Recommended Mace Enchantments
More smash damage per block fallen - the mace's core damage enchantment. (Density, Breach, Smite and Bane are mutually exclusive.)
Alternative to Density: reduces the target's armor effectiveness on hit - great vs armored mobs.
Launches you upward after a smash attack - chains smashes and softens landing.
Durability lasts about 3x longer.
XP repairs the mace - important since maces need a heavy core and are costly to replace.
Optional: extra fire damage on hit - a familiar sword-style extra.
FAQ
What are the best mace enchantments?
Density or Breach on a mace?
What does Wind Burst do?
How do I get a mace in Minecraft?
What are the max enchantment levels on a mace?
Why is enchanting a mace so expensive?
The maxed-out god mace: the full vanilla set
A maxed-out mace in vanilla Minecraft (added in 1.21, unchanged since) is four enchantments: Density V, Wind Burst III, Unbreaking III and Mending. That is the whole god set - there is no fifth must-have slot. The rest of the mace pool is made of alternatives, not additions: Breach IV instead of Density V, Smite V or Bane of Arthropods for undead or arthropod builds, and Fire Aspect II as an optional extra. Because Density, Breach, Smite and Bane of Arthropods are mutually exclusive, a mace carries exactly one damage enchantment - and it has no Sharpness, no Looting and no Efficiency to squeeze in, so four books genuinely max it. Tick the set in the calculator above (Mace pre-selected) to get the exact anvil order and total level cost.
Density V vs Breach IV vs Smite V: the damage slot
- Density V is the default: it scales smash damage with fall distance, so it rewards exactly what the mace is built for - hitting things from higher up.
- Breach IV is the anti-armor pick: each level makes the target's armor less effective (Breach IV ignores up to 60% of armor), which wins against armored mobs and players.
- Smite V is the undead specialist: a Smite V smash two-shots most undead mobs. Bane of Arthropods works the same way against spiders and silverfish.
- All four are mutually exclusive - one damage enchantment per mace. Wind Burst, Fire Aspect, Unbreaking and Mending stack with any of them.
Mace enchantment order: the anvil math
The mace punishes a bad anvil order more than most items, because you cannot easily replace it: heavy cores only come from ominous vaults in trial chambers. The rules are the same as for any god item - never apply books to the mace one at a time. Every anvil use doubles the mace's prior work penalty (1, 3, 7, 15, 31...), and the mace's books are heavy, so the enchantment costs stack on top. Merge the books with each other first to build one combined book, then apply it to a fresh mace in a single pass - that keeps the mace's penalty at one use and the total comfortably under the 39-level 'Too Expensive' cap. If you also want Fire Aspect II, bundle it into the book tree rather than adding it later. The calculator solves the cheapest tree for whichever set you tick.
How to get the mace and its books
- The mace itself: heavy core (ominous vaults in trial chambers, opened with ominous trial keys) + breeze rod (dropped by the breeze) - it is not craftable any other way.
- Density V, Breach IV, Smite V, Bane of Arthropods V: enchanting table, librarian villagers and trial-chamber loot chests.
- Wind Burst III: ominous vault loot only - it never appears at the enchanting table and cannot be bought from villagers, making it the rarest book in the set.
- Unbreaking III and Mending: standard librarian trades (Mending is a treasure enchantment - reroll a librarian's lectern for it).
- Fire Aspect II: enchanting table or librarian villagers.