Minecraft Spear Guide: Crafting, Attack Patterns, Damage & Enchantments

After the mace was added only recently, we didn’t have to wait long for another new weapon. With “Mounts of Mayhem”, you can now craft your own spear and use it in various ways against monsters and other players! It offers not only excellent reach but also two attack patterns you can alternate between. At the same time, you can scale the damage massively and, with a bit of luck, one‑shot many common mobs. Today, we’ll take a closer look at exactly how that works and what other surprises the spear has in store!

Minecraft spear: crafting, drops, and where to find it in structures

You can obtain the spear in three different ways: by crafting it yourself, as loot from mobs, or in various structures in your world. Sooner or later you’ll come across one and be able to put it to use.

We actually recommend making one right at the start of a new world, as it’s a brilliant weapon for beginners! The recipe works like a shovel, just diagonal. You can use all materials, from wood, stone, iron, and copper through to diamond. There’s a Netherite spear as well, but you’ll need a Smithing Table and the Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template from the Nether.

Spears can also be dropped by mobs if they are carrying one. Zombies sometimes carry iron spears, and Piglins gold spears. The chance to obtain one is normally 8.5% (with Looting III it’s 11.5%).

Finally, you can also find spears of various tiers in structures:

• Stone spear in ocean ruins
• Iron spear in buried treasure or in the village smithy
• Copper spear also in smithing chests in villages
• (Enchanted) diamond spear in Bastion Remnants in the Nether, and enchanted in End Cities in the End

Spear attacks in Minecraft: thrust and charge attack explained

Now you’ve got a spear, how do you fight with it? You’ve got two options, as the spear is versatile and can be used in different combat situations. There’s both a normal thrust attack and a higher‑damage charge attack.

Generally speaking, the spear is a great weapon for beginners because its reach is noticeably better than a sword or axe. You can hit mobs from 4.5 blocks away, which even lets you keep Creepers from exploding! You can also thrust through tall grass and even cobwebs, which is handy. Do note that if mobs get too close, they become harder to hit.

Thrust attack with the spear: reach, speed, and cooldown

Let’s start with the normal attack, performed with a left‑click. The spear makes a short forward thrust and shows a brief cooldown, similar to the sword. However, this recovers much faster, making the spear perfect for quick strikes. The cooldown does increase with higher material tiers, from roughly half a second with wood to a bit over a second with Netherite.

Without enchantments or other upgrades, the thrust attack deals between 0.5 and 2.5 hearts of damage, depending on the material. That’s less than other weapons, but you can use the reach to your advantage.

Use the charge attack precisely: scaling with speed

By holding right‑click, you can perform a different move: a charge attack. This applies a general damage bonus that also scales with material value, from 0.7x with wood up to 1.2x with Netherite.

That’s not the whole story, though. Another factor is how long you can hold the spear upright. After only a few seconds your arm gets tired and you have to drop the charge, which makes this attack inherently risky. You’ll notice this in the animation when the spear wobbles and the attack becomes inaccurate. You must also aim carefully, or the charge will miss.

The second key factor is the spear’s damage scaling with speed. This is where you can squeeze out serious damage. Both your speed and your target’s speed are considered to calculate the final damage. For this kind of attack, our guide to the fastest movement in Minecraft can help (Minecraft: The 10 fastest ways to get around – how to travel at maximum speed) .

Take plain running speed, for example: with a Netherite spear you can deal around 3.5 hearts of damage. On a horse this scales up to about 5.5 hearts, and with the fastest horse even up to 8 hearts. The spear becomes far more potent with Elytra and rockets, letting you cover roughly 33 blocks and hit for up to 20 hearts. That one‑shots virtually all common mobs. For a detailed breakdown there’s an excellent overview on the wiki (https://minecraft.wiki/w/Spear#Statistics) and even a calculator. The bottom line: the faster you are, the more damage you do.

Best spear enchantments in Minecraft: Lunge and more

Damage is also influenced by the enchantments you can apply to the spear. There’s even a new enchantment that lets you surge towards your target. Lunge moves you closer to your opponent during normal thrusts, effectively extending your reach. You can use up to three levels, but each use costs both hunger and extra durability.

You can also use all the usual weapon enchantments, which in some cases makes the spear even better than the axe:

• Mending
• Knockback II
• Fire Aspect II
• Looting III
• Lunge III
• Unbreaking III

The mutually exclusive damage enchantments are also possible, but you can only apply one of them:

• Sharpness V (general damage increase)
• Smite V (more damage to undead)
• Bane of Arthropods V (more damage to arthropods)

Conclusion: master the spear and deal maximum damage

A new weapon in Minecraft is always a reason to celebrate. With the spear you can not only keep enemies at arm’s length, but also catch them off guard with a quick charge attack. Its scaling with your speed makes it both unique and deadly. On top of that, the new enchantment is useful for more than just combat and almost feels like an aerial dash.

The spear is even more fun on your own server, which you can rent from us right away: https://www.4netplayers.com/en-gb/gameserver-hosting/minecraft/. With the right horse it’s perfect for jousting with your friends. Duel each other and see who handles the new weapon best.