Tired of spending countless hours and experience points on enchanting, only to feel like you never get the enchantments you actually want? This guide will teach you how to enchant effectively in Minecraft, maximizing your resources and experience from versions 1.6.1 to 1.7.4 and beyond, with principles that remain relevant in modern Minecraft.
Smaller Enchantments Are Actually Better
Many players believe that aiming for the highest level enchantments directly is the best approach. However, this is a common misconception and often a trap! The game mechanics and statistics actually favor making numerous smaller, more targeted enchantments instead of chasing after a few large, random ones. Avoid enchanting diamond items directly at the table. The optimal strategy involves enchanting Books, combining them on an Anvil, and then applying the desired enchantments to your final item.
Don’t get too greedy with enchantment combinations. While an Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, and Fortune III diamond pickaxe sounds incredible, it’s also practically impossible to repair efficiently in the long run. Less powerful enchantment combinations that can be repaired using just one or two diamonds at a time might seem more economical initially. However, you’ll quickly realize that repairing frequently at a low diamond cost actually wastes a significant amount of experience over time.
For example, repairing with a single diamond might cost 32 levels. You’ll need to repair more often this way. Conversely, waiting until the item is more damaged and then using two diamonds for repair might raise the repair cost to only 38 levels. This means that those “two diamonds worth of repairs” now cost 19 levels each (half of 38), instead of 32 levels each. The efficiency ratio improves even further when you consider the actual XP points spent rather than just levels.
The sweet spot is an item that you can repair from nearly broken to full durability using three or four diamonds at once, or at the very least, two diamonds in a single repair. Items that require repairing with only one diamond at a time will drain your experience reserves in the long run. By choosing slightly less powerful enchantment combinations, you can perform more efficient repairs, spending around 38 or 39 experience levels to fully restore your item, instead of repeatedly spending 32 levels for single-diamond repairs. This difference might seem small when dealing with one or two diamond items, but when maintaining a full set of diamond gear that you use constantly, efficient repairs become crucial.
Your very first repair should always include renaming the item using the maximum number of diamonds you can. This seemingly minor step ensures that the item remains repairable indefinitely!
Avoid Wasteful Efficiency Levels
Don’t overdo it with Efficiency enchantments. A tool can become too fast, leading to wasted durability and time as you accidentally break blocks you didn’t intend to mine. A pickaxe that’s too efficient can break through the block you’re aiming for and into the block behind it before you can react. Reserve Efficiency V pickaxes specifically for Obsidian mining. Efficiency III often strikes the best balance between speed and mining precision.
Lower Efficiency levels also contribute to cheaper repair costs. Prioritize tools that are inexpensive to maintain. Ideally, if you can manage without Efficiency entirely, that would be optimal for repair costs. Even Efficiency I significantly increases repair prices. If you do need Efficiency, aim for at least rank II or III, as the minimal speed boost from Efficiency I usually doesn’t justify the substantial increase in repair costs.
Experience Points (XP) Are What Truly Matters, Not Levels!
You need 17 XP to gain each Experience Level up to level 16. After level 16, the XP requirement per level increases progressively. Ideally, you should enchant at or before level 16 to maximize your XP efficiency. Making very high-level enchantments is often an inefficient use of your experience points.
Refer to the Minecraft Wiki for detailed information on experience formulas and tables: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Experience#Formulas_and_Tables
Always keep XP efficiency in mind when spending your levels on enchanting.
Crafted Enchantment Combinations Offer Better Control
Combining two enchantments of the same rank on an Anvil results in the same enchantment at one rank higher. While higher enchantment levels do increase the chance of getting multiple enchantments on an item directly from the enchanting table, this can actually be detrimental to your strategy. You want maximum control over the specific enchantments you get and their ranks. This allows you to select the “good” enchantments and avoid unwanted ones, ensuring you get the exact enchantments and ranks you need.
Therefore, it’s often more effective to enchant twice at a lower level (e.g., spending 4 levels each time) than enchanting once at a high level (e.g., spending 8 levels) and hoping for the best. Enchanting at lower levels reduces the odds of getting unwanted multiple enchantments and gives you much better control over your enchantment selection and the total power of your final combined enchantments.
As illustrated in this image from the Minecraft Wiki:
An image from the Minecraft Wiki showcasing enchantment probabilities, demonstrating the randomness of high-level enchantments.
The Minecraft enchanting system can seem unpredictable. Enchanting at maximum level 30 power is often inefficient because you frequently receive a combination of enchantments, but rarely “the one you want.” And even more rarely do you get “the one you want” at the precise enchantment ranks you actually need. It’s significantly more effective to obtain desired enchantments on individual books at lower levels and then use the Anvil to craft your ideal combinations yourself.
Enchant at low power, enchant frequently (which low-level enchanting makes possible), combine only the enchantments you absolutely need, and avoid being too greedy with your combinations. This ensures your final, renamed “ideal enchantment combination” item can be fully repaired at the Anvil for 39 levels or less.
To facilitate this strategy, make a lot of Books. A well-established cow farm is essential for a steady supply of leather.
Know Your Enchantments, Their Levels, and How to Enchant Effectively
Thoroughly read and understand these resources from the Minecraft Wiki:
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Enchanting
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Enchantment_Mechanics
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Enchanting/Levels
And this external resource provides detailed enchantment odds per enchantment type and item type:
http://www.beefcraft.net/tutorials/in_game/enchanting/tools/interactive_graph.php/
Unfortunately, the last page doesn’t clearly show the odds of specific combinations, especially “the odds of getting some enchant without some other enchants,” nor does it differentiate odds when using diamond tools versus weaker materials like wood.
However, the fundamental rule remains consistent: enchant at the lowest level possible to achieve your desired outcome.
Note that Diamond has an enchantability value of 10. Therefore, the Modified Enchantment Level (MEL) will typically be around 5 levels higher than the base Enchantment Level displayed at the enchanting table. (Consult the Minecraft Wiki formulas to fully understand enchantment mechanics before concluding that achieving your perfect enchantment combination is difficult!)
Tool Enchantments
For tools, Unbreaking is generally more valuable than Efficiency. The ideal Modified Enchantment Level (MEL) for tools is around 4. This reinforces the strategy of low-level enchantments.
You’ll need a significant number of Unbreaking books anyway because books are the only way to apply Unbreaking to armor (as well as bows and fishing rods). Achieving an “ideal armor set” that you can repair and maintain at a reasonable XP cost necessitates applying the highest level of Unbreaking you can to each armor piece.
Fortune and Silk Touch enchantments become available starting at a MEL of 15 and slightly above. This suggests using an Enchantment Level of around 12 for these enchantments. Prioritize enchanting for Fortune and Silk Touch first, as you are likely to acquire Efficiency and Unbreaking books as byproducts while attempting to get these higher-level enchantments at level 12.
Sword Enchantments
The most valuable sword enchantments are Sharpness, Smite, and Looting. Knockback can also be useful in certain situations.
Bane of Arthropods is generally not worth the enchantment slot. Sharpness is sufficient for dealing with spiders, including Cave Spiders.
Fire Aspect is also often detrimental. Dealing damage immediately is usually more beneficial than delayed fire damage, especially in combat. Each additional enchantment increases repair costs significantly, so it’s best to prioritize only the most effective enchantments. While pre-cooked meat from Fire Aspect might seem convenient, coal is abundant, and raw meat can be valuable for trading opportunities. Zombies ignited by Fire Aspect can also set you on fire, and when surrounded by a horde, every health point is more crucial than slightly increased zombie damage. Furthermore, Endermen flee when set on fire, reducing your Ender Pearl gains.
Smite can be useful in situations with many undead mobs, common in older versions of Minecraft like 1.6 where zombie hordes were more prevalent. In version 1.7 and later, especially in the Overworld and some caves, Sharpness is often the more generally useful enchantment. However, in environments like Abandoned Mineshafts, Sharpness remains the superior choice.
In any case, the best approach for swords is to perform a large number of very low-level enchantments. This will naturally filter out unwanted enchantments like Fire Aspect. Looting, however, only begins to appear at a MEL of 15. Therefore, enchant around level 12 to maximize your chances of getting Looting. Start by focusing on obtaining Looting books, as you will likely acquire plenty of other useful sword enchantments like Sharpness and Smite in the process.
Armor Enchantments
Armor enchantments are even more nuanced. Protection is undoubtedly the most crucial enchantment, ideally Protection IV on every armor piece for a perfect 20 Effective Protection Factor (EPF) points (refer to the “Armor” section of the Minecraft Wiki).
Always use Books to apply as much Unbreaking as possible to your armor, and apply it as early as you can in the enchantment process. The slightly increased experience cost from combining books with armor more frequently, compared to enchanting all books first and then combining them with armor last, is insignificant compared to the diamonds you’ll save on repairs in the long run. It is less XP-intensive overall to apply Unbreaking II to a single armor piece than applying Unbreaking I to two different pieces, as multi-enchantment combinations drastically increase repair costs. Prioritize applying higher levels of Unbreaking to the armor pieces that require more frequent repairs. While the diamond cost to craft different armor pieces varies by type, the diamond cost is far less significant than the diamonds spent on repairing the item over time. Focus on the raw durability when prioritizing Unbreaking. The optimal order for applying Unbreaking is: helmet, boots, leggings, and lastly the chestplate. This sequence maximizes diamond savings.
Other armor enchantments are largely a matter of personal preference and playstyle. Thorns is generally considered the least valuable armor enchantment. In combat, your primary goal should be to avoid getting hit altogether. Dealing a small amount of damage back to a melee attacker via Thorns is unlikely to be beneficial, especially considering it significantly increases the frequency of armor repairs. Your primary limitation in maintaining a full set of enchanted gear is having enough experience points, making Thorns a suboptimal choice that hinders long-term maintenance. Always prioritize keeping your enchantment combinations as streamlined as possible. Aim for armor that is easy to maintain and repair, not armor that is reserved for special occasions due to its repair costs.
By enchanting at the minimum level possible, you naturally “filter out” less desirable enchantments.
Fire Protection is far less effective than simply using Fire Resistance potions when dealing with fire damage.
Thorns is generally considered a poor enchantment choice.
Respiration is primarily useful for a dedicated “underwater work” helmet for specific building projects. As there are no hostile underwater mobs in standard gameplay, enchant a helmet around level 7 or 8 until you get Respiration and Aqua Affinity. Create a single underwater helmet and avoid combat while wearing it for efficient underwater activities.
For all other armor enchantments, combining minimum-level enchantment books is generally the most effective strategy.
Bow Enchantments
You might want Infinity to eliminate the need to carry more than one stack of arrows. Infinity has an Effective Modified Level (EML) of 20. Given that wooden tools have an enchantability of 15, start enchanting bows at an Enchantment Level of around 10 to increase your chances of obtaining Infinity.
Flame is as ineffective as Fire Aspect on swords and for the same reasons.
Punch is significantly less useful than Knockback on swords. In melee combat, Knockback creates distance, reducing damage per second when facing multiple enemies as they need to re-approach you. However, when using a bow, you are already at range. Knocking enemies further away only makes hitting them with subsequent arrows more difficult. You might even knock enemies into holes or inconvenient locations. Ideally, when using a bow, you want enemies to remain stationary. Therefore, Punch is generally not very useful for bows in most situations.
Power is easily obtained through minimal enchantments. In fact, minimal level bow enchantments will almost always only grant Power.
Fishing Rod Enchantments
Both Lure and Luck of the Sea enchantments start to appear at a MEL of 15. Given the enchantability of wood tools (15), enchanting fishing rods around level 10 is sufficient to acquire these enchantments.
Overall Enchantment Strategy
Always enchant using books.
Enchant around level 12 until you obtain your Silk Touch and Fortune pickaxes. Do not combine both Silk Touch and Fortune on the same pickaxe. A separate Silk Touch enchantment can be applied to Shears (primarily useful for collecting cobwebs and a few other specific items, though shears cannot be repaired, so apply any leftover Unbreaking books to them!).
Then, enchant around level 10 until you have your ideal enchanted fishing rod and your Infinity bow. Try to apply Unbreaking and any other desired enchantments to these items before you start using them, as bows and fishing rods cannot be repaired. If you prefer using bows frequently, you need to maintain a chicken farm (chickens are the easiest friendly mob to farm!) to ensure a steady arrow supply. Otherwise, expect to spend a significant amount of time enchanting around level 10, slowing down your progress in acquiring other essential enchantments.
For everything else, statistically, using minimal enchantment levels will almost always allow you to achieve your enchantment goals significantly faster than relying on high-level, random enchantments.
In Conclusion
Think of it this way:
Performing many small enchantments is like “having a slice of ham and getting one bread slice now with certainty, then having to repeat the process to get the other slice,” rather than “the promise of getting ten random items three times later, some of which might be bread slices, but more likely will be useless items.” High-level enchantments are like “guaranteeing you’ll get a lot of random items, over which you have no control.”
What you need are a few very useful tools, with precise control over their enchantments and power levels, not a large quantity of random and potentially useless tools!
It’s analogous to choosing between steady employment (lower pay but control over your earnings) versus buying lottery tickets (requiring many tickets over a long time before a potential big win). High-level enchantments guarantee a highly enchanted item, but the major drawback is that it’s almost never exactly what you wanted.
Most players opt for high-level enchantments, hoping to win the enchantment lottery. However, wise players understand that a more methodical approach, involving more clicks for numerous smaller enchantments, creating books, and strategically combining enchantments, ultimately leads to achieving their desired enchantments much, much sooner.
We’re talking about being potentially 10 times faster by using this efficient, targeted enchanting strategy.
Consider this the next time you’re enchanting your Minecraft gear!
