What Does Smite Do in Minecraft? Explained!

Minecraft enchantments are essential to surviving the game’s various challenges, whether exploring the world at night or fearlessly delving into deep caves. We have already covered the best Minecraft enchantments you should have by your side, but there’s one enchantment that can help make your weapons more powerful and reliable. Called Smite, this enchantment can easily help you take down around half of the hostile mobs in the game. But what does smite do in Minecraft and how exactly do you get it? Let’s find out in this detailed guide.

What Is Smite Enchantment in Minecraft

Smite is a popular axe and sword enchantment that allows you to increase the damage you deal to the undead mobs. You can get a maximum of five levels of smite, each level significantly increasing the amount of damage. It can be applied on both an axe and a sword. But, using smite on a sword gives a significant advantage to the players who don’t want to switch between weapons while fighting.

Moreover, when it comes to drawbacks, the Smite enchantment is incompatible with the Bane of Arthropods, Sharpness, and the Cleaving enchantment. So, you can’t apply the Smite enchantment on an item that already has one of the three incompatible enchantments.

List of Minecraft Mobs Affected by Smite

The undead mobs in Minecraft appear “dead” in appearance and most of them are generally hostile toward the players. Moreover, all these mobs are immune to drowning but transform when trapped underwater (zombie to drowned zombie). Not to forget, the Potion of Healing in Minecraft damages these mobs, but the Potion of Harming ironically heals them.

With that said, here are all the undead mobs that are affected by smite enchantment:

• Chicken Jockey
• Husk
• Drowned
• Zombie
• Phantom
• Skeleton
• Skeleton Horse
• Stray
• Spider Jockey
• Skeleton Horseman
• Stray
• Wither
• Zoglin
• Wither Skeleton
• Zombie Villager
• Zombie Horse
• Zombified Piglin

Smite Enchantment: Levels of Damage

As mentioned earlier, the level of damage dealt to undead mobs increases with the increase in the level of Smite enchantment. However, it is quite inconsistent across the material of swords, axes, and even the editions of Minecraft. Let’s take a close look at the damage tables (via Minecraft Wiki) to understand the various levels of Smite enchantment.

Java Edition

Please keep in mind that the value in parentheses reflects the critical damage of the weapon. It is the damage that the weapon causes when it is used while jumping toward the hostile mob. Meanwhile, the other value is damage dealt with a full charge of the weapon.

Bedrock Edition

Here, the value in parentheses reflects the critical damage and the other values represent the general damage when the enemy isn’t wearing armor. Here’s what the Smite enchantment damage looks like in Bedrock Edition:

As you can notice, each new level of Smite enchantment adds an additional 2.5 points worth of hit damage. Moreover, as you might notice, the axes of the Java edition are much more powerful than its swords. Meanwhile, the swords are the superior weapon in the Bedrock edition. In case you are wondering, this difference is because of the combat update that never arrived on the Bedrock edition, until the Minecraft Preview 1.20.50.22 that finally added some combat changes to the Bedrock edition.

How to Get Smite Enchantment in Minecraft

There are two main ways to obtain enchantments in Minecraft:

• Enchanted Books: Available for Smite on axes with Java edition
• Enchanting Table: Applicable for Smite on axes with Bedrock edition and on swords with both editions.

Unfortunately, there are no fixed locations to find an enchanted book for the Smite enchantment. However, you can use our guide to learn how to find and use enchanted books in Minecraft to make your search simpler. Having said that, here’s how to apply Smite enchantment using the Enchanting Table:

• First, make an Enchanting Table in Minecraft and place it on a solid surface.
• Then, upgrade the table by placing various bookshelves around it. This will allow you to get higher levels of the Smite enchantment in-game. Next, right-click or use your secondary action key to open the Enchanting table.

• Then, place your sword in the cell on the left side of the enchanting table with a lapis lazuli in the cell next to it. After that, the table will show three available enchantments on the right side.

• Next, you have to hover over each option on the right panel of the Enchanting table to find the Smite enchantment. When you find the Smite enchantment, click to apply it to your sword (or even axe in the Bedrock edition). If it doesn’t show up, replace the weapon or the table and then try again.

How to Use Smite Enchantment in Minecraft

Now that your new Smite enchanted weapon is ready, let’s take it for a spin:

• First, look for an undead mob because they are the only ones affected by this enchantment (find the complete list above). The easiest one to find is a zombie, which spawns in the Overworld in dark places.

• Then, simply walk up to the undead mob and attack it with your Smite-enchanted weapon. Compared to any non-enchanted tool, your Smite axe or sword will kill the mob much faster.

With that, you are now ready to step into your next fight and completely annihilate all the undead mobs of Minecraft. But, don’t become too reliant on your weapons. While your axe and sword might be powerful, they can’t deal with swarms of enemies. So, make sure that you also have a bunch of the best Minecraft armor enchantments for protection. Alternatively, you can make an Iron Golem in Minecraft and keep it around for additional support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better Sharpness or Smite?

As you already know, Sharpness increases the overall damage of a weapon, but Smite only increases the damage that’s dealt to undead mobs. So, unless you are only planning to fight the undead mobs, Sharpness is the better option in most cases.

Does Smite 5 one shot zombies in Bedrock Edition?

On the Bedrock edition, zombies have 20 health. So, you can one-shot kill them with a Smite 5 diamond or Netherite sword. If it’s a critical hit, you can even kill a zombie with Smite 4 and an iron sword.