Minecraft finally gets the armor customization gamers have wanted for years

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

The armor tuning system will allow you to customize almost any piece of armor in the game with different colors and patterns for additional visual dynamism. The patterns are determined by blacksmithing templates that you can find in hidden chests in specific biomes, while the colors are determined by the material, from iron to quartz, that you use to apply the ornament.

As the Minecraft developers have been joking on Twitter, there are a plethora of possible customization combinations.

Look at all those possible combinations 👀 pic.twitter.com/ObsJkvaTZDJanuary 24, 2023

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I haven’t seen players this excited for a new feature since the revamped cave spawning system was implemented in Minecraft 1.18. Armor tuning adds new reasons to explore the world, more cosmetic options, and more reasons to continue collecting otherwise useless resources at later levels of progression.

“The armor fitting system is something I’ve wanted to see for years, honestly it’s surreal to finally see it in the actual game,” says Reddit user Realshow (Opens in a new tab).

“This has to be one of the best things they’ve added, bar none,” says CBMX_GAMING (opens in a new tab).

Perhaps the highest praise is that Minecraft can now join Warframe and Final Fantasy XIV, as Toni303 (opens in a new tab) puts it, “Finally, the true ending: fashion.”

The beta snapshot has only been available for a few hours, and already players are cobbled together quick visual guides (opens in a new tab) on where to find the new settings.

Armor tuning is included as an “experimental feature” for now, which means it may not go live in the next patch, most likely 1.20, depending on what kind of issues testers are having.

Along with the armor tuning, the new beta snapshot (opens in a new tab) also reveals a revamp to the blacksmithing tables, which are becoming “workstations for physical equipment upgrades and mods.” For now, those gear mods are simply armor tweaks and the netherite upgrades I used to use blacksmithing tables for, but this opens up the possibility of much more notable upgrade types in the future.

Immerse yourself in 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.