Looting

What Looting does

Book cost is the anvil cost of putting that book on a fresh item. However, already-used items add their prior work penalty: work it out in the calculator.

How Looting works

Looting changes what mobs drop when your Looting weapon lands the killing blow. It does three things:

• Common drops get bigger. Each level adds up to one more item, so a mob that drops 0 to 2 bones drops 0 to 5 with Looting III.
• Rare drops get more likely. In Java the chance rises by 1 point per level, so a zombie's 2.5% chance of iron, carrots or potatoes becomes 5.5% at Looting III.
• Mobs drop their worn or held gear more often. The base 8.5% chance rises by 1 point per level, to 11.5% at level III.

The drops that matter most

• Wither skeleton skulls for the wither. The chance goes from 2.5% to 5.5% with Looting III, so three skulls take about 55 kills on average instead of 120.
• Blaze rods, which go from 0–1 to 0–4 per blaze at Looting III.
• Ender pearls from endermen, with the same jump from 0–1 to 0–4.
• Gunpowder, string, bones, leather and slimeballs for farms.
• Shulker shells, where the base 50% chance rises by 6.25 points per level.

What Looting does not change

Looting does nothing for experience. It also does not affect the nether star, the dragon egg, the evoker's totem of undying or anything a player drops. Block drops are a job for Fortune instead. The Fortune vs Looting page explains the difference.

Getting the killing blow right

Looting only counts for the weapon that deals the final hit. So in a mob farm, switch to your Looting weapon before the last swing. Kills from fall damage, lava or suffocation alone drop no Looting bonus.

Looting goes on swords and spears. Axes and tridents can't take it, and bows can't either, so arrows never trigger it. See Looting on an axe, Looting on a trident and Looting on a spear.

In a build

Looting conflicts with nothing, so it fits on every sword next to Sharpness, Fire Aspect, Unbreaking and Mending. Fire Aspect even helps: animals killed while burning drop cooked meat, and Looting raises the amount. Looting is a ×2 book, so level III costs 6 levels. The best sword and best spear pages list the full builds.

Looting in mob farms

Most mob farms drop mobs into a kill spot where you finish them by hand. That is where Looting pays off: hit each mob once with your Looting sword to land the final blow. Mobs that die from fall damage or suffocation on their own drop no Looting bonus.

Keep a sword with Looting III, Sharpness V and Mending at the farm. You get extra drops, and the XP from the farm repairs the sword while you work.

Looting and Fire Aspect

Fire Aspect makes burning animals drop cooked meat, and Looting raises the amount. So a sword with both is the fastest way to stock up on cooked food. Just make sure your sword lands the kill: a mob that burns to death on its own after your hit does not count.

Looting by level

Each level adds the same bonus, so Looting III gives three times the extra drops of Looting I. For farms that run for hours, the difference between II and III adds up to stacks of extra items. So it is worth merging two Looting II books if you can't find III.

Looting on the anvil

Looting is a ×2 book, so level III costs 6 levels on a fresh sword. Therefore add it before Sharpness and Unbreaking, which are cheap ×1 books. The sword enchant order lists the cheapest steps.

Looting and piglins

Piglins and their barters are a separate system. Looting affects what a piglin drops when you kill it, but it does nothing for bartering. So for bartering loot, only more gold helps.

Looting on a spear

Spears can take Looting too, and the table can roll it on them. So a Looting spear is a good farm weapon if you prefer the spear's reach. The drops work the same as with a sword.

Common mistakes

• Finishing mobs with a bow or a trident. Only the Looting weapon's own kill counts.
• Using a Looting sword on blocks. Looting has no effect on ores, crops or leaves.
• Hitting a mob once with Looting, then letting it burn to death. The fire gets the kill, not the sword.

Which items take Looting

Looting goes on 2 kinds of gear in the calculator: sword, spear. An enchanting table can roll it on the sword, spear.

Nothing conflicts with Looting, so it fits next to every other enchantment its items can take.

Looting from the enchanting table

The level you can roll depends on the item's enchantability. A material with a higher value reaches higher levels from the same level 30 enchant. This table shows the best Looting each sword can get from a level 30 enchant with 15 bookshelves.

Anything higher has to come from a book instead. Then the enchanting table calculator shows the exact chance for every level.

Anvil cost of Looting

Looting has an anvil multiplier of 4 from another item and 2 from a book. So a Looting III book costs 6 levels on a fresh item, and each lower level costs 2 less. Two fresh Looting II books merge into Looting III for 6 levels. Building it from scratch takes 4 level I books and 3 merges, 16 levels in all. That is a middling cost, so the order still matters once you combine several books.

Java charges the full resulting level every time, even when the item already has a lower level of it. Every step also adds the prior work penalty of both items. The enchantment calculator finds the cheapest order for your whole set of books.

Builds, questions and guides

Looting is part of the max build for 2 items: best sword enchantments, best spear enchantments. To put it on in the cheapest order, see the sword enchant order, spear enchant order.

Common questions: can you put Looting on an axe?, can you put Looting on a spear?, can you put Looting on a trident?

More reading: Getting books from librarians, How to enchant in Minecraft, Every max enchantment level. You can make a Looting book with the command generator. The librarian price list shows what villagers charge for it.

How to get Looting

• Enchanting table It can appear when you enchant a supported item at an enchanting table. However, higher levels need more bookshelves and a level 30 enchant.
• Librarian villagers Librarians can sell it as an enchanted book. Level I costs 5–19 emeralds plus a book.
• Ominous vaults (trial chambers) This loot table names it directly, so it is one of the most reliable places to look.
• Random enchanted books It is also in the pool for the random enchanted books and gear in many chests and in fishing loot.

Looting is a rare roll at the enchanting table on swords and spears. A level 30 enchant can reach Looting III, but the odds are low. Librarians are the reliable source, and ominous vaults in trial chambers can give it as well.

Enchanting power and librarian prices

The power column is the hidden enchanting value each level needs. A level 30 enchant on a netherite sword reaches power 43 at most. That already includes the enchantability bonus and the random spread. The price column shows what a librarian can ask for each book. Curing a zombie villager or the Hero of the Village effect lowers it.

Tips

• Looting III is a must for wither skeleton skulls, blaze rods and ender pearls.
• It goes on swords and spears; axes cannot take it.

Commands

Give yourself a Looting book or enchant the item in your hand. These work in Java 26.3 once cheats are on.

Versions

Looting is in every Java version from 1.21 (when enchantments became data files) up to 26.3.

• 1.21.9: now goes on copper sword.
• 1.21.11: now goes on diamond spear, stone spear, golden spear, netherite spear, wooden spear, iron spear, copper spear.

Also see the update log for every change, and how this data is checked. Bedrock player? See Looting on Bedrock.

Goes well with

• Bane of Arthropods
• Curse of Vanishing
• Fire Aspect
• Knockback
• Lunge
• Mending
• Sharpness
• Smite
• Sweeping Edge
• Unbreaking