Improving Minecraft’s tools and weapons is an difficult and even repetitive task. Most of the time, players can achieve so on a late-game status.
Still, with combat being one of the most vital elements in the game, studying the improvements one can make on swords is essential.
Among the diverse ways of improving weapons in Minecraft, enchanting is by far the most effective process. With swords being the game’s most popular weapon, sword enchantments have become a necessary theme, especially for players fond of PvP play styles.
In Minecraft, enchantments behave in a complex way; there are exclusive ones, which will force you to decide between implementing them or an alternative one. Moreover, there are specific sword enchantment combos, and knowing which suits you is critical.
Improving your main sword in Minecraft leads to swifter gameplay.
Consequently, progressing in the game’s campaign becomes a less arduous task. This article will discuss the best Minecraft sword enchantments considering specific play styles.
Minecraft Iron Sword Recipe
- 1 Stick
- 2 Iron Ingot
A sword is one of the main tools you have to learn how to craft that will be a real life saver.
Luckily it can be made from a variety of materials other than Iron.
Swords
Before specifying the sword enchantments in the game, let’s lay out some vital information about the weapon itself.
Swords are short-range weapons in Minecraft that inflict moderate damage against other mobs. There are six material types you can use to craft this weapon, which are:
- Wood
- Stone
- Iron
- Gold
- Diamond
- Netherite
Most of the materials listed above are naturally-generated minerals, which you can find in caves, abandoned mineshafts, ravines, etc. So, studying the game’s best minerals is essential to understanding the weapon and tool hierarchy in Minecraft.
The list above follows an intentional order; it starts from the weakest material (wood) and ends with the most potent resource in the game (netherite). In this sense, stone swords have lower durability and perform less damage than iron swords.
This hierarchy order also applies to every tool and equipment in the game.
Nevertheless, you can upgrade swords at a smithing table.
More precisely, any diamond equipment, including armor pieces, can be upgraded to netherite in the smithing table. You can’t upgrade inferior-material items.
This upgrade concerns natural enhancement and does not relate to enchantments. Netherite is better than Diamond in durability, damage, and speed. So, without applying any enchantment to the tool or weapon, the smithing table upgrades the traits mentioned.
However, you’ll need a Netherite bar and a diamond sword to achieve this. The recipe in the smithing table works as follows:
During the early game, iron swords are the most helpful.
This is because it’s conventionally quick to gather enough stones to build a stone pickaxe and gather superficial iron blocks. As a result, you’ll typically achieve to craft this sword in two in-game days.
In the mid-game status, players most popularly use iron and diamond swords.
Enchantments
In Minecraft, you can enchant every tool and equipment. The game has a complex enchantment content, with an ample selection of magical traits that typically improve a tool or equipment’s attributes.
We can divide the enchantment types into three categories:
- Enchantments for production and work.
- Enchantments for combat.
- Enchantments for exploration.
The first type centers itself on work and production-related activities.
Among the uses for this type of enchantment are farming, mining, building, harvesting, foraging, etc. Its main goal is to fasten the resource-grabbing speed.
The second category gravitates around PvP and PvE combat. It’s exceptionally present in weapons, enhancing their damage value and speed; in armors it upgrades their defensive bonus and dexterity value.
The third category focuses on traveling and journeying around the Minecraft world.
So, this category includes enchantments to improve walking speed, fall damage resistance, underwater breathing capacity, etc.
In total, there are 38 enchantments in Minecraft. Additionally, there are adverse perks, which we can also consider “enchantments”, the curses, which the game has two; intuitively, they’re negative attributes.
You can add enchantments on items by using an enchantment table and exchanging experience points for a magical buff. Alternatively, you can use anvils and combine enchanted books with items.
You can also find already-enchanted items in treasure chests, ruin loots, end city chests, village storages, etc. In addition, you can disenchant items, given that the enchantment isn’t a curse.
Combat Enchantments
To discuss sword enchantments in more depth, let’s focus on the combat category. Specifically, let’s examine the enchantments for short-range weapons.
In Minecraft, you’ll find that there are two weapon categories, short-range and long-range. Both categories benefit from exclusive enchantments; you’ll see variations depending on the weapon type inside each category, but they follow a pattern.
For instance, long-range weapons, such as bows and crossbows, can benefit from enchantments to enhance their range, firing speed, reloading speed, etc. Likewise, in short-range weapons, exclusive enchantments will satisfy close-combat attacks.
Enchantments For Short-ranged Weapons
Enchantments can enhance damage, attack speed, knockback, and hit radius for short-range weapons. In addition, there are “bonus” perks, which are item-exclusive, and you may opt to add in your weapon.
For instance, tridents, a type of short-range weapon, can receive unique enchantments that swords cannot. Moreover, some enchantments focus on Minecraft’s lore and won’t sound as intuitive for new players.
An example of lore enchantment is the “Bane of Arthropods” magical buff. By enchanting a short-range weapon with this perk, players will be able to inflict more damage upon spiders, bees, silverfish, and endermites.
Enchantment Combos For Swords
With the basics of enchantments and swords in mind, let’s combine both worlds and discuss how to enhance swords for different play styles.
First, let’s lay out and describe all available enchantments for swords in Minecraft:
- Fire Aspect – Sets the target on fire.
- Looting – Increases the target’s chance to drop more and rarer items.
- Unbreaking – Increases the sword’s durability.
- Sharpness – Increases the sword’s damage.
- Smite – Increase damage upon undead mobs.
- Bane of Arthropods – Increase damage upon arthropods.
- Knockback – Pushes the mob an extra distance away after a hit.
- Mending – When the player picks up orbs of experience, the sword’s durability increases.
- Curse of Vanishing – The sword vanishes and does not become a dropped item after the wearer’s death.
- Sweeping Edge – Increases the damage dealt by sweep attacks with swords.
You can add any of the enchantments above to a sword. However, you can’t add all of them; to a maximum extent, you can implement up to seven enchantments on a single sword.
Best Sword Enchantment Combo For PvE
If you’re avoiding PvP, the best enchantments you can stack on a sword for the PvE play style are:
- Unbreaking
- Mending
- Knockback
- Sweeping Edge
- Sharpness
The list above concerns general PvE. However, if you’re stumbling upon caves filled with spiders or undead, it’s recommended that you consider squeezing “Bane of Arthropods” or “Smite” in there.
Best Sword Enchantment Combo For PvP
When fighting against players, the tide runs a bit differently. The best enchantment combo for this play style is:
- Sharpness
- Fire Aspect
- Sweeping Edge
- Knockback
- Mending
The perks above will ensure a good amount of damage to the player; even when not striking players as much, they’ll catch fire with “Fire Aspect”, confusing them and gradually consuming vital points.
Moreover, the lack of durability enchantments above is because PvP is conventionally quick; “mending” is the only necessary durability perk since players can drop large amounts of XP after death.
Best Sword Enchantment Combo For Exploring
If you’re playing on singleplayer mode and prefer to engage in combat while searching for treasures and looting ruins, this combo might suit you:
- Knockback
- Sweeping Edge
- Unbreaking
- Looting
- Sharpness
With the combo above, you’ll have enough damage value to deal with unavoidable PvE battles. Nevertheless, the most distinctive enchantment from the list is the “Looting” perk, which grants you better chances of collecting valuables from mobs.
When exploring and treasure hunting, the “Looting” enchantment can provide players with rare items, improving the journey’s outcome.