Minecraft Armor Trims: All 18 Templates and Where to Find Them

Minecraft has 18 armor trim smithing templates and 11 trim materials. You apply a trim at a smithing table by combining a template, a piece of armor and a material, and you can copy a template with 7 diamonds and one block before you use it. The tables below list where every template comes from and how often it drops.

Last checked: November 9, 2026. Template sources, drop chances and copy recipes come from the loot tables and recipes in Java 26.3, the current release. Bedrock uses the same templates, but its chest odds are not covered here.

How do you put a trim on armor?

1. Place a smithing table.
2. Put the armor trim smithing template in the first slot.
3. Put a helmet, chestplate, leggings or boots in the second slot.
4. Put a trim material in the third slot.
5. Take the trimmed armor from the output slot.

Any armor type works, from leather and copper up to netherite, and the turtle shell counts as a helmet. Elytra and shields cannot take trims. The template is used up each time, so copy a rare one before you spend it.

You can change a trim later by running the armor through the smithing table again with a different template or material. Trims are purely cosmetic. They do not change armor points, toughness or durability.

How do you duplicate an armor trim template?

Every template has the same style of copy recipe: 7 diamonds, the template and one specific block, which makes 2 templates.

The base block changes per template, as shown in the main table below. Because the copy costs 7 diamonds, it is worth duplicating only templates that are hard to find again, such as Silence, Ward or Eye.

Where to find every armor trim template

Chances are per chest, per suspicious block or per kill, as listed in the game's loot tables. Some sources give two templates at once.

A few notes on the harder ones:

• Silence is the rarest template in the game at 1.25% per ancient city chest. Ancient cities have many chests, so a full search of one city gives you a real chance, but expect to visit more than one. See the ancient city guide for the layout and the warden risks.
• Eye is guaranteed in every stronghold library chest, so it is easy if you find a library. Strongholds without a library still give a 10% chance per altar chest in their corridors.
• The trail ruins four (Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper and Host) come from brushing the rare suspicious gravel and sand in trail ruins. Each rare block has a 1 in 12 chance for each of the four.
• Bolt and Flow come from trial chamber vaults. Flow needs an ominous vault, which means running an ominous trial. The trial chambers guide explains keys and ominous trials.
• Tide drops from elder guardians, and each ocean monument has three of them, so one monument gives you three tries at 20%.

What are the armor trim materials?

The material sets the color of the trim. These 11 items work in the third slot:

A trim in the same material as the armor would be hard to see, so the game ships darker versions of the iron, copper, gold, diamond and netherite trim colors for that case, such as a gold trim on gold armor. Cheap materials such as copper, redstone or quartz are a good way to test a look before you spend a diamond or a netherite ingot.

Which trims are worth collecting first?

There is no stat reason to prefer one trim over another, so the choice is about looks and effort:

• Easy early trims: Coast, Dune, Wild and Sentry. They come 2 at a time from structures you meet early in the Overworld.
• Mid-game: Vex from woodland mansions, Tide from ocean monuments, Bolt from trial chambers, and the four trail ruins patterns.
• Late game: Rib and Snout from the Nether, Eye from strongholds, Spire from end cities, Ward and Silence from ancient cities, and Flow from ominous vaults.

Which advancements involve armor trims?

Smithing with Style is a long hunt, since it needs templates from the Nether, the End, ocean monuments, woodland mansions, trail ruins and ancient cities. Duplicate each template once before you use it, and you can trim a full set later without searching again.

Frequently asked questions

How many armor trims are there in Minecraft?

There are 18 armor trim templates and 11 trim materials in Java 26.3. Every template can be combined with every material.

What is the rarest armor trim?

Silence is the rarest. It has a 1.25% chance per ancient city chest, compared with 5% for Ward from the same chests.

Do armor trims do anything?

No, trims are cosmetic only. They do not change protection, toughness or durability, so pick them purely for looks.

Can you remove an armor trim?

There is no way to strip a trim back to plain armor. You can only replace it by applying a different template or material at the smithing table.

Is the smithing template used up?

Yes, each trim uses up one template. Copy rare templates first with 7 diamonds and the matching base block, which turns one template into two.

Can you put trims on an elytra or a shield?

No. Only helmets, chestplates, leggings and boots accept trims, and the turtle shell counts as a helmet.