Last updated: 5 October 2026

Minecraft Armor Trims Templates, Materials & How to Apply

Armor trims are purely cosmetic patterns you stamp onto armor at a smithing table using three things: an armor piece, a smithing template (the pattern) and a trim material (the colour). Nothing about protection, durability or enchantments changes. There are 18 trim templates, none craftable from scratch: you find the first copy in a structure, then duplicate it with 7 diamonds and a matching block.

01How to Apply a Trim

1. Put the armor piece, a trim template and a trim material into a smithing table.
2. Take the trimmed armor from the output slot.
3. Repeat for every piece, since each one consumes a template and a material.

Trims work on every armor type, including netherite armor and the turtle shell, and the template and material are used up each time. That is why duplicating templates matters.

02Where to Find Every Trim Template

• Sentry: Pillager Outpost chests.
• Vex: Woodland Mansion chests.
• Wild: Jungle Pyramid chests.
• Coast: Shipwreck chests.
• Dune: Desert Pyramid chests.
• Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, Host: rare suspicious gravel in Trail Ruins.
• Ward: Ancient City chests.
• Silence: Ancient City chests, the rarest of all (about 1.2% per the wiki and XGamingServer).
• Snout: Bastion Remnant chests.
• Rib: Nether Fortress chests.
• Eye: Stronghold chests.
• Spire: End City chests.
• Tide: dropped by Elder Guardians.
• Flow and Bolt: Trial Chambers vaults (Flow from the ominous vault, Bolt from the regular vault and rewards).

Chances vary by structure and edition, so use the wiki for exact odds if you are hunting a specific one.

03Trim Materials and Colours

The material sets the colour, the template sets the pattern. Both the wiki and XGamingServer list these materials: amethyst shard, copper ingot, diamond, emerald, gold ingot, iron ingot, lapis lazuli, nether quartz, netherite ingot, redstone dust and resin brick. Resin brick was added in 1.21.4.

Colours roughly follow the item: amethyst purple, copper orange-brown, diamond light blue, emerald green, gold yellow, iron silver, lapis dark blue, quartz white, netherite dark grey, redstone red.

04How to Duplicate Templates

Craft one template with 7 diamonds and one specific block to get two templates (a net gain of one). The block depends on the template:

• Cobblestone: Sentry, Vex, Coast. Mossy cobblestone: Wild.
• Sandstone: Dune. Terracotta: Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, Host.
• Cobbled deepslate: Ward, Silence. Blackstone: Snout.
• Netherrack: Rib. End stone: Eye. Purpur block: Spire.
• Prismarine: Tide. Breeze rod: Flow. Block of copper: Bolt.

Bedrock Edition accepts extra block variants for some templates, such as smooth sandstone for Dune.

05Smart Order for Collecting

1. Start with Pillager Outposts, shipwrecks and temples: the easiest to reach.
2. Duplicate each template immediately; diamonds are the main cost.
3. Visit Nether structures (Bastion, Fortress) next.
4. Leave Silence and Ward for last, and be ready for the Warden in the Ancient City (see our Ancient City guide).