Sword

Sword

Rarity	Common
Durability	Wood: 59 Stone: 131 Iron: 250 Golden: 32 Diamond: 1561
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No
Namespaced ID	See Data values

A sword is a melee weapons 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 Cobblestone 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.

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		The durability of the two swords is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.

Unit repair

A sword can be repaired in an anvil by adding units of the corresponding material, each restores 25% its maximum durability, rounded down.

Mobs

Main article: Drops § Equipped items

Some monsters can spawn with a sword, and have an 8.5% (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III) chance of dropping them upon death by player: Zombies and husks can drop iron swords, zombie pigmen 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 always unenchanted.

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

Weaponsmith villagers sell enchanted iron swords for 9–10 emeralds as part of their second tier trades, and enchanted diamond swords for 12–15 emeralds as part of their third tier trades.‌^{[Legacy Console Edition only]}

Apprentice-level weaponsmith villagers sell enchanted iron swords for 2 emeralds, and expert-level weaponsmiths sell enchanted diamond swords for 8 emeralds.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

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.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

The enchantments are the same as the ones obtained from an enchantment table at levels 5–19.

Natural generation

Iron swords can be found in 12.1% of stronghold altar chests, 25.6% of village weaponsmith chests, and 75.0% of buried treasure chests, all in groups of 1.

In Bedrock Edition they can be found in 11.8% of stronghold altar chests in groups of 1.

Golden swords can be found in 19.0% of fortress chests in groups of 1.

Enchanted iron swords can be found in 13.3% of End city chests in groups of 1.

Enchanted diamond swords can be found in 13.3% of End city chests in groups of 1.

Notes

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 perform 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 both a sweep attack and critical hit on the same 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
Attack Damage	4	4	5	6	7
Attack Speed	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6
Damage/Second (DPS)	6.4	6.4	8	9.6	11.2
Durability	59	32	131	250	1561
Lifetime damage inflicted	240 × 120	132 × 66	660 × 330	1506 × 753	10934 × 5467

Bedrock and PS4 editions

In Bedrock and Legacy Console editions, swords have no attack cooldown or sweep attack and do the following damage:

Material	Wooden	Gold	Stone	Iron	Diamond
Attack Damage	5	5	6	7	8
Durability	59	32	131	250	1561
Lifetime damage inflicted	300 × 150	165 × 82.5	792 × 396	1757 × 878.5	12496 × 6248

The most amount of damage that a diamond sword enchanted with Sharpness V can do is 10 in Java Edition, 11 in Legacy Console Edition and 13.5 in Bedrock Edition (without critical hits).

Knockback

In Bedrock and PlayStation 4 editions, 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

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. Care must also be taken around minecarts, paintings, item frames and armor stands, which are also not safe with swords in Creative.

Blocking

A player blocking with a diamond sword.

Previously, 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 1.9 of Java Edition, this functionality was replaced by blocking with shields. 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.

Enchantments

Swords can receive the following enchantments:

Name	Max Level
Fire Aspect	II
Looting	III
Unbreaking	III
Sharpness	V
Smite	V
Bane of Arthropods	V
Knockback	II
Mending	I
Curse of Vanishing‌[JE & LCE only]	I
Sweeping Edge‌[JE only]	III

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

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Namespaced ID	Subtitle ID	Source	Pitch	Volume	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	?	0.9	1.0	16

Data values

ID

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

Video

Note: This video is outdated. Since Java Edition 1.9, swords can no longer block attacks. Instead, shields are used.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Availability				Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
				Xbox	PS	Bedrock	Nintendo
	Time to Strike!	Use planks and sticks to make a sword	Pick up any type of sword from a crafting table output.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	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.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	30G	Bronze

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

Java Edition Indev
Indev 0.31		January 29, 2010			Added craftable swords made from wood, stone, iron and diamond.
		January 30, 2010			Swords can now be made out of gold.
		February 1, 2010 (1)			Swords now take damage when being used. Better swords last longer.
Indev		February 6, 2010			Golden sword's texture has now 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. It is not known what the prior durabilities were.
1.8		Pre-release			Added the ability to block with a sword, giving the player more options in combat.
		?			Swords no longer inflict more damage than bows.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Sword damage has now been reduced to make way for enchanting. A diamond sword's damage has now been reduced from 10 to 7, iron has now been reduced to 6 and stone has now 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			Swords 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 now 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 now been changed.
					Swords now break bamboo instantly.
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 now been removed from creative.
		build 13			All swords are available in creative mode again.
0.12.1		build 1			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 now 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 now 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.
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 now been changed.

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.

References

Items

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