The mace is a heavy melee weapon added in the 1.21 Tricky Trials update. On a flat swing it hits about as hard as a stone sword, so at first glance it looks underwhelming. The trick is that its damage scales with how far you fall before you land the blow. Drop onto a mob from a few blocks up and the mace turns into the single hardest-hitting weapon in the game.
It is also one of the few weapons you cannot craft from ore alone. One of its two ingredients only comes from an ominous vault deep inside a trial chamber, which makes the mace a mid-to-late game reward rather than a starter tool.
This guide covers how to get both ingredients, how to craft the mace, exactly how the smash attack scales, which enchantments matter, and the mistakes that get players killed while they learn it.
What is the mace?
The mace is a one-handed weapon that shares a slot with swords and axes. Its base attack damage is 6, and it swings slowly, with an attack speed of 0.6. That slow speed means you rarely want to trade blows with it the way you would with a sword.
What makes it different is the smash attack. If you hit a mob while falling, the mace adds bonus damage based on the distance you fell. There is no upper cap on that bonus, so a long enough drop can deal hundreds of points of damage in a single hit. Landing a smash attack also cancels the fall damage you would normally take, so you drop onto a target, delete it, and walk away unhurt.
The mace has 500 durability, close to an iron tool. It can be repaired on an anvil with a breeze rod, or with two damaged maces combined.
How to craft the mace
The recipe is short: one heavy core stacked on top of one breeze rod in the crafting grid. Only two items, placed vertically, so any crafting table works. The hard part is collecting the ingredients, and one of them is rare.
Getting a heavy core
The heavy core is the bottleneck. It only comes from ominous vaults, the special vaults that appear in a trial chamber after you activate a trial with an ominous bottle. A regular vault will never drop one.
To reach that point you need to find a trial chamber (they generate underground, often around the deepslate layer), drink or apply a Bad Omen effect from an ominous bottle, then complete an ominous trial and open the ominous vault with a trial key. Even then the heavy core is not guaranteed on every vault, so expect to open several. It is the rarest single item in the whole mace process.
Getting a breeze rod
The breeze rod drops from the breeze, a floating hostile mob that spawns from trial spawners inside trial chambers. Kill a breeze and it drops one or two rods. You only need one rod for the mace, so this side of the recipe is easy once you are already clearing the chamber for the heavy core.
Breeze rods have other uses too. You can craft them into a wind charge, and they double as the anvil repair material for the mace, so it is worth grabbing a few extra while you are there.
How the smash attack works
The smash attack is the whole point of the weapon. When you hit a mob while falling more than 1.5 blocks, the mace adds bonus damage on top of its base 6. The further you fell, the larger the bonus.
The bonus is tiered, so the first blocks of a fall are worth far more than later ones:
| Fall distance | Bonus damage per block |
|---|---|
| First 3 blocks | 4 per block |
| Blocks 4 through 8 | 2 per block |
| Every block past 8 | 1 per block |
So a 3-block drop adds 12 damage, a fall of about 8 blocks adds roughly 22, and from there each extra block keeps adding 1 with no ceiling. Because there is no cap, players build tall drop towers or use elytra to fall from the sky and one-shot even the toughest mobs.
Two things happen when the smash lands. First, all of your fall damage is cancelled, so the drop costs you nothing. Second, the impact sends out a small shockwave that knocks back other mobs standing near your target, which helps against groups.
If you swing the mace on flat ground, or while jumping less than 1.5 blocks high, none of this applies and you just deal the base 6. The weapon rewards setting up the hit, not spamming it.
Mace enchantments
The mace has three enchantments unique to it, and all three come from trial chamber loot rather than a normal enchanting table.
Density
Density increases the smash-attack bonus for every block you fall. It goes up to level 5 and adds 0.5 extra damage per block per level, so at Density 5 a long fall does dramatically more than a plain mace. This is the enchantment most players build around.
Breach
Breach reduces the effectiveness of your target’s armor, up to 15% per level at a maximum of level 4. It shines against armored players and tough mobs whose protection would otherwise soak up your hit. Density and Breach cannot both go on the same mace, so you pick one path.
Wind Burst
Wind Burst launches you upward when you land a smash attack, like standing on the burst from a wind charge. Chaining it lets you bounce up after a hit and immediately drop for a second smash, then a third. It goes to level 3 and is one of the rarer finds, appearing mainly in ominous vault loot.
The mace also accepts several common enchantments: Unbreaking and Mending for durability, Fire Aspect for burn damage, and Smite or Bane of Arthropods against undead and bugs. It cannot take Sharpness, so your general damage boost comes from Density instead.
Tips and common mistakes
The biggest mistake is treating the mace like a sword. Standing still and swinging wastes its whole design. Build a way to get above your target first, whether that is a jump off a ledge, a tower of blocks, or an elytra dive.
Watch where you land. The smash cancels your fall damage only if you actually hit a mob. Miss the swing and you take the full fall, which on a tall tower will kill you. Line up the hit before you commit to the drop.
Pair the mace with wind charges. Throwing a wind charge at your own feet launches you up with no fall damage, giving you instant height for a smash without building anything. Many players carry a stack of them as a portable jump.
Keep a sword on your hotbar too. Against fast swarms in the open, the mace’s slow swing leaves you exposed, and a sword’s speed and sweeping edge clears crowds better. The mace is a finisher and a boss tool, not an everyday blade.
Frequently asked questions
How much damage can the mace do?
There is no hard cap. The base hit is 6, and every block you fall adds bonus damage on a sliding scale, so a tall enough drop can deal several hundred points in one strike. In practice a fall of 10 to 20 blocks already one-shots most mobs.
Does the mace cancel fall damage?
Only when you land a smash attack on a mob. Hit a target mid-fall and you take zero fall damage. Miss, and you take the normal amount, so a failed dive from a high tower can be fatal.
Can you enchant the mace with Sharpness?
No. The mace cannot take Sharpness. Its damage enchantment is Density, which boosts the smash bonus instead. It can still take Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Fire Aspect, Unbreaking, and Mending.
Where do you get a heavy core?
Only from ominous vaults inside trial chambers. You need to trigger an ominous trial with an ominous bottle and open the ominous vault with a trial key. Regular vaults do not drop it, and it is not guaranteed, so plan to open more than one.
Is the mace better than the netherite sword?
For a set-up hit, yes, by a wide margin. A netherite sword tops out around 8 damage per swing, while a mace smash from height blows past that instantly. On flat ground the sword wins because it is faster and hits harder per second. They cover different jobs.
Can you repair the mace?
Yes. Use an anvil with a breeze rod as the repair material, or combine two damaged maces. Mending also works if you enchant it, letting experience orbs top up its durability as you play.
The mace changes how you approach a fight. Instead of circling a mob and trading swings, you look up. Any ledge, tower, or wind charge becomes a weapon, and the harder the target, the more the fall pays off. Get one enchanted with Density and a stack of wind charges, and few things in the game survive the first hit.