Top 5 rarest enchantments in Minecraft

Not all enchantments are made equal in Minecraft, and certain options are much more difficult to obtain and apply than others.

At the enchanting table, many Minecraft enchantments have different appearance rates, with some popping up more often than others. This changes based on the circumstances, as certain tools and pieces of gear cannot obtain certain enchantments.

However, there are also certain enchantments that cannot be obtained at all via the enchanting table, relying on enchanted books that are looted from different structures in a given world or occasionally from fishing, raid drops, or trading with villagers. These are known as treasure enchantments, and they're among the rarest enchantments in the game.

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What are some of the rarest treasure enchantments in Minecraft?

5) Mending

Mending is the only treasure enchantment obtainable from an enchanting table (Image via Mojang)

Mending is a treasure enchantment, which means it cannot be obtained from the enchanting table at all. This leaves most players searching for enchanted books through other methods, like looting structures such as mineshafts, jungle pyramids, and End cities, or trading with librarian villagers.

While Mending is rare and valuable, it is slightly more available than other treasure enchantments because it appears in many different structures and can also be reliably obtained through villager trades.

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4) Curse of Vanishing

Curse of Vanishing can be a major hindrance (Image via Mojang)

Curse of Vanishing is found within loot chests and provides a negative effect to the item it is applied to. Specifically, Curse of Vanishing makes the enchanted item despawn when its carrier dies.

When the item despawns, players won't be able to retrieve it upon respawning, losing it forever. This means it's an enchantment to be avoided, unless the player has a prank in mind. Both curse enchantments in Minecraft are quite rare compared to most enchantments, but they're not exactly sought after due to their negative properties.

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3) Curse of Binding

Curse of Binding can be a horrible inconvenience (Image via Mojang)

The second detrimental curse enchantment, Curse of Binding can range from being an inconvenience to being the dread of Minecraft players on Hardcore Mode. Curse of Binding prohibits players from removing the piece of gear that bears the enchantment.

This also makes for great pranks, as the only way players are able to really remove the bound gear is to die or break the item. However, this fact is what makes Curse of Binding so terrifying to Minecraft Hardcore Mode players. Death is permanent in this mode, meaning if a player has a Curse of Binding piece of gear equipped, they're more or less stuck with it.

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2) Soul Speed

Soul Speed can be found easily in one location (Image via Mojang)

An enchantment that allows players to move more quickly through Soul Soil and Soul Sand in Minecraft, Soul Speed would likely be the rarest enchantment in the game save for one caveat.

It's true that Soul Speed books are incredibly difficult to find, but they're much more accessible when inside the Nether's bastion remnants. Within bastion remnants, loot chests are slightly tweaked, causing Soul Speed books to be much more plentiful than they would be elsewhere. This makes Soul Speed a very rare enchantment in Minecraft unless one knows where to look.

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1) Frost Walker

Frost Walker isn't the most useful enchantment, but it is incredibly tough to find (Image via Mojang)

Featuring the lowest chance to appear in any available source, Frost Walker is a niche enchantment and stands as the rarest enchantment in Minecraft. At its core, Frost Walker is placed on boots and allows players to form water into ice by walking over it.

Furthermore, players with Frost Walker boots will no longer take damage by standing on damaging blocks like campfires and magma blocks. Overall, unless players are ice farming or want to create things like ice bridges, Frost Walker isn't all that helpful of an enchantment. Regardless, its rarity remains incredibly high in Minecraft.