Bane of Arthropods in Minecraft: Damage and Is It Worth It?

Bane of Arthropods adds 2.5 damage per level against five mobs: spiders, cave spiders, bees, silverfish and endermites. Each hit also gives them Slowness IV for 1 to 1.5 seconds at level I, with the upper limit rising by half a second per level to 3.5 seconds at level V.

It goes to level V, same as Sharpness and Smite, and it conflicts with both. That conflict is the whole problem with it.

Numbers per level

Level	Java	Bedrock	Max slowness
I	+2.5	+2	1.5 s
II	+5	+5	2 s
III	+7.5	+7	2.5 s
IV	+10	+10	3 s
V	+12.5	+12	3.5 s

Bedrock rounds the bonus down, so odd levels are half a point weaker there.

Where it goes

Swords and spears get it from the enchanting table in both editions. Axes and maces can have it too: from the table on Bedrock, from a book on Java. It conflicts with Sharpness, Smite, and on a mace with Density and Breach.

You’ll get Bane of Arthropods often whether you want it or not. It rolls on the enchanting table, comes on fished and looted books, and librarians sell it (plains librarians only under the experimental Villager Trade Rebalance).

Is it worth it?

On a main sword, no. A spider has 16 health and dies quickly to any decent Sharpness sword, while Sharpness also helps against every other mob and player. Giving up Sharpness for a bonus that works on five mobs is a bad trade.

There are two cases where it earns a spot:

• Cave spider spawners in mineshafts. Cave spiders poison you, and slowing them down while you break the spawner or build an XP farm helps.
• Silverfish in strongholds. If you’re breaking infested stone around the end portal room, Bane kills silverfish before they swarm.

If a Bane book shows up from fishing, it’s still worth keeping for the XP. A grindstone turns unwanted enchanted books back into a little experience.