Enchanting

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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 three methods of enchanting items 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.

There are also an additional three methods of obtaining enchanted items:
 * Through a villager, who may trade some enchanted items for emeralds.
 * Through fishing, which gives a chance of obtaining enchanted items.
 * Through a zombie or a skeleton, if they have enchanted items and you kill them, there is a chance of getting enchanted items.

Items can also be enchanted using commands such as for OPs on a server, or in a singleplayer world with cheats enabled. In creative mode, items can be enchanted via an anvil and enchanted books, with no experience or lapis lazuli 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 and 1–3 lapis lazuli in the input slots. Upon placing the item, three randomized options will appear on the right of the GUI. The glyphs here are meaningless, but hovering over a presented enchantment will show one enchantment that will be applied. Only choices with 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 can be chosen. Each option will imbue 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.

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 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 with an anvil.

Unlike with an anvil, using the enchanting table while on creative will still cost XP. However if the player doesn't have enough XP they will just be reduced to level zero and the enchantment will work as if they had paid the full amount. This includes attempts to use the enchanting table while already at level zero.

Affecting offered enchantments
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 enchantments shown, but will not change possible enchantments, using another enchanting table with the previous bookshelf number will show 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.

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 lazuli and 1 level could be spent to enchant a book or a different tool to refresh the list.

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.
 * As you level up, each level requires more XP than the last; the XP required to progress from 30 to 31 could equivalently progress you from 0 to 8, or from 10 to just shy of 14. Try to enchant using a level as close to yours as possible to make the high XP cost worthwhile.
 * Note that in time the anvil will be competing for your levels. It has similar logic, but it has a maximum requirement and cost of 39 levels, rather than a maximum requirement of 30 and maximum cost of 3.

Console Edition
In the Console Edition, enchanting has the following differences:
 * No tooltips are displayed on enchantments, causing it to be impossible to tell what enchantments will be gotten before selecting it.
 * Enchanting does not require lapis lazuli, but each enchantment removes all the required levels, instead of just 1 to 3 levels.
 * Removing the item will change the available enchantments.

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.

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 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, there is a limit of 39 levels for any work performed on the anvil—if a job would cost more, it will be refused (though it might be do-able in steps: 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 cannot be enchanted from an enchantment table, e.g., 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.

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.

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.


 * ID: The identification number of the enchantment, can be used on data tags of items to add enchantments. See item format.
 * 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 using commands.
 * 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

Trivia

 * Repairing an enchanted item by crafting will remove the enchantment on it. This happens with any enchantment on any tool.
 * All enchantments that are normally available for a sword will also work on any object held while attacking. As well, enchantments that are normally available for armor will also work for other items worn by a player, zombie, skeleton or zombie pigman (but not for saddles or horse armor or to "protect" an armor stand). Other enchantments generally have no effect on items they aren't designed for, and blocks lose their enchantments when placed.
 * 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 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.
 * Enchanted items still pulsate while you pause the game.
 * Enchanting with gold gives you the best enchants, despite it being the material with the least durability.
 * Using the 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.