Staff of Protection

Staff of Protection is a magic weapon that creates a temporary protective barrier around the caster and nearby allies, including tamed creatures. The barrier absorbs incoming damage before health is affected, making it one of the strongest defensive tools for group play and high-risk boss fights. Its protection scales with the Blood Magic skill, and the staff can be upgraded to improve duration and durability.

When cast, the staff consumes health equal to 40% of the user’s current health, not maximum health, so repeated use becomes safer as health is lowered but can still be dangerous if cast carelessly. The barrier has no inherited armor, resistances, or immunities from the target it is placed on; it functions as raw hit points with a damage gate that prevents overflow into the protected target’s health. Because of this, damage types that are normally harmless to players, such as chop and pickaxe damage, can still break the barrier quickly.

The barrier’s absorption amount is 200 at Blood Magic 0 and 700 at Blood Magic 100, with +5 absorption per skill level. Its duration and durability also scale with quality:

• Quality 1: 60 s duration, 200 durability
• Quality 2: 120 s duration, 250 durability
• Quality 3: 180 s duration, 300 durability
• Quality 4: 240 s duration, 350 durability

Crafting costs scale with each level:

• Quality 1: 20 Yggdrasil Wood, 4 Blood Clot, 16 Refined Eitr
• Quality 2: 10 Yggdrasil wood, 2 Blood clot, 8 Refined eitr
• Quality 3: 20 Yggdrasil wood, 4 Blood clot, 16 Refined eitr
• Quality 4: 30 Yggdrasil wood, 6 Blood clot, 24 Refined eitr

The staff’s main value is in protecting multiple targets during dangerous encounters. It can be cast on a player or ally who already has an active barrier, which resets the barrier’s timer but does not restore lost absorption. That means recasting on a heavily damaged barrier only extends a weak shield, so in sustained fights it is more efficient to prioritize allies whose barriers have already broken.

A player with an active barrier can always succeed in parrying an attack, regardless of weapon, maximum health, or stagger limit, even if the attack breaks the barrier. In practice, this guarantees at least one successful parry per cast and can make even tough late-game enemies easier to control.