Target item
Every enchantable tool, weapon, armour piece and oddity
Anvil mechanics last verified against minecraft.wiki/w/Anvil_mechanics
Enchantments
4 of 10 this item accepts
- ×1 book ×1 item 5 lvls as a book
- ×2 book ×4 item 6 lvls as a book
- ×1 book ×2 item 3 lvls as a book
- ×2 book ×4 item 2 lvls as a book
Cost comparison
What the same loadout costs done badly vs done right
Optimal merge order
Do these combines in this order, left slot first
- 1 Looting 3 book Unbreaking 3 book3 lvlsUnbreaking 3Resulting prior work: 1
- 2 Sharpness 5 book Mending 1 book2 lvlsMending 1Resulting prior work: 1
- 3 Result of step 1 Result of step 29 lvlsSharpness 5Mending 1Resulting prior work: 2
- 4 Diamond Sword Result of step 319 lvlsLooting 3Unbreaking 3Sharpness 5Mending 1Resulting prior work: 3 · finished item
How anvil cost works
Prior work penalty, merge order and the Too Expensive wall
Two multipliers per enchantment
Each enchantment has a book multiplier (cheap side, sacrifice) and an item multiplier (expensive side, target). Always combine the higher-multiplier side into the lower one.
Prior work doubles
Every anvil use adds a prior-work penalty of 2^pw − 1 levels. After 6 uses the penalty hits 63, past the Too Expensive survival cap of 39 levels.
Balanced beats sequential
Tree-balanced order pairs books first, then pairs the pairs. Both halves end at the same depth so penalties stay symmetric and small.
Why naive gets expensive
Naive order combines into the item one book at a time. The penalty doubles each step — fine for 2–3 books, terrible for 5 or more.
What you can enchant
Every anvil-enchantable item, with only the enchantments it accepts
The picker covers all 73 anvil-enchantable items and shows only the enchantments each one legally accepts, so a helmet never offers Fortune and a mace never offers Sharpness. Chainmail armour is left out because the inventory atlas ships no icon for it — its enchantments match iron armour exactly.
Frequently asked questions
Level caps, Java vs Bedrock and avoiding Too Expensive
What is the Too Expensive limit on a Minecraft anvil? +
In Java Edition, any single anvil combine costing more than 39 levels is rejected with the "Too Expensive" message — but only in Survival and Adventure mode. Creative mode ignores the cap entirely. The limit applies per-combine, not cumulatively, so the order you merge enchantments in directly determines whether you hit the wall.
How do I avoid the Too Expensive penalty? +
Combine books with each other before touching the target item. Pair Sharpness V + Unbreaking III into one book, pair Looting III + Mending into another, then combine the two stacked books, and finally apply the merged book to your sword. This balanced merge tree keeps every combine well under 39 levels because the prior-work penalty (2^pw − 1) only doubles between tree levels, not between every step.
Does Bedrock have the same anvil mechanics as Java? +
No. Bedrock Edition does not implement Java's prior-work penalty (2^pw − 1) the same way and does not enforce the 39-level Too Expensive cap. Combine order on Bedrock has far less impact on total cost. Because Bedrock formulas have shifted across versions and we won't fabricate values, see minecraft.wiki/w/Anvil_mechanics for the current Bedrock-specific rules before relying on this calculator for a Bedrock world.
Why does combining enchantments cost more each time? +
Every successful anvil use stamps the resulting item with a higher prior work value. Java charges 2^pw − 1 levels as a penalty on each side of the next combine, so prior work 1 costs +1 level, prior work 4 costs +15 levels, and prior work 6 costs +63 levels — already above the Too Expensive cap. The penalty is what makes order matter so much for endgame gear.
Which items can I enchant on an anvil? +
Anything with durability plus a few oddities — every tier of sword, pickaxe, axe, shovel and hoe, all armour slots including turtle shells and wolf armour, bows, crossbows, tridents, maces, shields, elytra, shears, flint and steel, brushes, fishing rods, and carrot/warped-fungus-on-a-stick. This calculator lists all 73 of them and only offers the enchantments each one legally accepts.
More Minecraft tools
The rest of the set, for the parts of the game this one doesn't touch