Lure

What Lure 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 Lure works

After you cast, the game waits a random time before a fish bites. Lure takes 5 seconds off that wait per level, so level III saves 15 seconds on every cast. That roughly doubles the number of catches you make in a session.

Lure only changes the waiting time. It never changes what you catch, so it does not add treasure on its own.

Lure with Luck of the Sea

The two do different jobs, and they work best together. Lure gives you more catches per minute, and Luck of the Sea makes each catch more likely to be treasure. Together they make fishing a real source of enchanted books, name tags and saddles.

Other ways to fish faster

• Rain makes fish bite sooner, on top of Lure.
• Fishing under open sky helps, since a roof over the water slows bites in Java.
• Reel in fast: when the bobber dips, the bite only lasts a moment.

The max fishing rod

Lure III fits next to Luck of the Sea III, Unbreaking III and Mending. Lure is a ×2 book, so level III costs 6 levels. See the best fishing rod enchantments for the cheapest order.

Lure by level

Every level takes the same 5 seconds off the wait, so each one adds the same speed-up. Level III is the max in survival. Since the book is cheap, a fishing rod should always reach it.

Lure and AFK fishing

Lure is a big part of any fishing farm, where you hold the rod over water and catch fish without moving. Faster bites mean more catches per hour. Pair it with Mending so the XP from each catch keeps the rod repaired.

Fishing rod durability

A fishing rod has only 64 durability. Each catch costs 1, and reeling in a mob or a block costs more. Unbreaking III and Mending let one rod last for good.

Lure on the anvil

Lure is a ×2 book, so level III costs 6 levels on a fresh rod. The rod only takes four useful books: Lure, Luck of the Sea, Unbreaking and Mending. So the order is short, and you never get close to Too Expensive.

Lure and Luck of the Sea from the table

A fishing rod has low enchantability, so the table often gives only one enchantment. If it rolls Lure III, keep it and add Luck of the Sea from a book. Then finish with Unbreaking and Mending.

Is Lure worth it?

Yes, on every fishing rod. Lure costs little, conflicts with nothing and saves time on every single cast. Over an hour of fishing, those seconds add up to many extra catches.

Lure and the bobber

Watch the bobber, not the water. When it dips under, reel in at once. With Lure III the bites come quickly, so a missed one costs only a few seconds.

Which items take Lure

Lure goes on 1 kind of gear in the calculator: fishing rod. An enchanting table can roll it on the fishing rod.

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

Lure from the enchanting table

The level you can roll depends on the item's enchantability. A material with a higher value reaches higher levels from the same level 30 enchant. This table shows the best Lure each fishing rod can get from a level 30 enchant with 15 bookshelves.

Anything higher has to come from a book instead. Then the enchanting table calculator shows the exact chance for every level.

Anvil cost of Lure

Lure has an anvil multiplier of 4 from another item and 2 from a book. So a Lure III book costs 6 levels on a fresh item, and each lower level costs 2 less. Two fresh Lure II books merge into Lure III for 6 levels. Building it from scratch takes 4 level I books and 3 merges, 16 levels in all. That is a middling cost, so the order still matters once you combine several books.

Java charges the full resulting level every time, even when the item already has a lower level of it. 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

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

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

How to get Lure

• 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. Level I costs 5–19 emeralds plus a book.
• Random enchanted books It is also in the pool for the random enchanted books and gear in many chests and in fishing loot.

Lure is a rare roll at the enchanting table on fishing rods, and a level 30 enchant can reach Lure III. Librarians sell it as well.

Enchanting power and librarian prices

The power column is the hidden enchanting value each level needs. A level 30 enchant on a fishing rod reaches power 36 at most. That already includes the enchantability bonus and the random spread. The price column shows what a librarian can ask for each book. Curing a zombie villager or the Hero of the Village effect lowers it.

Tips

• Lure III with Luck of the Sea III is the standard fishing rod.
• Rain also makes fish bite faster.

Commands

Give yourself a Lure book or enchant the item in your hand. These work in Java 26.3 once cheats are on.

Versions

Lure is in every Java version from 1.21 (when enchantments became data files) up to 26.3.

Its costs, levels and items have not changed in that time.

Also see the update log for every change, and how this data is checked. Bedrock player? See Lure on Bedrock.

Goes well with

• Curse of Vanishing
• Luck of the Sea
• Mending
• Unbreaking