Survive Minecraft's biggest dangers with this swords guide

Minecraft sword - all the different swords on the ground in Minecraft
(Image credit: Mojang)

Need to know how to get your hands on a Minecraft sword? Survival is serious business in Mojang's famous survival game. You don't want a hostile mob catching you off-guard and staying alive demands a good weapon. Bows or axes can do the job, but ultimately, nothing beats your trusty sword.

They come in many varieties, but chances are, you might not be using them as effectively as possible. With plenty of Minecraft sword enchantments available and mods, I’ve put together this guide to tell you everything you need to know about bladed weapons in Minecraft.

Minecraft sword types?

At time of writing, Minecraft offers six different sword types. Each have a durability system with varying attack strengths. Basing this off the Bedrock edition—Java Edition deals 0.5 fewer hearts damage each per hit—here’s what you can expect from each variant:

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Sword types
TypeUsesDamage (hearts per hit)
Wood602.5
Gold332.5
Stone1323
Iron2513.5
Diamond15624
Netherite20324.5

How to make a sword in Minecraft

Most swords are crafted in the same way. Looking at your crafting table’s middle column, a stick needs placing in the bottom row. Above it, depending on your chosen variant, requires two planks/gold ingots/cobblestones/iron ingots/diamonds, depending on the sword type you're creating.

A Minecraft Netherite sword requires a different approach: you need to create a Minecraft diamond sword first. Once crafted, place it and one Netherite ingot onto a Smithing Table, and upgrade it to the current best Minecraft sword in the game.

You can also just find swords in the game world, and there’s three ways to do so. Several enemies come equipped with swords and once killed, they might drop them. zombies and Husks offer iron swords, Minecraft piglins and their zombie equivalents drop golden swords, while Wither Skeletons drop stone swords. Weaponsmith villagers can trade swords for emeralds and they’re also commonly found inside chests. 

How Minecraft sword enchantments work

(Image credit: Mojang)

Enchantments are a great way to buff your shiny new sword, but they require an Minecraft enchantments table. Unfortunately, there’s no method to guarantee what enchantment you’ll get, and they hold different rarities. Each come with levels that increase their potency, too. Swords have eight different options in total, which are:

  • Bane of Arthropods: Increased attack against Minecraft bees, endermites, silverfish and spiders, offering an extra 2.5 hearts damage per hit with each level. Also inflicts Slowness for 1-1.5 seconds, going up 0.5 seconds with higher levels. 
  • Fire Aspect: Your sword sets fire to your target, adding 4 seconds of burning for each level. If used on a meat-holding mob, cooked meat drops when killed. 
  • Knockback: Adds three blocks to your base knockback per level and doesn’t require sprinting to activate. Also stops Minecraft creepers from exploding.
  • Looting: This is a rare enchantment, providing more drops and an increased chance of rarer items, which grows higher with each level. 
  • Sharpness: A more common enchantment which increases attack damage. In the Java Edition, that adds 1 extra heart damage and a further 0.5 for each level. Bedrock Edition adds 1.25 heart damage instead.
  • Smite: Relatively uncommon, but when applied, deals an extra 2.5 hearts of damage for each level to all undead enemies. 
  • Sweeping Edge: Unlike other enchantments here, this one is a Java exclusive. Letting you apply a damage multiplier if several enemies are hit within a sweeping attack, that grows with subsequent levels.
  • Unbreaking: Increases your sword’s durability. It requires you to enchant a book first - creating the Book of Unbreaking. Once done, you can use a Minecraft anvil to combine it with your sword, granting this.

How about Minecraft sword mods?

Best of Minecraft

Minecraft 1.20 - Steve celebrates his new camel pal

(Image credit: Mojang)

Minecraft update: What's new?
Minecraft skins: New looks
Minecraft mods:  Beyond vanilla
Minecraft shaders: Spotlight
Minecraft seeds: Fresh new worlds
Minecraft texture packs: Pixelated
Minecraft servers: Online worlds
Minecraft commands: All cheats
Minecraft build ideas: What to build next

There are a few worth considering. I advise using Minecraft Forge as your mod loader and Curse Forge to find mods. Here's some more help if you’re looking for wider options when it comes to the best Minecraft mods.

Mods are designed for specific versions of Minecraft, so check carefully before installing. You can change which version you’re playing and there’s an official guide available on how to do that. As a warning, if you use an existing world created via a newer edition, that can corrupt your data, so I recommend starting fresh. 

Whether you want to change how combat works or you’ve been seeking fancy new variants, I’ve rounded up a few of our top Minecraft sword mod suggestions below:

  • Advanced Combat (version 1.12.2): Offers buffs for existing swords, and new variants. Also increases enchantment upgrades and other weaponry.
  • Dynamic Sword Skills (version 1.12.2): Adds more strategic elements to sword combat, including parrying and dodging.
  • The Eight Fabled Blades (version 1.12.2): Includes eight extremely rare swords with unique abilities, such as arrow slicing and disenchantment. They cannot be crafted or repaired. 
  • ToLaserBlade (version 1.16.5): Want to wield a lightsaber in Minecraft? Look no further.
  • SwordCraftOnline (version 1.12.2): For anime fans, this mod offers swords based on those from Sword Art Online, including Karakurenai and Elucidator.
  • Useless Sword (version 1.16.4): Includes 60 brand swords, ranging from questionable picks with Mushroom Swords to Dragon Breath Diamond swords. 
  • Weapon Throw (version 1.16.5): As the name suggests, this allows you to throw your weapons at enemies for some fun. Also includes new enchantments based around throwing.
Read more
Minecraft servers - An above view from Mineplex
The 15 best Minecraft servers
Minecraft mods - Terralith shows off one of its biomes
The best Minecraft mods for glorious new worlds
Firing an arquebus at a giant spider in Avowed.
The best weapons in Avowed and how to get them
Minecraft texture packs - the John Smith Legacy pack showing a wandering trader in front of a tudor house
The best Minecraft texture packs
Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword
Best starter Great Sword build in Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds
Best starter Sword and Shield builds in Monster Hunter Wilds
Latest in Survival & Crafting
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus
Performers acting as zombies are seen on a train coach during the "Train to Apocalypse" event as part of the Pandora Box Artmire Festival 2024 held to attract commuters to ride the city's rapid transit system LRT (light rapid transit), in Jakarta on July 11, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP) (Photo by BAY ISMOYO/AFP via Getty Images)
Venerable browser-based MMO Urban Dead is closing this week after a 20-year run, not with a bang but with a whimper
Wearing a hazmat suit, a Rust player proudly holds up a freshly cooked pie, foregrounded by a table covered with pies and a large pumpkin on the left.
Rust's crafting update gives the survival sim real-time food cooking and pies to rival Monster Hunter, but the tastiest treat is the ability to make and throw 'bee grenades'
A pig, a cow, and two birds dance
Minecraft Live returns in March with everyone's favorite kind of content: 'exclusive movie content'
An explosion in a desert environment
Survival sandbox Core Keeper gets explosive next week with a whole new skill tree devoted to bombs and grenades
Dead in Antares screenshot
The tough luck continues in Dead in Antares, the newest addition to the long-running series about people trying not to lose their heads in bad situations
Latest in Features
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequel
Gallica and the protagonist from Metaphor: ReFantazio.
The best deals in the 2025 Steam Spring Sale
Hands pushing poker chips on a table
Winning $2.6 billion in this poker videogame has completely ruined fake poker for me
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.
I just played Half-Life 2 RTX, a fully ray-traced overhaul of the original, and its meaty headcrabs have me hankering for more
AMD Radeon Sapphire Pure RX 9070 XT graphics card for PC gaming in white colourway
Ranking AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics cards by their visual design, cuz, you know, I can't buy one for MSRP so have to kill my time somehow