Flow and Bolt Armor Trims in Minecraft: The Trial Chamber Exclusives

 

    Flow and Bolt are the two newest armor trim patterns in Minecraft, and unlike the other sixteen trims, both come from one specific structure: the trial chamber. This article covers what a smithing template actually does, how Flow and Bolt are sourced from trial chamber vaults, exactly what it costs in diamonds and materials to duplicate each one, and which materials and armor pieces you can use them with — all pulled directly from the wiki's own wording, with the arithmetic shown wherever a number is computed rather than quoted outright.

 

What Armor Trims Are, and Where Flow and Bolt Fit

 

    Per the source, "a smithing template is an item that can be applied to a tool or armor using a smithing table, which consumes the template. They are only found in structures, but diamonds can be used to craft copies." Applying one is a three-ingredient job at a smithing table: "Armor trim smithing templates are used to customize an armor piece's appearance by using an armor trim, an armor piece, and a trim material." So the recipe is any armor trim smithing template + any armor piece + any trim material.

 

    Armor trims are purely cosmetic. The source describes them only as "customizable decorations to armor" that customize "an armor piece's appearance" — it lists no combat or defensive stat effect, and the template itself is consumed the moment it's applied.

 

    There are 19 smithing template types total: "There are 19 types of smithing templates, of which 18 are armor trim templates and 1 is an upgrade template" (that 19th one is the Netherite Upgrade, which isn't a trim at all). Flow and Bolt are the newest of the 18 trim patterns. In Java Edition, both were added in 1.20.5 (snapshot 24w11a), initially locked behind the "Update 1.21" experimental data pack, and made available without that data pack in 1.21 (24w18a) — the other 16 trim patterns all predate them, added across 1.19.4 and 1.20. In Bedrock Edition, Flow and Bolt arrived in 1.20.80 and became available without the experimental toggle in 1.21.0.

 

Finding Flow and Bolt: Trial Chamber Vault Loot

 

 

    The Trial Chambers page's own Bedrock version history records that the trial chamber vault loot tables were "Updated ... adding wind charges, 'bolt armor trim' and 'flow armor trim' smithing templates" — meaning both templates are pulled straight from trial chamber vault loot.

 

    Trial chambers are also the only place to get them: the structure "is the only place where trial spawners and vaults naturally generate," so vault-sourced trims like Flow and Bolt don't turn up anywhere else. Two loot pools exist inside a trial chamber: regular vaults share a loot table with reward chests, while ominous vaults draw from a separate loot table of their own.

 

    What the source does not spell out is whether Bolt specifically is restricted to ominous vaults only, or what the actual drop chances are for Flow or Bolt in either loot table — that's not documented in our source. Treat any specific claim about Bolt being ominous-exclusive, or any percentage drop chance for either template, as unconfirmed until it can be checked directly against a published vault loot table.

 

Duplicating Flow and Bolt Templates

 

 

    Once you've found a Flow or Bolt template in a vault, you don't need to keep running trial chambers to get more — smithing templates in general "can be duplicated by crafting the smithing template with seven diamonds and its corresponding material." The 3x3 crafting grid places the matching template in the center slot, its duplication material directly below it, and fills the remaining seven slots with diamonds. That single craft yields two copies of the template. Doing the arithmetic: you put in 1 template and take out 2, so the net gain per craft is 2 − 1 = 1 extra template for every 7 diamonds spent on top of the material.

 

    The two templates differ in what material goes into that recipe. Flow is duplicated with 7 diamonds plus a Breeze Rod — and it's the odd one out among all 18 trims: "the flow armor trim is the only armor trim not to use a block as its duplicating material, using the breeze rod." Bolt is duplicated with 7 diamonds plus a Block of Copper, and that can be any copper block, including a Waxed Block of Copper (waxed copper blocks were specifically enabled for this recipe in Java snapshot 24w21a).

 

Which Materials and Armor Work With Flow and Bolt

 

 

    Flow and Bolt work the same way as every other trim once you have the template: any armor piece can be trimmed with any of 11 documented trim materials — Amethyst Shard, Copper Ingot, Diamond, Emerald, Gold Ingot, Iron Ingot, Lapis Lazuli, Nether Quartz, Netherite Ingot, Redstone Dust, and Resin Brick. Each material gives the applied trim pattern its own color, so the same Flow or Bolt pattern looks different depending on which of those 11 you feed into the smithing table.

 

    Armor compatibility is broad, too. The smithing table's own examples span leather, iron, gold, chainmail, diamond, and netherite armor, as well as the turtle shell used as a helmet — so there's no armor tier that's locked out of taking a Flow or Bolt trim.

 

Tips: Bring at least 7 diamonds per duplication run, plus the right extra material — a Breeze Rod for Flow, any (even waxed) copper block for Bolt — since running out mid-craft means the recipe simply won't complete. Remember trims are cosmetic only, so don't expect any defensive benefit from equipping one. And since drop odds for Bolt and Flow aren't documented, don't count on finding either in a specific vault type on a set number of runs.

 

Running your own Minecraft server

 

    Trial chambers reward repeat visits, and that's easier with a group: more hands means more vault keys collected and more trial spawners cleared per run, so a shared survival server lets everyone stockpile Flow and Bolt templates faster than solo play. Since duplication needs 7 diamonds per craft plus a Breeze Rod or copper block, pooling resources on a shared server also means nobody has to farm an entire diamond stockpile alone just to make backup copies of a rare vault drop. Coordinating who explores which chamber room, and who's holding onto found templates for the group's smithing table, is simpler when everyone's logged into the same world.

 

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Conclusion

 

    Flow and Bolt are Minecraft's newest armor trims — Java 1.20.5/1.21, Bedrock 1.20.80/1.21.0 — and both are sourced exclusively from trial chamber vaults, the only structure where trial spawners and vaults naturally generate. Each is purely decorative, applied with a smithing template, an armor piece, and any of 11 trim materials. Once you have one, duplicating it costs 7 diamonds plus a Breeze Rod for Flow or a copper block for Bolt, netting one extra copy per craft. The one gap in the source data is drop specifics: whether Bolt is ominous-vault-exclusive and what the actual odds are for either template remain undocumented, so treat those as open questions rather than settled facts until the wiki's own loot tables confirm them.