Minecraft enchantments that don’t go together in-game

With around 40 enchantments in Minecraft, all of which have powerful effects, there have to be some that cannot be combined with others just to keep the game from becoming comically easy.

However, there might be more incompatibilities than players would expect. There are even some enchantments that, at first glance, seem like they should be compatible but that just are not.

Minecraft enchantments that are incompatible in-game

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1) Bane of arthropods vs smite vs sharpness

The damage-increasing sword enchantments are all mutually exclusive with one another. This is a balancing factor, as otherwise, users could have smite five, sharpness five, and bane of arthropods five all on one sword. This would result in massive damage to undead and arthropod mobs due to the enchantment stacking.

In the Java Edition, arthropods and undead would take a whopping 15.5 extra damage per hit, equating to 7.75 extra hearts of damage.

In Bedrock, these mob types would take 18.75 extra damage per hit, which would result in a total extra heart damage of around nine and one-third.

Keep in mind that this extra damage is on top of the base damage of the sword the enchantment would be on. All in all, it makes sense that these enchantments cannot be stacked with one another. They would be much too strong all at once.

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2) All of the protections

A fully enchanted chestplate in 1.14 (Image via Minecraft)

All the protections are mutually exclusive with one another. At least for the time being.

Minecraft has had a history of this changing repeatedly. The protections began as mutually exclusive before being made non-mutually exclusive in 1.14. However, then in 1.14.3, the protections were made mutually exclusive again.

That means any gamers with a world that existed in Minecraft 1.14 and enchanted their armor with multiple versions of the protection enchantment could update the world and keep the armor.

Alternatively, they can revert their game to 1.14 temporarily, enchant armor, and then update the world to the modern version of the game. However, there are risks to doing so in terms of world generation.

Due to the massive damage reduction that each enchantment grants players, it makes sense that they cannot all be on an armor set at once, as allowing so would remove almost all damage from the game.

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3) Channeling vs riptide

A supercharged creeper made with a channeling trident (Image via Minecraft)

These two trident enchantments cannot be stacked for more logical reasons than game balance.

Channeling summons a lightning strike on the location the trident is thrown. Riptide means that in the rain, users cannot throw it. Instead, they use the trident to fly forwards.

So they would either summon lightning on top of themselves every time they fly in a thunderstorm, or one enchantment would override the other anyway.

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4) Depth strider vs frost walker

A gamer running over the top of an ocean using frost walker enchanted boots (Image via Minecraft)

Much like channeling and riptide, there is a logical reason these two boot enchantments cannot be used simultaneously in Minecraft. Depth strider increases the speed at which the player swims.

On the other hand, frost walker summons ice underneath users as they approach the water, creating temporary platforms of ice beneath. They can’t work together, as they do opposite things.

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5) Silk touch vs fortune

This incompatibility is one of game balance and logic. Fortune increases the number of items dropped from blocks breaking, whereas silk touch grants gamers the block unbroken. They do entirely opposite things.

The only way these two enchantments could work together would be to allow multiple of the silk touched item to drop, for example, numerous ores to come from one ore, which would be game breaking.

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6) Infinity vs mending

This incompatibility in bow enchantments is for game balance. If a bow only required players to have one arrow to shoot forever, as infinity does, and it repaired itself with XP, as mending does, users would only ever need to collect one arrow for the entire game.

The inherent lifespan of the bow balances the strength of infinity. On the other hand, the power of mending is to use the item forever, even if gamers would need to collect arrows in the case of the bow.

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7) Loyalty vs riptide

Much like channeling and riptide, these two cannot function with one another because of riptide. The latter means users cannot throw the trident. They simply move with it, so loyalty would be unable to return the trident to the player as it never left the player.

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8) Multishot vs piercing

Lastly, there is one more game balance incompatibility. Multishot allows crossbows to fire three arrows or firework rockets for the cost of one. These arrows are shot in a slight arc. One in the middle, while the side two are 10 degrees to the left and right of the center one.

This duplication also works with tipped and spectral arrows. Each crossbow shot uses three durability instead of one.

Piercing allows for crossbow shots to pass through numerous entities equal to the level of the enchantment. This means that each arrow can damage five entities at a max level of four.

The arrow can still be retrieved after the shot, meaning all arrow types, including spectral and tipped arrows, are of infinite use.