Looking for the ultimate Minecraft enchantments? These magical enhancements are absolutely crucial for getting the most out of your tools and weapons. Given their cost and varying effectiveness, knowing which enchantments to prioritize is key as you delve deeper into your survival adventures. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know.
A video guide demonstrating Minecraft enchantments is available for visual learners.
Even with top-tier Minecraft Netherite tools and the strongest armor, enchantments offer vital protection and utility. The right enchantments can significantly boost your mining speed, prevent your tools from breaking prematurely, and even increase your chances of finding precious diamonds. You can apply them using an enchanting table or by combining an enchanted book with an item at an anvil, but acquiring specific enchantments can be a challenging endeavor.
This comprehensive guide covers a lot, so feel free to navigate directly to the sections you’re most interested in:
- All Minecraft Enchantments
- The Best Minecraft Enchantments
- Understanding Minecraft Enchanting
- Items You Can Enchant
- Crafting and Using an Enchanting Table (including how to get better enchantments)
- The Mystery of Minecraft’s Enchanting Language
All Minecraft Enchantments Uncovered
Here is a list of all the current Minecraft enchantments:
- Aqua Affinity
Increases your mining rate while underwater. Applies to helmets. - Bane of Arthropods (I – V)
Increases damage to arthropods (spiders, bees, silverfish, endermites). Mutually exclusive with Smite and Sharpness. Applies to swords. - Blast Protection (I – IV)
Reduces damage from explosions. Mutually exclusive with Protection, Fire Protection, and Projectile Protection. Applies to armor. - Breach (I – IV)
Reduces the effectiveness of the target’s armor by 15% per level of enchantment. Mutually exclusive with Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Density, Sharpness, and Impaling. Applies only to the mace. - Channeling
Channels a bolt of lightning towards an entity you’ve hit – only works during thunderstorms. Mutually exclusive with Riptide. Applies to tridents. - Curse of Binding
Prevents removal of items. Applies to armor, elytra, and mob heads. - Curse of Vanishing
Item destroyed on death. Applies to all weapons, tools, and armor. - Depth Strider (I – III)
Move faster underwater. Mutually exclusive with Frost Walker. Applies to boots. - Density (I – V)
Increases the mace’s smash attack damage by 0.25 hearts per blocks fallen, per level of enchantment. Incompatible with Smite, Bane of Arthropods, and Breach. Applies only to the mace. - Efficiency (I – V)
Mine faster. Applies to tools. - Feather Falling (I – IV)
Take less fall damage. Applies to boots. - Fire Aspect (I – II)
Sets the target on fire (killing animals drops cooked meat). Applies to swords. - Fire Protection (I – IV)
Take less fire damage. Mutually exclusive with Blast Protection, Protection, and Projectile Protection. Applies to armor. - Flame
Arrows set the target on fire. Applies to bows. - Fortune (I – III)
Increases the number of drops from a block. Mutually exclusive with Silk Touch. Applies to tools. - Frost Walker (I – II)
Turns water beneath you into frosted ice, which explains why this is mutually exclusive with Depth Strider. Applies to boots. - Impaling (I – V)
Deal more damage to ocean mobs. Applies to tridents. - Infinity
Consume no arrows when firing your bow. Mutually exclusive with Mending. Applies to bows. - Knockback (I – II)
Knocks enemies back upon a successful hit. Applies to swords. - Looting (I – III)
Get more loot from mobs. Applies to swords. - Loyalty (I – III)
Your Minecraft Trident returns after you throw it. Mutually exclusive with Riptide. Applies only to tridents. - Luck of the Sea (I – III)
Higher chance of catching treasure items when fishing. Applies to fishing rods. - Lure (I – III)
Faster fishing. Applies to fishing rods. - Mending
Repair items using experience. Mutually exclusive with Infinity. Applies to all durable weapons, tools, and armor. - Multishot
Fire three arrows at once, while only consuming one arrow. Mutually exclusive with Piercing. Applies to bows. - Piercing (I – IV)
Arrows can go through two targets. Mutually exclusive with Multishot. Applies to bows. - Power (I – V)
Deal more damage with arrows. Applies to bows. - Projectile Protection (I – IV)
Take less damage from projectiles. Mutually exclusive with Blast Protection, Fire Protection, and Protection. Applies to armor. - Protection (I – IV)
Reduces damage taken from most sources. Mutually exclusive with Blast Protection, Fire Protection, and Projectile Protection. Applies to armor. - Punch (I – II)
Hitting enemies with arrows knocks them back. Applies to bows. - Quick Charge (I – III)
Reload your crossbow faster. Applies only to crossbows. - Respiration (I – III)
Swim underwater for longer without needing to resurface. Applies to helmets. - Riptide (I – III)
Throw your trident to teleport with it, and land where it lands. Only works in water or in the rain. Mutually exclusive with Channeling and Loyalty. Applies only to tridents. - Sharpness (I – V)
Deal more damage with sword and axes. Mutually exclusive with Smite and Bane of Arthropods. Applies to swords. - Silk Touch
Mined blocks drop themselves. Mutually exclusive with Fortune. Applies to tools. - Soul Speed (I – III)
Increases walking speed on soul sand and soil blocks. Applies to boots. - Smite (I – V)
Dish out more damage to undead mobs. Mutually exclusive with Sharpness and Bane of Arthropods. Applies to swords. - Sweeping Edge (I – III)
More damage with sweeping attacks, hits multiple enemies. Applies to swords. - Swift Sneak
Allows the player to move quicker while crouched. Can only be obtained from chests in an ancient city. Applies to leggings. - Thorns (I – III)
Deals damage to attackers when they hit you. Applies to armor. - Unbreaking (I – III)
Increases the durability of the enchanted item. Applies to all durable weapons, tools, and armor.
(A YouTube video showcasing various Minecraft enchantment concepts is embedded here.)
Discover the Most Powerful Enchantments
What are the absolute best enchantments to use in Minecraft? While personal preference always plays a role, certain enchantments are universally beneficial and should be a priority for any player.
Mending stands out as arguably the most useful enchantment, particularly for frequently used tools and weapons. Constant wear and tear can be costly in terms of resources, with repair costs escalating over time. Mending repairs your equipped item simply by picking up experience bubbles. This means every time you defeat a mob, the XP orbs generated will immediately mend the weapon you just used. Remember to switch to your pickaxe before collecting XP to keep it in prime condition!
Complementing Mending, Unbreaking significantly boosts your item’s durability, allowing for longer periods of use before any repairs are needed.
For weapons, it’s generally more efficient to opt for a broad enchantment like maxed-out Sharpness or Power rather than specialized ones like Smite or Impaling. This provides an overall damage buff, eliminating the need to carry multiple weapons for different enemy types. For tools, Mending and Unbreaking are essential, alongside Efficiency and Fortune.
Finally, when considering the best Minecraft armor enchantments, always aim for Feather Falling on your boots to minimize fall damage, and maxed-out Protection across all your armor pieces for comprehensive defense.
What is Enchanting in Minecraft?
If you’ve gathered all the necessary tools for survival in Minecraft but still feel like you could wield more power, it’s time to consider an enchanting table. These unique blocks grant powerful (and sometimes peculiar) magical abilities to your weapons and armor. However, predicting the exact effect you’ll receive can be a delightful mystery.
Which Items Can Be Enchanted?
Enchantments can be applied to a wide array of items in Minecraft. Broadly, the categories of items you can enchant include armor, tools, weapons, and books.
(An image displays anvils used for Minecraft enchanting and repairing, featuring a sword with multiple enchantments.)
How to Enchant Your Items in Minecraft
There are three primary methods for enchanting items in Minecraft:
- Use a Minecraft enchanting table, exchanging experience points and lapis lazuli to apply one of up to three randomly generated enchantments to an item.
- At a Minecraft anvil, combine an enchanted book with an unenchanted item for an experience cost.
- At an anvil, combine two enchanted items to create one item with two enchantments.
Alternatively, you might occasionally acquire enchanted items by trading emeralds with Minecraft piglins or villagers. There’s also a chance to find enchanted items while fishing, or as drops from defeating zombies, drowned, zombie pigmen, husks, strays, wither skeletons, or skeletons. Enchanted items can also be discovered as loot in end cities.
If you play on Bedrock Edition, you can obtain enchanted items by slaying pillager and vindicator enemies during a raid. Of course, you could always use Minecraft console commands and cheats to simplify the process.
(An image illustrates the crafting recipe for a Minecraft enchanting table.)
Crafting Your Enchantment Table
To construct an enchantment table in Minecraft, you’ll need four obsidian blocks, two diamonds, and one book. Open your crafting menu and place three obsidian blocks along the bottom row, with a fourth in the center of the grid. Position the Minecraft diamonds on either side of the central obsidian, and complete the recipe by placing the book in the middle of the top row. An enchanting table will then appear on the right; simply drag and drop it into your inventory.
Using Your Enchanting Table
Once your enchanting table is placed, interact with it to open its interface. On the left, you can place lapis lazuli and the item you wish to enchant. On the right, you’ll see a selection of random enchantments, displayed in a cryptic language. Hovering over one of these glyphs will provide a hint about a potential enchantment.
(An image shows a Minecraft enchantment book resting in a player’s inventory.)
Unlocking Higher-Level Enchantments
Minecraft enchantments generally scale with your experience level, so don’t expect the most powerful enchantments if you craft a table early in your game. You can significantly boost your enchantment level by surrounding your enchanting table with bookshelves, maintaining a one-block buffer zone around it. To access the highest-tier enchantments, you’ll need a full border of 15 bookshelves. If space is limited, you can create a second row of bookshelf blocks.
If you don’t have a specific item to enchant, you can create an enchanted book, effectively saving the enchantment for later use. As for influencing the enchantment options, there isn’t much you can do directly, as choices are based on your experience level, enchantment seed, and item type. You can subtly alter the displayed options by temporarily reducing the number of connected bookshelves, though this won’t change the underlying possibilities.
The most effective strategy for building a max-enchanted weapon is to collect enchanted books. With access to high-level enchantments, keep enchanting books until you have a selection of max-level enchantments. Then, take your desired item and the enchanted books to an anvil and combine them. Detailed video guides exist to help you achieve max enchantments on various items.
(An image shows the Minecraft enchanting table user interface, displaying three enchantment options written in the un-translatable enchanting language.)
The Mysterious Minecraft Enchanting Language
The cryptic text seen on the Minecraft enchanting table is actually known as the Standard Galactic Alphabet, originating from the game Commander Keen. Many tools exist to translate these letters, but the translated words bear no relation to the actual enchantment you receive; it’s merely a fun easter egg. So, while you can translate the enchanting language in Minecraft, it won’t reveal which enchantment you’ll get. For instance, the text next to Efficiency I might translate to something like ‘Self, stale, short’!
And there you have it – everything you need to know about Minecraft enchantments. Now, go forth and level up your enchanted Netherite armor, perhaps even with some cool armor trims. You can also enchant your Minecraft shield with different enchantments to boost your defense in battle, or adorn it with custom Minecraft banners to truly show off your style.