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The Sword and Shield is a fast, versatile and often underrated weapon in Frontier. While it is often just seen as a support weapon it can dish out massive amounts of DPS with the right setup.
This Guide was made to hopefully get more people to play the weapon by lowering the barrier to entry and to filter out a lot of misinformation I've heard in my time playing Frontier. I will try to give you every piece of information that you need to get through the entire game while not having to touch any of the other weapons.
The Endgame and Speedrunning sections will mainly focus on "optimal" play and minmaxing the DPS output of the weapon. This does not mean you have to play this way, after all this is a game and I encourage you to find the playstyle that leads to you having the most fun.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to have the absolute best builds out there, and this guide is also an ongoing project. Even though this game is old there is still stuff being figured out and new strategies are invented. Because of this I will try my best to keep this guide up to date and display my personal opinion on what I think is the optimal way to play the weapon. Also if you think I made a mistake or there is something I could improve, even if its just wording or formatting please contact me, I'd love nothing more than a helping hand in this project.
Discord: @baluhga
You play on the Rain Frontier server.
You followed the leaps guide during progression and are familiar with all the game mechanics explained in there.
You know about ways to research the game by yourself. Some of the most used resources are:
Ferias: A database containing a lot of general information about the game. I use this the most to check monster hitzones, look up armor/weapons, item effects, weapon info such as hitlag frames or multiplier and you can check how to get every item in the game.
Mertna: A site to check what any skill in the game does, including sigils, guildfood, poogie buffs, caravan skills and even active feature.
Fist's Guide: A website containing information from the old days. I used this to look up more niche things like what the stats on your poogie do or how to fully develop your Airou Plaza.
Wycademy: Doriels website about the game. This is still in development but already features useful tools like a damage calculator or tower weapon simulators.
SnS = Sword and Shield
PD = Perfect Defense, a caravan skill that allows for perfect timed guards
SW = Starving Wolf (armor skill)
Hiden/Tech = SnS Tech (Sword Saint), a unique armor skill
Evo = Evolution Weapons, a very strong type of weapon
SSU = Skill Slots Up, a very common Zenith skill especially on weapons
RDP = Road Points, currency to buy items in the road shop
BC = Bounty Coins, currency exclusive to the Rain discord market
NP = NetCafe Points, currency to buy items in the NetCafe Store
HZV = Hitzone Value, a monsters weakness on a given body part
MV = Motion Value, essentially how strong a given attack is
AV = Anti-Venom
Adren = Adrenaline (armor skill)
AoE = Area of Effect
Smyii recently joined me in editing and theorycrafting for this guide, so a huge thanks to him.
A Huge Thanks to Kaizaar and KillaLaLas for directly contributing to the guide by providing armor sets and helping me theory craft.
Thanks to Polio and FireFist for helping me with image editing.
And also a Huge Thanks to all the people that indirectly contributed by making guides or tools of their own that I used to learn and can now recommend to you; most notably:
14.1.2025: Work on the Guide has started.
19.1.2025: First version of the Google Doc finished.
24.1.2025: Updated Ravi set to not include BC only armor.
20.4.2025: Some design changes and updated some wording.
9.7.2025: Work on refactoring to Google Sites has started.
31.7.2025: Redid many bounty sets, since I underestimated the power of Ice Age.
3.8.2025: Updated the Elze page and fixed minor spelling errors.
16.8.2025: Fixed the general Obscurity build to include slots for sigils. Also some other minor fixes.
27.8.2025: Updated the theme to include the Catpuccin Mocha colourpalette.
17.9.2025: Updated the Deviljho's page and other minor things.
1.10.2025: Updated the Support page.
2.1.2026: Updated the Musou Legion page.
9.2.2026: Some rewording, updated the Durem and Legion page.
12.2.2026: Improved load timing and adjusted navigation.
28.2.2026: Update G-Progression and support page.