Minecraft Knight Skins: 12 Free Originals, Iron to Black Knight

These are 12 free Minecraft knight skins we drew from scratch: iron, gold, dark steel and black plate, a tabard knight, a royal guard, a white paladin, a forest ranger, a squire and two dwarves. Each is a 64×64 PNG you can download without an account. The iron knight comes in two versions, one with the helm down and one with the face showing, so you can choose between anonymous and recognisable.

The pack suits medieval builds, castle servers, roleplay, and anyone who wants to look the part before the armour drops. It isn't for fans hunting a specific knight from another game or show. Those designs belong to their owners, so every knight here is our own.

The knight pack

12 skins

12 originals: plate knights in four metals, cloth-over-steel, a ranger, a squire and two dwarves. Free 64×64 PNGs.

64×64 PNG

Iron Knight (Helm Down)

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64×64 PNG

Iron Knight (Face Showing)

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64×64 PNG

Gilded Knight

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64×64 PNG

Dark Steel Knight

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64×64 PNG

Black Knight

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64×64 PNG

Tabard Knight

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64×64 PNG

Royal Guard

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64×64 PNG

Forest Ranger

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64×64 PNG

White Paladin

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64×64 PNG

Dwarf Miner

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64×64 PNG

Dwarf Warrior

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Squire

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The knight pack

Search for a knight skin and you mostly land on single user-uploaded skins, one per page, with no way to compare them. This page puts a whole order of knights side by side, all drawn to the same standard. That way you can pick by metal, by helmet or by role. Here are six of them from the front and the back. The back matters for a knight, because a cloak, a tabard or a dark-steel spine is what your squad sees when you lead the charge.

Armour palettes

Four of the knights are plate from neck to boots, each in a different metal. Iron Knight is cool grey steel with a lighter highlight strip down the chest, darker edges and a dark belt. Gilded Knight is gold-toned plate with a red buckle and a red crest running over the top of the helm. Dark Steel Knight is near-black plate with a violet sheen in the visor slit and buckle, a nod to the darkest armour in the game without copying its texture. Black Knight is matte black with a red glow in the visor and a red sash across the chest.

White Paladin is the bright one: pale enamelled steel with gold edging on the belt and helm, and gold-toned boots. If you want to be spotted across a battlefield, pick the paladin or the gold. If you'd rather blend into a night raid, pick the dark steel or the black.

Helmet on or face showing

A closed helm makes you anonymous: nobody can see your face, only the visor. An open helm keeps the armour but shows your eyes and expression, which matters for roleplay and for being recognised by friends. Iron Knight (Helm Down) and Iron Knight (Face Showing) are the same armour with different helmets so you can compare. Royal Guard and White Paladin also wear open helms, as does Dwarf Warrior, while the other plate knights close theirs.

The trick is in the skin's two layers. The face is painted on the base layer of the head, and the helmet is painted on the outer hat layer. The game draws that layer one pixel larger than the head, so a painted helmet sits slightly proud of the face, like real metal. Delete the hat layer in any pixel editor and the knight takes the helm off. The chart shows exactly how the two layers stack.

Dwarves and rangers

Not every member of a medieval party wears full plate. Dwarf Miner has a braided ginger beard that spills down the chest, an iron cap, a leather work apron with a belt and heavy boots. Dwarf Warrior is the fighting cousin: steel plate, a forked black beard and a helm with two little horns. Beards are the key to a dwarf skin, and they work best long. Running the beard from the face onto the top of the body makes a short skin read as stocky.

Forest Ranger is the scout who rides ahead: a green hood, a green tunic, leather bracers and a bow strap across the chest. Squire is the knight-in-training, with a padded tan gambeson, a leather belt and no helmet yet. Tabard Knight wears steel plate under a white tabard with a red cross band and a leather belt. Together they let a group cover a whole castle's staff instead of five identical tin cans.

Shading metal on a skin

Metal looks like metal when it has three tones and one bright edge. Every plate knight here uses the same recipe. A base colour fills each piece. A lighter strip, about 20% brighter, runs down one side of the chest and across the shoulders where light would catch. A darker tone, about 30% darker, sits on the opposite edge and in the joints, and a much darker tone, about half the base brightness, marks the belt and the gaps between plates.

The sides of the arms and legs are slightly darker than the front, so the body reads as rounded rather than flat. To make your own, pick a mid-grey and build the lighter and darker steps from it, then repeat the same pattern on gauntlets and greaves. Our guide to designing your own Minecraft skin covers layers and the template if you're starting from a blank sheet.

Which knight for which build

For a castle or kingdom server, give the guards matching gear. Royal Guard on the gates, Tabard Knights on the walls and the Iron Knight as the captain, wearing the open helm so everyone knows who's giving orders. A dark fortress build calls for the Black Knight or Dark Steel Knight, ideally with the closed helm, since a hidden face reads as a villain. For the monsters outside the walls, our zombie and skeleton skins can fill the other side.

For an adventuring party, mix roles instead of metals. The White Paladin works as the healer, the Forest Ranger as the scout, a Dwarf Warrior as the tank and the Squire for the newest player in the group. Mining-themed servers and underground builds are where the Dwarf Miner belongs. For a single screenshot, the Gilded Knight has the most contrast against grass, stone or snow.

Armour vs your skin in-game

A painted knight and real in-game armour aren't the same thing. When you equip a helmet, chestplate, leggings or boots, the game draws that armour as its own model around your character, and it covers the skin in that spot. A knight skin under a full diamond set mostly disappears. That's why knight skins look best when you leave the armour slots empty for screenshots, build sessions and roleplay. When you do wear armour, an open-helm skin is the better pick, because your painted face shows again as soon as you take the helmet off.

A skin is purely cosmetic. A painted helmet doesn't protect you, and real armour still does whatever skin you wear. Pair a knight skin with a castle build and the cool Minecraft skins locker has darker, edgier looks for the opposing army.

Free originals or a Marketplace pack?

These knights are flat 64×64 skins, so the helmets and plates are paint on the standard player model, not extra geometry. Bedrock's Marketplace sells medieval and knight packs from creator studios, and some add 3D crests, capes or props a flat skin can't. They cost Minecoins at prices that change, so we don't quote them. If you're on a console, where you can't import a PNG, a paid pack is the practical route, and the official Minecraft Marketplace lists them. We earn a small referral fee on purchases through that link; you pay the normal price.

To wear one of the free knights on Java, upload the PNG in the Minecraft Launcher's Skins tab or on your minecraft.net profile. On Bedrock for Windows or mobile, import it from the Dressing Room's Classic Skins tab. The install walkthrough has both editions step by step.