One of the first items that you’ll likely want to enchant in Minecraft is going to be your Pickaxe. It will not only allow you to mine resources much faster, but it will also give you a chance of gaining more minerals per ore depending on your enchantment.
For example, one enchantment will allow you to get up to 4 Diamonds per mined block instead of the usual 1. We’re going to talk about some of the best enchantments available for the Pickaxe in this list.
Before we get to it, you should note that what enchantments you receive are completely random, and it might take a few attempts to get what you want. It’s not recommended to start enchanting until you are at least Level 30, which will take a lot of experience.
Below, you can see all of the current enchantments available for the Pickaxe in Minecraft as well as what they do. For more Minecraft Guides and Best-of content for PC, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Pocket Edition, check out our dedicated Minecraft area here! We’ve also covered a few more Minecraft Enchantment Guides for other tools and armor.
The Best Pickaxe Enchantments
Currently, there are 6 different enchantments available for the pickaxe in Minecraft. However, only 4 of these can be acquired from the enchanting table. Mending and Curse of Vanishing need to be found/traded to be applied to the pickaxe.
- Efficiency (V): Increases mining speed, allowing you to harvest minerals and stone faster. Having this enchantment will help you strip mine faster, also increasing the speed at which you find important minerals such as Coal, Iron and Diamonds.
- Fortune (III): Increases some block drops. For example, instead of receiving 1 Diamond per block, it’s possible to receive 4 Diamonds with Fortune III. By far one of the best enchantments currently available in Minecraft.
- Silk Touch (I): Mined blocks drop themselves. You can use Silk Touch to collect items otherwise unobtainable such as Snow, Ender Chests, Coral Blocks, Stone, Bookshelves, Blue Ice, Glowstone, Grass Blocks, Mycelium and Turtle Eggs.
- Unbreaking (III): Increases item durability. Another great enchantment, it will reduce the amount of times you’ll need to repair your pickaxe. If you’re running low on durability, you can place your pickaxe in n Anvil alongside the material it’s made of.
- Mending (I): When using Mending, experience orbs will repair your pickaxe instead of levelling up your Minecraft character. Very useful if you have a pickaxe you want to keep using. However it’s a rare enchantment to get, but a great choice if possible.
- Curse of Vanishing (I): If you have Curse of Vanishing applied to a pickaxe, it will be destroyed upon death, making it unrecoverable. There’s no reason to place this on your own pickaxe, but great for your enemies!
Hovering over an Enchantment in the enchanting table will give you a preview of one enchantment you will receive. On the above screenshot, you can see that I am guaranteed to get Efficiency IV on the pickaxe at least. This isn’t the only way to get enchantments though, you can also apply them manually in an anvil.
Enchantments Breakdown
As previously mentioned, the enchantments you receive are completely random. Enchanting at Level 30 gives you the best chances of receiving rare and more powerful enchantments. You will also require some Lapis Lazuli.
Firstly, Efficiency is a great enchantment to get. It will massively increase your mining speed, allowing you to strip mine and dig in caves much faster. There are a total of 4 Efficiency levels, with each one offering a higher mining speed.
Fortune is another must-have enchantment. At Fortune III, you will have a chance to multiple drops by 2, 3, or 4. What this means is that for every Diamond you mine, you can receive up to 4 instead. It’s definitely a must have.
If you have a great pickaxe, maybe using the enchantments above, you might also want Unbreaking. All this does is increase the durability of your pickaxe meaning it will last much longer whilst mining. It also works well with Mending, which will repair the pickaxe using experience orbs dropped from mobs and ores.
Applying Enchanted Books
In Minecraft, it’s possible to obtain Enchanted Books. You can apply these to your tools or armor by using an Anvil. There are a few ways to obtain Enchanted Books.
They have a small chance of spawning in Loot Chests firstly. Fishing can also give you Enchanted Books, as they’re considered treasure, having a higher ‘Luck of the Sea’ fishing rod enchantment will increase your chances of finding them. Librarian Villagers will also sell you Enchanted Books as part of their trades.
Take your Pickaxe and Enchanted Book to an Anvil. Place your Pickaxe in the left slot, book in the right. In the image above, you can see that I’m applying Fortune III to a Diamond Pickaxe, which will cost 6 Levels. This is also a good opportunity to rename your Pickaxe if you desire.
