Ranking the Minecraft enchantments for shovels

Shovels in Minecraft allow players to mine certain blocks faster than other tools. Players should carry it if they plan on mining a large patch of dirt, sand, or gravel.

Gravel is a very easy block to mine, but if players get stuck under a bunch of it inside of a cave, they can possibly die if they do not get out fast enough. Using a shovel will help players mine the gravel faster. Shovels are also useful for blocks such as snow, soul sand, or clay.

Like other weapons in Minecraft, shovels can also be enchanted! Shovels have six enchantments that can be placed on them! Check out the shovel enchantments ranked from best to worst!

---

Minecraft shovel enchantments ranked from best to worst!

Unbreaking

(Image via Minecraft wiki)

Unbreaking is one of the best enchantments for a player to have on really anything!

Unbreaking allows players to use the shovel with a chance to avoid durability reduction. Unbreaking lengthens the life of the shovel, and it will not break as easily. The max level of enchantment for unbreaking is level three. The higher the level of enchantment, the stronger the enchantment is.

---

Mending

(Image via Minecraft Forum)

Mending is an amazing enchantment to have on every item in Minecraft. Mending allows players to take the XP that is gained 4, and use it to repair the shovel.

Mending is considered a treasure enchantment, and players may only find it in the Minecraft world and never on an enchantment table. Mending is a good enchantment if an item is going to be used a lot by the player.

---

Efficiency

(Image via Gamepedia)

Efficiency is a tool in Minecraft that allows players to mine objects quicker, and it increases the rate at which players can mine a patch of blocks faster.

This enchantment is useful if the player is in the Nether because in reality, no one really wants to be in the nether longer than they have to. This enchantment will save the player some time and allow blocks to be mined quicker.

The max level of enchantment for efficiency is level V.

---

Fortune

(Image via Minecraft Forum)

The fortune enchantment increases the amount of blocks that drops when players break the block. Fortune is a good enchantment to have when players need a large amount of resources.

Fortune can also be beneficial for players if players want to mine a lot of soul sand, and spawn wither for XP. Soul sand is mined fastest with a shovel, so having fortune on the shovel while mining the sand can be helpful.

The max level of enchantment for fortune is level three. Players should keep in mind that fortune does not increase the amount of XP dropped from mining, it only increases the amount of blocks that are dropped.

---

Silk Touch

(Image via frickt on YouTube)

Silk touch is only at the bottom of the list because it is not the most useful enchantment for a shovel. Silk touch is an enchantment that allows players to mine fragile items as the block itself in Minecraft.

For example, mining diamonds with silk touch forces the block to drop as an actual diamond block instead of the diamond ore. Since diamonds and other such resources cannot be mined with a shovel, this enchantment is not that helpful on a shovel.

It can be beneficial if a player is trying to mine snow blocks with a shovel, but dirt and sand already come out as their original blocks themselves, so it is not the best enchantment to have on a shovel specifically.

---

Curse of Vanishing

(Image via RajCraft on YouTube)

This enchantment in Minecraft can be considered an actual curse, and it's not very helpful at all.

This enchantment forces the player's weapon to disappear when the player dies. This means if the player dies by a creeper right next to spawn, their shovel will be dropped and will vanish into thin air. They will not be able to pick it back up.

The max level of enchantment for curse of vanishing is level one. It is also possible for players to find the curse of vanishing enchantment inside of a book via trading from librarian villagers.