This is a tool for determining optimal shield loadouts for ships in the space simulation game Elite Dangerous.
You feed it a proposed attacker with a given set of damage types and effectiveness, and it determines the best combination of shield and booster engineering to maximise survival time against that opponent.
This tool can also be queried on its website.
This is a command-line application, run it with --help to get usage:
elite_shield_tester 0.4.4
Elite Dangerous Shield Optimiser
USAGE:
elite_shield_tester [FLAGS] [OPTIONS]
FLAGS:
--disable-filter Disable pre-filtering (debugging)
--disable-prismatic Filter out prismatic shields
--force-experimental Require experimental effects
-h, --help Prints help information
-V, --version Prints version information
OPTIONS:
-a, --absolute-dps <absolute-dps> Absolute damage per second [default: 0]
--booster-csv <booster-csv> Override default booster list
-d, --damage-effectiveness <damage-effectiveness> Attacker shot success ratio, 0-1 [default: 0.5]
-e, --explosive-dps <explosive-dps> Explosive damage per second [default: 0]
-k, --kinetic-dps <kinetic-dps> Kinetic damage per second [default: 0]
--regen-time-limit <regen-time-limit>
Disregard shields that take longer than this many seconds to regenerate from 50%
--reinforced-mj <reinforced-mj> Mj provided by Guardian Shield Reinforcements [default: 0]
-s, --shield-booster-count <shield-booster-count> Number of shield boosters to fit [default: 1]
--shield-cell-mj <shield-cell-mj> Mj available via Shield Cell Banks [default: 0]
--shield-class <shield-class> Shield class (default: maximum possible)
--shield-csv <shield-csv> Override default shield list
--ship <ship> Ship name [default: Anaconda]
-t, --thermal-dps <thermal-dps> Thermal damage per second [default: 0]
It includes a built-in database of ships, shields, and shield boosters.
Imperial Cutter with class 7 shields, 30 kinetic DPS, 60 thermal DPS, 65% hit rate, 6 shield boosters — what's the best shield that still regenerates within 4 minutes?
elite_shield_tester --ship 'Imperial Cutter' --shield-class 7 \
-k 30 -t 40 -d 0.6 -s 6 --regen-time-limit 240
Elite Shield Tester Rust Edition v0.4.4
---- SEARCH SETUP ----
Candidate Shields: 45 of 135
Candidate Boosters: 20 of 25
Candidate Booster Pairs: 186 of 210
Combinations: 3324600
Search Time: 47.64ms
---- TEST SETUP ----
Ship Type: Imperial Cutter
Shield Class: 7
Shield Boosters: 6
Shield Cell Bank: 0.0 Mj
Guardian Shield Reinf: 0.0 Mj
Prismatic Shields: yes
Regen Time Limit: 240.0s
Explosive DPS: 0
Kinetic DPS: 30
Thermal DPS: 40
Absolute DPS: 0
Damage Effectiveness: 60.0%
---- TEST RESULTS ----
Survival Time: 134.4 s
Drain Rate: 17.70 Mj/s
Shield Generator: Bi-Weave - Reinforced - Fast Charge
Shield Booster 1: Thermal Resistance - Thermo Block
2: Heavy Duty - Super Capacitors
3: Heavy Duty - Super Capacitors
4: Resistance Augmented - Thermo Block
5: Resistance Augmented - Thermo Block
6: Resistance Augmented - Super Capacitors
Shield Hitpoints: 2379 Mj
Shield Regen Rate: 5.1 Mj/s (235.1s from 50%)
Explosive Resistance: +71.8% (8435 Mj)
Kinetic Resistance: +66.2% (7030 Mj)
Thermal Resistance: +43.2% (4189 Mj)
This tool is based on a PowerShell script originally by YouTuber Down To Earth Astronomy, and demonstrated in this video.
It now uses an algorithm developed by Jamie "Entity" van den Berge, which offers
amazing speedups from the naive approach. Use --disable-filter to bypass this.
Please report if this changes any results.
The Shield.csv file is generated using a script utilising Thurion's Python version.
All data is ultimately derived from Coriolis.