Enchanting Table Setup

How to use it

1. Click the squares around the table to place or remove bookshelves.
2. The floor ring and the ring one block higher both count.
3. Watch the power and the three button levels update; 15 bookshelves give level 30.

Good to know

• Leave the front gap open so you can walk to the table.
• Torches between shelves and the table block them, so light the room from above.
• A carpet on the gap between table and shelf is an easy switch to turn the shelf off.

Related: Bookshelf recipe, Enchanting table odds, and the enchantment calculator for the cheapest anvil order.

The rules

• Bookshelves count when they are exactly two blocks away from the table, on the same level or one block higher.
• In Java, the block between the bookshelf and the table can be air or something replaceable, like short grass, a snow layer or water. Carpets, torches, slabs and other solid blocks cut the bookshelf off.
• Each bookshelf adds 1 enchanting power, up to 15. More than 15 does nothing.
• Chiseled bookshelves do not count.

Lower levels on purpose

Want cheaper or specific enchantments? Break a few bookshelves or block them with a carpet to lower the levels. The table calculator shows what each level can give.

How shelves turn into button levels

For each option the game rolls a base number: 1 to 8, plus half your shelves, plus 0 up to your shelf count. The top option takes a third of that base, but at least 1. The middle takes two thirds of it, plus 1. The bottom takes the full base, but never less than twice your shelf count.

With 15 shelves, twice the shelf count is 30, and the base can never go above 30. That is why the bottom button always lands on exactly 30. With 8 shelves it lands on 16–20, and with 10 shelves on 20–23.

Meanwhile, the top and middle buttons stay random at every shelf count. They only change after you enchant something, so swapping items in and out shows the same options.

Materials for a full setup

• One bookshelf takes 6 planks and 3 books, and one book takes 3 paper and 1 leather.
• Three sugar cane make three paper, so every book costs 3 sugar cane.
• For 15 bookshelves you need 90 planks, 45 books, 135 sugar cane and 45 leather.
• The table itself takes 4 obsidian, 2 diamonds and 1 book.
• Breaking a bookshelf without Silk Touch drops 3 books, so moving your setup only costs you the planks.

See the bookshelf page for the recipe and the enchanting table page for the table itself.

Layouts that work

One ring at floor level

The ring two blocks out has 16 spots on each layer, so 32 in total. Fill 15 of the 16 floor spots and leave the last one open as a door. This is the "15 in one ring" preset above, and the whole build fits in a 5 by 5 square.

Two-high walls

Stack shelves two high on three sides and leave the front open. You can then walk straight up to the table, and you still reach 15. Any spare ring spots can hold other blocks for looks, because only bookshelves count.

A switchable room

Fill all 32 spots, then put carpet in the gaps to switch shelves off. A carpet cuts off every shelf behind it at that height, so you can dial in lower levels without breaking anything. Lift the carpets again when you want level 30 back.

Why a shelf does not count

• It touches the table. Shelves must sit exactly two blocks out, with a gap block in between.
• It sits three blocks out, or two or more blocks above the floor of the table.
• The gap at the same height is blocked. For a shelf one block up, the gap one block up matters, not the floor gap.
• It is a corner shelf with something on the diagonal. Corners count, but their gap is the block diagonally between them and the table.
• Quick test: watch the table for a few seconds. Glyphs only fly into it from shelves that count. They are letters of the enchanting table alphabet.