What is the breach enchantment ?
The breach enchantment is a powerful enchantment that can be used to reduce the effectiveness of your enemies armor. It has been introduced in Minecraft 1.21, and decreases the armor's protection value when you hit an enemy with your Mace. The higher the breach level, the more armor effectiveness is reduced. So if you want to deal more damage to heavily armored opponents, you should enchant your Mace with breach.
How to enchant a Mace with breach ?
1. Gather ingredients
We already covered how to get a Mace in Minecraft. Once you have got your own Mace, you can enchant it with breach.
You can get a book from multiple sources. You can obtain it by breaking a book shelf, or by crafting a book directly in a crafting table.
2. Enchant the Mace with breach
Set up an enchanting table
To get the best enchantments, you should surround your enchanting table with at least 15 bookshelves. This way, you'll get the best enchantments. Just make sure to be at least level 30 to get access to breach IV.
Enchant the Mace
Once you have a Mace, use the enchanting table with Lapis Lazuli to enchant it with breach. If you can't find the breach enchantment, you can try to get it on a book.
We highly recommend to use a book to enchant the Mace with breach, in particular if breach isn't displayed as the main enchantment of the Mace. Once you give a book an enchantment, a new enchantment possibility will be displayed on the Mace. Repeat this operation until you get access to the breach enchantment.
How does breach work ?
Breach is exclusively available on Maces. When you hit an enemy with a Mace enchanted with Breach, the enchantment reduces the effectiveness of the target's armor. With Breach, the armor's protection value is decreased by 15% for each enchantment level.
This means breach I will reduce armor effectiveness by 15%, breach II by 30%, breach III by 45%, and breach IV by 60%.
Example: If you have a Mace with breach I, and you hit an enemy wearing full diamond armor, their armor will be 15% less effective. If you have a Mace with breach II, their armor will be 30% less effective. If you have a Mace with breach III, their armor will be 45% less effective. And with breach IV, their armor will be 60% less effective, making it much easier to deal significant damage.
It's important to note that Breach only affects the base armor protection. It does not reduce damage reduction from enchantments like Protection, or from effects like Resistance. However, it's still incredibly effective against heavily armored opponents, especially in PvP scenarios.
Enchantment incompatibilities
Breach is incompatible with certain other enchantments on the Mace. You cannot have Breach on the same Mace as:
- Density - Increases damage based on fall distance
- Smite - Increases damage against undead mobs
- Bane of Arthropods - Deals extra damage to arthropod mobs
You must choose between these enchantments, as they cannot coexist on the same Mace. This means you'll need to decide whether you want to reduce armor effectiveness with Breach, or use one of the other damage-enhancing enchantments.
Enchant a mace with commands
For Java Edition players, you can directly enchant your Mace with the following commands:
- Breach I:
/enchant @p breach 1 - Breach II:
/enchant @p breach 2 - Breach III:
/enchant @p breach 3 - Breach IV:
/enchant @p breach 4
Best uses for breach
Breach is particularly effective in player-versus-player (PvP) scenarios, where opponents often wear high-tier armor like diamond or netherite. By reducing the armor's effectiveness by up to 60% with Breach IV, you can deal significantly more damage to heavily armored players, leveling the playing field in combat.
In single-player mode, Breach is less effective since most mobs don't wear armor. But it can still be useful against armored mobs like zombies and skeletons that sometimes spawn with armor. It's also useful when fighting against other players in multiplayer servers.
You should combine Breach with other compatible enchantments like Unbreaking or Mending, to make your Mace last longer. You can't combine it with Density, Smite, or Bane of Arthropods. Breach IV on its own makes the Mace incredibly versus armored enemies.
Conclusion
Breach is really powerful. This enchantment can be used to reduce the strength of your enemies armor, making it easier to deal big damage. It's even more useful in PvP and against armored mobs. The max breach level is IV, which reduces armor effectiveness by 60%. It makes it one of the best enchantments for countering high-tier armor in Minecraft.
