Minecraft Java and Bedrock Editions – What’s the Benefit of a Fortune Axe?

Bookshelves increase the level of enchantments you can put on your items. For instance, without any bookshelves, you can only use enchantments from around levels 1-5. However, if you add more bookcases, you can use higher level enchantments. A table with 6 bookshelves will allow level 14 recipes. A table with 30 shelves will let you use level 50 recipes.

Enchantments have levels, and these levels are drawn from your current XP level. For instance, purchasing a level 5 enchantment will bring you down 5 levels. However if you do not have five levels, then you cannot buy the enchantment.

Link to table of enchantments and their levels

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Step One - Applying modifiers to the enchantment level

The first thing that Minecraft does is apply two modifiers to the base enchantment level. Each modifier is restricted to a certain range, with numbers close to the middle of the range more common than those near the ends.

The first modifier is based on the item's "enchantability," which depends on the material and the type of the item (see the table below). Minecraft picks a number between 0 and the enchantability, then adds that number plus one to the enchantment level. Bows have an enchantability of 1 for this purpose.

Shoot...SCORE!

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