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Minecraft Looting Enchantment — Extra Mob Drops Explained

Looting increases the quantity and quality of drops from the mobs you kill with the enchanted sword. Its headline benefit is rare drops — heads, wither skulls, blaze rods, ender pearls and gunpowder — where each level raises the chance of the scarce item appearing.

What Looting changes

At Looting III, common drops increase by up to one extra item and rare drops get a substantial chance boost. Wither skeletons with Looting III drop significantly more wither skulls, and most mobs yield extra gunpowder, arrows or pearls — which is why a Looting sword is standard equipment at any mob farm.

The three levels

Looting I slightly raises drops, II improves the rare-drop chance further, and III is the maximum in vanilla survival. Looting does not affect experience from the kill (that is separate) and does not work on players.

What it does not affect

Looting has no effect on blocks, on fishing (that is Luck of the Sea) or on experience. It applies to mob loot only, so pair it with a farm that spawns the mob whose drops you want.

FAQ

What is the max Looting level?
Looting III. It is offered by the enchanting table on swords and traded by librarians, and it is the standard sword enchantment for farming.
Does Looting increase XP?
No. Experience from kills is unchanged; Looting only affects the items dropped.
Does Looting work on wither skeletons?
Yes, and it is essential there — Looting III greatly increases the chance of a wither skull, which is the bottleneck in summoning the wither.
Can I combine Looting with Sharpness?
Yes. Looting and Sharpness do not conflict; the standard mob-sword runs Sharpness V, Looting III, Unbreaking III and Mending together.
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