Best Shield attachment in God of War Ragnarok

We’ll walk you through what we consider to be the best shield attachment in God of War Ragnarok. You’ll come across 12 different shield attachments, known as ronds in-game, as you journey through the Nine Realms, each with their own set of stat boosts and unique defensive skills or buffs.

With upgrade materials and hacksilver a limited commodity, it’s worth investing in the best shield attachments to accompany you through into the late-game and against some of God of War Ragnarok’s toughest bosses. Here’s where we think those resources are put to best use, especially if you’re using one of the best shields.

Best shield ronds in God of War Ragnarok

Rond of the Nine Realms

• Location – Reward for completing For Vanaheim Favor
• Starting stats – Defense 18, Luck 22 at level 6

Courtesy of the hardened Yggdrasil sap used in its forging, the Rond of the Nine Realms can shift time. In practice, the Riposte Realm Shift skill grants the rond a low luck chance to create a Realm Shift when pulling off a successful parry. The Realm Shift momentarily slows downs surrounding enemies, giving you a window to counter attack or avoid incoming attacks.

Riposte proves particularly useful in late-game fights against the likes of Gna and Berserker Gravestone summons, who more often than not have rapid attack chains that can be tricky to parry and avoid. The Realm Shift, though not guaranteed, gives you some much needed breathing room.

Elsewhere, the Rond of the Nine Realms comes with a boost to both Defense and Luck, surging to 29 and 34 points respectively when upgraded to level 9.

Rond of Obliteration

• Location – Reward for defeating Queen Gna in Muspelheim
• Starting stats – Strength 10, Defense 10, Runic 13, Vitality 13, Cooldown 13, Luck 13 at level 8

Forged by tempering hundreds of Valkyrie feathers, the Rond of Obliteration is one of the best shield attachments in God of War Ragnarok because of its Shards of the Valkyrie skill. Holding L1 charges the shield, granting a volley of Valkyrie shards triggered by pressing L1 and L3. The shards have a massive range and deal decent damage, adding an offensive twist to the shield to bolster runic attacks and relic skills.

The Rond of Obliteration also offers a balanced set of stat boosts, covering strength, defense, runic, vitality, cooldown, and luck. Individually, these numbers are trumped by other ronds, but no other shield attachment improves all of Kratos’ stats like the Rond of Obliteration.

In terms of stat, this Rond hits 11 Strength, 11 Defense, 14 Runic, 14 Vitality, 14 Cooldown, and 14 Luck at level 9 for a well balanced boost to Krato’s fighting chops.

✓ Tip

You can only take on Queen Gna once you’ve completed the story and reached the Epilogue, where you can freely explore the realms. You’ll find Gna in The Crucible in Muspelheim. There’s a small gap in the rock face on the right of the area. Follow the path, using the Blades of Chaos to grapple up to a ledge with a campfire. Read the journal entry there to trigger the fight.

Rond of Purification

• Location – Legendary Chest, Well of Urd, Midgard
• Starting stats – Strength 17, Defense 15 at level 5

The Rond of Purification will cleans Kratos of any debuffs and status effects, putting it in the race for the best shield attachment. The Nine Realms is littered with beasts and gods more than happy to slow our hero with Frost, Burn, Poison, and Bifrost. With the Contagion Discharge skill, all and any status effects are cleansed with a successful Shield Strike. Better yet, after cleansing Kratos, the shield redirects that elemental damage to surrounding enemies. Though the utility here is a little situational, most boss fights feature some elemental status of some kind, meaning Contagion Discharge is almost always useful.

On the stat front, the Rond of Purification favors Strength and Defense, pushing those up to 34 and 29 when fully upgraded to level 9.

Rond of Deflection

• Location – Crafted at Brok and Sindri’s Shop after completing The Word of Fat main path quest
• Starting stats – 15 Defense at level 5

Described as ‘a shield rond for the quick and precise warrior’ the Rond of Deflection is strong option for those struggling to pull off parries. The Agile Deflection skill increases the timing window on parries. Parry timing is therefore much more forgiving, useful for the barrage of attacks awaiting you when you take on post-story bosses.

The downside is that should you switch to another rond, then adapting to the default parry timing can be tricky. The Rond of Deflection boost a single stat – Defense – up to 29 when upgraded to level 9.

Be sure to check out our dedicated God of War Ragnarok guides hub for more walkthroughs, 100% realm completion, ravens, collectibles, armor sets, and more.