TOWER SHIELD
- BASE ITEM
- SHIELD
- LEVEL 22
TOWER SHIELDTOWER SHIELD is a piece of gear, wielded from level 22.
The requirement cuts both ways: nothing below level 22 ever drops one, and a hero below it banks the find rather than wearing it.
It is a pool base, so it climbs: the same shape returns later in the campaign as BULWARK and AEGIS TOWER, at requirements the endgame can actually meet.
Banded twice across its height and taller than the man behind it. You do not dodge behind a tower shield; you plant it, and whatever was coming stops being your problem for as long as your legs hold.
What it does
- MATERIALPLATE, which turns 2.2× what the same piece would in cloth. Plate is deep-campaign work: none of it drops below NIGHTMARE.
- ALSO DEMANDS31 STRENGTH to wear — heavier materials want a bruiser inside them.
- WEARS OUT70 hits taken before it falls silent. It is never destroyed — a worn-out piece still hangs on you contributing nothing until a repair kit brings it back.
A fresh find in the hands of a hero who has spent no stat points — the piece itself, with nothing of the wielder in it. Your own STRENGTH, DEXTERITY or INTELLECT lifts these from there, as does an item level found deeper than the requirement.
Make quality
Every plain drop of this base rolls a make quality on top of the numbers above — the craftsmanship of that particular copy, stamped at the moment it drops and frozen for life. It scales the armor and the wear budget together, and it leads the name: a BROKEN TOWER SHIELD and a PERFECT TOWER SHIELD are the same base item and not the same find.
The bands overlap on purpose, so a good CRUDE can out-swing a poor NORMAL while a PERFECT always clears a NORMAL. Which one you get depends on the level of whatever dropped it: the two odds columns below are a level-1 killer and a level-60 one, and everything between is interpolated. Craftsmanship and magic are exclusive — a magic-or-better find is always normal make.
| MAKE | ARMOR | SCALE | ODDS AT MLVL 1 | ODDS AT MLVL 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BROKEN | 55–78 | 0.58–0.82× | 20% | 0% |
| CRUDE | 69–92 | 0.73–0.97× | 25% | 6% |
| NORMAL | 86–105 | 0.90–1.10× | 52% | 54% |
| SUPERIOR | 98–121 | 1.03–1.27× | 3% | 28% |
| PERFECT | 110–137 | 1.16–1.44× | 0% | 12% |
What it becomes
The same shape comes back twice more, further down the campaign: an EXCEPTIONAL version and an ELITE one, generated from this base rather than authored beside it. They keep its look, its cadence, its reach and its arc; what changes is the level they ask for and the numbers priced onto the curve at it. A venue that pays this base pays its whole ladder, so a first-map find keeps dropping — as something else — into the endgame.
| GRADE | REQUIRES | ARMOR | WEARS | MATERIAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOWER SHIELD (normal) | 22 | 95 | 70 | PLATE |
| BULWARK | 51 | 286 | 88 | PLATE |
| AEGIS TOWER | 97 | 625 | 105 | PLATE |
Named items built on it
One relic wears this shape, with an authored block of bonuses on top — each on the rung of the ladder it names.
- ANCILEAEGIS TOWER
Where it comes from
- THE RIFT carries it in its drop pool.
- BOOT HILL carries it in its drop pool.
- THE BUNKER carries it in its drop pool.
Every one of those pools carries BULWARK and AEGIS TOWER along with it — the game expands a pool entry into its whole grade family at roll time — so the same venues keep paying this shape out at requirements 97 deep.