Enchanting



Enchanting is a mechanic that augments armor, tools, weapons (swords and bows) 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 four methods of enchanting items:
 * Through an enchantment table in exchange for experience points.
 * Through an anvil, combining duplicate items with different existing enchantments into a single item that has the enchantments of both.
 * Through an anvil, combining an enchanted book with an item, which also costs experience points.
 * Through a Priest Villager, which will apply an enchantment to a specific item in exchange for emeralds.

Items can also be enchanted using the  command for OPs on a server, or in a singleplayer world with cheats enabled, which allows enchantments unavailable via normal enchanting. 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 right-clicking on an enchantment table and placing the item in the displayed slot. Upon placing the item, three randomized options will appear on the right of the GUI. The names here are meaningless and option must be chosen blindly, although the player is shown how many experience points each option will cost. Only choices with a cost equal to or below the player's current level can be chosen. Each option will imbue the item with a randomized set of enchantments that are dependent on the number of experience levels spent (e.g.: a level 1 enchantment can give a pickaxe the "Efficiency I" enchantment).

The level cost 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 heavy random factor, and even a level 30 enchantment (the maximum) doesn't guarantee more than one enchantment, nor even that enchantments will be "maximum strength" — a level 30 enchantment can still yield Fortune II or Efficiency III alone, for example.

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

Strategy
Since not all levels require the same amount of experience, the cost of an enchantment in terms of time and effort increases as your current level increases.
 * Up through level 16, each level costs 17 experience points. You can make low-level enchantments efficiently at any point in this range.
 * As you progress above level 16, each level requires more XP than the last; the XP required to progress from 30 to 31 could equivalently progress you from 13 to 16. Try to enchant using a level as close to yours as possible to make the high XP cost worthwhile.
 * If you don't have anything in particular you want to enchant, you can enchant a book, which allows you to choose an item later.
 * Generally, enchanting a tool or sword weaker than iron is a waste of levels because of their low durability.
 * Note that in time the anvil will be competing for your levels. It has similar logic, but can use a maximum of 39 levels instead of 30.
 * Levels 30–39 takes nearly as much XP as levels 0–30. It is wise to prepare your items before you start using the anvil and to plan your items accordingly so that the cost of repairing them does not go over 39.

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 of the same type (for example, an iron pickaxe and a diamond pickaxe cannot be combined), and there are limits to what enchantments can be combined and how much work can be done in one operation.

For example, a diamond pickaxe at full condition with efficiency IV can ONLY be combined with another diamond pickaxe (no matter in what condition) with efficiency IV, and so on (Eff III with another Eff III, etc.)

To combine items, the player places the target item in the first slot of an anvil, and the sacrifice item in the second slot. If the combination is allowed, the resulting enchanted item will appear in the anvil's output slot and an experience level cost appears below (green if the player has enough experience levels, red 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 cost in levels depends on the enchantments, with highly enchanted items costing more. If the target item is also being repaired, that costs more&mdash;often much more for diamond items. The target item can also be renamed, at additional cost. There is also an accumulating surcharge for prior work done on the anvil, which is limited by renaming the item. In survival mode, there is a limit of 39 levels for any work performed on the anvil&mdash;if a job would cost more, it will be refused (though it might be do-able in steps: rename, repair, and then combine enchantments).

Enchanted books
Enchanted books can be made by using an enchanting table to enchant a book. (They can also be found in generated chests, or 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 will be lost if the book is applied to anything but a helmet, and the Power enchantment will be lost if the book is applied to anything but a bow.

Enchanted books are used on an anvil to add enchantments to items. They can apply some enchantments to items which can't be enchanted on a table, or which could not (before 1.7) normally get that enchantment, e.g., Unbreaking on a sword, Silk Touch on shears, Thorns on boots. (In creative mode, books can enchant any item with any enchantment, such as a Knockback II Stick.)

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 shears, axe, pickaxe, or shovel, and you can decide which at your leisure—perhaps something that already has Unbreaking? An Unbreaking book might be used to preserve your Looting sword, Fortune pickaxe, or Thorns armor. However, the reduced costs come with a hazard: It's fairly easy to enchant an item so heavily that it can't be repaired, because the minimum repair cost would exceed the anvil limit.

Books can receive multiple enchantments from the enchanting table. However, the enchantments may not all apply to a given item, and only the enchantments which do apply will be transferred. (The unused enchantments will slightly increase the cost.) A book with multiple enchantments may also increase the hazard of over-enchanting an item.

Villager priest
A villager priest may offer to trade enchanted items for emeralds. The offers will be very specific, a certain enchantment for a specific item (for example, Projectile Protection III and Unbreaking II on an iron chestplate). To enchant an item, the player places it and the requested emeralds in the priest's trading slots and moves the resulting enchanted item to their inventory.

Unlike enchanting by enchantment table or enchanted book, enchanting by village priest has no experience level cost.

The priest does not technically enchant the item, but rather exchanges it for a new one with the enchantment (even if the old one is damaged). This means that priest-enchanted gear can be effectively "repaired" by buying the enchantment again on the same item, which is usually much cheaper than any other kind of repair. However, any other enchantments will be lost; a priest cannot augment an already-enchanted item.

Priests can enchant iron and diamond swords, pickaxes, axes and chestplates. There are several sets of enchantments for each of these, but a particular priest will only offer one option for each.

Enchantments
The table below describes the enchantments 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.


 * EID: Effect Identification Number, an internal code used in the software.
 * Name:The enchantment's name will appear under the item's name when the player hovers the mouse over the item along with its level.
 * Max Level: The maximum level that can be received legitimately. Higher levels are possible with third-party software, like NBT structure editors.
 * Primary Items: The items that can receive the enchantment legitimately in Survival mode, by any of the four possible enchanting methods. 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.
 * Effect:A description of the capability improved or added by the enchantment.


 * Notes

Future
Introduced in 14w02a, enchanting requires lapis lazuli; the first, second, and third enchantments presented by the table require one, two, and three pieces of lapis lazuli, respectively, and costs the same number of player levels (though the player level must initially still be at least as high as the enchantment level). In addition, hovering over each presented enchantment lists one of the guaranteed enchantments the item will gain (it does not indicate whether any other enchantments will be present or what they are). The same update changes the XP curve, such that repeatedly making max-level enchantments at level 30 requires 268 XP (to return from level 27 to level 30) instead of the current 825 XP (to return from level 0 to level 30).

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 will alter the possible 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.

Enchanting any item at any enchantment level changes the player's enchantment seed, which will change the possible enchantments for every item at every enchantment level. Thus, if none of the available enchantments for a tool are desired, 1 lapis and 1 level could be spent to enchant a book or a different tool to refresh the list.

Here is the 1.8 enchanting interface:



Trivia

 * Repairing an enchanted item by crafting will remove the enchantment on it. This happens with any enchantment on any tool. If you wish to keep the enchantment on an item, repair it with an Anvil.
 * Enchantments shown enchantment.level.127 are unchanged in the language pack of Minecraft
 * When an enchanted weapon deals bonus damage to a mob, blue particles fly off of that mob, similar to getting a critical hit.
 * There are NBT tags for the level/player.dat file. This means that with an external program you can enchant unenchantable items and enchant items beyond their maximum level. For example, you could enchant a Cookie with a Looting X, Sharpness VII, and Protection 32767.
 * It is possible to enchant non tools in creative mode using an anvil and enchanted books.
 * The Looting enchantment does not process on Wool, Spider Eye, Raw Chicken, and Cooked Chicken. The reason that Looting does not affect most of these is because they are considered rare drops by the game.
 * It also does not work on Nether Stars
 * Similarly, using console commands to place the Fortune enchantment on Shears will not cause more wool to drop from Sheep when used, as Fortune is only for use on blocks.
 * Items that are enchanted will receive a glowing aura around them. Using a custom  in a resource pack under   will change the glow accordingly. On past versions of Minecraft and only on certain graphics cards, enchanted items would cause the hotbar to become semi-transparent whilst they were the selected item.
 * On the enchantment screen, captions in the Standard Galactic Alphabet includes several in-jokes:
 * On October 1, 2011, Notch tweeted an image of the enchantment screen, with enchantments . The first enchantment translates into "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".
 * Three of the possible words for enchantments are "the elder scrolls," likely a joke at Bethesda, creator of "The Elder Scrolls" series and whose parent company, Zenimax, attempted to sue Mojang for the name of their upcoming game Scrolls.
 * The words "klaatu berata niktu" are a (misspelled) reference to "Klaatu barada nikto", a phrase that originates from the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still and has been since used as a reference in many other movies, cartoons and games.
 * Similarly, "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 armor enchanted before 1.9 Prerelease 4 will only have Feather Falling I as their enchantment.
 * The Silk Touch enchantment is possible on all levels of enchantment when enchanting a golden pickaxe, although extremely rare on enchantments below level 20.
 * Enchanted items still pulsate while you pause the game.
 * Along with torches, any snow or carpet on top of a block next to the enchantment table will decrease the enchantment levels.
 * In 1.2 and later Zombies, Zombie Pigmen and Skeletons are able to drop rare items, this includes enchanted weaponry on higher difficulties.
 * It's not possible to get more than 4 glowstone dust from a glowstone block using the fortune enchantment.
 * Before 1.4.4, if a pig, chicken, or cow was killed instantly using a bow with the Flame enchantment, it would drop cooked food. However, if one was killed instantly using a sword with the Fire Aspect enchantment, it would not drop cooked food. This is because the sword applied the damage first, and then the enchantment, but the arrows apply the enchantment first.
 * You can only enchant an item one time, but it is possible to get 2 or more enchantments on an item when first enchanting it. However, using Item repair on enchanted items (that is, in either crafting grid), but not the anvil) will effectively strip the enchantments from both items that are combined, producing a single unenchanted item.
 * The Enderdragon does not take extra damage from the Sharpness, Smite, or Bane of Arthropods sword enchantments, but does take extra damage from the Power bow enchantment before 1.6.
 * It seems the Xbox version of Minecraft has a different looking enchantment effect. It is more pixelated, and is white instead of purple.
 * If you kill any mob while holding a Looting sword (or anything enchanted with looting in creative) at the time of death, it will drop more than normal. This can include reflecting Ghast fireballs holding/using a Looting sword, killing mobs with potions after switching to a sword, or shooting an arrow that kills a mob while you are holding a Looting sword. (This does not apply to dispensers) Similarly, this makes looting-enchanted bows unobtainable in survival but fully functional.
 * If you mine a block without using the required tool, you won't obtain the block even with the Silk Touch enchant.
 * Enchanting with gold gives you the best enchants,despite it being the material with the least durability.
 * Using the /enchant command only allows you to enchant items up to levels on an enchantment table. However, if you summon a villager, with the proper tags you can cause him to sell any item with limitless enchantments.