The Best Axe Enchantments In Minecraft (2023)

Since the Axe has been an established tool in Minecraft since its early days, the list of Best Axe Enchantments Minecraft is a bit more diverse and fleshed out compared to something like the Best Crossbow Enchantments. Additionally, the developers have made an effort over the past couple of years to turn it into a more flexible item than it originally was. Nowadays, the Axe is as much a weapon as it is a tool for chopping down trees.

Key Highlights

In Minecraft, there have been many tools since the beginning and one of them being the Axe.
In the earlier days, the main purpose for the Axe was to simply chop down trees, but now it is more of a weapon also.
Now due to this change, the enchantments from the earlier days of the Axe and now differ a lot.
Some of the best enchantments are Smite, Unbreaking, Mending, Sharpness, and Efficiency.
There are many enchantments to choose from, and you can choose what playstyle you want from your Axe.

Best Axe Enchantments In Minecraft

Like all enchantments in the game, applying Axe buffs requires at least a basic understanding of how the Enchanting Table and the Anvil work. Neither of these workstations are difficult to use, but they do require a bit of time to get used to.

The player also requires three core components on top of these, and we’ll go over them briefly in the table below:

Component	Description
Levels	As the player performs different actions such as fighting, mining, crafting, etc, the green bar at the bottom of the screen fills up over time. Each time it fills up completely, you go up one level. Levels are the resource you use at Enchanting Tables to apply buffs. And different enchantments require a different number of levels to take effect.
Lapis Lazuli	Lapis Lazuli can be found while exploring deep underground. It is a blue material that is used in combination with your levels to apply enchantments to items. Depending on the strength of the enchantments, you require anywhere from 1-3 Lapis Lazuli per item.
Bookshelves	In order to be able to apply higher level enchantments onto your items, players will have to craft Bookshelves and place them around their Enchanting Table. When this is done correctly, glyphs start flying from the Table to indicate that the placement is working. Also, Bookshelves have no effect on Anvils, but you do require individual Enchanted Books for them to work.

When each of these components is present, the player should be able to apply any of the Best Axe Enchantments we mention in the list below. And no, you cannot apply the Minecraft Infinity Enchantment to Axes. That’s only limited to Bows.

Smite

Some of the most common enemies in Minecraft are the Undead, This includes everyone from regular Zombies and Skeletons, all the way to Withers, Strays and Drowned. They’re found in almost every dark corner of your Minecraft world, and they will sneak up on you when you least expect it. So wouldn’t it be nice to have a weapon in your inventory that specializes in dealing with these foes? Well with the Smite enchantment, you can get exactly that.

When this buff is applied to your Axe, it is able to inflict an extra 2.5 points of damage per hit to undead enemies specifically. And with each subsequent level, this value is increased by an additional 2.5 points. So by the time you get to ‘Smite V,’ which is the max level for this enchantment, you’re dealing a whopping 12.5 extra damage per hit. If you’re using this in combination with a weapon that is already really strong like a Netherite Axe, then you should be able to one-shot most regular mobs in the game no problem.

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This is great because sometimes it helps to have items that are specialized for specific roles. The undead can be extremely annoying enemies because they tend to swarm you and keep closing the distance quickly. And when you’re constantly getting hit, you have to retaliate hard and fast or else you’ll die.

So always keep an Axe with the Smite enchantment with you when going out for wood at night. You might get cornered, but at least you’ll make short work of any zombies lurking around

Bane of Arthropods

Arthropods, like Spiders, Bees and Silverfish, are among the most annoying enemies in Minecraft. They’re fast, they’re hard to hit and, in the case of Cave Spiders, they can poison you so that you die slowly over time. It’s usually not a good time if you encounter a group of these enemies in a dark cave with no clear exit route.

With Bane of Arthropods however, you can buff a weapon to deal an increased amount of damage to these creatures. And since we’re talking about the Best Axe Enchantments in this article, we’ll relate the damage to this particular item.

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So for example, a regular Iron Axe deals 9 points of damage in the Java edition of the game. But with a single level of this enchantment, that increases to a total of 11.5. Each level after that also increases this value by 2.5, so by the time you reach the max level of ‘Bane of Arthropods V,’ that same Iron Axe is dealing 18.5 damage instead.

Axes already deal more damage than Swords, so players can put this buff on the weapon at the highest level to kill most Arthropods in one hit. You might not think that this is all that useful at first glance, but trust me, you’ll be glad to have a Spider killing weapon in your arsenal when you’re exploring a Mineshaft. This is also a great way to quickly harvest String for when you have to Repair A Bow In Minecraft.

Efficiency

If you don’t enjoy going out to gather resources again and again, then Minecraft can become quite tedious for you. Because while it’s fun to explore and build things, it can often times be a bore to clear out entire forests worth of trees because you have to build that one structure that you cannot do without. In situations like these, you require Axes that can quickly and effectively cut down trees in seconds. You require speed that exceeds even the likes of a Netherite Axe.

You require the Efficiency enchantment, which allows your tools to break down blocks much faster than they regularly would. So when applied to an Axe, you can cut down that forest in half the time you would regularly take. The higher the tier of the tool and the higher the level of the buff, the faster you get until you can chop down a wood block with a single click. The only downside to this is that since your Axe is not working faster, it will also break faster.

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Now this is great for moments where you have to quickly gather a significant amount of resources for large builds. I can personally attest that when you’re playing Minecraft with friends, the scope of your creations can get out of control extremely easily. So in these moments, you’ll be glad for this particular entry on our Best Axe Enchantments list.

Also, when Efficiency is applied to an Axe the chances that it will stun someone carrying a shield increases by 25% at level I. This percentage increases by another 5 per level, for a maximum of a 45% chance at level V. So this enchantment is also great for combat.

Unbreaking

Materials like Diamond and Netherite are used to craft some of the most powerful weapons and tools in the entire game. And it’s usually in the player’s best interest to conserve these items for when their use is strictly necessary, at least during the starting hours of a world. So would it not make sense for the player to buff these valuable items so that they last longer?

That’s exactly what the Unbreaking enchantment does, by giving these items a chance to not consume durability when they are used. This basically increases the number of times they can be used, allowing them to be effective for far longer than a regular weapon or tool of the same type. For Axes in particular, this usually means that they can cut down far more trees and gather much more wood.

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On average, this buff can increase the durability of your Axe by around +100% per level. The higher the level of the enchantment, the more the durability increases. And if you go up to the max level of ‘Unbreaking III,’ you’re almost tripling the amount of blocks it can chop down before breaking with a +300% to the item’s health.

Use this on a Netherite Axe, and you’ll have yourself an item with over 8000 durability. That’s over four times its regular lifespan, and you’re likely to keep on using it for a long time. So if you have an Axe that you really like, use Unbreaking on it.

Sharpness

As mentioned above, the Axe was not always considered to be an effective weapon when dealing with NPC mobs or other human players. It’s primary function was as a wood cutting tool, and players only relied on it as a weapon in emergency situations. Over time however, this has changed and the Axe has become it’s own specialized weapon.

Unlike the sword, which focuses on speed and sweep attacks, the Axe is all about power. It deals way more damage per swing, but it is slower and takes more time to recover. Additionally, attacking with this lowers the durability of shields and armor you hit faster than any other tool in Minecraft. Depending on the version of the game you’re playing, you can even disable the use of an enemy’s shield for 5 seconds.

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So in keeping with that theme of high damage, lets talk about the Sharpness buff. This is an enchantment that increases the melee damage dealt by the axe by small increments. So for example, at ‘Sharpness I’ the damage is increased by 1 point, but each subsequent level increases that value by 0.5. At the maximum of ‘Sharpness V,’ the weapon has a total damage increase of 3 points.

This is great because it allows you to make short work of most foes. Mobs usually have set behaviors, so you’re usually able to deal with them even with a weak weapon. But when it comes to human players, you want to do as much damage as possible within a short amount of time. And in that sense, the Sharpness buff is an invaluable addition to the Best Axe Enchantments list.

Mending

As you play through the game and earn experience points from a variety of different sources, that actually accumulates into your Levels. As we discussed earlier in the article, these are one of the core requirements for applying enchantments onto your Axes or other items. And we’ve also talked about how items break with use, and you have to keep an eye on their durability.

But with the Mending buff applied onto an Axe, some of the experience points you gain actually turn into durability for that item. So as you fight or cut down trees, you’re restoring your Axe’s health as you use it. This is great because it increases the life of your gear, allowing it to potentially stay useful forever.

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The rate of repair is set at two durabilities restored per 1 point of experience, and any excess earned after repairing goes to your level up. Unfortunately, there is only one level of this buff, so it cannot be enhanced in any way beyond this point. But even at ‘Mending I,’ this is still one of the Best Axe Enchantments in Minecraft.

It should also be noted that you cannot apply this buff through the Enchantment Table. This can only be found in the form of Enchanted Books from treasure chests, fishing, or trading with Villagers, which then have to be applied to your Axe at the Anvil.

In addition to enchantments that allow the Axe to perform its basic function faster and more effectively, it also has buffs that increase its abilities as a damage dealer. The developers are actually hard at work these days on updates that will allow combat enchantments that previously could only be used on Swords to also apply to Axes going forward. The point is that this item is a lot more versatile than it originally was.