Iron Shovel

Iron Shovel
Rarity tier	Common
Attack damage	JE: 4.5HP × 2.25; BE: 4HP
Attack speed‌	1 (1 second)
Durability	JE: 250; BE: 251
Enchantability	14
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

An iron shovel is a variant of shovel that is crafted from iron ingots. It can be used to hasten the process of breaking dirt, sand, gravel and other soil blocks, as well as to convert dirt blocks into dirt paths.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Iron Ingot + Stick

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
	Village	Toolsmith's chest	1	41.2% { "item": "Iron Shovel", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.4118208436710489, "structure": "Village", "container": "Toolsmith's chest" }
^[A]	End City	Chest	1	13.3% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Shovel", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.13275806146330638, "structure": "End City", "container": "Chest" }
Bedrock Edition
	Village	Toolsmith's chest	1	41.2% { "item": "Iron Shovel", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.4118208436710489, "structure": "Village", "container": "Toolsmith's chest" }
^[A]	End City	Chest	1	13.3% { "item": "Enchanted Iron Shovel", "stacksize": 1, "chance": 0.13275806146330638, "structure": "End City", "container": "Chest" }

↑ ^a ^b Enchantment probabilities are the same as a level-20 to level-39 enchantment would be on an enchantment table that had no cap at level 30, and that was able to apply treasure enchantments (except Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, and Wind Burst), and where the chance of multiple enchantments is not reduced.

Mob loot

Equipment

Zombies and husks have a 0.67% (3.33% in Hard difficulty) chance of spawning with an iron shovel. They have an 8.5% (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III) chance of dropping that shovel if they are killed by the player. The dropped shovel is usually badly damaged, and may be enchanted: 0%–25% on Normal difficulty and 3.125%–25% on Hard difficulty, varying with regional difficulty, and enchanted as if on an enchanting table at level 5–22.

Raids

Vindicators and pillagers that spawn from raids have a 4.1% chance (5.12% on Hard) to drop a badly-damaged iron shovel that is sometimes enchanted with a random enchantment.‌

Trading

Villager	Probability		Villager wants	Player receives
Villager	JE	BE	Villager wants	Player receives
Journeyman Toolsmith	40%	25%	7–21 × Emerald	Enchanted Iron Shovel^{[t 1]}

↑ When creating an enchantment offer, the game uses a random enchantment level from 5 to 19. The enchantments are never treasure enchantments.

Usage

Digging

An iron shovel can be used to break dirt and soil-type materials faster. When breaking a block, it uses 1 durability. For blocks that break instantly, it uses 0 durability.

Mining snow

An iron shovel can be used to break snow blocks or snow to obtain snow balls without Silk Touch.

Dirt paths

An iron shovel can be used to create a dirt path by using (not digging) the shovel on any one of the following blocks, losing one durability point:

Campfire

An iron shovel can be used to extinguish a campfire.

Weapon

Iron shovels use 2 durability when used as a weapon.

Java Edition

Iron shovels have an attack speed modifier of -3, meaning they take 1 second to recover. Iron shovels deal 4.5HP × 2.25 damage.

Bedrock Edition

Iron shovels always attack instantly and do 4HP damage.

Repairing

Combining

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Damaged Iron Shovel		The durability of the two shovels is added together, plus an extra 5% of durability.

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	Description
2× Damaged Iron Shovel		The durability of the two shovels is added together, plus an extra 5% of durability.

Unit repair

Ingredients	Anvil recipe
Damaged + Iron Ingot	Iron Shovel

An iron shovel can be repaired in an anvil by adding iron ingots, with each ingot restoring 62 durability points (25% of maximum durability). Two iron shovels can also be combined in an anvil. Both methods preserve the shovel's enchantments.

Enchantments

An iron shovel can receive the following enchantments:


Name	Description	Max Level	Method	Weight
Efficiency	Increases the mining speed.	V	Enchanting Table Anvil	10
Fortune^{[note 1]}	Increases the amount of drops when mining.	III	Enchanting Table Anvil	2
Silk Touch^{[note 1]}	Causes blocks to drop themselves when mined.	I	Enchanting Table Anvil	1
Unbreaking	Grants a chance to negate durability consumption.	III	Enchanting Table Anvil	5
Mending	Repairs the shovel when obtaining experience.	I	Anvil	2
Curse of Vanishing	The shovel vanishes on death, not dropping as an item.	I	Anvil	1

↑ ^a ^b Silk Touch and Fortune are mutually exclusive

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Iron Nugget	+ Any fuel	0.1

Sounds

Java Edition:

v t e Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Shovel flattens	Blocks	When a shovel creates a dirt path	`item.shovel.flatten`	`subtitles.item.shovel.flatten`	1.0	1.0	16
	Item breaks	Players	When a shovel's durability is exhausted	`entity.item.break`	`subtitles.entity.item.break`	0.8	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

v t e Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	When a shovel creates a dirt path	`use.grass`	1.0	0.8
	Players	When a shovel's durability is exhausted	`random.break`	1.0	0.9

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Iron Shovel	`iron_shovel`	Item	`item.minecraft.iron_shovel`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Iron Shovel	`iron_shovel`	`309`	Item	`item.iron_shovel.name`

Achievements


Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
		MOAR Tools	Construct one type of each tool.	Construct one pickaxe, one shovel, one axe, and one hoe with the same material.	15	Bronze

Video

History

Java Edition Indev
0.31			20091231-2255				Added shovels. At this point, iron shovels are the only tier of shovel in the game. Shovels are located in the player's inventory.
			20091231-2255				Shovels cannot be crafted yet and are not functional in this version.
			20100110				Shovels are now functional and can now be used to gather materials like dirt, sand and gravel 400% faster than by hand.
			20100124-2119				A complete tool set is no longer given to the player on starting a new world. Instead, there are multiple chests in the later called "Indev House" containing a stack of most accessible blocks/items including tools.
			20100128-2200				Shovels now have tiers. The existing shovels are now known as iron shovels.
							The texture of iron shovels has been changed.
							A shovel held by the player is now rendered to appear more 3D.
			20100129-1447				Iron shovels can now be crafted.
			20100201-0025				Iron shovels now take damage when being used.
Java Edition Alpha
1.0.5_01							Iron shovels are now used to get snowballs out of snow layers.
Java Edition Beta
April 9, 2011							Alternate iron shovel texture was shown in Mojang test video.
Java Edition
1.3.1			12w21a				Blacksmith villagers now sell iron shovels for 4–5 emeralds.
1.6.1			13w21a				Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1HP), iron shovels now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in them doing 1HP more damage than before.
1.8			14w02a				Tool smith villagers now sell enchanted iron shovels for 5–7 emeralds.
1.8			14w02a				Unenchanted iron shovels are no longer sold by villagers.
1.9			15w31a				An iron shovel can now be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
			15w31a				Enchanted iron shovels can now be found in end city chests.
			15w34a				Shovels now use the "attack strength" combat mechanic meter. The time it takes for the meter to fill up for a shovel is 0.8 seconds.
			15w34c				Iron shovels now do more damage and take longer to recover.
			15w35a				The damage of iron shovels has been reduced.
			15w50a				The sound `item.shovel.flatten` has been added to iron shovels.
1.11.1			16w50a				Iron shovels now smelt down into one iron nugget.
1.14			18w43a				The textures of iron shovels have been changed.
1.14			18w50a				Iron shovels can now be found in chests in village toolsmith houses.
1.15			19w37a				Iron shovels can now be used to extinguish campfires.
1.16			20w09a				Iron shovels now break soul soil quickly.
1.20			23w14a				Iron shovels now break suspicious sand and suspicious gravel quickly.
Java Edition Combat Tests
1.14.3							The attack speed for all shovels has been increased to 2.
1.14.3							The damage for iron shovels has been decreased by 1HP.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.2.0							Added iron shovels. They actually function as tools despite being unobtainable by normal means.
v0.3.2							Iron shovels can now be crafted with iron ingots and sticks.
v0.11.0			build 1				Iron shovels are now available in the creative inventory.
			build 1				An iron shovel can now be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
			build 12				Iron shovels have been removed from creative.
			build 13				Iron shovels have been re-added to creative mode.
v0.12.1			build 1				Iron shovels can now be enchanted.
v0.12.1			build 1				Zombies now have a small chance to spawn holding an iron shovel.
v0.15.0			build 1				Added husks, which have a small chance to spawn holding an iron shovel.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0			alpha 0.17.0.1				Enchanted iron shovels can now be found inside end city chests.
1.0.4			alpha 1.0.4.0				Enchanted iron shovels are now sold by toolsmith villagers for 4-5 emeralds.
1.1.0			alpha 1.1.0.0				Iron shovels are now smeltable.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The textures of iron shovels have been changed.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.1				Iron shovels can now be found in village toolsmith houses.
			beta 1.11.0.4				Vindicators and pillagers that spawn in raids can now drop iron shovels upon death.
			beta 1.11.0.4				Toolsmith villagers now have a 25% chance to sell enchanted iron shovels for 2 emeralds as part of their third tier trades.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added iron shovels.
TU14	CU1	1.04	1.00	1.00			Blacksmith villagers now sell iron shovels for 4–5 emeralds.
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1HP), iron shovels now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in them doing 1HP more damage than before.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Tool smith villagers now sell enchanted iron shovels for 5–7 emeralds.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Unenchanted iron shovels are no longer sold by villagers.
TU36	CU25	1.28	1.28	1.28	Patch 7		The attack damage of iron shovels is now shown above the hotbar when switching to it if the item has less than 3 enchantments.
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13		An iron shovel can now be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Enchanted iron shovels can now be found in end city chests.
TU53	CU43	1.49	1.50	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Iron shovels are now smeltable.
			1.90				The textures of iron shovels have been changed.
			1.91				Vindicators and pillagers that spawn in raids can now drop iron shovels upon death.
			1.91				Iron shovels can now be used to extinguish campfires.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added iron shovels.

Data history

Java Edition
1.13			17w47a				Prior to The Flattening, iron shovel's numeral ID was 256.

Issues

Issues relating to "Iron Shovel" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

Renders

Enchanted Iron Shovel

Navigation

[enchant-with-levels-20-39-1] Enchantment probabilities are the same as a level-20 to level-39 enchantment would be on an enchantment table that had no cap at level 30, and that was able to apply treasure enchantments (except Soul Speed, Swift Sneak, and Wind Burst), and where the chance of multiple enchantments is not reduced.

[toolsmith_enchant-2] When creating an enchantment offer, the game uses a random enchantment level from 5 to 19. The enchantments are never treasure enchantments.

[exc-3] Silk Touch and Fortune are mutually exclusive

[A]

[t 1]

[note 1]

v t e Tools
Pickaxe	Wooden Stone Copper Iron Golden Diamond Netherite
Shovel	Wooden Stone Copper Golden Diamond Netherite
Axe	Wooden Stone Copper Iron Golden Diamond Netherite
Hoe	Wooden Stone Copper Iron Golden Diamond Netherite
Miscellaneous	Flint and Steel Fishing Rod Carrot on a Stick Warped Fungus on a Stick Shears Brush Elytra

v t e Iron
Material	Ore Deepslate Ore Raw Raw Block Ingot Nugget
Building blocks	Block of Iron Iron Bars
Functional blocks	Iron Door Iron Trapdoor
Armor	Helmet Chestplate Leggings Boots Horse Armor
Tools	Pickaxe Axe Sword Hoe
Mobs	Golem
edu only	Element