BEST ENCHANTMENTS FOR SPEAR
The optimal enchantment setup for your Minecraft spear.10 enchantments are compatible with this item.
Recommended Combination
Essential
Recommended
Optional
Sharpness V is the general pick; swap it for Smite V on a spear meant for undead. Lunge turns every jab into a dash and costs hunger each time, so it suits a spear you fight with on foot.
All Compatible Enchantments (10)
Increases damage dealt to arthropod mobs (spiders, cave spiders, bees, silverfish, endermites).
Causes the item to disappear (be deleted) upon the player's death instead of dropping.
Sets the target on fire when hit, dealing fire damage over time.
Increases the knockback dealt to mobs and players when hit.
Increases the amount and chance of mob drops when killing mobs.
Throws you forward after a spear's piercing attack, at the cost of hunger.
Uses experience orbs to repair the item instead of adding to the player's experience bar.
Increases melee damage dealt to all mobs.
Increases damage dealt to undead mobs (zombies, skeletons, wither, phantoms, etc.).
Increases item durability by giving a chance to not consume durability on use.
How a spear takes its enchantments
A spear takes the same damage enchantments as a sword: Sharpness, Smite or Bane of Arthropods, one of the three at a time, along with Fire Aspect, Knockback, Looting, Unbreaking, Mending and the Curse of Vanishing. Sweeping Edge stays a sword enchantment, and Lunge is the one that nothing but a spear accepts.
On a jab, Sharpness adds 1 damage at level I and half a point for every level after, so an iron spear's 3 damage becomes 6 at Sharpness V. Smite and Bane of Arthropods add 2.5 per level against their own mobs instead. Spears cannot land critical hits, so there is no crit bonus on top of any of it.
Lunge fires on a jab and pushes you forward along the direction you face, kept flat, by 0.458 blocks per tick for each level. Every lunge costs 1 durability and 4 exhaustion per level, and it does nothing while you are riding, gliding or in water, or when your hunger bar is below 7. Lower tiers recover faster: a wooden spear can jab 1.54 times a second, a netherite one 0.87.
At an enchanting table a spear rolls like any tool of its material. A golden spear, with enchantability 22, is the only one whose level 30 slot can reach Sharpness V. The rest stop at Sharpness IV, though even a stone spear can roll Smite V and Bane of Arthropods V.
Enchanting Cost Notes
Anvil Costs: Each time you combine items on an anvil, the prior work penalty increases. Plan your enchantment order to minimize total XP cost.
Order Matters: Combine the most expensive enchantments first, then add cheaper ones. This keeps anvil costs lower overall.
XP Limit: Anvil operations are capped at 39 levels in survival mode. If the cost exceeds this, you need to restructure your combination order.