With the ‘System Override Collection’ event in Apex Legends live now, Respawn Entertainment has added the first new item to the game that isn’t a weapon or weapon attachment, the Evo Shield. Although it’s currently only available in the limited time ‘Déjà Loot Mode’ the developers have stated they are hoping it’ll make it into the normal game. So, ‘Déjà Loot Mode’ is a sort of live testing grounds for this new shield, and after playing a couple of hours worth of games in Déjà Loot, I’m feeling pretty confident that it should stay around for good.

The Evo shield is an interesting new edition to Apex Legends that rewards smart-aggression as well as poking from a distance. It will also have players making more strategic decisions in the early game as to what shield is best to grab if they have the option between the Evo Shield and a regular White Shield. 

So how does it work? 

The Evo Shield starts as a common shield, but as you deal damage it will evolve and at its final stage reach a red colour as the strongest shield in the game. Visually it has a glow to it that will make it stand out on the field as well.

Apex Legends normal shield stats are:

• White Shield = 50 armour 

• Blue Shield = 75 armour 

• Purple/Gold = 100 armour 

The Evo Shield stats are:

• White Shield = 25 armour

• Blue Shield = 50 armour

• Purple Shield = 100 armour 

• Red Shield = 125 armour 

As you can see Evo Shield starts slightly weaker with 25 armour before finding equal footing when they reach level three. The final form of the Evo Shield will protect you for 125 damage when it reaches its red evolution, but to get there you’ll have to put some work in.

The evolution happens after you deal a certain amount of damage to enemies. It’ll automatically level up, however, there’s a downside I’ll get to in a moment. 

• White to Blue shield = 100 damage 

• Blue to purple shield = 300 damage 

• Purple to Red shield = 500 damage

And yes, if you wipe an enemy squad wearing Evo’s that is all about to evolve from purple to red, you will reap the benefits by finishing off what damage is left to be done in your next fight. That is also to say that if you find a red shield on an enemy, it’s yours, it won’t de-level when you take it off their body. 

What makes the Evo Shield so good is that it’s a fantastic risk/reward for what armour you can pick up in the early game, or even after a quick fight. I’ve been cocky several times now and not taken a blue shield just so I can go into the next fighting with my white Evo Shield and look to evolve it through to purple by the end of the encounter. Pulling that off is a great feeling, but it is obviously rather risky and often not going to be your best play. 

You can use the Evo Shield with a team looking to play passively and snipe from a distance. It doesn’t matter how many batteries your enemy goes through as you snipe from a distance as the damage will level up your shield eventually.

The only thing that’s annoyed me after several games with the shield is that it doesn’t auto-heal as it evolves. So if you go into a fight with it on blue and deal enough to evolve to purple it doesn’t heal up any damage the blue shield took. If it automatically healed to full as it evolved it’d be too strong, but some middle-ground needs to be found. Maybe a brief period as it evolves where it’ll heal for as long as you take no damage over a period of time, so if you evolve as you finish a fight you could get a full shield, but if you’re still in a fight you could stop for a moment to regain even one level of shield. 

I think as it stands the Evo Shield is close to being great, but I love the idea and hope they put it in the normal game sometime in the near future after the System Override event is over.