Enchanting



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

Enchanting methods
There are four methods of enchanting items:
 * Via an enchantment table in exchange for experience points.
 * Via an anvil: Combining duplicate items with different existing enchantments into a single item that has the enchantments of both. This also costs experience points.
 * Via an anvil: Combining an enchanted book with an item, which also costs experience points.
 * Via a Priest Villager in exchange for emeralds.

Items can also be enchanted using the  command for OPs on a multiplayer server, which allows enchantments unavailable via normal enchanting. In Creative Mode, items can be enchanted via an anvil and enchanted books, with no experience required. All possible enchanted books are available in the Creative Mode inventory.

Enchantment table
An item can be enchanted by first right-clicking on an enchantment table, which will display a GUI with one item slot. Upon placing the item in the item slot, three randomized options will appear on the right of the GUI. The names here are meaningless, and the only real choice is how many experience levels to spend. Only choices with a cost equal 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.

The level cost influences the quantity, type, and level of enchantments instilled in the item, with a higher experience level generally resulting in more enchantments and more potent forms of those 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 follows the same rules, except that it can never have more than one enchantment.

In general, it makes sense to spend the maximum number of levels possible to enchant an item, because you will gain levels back faster when your level is dropped lower. It takes increasing quantities of experience points (ie. more experience orbs) to level up, as your level increases. Therefore, while purchasing a level-2 enchantment when you're at level 2 will drop you back to level 0, where leveling up is very quick, purchasing a level-2 enchantment at level 10 will set you back to level 8, where it will take several times more experience points to gain back those two spent levels (a whopping 73 experience points to level from 8 to 10, vs 17 points to level from 0 to 2).

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&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 40 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, then combine enchantments).

Enchanted books
Enchanted books can be found in generated chests, can be purchased with emeralds from a villager librarian, or can be made by using an enchanting table. They are used to add enchantments to items, including some items which can't be enchanted on a table. This is done on an anvil similarly to combining items, but with the book in place of the sacrifice item.

The experience costs for using books are considerably less than for combining items with similar enchantments. This is appropriate, since the books themselves cost levels to create. However, enchanted items cost both levels and materials, and have a chance to get multiple enchantments. Therefore, creating an enchanted item by only using books is generally a large waste of experience. There will be no repair done on the target, though renaming is an option.

Some enchanted books can give enchantments to items that could not get them from an enchantment table (e.g., Unbreaking on a sword, Silk Touch on shears, Thorns on boots). In creative mode, books can be used to enchant any item.

Villager priest
A villager priest may offer to trade enchanting for emeralds. The offers will be very specific, a certain enchantment for a specific item (for example, Projectile Protection IV and Thorns I for 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.
 * Items: The items that can receive the enchantment legitimately in Survival mode, by any of the three possible enchanting methods. Items of any material can be enchanted (some more easily than others).
 * 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.
 * Effect:A general description of the capability improved or added by the enchantment.
 * Max Lvl: The maximum level that can be received legitimately. Higher levels are possible with third-party software, like NBT structure editors.
 * Notes:Additional details about the enchantment.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 100%" ! EID ! Items ! Name ! Effect ! Max Lvl ! Notes ! colspan=6 |

Armor
! 0 ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 4 ! 5 ! 6 ! 7 ! 34 ! colspan=6 |
 * -align="center"
 * colspan=6 | Protection enchantments stack, up to an upper limit cap. See Armor for details.
 * - align="center"
 * Protection
 * Reduces damage from all sources except The Void, Hunger and the /kill command
 * IV
 * See Armor.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Fire Protection
 * Protection against fire damage; fire is extinguished faster
 * IV
 * See Armor.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Feather Falling
 * Protection against fall damage
 * IV
 * See Armor. This enchantment also reduces the fall damage from Ender Pearl teleportations.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Blast Protection
 * Protection against explosion damage; reduces explosion recoil
 * IV
 * See Armor.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Projectile Protection
 * Protection against damage from projectile entities (arrows, ghast/blaze fire charges, snowballs, etc.)
 * IV
 * See Armor.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Respiration
 * Decreases the rate of air loss underwater; increases time between damage while suffocating and drowning. Starting with snapshot 13w16a it also increases underwater vision.
 * III
 * Underwater breathing time +15 seconds per level; time between suffocation damage +1 second per level. Starting with snapshot 13w16a it also increases underwater vision.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Aqua Affinity
 * Increases underwater mining rate
 * I
 * Breaking blocks underwater is allowed at regular speed, though the player can not be floating to get the full effect.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Thorns
 * Chance of dealing damage to mobs or players attacking the wearer: -; Extra wear on the armor
 * III
 * Chance of damage is 15% per level.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Unbreaking
 * Increases durability
 * III
 * (60 + 40/(Level+1))% chance a use reduces durability. On average, armor lasts 25%/36%/43% longer. This enchantment can only be obtained using an enchanted book.
 * (60 + 40/(Level+1))% chance a use reduces durability. On average, armor lasts 25%/36%/43% longer. This enchantment can only be obtained using an enchanted book.

Weapons
! 16
 * - align="center"
 * Sharpness
 * Extra damage
 * V
 * Adds to  (0.5 to 1.25 hearts) per level, randomly to every hit, rounded down to half hearts damage. (as of version 1.5.1).
 * Adds to  (0.5 to 1.25 hearts) per level, randomly to every hit, rounded down to half hearts damage. (as of version 1.5.1).

! 17 ! 18 ! 19 ! 20 ! 21 ! 34 ! colspan=6 |
 * - align="center"
 * Smite
 * Extra damage to undead mobs
 * V
 * to extra damage per level randomly for every hit. (Still available in 1.5.1 check for further patches)
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Bane of Arthropods
 * Extra damage to spiders, cave spiders and silverfish
 * V
 * to extra damage per level randomly for every hit.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Knockback
 * Increases knockback
 * II
 * More knockback at level II. Does combine slightly with knockback caused by attacking while sprinting.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Fire Aspect
 * Lights the target on fire
 * II
 * Each level adds four burn ticks, with level one doing 3. (4L-1 where L is the level) Dropped meat will be cooked.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Looting
 * Mobs can drop more loot
 * III
 * +1 to max loot drop per level. This also increases the chance of getting rare drops.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Unbreaking
 * Increases durability
 * III
 * (100/(Level+1))% chance a use reduces durability. On average, lifetime is (Level+1) times as long. Requires the use of an enchanted book on an anvil.
 * (100/(Level+1))% chance a use reduces durability. On average, lifetime is (Level+1) times as long. Requires the use of an enchanted book on an anvil.

Tools
! 32 ! 33 ! 34 ! 35 ! colspan=6 |
 * - align="center"
 * Efficiency
 * Faster resource gathering while in use
 * V
 * +30% mining speed over the previous level: I=130%, II=169%, III=220%, IV=286%, V=371%. The speed increase applies to all blocks that when mined, will drop an item. Until snapshot 12w40a, tools enchanted with the Efficiency enchantment could mine anything with the same speed.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Silk Touch
 * Mined blocks will drop themselves instead of the item(s) it should drop
 * I
 * Allows collection of normally unobtainable blocks.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Unbreaking
 * Increases durability
 * III
 * (100/(Level+1))% chance a use reduces durability. On average lifetime is (Level+1) times as long.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Fortune
 * Increases the drop rate of items from blocks
 * III
 * For coal, diamond, emerald, quartz and lapis lazuli, level I gives a 33% chance to multiply drops by 2 (averaging 33% increase), level II gives a 25% chance each to multiply drops by 2 or 3 (averaging 75% increase), and level III gives a 20% chance each to multiply drops by 2, 3 or 4 (averaging 120% increase). For redstone, carrots, glowstone, melons, nether wart, tall grass, and wheat (seeds only), each level increases the drop maximum by +1 (+2 for tall grass, maximum 4 for glowstone and 9 for melons). For gravel, the drop rate of flint is increased to 14% at level I, 25% at level II, and 100% at level III.
 * For coal, diamond, emerald, quartz and lapis lazuli, level I gives a 33% chance to multiply drops by 2 (averaging 33% increase), level II gives a 25% chance each to multiply drops by 2 or 3 (averaging 75% increase), and level III gives a 20% chance each to multiply drops by 2, 3 or 4 (averaging 120% increase). For redstone, carrots, glowstone, melons, nether wart, tall grass, and wheat (seeds only), each level increases the drop maximum by +1 (+2 for tall grass, maximum 4 for glowstone and 9 for melons). For gravel, the drop rate of flint is increased to 14% at level I, 25% at level II, and 100% at level III.

Bows
! 34 ! 48 ! 49 ! 50 ! 51
 * - align="center"
 * Unbreaking
 * Increases durability
 * III
 * (100/(Level+1))% chance a use reduces durability. On average lifetime is (Level+1) times as long.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Power
 * Extra damage
 * V
 * I=150%, II=175%, III=200%, IV=225%, V=250% damage. A fully drawn Power IV bow will kill most mobs with a single shot (10-11 hearts damage).
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Punch
 * Increases knockback
 * II
 * Mobs and players are knocked back farther.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Flame
 * Sets arrows, mobs, and players on fire
 * I
 * Sets arrows on fire when shot, and players and mobs when hit. Applies after initial damage like Fire Aspect. Applied fire also ignites TNT, making it useful if you want to blow something up from a distance. Animals that drop meat (excluding zombies) drop cooked instead of raw meat when killed this way. However, fire from arrows does not spread and does not produce light.
 * - align="center"
 * - align="center"
 * Infinity
 * Shooting consumes no arrows
 * I
 * Firing requires at least one arrow in inventory, but does not use it up. Fired arrows cannot be retrieved, except in creative mode.
 * }
 * }