Enchanting transforms your survival experience. A fully enchanted set of gear makes the difference between struggling through the mid-game and absolutely dominating every challenge Minecraft throws at you. This guide covers everything from your first enchanting table setup to sourcing specific enchantments through librarian trading.

How Enchanting Works

You need three things to start enchanting: an Enchanting Table, Lapis Lazuli, and Experience Levels. Right-click the table to open the interface. You will see three options, each requiring a different number of levels. The maximum power enchantments (level 30 options) require 15 bookshelves placed in a specific pattern around the table: one block of air between the table and the bookshelves, in a 5x5 ring formation with the top layer at the same height as the table.

Best Enchantments by Category

Sword

  • Sharpness V — Increases all melee damage. Essential for all content.
  • Looting III — Increases rare drops from mobs. Critical for wither skulls, ender pearls, and rare loot.
  • Unbreaking III — Dramatically increases durability.
  • Mending — Repairs the sword using XP orbs. With this, your sword effectively lasts forever.
  • Sweeping Edge III (Java only) — Boosts sweep attack damage significantly.
  • Fire Aspect II — Sets enemies on fire.

Pickaxe

  • Efficiency V — Dramatically speeds up mining. The single most noticeable enchantment for mining.
  • Fortune III — Multiplies drops from ores, including diamonds (up to 4 per ore).
  • Silk Touch — Collects blocks in their original form. Use this for glass, ice, mushroom blocks, and spawners.
  • Unbreaking III and Mending — For the same reasons as the sword.

Armor (All Pieces)

  • Protection IV — Reduces all incoming damage by a large margin.
  • Unbreaking III and Mending on every piece.
  • Feather Falling IV (Boots only) — Reduces fall damage massively.
  • Thorns III — Damages attackers. Best on the chest plate.
  • Aqua Affinity (Helmet) — Removes mining speed penalty underwater.
  • Respiration III (Helmet) — Extends underwater breathing time.
  • Depth Strider III (Boots) — Increases movement speed underwater.

Bow

  • Power V — Increases arrow damage significantly.
  • Infinity — Gives infinite arrows as long as you carry one.
  • Flame I — Sets targets on fire.
  • Punch II — Knocks enemies back further.
  • Unbreaking III and Mending (if not using Infinity).

Trident

  • Loyalty III — Returns the trident to your hand after throwing it.
  • Channeling — Summons lightning when thrown during a thunderstorm.
  • Riptide III — Launches you through the air when thrown in water or rain.
  • Impaling V — Deals extra damage to aquatic mobs.

How to Get Specific Enchantments

The enchanting table gives random enchantments. To get exactly what you want, use librarian villagers.

Setting Up a Librarian Trading System

  1. Find a village or capture villagers using boats
  2. Place a Lectern near an unemployed villager
  3. Right-click the villager to see their trade — if it is not what you want, break the lectern and replace it
  4. Repeat until you find the enchantment you want (this is called "rolling" trades)
  5. Lock the trade by buying once

Curing Zombie Villagers for Permanent Discounts

This is arguably the most important trick in the game:

  1. Find a zombie villager
  2. Hit it with a Splash Potion of Weakness
  3. Feed it a Golden Apple
  4. Wait about 3-5 minutes for it to cure
  5. The cured villager will offer permanent heavily discounted trades — Mending books can cost as little as 1 emerald

Building Your XP Farm

Without a constant source of experience, you will quickly run out of levels for enchanting and Mending repairs. Build one of these early:

  • Spawner Farm — Find a dungeon with a zombie or skeleton spawner. Channel mobs into a drop shaft and they arrive at your feet with 1 HP. Each kill gives 5 XP.
  • Enderman Farm — Build a platform at Y 128 in The End island. Endermen fall 43+ blocks and die in one punch for 5 XP each. Extremely fast.
  • Smelter XP — Smelting ore gives experience. If you smelt in bulk and pick up everything at once, you can collect hundreds of levels.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Forgetting bookshelves. Without 15 bookshelves, you cannot access level 30 enchantments.
  • Enchanting before Fortune III. Never mine diamonds without Fortune. You lose multiple diamonds per ore without it.
  • Using Silk Touch and Fortune on the same pickaxe. You can only apply one of these. Use two separate pickaxes.
  • Ignoring Mending. Players who skip Mending spend enormous amounts of resources replacing gear.
  • Combining too-damaged items. Every time you combine items on an anvil, the "prior work penalty" increases. Combine at low levels of damage.

Pro Tips

  • Grindstones remove all enchantments and return some XP. Use them to reset unwanted enchanted tools.
  • Enchanted books found in chests, fishing, or from villagers can be combined with tools using an Anvil.
  • When fishing with Luck of the Sea III, you have a much higher chance of catching enchanted books.
  • The Anvil has a 39-level cost cap — if it says "Too Expensive," the combination is impossible. Plan your enchanting order from cheapest to most expensive.

FAQ

Q: What is the most important enchantment to get first? A: Mending. It fundamentally changes how gear works. Once you have Mending on a tool with Unbreaking III, it lasts indefinitely as long as you collect XP.

Q: Can I remove an enchantment I do not want? A: Not selectively. A Grindstone removes all enchantments from a tool. You cannot remove individual enchantments.

Q: How do I get Silk Touch vs. Fortune on demand? A: Roll librarian trades until a villager offers the book you need. Lock that trade and keep the villager as a permanent source.

Conclusion

Enchanting is the final layer of progression in Minecraft survival. Once you have a fully enchanted diamond or netherite set with Mending, the game opens up completely. Start with your enchanting table setup, work toward Fortune III for your diamonds, and then focus on building a librarian trading hall so you can source the exact enchantments you need.

For your next step, check out our Villager Trading Hall guide to learn how to set up a system that gives you access to every enchantment book in the game.