Minecraft 1.18: How To Get Turtle Shells And What Are Their Usages?

A turtle shell is a type of helmet armor and brewing ingredient. Getting this item is rather tricky, as a turtle does not drop its shell when killed. In this article, we are going to showcase how to get turtle shells in Minecraft 1.18.

1. What are the uses of turtle shells in Minecraft?

Players can equip the turtle shell on the helmet slot. It has 2 armor points and grants the user Water Breathing buff for 10 seconds. This buff resets each time the player comes up for air.

Turtle shells can be used as an ingredient to brew a Potion of the Turtle Master. This is probably the most unique potion in the game - the first-ever potion to apply multiple status effects. There are 3 variants of this potion:

Potion	Duration	Effect
Potion of the Turtle Master	20s	Slows players and mobs by 60%, to about 2.25 blocks per second sprinting, and reduces their damage taken by 60%
Potion of the Turtle Master +	40s	Slows players and mobs by 60%, to about 2.25 blocks per second sprinting, and reduces their damage taken by 60%
Potion of the Turtle Master II	20s	Slows players and mobs by 90%, to about 0.5625 blocks per second sprinting, and reduces their damage taken by 80%

While the damage reduction boost is useful, the slow is so great it renders the potion nearly useless. However, it does not affect attack speed, therefore, a player with a bow or crossbow can still dish out good damage while taking almost none.

Players can also imbue arrows or make lingering/splash potions with the turtle effect to troll other players online. Everyone hit with the effects would be slowed down to a crawl.

2. How to get turtle shells in Minecraft

To craft a turtle shell, the player will need to collect 5 scutes and craft them in an upside-down U shape. Baby turtles drop a single scute when they grow up into adults, which is the only way possible to obtain the item.

craft a turtle shell helmet — Create a turtle shell helmet to gain various benefits.

Firstly, find the turtles and feed them seagrass to have them enter love mode. Afterward, they will become pregnant and grow a bit bigger than a normal turtle (about 0.2 of a block). The pregnant turtle then travels back to its home beach, which is where it first spawned, to lay 1-4 eggs.

Baby Turtle — Players can only get scutes from breeding and raising baby turtles.

Because of this, it is best to just create your turtle farm exactly where you find your first turtles. This way, the travel time would be cut down. After a while, baby turtles would hatch. Just feed them seagrass to speed up their growth into adults.

Seagrass generates in either its tall or small form in ocean biomes near kelp, and also generates by itself in rivers, underwater caves and swamps. They can also sometimes naturally generate on gravel.