How to make an armor stand in Minecraft 1.19 update

Minecraft has an interesting history when it comes to armor stands. Before their official introduction, there was no way to display or store spare sets of armor, which was unfortunate because many players made castles where they would fit in amazingly well.

First, there was a mod that allowed players to display armor, and then the armor stand was added to the game. But how can players make one, and are there any interesting facts about them? All of this can be found below.

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All about armor stands in Minecraft 1.19

How to make an armor stand

The recipe for an armor stand (Image via Minecraft)

Players can make an armor stand by combining six sticks with a smooth stone slab. The top row of the crafting grid should be entirely made of sticks, along with the center.

Then, players should place two sticks on the bottom row, one on the left and right, placing a smooth stone slab in the center gap of the bottom row.

To get the smooth stone slab, players will need to smelt cobblestone back into regular stone, and then place the regular stone back into the furnace, which will smelt it further into smooth stone.

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Naturally generated armor stands

The naturally generated armor stands found in taiga villages (Image via Minecraft)

Players who spawn in or near a taiga biome may not even need to make their own armor stand. These taigas are the only places in the game that armor stands are able to generate naturally. They can be found in taiga villages that have outdoor armories.

These villages that spawn with armories will have two armor stands. There will be one bearing an iron helmet and one bearing an iron chestplate.

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Usage and Behavior

Armor stands are considered entities, similar to mobs, boats, and minecarts. This means that armor stands share a handful of interesting properties with other properties.

For example, armor stands obey gravity and can therefore fall and rest on non-full blocks, such as enchantment tables, snow layers, and slabs.

Since the armor stand is an entity wearing the armor, all of the armor effects work as one would expect.

For example, frost walker will create ice when the stand is pushed with a piston, and players will take damage from the armor stand if the armor on it has the thorn enchantment.

This entity status goes even farther in Bedrock Edition. Armor stands can be killed by potions, lava, and fire. The armor stand will play the player death sound before falling over and disappearing. This will not drop the armor stand as an item, and only has an 8.5% chance of dropping the armor it is holding.

This also means that armor stands can be used in mob farms by taking advantage of entity cramming, which is how Minecraft handles too many entities being in a single block space, as mobs such as zombies, creepers, and cows will take damage and die if they are placed in an area with too many entities.