Enchanting Guide

The enchanting table in Soulrend is Apotheosis’s, and what you build around it matters more than the table. The shelves in the ring decide how high the levels go, how wild the results are and how many enchantments you get. This guide goes from a table with 15 bookshelves to the cap of Eterna 50 (a level 100 slot) by every shelf path, then covers infusion crafts, tomes and libraries.

The numbers come from Apotheosis 7.4.8’s code and Soulrend’s data, not from the quest chapter. Where the chapter’s order differs from what the math needs, a section near the end says so. The stat tables for every shelf are on Enchanting (Items).

The short version#

• The cap is Eterna 50, which makes the top slot level 100. Eterna 45 (level 90) is the Endshelf tier, one step below.
• A table reads 32 blocks in the ring around it. There is no limit of 15 shelves, and a few top shelves do the work of dozens of bookshelves.
• Shelves stack in tiers. Each shelf type has a cap, and a better type adds on top of what the lower tiers gave. Five Draconic Endshelves reach Eterna 50 on their own.
• Arcana 100 is cheap: 20 Candle Holders (a candle and an iron ingot each) give 100.
• The scarce item is the Dragon Head. Each Draconic Endshelf takes one. Pearlescent Endshelves cut that to a single head.
• Infusion happens in the third slot only, and you need an XP level at least as high as that slot’s level.

Before you start#

• An enchanting table, Lapis Lazuli and XP levels. A slot costs 1, 2 or 3 lapis, and you need an XP level at least equal to the slot’s level.
• The Apotheosis enchanting module is on in Soulrend (apotheosis.cfg). Gems, affixes and the adventure module are covered under Gear Progression.
• Put one item in the table. Infusion needs the item alone in the slot.

How the table works#

The five stats#

The table adds up the stats of the blocks around it and shows them in its book screen.

Eterna is clamped to 0–50. Quanta, Arcana and Rectification are clamped to 0–100%, but the raw sum is kept until the end: a table with 115% Quanta from shelves reads 100%, and negative shelves can pull a raw total back down before the clamp.

The table reads the 5×5 ring around it, on its own level and one level up: 32 positions. The block between a shelf and the table must be empty, so leave the 3×3 around the table open on both levels. The ring takes any block with an Apotheosis stat entry. That includes Soulrend’s additions: skulls, Candle Holders and other decor count too. A plain bookshelf gives +1 Eterna, capped at 15, and nothing else.

Eterna: caps and tiers#

Every shelf lists a Max next to its Eterna, and the table combines them like this:

1. Shelves whose Max is 0 (Melonshelf, Stoneshelf, Beeshelf) are added first, with no cap. They can push Eterna below 0.
2. The remaining shelves are grouped by their Max and the groups are taken from the lowest Max to the highest.
3. After each group, Eterna is cut down to that group’s Max: Eterna = min(Max, Eterna + group total).

For 15 bookshelves and 5 Hellshelves: the bookshelf group gives min(15, 15) = 15, then the Hellshelf group (Max 22.5) gives min(22.5, 15 + 5 × 1.5) = 22.5.

Three things follow from this:

• A shelf type stops helping once Eterna sits at its Max. 32 Hellshelves give 22.5, the same as 15 bookshelves and 5 Hellshelves.
• A higher tier only has to cover the gap above the tier below it. After 15 bookshelves, 4 Blazing Hellshelves reach 30. After 9 Pearlescent Endshelves (45), one Draconic Endshelf reaches 50.
• Negative shelves cost you before any cap applies, so one Beeshelf (−15) needs 1.5 more Draconic Endshelves’ worth of Eterna to make up.

Slot levels and XP#

The three slots show levels rolled from the Eterna (an Eterna below 1.5 counts as 1.5):

Using a slot takes 1, 2 or 3 lapis and an XP level at least equal to the slot’s level. It then charges the XP points of the slot’s top levels: slot 1 the last level, slot 2 the last two, slot 3 the last three, minus 1 point in all. The charge is a fixed number of points, however many levels you have above the requirement.

A player needs 30,970 XP points in total to stand at level 100, so the charge is small next to the requirement. The level requirement is the catch: the Library of Alexandria infusion at Eterna 50 asks for XP level 100.

Quanta and Rectification#

Quanta scales how much the slot’s level can change. The table rolls a bell-shaped number g between −1 and +1, centered on 0 and usually within ±0.33. The enchanting power is then L × (1 + Quanta × g), where L is the slot’s level and Quanta is a fraction (50% is 0.5), rounded and kept between 1 and 200.

Rectification sets a floor. Any roll below Rectification − 1 is thrown away and replaced by a flat roll between that floor and +1. At 100% Rectification the result can never fall below L.

The power range at the top slot of a level 100 table (Eterna 50), by Quanta and Rectification:

Quanta never raises the average at 0% Rectification. It widens the spread, so the extreme results (the top levels of an enchantment) become possible at high Quanta, and Rectification then removes the bad half.

What power buys#

Power decides which level of an enchantment can appear: the table offers the highest level whose minimum power is at or below the roll. Soulrend raised many enchantments above their vanilla maximum (enchantments.cfg: Protection VIII, Sharpness IX, Efficiency IX and so on), and levels above the vanilla maximum get steeper. The minimum power for such a level is the vanilla formula plus a surcharge that grows with the 1.6th power of the levels above the vanilla maximum.

A table with Eterna 50 and 0% Quanta always rolls 100: Sharpness VII, Protection VI, Efficiency VII. The top levels (Sharpness IX, Protection VIII, Efficiency IX) need a roll of 171–188. At the top slot that is only possible with high Quanta, and the odds at 100% Quanta and 0% Rectification are about 0.4% for Sharpness IX. At 100% Rectification they rise to about 7%. Other enchantments follow the same rule with their own vanilla numbers.

Arcana#

Arcana changes how an enchantment is picked and how many you get.

Weights. Each enchantment has a rarity in enchantments.cfg. Arcana sets how likely each rarity is, in bands of 10%:

At full Arcana a Very Rare enchantment is ten times as likely as a Common one. If you want Sharpness, Protection or Efficiency (all Common) from a table, a lower Arcana is better. Stoneshelves (−7.5%) and Treasure Shelves (+10%) are the dials.

Number of enchantments. The first enchantment is always picked. Arcana of 25% or more guarantees a second and 75% or more a third, as long as a compatible enchantment is left. After that the table keeps adding enchantments while a roll from 0 to 49 is at or below a working level, which halves after each pick. At the top slot the working level starts above 100, so the first two extra picks always succeed:

Incompatible enchantments are removed after each pick, so the real number depends on the item.

Starting Arcana. The item’s enchantability, halved. Gold gear is high (golden sword 22, golden chestplate 25, giving 11% and 12.5%), diamond is 10 (5%), and a Book is 1 (0.5%). Books and tomes therefore start at almost 0%.

Clues, treasure and filters#

• Clues show that many of the slot’s enchantments in the hover text. The first clue is always real. Hellshelves of Sight add 1 and 2 clues; Blazing Hellshelves and Sacrificial Shelves remove them.
• Treasure enchantments only appear with a Treasure Shelf in the ring. In Soulrend that includes Frost Walker, Soulbound and Deeper and Darker’s Catalysis.
• Undiscoverable enchantments never appear at a table at all (Soul Speed and Swift Sneak, for example). They come from loot and trades.
• A Filtering Shelf removes the enchantments of the books you put in it from the pool. It only accepts books with exactly one enchantment, holds six, and each book adds 0.5 Eterna (Max 30) and 1% Arcana.

Infusion#

Infusion turns the item in the table into something else. The rules, from the code:

• Only the third slot offers it. The slot shows an “Infusion” instead of enchantments when a recipe matches.
• The item must be alone in the slot. The result replaces it, with the recipe’s count.
• The table’s Eterna, Quanta and Arcana must be at least the recipe’s values. Some recipes also set a maximum, and the table must stay at or below it. A maximum equal to the minimum means the stat has to hit that value exactly.
• The XP rules are slot 3’s: an XP level at least equal to twice the Eterna, and the charge from the table above.

Shelf stats#

These are Soulrend’s values, from its Apotheosis datapack and the addons. A shelf’s Eterna counts only up to its Max.

Small blocks that count in the ring, and which are cheap ways to move Quanta, Arcana and Rectification without spending a shelf-tier item:

A Candle Holder is a candle on an iron ingot. It gives 5% Arcana whether or not it is lit, and 20 of them reach Arcana 100:

…and 1 moreShow fewer

From nothing to Eterna 50#

Eight stages, each with the shelf it adds and a layout the table’s math has been checked against. Every layout fits the 32 positions. Shelves are listed in the order of their Eterna Max, so you can follow the stages in order or skip to the path you want.

Stage 1: the plain table (Eterna 15)#

Craft a Enchanting Table and surround it with 15 bookshelves.

15 bookshelves: Eterna 15, Quanta 15%, Arcana 0%. The top slot is level 30 and costs 305 XP points. This is the best a plain bookshelf can do. Its Max is 15.

Stage 2: Hellshelf and Seashelf (Eterna 22.5)#

Both are crafted from a bookshelf, and both have a Max of 22.5. The Hellshelf adds Quanta; the Seashelf adds Arcana.

15 bookshelves + 5 Hellshelves (20 positions): Eterna 22.5, Quanta 30%, level 45 top slot. The same with Seashelves gives Quanta 15% and Arcana 10%.

Stage 3: infused shelves and the Eterna 30 tier#

The Infused Hellshelf and Infused Seashelf are made by infusion, which needs the Stage 2 table: 15 bookshelves + 5 Hellshelves satisfies the Infused Hellshelf (Eterna 22.5, Quanta 30%), and 15 bookshelves + 5 Seashelves satisfies the Infused Seashelf (Eterna 22.5, Quanta 15%, Arcana 10%, exactly the recipe’s values).

The infused shelves are small upgrades on their own (Max 27), but they are the base of everything else: the Library takes four infused shelves, and the 30-Max shelves are built from them.

All four have a Max of 30, so a bookshelf base needs few of them:

The Blazing Hellshelf is the fastest way to 30 (4 shelves), but it removes your Clues. The Heart-Forged Seashelf is the Arcana option, and its −5% Rectification is a cost you pay back with a Rectifier.

Stage 4: the Deep path (Eterna 35 to 40)#

The Dormant Deepshelf is the one shelf Soulrend recipes by itself. It is cheap: books and deepslate.

Infusing it into a Deepshelf (Max 35) asks for Eterna 30, Quanta 40% and Arcana 40%. That is Stage 3’s Eterna 30 plus Quanta and Arcana on top. 15 bookshelves + 8 Crystalline Seashelves + 5 Candle Holders (28 positions) reads Eterna 30, Quanta 47%, Arcana 41%.

The Deepshelf has two upgrades with a Max of 37.5. Echoing raises Arcana, Soul-Touched raises Quanta:

Their Sculkshelf versions have a Max of 40 and need a Warden Tendril. A Warden always drops one, and has a 10% chance of a second, plus 10% per level of Looting.

The Sculkshelves also give Rectification (+5% on the Soul-Touched one) and Clues (+1 on the Echoing one).

This is the bottleneck of the pre-End game. Eterna 40 needs at least one shelf with a Max of 40 or more, and the only ones you can build before the End are the Sculkshelves, which means a Warden kill. One is enough.

Stage 5: the End path (Eterna 45 to 50)#

Eterna above 40 starts with Infused Dragon's Breath: infuse a Dragon’s Breath bottle at Eterna 40 or more, Quanta 15–25% and Arcana 60% or more. It makes three per infusion. The 15–25% window is the tricky part: shelves that add Quanta push you past it, which is why the layout above uses Echoing Deepshelves (no Quanta).

Each Endshelf takes one breath:

An Endshelf is Max 45, +2.5 Eterna, and upgrades two ways:

• The Pearlescent Endshelf has Max 45 but +5 Eterna, +7.5% Quanta and +7.5% Arcana. 9 of them reach Eterna 45 (level 90) in 9 positions.
• The Draconic Endshelf has Max 50 and +10 Eterna, and no other stats. 5 of them reach Eterna 50 on their own.

Dragon Heads are the limit. A Draconic Endshelf takes one. The Ender Dragon quest reward is one, End City ships carry a dragon head, and the mega ship treasure chests of the End ship structures can hold one. Pearlescent Endshelves raise the Eterna the Draconic tier has to cover: with 8–9 pearls under it, one head is enough.

Stage 6: the mythic path and Obsidian Bookshelves (Eterna 50 without heads)#

Apotheotic Additions adds three shelves with a Max of 50 that don’t use Dragon Heads. Each takes a base shelf, 4 gold blocks, 2 Godforged Pearls and 2 Manifestations of Infinity (see Rarity Materials).

The Wavebinder’s Shelf is the one path that reaches 50 with no Sculkshelf and no End: its base is a Heart-Forged Seashelf. 10 Wavebinder’s Shelves alone read Eterna 50, Quanta 5%, Arcana 100% (its raw Arcana is 150).

The Obsidian Bookshelf (Max 50, +15 Eterna, +8.5% Rectification) is the strongest single block in the pack: 4 of them reach Eterna 50. It isn’t craftable. The loot table of the Void Cathedral's hidden treasure chest holds two or three.

Stage 7: Modifiers, boosters and specialist shelves#

Modifier shelves lower stats on purpose. A negative stat is how you hit an infusion recipe’s maximum or build a stable table.

• The Melonshelf gives −10% Quanta for −1 Eterna.
• The Stoneshelf gives −7.5% Arcana for −1.5 Eterna.
• The Beeshelf gives +100% Quanta for −15 Eterna. One reaches Quanta 100% by itself, and the Eterna it costs is 1.5 Draconic Endshelves.
• A Treasure Shelf gives −10% Quanta, +10% Arcana and allows treasure enchantments.

Specialist shelves:

The Rectifiers upgrade in order (T2 uses gilded blackstone, T3 purpur blocks around the previous one), for +10%, +15% and +25% Rectification. Four T3 Rectifiers reach 100%.

Stage 8: the Alex’s Caves path (thorn and barrel shelves)#

A side path with its own materials from Alex’s Caves. It is slower than the main tiers, but works before the Nether.

• The Thornshelf has Max 17.5, so two on a bookshelf base reach it. The Infused Thornshelf (Max 30) asks for Eterna 17.5 and Quanta 10%. Both are well below the other families’ Eterna for the effort, but the Infused Thornshelf’s Max matches the Blazing Hellshelf’s.
• The Occult Thornshelf (Max 35, +4.5 Eterna, +5% Arcana, +1 Clue) is the best shelf of this path: 5 on a bookshelf base reach 35. Its recipe uses a Beholder, Shadow Silk and Tectonic Shards.
• The Hollowed Barrel Shelf (Max 17.5, iron or scrap metal around a barrel) leads to the Nuclear Barrel Shelf (Max 35, +35% Quanta). That upgrade needs a Nuclear Bomb, which Soulrend deletes, so the Nuclear Barrel Shelf can’t be crafted.
• The Aether skyshelves need the Aether, which Soulrend doesn’t include.

Reference builds#

These fit 32 positions and were run through the table’s math.

The Stable build reads 0% Quanta, so every roll at the top slot is exactly 100. Everything maxed has a power range of 100–200 (average 138).

Which build for which job:

• Infusion crafts: pick the layout for the recipe in the next section. The window matters more than the maximum.
• Reliable gear enchants: Stable or Everyday. You always get level 100 power.
• Chasing top levels: Everything maxed, with Quanta 100% and Rectification 100%.
• Specific enchantments: lower Arcana (Stoneshelves), use a Filtering Shelf and use tomes.

Infusion crafts#

Twenty recipes use infusion. The table lists the requirement window and one layout that fits it, each checked with the table’s math. Layouts are cheap examples, not the only answers. Many other mixes fit the same window.

All of them run in the third slot. XP needed = twice the table’s Eterna.

How to read the combinations:

• Start from the Eterna. The cheapest Eterna for each window is bookshelves plus the lowest shelf tier whose Max clears it: a Max-22.5 shelf for 22.5, a Max-30 shelf for 30, and so on.
• Fix Arcana with Candle Holders. Five per 25%. They add nothing else, so they won’t disturb a Quanta window.
• Fix Quanta with heads and shelves. Skeleton, zombie and creeper heads add 5% each, Wither Skeleton Skulls add 10%, and Melonshelves subtract 10%. Hellshelves and Crystalline Seashelves add some as a side effect.
• Windows with a maximum are the hard ones. The Cryptic Eye wants Quanta of exactly 10%, which is 5 below the table’s base of 15. A Melonshelf (−10%) and a head (+5%) fix that. The Infused Breath wants at most 25%, so Quanta-heavy shelves like Deepshelves are out and Echoing Deepshelves are in.
• The 100% windows are exact because of the clamp. The Ender Gem Case wants Quanta 100%. A Beeshelf’s +100% on top of the base clamps to 100% on its own. The Library of Alexandria wants Arcana 100%, which the clamp also accepts when the raw total is over 100.
• Mind the item. Books and Tomes add 0.5% Arcana, items with high enchantability (gold gear) more. The layouts above leave at least that much room.

Tomes#

A tome is a book that carries a gear slot or a job. There are two kinds.

Slot tomes#

Put a slot tome in the table instead of an item. It becomes an enchanted book, but only with enchantments that fit the tome’s slot, so none of the roll is spent on armor when you want a sword. A book starts at 0.5% Arcana, so the book’s Arcana comes from the shelves.

One craft makes several:

Scrapping tomes#

These work in an anvil, with the enchanted item in the left slot and the tome in the right. Each makes an enchanted book from the item’s enchantments:

The tome is used up each time. Which half the Tome of Scrapping keeps is random, but it is fixed by the item’s enchantments and your enchantment seed, so repeating the anvil gives the same result until you enchant something.

Infusion makes the chain: one Tome of Scrapping becomes 4 Tomes of Superior Scrapping, and each of those becomes 4 Tomes of Extraction. A single craft (8 Tomes of Scrapping) can therefore become up to 128 Extraction Tomes, but each step spends a third-slot infusion.

The extraction tomes are how you move an enchantment off a good item: put the book into a library, or onto another item.

Libraries#

An Enchantment Library stores enchantments from enchanted books. The recipe takes four ender chests, an enchanting table and four infused shelves of any kind (Infused Hellshelf, Infused Seashelf, Deepshelf or Infused Thornshelf), so you can build one after Stage 3.

The Library of Alexandria is the same block, infused (see the table above). It keeps what the Library held.

How a library stores things:

• Deposit an enchanted book by right-clicking it in, or from a hopper or pipe. A library accepts only enchanted books.
• Points. A library stores each enchantment as points. A level costs 2^(level − 1) points: I = 1, II = 2, III = 4, V = 16, X = 512, XVI = 32,768. Depositing a book adds the points of its level.
• Capacity. A Library holds at most 32,768 points per enchantment (2^15) and extracts up to level XVI. The Library of Alexandria holds up to 2^30 points per enchantment and extracts up to level XXXI.
• Extracting. Left-click an enchantment to take one level, or shift-click to take the highest level you can afford. Going from one level to the next costs the difference in points, so reaching V from nothing costs 16 points in total.
• The highest level you ever deposited is the limit. The library remembers the best single level stored for each enchantment, capped at its own maximum, and won’t extract above it. 16 Sharpness I books add up to 16 points, but if you never deposited a Sharpness V or better you can’t take a Sharpness V out. Depositing a Sharpness IX book raises the limit to IX.
• A book above the library’s level (a level XX book in a Library) fills the points to the capacity, but the extractable level stays at XVI.
• The library’s screen has a name filter and an item filter.

The Seashelf of Aquatic Filtration is a different block: it reads books to blacklist their enchantments at the table, and stores nothing.

Where this differs from the quest chapter#

The Enchanting Module chapter (Enchanting (Chapter)) walks the families in one order. The numbers allow a different order:

• Infused Dragon’s Breath needs a Sculkshelf, not both Sculkshelves and the Treasure Shelf. The recipe wants Eterna 40+, Quanta 15–25% and Arcana 60%+. One Echoing Sculkshelf on a base of Echoing Deepshelves does it (Stage 4). The quest’s prerequisites are not infusion requirements.
• The Library needs only infused shelves, four ender chests and a table. It is available long before the Endshelf. Only the Library of Alexandria needs Eterna 50.
• The Draconic Endshelf is not the only way to 50. The Void, Sacrificial and Wavebinder’s Shelves and the Obsidian Bookshelf also have a Max of 50, and Pearlescent Endshelves cut the head count to one.
• The Dormant Deepshelf has no gate. Its recipe is books and deepslate. The gate is the Deepshelf infusion (Eterna 30, Quanta 40%, Arcana 40%).
• The Library of Alexandria window is exact: Eterna 50, Quanta 45–50%, Arcana 100%.

Next#

• Enchanting (Items) has the stats of every shelf and tome.
• Enchanting (Chapter) lists the quests and their rewards.
• Gear Progression covers what to enchant: affix gear, gems, sockets and reforging.