Minecraft Enchanting Guide: Getting the Best Enchantments

Enchanting is a powerful mechanic in Minecraft that allows you to add special abilities, known as enchantments, to your tools, weapons, and armor. These enhancements can significantly improve your efficiency, combat prowess, and overall survivability in the sometimes harsh world of Minecraft. Mastering the enchanting system is key to progressing into the late game and tackling tougher challenges like the Wither or the Ender Dragon, exploring dangerous Nether biomes, or efficiently gathering rare resources. Fully enchanted gear provides a substantial advantage, making difficult tasks more manageable and opening up new gameplay possibilities, such as rapid underwater exploration or effortless flight with Elytra.

Methods of Enchanting

There are several ways to obtain enchanted gear in Minecraft, each with its own advantages and requirements:

1. Enchanting Table: This is the primary method for enchanting items, accessible relatively early in the game once you have diamonds and obsidian. It uses your accumulated experience levels and lapis lazuli as currency. The process involves placing an item in the table, adding 1-3 pieces of lapis depending on the enchantment chosen, and selecting one of three offered enchantments, each with a different experience level cost. The higher the cost, generally the better the potential enchantments, with Level 30 offering the highest chance for multiple powerful enchantments. The enchantments offered are semi-random, determined by a complex formula involving the item type, material, the number of nearby bookshelves influencing the available enchantment level, and a hidden player-specific enchantment seed. While the glyphs displayed in the interface are cosmetic (loosely based on the Standard Galactic Alphabet), hovering over an enchantment option will reveal one guaranteed enchantment you will receive, though you may often receive additional bonus enchantments, especially at higher levels.
2. Anvil: Anvils serve multiple vital purposes beyond just enchanting, including repairing items and renaming them. For enchanting, you can combine two enchanted items of the same type and material to merge their enchantments. If both items have the same enchantment at the same level, the resulting item might gain the next level up (e.g., combining two Sharpness II swords can yield a Sharpness III sword, up to the enchantment's maximum level). More commonly, anvils are used to apply Enchanted Books to items. Enchanted Books contain specific enchantments and can be applied to any compatible gear (check the wiki for compatibility lists). This method gives you much greater control over the final enchantments on an item, allowing you to meticulously craft the perfect tool or armor piece. However, each use of the anvil costs experience levels, and this cost increases significantly based on the quality and number of enchantments being applied, as well as the "prior work penalty" – how many times the item has previously been modified in an anvil. Anvils are also the only way to apply treasure enchantments like Mending, Frost Walker, Soul Speed, Curse of Binding, and Curse of Vanishing, which cannot be obtained directly from an enchanting table. Remember that anvils themselves take damage with each use (falling anvils also damage entities and blocks below) and will eventually degrade through 'Very Damaged' and 'Damaged' states before breaking entirely after an average of 25 uses. It's wise to have a steady supply of iron for crafting new anvils. Repairing items on an anvil typically uses raw materials (e.g., diamonds to repair a diamond sword) and also costs experience, making Mending a far more sustainable option long-term.
3. Villager Trading: Librarian villagers (identified by their lectern workstation and often wearing glasses and book-themed robes) offer trades for Enchanted Books in exchange for emeralds and, sometimes, books. This is often considered the most reliable and efficient way to get specific high-level enchantments, especially treasure enchantments like Mending or powerful standards like Protection IV, Sharpness V, or Efficiency V. The process involves locating a village or curing zombie villagers, placing a lectern to assign the librarian profession, and checking their initial trades. If you haven't traded with the villager yet, breaking and replacing their lectern workstation during their working hours will cause them to "re-roll" their available trades, allowing you to cycle through potential book offers until you find the one you desire. Once you trade with them, their trades become locked permanently. Leveling up the librarian by performing trades (usually buying bookshelves or selling paper/books) unlocks higher tiers with potentially more valuable book offers. Curing a zombie villager (by splashing them with a Potion of Weakness and then feeding them a Golden Apple) before trading provides significant permanent discounts on their trades, making obtaining multiple books much cheaper. Setting up a villager trading hall with multiple librarians, potentially cured ones, is a common and highly effective strategy for acquiring a complete library of desired enchantments. Keep in mind villager prices can fluctuate based on demand and the player's reputation within the village.
4. Loot: Enchanted items, ranging from slightly damaged leather armor to powerful diamond gear and enchanted books, can often be found as treasure scattered throughout the Minecraft world. Exploring generated structures is key: Desert Pyramids and Jungle Temples often contain basic enchanted books or gear. Dungeons (mob spawners) have a chance for enchanted books, including treasure ones occasionally. Mineshafts, Shipwrecks, and Buried Treasure chests frequently hold enchanted items or books. More dangerous structures yield better rewards: Nether Fortresses can contain enchanted gear and books suited for Nether exploration. Bastion Remnants are prime locations for high-level enchanted gear (often gold, sometimes diamond) and unique items like Pigstep music discs or Netherite upgrade templates, but are heavily guarded by Piglins. End Cities, found after defeating the Ender Dragon, offer the highest probability of finding top-tier enchanted diamond armor and tools, often with multiple enchantments including Mending. Fishing also provides a chance (~5% base chance, increased by Luck of the Sea) to yield enchanted books or bows as "treasure" catches. Certain hostile mobs, like Skeletons, Strays, Zombies, Husks, Drowned, Zombified Piglins, Vindicators, Piglins (when bartering or angered), and Pillagers, can sometimes spawn wearing or wielding enchanted gear, particularly on higher regional difficulty levels. They have a small chance (8.5%, increased by Looting enchantment) of dropping this gear upon death if killed by the player or a tamed wolf. Raid drops in the Bedrock Edition can also include items with specific enchantments, sometimes even Mending.

Setting Up an Enchanting Area

To access the highest tier of enchantments (Level 30) using an enchanting table, you need to empower it with bookshelves. Here’s the optimal and standard setup:

1. Place exactly 15 bookshelves arranged around the enchanting table. The most common and space-efficient layout is creating a 5x5 square footprint on the floor. Place the enchanting table in the exact center (position 3,3 if you imagine coordinates from 1,1 to 5,5). Place bookshelves along two full sides and wrap around the adjacent sides, leaving the corners empty. For example, fill blocks (1,2) to (1,5), (5,2) to (5,5), (2,1), (3,1), (4,1), (2,5), (3,5), and (4,5). The bookshelves can be placed one block high or stacked two blocks high; only the 15 closest valid bookshelf blocks count.
2. Ensure there is a one-block air gap horizontally between the table and the ring of bookshelves. This path must be completely clear. Any block occupying the space between the table and a bookshelf – even non-solid blocks like torches, carpets, snow layers, string, buttons, levers, pressure plates, or decorative heads – will obstruct the magical connection and prevent that bookshelf from contributing power. You can visually confirm if a bookshelf is properly connected by observing if magical glyph particles occasionally float from the bookshelf towards the enchanting table. If you don't have access to level 30 enchantments despite having 15 shelves, meticulously check these air gaps for obstructions.
3. To perform a Level 30 enchantment, you must have accumulated at least 30 experience levels. Crucially, performing the enchantment will only consume 3 experience levels and 3 Lapis Lazuli. However, the game requires you to possess the full 30 levels to even make the option available.
4. You will also need 3 pieces of Lapis Lazuli placed in the dedicated slot in the enchanting table interface for a Level 30 enchantment. The middle option typically costs 2 levels and 2 lapis (requiring around level 15-20 to unlock), and the top option costs 1 level and 1 lapis (requiring minimal levels).

Building a dedicated enchanting room not only centralizes this function but also adds to your base's ambiance. Consider incorporating lighting thoughtfully (glowstone or shroomlights in the floor/ceiling work well without obstructing shelves), using decorative blocks for the floor and walls, and perhaps adding storage for lapis, books, and items awaiting enchantment. Ensure easy access to an Anvil and perhaps a Grindstone nearby to create a complete enchanting workshop.

Enchantment Strategy

Getting the perfect set of enchantments requires a mix of strategy, resource management, and often a bit of luck or patience:

1. Always enchant at level 30 whenever possible for your primary gear or important books. While lower-level enchantments are cheaper, they offer significantly weaker or fewer enchantments. Level 30 provides the highest probability of receiving multiple beneficial enchantments, potentially including high-tier ones like Efficiency IV/V or Protection IV, saving you resources in the long run compared to combining many low-level items.
2. Use books for precision and safety. Enchanting books directly (crafted with 1 leather and 3 paper) using the enchanting table, especially when you have a good XP farm, is often a safer and more efficient long-term strategy than enchanting your valuable diamond or netherite gear directly. This allows you to collect specific enchantments without risking undesirable ones (like Bane of Arthropods on a main sword) ending up on your best equipment. You can stockpile useful books and discard or grind down unwanted ones. Then, carefully combine the desired books onto your chosen item using an anvil. This grants maximum control over the final enchantment set, though it can become very expensive in terms of experience levels due to the anvil's cumulative prior work penalty.
3. Check the preview and reset if needed. When you place an enchantable item in the enchanting table, one potential enchantment will be revealed in the interface tooltip (though you might receive others in addition). If you don't like the revealed enchantment (e.g., getting Silk Touch previewed when you want Fortune III on your main pickaxe), do not perform the enchant. Instead, enchant a different, cheap item – a wooden shovel, a stone pickaxe, or most commonly, a single book – at the lowest level option (Level 1 cost, requires 1 level and 1 lapis). This action consumes minimal resources but effectively "resets" or cycles the enchantment options offered for all other items based on your player's enchantment seed. Place your original desired item back in the table and check the new preview. Repeat this low-level "dummy" enchantment process until you see a desirable enchantment previewed for your target item at level 30.
4. Combine like enchantments carefully to minimize XP cost. Use an anvil to combine items or books with the same enchantment to increase its level (e.g., Efficiency IV book + Efficiency IV book = Efficiency V book, or Protection III helmet + Protection III book = Protection IV helmet). Be acutely aware of the "prior work penalty" – each time an item is modified on an anvil (repairing, enchanting, renaming), its internal cost counter increases, making subsequent anvil uses progressively more expensive in terms of experience levels. To minimize this accumulation and avoid reaching the "Too Expensive!" limit (which prevents further anvil work on that specific item, usually after about 6-7 anvil operations), plan your combinations strategically. It's generally far cheaper XP-wise to combine books first to create the highest possible level books (e.g., combine four Sharpness III books into two Sharpness IV books, then combine those into one Sharpness V book) and then apply that final high-level book to the item, rather than applying multiple lower-level books sequentially to the item itself. When applying multiple different enchantment books to an item, try to apply the books with the highest penalty or highest level cost first.
5. Be aware of incompatible enchantments. Certain enchantments are mutually exclusive and cannot exist on the same item simultaneously. Knowing these conflicts prevents wasting resources:
   • Swords/Axes: Sharpness, Smite (vs undead), Bane of Arthropods (vs spiders, silverfish, endermites, bees).
   • Armor: Protection, Fire Protection, Blast Protection, Projectile Protection (only one type per piece).
   • Tools (Pickaxe, Shovel, Axe, Hoe): Fortune (more drops) and Silk Touch (mine block itself).
   • Bows: Mending (XP repair) and Infinity (unlimited arrows from one).
   • Crossbows: Multishot (3 arrows spread) and Piercing (arrows pass through mobs).
   • Tridents: Loyalty (returns when thrown) and Riptide (propels player in water/rain).
   • Boots: Depth Strider (faster underwater) and Frost Walker (freezes water). Choose the enchantment that best suits the intended use of the item and your playstyle. Often, having multiple specialized tools (e.g., a Fortune pickaxe and a Silk Touch pickaxe) is ideal.
6. Utilize the Grindstone for disenchanting. The Grindstone (crafted with 2 sticks, 1 stone slab, 2 wood planks) serves two main purposes: repairing non-enchanted items (combining two damaged items) and disenchanting. Placing a single enchanted item in either input slot of the Grindstone UI and retrieving it from the output slot will remove all non-curse enchantments (Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing cannot be removed this way). This process refunds a small amount of experience based on the value and level of the enchantments removed (though significantly less than the enchanting cost). Crucially, using the Grindstone also removes any prior work penalty accumulated from previous anvil uses, effectively resetting the item's anvil cost, making future anvil modifications cheaper. This is useful for repurposing enchanted loot found in the world, removing unwanted enchantments obtained from the table, or fixing an item that has become "Too Expensive!" on the anvil (though you lose all existing enchantments). It does not refund the lapis lazuli used for enchanting.

Best Enchantments by Item Type

While specific needs may vary based on playstyle and current objectives, here are generally considered the best or "god-tier" enchantments for common items, assuming access to all necessary resources (like books and levels):

• Sword (Diamond or Netherite):
  • Sharpness V: Best general damage increase against all mobs. (Mutually exclusive with Smite V - best for undead farms, and Bane of Arthropods V - niche use for spider farms).
  • Looting III: Significantly increases mob drops (rare drops, more items), essential for resource gathering.
  • Sweeping Edge III (Java Edition only): Massively increases damage dealt by sweep attacks (when attack meter is full), crucial for crowd control. Bedrock Edition doesn't have sweep attacks, making this enchant unavailable.
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability by effectively quadrupling the item's uses before damage applies.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP, making it essentially last forever with an XP source. (Treasure enchantment).
  • Optional but Recommended: Fire Aspect II (sets target on fire, cooks animal drops, but can be risky with Endermen or if you take fire damage). Knockback II (pushes mobs away; useful for creepers or spacing, but can hinder damage dealing or mob farms).
• Pickaxe (Diamond or Netherite):
  • Efficiency V: Drastically increases mining speed. Essential for any serious mining.
  • Fortune III / Silk Touch: Must choose one. Fortune III maximizes drops from ores (diamonds, emeralds, lapis, coal, redstone, nether quartz, nether gold) and crops. Silk Touch allows mining the block itself (stone, ore blocks, glass, grass, bookshelves, coral blocks, etc.). It's highly recommended to have two primary pickaxes: one with Fortune III and one with Silk Touch. (Mutually exclusive).
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment). Essential for expensive pickaxes.
• Axe (Diamond or Netherite - doubles as tool and weapon):
  • Sharpness V / Smite V / Bane of Arthropods V: Increases damage (Axes deal higher base damage but slower swing speed than swords in Java Edition; Sharpness recommended for general use/PvP).
  • Efficiency V: Increases speed of chopping wood and breaking other wooden items (logs, planks, crafting tables, etc.). Also affects breaking speed of melons, pumpkins.
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment).
  • Optional Tool Choice: Fortune III / Silk Touch. Fortune increases drops like saplings/apples from leaves, seeds from crops. Silk Touch allows collecting blocks like bookshelves, mushroom blocks, or bee nests with bees inside. An axe dedicated to combat might skip this, while a utility axe benefits greatly. (Mutually exclusive).
• Shovel (Diamond or Netherite):
  • Efficiency V: Significantly increases digging speed for dirt, sand, gravel, clay, snow, soul sand/soil.
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment).
  • Optional Tool Choice: Silk Touch (for collecting grass blocks, podzol, mycelium, snow blocks, clay blocks) or Fortune III (maximizes chance of getting flint from gravel - 100% at Fortune III). Silk Touch is generally more versatile. (Mutually exclusive).
• Armor (Helmet, Chestplate, Leggings, Boots) (Diamond or Netherite):
  • Protection IV: Reduces most types of damage (melee, projectiles, fire, blast, fall, magic, etc.) by 16% per piece, capping at 80% total reduction. This is the best general-purpose protection. (Mutually exclusive with Fire/Blast/Projectile Protection). While specialized protection offers higher reduction against specific sources (e.g., Fire Prot IV gives 32% fire reduction per piece), stacking Protection IV on all four pieces provides excellent, broad coverage and is generally recommended unless building highly specialized sets (e.g., for Wither fights or fire immunity).
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability on all pieces.
  • Mending: Repairs the items using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment). Essential for maintaining expensive armor.
  • Helmet Specific: Respiration III (extends underwater breathing time by +45 seconds), Aqua Affinity I (removes the penalty for mining speed underwater). Both are crucial for underwater work.
  • Boots Specific: Feather Falling IV (massively reduces fall damage, up to 80% reduction at level IV), Depth Strider III (increases underwater movement speed significantly; mutually exclusive with Frost Walker), Soul Speed III (greatly increases movement speed on Soul Sand and Soul Soil; treasure enchantment found in Bastion Remnants or via Piglin bartering). Frost Walker II (creates temporary frosted ice blocks when walking over water, useful for crossing water bodies but can destroy crops/water sources; mutually exclusive with Depth Strider, treasure enchantment). Feather Falling is almost mandatory; choose between Depth Strider (general underwater speed) or Soul Speed (Nether travel) based on need.
  • Optional/Situational: Thorns III (damages attackers when hit, but rapidly drains armor durability even with Unbreaking and significantly increases future anvil costs; generally not recommended for primary gear due to the repair hassle unless XP is trivially abundant). Curse of Binding (item cannot be removed once equipped, only on death; treasure/loot only). Curse of Vanishing (item disappears on death instead of dropping; treasure/loot only).
• Bow:
  • Power V: Massively increases arrow damage. The core offensive bow enchantment.
  • Infinity I / Mending: Choose one. Infinity allows shooting infinite arrows as long as you have at least one arrow in your inventory (does not work with tipped/spectral arrows). Mending repairs the bow with XP but requires a supply of arrows. Infinity is excellent for general exploration and early-to-mid game. Mending becomes superior late-game when XP farms are established and arrows are easily obtainable (e.g., villager trading, large skeleton farms, chicken farms for feathers). (Mutually exclusive).
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Flame I: Arrows set targets on fire, dealing extra damage over time and cooking animal drops.
  • Optional: Punch II (increases arrow knockback; useful for spacing but can make hitting targets harder).
• Crossbow:
  • Quick Charge III: Significantly decreases loading time, making it much more viable in combat.
  • Multishot I / Piercing IV: Choose one. Multishot fires three arrows for the cost of one in a horizontal spread (only the central arrow can be retrieved). Great for crowd control or hitting multiple targets. Piercing IV allows arrows to pass through up to four entities, hitting multiple mobs lined up and bypassing shields. Piercing is often preferred for its utility against multiple foes or shielded Pillagers. Fireworks can be used as ammo with Multishot for AoE damage. (Mutually exclusive).
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment). Essential due to the relatively low base durability of crossbows.
• Trident: A unique weapon obtained from Drowned, with exclusive enchantments.
  • Impaling V: Increases damage against aquatic mobs (all mobs that spawn naturally in water). In Java Edition, it also increases damage against any mob standing in water or rain, making it very powerful in specific conditions.
  • Loyalty III / Riptide III: Choose one based on intended use. Loyalty makes the trident automatically return after being thrown (higher levels return faster). Essential for a throwable combat trident. Riptide propels the player forward at high speed when thrown while the player is standing in water, swimming, or out in the rain (the trident is not actually thrown as a projectile). Riptide is fantastic for rapid traversal through oceans or during thunderstorms, especially combined with Elytra. (Mutually exclusive).
  • Channeling I: If a thrown trident enchanted with Channeling hits a mob during a thunderstorm, it summons a lightning bolt on the mob. This can be used to create Charged Creepers, transform Villagers into Witches, or Pigs into Zombified Piglins. Only works if the target is exposed to the open sky. Requires Loyalty or manual pickup (cannot function with Riptide). (Treasure enchantment).
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment). Highly recommended due to the rarity of Tridents.
• Fishing Rod:
  • Luck of the Sea III: Increases the chance of catching items in the "treasure" category (enchanted books, bows, saddles, name tags, nautilus shells) and decreases the chance of "junk" (leather boots, bowls, etc.).
  • Lure III: Decreases the maximum wait time for a fish/item to bite, significantly speeding up the fishing process.
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment). Allows for essentially infinite fishing sessions near an XP source.
• Elytra: Cannot be enchanted via table, must use an anvil and enchanted books.
  • Unbreaking III: Massively increases durability, crucial as Elytra degrade quickly during flight.
  • Mending: Repairs the item using collected XP. (Treasure enchantment). Absolutely essential for maintaining Elytra, allowing for sustained flight powered by fireworks as long as XP is gained periodically.
• Shears: Can be enchanted.
  • Efficiency V: Increases speed of breaking wool blocks, leaves, cobwebs.
  • Unbreaking III: Increases durability.
  • Mending: Repairs with XP (Treasure).
  • Silk Touch I: Allows collection of Cobwebs, useful for string farms or decoration. Can be applied via Anvil/Book.
• Flint and Steel / Fire Charge: Can receive Unbreaking and Mending via Anvil/Book, increasing uses significantly.

The Power of Mending

Mending is arguably one of the most game-changing and universally sought-after enchantments in Minecraft. Its ability completely revolutionizes the late-game equipment dynamic, shifting focus from resource consumption for repairs to XP management. Instead of constantly replacing expensive diamond or netherite gear, or spending escalating amounts of XP and materials at an anvil (which eventually caps out with "Too Expensive!"), Mending allows your tools, weapons, and armor to repair themselves passively using the experience orbs you collect.

When you gain XP orbs (from diverse sources like mining ores, smelting items, killing mobs, breeding animals, trading with villagers, fishing, or using a grindstone), and you have an item equipped or held (in armor slots, main hand, or off-hand) that has the Mending enchantment and is not fully repaired, the XP orb will be consumed to restore durability instead of adding to your experience level bar. The conversion rate is fixed: 1 experience point repairs 2 durability points. If you have multiple damaged items with Mending equipped or held when you collect an XP orb, the game randomly selects one of those damaged items to receive the repair points from that specific orb. This means if all your Mending gear is damaged, the XP you collect gets distributed somewhat evenly among them over time, but not simultaneously. If only one Mending item is damaged, it receives all the repair XP until it's fully repaired, after which XP will go to your level bar or other damaged Mending items.

This mechanic makes high-yield XP farms (such as Enderman farms based on Endermite lures, large-scale guardian farms, efficient mob grinders using spawners or dark rooms, gold farms utilizing Zombified Piglins in the Nether, or even simple furnace arrays for smelting kelp or cactus) incredibly valuable assets in the late game. They provide a rapid and renewable way to fully repair even heavily damaged netherite gear very quickly, ensuring your best equipment is always ready for action. However, Mending is a treasure enchantment, meaning you absolutely cannot obtain it directly from an enchanting table, regardless of level or bookshelves. Your only reliable options for acquiring Mending are:

• Fishing: A low chance (~0.8% with Luck of the Sea III) as a treasure category catch. Very luck-dependent.
• Chest Loot: Can be found as an enchanted book in chests within generated structures like Dungeons, Mineshafts, Desert Temples, Jungle Temples, Strongholds, Villages (libraries), Woodland Mansions, Shipwrecks, Buried Treasure, Nether Fortresses, Bastion Remnants, and especially End Cities. Still relies heavily on exploration luck.
• Trading with Librarian Villagers: By far the most consistent and farmable method. Requires setting up a villager, assigning the librarian profession with a lectern, and re-rolling their trades (by breaking/replacing the lectern before locking trades) until Mending is offered. Curing zombie villagers significantly reduces the emerald cost.
• Raid Drops (Bedrock Edition only): Pillagers and Vindicators participating in village raids have a small chance to drop items enchanted with Mending. Not a primary acquisition strategy due to randomness and difficulty.

Due to its immense utility in preserving top-tier, potentially irreplaceable gear (like uniquely acquired Tridents or fully "god-rolled" netherite items), securing a reliable source of Mending books, typically through establishing a dedicated villager trading setup, is a major progression milestone for any Minecraft player aiming for sustainable, end-game gameplay and equipment. While it requires an initial investment in setting up villager infrastructure, the long-term benefits of easily accessible Mending vastly outweigh the effort.