Armor can save your life many times in Minecraft. While regular diamond or netherite armor makes you sturdier, adding the proper enchantments can make you nearly invincible. Today, I’ll walk you through the best armor enchantments in Minecraft for 1.21+.
2 Best Armor Enchantments in Minecraft
First, let’s talk about two of the most important enchantments you need on all your armor pieces: Unbreaking and Mending.
- Unbreaking (Level 3): Increases your armor’s durability, allowing it to last much longer.
- Mending (Level 1): Regenerates your armor’s durability whenever you collect XP.
These enchantments make your armor almost unbreakable, protecting it much longer. Be sure to add both Mending and Unbreaking 3 to all four pieces of your armor.
Protection Enchantments
Next, we have protection and damage reduction enchantments, which can be applied to every armor piece. Each comes in 4 levels:
- Protection: Reduces damage taken from all sources except hunger and the void. It’s effective against melee attacks, ranged attacks, fall damage, fire, explosions, and more.
- Projectile Protection: Reduces damage from ranged attacks.
- Blast Protection: Reduces damage from explosions, such as TNT or wither skulls.
- Fire Protection: Reduces damage from fire and lava, and also reduces the time you stay on fire.
Note: Enchantments focused on a specific damage type (like Blast Protection) will provide better protection against that particular source than Protection. However, since you can only choose one protection enchantment per armor piece, Protection IV is generally the best option because it offers the broadest coverage. So, I would recommend putting Protection 4 on all four armor pieces.
Thorns Enchantment
Another enchantment you can apply to all your armor pieces is Thorns, which comes in 3 levels.
- Thorns (Level 3): Causes enemies that damage you to take damage as well. For example, if a zombie hits you, it will take damage just by hitting you.
This enchantment is extremely useful because you can deal damage to anything that attacks you without lifting a finger. Add Thorns 3 to your helmet, chestplate, leggings, and boots.
Helmet Enchantments
There are two enchantments exclusive to the helmet:
- Aqua Affinity (Level 1): Removes the mining speed penalty while underwater, letting you mine as fast as you do on land.
- Respiration (Level 3): Increases the amount of time you can breathe underwater, with Level 3 adding 45 extra seconds. It also reduces drowning damage.
These are useful if you spend a lot of time underwater but aren’t necessary unless you frequently explore the ocean or underwater structures. The decision is totally up to you.
Leggings Enchantment
The leggings have one exclusive enchantment: Swift Sneak, which comes in 3 levels.
- Swift Sneak (Level 3): Increases your sneaking speed to 75% of your regular walking speed.
This enchantment is nice to have, but not essential. It’s also only found in ancient cities, which makes it rare and dangerous to obtain. So, once again, it is your choice.
Boots Enchantments
The boots have four exclusive enchantments:
- Feather Falling (Level 4): Reduces the amount of fall damage you take. Combined with Protection, it does a better job of reducing fall damage than Protection alone, so Feather Falling 4 is a must-have for your boots.
- Frost Walker (Level 2): Turns water into ice when you walk on it. This can be fun but also annoying, as it makes sprint jumping difficult and prevents you from going underwater easily.
- Depth Strider (Level 3): Increases your speed in water to the point where you can move as fast as you sprint on land. Depth Strider 3 is a super useful enchantment, and I recommend it over Frost Walker if you want to travel faster in water.
- Soul Speed (Level 3): Increases your speed on soul sand and soul soil blocks. While it’s useful for travelling in the Nether, it’s not groundbreaking, so don’t put too much effort into obtaining it unless you need it.
Best Armor Enchantments Recap
Here’s a summary of the best armor enchantments in Minecraft for each armor piece:
- Helmet: Unbreaking 3, Mending 1, Protection 4, Thorns 3, Aqua Affinity 1 (optional), Respiration 3 (optional)
- Chestplate: Unbreaking 3, Mending 1, Protection 4, Thorns 3
- Leggings: Unbreaking 3, Mending 1, Protection 4, Thorns 3, Swift Sneak 3 (optional)
- Boots: Unbreaking 3, Mending 1, Protection 4, Thorns 3, Feather Falling 4, Depth Strider 3, Soul Speed 3 (optional)
