Power

What Power does

Book cost is the anvil cost of putting that book on a fresh item. However, already-used items add their prior work penalty: work it out in the calculator.

How much damage Power adds

Power raises the base damage of every arrow your bow fires. Level I adds 50%, and each level after that adds another 25%, so Power V deals two and a half times the damage of a plain bow.

The bonus works on every arrow you fire: normal, tipped and spectral. So a Power V bow with arrows of Harming or Weakness is a strong mix.

Draw the bow fully

Arrow damage grows with how long you draw. A quick tap shot deals only a fraction of the damage, and Power scales that smaller number. So the habit that matters most is to wait for the full draw.

Where a Power bow shines

• The Ender Dragon fight. You shoot the end crystals on the pillars, and Power makes the dragon fight much shorter.
• The wither's first half. Once the wither drops below half health, arrows stop hurting it, so switch to melee then.
• Phantoms, ghasts, blazes and other flying or distant mobs.
• PvP and raids, where you want to hit before the enemy gets close.

The two max bows

Bows split into two builds because Mending and Infinity exclude each other. Both share Power V, Punch II, Flame and Unbreaking III. Then you add either Mending or Infinity. The Mending vs Infinity page explains the choice, and the best bow enchantments page lists both builds.

Many players leave Punch off a hunting bow, since it pushes mobs away. Power is never the one to skip: it is cheap on the anvil and it is the bow's only damage enchantment.

Power vs crossbow enchantments

Crossbows can't take Power. Instead they use Piercing or Multishot and Quick Charge. A Power V bow deals more damage per arrow than a crossbow, while a crossbow wins on burst damage and on loading ahead of time.

Is every level worth it?

Power I already adds 50% to every arrow, so even a low level is a big upgrade over a plain bow. Each level after that adds another 25%. Since Power is a ×1 book, finishing at V costs only a few levels.

Arrows to pair with Power

• Spectral arrows make targets glow through walls, which helps against hidden mobs and players.
• Arrows of Slowness and Weakness soften tough mobs.
• Arrows of Harming hurt living mobs, but they heal undead. Use Arrows of Healing against zombies and skeletons instead.
• Plain arrows are fine for most fights, and Infinity makes them free.

Power V on the anvil

Because Power is a ×1 book, it never makes the bow expensive to enchant. The pricier bow books are Infinity and Flame, so put those on first and Power near the end.

Bow durability

A bow has 384 durability, and every shot costs 1. Unbreaking III makes it last about four times as long. Add Mending or plan for anvil repairs if you choose Infinity, because a Power V bow is too good to lose.

Getting a Power V bow early

Fish with a Luck of the Sea rod and you sometimes catch enchanted bows. Skeletons also drop bows that may carry Power. Either can save you a level 30 enchant. Then buy a Power V book from a librarian to finish it.

Power and the wither

In the first half of the fight, the wither flies and shoots skulls, so arrows are your best option. A Power V bow drains its health quickly from a safe distance. Then, once it drops below half health, switch to a melee weapon.

Power for PvP

In PvP, Power V lets you deal real damage before the other player reaches you. Combine it with Punch to push them back after each hit, and with Flame for extra burn damage.

Common mistakes

• Putting Sharpness on a bow. It does nothing for arrows, and the anvil won't allow it.
• Spam-shooting. Power multiplies the damage of the draw, so short draws waste it.
• Combining two Power IV bows. Merge two Power IV books into Power V first: book merges cost less than item merges.

Which items take Power

Power goes on 1 kind of gear in the calculator: bow. An enchanting table can roll it on the bow.

Nothing conflicts with Power, so it fits next to every other enchantment its items can take.

Anvil cost of Power

Power has an anvil multiplier of 1 from another item and 1 from a book. So a Power V book costs 5 levels on a fresh item, and each lower level costs 1 less. Two fresh Power IV books merge into Power V for 1 level. Building it from scratch takes 16 level I books and 15 merges, 49 levels in all. That is as cheap as books get, so it rarely decides the order.

Bedrock only charges for the levels a book adds. So upgrading a lower level costs only the difference. Every step also adds the prior work penalty of both items. The enchantment calculator finds the cheapest order for your whole set of books.

Builds, questions and guides

Power is part of the max build for 1 item: best bow enchantments. To put it on in the cheapest order, see the bow enchant order.

More reading: Getting books from librarians, How to enchant in Minecraft, Every max enchantment level. You can make a Power book with the command generator. The librarian price list shows what villagers charge for it.

How to get Power

• Enchanting table It can appear when you enchant a supported item at an enchanting table. However, higher levels need more bookshelves and a level 30 enchant.
• Librarian villagers Librarians can sell it as an enchanted book.
• Gear worn by trial chamber mobs One of the places it reliably shows up, the same as in Java.
• Random enchanted books It is also in the pool for the random enchanted books and gear in many chests and in fishing loot.

Power is the most common bow enchantment at the table. Librarians sell it often, and it shows up on bows that skeletons drop.

Trial chamber mobs can also carry bows with Power. Since the book is ×1 per level, Power V adds only 5 levels to a fresh bow.

Tips

• Power V is the single biggest upgrade for a bow.
• It only goes on bows; crossbows use Piercing or Multishot instead.

Commands

Hold the item and run this command in Bedrock 26.60 with cheats on. Bedrock's /enchant only goes up to the max level. Its /give command can't add enchantments.

Goes well with

• Curse of Vanishing
• Flame
• Infinity
• Mending
• Punch
• Unbreaking