# Multishot Enchantment in Minecraft: What It Does and How to Use It

_Published October 16, 2026_

Multishot fires 3 arrows from one consumed arrow in a 10° spread — the crowd-control half of the crossbow's central enchantment fork.

Multishot turns one crossbow bolt into a three-way spread, at the cost of only one arrow from your inventory.

## What Multishot actually does

A Multishot crossbow fires three arrows per shot — the original plus two extras — spread 10° apart horizontally. It still only consumes **one arrow** from your inventory, but durability-wise the crossbow loses one point per arrow actually fired, so a Multishot shot costs 3 durability instead of 1. Only the center arrow can be picked back up afterward; the two angled ones are lost.

## How to use it

Multishot is built for hitting multiple targets in one shot — a raid, a mob farm's kill room, any crowd where spreading damage across several targets beats concentrating it on one. It directly trades off against Piercing (which keeps a single arrow but lets it punch through several targets in a line); you can only ever have one of the two.

## Well-known builds that use it

Multishot is one half of the central fork in [The Ideal Crossbow Enchantments](/guides/ideal-crossbow) — the "Multishot Crossbow," paired with Quick Charge III and Unbreaking III + Mending, versus the alternative Piercing build.

**Crossbow:** Quick Charge III, Multishot I, Unbreaking III, Mending I

[Build the Multishot Crossbow →](https://anvilcalc.com/#eyJpIjoiY3Jvc3Nib3ciLCJlIjpbXSwicCI6MCwibiI6IiIsInQiOltbInF1aWNrX2NoYXJnZSIsM10sWyJtdWx0aXNob3QiLDFdLFsidW5icmVha2luZyIsM10sWyJtZW5kaW5nIiwxXV19)

## Frequently asked questions

**Does Multishot use up 3 arrows per shot?**

No — it only consumes one arrow from your inventory. All three arrows fired come from that single consumed arrow; only the crossbow's own durability is charged per arrow actually shot (3 points instead of 1).

**Can Multishot and Piercing go on the same crossbow?**

No, they're mutually exclusive — the game treats them as directly conflicting enchantments, so an anvil or enchanting table will never let you have both at once.

**Can I pick up all three arrows after a Multishot shot?**

No, only the center arrow of the three can be recovered. The two arrows angled 10° to either side are lost after the shot.