Sharpness
Increases melee damage dealt to all mobs.
Overview
Sharpness is a common melee enchantment in Minecraft. Sharpness adds a flat amount of extra damage to every melee hit, no matter what you are fighting, by raising the weapon's attack damage attribute before the swing lands.
Its opening level already delivers a noticeable boost (+1 damage (+0.5 hearts)), and it climbs from there to a maximum of level 5 (V) on your sword.
Max Level
Rarity
Category
Added InEffects Per Level
Max Level & Effect Scaling
Sharpness tops out at level 5, shown as V on the sword, and the gap between the levels is where the enchantment's character really lives.
The bonus follows a simple rule: the first level grants +1 damage and each level after that adds another +0.5, so Sharpness V tops out at +3 damage (one and a half hearts) on top of the weapon's base. Because the gain per level shrinks, the jump from no enchantment to Sharpness I is the most valuable single point you can spend.
Compatible Items
Incompatible With
These enchantments cannot be combined with Sharpness on the same item.
Compatibility & Conflicts
Sharpness can be placed on sword and axe, giving you two choices for where it does the most good depending on how you play.
Sharpness cannot share an item with Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Density and Breach. All of these sit in the same mutually-exclusive group as Sharpness, so an item can wear only one of them at once and you choose which playstyle to commit to.
How to Obtain
How to Get It
Sharpness can be rolled directly at an enchanting table, where the level you pay and the enchantability of a sword together decide which level of it you can be offered, up to V. Players who would rather not gamble for Sharpness can hunt the book down through loot chest and villager trading and apply it at an anvil.
Its selection weight of 10 makes Sharpness a common roll: it shows up frequently among the options when you enchant a sword, so building one rarely takes many tries.
What the Table Has to Roll
The numbers below are for a golden sword: of everything that accepts Sharpness it has the highest enchantability (22), worth up to 10 extra points of power on top of your experience level.
The top level is the one worth aiming for: at level 30 the power hits the Sharpness V window under 1% of the time.
| Level | Enchanting power | At a level 30 slot |
|---|---|---|
| I | 1 to 11 | never |
| II | 12 to 22 | never |
| III | 23 to 33 | 23% |
| IV | 34 to 44 | 76% |
| V | 45 to 65 | under 1% |
Applying the book on an anvil costs 1 level per enchantment level, before the anvil adds its own charge for the work you have already done to the item.
Tips & Best Combinations
For a general-purpose sword or axe it is the default damage pick, because the bonus applies to absolutely every mob and never goes to waste. The only reason to skip it is if you are building a dedicated undead farm, where Smite out-damages it.
For the strongest setup, pair Sharpness with Unbreaking, Mending, Looting, Fire Aspect and Sweeping Edge: the durability enchantments in particular keep the item alive long enough to make the investment worthwhile.
Worth remembering: the most versatile damage enchantment since it works against all mobs. Formula: 0.5 * level + 0.5 extra damage.
Related Enchantments
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).
Sharpness FAQ
What is the maximum level of Sharpness in Minecraft?
How do you get Sharpness in survival?
Which items can Sharpness go on?
Is Sharpness V better than Smite V?
Does Sharpness work on an axe?
Try these enchantments on Astroworld
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