Iron Shovel

Iron Shovel
Rarity tier	; Common
Mining efficiency	6
Attack damage	JE: 4.5HP × 2.25; BE: 4HP
Attack speed‌[JE only]	1 (1 second)
Attack range	3 (3 blocks)
Hitbox margin	0
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 is used to break dirt, sand, gravel and other related blocks faster, to create dirt paths from dirt-related blocks, and to extinguish campfires. It is the third-highest tier of shovel, having higher mining efficiency, attack damage, durability, and enchantability than a copper shovel.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Iron Ingot + Stick

Generated loot

Item

Structure

Container

Quantity

Chance

Java Edition and Bedrock Edition

Iron Shovel

Village

Toolsmith's chest

1

41.2%

Enchanted Iron Shovel^[A]

End City

Chest

1

12.7%

↑ Enchantment probabilities are the same as a level-20 to level-39 enchantment would be on an enchanting 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, husks and zombie villagers‌^{[Java Edition only]} 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.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Trading

Villager		Probability		Villager wants	Player receives	Trades in stock	Villager experience	Price multiplier
Villager		JE	BE	Villager wants	Player receives	Trades in stock	Villager experience	Price multiplier
Toolsmith	Journeyman	40%	25%	7–21 × Emerald	Enchanted Iron Shovel^{[t 1]}	3	10	0.2

↑ Enchanted with a random experience cost in range 5–19. The price is 2 plus the experience cost in emeralds.

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	Notes
Damaged Iron Shovel		The durability of the two shovels is added together, plus an extra 5% of durability.

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	Notes
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 Shovel + 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	Iron Shovel + Any fuel	0.1

[enchant-with-levels-20-39-1] Enchantment probabilities are the same as a level-20 to level-39 enchantment would be on an enchanting 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_Iron_Shovel-2] Enchanted with a random experience cost in range 5–19. The price is 2 plus the experience cost in emeralds.

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

[A]

[t 1]

[note 1]

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	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

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	Shovel flattens	Blocks	When a shovel creates a dirt path	`use.grass`	`subtitles.item.shovel.flatten`	1.0	0.8
	Item breaks	Players	When a shovel's durability is exhausted	`random.break`	`subtitles.entity.item.break`	1.0	0.9


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

Java Edition Indev
0.31	20091231-2147	Added shovels. At this point, iron shovels are the only tier of shovel in the game. Shovels are located in the player's inventory.
	20091231-2147	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 have a durability of 129.
Java Edition Alpha
1.0.5_01		Iron shovels are now used to get snowballs out of snow layers.
Java Edition Beta
1.2		Iron shovels' durability has been increased from 129 to 251.
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.
1.13.1	18w30b	The durability of iron shovels has been reduced from 251 to 250 due to the fixing of a bug.^[1]
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.

Iron Shovel

Obtaining

Crafting

Generated loot

Mob loot

Equipment

Raids

Trading

Usage

Digging

Mining snow

Dirt paths

Campfire

Weapon

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Repairing

Combining

Unit repair

Enchantments

Smelting ingredient

Sounds

Data values

ID

Achievements

Videos

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

Data history

Issues

References

More in Tools

Rarity tier	Common
Mining efficiency	6
Attack damage	JE: 4.5HP × 2.25 BE: 4HP
Attack speed‌^{[JE only]}	1 (1 second)
Attack range	3 (3 blocks)
Hitbox margin	0
Durability	JE: 250 BE: 251
Enchantability	14
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

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.