Halberds & Knives
This data pack adds two new tiered weapon types to Minecraft: Halberds and Knives!
Knives
A brand new tiered weapon type used to quickly stab enemies at a short range.
Crafting
- Craft a knife with one tool material item and one stick. Trading
- Iron and Diamond Knives can be traded from weaponsmith villagers at their Novice and Master trade levels respectively.
Looting
- Golden Knives can be found in Nether Fortress chests.
- Enchanted Golden Knives can be found in Ruined Portal chests.
- Iron Knives can be found in village weaponsmith chests.
Mechanics
- Short Attack Range: You can only attack entities up to 2.5 blocks away (the standard is 3).
- Piercing Weapon: Like a spear, this weapon can stab multiple enemies in a line.
- Fast Attack Speed: With an attack speed of 1.8, you can stab pretty fast.
- Enchantments: This item is technically a sword, and therefore its enchantment pool is the same. This means that the item is compatible with Sweeping Edge, although it will not do anything. Limitations do not allow a work around for this.
Things to Note
- When upgrading to netherite, the knife will appear as diamond in the output slot. The item will correct itself when put in an inventory.
- Because this item is technically a sword, this means that the knife can be combined with a sword in an anvil. The result may convert a knife into a sword, so to avoid unintended effects, do not combine knives with swords.
- When combining knives of the same tier in a crafting table, the result will convert the knife into a sword. Do not use the crafting grid to repair the knife to avoid loss of functionality.
Halberds
- Another brand new tiered weapon type, combining the axe and the spear, while also compromising aspects of each. Master using it to combo your enemies.
Crafting
- Craft a halberd with four tool materials and two sticks.
Trading
- Iron and Diamond Halberds can be traded from weaponsmith villagers at their Novice and Expert trade levels respectively.
Looting
- Golden Halberds can be found in Nether Fortress chests.
- Enchanted Golden Halberds can be found in Ruined Portal Chests.
- Iron Halberds can be found in Stronghold corridor and village weaponsmith chests.
- Enchanted Iron and Diamond Halberds can be found in End City chests.
Mechanics
- Attack Range: You can attack up to 4.5 blocks away (the standard is 3), but cannot attack fewer than 2. This mimics the attack range of the spear.
- Charge Attack: Right-click with a Halberd to perform a charge attack like a spear. The damage multiplier is half of a spear of the same tier. The activation and various stage timings and speed thresholds of the Halberd's timings match those of the spear.
- Attack Speed: Though the damage of the halberd is the same as an axe, the attack speed is 0.25 lower. The Halberd can also only attack when at full charge, so make every hit count.
- Mining Efficiency: The Halberd can be used to mine the same blocks that axes are efficient for, only the mining efficiency is slightly lower, and the durability removed for each block broken is 2 instead of 1.
- Enchantments: This item is technically an axe, and therefore its enchantment pool is the same. Limitations do not allow a work around for this.
Things to Note
- Unlike the axe, the halberd only takes 1 point of durability damage for attacking instead of 2
- The Halberd's charge attack can be used to disable blocking. This is not the desired effect of this item, but due to item component limitations, this is the best possible outcome. This will likely be changed if the "minecraft:weapon" item component is updated to allow such customization.
- When upgrading to netherite, the halberd will appear as diamond in the output slot. The item will correct itself when put in an inventory.
- Because this item is technically an axe, this means that the halberd can be combined with an axe in an anvil. The result may convert a halberd into an axe, so to avoid unintended effects, do not combine halberds with axes.
- When combining halberds of the same tier in a crafting table, the result will convert the halberd into an axe. Do not use the crafting grid to repair the halberd to avoid loss of functionality.
- Due to a Minecraft bug, if you look down while on a mount and attack with the Halberd, the mount will take damage. Be careful to avoid this.
Changes to Minecraft
This datapack makes some minor changes to the game; they are listed here.
Halberd/Axe Enchantment Compatibility
- Axes/Halberds can be enchanted with Fire Aspect and Looting, and those enchantments along with Sharpness, Bane of Arthropods, and Smite, will appear for them in the Enchanting Table.
- This may make enchanting axes/halberds quite the chore, but it's at the cost of making them more usable as a weapon, and you don't need to rely on methods outside of enchanting to obtain the above enchantments. Blame Mojang for not making the enchanting system less abysmal.
- This changes applies to both Halberds and Axes because Halberds are technically axes (as visible with Advanced Tooltips enabled), and Minecraft's limitations do not allow different enchantment pools for each. So, for the purposes of this datapack that further solidify axes as a weapon rather than just as a tool, these changes were made for both Axes and Halberds.
Smith Villager Changes
- Weaponsmith villagers now sell Halberds, Knives, and Spears, and so to balance these out with more affordable Novice level trades, all types of smith villagers will buy charcoal for emeralds. Weaponsmiths will also have 3 Novice level trades available instead of 2.
Bug Reporting
I don't currently have any sort of discord or GitHub page or anything like that. If you experience any bugs or have any feedback, feel feel to shoot me a DM on my instagram.


