Minecraft wiki entry for Weapon, associated text: Swords are generally the most effective melee weapon, due to their high damage per second‌[Java Edition only] compared to other weapons. All swords have a cooldown time of 0.6 seconds, 60% faster than axes.‌[Java Edition only] Swords are the only weapon type that can do sweep attacks to hit multiple targets. In Bedrock Edition, they deal more damage than any other melee weapon except for tridents. ‌[Bedrock Edition only]