If you’ve ever spent three hours digging for diamonds only to have your new pickaxe break mid-mine because you forgot to repair it, you know how valuable long-lasting, high-performing gear is in Minecraft. Enchanted books are one of the most useful tools in the game for boosting your gear’s stats, even if you don’t have a fully upgraded enchantment table set up yet. I remember fumbling with an anvil for almost 20 minutes my first time trying to figure out how to use enchanted books on Minecraft, so I put this guide together to save you that same frustration. We’ll cover everything from gathering the right materials to avoiding costly mistakes that waste your hard-earned XP and rare enchantments.
What You Need to Use Enchanted Books on Minecraft
Before you start applying enchants to your gear, you’ll need a few core items to make the process work, and none of them are particularly hard to find if you’re already in the mid-game. First, you need an Anvil, crafted with three blocks of iron and four iron ingots. Anvils take damage over time with use, so it’s smart to keep a spare on hand if you plan to do a lot of enchanting. You’ll also need the Enchanted book matching the item type you want to upgrade — you can’t put a bow-specific enchant like Power on a pickaxe, for example.
You’ll also need 1-30 XP levels depending on the enchantment rarity and how many previous enchants are already on your gear. Higher-level enchants like Mending or Protection IV will cost more than basic ones like Unbreaking I. The last thing you need is the gear you want to upgrade, ideally diamond or netherite if you’re using rare enchants, to avoid wasting high-value books on low-tier gear that will break quickly.
The biggest benefit of using enchanted books instead of enchanting gear directly at an enchantment table is that you can pick exactly which enchant you get, instead of rolling random enchants that you don’t want. The only downside is that you’ll spend extra XP on the anvil use, but the control you get is worth it for high-value gear like netherite armor or your main mining pickaxe.
Step-by-Step Process to Apply Enchanted Books to Your Gear
The process for applying enchanted books is the same across both Java and Bedrock editions, so you don’t have to adjust steps depending on which version you play. First, place your anvil on a solid block anywhere you want, and right-click it to open the three-slot interface. If you’re playing on console or mobile, just tap the anvil to open the menu.
Next, put the gear you want to enchant in the leftmost slot of the anvil menu. This can be any tool, weapon, armor piece, or even other enchanted books if you’re combining them to make higher-level versions. Then place the enchanted book in the middle slot of the anvil interface. You’ll see the enchanted version of your item pop up in the right slot, with a green number showing how many XP levels the process will cost.
If you have enough XP levels to cover the cost, just click the enchanted item in the right slot to add it to your inventory, and the process is done. If you see a "Too Expensive!" error instead of a level cost, that means either you don’t have enough XP, or you’ve upgraded that item too many times already, making the total cost exceed the 39 level cap for anvil use. That’s a common frustration for players who apply enchants one at a time to the same piece of gear, so we’ll cover how to avoid that later.
You can also rename your gear at the same time you apply enchants for a small extra XP cost. It’s a good idea to do this all at once, because renaming it later will add an extra cost that you could avoid by handling it during the enchantment process.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Enchanted Books
It’s really easy to waste rare enchants and hours of XP if you don’t know what to watch out for, and I’ve made almost all of these mistakes myself at some point. These are the most common errors that new players make, and avoiding them will save you a ton of frustration:
- Wasting high-level enchants on low-quality gear: Don't put Unbreaking III or Mending on a wooden or stone pickaxe, it's a total waste of a rare book and XP. Save high-tier enchants for diamond or netherite gear that will last for hundreds of uses.
- Combining incompatible enchants: You can't have both Sharpness and Smite on a sword, or both Infinity and Mending on a bow, so double check compatible enchantment combinations before you spend XP on a combination that won't work.
- Forgetting that anvil damage can break mid-process: If your anvil is almost broken (you’ll see cracks on its texture), use a different one for high-cost enchants, or you might lose your book and XP if it breaks mid-use.
- Applying enchants in the wrong order: Always apply cheaper, lower-level enchants first, then add rarer, higher-cost ones later to keep total XP costs as low as possible. I made this mistake once when I applied the Mending enchantment to my diamond sword first, then added four other enchants, and the total cost ended up being 45 levels, which I didn’t have. If I had added the cheaper enchants first, the total cost would have been 12 levels lower.
Another small mistake people make is combining enchanted books of different levels to try to get a higher one. You need two books of the exact same level to make the next tier up — two Sharpness II books make one Sharpness III, but a Sharpness I and Sharpness II won’t combine into anything useful, and you’ll just waste XP trying.
Creative Ways to Get the Most Value From Enchanted Books
Once you get the hang of basic enchantment application, you can use a few tricks to stretch your enchanted books even further, even if you don’t have a ton of XP to spend. First, if you have multiple low-level enchanted books of the same type, combine them in an anvil to make higher-level versions, instead of applying each low-level one separately. This cuts down on the total XP cost when you eventually apply the final high-level book to your gear.
You don’t have to craft enchanted books yourself either, and most of the rarest enchants are easier to get from other sources. You can get enchanted books from fishing, looting dungeons and ancient cities, or trading with librarian villagers. Setting up a librarian villager trading hall is the most consistent way to get rare enchants like Mending, Silk Touch, and Protection IV without grinding for XP or exploring dangerous structures for hours. All you need is a few lecterns, some unemployed villagers, and a bit of patience to re-roll their trades until you get the enchants you want.
If you play with other people on a server, you can also trade enchanted books with other players to get the exact ones you need without grinding for them. For example, if you have an extra Power V book for bows but you only play with a sword, you can trade it to a friend for a Sharpness V book that fits your playstyle better. You can also keep a chest of spare enchanted books for when you eventually upgrade from diamond to netherite gear, so you don’t have to re-collect all your favorite enchants again.
Another small trick: if you have a piece of gear that’s almost broken with multiple high-level enchants, you can combine it with a new, unenchanted piece of the same gear in an anvil to transfer all the enchants over, instead of reapplying each book separately. This costs a bit of XP, but it’s way cheaper than buying or finding all those enchanted books again. Just make sure you don’t accidentally put the new gear in the middle slot, or you’ll lose all the enchants.
At the end of the day, learning how to use enchanted books on Minecraft is a small skill that makes a huge difference in how fun and easy your playthroughs are. You don’t need a maxed out base or hundreds of levels to start using them, even a simple Unbreaking I book on your first diamond pickaxe will save you hours of mining for replacement gear. Don’t be scared to experiment with small enchants first, you’ll pick up the rhythm of what works for your playstyle in no time. Even if you make a mistake and waste a low-level book, it’s not the end of the world, and you’ll know better next time.