What Does Piercing Do in Minecraft? – Answered

You can apply enchantments to just about any armor, tool, and weapon in Minecraft. The ones you have on a sword will differ from bows, tridents, and crossbows. Similarly, some enchantments are exclusive to particular weapons, with one example being the piercing effect. While you may initially think this could be for a sword or bow, this isn’t the case. If you’re interested in learning more, continue reading to discover what the piercing enchantment does in Minecraft.

What Does the Piercing Enchantment Do in Minecraft?

Piercing is an enchantment that allows you to, well, pierce through enemies. You can add it to a crossbow so your bolts go through monsters, letting you hit multiple at once. Rather than the bolts bouncing between mobs, it’ll shoot in a straight line in whichever direction you’re aiming.

Related: What Does Bane of Arthropods Do in Minecraft? – Answered

Each level adds one piercing power to the enchantment. If you have Piercing level one on your crossbow, you can hit up to two mobs simultaneously. The maximum level, level four, lets you hit five enemies! While this isn’t too helpful if you’re only dealing with one or two monsters, you can easily eliminate groups as long as they’re in your line of fire. Just be careful since you can’t have piercing and multishot on the same crossbow!

Like many enchantments in Minecraft, you can get piercing on your crossbow using an enchanting table. While low EXP levels will give you level one or two, 30 EXP gives you a level three and, rarely, four piercing enchantment. You can also combine crossbows in anvils to combine and strengthen the effect!

Minecraft is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and mobile devices through the official website. For more information about the game, check out How to Tame a Parrot in Minecraft and How to Fix “Oops your Microsoft Account Was Disconnected” Error.