Best Sword Enchantments in Minecraft 1.21

The sword is one of the most classic and useful weapons in Minecraft. While powerful on its own, with the right enchantments, it can become even deadlier. This guide covers all the best sword enchantments in Minecraft 1.21 and explains how they improve your weapon. Let’s get straight into it.

Sword Enchantment Categories

There are eight main enchantments you can apply to swords, each serving a unique purpose. These are divided into three groups:

1. Damage Enhancing Enchantments
2. Special Power Enchantments
3. Healing and Durability Enchantments

Damage Enhancing Enchantments

These Minecraft sword enchantments boost the damage your sword deals:

• Sharpness (V): Increases overall attack damage against all mobs. It’s also great for pvp.
• Smite (V): Increases damage specifically against undead mobs like zombies, skeletons, and the Wither.
• Bane of Arthropods (V): Great enchantment to kill mobs. Boosts damage against arthropod mobs, such as spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, and endermites.

Recommendation: You can’t apply all three at once, so Sharpness V is the best choice. It works on all mobs, making it far more versatile than Smite or Bane of Arthropods.

Special Power Enchantments

These enchantments add unique effects to your sword:

• Fire Aspect (II): Sets mobs on fire, dealing extra damage over time. Note that this does not work on Nether or boss mobs.
• Looting (III): Increases the amount and rarity of drops from mobs, making it easier to gather resources like blaze rods, wither skeleton skulls or other rare items.
• Knockback (II): Pushes mobs farther away with each hit, useful against creepers and for crowd control.
• Sweeping Edge (III): Increases the damage of sweeping attacks, making it more effective for dealing with groups of mobs (exclusive to Java Edition).

Recommendation: Choose Looting III for better resource drops and Fire Aspect II for added damage. While Knockback II is situational, Sweeping Edge III is excellent for clearing out groups of mobs quickly.

Healing and Durability Enchantments

These enchantments make sure your sword lasts longer:

• Mending (I): Repairs your sword’s durability using experience orbs, so it stays in perfect condition as long as you’re collecting experience.
• Unbreaking (III): Extends your sword’s durability, reducing the rate at which it loses durability.

Recommendation: Combine Mending I with Unbreaking III for a virtually unbreakable sword. Mending eliminates the need for an anvil, while Unbreaking ensures the sword remains healthy for longer.

Best Enchantments for Swords in Minecraft

To create the ultimate best Minecraft sword, enchant it with the following:

• Sharpness V
• Looting III
• Fire Aspect II
• Sweeping Edge III (Java only)
• Unbreaking III
• Mending I

For the Bedrock edition, you can add all of the above enchantments except the Sweeping Edge III. 

This combination makes your sword highly effective in combat, great for resource gathering, and nearly indestructible. Especially if you have a netherite sword.

With these enchantments, your sword will become a reliable and powerful weapon, perfect for any adventure in Minecraft.

Sources: TheAetherGamer /Youtube