A bow in Minecraft is one of the best weapons to use in the game due to its versatility. However, if you put an enchantment on it, the weapon will function much better. Let us look at the best enchantments for the bow in Minecraft.
Due to the customizable nature of Minecraft, everything in the game can have a different look and feel including your weapons. You can create weapons out of various ores and put enchantments on them that give them various passive buffs. That being said, it is difficult for newer players to find which ones suit their playstyle the best.
That is why, this guide will take a look at the best enchantments you can use on a bow in Minecraft so that you have set rules to follow when selecting your buffs. We will take a look at how you can acquire them and what their use is on your bow in the game. Let us get into it.
Contents
- The Best Bow Enchantments to Use in Minecraft
- 7. Curse of the Vanishing
- 6. Mending
- 5. Infinity
- 4. Unbreaking
- 3. Flame
- 2. Punch
- 1. Power
- How to Enchant Your Bow in Minecraft
The Best Bow Enchantments to Use in Minecraft
The bow is one of the best weapons to use due to its versatility. In addition, if you want to have even more of an advantage, you can stack enchantments. This will allow you to have two enchantments in one bow. It can really help you in certain scenarios and create deadly combinations which will allow easier progression in tougher levels of the game.
However, as is the nature of progression in this game, some enchantments will be better suited for your overall journey than others. To determine what suits you best, let us take a look at each enchantment and see which ones are the best for you.
Note: We are not doing Crossbow enchantments, these enchantments are exclusively for the bow.
7. Curse of the Vanishing
We start off with the Curse of the Vanishing which in hindsight can be considered a “meme enchantment.” The reason is that when it is equipped on a bow and the player using the bow dies, the bow vanishes forever and does not drop to the ground. This can be a troll pick if you are in multiplayer servers but aside from that it does not have any important fundamental use.
Aside from the trolls, this enchantment can help in SMP lobbies so that the enemy does not use your bow to damage you if you have decent enchantments on it. You can obtain the Curse of the Vanishing by fishing for it, trading with a librarian of any level, exploring strongholds, ancient cities, and jungle biomes, and so on. It is quite easy to find.
6. Mending
Mending is one of the rarest enchantments in Minecraft and for good reason. The passive buff it provides to your weapon is quite useful. That is also the reason why it cannot be crafted. You can only fish it out from a water body or trade with a villager for it.
The reason why it is so useful and important is because of the passive buff it provides. The enchantment repairs your items using XP that you collect. So if you are efficient enough with your tools, in this case, your bow, you can have a weapon that does not break.
So whenever you kill a mob or another player with the bow, the XP won’t go to the XP bar, it will directly repair the bow with the collected XP. Bows and Mending go exceptionally well because you cannot manually repair your bow. That is why, Mending should be one of the enchantments you stack on your bow for an everlasting weapon.
5. Infinity
Moving onto Infinity, this is a must-have if you want an everlasting bow. The only problem is you cannot pair this enchantment up with Mending, because if you could, no one would need to craft a bow ever again. Infinity is an attachment that is exclusive to the bow and it is extremely hard to obtain.
First, let us talk about its usage and then we will see how you can get it. Infinity gives you unlimited arrows to use given that you have at least one arrow in your inventory. If you do, you can use as many arrows as you want without running out. That one arrow you have in your inventory will never be used as it will rinse and repeat forever as long as you have this enchantment.
You can find this enchantment by getting the enchanting table to level 17. This will give you a 1% chance to obtain it. Every level you gain on the enchantment table will increase the percentage of you obtaining the enchantment. This enchantment could have been at the top spot on this list if it weren’t so hard to obtain.
4. Unbreaking
At the number four spot, we have Unbreaking which is a great enchantment for the longevity and durability of the bow. Due to the nature of the wooden bow, it is both the weakest and the strongest variant of the bow in the game. That is why, to preserve it and ensure that your hard work does not go to waste, we recommend putting the Unbreaking enchantment on it.
The Unbreaking Enchantment is one of the best enchantments to use since it will let you, in essence, fire 1000+ arrows when it is fully upgraded. You see, in Level 0, the bow has 384 durability points which then increases after every level you upgrade. A single durability point is depleted every time a player fires an arrow. That is why, the higher tiers you have with this enchantment, the better the durability of your bow.
Let us look at the tiers of this enchantment.
- Unbreaking 0: 384 Durability
- Unbreaking I: 768 Durability
- Unbreaking II: 1152 Durability
- Unbreaking III: 1536 Durability
That being said, you can find Unbreaking by fishing, through an enchanting table, finding an enchanted book in various dungeons, or villager trading.
3. Flame
Every game which has a bow as a weapon has the ability to set the tip of the arrow on fire to make Fire Arrows. Flame is the enchantment that allows your bow to set enemies on fire upon impact. It is a no-nonsense enchantment and will always do you good. It is especially useful when you are exploring at night or playing PvP.
The only downside to this enchantment is that it does not have any tiers on it which would allow it to increase the fire damage dealt. However, there is no option to do that. Upon impact, this fire arrow does 2.5 Hearts worth of damage and burns for 5 seconds.
Another cool use of this enchantment can be on mobs that can be eaten as food. If you defeat a mob using the flame arrow, the food that drops is cooked. This is a great way to get ready food when you do not have any resources to make them. You can find the Flame enchantment by trading with the villagers, fishing, obtaining it from loot chests, or through the enchanting table.
2. Punch
This is one of the best bow enchantments due to its usefulness in PvE situations of your Minecraft journey. The Punch enchantment is copied from other enchantments. You might recognize them as having a knockback effect. Punch also has a knockback effect swords and axes have when equipped with that enchantment.
This enchantment allows you to knock back an opponent two blocks further. It is not significant but can really help you from zombies or other mobs. However, the best part is that it does not take an effect away from the other enchantments. You can use it in combination with Power, Flame, etc.
Punch has two different tiers. Punch I will knock the enemies two blocks back while Punch II will knock them back four blocks. Just like most of the other enchantments, you can get this one by trading with villagers, fishing, through an enchanting table, and loot chests.
1. Power
Last but certainly not least, we have Power which is the first enchantment you should aim to get in the game for the bow if you are just starting out. This is like the equivalent of having Sharpness on your sword. This enchantment increases the damage the bow does which might seem simple but is a fundamental need. With every upgrade, the power of your bow increases.
Each tier you upgrade with the bow increases its power by 25%. Therefore, the max you could go with this enchantment is 150% since it has six tiers including the base Tier. Let us take a look at all the tiers.
- Power 0: 3 Hearts
- Power I: 3.75 Hearts
- Power II: 4.5 Hearts
- Power III: 5.25 Hearts
- Power IV: 6 Hearts
- Power V: 6.75 Hearts
You can obtain the Power enchantment by trading with villagers, fishing, looting chests, and through the enchanting table. This might be a common enchantment but is one of the best for sure.
How to Enchant Your Bow in Minecraft
Now that we have taken a look at all the enchantments you can use for a bow, let us see how you can enchant it.
- To enchant something in Minecraft, you will need three simple things; first is an enchanting table, the second is some lapis lazuli and the third is some spare XP. As a rule of thumb, you will also need a crafting table.
To make an enchanting table, you will need four obsidian blocks, two diamonds, and a book. You can find diamonds and lapis lazuli by mining in the same place most of the time. The XP you can collect by killing mobs and doing various other things.
If you want to go the extra steps, make sure you place lots of bookshelves around the enchanting table to get the max level of enchantments possible.
Now, to enchant your bow, go towards the enchanting table and open the enchanting option. Place the bow on the left box and three lapis lazuli on the right box. When you do, you will see three different types of enchantments you can get for your bow.
That is all you need to know about bow enchantments in Minecraft. For more Minecraft content, click here.
