Shulker Box

A shulker box is a dyeable block that stores items, and, unlike all other storage blocks, keeps its contents in item form when broken.

Breaking

All shulker boxes can be mined with any tool or by hand, but using a pickaxe is the most effective. All shulker boxes drop themselves when mined. Unlike other containers, the contents of any shulker box are stored within the dropped item, and not dropped separately. When instantly mined in Creative mode, all shulker boxes drop as an item if there are items stored within, unless is set to "false".

When a shulker box is pushed by a piston, it breaks and drops as an item. It cannot be pulled.

Storage

All shulker boxes have 27 inventory slots, the same as a barrel, a single chest, or an ender chest. All shulker boxes keep their items when broken, which can be retrieved when placed again, thus making them portable chests. This is different from other containers, which drop their contained items as item entities when broken. A shulker box drops itself as an item if pushed by pistons or destroyed by an explosion. If, however, the shulker box is in item form, explosions cause it to drop its contents. Unlike most blocks with an inventory, shulker boxes always drop themselves when destroyed by explosions. When a shulker box with items inside is being held or is in a container's inventory, the items are listed on the tooltip as properties. .]] Any shulker box's items can be fed or removed by a hopper. All shulker boxes can be stored in all containers except for other shulker boxes and bundles. When placed by a player, a shulker box faces toward the player placing it. For example, if a shulker box is placed on a floor, a wall or a ceiling, it faces and opens upward, sideways or upside-down, respectively. Dispensers can also be used to place shulker boxes. If there is no block below the space where the shulker box is placed, the shulker box faces identically to the dispenser. Otherwise, the shulker box always faces upward, even if the block has no hitbox such as torches, signs and open fence gates. Like a chest, all shulker boxes require a transparent area in the direction of its top surface to be opened. That area is exactly half of a full block, and clear of any obstructions, which may be any other hitbox, including blocks, boats and shulkers, or a redstone conductive block. This way, any shulker box can be opened with an upside-down slab or an upper trapdoor on top of it. It is also unique in that when opened, its hitbox expands to 1.5 blocks high/wide, physically pushing entities where it is facing. By default, the GUI of any shulker box is labeled "Shulker Box", which can be changed by naming it in an anvil or by changing the CustomName tag using the command. When any shulker box item is destroyed, the contents of the shulker box are dropped as items. Although the blocks can't be placed in the void, opening a shulker box can make its hitbox expand to the void.

Piglins

Piglins become hostile toward players who open or mine any shulker box.

Undyeing

Dyed shulker boxes can be undyed using a cauldron. To do this, a dyed shulker box on a cauldron that has water in it. This causes the cauldron's water level to decrease by 1, and the dyed shulker box loses its dye color.

Redstone component

The fullness of any shulker boxes, even if they cannot be opened, can be read by redstone comparators, unlike chests. Observers can detect the opening and closing of any shulker boxes. Shulker boxes are conductive when closed, but not if open. However, opening or closing a shulker box does not update its neighboring blocks, which can be used to create BUD state redstone wires.

Block data

A shulker box has a block entity associated with it that identifies its contents. :

: List of items in this container. Does not exist if the shulker box is empty (unlike all other container blocks with the Items tag, which store an empty list). Represents the component. The component is still present on the block entity, even if the tag does not exist. : An item, including the slot tag. Shulker box slots are numbered 0–26, 0 starts in the top left corner.

: See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.