Minecraft enchantments: full list and best picks

Minecraft enchantments turn ordinary gear into formidable tools: a pickaxe that cuts through stone, a sword that kills in two hits, boots that cancel fall damage. You still need to know the full list, which ones are incompatible with each other, and how to build a level 30 enchanting table that does not waste your bookshelves.

This guide gathers everything in one place: building the table and its ring of bookshelves, the table of every enchantment with its maximum level, the best picks item by item, then how to use the anvil and enchanted books. On a Minecraft server played with friends, the shared enchanting room is often what separates a team that survives the Wither from a team that starts over.

The information below matches Minecraft Java Edition in its recent versions. Notable differences with Bedrock are pointed out along the way.

📑 Table of contents

• Building an enchanting table (level 30)
• List of enchantments
• Best enchantments by item
• Anvil and enchanted books
• Incompatible enchantments
• FAQ

📚 Building an enchanting table (level 30)

Crafting the table

The enchanting table requires mid-game materials:

Layout in the crafting grid:

-         Book       -
Diamond   Obsidian   Diamond
Obsidian  Obsidian   Obsidian

On its own, the table only offers weak enchantments: the best slot goes up to level 8 at most. To reach level 30, you need to surround it with bookshelves.

The 15 bookshelves

Each bookshelf is crafted with 6 planks and 3 books (planks on the top and bottom rows, books in the middle). You therefore need 45 books, which means 135 paper and 45 leather. A sugar cane farm and a cow pen make this quick; villages also contain ready-made bookshelves that you can collect with a Silk Touch pickaxe, or by accepting to lose the books.

Placement rules, all mandatory:

1. Bookshelves go one block away from the table (not touching it, not two blocks away).
2. They must sit at the same height as the table or one block higher, never below.
3. The space between the table and each shelf must stay empty: a torch, a carpet or a slab cancels the shelf behind it.
4. 15 bookshelves are enough; any extra ones are ignored.

The classic layout is a 5x5 square around the table: a ring of bookshelves on one or two levels, with a one-block opening to walk in, which gives exactly 15 shelves if you leave a single position empty on a full ring of 16.

Lapis and level cost

The interface offers three slots. From top to bottom, they cost 1, 2 and 3 lapis lazuli and remove 1, 2 and 3 experience levels. The number shown on the right (for example 30) is the minimum level required to click, not the price: a level 30 player who picks the third slot drops to level 27, not to zero.

📜 List of enchantments

The tables below give the name shown in game, the identifier used in commands (/enchant @s minecraft:sharpness 5), the items concerned and the maximum level. Enchantments marked treasure never appear at the table: you have to find them as books.

Armor

Sword and melee weapons

Tools

Bow, crossbow and trident

Fishing rod and curses

🏆 Best enchantments by item

Two enchantments belong everywhere: Unbreaking III to slow down wear and Mending to repair with experience. Add them to every piece before thinking about the rest.

A few useful details:

• Fortune III on the pickaxe multiplies diamonds, emeralds, redstone and lapis; Silk Touch collects glass, ice, intact ore blocks or village bookshelves.
• Infinity and Mending are incompatible on the bow: most players pick Mending and craft their arrows.
• Thorns damages attackers but wears your armor every time it triggers, so keep it for PvP.
• On the elytra, Unbreaking III and Mending are essential, since it can only be repaired with phantom membranes.

🔨 Anvil and enchanted books

The enchanting table has its limits: it offers random combinations, ignores treasure enchantments and caps some levels. The anvil lets you choose precisely.

Crafting and using the anvil

The anvil is crafted with 3 blocks of iron and 4 iron ingots: the blocks on the top row, one ingot in the center, three ingots on the bottom row, 31 ingots in total. It wears out with every use and eventually breaks after about twenty operations on average.

In the anvil, you can:

• combine two identical items to merge their enchantments and add up their durability;
• apply an enchanted book to an item;
• raise a level by combining two enchantments of the same level (Sharpness IV + Sharpness IV = Sharpness V);
• repair with the original material (diamond, ingot, phantom membrane), each unit restoring a quarter of the durability;
• rename an item for 1 level.

The cost and the « Too Expensive! » message

Every operation costs experience levels. The price rises with the number and level of the enchantments added, and above all with the prior work penalty: each time the item goes through the anvil, it keeps a penalty that doubles (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 levels...). Past 39 levels, the anvil refuses the operation in survival and shows « Too Expensive! ».

To avoid this cap, first combine the books with each other (two books, Unbreaking III + Mending for example), then apply the resulting book to the item in a single operation. The more times an item goes through the anvil, the more the next operations cost.

Where to find enchanted books

The grindstone does the opposite: it removes every enchantment from an item (except curses) and gives you part of the experience back.

🚫 Incompatible enchantments

Some enchantments cannot coexist on the same item. The table never offers them together, and the anvil refuses the merge or only keeps the first one.

Both curses stack with everything, which is precisely their problem: check the books found in chests before applying them.

⚙ Going further

• Minecraft Beacon: the complete guide: Haste II and an Efficiency V pickaxe, the ultimate mining duo.
• Minecraft Java commands: the syntax of /enchant and /give for administrators.
• The best Minecraft mods: some mods add new enchantments and an improved table interface.
• How to create a Minecraft server: launch your world and build your enchanting room in it.

🎮 Enchant your gear with friends

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