- "It's likely this rusty old shield once belonged to a knight. It still has some defensive capabilities, but its usefulness has been worn down by time."
- — In-game description
The Rusty Shield is an item from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Link can equip and use it as a shield with a base defense rate of 3. This may be increased if the Rusty Shield has a Shield Guard Up bonus. Like all Shields in Breath of the Wild, Link can use it to shield surf though its low durability make it unsuitable for that task except when used with a Sand Seal as it does not effect a shield's durability. It is occasionally used as a shield by enemies as well, though they tend to pick them up and wield them rather than wielding them automatically.
In-game description states that they were likely shields once wielded by Knights of Hyrule before they rusted. Like other "Rusty" weapons, Link can drop the shield near a Rock Octorok, when it is sucking in air, it can swallow the shield, chew it, and spit it back out. This results in the Rusty Shield into being refreshed into a different shield. Though mostly Link will obtain basic shields like the Wooden, Traveler's Shield, or Soldier's Shield, he may receive decent shields like the Knight's Shield or rarely a Royal Shield. As a result, Rusty Shields can be used to obtain rare shields early on. Though the Rusty Shield is made out of metal and resembles the design of the Knight's Shield, it can be turned into round wooden shields by feeding it to Rock Octoroks. If the Rusty Shield is refresh, as made of wood it can burn up in the high temperature areas of Death Mountain. However Rock Octoroks also appear near Gerudo Tower in Gerudo Highlands and in the non-volcanic areas of Eldin Mountains, thus they can be used to refresh Rusty Shields without worrying about the wooden shields burning.
Like all Rusty series equipment, Rusty Shields are quite common in Hyrule as a result of the Great Calamity and can be found in most areas, though most commonly appear in ruins such as the Outpost Ruins. One Rusty Shield spawns on the rooftop deck of the Kochi Dye Shop in Hateno Village. A pile of rusty shields spawn near the waterfall in the Sturnida Secret Hot Spring in Hebra Mountains making it a good place to obtain Rusty Shields.
At the Castle Town Prison, there are three Guardian Deity Statues, two of which have Rusty Shields in them. Like other Guardian Deity Statues, this is part of a Korok puzzle in which Link must uses Magnesis Rune (as dropping it in the offering plate is extremely difficult) on another Rusty Shield found near a ruined wall at the prison next to the Hyrule Castle Moat and drop it in the plate, which will reveal a hidden Korok. Afterwards Link can take the Rusty Shields. All Rusty Shields at the prison will eventually respawn.