| Shield (Payday 3) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Description | |
| Enemy Type | Tactical Shield Unit |
| Statistics | |
| Health | 160 |
| Armor Layers | 180 |
| Hardness | 2 |
| Visor Statistics | |
| Visor Armor | 5 |
| Visor Hardness | 1.75 |
| Other | |
| Internal name | Shield
|
| Voice actor | Joseph May |
- "Your ammo is wasted on me!"
- —Shield unit taunting a heister
The Shield is a special enemy in PAYDAY 3 that focuses on providing mobile defense for SWAT during assaults.
Overview[]
The Shield is, as the name suggests, a heavily armored police officer carrying a large riot shield. They only wield a pistol, but they can still output similar damage to standard enemies. The shield itself blocks all incoming fire, aside from Overkill Weapons, making fighting a Shield from the front a dubious task at best. Additionally, unlike its previous incarnations, the Shield can rotate very quickly, and has a lot of health. Unlike previous iterations, the Shield's viewport can be easily destroyed after several rounds of fire, exposing the Shield's head. The shield is also considerably smaller compared to their previous appearances, making it somewhat easier to shoot them from the side.
Shields are also capable of a shield bash: a melee attack that, unlike standard units, they can perform at any time whenever the player is close. This attack behaves similarly to the melee attack regular cops will perform when a heister has a human shield readied, stunning the player and throwing their aim out of whack. Occasionally, Shields may spawn with a tactical flashlight on difficulties with certain modifiers, allowing them to flash heisters and temporarily blind them.
Other units will rely on the Shield as a mobile form of cover, ducking behind them to avoid getting shot, and the Shield will block grenades for them. As such, flashbangs are not a reliable way to defeat a Shield, although they (alongside smoke grenades) can be used to cause the shield to prioritise blocking the grenade's "damage" (where there is none), exposing them to attacks from their unprotected sides. Alternatively, a shock grenade can be used to instantly kill them.
Strategies[]
Shooting a Shield in the head will stagger them, causing them to briefly lose control of their riot shield, though how many bullets it takes for a Shield to finally stagger depends on how strong one's guns are. This opens their body and head up to further attacks from the front. Additionally, the riot shield has a window at eye level made of bullet-resistant glass; doing enough damage to this window will break it and expose the Shield to headshots from the front, offering a method to take them down in dire situations.
It is also possible to bait a melee attack, then dodge and attack to the side while the Shield is bashing. The window to strike from this bait is tight, but consistent with practice. Shields also cannot turn while performing their shield bash, exposing their sides.
As they prioritise absorbing grenade damage with their shields, tricking these special units by throwing a flashbang or smoke grenade at them, forcing them to turn a certain direction, can potentially expose their unprotected side to a player. Additionally, shock grenades kill Shields instantly while shocking everyone around it, allowing players to simply take out the shield and the rest of the squad without risking too much damage to themselves.
Although cop behaviour now has Shield units leading the charge with small groups of regular SWAT enemies following closely behind, Shield units spawning in certain areas (usually elevators or alleyways, like in Houston Breakout or Diamond District) often lag behind their regular unit counterparts, allowing heisters to simply get rid of the Shield's backup considering how weak these units are on their own before turning to neutralize the Shield unit.
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first time that the Shield unit has ever had voicelines in a PAYDAY game.
- The Shield unit can still make the iconic clanging sounds that were present in PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2.
- The Shield and the Bulldozer are the only two special units in PAYDAY 3 with a defined visor armor stat and hardness stat.
- The Shield is seen wearing a Ulbrichts ZENTURIO C1300H helmet, ironically a German helmet: Another example is the Dozer with the AM-95.
- Unlike other special units, the Shield's dialogue is somewhat similar to the Medic from PAYDAY 2, being more professional and less violent, prioritising the safety of the SWAT squad he's leading. He does still threaten players who get too close, and will sometimes be upset or frustrated over his shield getting damaged.