Best Minecraft Enchantments for Everything (Updated 2023)

Most armor, weapons, and tools in Minecraft can be enchanted. Enchantments can be added to your gear once you get enough XP and build an enchanting room.

Adding enchantments to your armor, tools, and weapons in Minecraft will improve your survivability, utility, speed, and durability. It’s really popular for players to build an awesome library to put their enchanting table in (it makes sense, since you need bookcases).

Although certain enchantments will be better for certain situations, you can follow our list here for the best overall enchantments in Minecraft (for each piece of equipment).

Best Minecraft Armor Enchantments

The following enchantments can be used on all types of armor (Helmets, Chestplates, Leggings, and Boots):

• Protection IV – All armor pieces should have this enchant. Each level of this enchant adds a 4% reduction in damage. For example, Protection II adds 8% (Level 2 * 4%) damage reduction, and Protection IV adds 16% (Level 4 * 4%) damage reduction. If all four of your armor pieces have Protection IV, you will take 64% less damage.
• Mending – Automatically repairs your armor using experience orbs. For example, killing a zombie would drop XP orbs and automatically repair your armor (at a rate of 2 durability per 1 xp). This enchant is very useful, and can only be obtained from finding a mending enchant book (dungeon chests, fishing, trading, etc). You can’t enchant mending using an enchanting table.
• Unbreaking III – Armor lasts longer before breaking from durability. At level III unbreaking, each armor piece will last about 40% longer before breaking or needing repairs.

Notes on other enchants:

• It is possible to replace Protection IV with other damage reducing enchants, but they are only helpful in specific situations whereas Protection IV is helpful in all situations.
• Thorns III is an enchant that damages attackers. It makes your armor break more quickly, so it is not worth using in most cases.

Helmet

• Protection IV, Mending, and Unbreaking III
• Aqua Affinity – Allows you to mine and dig underwater at normal speeds. Without this enchant, you mine 5x slower while swimming.
• Respiration III – Extends your underwater breathing time by 45 seconds. You will be able to swim underwater for longer periods of time when using this enchant.

Chest

• Protection IV, Mending, and Unbreaking III
• No other enchants need to be added.

Leggings

• Protection IV, Mending, and Unbreaking III
• No other enchants need to be added.

Boots

• Protection IV, Mending, and Unbreaking III
• Feather Falling IV – Reduces falling damage by about 50%. When stacked with Protection IV on at least two pieces of armor, a maximum fall damage reduction of 80% can be achieved.
• Depth Strider III OR Frost Walker II – Only one of these can be on your boots, pick one depending on what you prefer. Depth Strider lets you swim faster, and at level III you can swim as fast as you walk on land. Frost Walker allows you to walk on water by turning water into ice when you step on it. Frost walker also removes damage when walking on magma blocks and campfires.

Best Minecraft Weapon Enchantments

Just like armor, Unbreaking III and Mending should be put on your strongest weapons when possible! One special exception is the bow, as you cannot have the Infinity (infinite free arrows) enchant if you have mending. More on this in the bow section below.

Sword

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Sharpness V – Increases damage done by 3 (Java Edition) or 6.25 (Bedrock Edition). Very useful enchant for increasing melee damage.
  • Smite V – Can be helpful by increasing damage done to undead mobs, but cannot be used if you add Sharpness V to your sword. Its typically better to pick Sharpness V because it increases damage against all enemies.
• Sweeping Edge III – Increases sweeping damage done by 75%. Note: This enchant is unavailable in the Bedrock edition of Minecraft.
• Looting III – Increases item drops from mobs (does not increase xp drops). Very useful enchant, especially for things like wither skeleton skull farming.

The following enchants are optional, depending on your preferences and play style: Fire Aspect II (sets enemies on fire), Knockback II (pushes enemies away when you hit them – can be helpful or very annoying).

Axe

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Sharpness V – Just like swords, increases melee damage done significantly.
  • Axes can also have Smite V to increase damage against undead mobs, but it can’t be used with Sharpness V. Recommended to just use Sharpness, unless you prefer having increased damage only against undead mobs.
• Efficiency V – Significantly increases woodcutting speed, an absolute must if you are using the axe for chopping down trees as opposed to just for combat.
• Silk Touch or Fortune III – Pick one of these two depending on what you prefer. For axes specifically, they are not entirely necessary. Silk touch makes blocks drop their original form, for example if you break a grass block it will drop grass blocks instead of dirt. Fortune III increases item drops only, for example if you break leaves you will get more saplings and apples (but not more wood, as this is a block).

Bow

• Unbreaking III
• Power V – Increases arrow damage from a bow. Recommended for killing monsters more quickly.
• Infinity – An amazing Minecraft enchant for bows, you definitely want to add this one on. Infinity allows you to shoot infinite arrows, without using any arrows. You will be able to use your bow as much as you want but note that you must have at least one arrow in your inventory still. Also note that you cannot add the mending enchantment to a bow if it has infinity.
• Flame – Sets your arrows on fire, which causes additional damage to targets. Flame arrows cannot set blocks such as trees or wood on fire, they will only set targets (mobs, animals, other players) on fire. The Flame enchantment does not work when it is raining.
• Punch II – Optional, the Punch enchant will “knock back” targets when they are hit by an arrow. The Punch enchantment can be slightly annoying, and it is up to your preference if you want it on your bow.

Crossbow

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Quick Charge III – Reduces the time it takes to reload your crossbow. This enchant makes a crossbow reload more quickly and similarly to a bow.
• Piercing IV or Multishot – You can only have one of these two Minecraft enchants on a crossbow. Multishot will allow you to shoot 3 arrows while only consuming one arrow. Piercing IV allows your arrows to shoot through entities, hitting multiple enemies at one time. In general, Piercing is usually the better enchant for crossbows.

Trident

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Impaling V – Increases damage caused by the trident. Recommended to be added to all tridents.
• Loyalty III and Channeling, OR Riptide III only – You will have to pick adding Loyalty III AND Channeling, OR Riptide III alone. Loyalty will automatically return the trident to you after throwing it. Riptide III will let you use your trident as a means of transportation, by moving your character to the location that you throw it.

Best Minecraft Enchantments for Tools

Tools like pickaxes and shovels also need Unbreaking III & Mending!

Pickaxe

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Fortune III or Silk Touch – You will have to pick either Fortune III or Silk Touch for your pickaxe, as you can only have one or the other. Fortune III is almost always the better option, as it increases mining drops (diamonds, redstone dust, lapis lazuli, emeralds, and so on). Note that the Fortune enchant does not increase drops of blocks such as ancient debris and netherite. Silk Touch will allow you to mine things like stone blocks (instead of cobblestone), which can be useful for building things like castles.
• Efficiency V – Significantly increases mining speed, to help you break blocks more quickly. This Minecraft enchantment will drastically improve your mining speed and is highly recommended.

Shovel

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Efficiency V – A must have, the efficiency enchant significantly increases digging speed. At high Efficiency enchant levels, you will basically instantly dig up any dirt you click on!
• Silk Touch – Will allow you to harvest things like grass blocks (instead of dirt blocks), snow, ice, etc. Only necessary if you need these blocks, otherwise you can skip this enchant.

Hoe

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Since a hoe is mainly used for tilling dirt into farmland, additional enchants are not entirely necessary. You will be perfectly find with just Unbreaking III.
• It is possible to add on Efficiency V, Silk Touch, or even Fortune III to a hoe, if desired.

Fishing Rod

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Luck of the Sea III – Reduces the chance of finding “junk” in Minecraft while you’re fishing and increases the chance of finding treasure. The Luck of the Sea enchant will improve your loot while fishing.
• Lure III – Increases the speed at which you attract fish to your bobble. This Minecraft enchantment will increase the amount of fish and treasure you can catch per hour.

Shears

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Efficiency V – Greatly increases speed at which the shears break blocks.
• Silk Touch – Will allow you to harvest leaf blocks from trees. Very useful if you need leaves for building gardens in Minecraft or even a treehouse!

Other Enchantments

Some of these enchantments are possible but that would beg the question of why?! There’s not really a need to put mending on your flint and steel, but our list of the best Minecraft enchantments wouldn’t be complete without including these!

Shield

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• No other additional enchants can be added, other than Mending and Unbreaking III.

Flint and Steel

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• No other additional enchants can be added, other than Mending and Unbreaking III.

Elytra

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• No other additional enchants can be added, other than Mending and Unbreaking III.

Carrot on a Stick

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• No other additional enchants can be added, other than Mending and Unbreaking III.

For more information on how to enchant items and craft an enchanting table, check out this article from Games Radar.

Do you have any comments or suggestions about the best enchants in Minecraft? Comment below!