Efficiency

Efficiency is a common mining enchantment in Minecraft 1.21. Efficiency increases how fast a tool breaks blocks, raising the mining-speed attribute so the right material crumbles in a fraction of the usual time.

Its opening level already delivers a noticeable boost — +2 mining speed (1 + level^2 bonus) — and it climbs from there to a maximum of level 5 (V) on your pickaxe.

Efficiency tops out at level 5, shown as V on the pickaxe, and the gap between the levels is where the enchantment's character really lives.

The bonus grows with the square of the level — the gain jumps from +1 mining speed at level I to a hefty +26 at level V — so the higher levels are dramatically more powerful than the lower ones. With a diamond or netherite pickaxe, Efficiency V is the threshold where stone and netherrack break instantly as you hold the button.

Efficiency can be placed on pickaxe, shovel, axe and hoe, giving you a handful of choices for where it does the most good depending on how you play.

Efficiency has no exclusivity conflicts at all, so you can layer it onto an item alongside every other enchantment that item accepts without having to give anything up.

Efficiency can be rolled directly at an enchanting table, where reaching its top level of V on a pickaxe generally wants a fully bookshelf-powered table at roughly level 11. Players who would rather not gamble for Efficiency can hunt the book down through loot chest and villager trading and apply it at an anvil.

Its selection weight of 10 makes Efficiency a common roll: it shows up frequently among the options when you enchant a pickaxe, so building one rarely takes many tries.