News - Top 10 Best Riot Shield Counters Warzone 2
Best close range counters
With a one-hit melee weapon, this can now involve using something like the breacher device muzzle, which will give you a one-hit melee with your gun in your hand. You can also have a throwing knife in your inventory, and when you do this, you will actually swipe with that knife for a one-hit melee even if you're just using your gun in your hand, so again, that's another method, or of course, you can use an actual melee weapon.
And this is just a solid counter if you happen to be running those items in your class already. It doesn't really require you to go too far out of your way in order to counter them, but it can also be fairly risky since they can melee you back, and this doesn't work. 100% of the time, sometimes they'll look up with their riot shield quickly in order to counter that, and therefore it will actually block your knife attack, so it's definitely not the best method, but it is a method I at least wanted to share with you guys so you're aware that this is possible, and it can definitely work sometimes if you're really in a pinch.
So the next option I've got for you guys is the Jacklimb Ripper, which is that underbarrel chainsaw that you can attach to many of the primary weapons in the game, and with this, as long as you're revving up the chainsaw and you're not using it as just a regular melee attack, you can cut directly through that riot shield and get yourself a kill on that, so it's not a bad option for up close and personal.
However, the new Soul render melee weapon is also an excellent counter to the riot shield if you use the heavy attack. If you use the light attack or the quick attack, it won't do anything that'll behave just like any of the other melee weapons, where as long as they're protecting their bodies properly, you're not going to get a hit on them.
However, if you use the heavy attack no matter what they do, you're just going to completely ignore their riot shield as if it didn't exist, which puts you in that killing animation. This is the underbarrel flamethrower attachment, because with this one you have a range of 10 m.
Best ranged counters
And with this, I've got three pieces of throwable lethal equipment that all work excellently against riot shield users. These are the seex, the drill charge, and the thermite, because with all of these, it will stick to the riot shield and essentially guarantee that player will die now. It is a solid choice; however, you don't want to be firing it directly at the riot shield because that will deal zero damage to them.
You don't want to get a direct impact; instead, what you want to do with the RL80 is fire beside them or behind them. You want to be dealing with that splash damage, and most riot shield users are going to be using EOD padding, so it is typically going to require multiple shots, but that's why we're going with the RG80, because you can get those multiple consecutive shots off reasonably quickly, and the nice thing about this counter is you don't have to be pinpoint accurate; you don't have to hit it directly with it; you just have to kind of shoot in their general vicinity near their feet, and it's quite an easy way to deal with riot shielders at a bit of a range, and saying all of that, the best option in my opinion if we're pushing out ranges fairly far is the underbarrel drill charge attachment.
This one is excellent because it does have a nice flat trajectory, so you can use it effectively. Even beyond 10 m is just fine, and all you have to do is hit them directly on the shield with this, and it's over for them; they are going to die even if they're using EOD padding. Again, this was all tested in custom games, so there's a chance that this is also bugged out in public matches, but so far I haven't had any issues with an underbarrel drill charge killing them, and as a result of that range. I do consider this to be one of the better methods.
What else can work?
And there we go. In my opinion, those are all of the best methods for taking out Rat Shield users. However, I did want to share a list of other things that I tested. You just might be curious, like, What about this? Why didn't this make the list, and we're going to start this list off with a couple things that can kind of somewhat counter a riot shield user?
I just don't really consider them to be one of the best methods, and the first thing to mention here is the crossbow using either thermite or explosive-tipped bolts. These will counter riot shields to a small degree, and it's nice because you can use them pretty effectively at a longer range. But the problem with this is that with both of these, it will require two shots to kill a riot shield user, and in a real in-game environment, it can often be difficult to find the time to put two shots into a ride shielder before somebody else takes you out, so technically, this is a counter to a degree.
But it's just not a great counter, in my opinion; I just thought it was worth mentioning toward the end, at least. And another thing I wanted to mention here that's a nice sort of soft counter to a riot shield is the shock stick. If you stick a riot shield user with a shock stick, it actually forces the third-person animation to tilt the shield a little bit and expose their hand, and from their perspective, it can be really difficult to judge where their shield is covering and what angle they should be looking at in order to counter you. So again, that's just another option for you that I don't consider to be one of the best, but it is something that technically is a soft counter to the shield.
What doesn't work?
As for a bunch of other things that I tested that just didn't work against a riot shield, this is, of course, the armor-piercing ammunition that doesn't do anything against a riot shield.
Same thing with the anti-armor field upgrade. That does nothing to pierce the riot shield. Personally i wouldn't mind if the field upgrade would allow you to pierce that just because that's something that you're not going to have available all the time, and not very many people run that field upgrade to begin with, but that is just my opinion on that, as are the other launchers in the game I tested, like the RPG and the Strella, for instance, and just like with the RGL 80, if you hit the riot shield directly with these launchers, it deals zero damage to that player, and therefore you could aim for that splash damage.
Kill by shooting behind them or beside them, but the problem is, like I said earlier, they're likely going to be using EOD padding, and therefore it's going to require two hits to kill, and with the reload time of the Strella and the RPG, that's just not really a practical counter, unlike with the RG80, where you can get that second and even third shot off quite quickly.
