How to Make a Shield in Minecraft

How to Make a Shield in Minecraft
Will Blears Updated on by

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A shield is an important item for combat purposes in Minecraft. Whether to block arrows, to block strikes from a sword, or even prevent explosions from creepers. In general, it’s nearly a must to have a shield in Minecraft these days! And today, we’ll show you how to make a shield in Minecraft!

3 Steps to Make a Shield in Minecraft

If you’ve watched some sort of Minecraft speedrun game, you will see most speedrunners crafted a shield very early in the run. Because it’s actually easy to craft!

#1 Obtain 6 Planks (Any wood type)

You can use any of the 9 current wood types to craft a shield. And you don’t need to gather 6 planks of the same wood type for this recipe either. For example, you can use 4 oak planks, 1 spruce plank, and 1 birch plank.

Planks can be crafted from logs, stripped logs, wood, or stripped wood. Each one can give you up to 4 planks so you only need to chop down 2 blocks. But hey, don’t leave floating trees around!

If you spawn in a place with no trees, try to dig down or go around to look for any special structures. They may contain some planks as part of their walls like the mineshafts, woodland mansions, and more!

#2 Obtain 1 Iron Ingot

Iron Ingot is another easy mineral in Minecraft that you can get mostly by mining and smelting. And there are many ways to get iron ingots, but mining for iron ores and raw irons is recommended!

Iron golems in the village will drop 3-5 iron ingots on death so you can also aim for this method. Indeed, this is the way every speedrunner obtains their iron ingots for a shield.

#3 Make a Shield

When you have 6 planks, and 1 iron ingot, right-click on a crafting table and follow the recipe below to craft a shield.

Now don’t be afraid of any projectiles from the skeleton! Simply equip the shield in your offhand slot and right-click to use the shield!

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you put a flag on a shield in Minecraft?

You can decorate your shields in Minecraft with any colored banner. And this function is only working in Java Edition.

Can a Minecraft shield protect you from fall damage?

Although a shield can protect you from most damage sources, fall damage is an exception. Better bring a water bucket with you if you’re planning to go to high places.