Shields
A shield raises a barrier over your castle. While it holds, no one can scout you and no one can march on you. The price of that safety: you cannot march either. Attacking anyone brings the barrier down at once, and the remaining time is lost.
Shields are raised at the Shield Generator and paid for in 
shield shards: the generator makes shards every day, adventure camps pay them out, and shard caches carry them in bulk.
The six shields
Silver Aegis
1 Hour
200 shards at the Shield Generator
Emerald Aegis
8 Hours
1,600 shards at the Shield Generator
Sapphire Aegis
24 Hours
4,800 shards at the Shield Generator
Amethyst Aegis
3 Days
14,400 shards at the Shield Generator
Golden Aegis
7 Days
43,200 shards at the Shield Generator
Blood Aegis
30 Days
Kingdom Coin pack only
Purchase only: available in a single top-tier Kingdom Coin pack, never dropped, never craftable. A product for a lord who knows they'll be away, not a progression reward.
The colors follow the same rarity ladder as gear, so green through red means the same thing everywhere. Three shields of one color convert into one of the next rung up; note that three Amethysts are 9 days of cover while the Golden they make is 7, so converting trades 2 days for the convenience of not re-raising.
Where shards come from
The Shield Generator
Produces shards passively every day, scaling with its level. At level 30 it makes 1,586 shards a day, within a whisker of an Emerald Aegis (1,600): about eight hours of cover per twenty-four, so passive generation alone never keeps a castle permanently shielded. It has to be topped up by playing.
| Generator level | Lv 1 | Lv 5 | Lv 10 | Lv 15 | Lv 20 | Lv 25 | Lv 30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shards per day | 100 | 146 | 236 | 380 | 612 | 985 | 1,586 |
Adventure camps
Every monster camp pays shards on top of its other spoils. A full board of camps refreshed through the day is worth about as much as a maxed generator, so playing earns cover as fast as owning does.
| Camp rank | Easy | Medium | Hard | Very Hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shards | 25 | 75 | 200 | 500 |
Shard caches
Caches pay a fixed number of shards, never a random roll. Each one pays just over one shield of its own color, so the icon alone tells you what a cache buys. The Bloody cache pays in Golden Aegises rather than Blood on purpose: the 30-day shield stays purchase-only.
Uncommon Shard Cache
1,700 shards
Buys: Emerald Aegis (8 hours)
Rare Shard Cache
5,000 shards
Buys: Sapphire Aegis (24 hours)
Very Rare Shard Cache
15,000 shards
Buys: Amethyst Aegis (3 days)
Legendary Shard Cache
45,000 shards
Buys: Golden Aegis (7 days)
Bloody Shard Cache
130,000 shards
Buys: Three Golden Aegises (21 days of cover)