Tears of Metal puts you up against some really difficult enemies, and the armored ones can be a big head-scratcher if you don’t know how to bypass their shield. Unlike normal enemies, shielded enemies have a different set of strengths, and you can’t use your ordinary attacks to strip down their armor.
Failure to do so can turn out to be fatal. I will explain how you can easily defeat armored enemies without having to worry about a loss.
How to beat armored enemies in Tears of Metal
Armored enemies have a different appearance about them. You’ll find a grey bar on top of their health. Elite enemies with shields will have two/three grey health bars that represent their shields. The grey bars entirely represent their sheild health. The red bar repsresents their remaining health.

You’ll encounter such enemies in the first act, but the frequency goes up once you approach the second act. To defeat them, you’ll need to use weapons and heroes that have armor breaking combos.

Thankfully, even beginner characters and weapons have armor breaking combos. If you check the screenshot above, you’ll find the Block Thrusts attack. You can perform this move by pressing Space and left mouse button twice.
This isn’t the only combo that can break down armors. You can enjoy more such moves available for other characters and weapons. As of writing, I have yet to unlock all of them. Once I have, I will list down more combos for you to take down shielded enemies.
Additionally, shield breaking combos have different damage. Hence, it’s advisable to use a combo that does more damage (if you have multiple shield-breaking moves available).