Thorns

For the enchantment in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Thorns.

Thorns

Maximum level	III
Primary items
Secondary items
Enchantment weight	1

Thorns is an armor enchantment that causes attackers to be damaged when they deal damage to the wearer.

Guardians and pufferfish also have a thorn effect which inflicts damage when the spikes are out.

Usage

While wearing any piece of armor with the Thorns enchantment, the wearer has a Level × 15% chance of inflicting 1-4 damage on anyone who attacks them, regardless of whether they were hit by a melee attack, arrow, or other projectile. The entity also gets knocked back when being attacked by the enchantment.‌^{[JE only]}

Multiple worn armor items with the Thorns enchantment do stack. Each piece confers an independent chance to deal damage to the attacker as described above. The total amount of damage that can be dealt this way is capped at 4.

Thorns applies a durability penalty to the armor. It reduces durability by an additional 2 points when inflicting damage. If multiple armor pieces are enchanted with Thorns, the durability penalty is applied to one piece chosen at random, regardless of what level of Thorns that piece has. If the item is also enchanted with Unbreaking, the damage penalty has a chance of being ignored.

If a projectile is launched toward an opponent equipped with thorns, using a shield damages the shield instead of the player when the projectile hits the opponent.

Using commands, the enchantment level can be increased. The maximum possible chance of dealing damage is 100% (at level 7). If the level of Thorns exceeds 10, then it deals Level - 10 damage.

Obtaining

Thorns I, II, and III can be obtained naturally from drops or by combining the enchantment from a book. Thorns III can also be obtained by using an anvil to combine two Thorns II enchantments, or by combining the enchantment from a book obtained via trading with a villager. Thorns III cannot appear on the enchantment table interface, but can be added as a side effect enchantment from a level 30 enchantment on armor.

Thorns can be applied to a non-armor item only by using commands or a third-party tool. When such an item is held in either hand, an attacker suffers damage according to the formula above.

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Thorns prick	?	?	enchant.thorns.hit	subtitles.enchant.thorns.hit	?	?	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Thorns	thorns	enchantment.minecraft.thorns

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Thorns	thorns	5	enchantment.thorns

History

Java Edition
1.4.6		12w50a			Added Thorns.
1.9		?			Sounds for Thorns have been added.
		15w42a			When multiple pieces of Thorns armor are worn, one is chosen at random to lose durability instead of always using the "bottommost" piece.
1.16.1		20w28a			Now less demanding on durability.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.12.1		build 1			Added Thorns.

Issues

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

Enchantments

View at: Template:Enchantments/content [edit]