What do Assault and Shield do?

Assault and Shield are two keywords in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game that make a unit stronger in a fight. Both add Might, and in combat Might is both the damage a unit deals and the damage it takes to kill it. The only difference between them is when the bonus counts: Assault while the unit attacks, Shield while it defends.

What does Assault do?

Assault gives a unit extra Might while it is an attacker. The number after the keyword is the size of the bonus: Assault 2 gives +2 Might while the unit attacks, and Assault with no number gives +1.

Daring Poro is a 2 Might unit with Assault, so it attacks with 3 Might. Sharkling shows how far the keyword can go: it has 1 Might and Assault 4, so it attacks with 5 Might but defends with only 1. Rengar, Pouncing has Reaction and Assault 2 and can be played to a battlefield you are attacking, so he can join a fight that has already started and attack with 5 Might.

What does Shield do?

Shield is the same bonus for the other side of the fight: a unit with Shield has extra Might while it is a defender. Shield 3 gives +3 Might, and Shield with no number gives +1. Despite its name, Shield does not block or prevent damage. It only raises the unit's Might, so the unit hits back harder and needs more damage to die.

Stalwart Poro has 2 Might and Shield, so it defends with 3. Mutated Mouser has 1 Might, Shield 2 and Tank, so it defends with 3 and must be assigned lethal damage first. Needlessly Large Yordle has 5 Might and Shield 5, so it defends a battlefield with 10.

When is a unit an attacker or a defender?

A unit is an attacker or a defender only during a combat. A combat starts when units of two players stand at the same battlefield, usually because one player has moved units onto a battlefield where the other player's units are. The player whose units arrived is the attacker, and all of their units at that battlefield are attackers. All of the other player's units there are defenders.

For most of the game, Assault and Shield do nothing. They do nothing in your base, at a battlefield where no fight is going on, or when your units move onto an empty battlefield, because no combat takes place there. Assault does nothing while a unit defends, and Shield does nothing while it attacks.

The bonus starts the moment the combat begins, before either player can play a spell in the showdown, and it lasts until the combat ends. A unit that joins the fight later, such as one played there with Ambush or Reaction, becomes an attacker or a defender as soon as it arrives. A unit that leaves the battlefield during the fight stops being an attacker or a defender, and its bonus ends with it.

Does the extra Might make a unit harder to kill?

Yes. The bonus is real Might for as long as it lasts, and a unit dies when the damage on it is equal to or more than its Might. So the extra Might counts twice: once for the damage the unit deals and once for the damage it takes to die. Garen, Rugged, from the Proving Grounds starter box, has 5 Might with Assault 2 and Shield 2. Whether he attacks or defends, he deals 7 damage and needs 7 damage to die.

The bonus counts against spells as well, as long as they are played during the fight. Staunch Survivor is a 2 Might unit from Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026, and it has the same Assault 2 and Shield 2 as Garen, Rugged. If your opponent plays Hextech Ray on it in the showdown of a combat, the 3 damage does not kill it, because it has 4 Might there. The damage stays on it until all units heal at the end of the combat, so 1 more damage in combat finishes it. When Staunch Survivor stands at a battlefield outside a fight, the same Hextech Ray kills it at once.

Every card that checks Might during the fight sees the bonus too. Sharkling attacks with 5 Might, so it counts as Mighty, the word for a unit with 5 Might or more, until the combat ends.

How do several Assault or Shield bonuses add up?

They are added together. The Core Rules give two examples: Petty Officer, which has Assault, has Assault 4 for the turn after Cleave gives it Assault 3, and Stalwart Poro has Shield 4 for the turn after Block gives it Shield 3 and Tank.

Many cards hand out the keywords instead of having them. Spells such as Cleave, Block and For Demacia!, which gives Shield 2 to your units at one battlefield, give the keyword for the turn. Captain Farron gives your other units at his battlefield Assault, and the battlefield Fortified Position gives a unit Shield 2 for the combat when you defend there. Radiance has gear that is played to a battlefield, such as Banner of Conquest, which gives your units there Assault.

Which cards use the Assault or Shield number itself?

A few cards read the number on the keyword. Lucian, Gunslinger has 2 Might and Assault, and when he attacks he deals damage equal to his Assault to an enemy unit there. On his own that is 1 damage. After you play Cleave on him in your Main Phase, he has Assault 4 for the turn, so he deals 4 damage when he attacks and fights with 6 Might.

K'Sante, a champion whose first cards are in Radiance, turns Shield into a way to attack, just as Lucian, Gunslinger turns Assault into damage. His Legend, Pride of Nazumah, can give a friendly unit Assault equal to its Shield for the turn. His signature spell Ntofo Strikes gives a friendly unit Shield 2 and then deals damage equal to that unit's Shield to an enemy unit.

How should you use Assault and Shield in a deck?

Assault belongs in decks that attack. A unit with Assault is at its best on your own turn, when you move it onto a battlefield your opponent holds, and it is often weak when your opponent attacks it back. Most cards with Assault are Fury cards. Shield belongs in decks that hold battlefields and let the opponent come to them, and it is found most often on Calm cards. Several units have Shield together with Tank, such as Mutated Mouser, so the same unit is hit first and is harder to kill. Holding matters most late in a game, since the final point rule often means the last point comes from holding.

Whichever side you are on, count the bonus before you move. In the damage step of a combat, each side adds up the current Might of all its units at the battlefield, bonuses included, and deals that much damage, so your attackers' Assault and the Shield of the units defending against them change who survives. At a tournament, your opponent must tell you a unit's current Might if you ask, but not what its Shield would add if you attacked, which counts as derived information.

Every unit with its Might and keywords is on the units page, and the spells that give Assault or Shield are among the spells. The full wording of both keywords is in rules 807 and 814 of the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub.