The Minecraft mace is crafted from a heavy core on top of a breeze rod. Both come from trial chambers: heavy cores only drop from ominous vaults, and breeze rods only drop from breezes. The mace hits for 6 damage on the ground, but a smash attack after a fall adds damage for every block you dropped and cancels your fall damage. This guide covers the recipe, how to farm both parts, the full smash damage math, and which enchantments to put on it in Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.60.
Table of Contents
Minecraft mace quick answer
- Recipe: 1 heavy core above 1 breeze rod, in any crafting grid column (2×2 works).
- Heavy core: 7.5% chance from each ominous vault, opened with an ominous trial key (minecraft.wiki).
- Breeze rod: 1-2 per breeze killed by a player, more with Looting.
- Smash attack: attack after falling 1.5 blocks or more. +4 damage per block for the first 3 blocks, +2 for the next 5, then +1 per block, with no cap.
- Our best enchantments: Density V, Wind Burst III, Unbreaking III, Mending and Fire Aspect II for Survival. Swap Density for Breach IV against armored players.
- Durability: 500 in Java, 501 in Bedrock. Repair it with breeze rods in an anvil (25% each).
A normal mace hit deals 6 damage; the real power comes from smash attacks after a fall. Image: Mojang Studios
Mace recipe: heavy core + breeze rod
Put the heavy core in the top slot and the breeze rod directly below it. Mojang’s Java 1.21 Tricky Trials changelog describes it the same way: “Can be crafted with a Breeze Rod and a Heavy Core”. The mace has Epic rarity because the heavy core does. Mojang’s 1.21.2 notes explain that a crafted item takes the highest rarity of its ingredients.
| Ingredient | Where it comes from | Drop rate (wiki) | Renewable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy core | Ominous vaults in trial chambers | 7.5% per vault opening | No, except through ominous vaults |
| Breeze rod | Breezes from trial spawners in combat chambers | 1-2 per kill, more with Looting | Yes |
How to get a heavy core
The heavy core is the hard part. You can’t buy it, mine it in the wild or craft it. Here’s the order of steps, based on the wiki’s ominous vault, ominous trial key and Trial Omen pages:
- Find a trial chamber. They generate underground in the Overworld. The starting room sits between Y=-40 and Y=-20, and most rooms are between Y=-20 and 0. A journeyman cartographer sells a buried trial chambers map for 12 emeralds and a compass (Mojang’s 1.21 notes called it the Trial Explorer Map). With cheats on,
/locate structure trial_chambersworks in both editions. Our Minecraft commands list explains how to turn cheats on and what it does to achievements. - Get Bad Omen. Drink an ominous bottle. Raid captains killed outside a raid always drop one, and vaults can also give them. The bottle gives Bad Omen for 100 minutes.
- Trigger Trial Omen. When a normal trial spawner sees you with Bad Omen, the effect turns into Trial Omen for 15 minutes per Bad Omen level. Every trial spawner within 15 blocks that can see you becomes an ominous trial spawner.
- Clear the ominous waves. When all mobs from an ominous trial spawner are dead, it has a 30% chance to drop an ominous trial key for every player. Mojang’s 1.21 changelog gives the same 30%.
- Open ominous vaults. They’re the vaults on altars with red candles and red glazed terracotta, often in harder-to-reach spots. Every combat chamber has one, and the wiki says a trial chamber usually has 6 to 8 in total. According to the ominous trial key page, the vault opens while you still have Trial Omen, so use your keys before it runs out.
Each player can open each ominous vault only once. A vault remembers up to 128 players. Each opening ejects 2 to 5 stacks of loot, and the wiki gives every ominous vault a 75% chance to include one extra “unique” item, which always comes out first.
The odds, by our math: with a 7.5% chance per vault, opening 8 ominous vaults gives you about a 46% chance of at least one heavy core. With 6 vaults it’s about 37%. You may need a second trial chamber. The wiki also notes that ominous vault loot depends on the world seed, not on timing, so you can’t get a better roll by waiting.
Ominous vaults sit on altars with red candles and red glazed terracotta; each opening has a 7.5% heavy core chance. AI-generated illustration
How to get breeze rods
Breezes spawn from trial spawners surrounded by chiseled tuff. These are only in combat chambers, usually in the middle of the room, with at most one breeze spawner per chamber. A breeze has 30 health and deflects every projectile except wind charges, so bring a melee weapon, not a bow. Each one drops 1-2 breeze rods when a player or a tamed wolf kills it, and Looting raises the count. Save extras: each rod repairs 25% of the mace’s durability in an anvil, and Mojang’s notes say one rod crafts into 4 wind charges.
How the mace smash attack works
A normal mace hit deals 6 damage. That’s the wiki’s figure; Mojang’s 1.21 notes give a weapon base damage of 5. A smash attack happens when you attack after falling 1.5 blocks or more. It works even if the attack cooldown hasn’t recharged. Here’s what the wiki and Mojang’s notes say about it:
- Fall height is your starting Y minus your ending Y. Taking damage on the way down doesn’t reset it.
- No fall damage: a smash that lands before you touch the ground cancels the fall damage you built up. Mojang calls this “Safe Fall”.
- Area knockback: everything within 2.5 blocks of the hit gets knocked back. You don’t.
- Slow Falling blocks it: you can’t smash while you have the effect.
- Elytra: diving with an elytra counts as falling. In Java the elytra has to be unequipped before the hit, because a hit during elytra flight doesn’t trigger the smash. In Bedrock the smash works mid-glide.
- Critical hits: smash attacks are usually critical hits, which raise both the base and smash damage by 50%.
- Wind charges: a wind charge at your feet launches you up for a smash from flat ground. Mojang’s notes say you only take fall damage for blocks below the point where the wind burst hit you.
Mace damage by fall height
The table uses the wiki formula (+4 per block for blocks 1-3, +2 per block for blocks 4-8, +1 per block after that) plus the 6 base damage. Density adds 0.5 per block per level, so Density V adds 2.5 per block. These numbers are before armor, Protection and potion effects. A heart is 2 damage.
| Blocks fallen | Smash bonus | Total hit (no crit) | Total as critical (x1.5) | With Density V (no crit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | +8 | 14 | 21 | 19 |
| 3 | +12 | 18 | 27 | 25.5 |
| 5 | +16 | 22 | 33 | 34.5 |
| 8 | +22 | 28 | 42 | 48 |
| 10 | +24 | 30 | 45 | 55 |
| 15 | +29 | 35 | 52.5 | 72.5 |
| 20 | +34 | 40 | 60 | 90 |
| 30 | +44 | 50 | 75 | 125 |
| 50 | +64 | 70 | 105 | 195 |
The wiki’s own comparisons show how much the enchantment matters. A critical smash defeats a full-health player in Protection IV netherite armor after a 30-block fall with an unenchanted mace, 19 blocks with Breach IV and 10 blocks with Density V. A warden needs a 321-block fall unenchanted, or 95 blocks with Density V. Mojang’s 1.21 notes list the Over-Overkill challenge (50 hearts of damage in one mace hit, worth 50 XP). By the table above, a Density V mace passes 100 damage after about 23 blocks without a crit.
Best mace enchantments (our picks)
The mace has three enchantments no other weapon gets: Density, Breach and Wind Burst. Density, Breach, Smite and Bane of Arthropods all conflict with each other, so you choose one of the four. Our full Minecraft enchantments list has every enchantment’s max level and conflicts. Below are our recommended builds by goal, using the effects the wiki and Mojang describe:
| Goal | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Survival all-rounder | Density V, Wind Burst III, Unbreaking III, Mending, Fire Aspect II | Density scales with every block you fall, and Wind Burst lets you chain smashes. Mending matters because the mace is hard to replace. |
| PvP against diamond or netherite armor | Breach IV, Wind Burst III, Unbreaking III, Mending | The wiki says Breach IV gives the mace the highest damage per hit of any melee weapon against diamond or netherite armor. In Bedrock it also has the highest DPS, because Bedrock has no attack cooldown. |
| Trial chambers, undead, ominous events | Smite V, Wind Burst III, Unbreaking III, Mending | Breach doesn’t reduce Protection, so the wiki rates Smite higher against the enchanted-armor mobs from ominous trials. |
Density or Breach? Density only boosts smash attacks. Breach works on every hit, including normal ones, but only cuts the target’s armor (15 percentage points per level). It does nothing about Protection or Resistance. In single-player, the only mobs that naturally wear armor are piglins and undead mobs, so the wiki says a Smite or Density mace usually beats a Breach mace there.
Density and Breach come from the enchanting table; Wind Burst only from ominous vault books. Image: Mojang Studios
How to get Density, Breach and Wind Burst
- Density (max V) and Breach (max IV): enchanting table in both editions, enchanted books from fishing and loot, and librarian trades. The wiki marks the librarian option as changing with the Villager Trade Rebalance.
- Wind Burst (max III): books only. They drop from ominous vaults at level I, with a 5.5% chance per vault according to the wiki. Combine two Wind Burst I books in an anvil to get II, and two II books to get III. Mojang’s notes describe this anvil method.
- Smite, Bane of Arthropods and Fire Aspect: the enchanting table gives these on a mace only in Bedrock. In Java you need books and an anvil.
Wind Burst: how high it launches you
Wind Burst launches you back into the air after a smash attack, so you can chain smash after smash. The wiki measures roughly 8, 16 and 24 blocks for levels I, II and III. Mojang’s 1.21 changelog says each level adds about 7 blocks. Unlike a wind charge, Wind Burst doesn’t protect you from fall damage. If you miss your next hit, you take fall damage from the top of the bounce. In Java, Blast Protection reduces the launch. In Bedrock, netherite armor does. In Java, the mace’s slow 0.6 attack speed means Wind Burst I can’t chain fully charged hits on a target at the same height. The wiki lists this as bug MC-272819, still unresolved.
Java vs Bedrock mace differences
| Mechanic | Java 26.3 | Bedrock 26.60 |
|---|---|---|
| Durability | 500 | 501 |
| Attack speed | 0.6 (1.67 s cooldown, the slowest in the game) | No attack cooldown |
| Smash while gliding with an elytra | No: unequip the elytra before the hit | Yes |
| Smite, Bane, Fire Aspect from the table | No (books only) | Yes |
| What weakens a Wind Burst launch | Blast Protection | Netherite armor |
| Hitting boats or minecarts | Destroys them instantly without using durability | Since 26.60, Wind Burst no longer launches you off boats, minecarts or cushions |
Did 26.3 change the mace?
No. We searched Mojang’s full Java patch notes for 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 (through the launcher’s patch notes feed), and none of them mention the mace, heavy cores, breeze rods or the three mace enchantments. On Bedrock, the 26.60 changelog (October 2026) stopped Wind Burst from launching you when you hit boats, minecarts and cushions. The current smash formula dates from 1.21: the 1.21 snapshots replaced a flat +3 per block with the 4/2/1 curve, raised durability from 250 to 500 and lowered the base hit from 7 to 6. We’ll update this guide if a 26.4 snapshot changes the mace.
How to repair a mace
- Anvil + breeze rods: each rod restores 25% of durability and keeps the enchantments.
- Anvil + a second mace: combines both maces’ durability plus 5%, and keeps enchantments.
- Grindstone or crafting grid: also adds two maces’ durability plus 5%. The wiki only lists the anvil methods as keeping enchantments, so use the anvil for an enchanted mace.
- Mending: repairs it from XP. It’s the best long-term fix, because every hit costs 1 durability, smash or not.
When you’re done with your mace setup, our best Minecraft seeds for 26.3 list includes worlds with good starts, and the best Minecraft shaders make those long dives look a lot better.
FAQ
How rare is a heavy core in Minecraft?
Each ominous vault has a 7.5% chance to drop one, according to minecraft.wiki. Trial chambers usually have 6 to 8 ominous vaults, so one full run gives you roughly a 37-46% chance of at least one heavy core (our math).
Can you get Wind Burst from the enchanting table?
No. Wind Burst only comes as a level I enchanted book from ominous vaults. Combine books in an anvil to reach level III.
Is the mace good for PvP?
Yes, with Breach IV. The wiki says a Breach IV mace has the highest damage per hit of any melee weapon against diamond or netherite armor, and in Bedrock it also beats a Sharpness V netherite sword on DPS against diamond armor or better.
Sources: minecraft.wiki Mace, Heavy Core, Breeze, Ominous Vault, Trial Omen, Density, Breach, Wind Burst and Trial Chambers (read via the wiki API, November 3, 2026); Mojang’s Java 1.21 changelog, Java 1.21.2, 1.21.11, 26.1, 26.2 and 26.3 patch notes, and Bedrock 26.60 changelogs. Damage table and odds are our own math from the wiki formulas.
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Featured image: AI-generated illustration
