The Shield is a game power that has appeared in every season of the show.
Mechanics[]
When obtained, it protects its holder from the next Murder, although it is unclear if it also protects its holder from being placed On Trial. An unused Shield will expire, and cannot be carried over to the next round or transferred to another contestant. Notably, the Shield does not confer Immunity during Banishments (except for the Australian version).
The Shield is usually obtained as a potential Armoury reward (and separate from the Dagger if both are present), although both have occupied the same Armoury slot on more than one occasion. In De Verraders (Netherlands)/Season 1, the Shields were also publicly awarded, making it clear the few people who were safe at night, however, in most versions, it is up to the winner whether or not they choose to reveal it - for example, the contestants in Series 1 of the UK version made a pact not to reveal who had the shield.
In some versions, notably Australia S1, and the UK and US versions, the shield is won as a side quest during missions, instead of luck at the Armoury. Due to this, the identity of Shield winners tends to be more public, and some challenges effectively make the winner known nonetheless.
Twists[]
- Shield Challenge: First introduced in Episode 4 of The Traitors (Australia)/Season 1. Instead of being located in the Armoury like in other versions, the Shield was obtained through Shield Challenges, where the contestants competed with one another to win some sort of physical or skill contest.
- Enhanced Shield: Because of the Shield's public nature and that it had to be competed for rather than drawn by chance, it also protected its holder at the next Banishment.
- Double Shields: First introduced in Episode 8 of Os Traidores/Season 1. There were two Shields up for grabs in the Armoury, instead of the usual one Shield.
Names in Non-English Languages[]
Strategy[]
While contestants were initially motivated to do well in Missions to increase the prize fund, they have increasingly cited an opportunity to visit the Armoury as being a more important outcome for Missions to gain a Shield and hence Immunity. Contestants (especially Traitors) may also choose to sabotage others specifically during Missions, to prevent them from going to the Armoury.
The current metagame typically sees contestants entering the Armoury agreeing not to divulge if they won specific powers (especially the Shield) until the next day, effectively protecting the winning side as the Traitors do not know who has the Shield and could risk 'wasting' a Murder by targeting someone who went into the Armoury. This is the case even if the Shield was somehow obtained by a Traitor, as it could put a target on their back due to speculation about how the Traitors knew who to avoid Murdering. Producers have now started to avoid this by putting Shields up for grabs in missions, side-stepping the Armoury.
Traitors have often devised schemes involving the Shield, especially when they are in possession of it, to cover for some other event that happened overnight (most typically a Recruitment) or try and deflect suspicion from themselves. These plans typically have a low (but non-zero) rate of success.
Trivia[]
- The very first Shields were received by Francis van Broekhuizen and Jörgen Raymann in De Verraders (Netherlands)/Season 1 for completing their part of the opening Mission successfully.
- The first Traitor to win a Shield was Samantha Steenwijk from the same season.
- The very first Shield drawn from the Armoury was won by Jenny Drougas in Les Traîtres (Belgium)/Season 1.
- The first Traitor to deliberately Murder themselves while holding the Shield was Thijs Zeeman in De Verraders (Netherlands)/Videoland Edition.
- The first Faithful to be protected from Murder by the Shield was Niels Albert in De Verraders (Belgium)/Season 1.