Minecraft Smithing Templates Guide: Armor Trims & Netherite

Every armor trim in Minecraft is purely cosmetic. Zero extra defense, zero durability, zero gameplay effect. And yet chasing them is one of the most satisfying long-game grinds in survival, because the 18 trim templates are scattered across nearly every structure in the game — from a shipwreck on the ocean floor to the ominous vault at the bottom of a trial chamber — and putting a full set on your gear is a visible trophy that says you've been everywhere.

The catch is that "cosmetic" and "easy" are not the same thing. The Silence trim from an ancient city sits behind a 1.2% chest chance, and the Bolt trim from a trial chamber vault is worse. This guide breaks down what smithing templates do, where all 18 armor trims drop with their exact loot rates, and how to duplicate a template so a single find lasts forever.

What smithing templates actually are

A smithing template is an item you place in a smithing table to alter gear. There are two completely different jobs they do, and it's worth separating them in your head because people conflate them constantly:

• The netherite upgrade template — required to turn diamond gear into netherite gear. Functional, mandatory, one type.
• The 18 armor trim templates — apply decorative patterns to armor. Purely cosmetic, 18 variants.

Both are consumed the moment you use them at the smithing table. That sounds punishing, but every template can be duplicated with diamonds and a matching block, so you only ever need to find one of each — more on that below. Templates stack to 64 and are classified as Rare loot, which is the game telling you not to expect them in every chest you crack.

The whole system arrived in the 1.20 Trails & Tales update, which shipped 16 trims and folded the netherite upgrade into a template. The 1.21 Tricky Trials update added the final two trims — Bolt and Flow — bringing the total to 18.

The netherite upgrade template

If you've been away since before 1.20, this is the change that trips people up: you can no longer just drop a netherite ingot on diamond gear. You now need the netherite upgrade smithing template in the table alongside the diamond piece and the ingot.

Where it lives is refreshingly specific. The netherite upgrade template is found only in bastion remnants, and while it can appear in various chests there, it is guaranteed (100%) in the treasure room — the walled-off vault guarded by piglins and a hoglin or two. So the reliable play is to raid a treasure-type bastion, grab the guaranteed template, and duplicate it forever. Our netherite guide covers the ancient debris mining that pairs with this, and the nether fortress and bastion guide explains how to identify a treasure bastion before you commit.

To upgrade: put the netherite upgrade template + any diamond gear + a netherite ingot into the smithing table. Out comes the netherite version, keeping enchantments. Simple once you have the template on tap.

The 18 armor trim templates and where to find them

This is the meat of it. Each trim template has its own home structure and its own drop chance, and the spread is enormous — from a coin-flip in a woodland mansion to a fraction of a percent in an ancient city. Here's the full map:

A few of these deserve context beyond the table.

Overworld and underground trims

The easiest trims to grab early are the surface ones. Sentry comes from pillager outpost chests at a friendly 25%, and Vex is a literal coin flip inside a woodland mansion — the best odds of any trim, though the mansion itself is a fortress; see the woodland mansion guide. Wild hides in jungle temples, Dune in desert pyramids, and Coast in shipwreck treasure chests.

Then it gets grim underground. The Ward trim sits at 5% in ancient city chests, and the Silence trim is the single rarest template in the game at 1.2% from the same structure — you will loot a lot of the deep dark before it appears, so treat it as a long-term goal every time you're down there dodging the Warden (the deep dark and Warden guide keeps you alive while you hunt). The Eye trim is a cleaner 10% from a stronghold's altar chest, so you'll often pick it up on the way to the End portal.

Nether and End trims

The Nether hands you two. Snout appears in bastion remnant treasure chests at 8.3% — you may bump into it on the same raid as your netherite upgrade template — and Rib drops from nether fortress chests at 6.7%. Beyond the End portal, Spire waits in end city chests at 6.7%, so a shulker-and-elytra expedition doubles as a trim hunt; the end cities guide has the route.

The oddball here is Tide, which isn't a chest drop at all: an elder guardian drops it at a flat 20%, unaffected by Looting, and it drops even if a player didn't land the kill. Since ocean monuments have three elder guardians each, one cleared monument gives you three solid shots at Tide. The ocean monument guide walks the raid.

The Trails and Tales and Tricky Trials trims

Four trims — Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, and Host — come exclusively from suspicious gravel in trail ruins, each at 8.3%, which means you have to brush them out block by block with a brush rather than opening a chest. That's a full archaeology loop, so the archaeology guide is basically required reading for this quartet.

The two newest, from the 1.21 update, live in trial chambers. Bolt drops from a regular vault at a punishing 1.43% — the wiki pegs the average at about 70 vaults searched per Bolt — while Flow comes only from the ominous vault, the upgraded reward you unlock by triggering an ominous trial with a bad omen. Both demand a lot of trial keys, so the trial chambers guide is where to optimize the grind.

How to apply an armor trim

Applying a trim is a three-ingredient smithing table recipe: an armor trim template + an armor piece + a mineral or crystal. The template sets the pattern (Sentry, Vex, Tide, and so on), and the mineral sets the color. Out comes your trimmed piece, and the template is consumed.

Two rules save headaches. First, a piece of armor can only carry one trim at a time — apply a new template and it overwrites the old pattern entirely, so there's no layering. Second, and this matters for gameplay: trims are purely decorative and change nothing about durability or defense. Even a netherite trim doesn't make armor fireproof — it'll still burn in lava. And gold-trimmed armor won't pacify piglins the way real gold armor does, nor will they pick it up; only actual gold pieces work for that, which the piglin bartering guide leans on.

Trim materials and colors

The color of a trim comes from the material you pair with the template. The mineral options are iron, copper, gold, redstone dust, lapis lazuli, emerald, diamond, nether quartz, amethyst shard, and netherite ingot, with resin brick added as an amber option in current versions. That's ten to eleven palettes per pattern:

• Iron and netherite give you muted grays and near-black for a stealth look.
• Gold, copper, and resin run warm — yellow, orange-brown, amber.
• Emerald (green), lapis (blue), diamond (cyan), amethyst (lilac), redstone (red), and quartz (white) cover the bright end.

One clever detail: if the trim material matches the armor material — say a diamond trim on diamond armor, or netherite on netherite — the game uses a darker palette so the pattern still reads instead of vanishing into same-colored metal. Between 18 patterns, roughly a dozen colors, and four armor slots, the wiki counts about 3.7 billion distinct trimmed armor pieces, which is why no two decked-out players ever look quite alike. If you want a refresher on the underlying gear tiers, the armor guide has the defense numbers that actually matter.

Duplicating a template so you never lose it

Because templates are consumed on use, duplication is non-negotiable — you find one, then print copies forever. The recipe is a smithing-table-style crafting grid: 7 diamonds + 1 copy of the template + 1 block matching that template, which yields 2 templates (your original back, plus a fresh copy).

The "matching block" depends on the template. A quick reference for the common ones:

• Netherite upgrade and Rib — netherrack.
• Sentry, Vex, Coast — cobblestone.
• Wild — mossy cobblestone.
• Dune — sandstone.
• Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, Host — terracotta.
• Ward, Silence — cobbled deepslate.
• Tide — prismarine.
• Snout — blackstone.
• Eye — end stone.
• Spire — purpur block.
• Bolt — a block of copper.
• Flow — a breeze rod.

Diamonds are the real cost, but that's exactly why you want a productive diamond and mining setup before you start decorating armor. Duplicate a couple of copies of any template you plan to reuse and you'll never sweat the 1.2% Silence drop again.

Are armor trims worth chasing?

If you're purely a min-maxer, no — trims do nothing for your combat stats, full stop. But that framing misses the point. Armor trims are Minecraft's version of an achievement wall: a reason to revisit structures you'd otherwise never touch again, a visible flex on a server, and a low-stakes goal that keeps a long survival world interesting past the netherite plateau.

The smart approach is opportunistic. Grab the guaranteed netherite upgrade template first because it's functional, then collect trims as you naturally clear structures — Eye on your stronghold run, Snout on your bastion raid, Tide on your monument clear. Save the two masochistic ones, Silence and Bolt, for when you've got time to burn. Duplicate everything you like, and let your armor tell the story of where you've been.

Quick Action Checklist

• Understand the split: one netherite upgrade template (functional) versus 18 armor trims (cosmetic).
• Get the netherite upgrade template first — it's guaranteed in a bastion treasure room.
• Upgrade gear with template + diamond piece + netherite ingot at a smithing table.
• Grab the easy trims early: Vex (50%, woodland mansion) and Sentry (25%, pillager outpost).
• Pick up Eye (10%) on your stronghold run and Snout/Rib in the Nether.
• Farm elder guardians for Tide at a flat 20% — three shots per ocean monument.
• Brush trail ruins suspicious gravel for Wayfinder, Raiser, Shaper, and Host (8.3% each).
• Save Silence (1.2%, ancient city) and Bolt (1.43%, trial chamber vault) as long-term goals; Flow needs the ominous vault.
• Remember trims are cosmetic only — netherite trim doesn't stop lava, gold trim doesn't fool piglins.
• Apply a trim with template + armor + mineral; a new trim overwrites the old one.
• Match trim material to armor material for a darker palette so the pattern stays visible.
• Duplicate every template with 7 diamonds + a matching block so a single find lasts forever.