Although an anvil in Minecraft may not seem so useful in the early stages, it is very handy later on when you progress the game. You can add enchantments to your items, repair your tools, and more using an anvil.
Since many beginners may not be fully aware of the advantages of an anvil, it can easily be overlooked, which may slow down your progress. Hence, we bring you a step-by-step guide on crafting an anvil in Minecraft along with its uses.
How to Make an Anvil in Minecraft?
You may need to do some legwork before you can craft an anvil, as you will need quite a few iron ingots for the process. Briefly speaking, you will need three iron blocks and four iron ingots to craft an anvil. Let us look at the detailed procedure.
- Collect raw iron by mining iron ores with at least a stone pickaxe. You will need 31 raw iron in total.
- Smelt the raw iron using a furnace or a blast furnace.
- Once you collect all the iron ingots, head to the crafting table and craft three iron blocks. You need nine ingots for each block.
- Place the iron blocks in the top row in the crafting table GUI, one in each space.
- Place an iron ingot in the middle of the crafting table.
- Fill the bottom row with iron ingots, one in each space.
- You can grab the anvil from the right and place it in your inventory.
How to Use an Anvil?
Anvil has a lot of uses and is rather easy to use as well. Below is the list of things you can do with an anvil:
- You can use the anvil to repair your tools. For instance, if your pickaxe’s health bar is getting low, place it on the anvil and add some iron ingots to repair it. You can look at the picture below for more detailed usage.
- You can also use it to add enchantments to your tools and armor. Although an enchanting table gives you enchantments (sometimes even multiple enchants), it does not let you add enchants to an already enchanted item. This is where an anvil comes in.
- You can also use the anvil to rename your items. When you access the anvil’s GUI, the top box shows you the item’s name. You can change it to whatever you want, just like the picture below.
- If you have a nametag at hand, you can use it in the anvil to write a name on it and give it to a mob, perhaps a tamed wolf. Nametags are handy as it helps you name your trustee pets. To name it, you can only use the nametag in the anvil once.
One important aspect of the anvil you need to remember is that it will cost you XP. You can see the enchantment cost underneath the final product. The cost varies on your usage, the amount of enchants added, or the level of repair you are doing in an item.
What Are The Types of Anvil in Minecraft?
Usually, there is only one anvil in the game. But as you use it, it changes into two more stages.
Normal Anvil
Or simply an anvil is the first stage. The anvil is clean, and you cannot see any damage when placed. You can use it normally.
Chipped Anvil
As you keep using the anvil, there is a 12% chance of breaking it each time you use it. The normal anvil, when used, gets damaged at one point, which results in a chipped anvil. You can still use it normally.
Damaged Anvil
Chipped Anvil, when used, also has the same probability of breaking (12% with each use). The chipped anvil further changes into a damaged anvil. It is still usable normally; however, it uses the same probability percentage and gets destroyed on additional damage.
When you destroy an anvil while using it, you will exit the GUI automatically, and the anvil will disappear. You will, however, know that it is destroyed by the sound it makes.
A keynote about anvil is that they are stackable items. You can stack them up to a total of 64. But you can only stack the same type of anvils. For instance, you cannot stack a chipped and damaged anvil in the same stack.
How does Falling Anvil Work?
You can set up an anvil in such a way that it can fall on other players or mobs. You can set up tripwires or pressure plates using redstone and pistons to make a trap using an anvil.
If you look at the picture below, it is a simple trap that uses a piston and a pressure plate. The piston pushes the stone block, and when it retracts, the anvil drops on the mob that falls in the hole.
You can get creative and use redstone items to create complicated anvil traps as well with anvils.
The fall also damages the anvil. The falling anvil has a 5% degradation chance times the number of blocks it falls.
FAQs
How can you make an anvil last forever in Minecraft?
Sadly, you cannot make an anvil last longer than its lifespan. You also cannot repair an anvil. Hence, you will have to craft a new anvil every time you use gets destroyed.
How many times can you use an anvil?
The anvil has, on average, 25 uses. If you were to look at the iron ingots you use to craft it; the usage is about 1.24 ingots each time you repair something. Once it reaches its maximum usages, it breaks and disappears.
Additionally, if you are using the anvil in creative mode, it does not register any damage, and you can use the same anvil as long as you need it without breaking it.
Why is my repair cost so expensive?
When you repair or enchant an item for the second time using an anvil, the repair cost (enchantment cost) doubles. The more you repair the same item, the double the repair cost. However, the limit for the cost is 39 levels. Once it reaches 39 levels and you restore the item, you cannot repair it further.
The repair limit is not set in creative mode. You can repair the tool in creative even after the cost reaches 39 levels. But once the repair level hits the 32-bit integer capacity, you cannot take the item from the right or the product section of the anvil.
Furthermore, it does not cost you your survival levels if you are in creative mode. So when you change the game mode back to survival, your hard-earned experience points remain the same.
What is the difference between a Grindstone and an Anvil?
Grindstones can also repair your tools when you use undamaged tools of the same kind. But you can fix any tool with the material only as mentioned above.
The main difference in using the grindstone and the anvil to repair is that the grindstone removes all the item’s enchantments while the anvil does not. Hence, if you have an enchanted item, it is best to use an anvil to repair it than a grindstone.
