Shields are easy to make in Minecraft, and useful when you need to defend yourself. They can be the difference between dying in a mine or making it back to your home with all of your diamonds. To make a shield, you will need six planks of any type of wood and an iron ingot.

To make a shield, layout your materials at a crafting table in the below orders:

  • Top row – Planks, Iron Ingot, PlanksMiddle row – Planks, Planks, PlanksBottom row – empty, Planks, empty

When you make your shield, you can place it in your inventory, and use it just like any other item. Shields also have durability, but can be repaired by placing two shields that have lost durability beside each other in a crafting table. This will combine the durability of both shields together, with an additional five percent durability. You can also use an anvil to repair shields, using more planks to do so.

You can make a custom shield by placing the shield in a crafting table beside a banner. The shield will take on the color of the banner, and the banner will be consumed. If you repair these shields using a crating table, the design will be lost, but if you use an anvil it will not.

What shields do

Shields will protect you from the following attacks:

  • Melee attacksNormal and tipped arrowsFlaming arrowsTridentsLasers from guardiansThorns from pufferfishFireballsCreeper explosionsGhast fireball explosions

Shields will not protect players from their own TNT.

Can shields be enchanted?

Shields can have the following enchantments placed on them using an anvil:

  • Unbreaking to level 3Mending to level 1Curse of Vanishing to level 1