"Collect a PadShard and you'll receive 5 shield points. The nice thing about the shards is, that you'll get 5 points even if you already have 100% shield!" — World of Padman Manual

In World of Padman, the PadShard gives the player a small amount of armor points. Armor Shards are best used to refill missing shield points. If you have no armor when you pick up PadShards, the "new" armor will absorb 2/3s of an attack, just like PadShield.

Old PadShard model from the 1.2 version of WoP.