How to Make a Shield in Minecraft
Friday August 11, 2023
Last updated Monday September 4, 2023
There's always a sense of danger somewhere when playing survival mode in Minecraft, especially at night when mobs start showing up. This is why, when it comes to survival, you should constantly be prepared for everything. No matter if you are playing Minecraft Java Edition or Minecraft Bedrock Edition, it is critical to have the proper tools and protections in place. In many cases, having a shield can save your life. We'll teach you exactly how to create your own Minecraft shield in this article.
Gather Wood Planks
Start by collecting logs from trees of any type – oak, birch, spruce, jungle, acacia, or dark oak. Then, convert these logs into wooden planks by placing them in your crafting table grid.
Find Iron Ore Underground
Now, you need to venture into a cave to find some iron ore that you can mine. Iron ore is typically found between levels Y 72 and Y -64. You must mine iron using a stone pickaxe or better, a wood pickaxe will not work!
Smelt an Iron Ingot
After finding some iron ore underground, you need to smelt the iron ore into ingots. Place iron ore or raw iron into a furnace with a sufficient fuel source to cook it. You can fuel a furnace with coal, charcoal, wood planks, or wood logs. After the iron ore or raw iron is finished smelting, you now have the essential materials to complete the crafting recipe for your shield!
How to Craft the Shield
Crafting a shield is a straightforward process that involves just a few materials that we have hopefully helped you gather from the steps above.
Materials Needed:
6 Wood Planks (any type)
1 Iron Ingot
Crafting Steps:
Gather Materials: To craft a Minecraft shield, you'll need to obtain 6 wooden planks and 1 iron ingot. Wooden planks can be obtained by placing logs of any type of log in a crafting table.
Crafting Table: Open the crafting table interface. This can be done by right-clicking on a placed crafting table or by using your 2x2 crafting grid in your personal inventory.
Arranging the Materials: Place the wooden planks in a specific pattern in the crafting grid. Fill the entire first row and the middle box of the third row with wooden planks and place one wood plank on the bottom row in the center box. Then, place the one iron ingot in the center box of the top row.
Craft the Shield: Once you've arranged the materials correctly, the shield will appear in the result box of the crafting table. Drag it into your inventory to complete the crafting process.
Congratulations! You now have a crafted shield ready for action.
Customizing Your Shield in Minecraft
You can also completely customize Minecraft shields by placing a banner on them! After you are done reading this section, your shield will be looking way cooler than before.
How to put a banner on a Shield:
Follow the steps below to learn how to put a banner on your shield to make it look nice!
Materials Needed:
A Shield (Crafted using 6 wood planks and 1 iron ingot)
A Banner (Crafted using 6 wool pieces and 1 stick)
Steps to Customize Your Shield:
Design Your Banner: Before attaching a design to your shield, you need to create a custom banner. Banners can be made in various designs by combining different colored wool and dyes. Minecraft offers numerous patterns, shapes, and colors, so the sky's the limit!
For instance, you can add a brick pattern to your banner by combining it with a brick in the crafting table.
Other items like vines, oxeye daisy, or creeper heads can be used for unique designs.
Crafting the Custom Shield: Once you have your desired banner design:
Place the shield in the leftmost slot of your crafting table.
Place your customized banner beside the shield in the middle slot.
This combination will result in a shield with the design of your banner.
Equip and Flaunt: After crafting, you can equip your shield like you normally would. When equipped, it will showcase the custom design you applied to it.
Tips:
Remember, the durability of the shield won’t change regardless of its design.
If the shield takes damage, the design remains unaffected. However, once the shield breaks, you'll need a new one to apply your design again.
You can change the design anytime by repeating the customization process with a new banner.
Can You Get a Better Shield in Minecraft?
Minecraft's vanilla version features only one type of shield, which is crafted using wood planks and an iron ingot. This means, in terms of variety or upgrades to the base shield type, there isn't an inherently "better" shield available in the standard game.
However, there are some ways to boost the functionality of your shield:
Enchantments: While you can't get a different type of shield, you can indeed make your shield more resilient. By using an enchanting table, you can apply enchantments to your shield. The "Unbreaking" enchantment, for instance, can extend your shield's life, making it more durable. Additionally, the "Mending" enchantment will allow you to use experience orbs to repair your shield, ensuring it remains in top condition for longer.
Customization: Again, while it won't increase the defensive properties of your shield, Minecraft does allow players to customize the appearance of their shields. By combining a shield with a banner in a crafting table, players can produce shields with unique designs, reflecting personal flair or allegiance.
For players looking to diversify their shield options, turning to the vast world of Minecraft mods might be the solution. The modding community has introduced various shield types with unique functionalities, attributes, and appearances. By incorporating specific mods, players might find more advanced or "better" shields tailored to their gameplay needs.
How to use a shield in Minecraft
Equipping and using a shield is just as important as crafting one. To use your shield effectively, follow these steps:
Place the Shield in Your Off-Hand: In Minecraft, you have two main item slots – your main hand and your off-hand. The off-hand slot is on the left side of your character's inventory. Drag the shield into this slot to equip it.
Raising the Shield: With the shield in your off-hand, right-click (or the equivalent action on your platform) to raise the shield in front of you. Your character will hold the shield up, which will block attacks from incoming melee attacks, critical hits, beam attacks, and projectile attacks.
Blocking Attacks: When the shield is raised, it will automatically block many types of attacks, including arrows, fireballs, and melee strikes. However, keep in mind that not all attacks can be blocked – some special attacks or explosions might still harm you.
Using Items: While your shield is raised, you can still use items in your main hand. This means that you can still use your sword, break blocks with your pickaxe, and more while your shield is up.
Shield Durability
Shields will lose durability when they are used. The more they block incoming attacks, the more their durability will decrease. Once a shield runs out of durability, it will break and disappear from your inventory. To prevent this, you can combine two damaged shields on a crafting table to repair them, or use the Unbreaking enchantment to increase their lifespan.
Enhancing Durability:
Unbreaking Enchantment: One of the most effective ways to increase your shield's lifespan is through the Unbreaking enchantment. This enchantment doesn't increase the shield's durability directly but gives it a chance not to use durability. At level I, there's a 50% chance that using the item won't decrease durability. At level II, it's 66%, and at level III, it's 75%.
Mending Enchantment: Another valuable enchantment for your shield is Mending. Instead of consuming collected experience orbs to add to your player's XP bar, a shield with the Mending enchantment will repair itself using these orbs. Specifically, for every XP orb collected, the Mending enchantment will repair the shield by 2 durability points.
In Conclusion
Crafting and using shields in Minecraft can greatly enhance your survival experience. Now that you have your very own shield, you will be able to protect yourself from any mobs direct hits from mobs or properly defend yourself when PvPing. So, gather your resources, head to your crafting table, and craft yourself a shield that will accompany you on all your adventures in Minecraft!