Although it has been more than ten years since its release, there is no doubt that Borderlands 2 is one of the best games in history. Its enormous content and the amount of DLCs it has makes its replayability almost eternal.
One of the biggest discussions in the game is about its shields. Although the best shield in the game is very clear (obviously, we are talking about The Bee), it is often disputed which are the other best shields. Therefore, in this list, we choose the five best shields in the game, their effect, and show you how to get them.
Hide Of Terramorphous
The Legendary shield Hide of Terramorphous is one of the best shields in all of Borderlands 2! Although, you’ll have to fight one of the hardest enemies to acquire it.
How to get it
This is the Bandit shield. To get it, you will have to do the mission “You Are Going to Die… Seriously” that Tannis will give you after completing the main mission, a somewhat peculiar mission because when you complete the story for the first time you are level 35 or so, and this mission is level 50 which says how complicated it is. In this mission, you will have to kill the most complicated boss of the game if you don’t have any DLC, Terramorphous, but you will have to farm it several times to get it.
Special Effect
This shield is one of the best because it has a high nova damage and an excellent radius. Nova damage means that when the shield is empty, it releases an explosion that, depending on the radius, is bigger or smaller. In addition, it has very good spike damage, which means that when it is emptied, it releases a spike that damages the nearest enemies, and it also has very high steroid damage. So when your shield is emptied you will make more melee damage
Utility
This is a very useful shield that can be used for almost anything.
For example, when there are many enemies together, when there are many melee enemies, or when there are enemies with a lot of life, and also against bosses, but not all of them: It does not make sense to use it with Terramorphous or The Warrior, but it’s very effective against other bosses like Willhelm.
The character that gets the most out of it is clearly Krieg because of the roid damage.
The Bee
One of the most commonly listed shields when it comes to ranking the best shields in the game, the Bee makes another appearance here.
How to get it
The Bee is the legendary Hyperion shield considered the best in the game. To get it, you will have to finish the main mission, “Where Angels Fear to Tread.” Then you will have to go to the sanctuary and accept the mission that Mordecai has for you. The mission is called “Breaking News” in that mission, what you will have to do is to go and kill the Hyperion radio announcer Hunter Helquist in the radio tower in the Arid Nexxuz Boneyard. After killing him and turning in the mission, you will be able to farm Hunter Helquist to get The Bee.
Special Effect
The special effect of this shield is that if it is at maximum capacity the bullets of that weapon in your hand will do amplified damage all the time until the shield is not at maximum
Utility
The usefulness of this shield depends on the moment, for example, against bosses like Terramorphous, the warrior, etc is very good. In some cases is almost indispensable. Also, against normal enemies is very useful, although sometimes it is better to use a normal one with more protection.
Black Hole
How to get it
The Black Hole is one of the legendary shields of Maliwan, the mission you have to accept to start farming it is “The fury of a woman scorned” that will give us Moxxi in Sanctuary. The mission is based on destroying a construction in Opportunity. In the same mission, you will have to kill the construction foreman, Rusty. Once the mission is completed and delivered, you can kill him as many times as you need to drop the Black Hole.
Special Ability
This shield can only be used for one elemental damage: Shock. It is a nova shield, and its special ability is that when it is emptied, it attracts enemies to you and explodes the nova. This is useful and, at the same time, not; it depends on the character and the situation.
Utility
At low levels (30-40), This shield is very useful and does some damage, but at high levels or power levels, you should only use it for fun since the nova will do almost nothing to enemies that are at a higher level.
Flame of the Firehawk
How to get it
The Flame of the Firehawk is another of the Maliwan shields. It is a special shield, so you don’t need to farm it: you get it by doing a side mission early in the story. This mission is given to you by Lilith and is called “The Cultists.” This is a series of missions in which you will have to work for the incinerator Clayton, the leader of the Firehawk sect. After finishing all the missions and turning him in, Lilith will give you the Flame of the Firehawk.
Special Ability
Like the previous one, this shield is also made of Novas, but they are the most powerful Novas in the game. Its damage is really high and you can cast 3 Novas in a row.
Utility
This shield is generally very useful against all types of enemies, the shield is very good at doing a lot of nova damage, but it is preferable to use it against melee enemies like Pandora’s fauna.
The Sham
The Sham is legendary (see what I did there?) not only for its effect but also for the insane amount of farming you have to do for the right prefix + absorb percentage. More often than not, you’ll be B0re farming the BNKER hundreds of times before you get the exact percent you want.
How to get it
To get this shield, you will have to finish the main mission, “Where angels fear to tread.” In that mission, you will have to go to where Angel is and get the key to the chamber; in one of the mission’s final parts, you will see BNK-3R, better known as “BUNKER,” which you will have to kill it to finish the mission. Then, you will just have to return and farm the mission after turning it in.
Special Effect
The special effect of this shield is that it will have bullet absorption, but not just any absorption. The bullet absorption chance of this shield can be from 80% to 96%, the highest in the game.
Utility
This is a very useful shield since it can be used at any time against any enemy except those that do melee damage and bosses that do not shoot. If you use it well and have the right character against some bosses, you can even be immortal.
