Minecraft enchanting is very important if you want to have the best gear and lots of awesome abilities. Enchantments can upgrade your Minecraft tools, granting amazing durability and super-fast mining, and greatly improve your armor. You can become nearly invincible with the best enchanted armor sets and the ability to collect delicate objects without breaking them.
Enchantments are tricky to master though, so here's a detailed guide on Minecraft enchanting mechanics, including how to craft an Enchanting Table, how to use enchantments, and a list of the best enchantments available.
How to build an Enchantment Table in Minecraft
To enchant items in Minecraft, you'll need to build an Enchantment Table. This requires diamonds, obsidian, and a book, which aren't always easy to craft or find. If you've got the required materials, arrange them as they are in the above image - the book at the top, an obsidian block in the middle with a diamond on its left and right, then obsidian blocks to fill the bottom row. Here's exactly what you need and where to look:
- Diamonds x2: Diamonds are found deep underground starting at Y-level 16 and become more common the deeper you go. Read our Minecraft diamonds guide for more information.
- Obsidian Blocks x4: Obsidian can be found naturally in places where flowing water meets static lava, but if you aren't having any luck, you can fill a bucket with water and dump it on a pool of lava to make your own. Obsidian must be mined with a Diamond Pickaxe!
- A book: Can be crafted from three pieces of paper and one piece of leather. Paper is crafted from sugar cane, and leather is primarily obtained as a drop from cows, horses, donkeys, and llamas. You can also find books, or the materials required to craft them, as loot in generated structures such as villages and shipwrecks. As a bonus, books will are a great decoration to make your Minecraft houses look more homely.
- Lapis Lazuli: While not required for the construction of an Enchanting Table, Lapis is integral to applying enchantments to items, so it's best to have some ready! You get Lapis Lazuli from Lapis Lazuli Ore, which is found between Y-level -64 and 64, with Y-level 0 being a likely spot.
How to enchant items in Minecraft
Once you've crafted yourself a Minecraft Enchanting Table and placed it in a suitable location, you'll be able to enchant your tools and armor, provided you've got some Lapis Lazuli and XP levels to spend. Start by placing the item you want to enchant - a Diamond Pickaxe, for example - in the Enchanting Table's first slot.
Convert your enchanted items into Minecraft Netherite tools to make them even better
You'll then be presented with a list of three random enchantment options which are fixed until an item has been enchanted - even taking your item to a different Enchanting Table won't change the list of enchantments. You'll see that each enchantment is of a level equal to or below your current XP level and has an associated Lapis Lazuli and XP cost. The enchantment's level is just a requirement, so you won't lose 30 levels by choosing a level 30 enchantment. You can also enchant a book which effectively saves an enchantment for later.
If you pick one of the enchantments from the list, it'll consume the XP levels and Lapis and give you your now enchanted item back. There's also a chance that additional enchantments can be applied, which is always a nice bonus. However, an item can only be enchanted using a Minecraft Enchanting Table once, so if you want to apply extra enchantments to an enchanted item, you'll need to either use an enchanted book or combine it with another enchanted item using an Anvil.
How to increase enchantment levels in Minecraft
There are a couple of ways to ensure you get better quality enchantments in Minecraft. There is no XP level requirement to start enchanting in Minecraft, but a higher XP-level means you're more likely to get high-tier enchantments. It's worth remembering that these will still be random, so it will involve a lot of trial and error (and patience!) to get the exact enchants you want. To further increase the potential of Minecraft enchantments, you should place bookshelves around your Enchantment Table as this also increases the potency of the enchants it can create.
To maximize the potency of your enchants, you'll need to raise your character to level 30 - the maximum requirement for the best enchantments - and arrange 15 bookshelves around the Enchantment Table. Bookshelves should be positioned two blocks away from the table and on the same height or one block higher and nothing should be placed in between. If the bookshelves do not follow these rules, they won't have any effect.
If you don't have the materials for bookshelves, there's no need to go above level 8 on your character as further levels won't influence the strength of the enchantments produced.
The best enchantments in Minecraft
There are many Minecraft enchantments to discover, and you should experiment with combinations that work for you and your playstyle. With that said, there are some standout enchantments to get that you should definitely prioritize. Here are some of the best ones to look out for for each item that we think is worth enchanting:
Best Minecraft Pickaxe Enchantments
- Unbreaking III: Increases an item's lifespan by giving it a chance to avoid losing durability.
- Efficiency IV: Increases mining speed by 40%. While, this enchantment can reach tier V, we don't feel like it's worth the extra effort needed to reach it, as it can't be done using an Enchanting Table for diamond tools.
- Mending: Uses XP orbs to restore small amounts of durability to an item. This can be handy for prolonging your Pickaxe's lifespan even more, but does mean you'll be sacrificing XP gains. Mending is also a treasure enchantment and can't be obtained from an Enchanting Table
- Fortune III: Allows you to get more item drops than usual from a mined block by adding a chance to receive double, triple, or quadruple the items. This is especially useful for mining rare materials, such as diamonds.
- Silk Touch: Causes certain blocks to drop as themselves rather than their usual dropped resources. This means fragile items, such as Glass blocks, can be mined without breaking.
Note that Silk Touch and Fortune are incompatible so you will need a different Pickaxe for each of those enchantments.
Best Minecraft Sword Enchantments
- Unbreaking III: Increases an item's lifespan by giving it a chance to avoid losing durability.
- Sharpness V: Increases melee attack damage. Essential for a sword!
- Mending: Uses XP orbs to restore small amounts of durability to an item. This can be handy for prolonging your Pickaxe's lifespan even more, but does mean you'll be sacrificing XP gains. Mending is also a treasure enchantment and can't be obtained from an Enchanting Table
- Looting III: Increases the amount of items defeated mobs drop and increases the chances of them being of a higher rarity.
- Swords can also get other combat enchantments such as Fire Aspect II, which sets mobs and other players on fire when they are hit, and Knockback II, which is good for keeping deadly mobs and players out of reach. These are good to have but not essential.
Best Minecraft Shovel Enchantments
- Unbreaking III: Increases an item's lifespan by giving it a chance to avoid losing durability.
- Efficiency IV: Increases mining speed by 40%. While, this enchantment can reach tier V, we don't feel like it's worth the extra effort needed to reach it, as it can't be done using an Enchanting Table for diamond tools.
- Fortune III and Silk Touch are also available on shovels but are much less useful enchantments to have. Fortune will be useful for anyone looking to maximize their stocks of clay or flint.
Silk Touch and Fortune are incompatible so you will need a different Shovel for each of those enchantments.
Best Minecraft Axe Enchantments
- Unbreaking III: Increases an item's lifespan by giving it a chance to avoid losing durability.
- Efficiency IV: Increases mining speed by 40%. While, this enchantment can reach tier V, we don't feel like it's worth the extra effort needed to reach it, as it can't be done using an Enchanting Table for diamond tools.
- Fortune III, Silk Touch, and Sharpness V are also available on axes but are much less useful enchantments to have compared to how much they improve a pickaxe or sword.
Silk Touch and Fortune are incompatible so you will need a different Axe for each of those enchantments. For more info, take a look at how to enchant Minecraft axes.
Best Minecraft Bow Enchantments
- Unbreaking III: Increases an item's lifespan by giving it a chance to avoid losing durability.
- Infinity: A bow with this enchantment does not consume arrows when firing, effectively giving it infinite ammo. However, you do need at least one arrow in your inventory to use the bow, and your bow's durability will still suffer.
- Power V: Increases the damage of fired arrows.
- Some good but non-essential bow enchantments are Flame and Punch II. Flame sets your arrows on fire, causing them to deal fire damage, and Punch II causes mobs and players you hit with an arrow to be knocked back further.
Best Minecraft Fishing Rod Enchantments
- Unbreaking III: Increases an item's lifespan by giving it a chance to avoid losing durability.
- Luck of the Sea III: Increases your luck while fishing, giving you a better chance of finding treasure and a smaller chance of finding junk.
- Lure III: Decreases the wait time for something to bite on the hook.
Best Minecraft Armor Enchantments
Firstly, all of your armor pieces - that's your helmet, chestplate, leggings, and boots - should all have Unbreaking III to maximize their durability. Protection IV is also good to have for even better damage reduction, although this rules out several specific damage reduction enchantments as they are incompatible with each other - Protection, Blast Protection, Projectile Protection, and Fire Protection are all mutually exclusive so it's down to personal preference.
Lastly, Thorns III can also be a good Minecraft enchantment to have for all your armor pieces as it provides a chance for damage to be dealt to mobs and players that deal damage to you. However, Thorns III cannot be obtained from regular Minecraft Enchanting, so you may have to settle for Thorns II. Thorns also causes armor to lose extra durability, so you might have to do a lot of repairing!
A few pieces of armor can get some bonus enchantments that allow you to survive a little better in less hospitable environments: Here are the specific Minecraft armor enchantments that we think are best:
Helmet
- Respiration III: Increases the amount of time you can survive underwater without drowning to one minute. Combine with a Turtle Shell helmet for an additional 10 seconds of underwater survivability.
- Aqua Affinity: Removes the underwater mining speed penalty.
Both of these enchantments are great to have if you're doing a lot of exploring in ocean biomes and trying to plunder shipwrecks and Ocean Monuments
Leggings
- Swift Sneak III: Increases your sneaking speed to 75% of regular walking speed. If you're planning an expedition to the Deep Dark, you'll need this enchantment.
Boots
- Feather Falling IV: Reduces fall damage by 48%. Also stacks with Protection IV for a greater fall damage reduction.
- Depth Strider III: Increases your movement speed in water to normal walking speed on land.
- Frost Walker II: Creates Frosted Ice Blocks under your feet when walking over water to prevent you from falling in. Also makes you immune to damage from Magma Blocks and Campfires if you step on them.
- Soul Speed is another enchantment you can get that allows you to move more quickly on Soul Sand and Soul Soil but, unless you're planning on exploring a lot of the Nether, this isn't an essential enchantment.
Depth Strider and Frost Walker are incompatible so you will need different boots for each of those enchantments.
After getting some Minecraft enchantments for your gear, make your world more enchanting too with the best Minecraft shaders.
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