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. 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 bookshelves increases the level of enchantments further. In order to have an effect, the bookshelf must be placed horizontally within 2 blocks of the enchantment table. In other words, the bookshelves need to be either at the same height or one level above the enchantment table. A table surrounded by six bookshelves on each side with a one block gap gives access to level 39 recipes. A table surrounded by thirty-two bookshelves (two layers of sixteen each) gives access to level 50 recipes.

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 allows the player to enchant armor, swords and tools with one or several random bonus attributes as well as making the items glow with a brilliant hue.

History
Notch first tweeted about the Enchantment Table on September 30th 2011.

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 a 1.9 prelease 3 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.

Starting with 1.9 prerelease 4, the values are used and enchantments work normally.

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

{| class="wikitable" ! EID ! style="width: 15em;" |Enchantable item ! Name ! Effect ! Max. level ! On level up ! Notes ! colspan=7 |

Armor Enchantments
! 0 ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 4 ! 5 ! 6 ! colspan=7 |
 * - align="center"
 * Protection
 * Converts environmental damage to armor damage
 * IV
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Fire Protection
 * Protection against fire
 * IV
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Feather Falling
 * Less fall damage
 * +1 to reduction of falling damage (half a heart)
 * - align="center"
 * +1 to reduction of falling damage (half a heart)
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Blast Protection
 * Protection against explosions
 * IV
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Projectile Protection
 * Protection against projectile entities (e.g. arrows)
 * IV
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Respiration
 * Decreases the rate of air loss underwater; increases time between damage while suffocating
 * III
 * Underwater breathing time +15 seconds; time between suffocation damage +1 second
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Aqua Affinity
 * Increases underwater mining rate
 * I
 * I

Weapon Enchantments
! 16 ! 17 ! 18 ! 19 ! 20 ! 21 ! colspan=7 |
 * - align="center"
 * Sharpness
 * Extra damage to mobs
 * V
 * 0.5-1 heart extra damage per level
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Smite
 * Extra damage to zombies, zombie pigmen and skeletons
 * V
 * 0.75-1.5 hearts extra damage per level
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Bane of Arthropods
 * Extra damage to spiders, cave spiders and silverfish
 * V
 * 0.75-1.5 hearts extra damage per level
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Knockback
 * Knocks mob and players backwards upon hit
 * II
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Fire Aspect
 * Lights mobs on fire
 * II
 * Will cook meat if fire kills mob
 * - align="center"
 * Will cook meat if fire kills mob
 * - align="center"
 * Looting
 * Mobs have a chance to drop more loot
 * III
 * +1 to max loot drop
 * +1 to max loot drop

Tool Enchantments
! 32 ! 33 ! 34 ! 35
 * - align="center"
 * Efficiency
 * Faster resource gathering while in use
 * V
 * +10% mining speed
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Silk Touch
 * Blocks mined will drop themselves, even if it should drop something else (e.g. stone will drop stone, not cobblestone) or nothing
 * I
 * Allows the collection of normally unobtainable blocks such as Ores, Mycelium, Grass, Double Slabs, Monster Spawners, Ice, White Stone and Huge Mushrooms. (Regardless of the tool used)
 * - align="center"
 * Allows the collection of normally unobtainable blocks such as Ores, Mycelium, Grass, Double Slabs, Monster Spawners, Ice, White Stone and Huge Mushrooms. (Regardless of the tool used)
 * - align="center"
 * Unbreaking
 * Have a chance of not expending a use of the tool
 * III
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Fortune
 * Chance of multiplying the drop rate
 * III
 * I: 30% * 2 (30% more)
 * I: 30% * 2 (30% more)

II: 25% * 2, 25% * 3 (75% more)

III: 20% * 2, 20% * 3, 20% * 4 (120% more)


 * Works on: Coal Ore, Diamond Ore, Lapis Lazuli Ore, Tall Grass, growing wheat and Melons. Also has a chance for Gravel to drop Flint instead of the Gravel block, up to 100% at III.
 * }

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.

There is something that may help you decode the language: Note: Decoding the alphabet will allow a player to read the enchantment phrases in his or her native language, although these phrases remain arbitrary, as of client version 1.9 pre4.

Trivia

 * Looting enchantment does not process on Wool, Spider Eye, Raw Chicken and Cooked Chicken.
 * Items that are enchanted will receive a glowing aura around them. Editing  in   can change the glow accordingly. Enchanted items also cause the hotbar to become semi-transparent whilst they are the selected item. The hotbar will revert to its opaque format when you select a new item.
 * 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.
 * 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, was suing Mojang.
 * 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, more popularly in Army of Darkness, Star Wars Episode VI, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(1987) and Duck Tales. 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.
 * "Embiggen" is a fictitious word from The Simpsons, from a quote attributed to Springfield's founder, Jebidiah Springfield: "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man".
 * All tools, swords and armour enchanted before 1.9 Prerelease 4 will only have Feather Falling I as their enchantment.

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.
 * In Beta 1.9 Pre-release 4 it's possible to get Silk Touch and Fortune on the same tool. (It's a bug! --Jeb 09:58, 15 October 2011 (UTC)) ( [] )
 * Using the "Silk Touch" enchantment, it is possible to obtain either Redstone Ore or Glowing Redstone Ore, depending on the block's state when broken. These are different blocks and do not stack, but appear to be identical in the user's inventory.
 * TNT drops two TNT when destroyed by an item with Silk Touch.
 * Anything enchanted in 1.9 Pre-release 3 (if still enchanted) will have a random enchantment when loaded into 1.9 Pre-release 4.
 * If, in SSP, there are enchanted items in a chest which gets destroyed, they become unenchanted.
 * In Pre-release 4 SMP, an enchanted sword may refuse to block when right-clicking. This can be fixed by restarting the server.
 * Mining gravel with a tool with Fortune IV or greater causes the game to crash.