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Since it was first released in 2011, Minecraft has sold over 200 million copies, with updates that constantly keep the game feeling fresh. And now, with an update said to be ‘positively glowing,’ there’s an additional spotlight for the Shulker Box Recipe.
The 2021 update for Minecraft: Java may anticipate the form future updates take, at least for the Java version, through ‘snapshots.’ The updates appear to add experimental, small features that players can try and test and may eventually become a mainstay of Minecraft gameplay.
The Caves and Cliff update, as it’s being called, added new updates for this steep terrain, including a special glow squid mob, but also glow lichen, and alterations to dripstone blocks.
While all of these new features were exciting– as a gamer myself, I know all too well that sometimes bug fixes can be just as heartening, and that’s been the case with this update, fixing some glitches related to Shulker boxes, and Shulkers themselves.
The 2021 update, among other things, extended the usability of the Shulker box Recipe by fixing issues with Shulker boxes being opened, as well as Shulkers being able to teleport through portals, among other issues.
You might wonder what all the fuss about the Shulker box recipe is– and why so much of this Minecraft update was dedicated to buying fixes especially related to Shulkers and Shulker boxes. Consider this your guide to how to make a Shulkers, how to make a Shulker box in Minecraft and the point of a Shulker box for your gameplay.
What are Shulkers?
Before I discuss the Shulker box recipe, it’s important to understand where these boxes get their name from a mob called Shulkers. Without understanding what Shulkers are, and how to find them, you won’t be able to make your own Shulker boxes.
Minecraft Mobs
In case you’re new to Minecraft, mobs are any moving units that can both attack or be attacked by other players. Foxes can be tamed, as well as other similar mobs, and some can even be tamed and ridden, like horses. To that end. Mobs are categorized as passive, neural, and aggressive.
Passive Mobs
Passive mobs include bats, cats, chickens, fish, cod, donkeys, foxes, horses, mules, parrots, pigs, baby polar bears, rabbits, sheep, striders, turtles, villagers, and traders. Passive mobs are distinguished by being of use to the player: you can breed, tame, or interact, largely without any risk of attack.
Neutral Mobs
Neutral mobs, on the other hand, attack if attacked and otherwise do not pose a threat to the player. These mobs include bees, cave spiders, dolphins, enderman, iron golems, llamas, pandas, adult polar bears, spiders, wolves, and zombie pigs.
Hostile Mobs
Finally, hostile mobs– the category for Shulkers– are mobs that will actively attack you and inflict damage. Hostile mobs, in addition to Shulkers, include: blaze, chicken jockeys, creeper, drowned, elder guardian, endermite, evoker, ghast, ghast, hoglin, husk, magma cubes, phantom, piglin brute, pillager, ravager, ravager jockey, silverfish, skeltek, slime, spider jockey, stray, vex, vindicator, witches, wither skeleton, zoglin, zombies, and zombie villagers
Where do you find Shulkers?
Shukers, the hostile mob, are most likely to be encountered in end cities, near purpur blocks. They are considered the keepers for end city treasure– hence the reason many players may encounter them.
End cities refer to the castles that are situated on the End’s islands and are chock full of some of the most sought-after treasures. The End itself consists of a dark, mysterious space with a central island, with clusters of surrounding smaller islands, where Shulkers reside.
Spawning Patterns
Shulkers have a distinct spawning pattern. You’ll typically find them spawning on city walls and ships, but keep in mind that once you kill Shulkers, unlike many other hostile mobs, they do not naturally respawn. The only way they will spawn again in the same location is with the presence of a Spawner block.
How to Enter the End
To enter the End, it’s a process. I also don’t recommend entering the End unless you’re fully prepared and have some weapons and strategy, too. That said, even with the best Minecraft worlds that you can explore and download, you’ll find that visiting the End–both for the Shulker box recipe and for other reasons– is a must for most players.
First, you’ll need to craft the Eyes of the Ender, by laying out Blaze Powder (created by blaze rods on fire) next to an Ender Pearl (from Endermen mobs or trading) in the central row of a three by three grid.
After you’ve obtained Eyes of the Ender, locate a portal room and use the eyes to enter. You’ll find yourself in a room with end portal frames, situated by a lake of lava and silverfish. You’ll need 12 Eyes to place on each of the portal frames, to be safe (it sometimes activates with less).
Once the portal opens, you’ll need to replenish the end portal blocks that automatically self-destruct, and then you’ll be teleported into the End, where Shulkers guard precious loot.
You’ll need to go through all of this– finding Shulkers and preparing for combat– if you ever want access to a Shulker box recipe.
How do you make a Shulker box in Minecraft?
The recipe for making Shulker boxes is relatively simple on its surface– but as Shulkers are a part of it, you can imagine it actually takes a bit of work on your part. Do keep in mind that if you’re playing in Creative Mode in the Java version, you’ll be able to access a Shulker box in the Creative Blocks menu.
Materials Needed
To create a Shulker box, you’ll need a chest and two Shulker Shells.
Making a Chest in Minecraft
You can find chests in most biomes, but you can also make one of your own using wood planks. To make a chest in Minecraft, you can use any wood planks. Place eight of them in a three-by-three crafting grid, leaving only the center block free. When finished, place it in your inventory.
Finding Shulker Shells
The two Shulker Shells are a bit trickier to obtain. First, you’ll need to enter the End and find Shulker mobs. A frequently asked question by many players is if Shulkers always drop shells when attacked–the answer is no.
For the Java Edition, Shulkers drop shells half the time, while in other editions, Shulkers can drop up to just one shell or none at all. The good news is that you can increase your chances of Shulkers dropping their shells.
For Java players, your loorting level increases your chances of Shulkers dropping shells, with a rise of just over 6 percent rate of dropping shells for every level up. For other versions of Minecraft, a tamed wolf can also increase your chances.
Crafting a Shulker box
Now that you’ve collected both Shulker shells and chests, it’s time to make a Shulker box. To do so, ensure you have two shells and a chest and visit a crafting table.
Using a three-by-three grid, place, all on in the center/ second column in the following order: Shulker Shell, Chest, and Shulker Shell. You must place these items in this exact order, as recipes in Minecraft must be followed precisely.
Once you’ve done so, place the Shulker box in your inventory. You’ve now successfully made a Shulker box and have it for use at your disposal.
Do you need silk touch to mine a Shulker box?
However, if you don’t want to make a Shulker box, you have another option: mining for a Shulker box. You won’t actually need silk touch to mine for a Shulker box– though you may find it helpful.
Mining with a Silk Touch
A Silk Touch is one of many Minecraft enchantments. The Silk Touch enchantment is helpful because it increases the drops of an item. To obtain this ability, you’ll have to use an enchantment table– see my guide to enchantments in Minecraft for more information. Again, this is not required for successfully mining Shulker boxes, but some may find it helpful if they’re set on mining for these boxes instead of making them. It’s often confusing, as gender boxes do in fact require Silk Touch in order to be mined.
Regular Mining
Whether you decide to use an enchantment or not to mine for a Shulker box, you’ll want to mine as efficiently as possible. You can do so through branch mining, pinwheel mining, and quarry mining, among other methods. For branch mining, dig in the direction of your choice, avoiding digging directly down– as this can run the risk of falling into hazards, such as lava and pits. From there, dig a central tunnel and work systematically, branching off from those tunnels.
For Shulker boxes, I recommend using a pickaxe to increase efficiency. But all that said, while you can mine for Shulker boxes, you may find that making a Shulker box just as easy to do– and potentially less time-consuming, depending.
What is the point of a Shulker box?
You might understandably be wondering about the point of a Shulker box. Aside from its unique appearance– it comes in 16 dyed shades– a Shulker box can be pretty handy. It works like a chest, in that you can use Shulker boxes to store items of your choice– with a notable advantage.
While chests are easier to make or obtain than Shulker boxes, a Shulker box is far more secure– making it ideal for your most precious loot. While a chest can easily be broken and cause a loss of your loot, even when broken, a Shulker box will retain its items– meaning you’re not at risk for losing loot if the box is broken.
That isn’t to say placing loot in a Shulker box is an infallible strategy–it is also true that items could be removed if another player uses a hopper. Another risk is explosions- which can destroy Shulker boxes.
But all in all, Shulker boxes are a more secure way to store items.
How to Open
Opening a Shulker box to look at its contents, or store additional items, works the same way as a traditional chest. To do so, you must have an open, or transparent block directly above. But you’ll also need to make sure it’s facing upright. You can, however, open a Shullker box with a trap door above it. Just make sure it’s not intersecting with anything else.
How to Store Items
Another thing I like about Shulker boxes is that they have more generous storage than you might at first think, with the same 27 slots that a regular chest has.
Portable storage can come in handy– and just like a chest, you can use it by simply placing an item in a slot of its own. It also is handy for storing broken or damaged items. This is yet another way that Shulker boxes are more useful than everyday chests, which will automatically drop damaged or broken items.
Any inventory you place within a Shulker box will be labeled by a block type ‘property.’
Can you put a Shulker box inside a Shulker box?
Of course, there is a limit to what a Shulker box is capable of storing– and that limit includes other storage boxes. While Shulker boxes are undeniably useful for portable storage, especially for precious and/or damaged items, you cannot place a Shulker box inside of another Shulker box.
Removing Dye
Though Shulker boxes come in one of sixteen hues, you can change the hue if the color doesn’t suit you– just keep in mind that this process removes the dye, and does not allow you to select the color of your choice.
Finding a Cauldron
To remove the dye, you’ll need a cauldron. Cauldrons in Minecraft can be either made or found. Cauldrons can be found in swamp hunts, as well as igloo basements, woodland mansions, village tannery homes located in snowy terrain, and village tannery homes in plains and desert terrain.
Making a Cauldron
To make a cauldron, all you’ll need is iron nuggets. Place three nuggets in the first and second column of a three-by-three grid, and one iron nugget on the bottom row in the center column.
Removing Dye
The remove dye from a Shulker box, place the box in a water-filled cauldron.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Does looting 3 work on Shulkers?
Answer: If you reach looting level three, you’ll have a better chance that Shulkers will drop their shells. At this level, they will now drop 0-4 shells, maxing out the number of shells you can get from a Shulker, no Minecraft mods required. In other words- it does not ensure many shells dropping, but it at least opens you up to that possibility.
Question: Do Shulker boxes burn in lava?
Answer: Shulker boxes, oddly, can burn in lava and are not lava-proof. That said, Shulker boxes still retain the advantage of not dropping items, even when they burn, which is handy. While some players in the Minecraft community are calling for Shulker boxes to be immune to lava, for now, there’s no sign of this changing.
Question: What is the difference between an ender chest and a Shulker box?
Answer: While both Ender boxes and Shulker boxes can be used like chests to store items, they work a bit differently. Ender chests or boxes have universal storage- that is, each Ender’s chest is connected to other chests. An advantage is that if you have such chests, other players can neither steal it nor see your items– making them especially handy for multiplayer modes– and making obtaining one maybe one of the best things to do in Minecraft if you’re facing competitive gameplay.
Question: Can you farm Shulkers?
Answer: In a way, you can farm Shulkers- should you wish to frame it this way. It does not really resemble farming, but on a poor outcome or mechanical level, Shulker farming essentially happens when a bullet strikes a Shulker. Sometimes, a new Shulker will form– which creates a source for additional Shulker shells, an unusual tactic to obtain shells to create Shulker boxes.
Final Thoughts
Shulker boxes are a usual, yet helpful way to store damaged or precious items in Minecraft. They are prized alternatives to chests and may just make your game experience a bit easier. Of course, to get to crafting Shulker boxes in the first place, you’ll need to have strategies to take on aggressive mobs. Once you can do that, you can reap the benefits of this incredible (and portable) way to store your inventory.
Looking for other helpful recipes? Read this guide to our favorite recipes in Minecraft. This guide includes tips for crafting the very most helpful items, from how to make a saddle to even basic recipes such as torches. And if you’re playing in Creative Mode, you’ll also learn the basics of crafting furniture, such as beds, doors, ladders, and fences.