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Pickaxes can also be enchanted, similarly to all the other tools in Minecraft. However, the choice of enchantment might be tough or confusing for players who are either new to Minecraft, or who haven’t dabbled much with enchantments just yet. Here’s which enchantments are best for pickaxes in Minecraft.
4 Silk Touch
This enchantment is more of a niche pick for players but is a must-have for players who want to mine out blocks and objects without breaking them. In Minecraft, there are many objects that will simply vanish when broken with a regular pickaxe, and Silk Touch essentially prevents that.
Silk Touch allows players to mine out any block in its current form. This means they can safely mine glass blocks with a pickaxe, coral blocks without killing them, and even grass blocks. For builders, in particular, Silk Touch is a vital tool, as players won’t be wasting blocks by breaking them and losing them in the process if they’re building something big and challenging.
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Silk Touch only comes in one iteration of itself. It has no levels unlike some other enchantments in the game, though it does require players to have 30 levels before they can unlock the enchantment randomly from the level 3 enchantment slot at the enchanting table.
3 Efficiency
Any Minecraft player knows that the most time-consuming task in the game is mining for resources. With a simple iron pickaxe, the task of finding diamonds can take a long time, especially following the world generation changes introduced in Minecraft’s 1.18 update. Now, diamond is most commonly found deep underground, where the tough deepslate is most prevalent. This material takes a while to mine with a regular pickaxe.
That’s why Efficiency is such a great enchantment to choose for a pickaxe. Players will now gain the ability to mine out blocks at a faster rate with their enchanted pickaxe. Players who are concerned with strip mining and gathering resources will definitely want to invest in this enchantment above all, and it’s a great one to pair with other enchantments, too.
Efficiency comes in five levels. However, Efficiency V can only be achieved when players put two Efficiency IV enchanted books together on an anvil. In order to unlock Efficiency IV naturally, players will need to have 30 levels before the enchantment has a chance of appearing at the enchanting table’s level 3 slot.
2 Fortune
Speaking of mining diamonds, the Fortune enchantment is a Minecraft player’s best friend when it comes to getting more resources for less effort. Fortune allows players to basically mine out any ore block, which will then drop an increased amount of said resource. This means that potentially, a single diamond ore block could yield up to 4 diamonds instead of the default one. That’s a massive increase in gains.
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Of course, even with Fortune, there’s a degree of RNG involved in this. 4 drops aren’t guaranteed, but the maximum drop grows higher the stronger the player’s Fortune enchantment is. This enchantment is one of the most desired ones, and for good reason, as getting it early will guarantee the player will become rich quickly.
Fortune has three levels, each increasing the gains players can make while mining with each level. Fortune III is what players will want to get as soon as possible, and it’s the enchantment that gives them the chance of earning four ore pieces when mining out an ore block. Make sure to have 30 levels of XP before looking for it at the enchantment table’s level 3 slot.
1 Mending
Fortune and Mending are both excellent enchantments, but Mending has a slight edge over Fortune due to its ability to increase the lifespan of any tool in Minecraft. The idea of a pickaxe that never breaks is a dream come true, especially if players have managed to get one with a lot of great enchantments and don’t wish to lose it.
Mending is the enchantment that will preserve pickaxes. When applied to any tool, earning XP will automatically fill its durability bar with a bit of durability. This means that as long as players are earning XP, they can keep their tools with Mending enchantments forever.
There is a small catch, though: Mending isn’t an enchantment that players can earn through the enchanting table. It’s one of the enchantments in the game that players must instead find in the world, either by trading with a villager or by finding it in the form of an enchanted book in a loot chest.
Minecraft is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and many other devices.
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