How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor

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How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
Enchantment tables can give your "Minecraft" gear new life.William Antonelli/Insider
  • You can make an enchantment table in "Minecraft" by combining diamonds, obsidian, lapis lazuli, and a book.
  • Enchantment tables give your gear magical buffs, which you'll need to spend experience points to activate.
  • Enchanted weapons and armor are some of the best gear in all of "Minecraft."
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For as simple as "Minecraft" seems when you first start - punch a tree, craft, repeat - you'll eventually reach a point when things get more complicated, and more fantastical. Think magic portals, deadly dragons, glowing pyramids, and more.

You even have the power to use magic yourself through the enchantment table item (also known as the "enchanting" table). The enchantment table can enhance your weapons, armor, and other gear with magical upgrades. For instance, some spells make your tools work faster and last longer, while others will protect you.

Here's what you'll need to make an enchantment table, and how to get the most out of it.

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How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft'

Crafting the enchantment table

Firstly, you'll need to put your table together. To do this, you'll need one book, two diamonds, and four blocks of obsidian. You'll also need lapis lazuli to power the table. None of these items are hard to find, but it might take a bit of time.

To get a book, you'll need to craft it with leather and paper. Leather can be acquired by killing cows, a common mob creature found in grasslands; paper is crafted from sugar cane, easily found near water in a swamp or desert biome.

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How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
Sugar cane, which looks a bit like bamboo shoots, can be found near water.Emma Witman/Insider

Once you have your sugar cane, place the pieces in equal amounts along one horizontal row in the crafting area, and grab the paper that's created.

Now, take your leather and three pieces of paper to create a book. You can arrange them in any four blocks in the 3x3 crafting table area, as long as each piece of paper is separate.

How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
You'll only need one piece of leather, but three pieces of paper.Emma Witman/Insider

The best way to get lapis lazuli, diamond and obsidian is by mining. Bring torches, food, weapons, and a bucket of water.

For more detailed instructions, you can check out our guide to mining diamonds, but here's the gist: You'll want to dig to at least layer 12 or lower (the "bottom" of the world is layer 0, and "sea level" is layer 63), and bring an iron pickaxe or better to mine the diamonds.

Once you've got your diamonds - you'll need at least two - find a pool of standing lava and pour your bucket of water into it. This will create obsidian, which you'll need at least a diamond pickaxe to mine. You'll need at least four blocks of obsidian.

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How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
You'll get an achievement for mining obsidian.Emma Witman/Insider

Through all this, keep on the lookout for lapis lazuli. This is a dark blue ore that can be found nearly anywhere. The more lapis lazuli you collect, the better - you'll need to use them to make enchantments.

How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
It's easy to confuse lapis lazuli for diamonds, but they're a darker blue.Emma Witman/Insider

Once you've got all your materials, it's time to use a crafting table. In the 3x3 crafting area:

1. Place the book in the top-middle slot.

2. Place the diamonds in the left and right slots of the second row, leaving the middle slot empty.

3. Place the obsidian in the middle-center slot, between the diamonds, and then fill the bottom row with obsidian as well.

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How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
Your enchantment table needs four obsidian, two diamonds, and a book.Emma Witman/Insider

You now have an enchantment table, ready to place down and use. Note that if you want to move it later, you'll need to use a pickaxe; simply punching it will destroy the table.

How to use an enchantment table in 'Minecraft'

When you select the enchantment table to use it, you'll see two slots. The first slot is where you'll place the item you're enchanting. The table can enchant your tools, armor, and most gear (exceptions, like elytra, can instead be enchanted at the anvil).

In the second slot, you'll place the lapis lazuli. The enchantment will require up to three pieces of lapis, depending which level you select. You'll also need to spend experience points, which you can see in the green bar above your hotbar. Killing mobs, mining, and smelting at the furnace are a few easy ways to grab more points if you need them.

Once you're ready to use it, you'll notice that the enchantment table doesn't let you pick what enchantment to get. Instead, you'll just pick enchantment levels, each of which has a selection of buffs it can give. Whenever you pick an enchantment, there's also a random chance of getting a second buff too.

How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
You'll need to be a certain level to unlock the more powerful enchantments.Emma Witman/Insider

If, however, you want a specific item to become enchanted with a specific spell, your best bet is to enchant books until you acquire the spell you'd like. Then, use that enchanted book on the item at an anvil.

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Enhancing the enchantment table with bookshelves

You can make the enchantment table more powerful using bookshelves. Surrounding the table with bookshelves will give you access to higher enchantment levels, up to maximum level of 30. To reach level 30, you'll need 15 bookshelves total.

Here's how to craft a bookshelf:

  1. For one bookshelf, you'll need three books and six planks. The planks can be made of any type of wood, so create planks using whichever tree type is nearest.
  2. Place the six planks in the top and bottom rows of the crafting table's 3x3 grid.
  3. Place the books in the center row of the crafting area grid.
How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
Bookshelves aren't hard to make.Emma Witman/Insider

Once you've created 15 bookshelves, you'll arrange them in either a one-story, almost-full circle of 15 bookshelves that surround your enchantment table, or you can make two-story bookshelves that flank two sides of the enchantment table.

Whatever you do, just make sure there's at least one block of empty space between the bookshelves and your table.

How to make an enchantment table in 'Minecraft' to power up your weapons and armor
A bookshelf setup like this will almost completely surround the enchantment table.William Antonelli/Insider
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