Metal Shield

Your neighbour sits in his window with a bow and taxes everyone who walks to the river. A shield on your arm and a revolver in your hand turn that walk into a push: by its game text the shield keeps arrows and bullets at bay, and you shoot back between his arrows.

The same text sets the limit. It works with single-handed weapons and tools, so pistols, a hatchet or a machete, but nothing you hold with both hands. The moment you pull a rifle, a shotgun or a bow, the shield stops helping.

It costs 300 metal fragments, fifty cloth and ten leather at a Level 2 workbench, plus 60 scrap to research. The wooden shield needs no bench, and its own text admits it won't last. The reinforced wooden shield sits between the two at Level 1. All three show 300 durability, so the difference lies in how much each hit takes out of them, and the tables do not show that.