How to Get Armadillo Scutes in Minecraft

One of the features Minecraft players have wanted for a while now is armor for their dogs. But that wait has now ended as Minecraft 1.20.5 has made it a reality. For those unaware, this update added the Mob Vote 2023 winner, Armadillo, to the game. The only drop of the armadillo is the armadillo scutes, an item essential for making wolf armor. So, we’ve dedicated this guide to explaining what armadillo scutes are and how to get them in Minecraft. So, with that, let’s begin!

How to Get Armadillo Scutes

As the name tells, Armadillo scutes are drops from the armadillo mob in Minecraft. These are very cute mobs that spawn naturally in all variants of savanna and badlands biomes. Moreover, they are kind of rare, too, so you might need to travel and look around a bit before finding a couple.

Luckily, much like many other mobs in Minecraft, you can also breed armadillos using spider eyes to multiply them. However, our focus right now is on obtaining scutes. These are the best ways to get them:

1. Armadillo Will Drop Scutes Itself

The first method is the most natural one but not the most efficient. It requires you to wait around near an adult armadillo, and it will eventually drop a scute by itself. This can take 5-10 minutes, but it doesn’t require any setting up or additional resources.

You could even automate the process by placing multiple armadillos in an enclosed flat area, along with hopper minecarts below. The minecarts can pick up the scutes and store them in a chest. This would be a good long-term solution. You could make this armadillo scute farm at the beginning of your world and have plenty of scutes for end-game adventures.

2. Use a Brush on the Armadillo

However, a much faster way of getting a hold of armadillo scutes is by using the brush tool that was added in Minecraft 1.20 on the mob. After making a brush, walk up to the armadillo and right-click it or use the secondary action button. Doing so will make it drop a single scute.

Moreover, there is no cooldown on this action, so you can spam the armadillo as many times as you want.

However, as you’ll soon realize, this will use up much of the brush’s durability. If you use an unenchanted brush, you can only get 4-5 armadillo scutes depending on the Minecraft edition you are playing on before it breaks. Using unbreaking enchantment will decrease the chance of a brush using durability so that you can use it significantly longer.

Dispensers can also use the brush to harvest the scutes from armadillos, so you could automatically get scutes this way, but only if you can make a lot of brushes.

How to Use Armadillo Scutes in Minecraft

Armadillo scutes have two uses that are both related to the wolf armor. First, it’s a crafting ingredient for wolf armor. With six scutes, you can place them in the crafting table in the configuration shown below.

We have a dedicated guide on this process linked above, so check it out. Also, you can dye wolf armor in over 5,000,000 different colors, which we explore in detail in our linked guide.

With the wolf armor selected, you can right-click your tamed wolf and equip it with the same. It’s as strong as diamond horse armor (11 protection points), but unlike it, wolf armor has durability. The more damage it absorbs, the more cracks will appear on it and the less durability it has.

Next, to repair the wolf armor, select the armadillo scutes and use them on the wolf with damaged armor. One scute will restore 8 durability of the damaged armor. Moreover, you can easily remove the wolf armor from your cute friend by using shears. Remember that only the dog’s owner can equip, unequip, and repair the wolf armor.

That’s everything you need to know about getting scutes from the armadillo mob. They are pretty common items, so making wolf armor is a piece of cake. That said, will you be making an automated farm to collect armadillo scutes, or will you do this job yourself? Tell us in the comments below!