Shields don’t require many resources to make in Minecraft. Also, the items that you do need are easy to find. As such, there are few reasons not to make a Shield, as using one can save your life.
Table Of Contents
What You Need to Make a Shield
To craft a Shield, you will need 6 Wood Planks and 1 Iron Ingot. On a Crafting Table, place the Iron Ingot on the top-middle slot. After that, place Wood Planks everywhere else except for the bottom-left and bottom-right slots. You can use any kind of Wood Planks to make a Shield, even different types at the same time. However, the difference in Wood Plank color won’t affect how the Shield looks.
How to Make a Colored Shield (Java Edition-only)
You can make a more colorful Shield by combining it with any kind of colored Banner in any kind of crafting grid. When you place a Shield next to a Banner in a crafting grid, you can get a Shield that has the color as the Banner on its front.
Trading With Villagers for a Shield
It’s possible to meet a Journeyman-level Armorer Villager that will trade you 1 Shield at the cost of 5 Emeralds. The odds of this in the Bedrock Edition are about 33%, while in the Java Edition, the chance is 40%.
How to Use a Shield
To equip your Shield, you will need to put it into the Shield slot of your inventory. You can find this slot by opening your inventory and looking next to your character’s feet, on the opposite side of the slot for your boots. When you place your Shield here, you will see it appear in your left hand. You can still hold and use items from your hotbar in your right hand as usual. However, the Shield will now be in your field of vision, although you can unequip it if you want by taking the Shield out of the Shield slot.
If you need to defend yourself with your Shield, it must be equipped in the Shield slot. When it is, you can use it to raise your Shield, which will block incoming attacks. The button or key needed to use the item in your left hand will vary depending on the platform that you’re playing on. When your Shield is raised, it will block attacks coming from the front, including explosions. Furthermore, it will slightly deflect arrows that are shot at you, meaning that the arrows that bounce off of a raised Shield can potentially hurt something nearby.
A raised Shield will even block the effects of most incoming attacks, such as the burning damage caused by flaming projectiles and the knockback effect of melee attacks. However, a Shield isn’t invulnerable, and it will lose durability over time.
About Shield Durability
Every time that you block an attack that would do more than 1.5 Hearts of damage to you, your Shield will lose some of its durability. The amount of durability lost will be equal to the total damage of the attack minus 1.5. A Shield has 336 durability in total, so a new one should last you a while. However, you can repair a Shield when needed through some easy methods.
How to Repair Shields
It would be best to make 2 Shields if you want to be as efficient as possible. When the first one gets down to around half of its durability, you’ll want to switch to the other one. When the second one gets worn down to around the same point, you can combine the 2 damaged Shields into 1 with much more durability. You can combine Shields like this using any kind of crafting grid, just place the Shields next to each other.
Alternatively, you can repair a Shield by placing it on an Anvil and using Wood Planks or another Shield to repair it. However, keep in mind that the item used to repair the Shield will be consumed.
