Anvil

An anvil is a gravity-affected utility block used to rename items, combine enchantments and repair items without losing the enchantments. An anvil has limited durability, and as it is used or dropped too far, gradually becomes a chipped anvil, then a damaged anvil, then breaks and disappears, without dropping anything in return.

Breaking

The suitable tool to break an anvil is a pickaxe. Anvil needs to be broken using a pickaxe, otherwise the breaking time will increase and the block drops nothing.

Natural generation

A damaged anvil generates in the "Forge room" of the woodland mansion and in trail ruins.

Crafting

A total of 31 iron ingots (including 27 for three blocks of iron) are required to craft an anvil.

Repairing and renaming items

Anvils have two modes to repair items that have a durability rating: As with the grindstone, a player may repair items by combining two similar items. With the anvil, however, the target retains its enchantments and may gain new ones from the sacrificed items. Alternatively, a player can use materials originally required in the crafting of the item (iron ingots for iron items with durability, diamonds for diamond items with durability) to repair a single item. One material can repair 25% of the target's maximum durability. This is a good deal in the case of a chestplate, for example; a full repair (four materials) would total only half of the item's original cost (eight materials). In the case of tools and weapons, however, this may be a significantly less economical option; combining two diamond shovels would cost two diamonds in total, while up to four diamonds could be required to directly repair one. Still, it may be worth making the more expensive upgrade if the enchantments are considered difficult to obtain. If the items are unable to be combined, a red "X" appears over the arrow pointing to the slot of the resulting item. Also, if the target item is at full durability and the sacrifice does not have any enchantments, the anvil also refuses to combine the items, unless if renaming the item to a valid name. In addition, the player can rename any item – not just items with durability – by using an anvil.

Repairing

Repairing with materials works for the most part, but not with all items: in general, repairing works for items with their material in the default name. For example, an anvil can repair an iron pickaxe with materials (iron in this case) while an anvil cannot repair bows or shears except with other bows or shears. Special cases: chain armor can be repaired with iron ingots, turtle shells can be repaired with turtle scutes, maces can be repaired with breeze rods, and elytra can be repaired with phantom membranes. The repair does not need to be complete; one material repairs of the item's maximum durability. Repair of an unenchanted item can cost more material than simply crafting a new item or combining damaged items. The exception is armor, which consumes less material at the cost of experience levels. Repairing with a matching item works for any item with durability including bows, shears and so on. The items must be a matching tool and of a matching material. For example, a golden pickaxe cannot combine with a golden sword or iron pickaxe. In both cases, the resulting durability is limited to the item's maximum, and there is no discount for "over-repair". As a subset of repairing one item with another, the anvil can transfer enchantments from the sacrifice to the target. This can have a synergistic effect when both items share identical enchantments, or simply add to each other when they do not. Two Sharpness II swords can be combined to make a Sharpness III sword, for example, or a pickaxe with Efficiency can be combined with one that has Unbreaking. This can produce enchantments and combinations that are not possible with an enchanting table. But even so, some enchantments cannot be combined if they are similar, or contradicting, in terms of what they do. If the target is damaged, the player has to pay for the repair as well as the transfer. Transferring high-level enchantments is more expensive, and renaming an item has an additional surcharge. The anvil has a limit of 39 levels; beyond that, repairs are refused. This limit is not present in Creative mode. Every time armor or tools are repaired, the minimum experience cost doubles (e.g., 1 level, 2 levels, 4 levels, 8 levels, etc.).

Renaming

Any item or stack of items can be renamed at a cost of one level plus any prior-work penalty. If the player is only renaming, the maximum total cost is 39 levels. The maximum length for renaming is 30 characters or 50 characters. Renamed items are italicized by default, but formatting codes beginning with § are available .