Elite Buff: Shielded 3 (Boss)

Internal engine status effect. Boss-specific variant of the Shielded elite buff at tier 3. Grants the boss 12 Shield stacks that refresh at the start of each round, at the cost of -20% max health.

At 12 Shield stacks per round, this tier requires focused burst damage to penetrate before dealing health damage. Burn, Bleed, and Poison bypass Shield entirely, making them reliable regardless of the Shield amount. Marked causes physical attacks to ignore Shield, effectively neutralizing the Shielded modifier.

Coordinate your team's attacks within the same round to break through the Shield and deal health damage before it refreshes. The -20% max health trade-off means the boss has less total health to work through once the Shield is bypassed. Standard elite versions use lower Shield values (3/5/7/9 by chapter tier).