Minecraft: Best Pickaxe Enchantments

Mining is the bread and butter of this game. It’s in the name, after all. And as you already know, you’ll be going through plenty of pickaxes as you explore caves. However, we can make them better. In this guide, we’ll be going over the best pickaxe enchantments in Minecraft 1.20.2. 

Best Pickaxe Enchantments in Minecraft

In Minecraft, enchanting is a process that enhances weapons, tools, and armor with special abilities. To enchant items, you’ll need an enchantment table, which can be crafted using obsidian, diamonds, and a book to enchant an item. 

You’ll also have to gather experience points by defeating mobs or mining resources. Place the item you want to enchant in the left slot of the enchantment table and lapis lazuli in the right slot. The middle slot is for the enchanted book, which you can use to apply specific enchantments to your item.

Surrounding the enchantment table with bookshelves increases the available enchantment levels. When you select an enchantment, you’ll have to spend your experience points on the enchantment you want. Although you can stack enchantments on a single tool, they lose buffs after two. I found that having different tools with the enchantments you want/need works best. Below, I’ve listed the best pickaxe enchantments to get and why they’re so useful.

Silk Touch (Max Lv. 1)

Silk Touch allows you to collect blocks themselves rather than the usual resources they drop. It’s helpful if you want to preserve certain blocks in their original form or use them for specific crafting purposes. If you’re hoping to get a spawner to Silk Touch, sadly you can’t. However, you can pick up blocks such as glass and ice, which normally slip through your fingers.

Unbreaking (Max Lv. 3)

When an item has the Unbreaking enchantment, there’s a chance that the item won’t lose durability points when used. The higher the level of Unbreaking, the greater the probability that the object will be preserved after each use. Although this pickaxe enchantment works best at Level 3, it’s hard to obtain, so I find it works just fine at Level 2, especially if it’s on a diamond or nephrite pickaxe. This can become invaluable when you’re mining deeper and deeper.

Efficiency (Max Lv. 5)

Efficiency is commonly applied to pickaxes, axes, and shovels. It lets you mine ore faster, chop wood faster, and excavate dirt, sand, and gravel (you guessed it) faster. This enchantment is especially helpful if you have a large-scale mining or construction project, as it significantly reduces the time and effort required to gather resources and shape the landscape. Although it’s hard to get the Level 5 enchantment, I find it worth it since it will break blocks almost instantly.

Fortune (Max Lv. 3)

You can receive extra resources when you mine an ore block with a tool enchanted with Fortune. This pickaxe enchantment has three levels, and the higher the Fortune level, the higher the chance you have to receive additional drops. For example, mining a diamond ore block with a pickaxe enchanted with Fortune III could possibly give you multiple diamonds instead of just one. If you want a lot of rare resources, Level 3 is the way to go. However, I found that Level 2 works just fine if that’s all you can get for now.

Mending (Max Lv. 1)

The Mending enchantment uses experience orbs to repair the enchanted item over time automatically. The repair process will happen immediately after you collect experience orbs. This means that your pickaxe will constantly repair itself when you’re mining since ore gives you experience. Essentially, this is a better version of Unbreaking.

How to Get Specific Enchantments

Getting the specific enchantment you want can be tricky since it’s slightly up to chance what the Enchantment Table will offer you. However, there’s a slight way around that.

Before you start enchanting, you’ll want to be at least Level 30 first. This will give you some of the best enchantments to choose from which means you have a higher chance of finding one on the list.

Once you find an enchantment you want, you’ll want to add it to a book before your pickaxe. This allows you to get higher level enchantments. If you have two enchanted books of the same level and combine them in the anvil, you’ll get to the next level. For example, two Level 1 books will give you a Level 2 enchantment.

When you have your desired enchantment and level, you can combine the book with your pickaxe. Now you have an enchanted tool. Alternatively, you can also trade with villagers since they’ll have enchanted items. If there’s an enchantment you want that they have, give them some goods.

Best Order to Enchant a Pickaxe

So now you know what the best enchantments are and how to get them. Which ones should you get first? Of course, you should get Mending since it extends the life of your pickaxe. Once you have that, I recommend either Fortune Level 3 if you want to get a lot of resources or Efficiency Level 5 so you can clear large areas quickly.

Those are the best pickaxe enchantments in Minecraft 1.20.2. If you’re looking for more tips and tricks check out our dedicated guides hub.