Enchanted books are a great way to add powerful enchantments to your gear in Minecraft. As an experienced Minecraft player, I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about getting and using enchanted books effectively.
Table of Contents
What are Enchanted Books?
Enchanted books are special items that contain enchantments. When combined with other gear at an anvil, the enchantments get transferred over. This allows you to customize the enchantments on your tools, weapons, and armor.
Some key things to know about enchanted books:
- They come pre-enchanted with random enchantments and levels
- They’re primarily found via fishing, trading, loot chests, or enchanting regular books
- Using them lets you choose which items get which enchantments
Making Enchanted Books
You can create your own enchanted books by enchanting regular books. Just place a book in an enchanting table and choose an enchantment. The book will gain that enchantment and turn purple.
The level of enchantments you can apply depends on your experience level and surrounding bookshelves. Getting to level 30 expands your options dramatically.
Using Anvils to Apply Books
An anvil is required to transfer enchantments from books onto tools, weapons, and armor. Follow these steps:
- Craft an anvil if you don’t have one already
- Place the target item in the left anvil slot
- Place the enchanted book in the middle anvil slot
- The output will show the item with its new enchantment
- Remove the enchanted item from the right slot
This process costs experience levels in addition to damaging the anvil. Be strategic in choosing what to enchant and when.
Tips for Managing Books
- Combine low-level books at an anvil before applying to gear. This saves prior work penalty costs.
- Rename your best enchanted books by type for easier organization. For example, “Sharpness Book” or “Protection Book”.
- Build up a library of books to use as needed instead of rushing to enchant new gear each time.
Ideal Items for Books
Certain highly enchantable items like bows and diamond tools get the most benefit from custom enchanted books.
Bows: Infinity, Flame, Power, Punch, Unbreaking
Swords: Sharpness, Looting, Unbreaking, Mending
Tools: Efficiency, Fortune, Unbreaking, Mending
Focus on your most-used items first when applying books. Leave niche gear for later.
Step-by-Step Example
Let’s walk through enchanting a diamond pickaxe as an example:
- Get experience and bookshelves. Make sure you have at least 15 bookshelves around an enchanting table and have stored 30 levels of experience.
- Enchant books. Spend most of your experience on enchanting regular books. Aim for Efficiency, Unbreaking, Fortune, and Mending books of the highest levels possible.
- Craft a diamond pickaxe. You want the clean base item free of prior work penalties.
- Combine books. If you ended up with multiple low-level books of the same type, combine those first at an anvil before applying to the pickaxe.
- Apply books to pickaxe. Use an anvil to add the books to the pickaxe one at a time. Apply the most valuable books first in case you run out of anvil durability or experience.
- Enjoy your overpowered pickaxe! You now have an incredibly enchanted pickaxe tailored to your needs. Go mine some diamonds!
When to Use Enchanted Books
The main times you’ll want enchanted books are:
- When you have rare/expensive gear you want to protect
- When getting a particular enchantment combo is important
- When you luck into a great book from fishing or trading
- When you have lots of bookshelves and experience to spend
Otherwise, standard enchanting table usage may be more convenient. But enchanted books provide maximum flexibility.
Advanced Tips and Tricks
There are a few extra tips to master to get even more out of your enchanted books:
- Anvils have durability. Carry an extra when combining many books.
- Rename books before combining for free first time.
- Curse of Vanishing destroys items upon death. Beware!
- Books stacked vertically in shelves contribute to enchanting.
- Villager trading is a great source for high-level books.
Hopefully this guide has covered the key things you need to know about enchanted books in Minecraft. Let me know if you have any other questions!
