How to avoid bad enchantments in Minecraft

Enchanting is one of the most important mechanics in Minecraft survival. Protection makes armor more effective at reducing damage, Fortune causes ores to drop more plentiful materials when mined, and Mending allows gear to be used essentially indefinately. However, there are a few enchantments, and even curses, that are essential to avoid when buffing gear.

All the different methods for avoiding bad enchantments and even removing them from otherwise useful items can be found detailed down below.

---

How to avoid bad Minecraft enchantments

Use burner items to cycle enchantments

Buying cheap enchantments will reset the expensive ones (Image via Mojang)

Part of the gimmick of the Minecraft enchanting table is that you won't be able to see everything that may or may not be placed onto an item. You'll be told of a single enchantment, though there's a chance for more to be added at higher levels. That's what makes level 30 enchantments so important.

This is what makes it so annoying when a level 30 slot is being taken up by a bad buff like Bane of Arthropods or Breach. Thankfully, there is a way to circumvent this. You can put a different item onto the enchanting table and buy the cheapest, level one enchantment. This will refresh the current list and cause there to be a new level 30 offering for the original item.

You could also use books for these burner items and then store them. It might take some time, but you'll eventually be able to combine these into high-level enchanted books for a ton of different random effects. This might save you time needing to hunt for a particular enchantment in the future.

---

Don't use the enchanting table

Villager trading is a great way to control exactly what enchantments go on your gear (Image via Mojang)

The only surefire way to avoid bad enchantments is to avoid traditional enchanting. A bad effect can be put on an otherwise amazing piece of gear without you being able to do anything to stop it. However, his doesn't mean that you have to give up these buffs. You'll just need to get them in a different way.

That's where Minecraft villager trading comes in. Placing a lectern near a villager will turn them into a librarian. These villagers have a chance of offering an enchanted book as a first-level trade. You can then break and re-place the lectern to reset their trades until you see a book you want. Then, you can simply trade with them to lock it in.

---

Grindstone bad enchantments away

A player removing bane of arthropods from an item (Image via Mojang)

Sometimes, bad enchantments are unavoidable. RNG can cause a master-level toolsmith or weaponsmith to sell or a dangerous Minecraft end city to contain poorly enchanted diamond gear. Thankfully, these bad enchantments can be removed, allowing for better buffs to be placed on the items.

This can be done by placing the items into a Minecraft grindstone. This will remove whatever enchantments are on the item and will even give a proportional amount of experience points back to the player in the process.

The items used to cycle through enchantments mentioned previously can also be put through a grindstone to get some of the XP used back, though it won't be much since those are only first-level effects.