How to make an armor stand in Minecraft

Aakrit Sharma
An armor stand, Gold armor, and Diamond armor in Minecraft

Armor stand is a valuable item in Minecraft that lets you display armor, mob heads, carved pumpkins, and elytra. To show off your finest armor and mob kills, here’s how to make an armor stand in Minecraft and collect crafting opponents like sticks and smooth stone lab.

While speed-running Minecraft to beat the Ender Dragon is very popular, reaching the endgame in the game is usually a very long process. From building a sustainable base at a resource-heavy location to upgrading the quality of your tools and armor to unlocking the most powerful enchantments, there’s a lot requiring your attention.

While most of the items you’ll craft in Minecraft help in combat or resource collection, some, like the armor stand, simply exist so you can decorate your base and show off your best armor.

On that note, here’s how to get sticks and smooth stone slabs and eventually craft an armor stand in Minecraft.

Minecraft character running in a jungle biome with bees
Armor stands are great cosmetic items in Minecraft that offer storage for armor sets.

How to craft an armor stand in Minecraft

You need six sticks and a smooth stone slab to craft an armor stand in Minecraft. Before jumping to the crafting recipe, it is important to learn how to obtain these ingredients.

How to get sticks in Minecraft

Wooden planks can be converted to sticks in Minecraft. You’ll have to find some trees in the Overworld and break them to get wooden logs. Then, add the wooden logs to any slot of the crafting grid in the game and they’ll turn into wooden planks.

Lastly, place two wooden planks vertically in a crafting grid to get sticks:

Crafting recipe for sticks in Minecraft
Sticks are among the most common and easy-to-get resources in Minecraft.

How to get a smooth stone slab in Minecraft

With three blocks of cobblestone, you’ll be able to get a smooth stone slab in Minecraft. However, a furnace is essential for this and you can make a furnace by placing eight blocks of cobblestone in a 3×3 crafting grid while leaving the central spot alone:

Crafting recipe to make a furnace in Minecraft
Furnaces are some of the most useful blocks in Minecraft.

After obtaining a furnace, smelt the three cobblestone blocks and turn them into stone. Thereafter, smelt the three stones again to get three pieces of smooth stone.

You can finally get a smooth stone slab by placing three smooth stones in the bottom row of the crafting table:

Crafting recipe for a smooth stone slab in Minecraft
You can make smooth stone slabs using a furnace.

Crafting recipe for armor stand in Minecraft

After obtaining six sticks and a smooth stone slab, you can craft an armor stand in Minecraft. Place three sticks on the top row of the crafting table and one in the middle block of the second row. In the bottom row, place the smooth stone slab in the center and the remaining two sticks on both sides.

The crafting recipe for an armor stand is also showcased in this image:

Crafting recipe for armor stand in Minecraft
Armor stands are easy to make.

How do you summon an armor stand in Minecraft?

You can summon an armor stand in Minecraft using the /summon command. This is an easy alternative to crafting an armor stand, especially if you want more than one of them. You can try your hand at crafting the first one or two, but use the summon command to get more of them.

Can armor stands spawn naturally in Minecraft?

Yes, armor stands can spawn naturally in Minecraft. You can find two naturally spawned armor stands in the outdoor armory of a taiga village. One of these usually has an iron helmet, which can be helpful to you if you;re in the early stages of progression in your world.

Can armor stands hold weapons?

Yes, armor stands can hold weapons in Minecraft. In order to do this, however, you’ll first have to spawn in armor stands or change pre-existing ones to those that have arms. You can use the following commands to summon armor stands with arms or modify any that are in your vicinity:

  • Command to summon a new armor set with arms: /summon minecraft:armor_stand ~ ~ ~ {ShowArms:1} 
  • Command to add arms to armor an armor set: /data merge entity @e[type=armor_stand,sort=nearest,limit=1] {ShowArms:1}

You can copy these commands from here and paste them into the command box in your game. Make sure that you copy the forward slash as well.

Once you’ve summoned or modified the armor stands, you can place whatever tool or weapon you like in their hands including a shield. In addition, with armor trims now a part of the game, you can make an army of armor stand “soldiers” and try out every custom trim the game has to offer.

Armor stand with diamond armor, a diamond sword, and a shield in Minecraft.
Armor stands can be used to showcase tons of gear in Minecraft.

This was everything to know about crafting armor stands in Minecraft. For more on Minecraft, take a look at:

Best Minecraft modpacks | How to change your skin in Minecraft | How to switch teams in Minecraft Legends | How to use enchanted books in Minecraft | How to breed frogs in Minecraft | How to cure a Zombie villager in Minecraft | How to find Lapis in Minecraft Legends | How to get more Allays in Minecraft Legends | How to make a fermented Spider Eye in Minecraft

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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].