10 Best Axe Enchantments, Ranked

Summary

• Enchant every tool and armor with good enchantments for maximum benefit.
• Axes should prioritize efficiency over combat-based enchantments.
• Mending is the most valuable enchantment for ensuring tools stay in top condition.

For any player wanting to truly excel at Minecraft, they’ll need to master the art of enchanting in the game. With the help of an enchanting table and fifteen bookshelves placed carefully around it, they’ll access to the best enchantments available in the game, provided they have at least 30 levels on their character.

Enchantments are powerful additions to already good diamond tools. It’s recommended in general to enchant every piece of armor and every tool a player has in order to get the maximum benefit. No tool should go without an enchantment, especially not the axe which is often overlooked but is a staple in gathering wood and even slaying some enemies.

Updated on January 19, 2025, by Mackenzee Hardyk: Minecraft is always updating and changing, but one thing that remains consistent in the game is the need to chop wood. We decided to touch up and update our previous entries if you are wanting to brush up on some of the enchantments available or would like to know what enchantment is best for your axe, we’ve got you.

10

Curse Of Vanishing

• Description: The item will disappear after the player dies
• Max Level: I

The Curse of Vanishing is an interesting enchantment to apply your experience points to. If you apply this enchantment to your gear, it will disappear if you die. Your item will only disappear if you die, not if you were to drop it accidentally.

Perhaps the Curse of Vanishing could be useful if you are playing Minecraft competitively or if you really don’t want someone to have your axe if you were to die. So, unless you are feeling very petty, there are probably better enchantments to apply to your axe.

9

Fortune

• Description: Increases block drop after chopping
• Max Level: III

Fortune is an enchantment that’s highly valuable for pickaxes, because it allows the player to get more out of an ore block. However, on an axe, this enchantment is absolutely useless. Unfortunately, fortune doesn’t work the same way with wood.

Harvesting wood with a fortune axe will result in the same thing as always: single pieces of logs, and nothing else. It’s important not to waste levels by putting this enchantment on an axe, since it literally will not change anything.

8

Bane Of Arthropods

• Description: Increases attack damage toward arthropods
• Max Level: V

Spiders are an annoyance, which is understandable. However, they’re pretty easy to deal with on their own and don’t exactly require any special attention. And yet, there’s an enchantment that makes it so that attacks on that tool do more damage to a spider.

It’s unclear why this enchantment is even available for axes. However the spider-hating Minecraft players, it’s probably more about making a statement than being efficient. Again, no judgment here, but there are better uses for an axe than killing spiders.

7

Smite

• Description: Increases attack damage to undead mobs
• Max Level: V

Any object enchanted with Smite will automatically slay undead creatures like zombies significantly quicker. Considering zombies are extremely common, it’s a cool enchantment to have as a bonus on a weapon, but it’s not an actual necessity.

For an axe, players shouldn’t be going for combat-based enchantments like Smite. Axes can be powerful weapons, but they’re harvesting tools first and foremost, and so anything that complements that purpose should be prioritized when enchanting.

6

Sharpness

• Description: Increases attack damage to any mob
• Max Level: V

Fine, if a player truly does want to make an axe dedicated for killing only, then the best offensive enchantment for it is definitely any level of sharpness. This enchantment is equally as good on axes as it is on swords, and is a bread-and-butter type of enchantment in Minecraft.

With sharpness, the tool in question will do increasing damage to any mobs it gets in contact with. This is why it prevails over limited enchantments like smite since it doesn’t discriminate between enemies when it comes to damage.

5

Silk Touch

• Description: Able to mine fragile blocks
• Max Level: I

Silk Touch is one of the best utility enchantments out there, especially for builders who want to be sparing with their resources while in survival. It basically allows for the player to mine a block as it is, without transforming it in any shape or form.

However, for axes, this enchantment is a bit useless. Usually, axes will be used on wood only and they already tend to preserve the blocks the way they’re harvested without changing them. So, there’s no point in having this enchantment on an axe.

4

Cleaving

• Description: Increases attack damage and stuns
• Max Level: III

Let’s take a look at a possible upcoming feature for Minecraft, a brand-new enchantment called cleaving. This enchantment is still in the testing phase for the Java version, and it is unclear when or if it will be added to the game.

Cleaving basically increases an axe’s damage and an axe’s ability to stun shields. Remember those vindicators that often chase the player with their axes and do insane amounts of damage even through shields? That’s exactly what this enchantment will aim to do, and it will probably make the axe more viable as a weapon.

3

Unbreaking

• Description: Increases durability
• Max Level: III

One of the most versatile enchantments out there is definitely unbreaking. Sure, it doesn’t spice up a tool’s efficiency or turn it into a killing machine, but it’s incredibly useful and it’s a must-have for any trusty tools the player wants to keep around for a long time.

If the player already has the perfect axe but is unable to get a precious enchantment like mending, unbreaking is a great option. It basically slows down the wear of an item and makes it last much longer than it usually would.

2

Mending

• Description: Uses experience points to mend tool
• Max Level: I

Mending is without a doubt the most valuable enchantment to have in Minecraft since it ensures that a tool or a piece of gear is pretty much immortal. So long as the player is able to gain experience points, their tools enchanted with Mending will never wear off.

Axes go very well with mending since it allows the player to have a guaranteed good diamond axe without having to invest more diamonds into a new one. However, an experience farm is absolutely necessary to maintain a full set of Mending gear.

1

Efficiency

• Description: Decreases chopping time
• Max Level: V

Without a doubt, the best enchantment to have on an axe, or on any tool for that matter, is efficiency. This enchantment is a huge quality-of-life boost in Minecraft because it saves time when it comes to gathering resources. What would normally take half a day will take almost half the time.

Efficiency essentially allows a tool to break its target block much faster. Ideally you should place this on a diamond axe to get the most bang out of the tool. However, keep in mind that efficiency tools will wither faster due to the number of blocks they break, so having mending or unbreaking is a necessity.