Enchanting your armor in Minecraft should be a priority. Especially as you venture into more dangerous areas such as the Nether. If you’re going to the End, then you definitely want to have fully Enchanted gear to maximize your chances of survival.
Some of Minecraft’s armor items share the same Enchantments, whilst items like Helmets and Boots both offer more unique ones. There are also Curses (such as the Curse of Vanishing or Curse of Binding), which instead provides negative effects.
Below, we’ve put together a list of all of the Best Armor Enchantments you can obtain in Minecraft. For more content like this, check out our dedicated Enchantment Guides where we’ve covered every tool in Minecraft.
How to Enchant Armor
To begin Enchanting, you will need an Enchanting Table, which requires 4 Obsidian, 2 Diamonds and a single Book. You’ll need at least 5 Diamonds though, as 3 are required to craft a Diamond Pickaxe to mine the Obsidian.
Once you have an Enchanting Table, it needs to be surrounded with 15 Bookcases to get the maximum level enchantments out of it. You can then go ahead and place your armor items inside, where you can Enchant them for the cost of levels and Lapis Lazuli.
If you are carrying any Enchanted Books, you can instead use an anvil where you can combine books with a weapon or armor item of your choice. It’s recommended to be Level 30 or higher to use the Enchanting Table.
Best Minecraft Armor Enchantments
As previously stated, there are a lot of Enchantments available, and some only work on certain armor items. Below is my opinion on Minecraft’s best armor Enchantments. This list is personal opinion, and you might want to swap out any of these depending on your play-style.
- Protection (IV): Having the Protection Enchantment on any of your armor will increase the amount of damage reduction. For each level of this enchantment, an additional 4% damage will be absorbed, so there is a cap of 16%.
- Mending (I): The Mending enchantment can’t be obtained from a crafting table, you need to find it. However it’s one of the best Enchantments in Minecraft as it will repair your armor automatically when you collect experience orbs.
- Unbreaking (III): Apply the Unbreaking Enchantment, and you will find that your Minecraft armor will last much longer. Unbreaking gives a chance for an items durability to not drop when it’s being used. At the highest level of Unbreaking, your armor should last around 40% longer on average.
- Thorns (III): The Thorns Enchantment will cause any enemies to take damage when they hit you. For every level (to a maximum of 3), it adds a 15% chance of enemies to take 1-4 hearts of damage. You can’t obtain Thorns from the Enchanting Table, instead you will need to find it in book form.
- Blast Protection (IV): You can massively reduce explosion damage with this Enchantment, saving you from explosions via TNT or Creepers. At its highest level, Blast Protection will reduce incoming damage from explosions by 32% (8% per level).
- Projectile Protection (IV): This one might be most useful in PvP, where you will take damage from enemy players who are using bows. Although it also helps with Skeletons, Ghasts, Tridents and Shulkers in survival mode, offering 32% protection at the maximum level.
- Fire Protection (IV): Taking fire damage is probably the least of your worries in Minecraft, so prioritize this Enchantment last. It not only reduces fire damage, but the duration that you will be on fire for.
Other Enchantments to Consider
There are other Enchantments which are only useful in certain situations. Whether you choose to prioritize these or not is up to you.
- Feather Falling (IV): Only compatible with boots, Feather Falling will dramatically reduce the amount of damage you take from falling in Minecraft. Reducing the amount by 2 hearts per level, for a total of 8 hearts.
- Aqua Infinity (I): By putting Aqua Infinity onto a helmet, you will be able to mine underwater at the same speed you would in the Overworld. Underwater, mining speed is 5x as slow, but with Aqua Infinity, this is ignored.
- Frost Walker (II): Finally, we have Frost Walker. This Enchantment can be placed onto boots, and when obtained, will allow you to walk on water. As you walk on water, it will turn to ice below you, allowing you to travel around the map much faster. You can only obtain this enchantment from loot such as treasure chests and trading.
How to Get Treasure Enchantments in Minecraft
Treasure Enchantments are those which can’t be obtained in an Enchanting Table. Currently, these are Curse of Binding, Curse of Vanishing, Frost Walker, Mending and Thorns. The first two you likely won’t want as they are Cursed Enchantments, but the other 3 are incredibly useful.
There are a few ways to obtain them. The first is by trading. Head to a Village (or make a Village) and get a Librarian. Librarians will trade Enchanted Books, and quite often sell you these rarer ones for Emeralds. Otherwise, you can find them randomly by fishing, or inside treasure chests found in Villages, Dungeons, Temples and other structures.
