What Strengthen Does in Raid: Shadow Legends

In this guide, we explore the importance of Strengthen in Raid: Shadow Legends. We break down how this buff reduces incoming damage, why it’s so valuable for improving your team’s survivability, which Champions can apply it, and where it has the greatest impact across PvE and PvP.

Strengthen is one of the strongest defensive buffs in Raid: Shadow Legends, reducing the damage a Champion receives by either 15% or 25%, depending on the Champion applying it. While it’s most commonly placed on the entire team, some Champions can apply it only to themselves or a single ally.

By reducing the damage taken from enemy attacks, Strengthen helps your team survive longer against hard hitting bosses, PVE waves, and Arena damage dealers. It also pairs well with other defensive effects such as Increase DEF, Shields, Ally Protection, and healing, making your Champions much harder to bring down. The buff is available on a variety of Champions, from dedicated supports and revivers to damage dealers that also provide utility.

Some Champions, such as Georgid the Breaker, can ignore Strengthen entirely, making them a direct counter to the buff. It can also be removed or stolen unless it’s protected by a Champion’s skills, high resistance, or through the Protection Artifact Set.

Strengthen is valuable across almost every area of Raid because it reduces the damage your Champions take, making it easier to survive dangerous enemy attacks. Whether you’re tackling long PvE encounters, pushing difficult progression content, or trying to withstand powerful Arena attacks, the extra durability can give your team more time to deal damage, recover, and maintain survival in battle.

Clan Bosses

Strengthen is valuable against Clan Bosses such as the Chimera, Demon Lord, and Hydra, where surviving heavy attacks is key to extending your runs. Reducing the damage your team takes helps keep Champions alive longer, allowing them to deal more damage, maintain important buffs and debuffs, and recover from dangerous attacks that might otherwise take you down.

PVE Waves & Bosses

It’s also a valuable buff for general PvE content, helping your team survive attacks from dungeon bosses, Doom Tower & Grim Forest encounters, Cursed City stages, and difficult waves. The added damage reduction makes progression more consistent by improving your team’s survivability, giving you more opportunities to defeat enemies and withstand incoming damage.

PVP

Strengthen can be a great buff in PvP, making it much harder for opponents to take down your team with burst damage. When combined with other defensive effects such as Increase DEF, Shields, passives, or Ally Protection, it improves your team’s durability and can force opponents into much longer, more difficult battles.

Here we’ve highlighted a selection of Champions capable of placing the Strengthen buff, each bringing their own unique strengths and utility. This isn’t a complete list, so be sure to check out our dedicated Strengthen Champions page to explore every Champion that can apply the buff.

Build Focus

Building Strengthen Champions depends on the role they fulfil within your team. Damage focused Champions such as Ragash and Morag should still be built to maximise their offensive potential, with Strengthen acting as valuable utility that improves your team’s survivability without sacrificing damage.

Hybrid Champions such as Lydia benefit from a balanced build, combining enough Accuracy to consistently land their debuffs with the Speed and survivability needed to support the team. Meanwhile, dedicated buff supports and revivers such as Mavara or Marichka should prioritise Speed, HP, DEF, and Resistance where appropriate, allowing them to stay alive, maintain Strengthen uptime, and keep the rest of the team alive throughout encounters.

Recommended Artifact Sets

Artifact Sets should focus on improving their survivability and keeping the buff active as often as possible. Protection is one of the strongest options, increasing defensive stats while protecting buffs from being removed or stolen, and a 9-piece set also boosts your team’s damage. Mercurial is another excellent choice, helping the wearer use Total Guard stacks to further improve their durability.

For damage-focused Champions such as Ragash, offensive sets like Savage, Lethal, Merciless, or Cruel remain strong options, allowing them to maximise their damage while Strengthen provides valuable defensive support for the team. In PvP, pairing these with Stoneskin can help them survive the opening enemy rotation before using their key abilities.

For Champions that also bring important debuffs or utility, such as Lydia, Accuracy focused sets like Perception, Pinpoint, or Feral are great, helping them consistently land their debuffs while maintaining enough Speed to keep Strengthen available throughout an encounter.

Strengthen is at its best when paired with other defensive effects such as Increase DEF, Shields, Ally Protection, healing, or Perfect Veil. Layering these effects together can dramatically improve your team’s survivability, allowing you to withstand attacks that may otherwise defeat your Champions.

Keep Strengthen active during the most dangerous phases of an encounter by building enough Speed to cycle back to the skill consistently. Protection can help preserve the buff against enemies that remove or steal buffs, while Champions with protected versions of Strengthen provide even greater reliability.

Although Strengthen is primarily a defensive buff, many Champions that bring it also provide valuable offensive support through debuffs, crowd control, or damage. Try to maximise the rest of their kit rather than building purely around Strengthen, ensuring they continue to fulfil their primary role while keeping your team protected.