There’s something truly intimidating about the mace. The only official blunt weapon in the game, this hefty hammer is capable of the highest damage output. Not just that, but it has some of the most unique enchantments as well. Maybe that’s why it’s so difficult to get your own.
As cool as those enchantments are though, Minecraft Bedrock doesn’t really do a great job of actually explaining how they work. And when you have to delve through multiple Trial Chambers for the crafting components, you certainly won’t want to risk putting the wrong enchantment on it. To make that decision easier, we've organized every enchantment for the Mace into a list, starting with the best.
If an enchanted mace still doesn’t whet your appetite, we’ve also included some of our favorite weapon addon down below that are sure to transform your combat experience.
Need some mighty sword enchantments instead? Check out our guide on the best sword enchantments for Minecraft Bedrock.
1. Wind Burst
Wind Burst tops out our list for one simple reason: it’s arguably the coolest! With this mace-exclusive enchantment, any successful smash attack (attacking something while falling from above) will activate a gust of wind that blasts mobs away and gets you back up into the sky. The three enchantment levels will lift you 8, 16, or 24 blocks up, respectively.
Aside from the absolute swagger of dealing massive damage and immediately disappearing after, this also means you can chain wind bursts together, using the bounce to line up another smash attack, activating another wind burst, and so forth. If you time it right, you can get through entire combat encounters without ever touching the ground.
And yes, that means also staying out of the attack range of melee mobs.
2. Density
Density is straightforward, but effective. Your smash attacks deal extra damage, with each enchantment level adding about a quarter of a heart of damage to the attack. So, a full Density V will deal a little over one full heart of damage.
That may not sound that impressive at first, but consider this: that damage scales with the mace’s height bonus. At ten blocks high, Density V adds a whopping 12 or so hearts of damage on top of the default 15 hearts.
But it gets even better. The standard smash attack damage begins to scale down after going too high. Density, however, doesn’t – it’s a flat bonus. So, while a non-enchanted mace only deals 20 hearts damage when dropping from 20 blocks high, Density V boosts that to an incredible 45 hearts of damage!
3. Mending
Mending is one of the overall best enchantments in all of Minecraft, and for a good reason. When you hold a Mending-enchanted item, any experience orbs you collect will be converted into durability. This eliminates the need to ever repair your mace again. And with how tough it is to get a mace, the last thing you want is for yours to break.
Repairing a mace without the enchantment isn't hard, though. You just need to combine it with breeze rods at an anvil, but the experience cost will increase with every repair. Eventually, it will become too expensive to maintain, making Mending the only viable way to keep your weapon for as long as possible.
4. Breach
Breach is a hard enchantment to rank. A damage-based enchantment, it doesn’t actually deal any extra damage. Instead, each rank reduces how effective your target’s armor is. And when we say that Breach IV can make a full set of Netherite armor only as good as Leather armor, we don’t make an overstatement.
The problem, however, is that only two mobs in the game are guaranteed to wear armor: piglens and shulkers. Neither of them have very much, either, while all other mobs in the game rely on having large health pools to survive. That makes Breach only really a viable enchantment if you’re big into PvP as it’s extremely effective at cutting down other players clad in full gear.
5. Unbreaking
Unbreaking, as you can guess, reduces how long it takes for your weapon’s durability to go down. It does this by having a random chance to ignore durability drain based on level, instead of raising the item’s total durability pool.
It’s valuable for all the same reasons Mending is: it keeps your mace in the fight for longer. The main downside is that it only really delays the inevitable. Eventually, the durability will run out, repairs will get more expensive, and you’ll have to put it away to avoid breaking it.
But at least it’s a tremendously common enchantment, whereas you might never actually manage to get Mending on a mace.
6. Smite
While general damage is always better, Smite is the best type-specific damage enchantment. This makes all attacks deal extra damage to the undead – the most common hostile mob type in the game. Get it fully leveled to Smite V and you will deal over six hearts of extra damage to every zombie, skeleton, and phantom you strike.
Time for some bad news, though. Smite has enchantment exclusivity, meaning it’s not compatible with Density, Breach, or Bane of Arthropods. And while we can live without Breach, Density is far too good to abandon for Smite.
7. Fire Aspect
We admit, the idea of a mace that lights things on fire sounds pretty cool. With Fire Aspect, any mob you hit is lit on fire, dealing damage over time. The damage boost is pretty nice (though not very effective underwater), but still doesn’t make as much of a dent as the other enchantments.
One entertaining side effect is what happens when you kill certain food-dropping mobs, like cows and chickens. If they die to the fire, they drop the cooked version of their meat. Yes, this means you can save time and coal by killing your livestock with a Fire Aspect weapon instead of using a furnace.
All in all it’s a cool enchantment, though we personally think that it suits a regular sword better.
8. Bane of Arthropods
Minecraft has dozens of different mobs you can encounter. Want to guess how many of them are arthropods? Five. This means that the Bane of Arthropods enchantment only deals bonus damage to spiders, bees, cave spiders, endermites, and silverfish.
Yes indeed, the potential is at an all-time low for this enchantment. Worst of all, spiders are the only mob you are likely to apply it on and this enchantment is also an exclusive one, meaning there’s no way to have this and Density on the same mace. All in all, we believe there’s no good reason to put Bane of Arthropods on a mace.
Bedrock Mace Addons that Expand on Combat
The mace is a fun, unique change in how combat works in Minecraft. You don’t need to settle at that, though. You can expand combat mechanics even further with addons: community-made content that transforms Minecraft Bedrock even further.
Among these, the weapon addons below are some of our favorites.
1. Raiyon’s Java Combat
One of the biggest differences between Bedrock Edition and Java Edition is how they handle weapon attacks. Java has a cooldown system, so spamming attacks is less effective. It rewards you for being patient by giving special abilities when attacking with a full charge. With the “Raiyon’s Java Combat” addon, the same mechanics in Java are now also implemented into your Bedrock worlds.
While an all-around improvement to swords, axes, and shields, maces are actually the only weapon that technically gets worse. Not having a cooldown phase means that a standard Bedrock mace has a much higher damage-per-second output than one on Java, so you better use it wisely!
2. True Weapons!
Spears were a big deal when they were finally added to Minecraft. If one new weapon type changes the game, just imagine what several different weapon types could do. The “True Weapons!” addon does exactly that, adding in hammers, daggers, katanas, claymores, and even… Christmas trees!
Some weapons also have custom 3D models, making them feel bigger and badder than the traditional 2D voxel format of a sword. Either way, if weapon variety matters to you, this is a must-have addon.
3. Raiyon's More Shields
It’s always struck us as odd how there are multiple weapon options, each with multiple material tiers, but only one shield. Well, the “Raiyon’s More Shields” addon fixes that. With this addon in place, you can craft a shield from any type of wood and metal, with the look and performance matching it.
Better yet, it also includes several special shields, like the Skulker and Magma shields. These special shields require rare, relevant resources to craft, but include bonus effects like creating protective homing missiles, launching sonic waves, or lighting enemies on fire. Now, you’ll finally have a reason to own more than one shield.
How to Install Minecraft Addons
You can add Bedrock addons automatically from the official Minecraft Marketplace or download and install them manually from CurseForge’s Bedrock addons browser.
If you pick the second option, make sure to open the linked project page of each of the addons above and download its associated “.mcaddon” file. Running the downloaded file should then launch Minecraft and begin the import.
After the import finishes, don’t forget to edit the world and check both "Behavior Packs" → "Available" and "Resource Packs" → "Available". If all went well, activating the packs included with the addon should add its features to that world. If the project lists an experiment under "Requirements", you should enable it as well before loading the world.
For a complete walkthrough, check out our guide on how to install Minecraft Bedrock addons.
Common Issues and Quick Fixes
My smash attacks aren't triggering
The smash attack mechanic of the mace only activates when you hit a qualifying target. This includes any "entity," like players, mobs, or armor stands.
A few things will also prevent a valid smash attack from triggering. Be sure none of these apply to your attacks:
- You haven't fallen by at least 1.5 blocks before attacking.
- You are actively using an Elytra.
- You are under the Slow Falling effect.
I'm not getting the enchantment I want from an enchanting table
Not every enchantment is equally likely to appear at the enchantment table. Some are rarer. So rare, in fact, that you may need a stronger table before it will even appear.
The solution to this is easy: build more bookcases around the enchanting table. You'll know it works when you see runes floating between them. When enchanting, be sure to also pick the higher, more expensive option.
If you specifically want Mending, one trick is to enable the "Villager Trading Rebalance" option in "Experiments", under "Settings". This will make a swamp librarian villager always stock a Mending-enchanted book when reaching Master level.
Combining two items on an anvil is "Too Expensive"
Minecraft has an exponential limitation on combining enchantments. Every time you do it, it gets more expensive. If the cost ever exceeds 40 levels of experience, the game will label it as "Too Expensive" and refuse to combine the items.
Unfortunately, once this happens, there's no way to reduce that built up cost on that item. To avoid it, try to have as few anvil combinations on an item as possible when combining enchantments.