HOW TO SHIELD BASH AND BREAK SHIELD DEFENSE IN ASSASSIN’S CREED ORIGINS
Assassin’s Creed Origins’ greater emphasis on action role-playing mechanics introduces a skill tree progression system to the game. As you level Bayek up, you’ll be able to spend ability points across three different trees: Warrior, Hunter, Seer. The Warrior tree develops Bayek’s skills in pure combat, and one of those abilities sees him able to use his shield offensively, by bashing and breaking enemy shields.
In order to bash an enemy, you’ll need to level Bayek up and spend your ability points gaining the Shield Bash skill. Once you have it, Hold L1 to bring your shield up, then hold circle to charge into an enemy and bash them. This will lower their defense and stagger them for a second, letting you get a powerful attack in. It is especially useful in the Arena where there are traps you can push enemies into.
You can also break your opponent’s guard defense, which will knock enemies backward and expose them to attack. You can perform this skill by using your heavy power attack (R2) on weaker enemies (including those with small shields). For larger enemies in Assassin’s Creed Origins, you’ll need to learn the ability to Charge Power, which strengthens your attack and will allow you to break the shield defense of enemies yielding tower shields. Those without shields will fall to the floor (although some larger enemy boss types will not).
Additionally, there are two other ways to “break” enemy defense in Assassin’s Creed Origins: using the Enhanced Hunter Bow or by using your Overpower special move.
That’s all the information you need in order to gain the shield bash ability and break enemy shields. For more information on Assassin’s Creed Origins, check out our wiki page.