

Balanced shield adds a "shield tolerance" value that reduces whenever your shield is hit.
Intro info
You would think that your minecraft arm would get tired after taking so many hits from various things but the shield remains a sturdy wall of protection. until an axe disables it that is.
Sword users now have some weight in pvp as battering a shield with weapons will now reduce the blocking player's shield tolerance. Once the shield tolerance reaches 0%, the shield is disabled for a while.
How much shield tolerance different types of weapons reduce, varies. It takes 3 hits for a sword or a non-player melee mob to disable a shield, it takes around 4 arrows to disable a shield, and it takes 2 non-entity explosions to disable a shield. Firework rocket explosions and axes disable will disable a shield in one hit.

If you haven't blocked a hit in a while, your shield tolerance will recharge and you can rush into battle with renewed confidence. It takes around 10 seconds of not blocking a hit to recharge your shield.
While blocking a hit with your shield, a little orange message will show up above your hotbar, showing how much shield tolerance you have left. This indicator is still very wip, im just not sure how to do GUI yet. I hope to make it look nicer in the future though.
Compat
This Mod Was designed to work alongside Guarding! Use them together for the best experience.
Bumblezone shields are also supported out of the box. Any other shields must be put into the balanced shield "shield" tag to get the effects of the mod!
I can't ensure compat for other mods that edit how the shield works since this edits some base stuff about the shield.
- Edition: Minecraft Java
- File type: .jar
- Minecraft version listed: 1.20.1
- How to install: Install the matching mod loader (Forge, Fabric or NeoForge) for your Minecraft version. → Download the .jar. → Put it in the .minecraft/mods folder and launch that loader profile.
- Where to get it: Opens on Modrinth — not every file is mirrored on our own servers.
Install steps are the general flow for this file type — How to install Minecraft Java mods & modpacks walks through it step by step.
- Ships as balancedshield-1.2-1.20.1.jar — drop this file into the mods folder
- Download size: 98 KB
- Download link checked 31 Aug 2026 — working
These come from our own check of the pack file, not from the source page.