Newcomer / Intro How do I activate shields

I got a message that said, shields offline, ok, can anyone tell me how to turn them back on,

Cheers
 
They'll come back on by themselves provided you have "pips" showing in the "Sys" part of your power distributor display.

provided you have shields fitted of course, and enough power to run them.
 
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It sort of depends on how they went offline, as popuptoaster said, they should come back up on their own, unless you've been hit by shield killer torpedos which would have destroyed your shield generator and will need to be repaired at a station.

Or it is possible that you just don't have the power to run them, for instance, if they went off line when you deployed hardpoints, it's because your powerplant isn't strong enough to run shields and weapons at the same time, if that's the case, you'll need to upgrade your powerplant.

The time they take to come back up will vary depending on how strong they were to begin with. For example, my ship has a shield strength of approx 5000Mj, if they go down they will take about 4min to come back up and then a further 40 min to get back to full strength!
 
In addition to what was already mentioned. You should see little bars starting at the 0 degrees on your shield icon. If you see them filling up (could be slow) then you know you can regain your shield (with the pips as mentioned). If you see that there is no bar progress then as Jon Flint stated, they are dead...
 
/moved to newcomers forum

as above: you need to have pips in "SYS" in your powerdistributor, so they come back online
or, if you have turned them off, turn them o in right hand channel
or, if they turned off after deploying hardpoints, you have to get your powerpriorities right (in the right hand channel)
or, if your shieldgenerator got destroyed for some weird reason, you have to repair...

fly safe!
 
Additionally there are shield cell banks that you can equip and use to rapidly charge the shields. I tried it 1-2 times but couldn't understand when exactly are they supposed to work -before or after "shields are offline and charging" alarm..
 
You can only use cell banks while the shields are up.
They don't restore a dead shield.
Some CMDRS think cell banks are a crutch. I never use them myself.
o7
 
Additionally there are shield cell banks that you can equip and use to rapidly charge the shields. I tried it 1-2 times but couldn't understand when exactly are they supposed to work -before or after "shields are offline and charging" alarm..

Shield Cell Banks work like an instant boost to a damaged shield, but have no effect on a shield that is already off line.

Your HUD shows 3 shield rings to indicate the state of your shields. If you are in heavy fight and your shield are taking serious hits from multiple targets, you should use the Shield Cell Bank as soon as you lose the 2nd ring.

If you are playing the game with a friend, you can both jump into a Private Group, or create one yourself, and meet up. You can then face each other at 3km apart and have your friend shoot at you until your shields begin to fail.

You can fire off the first test after the first ring on your shield are lost and see how long it takes for the cell bank to bring your shields back up to full.

Repeat the test, but wait until your shields lose the 2nd ring, then fire off the cell bank and again see how long it takes for the shields to repair and come back up to full.

Obviously, you want to do this with someone you trust so that they do not just destroy your ship in the process, which is why I recommend doing this with a friend. :)

In the past, this is how some of the high end players have tested changes and/or issues and you can sometimes find threads reporting findings from those players using the same type of testing that I outlined above.
 
SHIELDS charge faster in Supercruise. If you lose your Shields in Combat you may as well take advantage and use Silent Running for a short time if being chased.
 
That's right, the shields recharge twice as fast in supercruise and 4 times (IIRC) faster when on a landing pad. If not 4 times faster, it's bloody fast.
 
Shields are also twice (I think it's actually more than twice, 2.2x?) as strong when you put all 4 pips into your systems. This gives you a considerable advantage in combat if you can learn to time it well, because they're always regenerating...

This means that a Cobra or Viper class ship can temporarily muster the same shield strength as a Vulture/Courier at the expense of weapon and engine performance.

When I was learning combat I adored the 4:0:2 pip allocation. This gives you very strong defensive abilities, NO turning ability, and sub-standard weapon strength......so beams/pulses/burst lasers are pretty much out!
But remember that most of the time during combat with an opponent you're going to be trying to break down the hull of their ship. Ballistic weapons (canons/multicanons) have the advantage of being strong against hull and have low energy demands but they're typically weaker against shields.

A Viper3/4 with 4 multicannons and a 4:0:2 pip allocation can really ruin someone's day! They don't have the sustainability in a Nav or RES unless you've been hoarding materials for reloads but it's a very safe method for learning combat.
 
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