The best bow enchantments in Minecraft

Bows and arrows are some of the most fun and reliable tools to use in Minecraft. They are the most readily available ranged weapon in the game and give you a way to pick off creepers from a distance safely. As is the case with other tools, you will want to put enchantments on your favorite bow to get the most out of it. Here are the best enchantments you should consider putting on your bow in Minecraft.

1. Mending

Mending is arguably the best, or at the very least, the most important enchantment in Minecraft. With Mending, your bow potentially will never break. Every time you pick up an experience orb, your bow will be slightly repaired, vastly extending its life and keeping you in the fight from a distance. If you find Mending enchantment books, you should be putting them on any equipment you deem essential.

2. Power

For a pure damage increase in your arrows shot, get the Power enchantment. There are up to five levels of Power you can put into your bows that will max out your charged shots at 150% more damage than usual. If you consider yourself an archer, this is an absolute must-have, so you can quickly dispatch enemies or promptly take down the Enderdragon’s health in The End.

3. Infinity

Infinity makes it so you can continually fire arrows and never run out as long as you have at least one in your inventory. This ultimately eliminates any need to craft or hunt skeletons for more arrows, saving you time and resources. Unfortunately, unless you are fishing and catch an enchantment book with both Infinity and Mending on it (highly unlikely), you cannot put both enchantments on the same bow, so you will need to decide which is more important to you: durability or ammo. It should be noted that bows can easily be repaired at anvils with wooden items if you have the levels available.

4. Flame

The flame enchantment does what you would expect it to do. Every arrow you shoot from this bow will be embued in a flame and cause fire damage for two hearts over five seconds. Unless you deal normal damage, the mob will not drop any experience orbs, but for a way to whittle down an opponent’s health over time, this is great to put on your bow. Combined with the Power enchantment, you can eliminate many mobs with one shot.

5. Unbreaking

While Mending will slowly restore the health of an item, it is only via experience orbs; Unbreaking will increase the item’s durability by giving every shot a chance not to take away the item’s health. If you put level three of Unbreaking on a bow on average, you will extend the item’s life by four times the usual duration (without Mending). You can decide to throw Unbreaking on a bow in a just-in-case scenario, but the enchantment also works on anything with durability, so explore your options.