What does Smite do in Minecraft? Explained!

Enchantments in Minecraft are essential to surviving the game’s various challenges, whether it’s exploring the night world or fearlessly exploring deep caverns. We have already talked about the best Minecraft enchantments to have, but there is one enchantment that will help you make your weapons more powerful and reliable. This enchantment, called Smite, helps you easily defeat about half of the hostile mobs in the game. But what does Smite do in Minecraft, and how exactly do you get it? Find out in this detailed guide.

What is the Smite enchantment in Minecraft?

Smite is a popular ax and sword enchantment that can increase the damage dealt to undead mobs. You can get up to 5 levels of smite , and each level significantly increases the amount of damage you do. Applicable to both axes and swords. However, using Smite on swords provides a huge advantage for players who don’t want to switch weapons during combat.

Additionally, when it comes to drawbacks, the Smite enchantment is not compatible with the Bane of Arthropods, Sharpness, and Cleaving enchantments. Therefore, you cannot apply a Smite enchantment to an item that already has one of the three incompatible enchantments.

List of Minecraft mobs affected by Smite

Undead mobs in Minecraft appear “dead” and most of them are generally hostile towards players. Additionally, all of these mobs are immune to drowning, but transform when trapped underwater (from zombie to drowned zombie). Remember, healing potions in Minecraft will damage these mobs, but ironically harmful potions will heal them.

That being said, all undead mobs affected by the Smite enchantment are:

• chicken jockey
• shell
• drowned
• zombie
• phantom
• skeleton
• skeleton horse
• I’m confused
• spider jockey
• skeleton horseman
• I’m confused
• wither
• Zoglin
• wither skeleton
• villager zombie
• zombie horse
• zombified piglin

Smite enchantment: level of damage

As mentioned above, the level of damage dealt to undead mobs increases as the level of the Smite enchantment increases. However, the materials for swords, axes, and even between editions of Minecraft are quite inconsistent. To understand the different levels of Smite enchantments, let’s take a closer look at the damage table (via Minecraft Wiki ).

Java version

Note that the value in parentheses reflects the weapon’s critical damage. This is the damage caused when using a weapon while jumping towards a hostile mob. Meanwhile, the other value is the damage dealt when the weapon is fully charged.

bedrock version

Here, the value in parentheses reflects critical damage, and the other values ​​represent typical damage when the enemy is not wearing armor. Smite enchantment damage in Bedrock Edition is as follows:

As you may have noticed, each new level of the Smite enchantment adds 2.5 points worth of hit damage . Additionally, as you may have noticed, the Java version of the ax is much more powerful than the sword. On the other hand, the sword is the better weapon in the Bedrock version. In case you’re wondering, the difference is that the Bedrock edition received a combat update until Minecraft Preview 1.20.50.22 finally added some combat changes to the Bedrock edition. This is because it was not done.

How to get the Smite enchantment in Minecraft

There are two main ways to obtain enchantments in Minecraft.

• Enchanted Books: Java edition of Axes available in Smite
• Enchantment Table: Applies to the ax in Bedrock edition and the sword smite in both editions.

Unfortunately, there is no fixed location to find enchantment books for Smite enchantments. However, you can use our guide to learn how to find and use enchanted books in Minecraft to make your search easier. That being said, here’s how to apply the Smite enchantment using the enchantment table:

• First, create an enchantment table in Minecraft and place it on a solid surface.
• Next, upgrade your table by placing different bookshelves around it. This will allow you to obtain higher level Smite enchantments in-game. Then open the enchantment table by right-clicking or using the second action key.

• Next, place the sword in the left cell of the magic table and the lapis lazuli in the cell next to it. You will then see the three available enchantments on the right side of the table.

• Next, you need to find the Smite enchantment by hovering over each option on the right panel of the enchantment table. Once you find the Smite enchantment, click to apply it to your sword (or ax in Bedrock edition) . If it does not appear, please change the weapon or table and try again.

How to use the Smite enchantment in Minecraft

Now that your new Smite enchanted weapon is ready, let’s try it out.

• First, look for undead mobs, as they are the only ones affected by this enchantment (find the full list above). Zombies are the easiest to spot. Zombies appear in dark areas of the overworld.

• Then, just approach the undead mob and attack it with the Smite-enchanted weapon. Compared to unenchanted tools, smite axes and swords can kill mobs faster.

Now you are ready to move on to the next battle and completely annihilate all undead mobs in Minecraft. However, don’t rely too much on weapons. Axes and swords may be powerful, but they cannot deal with hordes of enemies. So make sure you also have lots of the best Minecraft armor enchantments for protection. Alternatively, you can create an Iron Golem in Minecraft and keep it as additional support.

FAQ

Which is better: sharpness or smite?

As you already know, Sharpness increases the overall damage of the weapon, while Smite only increases the damage dealt to undead mobs. So unless you only plan on fighting undead mobs, Sharpness is a better option in most cases.

Can you one-shot zombies in Smite 5 in Bedrock Edition?

In the Bedrock edition, zombies have 20 health. So you can kill it in one hit using Smite 5 Diamond or Netherite Sword. If you get a critical hit, you can defeat zombies with Smite 4 and Iron Sword.