10 Best Sword Enchantments in Minecraft

By: Isla Brevant  | 
These Minecraft sword enhancements can help the same sword last a lot longer while still doling out extra damage. Klochkov SCS / Shutterstock

If you're battling hostile mobs or gearing up for PvP scenarios, knowing the best sword enchantments in Minecraft offers can give you a major edge. Enchanting swords allows you to deal more damage, increase mob drops and extend your sword's durability.

Whether you're in survival mode or raiding an XP farm, here are the top enchantments every player should consider.

Advertisement

1. Sharpness V

This is one of the best sword enchantments in Minecraft for general melee damage. Sharpness increases damage against all enemies, making it more versatile than enchantments focused on specific mobs.

It shines in PvP and survival mode alike, and works well with both diamond and netherite swords.

Advertisement

2. Looting III

Looting increases the number and quality of item drops from enemies. It boosts your chance of getting rare items like blaze rods, ender pearls, and wither skeleton skulls.

It's essential for XP farms, wither skeleton farms, and increasing mob drops in general.

Advertisement

3. Sweeping Edge III (Java Edition Only)

Sweeping Edge improves your crowd control by increasing damage to multiple mobs in a single swing. It’s ideal in survival mode when you’re dealing with cave spiders or skeleton farms.

Sweeping Edge III is similar to Knockback II in crowd-control usefulness, increasing sweep attack damage to multiple mobs (up to 75 percent of the sword’s damage at level III) and it does not confer any additional stun effect.

Advertisement

4. Unbreaking III

This enchantment significantly boosts your sword's durability. The unbreaking enchantment makes your sword last much longer by reducing the chance that each hit consumes durability. Pair it with Mending for ultimate longevity.

Advertisement

5. Fire Aspect II

With Fire Aspect II, your sword sets enemies ablaze. This fire damage continues over time, which is helpful against undead mobs and other mobs alike.

It’s great for PvP and adds flair to any enchanted weapon.

Advertisement

6. Knockback II

Knockback pushes enemies away, giving you breathing room in tight fights. While it can make gathering item drops harder, it’s very useful against multiple mobs or when dealing with melee attackers. Knockback II is especially handy in survival mode.

Advertisement

7. Smite V

Smite is the top-tier choice for undead mobs. It does extra damage to zombies, skeletons, wither skeletons, and drowned—perfect for wither skeleton farms or when you're farming XP in dungeons filled with undead.

Advertisement

8. Bane of Arthropods V

This enchantment deals extra damage to arthropod mobs like spiders, cave spiders, and silverfish. It also inflicts a Slowness IV effect on arthropod mobs (lasting about 3 seconds at Bane of Arthropods V).

While it's mutually exclusive with Smite and Sharpness, it shines in spider-specific scenarios.

Advertisement

9. Mending

Though not always obtained via the enchanting table, Mending is one of the best enchantments for long-term use. It uses experience orbs to repair your weapon, essentially making your sword last forever if you keep collecting XP.

Advertisement

10. Curse of Vanishing

While not helpful in PvE, this enchantment causes your sword to disappear upon death.

It can be useful in PvP scenarios to prevent enemies from taking your loot. Consider using it in high-stakes or hardcore worlds.

4 Tips for Enchanting Swords

  1. Use an enchanting table with bookshelves to increase enchantment level options.
  2. Combine enchanted books in an anvil to stack multiple enchantments on one item. But remember that mutually exclusive enchantments (e.g., Sharpness and Smite) still cannot coexist on the same tool.
  3. Use lapis lazuli and experience points to enchant directly at the table.
  4. Always check for multiple enchantment orders to minimize XP cost.

Whether you’re enchanting shears, crafting tipped arrows or just trying to obtain Feather Falling on diamond boots, mastering enchantments Minecraft-wide gives you control over your survival.

We created this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor.

Advertisement

Loading...