Basic Information
- Max HP: 1300 (3900 when they appear as a boss unit in Mission 7)
- Weight Class: Light
- Damage Affinity: Normal
- 1.5x Damage from All Attacks when Shield is Broken
- Armor Hits: 0
- Devil Trigger Armor Hits: 2
- Bonus Devil Trigger Activation Condition: Shield Break
Overview
The shield soldiers. This enemy is characterized by its defensive style of combat. It has average HP, usually appears in groups and will probably be more annoying, the more aggressive you try to be. Get over its shield or break through it. Then you can turn the Scudo into combo food.
Attacks & Quirks
Scudo Angelo primarily tries to guard you and fish for a parry of its own, then counterattack while you are reeling from the clash. It can trigger a counterattack action even when it’s quite far away and will run towards you while blocking and try to stab you.
Scudos only have close range attacks. If you don’t attack them much, they will eventually close in on you and try to attack while maintaining a defensive stance. You can break its shield, which will cause it to be more aggressive, but will also leave it more susceptible to damage.
If there is a Proto Angelo present in the battle, Scudos can coordinate team attacks with them as a part of a battalion. For more information refer to Proto Angelo’s enemy page.
Strategy for Fighting Scudo Angelo
The main challenge with Scudo Angelo is dealing with its shield. You can strike once to make it guard, then jump over the shield while it is blocking and attack from behind. But you will have to be swift because they react and change their guard direction quite quickly. The other option is to break the shield with moves that inflict guard break.
You can also wait for a Scudo to attack you and then parry its strike. This will leave it unable to guard for a while so you can start a combo.
There is also a special shield break condition. When these enemies parry you at close range, they step in and do a shield bash. If you strike at the exact moment the shield bash hits, you can instantly break the shield. This is a bit tricky since the window is small and you have to recover from being parried first, unless you make use of ranged attacks to trigger the shield bash. But by doing this, you can break the shield with any kind of physical attack.
Once you get around Scudo’s shield it shouldn’t pose much of a threat unless you get caught off guard.
Check your character’s Overview Page Standout Moves section for which actions are good for parrying or have guard break and experiment to see what works for yourself. Below are some character specific highlights for engaging this enemy.
Nero Strategy
These enemies will block Nero’s Snatch unless he is directly above or behind them.
Enter DT and use Maximum Bet to quickly dismantle a few of their shields. This is the fastest option for Nero to guard break packs of these demons unless you want to break their shield via the special condition.
For the special break condition, move close to them and trigger their shield bash with a Blue Rose Shot. Then use attacks good for parrying like Split or Shuffle to try and hit the shield as it strikes.
Dante Strategy
For some reason, DSD DT Stinger and Double Kalina Ann Cascade won’t break a Scudo shield in one hit without softening it up first. Balrog’s Real Impact and Pyromania are also not very good to use for guard breaking here.
But on the bright side, Dante has moves that Scudo’s cannot block against. Cerberus’ Crystal is recommended as it launches these enemies through their shields for free. You can use Cerberus’ Percussion to crumple stun and crowd control them even if they’re blocking. You may also use Cerberus’ Thunderclap to send some homing lighting balls that they cannot block. The Cerberus Hot Stuff flame wave will also pass through their shields.
For more reliable guard break, use Dr. Faust’s Red Shot or Cavaliere’s DT Full Throttle. If you have SSS rank, use Sin Devil Trigger’s SDT Combo, Sin Stinger and The Luce. You can also use Double Kalina Ann’s Mega Cascade, but it’s a bit risky because this move leaves you open.
If you want to trigger the special break condition, move close to them and trigger their shield bash with gunfire. Then use attacks good for parrying like DSD’s Helm Breaker or Cerberus’ Revolver. Balrog’s Rolling Blaze which powers up basic jumps, works surprisingly well here too.
Vergil Strategy
These enemies will block you from trying to embed Summoned Swords into them from the front, so they can lock you out of Air Trick. This makes your movement feel impaired at first.
Get within range and use Rapid Slash to pass through them and end up behind their shields. Take this opportunity to stick a Mirage Blade into them so you can teleport to them and start your assault.
For guard break, use Mirage Edge’s Over Drive to send a horizontal wave that will destroy any shield it touches. You can also use Void Slash to break shields.
I recommend against using Kick 13 even though it has guard break. This is mainly because the guard break is on the final hit of the kick barrage, and these enemies have a chance to parry the kicks before their shield breaks.
Since Vergil has easy access to guard break moves, you don’t really need to make use of the special break condition for Scudo Angelos unless you want to style.
V Strategy
I don’t think this is an enemy you will have trouble with while playing V. But if you absolutely must break shields to be at ease, call down Nightmare. Everything Nightmare does has guard break.