All Minecraft Sword Enchantments (And When To Use Them)

Updated:

04 Oct 2022

Best Minecraft Sword Enchantments

There are a lot of great sword enchantments and for the reason that some may be incompatible with each other, and you really can't decide on which ones to use and when, this article is simply for you.

Do you want your enemies to catch on fire? Do you want to receive more loot, do more damage? Keep reading more to figure out which enchantments you need for what you want to do.

10. Fire Aspect

“Sets target on fire.”

Fire Aspect stats:

3 half hearts of damage with level 1 Fire Aspect
7 half hearts of damage with level 2 Fire Aspect
4 seconds of burning to the enemy.

With over 80 ticks of fire damage added to your sword, which is worth exactly 4 seconds of fire for whatever you are hitting.

Not only is this enchantment useful for inflicting more damage to whatever you are hitting, it also has advantages that are not too apparent at a first glance. First of all, if you kill a mob that usually drops a raw food with Fire Aspect, it will drop that food as already cooked instead.

Here is a fun fact, a sword with fire aspect cannot burn any enemies in the Nether, other than Piglins and Hoglins, The warden is also immune to the effects of Fire Aspect. So, keep that in mind when you fight these mobs with Fire Aspect.

Use Fire Aspect if:

You want to use your sword in a farm for cooked meat.
You want to kill mobs quickly and/or do more damage to them.
You play PvP and want an edge towards your enemy.

9. Looting

“Increases the amount of loot dropped when mob is killed.”

Looting stats:

Increases the maximum amount of common item drops by 1 per level.
Makes a second attempt to the original drop chance for rare item drops.
The second attempt gets more likely per level.

Looting is a must have for a survival player. Even if you are at the very start of the game (well, at least at the point where you can get enchantments) or you are in the late game of the survival experience in Minecraft, a sword with looting is definitely a desirable piece of equipment. Why? Well, for the sole reason of more loot, of course.

If you have mob farms that you use with a sword, having a sword with looting will grant you much more loot, both common items and more rarer drops. For this reason and this reason alone, it is definitely a good idea to have a looting sword on you, whether you have an efficient farm or you are running around the desert killing creepers to get as much gunpowder as you possibly can.

Use Looting if:

You want to kill the same number of mobs but want more loot as a result. Don’t really need a second reason for getting Looting, I don’t think.

8. Unbreaking

“Increases durability of item, in effect, by decreasing the chance of the tool, weapon, or armor taking durability damage when used.”

Unbreaking stats:

%100 more durability on a tool at Unbreaking I
%200 more durability on a tool at Unbreaking II
%300 more durability on a tool at Unbreaking III

Unbreaking is, as an enchantment, a must-have for every equipment and armor you have. It simply makes it so that you can use the same tool or armor many more times and for longer without it breaking.

While we saw the release of Mending as another way to make sure that your equipment did not break, before Mending was ever introduced to the game, Unbreaking was a must-have, and still is.

For an example, if you have a netherite pickaxe, you will get to use that pickaxe for 2032 times if you don’t fix it or have no unbreaking on it; however, if you have Unbreaking III on that same pickaxe, you will get to use that for 8128 times. That sounds like a good deal to me.

Use Unbreaking if:

You want to use the same equipment more without it breaking.
You are going on an adventure with your armor on. Definitely put some unbreaking on your armor, since they break the most without you realizing.
You decide to excavate a large area with a pickaxe.

7. Sharpness

“Increases attack damage dealt to mobs.”

Sharpness stats:

1 half heart of damage increase for Sharpness I
1.5 half heart of damage increase for Sharpness II
2 half heart of damage increase for Sharpness III
2.5 half heart of damage increase for Sharpness IV
3 half heart of damage increase for Sharpness V

Sharpness is a must-have enchantment for your sword. You can also enchant your axes with Sharpness as well if you wish to do so. As described above, with every level of Sharpness you will get more attack damage on your sword and will be able to slay your enemies with less attacks and faster overall.

If you have a mob farm that needs your input with a sword to function, you definitely need Sharpness. Even if you don’t, and you are simply going on an adventure, going mining, or doing PvP with other people, you definitely need the most amount of Sharpness on your sword for that damage advantage!

Use Sharpness if:

You are going mining. There will be a lot of mobs down there.
You are going on an adventure, there is definitely a lot of mobs in the overworld as well.
You are playing PvP.
You have a mob farm that you benefit from with a sword.

6. Smite

“Increases attack damage against undead mobs.”

Smite stats:

2.5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Smite I
5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Smite II
7.5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Smite III
10 half hearts of damage on your sword for Smite IV
12.5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Smite V

Smite is a very similar enchantment to Sharpness that you also can employ on your sword and also axe. The main difference between Sharpness and Smite is that Smite does a lot more damage, but only works against undead mobs.

If you are looking to slay skeletons, zombies, zombie villagers, withers, wither skeletons, zombified piglins, skeleton horses, zombie horses, strays, husks, phantoms, drowned, or zoglins, it would be the best idea to choose Smite over Sharpness.

Also, it would best to really think about which one you will be needing since you can’t enchant a sword with both sharpness and smite.

Use Smite if:

You are going to be fighting against skeletons, zombies, zombie villagers, withers, wither skeletons, zombified piglins, skeleton horses, zombie horses, strays, husks, phantoms, drowned, or zoglins. It would be the best idea to choose Smite over Sharpness if that’s what you will be doing with the sword.

5. Bane of Arthropods

“Increases attack damage against arthropods.”

Bane of Arthropods stats:

2.5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Bane of Arthropods I
5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Bane of Arthropods II
7.5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Bane of Arthropods III
10 half hearts of damage on your sword for Bane of Arthropods IV
12.5 half hearts of damage on your sword for Bane of Arthropods V

Bane of Arthropods works the same way as Sharpness and Smite, but only works for spiders. While Sharpness does a certain amount of damage to every single mob type out there, Smite and Bane of Arthropods does damage to a certain groups of enemies but does a lot more damage than Sharpness does.

So, it’s all a matter of what you need in that particular moment. If you are looking to strafe into mineshafts, it might be the best idea to get Bane of Arthropods since there will be a lot of spider spawners down there.

But overall, it’s usually the best bet to get Sharpness.

Use Bane of Arthropods if:

You have a particular mob farm that only has spiders.
You are going to mineshafts which have a lot of spider spawners.

4. Knockback

“Increases knockback dealt (enemies repel backwards).”

Knockback stats:

Knocking back enemies with %105 increase for Knockback I
Knocking back enemies with %190 increase for Knockback II

Knockback is an enchantment that not many people may want in their sword, while others might see it as something really advantageous.

With Knocking, you gain the ability to knock enemies back when you hit them. While this has its advantages, especially for mobs like creepers, this effect may also be pretty annoying since you need to run after a mob as you knock them back with every hit to actually kill them.

However, if you are playing PvP or want to keep the mobs away from you and create some space between you and them, or want to drop them off a certain place, Knockback can be really useful. If you are sprinting towards an enemy when you hit them, the knock is even harder, and one can manage to knock back an enemy for 6 blocks. 6 blocks!

Use Knockback if:

You want to create a space between you and the enemy.
You want to drop an enemy off a ledge or something similar.
You want to keep the enemy far away while you heal or run.

3. Mending

“Uses xp to mend your tools, weapons and armor,”

Mending stats:

Enchantment weight: 2
Incompatible with Infinity
Maximum level: 1

Mending is a late comer as an enchantment in Minecraft, but it was definitely a very much welcome one.

Mending makes it so that if you receive experience from any kind of action, and if you are wearing or holding an equipment with Mending in your hands while you do so, rather than receiving that XP to your overall XP bar, the points transfer to the equipment and repair it.

Other than being a really cool mechanic, before this enchantment, repairing items were only done with anvils and it got more expensive the more you repaired that particular equipment; and after a point, you had to let go of an equipment and make a new one. With Mending, you can use the same equipment for an eternity if you’d like, which is pretty cool.

Use Mending if:

You don’t want your equipment to break.
You are going to be killing a lot of mobs or just a few mobs. If you use a mending sword to kill mobs and get XP, the sword will practically never break.

2. Curse of Vanishing

“Cursed item will disappear after player dies.”

Curse of Vanishing stats:

Maximum level: 1
Not able to disenchant.

Alright, this is a different one. One of the newest enchantments, added together with Curse of Binding, the Curse of Vanishing enchantment makes it so that the item it is enchanted to will disappear on death.

We know that our items drop to the ground when our character dies. For items with Curse of Vanishing, this is not the case. If you are holding the item, or it is just in your inventory, the item will simply disappear on death.

The enchantment is one that is compatible with the most amount of equipment in Minecraft. You can enchant a carved pumpkin or even a compass with Curse of Vanishing, for whatever reason you would want to do that.

Use Curse of Vanishing if:

You want your item to disappear on death. Honestly, I can’t see any reasons for this other than maybe SMP reasons or, I don’t know, keeping spy secrets hidden or stuff.

1. Sweeping Edge

“Increases damage of sweep attack.”

Sweeping Edge stats:

Sweeping Edge I increases the damage of sweep attacks by 50%
Sweeping Edge II increases the damage of sweep attacks by 67%
Sweeping Edge III increases the damage of sweep attacks by 75%

When the combat system for the game was changed, all swords included a sweep attack, where if you attacked with a full bar of attack juice (or whatever that bar is called), your sword had a sweep attack that would damage nearby enemies that are close to the enemy you are hitting.

With Sweeping Edge, you can increase the amount of damage your sweeping attack does. Well, what is this useful for? Well, if you are fighting a group of enemies, whether it be in the overworld, Nether, or The End, or even in your own base with your mob farm, you can simply damage a lot more enemies a lot quicker.

With a good sword and Sweeping Edge III, you basically feel like you have an AoE attack in Minecraft, which is really nice and feels really good.

Use Sweeping Edge if: