Enchanting Table

"Enchantment Table" redirects here. For the book variant, see Enchanted Book. For the thing that gives powers on tools, see Enchant.

Enchanting Table

150px

Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	1,200
Hardness	5
Luminant	JE: No BE: Yes (12)
Transparent	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

An enchanting table is a block that allows players to spend their experience point levels to enchant tools, weapons, books, armor, and certain other items.

Obtaining

Breaking

An enchanting table requires a pickaxe to be mined, in which case it drops itself. If mined without a pickaxe, then the mining is slower and it drops nothing.

Block	Enchanting Table
Hardness	5
Tool
Breaking time
Default	25
Wooden	3.75
Stone	1.9
Iron	1.25
Diamond	0.95
Netherite	0.85
Golden	0.65

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Book + Diamond + Obsidian

Usage

File:Enchanting library.png

One-block tall maximal enchanting library

An item can be enchanted by using an enchanting table and placing the item in the input slots and 1–3 Lapis Lazuli in its dedicated slot. Upon placing the item, three (pseudo)randomized options appear on the right of the GUI. The glyphs here do not affect the enchantment, but hovering over a presented enchantment shows one enchantment to be applied (on mobile devices, the player can tap an enchantment before putting in the Lapis Lazuli or hold the enchantment before release). The only choices available have a level requirement equal to or below the player's current level and a Lapis Lazuli requirement equal to or below the number of lapis lazuli placed in the table. Each option imbues the item with a randomized set of enchantments that are dependent on the number of experience levels required (e.g. a level 10 enchantment can give a pickaxe the "Efficiency II" enchantment); the actual level cost and the number of Lapis Lazuli required have no effect.

Although the player must have at least the level requirement to get an enchantment, the number of levels that the player is charged is the same as the Lapis Lazuli requirement. For example, if the third enchantment listed is a level 30-50 enchantment, the player must have at least 30 levels, pays only 3 levels and 3 Lapis Lazuli.

The level requirement influences the quantity, type, and level of enchantments instilled in the item, with a higher experience level generally resulting in more and/or higher-level enchantments. Nevertheless, there is a significant random factor, and even a level 30 enchantment (the maximum) doesn't guarantee more than one enchantment, or even that enchantments are "maximum strength" — a level 30 enchantment can still yield Fortune II or Efficiency III alone, for example.

To increase the enchantment level, bookshelves should be placed next to the enchanting table while keeping one block of air between them. Placing any block between the enchantment table and the bookshelves - even transparent one like torches - will block the table from connecting with the shelves. To gain access to the previously mentioned level 30 enchantments, a total of 15 bookshelves need to be placed around the enchanting table. See the enchantment mechanics page for more detailed information on this.

Enchanting a book produces an enchanted book, which does nothing on its own, but effectively "saves" the enchantment for later application to another item with an anvil.

The enchanting table is ³⁄₄ blocks high.

If an enchanting table is placed on ice, the player slides on it as though it is an ice block, just like with slabs.‌^{[Java Edition only][verify]}

Despite comprising largely of obsidian, they are not immune to destruction by the ender dragon, which Mojang Studios has confirmed to be intentional.

Enchanting

File:Enchanting Table GUI.png

Enchanting interface.

Main article: Enchanting

The enchanting table's main purpose is to enchant items. The table can enchant all tools, armor and gear except ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} shears, flint and steel, carrot on a stick, shield, carved pumpkin, mob head, lead and horse armor; all of these (excluding leads and horse armor) can instead be enchanted using an anvil and an appropriate enchanted book.

When a bookshelf is placed next to an enchanting table (with one block of air in between) it increases the maximum enchantment level. There must be 15 bookshelves around the enchanting table in order to obtain the maximum enchantment level of 30. See enchantment mechanics for more specific details.

Light source

Enchanting tables emit a light level of 12.

Standard Galactic Alphabet

File:Enchantment Table animated experience.gif

Glyphs flowing from the bookshelves animation.

The arcane glyphs that float from bookshelves to the enchanting table and the cryptic runes in the enchanting table's interface are written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet, which is a simple alphabet substitution cipher used in the Commander Keen series of computer games.

The arcane glyphs cannot be seen if "particles" in the video settings is set to "minimal".

The cryptic runes seen in the interface are randomly constructed from the following list of words:

air animal baguette ball beast berata bless cold creature cthulhu cube curse darkness demon destroy dry earth elder elemental embiggen enchant fhtagn fiddle fire free fresh galvanize grow hot humanoid ignite imbue inside klaatu light limited mental mglwnafh niktu of other phnglui physical range rlyeh scrolls self shorten shrink snuff sphere spirit stale stretch the towards twist undead water wet wgahnagl xyzzy

Three to five words are chosen from the list and appended to each other, then displayed in the Standard Galactic Alphabet. The words chosen are random and purely cosmetic: they have no relation to the enchantments to be applied to the item and are not saved on the enchanted item (meaning they say nothing about the spell's identity), and they are displayed only in the enchanting table. Only the cost and one of the enchantments are known.

Custom name

By default, the GUI of an enchanting table is labeled "Enchant", but this name can be customized by naming the enchanting table in an anvil before placing it or by changing the CustomName tag using the /data command‌^{[Java Edition only]}.

Note Blocks

Enchanting tables can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass drum" sounds.

Piston interactivity

Enchanting tables cannot be pushed by pistons. They also cannot be pushed nor pulled by sticky pistons.

Sounds

Generic

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
File:Stone dig1.oggFile:Stone dig2.oggFile:Stone dig3.oggFile:Stone dig4.ogg	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
File:Stone hit1.oggFile:Stone hit2.oggFile:Stone hit3.oggFile:Stone hit4.oggFile:Stone hit5.oggFile:Stone hit6.ogg	None	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	None	0.5	0.75	16
File:Stone hit1.oggFile:Stone hit2.oggFile:Stone hit3.oggFile:Stone hit4.oggFile:Stone hit5.oggFile:Stone hit6.ogg	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
File:Stone dig1.oggFile:Stone dig2.oggFile:Stone dig3.oggFile:Stone dig4.ogg	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
File:Stone hit1.oggFile:Stone hit2.oggFile:Stone hit3.oggFile:Stone hit4.oggFile:Stone hit5.oggFile:Stone hit6.ogg	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Volume	Pitch
File:Stone dig1.oggFile:Stone dig2.oggFile:Stone dig3.oggFile:Stone dig4.ogg	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	1.0	0.8
File:Stone hit1.oggFile:Stone hit2.oggFile:Stone hit3.oggFile:Stone hit4.oggFile:Stone hit5.oggFile:Stone hit6.ogg	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
File:Stone hit1.oggFile:Stone hit2.oggFile:Stone hit3.oggFile:Stone hit4.oggFile:Stone hit5.oggFile:Stone hit6.ogg	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.37	0.5
?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0
File:Stone hit1.oggFile:Stone hit2.oggFile:Stone hit3.oggFile:Stone hit4.oggFile:Stone hit5.oggFile:Stone hit6.ogg	Blocks	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
File:Stone dig1.oggFile:Stone dig2.oggFile:Stone dig3.oggFile:Stone dig4.ogg	Blocks	When the block is placed	use.stone	1.0	0.8

Unique

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
File:Enchanting Table enchant1.oggFile:Enchanting Table enchant2.oggFile:Enchanting Table enchant3.ogg	Enchanting Table used	Blocks	Plays when item is enchanted	block.enchantment_table.use	subtitles.block.enchantment_table.use	1.0	?	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Form	Translation key
Enchanting Table	enchanting_table	Block & Item	block.minecraft.enchanting_table

Name	Namespaced ID
Block entity	enchanting_table

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Enchantment Table	enchanting_table	116	Block & Item	tile.enchanting_table.name

Name	Savegame ID
Block entity	EnchantTable

Block data

See also: Block entity format

An enchanting table has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

History

Java Edition
September 30, 2011					First mentions of the enchantment table.
September 30, 2011					32px Notch posted first picture of the enchantment table, they were originally made with cobblestone instead of obsidian.
September 30, 2011					32px Notch posted second picture of the updated enchantment table.
October 1, 2011					The first image of the enchantment screen are revealed, with enchantments written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet. The first enchantment translates into "Well Played Internets You Are Good", the second translated into "These Names Will Be Random And Confusing", and the third translates to "Each Spell Costs Experience Levels". The Standard Galactic Alphabet or SGA was originally created by Tom Hall for use in the Commander Keen series of computer games.
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			32px Added enchantment tables.
					Enchantment tables now require bookshelves to get maximum enchantments.
					Enchantments are to be labeled in the enchantment table as random words written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			A bug where all enchantments would show up as Feather Falling I has been fixed.
					Enchanting has been now properly enabled in multiplayer. Previously, if a player attempted to enchant an item, it appeared enchanted for the client, but updated with the un-enchanted status once the player logged out and then back in again.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			Enchantment tables now take time to mine Template:More info.
1.2.1		12w05a			Enchanting no longer requires experience in creative mode.
1.3.1		12w15a			⇧ Shift + clicking can now be used to put items in enchantment tables.
		12w22a			The maximum enchantment power has been lowered from 50 to 30.
1.4.6		12w49a			The player can now enchant books to then be used to enchant a tool.
1.7.2		13w36a			The fishing rod can now be enchanted without the use of books.
1.8		14w02a			Enchanting has received a major overhaul where there is now a secondary cost, which is lapis lazuli.
					When enchanting an item, one enchantment now appears in the tooltip when selecting an enchantment (e.g Looting III?...).
					Level 5 enchants (Sharpness, Power, Smite and Bane of Arthropods) can now be applied without the use of an anvil.
		14w18a			Enchanting tables with numerical metadata variants 1 through 15, which are inaccessible through normal gameplay, now have a missing texture 32px rather than appearing identical to enchanting tables.
		14w26a			Block metadata has been completely removed from this snapshot onwards with the introduction of block states. As this block never used block metadata at all prior to this version, fifteen unused, inaccessible metadata variants of it have been completely removed from the game: DV Description 0 Enchanting Table 1-15 Inaccessible "boring" variants of enchanting tables
1.10		16w20a			Added a sound for enchanting an item in the enchantment table.
1.11		16w32a			The block entity ID for the enchantment table has been changed from EnchantTable to enchanting_table.
1.13		17w47a			"Enchantment Table" has been renamed to "Enchanting Table".
					Hoes can now be enchanted.
					Prior to The Flattening, the enchanting table's numeral ID was 116.
1.14		18w43a			32px The texture of enchanting tables has been changed.
		18w44a			32px The texture of enchanting tables has been changed, as the texture of obsidian has been changed.
		18w46a			Enchanting tables are no longer transparent from the bottom.
		18w50a			32px The texture of enchanting tables has been changed, as the texture of obsidian has been changed, once again.
		?			The enchanting table's bottom texture has now been made identical to that of obsidian - previously it had a defined border.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.12.1		build 1			32px Added enchantment tables.
					Enchantment tables now emit a light level of 12.
					Enchantment tables can now be crafted in the stonecutter.
					Added enchantment tables to the Creative mode inventory.
		build 11			Enchanting tables are now craftable in the crafting table, instead of the stonecutter.
Bedrock Edition
?					Hoes can no longer be enchanted in enchanting tables.
1.4.0		beta 1.2.13.11			When Experimental Gameplay is enabled, tridents can now be enchanted.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			32px The texture of enchanting tables has been changed.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Hoes can now be enchanted with Efficiency, Fortune and Silk Touch.
Legacy Console Edition
TU7	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	32px Added enchanting tables.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Enchanting now consumes lapis lazuli.
					Enchanting has been re-balanced.
					Enchanted books can now receive multiple enchantments at once.
		1.90			32px The texture of enchanting tables has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					32px Added enchanting tables.

Trivia

File:Black Runes.png

Black-textured particles are "fired" into the bookshelves, which later emit the corresponding particle to the enchanting table. (Visible on the red book on the top-left bookshelf, and above the green book on the bottom-left bookshelf, and in the animation farther up the page as a brief flicker).

• The enchanting table actually produces the particles emitted from the bookshelves. These particles originate inside the enchanting table and are relocated to the bookshelf almost immediately, but travel slow enough to be briefly visible. The particle that enters and leaves the bookshelf is always the same "letter", but the ones traveling into the bookshelves are black.
• Enchanting tables are mostly made of obsidian, and thus have a blast resistance of 1,200 and cannot be destroyed by TNT, although they can still be mined by any pickaxes.
• Enchanting tables are midway between slabs and full blocks height-wise, so they could be potentially used as a TNT cannon's range-amplifier instead of slabs or trapdoors
• When the player is invisible, the enchanting table can still "see" the player and open up.
• On the enchantment screen, captions in the Standard Galactic Alphabet includes several in-jokes:
  • On October 1, 2011, Notch tweeted an image of the enchantment screen, with enchantments . The first enchantment translates into "Well Played Internets You Are Good", the second translated into "These Names Will Be Random And Confusing", and the third translates to "Each Spell Costs Experience Levels".
  • Three of the possible words for enchantments are "the elder scrolls," likely a joke at Bethesda, creator of "The Elder Scrolls" series and whose parent company, Zenimax, attempted to sue Mojang for the name of their game Scrolls.
  • The words "klaatu berata niktu" are a (misspelled) reference to "Klaatu barada nikto", a phrase that originates from the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still and has been since used as a reference in many other movies, cartoons and games.
  • Similarly, "Xyzzy" is a magic spell in the game "Colossal Cave Adventure" and has been used in several other games as an Easter Egg or cheat code.
  • The word "embiggen" is a fictional word coined by The Simpsons quote: "A Noble Spirit Embiggens the Smallest Man".
  • The words "phnglui mglwnafh cthulhu rlyeh wgahnagl fhtagnbaguette" are a quote from H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu," apart from the extra "baguette" at the end. Said quote is a prayer in the Cthulhu mythos. The complete and correct quote is "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", which translates to "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."
• Of the list of words that the enchanting table uses, none of the words contain the letters "J" or "Q". Although they are not used in the words, they do have a symbol attached to them, and can be seen moving from the bookshelf and the table.

Gallery

• EnchantmentProgress.png

  Some enchantments, as posted by Jeb.

• YA2DD.png

  The new enchantment table enchanting grid with extra slot for lapis lazuli.

• Enchanting-Table.png

  The enchantment table receiving knowledge from nearby bookshelves.

• Enchantment Table Book Entity Texture Guide.png

  Color coded texture for the book model.

• Enchantment Table Book Entity Texture Guide Legend.png

  Color code legend for book model texture guide.

• PE Enchanting GUI.png

  The GUI of the enchantment table in Bedrock Edition (top = no item, bottom = with item hovering on the second line).

• Enchanted Sword.png

  A newly enchanted sword.

• Book (entity).gif

  The book model, animated.