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Shovels are tools used to ease the process of collecting dirt and other blocks.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients Crafting recipe Description
Any Planks or
Cobblestone or
Iron Ingot or
Gold Ingot or
Diamond +
Stick

Damaged Matching Shovel


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

Natural generation

Unknown item enchanted-iron-shovel.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance

Unknown item enchanted-diamond-shovel.

Item Structure Container Quantity Chance
Notes


Zombies

Zombies 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. It will usually be 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 enchantment table at level 5–22.

Trading

Tool smith villagers sell enchanted iron shovels for 5 to 7 emeralds as part of their tier 1 trades. The enchantments will be the same as might be obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.

Usage

Shovels have different amounts of uses based on the type:

  • Golden: 33
  • Wooden: 60
  • Stone: 132
  • Iron: 251
  • Diamond: 1562

Digging

A shovel can be used to break some materials faster. When breaking a block, it uses 1 durability. For blocks that break instantly, it uses 0 durability.

Speed

The following table summarizes the speed at which different quality shovels perform on different block types. Values with a red background indicate that no resource will be dropped when the block is destroyed without a shovel.

Block Breaking time[A]
Default Wooden Stone Iron Diamond Netherite Golden
Clay 0.9 0.45 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.1 0.1
Farmland 0.9 0.45 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.1 0.1
Grass Block 0.9 0.45 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.1 0.1
Grass Path ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Gravel 0.9 0.45 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.1 0.1
Mycelium 0.9 0.45 0.25 0.15 0.15 0.1 0.1
Podzol 0.75 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1
Coarse Dirt 0.75 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1
Dirt 0.75 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1
Red Sand 0.75 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1
Sand 0.75 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1
Soul Sand 0.75 0.4 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.1 0.1
Snow 0.5 0.1 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05
Snow (layer) ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
  1. Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.

Grass paths

A shovel can be used to create a grass path by using (not digging) the shovel on a grass block. When creating a grass path, it uses 1 durability.

Weapon

If you hit a mob while holding a shovel, it will be a stronger attack than if barehanded. Shovels take 2 damage when used as a weapon.

Java Edition

Shovels have an attack speed modifier of -3, meaning they take 1 second to recover. Shovels deal different damage based on the type:

Attack speed Attack damage Damage/Second (DPS)
1 2.5♥ × 1.25 3.5♥ × 1.75 4.5♥ × 2.25 5.5♥ × 2.75 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5

Legacy Console and Bedrock editions

In the Legacy Console and Bedrock editions, shovels always attack instantly and do the following damage:

Attack damage
2♥ 3♥♥ 4♥♥ 5♥♥♥

Enchantments

A shovel can receive the following enchantments:

  1. a b Fortune and Silk Touch are mutually exclusive.
  2. a b Only available using enchanted books and an anvil, or by finding an enchanted shovel in an End city chest.

Crafting ingredient

In Bedrock Edition, wooden shovels are used as "paddles" when crafting the boat.


Fuel

Wooden shovels can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1 item per shovel.

Smelting ingredient

Name Ingredients Smelting recipe
Iron Nugget or
Gold Nugget
Iron Shovel or
Golden Shovel +
Any fuel


Data values

Shovel/ID

Achievements

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

Video

Shovel/video

History

indev
0.31 (December 31, 2009, 1)Added iron shovel, they can neither be obtained nor do they have any use.
0.31 (January 11, 2010, 1)A shovel is used to gather materials like dirt, sand and gravel 400% faster than by hand.
When starting in a new world the player is given one of each tools.
0.31 (January 24, 2010)A complete toolset 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 every available block / item including tools.
0.31 (January 28, 2010)A shovel held by the player appears more 3d like.
0.31 (January 29, 2010)Tools have tiers, in addition to iron, shovels can now be made from wood, stone and diamond.
Added crafting recipe for iron shovels as well as the newly introduced variants.
0.31 (January 30, 2010)Shovels can now be made out of gold.
0.31 (February 1, 2010, 1)Tools take damage when being used. Better tools last longer.
release
1.3.112w18aWooden shovels can now be used as fuel in a furnace.
12w21aBlacksmith villagers now sell diamond shovels for 7 emeralds, and iron shovels for 4–5 emeralds.
1.814w02aTool smith villagers now sell enchanted iron shovels for 5–7 emeralds. The previous trades are unavailable, making diamond shovels non-renewable.
1.915w31aA shovel can be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
Enchanted iron or diamond shovels can now be found in end city chests.
15w34aShovels 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.
15w34cShovels do more damage and take longer to recover.
15w35aShovel damage reduced.
15w41aWooden shovels are now used to craft boats.
15w50aAdded sound: item.shovel.flatten.
16w04aWooden shovels are no longer used to craft boats.
1.11.116w50aGolden and iron shovels now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets.
1.1317w47aPrior to The Flattening, these items' numeral IDs were 269, 273, 256, 277 and 284.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0Added stone shovels.
0.3.0Added wooden shovels.
0.3.2Added diamond, iron and gold shovels.
0.11.0build 1Wooden shovels are now used to craft boats.
Iron shovels are now available in the creative inventory.
A shovel can be used on a grass block to create grass path blocks.
build 11Wooden, stone, golden, and diamond shovels are now available in the creative inventory.
build 12Removed all shovels from creative.
build 13Re-added shovels to creative mode.
Pocket Edition
1.1build 1Iron and golden shovels are now smeltable.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1Added shovels (all five types).
TU53CU43 1.49 Patch 23Patch s3Iron and golden shovels are now smeltable.

Issues

Issues relating to "Shovel" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

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