# Bane of Arthropods Enchantment: Damage, Slowness, and How to Use It

_Published October 16, 2026_

Exact bonus damage and Slowness duration per level against spiders, silverfish, and other arthropods.

Bane of Arthropods adds bonus damage against spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, endermites, and bees — and, unlike its two damage-type siblings, also applies a Slowness effect on hit.

## What Bane of Arthropods actually does

Each level adds 2.5 HP × 1.25 extra damage against arthropod mobs, the same underlying formula Smite uses against undead. On top of the damage, every hit also inflicts Slowness IV for a random duration starting between 1 and 1.5 seconds at Level I, with the maximum possible duration increasing by 0.5 seconds per level — up to 3.5 seconds at Level V.

## How to use it

That Slowness effect is the real differentiator: Sharpness and Smite are pure damage, but Bane of Arthropods is damage *plus* crowd control. That makes it genuinely useful on its own merits for fighting through a cave spider swarm in a mob grinder or clearing a silverfish-infested stronghold room, not just "the weaker specialist" of the three. Outside arthropod-heavy content it's the narrowest of the three damage-type picks (five mob types vs. Smite's whole undead category), and it still can't be combined with Sharpness or Smite — all three, plus Breach and Density, share one exclusion group.

## Well-known builds that use it

Bane of Arthropods is the second specialist alternative to Sharpness on the ["God Sword"](/guides/god-sword) build's one damage-type slot — Looting, Sweeping Edge, Unbreaking, and Mending carry over unchanged regardless of which of the three you pick. See [Sharpness vs. Smite vs. Bane of Arthropods](/guides/sharpness-vs-smite-vs-bane-of-arthropods) for the full comparison.

[Build the Arthropod Sword →](https://anvilcalc.com/#eyJpIjoiZGlhbW9uZF9zd29yZCIsImUiOltdLCJwIjowLCJuIjoiIiwidCI6W1siYmFuZV9vZl9hcnRocm9wb2RzIiw1XSxbImxvb3RpbmciLDNdLFsidW5icmVha2luZyIsM10sWyJtZW5kaW5nIiwxXV19)

## Frequently asked questions

**What does Bane of Arthropods do besides damage?**

It applies a Slowness IV effect to the arthropod mob it hits, with a duration that scales from roughly 1 second at Level I up to a maximum of 3.5 seconds at Level V — useful crowd control independent of the bonus damage.

**What counts as an arthropod in Minecraft?**

Spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, endermites, and bees — nothing else gets the bonus damage or Slowness effect from this enchantment.

**Is Bane of Arthropods worth using over Sharpness?**

Only for a weapon you specifically keep for spider farms, cave spider swarms, or silverfish-infested strongholds. Against everything else it does nothing extra, same tradeoff as Smite's undead specialization.

**Can Bane of Arthropods and Smite go on the same weapon?**

No — they're both in the same damage-type exclusion group alongside Sharpness, Breach, and Density. Only one can be active per weapon.

**What's the maximum level of Bane of Arthropods?**

V, obtainable from the enchanting table, an anvil, or a villager trade.