Overview
An Iron Sword is where combat stops being a gamble. Six damage a swing takes a zombie, a skeleton or a creeper down in four hits, and 250 uses lasts through several serious cave trips. Just as important, it is cheap enough to enchant without regret: iron's enchantability of 14 is higher than diamond's 10, which means a level-30 enchant on an iron sword often produces better enchantments than the same levels spent on diamond. Plenty of experienced players deliberately enchant iron gear first for exactly that reason, use it while they gather diamonds, and then move on. Repair is a single ingot on an anvil or a grindstone, and iron is the one material you will never be short of once a strip mine exists. The practical role is the whole middle of the game — the Nether trip, the first raid, the mineshaft, the first ocean monument. Sharpness IV or V on iron closes most of the gap with an unenchanted diamond blade at a small fraction of the cost. Most worlds spend more hours holding this blade than any other, and almost nobody notices when they finally put it down.
The whole middle game — Nether trips, raids, mineshafts and monuments — with enough durability to finish a run and cheap enough repairs to never think about it.
Iron Sword is one of the 6 variants of this shape in the game. What changes between them is the material, and with it the hardness, the drops, the durability and the recipe — so every figure on this page is this variant's own. Stone Sword is the same shape in a different material.
Iron Sword is a weapon item in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. Durability is 250. An anvil plus Iron Ingot restores it; two worn copies can also be merged.
It can be enchanted, which is usually worth doing before heavy use. It is unstackable. You get it by killing Vex.
It is crafted from Iron Ingot and Stick. It goes into exactly one recipe: Iron Nugget.
About the iron tool set
How to get it
Craft 1 from 2 Iron Ingots and 1 Stick. Iron ore peaks around Y 15 and again near Y -24, so one mining session comfortably supplies a sword, a pickaxe and a shield.
Tips
- Enchant iron before diamond: its enchantability of 14 beats diamond's 10, so the same levels buy better results.
- One iron ingot on an anvil restores a quarter of the 250 uses, which is cheaper than crafting a new blade.
- Sharpness V on iron deals more than an unenchanted diamond sword, so do not wait for diamonds to start enchanting.
- Put Looting III on the sword you actually farm mobs with — that is where the XP calculator numbers come from.
Damage and attack speed
Iron Sword deals 6 damage per hit and swings 1.6 times a second, which works out at 9.6 damage per second when every swing is fully charged.
A swing that lands before the cooldown bar refills deals a fraction of that, so waiting for the bar is worth more than clicking faster.
That is 4 hits to kill a zombie or a creeper, the same for a skeleton, and 3 hits for a spider.
Properties
Iron Sword lasts 250 uses before it breaks, and Iron Ingot repairs it on an anvil. Two worn copies can also be merged, on an anvil or a grindstone. Unbreaking III roughly quadruples the lifespan, and Mending replaces the repair cost with experience. Its enchantability of 14 decides how good the enchanting table's offers are: the higher the number, the more often a level-30 table offers the top-tier enchantment rather than a weak one. Iron Sword does not stack — each one occupies an inventory slot of its own.
- Damage per second
- 9.6
- Enchantability
- 14
- Repaired with
- Iron Ingot
- Renewable
- Yes
- Category
- Weapons
How it compares to the rest of the set
Every tier of sword in the game, side by side, so the trade-off is visible in one place: Iron Sword sits 3 of 6.
Gold is the outlier: it enchants better than anything else (enchantability 22) and breaks almost immediately, which is why gold gear is enchanted and then upgraded rather than used.
| Item | Durability | Attack damage | Attack speed | Enchantability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden Sword | 59 | 4 | 1.6 | 15 |
| Stone Sword | 131 | 5 | 1.6 | 5 |
| Iron Sword | 250 | 6 | 1.6 | 14 |
| Golden Sword | 32 | 4 | 1.6 | 22 |
| Diamond Sword | 1,561 | 7 | 1.6 | 10 |
| Netherite Sword | 2,031 | 8 | 1.6 | 15 |
Crafting recipe
Crafting Table
Iron Sword
Dropped by
1 mobs drop Iron Sword: Vex. Looting raises the maximum on most of them.
Used to craft
Iron Sword is an ingredient in 1 recipes, producing Iron Nugget.
Enchantments it can take
9 enchantments can be applied to Iron Sword: Bane of Arthropods, Fire Aspect, Knockback, Looting, Mending, Sharpness, Smite, Sweeping Edge, and Unbreaking.
Mending is a treasure enchantment and never appears at an enchanting table — they come from loot chests, fishing or villager trades only.
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How do you make Iron Sword in Minecraft?
Iron Sword is crafted from Iron Ingot and Stick.
What is the stack size of Iron Sword?
Iron Sword does not stack at all. Every one you carry takes an inventory slot of its own, which is the practical limit on how many you take on a trip.
How much damage does Iron Sword do?
6 damage per fully charged hit, at 1.6 attacks per second — 9.6 damage per second. Sharpness V adds 3 damage on top of that, and Strength II adds 6 more.
How much durability does Iron Sword have?
Iron Sword has 250 durability, and can be repaired on an anvil with Iron Ingot.
Can Iron Sword be enchanted?
Yes — 9 enchantments apply to it, at an enchanting table with fifteen bookshelves, or from an enchanted book on an anvil. Mending is usually the one worth hunting for, because it removes the repair cost entirely.
The rest of the set
Iron Sword is one of 6 variants of the same shape. The others are made from different materials, so their numbers differ:
