Sword Enchant Order

The order in words

Get all 6 books ready before you start, and keep at least 14 levels on hand. Then follow these steps on an anvil:

• Step 1: Put the sword in the left slot and the Looting III book in the right. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 6 levels.
• Step 2: Merge the Sharpness V book with the Unbreaking III book, the first one on the left. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 3 levels.
• Step 3: Put the sword (now with Looting III) in the left slot and the Sharpness V + Unbreaking III book in the right. You pay 8 levels for the enchantments plus 2 for prior work, so 10 in total.
• Step 4: Merge the Fire Aspect II book with the Mending book, the first one on the left. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 2 levels.
• Step 5: Merge the Fire Aspect II + Mending book with the Knockback II book, the first one on the left. You pay 2 levels for the enchantments plus 1 for prior work, so 3 in total.
• Step 6: Put the sword (now with Sharpness V + Looting III + Unbreaking III) in the left slot and the Fire Aspect II + Knockback II + Mending book in the right. You pay 8 levels for the enchantments plus 6 for prior work, so 14 in total. That finishes the sword.

Why this order is the cheapest

Each repair or enchantment combination increases prior work. Rename-only operations do not. So the order keeps the penalties low by merging books with each other in pairs. With 6 books, the sword needs at least 3 rounds on the anvil, and this order uses exactly that many.

The first step puts Looting III straight on the sword for 6 levels. It is the dearest book in the build, so it goes on while the item has no penalty at all. The expensive books, Looting III and Sharpness V, cost 6 and 5 levels on their own, so the order adds them while their penalty is still low. Cheap books like Mending can ride along later, when the penalty has grown.

The Smite sword costs exactly the same as the Sharpness one, because a Smite V book costs the same 5 levels as Sharpness V. So you can follow the same steps and just swap that book.

If you want a custom name, add it during the last step. Renaming then adds just 1 level, while a separate rename costs 1 level plus the item's whole prior work penalty.

Levels and experience

The full order costs 38 levels. If you do each step as soon as you have its levels, you spend about 582 experience points. Saving up to level 38 first would take 2543 points, because each level costs more XP the higher you climb. So enchant in small batches and keep your levels low. The XP calculator converts any level into points.

After the last step the sword has been on the anvil 3 times. Its prior work penalty is now 7, so a later repair or rename starts at that cost. Check a single step with the prior work penalty calculator.

If you skip a book

You don't need every book on day one. Leaving out Looting III saves the most: the rest costs 26 levels instead of 38.

No Mending yet? Enchant the rest now for 31 levels, then add Mending later for 9 more. That is 40 levels in all, against 38 if you wait and do it in one go. The extra cost is small, so using the item early is usually worth it.

If your sword was on an anvil before

A used sword costs more, because the anvil adds its prior work penalty to every step it is in:

Many players start from a sword that already has Unbreaking III from the enchanting table. In that case the other 5 books cost 29 levels in 5 steps, because a table enchant adds no prior work penalty.

Enter your own item's enchantments and uses in the calculator.

Java and Bedrock costs

Bedrock charges only the levels an enchantment gains. So if your sword already has Sharpness IV, adding a Sharpness V book costs 1 level here. Java charges the full resulting level, so the same step costs 5 there. Merging two Sharpness IV books into one V costs 1 in Bedrock and 5 in Java.

For a fresh sword with one book per enchantment, no enchantment gains a level twice, so both rules give the same step costs. Java swords can also take Sweeping Edge III, so the Java max sword needs one more book and more levels. Bedrock also charges nothing for a clashing enchantment on a book, while Java adds 1 level for each.

The books in this order

Sharpness V, Fire Aspect II, Knockback II, Looting III, Unbreaking III, Mending. Not sure which books to get? The best sword enchantments page explains each one and where to find it. If the anvil refuses a step, read Too Expensive! for the fixes. The anvil guide covers repairs and renaming.

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