MELEE ENCHANTMENTS
Enchantments for swords, axes, and close-combat weapons that increase damage or add special effects. 7 enchantments in this category.
Increases melee damage dealt to all mobs.
Increases damage dealt to undead mobs (zombies, skeletons, wither, phantoms, etc.).
Increases damage dealt to arthropod mobs (spiders, cave spiders, bees, silverfish, endermites).
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.
Increases the damage of sweep attacks (Java Edition only).
How the melee enchantments fit together
The seven melee enchantments below go on swords, spears, axes and maces. At full strength they are Sharpness V, Smite V, Bane of Arthropods V, Fire Aspect II, Knockback II, Looting III and Sweeping Edge III.
Swords take seven of them, spears six, axes three and maces three.
Weight decides how often the table offers one rather than another: Sharpness sits at 10 and Sweeping Edge at 2, so on an item that takes both, Sharpness is drawn five times as often.
Some of them refuse to share an item: Bane of Arthropods, Sharpness and Smite rule each other out, so one item carries exactly one of the three. An anvil turns the second one down instead of overwriting the first.
Room is the other limit. Counting everything that fits and not just the melee ones, a sword holds eight enchantments at once out of the ten it can take.
All seven come straight out of an enchanting table, so none of them needs a chest or a trade first.
| Enchantment | Max level | Weight | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sharpness | V | 10 | 32.3% |
| Bane of Arthropods | V | 5 | 16.1% |
| Knockback | II | 5 | 16.1% |
| Smite | V | 5 | 16.1% |
| Fire Aspect | II | 2 | 6.5% |
| Looting | III | 2 | 6.5% |
| Sweeping Edge | III | 2 | 6.5% |
What each melee enchantment adds per hit
Of the three damage enchantments, Sharpness is the one that works on every mob. It adds 1 damage at level I and half a point for each level after that, 3 at Sharpness V. Smite and Bane of Arthropods add 2.5 per level instead, 12.5 at level V, but only against their own mobs. A netherite sword hits for 8, so Sharpness V turns that into 11 on any mob, while Smite V makes it 20.5 against a zombie.
Smite covers the undead: every kind of zombie and skeleton, plus phantoms and the wither. Bane of Arthropods covers spiders, cave spiders, bees, silverfish and endermites, and it slows them with Slowness IV on top of the damage.
Fire Aspect sets the target burning for 4 seconds per level. The first second overlaps the hit, so level I adds 3 fire damage and level II adds 7, unless the mob reaches water first. Meat drops cooked from anything that dies while burning, but a mob finished off by the fire itself gets no Looting bonus. Knockback adds about 2.6 blocks of push per level to the 1.55 blocks of an ordinary hit, and a raised shield stops that extra push. Looting raises the top of most common drops by one per level and adds a percentage point per level to rare drops and to the chance that a mob drops the gear it spawned with.
| Level | Sharpness | Smite or Bane of Arthropods | Fire Aspect | Sweeping Edge sweep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | +1 damage | +2.5 damage | 4 seconds, 3 damage | 1 + 50% of attack damage |
| II | +1.5 damage | +5 damage | 8 seconds, 7 damage | 1 + 67% of attack damage |
| III | +2 damage | +7.5 damage | 1 + 75% of attack damage | |
| IV | +2.5 damage | +10 damage | ||
| V | +3 damage | +12.5 damage |
Sweeping Edge only changes the sweep, the swing that also catches mobs standing next to your target. Without it those mobs take 1 damage, and with it they take 1 plus a share of the sword's attack damage, so a netherite sword with Sweeping Edge III sweeps for 7.
An enchanting table gives all seven on a sword and every one except Sweeping Edge on a spear. Axes and maces get none of them from a table: an axe takes one of Sharpness, Smite and Bane of Arthropods from a book on an anvil, and a mace takes Fire Aspect and either Smite or Bane of Arthropods the same way.