Multishot

What Multishot 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 Multishot works

A Multishot crossbow fires three projectiles in a fan: one straight ahead and one to each side. You load it with a single arrow or firework rocket, and you get three shots out of it. The two side arrows can't be picked up again.

It works with normal arrows, tipped arrows and firework rockets. It also works with spectral arrows.

Fireworks and Multishot

Firework rockets with firework stars explode on impact and hurt everything nearby. With Multishot, one rocket in your inventory becomes three explosions. That makes a Multishot crossbow one of the strongest burst weapons against groups of mobs.

In practice, keep rockets with several stars in your off hand so the crossbow loads them first. Watch out for friendly mobs and other players, since the blasts hit everything around them.

Multishot or Piercing?

They exclude each other. Piercing sends one arrow through a line of mobs. Multishot covers a wide fan instead, so it wins against spread-out groups, raids and flying mobs. Piercing wins in narrow corridors and against players with shields. See Multishot vs Piercing and Multishot and Piercing on a crossbow.

In a build

A Multishot crossbow usually carries Quick Charge III, Unbreaking III and Mending. Multishot is a single-level ×2 book, so it costs 2 levels. The best crossbow enchantments page shows both crossbow builds, and the crossbow enchant order lists the cheapest steps.

When it shines

• Raids, where pillagers and vindicators come in groups.
• Phantoms and other flying mobs, where three arrows give more chances to hit.
• Clearing a mob farm's kill chamber in one shot with fireworks.

Is Multishot worth it?

For PvE, yes. Three projectiles hit more mobs and make missing less likely, and with fireworks it is a crowd-clearing tool. In PvP, many players prefer Piercing, because Multishot's side arrows spread wide at long range.

Crossbow durability

A crossbow has 465 durability. Firing often wears it down, so Unbreaking III and Mending belong on every Multishot crossbow. Both are cheap books.

Multishot on the anvil

Multishot is a single-level book, so there is nothing to merge. It costs 2 levels as a book. Add it early, then finish with Quick Charge, Unbreaking and Mending, which are cheap. The whole crossbow stays far below Too Expensive.

Multishot against phantoms

Phantoms swoop fast and are hard to hit with a single arrow. With Multishot, the fan of three arrows gives you three chances. So a Multishot crossbow is one of the easiest ways to bring down a group of phantoms at night.

Multishot and durability

Since Multishot fires three projectiles at once, a fight goes through durability fast. So keep Mending on the crossbow and an XP source nearby.

Which items take Multishot

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

It can't share an item with Piercing. If an item already has one of those, the anvil skips the Multishot book. Java still charges 1 level for it.

Multishot 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 Multishot each crossbow 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 Multishot

Multishot has an anvil multiplier of 4 from another item and 2 from a book. So the book costs 2 levels on a fresh item. 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

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

Common questions: can you put Multishot and Piercing on a crossbow?

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

How to get Multishot

• 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.
• Ominous vaults (trial chambers) This loot table names it directly, so it is one of the most reliable places to look.
• Random enchanted books It is also in the pool for the random enchanted books and gear in many chests and in fishing loot.

Multishot is a rare roll at the enchanting table, but crossbows have few enchantments, so it still shows up. Librarians sell it, and ominous vaults in trial chambers can give it.

Tips

• Excellent against groups and with firework rockets.
• It excludes Piercing: choose spread or penetration.

Commands

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

Versions

Multishot 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 Multishot on Bedrock.

Goes well with

• Curse of Vanishing
• Mending
• Quick Charge
• Unbreaking