Skip to main content

How to make a shield in Minecraft

You’re in a deep cave searching for ore and you stumble into a dungeon filled with skeletons. You only have a pickaxe in hand and no means of blocking their fatal blows. We show you how to make a shield in Minecraft so you can survive the attack and grab the loot.

Making a shield is extremely simple. The main ingredients are wood plank blocks and iron ingot. You’ll need both the Furnace and Crafting Table to make your shield. We also show you how to decorate and use your new shield.

Recommended Videos

Gather wood

Minecraft Trees
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Find yourself a tree and chop it down. Your lumberjack skills result in little blocks of wood logs (Survival Mode) scattered across the terrain that you need to gather. You can use anything to chop down trees — even your fist — except for a sword.

Note that you can use any combination of wood to create a shield — you’re not locked into using six blocks of the same wood plank type.

Gather iron ore

Minecraft Iron Ore
Image used with permission by copyright holder

You’ll need iron ore to craft iron ingot, one of the shield’s ingredients. You can’t miss these blocks: They have little yellow and tan flakes, as shown above. The ore is located at sea level or slightly lower in veins of up to 10 blocks. You’ll need a stone pickaxe at the very least to mine this ore.

You can also acquire iron ore dropped from fallen iron golems, which you can find near villages.

Make wood planks

Minecraft Make Wood Planks
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Now that you have wood, you need to create wood plank blocks. You’ll need six wood plank blocks to craft a shield.

Step 1: Open your Crafting Table.

Step 2: Place one wood block (log, normal. or stripped) into any square in the crafting grid.

Step 3: Drag the resulting four wood plank blocks down into your inventory.

Step 4: Repeat steps two and three for another four wood plank blocks.

Make iron ingot

Minecraft Make Iron Ingot
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Here we show you how to make iron ingot from iron ore using a Furnace.

Step 1: Open your Furnace.

Step 2: Add fuel to the bottom square. This can be wood, coal, charcoal — whatever you have that burns.

Step 3: Place iron ore into the top square.

Step 4: Drag the resulting iron ingot down into your inventory.

Make your shield

Minecraft Craft a Shield
Mojang

Step 1: Open your Crafting Table.

Step 2: Place six wood plank blocks into the crafting grid in the shape of a Y: The top two squares in the first column, the bottom two squares in the second column, and the top two squares in the third column.

Step 3: Place one iron ingot in the remaining top box in the second column. Refer to our screenshot above for the correct placement.

Step 4: Drag your new shield down into your inventory.

Decorate your shield (Java version only)

Minecraft Decorate Shield
Image used with permission by copyright holder

You can add a banner to your shield. For now, however, you can only do this in the Java Edition.

Step 1: Open your Crafting Table.

Step 2: Place your shield in the center square on the crafting grid.

Step 3: Place one banner into the square to the shield’s left.

Step 4: Drag the resulting decorated shield down into your inventory.

Equip and use the shield

Minecraft Equip Shield
Mojang

Step 1: Open your inventory.

Step 2: Drag the shield from your inventory into the square located at the bottom right of your avatar, as shown above. This square has a shield symbol inside.

The shield is now located in your off hand. In the Java Edition version, you can right-click to use the shield and block attacks. In all other versions, the shield goes up when you enter Sneak Mode (crouch). You can place a shield in the Hotbar and use it as a weapon in your main hand too.

Check out our other guides for Minecraft:

Kevin Parrish
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
How long is Assassin’s Creed Shadows?
Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows fighting an enemy. He's dressed in his samurai armor.

It's no secret that the Assassin's Creed games have gotten longer and longer over the years. This is typical for Ubisoft open-world titles, but many are hoping that Assassin's Creed Shadows has scaled back on the bloat a bit. There's always fast travel and finding the fastest ways to earn XP to cut down on the grind, but there's only so much time that can be saved. If you're worried that this game might be another 100-hour time investment to fully complete, let's use our Eagle Vision to scout out how long Assassin's Creed Shadows is before you start playing.
How long is Assassin's Creed Shadows?

As you would expect, the amount of time you could put into Assassin's Creed Shadows will vary wildly based on how you approach it. You can focus on just the story and nothing else, tackle a handful of side missions and activities, or attempt to complete anything and everything the game has to offer.

Read more
Steam Spring Sale: best deals, how long is the sale, and more
The Steam Spring Sale banner.

Spring is in the air, which can only mean one thing: the Steam Spring Sale is here. To kick off your spring cleaning, Valve is giving you an easy way to clean out your wallet by putting hundreds of the best PC games on steep discount. Everything from AAA open-world games and FPS games, to indies and platformers are seeing prices lower than they've ever been. Steam sales are always the best time to add those games you were on the fence about or missed out on in the past few months or years to your library and pretend you will get around to playing them all. We won't judge you, but at least do yourself the favor of saving time by not browsing the endless pages of deals yourself. Instead, check out our list of the absolute best deals no matter your budget.
When is the Steam Spring Sale 2025?
The Steam Spring Sale kicked off on March 13 and will wrap up one week later on March 20 at 10 am PT.
Best deals for the Steam Spring Sale 2025

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - $49 was $70
Helldivers 2 - $32 was $40
Dragon Ave: The Veilguard - $30 was $60
Silent Hill 2 - $49 was $60
Crusader Kings 3 - $15 was $50
Warhammer 40:000: Space Marine 2 -$39 was $60
Cyberpunk 2077 - $24 was $60
Metaphor: Refantazio - $52 was $70
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth - $49 was $70
Hogwarts Legacy - $15 was $60
Halo: The Master Chief Collection - $10 was 40
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice GOTY Edition - $30 was $60
Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered - $30 was $60
Hitman World of Assassination - $28 was $70
EA Sports FC 25 - $21 was $70

Read more
How long is Split Fiction?
Zoe and Mio run through a sci-fi world in Split Fiction.

There are plenty of great co-op games on the market, and a lot are great for couples, but Split Fiction from Hazelight Studios is a special case. Unlike most multiplayer games, this one actually requires you to have a partner to play. Thankfully, that is easier than ever with cross-platform support and the Friend Pass, but it does mean you need to plan a bit more to make sure you both have enough time to see it through to the end. Each of the stuidio's games have gotten a bit longer, but is that the case with Split Fiction? Here's how long it takes to beat this co-op adventure.
How long is Split Fiction?

Split Fiction is roughly the same length as It Takes Two. From our experience, that puts it comfortably within the 10 to 12 hour range. However, that can easily be pushed to 12 to 15 hours depending on the skill level of both players and your ability to coordinate. Even a pair of veteran gamers who have never played a game as reliant on team work might struggle a bit early on and get slowed down.

Read more