You have a diamond or netherite sword, a few enchanted books and only so many levels. Which enchantments belong on it, Sharpness or Smite, is Fire Aspect worth a slot, and in what order do the books go on before the anvil says "Too Expensive"? This guide covers Java Edition 26.3, the current release since 15 September 2026, and Bedrock Edition 26.60. Java's 2026 drops left the sword enchantments as they were, apart from one new Fire Aspect interaction with sulfur cubes.
Quick answer: The best enchantments for a sword are Sharpness V, Looting III, Sweeping Edge III, Fire Aspect II, Unbreaking III and Mending. Sweeping Edge exists only in Java Edition, so a Bedrock sword gets the other five. Sharpness, Smite and Bane of Arthropods exclude each other: take Sharpness for an all-round sword and keep a second sword with Smite V for the Wither and undead mob farms. Knockback II is optional. Merge the books in pairs before they go on the sword, and the full Java set costs 44 levels on the anvil instead of 83.
The Best Enchantments for a Sword
| Enchantment | Max | What it does on a sword | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sharpness | V | Extra damage on every hit: +3 in Java, +6 in Bedrock | Core |
| Looting | III | More common drops and better odds on rare drops | Core |
| Sweeping Edge (Java) | III | Sweep damage to nearby mobs rises from 1 to 1 plus 75% of the sword's base damage | Core in Java |
| Fire Aspect | II | Sets the target on fire for 8 seconds, 7 damage in total | Core, with catches |
| Unbreaking | III | 75% chance that a hit costs no durability | Core |
| Mending | I | Repairs 2 durability per experience point you collect | Core |
| Knockback | II | Pushes the target about 6.7 blocks instead of 1.6 | Optional |
| Smite | V | +12.5 damage against undead mobs in Java, +12 in Bedrock | Second sword |
| Bane of Arthropods | V | +12.5 damage and Slowness IV against spiders and other arthropods | Rarely worth it |
| Curse of Vanishing | I | The sword disappears when you die | Avoid |
All six core enchantments fit on one sword: the only conflict among sword enchantments is between Sharpness, Smite and Bane of Arthropods.
Sharpness, Smite or Bane of Arthropods?
Only one of the three fits on a sword. The anvil drops the conflicting one from the right-hand item, and /enchant refuses it.
In Java, Sharpness adds 1 damage at level I and 0.5 for each level after that, so Sharpness V adds 3. Bedrock rounds 1.25 per level down, so Sharpness V adds 6 there. Smite adds 2.5 per level against undead mobs in both editions, with Bedrock rounding down, and nothing against anything else. A netherite sword hitting a target without armor deals:
| Netherite sword | Java | Bedrock |
|---|---|---|
| No damage enchantment | 8 | 9 |
| Sharpness V, any target | 11 | 15 |
| Smite V, undead target | 20.5 | 21 |
| Smite V, any other target | 8 | 9 |
Undead mobs include zombies, husks, drowned, zombified piglins, skeletons, strays, wither skeletons, phantoms and the Wither. Creepers, endermen, spiders, piglins, the Ender Dragon, the warden and other players are not, which is why Sharpness V goes on your main sword. A second sword with Smite V pays off for the Wither, for wither skeletons in a Nether fortress and for zombie or skeleton spawner farms. In Bedrock the gap is smaller: 21 against 15.
Bane of Arthropods only affects spiders, cave spiders, bees, silverfish and endermites: 2.5 damage per level plus Slowness IV for 1 to 3.5 seconds. Outside a spider farm it is rarely worth the slot.
Looting: More Drops
Looting III raises the maximum of most common drops by 3 and adds 3 percentage points to the chance of rare drops and of a mob dropping its equipment. Wither skeleton skulls are the classic case: the base chance is 2.5%, and Looting III raises it to 5.5% in Java and 8.5% in Bedrock.
Looting counts for any kill while the sword is in your main hand, including mobs your sweep attack kills in Java. It does not count for mobs that die from Fire Aspect's burning after your hit, and it does nothing for the Wither or iron golems.
Sweeping Edge: Java Only
Every Java sword can sweep. Hit while standing on the ground, not sprinting and with the attack indicator at 84.8% or more, and mobs right next to your target take damage too. Without Sweeping Edge that sweep deals 1 damage plus your Sharpness bonus; Sweeping Edge I, II and III add 50%, 67% and 75% of the sword's base damage. With a netherite sword and Sharpness V, each nearby mob takes 4 damage without Sweeping Edge and 10 with Sweeping Edge III, against 11 for the mob you hit. Sweeps also carry Fire Aspect, Knockback and Looting.
Bedrock swords have no sweep attack, so the enchantment does not exist there.
Fire Aspect: Worth It, With Catches
Fire Aspect II sets the target on fire for 8 seconds, for 7 damage in total (level I: 4 seconds, 3 damage), and animals that die while burning drop cooked meat. It earns its slot on an all-round sword, with four catches:
- Most Nether mobs cannot burn, including wither skeletons, blazes, ghasts and magma cubes, and neither can the Wither, the Ender Dragon or the warden. Piglins, piglin brutes and hoglins do burn.
- A mob that dies from the burn instead of from your hit gets no Looting bonus.
- In Java, a burning zombie that hits you can set you on fire as well.
- Since the Chaos Cubed drop (Java 26.2, Bedrock 26.30), a hit with Fire Aspect lights the fuse of a sulfur cube that has absorbed TNT.
Unbreaking and Mending
Unbreaking III gives each hit a 75% chance to cost no durability, so the sword lasts four times as long on average: about 8,100 hits from a Java netherite sword's 2,031 durability. Mending repairs 2 durability per experience point from the orbs you pick up while the sword is in your main hand or offhand, and the XP goes to the repair before it reaches your level bar. With both, you can skip anvil repairs, which would raise the sword's prior work penalty.
Knockback and Curse of Vanishing
Knockback II pushes a target about 6.7 blocks instead of 1.6. That keeps a creeper or another player at a distance, but it also throws mobs out of reach and away from a farm's kill spot, and iron golems, wardens and shulkers ignore it.
Curse of Vanishing deletes the sword when you die, unless keep inventory is on. A grindstone cannot remove it, so never put a cursed book from a loot chest on a sword you want to keep.
Java vs Bedrock: What Changes for Swords
| Java 26.3 | Bedrock 26.60 | |
|---|---|---|
| Sweeping Edge | Up to III | Does not exist |
| Sharpness V bonus | +3 damage | +6 damage |
| Smite V and Bane of Arthropods V bonus | +12.5 | +12 |
| Wither skeleton skull chance with Looting III | 5.5% | 8.5% |
| Knockback on a hit blocked by a shield | No | Yes |
| A Fire Aspect sword lights candles, campfires and TNT | No | Yes |
| Merging two Sharpness IV books into V | 5 levels | 1 level |
| Commands that add enchantments | /give and /enchant | /enchant only |
Where to Get Each Enchantment
At level 30 with 15 bookshelves, the enchanting table can give a diamond or netherite sword every enchantment above at its top level except Sharpness, which stops at IV (only a gold sword can roll Sharpness V). Mending and Curse of Vanishing are treasure enchantments and never come from the table. Our enchanting guide covers the bookshelf setup. For Sharpness V, merge two Sharpness IV books on the anvil.
Librarian villagers sell books with any of these enchantments at any level. Before discounts, a level V book costs 17 to 64 emeralds, and Mending, a level I book at double price, costs 10 to 38. Curing a zombie villager gives a big discount the first time; see our guide to villager prices. All of them also come as enchanted books from fishing and from chests in structures outside villages.
With the Villager Trade Rebalance experiment on, books depend on the librarian's biome: Smite and Bane of Arthropods from plains, Knockback and Sweeping Edge from savanna, Looting from snowy and Fire Aspect from taiga villages. Master librarians add one fixed book: Sharpness III in savanna, Unbreaking II in jungle and Mending in swamp. Villages do not generate in jungles or swamps on their own, so you breed or cure villagers there. Sharpness V then comes from the anvil (two Sharpness IV books) or from loot, and Unbreaking III from the table or loot.
Anvil Order for the Full Sword
Every anvil job except a plain rename raises the sword's prior work penalty: 0, 1, 3, 7, 15, then 31 levels. A job costs both items' penalties plus the value of the right-hand item's enchantments, and Survival refuses 40 levels or more as "Too Expensive". Book values (the wiki's book multiplier times the level) are 6 for Looting III and Sweeping Edge III, 5 for Sharpness V, 4 for Fire Aspect II, 3 for Unbreaking III, and 2 for Mending and Knockback II. So merge books in pairs, and put the more valuable book on the left, because you pay for what sits on the right. These orders use the Minecraft Wiki's formulas for fresh books and a new sword; the item named first goes in the left slot.
Java, 44 levels
- Sword + Sweeping Edge III: 6 levels
- Looting III + Fire Aspect II: 4 levels
- Sword + the book from step 2: 12 levels
- Sharpness V + Unbreaking III: 3 levels
- The book from step 4 + Mending: 3 levels
- Sword + the book from step 5: 16 levels
Bedrock, 31 levels
- Sword + Looting III: 6 levels
- Sharpness V + Unbreaking III: 3 levels
- Sword + the book from step 2: 10 levels
- Fire Aspect II + Mending: 2 levels
- Sword + the book from step 4: 10 levels
Adding the books one at a time costs 83 levels in Java and 46 in Bedrock, in any order, and leaves the Java sword with six anvil jobs: its next job starts at a 63-level penalty, so only a rename gets through. Knockback II as a seventh book only fits with pairing (49 levels at best). If the table already gave your sword some of these enchantments, skip those books: the table adds no prior work penalty, so the remaining steps cost the same or less.
Sword Enchantment Commands for Your Server
In Java 26.3, /give creates the finished sword, what players call a god sword, in one line. It needs operator rights, permission level 2; our OP commands guide explains the levels.
/give @s netherite_sword[enchantments={sharpness:5,looting:3,sweeping_edge:3,fire_aspect:2,unbreaking:3,mending:1}]
For the undead sword, replace sharpness:5 with smite:5 and leave out fire_aspect:2. Guides for 1.21.4 and older wrap the levels in levels:{...}, which fails since 1.21.5. To enchant the sword in a player's hand instead, /enchant @s sharpness 5 follows the anvil's rules: nothing above the maximum level, no conflicts, and in Java nothing the sword already has.
In a server console, leave out the slash and use the player's name instead of @s, as in give Steve netherite_sword[enchantments={sharpness:5,looting:3}]. On a Space-Node Minecraft server, every plan runs on the Pterodactyl panel, whose live console runs these commands without you joining the game.
Bedrock's /give cannot add enchantments. With cheats on, hold the sword in your main hand and run /enchant once per enchantment:
/enchant @s sharpness 5
/enchant @s looting 3
/enchant @s fire_aspect 2
/enchant @s unbreaking 3
/enchant @s mending
Use smite 5 instead of sharpness 5 for the undead sword. Bedrock refuses levels above the maximum and conflicting enchantments.
FAQ
What are the best sword enchantments in Minecraft? Sharpness V, Looting III, Sweeping Edge III (Java only), Fire Aspect II, Unbreaking III and Mending. Knockback II is optional.
What is the best enchantment for a sword? Sharpness V, because it adds damage against every mob and player. Against undead mobs alone, Smite V hits harder: 20.5 against 11 on a netherite sword in Java.
Can you put Sharpness and Smite on the same sword?
Not in survival: the anvil drops the conflicting one and /enchant refuses it. In Java, /give can still force them together.
Does Bedrock have Sweeping Edge? No. Bedrock swords have no sweep attack, so Sweeping Edge exists only in Java Edition.
Is Fire Aspect worth it on a sword? On an all-round sword, yes: 7 extra damage over 8 seconds at level II. Leave it off a Looting farm sword or a Wither sword, because burn kills get no Looting bonus and the Wither and wither skeletons do not burn.
What are the best enchantments in Minecraft overall? Unbreaking III and Mending belong on almost every tool, weapon and armor piece. Beyond those it depends on the item: the sword set above, or Protection IV and the piece-specific books in our armor enchantments guide.
Sources
All opened on 1 November 2026:
- Minecraft Wiki, the sword and its enchantments: Sword, Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Looting, Sweeping Edge, Fire Aspect, Knockback, Unbreaking, Mending, Curse of Vanishing
- Minecraft Wiki, mechanics: Enchantment, Enchanting table mechanics, Anvil mechanics, Enchanted Book, Trading, Villager Trade Rebalance
- Minecraft Wiki, mobs: Wither Skeleton Skull, Zombie, Sulfur Cube
- Minecraft Wiki, commands and item data: /give, /enchant, Data component format, Java Edition 1.21.5
- Minecraft Wiki, versions: Java Edition 26.1, Java Edition 26.2, Java Edition 26.3, Bedrock Edition 26.60
- Microsoft Learn: /enchant command for Bedrock
- Mojang: version manifest