Enchanting



Enchanting is the process of enchantment using an Enchantment Table whereby special bonuses are placed on tools, weapons or armor. To enchant an item, you will need the required Experience level for the enchantment and an Enchantment Table. Notch has stated that Enchanting will work in three stages and the benefits will be based on the spell you choose, but a random loot element will be included as well. Each spell will cost the player experience levels but in turn allow the player to enchant armor and swords so that they will be more powerful, last longer, and have more of a glossy look.

History
Notch first tweeted about the Enchantment Table on September 30th 2011. As of Beta 1.9 Pre-release 4, no enchantments costing above five Experience levels are available unless you place bookshelves near the Enchantment Table. The number of bookshelfs increases the level of enchantments further. A table surrounded by six bookshelves on each side with a one block gap gives access to level 14 recipes. A table surrounded by thirty-two bookshelves (two layers of sixteen each) gives access to level 50 recipes.

Enchantments
Enchantment names are randomly constructed from a long list of words. Three to five words are chosen from the list and appended to each other, creating the enchantment name. Any name can be chosen for any item. Note that the names are not actually saved with the item, they are only displayed in the Enchantment Table interface, albeit with the Standard Galactic Alphabet.

"the elder scrolls klaatu berata niktu xyzzy bless curse light darkness fire air earth water hot dry cold wet ignite snuff embiggen twist shorten stretch fiddle destroy imbue galvanize enchant free limited range of towards inside sphere cube self other ball mental physical grow shrink demon elemental spirit animal creature beast humanoid undead fresh stale"

Jeb mentioned one possible enchantment would add a damage bonus against "undead mobs" when he polled his twitter feed for ideas of what to name the enchantment. He settled on "Smite".

Repairing an enchanted weapon/tool will remove the enchantment on it.

When an enchanted weapon deals bonus damage to a mob, square particles fly off of that mob, similar to getting a critical hit.

There are several levels on each enchant, and when you enchant you can get several enchants on each weapon/tool/armor.

Enchantable items
Items such as swords, shovels, pickaxes, axes, and every part of armor of any material can be enchanted. According to Jeb, placing multiple bookshelves near an enchantment table will increase the potency of enchantments. Shears, fishing rods, bows and flint and steel are not enchantable.

When viewing the inventory of the player in an NBT editor, all enchanted items have the same serialized enchantment values. Modifying these values seems to have no effect on the in-game elements. Additionally, replacing the same item in the enchanting square seems to generate a fresh set of random enchantments. It is not known if the names have any effect on the cost of the item, but as all enchantments share the same data values it is very likely that the enchantment generation system in the 1.9 prerelease 3 is simply a placeholder.

Enchantment Types
EID is the item's Effect Identification Number in the game code.

Standard Galactic Alphabet
The enchantments are written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet which is a simple alphabet substitution code used in the Commander Keen series of computer games (see that page for the code key). However if you want to decode the names more quickly you can replace  in   with the.

Bugs

 * Enchantments are disabled/do not work in Beta 1.9 Pre-release 3's SMP. If a player attempts to enchant an item, it will appear enchanted for the client, but will update with the unenchanted status once the player logs out and then back in again.
 * In Beta 1.9 Pre-release 4 if a character in Creative mode picks up a enchanted item and drops it the item will become unenchanted.

Trivia

 * Items that are enchanted will receive a glowing aura around them. Editing  in   can change the glow accordingly.
 * Repairing an enchanted item using another item will remove the enchantment it has.
 * On October 1st 2011, Notch tweeted an image of the enchantment screen, with enchantments written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet. The first enchantment translates onto "Well Played Internets You Are Good", the second translated into "These Names Will Be Random And Confusing", and the third translates to "Each Spell Costs Experience Levels". The Standard Galactic Alphabet or SGA was originally created by Tom Hall for use in the Commander Keen series of computer games.
 * Amusingly, three of the possible words for enchantments are "the elder scrolls," likely a joke at Bethesda, who are suing Mojang under the claim that their upcoming game "Scrolls" infringes on the name of Bethesda's series, "The Elder Scrolls."
 * Similarly, "klaatu berata niktu" are a corruption of "Klaatu barada nikto" which is a phrase the originate from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. It is more commonly known from the movie Army of Darkness, and "xyzzy" is a magic spell in the game "Colossal Cave Adventure" and has been used in several other games as an easter egg or cheat code.
 * All tools, swords and armour enchanted before 1.9 Prerelease 4 will only have Feather Falling I as their enchantment.