Shield

Shield

Rarity	Common
Durability	337
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

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

Obtaining

Crafting

	“	Shields are pretty simple to make - arrange six planks in a crafting grid in a Y-shape, and then pop an iron ingot into the top of the Y. You can also acquire them from Armourer villagers for in exchange for five emeralds, which to be honest is a bit on the pricey side considering its just wood and iron. Once crafted, you can customise your shield pretty extensively. Create a beautiful banner and pop it into a crafting grid with the shield to apply the pattern onto the shield's front face. They can be enchanted too - with unbreaking, mending, or a curse of vanishing if you're feeling dangerous.	„
		— Duncan Geere

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any Planks + Iron Ingot

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. 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.

Defense

Shields are used for blocking incoming attacks. Using‌^{[Java Edition only]} or sneaking‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} causes a player to slow to a sneaking pace, and after 5 game ticks (0.25 seconds), blockable attacks coming from in front of the player are negated, dealing no damage. When the shield blocks an attack of 4 or stronger, it takes damage equal to the strength of the attack rounded up.

All non-damage effects of ranged attacks, (such as being set on fire or poisoned by a poisonous arrow) are prevented. Knockback from melee attacks and projectiles is nullified, while knockback from explosions is reduced to one block distance.

The shield blocks any directional attacks coming from up to, but not including, 90° away from the horizontal direction the player is facing, that covers almost a full hemisphere in front of the player. The player's vertical rotation normally makes no difference to the direction of blocked attacks, however, a player facing straight up or straight down might be unable to block attacks from any direction. Similarly, an attack coming from directly above or directly below cannot be blocked as it has no horizontal direction.

Blockable attacks include:

• Melee attacks
• Normal and tipped arrows
• Flaming arrows
• Tridents
• Snowballs and eggs
• Thorns from pufferfish
• Bullets from shulkers
• Spit from llamas
• Fireballs
• Creeper and ghast's fireball explosions
• TNT ignited by other players
• Ravager roar

They cannot block:

• Arrows from a crossbow enchanted with Piercing; this does not reduce the shield's durability
• Lasers from guardians or elder guardians.
• TNT ignited by the player themselves or a redstone mechanism ‌^{[JE only]}
• Effects from splash/lingering potions, evoker's fangs and breath from the ender dragon
• Teleport and fall damage
• Bee stingers (they will continuously attack until the player disables the shield)
• Axe attacks from vindicators or sprinting players disable the shield for 5 seconds‌^{[JE only]}
  • A player who is not sprinting also has a 25% chance to disable the shield with an axe.

When hit by an arrow or trident, the projectile ricochets off the shield and can hit other entities.

Applying patterns

A custom shield.

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
Unbreaking	III
Mending	I
Curse of Vanishing‌[JE only]‌[upcoming: BE 1.16.0]	I

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	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	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Shield	shield	item.minecraft.shield

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Shield	shield	513	item.shield.name

Advancements

Main article: Advancement

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
	Not Today, Thank You	Deflect an arrow with a shield[until JE 1.16] Deflect a projectile with a shield‌[upcoming: JE 1.16]	Suit Up	Deflect 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 can now be bought from armorer villagers.
1.14.3		Pre-Release 3			Shields blocking flaming arrows no longer put the player on fire.
1.14.4		?			When a melee attack is blocked by a shield, the attacker is no longer knocked back a block away.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests		1.14.3 - Combat Test			Critical hits now bypass shields.
					Removed the warm-up delay from shields.
					When in the off-hand, shields now activate when sneaking.
					Shields no longer knock back attackers when they block.
		Combat Test 2			Shields now protect against critical attacks again.
		Combat Test 3			Added a "Shield Indicator" option that displays when the shield is active, similar to the attack indicator.
					Added an option to hide shields when active.
					Arc of available protection has been decreased to 100 degrees instead of 180 degrees.
		Combat Test 4			Added an option to disable shields being activating by pressing crouch.
					Removed the option to hide the shield.
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.
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 custom shield.

• 

  An enchanted shield.

References

Items

View at: Template:Items/content [edit]