Shields represent defensive energy barriers. A ship is shielded while it has at least one active shield.
While a ship defends, shields provide it protection against damage.
When you suffer damage, it affects shields first. Each shield token cancels one Hit Damage (
) or Crit Damage (
).
Additionally:
- If an upgrade card has a shield capacity, this increases the shield capacity of the ship. The Shield Tokens are placed above the ship card it is attached to (not the upgrade card).
- A ship card that does not have a shield capacity on its ship card has a shield capacity of “0,” but that capacity can be increased by upgrade cards that have a shield capacity.
- During the End Phase, each ship with a shield capacity recovers a number of Shield Tokens equal the number of recurring symbols on its ship card (only Huge Ships have recurring symbols).
- If an upgrade card instructs the ship to spend Shield Tokens, those Shield Tokens are spent from the ship card.