As you progress in your world on Minecraft, it is inevitable that sooner or later, you will start encountering the enchantment aspect of the game. Enchantments are added benefits to certain items, extending that item’s durability or giving it a new feature. Certain enchantments can be applied to armor, so if you have kitted yourself out with either Diamond or Netherite armor, be on the lookout for the following enchantments to get the most out of your armor.
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The best Armor Enchantments in Minecraft
Aqua Affinity (Helmet)
Where Respiration helps your survival chances underwater, Aqua Affinity makes you more efficient in those situations. With this enchantment on your helmet, you will be able to mine at a normal speed. Like the previous enchantment, Aqua Affinity works well in ocean biomes and gathering blocks like Gold and Prismarine in underwater temples. If you have a good enough pickaxe, maybe it isn’t the most needed enchantment around, but Aqua Affinity can be an excellent way to speed things up.
Depth Strider (Boots)
Depth Strider lets you move faster when in water. Once again, this is great when paired with previous enchantments mentioned on this list in ocean biomes and underwater temples. While the Aquatic Life update made swimming much faster with new animations, it’s better to move even faster when searching the depths of the sea.
Feather Falling (Boots)
Traversing a Minecraft world is dangerous for a multitude of reasons. Of course, you have the regular mob you will encounter, lava, and the need to keep your hunger bar filled at all times, but people don’t often consider the gravity of the situation when jumping around the place. Fall damage is one of the more consistent threats to your health, so we recommend putting Feather Falling on your boots. This enchantment does not actually slow your descent speed through the air but will reduce any damage you take once you hit the ground. It is always better to be safe than sorry, and Feather Falling will help save you an immeasurable amount of hearts in your world from accidental falls.
Frost Walker (Boots)
Frost Walker takes a different approach to traveling on water. Any water source block you approach will instantly freeze on top and provide an icy pathway for you to walk on. The ice isn’t permanent, though, so you will have to keep moving to maintain your walkway. Regardless, this enchantment makes traversal exceptionally easy over the ocean and does not require you to craft a boat when you go adventuring. As a bonus, walking on campfires and magma blocks will not harm you with this enchantment on your boots.
Mending
Mending is arguably the most important enchantment in Minecraft. It can be used on any armor piece and will repair the durability of the item when you pick up experience orbs. This means that you can take tons of damage, but as soon as you grab an orb from killing mobs, breeding, or anything that offers experience, you will be working at making that piece last forever. If you get Netherite or Diamond armor that you want to keep, be sure to put Mending on it.
Protection
Mending helps the durability of your armor. Protection, to put it simply, protects you better against all physical damage the wearer takes. The higher the level of enchantment you have, the better the damage reduction. Since armor’s main purpose is to protect the wearer, try your best to get this on all of your armor pieces.
Note: Protection is incompatible with the Blast Protection, Fire Protection, and Projectile Protection enchantments. If you have any of those on your armor, you will need to disenchant the piece with a grindstone.
Respiration (Helmet)
Respiration is great for anyone who is planning on spending time underwater. This helmet enchantment extends the time you can spend underwater without coming up for air. While it can be used in any environment with water, you will want this for gathering coral blocks in ocean biomes and exploring underwater temples. The extra time to fight guardians without needing air will be paramount to your survival and success in the underwater temples.
Soul Speed (Boots)
Soul Speed is about as niche of an armor enchantment as you will find on this list, but it still can play a significant role in a certain situation. This enchantment makes it so you can walk over Soul Sand or Soul Soil and not receive a slowdown to your walking and running speed, instead giving you a speed boost. If you are going through Soul Valley biomes in The Nether, this speed boost can be helpful in making sure you survive the many threats in the area.
Thorns
Thorns is a nice enchantment that helps protect you by sending damage to whoever attacks you. With this enchantment, if you are in a one-on-one fight with a mob or another person, your damage output is significantly increased as you work to defeat them. This damage output is also applied to ranged damage.
Unbreaking
We finish our list with Unbreaking, an enchantment that increases an items durability. Mending will continually repair your armor when you collect experience orbs, and Unbreaking makes it possible that when you are hit, there is a chance your armor will not take a hit to durability at all. Mending already made it, so you will always have your pieces of armor. Unbreaking helps solidify that.
