5 best Minecraft pickaxe enchantments in 2023

The pickaxe is arguably the most important tool in Minecraft. Most of the blocks in the game can only be mined with a pickaxe. Plus, explorers spend hours mining underground to find rare items and resources. However, players can do much better if they unleash the pickaxe's full potential.

This is where enchantments can help. These special powerups can be applied to tools, weapons, and armor. Pickaxes are one of the first gears that players enchant. Hence, they must know which enchantment is best for the tool.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion. While these five enchantments are the only ones for pickaxes, their rankings and preferences are subjective.

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Unleash the special powers of a pickaxe with these five great Minecraft enchantments

1) Mending

Mending treasure enchantment on a netherite pickaxe in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Mending is one of the most famous enchantments in the game. Players will notice that a green bar will appear underneath each of them when they use armor, tools, or weapons. This indicates they have a limited lifespan and will break after a certain point. This is where mending enchantment comes in handy.

It allows that particular gear to repair itself by absorbing XP points picked up by the player. However, for mending to work, players must hold the item.

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2) Efficiency

Efficiency enchantment on a netherite pickaxe in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Mining can be quite a tedious task in the game. When explorers try to find diamonds, they need to mine for hours to gather a few of them. Moreover, players can only increase the mining speed to a certain point by upgrading the material of the pickaxe.

Hence, efficiency enchantment can be of great help in this scenario. It increases the mining speed of a pickaxe, allowing players to plow through hundreds of blocks in minutes.

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3) Fortune

Fortune enchantment on a netherite pickaxe in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

When a pickaxe mines an ore block, it usually drops a set amount of items based on the block type. For example, a diamond ore block will only drop one diamond if mined with a regular pickaxe.

However, players can use the fortune enchantment if they want multiple items from a single block. This increases the number of items dropped by a single block, making mining highly efficient. With the highest level of enchantment, users can even get four diamonds from one ore block.

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4) Silk Touch

Silk Touch enchantment on a netherite pickaxe in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Most of the time, whenever a block is mined, it breaks and drops as a different kind of block or drops an item present inside it. Though it does not matter much if players are explicitly trying to obtain the normal drop, they can get that same block by using silk touch on their pickaxes.

The enchantment allows players to obtain the very block they are mining. For example, miners will get stone blocks instead of cobblestone while mining with silk touch enchanted pickaxe.

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5) Unbreaking

Unbreaking enchantment on a netherite pickaxe in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

As explained above, every piece of gear, including the pickaxe, has limited durability and will break after a certain point. Though it can be permanently fixed by mending, players who do not have the treasure enchantment can also use unbreaking.

This powerup might not allow a pickaxe to repair itself but it will extend the tool's durability. Hence, players can use a single pickaxe long before it breaks.