Shield

The shield is a piece of equipment that can block certain enemy projectiles in the game. There are 3 upgrade tiers of the shield:

• Fighter shield (or, fighter's shield)
• Red shield
• Mirror shield

Location

Link's uncle will give Link the fighter shield (along with the fighter sword) in the secret passage at the beginning of the game. The fighter shield can also be purchased at four different shops in the Dark World at the cost of 50 rupees:

• Village of Outcasts shop
• Ice Lake shop
• Dark Lumberjack shop
• Ropa lottery shop

The red shield can be gotten from two locations:

• At the fenced-in shop in Dark World, it can be purchased for 500 rupees
• If you throw the fighter shield into the fairy fountain behind the waterfall of wishing, the fairy will reward Link with a red shield.

The mirror shield is the big chest item in Turtle Rock.

Description

The shield is a passive item in ALttP that blocks projectiles coming at Link. The projectiles that are blocked depend on the shield upgrade he has:

• Fighter shield deflects spears, arrows, and octorok/slarok rocks
• Red shield deflects fireballs and the projectiles deflected by the fighter shield
• Mirror shield deflects lasers, lynel beams, wizzrobe attacks, and all the projectiles deflected by the red shield.
  • The only lasers deflected are the ones produced by the laser eyes mounted on walls appearing in Turtle Rock and Ganon's Tower. It doesn't apply to beamos lasers or the lasers that Blind shoots.

The shield will only block projectiles from certain directions. In Link's default stance, it will block projectiles that approach him from the direction he's facing, but he'll be vulnerable to projectiles from other directions. If Link holds a sword charge, the shield's block direction shifts to where he's holding his shield arm, and he'll be vulnerable to projectiles from his front. When holding a sword charge, blocking will change to:

• Up when he's facing left or right
• Left when he's facing down
• Right when he's facing up

The fighter and red shields can be stolen by pikits. Link can defeat the pikit to recover the shield. If a pikit steals his shield and the player leaves the screen, the shield will be lost. In this case, the only way to get a new shield is to buy one or get the mirror shield. The mirror shield cannot be stolen by pikits.

Mirror shield is a requirement in 100% speedruns, but the red shield, which is an intermediate upgrade, is not required. Outside of this, none of the shields are required for speedrunning, and the fighter shield is typically only obtained as a consequence of getting the fighter sword. The mirror shield is easily skipped in Any%-type runs.