Minecraft: Top Best Sword Enchantments Guide

Minecraft has ten sword enchantments that can change how your trusty sword behaves in certain scenarios. That’s a lot of variation in what you can do with your weapon. If you’re wondering what they do or which are the best, look no further cause we’ve made a list of the best to the worst sword enchantments.

Note that while there are ten total sword enchantments, you can only have seven to eight applied at a time because some enchantments don’t overlap. Enchantments like Bane of Arthropods, Sharpness, and Smite fall under this umbrella as only one can be on a sword at a time.

Best Minecraft Sword Enchantments

1. Sharpness

We have the Sharpness enchantment in the top spot, and it’s one of the easiest to explain. Sharpness in Minecraft gives your weapon extra damage outright.

Since this damage increase applies to all mobs, it is a tad bit weaker when compared to enchantments like Bane of Arthropods and Smite. Even so, this all around damage buff is great for the main weapon you’d use in battle and that’s why it’s number one.

1. Mending

Coming in at number two we have Mending. Mending is an interesting enchantment. Whereas you would normally gain EXP from killing mobs with your sword, this enchantment siphons that EXP to repair your weapon.

This is great because as you continuously repair a sword you might like the levels needed to perform these repairs get higher every time. What had only cost 7 levels to repair will eventually cost 31. The rate that Mending siphons EXP is much faster than grinding for levels. On top of that you’ll never have to worry about it breaking.

3. Looting

The Looting enchantment is another great asset to add to the sword. This enchantment can be put on the pickaxe and sword. For the sword Looting grants better drops when defeating enemies. The rarity of drops is higher and you get more item drops as well.

4. Fire Aspect

Who doesn’t love adding a bit of spice to every swipe? The Fire Aspect is what you need to give your sword a bit of extra on hit effects. Set your enemies ablaze with a slash and damage them over time as they roast.

This is one of the rarer enchantments to get for the sword. but it’s certainly worth it. As a bonus you can instantly cook the meat you get from mobs like cows and pigs if you use Fire Aspect.

5. Smite

Smite on a sword is what undead mobs fear. This enchantment gives a substantial increase to damage done to anything Minecraft classifies as dead.

This increase is even stronger than the Sharpness enchantment. The only downside is this Smite increase doesn’t exist when fighting anything alive.

6. Bane of Arthropods

Bane of Arthropods comes in to help when fighting anything Minecraft classifies as an Arthropod. This list includes Spiders, Silverfish, Bees, and Creepers.

This has a similar increase to Smite, it just works on different enemies.

7. Knockback

The Knockback enchantment in Minecraft is a good combat perk to add to a sword. As you’ve seen already, hitting a mob with your sword naturally knocks them back. With the Knockback enchantment you can send them flying much further.

This is pretty good if you’re fighting something like a creeper, zombie or spider. It’s less useful if you’re fighting a skeleton which would use that range to pelt you with more arrows. 

8. Unbreaking

Unbreaking is a good enchantment to have as it increases the durability of the sword. At the highest rank it can make your sword last an absurdly long time. Put this enchantment on a diamond sword and you’ll be wondering just when it might break.

These enchantments are pretty easy to come by as well so there’s no need to worry about never finding this one. You can make it easily as well using an enchantment table.

9. Sweeping Edge

Sweeping Edge which increases the base damage inflicted when going for a Sweep Attack. It’s actually a good enchantment that buffs an already great attack.

The main issue with this one is that it is exclusive to Java users only. Unfortunately Bedrock players can’t experience this Enchantment.

10. Curse of Vanishing

And lastly we have the worst enchantment to find on your sword: Curse of Vanishing. As you could guess from the name this causes your sword to vanish after death. If you’re unlucky enough to die with a Curse of Vanishing item in your inventory, it disappears forever.

As you can see the Curse of Vanishing is definitely the worst of the ten sword enchantments you can have in Minecraft which ends our list. If you found this helpful, check out our extensive Minecraft guides and seed lists.

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