The bow is arguably one of the more useful weapons in all of Minecraft. It allows the player to fight enemies at a distance and is absolutely required for bringing down enemies like the Ender Dragon or the Wither. Getting a powerful bow is essential for anyone with combat or boss fights in mind on their next playthrough.
Part of what makes a bow a capable weapon is the enchantment attached to it. Some enchantments can increase the damage output while others can seriously cut back on the grind needed to arm them. Here are all of the enchantments a bow can have and why they’re so useful.
7 Curse of Vanishing
This is one enchantment the player does not want to have on their bow. It is a curse after all. Curse of Vanishing causes the bow to be destroyed when the player dies. It doesn’t matter if the bow is equipped or not, if it’s in the player’s inventory when they die, it’s gone forever.
For players doing a Hardcore run, this hardly matters. But for those less experienced on a standard Survival run, this can be a major problem, especially if more valuable enchantments are in place. For obvious reasons, this is the least useful enchantment to have on a bow.
6 Unbreaking
Unbreaking is a great enchantment to have on a bow. It essentially allows the weapon to be used more times before it completely breaks. A bow can typically be fired 384 times without the Unbreaking enchantment. Unbreaking I allows the bow to be fired 768 times, while Unbreaking III expands that to a whopping 1,536 times.
This ensures that the bow is kept in good shape and the player has plenty of uses in battle before it needs to be replaced. This also minimizes overall resource consumption as the player is repairing or replacing it less frequently. While incredibly useful, it’s definitely outclassed by other enchantments.
5 Punch
Punch is an enchantment that causes bows to knockback enemies. Each level of Punch will increase the level of Knockback by three blocks up to a maximum of six. This means at full enchantment an enemy will be sent flying back six blocks.
Clever players can use this enchantment in a number of scenarios. They can keep dangerous enemies at bay, separate groups, or send an enemy flying into lava or off a cliff. While it doesn’t increase the damage a player deals, Punch is a good way to keep foes at more than arm’s length.
4 Flame
When a bow is enchanted with Flame, it causes all arrows to become flaming arrows. When the arrow strikes an enemy, it does the standard damage and then applies burn for five seconds. This is a great way to increase damage output.
A side benefit is that these arrows will not set fire to flammable objects, only mobs. It can also be used to kill animals like Cows or Chickens and cause them to drop Cooked versions of their meat. The only reason this doesn’t rank higher is that it prevents XP orbs from dropping if the opponent is killed by the flames.
3 Power
The Power enchantment is meant to increase the damage output of bows. Without the enchantment, bows will deal half a heart of damage when not charged and three hearts when fully charged. Power I increases this to a full heart and four and a half hearts respectively. Power V makes it one and a half hearts and a whopping seven and a half hearts when fully charged.
This damage output gets even more absurd if the bow happens to deal a critical when fully charged. It causes an amazing 12 and a half hearts of damage. That’s enough to kill a lightly armored enemy in one hit. Players who intend to do a lot of fighting with bows should strongly consider getting this Enchantment placed on them as soon as possible.
2 Infinity
Infinity is a very powerful enchantment that’s considered a must-have on bows. With this enchantment, bows will no longer consume traditional arrows when fired. It still requires having a single arrow on the player, but it will allow them to fire endlessly without ever consuming that arrow.
There are some limited downsides to this enchantment that need to be considered. Arrows fired with the Infinity enchantment can never be recovered so the player can’t accumulate a mass of arrows. This enchantment also doesn’t apply to any arrows that are Tipped or Spectral, it only works on standard arrows. Still, Infinity is a fantastic enchantment that minimizes Arrow farming, keeps the inventory clean, and ensures the player never runs out of ammo in a fight.
1 Mending
Arguably the most useful enchantment for bows in Minecraft is Mending. With this in place, bows will have their durability repaired whenever they come into contact with XP orbs. With Unbreaking III and Mending, players should rarely if ever have to replace their bow when it’s used in combat.
The downside to this enchantment is that it consumes XP whenever it needs to be repaired which can make XP farms with bows very impractical. Mending also cannot be used in tandem with Infinity so players will need to keep a supply of ammo. However, for players wanting to use Tipped or Spectral arrows, have an automatic arrow farm, access to a Fletcher Villager, or don’t want to shoulder the cost of replacing/repairing a heavily enchanted bow, Mending is by far the best enchantment.