Minecraft enchantments guide

Searching for the best Minecraft enchantments, but need a primer on them? Minecraft has lots of items already and enchantments add onto that, with different tiers, and a shedload of possible effects to add—the variety of choices can be daunting. But luckily, this guide should help explain what's involved in the process.

Minecraft enchantments are by no means essential, but they can be a big help. Minecraft Netherite armor is one of the rarest and most valuable pieces of kit out there—if you can find Ancient Debris to make it, that is. That said, let's get to the bottom of how to use Minecraft enchantments. Be aware that you're also going to need a diamond pickaxe to gather the necessary materials for your new enchanting table. 

What are Minecraft enchantments?

Minecraft enchantments are an essential mechanic to set you up for endgame as it grants your items various special effects. You can enchant everything from weapons, tools, and armor, so there's certainly something in your possession that you can take to the next level. It basically involves imbuing items with special powers to make them stronger. 

How to set up a Minecraft enchantment room

Before you enchantment run you have to enchantment walk, so here's how to get started with your journey to being a shiny collecting Minecraft wizard and set up your very own spot to enchant stuff.

How to craft an enchanting table

To craft a Minecraft enchanting table, you first need the ingredients. Here's your shopping list:

• 4 Obsidian blocks
• 2 Diamonds
• 1 Book

To get the Obsidian, you need a Diamond or Netherite pickaxe: you can pilfer the Diamonds you need from various chests you can find, or mine them up yourself in the deeper levels of the world, though you may need a bit of luck to stumble across them either way.

Obsidian, on the other hand, doesn't require luck to find. What's more, you can craft it yourself. Obsidian forms when water and lava meet, so grab a bucket and go looking for some of the hot stuff.

You can make books by combining three pieces of paper—made from sugar cane—and some leather, or by destroying book cases you find in the world. Either way, they're pretty easy items to get for the Enchanting Table.

Once you have the ingredients, you can combine them using a Crafting Table. Just place the obsidian along the bottom row, then the middle row needs to be: diamond, obsidian, diamond. Finally, put a book in the top-middle space and you'll have your table.

How to set up a Minecraft enchantment room

Next, you've got to actually set up your Enchantment Table properly. To function correctly, the Enchantment Table needs a total of 15 Bookshelf blocks exactly two blocks away in X/Z coordinates, and either on the same Y coordinate or one above. Effectively, this means you can stack bookshelves up to two high to achieve this layout and power up your table.

In the image above, you can see the layout from above of the simplest setup for enchanting, with a one high arrangement of Bookshelf blocks and an opening to stand at. This isn't the only way to do a Minecraft Enchantment Table setup—so feel free to get creative—but it's a good simple one to return to if yours isn't working.

What else do you need for doing Minecraft enchantment

While the basics like levels and Lapis Lazuli are important, some other tools and resources are very useful for doing your very own Minecraft enchantments. The first is the Anvil, which is a block crafted from iron blocks and iron ingots that allows you to combine enchanted equipment and books to upgrade them.

The next are books themselves, which you can enchant on your Enchantment Table like any other item to receive random enchantments. But afterwards, you can use your Anvil to put them onto your gear—even gear that's already enchanted.

Enchanted Books are the best way to get the specific enchantments you want onto your gear, or even just to burn off your excess levels to 'store' them into enchantments you might like later.

How to use an enchanting table

Enchanting items in Minecraft comes in three main flavors, each with slightly different rules. The first method is the one you'll use most often, and revolves entirely around the enchanting table, just make sure you have some levels to use along with a supply of Lapus Lazuli to start.

How to use a Minecraft enchanting table 

• The main way to enchant items is to use an enchanting table, which allows you to exchange your levels and some Lapis Lazuli to grant permanent bonuses to your items. However, the enchantments you receive will be random, and you'll only be given a hint of what they'll include.
• Place the item you want to enchant in the top left slot and place Lapis Lazuli into the slot next to it.
• The three entries to the right that appear are ranked from one to three, and the bottom enchantment option is the strongest. Each option has its own level cost displayed as the green number on the right.
• Once you've decided, you can click the option you want to enchant your item.

The other option is to enchant a book, which works exactly the same as described above. But instead of a receiving a usable piece of enchanted equipment, you'll receive an enchanted book that can use any time later to apply the stored enchantment to a piece of gear on the anvil.

How to use the Anvil to add and combine enchantments

The other ways to enchant your equipment rely on the trusty Anvil.  First, you can combine an Enchanted Book with a piece of the appropriate equipment to get exactly what you want—no more, no less—for some levels.

• First you place the equipment you want to enchant in the left slot, and then place the Enchanted Book in the middle slot.
• The enchantment cost in levels is displayed in green text.
• Finally, you can take the finished and enchanted equipment from the right slot.

The final method of enchanting is to combine two already enchanted pieces of equipment on the Anvil. 

The Anvil combines the enchantments on each piece of enchanted gear you give it. creating one final piece of gear with upgraded enchantments. This will add applicable enchantments that there's space for directly to the finished piece of gear, and also try to upgrade enchantments that are present on both pieces. 

For example, an armor with Thorns 3 and Protection 2 combined with another that has Protection 2 would become one single piece of armor with Thorns 3 and Protection 3. You can read more on the Minecraft wiki about the specifics of Anvil mechanics if you want to really dig into it.

The actual combination is a simple process:

• To start you place both pieces of equipment you're combining in the middle and left slots.
• The enchantment cost in levels is displayed in green text.
• Finally, you can take the finished combined equipment from the right slot.

Best Minecraft enchantments

There are a wide range of Minecraft enchantments, each with different levels of effectiveness, so it can be a lot to pick between. To make it easy, here are the ones to look out for, with Mending being our personal favorite: 

Minecraft enchantment list

Here's a list of every Minecraft enchantment available, as well as what they do, what equipment they can apply to, and the maximum level for each:

That's it for our Minecraft enchantments guide. Hopefully, you feel wiser, stronger, and ready to face Mojang's perilous world. Failing that, at least you know a bit more than you did previously. Crafting the perfect items takes a lot of time and a bit of luck, but it's certainly worth the effort.