Enchantments in Minecraft are complex, as they include a random factor, high-quality materials like diamonds, and a long list of buffs. That’s what Enchantments offer: magical upgrades for your gear.
Smite is one of these enchantments, and while it seems straightforward, it has a trick. It increases the damage you deal with swords and axes, but only to undead mobs.
Smite Enchantment
Smite is an Enchantment available to swords and axes. You can apply it to these types of weapons via the Enchanting Table, or by combining a sword or an ax with the Smite enchantment book on the anvil.
You can also trade the enchantment book with librarian villagers, fish it with a fishing rod, or find it in treasure chests.
The buff increases the damage you deal to undead mobs, and you can put it on swords and axes on both the Java and Bedrock editions.
Undead mobs include:
- Skeletons
- Zombies
- Zombie villagers
- Zombified piglins
- Zombie horses
- Skeleton horses
- Withers
- Wither skeletons
- Strays
- Husks
- Phantoms
- Drowned
- Zoglins
- Mummy
- Necromancer
- Undead dragon
- Zombie cowmen
- Crawler
- Drowned sapper
- Charred zombie
- Others…
Undead mobs are one of the two mob categories in-game that are affected by an enchantment. The other category is arthropods, which are affected by the Bane of the Arthropods.
Undeads (like zombies, phantoms, and all of their variants) appear at night and in places without sunlight. They burn in sunlight, they don’t have armor, they are always hostile, and they are very common in the game, especially in the Overworld.
Smite Damage
The enchantment has five levels. Each level increases the damage by 2.5 each level, generally.
Here’s the damage it deals on Bedrock Edition, assuming that the target has no armor and without considering critical damage.
| Enchantment level | Wooden sword | Gold sword | Stone sword | Iron sword | Diamond sword | Netherite sword |
| No enchantment | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| I | 7.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 10.5 | 11.5 |
| II | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 14 |
| III | 12.5 | 12.5 | 13.5 | 13.5 | 15.5 | 16.5 |
| IV | 15 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| V | 17.5 | 17.5 | 19.5 | 19.5 | 20.5 | 21.5 |
Similarly, here’s the damage Smite adds to axes in Bedrock Edition:
| Enchantment level | Wooden ax | Gold ax | Stone ax | Iron ax | Diamond ax | Netherite ax |
| No enchantment | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| I | 6.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 10.5 |
| II | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| III | 11.5 | 11.5 | 12.5 | 13.5 | 14.5 | 15.5 |
| IV | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| V | 16.5 | 16.5 | 17.5 | 18.5 | 19.5 | 20.5 |
Now, let’s look at the damage Smite adds to Java. The base damage of swords in Java is different, but the overall buff is the same, which means Smite is more potent in this edition.
That said, here’s what Smite adds to swords (without considering armor or critical damage):
| Enchantment level | Wooden sword | Gold sword | Stone sword | Iron sword | Diamond sword | Netherite sword |
| No enchantment | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| I | 6.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 10.5 |
| II | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| III | 11.5 | 11.5 | 12.5 | 13.5 | 14.5 | 15.5 |
| IV | 14 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| V | 16.5 | 16.5 | 17.5 | 18.5 | 19.5 | 20.5 |
Lastly, here’s the damage Smite adds on axes in the Java Edition, where the difference is more notable compared to Bedrock.
| Enchantment level | Wooden ax | Gold ax | Stone ax | Iron ax | Diamond ax | Netherite ax |
| No enchantment | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| I | 9.5 | 9.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 12.5 |
| II | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 |
| III | 14.5 | 14.5 | 16.5 | 16.5 | 16.5 | 17.5 |
| IV | 17 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 20 |
| V | 19.5 | 19.5 | 21.5 | 21.5 | 21.5 | 22.5 |
As you see, Smite is a massive buff. It can turn lowly wooden swords and axes into serious damage dealers. And because it’s quite easy to repair an Enchanted weapon (you can combine it with a regular version of the weapon on the anvil), getting that kind of damage is very cheap.
Smite Incompatibility
There’s another “but,” though. Smite is not compatible with Sharpness, which is the straight damage upgrade enchantment for swords and axes.
Still, the damage Sharpness adds is much lower, as, in general, it adds 1.5 points of damage every two levels. For instance, it raises the wooden sword’s damage from 4 to 7 (Sharpness 5) or the Netherite ax’s damage from 10 to 13 (Sharpness V).
Smite is also not compatible with Cleaver and Bane of Arthropods. Let’s check:
| Enchantment | Gear | Max level | Description | Incompatible with |
| Smite | Swords and axes | V | Increases the damage you deal to undead mobs to appropriate weapons | Bane of Arthropods, Sharpness, Cleaving |
| Cleaving | Axes | III | Increases damage and shield stunning | Sharpness, Bane of Arthropods, Smite |
| Sharpness | Swords (axes as well in Bedrock Edition) | V | Increases damage with swords and shields | Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Cleaving |
In particular, Bane of Arthropods adds a very similar buff as Smite, but it applies when fighting against arthropods. This group of mobs includes endermite, silverfish, bees, cave spiders, spiders, and similar.
Smite Compatibility
Lastly, you can also combine Smite with other sword and ax enchantments. Remember that you can put up to seven enchantments on any piece of gear. Here’re the ones you can combine:
You can put up to seven enchantments on an item on Bedrock Edition. On Java, you can put up to eight enchantments.
