Although it’s one of the most overlooked items in Minecraft, a Shield is a brilliant defensive tool that can protect a player from any sort of attack, and make an incredibly positive impact in a game early on.
What’s more, making a Shield in Minecraft is extremely simple, requiring only two different ingredients for crafting. So, here is a detailed guide that will allow you to make your own Shield:
Table of Contents
What you’ll need for crafting a Shield
- 1 Iron Ingot
- 6 Wood Planks of your choice
How to gather Iron Ore and make Iron Ingot
To craft Iron Ingot, you will need Iron Ore, which is usually located at sea level or slightly below, in veins of up to ten blocks. You will need at least a stone pickaxe in order to mine the Ore. However, Iron Ore can also be acquired from fallen Iron Golems, found near villages.
Once you’ve gathered Iron Ore, here’s how you can make Iron Ingot, using a Furnace:
- Open the Furnace.
- In the bottom square, add some fuel. This can be coal, charcoal, wood, or anything else you have that burns.
- In the top square, place Iron Ore.
- Finally, move the crafted Iron Ingot into your Inventory.
How to gather Wood and make Wood Planks
Gathering Wood is as simple as finding a tree and chopping it down with anything at your disposal (except a sword). Once you chop the tree down, you will see small blocks of Wood Logs (Survival Mode) scattered across the terrain, which you will need to gather.
Keep in mind that you are free to use any combination of Wood you wish in order to make a Shield; you’re not limited to using 6 blocks of the same type of Wood Plank.
After you’ve collected enough Wood, follow these steps to make Wood Planks that you’ll use for crafting a Shield:
- Open the Crafting Table.
- Place one Wood block into any square in the Crafting Table grid. This will result in four Wood Plank blocks.
- Drag the crafted Wood Planks into your Inventory.
- Repeat the 2nd and 3rd step in order to create four more Wood Plank blocks.
How to make a Shield
One you’ve crafted six Wood Planks and an Iron Ingot, the next step would be to finally make your Shield. Here’s how:
- Open the Crafting Table.
- Place six Wood Planks into the grid, in the shape of a Y: the first two squares in the first column, the bottom two squares in the second column, and the first two squares in the third column.
- Place one Iron Ingot into the remaining square in the first row.
- After completion, simply drag your Shield into the Inventory.
How to buy a Shield
If you don’t want to go to the trouble of making a Shield, you can also buy one from an Armorer Villager, as long as you have plenty of Emeralds at your disposal.
Keep in mind that you will need to trade with the Armorer first, before you can unlock the trade, as Shields tend to be higher tier trade items. However, you might also get lucky sometimes.
Remember, Armorers usually sell Shields for 5 Emeralds, so come prepared.
Evidently, with just a few basic items, a Shield can easily be crafted in Minecraft, without much time or effort. However, you always have the option of buying one as well; whatever suits your needs the most.
