Thorns

What Thorns 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 Thorns works

Every armor piece with Thorns rolls on its own when a mob or player hits you. Each piece has a 15% chance per level to strike back for 1 to 5 damage, about 3 on average. The attacker takes the damage even if your armor blocks most of the hit.

The chances add up across pieces. With Thorns III on all four pieces, about 91% of hits trigger at least one piece. With a single Thorns III chestplate it is 45%.

The durability cost

Each time Thorns triggers, that armor piece loses 2 extra durability. In a long fight that adds up quickly. Without Mending, Thorns can wear down a set of diamond armor noticeably faster than normal.

With Mending and Unbreaking III, the cost mostly disappears. A mob farm or an XP farm repairs the armor faster than Thorns damages it. That is why most max sets include Thorns and most early sets skip it.

Where Thorns shines

• Mob grinders and raids, where many mobs hit you at once and each one takes damage back.
• PvP, where every enemy hit costs them health.
• Fighting groups of zombies or piglins in tight spaces.

It does little against ranged mobs, creepers or anything that does not touch you. It also cannot replace a real weapon, because 3 damage on 45% of hits is small next to a sword.

Thorns in a build

Thorns goes on any armor piece, and it does not conflict with anything. So it fits next to Protection, Feather Falling, Swift Sneak and the rest. Add it last, since its ×4 book multiplier makes Thorns III cost 12 levels on a fresh piece. The best chestplate enchantments page shows where it fits in the order.

Thorns by level

Each level adds 15% to the trigger chance. Level I triggers on 15% of hits, level II on 30% and level III on 45%. The damage stays the same at every level. Since the book is ×4 per level, Thorns III is pricey on the anvil, so decide early whether you want it.

Thorns and the warden

Thorns still triggers against very strong mobs, including the warden. However, the warden hits so hard that Thorns damage barely matters. So don't count on it there.

Which items take Thorns

Thorns goes on 4 kinds of gear in the calculator: helmet, chestplate, leggings, boots. An enchanting table can roll it on the chestplate. On helmet, leggings, boots the table never offers it, so there it only comes from a book.

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

Thorns 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 Thorns each chestplate 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 Thorns

Thorns has an anvil multiplier of 8 from another item and 4 from a book. So a Thorns III book costs 12 levels on a fresh item, and each lower level costs 4 less. Two fresh Thorns II books merge into Thorns III for 12 levels. Building it from scratch takes 4 level I books and 3 merges, 30 levels in all. That is one of the most expensive books. So put it on early, while the prior work penalty is still low.

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

Thorns is part of the max build for 4 items: best helmet enchantments, best chestplate enchantments, best leggings enchantments, best boots enchantments. To put it on in the cheapest order, see the helmet enchant order, chestplate enchant order, leggings enchant order, boots enchant order.

Common questions: can you put Thorns on boots?

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

How to get Thorns

• 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.

The enchanting table only rolls Thorns on chestplates, and only rarely. For helmets, leggings and boots you need a book from a librarian or from loot. Because the book is very rare and expensive on the anvil, many players add Thorns to just the chestplate.

Enchanting power and librarian prices

The power column is the hidden enchanting value each level needs. A level 30 enchant on a netherite chestplate reaches power 43 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

• Pair it with Mending and Unbreaking, or Thorns wears your armor down noticeably faster.
• Thorns on several pieces rolls separately for each piece.

Commands

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

Versions

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

• 1.21.9: now goes on copper boots, copper leggings, copper chestplate, copper helmet.

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

Goes well with

• Aqua Affinity
• Blast Protection
• Curse of Binding
• Curse of Vanishing
• Depth Strider
• Feather Falling
• Fire Protection
• Frost Walker
• Mending
• Projectile Protection
• Protection
• Respiration