Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator
Build the highest-damage ranged loadout with the lowest possible experience cost. Use our Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator to compute the optimal anvil sequence for Power V, Flame, Punch II, Unbreaking III, and Infinity or Mending, plus Crossbow Multishot vs. Piercing IV combinations.
Interactive Ranged DPS & Ammo Economy Simulator
Should you build an Infinity Bow, a Mending Bow, a Multishot Firework Crossbow, or a Piercing IV Shield-Breaker Crossbow? Test your ranged combat loadout inside our Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator DPS simulator below:
Infinity vs. Mending in the Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator
Since Minecraft 1.11.1, Infinity and Mending have been mutually exclusive on Bows in vanilla Survival mode. When you toggle Infinity on inside our Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator, Mending is automatically disabled (and vice versa) so you never plan an illegal combination. Here is how to decide which build fits your survival style:
- When to Choose the Infinity God Bow: A single stack of 64 arrows takes up valuable inventory slots during long End City raids, Trial Chambers, or Nether expeditions. With Infinity and Unbreaking III, a Bow has an effective durability of roughly 1,536 shots (384 base durability × 4). Even better, repairing an Infinity bow on an anvil only requires a plain unenchanted bow (crafted from 3 sticks and 3 string), allowing you to fire over 7,500 arrows before the anvil prior work penalty ever reaches the 39-level cap!
- When to Choose the Mending God Bow: Infinity does not prevent the consumption of Tipped Arrows (such as Arrows of Harming II, Slowness IV, or Weakness) or Spectral Arrows! If you already have a Skeleton mob grinder or Fletcher villager trading hall supplying unlimited stacks of arrows—or if you rely on Tipped Arrows in PvP—choose Mending in the Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator. Because Mending has a ×2 book multiplier (2 levels) instead of Infinity's ×4 book multiplier (4 levels), a Mending God Bow is also cheaper to assemble on the anvil!
| Ranged Enchantment | Compatible Weapons | Max Level | Book Multiplier | Combat Effect & Anvil Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power | Bow | Level V | ×1 (5 Levels Max) | +150% Arrow Damage (up to 25 DMG / 12.5 Hearts on full crit) |
| Punch | Bow | Level II | ×2 (4 Levels Max) | Adds +6 blocks of horizontal knockback regardless of bow charge |
| Flame | Bow | Level I | ×2 (2 Levels Max) | Ignites targets for 5 seconds (4 fire damage) and detonates TNT |
| Infinity | Bow | Level I | ×4 (4 Levels Max) | Fires infinite regular arrows from 1 arrow; conflicts with Mending |
| Quick Charge | Crossbow | Level III | ×1 (3 Levels Max) | Reduces Crossbow reload time from 1.25s down to 0.50s |
| Multishot vs. Piercing | Crossbow | I / IV | ×2 / ×1 (2 / 4 Lvl) | Mutually exclusive: 3-way firework spread vs. shield-piercing shots |
Step-by-Step Optimal Anvil Order for a 5-Enchantment God Bow
To craft a maxed 5-enchantment Bow without wasting XP orbs, select Bow in the Minecraft Bow Enchantment Calculator above and follow this balanced binary tree:
- Step 1 (4 Levels): Combine Bow (left slot) + Infinity Book (right slot, cost 4) [or Punch II if building a Mending bow] → Produces Bow (1 use).
- Step 2 (4 Levels): Combine Power V Book (left slot, cost 5) + Punch II Book (right slot, cost 4) → Produces Book (Power V + Punch II, 1 use).
- Step 3 (11 Levels): Combine Bow (Infinity) (left slot) + Book (Power V + Punch II) (right slot) → Produces Bow (2 uses).
- Step 4 (2 Levels): Combine Unbreaking III Book (left slot, cost 3) + Flame Book (right slot, cost 2) → Produces Book (Unbreaking III + Flame, 1 use).
- Step 5 (9 Levels): Combine Bow (left slot) + Book (Unbreaking III + Flame) (right slot) → Completed 5-Enchantment God Bow!
Pro Survival Tip: Can you combine two skeleton drop bows that already have Infinity and Mending? No—the anvil enforces mutual exclusivity even when merging two pre-enchanted bows. However, you can combine damaged bows dropped by skeletons at a Grindstone first to strip unwanted low-tier enchantments and reset their prior work penalty to zero.
Crossbow Multishot vs. Piercing IV Strategy
When building a Crossbow for Trial Chambers or Raid farms, remember that Multishot and Piercing IV cannot be combined together in survival mode. Choose Multishot + Quick Charge III when firing 7-star Firework Rockets into dense crowds of mobs for massive area-of-effect blast damage. Choose Piercing IV + Quick Charge III for general survival ammo conservation, since every arrow passes cleanly through lines of enemies and can be picked back up off the floor indefinitely.
Frequently Asked Questions (Bow & Crossbow Enchanting Guide)
Crossbows use a separate enchantment pool from Bows (Quick Charge III, Multishot or Piercing IV, Unbreaking III, and Mending). When you select Crossbow in our ranged anvil optimizer, the picker automatically switches to the legal Crossbow enchantment pool. To deal massive damage with a Crossbow, load 7-Star Firework Rockets into your off-hand with Multishot!
Yes! Unlike regular bow arrows (which bounce off raised Shields), arrows fired from a Piercing I–IV Crossbow pass straight through an opponent's Shield in both Java and Bedrock 1.21, dealing full arrow damage and applying any Tipped Arrow potion effect (like Instant Damage II).
A fully drawn unenchanted Bow deals 6 to 11 damage (average 9 on a critical full draw). Power V multiplies arrow damage by 2.5× (1 + 0.25 * (5 + 1)), boosting a fully charged shot to 15 to 25 raw damage (7.5 to 12.5 hearts)—enough to one-shot any unarmored mob or player!
Explore All 10 Minecraft 1.21 Enchantment & Anvil Calculators
Switch to any of our other specialized calculators in the survival optimization network: