What Does Smite Do in Minecraft?

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 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 one of the best axe and sword enchantments that allows you to increase the damage you deal to the undead mobs. You can get a maximum of five levels of smite enchantment, each level significantly increasing the amount of damage. But using smite on a sword gives a huge 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.

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 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.

Minecraft Mobs Affected by Smite Enchantment

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 the 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

Is Smite Better than Sharpness?

Since Smite improves the damage output of your sword and axe against a particular group of mobs in Minecraft, you should keep another sword or axe with the Sharpness on it. Sharpness enchanted weapons will be useful in general applications like striking down hostile mobs, of course, and killing cows and sheep for food in the minimum strikes possible.

On the other hand, the Smite enchantment will be highly beneficial in stages where you’re building a wither farm or any undead mob farm that includes zombies or spiders. In such cases, the sword or axe with Smite enchantment will deal more damage than the Sharpness one. Therefore, you can efficiently deal with the undead mobs in a short duration.

Smite Enchantment: Levels of Damage

As mentioned earlier, the level of damage dealt to undead mobs increases with the increase in the level of the 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 deals when it is used while jumping toward the mob. Meanwhile, the other value is damage dealt with a full charge of the weapon.

Bedrock Edition

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

As you can notice, each new level of Smite enchantment contributes 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.

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 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. So, what is your preference, going with the Smite enchanted sword or the one with Sharpness on it? Let us know in the comments below.