Enchanting your gear is essential to success in Minecraft, and your helmet is one of the most important armor pieces to upgrade. To ensure you have the best protection possible, you need to use the best helmet enchantments you can get.
Every piece of armor has a couple of special enchantments you can use, and some of the helmet-exclusive enchantments are by far the most useful for everything you’ll be doing in Minecraft. With the right upgrades, your helmet can make you truly unstoppable, so here are the best enchantments for helmets in Minecraft.
Best enchantments for helmets in Minecraft
There are six best enchantments for helmets in Minecraft. Ideally, you want to have all six applied to your helmet so you can be as powerful and well-protected as possible. All helmet types—which include leather, chainmail, turtle shell, gold, iron, diamond, and netherite—can be enchanted.
If you’re unsure where to begin or overwhelmed by the number of enchantments available, here’s a complete breakdown of the best enchantments available for Minecraft helmets so you can spend your hard-earned levels wisely.
| Enchantment | Levels |
| Protection | Four |
| Unbreaking | Three |
| Mending | One |
| Respiration | Three |
| Aqua Affinity | One |
| Thorns | Three |
1) Protection IV
The overall best enchantment for your helmet is Protection, which is also the best enchantment for all armor. Protection IV is the highest level of Protection available in Minecraft and offers the best defense you can get, so you want to aim for this level.
While more specific Protection enchantments exist, including Fire, Projectile, and Blast Protection, these all conflict with general Protection. This means you should always choose regular Protection since it reduces all incoming damage rather than only one specific damage type.
It’s easy to get confused and think you need all variations of the Protection enchantment active, but while Fire, Projectile, and Blast Protection will only protect you from their specific kind of damage, the general Protection enchantment shields you against any and all damage types. This means it is the only Protection upgrade you need on your helmet.
2) Unbreaking III
Pouring a ton of work and experience levels into making the perfect helmet is a waste if it eventually breaks. Because of this, Unbreaking III is the second most important enchantment you can get because it helps increase the durability of armor and prevents it from breaking as quickly. The higher the level of Unbreaking, the better durability the enchanted item has with the highest level of Unbreaking being three.
3) Mending I
Right alongside Unbreaking, you should also seek to apply the Mending enchantment to your helmet before you begin using it. Mending I converts experience into restored durability for the item it is applied to, which means that as long as you continuously do activities that grant experience, such as mining or killing mobs, the helmet you are wearing will always be restored to full durability.
Mending has only one level but that is all you need to ensure your helmet lasts forever. If you ever find the durability getting dangerously low, get to work farming experience immediately and it will quickly be repaired.
4) Respiration III
Deep beneath the ocean surface hides ocean ruins, shipwrecks, and ocean monuments full of precious loot that is incredibly difficult to gather with regular water breathing. This is why Respiration III is an essential upgrade and one of the best enchantments for helmets.
Respiration has a maximum enchantment level of three and extends the amount of time you can breathe underwater by 15 seconds for each level of enchantment. With Respiration III, you can breathe underwater for the base 15 seconds plus an additional 45 seconds, bringing the total time to a full minute.
Underwater exploration is frustrating and slow without this enchantment, but once you have it applied, it’s like you have an entirely new biome available to freely explore.
5) Aqua Affinity I
The Aqua Affinity I enchantment increases the speed you can mine underwater and is very important when navigating the treacherous world lurking on the ocean floor. You usually can’t mine at a regular rate underwater, which oftentimes leads to frustrating and potentially life-threatening situations. This makes Aqua Affinity a must-have helmet enchantment.
Aqua Affinity I is the highest level of enchantment available and allows you to mine underwater at a normal speed instead of five times slower, as is the case without the enchantment.
6) Thorns III
As long as you plan to continuously use your armor during activities that grant experience and have applied both Unbreaking and Mending, Thorns III is a very powerful enchantment you should enchant your helmet with. When this upgrade is active, any enemy that hits you immediately has damage dealt back against them.
As powerful as this upgrade is, it’s essential you have both Unbreaking and Mending active alongside it. The Thorns enchantment breaks your armor much more quickly which means you need to have these supporting enchantments to repair it.
Every time Thorns deals damage, the durability of the armor piece it is equipped to then decreases. While this might sound daunting, as long as you have Thorns on your helmet alongside Unbreaking and Mending, you’ll be fine. Make sure you regularly engage in experience-dropping activities to keep your helmet at a healthy durability level.
Alongside your powerful new helmet, you also need the best enchantments for every tool and weapon including Tridents, Pickaxes, and Axes. You also might consider venturing into the Deep Dark biome to take on the Warden now that you have the necessary protection to do so.
