Minecraft: Best Enchantments For Swords [Top 10]

Enchanting a sword increases its potential considerably in terms of damage, range, and durability. We have different enchantments for each purpose. Let’s have a look at some of the best enchantments to use.

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Key Takeaways

• The Enchantments improve the stats of any swords they are applied to. Moreover, some enchantments also hand out unique traits when applied to a sword.
• If players use an Enchanting Table, they generally need experience points and Lapis Lazuli. If the player uses an Anvil, then the player can use an Enchanted Book and the sword holding the enchantment’s property.
• Some enchantments will conflict with the others, meaning the player will have to select only one enchantment in such a scenario.

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How To Get Sword Enchantments

Although enchanting is a trickier part of the game, it is also quite easy to obtain its fragments ( Enchanted Books ). There are only a few approachable possibilities to get the best enchantments for your sword in Minecraft.

• Exploring: Chest loots and Drops during Village Raid are reliable sources to find an enchantment in Minecraft.
• Fishing: Even I was surprised to find out this method exists. You will have a 5% chance to find an enchantment during fishing. This chance can be improved with the help of “Luck of the Sea” enchantment.
• Trading: Find a Librarian and trade a Book and Emeralds (5-64). This is the most reliable way I suggest to get an enchantment.

Learn the best trades and traits of villagers in our guide on Minecraft’s best villager trades.

How To Put Enchantments On A Sword

Before knowing the best enchantment for swords, you must know how to craft an enchantment.

• Enchanting Table
• Anvil

Crafting an enchanting table requires four Obsidian, two Diamonds, and a Book. The enchanting table is the best source, in my opinion, to place enchantments on your equipment.

To get maximum-level enchantments, place bookshelves around the enchanting table. New versions of Minecraft require fifteen bookshelves around the enchanting table to get the maximum 30-level enchantments.

The best enchantments for swords in Minecraft are explained as follows:

Sharpness

The most basic of all the enchantment is what I would like to recommend, which is the Sharpness. This enchantment places a damage buff on your sword.

On top of that, sharpness has five tiers. Tier 1 sharpness increases the attack damage by 1. The following tiers each have an increment of 0.5 to the attack damage. To put it simply, the sharpness-V Netherite sword has an attack damage of 11.

Players can utilize the sharpness enchantment on any of the mobs in Minecraft. On the other side, it is also well-utilized in PvP battles. You will win your duel if you have an enchanted sword with sharpness while fighting a regular sword. If you want to know more, you can check out our detailed Minecraft sharpness enchantment guide.

However, this enchantment has some limitations regarding being compatible with a sword. It is to say that the Bane of Arthropods can not be practiced on a sword that holds a few other enchantments of somewhat similar effects. Namely, these enchantments are Smite or Bane Of Arthropods.

Unbreaking

Unbreaking is the best enchantment for durability. This perk is not limited to a sword but also works on other weapons, armor, and tools. During my 40+ hours of playthrough, I concluded that breaking your sword is inevitable, but this cruel fate can indeed be delayed by using Unbreaking. Unbreaking also comes with 3-tiers of upgrades.

A Netherite sword has a base durability of 2032. Unbreaking almost doubles its durability, i.e., 4062 on tier 1, 6069 on tier 2, and 8128 on tier 3. This means your sword is four times as durable and will last four times longer.

The fact I recommend Unbreaking is because it is easier to obtain than Mending Enchantment.

Looting

As the name suggests, Looting enchantment increases your loot drop. It is one of the best enchantments I consider for swords because it allows players to increase the loot drop and enhance their resource gathering.

Although this enchantment does not have any contribution to the combat but is undoubtedly helpful in survival mode, looting also has three tiers of upgrades. Each tier increases the drop rate by one and the chance of dropping a rare item by 1%.

There is nothing wrong with getting more food and drops. Looting is most helpful while slaying mobs like Endermen, Blazes, and Wither Skeletons. The drop rate from these mobs is relatively low, but you can quickly obtain these rare materials if you have looting III.

Mending

It is also known as the “Treasure Enchantment” because it is rarer than the other and incredibly useful. You cannot forget Mending when discussing top-tier enchantments for swords. You can’t get Mending by Enchanting table, so you have to fish or trade for it.

Mending is the most valued enchantment, as its abilities are unparalleled. This enchantment increases the sword’s durability by using XP. It restores two durability points by consuming one experience point. This is especially useful for swords because if you are getting enough experience points, your sword will never break.

I recommend getting your hands on this enchantment in any aspect of the game. 

Fire Aspect

Fire Aspects applies a burning effect to mobs and enemies. Unlike most sword enchantments in Minecraft, Fire Aspect only has two tiers of upgrades. On a Netherite sword, tier 1 burns for 3 seconds, and tier 2 burns for 7 seconds. Meaning tier 1 deals 1.5 hearts worth of damage, and tier 2 deals 3.5 hearts worth of damage.

This enchantment is useful in PvP mode as it deals an extra bit of damage by burning effect. You get a massive advantage over your enemies if you have Fire Aspect. If you are in the bedrock edition, you can also trigger TNTs and light candles or campfires with this enchantment.

Knockback

This enchantment knocks the enemies away. It has two tiers of upgrades. Tier 1 gives 109% Knockback, and tier 2 gives 190% Knockback. This means tier one pushes enemies three blocks, and tier two pushes enemies six blocks away.

I find this enchantment ever more exploitable in the PvP scenario. In a PvP battle, you can easily win a battle even if you do not have good equipment to drain the HP out of the opponents.

If an army of mobs is chasing you, or you want to slay some creepers, this enchantment will be helpful as it will prevent the creepers from blowing and you from getting hit by multiple mobs simultaneously.

Sweeping Edge

In terms of damage dealing, I would prefer axes. However, one advantage that swords gain over axes is the swipe attack. Therefore, I recommend enhancing this specific sword’s capability.

Sweeping Edge boosts this unique ability of swords. It is a 3-tier enchantment with a damage boost of 50% on the 1st, 67% on the 2nd, and a massive 75% on the 3rd.

This enchantment increases the sweeping damage, meaning you can combine it with other damage-boosting enchantments to increase its punch further. 

Smite

If you are focused on a single-player adventure, then I highly recommend this enchantment. It deals massive damage to undead mobs. More than half of the entities in Minecraft are undead, thus making Smite a treasured addition to your sword enchantments.

Smite has five upgrade tiers, and each tier increases the damage toward undead mobs by 2.5. So, a Netherite sword enchanted with Smite-V will deal 20.5 damage to undead mobs, killing zombies in a single hit.

It is a useful enchantment, but unlike Sweeping Edge, it cannot be combined with Sharpness. This enchantment damages zombies, skeletons, phantoms drowned, etc., and works on withers.

Smite enchantment is incompatible with the sword already under the effect of a few other enchantments. These enchantments are Ban Of Arthropods or Sharpness.

Bane Of Arthropods

The most tedious experience of my Minecraft is dealing with Arthropod mobs, and this enchantment tends to deal with this very situation. The arthropod mobs include spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, bees, and endermites.

Like Smite, it has five tiers to upgrade each tier, adding base damage of 2.5 toward arthropod mobs. With a Netherite sword, you can get damage of 20.5 toward these mobs.

This enchantment slows the target mobs when hit, but if you have tier-5, you can end these mobs in one blow.

You can not apply Bane of Arthropods enchantment to the sword under the effect of either Smite or Sharpness.

Curse Of Vanishing

Curse of Vanishing is a sword enchantment with a negative effect. This enchantment makes your sword disappear when you die. While it is a curse, some people still make good use of this enchantment in multiplayer battles. This is because I think it’s a great way to annoy players in a PvP scenario by restraining them from looting your equipment after you die.

My Recommendation For Best Enchantment

The above-mentioned are the enchantments that I believe are most handy in general. But I was mostly rocking the Sweeping Edge, Sharpness and Smite for PvP and single-player gameplay.

In my observation enchantments unlock the player’s potential in combat. Overall, I consider these upgrades to be the only way to scale well with the uprising challenges that the game throws at you as you progress further.

Similar Read: Guide to the Nether and the End