The highest level of Protection in Minecraft 1.19 update

When playing Minecraft's Survival Mode, players will need all the protection they can get from as many sources as possible. This includes armor and enchantments, such as Protection.

Protection comes in a few different forms in Minecraft. There is a base Protection enchantment but also those like Fire Protection, Projectile Protection and Blast Protection.

As of version 1.19, Protection as an enchantment can reach a maximum rank of four without using the cheat console, mods or add-ons.

At Protection IV, players will be able to receive a large amount of defense.

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Breaking down the defense values of Protection IV in Minecraft

A player enchants a helmet with Protection IV in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Each Protection enchantment in Minecraft increases the damage reduction of an armor piece. This effect increases for each piece of armor that has the enchantment applied to it.

Protection protects players from almost all sources of damage, even if the armor won't protect players from it. For example, players can use the enchantment to reduce damage from ender pearls, something armor wouldn't normally protect them from.

However, Protection doesn't protect players from certain sources such as the /kill command, starvation or the sonic boom attack that the Warden fires.

Protection and its variants operate on a percentage-based formula. Specifically, the formula is (4 x enchantment rank)% for each armor piece that has the enchantment applied to it.

This means that in standard vanilla Minecraft gameplay, each piece of armor can receive a 16% damage reduction. If every piece of a player's armor is enchanted with Protection IV, players can receive a whopping 64% damage reduction total.

This amount of damage reduction is truly impressive and should keep players considerably safe from various hazards, including hostile mobs and environmental sources.

It's important to note, however, that Protection is incompatible with its other variants. Without mods or commands, players can only place one Protection enchantment on each armor piece.

Players should keep this in mind when applying various Protection enchantments. They'll want to make informed decisions if they want to spread out their general damage reduction, protection from projectiles and protection from fire. However, if players use commands to apply multiple Protection enchantments to their armor, the effects do, in fact, stack.

The upper limit between all Protection enchantments' stacking values is roughly 80%. This is a huge boon to players, as reducing 80% of damage from a majority of sources is a great way to stay alive and avoid compromising situations.

Protection is especially helpful in Hardcore Mode, when one death will completely lock players out of their world. In this context, survival is paramount above all other things, making enchantments like Protection invaluable.

Throw in a few Totems of Undying, and players should be able to avoid even the most dire of situations when dealing with the many dangers of a Minecraft world.

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer