How to Enchant a Bow in Minecraft

Ryan Barone
July 12, 2023

In the vast world of Minecraft, enchantments hold a special place for adventurers seeking to enhance their gameplay. Really, enchanting in Minecraft is like casting a spell on your equipment, turning them into extraordinary tools of victory.

It's like waving a magic wand and adding that extra "oomph" and giving new powers to weapons and armors—amazing effects like making you fall slower, lighting enemies on fire when hitting them, or even dealing more damage to certain types of enemies!

Enchantability

Enchantments can be placed on pieces of equipment by two methods: 

  • Randomly, by spending experience and Lapis Lazuli from an Enchantment Table.
  • By combining the item with an enchanted book in an Anvil.

Tools made of different materials all have a certain Enchantability value, which determines how "strong" of an enchantment a tool can receive. Enchantments have different levels (usually 1-4), and get stronger with each level. The higher the enchantability of a tool, the higher level enchantments it can get from the Enchanting Table.

How to Enchant a Bow in Minecraft

Again, to enchant an item, you either need to take it to an enchanting table, or grab a bunch of books and use an anvil to apply them by hand. And while bow and arrow target practice is a fun thing to do in Minecraft, imagine if it was kicked up a notch. 

Using an Enchanting Table

To enchant a bow using an enchanting table, place 15 bookshelves around the table and then place the item in the enchanting table with lapis lazuli. There will be a list of enchantments you can use; the number on the bottom right is the level you must be at to use that enchantment. 

A quick note: gaining experience points is like leveling up in the enchanted realm. Defeating adversaries not only brings you closer to victory but also rewards you with precious experience points. These experience points can then be harnessed to enchant your equipment, giving them an edge in battles. It's all about accumulating that XP!

Learn more about the different bow enchantments here

Using an Anvil

To enchant your bow with an anvil, you'll need an enchanted book. (To get one, the process is the same as enchanting any other item.) Using an enchantment table, you can enchant a book with their desired enchantment. Then, repair the item in the anvil using the enchanted book.

Add Enchantments with /give Command

In addition to the above, there is a way to add enchantments to items in the /give command, which requires the use of command arguments. This can let you give special items to your player without enchanting an item by hand!

Arguments are special modifiers that change certain aspects of a command (they can change commands like enchanting given items, italicizing titles, and more). 

(Notice where commas are above: separating the id from the level and the different enchantments from each other!)

You can use the "enchantment" argument to add different enchantments to an item. The argument for the enchantment is brackets ( [] ), meaning there can be multiple enchantments added (or a group of arguments).

Each enchantment contains two arguments in itself: an id and a level (lvl). The id is the name of the enchantment, while the level is the strength of that enchantment. Each different argument is separated by a comma (,).

To summarize, the give command gives the player an item. Adding arguments to the command allows us to add enchantments without having to use an enchantment table or anvil. 

Want to learn more? Check out our Minecraft tutoring options or many Minecraft summer camps held in-person and online.

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