What is Soul Speed in Minecraft and Why is it Useful

Minecraft Nether Update splash art showing soul fire

With the brand new Nether Update still hot off the press, players are still unpacking all of the new goodies that have been added to the nightmarish hellscape that is one of the most awesome places in the game; The Nether. And while the Nether is it itself nothing new to Minecraft, the new Soul Speed enchantment certainly is. But what is Soul Speed? What does Soul Speed do? How do you get it? We answer all that, and more, down below.

What is Soul Speed

Minecraft Soul Sand

Soul Speed is a new treasure enchantment that came in with the June 23rd release of the expansive and highly anticipated Nether Update. The enchantment can be applied to boots to provide players a speed buff when walking over Soul Sand or the newly added Soul Soil, the former of which ordinarily slowing players down.

Why is Soul Speed useful

Screenshot of Minecraft Soul Sand Valley

Soul Speed is useful because it’s… well, speed. Before Soul Speed was introduced, players faced a rather inconvenient debuff whenever walking over that blasted Soul Sand. Now, players can use boots with one of the three levels of Soul Speed enchantment to increase their speed pretty drastically when moving over Soul Sand and  Soul Soil.

What makes it an especially timely, and far from coincidental, addition is the way the new Nether Update has been implemented. While the update brings a waterfall of new features like an array of new blocks, biomes, and mobs, all of the good stuff is only accessible in newly generated chunks of Nether.

Yes, that means you must cross to the very outermost reaches of your explored Nether to start seeing the newer goodies.

So Soul Speed is more than just a movement speed buff that’s good for maneuvering around the Nether without using boats and ice; It’s a subtle band-aid Mojang has given to the players, alongside the Respawn Anchor released earlier this year, to help expedite their journey to the new Nether content.

Sure, Mojang had good reason to roll the update out this way; it preserves whatever you’ve built thus far. But it’s annoying to walk all the way to the very edge of Nether as you know it just to start seeing the new features on offer. That is, of course, if you don’t know how to reset the Nether.

How do you get Soul Speed

Because Soul Speed is a treasure enchantment, you can’t acquire it through an Enchantment Table, neither can you get it from most loot chests or through trading. You have a roughly 2 percent chance at obtaining it by trading with Piglins, who may drop either a pair of iron boots with the enchantment or an enchanted book; you could also viciously murder them on the off chance they drop a fresh pair of Golden Boots sporting Soul Speed.

You also have a shot at getting the Enchanted Books or a pair of Golden Boots with the enchantment from chests in Bastion Remnants, and through Fishing.

Of course, you could always speed things up with a Piglin Farm.


Get creative with it! There’s a ton of new possibilities opened with Soul Speed aside from just getting over to the new Nether-regions. Let us know what you come up with!

Image credits: 1, 2, 3

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Will

Will Heydecker is a writer, screenwriter and illustrator who still likes dragons. As part of his bitter war against adulthood, he likes to distill art, gaming, technology, and entertainment info into digestible topics people actually enjoy reading.