What Piercing does in Minecraft
Piercing is a crossbow enchantment that lets your arrows pass through multiple targets in one shot. Without it, an arrow stops the moment it hits the first mob. With it, the same arrow keeps going and damages whatever is lined up behind that mob.
It also ignores shields. If a player or a Pillager is blocking, a Piercing arrow still hits and deals full damage. That alone makes Piercing one of the most useful combat enchantments in the game once you have a crossbow.
The catch is that Piercing only goes on a crossbow, and it does not stack with Multishot. You pick one or the other for any given crossbow, which is the main choice you’ll make when you start enchanting.
How Piercing works
Piercing has four levels, written as Piercing I through Piercing IV. The level tells you how many extra entities one arrow can pass through after the first hit.
- Piercing I: arrow passes through 1 entity and can still hit a 2nd.
- Piercing II: arrow passes through 2 entities and can still hit a 3rd.
- Piercing III: arrow passes through 3 entities and can still hit a 4th.
- Piercing IV: arrow passes through 4 entities and can still hit a 5th.
Each entity in the line takes the full arrow damage based on how charged the crossbow was when you fired it. There is no damage falloff between the first target and the last one. A Piercing IV shot into a five-mob conga line of Zombies hits all five for the same damage as a single direct shot.
Once the arrow runs out of pierce charges, it stops on the next entity or block, the same way a normal arrow would. Piercing arrows that come to rest on a block can be picked back up like any other arrow, so the enchantment is friendly to limited stockpiles.
What kinds of arrows Piercing affects
Piercing works with regular arrows, tipped arrows, and spectral arrows fired from a crossbow. If you fire a tipped Arrow of Poison through a wave of Pillagers, every Pillager the arrow touches gets the poison effect along with the damage.
Piercing does not affect firework rockets fired from a crossbow. A firework only ever damages whatever it strikes first and then explodes. If you build a crossbow around firework rockets for raids, Piercing brings nothing to that loadout.
Piercing and shields
One of the quietest but biggest perks of Piercing is the way it interacts with shields. A normal arrow that hits a raised shield is blocked, deals no damage, and disables the shield for a few seconds on Java. A Piercing arrow ignores the shield entirely and damages the target through it.
This matters most in two places. In PvP, a Piercing crossbow forces opponents to dodge instead of relying on a shield wall. In raids, Pillagers and Vindicators that hold up their shields stop being a frustration, because your arrows go right through.
How to get Piercing
Piercing is a common enchantment, which means there are several reliable ways to put it on a crossbow.
Enchanting table
The simplest path is the enchanting table. Place a crossbow on the left slot, lapis lazuli on the right, and one of the three options on the right side will sometimes include Piercing. With 15 bookshelves around the table for the maximum level cap, you have a decent shot at rolling Piercing III or IV directly. Lower setups still pull Piercing I or II.
Villager trading
Fletcher villagers are the best long-term source. A Master-level fletcher trades enchanted books at a fixed slot in their trade list, and Piercing books show up in the rotation. Cycling a fletcher’s job site block (the Fletching Table) while they have not locked in a trade resets the offered enchantment. Most players who use crossbows seriously set up a single fletcher and grind for a Piercing IV book this way.
Loot chests and fishing
Enchanted books with Piercing can appear in chests inside several structures, including Strongholds, Dungeons, Mineshafts, and Pillager Outposts. Fishing with a Luck of the Sea rod also pulls enchanted books out of the treasure pool, and Piercing is one of the possible rolls.
Raid drops
Pillagers that drop loot at the end of a raid have a chance to give an enchanted book, and Piercing is in the pool. If you defend a village a few times, expect at least one Piercing book to fall out.
Combining and upgrading Piercing
Like any enchantment, Piercing follows anvil rules. Two crossbows with Piercing II combine into a crossbow with Piercing III on an anvil. Two Piercing III books combine into a Piercing IV book. Piercing IV is the cap, so combining two Piercing IV items does not make a higher level.
The “Too Expensive!” message on the anvil only happens when the prior work cost climbs past 39 levels. To keep costs sane, apply Piercing IV early before adding other enchantments, and prefer combining a book onto a tool over combining two tools.
Piercing vs Multishot: which to pick
Piercing and Multishot are mutually exclusive on the same crossbow without commands. The anvil will accept the book, but only one of the two will stay active. Most setups treat them as a real choice.
Pick Piercing when you fight tightly packed groups in a straight line. Raids, mob farms, Pillager Outposts, and any narrow corridor full of Zombies all favor Piercing. The straight-line damage and shield bypass make a crossbow with Piercing IV feel like a Sharpness V sword at range.
Pick Multishot when you fight a fanned-out crowd. Multishot fires three arrows in a small spread, so it shines against scattered Drowned in an ocean, Phantoms swooping in from different angles, or PvP at medium range. The trade-off is that the two side arrows can’t be picked up after they land, and only the center arrow consumes one arrow from your inventory.
A common pattern is to keep two crossbows in your hotbar: one Piercing IV for raids and corridor combat, one Multishot for open-air fights. Both can share Quick Charge III and Unbreaking III.
Tips and common mistakes
A few things trip players up when they start using Piercing.
Aim through the first target, not at it. Piercing rewards a clean line of mobs. If you fire from above or off to the side, the arrow only hits one or two of the line. Take a half-second to line up the shot before pulling the trigger.
Don’t pair Piercing with a stockpile of expensive tipped arrows unless you mean to. The arrow consumed by a Piercing shot is just one arrow from your quiver, but a tipped Arrow of Decay or Slow Falling burns a fast crafting recipe. Save tipped arrows for clutch moments and use normal arrows for crowd control.
Pick up your arrows. Piercing arrows are recoverable when they finally stop on a block, and after a long fight you can usually walk down the corridor and grab most of them back. This makes Piercing one of the cheaper enchantments to use in survival.
Don’t waste the slot on a firework crossbow. If your build is fireworks-only, Multishot triples your rockets and Piercing does nothing. Use Multishot or skip both.
Java vs Bedrock differences
Piercing works the same way on Java Edition and Bedrock Edition for the core mechanic. The maximum level is IV on both versions, the entity-pierce math is the same, and the shield bypass behaves the same. Enchantment sources are the same as well: tables, books, fishing, trading, and loot.
The one quiet difference is in PvP shield interaction. Java’s shield-disable timing is slightly different from Bedrock’s, but a Piercing arrow ignores the shield in both, so the practical outcome is the same.
Frequently asked questions
What is the max level of Piercing?
Piercing IV. You can’t go higher in survival, and combining two Piercing IV items just gives you another Piercing IV item.
Does Piercing work with firework rockets?
No. A firework fired from a crossbow always explodes on the first thing it hits. Piercing does nothing for rocket crossbows. If you fight with rockets, use Multishot instead.
Can Piercing arrows go through shields?
Yes. A Piercing arrow ignores a raised shield and deals full damage to the target behind it. This works against player shields and Pillager shields.
Can you have Piercing and Multishot on the same crossbow?
Not in survival. They are mutually exclusive, and an anvil will only keep one of them active even if you force both onto the item with commands.
Can you pick Piercing arrows back up?
Yes, as long as the arrow eventually lands on a block. Once it stops, it’s a normal arrow you can walk over and collect. Arrows fired in Creative mode never drop, the same as with any bow shot.
Does Piercing increase damage per arrow?
No. Each entity hit takes the same damage you would deal with a normal crossbow shot at that charge level. Piercing just lets the arrow keep traveling so it can hit more entities.
How many mobs can a Piercing IV crossbow hit?
Up to five in a single shot, if all five line up cleanly. The first mob takes the hit and the arrow passes through four more before stopping.
Worth putting on your first crossbow?
Piercing IV plus Quick Charge III is the standard endgame crossbow loadout for anyone who fights raids or runs Pillager farms. If you only have one crossbow and you want it to feel powerful right away, that pair is the build to chase. Multishot has its place, but for the corridor fights that define most Minecraft combat, Piercing wins.