Shovel

Shovels are tools used to hasten the process of breaking dirt, sand, gravel and other soil blocks, as well as to convert dirt blocks into dirt paths.

Obtaining[]

Crafting[]

Upgrading[]

Like other diamond tools, a diamond shovel can be upgraded to a netherite shovel, although increased durability and resistance to fire/lava in item form are the only benefits. The shovel's performance as a digging tool or a weapon is unchanged by the upgrade.

Netherite Upgrade +
Diamond Shovel +
Netherite Ingot

Repairing[]

Grinding[]

Unit repair[]

A shovel can be repaired in an anvil by adding units of the tiers' repair material, with each repair material restoring 25% the shovel's maximum durability, rounded down. It also keeps the shovel's enchantments.

Chest loot[]

On ancient_city/city_center/city_center_2, they generate a furnace with a wooden shovel inside of it.

Mob loot[]

Equipment[]

Zombies and husks have a 0.67% (3.33% in Hard difficulty) chance of spawning with an iron shovel. They have an 8.5% (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III) chance of dropping that shovel if they are killed by the player. The dropped shovel is usually badly damaged, and may be enchanted: 0%–25% on Normal difficulty and 3.125%–25% on Hard difficulty, varying with regional difficulty, and enchanted as if on an enchanting table at level 5–22.

Raids[]

Vindicators and pillagers that spawn from raids have a 4.1% chance(5.12% on hard) to drop a badly-damaged iron shovel that is sometimes enchanted with a random enchantment.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Trading[]

Novice-level toolsmith villagers have a 25% chance to sell stone shovels for one emerald, journeyman-level toolsmith villagers have a 25% chance to sell enchanted iron shovels for 2 emeralds, and expert-level toolsmith villagers have a 50% chance to sell enchanted diamond shovels for 5 emeralds as part of their trades.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Novice-level toolsmith villagers have a 40% chance to sell stone shovels for one emerald, journeyman-level tool smiths have a 40% chance to sell an enchanted iron shovel for 7-22 emeralds, and expert-level tool smiths have a ²⁄₃ chance to sell an enchanted diamond shovel for 11-27 emeralds.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

The enchantments are the same as the ones obtained from an enchanting table at levels 5–19.

Villager gifts[]

in Java Edition, toolsmith villagers occasionally throw stone shovels at players with the Hero of the Village effect.

Usage[]

Digging[]

A shovel can be used to break some materials faster. When breaking a block, it uses 1 durability. For blocks that break instantly, it uses 0 durability.

Durability[]

Each different tier of shovel has a different durability:

Speed[]

The following table summarizes the speed at which different quality shovels perform on different block types. Values with a red background indicate that no resource is dropped when the block is destroyed without a shovel.

Dirt paths[]

A shovel can be used to create a dirt path by using (not digging) the shovel on any one of the following blocks, losing one durability point:

• Grass Block
• Dirt
• Coarse Dirt
• Rooted Dirt
• Podzol
• Mycelium

Campfire[]

A shovel can be used to extinguish a campfire.

Weapon[]

Hitting a mob while holding a shovel is a stronger attack than barehanded. Shovels take 2 damage when used as a weapon.

Java Edition[]

Shovels have an attack speed modifier of -3, meaning they take 1 second to recover. Shovels deal different damage based on the type:

Shovel type	Attack damage	Attack speed	Damage per second (DPS)
Wooden Shovel Golden Shovel	2.5 × 1.25	1	2.5
Stone Shovel	3.5 × 1.75		3.5
Iron Shovel	4.5 × 2.25		4.5
Diamond Shovel	5.5 × 2.75		5.5
Netherite Shovel	6.5 × 3.25	1.6	10.4

Bedrock Edition[]

In Bedrock Edition, shovels always attack instantly and do the following damage:

Attack damage
2	3	4	5	6

Enchantments[]

A shovel can receive, or be found in an End City with the following enchantments:

Fuel[]

Wooden shovels can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1 item per shovel.

Smelting ingredient[]

Piglins[]

Piglins are attracted to golden shovels and run toward any golden shovels on the ground, and inspect it for 6 to 8 seconds before putting it in their inventory.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Achievements[]

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Oh Shiny	Distract Piglins with gold	Nether	While aggravated, give a piglin one of these 25 gold-related items in the #piglin_loved item tag: Bell Block of Gold Block of Raw Gold Clock Enchanted Golden Apple Gilded Blackstone Glistering Melon Slice Gold Ingot Gold Ore Golden Apple Golden Axe Golden Boots Golden Carrot Golden Chestplate Golden Helmet Golden Hoe Golden Horse Armor Golden Leggings Golden Pickaxe Golden Shovel Golden Sword Light Weighted Pressure Plate Nether Gold Ore Deepslate Gold Ore Raw Gold Other gold-related items do not distract the piglin and do not trigger this advancement.	nether/distract_piglin

Video[]

History[]

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20091231-2			Added iron shovels which are located in the player's inventory.
					Shovels cannot be crafted yet and are not functional in this version.
		20100110			Shovels are now functional and can now be used to gather materials like dirt, sand and gravel 400% faster than by hand.
		20100124			A complete tool set is no longer given to the player on starting a new world. Instead, there are multiple chests in the later called "Indev House" containing a stack of most accessible blocks/items including tools.
		20100128			Tools now have tiers. Shovels made from wood, stone, and diamond have been added.
					The texture of iron shovels has been changed.
					A shovel held by the player is now rendered to appear more 3D.
					They cannot be crafted yet, but have been added to the item chest in the Indev house.
		20100129			Wood, stone, iron, and diamond shovels can now be crafted.
		20100130			Shovels can now be made out of gold.
		20100201-1			Tools, including shovels, now take damage when being used.
					Better tools, including shovels, now last longer.
20100206					The texture of golden shovels has been changed.
Java Edition Alpha
1.0.5_01					Shovels are now used to get snowballs out of snow layers.
Java Edition Beta
April 9, 2011					Alternate iron shovel texture was shown in Mojang test video.
Java Edition
1.2.4		release			Spruce planks, birch planks, and jungle planks can now be used to craft wooden shovels.
1.3.1		12w18a			Wooden shovels can now be used as fuel in a furnace.
		12w21a			Blacksmith villagers now sell diamond shovels for 7 emeralds, and iron shovels for 4–5 emeralds.
1.6.1		13w21a			Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1), shovels now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in all shovels doing 1 more damage than before.
1.7.2		1.7.1			Acacia planks and dark oak planks can now be used to craft wooden shovels.
1.8		14w02a			Tool smith villagers now sell enchanted iron shovels for 5–7 emeralds. The previous trades are now unavailable, making diamond shovels non-renewable.
1.9		15w31a			A shovel can now be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
					Enchanted iron or diamond shovels can now be found in end city chests.
		15w34a			Shovels now use the "attack strength" combat mechanic meter. The time it takes for the meter to fill up for a shovel is 0.8 seconds.
		15w34c			Shovels now do more damage and take longer to recover.
		15w35a			The damage of shovels has been reduced.
		15w41a			Wooden shovels are now used to craft boats.
		15w50a			The sound item.shovel.flatten has been added to shovels.
		16w04a			Wooden shovels are no longer used to craft boats.
1.11.1		16w50a			Golden and iron shovels now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, these items' numeral IDs were 269, 273, 256, 277 and 284.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of all shovels have been changed.
		18w50a			Iron shovels can now be found in chests in village toolsmith houses.
		19w11a			Toolsmith villagers now sell stone shovels and enchanted diamond shovels, making diamond shovels renewable again.
		19w13a			Toolsmith villagers now give stone shovels to players under the Hero of the Village effect.
1.15		19w37a			Shovels can now be used to extinguish campfires.
1.16		20w06a			Added netherite shovels.
					Netherite shovels are obtained by combining one diamond shovel and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
					Crimson planks and warped planks can now be used to craft wooden shovels.
		20w09a			The texture of diamond shovels has been changed.
					Shovels can now break soul soil quickly.
		20w10a			The texture of netherite shovels has been changed.
					Netherite shovels can no longer be crafted.
					Netherite shovels are now obtained by combining one diamond shovel and one netherite ingot in a smithing table.
		20w15a			Stone shovels can now be crafted using blackstone.
		20w16a			Netherite shovels now generate randomly enchanted in bastion remnants chests.
					Golden shovels now generate randomly enchanted in ruined portal chests.
		20w17a			Diamonds shovels now generate in place of netherite shovels in bastion remnant chests.
1.16.2		20w30a			Increases the chance of finding randomly enchanted diamond shovels in bastion remnant chests.
					Unenchanted, undamaged diamond shovels can also be found in bastion remnant chests.
1.17		21w08a			Stone shovels can now be crafted using cobbled deepslate.
1.19		22w11a			Mangrove planks can now be used to craft wooden shovels.
		22w13a			Wooden shovels may now be found in ancient city furnaces.
1.20 (Experimental)		23w04a			Upgrading diamond shovels to netherite shovels now requires the netherite upgrade smithing template.
1.20		23w14a			Shovel now breaks suspicious sand and suspicious gravel quickly.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests		1.14.3 - Combat Test			The attack speed for all shovels has been increased to 2.
					The damage for all shovels has been decreased by 1.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0					Added stone shovels.
v0.3.0					Added wooden shovels.
					Survival players no longer start out with an infinite durability stone shovel in the inventory.
v0.3.2					Added iron, gold, and diamond shovels.
v0.4.0					Removed stone shovels from the creative inventory.
v0.11.0		build 1			Wooden shovels are now used to craft boats.
					Iron shovels are now available in the creative inventory.
					A shovel can now be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
		build 11			Wooden, stone, golden, and diamond shovels are now available in the creative inventory.
		build 12			All shovels have been removed from creative.
		build 13			Shovel have been re-added to creative mode.
v0.12.1		build 1			Shovels can now be enchanted.
					Zombies now have a small chance to spawn holding an iron shovel.
v0.15.0		build 1			Added husks, which have a small chance to spawn holding an iron shovel.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Enchanted iron and diamond shovels can now be found inside end city chests.
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			Enchanted iron shovels are now sold by toolsmith villagers for 4-5 emeralds.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Iron and golden shovels are now smeltable.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of all shovels have been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Iron shovels can now be found in village toolsmith houses.
		beta 1.11.0.4			Vindicators and pillagers that spawn in raids can now drop iron shovels upon death.
					Trading has been changed, toolsmith villagers now have a 25% chance to sell enchanted iron shovels for 2 emeralds as part of their third tier trades.
					Stone shovels and enchanted diamond shovels can now be bought from toolsmith villagers.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added netherite shovels.
					Netherite shovels are obtained by combining one diamond shovel and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
					The texture of diamond shovels has been changed.
		beta 1.16.0.57			Netherite shovels can no longer be crafted.
					Netherite shovels are now obtained by combining one diamond shovel and one netherite ingot in a smithing table.
					Stone shovels can now be crafted using blackstone.
					Netherite shovels now generate randomly enchanted in bastion remnants chests.
					Golden shovels now generate randomly enchanted in ruined portal chests.
		beta 1.16.0.63			Diamonds shovels now generate in place of netherite shovels in bastion remnant chests.
1.20.10		beta 1.20.10.20			The wooden shovel in the crafting recipe has been removed for all boat types except the bamboo raft.
		beta 1.20.10.21			The bamboo raft recipe no longer needs a wooden shovel.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added shovels (all five types).
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Iron and golden shovels are now smeltable.
		1.90			The textures of all shovels have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added shovels.

Issues[]

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

Gallery[]

• 

  Official shovel T-shirt made by JINX.

• 

  Stone shovel in the Super Duper Graphics Pack.

• 

  An "adventure shovel" that can break blocks in adventure mode.

Enchanted shovels[]

References[]

External Links[]

• Taking Inventory: Shovel – Minecraft.net on November 16, 2018