Shovel

Shovel

Rarity	Common
Durability	Wood: 59 Stone: 131 Iron: 250 Golden: 32 Diamond: 1561 Netherite: 2031
Renewable	Netherite: No All others: Yes
Stackable	No

	“	The main purpose of a shovel is that it lets you mine certain kinds of blocks faster. Dirt, sand and gravel are the most common reasons to carry a shovel around, but they also work to speed up the collection of clay, soul sand and snow. Higher-tier tools work faster – a snow block that would take a second to break by hand takes 0.2 seconds with a wooden shovel, 0.1 seconds with stone, and a super-quick 0.05 seconds with an iron, gold or diamond shovel. DIGDIGDIGDIGDIG.	„
		— Duncan Geere

Shovels are tools used to ease the process of collecting dirt and other blocks.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Any Planks or Cobblestone or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick
Damaged Matching Shovel		The durability of the two shovels is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Upgrading

Ingredients	Smithing recipe	Description
Diamond Shovel + Netherite Ingot	Upgrade	‌[upcoming: JE 1.16]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Diamond Shovel + Netherite Ingot		‌[upcoming: BE 1.16.0]

Repairing

Grinding

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	Description
2x Damaged Wooden Shovel or 2x Damaged Stone Shovel or 2x Damaged Iron Shovel or 2x Damaged Golden Shovel or 2x Damaged Diamond Shovel or 2x Damaged Netherite Shovel‌[upcoming: JE 1.16]		The durability of the two shovels is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

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.

Natural generation

Iron shovels can be found in 41.2% of village toolsmith chests in groups of 1.

Enchanted iron shovels can be found in 13.3% of End city chests in groups of 1.

Enchanted diamond shovels can be found in 13.3% of End city chests in groups of 1.

Notes

Drops

Equipment

Main article: Drops § Equipped items

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 enchantment 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 toolsmiths have a 40% chance to sell an enchanted iron shovel for 7-22 emeralds, and expert-level toolsmiths 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 enchantment table at levels 5–19.

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:

Material	Durability
Wood	59
Stone	131
Iron	250
Diamond	1561
Golden	32
Netherite‌[upcoming: 1.16]	2031

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.

Block	Breaking time
	Default	Wooden	Stone	Iron	Diamond	Netherite	Golden
Clay	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Farmland	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Grass Block	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Grass Path	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Gravel	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Mycelium	0.9	0.45	0.25	0.15	0.15	0.1	0.1
Podzol	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Coarse Dirt	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Dirt	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Red Sand	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Sand	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Soul Sand	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Concrete Powder	0.75	0.4	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.1	0.1
Snow Block	1	0.2	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
Snow	0.5	0.1	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05

Grass paths

A shovel can be used to create a grass path by using (not digging) the shovel on a grass block. When creating a grass path, it uses 1 durability.

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	2.5
Stone Shovel	3.5		3.5
Iron Shovel	4.5		4.5
Diamond Shovel	5.5		5.5
Netherite Shovel‌[upcoming: 1.16]	6.5		6.5

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 the following enchantments:

Name	Max Level
Fortune	III
Silk Touch	I
Efficiency	V
Unbreaking	III
Mending	I
Curse of Vanishing‌[JE only]	I

Crafting ingredient

In Bedrock Edition, wooden shovels are used as "paddles" when crafting the boat.

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Oak Boat or Spruce Boat or Birch Boat or Jungle Boat or Acacia Boat or Dark Oak Boat	Oak Planks or Spruce Planks or Birch Planks or Jungle Planks or Acacia Planks or Dark Oak Planks + Wooden Shovel		‌[Bedrock and Education editions only] Shovel represents an oar.

Fuel

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

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Iron Nugget or Gold Nugget	Iron Shovel or Golden Shovel + Any fuel	0.1

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Namespaced ID	Subtitle ID	Source	Pitch	Volume	Attenuation distance
	Shovel flattens	item.shovel.flatten	subtitles.item.shovel.flatten	?	?	?	16
	Item breaks	entity.item.break	subtitles.entity.item.break	?	0.9	1.0	16

Data values

Item	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID‌[BE only]
Wooden Shovel	wooden_shovel	269
Stone Shovel	stone_shovel	273
Iron Shovel	iron_shovel	256
Diamond Shovel	diamond_shovel	277
Golden Shovel	golden_shovel	284
Netherite Shovel‌[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]	netherite_shovel	___

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
	MOAR Tools	Construct one type of each tool.	Construct one pickaxe, one shovel, one axe, and one hoe with the same material.	15G	Bronze

History

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20091231-2			Added iron shovels.
					Shovels are non-functional in this version.
		20100111-1			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 every available block and item including tools.
		20100128			A shovel held by the player now appears more 3D like.
		20100129			Tools now have tiers, in addition to iron, shovels can now be made from wood, stone and diamond.
					Added crafting recipe for iron shovels as well as the newly introduced variants.
		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 slightly changed.
Java Edition Alpha
1.0.5_01					Shovels are now used to get snowballs out of snow layers.
Java Edition
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.
1.8		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.
1.15		19w37a			Shovels can now be used to extinguish campfires.
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.
1.16		20w06a			Added netherite shovels.
					Netherite shovels are obtained by combining one diamond shovel and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
		20w09a			The texture of diamond shovels has been changed.
		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.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0					Added stone shovels.
0.3.0					Added wooden shovels.
0.3.2					Added iron, gold, and diamond shovels.
0.11.0		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.
0.12.1		build 1			Shovels can now be enchanted.
					Zombies now have a small chance to spawn holding an iron shovel.
0.15.0		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.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
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.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added shovels (all five types).
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Iron and golden shovels are now smeltable.
PlayStation 4 Edition
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

Enchanted Shovels

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References

Items

View at: Template:Items/content [edit]