Overview
Bane of Arthropods is the specialist nobody plans for and everybody wishes they had at exactly one moment: standing in an abandoned mineshaft with cave spiders coming out of two tunnels at once. Its target list is short — spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees — and against everything else in the game it contributes nothing at all. That is a harsh trade on a sword you carry everywhere, which is why most players take Sharpness instead and accept the mineshaft being difficult. Where it earns a book is on a second sword kept for a specific job. Cave spider spawner farms, silverfish-heavy strongholds and ominous trial chambers full of Infested mobs are all places where the damage bonus is enormous and the mobs are numerous enough for it to matter. It also applies Slowness on hit, which is a genuinely useful secondary effect against fast, small mobs that would otherwise be hard to land a second swing on. It cannot share a sword with Sharpness, Smite, Impaling, Density or Breach, so the decision is binary and worth making deliberately rather than by whichever book turned up first.
A dedicated mineshaft or stronghold sword — cave spiders, silverfish and endermites die in far fewer swings, and the Slowness on hit stops them closing in from behind.
Adds damage against spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, and slows them on hit. The narrowest of the three damage enchantments.
Bane of Arthropods caps at V. Being a standard enchantment, an enchanting table can produce it directly.
Weight 5 gives it roughly 13–21% of the pool a table draws from for an item in its slot, and that share is about how often a level-30 table puts it in front of you.
How to get it
Roll it at a table with 15 bookshelves, buy the book from a librarian, or combine 2 level IV books on an anvil for level V. Its weight of 5 makes it a fairly common table offer on swords and axes.
Tips
- Keep it on a second sword rather than your main one; against zombies and skeletons it does literally nothing.
- It slows the target on hit, which matters more against cave spiders than the raw damage does.
- Bees count as arthropods, so do not put this on the axe you use around a beehive farm.
- Plan the whole set with the enchantment calculator before committing anvil levels.
What each level does
Level by level, this is what you get. Most of the gain is in reaching V, and two IV books on an anvil make one V.
Bane of Arthropods V adds 12.5 damage against arthropods.
| Level | Effect |
|---|---|
| I | +2.5 damage against spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, plus Slowness IV for 1–1.5 s |
| II | +5 damage against spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, plus Slowness IV for 1–2 s |
| III | +7.5 damage against spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, plus Slowness IV for 1–2.5 s |
| IV | +10 damage against spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, plus Slowness IV for 1–3 s |
| V | +12.5 damage against spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, plus Slowness IV for 1–3.5 s |
Properties
The enchanting table can roll it, and librarians sell it as a book — breaking and replacing a lectern rerolls the trade until one does.
- Weight
- 5 (13–21%)
- Incompatible enchantments
- Breach, Density, Impaling, Sharpness, Smite
What it can be applied to
Bane of Arthropods can be applied to Sword and Axe.
- Sword
- Axe
Gear it goes on
Incompatible enchantments
Bane of Arthropods cannot share an item with Breach, Density, Impaling, Sharpness, and Smite.
The anvil does not warn you. It leaves the conflicting enchantment off, keeps the cost, and hands the item back, so plan the order before you spend the book.
How to get it
Enchanting table or an enchanted book.
Build the full fifteen-bookshelf ring and take the level-30 slot: below 30 the pool is smaller and the levels are lower.
Command
Cheats on: the first command enchants what is in your hand with Bane of Arthropods V, and the second spawns the finished item. The component syntax below replaced the old NBT tag in 1.20.5.
Apply it
/enchant @s minecraft:bane_of_arthropods 5Give an enchanted item
/give @s wooden_sword[enchantments={levels:{"minecraft:bane_of_arthropods":5}}]Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
What is the maximum level of Bane of Arthropods?
Bane of Arthropods goes up to level 5. Bane of Arthropods V adds 12.5 damage against arthropods.
How do you get Bane of Arthropods in Minecraft?
Enchanting table or an enchanted book.
What does Bane of Arthropods conflict with?
Bane of Arthropods cannot be combined with Breach, Density, Impaling, Sharpness, and Smite.
What does Bane of Arthropods V do?
Bane of Arthropods V +12.5 damage against spiders, silverfish, endermites and bees, plus Slowness IV for 1–3.5 s.