One of the more tedious simulation aspects in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is durability, which, to be fair, plagues many a role-playing game. Simply put, use in battle will cause wear and tear to your equipment, and fortunately this also applies to enemies, whose gear will usually be in worse condition than Henry’s. While an enemy is unlikely to be too bothered by their gear losing quality, depleting the durability of, say, a shield will destroy it outright, rendering it unusable in combat. There’s even an achievement for breaking a foe’s shield in combat, which will probably be the only time the durability of an enemy’s gear even remotely interests you. This page will discuss how to break an enemy’s shield and earn the Without Protection achievement in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

Page Breakdown¶

How to Break an Enemy’s Shield¶

There’s no need to repeat the preamble too much - using weapons and armor in combat will decrease their durability, and this applies to both Henry and his foes. For the Without Protection achievement you need to destroy an enemy’s shield in combat, which sounds simple enough on paper, and if you’re lucky (like we originally were) you might just achieve this early in the game without even trying. Turns out that some things oddly contribute to making this easier - Henry being weaker relative to his foe (lower Warfare and weapon skills) makes it more likely his foes will block Henry’s attacks, and if you also lack powerful weapons and access to combos, you may just end up trading blows with a foe until their shield breaks. Most bandits you come across have gear in varying levels of disrepair, and all you need it a bit of luck to find a bandit more skilled than Henry who wields a weak weapon (say, a Hunting Sword) and a shield with low durability (under 25% or so). Just perfect block and counter enemy bandits with a shield equipped and hope for the best!

Of course, nobody wants to just “hope for the best” or rely on luck, but you can do some things to improve your odds. First, doing this early may be easier, provided you’ve at least secured some starter armor. The lower your Warfare skill, the more likely your attacks will be blocked. Swinging at an enemy’s weapon will also increase the odds that it’ll be intercepted, and some other variables - like having weaker weapons yourself (so the enemy doesn’t die in a few hits) and not having Mutt interfering can also help. If you’ve reunited with Mutt, just command him to stay somewhere so he doesn’t get involved.

If you’re too high of a level or generally just having trouble getting this to pop, we’ve got another solution for you:

Planting a Damaged Shield¶

Why wait for luck when you can make your own? This takes a bit more effort and skill, but it can help you get this achievement fairly easily, once everything is set up. Kill bandits until you find a low durability shield (a Knight’s Shield works well), then equip it and fight with it for a while. Try to get its durability as low as possible (under 10%), then unequip it, but keep it in your inventory. Do not repair it.

Next you need to find a bandit, preferably one armed with a shield and sneak up on him and perform a stealth takedown. This is the hardest part of this scheme, as you may have to level your Stealth up considerably to accomplish this, and wear light (read: not protective) clothes. Even if you succeed, bandits rarely travel alone and if you knock out a target you’ll probably want to flee and hide so you can reequip your armor, then return and kill the bandits while hoping they didn’t rouse their stricken comrade. If all this succeeds, you’re golden - find the unconscious bandit and loot him, take his shield and replace it with your nearly broken one. This can be a chore to accomplish but once you’ve located a suitable target, Saviour Schnapps can help you try until you switcheroo the bandit’s shields.

After planting the moribund shield, wait until the bandit rouses - they can stay asleep an hour or two of in-game time, so wait if you wish, the game will interrupt you when the bandit stirs, in our experience. When the bandits attacks, wait for him to equip the junk shield you gave him, and when he does focus on blocking and countering - with any luck the shield will only survive a few blocks before breaking, earning you the Without Protection achievement!

If you need a quick video guide, check out the link, above!