Best Hoe Enchantments

Every hoe enchantment, ranked

Enchantment	Max	Verdict	Why
Fortune	III	Max build	More drops from crops like wheat seeds and potatoes.
Silk Touch	I	Alternative	Collects sculk blocks and leaves. Excludes Fortune, so you pick one.
Efficiency	V	Max build	Breaks leaves, hay and sculk much faster.
Unbreaking	III	Max build	Part of every max hoe.
Mending	I	Max build	Part of every max hoe.
Curse of Vanishing	I	Avoid	A curse: it only makes the item worse.

What matters on a hoe

The hoe is the most underrated tool. It is the right tool for leaves, hay bales, sculk, moss, nether wart blocks, shroomlights, sponges, dried kelp blocks and target blocks. With Efficiency V those break almost instantly.

Fortune on a hoe raises crop drops, plus sapling and apple drops from leaves. Silk Touch collects sculk blocks and leaves as themselves.

Builds for different playstyles

Farm hoe

Efficiency V, Fortune III, Unbreaking III and Mending. Fortune raises seeds, carrots, potatoes and nether wart from fully grown crops.

Tree farm hoe

Fortune III makes leaves drop more saplings and apples, and Efficiency V clears them fast. That keeps a tree farm running.

Sculk and XP hoe

Efficiency V and Mending, without Silk Touch. Sculk drops experience when you mine it without Silk Touch, and that experience repairs the hoe through Mending.

Deep dark builder

Silk Touch instead of Fortune collects sculk, sculk catalysts and sculk sensors as blocks for your own builds.

Conflicts and which one to pick

Bedrock 26.60 has 1 conflict on the hoe: Fortune with Silk Touch. An anvil refuses a book that clashes with an enchantment already on the item, so decide before you start.

Fortune or Silk Touch

Fortune for farms and leaves, Silk Touch for collecting sculk. For a sculk XP hoe, Fortune is fine, but Silk Touch is not, because it removes the experience drop.

Each enchantment on the hoe

Fortune III

Fortune gives extra drops from ores, crops and some other blocks. At level III that means up to 4× ore drops, about 2.2× on average. More drops from crops like wheat seeds and potatoes. The book costs 6 levels on a fresh hoe. More about Fortune.

Efficiency V

Efficiency makes tools mine faster. At level V that means +26 mining speed. Breaks leaves, hay and sculk much faster. The book costs 5 levels on a fresh hoe. More about Efficiency.

Unbreaking III

Unbreaking gives items a chance to not lose durability when used. At level III that means tools skip 75% of durability loss, armor 30%. The book costs 3 levels on a fresh hoe. More about Unbreaking.

Mending

Mending repairs an item with experience orbs. At level I that means each experience point you pick up repairs 2 durability. The book costs 2 levels on a fresh hoe. More about Mending.

The numbers behind the build

Unbreaking III skips three out of four durability losses on average, so the item lasts about four times as long. Mending then repairs 2 durability per experience point, so each point you collect pays for about 8 uses.

Efficiency V adds 26 mining speed, the biggest jump of any level because the bonus grows with the square of the level. That is the difference between a tool that drags and one that breaks its blocks almost on click.

Where to get the books

You need 4 books for this build. Mending is a treasure enchantment, so the enchanting table won't give it. Plan to trade or loot for it first. Here is where each one comes from:

• Fortune III: the enchanting table, librarian villagers, trial chamber vaults, random chest loot and fishing.
• Efficiency V: the enchanting table, librarian villagers, trial chamber vaults, random chest loot and fishing.
• Unbreaking III: the enchanting table, librarian villagers, random chest loot and fishing.
• Mending: librarian villagers, trial chamber vaults, random chest loot and fishing.

Librarians are the most reliable source for exact books, because you can reroll them until they offer the one you want. The trading hall guide shows how, and the villager trade tool lists the prices. Combine the books in the cheapest anvil order so no step becomes too expensive.

Which books to get first

Efficiency, Fortune, Silk Touch and Unbreaking come from the enchanting table, so a hoe is cheap to enchant. Hoes are also cheap to craft, so many players enchant a diamond hoe and only upgrade it later.

Add Mending last, or skip it on a hoe you rarely use.

Which material to enchant

Put your best books on a netherite hoe: it has the most durability (2031), so every enchantment lasts longest, and it also survives lava. The golden hoe has the highest enchantability (22), so it rolls the best results at an enchanting table, but it wears out fast. Enchantments stay on when you upgrade diamond gear to netherite at a smithing table, so you can enchant diamond first and upgrade later.

Mistakes to avoid

• Breaking leaves with a Silk Touch hoe when you want saplings. Silk Touch drops the leaf block instead.
• Mining sculk with Silk Touch when you want experience. Silk Touch removes the XP drop.
• Harvesting young crops. Fortune only adds drops on fully grown crops.
• Ignoring the hoe because it feels like a farm tool. With Efficiency V it is the fastest way to clear leaves and sculk.

Hoe enchantment questions

Every enchantment a hoe can take in Bedrock 26.60: Fortune, Silk Touch, Efficiency, Unbreaking, Mending.

See also the full list of incompatible enchantments and the god gear command generator.

Cheapest order

Combining these books in the wrong order can cost twice as many levels or hit Too Expensive! The cheapest order for the max hoe costs 23 levels in 4 steps, with no step above 8. So you never need more than 8 levels at once.

Spend the levels step by step as you earn them: that costs about 291 experience points in total. If you saved up to level 23 first, you would need 751 points, because each level costs more XP the higher you climb. Afterwards the hoe has been on the anvil 3 times, so later repairs start at a penalty of 7.

See every step

Other gear

• Full armor set
• Helmet
• Chestplate
• Leggings
• Boots
• Elytra
• Sword
• Axe
• Spear
• Mace
• Trident
• Bow
• Crossbow
• Pickaxe
• Shovel
• Fishing Rod
• Shears
• Brush
• Flint and Steel
• Shield
• Carrot on a Stick
• Warped Fungus on a Stick