Shield of the gong

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

A heavy bronze gong that can be worn as a shield. Locked away in a temple for many years, its bearer is shielded by decades of accumulated prayer.

the +18 shield of the gong

+18 kite shield

-5 EV
rCorr
rN+
+40 Will
Makes very loud noise (intensity 40) whenever you block

Desirability

The shield of the gong is an incredibly loud, and therefore dangerous, artefact. While a +18 kite shield is good at blocking melee and ranged attacks, keep in mind that shields do nothing against piercing attacks like bolt spells and javelins. More importantly, every time you block, you make an intensity 40 noise; using it will attract everything nearby to your position. For reference, it's as loud as an alarm trap, and much louder than both Qazlal's storm shield (~20 noise) and regular shouting (12 noise).

That being said, there are characters who would like to use this. Qazlal worshippers attract lots of monsters to them, anyway, and a "little" more noise can't hurt. In a similar vein, blasters with spells like Fire Storm already wake the entire dungeon up. It has potential use for careful necromancers, as spells like Death Channel can be great at managing crowds. There are characters which are just plain weak - if the player is very very careful, they can use the shield to overcome enemies they otherwise wouldn't. Stair dancing is heavily recommended.

You can also use it as a swapout.

• Clear the whole level, then use this shield to take out a ghost vault.
• Use it to lure enemies away from vaults at a distance. Examples include the Elf:3 and Zot:5 end vaults.
• Loud noises won't mean much in a Ziggurat. Note that a character doing megazigs will likely prefer either a highly enchanted randart tower shield or an orb of mayhem instead.

History

• Prior to 0.30, the shield provided electricity resistance instead of corrosion resistance. The Storm Queen's shield provides rElec in its place.
• Prior to 0.15, its enchantment was +27.
• Prior to 0.14, its enchantment was only +6, and it did not reduce the wearer's EV. This change essentially combined the original shield of the gong with the now-retired shield "Bullseye."
• Prior to 0.13, the shield of the gong also provided a spirit shield.