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Best Crossbow Enchantments in Minecraft (2026)

The three loadouts most survival players run, plus the cheapest anvil order to actually assemble them. Calculator pre-filled below.

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Anvil Calculator

Optimal order · XP cost · Too-Expensive guard
0 = brand new. Every anvil use raises this by 1.

Pick the gear you want to enchant. Books you add below will be merged onto it in the cheapest order we can find.

Books / sacrifices (4)
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Three loadouts to copy

PvP

  • Sharpness V
  • Fire Aspect II
  • Looting III
  • Unbreaking III

Highest melee damage on most mobs. Drop Looting for Knockback II if you fight players.

Survival

  • Sharpness V
  • Looting III
  • Unbreaking III
  • Mending

Self-repairing daily driver. Trade Fire Aspect away to keep Mending viable.

Speedrun

  • Sharpness V
  • Knockback II
  • Unbreaking III

Skip Mending mid-run, you'll have time to add it after gear is settled.

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Why this combo wins

Each loadout above hits a different jobs-to-be-done. PvP wants maximum burst damage and stagger; survival wants self-repair and sustained kills; speedrun wants the cheapest path to a usable endgame item. The exhaustive search in the calculator above will give you an order that adds every book without crossing the survival cap of 40 XP levels per combine.

If you keep hitting “Too Expensive!” despite the calculator's suggestion, you probably have a high prior-work penalty on the item. Read the guide on the Too-Expensive cap for how to plan around it.

FAQ

What are the best enchantments for a Minecraft crossbow?
For most survival playthroughs: Multishot 1, Piercing 4, Quick Charge 3, Unbreaking 3. The page below shows the cheapest anvil order to assemble that combo.
Which enchantments cannot be combined?
Sharpness, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods are mutually exclusive on swords/axes. Silk Touch and Fortune cannot share a tool. Infinity blocks Mending on bows. The calculator above refuses any combine that would violate these rules.
What's the cheapest anvil order?
Start with the lowest-multiplier enchantments (Unbreaking, Sharpness/Efficiency/Power) and finish with the high-cost ones (Looting, Fortune, Thorns). The calculator searches every legal order and prints the minimum.

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