I’ve lost count of how many new players I’ve seen leave enchanted books behind in dungeon chests because they think they’re useless, or save them for years without ever touching them because they’re scared of wasting them. These small, glowing books are some of the most powerful items in the entire game, letting you add rare, high-tier enchantments to your gear that you can’t always get from a standard enchanting table. If you’ve been sleeping on these items, learning how to use enchanted books in Minecraft will completely change how you approach survival, PvP, and even creative building. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to use them effectively, no fancy mods or cheats required.
How to Use Enchanted Books in Minecraft With an Anvil
The only tool you need to apply enchanted books to gear is an anvil, crafted from 3 iron blocks and 4 iron ingots. You don’t need an enchanting table, lapis lazuli, or any other special supplies besides the book itself, the item you want to enchant, and enough XP levels to cover the cost. To use the anvil, place the item you want to upgrade in the leftmost slot, the enchanted book in the middle slot, and the newly enchanted item will pop up in the right slot for you to take. Always make sure you have enough XP levels before opening the anvil, or you won’t be able to claim your upgraded item.
The XP cost depends on the power and rarity of the enchantment on the book, plus how many other enchantments are already on the item you’re upgrading. A basic Unbreaking I book might only cost 2 levels to apply to a pickaxe, while a Mending book could cost 5 or more levels, especially if you’re adding it to a piece of gear that already has 4 other enchantments. I usually keep at least two anvils in my survival base: one next to my enchanting table for book combining, and one by my front door for quick gear repairs before heading out on adventures. Just remember that anvils break after about 25 uses, so don’t waste them on low-tier items like wooden tools unless you’re just messing around.
Best Use Cases for Enchanted Books Across Playstyles
You can use enchanted books on almost every usable item in the game, from pickaxes and swords to armor, elytra, bows, tridents, and even shears. The right use case depends entirely on what kind of playstyle you prefer, but there are a few universal enchantments that are worth prioritizing no matter how you play. These are the three enchanted books I always hoard for my own survival runs:
- Mending: Repairs your gear as you collect XP, so you never have to craft a new netherite pickaxe again if you take care of it. You can only get this enchantment from chest loot, fishing, or librarian trades, so it’s one of the rarest and most valuable books in the game.
- Unbreaking III: Cuts the durability loss of any item by 70%, saving you tons of resources long-term. Even if you don’t have Mending, Unbreaking III will make a diamond pickaxe last for months of regular mining.
- Protection IV: Reduces all types of damage taken, making even ender dragon or Wither fights feel far less stressful. This is the best all-around armor enchantment for casual players who don’t want to mess with specialized damage protection enchants.
If you’re playing on a PvP server, you’ll want to prioritize Sharpness V or Power V books first, since they give you a huge edge in fights against other players. Creative players often use enchanted books to make custom gear for builds too, like Silk Touch shears to collect rare leaves for decorative builds, or Knockback II sticks to prank friends on multiplayer servers. You don’t have to only save enchanted books for “meta” gear, either – if you want to put Fire Aspect on a golden shovel for digging up sand and cooking it into glass automatically, go for it.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Enchanted Books
It’s easy to waste rare enchanted books if you don’t know what you’re doing, and I’ve made every single one of these mistakes myself over the years. The most common error new players make is applying high-level enchants to low-tier gear. Don’t waste a Mending book on an iron sword or leather chestplate – save those rare enchants for diamond or netherite gear that you’ll use for hundreds of hours. Iron gear breaks too fast to justify using a rare book on it, even if you’re early in the game.
Another mistake is trying to combine incompatible enchants. For example, you can’t put both Protection IV and Blast Protection IV on the same armor piece, or both Silk Touch and Fortune on the same pickaxe. Incompatible enchants will show up as a red cross in the anvil interface, so you’ll know immediately if the combination won’t work. You won’t lose the book or the item if you try, but you will waste time opening the anvil for no reason.
Finally, don’t forget to combine duplicate books before applying them to gear. If you have two Protection II books, combine them in an anvil first to make a single Protection III book. That costs far less XP than applying both Protection II books separately to an armor piece, and you’ll end up with the same final enchantment level. I also recommend renaming your gear after you apply all your enchants, not before – renaming an item adds extra XP cost to every subsequent enchant you add to it, so waiting until the end saves you a ton of levels.
Advanced Tips for Getting the Most Out of Enchanted Books
If you want to get access to every enchantment in the game without grinding for chest loot, set up a librarian villager trading hall. Librarians sell almost every enchanted book in the game for emeralds, and if you cure a zombie villager first, their trade prices drop by 90%. I have a cured librarian in my base that sells Mending books for 1 emerald each, so I never have to worry about fishing for hours to find one. Just make sure you don’t let your villagers get killed by zombies, or you’ll lose those cheap trades forever.
You can also combine enchanted books to make max-level versions for a fraction of the XP cost of applying lower level books one by one. For example, four Sharpness I books can be combined into two Sharpness II books, then those two can be combined into one Sharpness III book, and so on up to Sharpness V. You can stack up to 10 different enchantments on a single item, as long as none of them are incompatible, so you can make a super pickaxe that has Unbreaking III, Mending, Efficiency V, and Silk Touch all in one.
If you’re late game, make sure to raid ancient cities for enchanted book loot. The chests in ancient cities often have very high level enchants that you can’t get from librarian trades, like Swift Sneak III for leggings. If you're playing with mods, many modded enchantments only come in book form, so learning how to use them opens up even more gameplay possibilities. Even if you only play vanilla, taking the time to collect and combine enchanted books will make your gear far more powerful than anything you can get from an enchanting table alone.
At the end of the day, learning how to use enchanted books in Minecraft opens up a ton of power that you can’t get from just using an enchanting table alone. You don’t have to hoard every book you find, but saving the rare ones for your best gear will make every part of the game easier, from mining to fighting bosses. Play around with combinations that fit your playstyle, and don’t be afraid to test out weird enchants on throwaway items if you have extra XP to burn. You'll be surprised how much of a difference a single enchanted book can make to your survival run.