Efficiency — a guide to mining speed enchantments in Minecraft

Efficiency — a guide to mining speed enchantments in Minecraft

Efficiency is a vanilla enchantment available in all modern versions of Java Edition; the speed values shown have not changed across many updates.

Efficiency is a tool enchantment in Minecraft that increases block mining speed. It can be applied to a pickaxe, shovel, axe, hoe, and shears, and works only when a block is broken with its correct tool. The maximum level is V. This guide breaks down the speed boost formula, tool material limitations, all ways to obtain the enchantment, and its main practical application — instant stone mining paired with the Haste effect.

What Efficiency does

Each level of the enchantment adds to the tool's mining speed a value according to the formula Level² + 1. The increase is non-linear — the difference between adjacent levels grows with each step.

This value is added to the tool's base speed, which depends on the material.

Gold has the highest base speed but low durability, so the most common carrier of the enchantment in practice is a diamond or netherite pickaxe. For a diamond pickaxe (base 8), the final speed increases as follows: unenchanted — 8, with Efficiency I — 10, II — 13, III — 18, IV — 25, V — 34.

Which tools the enchantment affects

Efficiency can be applied to a pickaxe, shovel, axe, and hoe through an enchanting table, and to shears — only through an anvil using an enchanted book. The bonus works exclusively within the tool's profile: a pickaxe speeds up stone, ores, and metal; a shovel — dirt, sand, and gravel; an axe — wood.

The enchanting table interface with the 'Efficiency' option selected in the list of available enchantments

How much time the enchantment saves in practice

The enchantment provides the most noticeable time save on hard blocks, where the base mining time is already long. A prime example is obsidian (hardness 50), mined with a diamond pickaxe.

A similar acceleration applies to ancient debris (hardness 30): the time per block drops from approximately 5.7 s unenchanted to 1.4 s with Efficiency V. On softer blocks, the absolute time save is smaller but accumulates due to quantity: when digging a long tunnel, the difference between an unenchanted pickaxe and Efficiency V turns from minutes into mere dozens of seconds.

Parallel obsidian mining — an unenchanted diamond pickaxe vs an Efficiency V pickaxe

How mining time is calculated

Time is calculated step by step: the Efficiency bonus (Level² + 1) is added to the tool's base speed, the result is multiplied by the Haste multiplier, and then divided by the block's hardness and again by 30 (if the tool is the correct one). If the total is greater than 1, the block breaks instantly; otherwise, the time is rounded up to the next full tick (1 tick = 1⁄20 of a second).

Example for stone (hardness 1.5) using a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V: speed is 34, 34 ÷ 1.5 ÷ 30 = 0.756 — less than 1, so there is no instant mining. The number of ticks is 1.5 × 30 ÷ 34 = 1.32, rounding up gives 2 ticks, which is 0.1 seconds per block.

Maximum level and material limitations

The maximum level is Efficiency V. The method to obtain it depends on the tool's material.

• Wood, copper, iron, gold, and netherite can receive Efficiency V directly from the enchanting table.

• Stone and diamond get a maximum of Efficiency IV from the table. To upgrade them to V, an anvil is required: combine two items (or two books) with Efficiency IV.

Because of this, it is impossible to get a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V straight from the table — only through an anvil. A ready-made diamond pickaxe with this level can also be found in chests in End Cities and Bastion Remnants.

How to obtain Efficiency

Enchanting Table

The item and lapis lazuli are placed in the slots, after which three random options appear on the right. The available level depends on the number of bookshelves around the table — to get level 30 options, 15 bookshelves are needed at a distance of one block from the table. Among pickaxe enchantments, Efficiency has a high weight and appears frequently.

An enchanting table surrounded by bookshelves

Anvil and enchanted books

The anvil combines enchantments. Two items of the same type with Efficiency IV yield one item with Efficiency V; enchantments are similarly transferred from an enchanted book to a tool. This is the only path to Efficiency V for diamond and stone tools.

The anvil interface — two 'Efficiency IV' books as input, 'Efficiency V' as output

Trading and loot

Books and tools with a random level of Efficiency are sold by village librarians; the higher the book's level, the greater the price in emeralds. Efficiency books can also be found in structure chests — including Ancient Cities, Strongholds, and Trial Chambers.

Command for testing

In Creative mode or for a quick test, the enchantment can be applied via command:

/enchant @p minecraft:efficiency 5

The command applies to the item in your hand; the level is specified by a number from 1 to 5.

Instant mining: Efficiency + Haste

The main practical application of the enchantment is instant mining, where a block breaks in one game tick without the standard 6-tick delay between blocks. This drastically speeds up tunneling and clearing large areas.

A block breaks instantly when the tool's final speed exceeds the block's hardness multiplied by 30. For stone (hardness 1.5), the threshold is 45. A diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V only gives 34, so the enchantment alone is not enough — it must be boosted by the Haste effect.

Haste multiplies speed by 0.2 × level + 1: Haste I is +20%, Haste II is +40%. A diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V under Haste II gives 34 × 1.4 = 47.6, which exceeds 45 — the stone breaks instantly.

Combinations for diamond and netherite pickaxes

Minimum combination for instant mining depending on block hardness (pickaxe base — 8):

In Survival mode, the speed ceiling is Efficiency V combined with Haste II, which is 47.6. This corresponds to a hardness of about 1.58. Harder blocks — cobblestone (2.0), deepslate (3.0), obsidian (50) — cannot be mined instantly in Survival, regardless of enchantments.

How to get Haste II

Haste is provided by a beacon. The first level of the effect is available from a pyramid of at least two tiers; the second — only from a full four-tier pyramid (164 blocks plus the beacon itself). In the beacon menu, you select Haste, confirm the choice with an ingot or gem, and the effect will then apply within a radius around the structure.

The beacon interface with the 'Haste' effect selected

Penalties that negate the enchantment

Several conditions drastically reduce speed and effectively nullify the Efficiency bonus:

• The player's head is underwater without the Aqua Affinity enchantment — speed is divided by 5.

• Feet not touching the ground (flying, swimming, jumping) — speed is divided by another 5.

In water without Aqua Affinity and without footing, the penalties stack: mining becomes 25 times slower. Separately, the negative Mining Fatigue effect from an Elder Guardian sharply reduces speed.

Efficiency on an axe: shield stunning

In Java Edition, an axe with Efficiency has an additional effect unrelated to mining: it increases the chance to disable an opponent's shield. Without enchantments, the chance is 25%, and each level of Efficiency adds +5%.

The boost only works during a regular attack. A sprinting attack is already guaranteed to disable a shield, so the enchantment bonus does not apply there.

Common mistakes

1. Attempting to apply Efficiency V to a diamond pickaxe through an enchanting table. The table provides a maximum of IV for diamond and stone — the fifth level can only be combined on an anvil from two items with IV.

2. Mining with the wrong tool. An axe with Efficiency on stone or a pickaxe on wood provides no boost: the bonus only applies to the appropriate profile.

3. Expecting instant stone mining from Efficiency V alone. A speed of 34 is below the 45 threshold — without Haste II, stone will not break instantly.

4. Attempting to instantly mine hard blocks. For deepslate (3.0), the threshold is 90, for obsidian (50) — 1500; in Survival, the ceiling is only 47.6.

5. Mining underwater without Aqua Affinity or when feet don't touch the ground. Speed is divided by 5 in water and another 5 without footing — the bonus nearly disappears.

6. Believing the '+5% per level' formula from some sites. In reality, Level² + 1 is added to the tool's speed, not a fixed percentage.

Conclusion

Efficiency is the cheapest way to speed up mining in Minecraft: the enchantment can be applied to any pickaxe, shovel, axe, or hoe and is always active, without requiring extra infrastructure. The ceiling in Survival mode is Efficiency V, which raises a diamond pickaxe's speed to 34 and cuts the time to mine obsidian down by roughly a quarter.

The main limitation is that the enchantment alone does not provide instant mining, even for regular stone: this also requires Haste II from a beacon. Efficiency and Haste work in tandem, rather than replacing each other: the player carries the enchantment with them on every tool, while the beacon provides a temporary localized boost. An Efficiency V pickaxe is sufficient for mining in caves, but for stationary quarrying or clearing out space for a farm, combining it with Haste II turns stone into instantly vanishing blocks.