Minecraft Dungeons Guide: How The Enchantment System Works

Minecraft Dungeons, the recently launched spin-off of global blockbuster Minecraft, differs from its predecessor in a variety of ways. There’s no mining for diamonds in the depths of a cave, nor is there an option to build your favorite landmarks out of sand, stone, or netherrack. Instead, your goal is to make your way through dungeons filled with monsters, slaying all kinds of enemies as you make your way towards the castle of the dastardly Arch-Illager.

This is made a lot easier by enchanting your weapons and armor. Minecraft Dungeons, like Minecraft, features a full-fledged enchantment system of its own, but it works a little differently in this case. Although it’s easy to understand once you get the hang of it, it might take a little while to figure out how it actually works. Fortunately, we’ve put together a handy guide on how the enchantment system works in Minecraft Dungeons.

If you’ve got the hang of enchanting already, be sure to check out our essential tips and tricks for Minecraft Dungeons. On the other hand, if you’re curious about what Minecraft Dungeons even is, here’s everything you need to know about Minecraft Dungeons. You can also read our Minecraft Dungeons review.

How Does Enchanting Work?

In order to enchant an item in Minecraft Dungeons, you’ll need to earn some enchantment points. You get one enchantment point every time you level up, which you can then use to enchant either a weapon or a piece of armor.

To enchant the item, you’ll need to click into it and look at the three slots in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Most of the time only one slot will have enchanting options, but sometimes two will be enchantable, and, very rarely, you’ll have the option to place three enchantments on a single item.

This is important: although one sword might have a higher base damage rating than another, the less powerful one will be far more valuable if it has more enchanting slots. This is why power rating, which aggregates the gear you currently have equipped into a sort of overall strength estimate, is largely unimportant--a sword with three enchantments might have a really low base rating, but could deal triple the amount of damage as one that’s way stronger at face value. Enchanting your gear in Minecraft Dungeons is ultimately what will allow you to progress through the game, and is therefore an essential part of moment-to-moment play.

How Do Enchantment Points Work?

As mentioned above, you get one enchantment point every time you level up in Minecraft Dungeons. Levelling up is pretty easy, so you’ll be able to rack up loads of enchantment points in no time.

There is something very important to note about enchantment points that the game never explicitly tells you, though. If you enchant a sword, for example, and pump three enchantment points into it, it might seem like you’re taking a risk. What if you find a better sword shortly afterwards, but you’ve already spent all your enchantment points?

Good news: You can reclaim the enchantment points from enchanted items simply by salvaging them--which also nabs you some emeralds, Minecraft Dungeons’ in-game currency. The conceit is that these weapons are gone for good, but if you’re upgrading to a stronger one you probably don’t need the ones you’re salvaging anymore anyway.

As a result, there’s no point in hoarding enchantment points at the beginning of the game. Enchanting weak items will make them more powerful, making it far easier for you to progress through the game and find stronger weapons and more formidable armor. You can then disenchant the original, weaker items and use the enchantment points you regain to enchant your new, strong ones into even stronger versions of themselves. Don’t be stingy with your enchantment points--go wild, as they’re technically a currency you will always be able to get back.

How Do You Choose Enchantments?

As well as having up to three enchantable slots, every weapon and piece of armor in Minecraft Dungeons features its own unique enchanting potential. This doesn’t mean that all swords have the same enchantments--it means that you could pick up one sword that can deal lightning damage, or be sharpened, while the next sword you find could be compatible with fire attacks.

This further accentuates the fact that power rating is largely unimportant. One sword could be valued at 20 power, but only have one enchanting slot with a pretty bad selection of enchantments--each enchantment slot is randomly assigned either two or three specific options for enchanting. Meanwhile, a sword rated as 12 power could have two enchantable slots, each of which feature a fantastic ability like chain lightning damage, or the potential to emit a poisonous cloud.

In Minecraft Dungeons, it is almost always better to value enchantments over base damage and power rating, as the more powerful enchantments you have, the stronger your gear will be. And remember--you can always get your enchantment points back by salvaging the enchanted weapon, so don’t be afraid to take a risk by experimenting with unique builds.

How Do Enchantment Levels Work?

As well as having a range of possible enchantments, each weapon and piece of armor also has a system in place to level up its magical potential.

So, if you enchant your Reinforced Mail, for example, to increase your movement speed, one enchantment point will earn you Swiftness Rank 1. However, if you invest two more points into the armor, you’ll be at Rank 2, which increases the buff the enchantment in question applies to an item. On top of this, you can max out an enchantment by investing a further three enchantment points into the enchantment slot. Essentially, six enchantment points are needed to max out an enchantment, which means 18 points are needed to fully enchant an item with three enchantable slots--which, again, are quite difficult to come by.

If you want a fully enchanted melee weapon, a fully enchanted box, and a fully enchanted armor set, you’ll need 54 enchantment points. The good thing is that if you eventually find even better loot as you progress further, you can salvage these items and regain 18 points apiece, meaning that you can always have at least one fully-enchanted item from each category, with three level-three enchantment slots. Though, this all differs on Adventure Difficulty where there are items with more Powerful enchantments, which cost even more to unlock (eight enchantment points are needed to max out an enchantment, meaning 24 points are needed to fully enchant all three slots.

That’s all you need to know about enchanting items in Minecraft Dungeons. Artifacts, which are sort of like spells, aren’t enchantable--it’s just the physical gear you equip into the melee, ranged, and armor slots.

Just remember that enchantments are an essential part of Minecraft Dungeons--ignoring them will make life extra difficult, as the buffs make or break entire dungeon-crawls. So, collect loads of items, choose your favourites, check out their enchanting material, and equip yourself with fire, lightning, poison, or whatever other magical substance you think is best-suited to taking down monsters.

How To Combine Enchantments

One of the most powerful ways to use enchantments in Minecraft Dungeons is to chain several enchantments that synergize well with one another. Because you have three enchantable items--your melee weapon, your bow, and your armor--and can place one or several enchantment(s) on each, you can create cohesive builds capable of dealing devastating damage.

For example, it’s possible to apply enchantments that pull enemies towards you, which is pretty strong all by itself. However, you can also enchant armor to burn everything within a certain radius of you, or to emit lightning as you roll out of the fray, shocking the grouped enemies and creating enough distance for you to launch a barrage of arrows in their direction. It takes a bit of getting used to, and you might have to loot quite a few items before you find the ones you’re looking for, but once you find something that works for you, you’ll be able to take on the harder difficulties in no time.

As the dungeons become more difficult, comboing enchantments becomes an essential part of succeeding in your runs. Also, it’s pretty fun to see roll away from enemies, leaving a trail of fire behind you, before shooting an arrow with the “Growing” enchantment that causes it to increase in size until it looks like it was fired from a ballista.