How to Get and Use Density Enchantment in Minecraft 1.21

To acquire the Density enchantment for your Mace in Minecraft 1.21, you must use an Enchanting Table, trade with a Librarian villager, or loot Ominous Vaults in Trial Chambers. To use it, execute a falling smash attack from a height of at least 1.5 blocks to trigger scaling damage and completely negate all fall damage upon landing a successful hit.

How to Get the Density Enchantment via the Enchanting Table

Requirements: Mace, Lapis Lazuli, Enchanting Table, 15 Bookshelves

Place an Enchanting Table in the center of a 5×5 area and surround it with exactly 15 Bookshelves, ensuring a 1-block air gap remains between the table and the shelves. Access the Enchanting Table block. Place the Mace in the leftmost square slot. Put exactly three Lapis Lazuli in the adjacent middle slot, then select the third, bottom-most enchantment option on the list. If Density does not appear as an option, place a low-cost item like a wooden shovel in the table and select the level 1 option to reset the table’s RNG seed, then try again.

How to Get the Density Enchantment via Villager Trading

Requirements: Unemployed Villager, Lectern, Emeralds, Anvil

Confine an unemployed villager in a secure cell. Place a Lectern directly in front of them to assign the Librarian profession. Open the trade ledger UI and inspect the Novice trade offerings. If the Enchanted Book of Density is not listed, close the menu, break the Lectern with an axe, and replace it to roll a new set of trades. Once the book is offered, trade emeralds to secure it, then perform a single trade to permanently lock the ledger.

Open the Anvil interface. Place the Mace in the first slot on the left under the hammer icon. Place the Enchanted Book of Density in the second slot directly next to it. Select and retrieve the newly enchanted weapon from the output slot on the far right.

How to Get the Density Enchantment via Ominous Vaults

Requirements: Cartography Table, Compass, Emeralds, Armor and Weapons

Upgrade an unemployed villager to a Cartographer using a Cartography Table. Level up the NPC to the Journeyman trade level, then purchase a Trial Explorer Map for 12 Emeralds and 1 Compass. Follow the map to the specified underground coordinates. Dig down into the deepslate layers between Y levels of 0 and -64 to locate the chamber, which is identifiable by copper blocks and polished tuff bricks.

Defeat standard Trial Spawners inside the chamber to secure a standard Trial Key and open standard Vaults to obtain an Ominous Bottle, or slay a Raid Captain outside of a raid to collect one directly. Drink the bottle near an unactivated spawner to trigger an Ominous Trial. Defeat the reinforced waves of armored mobs to obtain an Ominous Trial Key. Locate an Ominous Vault, which emits blue soul-flame particles instead of standard orange flames, and use the key to unlock a 5.5% chance at rolling a Category A Enchanted Book containing Density. Reviewing the full guide on how to find and prepare for Trial Chambers is worth doing before attempting this route.

How to Use the Density Enchantment in Combat

The enchantment is engineered exclusively for the Mace and functions strictly during vertical falls.

• Fall 1.5 blocks minimum
• Attack during active descent
• Maintain target tracking

To activate the modifier, jump or drop from a ledge so that your character enters a free-fall state of at least 1.5 blocks. Trigger a melee strike with the Mace while in mid-air, making contact with the target’s bounding box before your feet touch the ground. Landing the blow successfully triggers the bonus damage scaling and completely negates all accumulated fall damage. Missing the target cancels the modifier, and you will suffer standard fall damage upon impact.

The mathematical progression for calculating this bonus uses a linear formula:

Bonus Damage = 0.5 x Enchantment Level x Blocks Fallen

This value stacks with the weapon’s default smash scaling and critical multipliers to deliver massive burst damage. Consider combining this weapon with the Wind Charge enchantment to repeatedly launch yourself back into the air upon impact, establishing an infinite vertical combat loop.

Density Compatibility and Scaling Values

Applying this enchantment scale to a heavy weapon yields distinct damage outputs depending on the fall height.

The Density modifier is mutually exclusive with several other offensive enchantments. It cannot be combined with Breach Enchantment, which shreds armor effectiveness instead of scaling with fall height, Sharpness, Smite, or Bane of Arthropods on the same weapon. However, it can be safely paired with Unbreaking, Mending, and Wind Burst. Use Density when playing in open biomes with high terrain or when taking on massive bosses. Switch to a second Mace with Breach when fighting heavily armored players in low-ceiling, flat-ground areas where falling attacks cannot be executed.