Top 7 Best Bow Enchantments In Minecraft [1.18]

With a total of 7 Enchantments available for the Bow in Minecraft, it can be daunting to chose and that's why this guide will help you chose.

Minecraft offers great weapons like swords, bows, and crossbows with Enchantments. New upgrades keep coming out and offering brand-new things for you to do. With these upgrades, we get to see new Enchantments Books for all the weapons, armors, and tools in Minecraft. Today’s guide will look at all the Enchantments available for the Bow as of update 1.18 and rank them according to their usefulness.

Key Highlights
  • You can get an enchanted bow in several ways, like finding it in chests or enchanting one yourself with an enchantment table.
  • These enchantments can increase your bow’s strength, durability, luck, and more!
  • They add a permanent improvement to your bow but can also be removed anytime using a grindstone for enchanting another weapon.
  • You can stack multiple enchantments onto a single bow, making it a highly efficient tool overall.
  • However, a few enchantments cannot be paired with each other, such as Infinity and Mending, and thus you have to choose which one to go for.

Best Bow Enchantments In Minecraft

There are a total of 7 Enchantments for the Bow in Minecraft. The list below ranks them from best to worst. The top 4 are the absolute best Bow Enchantments In Minecraft.

  1. Power V – This Enchantment simply increases the amount of damage caused by the Bow.
  2. Unbreaking III – The Enchantment here Increases the Durability of your Bow.
  3. Flame – Flame, as the name suggests, grants your arrows a burning effect and flame damage.
  4. Punch – When used with the Bow, it knocks enemies further when you shoot them.
  5. Mending – It increases your Bow’s durability through the XP gained.
  6. Infinity – The Infinity Enchantment grants you an infinite amount of arrows. 
  7. Curse Of The Vanishing – Worst Enchantment that simply makes your Bow vanish after you die, so others can’t pick it up.

These are all the Enchantments available as of yet for the Bow in Minecraft. The top four enchantments can all be used together. But when it comes to Mending and Infinity, you can only choose one of these. The reason for that is it would make the player almost impossible to die with those two Enchantments together. As for the last Enchantment on our list, it is pretty much useless in all scenarios. Now let’s go through all the Enchantments for the Bow in detail.

Power V

When Power V is used with a Bow, it tremendously increases the damage done to enemies. With each level, it increases the Bow damage by 25%. The exact rate of increase for Power V is 150%, which is a lot. With a full charge hit, you are going to get 7.5 Hearts of the enemy. If compared to the normal hit (which is just 3), it is a significant improvement.

Power V status effect
Power V

On top of that, after update 1.8, you no longer need the Anvil to get this Enchantment on the Bow. All in all, we recommend having this enchantment on your bow. No doubt it is the best Bow enchantment you can get your hands on. It is simple and straightforward and doesn’t require you to put in any extra effort. All you do is use your Bow normally.

Unbreaking III

The bow is not the most durable item in Minecraft. Unlike swords and armors, which can be made from Nether or Gold. The bow is only crafted with wood, and well, wood is not durable at all. And so naturally, the Unbreaking III is an excellent upgrade for it. It will help you in every situation, either survival or online. Make sure to take time to get your bow updated with Unbreaking.

Minecraft: Unbreaking III Bow Enchantment
Unbreaking III

Unbreaking III works in a weird way to increase the Item’s durability. In Minecraft, when an item is used, it costs durability. What Unbreaking does is it reduces the chances for the item to use durability. On average, a Bow in Minecraft has 384 durability points, but when Unbreaking III is used on it, it takes that all the way to 1536. So from that number, you can get an idea of how useful Enchantment is Unbreaking III in Minecraft for Bow. 

Flame

Flame is a self-explanatory Enchantment for the Bow in Minecraft. It sets mobs and other players on fire and causes them to damage over time. The overtime damage lasts for 5 seconds, and the enemy loses 2.5 hearts every second. It’s worth noting that if you increase the level of Flame through commands, it is not going to affect damage or time it lasts. 

Flame status effect
Flame Enchantment

Mobs that are killed by flame only will not drop any XP points. Unless you damage them between the five seconds, Flame lasts. Flame can only burn players, mobs, TNT, and candles. It will not have any effect on other blocks such as trees, and you can not use it as a source of light. Also, the Flame obviously doesn’t work in Rain or Ocean.

Punch

Punch is a very situational or rather playstyle-based Bow Enchantment in Minecraft. It knows the enemy back by three additional blocks with each level. The enchantment has a total of two levels. It’s a very useful tool to have in your arsenal against Mobs that move around a lot. But it can also backfire with mobs that are steady; in that case, you will be moving them away yourself.

Minecraft: Punch II Bow Enchantment
Punch II Enchantment

It’s worth noting that Punch doesn’t increase your damage in any way at all. So in that regard, it’s pretty useless. However, if you consider how easy it is to get Punch Enchantment, it’s fully worth using. We recommend having Punch since there is no loss because it doesn’t require you to remove any other Enchantment. So it can go with all the different Enchantment as a bonus.

Mending

Mending is one of the best Enchantments for any type of weapon or armor in Minecraft, including Bow. It takes the experience orbs gained by the player and uses them to repair anything that has Mending on it. The exact rate at which it increases the durability is for each point of experience orb, and you gain two durability points. It’s pretty sweet, but it does have its flaw. 

Mending status effect
Mending Enchantment

The reason Mending couldn’t make it as one of the top best Enchantment for the Bow is because of its incapabilities. You can use Mending with every other Enchantment except for Infinity. And this is its only downfall. Other than that, it is a great enchantment to have for the Bow in Minecraft. We only recommend having this if you won’t be needing Infinity because Infinity is much better for the Bow at the beginning of the game. Plus, you already get Unbreaking III with the Bow for the Durability.

Infinity

As the name suggests, this Enchantment grants you an infinite number of arrows for the Bow in Minecraft. In almost all the situations you will face at the beginning of the game, this is a fantastic upgrade for the Bow. But later on in the game, you will have a good amount of arrows to spare. On top of that, you will be using special arrows when you are advanced In the game.

Minecraft: Infinity Bow Enchantment
Infinity

This brings us to the downfall that comes with this Enchantment. When using this, you will need at least one arrow. But the enchantment doesn’t work with any other type of arrow except for the normal one. This means that you will have a finite amount of special arrows. Then on top of that, as we have mentioned, you can not use it with the Mending, which is pretty much more helpful than Infinity.  So all this classifies Infinity as the second last best Enchantment for the Bow.

Curse Of The Vanishing

In Minecraft, most the players play online, and once you are dead, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Well, the Curse of The Vanishing is an Enchantment that is for when you’re dead. It’s pretty stupid of the game to include such an Enchantment. This Enchantment, or rather a curse, vanishes any weapon it was on once the player dies. It is a very useful Enchantment for the Bow but for trolls and not players.

curse status effect
Curse of Vanishing Enchantment

Now some of you might argue that it prevents other players from possessing your weapons, but how does that affect your game. Then, on the other hand, when you are in survival mode, you lose your Bow completely. Most of the time, your bow will be enchanted with some of the best Enchantments. So, all in all, Curse of The Vanishing is a very stupid and useless Enchantment for any weapon or armor.

What Are Enchantments In Minecraft? 

Enchantments or enchants are buffs or special features that can be added to weapons, armor, and tools to increase their efficiency and strength. Players use enchantments to create the best possible bows, swords, and other weapons in Minecraft Dungeons and even in Bedrock 1.16. You can enchant a weapon through Anvil with Enchanted Books or using the Enchantment Table.  

Moreover, once you have enchanted your weapon, It will gain a purple animated effect. Thus any player nearby can see your enchanted weapon and the strength they possess. You can enchant shovels, axes, bows, pickaxes, and bows to create the best weapons in Minecraft Dungeons and it works for Bedrock’s 1.16 update as well.  

In case you are using an anvil to Enchant your weapon, you will need enchanted books. These books can be acquired in various ways like trading and fishing. Additionally, they can be found at various locations in Minecraft. 

How To Enchant Bows In Minecraft

The procedure to enchant a weapon is easy. You enchant some of your best weapons like bows in Minecraft Bedrock and Dungeons. In addition to the bow, if you want to enchant you will need an Enchantment Table as well as many experience points. However, after Minecraft’s 1.18 Bountiful Update, Lapis Lazuli is also needed. Furthermore, if you are aiming for a higher level of enchantment you will also need around 15 bookshelves. 

Place the bookshelves one block away on every side of the Enchantment Table. Make sure to leave a block of air on every side. Also, there should be no carpet or torches laid between the table and the bookshelves as they will act as a barrier. Once you are done with this process there will be some tiny white symbols floating toward the Enchantment Table.

Additionally, there are three enchanting options for your bows in update 1.18 of Minecraft that will help make them the best weapons in Minecraft Dungeons and Bedrock. 

Final Verdict

Minecraft allows for vast customization on almost all the things that it offers. Unfortunately, it’s not the case with Bow, Crossbow, and Fishing Rod items. All these items have a minimal amount of customization to them. This is no different when it comes to Enchantments for the Bow, and we only get 7 Enchantments. We listed all the seven available Enchantment and ranked them how we saw them be fit. But if you disagree with our ranking, make sure to let us know below.

Minecraft: Bow Enchantments - FAQs

What are the best Enchantments for a bow in Minecraft?

The best Enchantments for the Bow in Minecraft are Power V, Unbreaking III, Flame, and Punch.

How many Enchantments can a bow have in Minecraft?

A Bow in Minecraft can have up to six Enchantments simultaneously because a bow can either have Mending or Infinity.

What Enchantments can you put on a Bow in Minecraft?

There are a total of seven Enchantments you can put on a Bow which includes Power V, Unbreaking III,  Flame, Punch, Mending, Infinity, and Curse Of The Vanishing.

How to get Infinity Enchantments?

The Infinity enchantment in Minecraft can be acquired by trading, fishing, enchantment table, and avil.

Next: Minecraft Village Ideas

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Moiz Banoori.


Having worked at various Video Game sites, coupled with 7 years of Content Writing Experience. I presently monitor teams, create strategies, and publish qualified pieces through my aptitude.

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