Enchanting



Enchanting is a mechanic that augments armor, tools, weapons, and books with one or more of a variety of "enchantments" that improve an item's existing abilities or imbue them with additional abilities and uses.

Enchanting methods
There are three ways to enchant an item in Survival mode:
 * Through an enchantment table in exchange for experience points and lapis lazuli. Only unenchanted items may be enchanted this way.
 * Through an anvil, combining an enchanted book with an item, which also costs experience points.
 * Through an anvil, combining two of the same item with different existing enchantments into a single item that has the enchantments of both.

A player may also obtain items already enchanted:
 * Through a villager, who may trade some enchanted items for emeralds.
 * Through fishing, which gives a chance of obtaining enchanted items.
 * Through a zombie, drowned, husk, skeleton, stray, wither skeleton, or zombie pigman – if they have enchanted items and the player kills them, there is a chance of them dropping said items.
 * Through finding them in end city and other assorted treasure chests, such as underwater ruins, shipwreck, mineshafts, dungeons, desert pyramids, woodland mansions, and ocean ruins.
 * Killing pillagers and vindicators in raids.

Server operators and players in singleplayer worlds with cheats enabled can also enchant items using commands such as. When enchanted with the command, the maximum enchantment level is 2,147,483,647. In Creative mode, items can be enchanted via an anvil and enchanted books, with no experience required. Enchanted books are available in the Creative mode inventory, with individual book displays for the highest level of each enchantment and other levels available via the "Search" tab.

Enchantment table
An item can be enchanted by an enchantment table and placing the item in the input slots and 1–3  in its dedicated slot. Upon placing the item, three (pseudo)randomized options appear on the right of the GUI. The glyphs here do not affect the enchantment, but hovering over a presented enchantment shows one enchantment to be applied (on mobile devices, the player can tap an enchantment before putting in the lapis lazuli). The only choices available have a level requirement equal to or below the player's current level and a lapis lazuli requirement equal to or below the number of lapis lazuli placed in the table. Each option imbues the item with a randomized set of enchantments that are dependent on the number of experience levels required (e.g. a level 1 enchantment can give a pickaxe the "Efficiency I" enchantment); the actual level cost and the number of lapis lazuli required has no effect.

Although the player must have at least the level requirement to get an enchantment, the number of levels that the player is charged is the same as the lapis lazuli requirement. For example, if the third enchantment listed is a level 30 enchantment, the player must have at least 30 levels, but will only pay 3 levels and 3 lapis lazuli.

The level requirement influences the quantity, type, and level of enchantments instilled in the item, with a higher experience level generally resulting in more and/or higher-level enchantments. Nevertheless, there is a significant random factor, and even a level 30 enchantment (the maximum) doesn't guarantee more than one enchantment, or even that enchantments will be "maximum strength" — a level 30 enchantment can still yield Fortune II or Efficiency III alone, for example.

In order to increase the enchantment level, a bookshelf should be placed next to the enchantment table while keeping one block of air between them. To gain access to the previously mentioned level 30 enchantments, a total of 15 bookshelves need to be placed around the enchantment table. See the enchantment mechanics page for more detailed information on this.

Enchanting a book produces an enchanted book, which does nothing on its own, but effectively "saves" the enchantment for later application to another item with an anvil.

Unlike with an anvil, using the enchanting table while on Creative still costs experience. However, if the player doesn't have enough experience, then experience reduces to zero and the enchantment still works, even when using the enchanting table while already at level zero.

Affecting offered enchantments
Enchanting any item at any enchantment level changes the player's enchantment seed, which changes the possible enchantments for every item at every enchantment level. Thus, if none of the available enchantments for a tool are desired, 1 lapis lazuli and 1 level could be spent to enchant a book or a different tool to refresh the list. Also, by enchanting any item, the player can alter the second enchantment by exiting without saving.

The possible enchantments depend only on the player's enchantment seed, the item type and material, and the enchantment level (1–30). Removing the item and putting it back in, clicking on the item slot with a different item, using a different item of the same type and material, replacing or moving the table (but keeping the same number of bookshelves), using a different table with the same number of bookshelves, or replacing or rearranging the bookshelves without changing their total number has no effect on the possible enchantments.

Changing the enchantment levels offered by adding, removing, or blocking bookshelves alters the enchantments shown, but does not change possible enchantments; using another enchanting table with the previous bookshelf number still shows the previous enchantments. The enchantments for a particular enchantment level (with the same seed and item) do also differ depending on which row it appears in, but they are no "better" or "worse" based on the row despite the different resource costs.

Anvil combinations
An anvil can be used to combine the enchantments of two items, sacrificing one of them and repairing the other. The items must be compatible; they must either be the same type and material (such as two iron swords), or an item and an enchanted book with an applicable enchantment (such as a bow and an Infinity enchanted book). In Legacy Console Edition, the Player can enchant any given item with an enchantment, e.g. an Iron Nugget with Bane of Arthropods. There are limits to how much work can be done in one operation.

Combining two enchanted items, books or one of each with the same enchantment at the same level produces an item or book with the next higher level of that enchantment up to the maximum allowed in survival mode; for example, a book with Thorns I and Unbreaking II combined with a book with Unbreaking II produces a book with Thorns I and Unbreaking III.

To combine items, the player places the target item in the anvil's first slot, and the sacrifice item in the second slot. If the combination is allowed, the resulting enchanted item appears in the anvil's output slot and an experience level cost, labeled "Enchantment Cost", appears below (green if the player has enough experience levels, black if they don't). To complete the enchanting, the player removes the enchanted item from the anvil's output slot, and their experience level is reduced accordingly.

The experience cost depends on the enchantments, with highly enchanted items costing more. If the target item is also being repaired, that costs more as well. The target item can also be renamed, at additional cost. There is also an accumulating surcharge for prior work done on the anvil. In Survival mode, work that costs more than 39 levels of experience is refused although it may still be possible to perform the same work in steps. For example, a damaged enchanted bow may be repaired on an anvil with an ordinary bow, and then another enchanted bow may be used to combine enchantments with the repaired bow.

Enchanted books
Enchanted books can be made by using an enchanting table to enchant a book. (They can also be found in generated chests, purchased with emeralds from a villager librarian, or looted by fishing rod.) The book can receive multiple enchantments of any type, but only enchantments appropriate to a given item type may be applied to that item. For example, the same book may receive Respiration and Power enchantments, but the Respiration enchantment is lost if the book is applied to anything but a helmet, and the Power enchantment is lost if the book is applied to anything but a bow.

Enchanted books are used on an anvil to add enchantments to items, including other books. They can apply some enchantments to items which cannot be enchanted from an enchantment table, such as applying Thorns to boots.

In Creative mode, books can enchant any item with any enchantment, such as a stick having Knockback II. Mutually-exclusive enchantments, such as Infinity and Mending, remain mutually-exclusive.

The experience costs for using books are considerably less than for combining items with similar enchantments, since the books themselves cost levels to create. However, it's still an extra cost, and enchanting items directly has a chance to get multiple enchantments. The big advantage of books is that they can be stockpiled for use on an item of choice, and allow for controlled combinations. For example, a Silk Touch book could be used on axe, pickaxe, or shovel, and the player can decide which item receives which enchantment.

Summary of enchantments
Each enchantment in the table below includes attributes that are possible for the player to acquire legitimately in Survival mode. Other combinations are possible in creative mode or with cheats, mods, or third-party software.
 * Max Level: The maximum level that can be received legitimately. Higher levels are possible using commands. With commands the maximum value is 2,147,483,647.
 * Primary Items: The items that can receive the enchantment legitimately in Survival mode by using an enchanting table. Items of any material can be enchanted (some more easily than others).
 * Secondary Items: Items which, in Survival mode, cannot receive the enchantment from an enchanting table but can from an enchanted book with an anvil.
 * Weight: Relative chance of the enchantment being offered.

The tables below summarize which enchantments can be given to which items on Bedrock Edition and in survival mode on other versions (in creative mode, any enchantment can be given to any item). Enchantments which can be applied to both hand slot items and armor slot items are listed in both tables.


 * An enchantment table indicates the item can receive the enchantment legitimately in Survival mode by using an enchantment table.
 * An anvil indicates the item cannot receive the enchantment legitimately in Survival mode by using an enchantment table (an enchantment table never offers the enchantment for the item), but can receive the enchantment by another method (for example, using an anvil to combine the item with an enchanted book or another enchanted item; note the enchantment table could still apply the enchantment to the item as a random additional enchantment).

Item data

 * : The item's tag tag.