Shielded

1. What it is

Shielded is a boss-flavored affix that makes the host take zero damage while any of its anchor enemies is alive. The host spawns a fixed number of anchor enemies in an evenly-spaced ring around the arena center; killing every anchor drops the shield and lets damage through to the host.

2. Identity

Field	Value
Affix ID	shielded
Category	boss-flavored
Priority	100
Hooks	onSpawn, filterIncomingDamage
Roll pool	none (never appears on world-roaming elites)
Halo palette entry	none

Shielded sits at the top of the affix priority order (100). When a damage hit hits a host, the affix damage filter chain runs in descending priority, so shielded gets first say. A zero return short-circuits every lower-priority filter.

3. Mechanics

3.1 Anchor placement

Param	Default	Source key
Anchor count	4	anchorCount
Anchor enemy type	caiman	anchorTypeId
Ring radius fraction	0.42 of arena radius	(constant)

On host spawn, the affix asks the active boss arena for N evenly-spaced ring points at 0.42 × arena radius, then spawns one anchor of the configured type at each point. Anchors are stored on the affix instance, not on the host’s children array.

3.2 Anchor identity

Spawned anchors carry these flags:

Flag	Value
_isBossAnchor	true
sharesHealthWithBoss	false
isBoss	false
affixes	empty array

Anchors do not share HP with the host, never carry affixes of their own, and emit a boss_anchor_destroyed signal instead of enemy_kill when killed (the damage pipeline routes the signal based on _isBossAnchor).

3.3 Damage filter

On every incoming hit against the host, the filter checks if any anchor in the affix’s anchor list is currently alive. “Alive” means the entity exists, is not frozen for lag, is not in the dying state, has HP greater than zero, and is flagged alive.

Anchor state	Return
At least one anchor alive	0 (incoming damage zeroed)
All anchors dead	dmg (unchanged, passes to next filter)

A zero return short-circuits the damage filter chain at every lower priority.

3.4 Configuration overrides

A boss roster entry can override the defaults through its affixState.shielded block:

State key	Type	Default
anchorCount	number	4
anchorTypeId	string	caiman

Mistyped values (number expected, string given) throw at first hook invocation.

3.5 Operational rules

• Anchors are placed by the arena’s ring helper, so placement honors arena shape.
• Anchors are spawned through the shared enemy spawner; if the spawn returns null (pool cap), the anchor slot is dropped silently and the affix continues with fewer anchors than configured.
• Affix instance state seeds anchors, anchorCount, anchorTypeId on first read; subsequent reads only refresh the count/type slots, not the anchor array.

4. Which bosses use it

Boss	Variant	Anchor type	Anchor count	Notes
Killer Croc	shielded	caiman	4	Open-circle arena, 350 radius; anchors are non-respawning
Hive Queen	shielded_respawn	junkrats_stinger	4	Anchors respawn every 12 s; uses the respawn variant

5. Variants

5.1 shielded_respawn

Same damage gate as shielded, plus a periodic respawn for dead anchors.

Param	Default	Source key
Anchor count	4	anchorCount
Anchor enemy type	caiman	anchorTypeId
Respawn interval	12 s	respawnInterval
Priority	100	—
Hooks	onSpawn, onUpdate, filterIncomingDamage	—

A respawn timer counts down on each frame. When it reaches zero, the affix walks the anchor slots and respawns any dead/missing slot at its original ring position, then resets the timer to the configured interval. The damage filter and onSpawn behavior are otherwise identical to plain shielded.

5.2 Comparison

Variant	onUpdate	Respawn	Use case
shielded	no	never	One-time-clear shield (kill anchors → done)
shielded_respawn	yes	every respawnInterval seconds	Persistent shield (must outpace respawn)

6. EXTRACT-CANDIDATE flags

• Anchor identity flags (_isBossAnchor, sharesHealthWithBoss, isBoss, cleared affixes) are shared with any future anchor-spawning affix and may belong in a common “anchor enemy” concept page rather than repeated per variant.
• The 0.42 ring fraction is a boss-arena placement constant; if more affixes adopt ring-anchored placement, this becomes a candidate for the bosses or arena concept page.
• The damage-filter short-circuit rule (priority-ordered, zero short-circuits) is a global affix-system rule; canonical home is the affixes overview page, referenced from variant pages.

7. Summary

Shielded gates incoming damage to its host through 4 anchor enemies placed on the arena’s 0.42-radius ring. Any anchor alive → host takes 0; all anchors dead → host takes full damage. Two variants exist: plain shielded (no respawn, used by Killer Croc) and shielded_respawn (anchors respawn every 12 s, used by Hive Queen). Anchors carry no affixes, do not share HP with the host, and emit a dedicated reward signal on death.