Explaining weird Minecraft enchantments: impaling, looting, more

Minecraft enchantments become a lot more useful once their actual effects are explained.

Whether you’re crafting the best sword possible or just looking to make the most efficient shovel, enchantments are a core part of Minecraft. They serve as a way to use levels effectively and upgrade core equipment. While most are pretty self-explanatory, a few Minecraft enchantments really need to be properly explained. Here’s how three of the stranger enchantments work and how best to use them. 

Minecraft impaling enchantment explained

Tridents are one of the more specific tools in Minecraft, but anyone who enjoys using them should give impaling a try. The impaling enchantment, which is only applicable to tridents, greatly boosts damage against sea creatures. The exact damage is equivalent to one-and-a-fourth hearts. This doesn’t matter too much at level one, but an impaling V trident does an absolutely insane amount of damage.

While the enchantment works against axolotls, fish, and all other underwater beings, it’s primarily meant for fighting against guardians. A full impaling trident can one-shot guardians at any difficulty level. Elder guardians die in just two hits. Any player interested in building an underwater base with conduits should give impaling a shot.

What does looting actually do in Minecraft?

Looting is one of the most valuable enchantments in all of Minecraft, but its actual effect is a little tricky to explain. Whenever players use a looting-enchanted sword to kill a mob, that mob will drop more items from its respective loot table. This applies to both hostile and non-hostile mobs. Killing a pig will drop more pork, while killing a spider can drop more Spider Eyes.

In addition to increasing the amount of loot dropped, looting also increases the chance of rarer loot appearing. Rare drops usually have a 2.5% chase of appearing, but each level in looting raises the effective chance up to 5.5% at the maximum level. There are a few items that are exempt from the looting enchantment such as the Skulker shells. Withers and golems are similarly unaffected by this enchantment’s effects.

Minecraft frost walker boots enchantment explained

Frost walker is one of the weirdest enchantments in all of Minecraft, but it’s surprisingly useful. This boots-exclusive enchantment is useful for transporting across all sorts of difficult terrain. As its name implies, Frost Walker will automatically freeze water below the player. The frosted ice isn’t very stable, so players must constantly move to avoid falling into the water.

In addition to walking on water, the frost walker boots enchantment also protects against certain heat sources. Players become immune to campfires and magma while wearing fort walkers, but it does not protect against lava. Protection from magma is still extremely valuable in the nether and at certain levels underground.

With so many weird enchantments on your Minecraft gear, it’s worth making the effort to protect them.