How to Make an Enchanting Table in Minecraft for Level 30

An enchanting table takes 1 book, 2 diamonds and 4 obsidian. On a crafting table, put the book in the top-center slot, a diamond on each side of the middle row with obsidian between them, and 3 obsidian across the bottom row. You get one enchanting table.

Gathering the parts

• Obsidian: forms where water meets a lava source. You need a diamond or netherite pickaxe to mine it, which is why diamonds come first. Our obsidian guide shows how to make it safely from a lava pool.
• Diamonds: most common near the bottom of the world, around Y -58. Strip mining there gives the best odds; see how to find diamonds. You need 3 for the pickaxe plus 2 for the table, so five at minimum.
• Book: 3 paper and 1 leather in any grid. Paper comes from sugar cane, leather from cows.

Using an enchanting table

Put an item in the left slot and lapis lazuli in the right. Three enchantment offers appear, costing 1, 2 or 3 lapis and the same number of levels. The level shown on the right of each offer is the minimum XP level you need, not what you pay. Hover over an offer to see one of the enchantments it’ll give.

Without bookshelves, the best offers top out around level 8, which mostly means low-level enchantments.

Adding bookshelves

To reach level 30, the best offers the table can give, you need 15 bookshelves:

1. Leave a one-block gap of air all the way around the table.
2. Place bookshelves just outside that gap, on the same level as the table or one block higher.
3. Keep the gap completely empty. A torch, carpet or any block in it stops that shelf counting.

The neatest layout is a 5x5 ring of shelves around the table, one block high: that ring has 16 spots, so leaving one empty as a doorway gives exactly 15. Each bookshelf is 6 planks and 3 books, so 15 shelves need 45 books: a lot of leather. A cow farm pays off here.

Getting the enchantments you want

• Enchant books instead of tools when an offer looks bad for your tool. A book with a good enchantment can be added to any tool later with an anvil.
• Rerolling: in Java, the offers for an item stay the same until you enchant something. Enchant a cheap item (a book, at the 1-level offer) to get new offers.
• Mending can’t come from the table. Get it from villager trades, fishing or chests.

The complete enchantments list shows which tools each enchantment fits. And if you’re curious about the floating letters, our page on the enchanting table language explains them.