Shield

A shield is a tool used for protecting the player against attacks.

Obtaining[]

Crafting[]

Repairing[]

Shields may also be repaired on an anvil by using planks or another shield. Shields repaired on anvils retain their pattern.

Trading[]

Journeyman-level armorer villagers have ¹⁄₃‌^{[BE only]}/²⁄₅‌^{[JE only]} chance of selling a shield for 5 emeralds as their sixth trade.

Usage[]

Despite using iron in its crafting recipe, it cannot be smelted into iron nuggets.^[1]

Defense[]

Shields are used for blocking incoming attacks. Using‌^{[JE only]} or sneaking‌^{[BE only]} causes a player to slow to a sneaking pace, and after 5 game ticks (0.25 seconds)^[2], attacks coming from in front of the player are blocked, dealing no damage. When the shield blocks an attack of 3 or stronger, it takes durability damage equal to the strength of the attack rounded up.

Most blocked projectiles that carry status effects (such as shulker bullets‌^{[JE only]}, flaming arrows, or tipped arrows) do not affect the blocker. Tridents & arrows can be deflected into other targets. Knockback from melee attacks and projectiles is prevented, while knockback from explosions, hoglin, and ravager attacks are significantly reduced.

The shield directionally blocks all attacks coming from within the FOV of the direction the wielder is facing, providing a full hemisphere of coverage to them. If the wielder faces straight up, they are likely to miss their blocks.^[3]

Mobs that deal continuous contact damage such as the slime, magma cube, and blaze rapidly drain the shield's durability for as long as the shielded player remains within the mob's hitbox.^[4][5]

Blockable attacks include:

• Melee attacks, except by a warden, axe-wielding mobs or by a sprinting player wielding an axe, however even without sprinting an axe still greatly decreases the durability
  • Status effects do not carry through to the blocker‌^{[JE only]}.
• Normal, tipped, and spectral arrows
  • Arrows other than Piercing are totally deflected and can hit other targets.
  • Status effects do not carry through to the blocker‌^{[JE only]}.
    • This can be used to damage the attacker or another mob down there.
• Flaming arrows
  • Burning does not carry through to the blocker‌^{[JE only]}.
• Tridents
• Snowballs and eggs
• Spines from pufferfish
• Bullets from shulkers
  • The levitation effect does not carry through to the blocker‌^{[JE only]}.
• Spit from llamas
• Fireballs, such as from blazes and fire charges
  • Burning does not carry through to the blocker.
• Direct hits from ghast fireballs
  • These still cause environmental damage.
• All explosions‌^{[JE only]}
• Explosion damage from creepers
• TNT that another player lit
• Ravager headbutts
  • These still knock the blocker back by about 3 blocks.
  • Blocking these strikes can stun the ravager for a moment, and it roars afterward.
• Ravager roars are blocked but still knock back the blocker.
• Bee stings are blocked, but bees continuously attack until the player stops blocking and the player is stung.
• Beam attacks from guardians or elder guardians (only reduces damage by 50%).
• Damage reflected from Thorns enchantment / guardians.

They cannot block:

• Arrows from a crossbow enchanted with Piercing
  • This does not reduce the shield's durability.
• Status effects from tipped arrows or shulker bullets ‌^{[BE only] [6]}
  • Direct projectile damage is blocked, but the effect still carries through.
• Status effects from splash/lingering potions, evokers' fangs, or breath from the ender dragon
• Beam attacks from guardians or elder guardians, or the warden's sonic boom attack
• TNT that the blocking player lit themselves‌^{[BE only]}
• TNT that a redstone mechanism lit‌^{[BE only]}
• Fall damage, including that from ender pearls
  • This also includes when the player rides an entity that died due to fall damage.
• Strikes from a warden or any axe-wielding mob (e.g., vindicators, piglin brutes, zombies after disabling players shield they attack another time immediately)
  • Such strikes disable being able to use shields for 5 seconds.

Applying patterns[]

Shields can be decorated by applying a banner.

Unlike with banners, shields cannot be repainted or washed in a cauldron. Shields have only half the resolution of banners, making patterns look slightly different. In the game files, the pattern textures can be found in a separate directory called entity/shield.

In Java Edition, shields with patterns can also be obtained using the same commands as banners, except banner has to be replaced with shield.

Enchantments[]

A shield can receive the following enchantments, but only through an anvil:

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Not Today, Thank You	Deflect a projectile with a Shield	Suit Up	Block any projectile with a shield.	story/deflect_arrow

History[]

July 10, 2011					During an interview, Jeb says that "shields for the left arm" might be added.
Java Edition
1.9		15w33c			Added shields.
					Shields replace the blocking functionality of swords, although blocking more damage.
					The current crafting recipe of shields includes wool, producing 16 possible colored shields. There currently isn't a blank, uncolored shield. Recipe Ingredients Crafting recipe Matching Wool + Any Planks + Iron Ingot
					Any of the colored base shields can be crafted with a banner of the same base color, to produce a patterned shield.
		15w34c			When an attack is blocked by a shield, the attacker now may be knocked back.
					Being attacked with an axe now may disable shield use for 5 seconds.
		15w37a			The crafting recipe of shields has been changed to 6 planks and 1 iron ingot. Recipe Ingredients Crafting recipe Any Planks + Iron Ingot
					Crafting a shield now produces a base wooden shield that can be crafted together with any banner.
					The cooldown of shields has been reduced from 0.5s to 0.25s.
					Blocking with shields now prevents some side effects.[verify]
					Arrows now ricochet off shields.
		15w44a			Shields can now be repaired by combining with other shields. This removes any banner that had been applied.
		15w45a			Crafting a banner onto a shield now consumes the banner.
		15w47b			Added shield blocking sounds.
		16w07a			Added more variation of shield blocking sounds.
		pre1			The durability of shields has been increased from 181 to 337.
1.10		16w21a			Shields can now be equipped by dispensers.
1.11		16w33a			Crafting a shield with a banner no longer changes the durability, nor does it remove enchantments from it.
		16w35a			Shields now block 100% of damage/knockback/debuffs dealt in melee combat.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 442.
1.13.2		release			Shields now properly block attacks when the player is facing down.[7]
1.14		18w43a			The texture of shields has been changed.
					Shields no longer knockback attackers when they block due to a bug with rework of the blocking mechanic with the introduction of the ravager.[8]
		19w11a			Shields can now be bought from armorer villagers.
1.14.3		Pre-Release 3			Shields blocking flaming arrows no longer put the player on fire.
1.16		20w06a			Crimson planks and warped planks can now be used to craft shields.
1.19		22w11a			Mangrove planks can now be used to craft shields.
1.19.3		22w43a			Shields can now properly block all explosions.
1.19.4		23w06a			A sound is now played when a shield is placed into the offhand slot.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests		1.14.3 - Combat Test			Critical hits now bypass shields.
					The warm-up delay has been removed from shields.
					When in the off-hand, shields now activate when sneaking.
		Combat Test 2			Shields now protect against critical attacks again.
					Shields can only be activated when the weapon is charged to 200%.
		Combat Test 3			A "Shield Indicator" option that displays when the shield is active, similar to the attack indicator, has been added.
					An option to hide shields when active has been added.
					The arc of available protection of shields has been decreased to 100 degrees instead of 180 degrees.
		Combat Test 4			An option to disable shields being activated by pressing crouch has been added.
					The option to hide the shield has been removed.
		Combat Test 6			Shields now protect up to 5 damage for melee attacks (still 100% against projectiles).
					Shields activate instantly regardless if the weapon is charged, similar to Combat test 1.
					Shields now recover faster after an attack.
		Combat Test 7c			Shields now add a 50% knockback resistance when active.
					Shields now protect against 100% explosion damage.
		Combat Test 8c			The knockback calculations for shields have been fixed.[more information needed]
					Crouch-shielding while jumping has been disabled.
					Shields with banners are now temporarily stronger than normal shields (10 absorption instead of 5, and better knockback resistance) to test different shield types.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Added shields.
					Shields cannot be customized with banners.
					Shields are activated by crouching or mounting mobs.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Shields can now be bought from armorer villagers.
1.16.210		beta 1.16.210.51			Now grants partial knockback protection from the goat ram attack.
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.50			Mobs that pick up shields now place them to their off-hand.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.30.26			Being attacked with an axe now may disable shield use. This was not mentioned in the official changelog.[9]
1.20.0		beta 1.20.0.20			Shields can now be customized using a banner.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					Added shields.
					Shields do not have banner application features.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Shield" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery[]

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  Shield

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  White Shield

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  Light Gray Shield

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  Gray Shield

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  Black Shield

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  Brown Shield

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  Red Shield

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  Orange Shield

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  Yellow Shield

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  Lime Shield

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  Green Shield

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  Cyan Shield

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  Light Blue Shield

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  Blue Shield

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  Purple Shield

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  Magenta Shield

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  Pink Shield

Screenshots[]

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  One of the first images of shields. Jeb wearing diamond armor while holding a creeper-emblazoned shield during MineCon 2015.

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  Jeb crafting a shield.

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  Player holding the default shield.

• 

  A player blocking with a shield.

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  Blocking with a shield as seen in first person.

• 

  An enchanted shield as seen in the inventory.

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  A shield with the ominous banner on it as seen in the inventory.

• 

  An image of Kai wielding a banner with a shield, used to announce the feature on Bedrock Edition.

• 

References[]

External Links[]

• Taking Inventory: Shield – Minecraft.net on July 25, 2019