Best Axe Enchantments In Minecraft [In-Depth Guide]

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. 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 Takeaways

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.

Author’s Note: With more than dozens of hours of experience in Minecraft, I feel more than obliged to provide you with hands-on experience on the topic below.

So with this Axe Enchantments In Minecraft guide, we’ll be going over some of the absolute best buffs for this item. Here’s the detailed stats for all of them:

Enchantment Name	Max Level	Damage Buffs
Smite	Level 5	- Deals 2.5 extra damage per hit. - With each level increase it does 2.5 more damage. - Max Damage Per Hit after reaching a max level which is level V is 12.5.
Bane Of Arthropods	Level 5	- Normal Iron Axe does 9 damage. - Deals 11.5 Damage with a single level of this enhancement. - With each level increase it does 2.5 more damage. - Max Damage after reaching a max level which is level V is a whopping 18.5 damage.
Efficiency	Level 5	- Increases the chances to stun an enemy carrying a shield by 25%. - 5% increase per level up. - Max Percentage Increase at the max level V is 45%.
Unbreaking	Level 3	- 100% Increase in the durability of your Axe per level. - At Max Level with is Level III it can increase the durability of your Axe by 300%. - 8000 Durability for the Netherite Axe if this enchantment is used on it.
Sharpness	Level 5	- At level 1 this enchantment increases the damage of the Axe by 1 point. - After each level increase it increases by 0.5 points. - At the max level which is level V it increases by 3 points.

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 is 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 I mention in the list below.

Smite

Max Level	Description	Damage Buffs
Smite V	This enchantment allows you to deal extra damage to Undead Beings such as Zombies, Skeleton, Withers, Strays, and Drowned.	Deals 2.5 extra damage per hit. With each level increase it does 2.5 more damage. Max Damage Per Hit on Level V is 12.5.

When Smite 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 with no problem.

Bane Of Arthropods

Max Level	Description	Damage Buffs
Bane Of Arthropods V	This enchantment allows you to deal extra damage to Arthropods, Spiders, Bees, and Silverfish.	Normal Iron Axe does 9 damage. Deal 11.5 Damage with a single level of this enhancement. With each level increase, it does 2.5 more damage. Max Damage at level V is 18.5 damage.

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

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.

Efficiency

Max Level	Description	Damage Buffs
Efficiency V	This enchantment allows you to cut down trees and blocks much faster than normal.	Increases the chances to stun an enemy carrying a shield by 25%. 5% increase per level up. Max Percentage Increase at the max level V is 45%.

The Efficiency enchantment 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.

Now, this is great for moments when 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.

Also, when Efficiency is applied to an Axe the chances that it will stun someone carrying a shield increases by 25% at Efficiency 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

Max Level	Description	Damage Buffs
Unbreaking III	This enchantment allows you to increase the longevity, effectiveness, and usage of your Axe.	100% Increase in the durability of your Axe per level. At Max Level with is Level III it can increase the durability of your Axe by 300%.

The Unbreaking enchantment gives items a chance to consume less durability when they are used. This 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.

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 number 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 durabilities. 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

Max Level	Description	Damage Buffs
Sharpness V	This enchantment allows you to deal extra damage to the melee damage of the Axe in small quantities.	At level 1 this enchantment increases the damage of the Axe by 1 point. After each level, it increases by 0.5 points. At Sharpness V, the total damage is increased by 3 points.

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. So in keeping with that theme of high damage, let’s 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.

Mending

Max Level	Description	Durability Points Conversion Per Experience Points
Mending I	This enchantment allows you to convert Experience Points (XP) into Durability Points for your Axe making it useful forever.	2 Durability Points restored for 1 Experience (XP) Point.

As you play through the game and earn experience points from a variety of different sources, that actually accumulates into your Levels. As I 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.

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.