How to make a shield in Minecraft

Aakrit Sharma
Minecraft character between shields

Dying in Minecraft is a nightmare for players but shields can help them avoid such difficult situations. Here’s a guide on how to make a shield in Minecraft.

There are many ways to protect yourself and progress in Minecraft. You can use offensive tools like swords to fight enemies and use the strongest in-game materials to craft your armor.

Having said that, at the outset of your journey, you might have to rely a lot on shields. They block nearby attacks and allow you to be more stress-free during exploration.

From the crafting ingredients to the recipe, here’s everything to know about making shields in Minecraft.

Minecraft character holding a shield

How to craft a shield in Minecraft

You need six wooden planks and an iron ingot to make a shield in Minecraft. Both these ingredients are fairly easy to find implying that a shield can very well be one of the first items you craft in the game.

How to get wooden planks in Minecraft

You can get wooden planks in Minecraft from wooden logs. Many biomes in the Overworld are filled with trees and you can break them to get logs. Thereafter, put a bunch of logs in a block of the crafting grid and they’ll turn into planks.

Minecraft character running in a jungle biome with bees

How to get iron ingots in Minecraft

Iron ingots can be obtained in Minecraft through smelting. Find iron ore or raw iron blocks from the Overworld (it usually spawns in underground caves) and put them in a furnace to get iron ingots.

Iron ingot is a great crafting ingredient as you can make a wide range of valuable items with it. Just to name a few, these include a smithing Table, shears for collecting honey, compass, and bucket, among other things.

In case you don’t have a furnace for smelting raw iron, just place eight cobblestone pieces in a 3×3 crafting table and leave the central slot empty:

Crafting recipe to make a furnace in Minecraft

You can get iron ingots directly from the Overworld in Minecraft as well. Some locations where you might find them are:

  • Temples
  • Dungeons
  • Stronghold chests
  • Rarely dropped by zombies and husks

Crafting recipe for a shield in Minecraft

After getting iron ingots and wooden planks, you can easily make a shield in Minecraft. Place the iron ingot in the middle block of the topmost row on a crafting table and surround it with wooden planks. Add another wooden plank to the central block of the bottom row to get a shield:

Crafting recipe for a shield in Minecraft

You can use your shield in Minecraft to avoid melee attacks and the status effects that they apply. Moreover, you no longer have to worry about threats like arrows, spitting Llamas, Fireballs, creeper explosions, pufferfish spines, and tridents.


This was everything to know about shields in Minecraft. For similar content, make sure to check out our guides on how to tame a fox, how to make a bed, and how to make charcoal.

Image Credits: Mojang

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About The Author

Aakrit is a games writer with over 2000 published articles for EssentiallySports, Sportskeeda, FortniteINTEL, and CharlieINTEL. Currently, he writes guides on Minecraft, Roblox, Pokemon games, Genshin Impact, and Brawlhalla. Aakrit loves playing shooter games and in his free time, you can find him queued up in Valorant, Fortnite, Apex Legends, or Halo Infinite. You can contact Aakrit at [email protected].