Best sword enchantments in Minecraft

Sword enchantment ranking

Sharpness: the universal pick

Sharpness increases the damage you deal to every target without exception. That makes it the best choice for a player who carries a single sword.

Damage bonus at each level:

• Sharpness I: +1 damage
• Sharpness II: +1.5 damage
• Sharpness III: +2 damage
• Sharpness IV: +2.5 damage
• Sharpness V: +3 damage

A netherite sword with Sharpness V deals 11 damage (5.5 hearts) per hit. That's enough to kill most mobs in 2-3 hits.

To get Sharpness V on a sword, combine two Sharpness IV books at an anvil, or buy a book from a librarian.

Sharpness vs Smite vs Bane of Arthropods

These three enchantments exclude each other, so a sword can only have one of them. The table shows when each is worth picking.

Recommendation: Sharpness on your main sword, Smite on a spare. Smite V kills zombies and skeletons in one hit, which is invaluable in a Nether Fortress when you're hunting wither skeletons. Bane of Arthropods isn't worth a slot: spiders die quickly to Sharpness too.

Looting: more drops

Looting III increases the amount of loot and the chance of rare items from the mobs you kill:

• More base drops (for example, extra string from spiders)
• A higher chance of rare drops (for example, wither skeleton skull: 2.5% → 5.5% with Looting III)

Looting is a must on every Survival sword. Without it, farming blaze rods, ender pearls, wither skeleton skulls and many other materials takes far longer. Even if you're not actively farming, the extra string, bones and meat from everyday fights are free resources.

Fire Aspect

Fire Aspect sets the target on fire when you hit it. At level II the target burns for 8 seconds, taking a total of 7 extra points of fire damage.

Pros:

• Animals killed while burning drop cooked meat, which saves you fuel and cooking time.
• The extra damage over time (DoT) helps against tough mobs.
• A burning target stands out in the dark, which makes it easier to follow in caves.

Cons:

• A burning Enderman teleports right away, so Fire Aspect makes fighting them harder.
• In the Nether, many mobs are immune to fire (blazes, wither skeletons, ghasts, zombified piglins), so Fire Aspect does nothing to them.

Despite the downsides, Fire Aspect II is recommended on your main sword. The cooked meat and the extra damage outweigh the situational problems.

Sweeping Edge

Sweeping Edge increases the damage of the sweep attack, the attack that hits every mob in range when your sword is fully charged. Available in Java Edition only.

• Sweeping Edge I: 50% of base damage as sweep damage
• Sweeping Edge II: 67% of base damage
• Sweeping Edge III: 75% of base damage

Useful against groups of mobs, since one swing of the sword hits several targets at once. Zombie farms, a skeleton spawner, a night in the forest: Sweeping Edge speeds up clearing groups of enemies everywhere. On PvP servers it lets you hit several players with one swing.

Knockback: pros and cons

Knockback is the most controversial sword enchantment. It knocks the target you hit back 3 blocks (I) or 6 blocks (II).

When it helps:

• Knocking creepers back before they explode: one hit moves them to a safe distance.
• Knocking mobs off cliffs and bridges, which gets rid of the threat instantly.
• Buying time to regenerate or drink a potion in the middle of a fight.

When it gets in the way:

• A knocked-back mob leaves your sword's reach, so you have to chase it, which slows down farming.
• In PvP, a knocked-back player can run away or shoot you with a bow from a safe distance.
• Knockback II often sends targets so far that you lose contact with them.

Recommendation: don't put Knockback on your main sword. If you want the knockback effect, use it situationally on a second sword. Most experienced players avoid this enchantment on their main blade.

The ideal sword: a complete build

Main Survival sword (netherite):

• Sharpness V: a universal damage bonus
• Looting III: more loot
• Unbreaking III: far longer durability
• Mending: XP repairs it, so it never wears out
• Fire Aspect II: extra damage + cooked meat
• Sweeping Edge III: stronger sweep attacks (Java)

Putting all of these enchantments on at an anvil costs a lot of XP. The best combining order keeps the penalty for "too many operations" (the "Too Expensive!" message) as low as possible. Start by combining pairs of books with each other, then combine the resulting books, and apply them to the sword last: fewer steps means less XP.

Spare sword for the undead:

• Smite V: kills zombies and skeletons in one hit
• Looting III: a chance at wither skeleton skulls
• Unbreaking III + Mending

Related pages

• All enchantments in Minecraft
• Best bow enchantments
• Trident enchantments
• Sharpness: details
• How to enchant items
• Enchantments: main page