Monado Shield (XC1)

Monado Shield (, Monado Shield), often shortened to just Shield (, Shield), is one of 's Monado Arts in Xenoblade Chronicles. It makes all party members immune to the next enemy Talent Art of the same level as Shield or lower that targets them, only taking 1 damage from each hit.

Overview
Many protective Arts explicitly do not work against enemy Talent Arts, making Monado Shield one of the few ways to defend against them. If Shulk gets a vision about a talent art, it is essentially always the right option to use Shield to neutralize it entirely. Since the entire party is protected by Shield, there's no need to worry about predicting changes in aggro when using it. However, the player does have to be careful to not use it too early—other enemies may use their Talent Art and cause the Shield to disappear before the vision comes true, or if a vision is delayed the Shield might expire before the enemy uses their Talent Art.

Monado Shield can only protect against Talent Arts that are the same level as it or lower. As the level of Shield can only be seen in the upgrade screen, the player must remember to check it occasionally to ensure that they're upgrading it to match the level of the Talent Arts for the enemies they're facing. The sole exception is Bionis Slash X where even a level 10 Shield will result in instant death.