What Are Base Shields?
Base Shields pause your base’s upkeep cost for a set duration. While a shield is active, your Tool Cupboard doesn’t consume resources to maintain your walls — meaning your base won’t decay even if your TC runs empty.
This is NOT raid protection. Your base is already protected from raids by default through the Raid Scheduler. Base Shields are purely about upkeep — they save you from having to constantly refill your TC with stone, metal, and HQM to keep your walls from crumbling.
Why Use Them?
- Going on a trip and can’t log in for a few days? Shield your base so it doesn’t decay while you’re gone.
- Ran out of HQM for upkeep? Pop a shield to buy yourself time.
- Want to focus on quests and PvP instead of farming upkeep materials? Shield up and go play.
How They Work
- Online-only — Shields only tick down while you’re logged in. When you disconnect, the timer pauses automatically and resumes when you reconnect. Your shield time is never wasted while you’re offline.
- Activate at your TC — Walk up to your Tool Cupboard and use the shield menu to purchase and activate.
- Stackable — You can buy multiple shields and their time adds together. For example, buying two 2-hour shields gives you 4 hours of total protection. There’s a cap on how much time you can stack based on your tier (see below).
Shield Pricing
Purchase shields with Mithril at your TC:
| Duration | Cost | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | 100 Mithril | All players |
| 2 hours | 175 Mithril | All players |
| 4 hours | 300 Mithril | All players |
| 8 hours | 500 Mithril | Silmaril / Valar |
| 16 hours | 800 Mithril | Valar only |
Stack Caps
Shields stack — meaning you can buy multiple shields and their durations add together. If you buy a 1-hour and a 2-hour shield, you now have 3 hours of upkeep protection. Each tier has a maximum amount of shield time you can have stacked at once:
| Player Tier | Max Stacked Time |
|---|---|
| Regular (free) | 4 hours |
| Mellon | 6 hours |
| Silmaril | 9 hours |
| Valar | 16 hours |
Activation Cast Time
- Free players — 90-second cast time at the TC before the shield activates
- All subscription tiers — Instant activation, no waiting
Free Shields (Subscriber Perk)
Subscribers receive free 1-hour shields once per wipe — these are granted at the start of the wipe and do not refresh on a cooldown:
| Tier | Free Shields |
|---|---|
| Mellon | 4 per wipe |
| Silmaril | 8 per wipe |
| Valar | 16 per wipe |
These are a one-time grant per wipe — not a recurring cooldown. Once you’ve used them, buy more with Mithril like everyone else.