Minecraft 1.20 Enchantments: Complete List and Guide

Whether you want to upgrade your gear or take down your enemies, the Minecraft 1.20 enchantments are the ultimate solution. They empower you to elevate your items to their best potential and even grant them special abilities. Surviving on competitive Minecraft 1.20 servers without these enchantments is unimaginable. So, join us and find out everything you need to know about enchantments in Minecraft.

Minecraft 1.20 Enchantments

From obtaining to using, our guide covers everything you need to know about all enchantments in Minecraft 1.20. Make sure to explore each section to get a complete understanding.

What are Enchantments in Minecraft 1.20

Enchantments are a special mechanic that adds supernatural upgrades to your armor, tools, and items in Minecraft. These abilities can improve an item's performance, grant it new abilities, or extend its durability.

All the enchanted items in Minecraft get a purplish glint over them. This shimmering glow is more prominent in dark areas and can be adjusted in your display settings. As a concept, the enchantments are like potions in Minecraft that grant abilities to players. But, unlike potions, the enchantments don't expire, making them more reliable.

How to Get Enchantments in Minecraft

There are a bunch of ways to get enchantments in Minecraft from commands to books. Let's go over all of them to find the one that suits your gameplay.

Enchantment Table

The easiest and most common way to get enchantments in Minecraft is through the Enchantment Table. You can craft one by combining four obsidian blocks, two diamonds, and one book. After crafting it, you just need to place your item along with a lapis lazuli to find all available enchantments.

You can rely upon our Minecraft 1.20 ore distribution guide to easily find lapis lazuli ores. Once you find the enchantment you are looking for, all you have to do is tap on it to apply it to your item.

Enchanted Books and Treasure Enchantments

While the Enchantment Table is great for applying enchantments, it doesn't let you access all of them. There are several treasure enchantments, which only spawn as enchanted books. These include:

Curse of Binding: Removes the ability to take off a piece of armor
Curse of Vanishing: Makes the item disappear upon the death of its owner
Frost Walker: Allows players to freeze the water beneath their feet while walking on it
Mending: Repairs items by consuming experience points
Soul Speed: Increases your speed on soul sand and soul soil blocks
Swift Sneak: Increases sneaking speed

You can use our dedicated guide to learn how to use enchanted books in Minecraft. The process is quite simple. You just have to combine the enchantment book with an item on an anvil to transfer the enchantment. As for getting the books, they spawn in various in-game structures and can be traded with villagers.

Best Structures to Find Enchanted Books

With Minecraft 1.20.2 update, the following structures have higher chances of generating certain enchantments than others.

Ancient Cities: Mending
Mineshafts: Efficiency (I to V)
Pillager Outposts: Quick Charge (I to III)
Desert Temples: Unbreaking (I to III)
Jungle Temples: Unbreaking (I to III)

Though, keep in mind, high chances don't mean any surety. You might still have to explore a couple of these structures before finding the desired enchantment.

How to Level Up Enchantments

Most of the time, the enchantments you find as books and obtain through the table, are often low-level. They have a limited impact on your gear and don't make it go beyond its limits. So, follow these steps to unlock the best versions of your items with the strongest enchantments:

1. First, craft a bookshelf in Minecraft by combining three books with six planks.

2. Then, place 15 such bookshelves around your Enchantment Table. Doing so makes it gain wisdom from the book and unlocks higher-level enchantments for your items.

3. Alternatively, you can also combine two lower-level enchanted books to combine their levels. Doing so makes the book merge and level up. This combination works perfectly on an anvil but ends up destroying one book in the process.

Please keep in mind that you can't level up the enchantments that are already on an object. But, you can remove enchantments in Minecraft and apply better ones than them. Keep reading to find out how.

Combine Enchantments on Anvil

As mentioned earlier, combining enchantments on an anvil allows you to level them up. Here is everything you need to know about this mechanic:

The leveling up of an enchantment only works when you combine two of the same enchantments. So, you cannot combine Unbreaking I with Efficiency I to level either of them up.
Using an anvil costs experience from your XP bar. This experience cost gets deducted as soon as you pick the item from the resulting slot.
If you are also repairing an item while combining its enchantments, the XP cost is much higher than usual.
Other than enchanted books, you can also combine different enchanted items in Minecraft. The items must be made out of the same material and must not have contradicting enchantments. More on the same in a later section.

Different Enchantments in Different Village Biomes

One of the most reliable ways to get enchanted books in Minecraft is by trading with librarian villagers. They use a lectern as their job site blocks and sell unique enchantments in exchange for emeralds in Minecraft.

But the interesting part is that before Minecraft 1.20.2 update, these librarians sold random enchantments. Now, the enchantments that their book carries depend upon the biome of that librarian's village. So, you have to travel to different rare villages in Minecraft to trade different enchanted books.

Desert: Fire Protection, Thorns, Infinity, and Efficiency III
Jungle: Feather Falling, Projectile Protection, Power, and Unbreaking II
Plains: Punch, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, and Protection III
Savanna: Knockback, Binding Curse, Sweeping Edge (Java only), and Sharpness III
Snow: Aqua Affinity, Looting, Frost Walker, and Silk Touch
Swamp: Depth Strider, Respiration, Vanishing, and Mending
Taiga: Blast Protection, Fire Aspect, Flame and Fortune II

In the above list, the bold text represents the enchantments that are exclusive to master-level librarians. Furthermore, the swamp and jungle biomes don't have naturally generating villages. You have to create them from scratch or rely upon the best Minecraft 1.20 village seeds to find their glitched versions.

Complete List of Enchantments

There are a huge number of enchantments in Minecraft. So, to make it easier to understand, we are discussing them in different sections, each dealing with a different type of item.

Common Enchantments

Mending: Restores durability of items by consuming experience orbs
Levels: 1
Compatible with: All items with durability including brushes
Unbreaking: Reduces the chance of reduction in durability while using an item
Levels: 3
Compatible with: All items with a durability
Curse of Vanishing: Makes item disappear when the player dies
Levels: 1
Compatible with: All items that support enchantments

Weapon Enchantments

Channeling:
Levels: 1
Compatible with: Trident
Flame: Sets your target on fire
Levels: 1
Compatible with: Bow
Impaling: Deals extra damage to oceanic mobs
Levels: 5
Compatible with: Trident
Infinity: Prevents bows from consuming arrows
Levels: 1
Compatible with: Bow
Loyalty: Makes the trident come back to the player after being thrown
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Trident
Riptide: Makes the players fly alongside the trident they throw
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Trident
Multishot: Shoots three arrows while only consuming one
Levels: 1
Compatible with: Bow
Piercing: Makes an arrow pass through multiple entities in one shot
Levels: 4
Compatible with: Bow
Power: Increases the damage dealt
Levels: 5
Compatible with: Bow
Punch: Increases the knockback of each attack
Levels: 2
Compatible with: Bow
Quick Charge: Increases reload speed
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Crossbow
Sweeping Edge: Increases secondary damage of your attacks (Java only)
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Sword
Smite: Deals extra damage to undead mobs
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Sword/Axe
Sharpness: Deals additional damage with each attack
Levels: 5
Compatible with: Sword/Axe
Knockback: Increases knockback with every attack
Levels: 2
Compatible with: Sword
Looting: Improves the amount and quantity of your loot
Levels: 2
Compatible with: Sword
Efficiency: Increases attack damage
Levels: 5
Compatible with: Axe
Bane of Arthropods: Deals extra damage to arthropod mobs and also slows them down
Levels: 5
Compatible with: Sword/Axe
Fire Aspect: Set your target on fire
Levels: 2
Compatible with: Sword

Tools Enchantments

Efficiency: Increases the speed of breaking items
Levels: 5
Compatible with: Pickaxe/Shovel
Fortune: Increases the amount and quality of some drops
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Pickaxe/Axe/Shovel/Hoe
Luck of the Sea: Increases the rarity and quality of fished items
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Fishing Rod
Lure: Makes swimming fighter
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Fishing Rod
Silk Touch: Makes the blocks drop as themselves instead of as items
Levels: 1
Compatible with: Pickaxe/Axe/Shovel/Hoe and Shears (Bedrock only)

Armor Enchantments

Aqua Affinity: Improves your underwater mining speed
Levels: 1
Compatible with: Helmet
Blast Protection: Reduces damage and knockback from explosions
Levels: 4
Compatible with: All armor pieces
Curse of Binding: Makes it impossible to remove an equipped armor
Levels: 1
Compatible with: All armor pieces
Depth Strider: Improves your movement speed underwater
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Boots
Feather Falling: Decreases fall damage
Levels: 4
Compatible with: Boots
Fire Protection: Decreases damage from fire and lava
Levels: 4
Compatible with: All armor pieces
Frost Walker: Turns water blocks into the ice while you walk on them
Levels: 2
Compatible with: Boots
Projectile Protection: Decreases damage from projectile attacks
Levels: 4
Compatible with: All armor pieces
Protection: Decreases damage from all attacks
Levels: 4
Compatible with: All armor pieces
Respiration: Increases breathing time underwater
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Helmet
Soul Speed: Increases your movement speed while walking on soul soil and soul sand
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Boots
Thorns: Returns the damage to your attacker
Levels: 3
Compatible with: All armor pieces
Swift Sneak: Increases your movement speed while sneaking
Levels: 3
Compatible with: Leggings

Best Enchantments in Minecraft 1.20

As you can notice, there are a bunch of great enchantments in Minecraft. But many of them don't work with each other. So, make sure to check out the next section to understand which and how many enchantments can you use.

Moreover, to make it easier to pick enchantments, we already have a ranked list of the best enchantments in Minecraft. You can read them to find out which enchantments are best for your items:

Best Enchantments for Pickaxe in Minecraft
Top Sword Enchantments in Minecraft
Best Armor Enchantments in Minecraft

Conflicting Enchantments in Minecraft

There are several enchantments that offer similar or conflicting functionality. To prevent errors or confusion, Minecraft prevents you from using them on the same item. Here are all the common conflicting enchantments you should keep an eye out for:

You cannot put multiple types of protection enchantments on the same item. For example, one helmet cannot have Fire Protection as well as blast protection.
To prevent it from being overpowered, you cannot put Infinity and Mending on the bow.
You cannot apply different types of damage-based enchantments to the same item.
Silk Touch and Fortune cannot be applied to the same item.
Depth Strider and Frost Walker are not compatible with each other.

Differences in Enchantments on Minecraft Bedrock and Java

While the two editions of Minecraft are more similar than ever before, they still have a bunch of differences in terms of enchantments. Here's a breakdown of some variations to help you steer clear of any misunderstandings.

The Sweeping Edge enchantment only exists in the Java edition and not the Bedrock edition.
You can use Fire Aspect in Minecraft Bedrock edition to light TNT, candles, and campfires. In the Java edition, it only sets mobs on fire.
The Protection enchantments provide protection from magic attacks in only the Java edition.
In Minecraft Bedrock, you can use a trident with Impaling to cause extra damage to all wet mobs and not just aquatic mobs.
The Sharpness enchantment deals higher damage in the Bedrock edition.
When you use Soul Speed in Java edition, it also changes your field of view (FOV).
The Riptide enchantment on a trident deals damage to multiple mobs in the Bedrock edition.
Using a helmet with Respiration enchantment in Minecraft Java also reduces drowning damage.
The Silk Touch enchantment works on shears only in the Bedrock editions.

Where to Find Enchanted Items in Minecraft

It often takes a lot of exploration and effort to apply enchantments to your items. But you can also get enchantments items directly through these methods:

Trading with villagers having unique jobs
Bartering with Piglins in the Nether dimension
Fishing in larger water bodies including rivers and oceans
Killing hostile mobs like zombies to make them drop the enchanted items they are carrying
Chests from key structures in Minecraft including End Cities, strongholds, and more
Trading with Wandering Traders in Minecraft
Killing Vindicators and Pillagers during village raids in Minecraft Bedrock
Using "enchant" or "give" commands in Minecraft, within cheats-enabled worlds.

How to Remove Enchantments in Minecraft

Once you know where to look, it's quite easy to get enchantments in Minecraft 1.20. But, not every enchantment you get might not be desirable. Luckily, the game also allows you to remove enchantments quite easily. All you need to do is craft a grindstone using two sticks, two planks, and one slab.

Then, simply place your enchanted item in the grindstone and use it to disenchantment it. This procedure is swift and rewards you with experience orbs. But, keep in mind that you cannot remove the Curse of Binding or Curse of Vanishing in survival mode. If you want to dig deeper don't forget to try our guide on how to remove enchantments in Minecraft.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the hardest enchantment to get in Minecraft?

The treasure enchantments, which don't appear on the enchantment table are the hardest to get in Minecraft. You have to find specific enchanted books to get the same. These enchantments include curses, Frost Walker, Mending, Soul Speed, and Swift Sneak.

What is enchanting language in Minecraft?

The Enchantment Table in Minecraft utilizes the Standard Galactic Alphabet (SGA) in its display text. But, the actual words displayed have no specific meaning.

How many different enchantments are there in Minecraft?

There are a total of 40 enchantments in Minecraft 1.20.

How to get 30 enchantments?

You get the level 30 enchantments from your Enchantment Table by surrounding it with bookshelves. But, this mechanic only works with regular bookshelves and not the chiseled bookshelves in Minecraft.

Explore the Complete List of Enchantments in Minecraft 1.20

Just like that, you are now ready to unlock all Minecraft 1.20 enchantments for your armor, weapons, and tools. But, remember that potent gear doesn't guarantee better combat skills. You also need to train yourself on the best Minecraft survival seeds and use the reliable Minecraft 1.20 PvP texture packs. Though, if you feel your system's performance is holding you back then the Minecraft 1.20 shaders for low-end PCs might help. Having said that, do you think we have enough enchantments in the game or should Minecraft 1.21 expand the list? Share your opinions and ideas on our Discord server, where a community of enthusiastic gamers awaits.