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During the battle on Scarif, the X-Wings take shots from the Tie Fighters and they are scoring hits on them as if they have no shields. X-Wings are supposed to have shields as their differentiator from the Imperial approach:

The presence of a hyperdrive and deflector shields differentiate the X-wing from the Empire's TIE fighters, emphasizing the importance the Rebels place on pilots surviving their missions. - Rebel Alliance Sourcebook

Additionally, the X-Wings were able to block the first or second shot from a Tie Fighter in the Death Star mission.

Shields working

Is there a reason why the shields on the X-Wings were not working in that any shot appeared to have the same effect as no shields?

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    direct hits in the originals still seem to blow up x-wings.
    – Himarm
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 14:30
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    Yes, but every single shot seemed to blow up an X-Wing. There was little difference between the X-Wing and Tie Fighter ability to withstand a shot.
    – Daniel Miller
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 14:35
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    Or it could just be another sign of how dreadful the new Star Wars movies are?
    – Rincewind
    Commented Feb 17, 2017 at 17:22

2 Answers 2

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X-wings doing the trench run had all their shields set to the rear, at max power, right? That might have given them a slight edge over fighter blaster fire. Many of the X-wings lost in Rogue One were hit by turbolasers or in dogfights, where presumably they had their shields set equal front and back, as well as taking power from them for engines and weapons. In the old X-wing PC games you could allocate power across all three systems and shift power to different shields.

So for the trench run they could sap juice from weapons and engines for more rear shields, but in a dogfight they were unable to do so.

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    It was the opposite way. "All fighter deflector shields; double front" was called out by wing leaders as they entered the trench to counteract the towers.
    – CBredlow
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 16:28
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    @CBredlow Then Wedge Antilles was smart enough to switch it once they got into the trenches.
    – Daniel Miller
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 17:03
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    @CBredlow "The guns ... they've stopped!" "Stabilize your rear deflectors. Watch for enemy fighters."
    – William Jackson
    Commented Dec 23, 2016 at 3:01
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    @WilliamJackson you're right, I forgot about that.
    – CBredlow
    Commented Dec 23, 2016 at 4:49
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    @DanielMiller No, it was one of the Gold Squadron's Y-Wing pilots. Gold-5 IIRC
    – Skooba
    Commented Feb 17, 2017 at 21:47
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Late answer, but you could see some shots deflecting/"combusting" off of X-Wings in Rogue One. For example the one X-Wing that took out the Star Destroyer's shield generator, and another one on Scarif while Jyn was trying to adjust the antenna.

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