Smite

Smite is an uncommon melee enchantment in Minecraft 1.21. Smite is a specialist damage enchantment that only fires against undead mobs, adding a large flat bonus on top of your weapon's normal hit whenever the target is in that family.

Its opening level already delivers a noticeable boost — +2.5 damage (+1.25 hearts) vs undead — and it climbs from there to a maximum of level 5 (V) on your sword.

Smite 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.

Each level is worth a full +2.5 damage against undead — there is no diminishing curve here — so the climb is linear all the way to +12.5 at Smite V. That makes a maxed Smite weapon hit undead for roughly six and a quarter extra hearts every swing.

Smite can be placed on sword and axe, giving you two choices for where it does the most good depending on how you play.

Smite cannot share an item with Sharpness, Bane of Arthropods, Density and Breach. All of these sit in the same mutually-exclusive group as Smite, so an item can wear only one of them at once and you choose which playstyle to commit to.

Smite can be rolled directly at an enchanting table, where reaching its top level of V on a sword generally wants a fully bookshelf-powered table at roughly level 9. Should the table prove stingy with Smite, you can instead source the book from loot chest and villager trading and anvil it on.

Its selection weight of 5 makes Smite an uncommon roll: it appears with middling frequency when enchanting a sword — common enough to plan around, but not guaranteed on any given roll.