6 best axe enchantments in Minecraft

The limitless world players can delve into in Minecraft allows them to create a wide variety of unique blocks, items, and gear. Of all the unique assets players can craft, tools are among the most important, and depending on how players tackle the game, the axe can be one of the most vital pieces of gear of them all.

In comparison to the other tools players can craft and utilize in Minecraft, the axe is particularly special since it can simultaneously act as a powerful weapon and a useful tool. And because an axe can be utilized for either, it also comes with a wide variety of enchantments to enhance both its strength in combat and its helpfulness as a tool.

Related: Minecraft’s upcoming armor trim update in 1.20 has players divided

Regardless of whether players plan to utilize their axe more for combat or gathering resources, it’s still a great idea to build the axe for both so it can be utilized for either at any given point.

Depending on which usage players place the most importance on, they might want to consider starting with the enchantments they need the most and discount the general order of best to worst before moving on to the others afterward.

All axe enchantments in Minecraft

In total, there are nine different enchantments that can be applied to an axe in Minecraft. These enchantments are:

• Unbreaking (I-III)
• Mending (I)
• Fortune (I-III)
• Silk Touch (I)
• Efficiency (I-V)
• Sharpness (I-V)
• Smite (I-V)
• Bane of Arthropods (I-V)
• Curse of Vanishing (I)

While nine enchantments do exist, some of them conflict which means players cannot apply all nine to the same axe.

Best axe enchantments in Minecraft 1.19

Because of how costly enchanting gear is, players should consider waiting to apply all enchantments to their gear until they have diamond or Netherite versions of both. All other types of armor are weaker, so they’re not worth the investment.

As of Minecraft 1.19, there are six powerful enchantments players can apply to their axes.

1) Unbreaking

The Unbreaking enchantment can be applied to just about every piece of gear in Minecraft. It’s not only one of the most versatile enchantments available, but it’s also one of the most powerful.

Without the Unbreaking enchantment, every time players perform a useful action with a weapon, tool, or armor it will then consume one point of durability, and the durability bar of that tool, which can be found on the bottom of the tool icon, will decrease. But if any level of Unbreaking is applied, there will always be a chance no durability is consumed upon performing a useful action.

A higher level of Unbreaking equates to a stronger chance of no durability being consumed. So players should equip their axe with Unbreaking III to ensure it’s as unbreakable as possible. Compared to other more exciting enchantments, Unbreaking might seem a bit boring but, if you are going to invest your experience levels in any piece of gear, it’s always worth ensuring it will last forever.

2) Mending

The Unbreaking and Mending enchantments work together to ensure your gear will never break. They are equally important, but players will recognize the effects of Mending much more easily than Unbreaking.

The Mending enchantment has just one level, but that one level grants the full power of this enchantment. With Mending applied, players can restore the durability of their tool by performing actions that grant experience. With an axe, the experience-granting action players will likely be performing most is vanquishing mobs.

3) Efficiency

Efficiency is a powerful enchantment that makes players much more efficient at gathering resources in Minecraft. With this enchantment applied, players’ mining speed will drastically increase.

The highest level of Efficiency is V and so players should try to obtain this level for the maximum benefits. Once players have obtained a high enough level of this enchantment, most blocks will be breakable with just the slightest tap, which makes collecting valuable resources like wood much easier.

4) Sharpness

If you are utilizing your axe for combat more frequently than for general tool usage, then the Sharpness enchantment should be a high priority for you. The name of enchantment indicates what it does, as applying Sharpness will increase the sharpness of your axe and thus make it deal more substantial damage.

5) Fortune

For players looking to enhance the tool usage side of their axe, the Fortune enchantment is a powerful choice. Applying Fortune increases the chance of dropping certain assets and the number of items dropped.

Because of the types of items this enchantment applies to, it’s generally much more useful when on a pickaxe than an axe, but it’s still a handy axe enchantment to have for certain situations. Fortune has three levels and will increase the likelihood and amount of drops players might gain with each level.

The Fortune enchantment is immensely powerful, but it does have one drawback: it conflicts with Silk Touch. Because of this, players will always need to choose between applying either Fortune or Silk Touch to their axe. This decision is much easier when it comes to other tools, like the pickaxe, but with the axe, it entirely comes down to personal preference.

6) Silk Touch

While the Silk Touch enchantment is powerful for certain situations, it can also be a bit of a nuisance when you do not want it to be applied. Silk Touch has just one level and causes specific blocks to drop as themselves rather than turning into something else or dropping nothing.

This is especially useful with items like glass, which drops nothing when players mine it regularly, and mushroom blocks, which drop two mushrooms rather than the decorative block players likely desired. But while it’s helpful in certain situations, players might also be annoyed with it if they had hoped to obtain a diamond ore but instead get a diamond ore block or had hoped to acquire clay balls but instead end up with clay.

Because it can be a nuisance, and conflicts with Fortune, players might want to consider applying it to a separate axe from their main one or choosing another tool entirely to apply it to. Silk Touch can be applied to most tools and it’s generally a good idea to have it applied on a tool you only bring out for specific situations.

Worst axe enchantments in Minecraft

While there are six immensely powerful enchantments for the axe, there are also three others players might come across while playing Minecraft. These three enchantments should be avoided for the axe, and other tools too, because they are more detrimental than they are beneficial.

1) Bane of Arthropods

The Bane of Arthropods enchantment conflicts with Sharpness which is why it’s generally considered a bad enchantment. Whereas Sharpness increases damage overall, the Bane of Arthropods enchantment only increases the damage dealt against arthropod mobs.

All mobs affected by this are:

• Spiders
• Cave spiders
• Silverfish
• Bees
• Endermites

The only instances where this enchantment might be more useful than Sharpness are ones where players plan to consistently take on any of the mobs affected by it. One example of a specific situation where players might want this enchantment is an experience farm based around spiders since applying this enchantment would make vanquishing them much more efficient. But even in scenarios like this, players would likely just want to have a separate axe for the experience farm that’s different from the one that they otherwise use.

2) Smite

The Smite enchantment is very similar to the Bane of Arthropods enchantment as it’s also based around a specific type of mob and conflicts with the more general Sharpness enchantment.

All mobs affected by the Smite enchantment are:

• Zombies
• Husks
• Wither
• Strays
• Skeletons
• Phantoms
• Drowned
• Wither skeletons
• Zombified Piglins
• Zombie Villagers
• Skeleton horses
• Zombie horses
• Zoglins

Because Smite is specific to just a few mobs, both it and Bane of Arthropods are weak enchantments in comparison to the much more powerful and generalized Sharpness enchantment that can be utilized to deal increased damage against all foes.

3) Curse of Vanishing

With the Curse of Vanishing applied on any piece of gear, players will need to practice extreme caution. If players die while they have any asset that has this enchantment on it, then that asset won’t drop like the rest of players’ materials and instead will vanish from existence entirely.

The average Minecraft player generally dies at least a few times throughout their gameplay, which is why this enchantment can be extremely harmful. Instead of being able to run back and collect all of your fallen loot, any item that was equipped with this enchantment will simply be gone forever.

If you are playing in a hardcore world with just one life, then you don’t need to worry about this enchantment if you do end up with a tool, weapon, or armor piece that has it applied since the hardcore world comes with just one life and ends if you die.