Durability

Durability is a property that affects tools, weapons, and armor, as well as certain other usable items. It represents the number of useful actions an item can perform and depletes upon item use. The bar starts at green, but as the durability decreases, the color gradually turns to yellow, then orange, and finally red. When the durability is empty, the item is about to become destroyed. Durability may be increased by combining two damaged items in the crafting grid or a grindstone, or repairing them with materials in an anvil, or through the Mending enchantment.

Interface[]

The remaining durability of any item can be seen by looking at the item's durability bar on the bottom of the item icon in the inventory and action bar. Unused items do not display a durability bar. As the item's durability decreases, the bar's colored area shortens right to left, changing color from green to red and leaving an empty gray part. When the item has a small number of uses left, the durability bar is represented as empty, due to rounding to the nearest pixel 1-down, until the tool or armor is destroyed.

In Java Edition, the numeric durability of the player's items can be displayed in-game by pressing F3+H. This enables additional information in the tooltips for items in the player's inventory.

A weapon, tool or piece of armor picked up by a mob does not decrease in durability;^[1] it remains the same as when the item was first picked up by the mob. However, a helmet worn by an undead mob in sunlight loses durability due to the helmet absorbing the mob's damage from burning.^[2] In Java Edition, a crossbow wielded by a pillager or a piglin also loses durability and eventually breaks;^[3] this is not the case in Bedrock Edition.^[4]

Items with the Unbreakable tag do not deplete their durability or break when used. Their durability is not shown, even with advanced tooltips enabled, though it is retained in the NBT data. Such an item can be acquired using /give @s <item_name>{Unbreakable:1b}.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Armor durability[]

Armor durability is based on the armor's type (head, torso, legs, feet) and material (leather, gold, chain mail, iron, diamond, and netherite). Any time the player takes damage that can be reduced by armor, each piece of armor they are wearing loses 1 durability for every 4 of incoming damage (rounded down, but never below 1).

Armor can reduce damage from the following sources:

• Direct attacks from mobs and other players
  • This includes Strength and Weakness status effects or extra damage from enchantments.
• Getting hit with an arrow, shulker bullet, thrown trident, egg, snowball, llama spit, fireball, or wither skull
  • This includes extra damage from enchantments
• Getting hit with an egg or snowball
• Laser beam from a guardian or elder guardian
• Damage from Thorns enchantment (as well as guardian's spikes)
• Getting struck by lightning
• Getting hit by a falling anvil or stalactite
• Touching a block of fire, lava, magma block (does not damage netherite armor)
• Touching a cactus, or moving inside sweet berry bush
• Explosions (including fireworks, but deals more than one point of durability)
• Getting hit by or falling into a pointed dripstone (excludes fall damage which ignores armor)

The following types of damage are not reduced by ordinary armor and have no effect on the armor's durability but some enchantments protect against them:

• Ongoing damage from being on fire
• Suffocating inside a block or due to entity cramming (also includes the world border)
• Drowning in water (partially for turtle shells)
• Fall damage (including ender pearls)
• Colliding a block with elytra
• Magic (Evoker fangs, dragon's breath, Poison, Wither and Instant Damage status effects)
• Being inside of a powder snow block (except entities wearing leather armor, which prevents freezing damage)

The following types of damage are not reduced by ordinary armor even with enchantments such as protection:

• Falling into the void or /kill
• Starvation
• Warden's ranged sonic attacks

Values in the table below represent the number of points of durability damage this armor can take before it is destroyed.

Note that every time the player takes damage that armor is capable of reducing (see above), it counts as one point of durability damage for every worn armor piece.

Tool durability[]

Some tools do not have durability, and can therefore be used infinitely. These include buckets, clocks, compasses, leads, spyglasses and recovery compasses.

Some tools are not block-breaking tools: This includes bows, fishing rods, carrots on sticks, flint and steel, warped fungi on sticks, brushes, and elytra. Such tools are no better than bare fists at breaking blocks, but they do not take damage from doing so—they take damage by being used in their own various manners.

For block-breaking tools, a use is counted only if a player completely breaks apart one block or hits a mob. If a block is partially broken this is not counted as a full use.

Items with an Unbreaking enchantment do not always lose durability when used; for a given enchantment level, the chance of losing durability is 1 in (1+level). Such items last an extra level times their original durability, give or take a few.

Axes, pickaxes, and shovels:

• Breaking a block that breaks instantly counts as 0 uses.
• Breaking other blocks counts as 1 use.
• Paving dirt or a grass block using a shovel to make a dirt path counts as 1 use.
• Using an axe on a log or wood to strip it counts as 1 use.
• Hitting a mob (hostile, neutral or passive) counts as 2 uses.

Hoes:

• Breaking a block that breaks instantly counts as 0 uses.
• Breaking other blocks counts as 1 use.
• Tilling dirt or grass counts as 1 use.
• Hitting a mob counts as 2 uses.

Shears:

• Hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Shearing a sheep or a shearable animal counts as 1 use.
• Breaking any block counts as 1 use.

Swords:

• Breaking a block that breaks instantly counts as 0 uses.
• Hitting a mob counts as 1 use.
• Breaking other blocks counts as 2 uses.

Fishing rods:

• Breaking a block or hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Casting the line and reeling it in empty counts as 0 uses.
• Reeling in an item counts as 1 use.
• Catching the bobber/hook on a block, then reeling it in, counts as 2 uses.
• Using the line to yank on an item counts as 3 uses.
• Using the line to yank on a mob counts as 5 uses.

Carrot on a stick

• Breaking a block or hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Using the boost counts as 7 uses.

Flint and steel

• Breaking a block or hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Using it to set a block on fire or light a nether portal counts as 1 use.

Bow

• Breaking a block or hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Firing an arrow counts as 1 use.

Tridents:

• Breaking a block that breaks instantly counts as 0 uses.
• Attacking a mob or throwing counts as 1 use.
• Breaking other blocks counts as 2 uses.

Elytra

• Flying for one second counts as 1 use. The durability cannot go below 1.

Shield

• When the shield blocks an attack, it takes damage equal to the strength of the attack (rounded down) plus 1. Note: when the shield blocks an attack of 3 or stronger, it takes durability damage equal to the strength of the attack rounded up.

Crossbow

• Shooting an arrow counts as 1 use.
• Shooting three arrows (when enchanted with multishot) counts as 3 uses.
• Shooting a firework rocket counts as 3 uses.
• Shooting three firework rockets (when enchanted with multishot) counts as 3 × 3 = 9 uses.

Warped Fungus on a Stick

• Breaking a block or hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Using the boost counts as 1 use.

Sparkler and Glow Stick‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]}

• Durability gradually decreases while the item is active and held in hand.
• If the player has a lit sparkler in their inventory and goes into the water, the sparkler is destroyed immediately regardless of durability.

Brush

• Breaking a block or hitting a mob counts as 0 uses.
• Brushing a suspicious block counts as 1 use.

All other tools can be used indefinitely.

Using a tool properly maximizes its durability. Assuming a player uses a tool appropriately, the following list shows the maximum durability for tools of each material type.

Materials

• Gold: 32 uses
• Wood: 59 uses
• Stone: 131 uses
• Iron: 250 uses
• Diamond: 1561 uses
• Netherite: 2031 uses

Specific tools

• Fishing rod: 64 uses ‌^{[Java Edition only]} or 384 uses ‌‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
• Flint and steel: 64 uses
• Brush: 64 uses
• Carrot on a stick: 25 uses
• Shears: 238 uses
• Shield: 336 uses
• Bow: 384 uses
• Trident: 250 uses
• Elytra: 432 uses
• Crossbow: 465 uses ‌^{[Java Edition only]} or 464 uses ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
• Warped Fungus on a Stick: 100 uses
• Sparkler ‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]} : 100 uses
• Glow Stick ‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]} : 100 uses

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

History[]

See also[]

• Item repair

References[]