Anti-dragon shield

The Anti-dragon shield is an item used in the Dragon Slayer quest, which can be kept afterwards. It is obtained from Duke Horacio in Lumbridge Castle. Under typical circumstances a player can only get one shield as the Duke will not give a shield to player who has one in their possession. More than one can be obtained, however, by using the Drop trick. (Some player obtain multiple shields to have in bank in case they die and lose a shield. Others get multiples so that they can sell them.)

Other than the shield's regular defence bonuses, which are roughly the same as an iron square shield's, the anti-dragon shield prevents a great amount of damage from the breath attacks of dragons. Its recommended use is for magic or dragon fighting. When used in combination with an Antifire potion, the wearer does not take any damage at all from dragon breath for as long as the potion lasts.

Pure low-level mages also use this shield in player versus player situations because there is no other non-member shield effective for them.

In the Dragon Slayer quest, the player will need this shield. If it is not used, Elvarg can hit up to 50 damage. It can be combined with a draconic visage via the smithing skill or by paying Oziach to make it into a dragonfire shield.

The anti-dragon shield is known as the dragonfire shield or "df shield" among many long-time RuneScape players because it was formerly named the dragonfire shield until its name was changed for an unknown reason sometime in late 2005 or early 2006. It is speculated that the reason for the name change is that Jagex was beginning development of the dragonfire shield, the powerful modified anti-dragon shield, and renamed it to avoid confusion. The "df shield" nickname for the anti-dragon shield mostly died out soon after the release of the dragonfire shield, and the nickname was passed on to the newly released dragonfire shield. It also changed to a stained and clawed look prior to the dragonfire shield update.

Anti-dragon shield