The /enchant Command in Minecraft: Enchanting With Commands, the Errors and Going Past the Max Level

Who can use it

/enchant is a level 2 command: operators (op) and the console can use it. To make yourself op, type op YourName in the server console. A normal player gets «Unknown or incomplete command».

In chat it takes a slash (/enchant …); in the server console, no slash and always with the player's name, because there's no «you» there.

How to write it

The shape is /enchant <who> <enchantment> [level]. It enchants the item that person has in their main hand; if you don't set a level, it's 1.

Enchantments are written with their ID, the one that shows up when you press Tab: sharpness (Sharpness), efficiency (Efficiency), unbreaking (Unbreaking), fortune (Fortune), silk_touch (Silk Touch), protection (Protection), feather_falling (Feather Falling), looting (Looting), power (Power), mending (Mending). It can go with minecraft: in front or without it.

1. To yourself

   /enchant @s sharpness 5 puts Sharpness V on the sword in your hand.

2. To another player

   /enchant Ana efficiency 5. From the console: enchant Ana efficiency 5.

3. To everyone at once

   /enchant @a unbreaking 3 enchants whatever each one is holding; anyone holding something that doesn't accept it (or nothing) simply gets nothing.

The maximum levels

/enchant won't go past the level the game gives. The most used: Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Efficiency, Power, Impaling and Density, 5; Protection (and its variants), Feather Falling, Piercing and Breach, 4; Unbreaking, Fortune, Looting, Thorns, Respiration, Depth Strider, Loyalty, Riptide, Quick Charge, Luck of the Sea, Lure and Wind Burst, 3; Knockback, Fire Aspect, Punch and Frost Walker, 2; Mending, Silk Touch, Infinity, Flame, Multishot, Channeling, Aqua Affinity and the curses, 1.

If you ask for more, the game answers that the level «is higher than the maximum level» the enchantment supports. For a higher level, go to the /give section.

The ones that can't be combined

Some enchantments exclude each other, and /enchant won't add the second if the item already has the first:

Sharpness, Smite and Bane of Arthropods, with each other (on the mace, Density and Breach too). The four protections (Protection and Fire, Blast or Projectile Protection), with each other. Silk Touch with Fortune. Depth Strider with Frost Walker. Mending with Infinity, on the bow. Multishot with Piercing, on the crossbow. Riptide with Loyalty and with Channeling, on the trident.

It won't raise one that's already there either: if the sword has Sharpness III, /enchant @s sharpness 5 fails. To change it, the cleanest way is to get a new sword with /give at the level you want.

The usual errors

«Nothing changed» or that they're not holding any item: the player's hand is empty, or they have the item in their other hand (/enchant only looks at the main hand).

That the item can't take that enchantment: Sharpness on a pickaxe, Fortune on a sword or any enchantment on a plain book. Enchanted books come from /give, below.

That the level is too high: you're above the maximum in the list above.

That it clashes with another: the item already has one of the incompatible ones, or that same enchantment.

«Unknown or incomplete command»: you're not op, a part is missing or the enchantment name is misspelled (it's the ID, with an underscore: silk_touch, not silktouch).

Going past the max: /give with enchantments

For Sharpness 10, Efficiency 50 or a combination /enchant won't allow, the item is created already enchanted with /give. That way neither the maximum nor the incompatibilities are checked; the cap is 255 per enchantment.

In Minecraft 1.21.5 or later (also the 26.x versions, which a new Paper server comes with): give @s diamond_sword[enchantments={sharpness:10}]. Several at once, separated by commas: give @s netherite_pickaxe[enchantments={efficiency:10,fortune:5,unbreaking:10}].

Between 1.20.5 and 1.21.4 the levels went inside levels: give @s diamond_sword[enchantments={levels:{sharpness:10}}]. And before 1.20.5, with the usual tag: give @s diamond_sword{Enchantments:[{id:"minecraft:sharpness",lvl:10s}]}. A command from an old video on a new server throws an error: that's why it pays to know your version.

The NapNodes /give generator writes the command right for your version, with the coloured name, the lore and the unbreakable checkbox if you want them.

Enchanted books (Mending and company)

An enchanted book keeps its enchantments apart, to pass them on at the anvil. If you make it like a sword, the book shines but the anvil won't take it.

In 1.21.5 or later: give @s enchanted_book[stored_enchantments={mending:1}]. Between 1.20.5 and 1.21.4: give @s enchanted_book[stored_enchantments={levels:{mending:1}}]. Before that: give @s enchanted_book{StoredEnchantments:[{id:"minecraft:mending",lvl:1s}]}.

They're the classic prize for an event or a reward crate: a Mending book is worth more on a survival server than a pile of diamonds.

Before handing out absurd levels

On a survival server with more people, a Sharpness 100 weapon wrecks the balance (and everyone else's enthusiasm). The usual thing is to keep the high levels for events, season prizes or a separate creative world.

Not everything scales forever: armour protection has a cap, so Protection 255 doesn't make you much tougher than a full set of Protection IV armour. And very high Knockback or Punch send people flying out of the loaded part of the map.

Without commands: the enchanting table at level 30

For your players to enchant the usual way: the table offers level 30 with 15 bookshelves around it, one block away from the table (with a gap of air in between) and at its height or one above. Each enchantment costs 1 to 3 lapis lazuli and 1 to 3 levels, even though it asks you to have 30.

If an event needs experience, /xp add @s 30 levels gives 30 levels (with the player's name from the console; all about it in the /xp guide (in Spanish)).

On the anvil, each time an item is worked on it gets more expensive, and in survival, from 40 levels on you get «Too Expensive!». Combining books one at a time instead of all at once helps you stay under it.

If you have EssentialsX

EssentialsX brings its own /enchant, which takes the place of the game's one: it enchants the item you're holding (/enchant sharpness 5) and goes by permissions (essentials.enchant and the one for each enchantment), not by op. In its config.yml, unsafe-enchantments: true lets it go past the maximum and combine incompatible ones.

The game's one is still there under its full name, /minecraft:enchant, with everything in this guide. And to give someone the game's one without making them op, with LuckPerms: lp user Name permission set minecraft.command.enchant true.

On NapNodes

Minecraft servers run Paper on the latest version, so the /give commands for 1.21.5 or later are the ones that work. You type them in the panel's «Console», without the slash and with the player's name (enchant Ana sharpness 5); that's also where you make yourself op with op YourName.

If you're going to hand out prizes at an event, make a backup in «Backups» first: if something gets out of hand, you go back in a minute.

Frequently asked questions