10 Best Minecraft Sword Enchantments to Gain an Edge

Slash! Swoosh! Slash! You land a few hits, and the enemy quickly goes down. Nothing beats the feeling of slicing through mobs. That is why the sword will forever be among the weapons gamers prefer to use in Minecraft. Having your trusty blade with you is the way to survive in the blocky world you’re in and beat the game. And if you want to reach that goal faster, here’s the secret to that — use the best sword enchantments in Minecraft to get an edge in the game.

We’ve already shared with you the best trident enchantments, so we’re giving you a handy list of the best sword enchantments in Minecraft, too. Apart from that, we will help you learn how to add enchantments to your sword and recommend good combinations you should try.

Why Use the Best Minecraft Sword Enchantments?

Before we all get too excited to try everything on the list, you might still be having second thoughts and asking, “Should I really bother adding Minecraft enchantments to my sword?” The answer is yes, and here’s why: power… power… and more power! Who doesn’t want to be an expert swordsman in Minecraft, or even in other cross-platform games?

The best sword enchantments in Minecraft can help you be the best survival sandbox player you can ever be. In a nutshell, those special abilities you can apply to your weapon can boost its statistics, make it yield some cool effects, or even keep it in tip-top shape. Also, you should use them because they are easily available anyway — incorporated into looted weapons, collected as books via fishing, opening chests, and trading with librarians, or generated via the enchanting table.

NOTE

The sword, particularly its maxed-out Netherite version, is the game’s second-best weapon, following the trident. When paired with the best sword enchantments in Minecraft and top-tier combat skills, you can easily use it to rival some trident users in PvP battles. If you don’t have Minecraft on mobile yet, get it to experience the perks of being a sword-wielder.

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Best Sword Enchantments in Minecraft, Ranked

Now, onto the best sword enchantments in Minecraft, which are the highlight of this article. Here, we not only list the best. We rank them, so you can prioritize wisely what to get and use during your playthrough.

1. Sharpness

A dull sword cannot do so much in real life. That is also true in a game. If you cannot slash enemies fast because your sword does not deal enough damage, that will only make your in-game life difficult. That is why Sharpness is usually the first you should prioritize among the best sword enchantments in Minecraft.

Sharpness in the game works on the most important statistic of your weapon — damage rating. Just like sharpening a blade in real life helps you slice things easily, the enchantment boosts your Minecraft sword’s damage rating to slay mobs faster. In the game’s Bedrock Edition which covers the mobile platform, Sharpness increases damage dealt on mobs by 1.25 points.

Sharpness is among the best sword enchantments in Minecraft that have five tiers. That means the stat increase can go beyond 1.25 points if you have its higher-level iterations. Below is a quick overview:

Players often have a dilemma on whether it is Sharpness or Smite (more on this later) that tops all the best enchantments in Minecraft. Thus, there are a lot of video comparisons just for the two enchantments online. Results vary depending on the mob that takes the beating. We think it’s Sharpness that has a slight edge, though, because its boost applies regardless if the mob is undead or not.

2. Smite

Smite works like Sharpness; however, the damage increase takes effect only on undead mobs. Minecraft newbies might have the misconception that this isn’t useful if it is meant for a specific mob type. But they will surely think otherwise once they get surprised by the number of undead enemy types that can “swarm” them in the game — zombies (human or animals), drowned, skeletons, withers, phantoms, husks, zoglins, and more!

If you are wondering about the exact figures Smite adds to your sword’s damage rating, we’ve got you covered. Here are the effects, depending on the Minecraft sword enchantment version you might have:

3. Looting

Your trusty sword will help you fend off or defeat enemy mobs. But it is better to also have a big arsenal of other useful items for crafting things in the game. Do you know that one of the best sword enchantments in Minecraft can help you with that? You can improve your chances of getting supplies from fallen enemies through the enchantment called Looting.

Looting makes slain mobs drop more valuable items. The enchantment can be improved to a third level. As for the effect on drop chance, Looting I increases that statistic by 1 percent per level. Looting II and III, of course, give you better drop rates than that.

For fair play, though, Minecraft has limits to the effect. To elaborate, Looting does not increase the XP you get from dying mobs and does not affect iron and snow golems, and withers. Additionally, Looting won’t magically generate loot from bees, bats, and endermites, for those critters do not drop items in the first place. Also, it won’t increase the key supplies and items dropped by foxes, sheep, elder guardians, and evokers.

4. Mending

Mending is also among the best sword enchantments to prioritize in Minecraft. That is because it lets you repair your weapon on the fly.

To understand Mending, know that each weapon in the game experiences a reduction in durability points every time it is used. Mending works on your weapon’s durability points. It recovers those points when lost, and that is by consuming the experience (XP) orbs you collect.

In terms of effect, Mending does not have multiple tiers but is already handy as-is. That is because it can restore two durability points per XP orb.

5. Unbreaking

We did mention that a “sharp” sword is good to have. But the weapon cannot be maximized if it easily breaks, right? Enter Unbreaking, a sword enchantment in Minecraft that prolongs the service life of your sword. It is great to use together with Mending.

Unbreaking gives your weapon a chance to not be affected by durability point reduction at times. It does that by increasing the durability rating. There are three tiers of Unbreaking you should get familiarized with: Unbreaking I, II, and III. These grant 100, 200, and 300 percent durability increase, respectively.

6. Fire Aspect

Fire is a destructive element. The same is true about the element in Minecraft. With the sword enchantment called Fire Aspect, you can use the power of fire to continuously deal damage to mobs or cook something on the go.

Unlike the other best sword enchantments in Minecraft, it only has two tiers: Fire Aspect I and II. The duration of burning that is inflicted is what sets apart the two versions of the ability from each other. Fire Aspect I burns up to four seconds for an enemy hit by your sword, while Fire Aspect II doubles that duration to eight seconds.

Fire Aspect is not effective on Nether-exclusive mobs, though. Also, if used for endermen, it may trigger the enemy to teleport or shoo it away like Knockback, which we will discuss shortly. Nonetheless, the enchantment is good if occasionally distancing yourself from enemies is part of your defensive tactics.

7. Sweeping Edge

If you are on Minecraft for mobile, you know that Sweeping Edge is not available for the Bedrock version of the game as of this writing. But the Minecraft sword enchantment will likely come to your platform, too, as expected by the player community. We are including it on this roundup of the best sword enchantments in Minecraft, so you can familiarize yourself with it early on.

First things first — a Sweeping Edge sword enchantment hints that a sweep attack is possible. But what is a sweep attack, you ask? In Minecraft on PC, that offensive move hitting an enemy affects other enemies nearby. To elaborate, the mobs around your target can be knocked back and hurt by a single point due to the sweeping damage inflicted by the sword. A sweeping attack is possible when the cooldown meter for attacking is higher than 84.8 percent. Also, your character must be standing or moving slower than walking.

What are the perks of the Sweeping Edge sword enchantment in Minecraft, then? The answer is it boosts the sweeping damage dealt by your weapon. Sweeping Edge I, II, and III inflict 50, 67, and 75 percent additional sweeping damage, respectively.

8. Bane of Arthropods

Bothered by bees, spiders, endermites, and silverfish? The Bane of Arthropods is the sword enchantment you need in Minecraft to slay those critters easily.

Bane of Arthropods works the same as Smite but for arthropod mobs in the sandbox game. It makes your sword more effective by increasing the damage it inflicts. Like the other best sword enchantments in Minecraft, this one has five tiers with respective stat bonuses, as shown below.

9. Curse of Vanishing

Love playing cross-platform Minecraft with friends or random opponents? Do not let your trusty enchanted sword fall to enemy hands upon your defeat. Use the Minecraft sword enchantment called Curse of Vanishing.

Although almost the last entry here because it is only good for PvP playthroughs, Curse of Vanishing is important. You would not want to be edged out by other players once you come back to the game only because they “stole” your weapon after your death, right? If yes, the Curse of Vanishing is a must-have. Your enhanced sword will permanently be out of the Minecraft world once the enchantment takes effect.

Given how it works, Curse of Vanishing is a sword enchantment without multiple tiers.

10. Knockback

Most players would agree about putting Knockback last in this list of best sword enchantments in Minecraft. Most sword-wielders, as melee specialists, would not want ranged combat against enemy mobs, right?

Knockback, as its name implies, would only fling your enemies away from you per hit. The distance is three or six blocks if you apply Knockback I and II, respectively, to your sword. Using Knockback looks cool, as enemies may cower in your presence. But that means you have to close into the enemies every time they get hit. That is a serious disadvantage if the creature or opponent is a ranged attacker, so it is not necessary to prioritize Knockback in most playthroughs.

On the other hand, stick with Knockback if distancing and slow-paced fights are an effective Minecraft survival strategy for you. It will be useful when you are nearly losing a sword fight. Say, you’re almost down and need to escape. That is when creating a small distance between you and your enemies is ideal.

What Sword Enchantments Are Good to Combine in Minecraft?

Before trying enchantment combinations, know which Minecraft sword enchantments cannot be paired with each other first — Bane of Arthropods, Sharpness, and Smite. For the other best sword enchantments in Minecraft, there is no limit when it comes to stacking them up.

Without further ado, here are our recommended enchantment build combinations:

1. Sharpness V or Smite V + Mending + Looting III + Unbreaking III = Offense and recovery-oriented enchantment build for maintaining close combat and keeping the fight duration short
2. Sharpness V or Smite V + Fire Aspect II + Mending + Looting III = Balanced offense-defense enchantment build due to Fire Aspect having chances of warding off mobs, with on-the-fly cooking
3. Sharpness V + Mending + Looting III + Unbreaking III + Sweeping Edge III = Overpowered sword enchantment build for Minecraft (on PC only as of this writing)

NOTE

You can swap and add more enchantments you like to the sets listed here. In Minecraft, there is no specified limit on how many special abilities you can apply or change. In general, three to five effects stacked per weapon are the standard among players.

How to Incorporate Minecraft Enchantments Into a Sword

If you already have the best sword enchantments in Minecraft, it is time to learn how to apply those abilities to your weapon. Here is how to enchant a sword in Minecraft in two ways:

Get Sword Enchantments via Enchanting Table

1. Craft a Minecraft enchanting table if you don’t own one yet.
2. Put the workstation wherever you want and interact with it.
3. On the enchanting table menu, add any sword to the left input slot.

4. Drag some Lapiz Lazuli to the remaining input slot.
5. Wait for up to three enchantment options to appear on the output slots.
6. Meet the XP level required if you are not yet eligible for the enchantment option you want.
*XP needed is specified by the green number on the right corner of the enchantment name.
7. Click or tap your preferred enchantment to apply.

Enchant Sword via Minecraft Anvil

1. Create a Minecraft anvil if you don’t own one yet.
2. Place the item on the ground and access its menu.
3. Drag your sword and enchantment book from your inventory to the two input slots.
*Instead of a book, you can put another sword with a similar or higher enchantment tier on one of the slots.

4. If you have enough XP for payment, wait for the enchanted sword on the output slot.
5. Drag the enhanced weapon back to your storage.

TIP

If you want to disable and remove existing weapon enchantments before adding anything new, use a Minecraft grindstone. Simply drag your sword from your inventory, then place it on any of the workstation’s two input slots. The disenchanted item will instantly be obtainable from the output slot.

Gain an Edge over Mobs Now

The sword may be the mightiest weapon you can use on land, even in mobile games. In Minecraft, that is provided you apply to it the best sword enchantments you can get your hands on. With this guide, you can be wiser when it comes to adding and combining the best sword enchantments in Minecraft. Gain an edge over any enemy mob and be the best sword-wielder in the game today!