17 Best Minecraft Enchantments You Should Use

In Minecraft, all your tools, weapons, and armor are your lifeline. They help you mine, fight, explore, and survive in the Overworld, Nether, and the End as well. But what if you could make these items even stronger? This is where the enchantments come in. Whether it’s making your sword deadlier, armor tougher, or the pickaxe more efficient, enchantments are the answer to them.

So, you can apply the enchantments through an Enchanting Table or using the anvil. But how do you know which ones are the best to go for? So, check this list of the best Enchantments in Minecraft, tested on both Java and Bedrock, that are worth going for.

Best Enchantments in Minecraft

All the best enchantments listed in this article work on both Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions. We have tested all the enchantments on the latest Minecraft update as well, so you can rest assured about their compatibility. Furthermore, our list is ranked in the order of increasing usefulness, so the ones at the bottom of the list are definitely powerful than the ones at the top.

17. Aqua Affinity

• Applicable On: Helmet and Turtle Shell
• Effect: Removes the penalty on underwater mining speed
• Maximum Level: 1

The underwater adventures are quite rewarding in terms of resources in Minecraft. While you can use the Minecraft potions to maintain your breath, the game will still nerf your mining capabilities. To counter that, you need to enchant your helmet with the aqua affinity enchantment.

This helmet enchantment allows players to mine faster underwater. It only has a single level, and since its function is to ignore the mining penalty, you can’t mine faster underwater than your above-ground speed. Not to forget, many players mistake aqua affinity as a pickaxe enchantment because of its direct impact on mining. But, as Minecraft’s developers would have it, aqua affinity only works on helmets.

16. Knockback

• Applicable On: Sword
• Effect: Increases the knockback dealt to the target
• Maximum Level: 3

As for the next entry on our list of best enchantments in Minecraft, we have Knockback. Knockback is highly useful against combat-based mobs, unlike skeletons or ghasts. It increases the knockback or backward push received by any mob when attacked by a player. It pushes the mob backward to a higher distance than usual. With most Minecraft mobs dependent upon proximity for attacks, this can be very useful.

You can only apply it to swords, and it has a total of 2 levels. It’s one of the best ways to avoid a blasting creeper. Another common way players use it is to push mobs over the edge of mountains or into the pits. That makes it a useful enchantment in online PVP multiplayer, too. With so many varied uses, it’s easily one of the best sword enchantments in Minecraft.

15. Channeling

• Applicable On: Tridents
• Effect: Summons a bolt of lightning on targets
• Maximum Level: 1

Channeling is easily one of the coolest enchantments in Minecraft. It allows you to produce lightning using your trident. This lightning drops down from the sky and can be used on mobs, entities, and even other players. In a way, you get a brand new weapon with the channeling enchantment.

But it isn’t as overpowered as it appears to be. To use the channeling, your target must get hit by your trident, should be under the open sky, and there must be an ongoing thunderstorm. Moreover, mobs sitting inside another entity, like snow or a minecart, don’t get affected. So, with this great power, you have greater limitations.

14. Silk Touch

• Applicable On: Axe, Shovel, Pickaxe, Hoe, and Shears (Bedrock only)
• Effect: Makes blocks drop as themselves instead of their drops
• Maximum Level: 1

This special enchantment allows the player to pick up several blocks as a whole instead of their usual drop. You can apply it to several tools, including a pickaxe, shovel, axe, and even Eoe. But players usually stick with a silk touch on the pickaxe. It’s because many items like ores, Ender Chest, stone, and more can only be picked with a silk touch exclusively on a pickaxe.

However, if you want to pick up snow and snow blocks, you will need a shovel with the Silk Touch enchantment applied to it. Like Infinity, it also only has a single level, which you get as soon as you apply it.

13. Respiration

• Applicable On: Helmet and Turtle Shell
• Effect: Extends the time of breathing underwater
• Maximum Level: 3

After diving into a pit of lava, let’s focus on water for our next best enchantment in Minecraft. Respiration is an enchantment exclusive to helmets. It allows you to hold your breath underwater for a longer period. Earlier, it also used to give players enhanced vision underwater, but the developers removed it from the new versions of the game.

It has a maximum of 3 levels, the highest giving you a total of 60 seconds before drowning. The enchantment can be applied to a regular helmet or even a turtle shell helmet. Adding it to a turtle shell will grant you an extra 10 seconds of underwater respiration. It’s a very useful enchantment for exploring ocean monuments and more.

12. Fire Protection

• Applicable On: Helmet, Boots, Chestplate, Leggings, and Turtle Shell
• Effect: Reduces damage taken from fire and its sources
• Maximum Level: 4

If you are stepping into the Nether realm, the fire protection enchantment is a lifesaver, literally. You can apply it to pants, chest plates, helmets, and boots. Once applied, it removes any type of fire damage to the player. With a total of 4 levels, you can get an additional 8% of protection with each new level. So, even with a fully charged single piece of armor, you can get up to 32% fire protection. It increases further if you increase the number of armor items you are wearing with this enchantment applied.

You can even expect to survive a fall into lava with this enchantment. Although the damage is only delayed and not eliminated. So, you won’t immediately die on falling into the lava or fire. But you still have to practice caution around fire-based damaging effects. At higher levels, you can even be immune to catching fire at all. There’s no doubt that this is one of the best armor enchantments in Minecraft.

11. Loyalty

• Applicable On: Trident
• Effect: Makes the weapon return to its owner once thrown
• Maximum Level: 3

Continuing the exploration around the ocean, we have the Trident. There are many best trident enchantments in Minecraft, but most of them require specific conditions to work. But the Loyalty enchantment is an interesting and unique one. Once you apply it, the Trident comes back to you after you throw it. It’s an effect similar to Thor’s hammer.

It has 3 levels, and each level leads to an upgrade in the return speed of the Trident. The way it works is that whenever you throw a trident, and it comes in contact with any block or entity, it’s supposed to return to you. It will deal the damage it usually does, but instead of being stuck, it will come back to you. The only exception to this is throwing it with a dispenser.

10. Looting

• Applicable On: Sword
• Effect: Makes a mob drop more and rarer items
• Maximum Level: 3

Similar to fortune, Looting is also one of the best drop-increasing enhancements in Minecraft. But it is focused on swords only and causes mobs to drop more loot than regular. It also increases the chances of rare drops like a Wither skeleton skull. Just like fortune, it can’t increase the number of XP orbs dropped. It has a total of 3 levels.

Also, keep in mind that it doesn’t impact every mob. Fishes, golems, and withers drop the same loot as regular. The mobs that don’t usually drop anything (say bees) do not affect this enhancement.

9. Fire Aspect

• Applicable On: Sword
• Effect: Sets the target it hits on fire
• Maximum Level: 2

As you can probably guess, this enchantment gives your swords the ability to set mobs on fire. It’s a common enchantment that only has 2 levels. When you kill a mob with Fire Aspect, it drops cooked meat instead of regular raw meat. In the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft, you can even light candles, campfires, and TNT using it.

It is seemingly a powerful enchantment. But developers have ensured you don’t use it in the most dangerous dimension. Other than Piglins and Hoglins, all Nether-exclusive mobs are immune to Fire Aspect. That makes this enchantment somewhat useless in the Nether unless you have to face particular mobs.

8. Efficiency

• Applicable On: Pickaxe, Axe, Shovel, Hoe, and Shears
• Effect: Increases the mining/item breaking speed
• Maximum Level: 5

No list of best Minecraft enchantments can be complete without Efficiency. It is a key enchantment that can make mining and exploration way easier. It increases the speed of mining, breaking, and digging. You can apply it to pickaxes, shovels, axes, hoes, and shears. The enchantment has a total of 5 levels with a maximum increase of 45%.

However, keep in mind that you still need to use the correct tools for the correct blocks. You can’t use a shovel to break iron and expect it to be faster than usual. The Efficiency enchantment only works when using the right tool to break a compatible block.

7. Feather Falling

• Applicable On: Boots
• Effect: Reduces fall damage
• Maximum Level: 4

Don’t focus on the name of this enchantment. It doesn’t slow down the speed of your fall in Minecraft. But it lowers the fall damage by a ton. With each level upgrade, it can reduce the fall damage by 12%. You have to apply it to your boots using an Enchantment table.

It’s one of the rarest enchantments you can come across while using the Enchantment table. And just a reminder, it doesn’t even make you death-proof. If you have no added protection, you can expect yourself to die from a fall of 55 blocks even with a Feather Falling 4.

6. Protection

• Applicable On: Helmet, Boots, Leggings, Chestplate, and Turtle Shell
• Effect: Adds additional damage reduction
• Maximum Level: 4

Armor’s purpose in Minecraft is to reduce the damage any mob or item causes you. Protection enchantment enhances that ability by a lot. Other than increasing the general armor’s damage reduction, it does a lot more. It also protects from fire, blast, projectile, and falling objects at some levels, too. In other words, you can reduce any type of damage with protection enchanted armor.

Protection has 4 levels and is one of the most important survival Minecraft enchantments. But it can’t protect you from hunger or falling into the void. Additionally, it can’t reduce poison or wither effect damage in the Bedrock edition. However, it can still prove to be a worthy replacement of fire resistance in Lava, but for only a short period. Taking it on your next Nether trip might come in handy.

5. Fortune

• Applicable On: Axe, Pickaxe, Hoe, and Shovel
• Effect: Increases the number of items a block drops when it’s broken
• Maximum Level: 3

Pushing the mining and exploration to a new level, we have the Fortune enchantment. Unlike real life, luck in Minecraft is controllable and well-defined. Fortune increases the probability or chances of items dropping on mining in-game. It also increases the number of items dropped by mining.

For comparison, mining iron ore regularly releases only 1 raw iron. However, the fortune enchantment can get you up to 4 raw iron blocks on mining. It’s especially useful when finding rare materials like diamonds or nether quartz. If you want to learn where to find diamonds in Minecraft 1.18, follow our linked guide for more information.

4. Infinity

• Applicable On: Bow
• Effect: Prevents consumption of arrows
• Maximum Level: 1

As the name might suggest, this enchantment gives you infinite arrows. It’s a great addition to our list of best enhancements in Minecraft and will come in handy for the Ender Dragon fight. Without it, an arrow is consumed as soon as you shoot it.

So, if you only have one arrow in inventory and your bow has this enchantment, you are on the better side of the trade. Unlike other enchantments, this doesn’t have any levels, as you can’t go beyond infinity. However, arrows will still act like regular ones.

3. Sharpness

• Applicable On: Sword and Axe
• Effect: Increases melee damage
• Maximum Level: 5

You can apply this enchantment to a sword or an axe in Minecraft. Applying it increases the damage caused by these items. A sharper sword or an axe can be used to kill mobs more quickly and easily.

Meanwhile, you can also break wood faster with a sharper axe. The sharpness is increased by 1.25 extra damage with each level in the Bedrock edition. And by “0.5xlevel + 0.5” on the Java edition. You can get Sharpness 5 only by using an Anvil in the game.

2. Unbreaking

• Applicable On: Pickaxe, Shovel, Axe, Hoe, Fishing Rod (& its variants), pieces of Armor, Sword, Turtle Shell, Trident, Bow, Flint & Steel Crossbow, Shield, Shears, and Elytra
• Effect: Gives a chance to avoid the reduction of durability
• Maximum Level: 3

Let’s begin with one of the most popular in-game Minecraft enchantments you can apply to any item with durability. As the name suggests, unbreaking increases the durability of any in-game item. And if you have played Minecraft before, you know how much time extended durability can save us.

With unbreaking applied, the items last way longer than usual. Unbreaking level 3 increases the durability of any item by 700%. Players can apply it to any in-game item that has durability. The most common use of this enchantment is on rare items such as Elytra and diamond or netherite tools and weapons.

1. Mending

• Applicable On: Pickaxe, Shovel, Axe, Hoe, Fishing Rod (& its variants), pieces of Armor, Sword, Trident, Bow, Flint & Steel, Turtle Shell, Crossbow, Shield, Shears, and Elytra
• Effect: Restores durability at the expense of experience
• Maximum Level: 1

The obvious follow-up to unbreaking is the Mending enchantment. It’s the second-most-common enchantment used in Minecraft. You can repair any item by collecting experience orbs. The only condition is that you must have that item equipped. You can wear it, hold it in your main hand, or use it as an off-hand weapon for it to work.

Moreover, you can even have it applied to multiple items at once. The game selects a random item and repairs it automatically. But if none of the equipped items require Mending, the experience orbs or XP orbs are added to the player’s experience. Additionally, if the randomly selected item has full durability and does not require repairs, the XP orbs will go to the player’s experience bar.

These are our suggestions for the best Minecraft enchantments you must have in 1.21.8. Do you think there are any other enchantments we should include on this list? Let us know them in the comments below.