Minecraft 1.21 mace guide: Crafting recipe, stats, enchantments, and more

Minecraft's Tricky Trials update introduced the first unique melee weapon in several years with the mace, a craftable weapon that doesn't seem remarkable at first, but possesses an immensely powerful smash attack. The mace is a weapon that requires some practice to utilize to its full ability, but once you have learned it inside and out, it can be the best weapon in the game.

Given all of this, it's not a bad idea for Minecraft players to become acquainted with the mace as much as possible. This includes its crafting recipe, how the mace is used, how its smash attack works, and how its attacks are calculated. Moreover, it's worth looking into the available enchantments so you can fully optimize the mace in Minecraft once you have one.

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What to know about the mace in Minecraft's Tricky Trials update

Crafting Recipe

The crafting recipe of the mace in Minecraft 1.21 (Image via Mojang)

To craft a mace in Minecraft 1.21, you need a breeze rod and a heavy core. Breeze rods are dropped by killing breezes either personally or by using a tamed wolf. Trial spawner blocks spawn breeze mobs within trial chamber structures, and you can also use the Looting enchantment on your weapon to increase the yield of breeze rods that are dropped upon killing a breeze.

Meanwhile, heavy cores are only obtained by opening ominous vaults in trial chambers. Opening these blocks requires drinking an ominous bottle. They can be acquired by defeating pillager raid captains outside of raids or defeating a trial/ominous spawner, looting a trial/ominous key from it, and opening a vault or ominous vault. The bottles have an 18.6% drop chance when a vault is opened.

Once you have an ominous bottle, you can consume it to activate Bad Omen, which will morph into a trial omen while you are in a trial chamber. With a trial omen active, you can defeat ominous spawner blocks to acquire ominous keys, which can then be used to open ominous vaults. Heavy cores have a 7.5% chance to appear when an ominous vault is opened.

Once you have your breeze rod and heavy core, all that's left to do is combine them on a crafting table. The breeze rod should be placed in the center slot with the heavy core in the slot above it.

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Damage and Durability Stats

The mace's smash attack is its best asset in Minecraft 1.21 (Image via Mojang)

In both Minecraft Java and Bedrock, the mace is capable of dealing six damage (three hearts) with a successful attack, rising to nine points (four and a half hearts) with a critical hit. Java Edition's mace has an attack cooldown of two seconds, making it the slowest melee weapon in the vanilla game. However, the Bedrock Edition mace has no attack cooldown and can be swung at will.

The real draw of the mace is its smash attack, which accumulates damage output while players are falling. Smash attack damage is calculated by the distance a player has fallen after they have fallen at least 1.5 blocks in distance. A successful smash attack will also reset a player's fall damage, allowing them to land safely if they land shortly after making the attack.

Damage calculation for the smash attack is broken down below:

• The smash attack gains four extra points (two hearts) of damage output for the first four blocks a player falls.
• For the next five blocks fallen, the smash attack gains two extra points (one heart) of damage.
• After the two damage boosts above, any additional distance fallen will increase the smash attack's extra damage by one point (half of a heart) per block.
• Most smash attacks are critical, increasing both the mace's base damage and its bonus damage from fall distance by 50%.
• There is technically no limit to how high a mace smash attack's bonus damage can be, but most Minecraft players will likely be constrained by the in-game limit of 383 blocks reaching from the lowest point where bedrock can generate to the highest point of the Overworld.

Upon executing a successful smash attack with the mace in Minecraft 1.21 and above, the attack will also create a shockwave in a 2.5-block area that knocks back other entities from the point of impact. The mace has a durability of 500 points in Java and 501 points in Bedrock, making it a very durable weapon.

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Mace Enchantments

The mace can be enchanted with several unique enchantments as well as a few existing ones in Minecraft 1.21 (Image via Mojang)

In total, the mace can be enchanted from a selection of nine different enchantments. This includes three unique enchantments that are exclusive to the mace and six that were available in Minecraft previously. The three unique enchantments are certainly some of the most enticing, but you can combine various enchantments to create the best mace for your playstyle.

The following Minecraft enchantments can be applied to the mace:

• Density - Increases the damage of the smash attack by .5 points per level for each block of fall distance, with a maximum enchantment level of five.
• Breach - Reduces the effectiveness of a target's armor by 15% per level, with a maximum level of four.
• Wind Burst - Releases a burst of wind upon landing a successful smash attack, allowing Minecraft players to bounce into the air and land additional smash attacks. The strength of the launch is increased with each level, and the enchantment has a maximum level of three.
• Smite - Increases the damage dealt to undead targets, and has a maximum level of five.
• Bane of Arthropods - Increases the damage dealt to arthropod targets like spiders, bees, silverfish, and endermites. Has a maximum level of five.
• Fire Aspect - Ignites targets on fire when hit with the mace, and can also light candles, campfires, and TNT blocks in Bedrock Edition. Has a maximum level of two.
• Unbreaking - Offers a chance to nullify the reduction of the mace's durability, and possesses a maximum level of three.
• Mending - Obtaining experience orbs repairs the mace.
• Curse of Vanishing - The mace will vanish upon the wielder's death instead of dropping.

It should be noted that Breach, Density, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods are mutually exclusive. Because of this, the enchantments can't be applied together on a mace without using Minecraft's in-game commands.