Minecraft is finally getting the armor customization players have wanted for years

Minecraft
(Image credit: Mojang/Microsoft)

The latest Minecraft beta has revealed an upcoming feature that some players have been waiting years for: armor trim.

The armor trim system will let you customize almost any armor piece in the game with different colors and patterns for extra visual pizazz. The patterns are determined by smithing templates you can find in chests hidden in specific biomes, while the colors are determined by which material - anything from iron to quartz - you use to apply the trim.

As the Minecraft devs have been teasing on Twitter, there's a massive number of possible customization combinations.

I have not seen players this excited for a new feature since the revamped cave generation system was implemented in Minecraft 1.18. Armor trim adds new reasons to explore the world, more cosmetic options, and more reasons to continue collecting resources that would otherwise become useless at later tiers of progression.

"The armor trim system is something I’ve wanted to see for years, it’s honestly surreal finally seeing it in the actual game," Reddit user Realshow says.

"This has to be one of the best things they have added, bar none," CBMX_GAMING says.

Perhaps the biggest praise is that Minecraft can now join the likes of Warframe and Final Fantasy XIV - as Toni303 says, "Finally, the true endgame: Fashion."

The beta snapshot has been out for just a few hours now and players are already cobbling together quick visual guides on where to find the new trims.

Armor trim is being listed as an "experimental feature" for now, which means it may not actually go live in the next patch - more likely 1.20 - depending on what sorts of issues testers have with it.

Alongside armor trim, the new beta snapshot also reveals a revamp to smithing tables, which are turning into "workstations for physical equipment upgrades and modifications." For now, those equipment mods are simply armor trim and the netherite upgrades you used to use smithing tables for, but this opens the possibility of much more notable upgrade types in the future.

Dig into the best Minecraft texture packs if you're looking for more ways to customize your world, or check out our guide to Minecraft cheats if you want more than cosmetic control.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

Read more
Minecraft Vibrant Visuals
16 years after Minecraft first released it's getting a modern visual upgrade with a retro lighting trick that Mojang hasn't seen "in any other game"
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog looks set to combine the best of Odyssey and Vahalla to make changing my drip easier than ever
Cooking in Monster Hunter Wilds
Changing your pants in Monster Hunter Wilds also changes your most important weapon: the little knife you use to carve beasts, with at least 25 different skins available
Monster Hunter Wilds beta and trailer screenshots
The Dark Souls games might be my all-time favorites, but Monster Hunter Wilds beats them in one crucial way: fashion
Minecraft key art showing Steve holding a pickaxe.
Minecraft modder uses "3 hours of my life that I'll never get back" to create a new mod that gives Steve Jack Black's voice
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress' Adventure Mode finally leaves beta on Steam this month, turning the notoriously complex strategy game into a brutal open-world roguelike RPG
Latest in Minecraft
Minecraft Vibrant Visuals
16 years after Minecraft first released it's getting a modern visual upgrade with a retro lighting trick that Mojang hasn't seen "in any other game"
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Minecraft Diamond Armor
Minecraft Pocket Edition got its name because one of its devs was a big "Nintendo nerd" who wanted to pay homage to the Game Boy Pocket
Minecraft key art showing Steve holding a pickaxe.
Minecraft modder uses "3 hours of my life that I'll never get back" to create a new mod that gives Steve Jack Black's voice
Minecraft Netherite Armor
A developer porting Minecraft to the Dreamcast is now able to "Blast through an existing world file at 2,800 km/h"
Minecraft Steve
Notch cancels the "Minecraft 2" he announced days prior because spiritual successors are "always kinda sad nostalgia dumps"
Latest in Features
Naoe kills a target with a black and white filter over the camera highlighting the red of blood spray in Assassin's Creed Shadows, with an On The Radar orange frame
Assassin's Creed Shadows "has a little bit of Tarantino flavor", but its real secret ingredient is intrigue: "It's almost like you're watching an episode of Shogun"
Helldivers 2 Borderline Justice Warbond helldiver using hoverpack to shoot down with hunting rifle
Talking points from the Game Developers Conference 2025 and how they could impact the future of gaming
Flexispot E7 Plus with plant, monitor, soundbar, and controller on top next to white wall lighting.
Gaming desks vs regular desks: which surface should you buy?
Google Pixel 9a smartphones on a beige background
One Google Pixel 9a feature could make it a better gaming phone than most budget mainstream models
Yasuke and Naoe ready to fight on the Assassin's Creed Shadows On The Radar thumbnail
On The Radar: Assassin's Creed Shadows coverage hub
Captain Planet #1
Captain Planet is back after 33 years with a "sexy" makeover and a message that's as important as ever: "Reality has gotten a lot less subtle"