Breach

Not to be confused with Bleach or Beach.

Breach

Maximum level	IV
Primary items
Secondary items	None
Enchantment weight	2
Incompatible with	Smite Bane of Arthropods Density Sharpness[note 1] Impaling[note 2]
Overleveling behavior	No practical effect beyond level VI

Breach is an enchantment applied to maces that causes melee attacks to partially ignore armor, increasing damage against armored targets. It also affects the natural armor points that certain mobs have innately.

Obtaining

Breach can be obtained through an enchanting table by enchanting a mace or a book, or by trading with a librarian of any level,​^{[until: Villager Trade Rebalance]} or from fishing. Its enchanted book form can also be found from ominous vaults, as well as any other structures that generate enchanted books.

Usage

Breach reduces the effectiveness of the target's armor points and armor toughness by 15% per level. Specifically, Breach deals damage as though the enemy's damage reduction from armor was 15 percentage points lower per level. For example, if the enemy's armor reduces damage by 50%, and they are hit with a mace with Breach I, their armor reduces the damage by 50% - 15% = 35%. However, this reduces the effectiveness of only the armor itself, which does not include damage reduction from enchantments such as Protection or the Resistance effect.

Breach works according to this formula:

Damage per hit

Breach extra damage
Type	Armor type	Unenchanted	Breach I	Breach II	Breach III	Breach IV
	Leather Armor	5.04HP × 2.52	5.94HP × 2.97	6HP	6HP	6HP
(critical)		7.65HP × 3.825	9HP	9HP	9HP	9HP
	Copper Armor	4.32HP × 2.16	5.22HP × 2.61	6HP	6HP	6HP
(critical)		6.48HP × 3.24	7.83HP × 3.915	9HP	9HP	9HP
	Golden Armor	4.08HP × 2.04	4.98HP × 2.49	5.88HP × 2.94	6HP	6HP
(critical)		6.21HP × 3.105	7.56HP × 3.78	8.91HP × 4.455	9HP	9HP
	Chainmail Armor	3.84HP × 1.92	4.74HP × 2.37	5.64HP × 2.82	6HP	6HP
(critical)		5.85HP × 2.925	7.2HP × 3.6	8.55HP × 4.275	9HP	9HP
	Iron Armor	3.12HP × 1.56	4.02HP × 2.01	4.92HP × 2.46	5.82HP × 2.91	6HP
(critical)		4.77HP × 2.385	6.12HP × 3.06	7.47HP × 3.735	8.82HP × 4.41	9HP
	Diamond Armor	1.56HP × 0.78	2.46HP × 1.23	3.36HP × 1.68	4.26HP × 2.13	5.16HP × 2.58
(critical)		2.34HP × 1.17	3.69HP × 1.845	4.95HP × 2.475	6.39HP × 3.195	7.74HP × 3.87
	Netherite Armor	1.488HP × 0.744	2.388HP × 1.194	3.288HP × 1.644	4.188HP × 2.094	5.088HP × 2.544
(critical)		2.219HP × 1.1095	3.589HP × 1.7945	4.959HP × 2.4795	6.329HP × 3.1645	7.699HP × 3.8495

Breach effective attack damage
Type	Armor type	Unenchanted	Breach I	Breach II	Breach III	Breach IV
	Leather Armor	6HP	6.919872HP × 3.459936	6.979992HP × 3.489996	6.979992HP × 3.489996	6.979992HP × 3.489996
(critical)		9HP	9.617929HP × 4.8089645	9.739863HP × 4.8699315	9.780389HP × 4.8901945	9.780389HP × 4.8901945
	Copper Armor	6HP	7.045408HP × 3.522704	7.912878HP × 3.956439	7.912878HP × 3.956439	7.912878HP × 3.956439
(critical)		9HP	9.964975HP × 4.9824875	10.3673HP × 5.18365	10.58808HP × 5.29404	10.67586HP × 5.33793
	Golden Armor	6HP	7.095023HP × 3.5475115	8.135944HP × 4.067972	8.271057HP × 4.1355285	8.271057HP × 4.1355285
(critical)		9HP	10.00521HP × 5.002605	10.42335HP × 5.211675	10.87971HP × 5.439855	10.96998HP × 5.48499
	Chainmail Armor	6HP	7.149442HP × 3.574721	8.236761HP × 4.1183805	8.656408HP × 4.328204	8.656408HP × 4.328204
(critical)		9HP	10.04886HP × 5.02443	10.76973HP × 5.384865	11.05203HP × 5.526015	11.09876HP × 5.54938
	Iron Armor	6HP	7.349352HP × 3.674676	8.601075HP × 4.3005375	9.77372HP × 4.88686	10HP
(critical)		9HP	10.4267HP × 5.21335	11.44761HP × 5.723805	12.06808HP × 6.03404	12.22049HP × 6.110245
	Diamond Armor	6HP	8.601075HP × 4.3005375	10.88061HP × 5.440305	12.93469HP × 6.467345	14.81935HP × 7.409675
(critical)		9HP	11.65641HP × 5.828205	14.57641HP × 7.288205	17.2672HP × 8.6336	19.56349HP × 9.781745
	Netherite Armor	6HP	8.824868HP × 4.412434	11.31701HP × 5.658505	13.57202HP × 6.78601	15.64694HP × 7.82347
(critical)		9HP	12.09675HP × 6.048375	15.31636HP × 7.65818	18.20016HP × 9.10008	20.83542HP × 10.41771

The strength of -60% armor effectiveness at level 4 Breach is significant enough to make full Protection IV netherite armor and full Protection IV leather armor protect nearly the same amount. Without a smash attack, it takes the same amount of critical hits with a Breach IV mace and Strength II to defeat a player wearing either armor set (4), while without Strength II it takes 7 critical hits to defeat a player wearing the leather set and 8 to defeat a player wearing the netherite set.

In Bedrock Edition, a Breach IV mace has higher DPS than a Sharpness V netherite sword against targets wearing diamond armor or better. This is due to the absence of the attack cooldown, and it leads to maces outclassing netherite swords in damage for PvP in Bedrock Edition that features diamond or netherite armor.

Damage comparisons

The amount of hits needed to defeat a player wearing full Protection IV netherite armor from full health are the following:

• Breach I mace with Strength 2: 7 critical hits.
• Sharpness V netherite sword with Strength 2: 6 critical hits.
• Sharpness V netherite axe with Strength 2: 5 critical hits.
• Breach II mace with Strength 2: 5 critical hits.
• Breach III mace with Strength 2: 4 critical hits.
• Breach IV mace with Strength 2: 4 critical hits.

The amount of hits needed to defeat a player wearing full Protection IV iron armor from full health are the following:

• Breach I mace with Strength 2: 4 critical hits.
• Breach II mace with Strength 2: 4 critical hits.
• Breach III mace with Strength 2: 4 critical hits.
• Breach IV mace with Strength 2: 4 critical hits.
• Sharpness V netherite sword with Strength 2: 3 critical hits.
• Sharpness V netherite axe with Strength 2: 3 critical hits.

Usecases in singleplayer

The Breach enchantment is far more suited for a PvP environment than it is for singleplayer Survival. This is because the only mobs other than piglins that can naturally wear armor are undead mobs like zombies and skeletons, causing a Smite or Density mace to largely outclass a Breach mace for singleplayer Survival. Additionally, because Breach has no effect against the Protection enchantment, it also increases damage less than Smite would against the mobs in ominous events within trial chambers that wear enchanted armor. In terms of effect against natural mob armor points, shulkers that have their shells closed are the most noticeably impacted by the Breach enchantment.

Incompatibilities

Breach is incompatible with Density, Smite, and Bane of Arthropods. It is also incompatible with Sharpness and Impaling, however in Survival these incompatibilities cannot be encountered, as no weapon types have access to both Breach and Sharpness/Impaling. If commands are used to have two or more of these enchantments on the same item, their effects stack.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Enchantment definition

{
  "anvil_cost": 4,
  "description": {
    "translate": "enchantment.minecraft.breach"
  },
  "effects": {
    "minecraft:armor_effectiveness": [
      {
        "effect": {
          "type": "minecraft:add",
          "value": {
            "type": "minecraft:linear",
            "base": -0.15,
            "per_level_above_first": -0.15
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "exclusive_set": "#minecraft:exclusive_set/damage",
  "max_cost": {
    "base": 65,
    "per_level_above_first": 9
  },
  "max_level": 4,
  "min_cost": {
    "base": 15,
    "per_level_above_first": 9
  },
  "slots": [
    "mainhand"
  ],
  "supported_items": "#minecraft:enchantable/mace",
  "weight": 2
}

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Breach" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Notes