Enchanting is one of the most important mechanics in Minecraft: it gives your items extraordinary properties. With enchantments, your tools mine faster, your weapons deal more damage and your armor protects you better. Whether you're just starting out (see our getting started guide) or you're an experienced player, understanding the enchanting system is key to surviving the later stages of the game.

What the enchanting table is and how to make one

The enchanting table is a special block that lets you put magical enchantments on weapons, armor and tools. To craft it, you need three materials: 1 book, 2 diamonds and 4 obsidian. You make a book from 3 paper and 1 leather. Diamonds are mined between Y -64 and Y 16 (ideally with a pickaxe enchanted with Fortune), and obsidian forms when water meets a lava source block. To mine it, you need a diamond or netherite pickaxe.

Once you have the materials, place them on a crafting table in this pattern: obsidian fills the bottom row and the center of the middle row, the diamonds go in the left and right slots of the middle row, and the book sits at the top in the middle. You can put the enchanting table anywhere, but to use it at full power you have to surround it with bookshelves.

Bookshelves: the key to powerful enchantments

On its own, the enchanting table only offers weak, low-level enchantments. To unlock the full potential of enchanting and get access to level 30 enchantments, you have to place exactly 15 bookshelves around the table. Each bookshelf takes 6 planks and 3 books to craft, so a complete setup needs 90 planks and 45 books (that's 45 leather and 135 paper, which means 135 sugar cane).

The bookshelves have to follow strict placement rules. Leave exactly 1 block of space between the bookshelves and the table, and put them on the same level as the table or 1 block higher. The most common layout is a U shape: bookshelves along both sides and the back of the table, stacked two blocks high. Absolutely nothing can sit in the gap between the table and the bookshelves: even torches or flower pots block the connection and lower the enchantment level you can get.

It's easy to check whether your bookshelves are working: when everything is set up correctly, you'll see animated particles (symbols that look like letters) floating from the bookshelves toward the table. If no particles come from a particular bookshelf, something is blocking its connection.

How enchanting works step by step

To enchant an item, open the enchanting table and place the item in the left slot. In the right slot, put 1 to 3 lapis lazuli. This blue mineral is the currency of the enchanting system, introduced in version 1.8. Without lapis lazuli you can't enchant anything, so it's worth collecting it whenever you find it while mining.

Once the item and the lapis lazuli are in place, you'll see three enchantment options, written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet (those strange symbols are a reference to the game Commander Keen). Each option requires a certain experience level and uses a certain amount of lapis lazuli. The first option costs 1 XP level and 1 lapis lazuli, the second costs 2 levels and 2 lapis lazuli, and the third costs 3 levels and 3 lapis lazuli. Keep in mind, though, that you need the right total experience level (from 1 to 30, depending on the number of bookshelves) for an option to be available.

One of the enchantments is shown next to each option as a preview. It's a hint at what you might get, but the item often receives extra bonus enchantments that you can't see before enchanting. For example, when you enchant a sword at level 30, the hint might say "Sharpness IV", but after enchanting the sword can also get Unbreaking III or Knockback II.

How enchantments are rolled: the seed and rerolling

The enchantments the table offers aren't completely random: they depend on your so-called "enchantment seed", the item you're enchanting and the number of active bookshelves. The seed only changes after you enchant something, which means that if you close the table and open it again, you'll see the same options.

If you don't like the enchantments on offer, there's a simple trick: enchant a cheap item (for example a wooden shovel) at the lowest level for 1 lapis lazuli and 1 experience level. That changes your seed and refreshes the list of enchantments on the table. Repeat this until the enchantment you're waiting for shows up. This technique matters most when you're hunting for rare enchantments like Silk Touch or Power V.

Which items you can enchant

At the enchanting table you can enchant swords, pickaxes, shovels, axes, hoes, bows, crossbows, tridents, helmets, chestplates, leggings, boots and fishing rods. Each type of item has its own pool of available enchantments: a sword won't get Efficiency and a pickaxe won't get Sharpness (although an axe can have both!). It's also worth knowing that you can enchant books to make enchanted books, which you can later apply to items on an anvil.

The item's material affects the quality of the enchantments you get. Gold items have the highest enchantability and get better enchantments more often, but their low durability makes them impractical. Diamond and netherite items are the best choice: solid durability and good enchantability.

Experience costs: how to collect XP efficiently

Enchanting at level 30 requires at least 30 experience levels, which is quite a challenge early in the game. The fastest ways to collect XP are killing mobs (especially in XP farms), mining ores (especially Nether quartz), breeding animals and trading with villagers, and smelting items in furnaces. Later in the game it's worth building an Enderman farm in the End: it's the most efficient source of experience in the game and gets you to level 30 in a minute or so.

Keep in mind that each level costs more XP than the one before it. Going from level 0 to 15 is quick, but going from 27 to 30 takes about as much XP as going from 0 to 15. That's why you should never enchant at in-between levels (like 15 or 20) if you can enchant at 30: higher levels give you a much better chance at powerful enchantments like Sharpness V, Protection IV or Fortune III.

Tip: To get the most out of the enchanting system, combine the enchanting table with trading with librarian villagers. The table gives you random enchantments (often with bonus ones), while librarians sell specific enchantments for emeralds. Use both methods side by side to put together your ideal gear as fast as possible. You'll find more about enchanted books in chapter 8.

Fun fact: Enchanting was added to Minecraft in version 1.0.0 (Beta 1.9 pre-release). At first it didn't require lapis lazuli: that mechanic was only added in version 1.8, as part of an update that changed the balance of enchanting. Before that, enchanting cost nothing but XP, which made it too easy to abuse.