Density Enchantment in Minecraft: What It Does and How to Use It

Max level

V

Applies to

Mace

Incompatible with

Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Breach

Obtained via

Enchanting table, anvil, villager trade

Density adds extra mace smash-attack damage for every block you fell before landing the hit — the higher the fall, the bigger the bonus.

What Density actually does

Density adds 0.5 extra damage per block fallen, per level — 0.5 per block at level I, up to 2.5 per block at level V. A Density V mace smash from a significant height can deal very large bonus damage on top of the mace's base smash-attack damage, which already scales with fall distance on its own even without the enchantment.

How to use it

Density rewards falling from height before a smash attack — jumping from a tower, using an elytra dive, or a wind-charge launch, then landing the hit. It's part of the same six-way damage-type exclusion group as Sharpness/Smite/Bane of Arthropods/Breach/Impaling, so it directly competes with Breach specifically on a mace (both are mace-exclusive damage-type picks).

Well-known builds that use it

Density is one of the two signature mace enchantments (alongside Breach) — see The Ideal Mace Enchantments for the full build. Density is the pick for maximizing raw smash damage from height, where Breach instead focuses on ignoring armor.

Build a Density Mace in the calculator →

For the full mace overview, including the recipe, how to get a heavy core and how the smash attack works, see Minecraft Mace: Recipe, Smash Attack & Enchantments.

Frequently asked questions

Can you have both Density and Breach on a mace?

No — they're mutually exclusive, along with Smite and Bane of Arthropods, as part of the same damage-type exclusion group swords/axes use for Sharpness/Smite/Bane of Arthropods.

Does Density work without falling first?

A mace's smash attack itself requires falling at least 1.5 blocks to trigger at all — Density's bonus then scales with however far you fell beyond that.