What Efficiency does
Efficiency speeds up how fast your tools break blocks. Put it on a pickaxe and stone goes faster. Put it on a shovel and dirt, sand, and gravel come up quicker. It also works on axes for wood, hoes for crops and leaf blocks, and shears for shearing leaves and wool.
The speed boost only kicks in when you are using the right tool for the block. A pickaxe with Efficiency V will not speed up your dirt digging. The game checks whether the tool is effective against the block first, and Efficiency only multiplies the speed when that check passes.
Efficiency does not reduce durability, change drop rates, or stack with itself if you try to layer two books at the same level. It is pure speed, and it works on the tool it is enchanted onto, nothing more.
How to get Efficiency
There are four reliable ways to put Efficiency on a tool: the enchantment table, villager trading, loot chests, and combining enchanted books on an anvil. Each one has different odds and trade-offs, and you will probably use all four at some point in a long survival world.
Enchantment table
The simplest way. Build a 15-bookshelf setup around an enchantment table, drop in a tool plus three lapis lazuli, and pick the slot that shows Efficiency. The maximum level you can get from the table itself is Efficiency V, and it is a common enchantment, so it shows up often in the offered enchantments.
If the table does not show Efficiency on any of the three slots, enchant a different cheap item to reroll, or use a grindstone to refund some XP and try again. Bookshelves and the player’s XP level both raise the chance of a higher Efficiency tier appearing on the table.
Villager trading
Toolsmith and weaponsmith villagers sell enchanted tools, and librarian villagers sell enchanted books. Librarians are the better target if you want a clean Efficiency V book. Lock in a librarian by trading them while they are working a lectern, then break and replace the lectern until they offer Efficiency V at journeyman level.
This is by far the cheapest way to get max-level Efficiency in the long run. One emerald-rich villager hall pays for itself fast, and a single Efficiency V librarian can supply books for every tool you will ever make.
Loot chests and fishing
Enchanted books and tools turn up in mineshaft chests, stronghold libraries, dungeon chests, jungle and desert temples, and end city chests. The enchantments are random, so Efficiency is possible but not guaranteed. Fishing with an enchanted rod can also pull enchanted books, again random.
Loot chests are the slowest method. Do not farm chests just for Efficiency, but pick them up while you are exploring. It is free progress on top of the loot you are already collecting.
Combining books on an anvil
Two Efficiency IV books combine on an anvil to make one Efficiency V book. You can also combine an Efficiency V book onto a tool that already has the same enchantment at a lower level to push it up. The anvil costs XP and the cost climbs every time you combine items, so plan the chain before you start.
A common workflow: get an Efficiency V book from a librarian, then apply it to a freshly enchanted tool that already has Unbreaking III, Fortune III (for pickaxes) or Silk Touch, and Mending. Each combine adds to the prior work penalty, so do the cheapest combines first and apply the final super-book to the tool last.
The mining speed math
Each level of Efficiency adds (level squared, plus 1) to the tool’s base mining speed. So Efficiency I adds 2. Efficiency II adds 5. Efficiency III adds 10. Efficiency IV adds 17. Efficiency V adds 26.
The number gets added to the tool’s base speed, not multiplied. A diamond pickaxe has a base mining speed of 8 on stone. With Efficiency V, that becomes 8 + 26 = 34. The time to break a block then depends on block hardness divided by tool speed (with a constant multiplier), so a higher mining speed value cuts the break time.
The practical breakpoints matter more than the raw math. With Efficiency V on a diamond pickaxe, stone breaks in about a quarter of a second per block on dry land. Add Haste II from a beacon and you cross the threshold for instant mining on stone.
Higher levels of Efficiency (VI, VII, and beyond) are possible only through commands. They do raise mining speed further, but the practical cap on usefulness is hit well before the numerical cap.
Instant mining setups
Instant mining means a block breaks the moment your tool touches it, with no wind-up animation. It is a real, game-defined state, not a feel.
The standard setup for instant-mining stone:
- Diamond or netherite pickaxe with Efficiency V
- Haste II from a beacon (iron, gold, emerald, or diamond pyramid) or from a conduit nearby
- Player standing on the ground, not in water (water cuts mining speed by a factor of 5 without Aqua Affinity)
For sand and gravel, instant mining is much easier. Any iron or better shovel with Efficiency IV will already instant-mine sand, and Efficiency V is overkill. This is why a dedicated Efficiency V shovel is a top pick for desert builds and ravine clearing.
Deepslate is twice as hard as stone, so the speed threshold for instant-mining it is much higher. A diamond or netherite pickaxe with Efficiency V plus Haste II is fast on deepslate but does not always cross the instant-mine line. For deepslate runs, lean on Haste II from a conduit-and-beacon stack and accept that one tick of wind-up is normal.
Best tools for Efficiency
Put Efficiency on the tools you actually use most. For most players that is the pickaxe, since stone mining is the bulk of the job. Shovels come second for clearing gravel patches or digging out big areas. Axes get it third, and shears or hoes only if you are doing a specific high-volume task like leaf clearing or hay-bale farming.
Pair Efficiency with Unbreaking III and Mending for a tool that lasts forever. On a pickaxe, also add Fortune III for ores or Silk Touch for raw blocks. You cannot have Fortune and Silk Touch on the same pickaxe, since they conflict, so the long-term move is two pickaxes: a Fortune pickaxe for diamond, emerald, redstone, lapis, and coal ore, and a Silk Touch pickaxe for ice, glass, mushroom blocks, and any ore you want to mine raw.
Gold pickaxes have the highest base mining speed of any tier, so a fully enchanted gold pickaxe with Efficiency V mines stone faster than a diamond pickaxe with the same enchantment. The catch is durability: gold pickaxes break almost instantly. Most players ignore the gold-tier speed because the tool falls apart in one session.
Tips and common mistakes
The biggest mistake is enchanting Efficiency on a tool that will not survive a session. A wooden pickaxe with Efficiency V breaks after a handful of blocks. Save the books for iron, diamond, or netherite tools where the speed boost actually pays off across the tool’s lifetime.
Another miss: enchanting Efficiency on a tool you mine with underwater without Aqua Affinity on your helmet. Mining underwater drops your speed by a factor of 5, which wipes out most of the speed gain from Efficiency. If you do a lot of ocean monument work, put Aqua Affinity on your helmet first, then worry about Efficiency on the pickaxe.
Do not try to enchant your way to instant mining without Haste II. Efficiency V alone on a diamond pickaxe gets you close to instant mining on stone, but it does not cross the threshold. You need the Haste II buff from a beacon or a conduit on top.
If you are combining books on an anvil and the prior work penalty climbs past 39 XP levels, the anvil shows Too Expensive and refuses. The fix is to plan the combine order from the start. Combine books into books first, then apply the final super-book to a tool that has not been touched by the anvil yet. That keeps the prior work penalty low on the tool itself.
Last one: do not waste a librarian. If you find one that already offers Efficiency V, name the villager with a name tag so you do not lose track of it, and build a wall around it so it cannot wander into water or get knocked off a ledge.
Java vs Bedrock differences
The math is the same on both editions: (level squared, plus 1) added to base mining speed. The threshold for instant mining on stone is also the same.
The real difference is in how easy it is to lock in a librarian villager. On Java, the trade reroll method works exactly as described, and Efficiency V books are a one-villager hall away. On Bedrock, villager trade rerolls go through a slightly different timing, but the result is identical: keep breaking and replacing the lectern until the librarian offers what you want.
Bedrock and Java also handle command-level Efficiency a bit differently. Java caps at level 255 via /enchant, Bedrock at 32767. Neither matters for normal play, but worth knowing if you build a creative server.
Frequently asked questions
What is the max level of Efficiency?
Level V is the maximum you can get in survival, through the enchantment table, villager trades, or combining books on an anvil. Higher levels are possible only through commands in creative mode.
Does Efficiency work on shears?
Yes. Efficiency speeds up shears on leaves, wool, vines, and other shearable blocks. It is especially useful for clearing large jungle canopies or running a sheep wool farm.
Does Efficiency affect durability?
No. Efficiency only changes mining speed. Each block still costs one durability point. Pair Efficiency with Unbreaking and Mending to keep the tool alive long term.
Can Efficiency be combined with Silk Touch and Fortune?
Efficiency stacks with both Silk Touch and Fortune. You can have Efficiency V plus Silk Touch on one pickaxe, or Efficiency V plus Fortune III on another. You cannot put Silk Touch and Fortune on the same pickaxe, because they conflict.
What is the fastest way to mine stone in Minecraft?
Diamond or netherite pickaxe with Efficiency V, plus Haste II from a beacon or conduit, while standing on the ground. That setup instant-mines normal stone and most stone-tier ores at the same speed.
Does Efficiency work underwater?
It works, but mining underwater is 5 times slower by default. Add Aqua Affinity to your helmet to remove that penalty, and Efficiency will perform the same as on dry land.
What blocks does Efficiency speed up?
Any block that the enchanted tool is the correct tool for. Pickaxes speed up stone, ore, and other stone-type blocks. Shovels speed up dirt, sand, gravel, clay, and similar. Axes speed up wood and wood-derived blocks. Hoes speed up leaf and crop blocks. Shears speed up leaves, wool, and a few others.
If you only put Efficiency on one tool in a new world, make it a diamond or netherite pickaxe. That is where the speed boost compounds across the most hours of play, and it pairs cleanly with Unbreaking, Mending, and either Fortune or Silk Touch for the long haul.