The glint animation applied to an enchanted iron pickaxe. Show Enchanting is a mechanic that augments armor, tools, weapons, and books with one or more of a variety of "enchantments" that improve an item's existing abilities or imbue them with additional abilities and uses. A special "glint" animation appears on items that are enchanted. Enchanting equipment[]
Enchanting methods[]An enchanting table surrounded by bookshelves. There are four ways to enchant an item in Survival mode:
A player may also obtain items already enchanted:
Server operators and players in singleplayer worlds with cheats enabled can also enchant items using
commands such as Enchanting table[]Enchanting table interface. Top: Without item. Bottom: With item, hovering over the third line. An item can be enchanted by using an enchanting table and placing the item in the input slots and 1–3 Lapis Lazuli in its dedicated slot. Upon placing the item, three (pseudo)randomized options appear on the right of the GUI. The glyphs here do not affect the enchantment, but hovering over a presented enchantment shows one enchantment to be applied (on mobile devices, the player can tap an enchantment before putting in the lapis lazuli or hold the enchantment before release). The only choices available have a level requirement equal to or below the player's current level and a lapis lazuli requirement equal to or below the number of lapis lazuli placed in the table. Each option imbues the item with a randomized set of enchantments that are dependent on the number of experience levels required (e.g. a level 10 enchantment can give a pickaxe the "Efficiency II" enchantment); the actual level cost and the number of lapis lazuli required have no effect. Although the player must have at least the level requirement to get an enchantment, the number of levels that the player is charged is the same as the lapis lazuli requirement. For example, if the third enchantment listed is a level 30 enchantment, the player must have at least 30 levels, but pay only 3 levels and 3 lapis lazuli. The level requirement influences the quantity, type, and level of enchantments instilled in the item, with a higher experience level generally resulting in more and/or higher-level enchantments. Nevertheless, there is a significant random factor, and even a level 30 enchantment (the maximum) doesn't guarantee more than one enchantment, or even that enchantments are "maximum strength" — a level 30 enchantment can still yield Fortune II or Efficiency III alone, for example. On the other hand, it is possible for multiple different enchantments to be given from one use of the enchanting table. For example, a level 30 enchantment applied to a pickaxe may yield both Efficiency lV and Unbreaking lll. To increase the enchantment level, bookshelves can be placed next to the enchanting table while keeping one block of air between them. To gain access to the previously mentioned level 30 enchantments, a total of 15 bookshelves need to be placed around the enchanting table. See the Enchantment Mechanics page for more detailed information on this. Enchanting a book produces an enchanted book, which does nothing on its own, but effectively "saves" the enchantment for later application to another item with an anvil. Unlike with an anvil, using the enchanting table while on Creative still costs experience. However, if the player doesn't have enough experience, then experience reduces to zero and the enchantment still works, even when using the enchanting table while already at level zero. Affecting offered enchantments[]Enchanting any item at any enchantment level changes the player's enchantment seed, which changes the possible enchantments for every item at every enchantment level. Thus, if none of the available enchantments for a tool are desired, 1 lapis lazuli and 1 level could be spent to enchant a book or a different tool to refresh the list. The possible enchantments depend on the player's enchantment seed, the item type, and material, and the enchantment level (1–30). The following actions do not affect the possible enchantments:
Changing the enchantment levels offered by adding, removing, or blocking bookshelves alters the enchantments shown, but does not change possible enchantments; using another enchanting table with the previous bookshelf number still shows the previous enchantments. The enchantments for a particular enchantment level (with the same seed and item) do also differ depending on which row they appear in, but they are not "better" or "worse" based on the row despite the different resource costs. 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 compatible; they must either be the same type and material (such as two iron swords) or an item and an enchanted book with an applicable enchantment (such as a bow and an Infinity enchanted book). Combining two enchanted items, books or one of each with the same enchantment at the same level produces an item or book with the next higher level of that enchantment up to the maximum allowed in survival mode; for example, a book with Thorns I and Unbreaking II combined with a book with Unbreaking II produces a book with Thorns I and Unbreaking III. To combine items, the player places the target item in the anvil's first slot and the sacrifice item in the second slot. If the combination is allowed, the resulting enchanted item appears in the anvil's output slot and an experience level cost, labeled "Enchantment 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 experience cost depends on the enchantments, with highly enchanted items costing more. If the target item is also being repaired, that costs more as well. The target item can also be renamed, at additional cost. There is also an accumulating surcharge for prior work done on anvils. In Survival mode, work that costs more than 39 levels of experience is refused although it may still be possible to perform the same work in steps. For example, a damaged enchanted bow may be repaired on an anvil with an ordinary bow, and then another enchanted bow may be used to combine enchantments with the repaired bow. Enchanted books[]Enchanted books can be made by enchanting a book in an enchanting table at the cost of experience points. They can also be found in the chests of several structures, purchased with emeralds from a librarian villager, or caught while fishing. Enchanted books can be applied to tools, weapons, and armor, or combined with other enchanted books in an anvil. In this way, some enchantments that cannot normally be obtained on an item through use of the enchanting table can still be applied to those items, such as applying Thorns to boots. Although enchanted books can have multiple enchantments of any type, only enchantments appropriate to a given item type are applied to that item when combined in an anvil. For example, an enchanted book may have both the Respiration and Power enchantments, but the Respiration enchantment is lost if the book is applied to anything but a helmet. Likewise, the Power enchantment is lost if the book is applied to anything but a bow. In Creative mode, enchanted books can be used to apply any enchantment to any item, such as a stick having Knockback II.[JE only] However,
mutually-exclusive enchantments, such as Infinity and Mending, cannot be applied this way or even via The experience costs for using books are considerably less than for combining items with similar enchantments since the books themselves cost levels to create. However, it's still an extra cost, and enchanting items directly has a chance to get multiple enchantments. The advantage of books is that they can be stockpiled for use on an item of choice and allow for controlled combinations. For example, a Silk Touch book can be used on an axe, pickaxe, or shovel, and the player can decide which item receives which enchantment. Disenchanting[]The only way to disenchant items is via the grindstone or by repairing the items via the crafting grid. Using the grindstone removes all enchantments (except Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing) but gives some experience back based on the level of the enchantment(s) and their value. Summary of enchantments[]Each enchantment in the table below includes attributes 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.
Summary of enchantments by item[]Enchantments that have multiple levels are shown with their maximum level numbers. Mutually exclusive enchantments can be combined using commands (e.g.,
[1].
The tables below summarize the enchantments that can be obtained on specific items in Bedrock Edition and in Java Edition survival mode (Any enchantment can be applied to any item in Java Edition creative mode). Enchantments that can be applied to both hand slot items and armor slot items are listed in both tables.
Maximum effective values for enchantments[]This section is missing information about a better lead section with a better summary. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. A table shows the effective limits for enchantments (found also here).
Item data[]
Videos[]History[]
Issues[]Issues relating to "Enchanting" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there. See also[]
Gallery[]
How do you enchant things in Minecraft?To enchant your tool, you'll simply place it on the enchanting table in the left slot and place some lapis lazuli in the right slot. Three enchantment options will appear to the right. Applying one of the enchantments will cost 1 to 3 lapis lazuli and 1 to 3 player levels (that you earn from XP).
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