Minecraft Spear Guide: Crafting, attack modes, damage & enchantments

After the mace was added not long ago, 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 different ways against mobs and other players! It offers not only an excellent reach, but also two attack modes that you can alternate between. At the same time, you can scale the damage dramatically and, with a bit of luck, defeat many common mobs with a single strike. Today we’ll take a closer look at how it all works and what other surprises the spear has in store!

Minecraft spear: crafting, drops, and structure locations

You can get the spear in three different ways: craft it yourself, as loot from mobs, or from 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—it’s a fantastic weapon for beginners! The recipe works like a shovel, just diagonal. You can use all materials, from wood, stone, iron, and copper to diamond. There’s a Netherite Spear too, of course, but you’ll need a Smithing Table and the appropriate Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template from the Nether.

Spears can also be dropped by mobs as long as they’re carrying one. Zombies sometimes carry Iron Spears, and Piglins carry Gold Spears. The chance to get one is normally 8.5% (with Looting 3 it’s 11.5%).

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

• Stone Spear in ocean ruins
• Iron Spear in buried treasure chests or in the blacksmith’s chest in villages
• Copper Spear also in smithy 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 charged attack explained

Now you’ve got a spear—how do you fight with it? You actually have two options, since the spear is versatile and fits different combat situations. There’s a normal thrust attack and a charged attack that deals more damage.

In general, 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 and even keep Creepers from exploding! You can also stab through tall grass and even cobwebs, which is handy. Just don’t let mobs get too close, or they’ll be 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 quick jab forward and shows a short cooldown, similar to the sword. However, it recovers much faster, making the spear perfect for quick attacks. The cooldown does increase with higher material tiers, from about half a second with wood to a bit more than a second with Netherite.

Without enchantments or other upgrades, the thrust attack deals between 0.5 hearts 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 charged attack precisely: scaling with speed

Holding right-click performs a different attack: a charged attack. This applies a general damage bonus that also scales with the material value, from 0.7x with wood up to 1.2x with Netherite.

But that’s not all that factors into the charge. It also depends on how long you can hold the spear up. After only a few seconds your arm gets tired, forcing you to stop charging, which makes this attack inherently risky. You’ll notice it in the animation—the spear starts to wobble and the attack becomes inaccurate. You also need to aim precisely, or the charged attack will miss.

The second crucial factor is how the spear’s damage scales with speed. And this is where you can squeeze out a lot more damage. Both your speed and your target’s speed are factored in when calculating damage. For this type of attack, our guide to fast travel in Minecraft can help (Minecraft: The 10 fastest travel methods – how to move at maximum speed) .

For example, just running with a Netherite Spear can yield about 3.5 hearts of damage. On a horse, this scales up to 5.5 hearts, and with the fastest horses even up to 8 hearts. It gets far more effective with Elytra and rockets, letting you cover roughly 33 blocks and deal up to 20 hearts of damage with the spear. That one-shots almost all common mobs. For a detailed breakdown of all stats, the wiki has a great overview (https://minecraft.wiki/w/Spear#Statistics) and even a calculator. The bottom line: the faster you are, the more damage you deal.

Best spear enchantments in Minecraft: Lunge and more

Damage is also affected by the enchantments you put on the spear. There’s even a new enchantment that lets you lunge at enemies. Lunge pulls you closer to your target on normal thrust attacks, effectively increasing your reach. You can use up to three levels, but using it consumes hunger and increases durability loss on the weapon.

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

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

Mutually exclusive damage enchantments are also possible, but you can only pick one:

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

Conclusion: Master the spear and dish out maximum damage

A new weapon in Minecraft is always reason to celebrate. With the spear, you can not only keep enemies at a distance, but also catch them off guard with a quick charged attack. Its scaling with your speed makes the spear unique—and deadly. Plus, the new enchantment is useful for more than 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-us/gameserver-hosting/minecraft/. With the right horse, it’s perfect for jousting tournaments with your friends. Duel it out and see who can handle the new weapon better.