The Best Minecraft Enchantments – How To Make Your Gear Overpowered

This post was last updated on June 1, 2023

Looking to create some overpowered gear in Minecraft? In this guide, you’ll learn the best Minecraft enchantments for each item type – from boots to swords, and even the humble shears. 

Enchantments are essential to get ahead of the game, these upgrades can make a huge difference. Whether you are playing in a solo survival world, or on a hardcore PvP server, mastering enchantments gives you a huge advantage.  

With so many enchantments to choose from it isn’t always easy to know which is best. We put this guide together to show you the best picks!

Minecraft Enchantments Overview

Before looking at the best enchantments for each item type, first, let’s look at all the types of enchantments available in Minecraft. Each one works differently, so knowing what is available is a good place to start. 

It’s also worth noting that items can be enchanted to different levels. The max amount of levels vary based on the enchantment, but it’s typically between 1-5. The higher the enchanting level the more powerful the enchanting effect is.

You can find out about max enchantment levels here on the Minecraft Website.

Minecraft Generic Enchantments

These enchantments can be applied to any type of equipable item in Minecraft. 

• Mending – Whenever XP is gained, the item is repaired. This lets you fix your gear every time you defeat a mob. 
• Unbreaking – Makes items more durable, increasing their lifespan. It lowers the amount of damage an item receives each time it’s used. 

Minecraft Armor Enchantments

These enchantments can only be applied to armor. 

• Aqua Affinity – The speed of mining while underwater is increased. This is ideal for underwater mining sessions. 
• Blast Protection – Lowers damage and knockback from explosions, like creepers or TNT.  
• Depth Strider – Increases your movement speed whilst underwater. Essential for underwater caves and exploration. 
• Feather Falling – Fall damage is significantly reduced. This can be a lifesaver for those clumsy adventurers…
• Frost Walker – Transforms water blocks into ice blocks as the player moves over them, also negates damage from walking on magma blocks. This lets you cross any body of water quickly, without needing to get wet. 
• Fire Protection – Reduces the amount of fire damage, to zero.
• Projectile Protection – Lowers damage received from ranged attacks. You won’t need to worry so much about those pesky skeleton archers. 
• Protection – Damage is reduced by 4% for each level of enchantment (max 16%). This keeps you alive for longer and is ideal for fighting mobs. 
• Respiration – Increases breathing time while underwater. Deep sea diving with ease!
• Soul Speed – When walking on soul sand or soul soil, walking speed is increased. 
• Thorns – Some received damage is reflected to the attacker, although durability is reduced. Mobs will get punished for attacking you. 

Minecraft Melee Weapon Enchantments

Any melee weapon can be enchanted with these buffs. 

• Bane of Arthropods – Improves damage against arthropod mobs (bees, spiders, endermites, silverfish), and slows their movement. Good for cave adventures. 
• Efficiency – Increases the chance an axe will cause a stun. The base rate is 25%, which gains 5% per enchantment level. Max 50%. Also increases the speed of cutting trees. 
• Fire Aspect – Burns hit mobs, setting them on fire. This can help to quickly clear multiple mobs at a time.  
• Looting – Defeated mobs will drop more loot – ideal for item farming. 
• Impaling – Improves the Trident’s damage against water mobs. 
• Knockback – Mobs are knocked backward after being hit. Some people love it, others hate it. It ultimately depends on your fighting style. 
• Sharpness – Makes your hits deadlier by improving weapon damage.
• Smite – Undead mobs take more damage from your hits. Watch out skeles and zombies!
• Sweeping Edge – The damage of sweeping attacks (charging the attack button) is increased.  

Minecraft Ranged Weapon Enchantments

Ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, tridents) can be powered up with this selection of enchantments. 

• Channeling – Gives tridents a new ability during thunderstorms. Channel a deadly bolt of lightning every time you hit an enemy. 
• Flame – Targets are set on fire any time you hit them with an arrow, a good way to deal fire damage.  
• Impaling – Water mobs receive more damage from a trident attack. 
• Infinity – No arrows are consumed when using a ranged weapon, essentially giving you infinite arrows.  You need at least one arrow in your inventory.
• Loyalty – Any time a trident is dropped, it returns to you. 
• Riptide – When raining, the player is also launched when the Trident is thrown.
• Multishot – 3 projectiles are shot, and only 1 is consumed. This gives crossbows a spread effect, letting you hit more than 1 mob at a time. 
• Piercing – Projectiles pierce through multiple enemies, rather than being absorbed on the first hit. Time for a combo skill shot!
• Power – Arrows cause increased damage.
• Punch – Projectiles knock back targets. 
• Quick Charge – Crossbows take less time to charge. 

Minecraft Enchantments For Generic Tools

Any standard tool, like pickaxes, or shovels can be enchanted with these. 

• Efficiency –  Speeds up the mining/cutting process, letting you blast through that block! 
• Fortune – Drop rates are increased for certain items. 
• Luck of the Sea – You’re more likely to catch rare loot when fishing. 
• Lure – Speeds up the fishing process. 
• Silk Touch – When mining certain blocks (gold, iron, diamond, glowstone, etc), the blocks drop as blocks rather than breaking into smaller items. 

The rest of this article explains which enchantments are the best to use for certain items. 

The Two Minecraft Best Enchantments

Before looking into the best enchantments for specific pieces of gear, there are two that I would recommend using on any (or all) of your tools. 

1. Unbreaking 
2. Mending

Both of these enchantments increase the lifespan of your gear. At high enchantment levels, they basically make your tools last forever. Don’t forget you can combine enchantments, so load those bad boys up!

Mending can become overpowered, letting you repair your gear whenever you earn XP, and unbreaking increases the general durability. Putting this pair on your precious diamond gear is a great way to make it last forever!

Best Minecraft Weapon Enchantments

This section highlights the strongest enchantments to use on your weapons. We’ve broken it down into each weapon type.

Choosing enchantments for your weapons in Minecraft isn’t as straightforward as you might think. You might be puzzled over which ones are the best to choose. 

Beyond a few strong contenders, the best weapon enchants depend on the style of gameplay you like, and what your current objectives are in Minecraft. Although there are a few which are always recommended, so the following choices tend to offer the best performance. 

Best Minecraft Enchantments for Swords

Swords are the best weapon in Minecraft, and if you want even more power to destroy your enemies then chuck on a couple of these enchantments. 

• Mending and Unbreaking III – This combination preserves the condition of your sword, making it last longer and actually repairing it with each kill. This is a great choice for a precious weapon like a diamond sword. 
• Sharpness – This is an essential enchantment, and increases the melee damage your sword does. A diamond sword with higher levels of Sharpness will often 1-hit-kill most mobs. 
• Knockback II – This pushes away enemies, which is often helpful and stops them from hurting you. This enchantment isn’t for everyone as it can make it harder to quickly beat down an enemy as they get further away. We’d recommend avoiding this in PvP as it can backfire as you lose positional control, though some people enjoy using it. 
• Looting III – If you are farming mobs for item drops, this is essential. The looting enchant increases the drop rate for rare items, making it useful for treasure farming. This isn’t as effective for pure combat and damage situations but has a use. 
• Fire Aspect II – This is one of our favorites. By setting fire to enemies you can trigger a damage over time effect which helps with bosses and large crowds of mobs. This is also a great choice for PvP, as it panics enemies and gives them lasting damage.  

Best Minecraft Axe Enchantments

Axes are another decent melee weapon and can stun shielded enemies, making them drop their guard. This shield stun is a powerful strategy for PvP and can help to defeat other players using shields. 

• Mending and Unbreaking III
• Efficiency – This is the perfect enchantment for an axe used in combat as it increases the chance of causing a stun. Tough mobs will become much easier to defeat when they can’t attack you back! This is essential in any PvP situation. 
• Sharpness or Smite – Increases the general damage of the axe, making it hit mobs harder. At the highest level, you can often 1-hit-kill basic enemies. Smite is useful for undead enemies, but I’d prioritize Sharpness. 
• Silk Touch or Fortune – better yields for melons, bookshelves, or beehives. This is more useful for item collecting rather than combat but can be useful in some situations. 

Best Bow Enchantments in Minecraft

Bows are one of the best ranged weapons in the game. These enchantments make them super strong and makes you much more efficient with your ammo. 

• Unbreaking III and Mending
• Power – Makes your bow more deadly by increasing the arrow damage. This is great for any situation. 
• Infinity – This means you only need to have 1 arrow to fire endless times. This stops you from needing to constantly restock your arrow supply. Infinity is one of the strongest bow enchantments to use, so always prioritize this. 
• Flame – Helps to burn mobs, letting you generally kill them only using 1 arrow and the burn damage. This is also great for PvP. 
• Punch II – Gives you arrow knockback, useful for sniping mobs at long range and knocking them off ledges. Some people find this difficult in PvP situations, so it’s a matter of personal preference. 

Best Crossbow Enchantments in Minecraft

Crossbows are a new addition to the Minecraft ranged weapon tests. These enchantments make them quicker and more deadly. 

Mending and Unbreaking III

• Quick Charge – Makes the crossbow a more formidable weapon by reducing the speed needed to charge it. Crossbows can be quite long to charge so this is essential for PvP.
• Piercing  – Lets you hit multiple mobs with one shot! It can be hard to pull off a skill shot like this, but if you get the opportunity to ‘kill two birds with one stone’, Piercing will do the trick. 
• Multishot – This makes the crossbow work more like a shotgun, with a spread of 3 bolts! This is a pretty powerful enchantment, but it can be risky, as you may hit mobs you didn’t mean to. (Or your friends, sorry!)

Best Trident Enchantments in Minecraft

Tridents are rare, but powerful magical ranged weapons. If you get your hands on these then this is what you should power them up with. 

• Mending – This is essential, without it you can only repair a trident with other tridents, which are often hard to come by. When enchanted with Mending your trident will automatically repair as you collect XP.
• Loyalty – This is useful as it makes your trident return when thrown, saving you from having to find it again. 
• Channeling – Brings some extra damage in lightning storms. It’s not the highest priority, but still worth it in some situations. 
• Riptide – When you’re wet, you can throw the trident and you will fly along the thrown path. Can be useful to speed up traveling when underwater or in rain. 

Best Armor Enchantments in Minecraft

These are the best Minecraft armor enchantments. We suggest you put Mending and Protection IV on all your armor pieces if you can. Unbreaking isn’t as important for armor as it is for weapons. Unbreaking 3 will give your armor a 43% durability boost but makes tools or weapons last about four times as long. 

Best Helmet Enchantments

• Mending, Protection IV, Unbreaking III
• Aqua Affinity – A great enchantment for underwater mining trips, as it removes the slowing effect traditionally suffered underwater, and brings a speed boost. This can give you a good upper hand in PvP in underwater situations. 
• Respiration III – Turn your helmet into scuba gear, letting you breathe underwater for as long as you need. Ideal for underwater exploration. 

Best Chest Armor Enchantments

• Mending, Protection IV, Unbreaking III
• Blast Protection IV – This one is super useful when dealing with creepers or other explosions. Can be useful in PvP for those pesky TNT bombers. 
• Thorns III – can help to damage mobs when they attack you, although will break the chest quicker. It’s useful in certain PvP situations, but can be unnecessary for single-player use. 

Best Leg Armor Enchantments

• Mending, Protection IV, Unbreaking III
• Projectile Protection II – It can be a good idea to mix up the protection types your armor is enchanted with, i.e. have one with standard protection, one with blase, one with fire, and one with projectile protection. 
• Swift Sneak III – This lets you move faster while in sneak mode. 

Best Enchantments for Boots

• Mending, Protection IV, Unbreaking III
• Feather Falling IV – Reduces fall damage,  this is great for adventuring or any time you fall off a cliff. 
• Depth Strider III or Frost Walker II – Choose one of these based on your mission. Depth Strider makes it easy to move underwater by speeding up your movement, while Frost Walker lets you easily walk across any body of water without getting submerged by freezing the water blocks. 

Best Minecraft Enchantments for Tools

Again, Unbreaking and Mending are great for any of these tools to make them last longer, particularly a diamond pickaxe. Put that Minecraft enchanting table to good use.

Best Pickaxe Enchantments in Minecraft

• Efficiency – Increases mining speed, this will save a lot of time and is definitely one of the strongest enchantment picks (pun intended). 
• Fortune III– This should be prioritized as it gives you the chance to get more diamonds, ore, and other important drops. 
• Silk Touch –  Less important, but can still be really useful for getting materials without breaking them down into their components. 

Best Shovel Enchantments

• Silk Touch – Helps to remove certain blocks without breaking them. 
• Fortune – This is helpful if you need to gather more flint from gravel. 
• Efficiency – Saves time when shoveling. 

Best Hoe Enchantments

• Unbreaking and Mending – not much else is needed.
• Efficiency, silk touch, fortune – You can use these, but Hoe tasks are pretty simple and you’re better off spending your XP orbs elsewhere. 

Best Fishing Rod Enchantments

• Lure – Makes fishing quicker, saving time. This is always a good choice. 
• Luck of the Sea – This is a good enchantment if you are fishing for rare items.

Enchantments for Shears

• Efficiency – Shave those sheep with speed!
• Silk Touch – Handy when cutting down cobwebs if you want to use them elsewhere. 

Best Enchantments for Other Gear

Carrot on a Stick

These are one of the least useful items in the game and are only good if you want to lure a piggy back to your house. Don’t waste your XP on these and use it to enchant items with more use. 

• Only takes Unbreaking or Mending.

Shields

It’s not essential to enchant shields, but if you want them to last longer then you may as well. 

• Can only be enchanted with Unbreaking or Mending

Flint and Steel

Generally not the best thing to enchant unless you’re overflowing with experience. Useful if you want one to last for ages, but they are pretty cheap to make anyway and already last a while. 

• Can only be enchanted with Unbreaking or Mending

Elytra

Using Mending or Unbreaking is basically essential for these, as it gives a huge boost to their longevity. Elytras can be hard to come by, so if you want to spend a lot of time flying around then these enchants are essential. 

• Only takes Unbreaking or Mending

Good Luck Adventurer!

Now you have a solid idea of the best Minecraft enchantment for any item. Now it’s time to fire up that enchantment table and own some noobs in PvP! 

Check out the Minecraft Wiki for more detailed statistics on enchantments if you’re a stickler for details.