Sword

Sword

Rarity	Common
Durability	Wood: 52 Stone: 131 Iron: 250 Golden: 32 Diamond: 1561 Netherite: 2031
Renewable	Netherite: No‌[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0] All others: Yes
Stackable	No

A sword is a melee weapon that is mainly used to deal damage to mobs and/or players. Swords are also useful for mining cobwebs.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Any Planks or Any Cobblestone or Blackstone or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick
Damaged Matching Swords		The durability of the two swords is added together, plus an extra 5% of the tool type's total durability.

Upgrading

Ingredients	Smithing recipe	Description
Diamond Sword + Netherite Ingot	Upgrade Gear	‌[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]

Repairing

Grinding

Ingredients	Grinding recipe	Description
2x Damaged Wooden Sword or 2x Damaged Stone Sword or 2x Damaged Iron Sword or 2x Damaged Golden Sword or 2x Damaged Diamond Sword or 2x Damaged Netherite Sword‌[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]		The durability of the two swords is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Unit repair

Main article: Anvil mechanics § Unit repair

A sword can be repaired in an anvil by adding units of the tiers' repair material, with each repair material restoring 25% the sword's maximum durability, rounded down.

Mobs

Main article: Drops § Equipped items

Some monsters can spawn with a sword and have an 8.5% chance of dropping them upon death by player. This chance is increased by 1% per level of Looting, up to a maximum of 11.5% with Looting III. Zombies and husks can drop iron swords, zombie pigmen and piglins can drop golden swords, and wither skeletons can drop stone swords. The dropped sword is usually badly damaged and may be enchanted. Stone swords dropped by wither skeletons are never enchanted.

A vex wields an iron sword that normally has a 0% chance of dropping, because their main hand's HandDropChances is 0. However, this chance increases by 1 percentage point per level of Looting. It is never damaged‌^{[Java Edition only]} and may be enchanted.

In Bedrock Edition, pillagers and vindicators that spawn from raids have a 4.1% chance (5.12% chance on hard) of dropping an iron sword, badly damaged although it can be enchanted with a random enchantment.

Trading

The diamond sword trade of a weaponsmith.

In Bedrock Edition, apprentice-level weaponsmith villagers sell enchanted iron swords for 2 emeralds, and expert-level weaponsmiths sell enchanted diamond swords for 8 emeralds.

In Java Edition, novice-level weaponsmith villagers have a ²⁄₃ chance of selling an enchanted iron sword for 7-22 emeralds. Master-level weaponsmiths offer to sell an enchanted diamond sword for 11–27 emeralds.

The enchantments of the swords offered by villagers are the same as the ones obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.

Natural generation

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Iron Sword	Buried treasure	Chest	1	75%
	Stronghold	Altar chest	1	12.1%
	Village	Weaponsmith's chest	1	25.6%
Enchanted Iron Sword	End city	Chest	1	13.3%
Golden Sword	Nether fortress	Chest	1	19%
Enchanted Diamond Sword	End city	Chest	1	13.3%
Java Edition 1.16[upcoming]
Golden Sword	Bastion remnant	Bridge chest	1	12.2%
		Generic chest	1	16%
Enchanted Golden Sword	Ruined portal	Chest	1	20.5%
Damaged Diamond Sword	Bastion remnant	Treasure chest	1	10.2%
Damaged Enchanted Diamond Sword	Bastion remnant	Treasure chest	1	16.8%
Bedrock Edition
Iron Sword	Stronghold	Altar chest	1	11.8%
	Village	Weaponsmith's chest	1	25.6%
Enchanted Iron Sword	End city	Chest	1	13.3%
Golden Sword	Nether fortress	Chest	1	19%
Enchanted Diamond Sword	End city	Chest	1	13.3%
Bedrock Edition 1.16.0[upcoming]
Golden Sword	Bastion remnant	Bridge chest	1	12.2%
		Generic chest	1	16%
Enchanted Golden Sword	Ruined portal	Chest	1	20.5%
Damaged Diamond Sword	Bastion remnant	Treasure chest	1	10.2%
Damaged Enchanted Diamond Sword	Bastion remnant	Treasure chest	1	16.8%

Usage

Attacking

Pressing attack while holding a sword inflicts damage on both mobs and other players. Upon damaging a mob or player, the sword's durability decreases by 1.

Attacking a boat or a minecart with a sword instantly destroys it, without decreasing the sword's durability.

Sweep attack

If the attack recharge meter is 84.8% or above, and the player is standing or moving no faster than walking speed, the sword performs a "sweep" attack that can hit nearby enemies. Enemies near the hit enemy are knocked back and damaged by 1 from the slashing attack. The Sweeping Edge enchantment increases the damage dealt by 50% of the normal hit damage for level I, 67% for level II, and 75% for level III. The amount of knockback is 80% that of the knockback due to Knockback I (in other words, 2.8 blocks), and does not benefit from that enchantment. All enemies within 1 block horizontally and 0.25 blocks vertically of any part of the attacked mob and within up to 4 blocks of the player are knocked back. It is impossible to perform a sweep attack at the same time as a critical hit or sprint-knockback attack. A sweep attack is performed only when the player swings downward; hitting an entity above the player's head does not perform a sweep attack.

Damage

Java Edition

Swords have an attack speed of 1.6 and take 0.625 seconds to recover.

Material	Wooden	Gold	Stone	Iron	Diamond	Netherite‌[upcoming: 1.16]
Attack Damage	4	4	5	6	7	8
Attack Speed	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6
Damage/Second (DPS)	6.4	6.4	8	9.6	11.2	12.8
Durability	59	32	131	250	1561	2031
Lifetime damage inflicted	236 × 118	128 × 64	655 × 327.5	1500 × 750	10927 × 5463.5	16248 × 8124

Bedrock Edition

In Bedrock Edition, swords have no attack cooldown or sweep attack and do the following, stronger damage:

Material	Wooden	Gold	Stone	Iron	Diamond	Netherite
Attack Damage	4	4	5	6	7	8
Durability	60	33	132	251	1562	2032
Lifetime damage inflicted	300 × 150	165 × 82.5	792 × 396	1757 × 878.5	12496 × 6248	18288 × 9144

The most amount of damage that a sword enchanted with Sharpness V can do is 11 in Java Edition and 15.5 in Bedrock Edition, without critical hits.

Knockback

In Bedrock Edition, the knockback inflicted by swords is a bit higher than other melee items, especially while sprinting.

Sword breaking times

Main article: Breaking

A sword can also be used to destroy certain blocks more quickly than with fists. Using a sword to destroy any block that doesn't break instantly decreases its durability by 2.

If a sword is enchanted with Silk Touch, either using Creative or commands, it can collect cobwebs rather than getting the string drop. This is due to the sword being classified as the proper tool for cobwebs.

The following table shows the time it takes to break blocks on which swords have any effect. Colors indicate what gets dropped:

• White: an original block.
• Blue: block's normal drop (e.g. seeds, sapling, apple).
• Red: nothing.

Block	Fists	Sword	Proper/fastest tool
Cobweb	20 s	0.4 s		0.4 s
Jack o'Lantern	1.5 s	1 s		0.125 – 0.75 s
Melon	1.5 s	1 s		0.125 – 0.75 s
Pumpkin	1.5s	1 s		0.125 – 0.75 s
Cocoa	0.3s	0.2s		0.025 – 0.15 s
Leaves	0.3 s	0.2 s		0.02s
Vines	0.3 s	0.2 s		0.025 – 0.15 s
				0.02 s
Hay Bale‌[upcoming: JE 1.16]	1s	0.8s

Swords can also be used for instant breaking of bamboo.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Safety around constructions

In Creative mode, swords are unable to break most blocks. However, they can "break" (put out) fire, which are considered blocks.^{[until JE 1.16]} Care must also be taken around minecarts, paintings, item frames and armor stands, which are also not safe with swords in Creative.

Enchantments

Swords can receive the following enchantments:

Name	Max Level	Weight
Fire Aspect	II	2
Looting	III	2
Unbreaking	III	5
Sharpness	V	10
Smite	V	5
Bane of Arthropods	V	5
Knockback	II	5
Mending	I	2
Curse of Vanishing‌[JE only]‌[upcoming: BE 1.16]	I	1
Sweeping Edge‌[JE only]	III	2

Fuel

Wooden swords can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1 item per sword.

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Iron Nugget or Gold Nugget	Iron Sword or Golden Sword + Any fuel	0.1

Data values

ID

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	No subtitle	?	?	entity.player.attack.crit	(Plays during some attacks)	0.7	?	16
	No subtitle	?	?	entity.player.attack.knockback	(Plays during some attacks)	0.7	?	16
	No subtitle	?	?	entity.player.attack.nodamage	(Plays during some attacks)	0.7	?	16
	No subtitle	?	?	entity.player.attack.strong	(Plays during some attacks)	1, 2, 3, 4 = 0.6; 5, 6 = 0.7	?	16
	No subtitle	?	?	entity.player.attack.sweep	(Plays during some attacks)	0.7	?	16
	No subtitle	?	?	entity.player.attack.weak	(Plays during some attacks)	0.7	?	16
	Item breaks	?	?	entity.item.break	subtitles.entity.item.break	1.0	0.9	16

Item	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID‌[BE only]
Wooden Sword	wooden_sword	268
Stone Sword	stone_sword	272
Iron Sword	iron_sword	267
Diamond Sword	diamond_sword	276
Golden Sword	golden_sword	283
Netherite Sword‌[upcoming: JE 1.16 & BE 1.16.0]	netherite_sword	-

Achievements

Main article: Achievement

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
	Time to Strike!	Use planks and sticks to make a sword.	Pick up any type of sword from a crafting table output.	10G	Bronze
	Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30G	Bronze

Advancements

Main article: Advancement

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
	Oh Shiny ‌[upcoming: JE 1.16]	Distract Piglins with gold	Nether	Give a piglin one of these 22 gold-related items while it is aggressive towards you. Other gold-related items, if any, are ignored for this advancement and by the piglin.	nether/distract_piglin

History

	“	The sword has been a part of Minecraft since January 2010, when it was added alongside diamonds, sticks... oh, and the entire crafting system. Since then, the basic sword concept has pretty much stayed the same but the details have been tweaked repeatedly. Enchantments were added in version 1.0.0, drops from mobs in 1.2.1, and 1.9 – the combat update – changed things up all over again.	„
		— Duncan Geere

Blocking

Previously, since the Adventure Update, all types of swords could be used to parry to block some forms of damage. If the player is using a sword when attacked, the sword deflects 50% of the incoming melee, non-magical projectiles like arrows and explosion damage, plus a bit of knockback. The sword is held in front of the player and its durability is not reduced by blocking.

As Combat Update release, this functionality was replaced by blocking with shields and due to the dual wield. The player also moves at a slower rate than sneaking if blocking with a sword, nevertheless, it blocks instantly, unlike the shields, which have a 0.25 seconds cooldown period of activation.

This change was heavily criticized by the players.

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20091231-2			Added iron swords.
					Iron swords cannot be crafted yet, but can be added to the player's inventory during world creation.
		?			The iron sword is no longer added to the player's inventory during world creation.
		20100128			Swords made from wood, stone, and diamond have been added.
					Wood, stone and diamond swords cannot be crafted yet, but have been added to the item chest in the Indev house.
					The iron sword has now been added to the Indev house item chest.
		20100129			Wood, stone, iron, and diamond swords can now be crafted.
		20100130			Swords can now be made out of gold.
		20100201-1			Swords now take damage when being used.
					Better swords now last longer.
20100206					The texture of gold swords has been slightly changed.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0		release			Zombie pigmen now hold golden swords.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Swords, like all tools, now have more durability.
					Prior, diamond swords had 1024 durability, iron swords had 128, stone swords 64 and wood and gold had 32 durability.
1.8		Pre-release			Added the ability to block with a sword, giving the player more options in combat.
					Swords deflect 50% of incoming melee damage, non-magical projectiles like arrows and explosion damage, and a bit of knockback.
					The sword is held in front of the player and its durability is not reduced by blocking.
					The player moves at a slower rate than sneaking when blocking with a sword.
		?			Swords no longer inflict more damage than bows.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Sword damage has been reduced to make way for enchanting. A diamond sword's damage has been reduced from 10 to 7, iron has been reduced to 6 and stone has been reduced to 5.
					Iron swords are now found in the new stronghold altar chests.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Swords can now be enchanted in the enchantment table.
1.1		12w01a			Iron swords are now found in village blacksmith chests.
1.2.1		12w06a			The player now has a rare chance of obtaining iron swords by killing zombies and golden swords from zombie pigmen from the addition of rare drops. These swords have a 20% chance of being enchanted.
1.3.1		12w18a			Wooden swords can now be used as fuel in a furnace.
		12w21a			Blacksmith villagers now sell diamond swords for 12–13 emeralds, and iron swords for 7–10 emeralds.
					With the trading implementation, renewable items such as wheat can now be sold to buy a diamond sword. This has now made all swords renewable.
1.4.2		12w32a			Zombies may sometimes wield iron swords, dealing extra damage.
		12w34a			If a player has dyed leather armor equipped and selected a sword of any kind, it appears in the color of the dye applied to the armor, when switching to second or third person view.
		12w36a			Added wither skeletons, which hold stone swords.
1.4.6		12w49a			Unbreaking can now be applied to a sword with an enchanted book.
1.6.1		13w18a			Golden swords are now found in the new chests in nether fortresses.
		13w25b			In Creative mode, swords are no longer able to break blocks, and no sound plays when they're hit with one.
1.6.2					Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1), swords now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in all swords doing 1 more damage than before.
1.8		14w02a			Weaponsmith villagers now sell enchanted diamond swords for 12–15 emeralds, and iron swords for 9–10 emeralds. Unenchanted swords are no longer sold.
1.9		15w31a			Enchanted iron and diamond swords can now be found in end city ship chests.
		15w33c			Swords no longer block attacks. Instead, shields are used.
		15w34b			Swords now use the attack speed attribute. The attack speed of a sword is 1.25 or 0.8 seconds.
		15w34c			Nerfed swords, they now do one less damage and have an attack speed of 1.45, or 0.69 seconds.
					Swords can now do a sweep attack when moving at walking speed or slower, which knock back mobs near the one hit. The attack speed meter must be filled for it to work.
		15w36a			Each Sharpness level now adds 1 damage to the base damage at level I and an additional 0.5 for each additional level, down from a flat 1.25 per level.
		15w37a			Swords now have an attack speed of 1.6, or 0.63 seconds.
		15w43a			The average yield of golden swords in nether fortress chests has been decreased.
		15w49a			Sweep attack now does 1 damage to affected mobs.
1.11.1		16w50a			Golden and iron swords now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets.
					Added Sweeping Edge enchantment.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, these items' numeral IDs were 268, 272, 267, 276 and 283.
		18w10a			Swords can now generate in buried treasure chests.
September 10, 2018					Jasper Boerstra tweets an image of updated sword textures.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of all swords have been changed.
					Swords now break bamboo instantly.
Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests		1.14.3 - Combat Test			The attack speed for all swords has been increased to 3.
					The damage for all swords has been increased by 1.
					The attack reach of swords has been increased to 3.5 blocks.
		Combat Test 2			The attack speed of all swords has been decreased to 2.5.
		Combat Test 3			The attack speed of all swords has been changed from 2.5 back to 3.0.
					The attack key can now again be held down to automatically attack when the attack meter is full.
					Attacks now happen only when the sword is at 120% charge, slower than if attacks were timed.
1.16		20w06a			Added netherite swords.
					Netherite swords are obtained by combining one diamond sword and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
		20w09a			The texture of diamond swords has been changed.
		20w10a			The texture of netherite swords has been changed.
					Netherite swords can no longer be crafted.
					Netherite swords are now obtained by combining one diamond sword and one netherite ingot in a smithing table.
		20w15a			Stone swords can now be crafted using blackstone.
		20w16a			Golden and netherite swords now generate in bastion remnants chests.
					Golden swords now generate randomly enchanted in ruined portal chests.
		20w17a			Diamonds swords now generate in place of netherite swords in bastion remnant chests.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0					Added stone swords.
0.3.0					Added wooden swords.
0.3.2					Added iron, gold, and diamond swords.
0.9.0		build 1			Iron swords can now be found in stronghold altar chests and inside blacksmith chests.
0.11.0		build 11			Wooden, stone, golden and diamond swords are now available in the creative inventory.
		build 12			Wooden, stone, golden and diamond swords have been removed from creative.
		build 13			All swords are available in creative mode again.
0.12.1		build 1			Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1), swords now add their damage onto the barehanded damage, which results in all swords doing 1 more damage than before.
					In creative mode, swords are no longer able to break blocks, and no sound plays when they're hit with one.
					Golden swords can now be found in nether fortress chests.
					Zombies now rarely spawn holding an iron sword that have a chance to dropped.
					Golden swords are now rarely dropped by zombie pigmen.
					Stone swords are now rarely dropped by wither skeletons.
0.15.0		build 1			Iron swords are now sometimes dropped by husks that spawn holding an iron sword.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Enchanted iron and diamond swords can now be found in end city chests.
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			Iron swords and enchanted diamond swords are now sold by weaponsmith villagers.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Iron and golden swords are now smeltable.
					Added vexes, which rarely drop an iron sword if killed using Looting enchantment.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of all swords have been changed.
					Iron swords are now found in plains village weaponsmiths.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Iron swords can now be found in savanna, snowy taiga, taiga and desert village weaponsmiths.
		beta 1.11.0.4			Pillagers and vindicators that spawn in raids can now drop iron swords upon death.
					Trading has been changed. Iron swords sold by weaponsmith villagers now cost 2 emeralds while diamond swords cost 8 emeralds as part of their fourth tier trades.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added netherite swords.
					Netherite swords are obtained by combining one diamond sword and one netherite ingot in a crafting table.
					The texture of diamond swords has been changed.
					Golden swords are now sometimes dropped by piglins that spawn holding a golden sword.
		beta 1.16.0.57			Netherite swords can no longer be crafted.
					Netherite swords are now obtained by combining one diamond sword and one netherite ingot in a smithing table.
					Stone swords can now be crafted using blackstone.
					Golden and netherite swords now generate in bastion remnants chests.
					Golden swords now generate randomly enchanted in ruined portal chests.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added swords (all five types).
TU5					Added the ability to block, giving the player more options in combat.
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Iron and golden swords are now smeltable.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					The textures of all swords have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added swords.

Issues

Issues relating to "Sword" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• The sword's texture came from Notch's abandoned RPG, Legend of the Chambered. The iron sword's texture was created first, as it was from the game, and the other swords followed.
• With the introduction of netherite swords‌^{[upcoming: JE 1.16]}, it is possible to one-hit kill all undead mobs in the game (except withers and zombies/skeletons with random armor) using a sword with the Smite V enchantment, without the need to perform a critical hit (this was previously only possible with a Smite V stone, iron, or diamond axe). This may make the Smite enchantment more desirable.

Gallery

• 

  A player parrying with a sword in Java Edition 1.8.9. This blocks 50% of damage.

Enchanted Swords

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References

Items

View at: Template:Items/content [edit]