Enchantment order calculator
Find the cheapest order to combine enchanted books on an anvil, without ever hitting "Too Expensive!".
How to use it
- Pick the item you're enchanting and how many times it has already been through an anvil.
- Tick the enchanted books you have, and set each book's level.
- Follow the steps in order. Each step tells you what to put in the anvil's left slot (first) and right slot (second), and how many levels it costs.
Enchantments that can't go together, like Sharpness and Smite, or Mending and Infinity, are greyed out once you pick one of them.
Why the order matters
Every time an item or book goes through an anvil, it gets a prior work penalty that's added to the cost of every later combine:
| Times through an anvil | Penalty added |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0 levels |
| 1 | 1 level |
| 2 | 3 levels |
| 3 | 7 levels |
| 4 | 15 levels |
| 5 | 31 levels |
The penalty doubles and adds one each time. Adding books to your sword one at a time means the sword's penalty keeps climbing, and by the fifth or sixth book a single step can cost more than 39 levels. The anvil then says Too Expensive! and refuses. Merging books with each other first, in pairs, keeps every item's use count low. That's what this calculator works out.
How the cost of each step is calculated
The cost of putting one thing on another is the sum of:
- the prior work penalty of the item in the left slot
- the prior work penalty of the item in the right slot
- for each enchantment on the right-hand item: its level × its multiplier
When the right-hand item is a book, these multipliers apply:
| Multiplier | Enchantments |
|---|---|
| 1 | Protection, Fire Protection, Feather Falling, Projectile Protection, Sharpness, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Knockback, Efficiency, Unbreaking, Power, Loyalty, Piercing, Quick Charge, Density |
| 2 | Blast Protection, Respiration, Depth Strider, Aqua Affinity, Fire Aspect, Looting, Sweeping Edge, Fortune, Punch, Flame, Luck of the Sea, Lure, Frost Walker, Mending, Impaling, Riptide, Multishot, Wind Burst, Breach |
| 4 | Thorns, Silk Touch, Infinity, Channeling, Soul Speed, Swift Sneak |
Renaming or repairing in the same step adds extra levels on top. Do those separately, or not at all, to keep the main steps cheap.
Tips
- Never rename or repair during the enchanting steps. It adds levels and can push a step over the limit.
- Always include Mending if the item takes it. Mending repairs the item from XP orbs, so a fully enchanted item can last forever.
- Get max-level books from villagers where you can. Librarian villagers can sell many enchantments at their top level, which saves combining two lower books into one.
The calculator follows Java Edition rules. Bedrock Edition uses slightly different rules, so its costs can differ.