Armor trims are Minecraft’s way of letting you decorate your gear without changing a single stat. Added in the 1.20 Trails & Tales update, a trim is a colored pattern stamped onto an armor piece using a smithing template, the armor, and a trim material. The result is purely cosmetic, but with 18 templates and 11 materials there are hundreds of combinations to collect and show off. This guide covers every smithing template, exactly where each one is found, the trim materials and the colors they produce, and the precise duplication recipe so you never have to grind the same dungeon twice.
How armor trims work
You apply a trim at a smithing table using three ingredients: any armor trim smithing template, any armor piece, and any trim material. The smithing table consumes the template and the material and applies the pattern to the armor. Trims are cosmetic only — they do not affect protection, durability, or enchantments — and they can be applied to every armor type, including the turtle shell helmet and netherite armor. The smithing table is also where you apply the Netherite Upgrade template to turn diamond gear into netherite, which works the same way but is a functional upgrade rather than a decoration.
One important detail: applying a trim destroys the template. That makes duplication (covered below) essential if you want to reuse a rare pattern across a full armor set.
All 18 armor trim smithing templates and where to find them
There are 18 distinct armor trim templates, each tied to a specific structure or loot source. None of them can be crafted from scratch — you have to find the first copy, then duplicate it. The table below lists each template, its source, and the approximate find chance per relevant chest or loot roll according to the Minecraft Wiki.
| Template | Found in | Source | Approx. chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sentry | Pillager Outpost | Chest | ~25% |
| Vex | Woodland Mansion | Chest | ~50% |
| Wild | Jungle Pyramid | Chest | ~33% |
| Coast | Shipwreck | Chest | ~17% |
| Dune | Desert Pyramid | Chest | ~14% |
| Wayfinder | Trail Ruins | Suspicious gravel (rare) | ~8% |
| Raiser | Trail Ruins | Suspicious gravel (rare) | ~8% |
| Shaper | Trail Ruins | Suspicious gravel (rare) | ~8% |
| Host | Trail Ruins | Suspicious gravel (rare) | ~8% |
| Ward | Ancient City | Chest | ~5% |
| Silence | Ancient City | Chest | ~1.2% |
| Snout | Bastion Remnant | Chest | ~8% |
| Rib | Nether Fortress | Chest | ~7% |
| Eye | Stronghold | Chest (library) | ~10% |
| Spire | End City | Chest | ~7% |
| Flow | Trial Chambers | Ominous vault | ~22.5% |
| Bolt | Trial Chambers | Vault / reward | ~6% |
| Tide | Elder Guardian | Mob drop | ~20% |
A few notes on the rarer ones. The four Trail Ruins templates (Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, Host) only come from rare suspicious gravel, which you brush with a brush — they will not appear in normal suspicious sand or gravel blocks. Silence, from the Ancient City, is the hardest single template in the game to find. Flow and Bolt arrived with the Trial Chambers in the 1.21 update, and Tide drops from Elder Guardians rather than appearing in a chest at all.
The exact duplication recipe
This is the part people most often get wrong, so here is the verified recipe. To duplicate any smithing template, place the following in a crafting grid: one matching template, seven diamonds, and one of the base block from the structure where that template was found. The recipe outputs two copies of the template — the original plus one new copy — for a net gain of one. You can repeat this as many times as you have diamonds for, so a single find can equip an unlimited number of armor sets.
The base block differs by template. Here are the correct base materials per the Minecraft Wiki:
- Sentry, Vex, Coast → Cobblestone
- Wild → Mossy Cobblestone
- Dune → Sandstone
- Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, Host → Terracotta
- Ward, Silence → Cobbled Deepslate
- Snout → Blackstone
- Rib, and the Netherite Upgrade → Netherrack
- Eye → End Stone
- Spire → Purpur Block
- Flow → Breeze Rod
- Bolt → Block of Copper (waxed works too)
- Tide → Prismarine
Bedrock Edition is slightly more forgiving: it accepts extra block variants for some templates — for example smooth, cut, or chiseled sandstone for Dune, purpur pillars for Spire, and prismarine bricks or dark prismarine for Tide — where Java Edition is stricter about the exact base block.
Trim materials and their colors
The trim material is what gives the pattern its color. Eleven materials are supported, each producing a distinct hue. Mixing the same template pattern with different materials is how you get such a huge range of looks.
| Material | Color |
|---|---|
| Amethyst Shard | Purple |
| Copper Ingot | Orange / brown |
| Diamond | Light blue |
| Emerald | Green |
| Gold Ingot | Yellow |
| Iron Ingot | Silver |
| Lapis Lazuli | Dark blue |
| Nether Quartz | White |
| Netherite Ingot | Dark gray |
| Redstone Dust | Red |
| Resin Brick | Orange (resin palette) |
Resin Brick is the newest addition — it was added to the trim materials list in Java Edition 1.21.4 along with a new “resin” color palette, so older worlds and editions that have not updated will only have the original ten materials.
Tips for collecting trims efficiently
- Always duplicate a template before applying it, since applying destroys the template.
- Stock up on diamonds — each duplication costs seven, so a beacon-powered diamond run or villager trading helps a lot.
- For the Trail Ruins templates, bring multiple brushes; you will dig through a lot of rare suspicious gravel.
- Tide is the only template tied to a mob, so build an ocean monument farm or hunt Elder Guardians directly.
- Trims have no gameplay effect, so apply them to your best enchanted netherite set without worry.
Hunting down all 18 templates is one of the best long-term goals for a survival world, and it pairs naturally with the rest of the late-game grind. If you are gathering diamonds and netherite for duplication, our Netherite guide covers finding ancient debris fast, and the Ender Dragon guide gets you into the End for Spire. Trading emeralds for diamonds is easier with our villager trading guide.
Frequently asked questions
Do armor trims affect armor stats or durability?
No. Armor trims are entirely cosmetic. They do not change protection, durability, enchantments, or any gameplay value — they only change how the armor looks.
How do I duplicate a smithing template?
Place the matching template, seven diamonds, and one of the correct base block (the block from the structure where the template was found) in a crafting grid. This produces two copies of that template, giving you one extra each time.
Can I put trims on netherite and turtle shell armor?
Yes. Trims can be applied to every armor type, including netherite pieces and the turtle shell helmet, using the smithing table.
Collecting and showing off trims is far more fun with friends comparing sets — if you want a shared world to grind structures and trade templates together, you can set up a Minecraft server to play with friends in minutes. For step-by-step setup and configuration, see our Minecraft server documentation.
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