Every Shield in Valheim: Three Types, and the Buckler Blocks Worst but Parries Best

 

    Valheim has fifteen shields across three families — Round, Tower and Buckler — and the crucial thing to understand is that they are not a single ladder. A Buckler has the weakest raw block and the best parry; a Tower shield has the strongest block and cannot parry at all. Choosing between them is a choice of playstyle, and it also costs you movement speed: 10% on a Tower shield against 5% on everything else.

 

    On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.

 

All Fifteen

 

 

Shield	Type	Block	Parry force	Parry bonus	Speed
Wood shield	Round	6 / 18	20 / 30	1.5×	−5%
Wood tower shield	Tower	10 / 22	100 / 110	—	−10%
Bronze buckler	Buckler	16 / 28	30	2.5×	−5%
Bone tower shield	Tower	32 / 44	100 / 110	—	−10%
Iron buckler	Buckler	28 / 40	30	2.5×	−5%
Banded shield	Round	42 / 54	40 / 50	1.5×	−5%
Iron tower shield	Tower	52 / 64	100 / 110	—	−10%
Silver shield	Round	60 / 72	40 / 50	1.5×	−5%
Serpent scale shield	Tower	60 / 72, Resistant vs. Pierce	100 / 110	—	−10%
Black metal shield	Round	78 / 90	50 / 60	1.5×	−5%
Carapace buckler	Buckler	78 / 90	50 / 60	2.5×	−5%
Black metal tower shield	Tower	104 / 116	150 / 160	—	−10%
Carapace shield	Round	96 / 108	60 / 70	1.5×	−5%
Flametal shield	Round	114 / 126	50 / 60	1.5×	−5%
Flametal tower shield	Tower	140 / 152	150 / 160	—	−10%

 

The Three Families Do Different Jobs

 

    The wiki states each family's trade explicitly.

 

    Tower shields — "offer the highest raw block power and force at the cost of usually 10% slower movement (this equally increases dodge roll cost) when in hand compared to other shields' 5%, and no parrying."

 

    Buckler shields — "offer the best parry block armour but the weakest block armour and parry force."

 

    Round shields sit between the two, with a 1.5× parry bonus against the Buckler's 2.5×.

 

    The parry bonus column is where the arithmetic gets interesting, because it multiplies the block value at the moment of a successful parry:

 

Shield	Block	Parry bonus	Effective parry block
Carapace buckler	78 / 90	2.5×	195 / 225
Carapace shield (Round)	96 / 108	1.5×	144 / 162
Black metal tower shield	104 / 116	—	104 / 116

 

    A Carapace buckler parrying beats a Black metal tower shield blocking by nearly double — 195 against 104 — despite having 26 less raw block. That is the case for the Buckler in one line: it is worse at everything except the thing it exists for.

 

The Movement Penalty Is Not Small

 

 

    Tower shields cost 10% movement speed; Round shields and Bucklers cost 5%.

 

    The line worth reading twice is the parenthetical: "this equally increases dodge roll cost." So a Tower shield is not only slower to walk with — every dodge you spend costs more stamina than it would with a Round shield or Buckler.

 

    That compounds against the no-parry restriction. A Tower shield player cannot parry, so their defensive options are blocking and dodging — and the shield makes the dodging more expensive. A Buckler player can parry, moves faster, and dodges cheaper.

 

    Tower shields are for standing still and absorbing, which is why their parry force sits at 100–160 despite having no parry bonus — they hold ground rather than counter.

 

The One Shield With a Resistance

 

    The Serpent scale shield is Resistant vs. Pierce on top of its 60/72 block — the only shield in the game with a damage-type resistance printed on it.

 

    That is a targeted item rather than a general upgrade. Pierce is what Deathsquitos deal at 90, what Draugr archers deal at 48, what Fulings deal with spears at 85, what Seekers claw for at 120, and what Ticks apply at 50 every half-second. Against any of those the Serpent scale shield is doing more than its block number suggests.

 

    Its raw 60/72 matches the Silver shield exactly, so you are paying nothing in block power for the resistance — only the Tower family's 10% movement penalty.

 

Which to Carry

 

 

• If you parry, take a Buckler. The 2.5× bonus turns a Carapace buckler's 78 into an effective 195, beating every Tower shield.
• If you block and hold ground, take a Tower shield. Flametal tower at 140/152 is the raw ceiling.
• Round shields are the compromise — 1.5× parry, −5% speed, and the Flametal shield's 114/126 is the best block outside the Tower family.
• Remember the dodge cost. A Tower shield's 10% penalty applies to your dodge roll as well as your walk.
• Take the Serpent scale shield into Pierce fights — Plains, Mistlands and Swamp archers — since its resistance is free relative to the Silver shield.
• The shield replaces your weapon's block stats entirely, so the weapon in your main hand does not affect how well you block.

 

Running your own Valheim server

 

    Shields are the clearest place a Valheim group divides labour — somebody parries, somebody holds — and dividing labour needs one shared world. A gamever Valheim server keeps it persistent for up to 10 players, with one-click backups.

 

Conclusion

 

    Valheim's fifteen shields split into three families that are not a single upgrade path. Tower shields carry the highest raw block — Flametal tower at 140/152 — and the highest parry force at 150/160, but cannot parry and cost 10% movement, a penalty that also increases dodge roll cost. Bucklers have the weakest block and parry force and the best parry bonus at 2.5×, which means a Carapace buckler's 78 block becomes an effective 195 on a successful parry — nearly double the Black metal tower shield's 104. Round shields sit between at 1.5× parry and −5% speed, topping out at the Flametal shield's 114/126. One shield carries a printed damage resistance: the Serpent scale shield is Resistant vs. Pierce at the same 60/72 block as the Silver shield, making the resistance free. And since a shield replaces the block power, parry force and parry bonus of whatever weapon you are holding, the shield alone decides how well you defend.

 

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