Minecraft enchantments let you turn normal everyday game tools and armor into powerful items. Whether it’s a bow that fires infinite arrows, a set of boots that freeze water under your feet so you can do your best Jesus impression, or a sword that sets enemies ablaze, enchantments can really enhance your game and increase your chances of survival when delving into the darker and nastier parts of the world. This guide tells you absolutely everything you need to know about them.
For all you Minecraft maniacs out there, we have plenty more guides to help you adventure in the cuboid world: check out the best Minecraft games, where to find Minecraft diamonds, and how to play Minecraft mobile on PC.
Let’s get our magic going and learn more about Minecraft enchantment.
What is a Minecraft enchantment table?
First things first, Minecraft enchantments require an enchantment table – or an anvil if you have enchanted books. To get started, here’s the crafting formula for an Enchantment Table – all you need is a book, two diamonds, and four blocks of obsidian.
You can find obsidian where lava meets water, and you can only mine it with a diamond or netherite pickaxe. We have tips to help you find diamonds and build a pickaxe of your own in our Minecraft diamonds guide!
What are Minecraft enchantment books?
If you’d prefer the anvil route for using Minecraft enchantments, here’s how to make one – place three blocks of iron and four iron ingots into the crafting slots as follows:
Here’s how you get enchanted books to use with that shiny new anvil:
- Looting: enchanted books are available in stronghold and temple chests
- Fishing: though not the fastest way, there is a small chance you can fish an enchanted book as a treasure item
- Enchanting: you can create an enchanted book yourself, using a book and three lapis lazuli. You do need an enchantment table for this, however.
- Trading: librarian villagers can sell you enchanted books for a number of emeralds, based on the enchantment. You can get emeralds in chests, by trading with villages, and by mining emerald ore with an iron pickaxe or better. Emerald ore is often found near lava.
Minecraft axe enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft axe enchantments:
- Smite: better attack against undead
- Efficiency: faster mining
- Unbreaking: better durability
- Silk Touch: mined blocks stay in their original form
- Sharpness: better attack
- Mending: XP mends equipment
- Fortune: increased drops when mining
- Curse of Vanishing: cursed item vanishes after you die
- Bane of Arthropods: better attack against insects
Minecraft sword enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft sword enchantments:
- Bane of Arthropods: better attack against insects
- Mending: XP mends equipment
- Sharpness: better attack
- Smite: better attack against undead
- Unbreaking: better durability
- Fire Aspect: sets target aflame
- Knockback: increases attack knockback
- Sweeping Edge: increases sweeping attack
- Looting: increases loot dropped
Minecraft pickaxe enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft pickaxe enchantments:
- Curse of Vanishing: cursed item vanishes after you die
- Fortune: increased drops when mining
- Efficiency: faster mining
- Unbreaking: better durability
- Mending: XP mends equipment
- Silk Touch: mined blocks stay in their original form
Minecraft bow enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft bow enchantments:
- Infinite: never runs out of arrows
- Flame: fires flaming arrows
- Curse of Vanishing: cursed item vanishes after you die
- Power: increases damage
- Punch: increases knockback
- Unbreaking: better durability
- Mending: XP mends equipment
Minecraft armor enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft armor enchantments and what armor pieces they can be applied to:
- Unbreaking – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – better durability
- Curse of Vanishing – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots -cursed item vanishes after you die
- Mending – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – XP mends equipment
- Aqua Affinity – Helmet – increased underwater mining speed
- Respiration – Helmet – increased underwater breathing duration
- Blast Protection – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – less explosion damage
- Curse of Binding – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – you cannot remove the cursed item
- Fire Protection – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – decreased fire damage
- Depth Strider – Boots – increased underwater movement
- Feather Falling – Boots – decreased fall and teleportation damage
- Projectile Protection – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – decreased projectile damage
- Protection – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – protection against attacks, fire, and falling
- Thorns – Chest plate/helmet/leggings/boots – damage attackers
- Frost Walker – Boots – freezes water under your feet
- Soul Speed – Boots – increased movement over souls sand and soil
Minecraft hoe enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft hoe enchantments:
- Curse of Vanishing: cursed item vanishes after you die
- Mending: XP mends equipment
- Unbreaking: better durability
Minecraft shovel enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft shovel enchantments:
- Efficiency: faster mining
- Fortune: increased drops when mining
- Mending: XP mends equipment
- Silk Touch: mined blocks stay in original form
- Unbreaking: better durability
Minecraft trident enchantments
Here’s our list of Minecraft trident enchantments:
- Loyalty: trident returns to the player once thrown
- Channelling: summons lightning when thrown trident hits a mob
- Riptide: throwing a trident propels the player forward
- Impaling: extra damage against aquatic mobs
- Unbreaking: better durability
- Mending: XP mends equipment
- Curse of Vanishing: cursed item vanishes after you die
What are the best Minecraft enchantments?
Minecraft enchantments can be useful, efficient, and just plain crazy. Here are our best Minecraft enchantments:
- Frost Walker: maybe it’s not the most practical or necessary, but turning water to ice beneath our feet is just too cool
- Silk Touch: when applied to a pickaxe, this enchantment is crazy good in terms of gathering resources
- Infinite: why would you not want to fire infinite arrows? This enchantment lets you fend off entire armies of mobs if you find a good spot to fire from
- Efficiency: let’s face it, Minecraft involves a lot of mining. Why, then, wouldn’t you want to make that process quicker?
- Unbreaking: equipment breaking at inopportune times is a pain, so having a little bit of extra durability is always useful
That’s all the Minecraft enchantments we’ve got! If you’re looking for some other games like Minecraft, be sure to look up our best mobile RPGs list. We can also help you build your dream home with our Minecraft houses guide!