 55 |
0 45 |
0 75 |
100 70 |
16 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
300 6.0 |
Heavy | Bash | Location: Blighttown near the bonfire on the upper level, a corpse perched on a support beam. Note: Physical damage reduction changed from 100% to 95% in PTDE |
 |
Tower Shield | 80 100 |
0 40 |
0 75 |
0 50 |
100 72 |
30 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
300 13.0 |
Heavy | Bash | Drop: Berenike Knights. (Undead Parish curch, Sen's Fortress and Painted World of Ariamis) |
 |
Black Iron Greatshield | 80 100 |
0 40 |
0 90 |
0 50 |
100 71 |
34 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
230 16.0 |
Heavy | Bash | Location: Found along with matching armor, on a corpse on the bottom floor of the Anor Londo cathedral, near the painting. |
 |
Giant Shield | 80 100 |
0 60 |
0 75 |
0 75 |
100 68 |
36 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
300 18.0 |
Heavy | Bash | Drops: Giants Guards in Anor Londo Purchase: purchased from the Giant Blacksmith in Anor Londo for 10,000 souls. |
 |
Bonewheel Shield | 80 90 |
0 30 |
0 30 |
0 51 |
100 66 |
30 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
200 12.0 |
Heavy | Spin* | Drops: Bonewheel Skeletons in The Catacombs and Painted World of Ariamis (rare). *Bash is replaced by a 3-hit wheel spin attack. |
|
Stone Greatshield | 82 100 |
0 80 |
0 75 |
0 65 |
100 80 |
38 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
400 20.0 |
Heavy | Bash | Drop: Stone Knights in Darkroot Forest (rare). |
 |
Havel's Greatshield | 84 100 |
0 90 |
0 80 |
0 80 |
100 84 |
50 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
500 26.0 |
Heavy | Spell* | Location: in a chest behind an illusionary wall in Anor Londo. *Bash is replaced by a Stoneskin spell that temporarily increases poise and costs 300 durability. |
 |
Cleansing Greatshield | 75 80 |
0 80 |
0 80 |
0 70 |
0 77 |
31 D |
0 - |
0 - |
0 - |
300 14.5 |
Heavy | Bash | Location: Rescue Sif from the Chasm of the Abyss. (AotA only) |
Table Key
| Requirements / Parameter Bonus |
Attack Values | Damage Reduction (%) Reducing the elemental damage taken in % |
Auxiliary Effects | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Strength |
 Physical |
 Physical |
 Bleed |
 Durability |
 Dexterity |
 Magic |
 Magic |
 Poison |
 Weight |
 Intelligence |
 Fire |
 Fire |
 Divine |
|
 Faith |
 Lightning |
 Lightning |
 Occult |
|
 Critical |
 Stability |
|||
 Magic Adjustment |
Durability: The weapon's HP; when the durability hits 0, the effectiveness of its attacks become weakened to the point of almost useless. When an items durability is low, a message will come up saying "Weapon At Risk!" - at this point the weapon does not perform at it's best.
Weight: How much the item weights when equipped.
Stability: How well the player keeps stance after being hit.
Attack Type: Defines what kind of swing set the weapon has.
Regular(R), Thrust(T), Slash(Sl), Strike(St).
Anonymouscool but what if i want to make a build focused around beating people up with shields
- Anonymous
Overall Artorias is the best for general usage. Havel's is better IF you can afford the weight, which realistically you can't without sacrificing something else. Tower Shield is decent if you need less weight and Eagle Shield is great if you don't have enough strength for other shields (and lots of weapons have a str req of 16, so it works out well). Everything else can be used, but is either niche or just outmatched. Worst ones being the Cleansing GS and the Bonewheel, but the latter is meant to be used offensively anyway, so maybe it doesn't count.
- Anonymous
I'm realy need help here, i'm just confused witch greatshield i should use, should i use Greatshield of Artorias? Havel's Greatshield? Stone Greatshield? Giant Shield? Tower Shield? Eagle Shield?
Please i need help for these questions.
- Anonymous
If you use greatshields you are basically playing easy mode. Ruins the Dark Souls experience.
I like the idea of blocking sometimes being better than avoiding attacks, with less stamina consumption, less recovery, and less need for positioning adjustments. Greatshields make that option possible, but it becomes a problem, in my eyes, for two reasons: It's TOO effective, and most are too heavy to feasibly allow for players to keep Light Equip Load, meaning that it's harder to avoid attacks, and therefore more attacks are blocked instead. The only Greatshield I've played with the Eagle Greatshield because it only weighs as much as a Claymore — allowing me to keep Fast Roll —, and even then I felt that I didn't even need to do anything besides hold L1 and wait for enemies to bounce off, granting me almost 1.5x damage for my next attack. The Stability of that thing is 84 at +15 (same as Havel's) and the 5% of physical damage taken when blocking with it are easily remedied by restorative miracles or the Ring of the Evil Eye, though, even without any of that, 5% is nothing, especially with upgraded medium or heavy armor, so the damage can be ignored anyway. In the end, I find that Greatshields encourage a playstyle that makes combat less engaging and very slow, which is not my cup of tea, but it most definitely is very effective. If anyone wants to try out Greatshields, I heavily suggest the Eagle Greatshield; it has a low Strength requirement (at just 16), some of the best Stability in the game when upgraded (same as Havel's, as I've said before), lowest weight in its class (6.0 units — same as Black Knight Shield), and a physical damage reduction that makes any damage dealt through it negligible.
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