Minecraft: What the Breach Enchantment Does & How to Use It

In Minecraft, Breach is one of the mace-exclusive enchantments available. The Breach enchantment reduces the armor effectiveness of your opponent, which means they'll take more damage when you hit them. In this article we go over what the Breach enchantment is and how to get it, as well as compare the Breach and Density enchantments to see which one is better. We also have a pro tip from Minecraft expert Zac Churchill.

The Breach Enchantment: Overview

In Minecraft, Breach reduces armor protection effectiveness by 15% per level. It only works on armor effectiveness, and does not affect enchantments like Protection. The Breach enchantment can be obtained at the Enchanting Table or from an Enchanted Book.

Section 1 of 6:

What the Breach Enchantment Does

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Breach reduces the effectiveness of armor protection by 15% per level. What this means is that Breach makes your enemy's armor less effective, so they will take more of the damage you're outputting.
- Breach only reduces armor protection effectiveness. It does not reduce the effectiveness of enchantments like Protection or Resistance.
- Breach has a maximum level of IV, and reduces armor effectiveness by the following amounts per level:
  - Breach I: -15% armor effectiveness
  - Breach II: -30% armor effectiveness
  - Breach III: -45% armor effectiveness
  - Breach IV: -60% armor effectiveness
- For example, if you're fighting an enemy with 50% armor effectiveness and you have Breach I on your mace, it will reduce their armor effectiveness to 35%.

Section 2 of 6:

Enchantments Incompatible with Breach

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There are 4 enchantments that are incompatible with Breach. If you want to add multiple enchantments to your weapon, Churchill says you can do so by combining your weapon with an Enchanted Book in an Anvil. However, be aware that some enchantments are incompatible. ^{[1]
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Expert Source

Zac Churchill
Minecraft Specialist

Expert Interview} You cannot have a Breach enchantment as well as one of the following enchantments on a mace:
- Density
- Sharpness
- Smite
- Bane of Arthropods
  - If you have a mace with one of these enchantments on it and you want to use Breach instead, you'll need to remove the enchantment first with a Grindstone.
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You can bypass this restriction by using commands. The command to add an enchantment to the item you're holding is /enchant player_name enchantment_name enchantment_level .
- For example, to give the mace you're holding Breach V, the command would be /enchant player_name density 5 , where player_name is your player name.

Section 3 of 6:

Breach vs. Density

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Density is usually better than Breach—with a few exceptions. If you don't play on PvP servers or you play Java Edition, it's better to take Density instead of Breach. However, there are a few times where you might prefer to use Breach:
- PvP: Since Breach is effective against armored characters, it doesn't make much sense to use it in a single-player Minecraft game, since most enemies aren't armored. However, if you play PvP, Breach can be very useful.
- Bedrock Edition: On Java Edition, the mace is very slow. However, this isn't the case in Bedrock Edition thanks to the lack of attack cooldown. Since you can spam click attacks in Bedrock, Breach becomes very deadly against armored opponents. ^{[2]
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- Preference: If you prefer Breach over Density, you can and should use it!

Section 4 of 6:

Ways to Get the Breach Enchantment

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Enchanting Table The Breach enchantment can be obtained from the Enchanting Table. For best results, surround your Enchanting Table with bookshelves, leaving 1 block of empty space between the enchanting table and the bookshelves.
- As long as you have enough Lapis Lazuli, this method is easier than hunting down Enchanted Books.
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Enchanted Book Enchanted Books can be obtained as loot from chests, fishing, or librarians. There's a chance an Enchanted Book you find will be a Breach enchantment.
- Chest loot: Enchanted Books potentially containing a Breach enchantment can be found in the Jungle Pyramid, Stronghold, Monster Room, Mineshaft, Ancient City, Desert Pyramid, Pillager Outpost, Underwater Ruins, Woodland Mansion, or Ominous Vault.
- Fishing: There is a 0.8% chance per fishing attempt to get an Enchanted Book.
- Librarians: Librarians of any level have a chance of trading a Breach Enchanted Book. The price increases depending on what level the Enchanted Book is.

Section 5 of 6:

Using an Enchanting Table to Apply Breach

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Set up an Enchanting Table. If you don't already have an Enchanting Table set up, do so now. Place the Enchanting Table in the middle of an empty 5x5 block area. Leaving one empty block of space around the Enchanting Table, place 15 bookshelves in a square around the Enchanting Table.
- Having anything between the Enchanting Table and the bookshelves will affect the table's connection to draw power from the bookshelves.
- The Enchanting Table will be surrounded by bookshelves on all sides, with a gap to allow you to access the table.
The leftmost box under the book in the Enchanting Table interface will accept the item you want to enchant.
The rightmost box under the book in the Enchanting Table interface will accept Lapis Lazuli. You can place a stack of Lapis Lazuli in this box, as long as there are more than three.
To the right of the book, there will be three choices you can pick for enchantment. Pick the bottom option, which uses 3 Lapis Lazuli.
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Repeat, if you didn't get the enchantment you wanted. However, you can only use the Enchanting Table to enchant unenchanted items. So, to use the Enchanting Table again, you must use a new mace.
- If you want to use the same mace again, place the mace in a Grindstone to remove the enchantment, then you can try again. ^{[3]
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Section 6 of 6:

Using an Enchanted Book to Apply Breach

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You can craft an Anvil with three Blocks of Iron and 4 Iron Ingots. It takes 27 Iron Ingots to make three Blocks of Iron, so a total of 31 Iron Ingots are needed.
The leftmost box under the hammer in the Anvil interface will accept the item you want to enchant.
The rightmost box under the hammer in the Anvil interface will accept an Enchanted Book.
Your mace is now enchanted with the Breach enchantment.

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If you get two lower-level Breach Enchanted Books, combine them in the Anvil to make a higher-level Breach Enchanted Book.

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[1]

Expert Source

Zac Churchill
Minecraft Specialist

[2]

[3]

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Minecraft: What the Breach Enchantment Does & How to Use It

The Breach Enchantment: Overview

Steps

What the Breach Enchantment Does

Enchantments Incompatible with Breach

Breach vs. Density

Ways to Get the Breach Enchantment

Using an Enchanting Table to Apply Breach

Using an Enchanted Book to Apply Breach

Expert Q&A

Video

Tips

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