What does lure do in Minecraft?

Fishing is a surprisingly powerful system in Minecraft survival. Fishing rods can be built very early on, as they cost only a few sticks and strings, making them great solutions for food. However, this process can be quite time-consuming, as players will need to wait upwards of half a minute between catches. Thankfully, though, the lure enchantment speeds this process up considerably.

Everything players need to know about how the lure enchantment speeds up fishing can be found in detail below, along with the other useful enchantments that can be placed on a fishing rod.

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All about Minecraft's lure enchantment

A fish about to bite (Image via Mojang)

As with real-world fishing, players will spend quite a bit of time waiting for something to bite. Normally, when the bobber hits the water, a random timer between five and 30 seconds starts. This will determine how long it takes to catch something, and this is where the lure enchantment comes in handy.

Each level of the lure enchantment decreases both the minimum and maximum wait times by five seconds. This means at the maximum level, which is three, players should spend roughly half as long waiting for bites.

This also makes lure an essential enchantment for indoor fishing, particularly with AFK Minecraft fish farms. If the bobber is not directly exposed to sun or moonlight, even by way of blocks that diffuse skylight, such as ice and leaves, the wait time will be roughly doubled. Lure c

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Other fishing rod enchantments

Luck of the sea makes fishing junk, like leather, much less common (Image via Mojang)

While lure is one of the best Minecraft enchantments to put on a fishing rod, there are several other amazing enchantments that can go onto these useful survival items.

The other enchantment unique to fishing rods is the luck of the sea. This effect makes it much more likely for players to reel in treasure while also reducing the chance of fishing up junk. Without the enchantment, Minecraft treasure has a five percent chance of being caught, while junk has a 10% chance. With the luck of the sea III, treasure has a much greater 11.3% chance of being caught than junk's 4.2%.

Fishing rods are also uniquely well suited to the mending enchantment. Successfully catching a fish will give the player XP. The XP given is more than enough to repair the durability lost from the catch, meaning that the Minecraft fishing rod will stay fully repaired while also still giving experience.

Mending is so powerful on fishing rods. In fact, that unbreaking could be considered optional. However, since failed catches will still remove durability but won't give XP, unbreaking is still useful to have.