ShieldGrid
A concise wiki-style guide for the ShieldGrid Minecraft mod.
Overview
ShieldGrid adds placeable shield grid blocks that create a cubic energy barrier around an area. The barrier is designed to protect bases, ships and moving contraptions from incoming threats such as arrows, tridents, explosions, mobs, untrusted players and heavy projectiles.
Core system
The basic rule is simple: threats coming from outside the shield are blocked, while leaving the protected area from the inside is allowed. Player entry, mob entry and trusted access are controlled through the shield GUI.
Energy behavior
- Every shield has a maximum energy value.
- When energy reaches 0, the shield goes offline.
- After its tier-specific recharge time, it returns with full energy.
- If an active shield takes no damage for 10 seconds, it regenerates +5 energy every 2 seconds.
Temporary disable states
- A redstone signal disables the field without forcing the shield into offline recharge.
- While redstone is active, the shield keeps its energy.
- A Shield Radar can jam shields temporarily; jammed shields keep their energy unless a radar upgrade changes it.
- When the radar effect ends, shields continue from their previous state.
shieldgrid-server.toml. It can change shield sizes, maximum energy, offline recharge times, projectile damage and explosion damage.Blocks and items
The mod is built around three shield tiers, one energy battery, one radar jammer and one crafting component.
Iron Shield Grid
The Iron Shield Grid is the first shield tier and is meant for small to medium base protection.
Default properties
shieldgrid:iron_shield_gridCrafting recipe
| Wind Charge | Iron Ingot | Wind Charge |
| Iron Ingot | Complex Circuit Board | Iron Ingot |
| Wind Charge | Iron Ingot | Wind Charge |
It blocks common projectiles such as arrows, tridents, eggs, snowballs and wind charges, stops outside explosions, can block mobs and untrusted players depending on settings, and supports moving fields on Create Aeronautics / Sable physics objects.
Diamond Shield Grid
The Diamond Shield Grid uses the same shield logic as the Iron tier, but provides a larger field, more energy and more upgrade capacity.
Default properties
shieldgrid:diamond_shield_gridCrafting recipe
| Bone Meal | Diamond | Bone Meal |
| Diamond | Iron Shield Grid | Diamond |
| Bone Meal | Diamond | Bone Meal |
Redstone disables its field temporarily without removing stored energy. Radar jamming affects it for the radar duration, then it resumes with the energy it had before the jam.
Netherite Shield Grid
The Netherite Shield Grid is the strongest shield tier. It is built for large bases and ship protection.
Default properties
shieldgrid:netherite_shield_gridCrafting recipe
| Ghast Tear | Netherite Ingot | Ghast Tear |
| Netherite Ingot | Diamond Shield Grid | Netherite Ingot |
| Ghast Tear | Netherite Ingot | Ghast Tear |
It behaves like the other shield tiers, but has the highest default field size, energy capacity and upgrade slot count.
Shield Battery
The Shield Battery is an adjacent support block that increases a shield’s maximum energy by +100.
Rules
- The battery must touch the shield on a side, above or below.
- It increases the maximum energy but does not instantly refill the shield.
- Example: placing a battery on a 100/100 shield changes it to 100/200; regeneration can later fill it to 200/200.
- If the battery is broken, the maximum energy drops again.
- If current energy is above the new maximum, it is clamped to the new maximum.
Crafting recipe
| Yellow Dye | Redstone | Yellow Dye |
| Redstone | Iron Block | Redstone |
| Yellow Dye | Redstone | Yellow Dye |
Shield Radar
The Shield Radar is a radar/jammer block that temporarily disables nearby shields.
Default properties
shieldgrid:shield_radarCrafting recipe
| Iron Ingot | Gold Block | Iron Ingot |
| Complex Circuit Board | Iron Ingot | Complex Circuit Board |
| Stone | Stone | Stone |
The radar can be used from its GUI with the Jam Shields button, or it can be triggered by a redstone signal if it is not on cooldown. A constantly powered signal does not auto-repeat after cooldown; it needs a new redstone edge.
Cooldown and jam behavior
- After use, the radar enters a 3 minute cooldown.
- Breaking and replacing the radar does not reset cooldown; the cooldown continues.
- Affected shields switch to their depleted/off visual state for the jam duration.
- Radar jamming does not normally zero shield energy and does not force real offline recharge.
- If a shield was active before the radar hit, it becomes active again after the effect ends.
- If a shield was already offline, it continues its own offline timer.
- Looking at a jammed shield shows that it is affected by radar and shows the remaining time.
Complex Circuit Board
The Complex Circuit Board is a crafting component used in shield and radar recipes.
Registry ID
shieldgrid:shield_motherboard
Used in
- Iron Shield Grid
- Shield Radar
Crafting recipe
| Red Dye | Comparator | Lime Dye |
| Slime Ball | Target | Slime Ball |
| Green Dye | Redstone | Black Dye |
Upgrade system
Upgrades are not normal inventory items. They exist inside the shield or radar GUI and apply only to the specific block they are installed in.
General rules
- A roll costs 5 experience levels.
- Each roll gives one random upgrade result.
- Installing the roll result into an empty slot costs 1 additional experience level.
- An installed upgrade is locked for 2 minutes.
- After the lock expires, clicking the slot removes the upgrade.
- The same upgrade cannot be installed twice in the same shield or radar.
- If the block is broken and placed again, installed upgrades remain stored in its NBT data.
Slot counts
- Iron Shield Grid: 1 upgrade slot
- Diamond Shield Grid: 2 upgrade slots
- Netherite Shield Grid: 3 upgrade slots
- Shield Radar: 2 upgrade slots
The right side of the GUI shows installed upgrade slots. The bottom part shows the roll result and the Roll -5 Levels button.
Shield upgrades
Field Expander
Increases the shield field size by +6. Example: an Iron 9×9×9 field becomes 15×15×15.
Flux Accelerator
Doubles active energy regeneration. Normal regen is +5 energy every 2 seconds; with this upgrade it becomes +10.
Impact Dampener
Reduces incoming shield damage by two thirds. Example: about 90 damage is reduced to about 30.
Energy Capacitor
Adds +400 maximum shield energy. It increases the cap but does not instantly fill the new energy.
Regeneration Core
Halves the offline recharge time. Example: a 60 second recharge becomes 30 seconds.
Shock Barrier
Blocked players or mobs take half a heart of damage on contact. It does not damage the owner, trusted players, or entities that are allowed to enter.
Signal Guard
Reduces radar jam duration on this shield by 10 seconds. Example: a 35 second jam becomes 25 seconds.
Radar upgrades
Long-Range Antenna
Adds +40 blocks to radar range. Normal range is 60 blocks; with this upgrade it becomes 100.
Cooldown Module
Reduces radar cooldown by 45 seconds. Normal cooldown is 3 minutes; with this upgrade it becomes 2 minutes 15 seconds.
Signal Amplifier
Adds +15 seconds to radar jam duration. Normal jam time is 35 seconds; with this upgrade it becomes 50.
Energy Disruptor
Affected shields continue with half of their current energy when jammed. Example: 400/500 becomes 200/500.
Player permissions
Owner
- The player who places the shield becomes the owner.
- Only the owner can manage the shield GUI.
- Only the owner can break the shield.
- OP players can bypass breaking restrictions for administration.
Trusted players and mob entry
- The owner can add trusted player names in the GUI.
- Trusted players can enter even when mob entry is off.
- Trusted players do not take elytra pass-through damage.
- If mob entry is off, outside mobs and untrusted players are blocked.
- If mob entry is on, players and mobs can enter.
- Exiting from the inside is always allowed.
Damage and protection
Blocked threats drain shield energy. Exact values can be changed through config, but the default values are:
| Threat | Default shield energy damage |
|---|---|
| Normal arrow | 2–6 |
| Power bow arrow | 8–12 |
| Trident | 20 |
| Egg | 1 |
| Ender Pearl | 0 |
| Wind Charge | 5 |
| Potion | 10 |
| Fishing Rod | 0 |
| Wither Skull | 30 |
| Ghast Fireball | 25 |
| Other projectiles | 1 |
| Close TNT explosion | 50 |
| Distant TNT explosion | 20–35 |
| Creeper explosion | 40 |
| Charged Creeper explosion | 75 |
| Other explosions | 1 |
Create Big Cannons
Large cannon shells deal at least 100 energy damage. Damage can increase depending on shell type, speed, power and mass. Armor-piercing shells deal higher damage, while autocannon damage is kept lower. Cannon projectiles bounce from the shield and may still perform their Create Big Cannons effect at the later impact point.
Compatibility
ShieldGrid supports normal world shields and moving shields on Create Aeronautics / Sable physics objects. This allows shield fields to protect moving ships or similar physics-based contraptions.
- A normal Shield Radar can jam shields mounted on physics objects.
- A radar mounted on a physics object can jam normal world shields.
- Shield fields on supported physics objects remain valid while the object moves.