How to get and use shulker shells in Minecraft

Introduced in Minecraft version 1.11, shulker shells are items that can be obtained as drops after killing shulkers.

Shulkers reside in the End dimension, typically within End Cities, where they protect valuable items hidden in the structures.

As of Minecraft version 1.19, shulker shells only have one purpose. They are used in the creation of shulker boxes, which are meant for storage. One great feature of shulker boxes is that when they're broken, the items inside of them do not spill out.

Killing a shulker and collecting its shells isn't too difficult, but players will need to have defeated the Ender Dragon and gained access to the End City.

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Having a weapon enchanted with Looting enchantment will significantly help players while looking for shulker shells in Minecraft

A standard Shulker Box in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

As mentioned earlier, to acquire shulker shells, Minecraft players will need to seek out and kill shulkers.

It isn't a bad idea to bring along a weapon enchanted with the Looting enchantment, as it can increase potential drops when a mob is killed. This will help maximize the amount of shulker shells that players will receive after killing a shulker, ultimately leading to more shulker boxes in less time.

Here are the steps that you can follow to get shulker shells and make shulker boxes:

1. Head to the End and make your way to an End City. They shouldn't be too hard to spot due to the massive buildings rising from their islands.
2. Check inside the buildings for shulkers. They tend to blend in with Purpur blocks, so keep an eye out. Getting close enough to them should trigger them to attack you.
3. Shulkers are fairly easy to defeat. As long as you avoid their tracing bullets, you should be safe from their ability to harm you with fall damage by making you levitate and fall.
4. Strike down the shulker and collect its shells. You'll need a total of two shells to create one shulker box.
5. After opening your crafting table interface, place a standard chest in the center slot. Then place shulker shells above and below the chest to create a vertical column. This should form a shulker box, which you can now place in your inventory and use for whatever you like.

Shulker boxes are some of the best storage options in the entirety of Minecraft. If you feel like packing up your base and finding a new location, simply dump your valuables into a shulker box, break it and pick it up. Once you find your new location, you can place the box down and retrieve your items.

These boxes also come in handy when creating large-scale projects, as you can move large amounts of materials around with ease.

If you feel industrious enough, it may not be a bad idea to create a shulker farm in Minecraft. Doing so will ensure you never run out of shulker shells, and you will be able to create as many shulker boxes as you need.

A player can never have enough shulker boxes, so it's best to make as many as you can.