Best sword Enchantments in Minecraft
The loadout worth building, why each pick earns its slot, and the cheapest way to get them all onto one sword.
The recommended set
| Enchantment | Level | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sharpness | V | Flat damage against everything, so it never sits idle. |
| Looting | III | More drops from every mob you kill. |
| Sweeping Edge | III | Turns crowd control into real damage. |
| Fire Aspect | II | Free cooked meat and burn damage. |
| Unbreaking | III | Roughly quadruples effective durability at level III. |
| Mending Treasure | I | Repairs itself from mob XP, so it never breaks. |
Get the anvil order for this set
Every enchantment a sword can take
Beyond the recommended set, here is the full pool. Anything in the same exclusivity group can only appear once, so read the conflicts before you spend levels.
- Sharpness — max V. The default damage pick. Choose it unless you fight one mob type almost exclusively.
- Smite — max V. Smite V beats Sharpness V by a wide margin in a Wither fight, and does nothing to a creeper.
- Bane of Arthropods — max V. Niche. Worth a spare sword for a spider spawner, not your main weapon.
- Knockback — max II. Great for shoving creepers away, terrible for farms where you want mobs to stay put.
- Fire Aspect — max II. Free cooked food while you fight, but it also burns the drops of some mobs and can set the ground alight.
- Looting — max III. Mandatory on a farming sword. Rare drops like wither skulls scale noticeably.
- Sweeping Edge — max III. Turns crowd control into real damage. Let the attack bar refill fully or the sweep will not trigger.
- Unbreaking — max III. Goes on everything. Pair with Mending and your gear effectively never wears out.
- Mending — max I. Treasure only — trade for it from a librarian villager. The most valuable enchantment in the game.
- Curse of Vanishing — max I. A downside, not an upside. Only useful on PvP servers where you would rather destroy gear than gift it.
Applying them without hitting “Too Expensive”
The anvil charges you twice over: once for the enchantment itself, and again for the prior work penalty that doubles every time an item goes back in. Put the books together first and the sword in last, and the whole set usually lands well under the 39-level ceiling. The enchantment calculator searches every possible order and shows the cheapest one step by step.
FAQ
What are the best sword enchantments in Minecraft?
The strongest all-round set is Sharpness V, Looting III, Sweeping Edge III, Fire Aspect II, Unbreaking III, Mending.
Can a sword hold every enchantment at once?
No. Conflicting enchantments share exclusivity groups, so you have to choose one from each group. The calculator greys out anything that clashes with what you have already picked.
What order should I apply them in?
Combine the books with each other first, pairing cheap ones together, and put the finished book on the sword last. Applying books one at a time to the item raises the prior work penalty every step and usually costs three to four times as much.