Minecraft Video Game Shield Design

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

1 Obtaining
- 1.1 Crafting
- 1.2 Repairing
- 1.3 Trading
2 Usage
- 2.1 Defense
- 2.2 Applying patterns
- 2.3 Enchantments
3 Sounds
4 Data values
- 4.1 ID
5 Advancements
6 History
7 Issues
8 Gallery
9 References

Obtaining [ ]

Crafting [ ]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Any Planks + Iron Ingot
Shield + Matching Banner		‌^{[ Java Edition only ]}

Repairing [ ]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Damaged Shield		The durability of the two shields is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. The repaired shield has no pattern.

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), 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 is significantly reduced.

The shield directionally blocks all attacks coming from within 90° of the direction the wielder is facing, providing a full hemisphere of coverage to them. If the wielder faces straight up or straight down, they are likely to miss their blocks.

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.

Blockable attacks include:

Melee attacks, except by axe-wielding mobs or by a sprinting player wielding an axe, however even without sprinting an axe still greatly decreases the durability
Normal, tipped and spectral arrows
- Arrows are totally deflected and can hit other targets.
- Status effects do not carry through to the blocker‌^{[ JE only ]}.
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.
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 (but only in 50%)

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 ]} ^[2]
- 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
TNT that the blocking player lit themselves‌^{[ JE only ]}
TNT that a redstone mechanism lit‌^{[ JE only ]}
Teleport and fall damage
Strikes from any axe-wielding mob (e.g., vindicators, piglin brutes, zombies after disabling players shield they attack another time immediately)
- Such axe strikes disable being able to use shields for 5 seconds‌^{[ JE only ]}

Applying patterns [ ]

Shields can be decorated by applying a banner pattern.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Shield + Matching Banner		Applies the banner pattern to the shield. The banner is consumed. The shield must have no preexisting patterns. Does not change existing durability or enchantments on the shield.

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.

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:


Name	Max Level	Method
Unbreaking	III
Mending	I
Curse of Vanishing	I

Sounds [ ]

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Shield blocks	?	?	`item.shield.block`	`subtitles.item.shield.block`	?	?	16
	Item breaks	?	When durability is exhausted	`item.shield.break`	`subtitles.entity.item.break`	1.0	0.9	16

Data values [ ]

ID [ ]

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Form	Translation key
Shield	`shield`	Item	`item.minecraft.shield`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Shield	`shield`	`513`	Item	`item.shield.name`

Advancements [ ]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Not Today, Thank You	Block a projectile using your 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.

1.11

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.

1.14

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.^[3]

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.

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.

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 [ ]

One of the first images of shields. Jeb wearing diamond armor while holding a creeper-emblazoned shield during MineCon 2015.
Player holding the default shield.
A player blocking with a shield.
An enchanted shield.