Protection in Minecraft

Protection will reduce the amount of damage you take by a percentage. The percentage that is reduced is equivalent to (Level * 4) on the Java edition of Minecraft. For the Bedrock edition, it is (Level * 5). The maximum level you can get in the Protection enchantment is level 4.

Certain Protection enchantments will provide a higher percentage reduction for different types of damage, while regular Protection will provide a set percent reduction for most types of damage. Try to consider what your weaknesses are and what you would like to take less damage from, before choosing your armor enchantments.

There are 3 ways you can get the Protection enchantment. You can find it in an enchanting table, fish it up as treasure loot, or find a librarian trader who is selling a Protection enchanted book.

Method 1- Enchantment Table

Like most enchantments, you can get Protection on an enchantment table. If it does not appear at first, you can reroll the enchantments offered in an enchantment table until you see Protection in your options. It will cost you levels, but just about any method of enchanting will require you to spend levels one way or another.

As you can see, the enchantment table is offering Projectile Protection IV. However, if you wanted to get the regular Protection enchantment, you can use a similar type of item (armor, tool, weapon) to change the offered enchantments. You do not have to use a level 30 enchantment to reroll your enchantments. You can just spend 1 level.

Enchanting a leather helmet allows me to reroll the offered enchantments for the diamond helmet.

Now, the table is offering Respiration III. You can reroll as often as you want until you are guaranteed an enchantment that you want - in this case, Protection.

In my case, it took 3 tries. It may take more or fewer tries depending on how lucky you are. While each reroll will cost levels and lapis lazuli, this is a good way to get a specific enchantment onto your armor without too much hassle.

Method 2 - Fishing it up as Treasure Loot

You can also fish for enchantments. This is incredibly unreliable, but if you are short on fish, need other fishable items, or need more experience, fishing can provide you with an opportunity to roll the dice and get a Protection enchantment. You will want to use a Luck of the Sea III enchanted fishing rod to increase your chances of getting an enchanted book.

The next step is to fish until you find an enchanted book. The odds are pretty low with only a 1.9% chance of getting a successful catch even with a Luck of the Sea III fishing rod. It is made worse by the fact that the enchantments you get are entirely random. You could get a book with 4 lines of enchantments and still not find what you are looking for. This is to give you an idea of how many catches it takes to get an enchanted book. I would say I was lucky to get it this quickly. Needless to say, this is not a very consistent method.

Method 3 - Trading

Finally, we come to the most consistent method of getting as many books as you want of a particular enchantment - in this case, Protection. If you find a villager and give him the librarian profession by assigning him to a lectern, you can see an inventory of enchanted books at his level 1 profession.

This librarian has no enchanted books in his inventory. Luckily, you can reroll his inventory for free. Just break the lectern he is assigned to and quickly replace the lectern. You should see him lose his librarian profession and as you replace the lectern, he will return to being a librarian.

Check his inventory for enchanted books. You can repeat this as often as you want. Do this until you find the enchanted book you are looking for.

As you can see, his inventory will change every time you replace the lectern. Unfortunately, a librarian can offer any enchantment on any book. Do not trade with him until you find the Protection enchantment. Once you trade with him, you cannot reroll his inventory again.

This can take quite several rerolls. The good news is, once you find the book you are looking for and buy it, you can come back and get it again an indefinite number of times.

Remember that even if you do not get the exact level of enchantment you are looking for, you can combine two books to upgrade that specific enchantment. If this book were Protection III, you could combine two Protection III books to get a Protection IV enchantment. You can do the same with a book plus armor as well.

The Protection enchantment does exactly what its name suggests, it protects you. With Protection IV on one piece of armor, you are wearing, any source of damage will deal 16% less damage to you.

Doing some damage tests, and wearing a regular and unenchanted diamond helmet causes a skeleton to deal a full heart of damage. Wearing a diamond helmet with Protection IV causes a skeleton to deal half a heart of damage or even no damage. This is likely because the values are not integers but rather decimal-based. The second arrow that the skeleton shot dealt 1 full heart of damage.

As you can see, the Protection enchantment will protect you from just about any kind of damage. Unfortunately for Bedrock edition players, this does not include status effect damages like wither or poison. You may be wondering, why would you ever enchant armor with a specific effect if Protection provides damage reduction to most types of damage. We will look at Protection vs. Fire Protection in this case.

In the below test, I am wearing a full diamond set of armor with Protection IV on every piece.

When I jumped into a pool of lava, it took 8 ticks of damage before I saw any damage on my health bar. A fully enchanted set of Protection IV provided me with plenty of time to jump out of the lava. Next, test a full set of Fire Protection IV diamond armor.

It only took 6 ticks of lava damage for me to take damage in my health bar. However, I was never set on fire for the entire duration.

It is difficult to showcase, but it seems that Fire Protection is comparable to regular Protection in terms of damage mitigation from fire. The difference lies in the amount of durability damage, as Fire Protection will ensure your armor does not have to lose points to fire damage. While Protection does seem to be as efficient as Fire Protection, it will wear out sooner.

It is also important to keep in mind that with fully enchanted end-game armor, it will be difficult for anything to deal damage to you. When you are in a deep pool of lava, it will be better to have Fire Protection. Anywhere else and the Fire Protection does not seem to do much. Remember that you can also mix and match different enchantments if you want to have an all-around damage reduction for most types of damage in Minecraft.

Protection is incompatible with any other type of Protection enchantment. This goes for Blast Protection, Fire Protection, and Projectile Protection. You cannot have every type, or even two different types of Protection enchantments on the same piece of armor.

In the above example, this Protection IV helmet cannot be fused with the Projectile Protection IV enchantment. Consider what you normally find dangerous and try to enchant your armor accordingly.

Q. What is the Best Protection in Minecraft?

A. For all intents and purposes, the regular Protection enchantment is probably the best for damage reduction overall. It can be wise to also have some Fire Protection enchanted armor to protect you when you fall in the lava. For all other situations, regular Protection seems to do the job just fine. The maximum level of Protection is Protection IV.

Q. Is it Better to have Protection or Fire Protection?

A. In the tests I conducted, they seem comparable in protecting you from fire and lava damage. The only difference was, with enough Fire Protection (7 total points of Fire Protection) your player will never catch on fire. Of course, Fire Protection will only protect you from fire and lava damage, so regular Protection will win in different environments. It is thus better to have regular Protection enchantment.

Q. Can you put All Protections on Armor?

A. All Protection enchantments are incompatible with each other. You cannot have Protection with Fire Protection on the same armor. That goes for every type of Protection enchantment in the game. You can place them on the same piece of armor with commands. It seems that they will stack together in this case, but it is difficult to confirm as even a leather helmet with Protection IV alone will mitigate a lot of damage.

Congratulations, you now know the ins and outs of one of the best armor enchantments in the game. While specializing your damage reduction with other Protection enchantments can be helpful, it seems that regular Protection does the job just fine. Having specific damage mitigation will be beneficial in specific situations, but regular Protection will protect you from most sources of damage. Just be sure to keep an eye on the durability bars of your armor and you can tank any amount of damage in the game.