Piercing

For other uses, see Piercing (disambiguation).

Piercing

Maximum level	IV
Primary items
Secondary items	None
Enchantment weight	10
Incompatible with	Multishot
Overleveling behavior	Stops functioning above level 127

Piercing is an enchantment applied to crossbows that allows fired arrows to damage and fly through multiple entities, including shields, without being consumed.

Obtaining

Piercing can be obtained from enchanting tables, drops from mobs that have spawned in a raid,‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} books obtained by fishing, monster room chests, librarian villagers, and non-village structure loot.

Usage

Arrows shot from a Piercing crossbow can pass through the number of entities equal to the enchantment level (for a total of level + 1 entities damaged). The shot arrows can still be retrieved after piercing a mob, allowing for infinite use of all arrow types, including spectral arrows and tipped arrows. Arrows do not change direction upon piercing a mob, meaning they hit only mobs in the line of flight.

Piercing ignores shields even when they are blocking.

Piercing does not ignore:

• The shell of a closed shulker
• The wither's 'wither armor' when it reaches half-health
• A breeze's wind armor

In all these cases, the arrow bounces off like normal.

Piercing has no effect on firework rockets fired from a crossbow.

If commands are used to increase the enchantment level beyond 127, the piercing effect stops working and hits only one mob instead.

Piercing also affects arrows shot from a bow if applied using commands or an anvil in Creative mode.

Arrows shot from a Piercing crossbow cannot hit the same mob twice, and will pass through previously hit mobs.

Incompatibilities

Piercing and Multishot are mutually exclusive. However, if combined using commands, both enchantments function as normal, with the two arrows added by the Multishot enchantment getting the effect as well.

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Enchanter	Enchant an item at an Enchanting Table	Insert an item in an enchanting table, then apply an enchantment.
	Two Birds, One Arrow	Kill two Phantoms with a piercing Arrow	Use a crossbow enchanted with Piercing to kill two phantoms with a single arrow shot.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Enchantment definition

{
  "anvil_cost": 1,
  "description": {
    "translate": "enchantment.minecraft.piercing"
  },
  "effects": {
    "minecraft:projectile_piercing": [
      {
        "effect": {
          "type": "minecraft:add",
          "value": {
            "type": "minecraft:linear",
            "base": 1.0,
            "per_level_above_first": 1.0
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "exclusive_set": "#minecraft:exclusive_set/crossbow",
  "max_cost": {
    "base": 50,
    "per_level_above_first": 0
  },
  "max_level": 4,
  "min_cost": {
    "base": 1,
    "per_level_above_first": 10
  },
  "slots": [
    "mainhand"
  ],
  "supported_items": "#minecraft:enchantable/crossbow",
  "weight": 10
}

History

Development

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

Issues

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