Minecraft Enchanting Guide (2026): Best Enchantments for Every Item
Current for Java & Bedrock. Covers the table setup, the must-have enchantments, and the ideal loadout per item.
Want the exact max level of every enchantment, which ones conflict, and a copy-paste command for a full loadout? Use our Minecraft enchantment calculator alongside this guide - it greys out conflicting picks and generates the /enchant set or an enchanted book.
Setting up the enchanting table
- Table: 4 obsidian + 2 diamonds + 1 book.
- Max power: place 15 bookshelves in a ring one block away from the table (nothing blocking the gap) to unlock level 30 enchants - the best ones.
- Cost: every enchant needs 1-3 lapis lazuli plus XP levels.
- Anvil: combine items + enchanted books to apply specific enchants and merge gear; renaming/repairing also happens here.
The must-have enchantments
| Enchant | Why it's core |
| Mending | Repairs the item with XP - gear lasts forever. The single best enchantment. Only from books (Librarian trades), never the table. |
| Unbreaking III | Multiplies durability - put it on almost everything, even with Mending. |
| Protection IV | General damage reduction - spread across all four armor pieces. |
| Efficiency V | Faster mining - essential on pickaxes/axes/shovels. |
| Fortune III | Multiplies ore/crop drops (diamonds, redstone, coal). Mutually exclusive with Silk Touch. |
| Sharpness V | Flat bonus melee damage to everything - the default sword pick. |
Best loadout per item
| Item | Ideal enchantments |
| Sword | Sharpness V, Looting III, Fire Aspect II, Sweeping Edge III (Java), Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Pickaxe | Efficiency V, Fortune III OR Silk Touch, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Armor (all pieces) | Protection IV, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Boots | + Feather Falling IV, Depth Strider III (or Frost Walker II) |
| Helmet | + Respiration III, Aqua Affinity |
| Bow | Power V, Infinity OR Mending, Flame, Punch II, Unbreaking III |
| Trident | Loyalty III + Channeling (or Riptide III), Impaling V, Unbreaking III, Mending |
| Elytra | Unbreaking III, Mending (keep it repaired mid-flight) |
Every Enchantment, With Its Actual Roll Weight
The question this table answers is the one the tooltips never do: why you keep rolling Efficiency and almost never Mending. Each enchantment carries a weight, and the table picks from the eligible pool in proportion to it. Weight 10 comes up ten times as often as weight 1. These are read straight out of the enchantment definitions in the Minecraft 26.3 server jar, all 43 of them.
The pool splits into four tiers: 5 at weight 10, 11 at weight 5, 19 at weight 2 and 8 at weight 1. Anvil cost is the multiplier applied when you combine the enchantment in an anvil, and it moves in the opposite direction to weight: the rare ones are also the expensive ones to merge.
| Enchantment | Max level | Roll weight | Anvil cost | Applies to |
| Efficiency | 5 | 10 (Common) | 1 | mining |
| Piercing | 4 | 10 (Common) | 1 | crossbow |
| Power | 5 | 10 (Common) | 1 | bow |
| Protection | 4 | 10 (Common) | 1 | armor |
| Sharpness | 5 | 10 (Common) | 1 | sharp weapon |
| Bane of Arthropods | 5 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | weapon |
| Density | 5 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | mace |
| Feather Falling | 4 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | foot armor |
| Fire Protection | 4 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | armor |
| Knockback | 2 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | melee weapon |
| Loyalty | 3 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | trident |
| Lunge | 3 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | lunge |
| Projectile Protection | 4 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | armor |
| Quick Charge | 3 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | crossbow |
| Smite | 5 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | weapon |
| Unbreaking | 3 | 5 (Uncommon) | 2 | durability |
| Aqua Affinity | 1 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | head armor |
| Blast Protection | 4 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | armor |
| Breach | 4 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | mace |
| Depth Strider | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | foot armor |
| Fire Aspect | 2 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | fire aspect |
| Flame | 1 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | bow |
| Fortune | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | mining loot |
| Frost Walker | 2 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | foot armor |
| Impaling | 5 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | trident |
| Looting | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | melee weapon |
| Luck of the Sea | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | fishing |
| Lure | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | fishing |
| Mending | 1 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | durability |
| Multishot | 1 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | crossbow |
| Punch | 2 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | bow |
| Respiration | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | head armor |
| Riptide | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | trident |
| Sweeping Edge | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | sweeping |
| Wind Burst | 3 | 2 (Rare) | 4 | mace |
| Channeling | 1 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | trident |
| Curse of Binding | 1 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | equippable |
| Curse of Vanishing | 1 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | vanishing |
| Infinity | 1 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | bow |
| Silk Touch | 1 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | mining loot |
| Soul Speed | 3 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | foot armor |
| Swift Sneak | 3 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | leg armor |
| Thorns | 3 | 1 (Very rare) | 8 | armor |
What to do with this. The five weight-10 enchantments are the ones you will see constantly and never need to chase. At the other end, the weight-1 group is worth getting from a librarian rather than the table, because rolling for it burns levels: Silk Touch, Infinity, Channeling, Thorns, Soul Speed and Swift Sneak. Mending sits just above them at weight 2 and is the same story in practice, which is why lectern-rerolling a Novice librarian is the standard way to get it. Trading is not a shortcut for these, it is the sensible route.
Getting specific enchantments reliably
The enchanting table is random. For a guaranteed enchant - especially Mending, which the table can't give - trade with a Librarian and re-roll the lectern until the book appears. See the villager trades guide for the full method (and zombie-curing for cheap books).
Grinding XP for level-30 enchants is faster on an always-on world. Host your Minecraft server with Supercraft - build an XP farm that runs while you sleep. See also: best Y-levels for ores and the Density mace enchantment guide (the one enchant the table handles differently).