How to Protect Yourself in Blade & Soul

Martial artists rarely rely on the protection of armor, but instead draw their power through training, meditation, and mastery of the elements that surround them. While you won't be equipping armor, or at least any that imparts any additional defense beyond its appearance, your Soul Shield—a medallion of immense power—will instead increase your offensive and defensive capabilities.

Overview

Your Soul Shield is made up of eight individual pieces, each angled in a specific direction around it. Throughout your adventures you'll collect the pieces that can be used in your Soul Shield, which then increase your performance. Each piece is also a part of a set, and additional bonuses can be gained by using 3, 5, or all 8 pieces of a set—which also allows 3 and 5 piece choices of different sets to be mixed and matched.

The most powerful and versatile martial artists seek out Soul Shield pieces, and attempt to complete each of the sets in their entirety. It should also be stated that, while attacking without any clothing on can be an imposing sight for your enemy, it's required that you be clothed for your Soul Shield to be active.

Inventory

You have a dedicated section of your inventory for your Soul Shield, making it easy to see how complete your sets are, what pieces of a set you still need, and to compare information on individual pieces and complete sets.

You also have the option to create a reserve Soul Shield configuration, using Soul Shield pieces that you've collected to build an alternate set of stats and BNS gold—especially helpful when switching between PvE and PvP gameplay.

Equipping your reserve set of Soul Shields is easy and can be performed at any time outside of combat.