Borderlands 3 is the game that keeps on giving. With trillions upon trillions of weapons, shields, grenades, and more to acquire, it can be tough to know when you’re onto a good thing. A great indicator is an item’s colour, of which Orange, Legendary, is generally best. To make things easy, we’ve started with the very best Legendary shields in Borderlands 3. While there are some unique items that can drop at higher levels, offering better traits or protection, these shields are generally regarded by the community as the best in the game.
Brawler Ward
This shield is a Hyperion make and has an increased chance of dropping from The Graveward, which you’ll find in The Floating Tomb on Eden-6.
What makes Brawler Ward so special is the effect it has on your weapons. The trait, ‘Free me Master, See me Shiver’, boosts your melee damage, but also buffs weapon damage by 25% when depleted. On top of that, it adds 2% max health per second when active, which is doubled to 4% when depleted.
Essentially, if you have this shield equipped but depleted, you’ll deal a quarter more damage with weapons, and gain 4% health per second.
Big Boom Blaster
Also included on our list of the best legendary shields in Borderlands 3 is the Big Boom Blaster shield. This shield might look like Borderlands 3’s take on the Triforce, but it’s a lot more explosive than that. Manufactured by Pangolin, it has an increased chance of dropping from The Unstoppable in Ambermire, located on Eden-6.
The trait on Big Boom Blaster, ‘For All Your Big Boom Blasting Needs!’, is fantastic. It has a chance of dropping a booster which will restore shields, some ammo, and a grenade. The booster will restore 60% of your shield, while the ammo is actually for your Heavy weapon.
As a result, this shield is great for explosive builds that focus on heavy weapons. It works well with the Tran-Fusion Grenade Mod, because it can pretty much supply an infinite healing source. The only caveat is that it can’t drop anything closer than every 2 seconds, but I think we can all live with that.
Re-Charger
This shield is manufactured by Hyperion, and unfortunately there is nowhere that it has an increased drop rate. You have the same chance of picking it up everywhere you go. Yet another reason to kill everything you see.
The trait on this shield, ‘Once More, With Feeling’, makes it so that the shield has no recharge delay when depleted. It will fully recharge once depleted entirely, but has a 20 second cooldown on that ability.
There isn’t much that works well with this shield, since it requires all energy to be depleted, which will cause some damage to be felt. The best tactic for using it is to run straight for cover once energy has been depleted, allow it to fully recharge, and then head back into the fight.
The Transformer
This is an Absorb shield, manufactured by Hyperion, with an increased chance of dropping from Killavolt in Lectra City on Promethea. You’re also guaranteed to get it as the reward for ‘It’s Alive’ in Desolation’s Edge on Nekrotafeyo.
The special trait on this shield, ‘There’s More Than Your Eye Can See’, converts all Shock damage into shield charge. This is really effective against enemies that deal shock damage, and mixed groups of enemies with elemental weapons.
Since the Transformer is an absorb shield, you could also use a weapon that deals self-shock damage, feeding your shield and helping protect you in a fight.
Stop-Gap
Another shield manufactured by Hyperion, Stop-Gap has a higher chance of dropping from El Dragón Jr, who you’ll find on the Jakobs Estate on Eden-6.
The trait on Stop-Gap, ‘The Process is Called “Living”’, makes you immune to damage for 5 seconds once the shield is depleted. The effect won’t work if you’re downed with the same shot that depletes the shield, so running for cover once you’re out of energy is advised.
Stop-Gap works best when paired with a weapon or other item that can trigger health regeneration, no matter how small. The last thing you want is to be invulnerable for five seconds, only to die six seconds after your shield has been depleted.
Version O.M
This is an Anshin manufactured shield, dropped by Wotan the Invincible, and the Valkyrie Squad only. The trait, ‘Stand and Clap’, will add an amount of Amp damage to your next shot when charged. You can see the Amp effect by the purple glow at the end of your weapon’s barrel.
When the shield is depleted, a red circle will be created. Should you stand inside the circle, your damage output will be massively increased.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
A shield manufactured by Anshin, it has an increased chance of dropping from Crushjaw in Cathedral of the Gods on Pandora.
The trait, ‘Situation Normal’, has a 25% chance of throwing out 3 IEDs in front of you when you’re damaged. These IED’s will stick to surfaces and explode after a short timer, or blow up on impact with an enemy.
This shield is best-used by players who like to get up close and personal. If you have a melee-focused build, or use a lot of close range weapons, this will be a huge boost to you.
Old God
Old God is manufactured by Hyperion, and has the same chance of dropping from all loot sources. As we already mentioned, kill everything, and kill often. If this drops for you then it’s all worth it.
The trait, ‘The End Comes From Within’, makes you deal 20% increased damage for the element this shield is resistant against, which depends on which version drops for you. It will also provide an overall 25% damage reduction against all elements.
If you have an element-specific build, then getting the right version of Old God will be huge for your character. It might take a bit of time to get the right one. Alternatively, you could create a build around the version of Old God that drops for you.
Those are the best Legendary shields in Borderlands 3, to date at least. With more and more content being released, both as paid DLC and free updates, for the game, who knows when a new shield will drop that surpasses every one listed here?