How to defeat shielded enemies in Cult of the Lamb

I picked up Cult of the Lamb again after some hiatus to check out the Sins of the Flesh update. In that time, I forgot how you defeat shielded enemies without just bashing on them. If you’re having the same problem, here’s what I learned.

To keep it simple: an enemy’s shield can be taken out with a heavy attack. This is performed by the R1 or RB button, depending on your controller. The front-right shoulder button, I mean. Hitting them with a heavy attack will render them vulnerable and may even do a great deal of damage in the process.

However, you don’t have heavy attacks directly out of the box, you have to unlock them first. Specifically, you need the Weapon Mastery ability. To get this, you must perform sermons in the temple to gather points from your followers. With enough of them, you unlock a new ability.

The good news is Weapon Mastery is in the third tier. To get it, you have to first unlock Bane Weapons, then Kudaii’s Blessing, then finally, Weapon Mastery is available. Once you have this, you can perform a heavy attack. Once you have the heavy attack, you can break shields.

Lastly, I should probably note that you can just take down shielded enemies by whaling on them. Each hit does a small amount of damage, and that will eventually just cause the enemy to drop dead. It’s just a lot more dangerous because focusing all your attention on a single enemy leave you open to attack. Your best bet is to just slap them with a heavy attack.