Thorns

{
    "title": "Thorns",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "III",
            "label": "Maximum level"
        },
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "<span  class=\"explain \" title=\"Items that can receive the enchantment from an enchanting table.\">Primary items</span>"
        },
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "<span  class=\"explain \" title=\"Items that cannot receive the enchantment from an enchanting table but can receive it from an enchanted book on an anvil.\">Secondary items</span>"
        },
        {
            "field": "1",
            "label": "<span  class=\"explain \" title=\"Relative chance of the enchantment being offered.\">Enchantment weight</span>"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [],
    "images": []
}

Thorns is an armor enchantment that gives a random chance to damage entities that attack the user, at the cost of increasing incurred durability damage.

Guardians and elder guardians have a Thorns-like effect that inflicts damage when their spikes are out. However, this affects only melee damage, whereas Thorns the enchantment applies to all direct attacks, including ranged.

Obtaining

In addition to normal enchanting, Thorns I and II can be obtained naturally from drops, fishing, trading with a villager or as loot from generated structures. Thorns cannot be directly obtained on helmets, leggings, or boots through an enchanting table on Java Edition, requiring an anvil to be used instead.

Thorns III cannot be directly obtained using an enchanting table, but it can be obtained by using an anvil to combine two Thorns II enchantments, by trading with villagers, or by finding an item enchanted with it from the loot chest as below.

The enchanted book with Thorns III can be found within the following structures:

Underground structures

• Mineshaft
• Stronghold

Underwater structures

• Ocean Ruins

Aboveground structures

• Desert Pyramid
• Jungle Pyramid
• Pillager Outpost
• Woodland Mansion

Miscellaneous structures

• Monster Room

Pieces of armor enchanted with Thorns III can be found within the following structures:

Underwater structures

• Shipwreck

Small structures

• Ruined Portal

The Nether

• Bastion Remnant

• Ruined Portal

The End

• End City

Usage

This section needs to be updated.

 

Please update this section to reflect recent updates or newly available information.
Reason: Table needs updating to reflect new damage values for Thorns enchantment in 1.21

While wearing any piece of armor with the Thorns enchantment, each piece independently has a Level × 15% chance of the wearer inflicting 1HP–5HP damage (*not* restricted to integer values) on anyone who attacks them, regardless of whether they were hit by a melee attack, arrow, or other projectile. The entity also gets knocked back when being attacked by the enchantment.

If the player dies as a result of Thorns damage, the death message <player> was killed trying to hurt <entity> is displayed.

Multiple worn armor items with the Thorns enchantment do stack. Each piece confers an independent chance to deal damage to the attacker as described above. However, due to the invulnerability timer, the total damage is capped at the highest individual amount of damage dealt this way, and damage may or may not be caused in individual chunks. As a result, wearing multiple pieces of high-level Thorns armor pieces not only increases the overall chance to deal damage, but also shifts the average amount of damage dealt this way towards the upper end of the possible range. (Since damage and health are both floating point numbers, the chance to literally reduce health by exactly 5.0 are next to zero. The typical maximum number of hearts lost from thorns damage is 2, but can rarely be 2½ due to rounding.)

Average damage dealt depending on the number of items with Thorns III worn are as follows:

Items with Thorns III	Average damage dealt
1	1.125HP × 0.5625
2	1.997HP × 0.9985
3	2.637HP × 1.3185
4	3.09HP × 1.545

Thorns applies a durability penalty to the armor. It reduces durability by an additional 2 points when inflicting damage. If multiple armor pieces are enchanted with Thorns, the durability penalty is applied to each piece that triggered (even if it didn't end up inflicting the highest damage), regardless of what level of Thorns that piece has. If the item is also enchanted with Unbreaking, the usual probabilities for ignoring each individual point of durability loss apply.

Thorns damage can be blocked by a shield, if there is an opportunity to block, usually because the damage triggering the thorns effect comes from a projectile.

The Thorns effect can trigger from any equipment slot, including e.g. the body slot of horses or holding the enchanted item in the main or off-hand.^[1] Although horse armor cannot be enchanted in Survival, in Java Edition the Thorns enchantment can be applied to horse armor in Creative and works when held by the player or equipped to a horse.

Unaffected mobs

Wardens^[2] using sonic boom attacks are not affected by this enchantment.

Sounds

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Video

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

Issues

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

References

Navigation

v t e Enchantments
Durability	Mending Unbreaking
Block breaking	Efficiency Fortune Silk Touch
Armor	Blast Protection Fire Protection Projectile Protection Protection Thorns Helmet Aqua Affinity Respiration Leggings Swift Sneak Boots Depth Strider Feather Falling Frost Walker Soul Speed
Melee weapons	Bane of Arthropods Smite Sword Fire Aspect Knockback Looting Sharpness Sweeping Edge‌[JE only] Axe Cleaving​[upcoming JE Combat Tests] Sharpness Mace Breach Density Fire Aspect Wind Burst Spear ​[upcoming Mounts of Mayhem] Fire Aspect Knockback Looting Lunge Sharpness
Trident	Channeling Impaling Loyalty Riptide
Bow	Flame Infinity Power Punch
Crossbow	Multishot Piercing Quick Charge
Fishing Rod	Luck of the Sea Lure
Curse	Curse of Binding Curse of Vanishing
Joke	Potatofication