Enchantement
Enchantment is a mechanism that allows the enhancement of tools, weapons, and armors with a variety of “enchantments” which improve existing capabilities of an item or bestow new abilities and uses. An enchanted item shows a special animation to indicate it’s enchanted.
—
Enchantment Materials
| Name | Icon | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Enchantment Table |  | Used to enchant items. |
| Bookshelf |  | Each bookshelf (up to 15) increases the level of enchantments given by the enchantment table. |
| Lapis Lazuli |  | Necessary to power the enchantment table. |
| Anvil |  | Allows combining enchanted items (tools, armors, weapons, etc.), adding enchantments from books, or repairing an enchanted item while preserving its enchantments. |
| Grindstone |  | Removes all non-curse enchantments from an item, giving back some experience, and optionally repairing an item without experience. |
| Enchanted Book |  | Can be combined with another item using an anvil to add specific enchantments to the item. |
—
Methods of Enchantment
Enchantment Table
The most common way to enchant an item in Survival mode is to use an enchantment table. In exchange for experience and lapis-lazuli, an unenchanted item will randomly receive one or more enchantments. “Treasure” enchantments cannot be obtained this way.
This method does not allow for enchanting shears, flint and steel, carrots on a stick, shields, and elytras.
Mechanics
To enchant an item using an enchantment table, the player must place this item in the left slot of the table’s interface and place 1 to 3 units of lapis-lazuli in the right slot to unlock the three lines of enchantments, knowing that the top line corresponds to the minimum enchantment level and the bottom one to the maximum level. The right part of the interface then displays up to three proposals symbolized by glyphs in Standard Galactic Alphabet, unrelated to the enchantment. Hovering over one of the table’s proposals displays the name of an enchantment that might be found on the item. The list of possible enchantments is not reset until an item is enchanted. In multiplayer, each player must enchant an item to update their own list of enchantments.
The player, if they have enough experience and lapis-lazuli, can click on one of the three lines and retrieve the enchanted item. Each proposal impregnates the item with a random set of enchantments that depend on the number of experience levels required. The experience levels acquired during the game thus serve to unlock the enchantments. However, the actual number of levels subtracted from the player is the same as the number of lapis-lazuli units required, i.e., between 1 and 3. For example, if the third line proposes an enchantment at level 30, the player must have at least 30 levels, but it will actually cost only 3 levels and 3 units of lapis-lazuli.
The number of experience levels required influences the quantity, type, and level of enchantments applied to the item, a higher experience level generally allowing to obtain more enchantments and/or higher level enchantments. However, there is a significant random factor, meaning that enchanting at level 30 (the maximum) does not guarantee obtaining multiple enchantments or even obtaining the maximum level of the enchantments – an enchantment at level 30 might still only bring Sharpness II or III, for example.
Surrounding the enchantment table with bookshelves increases the maximum enchantment level. Thus, with a maximum of 15 bookshelves, level 30 is unlocked.
Enchanting a book produces an enchanted book, which does nothing by itself but “records” its enchantments for later application to another item via an anvil.
Anvil
Anvils allow combining the enchantments of two items of the same type, sacrificing one and repairing the other. Furthermore, an anvil allows transferring the enchantment from an enchanted book onto an item. This process also requires experience.
This method allows placing enchantments on items where they would not normally be available, or even increasing the maximum level of enchantments.
Recovering Enchanted Items
It is possible to recover enchanted items or enchanted books by fishing, buying them from a villager in exchange for emeralds, retrieving the equipment sometimes dropped by a zombie, a skeleton, or a zombified piglin, or finding them in chests, particularly in the End cities.
—
Other Methods
Other methods, not available in Survival mode, allow enchanting items or obtaining enchanted items:
- Items can be enchanted using the “enchant” command.
- In Creative mode, items can be enchanted via an anvil and enchanted books without the operations costing experience levels.
- Enchanted books are available in the Creative mode inventory but only the highest level of each enchantment is present.
- Other levels can be found in the “Search” tab of the Creative mode inventory.
- It is possible to give custom items or books with the “give” command.
- With this command, the normal limitations of enchantments do not apply. It is thus possible to give an item possessing an enchantment up to level 32,767 or 2,147,483,647.
—
Disenchantment
The only way to disenchant items is to use a grindstone. The operation removes enchantments that are not “Curse” enchantments and gives back experience based on the level and value of the enchantments.
Summary of Enchantments
| Enchantment | English Name | Summary | Treasure | Max Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweeping Edge | Sweeping Edge | Increases the damage of sweeping attack dealt to nearby targets. | No | III |
| Aqua Affinity | Aqua Affinity | Eliminates the mining slowdown under water. | No | I |
| Depth Strider | Depth Strider | Increases movement speed underwater. | No | III |
| Soul Speed | Soul Speed | Increases movement speed on soul sand blocks. | Yes | III |
| Respiration | Respiration | Increases underwater breathing duration. | No | III |
| Lure | Lure | Increases the fish bite rate on the hook. | No | III |
| Fire Aspect | Fire Aspect | Sets the target on fire. | No | II |
| Looting | Looting | Increases the loot that creatures drop upon death. | No | III |
| Channeling | Channeling | Strikes lightning on the creature or player targeted. | No | I |
| Luck of the Sea | Luck of the Sea | Increases the chance of obtaining treasures and reduces the chance of obtaining trash while fishing. | No | III |
| Quick Charge | Quick Charge | Increases the reloading speed of the crossbow. | No | III |
| Smite | Smite | Increases the damage dealt to undead creatures. | No | V |
| Feather Falling | Feather Falling | Reduces the damage received from falls. | No | IV |
| Efficiency | Efficiency | Increases mining speed. | No | V |
| Impaling | Impaling | Increases the damage dealt to aquatic creatures (except drowned). | No | V |
| Thorns | Thorns | Inflicts damage to attackers. | No | III |
| Cleaving | Cleaving | Increases the damage dealt to enemies and increases the likelihood of disabling shields. | Unknown | III |
| Flame | Flame | Sets the target on fire. | No | I |
| Bane of Arthropods | Bane of Arthropods | Increases the damage dealt to spiders, silverfish, and endermites. | No | V |
| Fortune | Fortune | Increases the resources obtained by mining. | No | III |
| Punch | Punch | Increases the knockback of the target when hit by an arrow. | Yes | II |
| Swift Sneak | Swift Sneak | Increases the player’s movement speed while crouching. | No | III |
| Riptide | Riptide | Launching the trident underwater accelerates the player. | No | III |
| Infinity | Infinity | Allows shooting arrows without consuming them. | No | I |
| Loyalty | Loyalty | Allows the trident to return to the player once thrown. | No | III |
| Curse of Binding | Curse of Binding | The player can no longer remove the piece of armor. | Yes | I |
| Curse of Vanishing | Curse of Vanishing | Destroys the item upon the player’s death. | Yes | I |
| Piercing | Piercing | Allows the crossbow to pierce through several entities with an arrow. | No | IV |
| Protection | Protection | Reduces the damage received. | No | IV |
| Blast Protection | Blast Protection | Reduces the damage received from explosions. | No | IV |
| Fire Protection | Fire Protection | Reduces the damage received from fire. | No | IV |
| Projectile Protection | Projectile Protection | Reduces the damage received from projectiles. | No | IV |
| Power | Power | Increases the damage dealt by arrows. | No | V |
| Mending | Mending | Repairs the item using the experience orbs collected. | Yes | I |
| Knockback | Knockback | Increases the knockback (applies to all tools except bows). | No | II |
| Frost Walker | Frost Walker | Allows walking on water by instantly freezing it underfoot. | Yes | II |
| Unbreaking | Unbreaking | Increases the durability of the item. | No | III |
| Multishot | Multishot | Allows the crossbow to shoot 3 arrows at once, while consuming only one. | No | I |
| Silk Touch | Silk Touch | Allows obtaining blocks normally non-recoverable. | No | I |
| Sharpness | Sharpness | Increases the damage dealt. | No | V |
All this information was retrieved from the official Minecraft Wiki.