Enchanting Needs a TOTAL Rework. Here is how I would fix it.

This "rant" was originally posted on my Reddit.

Introduction

Lately, I have been playing a lot of survival Minecraft, and one thing I have noticed is how broken enchanting is. How poorly balanced and outdated and luck-based it is. Enchanting can turn the pretty good diamond sword into an absolute god-slayer that literally never breaks. The same can be said for just about every tool in the game. Enchanting is extremely overpowered while at the same time is of very little skill.

Enchanting is one of those mechanics that has had such a lack of updates since its inception. There have only been a handful of changes in fact, outside of adding new enchantments. The reduction of 50 levels to 30, anvils and the lapis requirement are the only three changes I can think of.


Some Enchantments are now Treasure Enchantments

Some enchantments you can get from the enchanting table are WAY too powerful. Others are novelty perks which don't really make a lot of sense and would be better as treasure enchantments. So for starts, I am going to propose to make a bunch of enchantments unobtainable through the enchanting table, as they would be better as treasure enchantments or are too powerful for the enchanting table. I never liked that you could get such novelty perks from a dice roll, and I feel it would be better for gameplay if some of these perks were found only in chests.

Here are the enchantments I would keep as part of the enchanting table:

  • General: Unbreaking.
  • Swords: Sharpness; Looting; Knockback; Smite; BoA.
  • Bows: Power; Punch.
  • Pickaxes: Efficiency.
  • Axes: Sharpness; Efficiency; Smite; BoA; Cleaving.
  • General Armor: Protection; Blast Protection; Fire Protection; Projectile Protection
  • Boots: Feather Falling
  • Leggings: None.
  • Chestplates: None.
  • Helmets/Turtle Shells: None.
  • Tridents: Impaling; Loyalty.
  • Crossbows: Quick Charge; Piercing.
  • Fishing Rods: None other than Unbreaking.

The following are now treasure enchantments and can only be found in loot chests, fishing and trading(1): Thorns; Aqua Affinity; Fire Aspect; Infinity; Sweeping Edge; Fortune; Silk Touch; Flame; Lure; Luck of the Sea; Depth Strider; Channelling; Riptide; Multishot.

(1)trading also needs to be rebalanced to remove the Librarian exploit.

Why have I done this? Well, imagine if potions were the same as enchanting. You throw in some blaze powder and netherwart, and BAM, 3 completely random potions. Great.


The New Way to Enchant Using the Enchanting Table

This change will make enchanting more like potions, and do away with the RNG factor of the enchanting table outright.

Where the lapis lazuli slot is, you can put a different ingredient in to influence what enchantment you get. You will also need a different number of XP levels depending on the level of enchantment you are selecting.

Below I am going to list each enchantment, the ingredient you will need, and in brackets, the number of XP levels to obtain each level of the enchantment. In all cases, level V is unobtainable and can only be made by combining two level IV in an anvil. The same is the case for all other enchantments where the highest level is not displayed in the brackets. The number of XP levels consumed is equal to the level of the enchantment. (an IV enchantment consumes 4 levels, a I consumes 1 XP level).

So here goes:

  • Unbreaking: Iron Ingot (I = 10; II = 20; III = 30)
  • Sharpness/Power/Impaling/Cleaving: Lapis Lazuli (I = 5; II = 15; III = 25; IV = 35)
  • Looting: Gold ingot (I = 15; II = 23; III = 30)
  • Knockback/Punch: Copper ingot (I = 13; II = 25)
  • Smite: Bone (I = 5; II = 13; III = 20; IV = 28)
  • BoA: Spider Eye (same as Smite)
  • Efficiency: Glowstone dust (I = 5; II = 15; III = 25; IV = 30)
  • Protection: Scute (I = 10; II = 20; III = 30)
  • Fire Protection: Magma cream (same as prot)
  • Blast Protection: Gunpowder (same as prot)
  • Projectile Protection: Ender pearl (same as prot)
  • Feather Falling: Phantom membrane (I = 10; II = 20; III = 30)
  • Loyalty: String (I = 10; II = 15; III = 20)
  • Quick Charge: Redstone dust (I = 10; II = 20; III = 30)
  • Piercing: Flint (I = 8; II = 15; III = 23; IV = 30)

I feel this new system would make players pick and choose their enchantments in a much farer way than an exploit or a dice roll. It is more akin to brewing a potion, and reduces the speed at which players can get god-tier tools. The fact many of the more powerful enchantments are now treasure-only means the player will have to explore their world a lot more.


Where to find the Treasure Enchantments

The treasure enchantments can't just be found by fishing. Some of these enchantments can only be found in specific chests.

  • Fortune: Mineshafts
  • Thorns: Mineshafts, Strongholds, Dungeons.
  • Infinity: Bastion Remnants (this enchantment is SUPER powerful).
  • Fire Aspect/Flame: Dungeons; Nether Loot Chests.
  • Sweeping Edge: Any treasure enchantment location.
  • Silk Touch: Archeology.
  • Lure/Luck of the Sea: Fishing; Shipwrecks; Ocean Ruins.
  • Channelling/Riptide/Aqua Affinity/Depth Strider: Buried treasure; Ocean Monuments.
  • Multishot: Pillager outposts; Bastion Remnants.

I put the Silk Touch as archeology because I think it would be really cool in the game's lore if that was some ancient enchantment lost to time and could only be found by excavating it.


Final Words

Congratulations if you read all this, it took a long time for me to put all this together, and compile all my thoughts on how enchanting can be improved.

In general, this new system should remove the luck element from enchanting tables, and encourage the player to explore various dungeons and discover new and more powerful enchantments. It also gives the player much more control over which enchantments they get.

And remember, this is just how I would do it - it's also not properly balanced, only approximately. But still, I feel in SOME form, enchanting needs to be reworked and made less random and more thought-out and skill-based.

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