What types of enchantments should I be looking for? I'm only interested in removing blocks. Resources are not needed. Should I hold off on enchanting till I max out my level cap?
1) Regardless of how much XP over 30 levels you collect, 30 levels of XP will be he maximum of any enchantment offered by your enchantment table.
2) As you climb to higher levels of XP, you must obtain proportionately more XP orbs to climb each level, so to go from Level 42 to 43, you will need to collect more XP orbs than you did to go from Level 29 to 30.
As a result, you are definitely better off to enchant an item at least every time you hit Level 30. Depending on what you are looking for in the way of enchantments (i.e. what you want to accomplish in the game with that item), you may even want to enchant at much lower levels than 30. This gets a little complicated and has to do with probability math. However, for example, if all you want to do is get efficiency on an item, you're best move is to enchant that item at Level 1 (for Efficiency I). Since Efficiency is the most common enchantment and when you enchant anything, you must get something, so at Level 1 you have the highest odds possible of getting Efficiency I as your enchantment. If you want Efficiency II, your odds of getting it are probably best around Level 11 (that BTW is a guess - I haven't actually calculated it out since I hated probabilities when I was taking math in school... way back when)
Just to expand on what was mentioned before, gaining levels requires more and more XP after level 16, so it is advantageous to enchant as soon as you hit level 30 (which is the max enchant level).
It takes somewhere around 2,031 XP to level up to 42 -- grabbing a max enchant will drop you back down to level 12 afterwards. Leveling up to level 30 only takes 825 XP so by enchanting as soon as you hit 30, earning 2,031 XP means you would have been able to grab two max enchants and still be left at level 20. To put it another way, leveling to 45 is the same as leveling to 30 three times.
Hope that made some kind of sense.
And yes, efficiency and unbreaking are what you're looking for. I'm pretty sure there's a high probability you'll get both -- my last two diamond pickaxes both enchanted with Efficiency IV, Unbreaking III, and Fortune III. Just in case you get a bad enchant, some people like to save before enchanting and then reload the world if they want to try again. Others like to take what they get... though sometimes you can be left with a horrible enchant.
You also don't have to wait until level 30 to get really good enchants either. Increasing your level only increases the possibility that you'll get better ones. At level 30, you might have a 70% chance of getting Efficiency IV and a 10% chance of getting Efficiency III. At levels 25-27, you might have a 40% chance to get either. While you have a slightly better chance of getting 3 enchants on an item at level 30, your chance of getting at least two pretty much tops out once you hit 25-ish.
Just don't die. That would be very unfortunate. I would rage quit if that happened to me. lol
Too late, died a hour ago. With my new diamond pick axe, the obsidian I need for my enchanting table, etc. Good thing I save when leaving my base. I am now at level 47 BTW.
Yes,I know. I need obsidian for a crafting table. I'm not gonna stop the excavation to search for diamonds and obsidian. No table, no using my Xp.
OK, I got the reference now to why you think you'll be at Level 100 before you enchant. However, that is really inefficient. I usually have the enchantment table in place by the time I hit Level 6 (i.e. very early on after I first set myself up in a new survival world) and I'll definitely have one in place before I hit Level 30 the first time.
OK, I got the reference now to why you think you'll be at Level 100 before you enchant. However, that is really inefficient. I usually have the enchantment table in place by the time I hit Level 6 (i.e. very early on after I first set myself up in a new survival world) and I'll definitely have one in place before I hit Level 30 the first time.
UpUp, I'm trying to excavate a stronghold. 97% of the time I play creative(since creative was implemented). I created a map and just happened to spawn next to a stone mtn. Just my dumb luck the stronghold was five or so levels below the surface. I wasn't going to enchant anything, but as somebody said in another thread, "Good luck with digging out your stronghold". So after 8 hours of digging I'd like to A;dig faster. And B; have my tools last longer. And now that I found the materials for the E-table, ill give it a go. I know it won't be as efficient as my empty hand in creative, but man, this is tedious work.
UpUp, I'm trying to excavate a stronghold. 97% of the time I play creative(since creative was implemented). I created a map and just happened to spawn next to a stone mtn. Just my dumb luck the stronghold was five or so levels below the surface. I wasn't going to enchant anything, but as somebody said in another thread, "Good luck with digging out your stronghold". So after 8 hours of digging I'd like to A;dig faster. And B; have my tools last longer. And now that I found the materials for the E-table, ill give it a go. I know it won't be as efficient as my empty hand in creative, but man, this is tedious work.
You're misunderstanding my reference to inefficiency - I'm refering to collecting XP over level 30. Since it takes more XP to go from Level 30 to 31 than it does to go from Level 29 to 30 and this goes up exponentially the higher you get, the best way to manage XP is to use it at the lower levels or at least below Level 30,
Whether an even lower level enchant is best depends on the enchants you want. As I just posted on another thread, I regularly enchant stone pickaxes at Level 1. They are made from completely renewable resources and XP itself is completely renewable and 1 Level of it is not that hard to get. For a Level 1 enchant on a stone pickaxe, I have a 100% probability of getting either Efficiency I or Unbreaking I with a better than 90% probability of getting Efficiency I - which will make it cut through cobble at almost the same rate as an iron one. Unbreaking I will make that pickaxe last as long an an iron one. Currently, iron is not renewable (although I gather that is coming with iron golems); so right now, this practice costs me almost nothing. Conversely, it allows me to keep my XP level below 30 so that I earn more with every XP orb I collect... and saves me mining time (at least for me, because I don't tend to like to use my diamond tools for just tunneling through cobble). I save my diamonds for obsidian (because I like to use obsidian in a lot of hidden places as creeper damage protection - so I tend to mine a lot of it).
All points taken UPUP. But most likely nothing else will be done on this map besides the excavation. If I do rebuild the stronghold or build a structure other than my trunk storage ill most likely go into creative. It was pure luck that I found the strong hold at my spawn, found twelve diamonds, and water and lava together. But again, a big TY to all respondents. Waaay more info than I needed, and with more insight than the wiki. Y'all should make a Xbox exclusive minecraft wiki.
you can use this.. http://www.minecraftenchantmentcalculator.com/
it will show you your chances of certain enchantments on certain levels if your curious what you can get at what level
also to reiterate what everyone else has already said, dont go over level 30, its wasteful
2) As you climb to higher levels of XP, you must obtain proportionately more XP orbs to climb each level, so to go from Level 42 to 43, you will need to collect more XP orbs than you did to go from Level 29 to 30.
As a result, you are definitely better off to enchant an item at least every time you hit Level 30. Depending on what you are looking for in the way of enchantments (i.e. what you want to accomplish in the game with that item), you may even want to enchant at much lower levels than 30. This gets a little complicated and has to do with probability math. However, for example, if all you want to do is get efficiency on an item, you're best move is to enchant that item at Level 1 (for Efficiency I). Since Efficiency is the most common enchantment and when you enchant anything, you must get something, so at Level 1 you have the highest odds possible of getting Efficiency I as your enchantment. If you want Efficiency II, your odds of getting it are probably best around Level 11 (that BTW is a guess - I haven't actually calculated it out since I hated probabilities when I was taking math in school... way back when)
It takes somewhere around 2,031 XP to level up to 42 -- grabbing a max enchant will drop you back down to level 12 afterwards. Leveling up to level 30 only takes 825 XP so by enchanting as soon as you hit 30, earning 2,031 XP means you would have been able to grab two max enchants and still be left at level 20. To put it another way, leveling to 45 is the same as leveling to 30 three times.
Hope that made some kind of sense.
And yes, efficiency and unbreaking are what you're looking for. I'm pretty sure there's a high probability you'll get both -- my last two diamond pickaxes both enchanted with Efficiency IV, Unbreaking III, and Fortune III. Just in case you get a bad enchant, some people like to save before enchanting and then reload the world if they want to try again. Others like to take what they get... though sometimes you can be left with a horrible enchant.
You also don't have to wait until level 30 to get really good enchants either. Increasing your level only increases the possibility that you'll get better ones. At level 30, you might have a 70% chance of getting Efficiency IV and a 10% chance of getting Efficiency III. At levels 25-27, you might have a 40% chance to get either. While you have a slightly better chance of getting 3 enchants on an item at level 30, your chance of getting at least two pretty much tops out once you hit 25-ish.
Hate to break it to you, but mining obsidian doesn't give any XP.
Yes,I know. I need obsidian for a crafting table. I'm not gonna stop the excavation to search for diamonds and obsidian. No table, no using my Xp.
Too late, died a hour ago. With my new diamond pick axe, the obsidian I need for my enchanting table, etc. Good thing I save when leaving my base. I am now at level 47 BTW.
OK, I got the reference now to why you think you'll be at Level 100 before you enchant. However, that is really inefficient. I usually have the enchantment table in place by the time I hit Level 6 (i.e. very early on after I first set myself up in a new survival world) and I'll definitely have one in place before I hit Level 30 the first time.
UpUp, I'm trying to excavate a stronghold. 97% of the time I play creative(since creative was implemented). I created a map and just happened to spawn next to a stone mtn. Just my dumb luck the stronghold was five or so levels below the surface. I wasn't going to enchant anything, but as somebody said in another thread, "Good luck with digging out your stronghold". So after 8 hours of digging I'd like to A;dig faster. And B; have my tools last longer. And now that I found the materials for the E-table, ill give it a go. I know it won't be as efficient as my empty hand in creative, but man, this is tedious work.
You're misunderstanding my reference to inefficiency - I'm refering to collecting XP over level 30. Since it takes more XP to go from Level 30 to 31 than it does to go from Level 29 to 30 and this goes up exponentially the higher you get, the best way to manage XP is to use it at the lower levels or at least below Level 30,
Whether an even lower level enchant is best depends on the enchants you want. As I just posted on another thread, I regularly enchant stone pickaxes at Level 1. They are made from completely renewable resources and XP itself is completely renewable and 1 Level of it is not that hard to get. For a Level 1 enchant on a stone pickaxe, I have a 100% probability of getting either Efficiency I or Unbreaking I with a better than 90% probability of getting Efficiency I - which will make it cut through cobble at almost the same rate as an iron one. Unbreaking I will make that pickaxe last as long an an iron one. Currently, iron is not renewable (although I gather that is coming with iron golems); so right now, this practice costs me almost nothing. Conversely, it allows me to keep my XP level below 30 so that I earn more with every XP orb I collect... and saves me mining time (at least for me, because I don't tend to like to use my diamond tools for just tunneling through cobble). I save my diamonds for obsidian (because I like to use obsidian in a lot of hidden places as creeper damage protection - so I tend to mine a lot of it).
it will show you your chances of certain enchantments on certain levels if your curious what you can get at what level
also to reiterate what everyone else has already said, dont go over level 30, its wasteful
Lol - been there, done that (or rather didn't do that either).