The Complete Minecraft Enchanting Guide
Enchanting is the single biggest power spike in survival Minecraft — and the easiest place to waste levels. This guide covers exactly how the table works, which enchantments to chase for every item, and how to combine gear on an anvil without hitting “Too Expensive!”.
How enchanting works
An enchanting table offers three random enchantment options for an item. Each option costs lapis lazuli (1–3 pieces) and experience levels (1–3 levels), and the quality of the offer scales with two things:
- Your current XP level — the top slot can demand up to level 30.
- Nearby bookshelves — up to 15 bookshelves raise the offered power (see next section).
Enchanting books instead of gear is a key strategy: books store enchantments so you can build a library and apply exactly what you want later via an anvil.
The 15-bookshelf setup
To unlock the maximum level-30 enchantments you need 15 bookshelves placed around the table with these rules:
- One block of air gap between the shelf and the table.
- Shelves must be at the same height as the table or one block higher.
- Anything placed in the gap (torches, carpet, snow) blocks that shelf — keep the ring clear.
The classic layout is a 5×5 ring of shelves (two layers tall, minus corners) with the table in the center. More than 15 shelves does nothing; fewer lowers the offered levels.
| Bookshelves | Max enchant level offered |
|---|---|
| 0 | 8 |
| 5 | ~14 |
| 10 | ~22 |
| 15 | 30 |
Best enchantments by item
These are the community-tested “god” loadouts. Enchantments marked treasure cannot come from the table — see the next section.
⚔️ Sword
| Enchantment | Max | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sharpness | V | Best all-round damage. (Smite / Bane of Arthropods are mutually exclusive with it.) |
| Looting | III | More drops — essential for wither skeleton skulls and ender pearls. |
| Sweeping Edge (Java) | III | Powers up sweep attacks for mob farms. |
| Unbreaking | III | Quadruples average durability. |
| Mending treasure | I | Repairs the sword with XP as you use it. |
| Fire Aspect / Knockback | II | Optional. Fire Aspect cooks meat drops; Knockback is polarizing for PvE. |
⛏️ Pickaxe
| Enchantment | Max | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Efficiency | V | Massive speed. Efficiency V + Haste II beacon insta-mines stone. |
| Fortune | III | Up to ~2.2× diamonds and other ore drops. |
| Silk Touch | I | Mutually exclusive with Fortune — build a second pick for Ender chests, glass, ore blocks. |
| Unbreaking | III | Durability insurance. |
| Mending treasure | I | Never craft a replacement again. |
🛡️ Armor (all pieces)
| Enchantment | Max | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Protection | IV | Best general defense; specific protections (Blast/Fire/Projectile) are mutually exclusive. |
| Unbreaking | III | Essential on every piece. |
| Mending treasure | I | Essential on every piece. |
| Thorns | III | Optional — damages attackers but burns durability fast. |
| Feather Falling (boots) | IV | Stacks with Protection; the best boots enchantment in the game. |
| Depth Strider (boots) | III | Full swim speed. Mutually exclusive with Frost Walker. |
| Soul Speed (boots) treasure | III | Huge speed on soul sand/soil — from piglin bartering or bastion loot. |
| Respiration / Aqua Affinity (helmet) | III / I | For ocean work. |
| Swift Sneak (leggings) treasure | III | Ancient City loot only. |
🏹 Bow
| Enchantment | Max | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Power | V | Core damage. |
| Infinity | I | One arrow lasts forever — but mutually exclusive with Mending. |
| Mending treasure | I | Pick Mending if you use tipped arrows; otherwise Infinity. |
| Punch / Flame / Unbreaking | II / I / III | Fill out the bow. |
Treasure-only enchantments
These never appear on the enchanting table. Sources below:
| Enchantment | Best source |
|---|---|
| Mending | Librarian villager trading — reroll a lectern until the first trade is Mending. Also fishing and loot chests. |
| Frost Walker | Librarian trades, fishing, chest loot. |
| Soul Speed | Piglin bartering and bastion remnant chests. |
| Swift Sneak | Ancient City chests in the Deep Dark. |
| Curse of Binding / Vanishing | Chest loot, fishing, raids — usually avoided. |
Anvil combining strategy (avoid “Too Expensive!”)
Anvils add a prior-work penalty to every item: each previous anvil operation on an item roughly doubles its penalty. Any operation reaching 40 levels is refused in survival.
- Combine books pairwise first: merging Book A+B and Book C+D, then merging the two results, keeps penalties far lower than adding books one at a time to your gear.
- Apply the combined book last, as the final operation on the item.
- Rename early — renaming counts as an anvil operation and adds to the penalty.
- Put the item with the higher penalty in the first slot when combining two worked items.
Reference anvil XP costs for common operations (cost = combined enchantment levels of the result, before the prior-work penalty):
| Operation | Base XP cost |
|---|---|
| Repair with material (per 25% durability) | 2 |
| Apply one book enchantment | = that enchantment’s level (e.g. Sharpness V = 5) |
| Combine two identical enchantments (I+I→II) | = next level (2 for I→II) |
| Rename an item | 1 (but counts as a work operation) |
Multiply the base cost by the result’s prior-work penalty (each prior anvil use on either input adds +1 to its penalty tier; the penalty doubles the effective cost). Pairing books keeps the penalty on your gear at 0 until the final combine — which is why the order above matters more than the totals.