[Top 6] Best Minecraft Pickaxe Enchantments (Latest Patch)

Thuumbnail of an Enchanting Table and Diamond Pickaxe in Minecraft

Updated:

02 Sep 2022

[Top 6] Best Minecraft Pickaxe Enchantments (Latest Patch)

I like to wait until late-game to start enchanting my pickaxes. I have a tradition of working long and slow hours, collecting a massive hoard of diamonds, and then crafting a full set of diamond armor, weapons, and tools - just so I can spend all my enchantment levels at one time. My diamond pickaxe is special; that’s the tool that gets the most use, at least from me, so enchanting it feels like a huge moment. There’s nothing quite like the reveal of my completed masterpiece. …as you can see, I’m fairly passionate about enchantments. So here are all six enchantments that can be organically placed on a pickaxe, ranked worst to best, and what makes each one special.

6. Curse of Vanishing

Check out this enchantment: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Curse_of_Vanishing

Our number six spot goes to, of course, the worst enchantment not only for a pickaxe, but, arguably, the worst enchantment in the entire game. The Curse of Vanishing is an enchantment you can often find on tools dug out of buried treasure chests, and it’s just about the unluckiest enchantment you’ll ever meet.

In Minecraft, when you die, you usually drop all your items - requiring you to return to that spot later and recollect your inventory.
The Curse of Vanishing makes that last bit impossible. Upon death, an item enchanted with this curse disappears completely - for good. Hopefully you weren’t too attached to that pickaxe…
Many enchantments can be removed via a Grindstone - but this one can’t. You’re stuck with it.
If you’re playing with cheats, you could set your game up so that you don’t lose your items when you die, or just be particularly well-prepared and slapping down chests the moment you see your health creeping towards zero.
This enchantment is only available at one level of potency.
I don’t know what a higher level of potency would look like… the items disappear at random? You lose the item at a certain level of health? Honestly, that could be a lot of fun.
This enchantment is only accessible to the player via an Anvil and an Enchanted Book or by using cheats.

Gameplay-wise, I see the necessity for this enchantment; it adds an extra layer of challenge and variety, and you could certainly use it for pranks and competitions with your friends. But do I like it? No. I give the Curse of Vanishing a… 1 / 5. I’m feeling generous today.

5. Unbreaking

Check out this enchantment: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Unbreaking

I’ve probably covered Unbreaking in various Gamers Decide articles… seven thousand times, give or take? Jokes aside, Unbreaking may be an incredibly common enchantment, but it’s still a solid addition to any tool you’re planning on getting a lot of use out of. It’s not very exciting, but it can still come in handy.

Unbreaking is an enchantment that stretches the life expectancy of any tool it’s placed on, slowing the rate at which the durability meter drops over time.
At max level, an item enchanted with Unbreaking can have a life expectancy increase of over 40%.
Again, it’s an incredibly common enchantment; if you’ve been playing Minecraft awhile, you’ve probably placed this enchantment on every tool in the game at least once. It’s not an inspiring enchantment, but it’s still a nice feature, especially on a pickaxe.
This enchantment is available at three levels of potency.
You can access this enchantment via an Anvil and an Enchanted Book or by using an Enchanting Table.

I can’t lie; sometimes I’ll hit that level thirty enchantment, and when I pull out my pickaxe and find that I only managed to give it Unbreaking II, I feel… exhausted. I give this enchantment a 2.5 / 5. It’s very useful, but very boring.

4. Efficiency

Check out this enchantment: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Efficiency

When talking pickaxes, the speed of the tool’s cut is an important variable that defines good from best - especially if this is your first diamond pickaxe, and you’re getting ready to mine some obsidian. Efficiency is just the enchantment you need to make that trip as fast and smooth as possible (without using the speedrunning method for placing obsidian without the need to mine).

Efficiency is a fairly straightforward enchantment: it makes your tools more efficient.
The higher the potency, the faster the tool can do its job. Shovels dig faster, axes chop faster, and pickaxes mine faster.
Make sure you’re using a tool for its intended purpose, though; if you try to chop down a tree with a spade or dig up dirt with your pickaxe, this enchantment will have no effect.
At max level, Efficiency increases a tool’s rate of productivity by 45%.
This enchantment is available at five levels of potency.
You can access this enchantment via an Anvil and an Enchanted Book or by using an Enchanting Table.

Much like Unbreaking, this enchantment is fairly common and unexciting, but it is particularly useful on a pickaxe, and I like that it has five different levels… adds a bit of spice. 3 / 5.

3. Silk Touch

Check out this enchantment: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Silk_Touch

Silk Touch is one of the rarer enchantments. I find it most commonly placed on treasure items hidden in shipwrecks. Its rarity is the main factor in its value, as in normal gameplay, it has limited practical use. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with its own share of perks, though!

Silk Touch is an enchantment that causes items broken by tools bearing it to drop its current form rather than the common, gatherable items they normally drop.
Like, say, if you dig up a grass block, usually, you don’t actually pick up a grass block; you pick up dirt. If you were to dig up a grass block with Silk Touch, however, you would pick up a grass block.
There are several uses for this enchantment, but most of them are aesthetics-based. For example, you can only grow mushroom trees on mycelium blocks, and you can only collect mycelium with Silk Touch. Mushroom trees can provide food, sure, but they’re mostly used to make an area look more whimsical and fantastical.
This enchantment is only available at one level of potency.
You can access this enchantment via an Anvil and an Enchanted Book or by using an Enchanting Table.

I mostly use Silk Touch to collect beehives for my gardens in Minecraft, and that’s only once I’ve run out of fun ideas for new activities. Regardless, I still get giddy when I get my hands on a Silk Touch enchantment… I give Silk Touch a 4 / 5 - considering how unnecessary this enchantment is when you really think about it, I might actually be feeling a little too generous today.

2. Fortune

Check out this enchantment: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Fortune

If Curse of Vanishing is the unluckiest enchantment in the game, then Fortune is, quite literally, the luckiest enchantment in the game. Its name is literally a synonym for luck! Fortune can be applied to any tool, but it’s really tailor-made for a beloved pickaxe, and, objectively, it may be the best tool-exclusive enchantment you can get your hands on.

Fortune is like the tool equivalent of Looting for combat items - anything you break using a tool with Fortune is more likely to drop a large quantity of the item you’re mining than when you use a tool without Fortune.

Important to note - Fortune and Silk Touch cannot be organically placed on the same tool. If you use cheats to double them up anyway, Fortune will be canceled out and Silk Touch will be prioritized.
Fortune is actually programmed to increase drop quantity via multiplication, so at higher levels, you can really see how valuable this enchantment truly is.
At its highest level, this enchantment adds a 20% chance to multiply drop quantity by 2, 3, or even 4.
Essentially, if you’re mining with a Fortune pickaxe and stumble across some diamond ore, instead of getting one diamond for each block of ore, you’d likely get at least two a piece - if you’re really lucky, you may even get four each.
This enchantment is available at three levels of potency.
You can access this enchantment via an Anvil and an Enchanted Book or by using an Enchanting Table.

Practical, lucrative, uncommon, perfect for a pickaxe - this enchantment has it all. It doesn’t increase a tool’s durability, but it does get the tool to perform twice the amount of work it might do otherwise. 5 / 5!

1. Mending

Check out this enchantment: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Mending

Mending is almost always the top of these lists. It’s a staple enchantment; the perfect whipped cream topping to any piece of equipment that you’ve lovingly crafted and spent so much time and so many levels to assemble to your personal preferences and needs. After all that effort, it would be awful for your tool to break - which is where Mending comes in.

Mending is one of the most valuable enchantments in the game. Anything in your inventory enchanted with Mending will be automatically repaired as you collect experience points from normal everyday tasks.
As your tools wear down, performing activities that drop experience will buff your Mending items’ durability; two points of durability per one point of collected experience.
Mining coal and diamonds are two very common tasks that generate experience points, meaning that Mending is an excellent enchantment for a mining tool; not only will a mining tool receive a lot of wear and tear and require repairs, but you’re in an environment where experience isn’t hard to come by.
It’s also just nice to have this safety net on any of your most prized tools… like a diamond or netherite pickaxe that you’ve spent the whole game perfectly customizing.
This enchantment is only available at one level of potency.
This enchantment is only accessible to the player via an Anvil and an Enchanted Book or by using cheats.

I have a bias for Mending; my texture pack makes gold helmets look like crowns, so I like to wear gold helmets, even though they never stand the test of time - but Mending fixes that problem. I put it on my helmets, I put it on my favorite swords and bows, and I put it on my pickaxes, so that all my favorite pieces of equipment will never break. 5 / 5!

Armed with the facts and the data, you’re certainly well prepared to enter the forge and create the most overpowered pickaxe known to mankind. Just make sure to ditch the Curse of Vanishing, or you might just lose all that hard work. We’ll see you around… and happy gaming!