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Enchanting is one of the most vital Minecraft mechanics to ensure long-term survival, but not every piece of advice or community-established rule is made plain for all to see. Many players, over years of playing Mojang's sandbox title, have created a collection of unwritten rules that many of them follow without explicitly stating them, and newer players may have missed these rules.
While these unwritten enchanting rules in Minecraft aren't mandatory and players can play as they like, they can be helpful for players in the long term, especially those who are still new to the game. Since this is the case, it doesn't hurt to examine some of the most important unwritten rules when enchanting items, gear, and more.
Five unwritten enchanting rules in Minecraft worth keeping in mind
1) Don't Enchant With an Anvil Right Away
While it can be compelling to enchant items and gear in Minecraft by using enchanted books and an anvil, players may want to slow their roll first. This is because each use of an anvil to enchant an item becomes more expensive, eventually leading to players reaching the inherent experience level cap for anvil enchanting (marked by a "too expensive" message), which is simply wasteful.
Instead, players should begin by applying enchantments to their gear with enchanting tables where possible while using a grindstone to remove unwanted enchantments. Once players have a few desired enchantments on their gear piece, they can flesh out the remaining enchantments by using anvils and enchanted books without burning through their XP levels.
2) Villager Trades are Consistent Sources of Enchanted Books
While powerful enchantments can occasionally be found by looting generated structures in Minecraft, this doesn't make for a sustainable or consistent solution to acquire enchanted books with great enchantments. Instead, players should look to librarian villagers trained to the maximum level, as breeding villagers and assigning them to the librarian profession is a straightforward process.
With the right resources to trade with the librarians, players can create entire trading halls where they can purchase high-quality enchanted books on demand. This will eventually change when Mojang introduces its villager trade rebalance, where librarians only offer enchantments based on their home biome.
Still, for now, librarian villagers are arguably the best source of rare enchanted books.
3) Prioritize the Most-Used Gear
While enchanting a player's new diamond sword might sound compelling, are they using it enough to justify the enchantment cost? This is something players should ask themselves when they're enchanting any gear in Minecraft. In the interest of saving experience points (and lapis lazuli when using the enchanting table), it's best to enchant the gear that players use the most, saving the rest for later.
Typically, this means enchanting a pickaxe first and foremost, followed by tools like shovels and axes, and then things like armor. Every player's most-used gear is different, but it's incredibly wise and economical to prioritize the gear that's getting the most usage to ensure that enchantments don't go to waste.
4) Use Self-Created Enchanted Books as Much as Possible
Once Minecraft players have plenty of resources like XP and lapis lazuli stored up, they may want to begin transitioning from using the enchantment table often and start making a collection of enchanted books. Since the enchanting table only offers three randomized enchantments for each gear piece, the ability to choose applicable enchantments is diminished.
However, if players make their enchanted books (and supplement them with rare books from looting and trading with librarians), they don't have to put their faith in the randomized factor of the enchanting table.
Moreover, if players don't get the enchantments they want while they're enchanting their books, they can place the books into a grindstone for a resource refund before trying again.
5) Enchant Wooden Shovels to Re-Roll the Enchanting Table
Since enchanting tables randomize their offerings, players occasionally just don't get the enchantments they want. However, by placing a low-cost enchantment on a wooden shovel or similarly low-quality item, the enchanting table will reset its available enchantment choices. Additionally, the enchanted items can be placed in a grindstone for a partial refund of the XP used.
With this process, players can continue to re-roll the offerings of the enchanting table until they find the options they're looking for.
