Review Mobs Use Shields

🛡 Mobs Use Shields (Beta)

This mod allows certain mobs to actively use shields in combat instead of only holding them as equipment.

When a compatible mob equips a shield in its offhand, it gains AI behavior that allows it to raise the shield to block incoming attacks for a short period before returning to normal combat.

The goal is to make shields feel like a natural extension of vanilla combat, adding defensive moments rather than constant blocking.

Features

• Mobs can raise shields to block attacks
• Shielding lasts briefly and has a cooldown
• Mobs face their target while blocking
• Shield blocks play proper shield sound effects
• Knockback from blocked hits is reduced
• Humanoid mobs display the correct blocking animation
• Mobs can anticipate certain threats and raise shields preemptively
• Axes can disable mob shields, similar to the player interaction

Configuration

Several behaviors can be configured:

• mobConsumeShieldDurability Whether mobs consume shield durability when blocking.

• mobAlwaysAnticipate Forces mobs to always use anticipation logic. (Note: if false, anticipation logic is only activated when local difficulty x mob hp loss is higher than a random threshold.)

Compatibility

Vanilla shield interactions remain unchanged.

For example, Hoglins and Ravagers still interact with shields using their vanilla mechanics.

Testing Status

Zombie behavior is currently the main reference implementation.

Other mobs capable of equipping shields should behave similarly, but full testing across all mobs has not yet been completed.

If you encounter mobs whose shield behavior is significantly different from Zombies, please report it.

Beta

This mod is currently in beta. AI timing and combat behavior may be adjusted or refined in future updates.

Images Mobs Use Shields