The best sword enchantments in Minecraft

A fully enchanted sword in Java Edition 26.3 carries up to seven enchantments. Here is the set, which damage enchantment to choose, and how to stack everything on one blade without hitting the anvil limit.

These are the sword enchantments worth a slot, at their maximum survival level:

Sharpness, Smite or Bane of Arthropods

You can only have one of the three: they share an exclusive set. Sharpness V adds 3 damage against everything. Smite V adds 12.5 damage, but only against undead mobs: zombies, husks, drowned, zombified piglins, skeletons, strays, wither skeletons, phantoms and the Wither. Bane of Arthropods V adds 12.5 damage against spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, and slows them.

Put Sharpness on your main sword. Smite wins on a second sword for an undead mob farm or for fighting the Wither. Bane of Arthropods is rarely worth it.

Knockback: think twice

Knockback II keeps creepers and players at a distance, but it also pushes mobs out of reach, breaks your combo of hits and can throw mobs into lava with their drops. Leave it off a farm sword. Sweeping Edge exists only in Java Edition; on Bedrock the rest of the set is the same.

Craft a Diamond Sword and enchant it as diamond. Later, upgrade it at a Smithing Table with a Smithing Template and a Netherite Ingot: the Netherite Sword keeps all its enchantments, so you never lose the work. The spear (added in 1.21.11) is a separate weapon with its own Lunge enchantment and no Sweeping Edge, so this set is for swords only.

Surround an Enchanting Table with 15 bookshelves, put the sword and 3 Lapis Lazuli in, and take the level 30 option (you need 30 levels, it costs 3). Every sword enchantment except Mending can appear, but the result is random. A table enchantment adds no anvil penalty, so this is the cheapest way to start: a sword with Sharpness IV and Looting from the table only needs a few books on top.

Enchanted Books let you add exactly what the table did not give you. Three reliable sources:

• Librarian villagers sell an Enchanted Book for emeralds and a Book at levels 1 to 4. Any table enchantment can appear, plus Mending (at double the emerald price). If a fresh Librarian has a bad offer and you have not traded with him yet, break his Lectern and place it again until he offers the book you want.
• Fishing with a Fishing Rod: treasure catches include enchanted books, and those can carry Mending.
• Chests in dungeons, mineshafts and stronghold libraries, and Vaults in trial chambers.

Mending is a treasure enchantment: the enchanting table never offers it, so a Librarian is the most dependable way to get it.

Put the sword in the left slot of an Anvil and a book in the right slot. Every anvil use raises the item's prior work penalty, which roughly doubles each time. In survival, any operation above 39 levels shows "Too Expensive!" and is refused, so adding seven books one after another fails. Instead:

• Merge the books in pairs first (for example Looting with Sweeping Edge, Fire Aspect with Unbreaking), then add the pairs to the sword.
• Apply the costliest books (Looting III, Sweeping Edge III, Sharpness V) while the penalty is still low.
• Rename the sword in the same step as a merge, never on its own.

Pick your books in the planner below to get the cheapest order and the level cost of each step.

Once Mending is on, hold the sword in your main hand or offhand while you collect experience: every experience point repairs 2 durability before any is left for your level bar. With Unbreaking III on top, a Netherite Sword practically never breaks. Never repair it by combining two swords at the anvil: that costs levels and adds penalty for nothing.