Loch Shield is a Shield in Bloodborne; it was added with The Old Hunters DLC.
" An artisanal shield crafted with blue glass.
Originally used to safeguard the leader presiding over a sacred Healing Church ceremony, and later supplied to tomb prospectors, in particular those exploring the labyrinth of Isz.
The blue is fashioned after a lake, and the shield greatly reduces all forms of non-physical damage. "
Loch Shield Information
- This shield cannot be upgraded nor fortified with blood gems.
- You hold L2 to block attacks with the shield and prevent some damage from being taken.
- The Loch Shield is considered an upgrade when compared to the Wooden Shield in terms of overall damage prevented.
Location
- Research Hall: The Loch Shield can be seen right when entering on a platform together with one of the crawling experiments. It's obtained after activating the lever to raise the stairs, then dropping and following the path down.
Shield Tactics
- The Loch Shield functions in a similar manner to the Wooden Shield.
- However, because the Loch Shield prevents high amounts of non-physical damage, it can actually be incredibly useful when dealing with some powerful abiliites/attacks.
- This means being able to potentially survive non-physical attacks that would normally deal high amounts of damage, such as A Call Beyond.
- Likewise, it shouldn't be completely relied on for this reason, but it certainly can help in the event you feel that you won't successfully dodge the attack.
- It also greatly reduces damage from gunfire, allowing you to more safely close the distance on opponents who use firearms with non-explosive projectiles.
- In short, this shield is very good at preventing incidental long-ranged (and non-physical) damage.
- Keep in mind that the Loch Shield can also be potentially useful against melee combatants who deal non-physical damage, such as PVPers who focused on arcane builds for instance.
- This shield also shares many of the same weaknesses that the Wooden Shield had as well.
- It doesn't prevent harmful status afflictions even while blocking (e.g. Frenzy).
- The Loch Shield isn't useful for physical damage prevention, and is even weaker than the Wooden Shield in this regard.
- Varying amounts of damage is reduced when blocking with the shield; testing done by gamefaqs user showed the following results:
| No Shield | Wooden Shield | Loch Shield | |
 Phys |
259 | 129 (50%) | 181 (30%) |
 Arcane |
270 | 162 (40%) | 81 (70%) |
 Fire |
491 | 393 (20%) | 147 (70%) |
 Bolt |
488 | 341 (30%) | 146 (70%) |
 Blood |
250 | 200 (20%) | 75 (70%) |
Trivia
- Loch is the Scottish gaelic word for "lake" This reinforces the game's overall concept that bodies of water serve as a bulwark against various elements.
- This shield, compared to the Wooden Shield, is actually competent and can be useful for some battles.
- However, it can still be argued that you can effectively prevent all damage in Bloodborne by simply dodging the attacks and using Rally to survive battles of attrition.
- Still, if you're looking to use a shield, either for protection or for thematic reasons, the Loch Shield is a better alternative overall than the Wooden Shield.
AnonymousIsn't it only 30% blood damage reduction? It's the Wooden Shield that's any good at that, with 50% instead of the listed 20%, no? Since blood is supposed to be an alternate type of physical damage, in the same way that the other damage types are all "elemental."
If this actually blocks 70% blood damage, you could use it against Maria in phase 2, since her slashes start dealing pure blood damage. No physical.
- Anonymous
A sled?
Pontiff Knight loch shield?
What madness it this? Why do visions of youthful joy torment me so?
It's sickening.
Enough to drive a man mad.
- Anonymous
Be careful unlocking the sledding with the doll. I'm sure Miyazaki has read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and put this in the game to troll players who become obsessed with secrets and forbidden things.
bruh everything is an upgrade when compared to the wooden "shield"
- Anonymous
It might be obvious to someone less dense than myself, but it also looks like the face of an ancient astronomical clock. A 'Lake' shield crafted from glass in the image of the cosmos.
i still don't get what the sled thing is about. is it a reference to a video? is there some speedrunning glitch im not aware of? is it just an inside joke in the community? nobody has ever explained it, but i've heard it mentioned and joked about so many times. i feel like im going insane
- Anonymous
This SAVED me during the Living Failures boss, especially that Sephiroth Supernova type attack where they all call down the arcane ice crystal things. Unfortunately, not as helpful during the boss that comes directly after Living Failures...
- Anonymous
Is this meant to be used as a boat or vessel for the spider lake? Fun fact loch means great void in Spanish :)
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In the movie rosebud was the sled but in the game this was the sled :)
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Sled got stuck on the stairs going down from Gherman's yurt. The doll gestured in disbelief as my blood-lusting Hunter rammed his loch shield against the steps.
- Anonymous
As a firearm it's mediocre, but sledding in the dream is unbeatable.
- Anonymous
I think they added this as a response for how many people can't dodge Micolash's magic attacks lol
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Loch Shield + Canihurst Set + Holy Moonlight Sword (or any weapon with a blade form)
Boom. Knight cosplay.
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For those of you who like shields, and use kirk or ludwigs, you can throw out the wooden shield after obtaining this. Kirk and lug's can block with their backstep attacks, has phys damage reduction just like wood. Then this one can be used for everything non physhical. All bases covered!
Would this be a viable counter to A Call Beyond, as I have a difficult time dodging that
- Anonymous
The location section was pretty vague but it means the bottom of the lowest staircase
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So, uh... it looks cool? It blocks magic, so it isn’t completely useless?
Good in NG+ against the jackoff bosses that use magic (lookin at you, Mico). Otherwise, just dodge. If this ends up in the right hands, you can really make it something special. Although, all it can be is for special occasions. 6/10.
- Anonymous
It blocks the bloodletter's frenzy attack.
You take no frenzy.
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this kinda needs to be nerfed as this sled can being glitch to be a sled outside the hoonter's dream smh from soft you forgot a good mechanic again
- Anonymous
Can anybody confirm if this can in fact be used as a sled in the hunter's dream?
- Anonymous
I was running through Bergynwerth(or however you spell it) and the hunter bell companion has it, is it obtainable in base game too? Or do I have the DLC and didn't know about it?
- Anonymous
Thank you for the sled information. I had previously used this shield as a wheel, but found it very slow. Got my lap time down to 00:12" so far.
- Anonymous
given the 70% damage reduction against everything except physical, has anyone tried using this for Laurence's boss fight?
- Anonymous
With 25 VIT you can survive any attack from the defiled watchdog with this. Tanking obviously isn't option A, but it'll keep you from dying in one hit and let you heal up.
- Anonymous
Trying to utilize this for Loran Darkbeast Paarl fight since he spams that bolt AoE attack like it's his only option. Better than any alternative since if you're too close there's no way to escape
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in certain situations if you roll or quickstep you may lose momentum so its better to just shield yourself in order to do more damage
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living failures have been giving me a hard time, maybe I should try out this weapon in that fight.
- Anonymous
in a time where you cannot escape a phys attack, the plank shield is clutch
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This might be useful as a crutch for someone who wants to wear a specific set of gear exclusively but might need the extra non physical defense. (Specific enemy, boss, etc). As someone whos building a character that focuses on skill and bloodtinge the idea of a Loch/ Reiterpallasch weapon set seems entertaining. A auxiliary tank of sorts since you could focus on ranged targets with little draw back from their counter. Im unaware of the Reiterpallaschs prowess however as I've only gotten so far.
- Anonymous
Did some cleanup on the page, nothing special.
Ultimately I'm not a huge fan of this shield since I'm of the mindset that all attacks in Bloodborne can be dodged/prevented, but I also have to admit this shield will finally make my dreams of a paladin class come true. Anyways, this shield can actually be useful to a degree, so I suppose each to their own cuts.
Oh, I also removed that part about this shield being a sled in the Hunter's Dream. Unless we see some concrete proof from a youtube video, I very much doubt this was true.
- Anonymous
so wait, it's a sidearm that only *****s with a small part of the community that is rather weak to begin with? what was the point in that?
Did even more cleanup on this page after re-tackling the Wooden Shield.
Most importantly, I got rid of those charts regarding attack movesets and whatnot, which weren't useful at all for a piece of equipment that you can't even attack with.
- Anonymous
Survived several one instra hit dead. Its have some use after all....
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What happens when this is hit by someone using the parasite of Kos' tentacles? Does it block most of the damage?
- Anonymous
I figure that I've been a bit too harsh on shield users, so I made this page a bit more "friendly" for people who want to play Dark Souls on a Bloodborne game. I have to admit though, it's thanks to this shield that I can finally make a true and thematic "paladin" character.
- Anonymous
Were you wondering why the developers of Bloodborne made such an incredibly OP tentacle-monster-weapon with seemingly now drawbacks? Well I was too, until I decided to use this in PVP against a Kos Parisite using player! Literally NO damage whatsoever was taken when I had the shield raised agasint his attacks! This thing also kicked butt when defending against Lady Maria's OP Royku or whatever in PVP as well - though you still take some damage - the OP little blades just bounce right off! Plus, it's just good practice in general not to be dependent on a firearm, and lean more heavily on evasion and your skills with the weapon itself.
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This might be useful against Ebrietas' cheap-ass insta-kill attack
- Anonymous
Hmm... "all forms of non-physical damage" eh? Then could it be good versus poison, rapid poison, blood and frenzy attacks too? I'm curious if anyone's tested this.
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Looks like Bloodborne is going to be flooded with turtles just like DS1 & 2.
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Whoever keeps needing to get their 2 cents in about shields not belonging in Bloodborne needs to give it up. It's not a hack or a mod, it's the devs giving players a tool. Looking at you note under trivia, and a certain someone in other comments who seems to need validation to an extent no wiki can give him.
its also a rare drop from the tomb prospector hunters in the dungeons
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