Anvil

This article is about the block. For the file format, see Anvil file format.

Anvil

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Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64), same damage state only
Tool
Blast resistance	1,200
Hardness	5
Luminant	No
Transparent	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

An anvil is a block that allows players to repair items, rename items, and combine enchantments.

Obtaining

Breaking

Anvils can be mined using any pickaxe. If mined without a pickaxe they drop nothing.

Block	Anvil
Hardness	5
Tool
Breaking time
Default	25
Wooden	3.75
Stone	1.9
Iron	1.25
Diamond	0.95
Netherite	0.85
Golden	0.65

Natural generation

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

Crafting

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

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Block of Iron + Iron Ingot

Usage

Repairing and renaming items

Main article: Anvil mechanics

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 very 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.

In addition, the player can rename any item - not just items with durability - by using an anvil.

Repairing

See also: Repair

File:Anvil3.png

Example showing a repair of two diamond pickaxes.

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. As a special case, chain armor can be repaired with iron ingots, turtle shells can be repaired with scutes, and elytra can be repaired with phantom membranes. The repair does not need to be complete; one material repairs ¹⁄₄ of the item's maximum durability.

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.

Note that 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 35‌^{[until JE 1.17]} or 50‌^{[upcoming: JE 1.17]}characters. Some items have special effects when renamed:

• A name tag must be renamed before it can be used.
• Renaming a bucket of fish names the fish inside as well, meaning a fish can be named without a name tag.
• A renamed item (can be any item, doesn't need to be a weapon) that kills another player or tamed mob causes the name to appear in the death message.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• A renamed spawn egg produces a mob with the same name.
• Chests, trapped chests, shulker boxes, furnaces, hoppers, droppers, dispensers, minecarts with chests, minecarts with hoppers, enchantment tables, barrels, smokers, blast furnaces and brewing stands display the name in their GUI when placed.
• Renamed command blocks use their name in chat messages instead of [@].

Any name changes to items are applied to the data tag {Item:{tag:{display:{Name:"{\"text\":\"<name>\"}"}}}}. Similarly this data tag can be accessed by the nbt argument using target selectors.

Enchanted books

Enchanted books are used to enchant tools. Enchanted books themselves can be combined to create higher-tiered books. This makes an anvil the alternative to an enchantment table.

Falling anvils

Main article: Falling Block

When there is no supporting block below an anvil, the anvil falls in the same way sand, gravel, concrete powder, and dragon eggs fall. A placed anvil cannot be pushed or pulled by pistons,‌^{[Java Edition only]} but a falling anvil can be pushed (though cannot be pulled), as it is an entity. This is different in Bedrock Edition where anvils can be pushed and pulled by pistons. Anvils make a metallic clang sound when they land.

A falling anvil damages any player, mob or item‌^{[Java Edition only]} that it falls on. The damage amount depends on fall distance: 29px per block fallen after the first (e.g., an anvil that falls 4 blocks deals 69px9px9px damage). The damage is capped at 409px × 20, no matter how far the anvil falls. Wearing a helmet reduces the damage by ¹⁄₄, but this costs durability on the helmet. When a player dies by an anvil falling on them, the death message "<player> was squashed by a falling anvil" appears. However, if a player is merely touched by a falling anvil entity, no damage is dealt unless the falling anvil becomes an anvil block in the same block where the player is located.

If an anvil falls onto a block with a solid top surface, but the same block it is in cannot be replaced (torch, slab, etc.), it breaks and drops as an item.

An anvil that falls for 3 blocks and longer destroys any item entity it lands on.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Maps

Main article: Map

In Bedrock Edition, an anvil can be used instead of a crafting table to zoom a map out, to clone a map, or to place a player position marker on a map. Map/BE However, with the introduction of the cartography table, this feature became dispensable.

Becoming damaged

With each use, an anvil has a 12% chance to become damaged – degrading one stage at a time, first becoming chipped, then damaged, then eventually destroyed. An anvil typically survives for 25 uses on average or approximately one use per 1.24 iron ingots used in crafting the anvil.

An anvil can be damaged and destroyed from falling. If it falls from a height greater than one block, the chance of degrading by one stage is 5% × the number of blocks fallen.

The damage state does not affect the anvil's function, but only anvils of the same damage state can stack in inventory.

Sounds

Unique

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
File:Anvil destroy.ogg	Anvil destroyed	Blocks	?	block.anvil.destroy	subtitles.block.anvil.destroy	1.0	1.0	16
File:Anvil land.ogg	Anvil landed	Blocks	?	block.anvil.land	subtitles.block.anvil.land	1.0	1.0	16
File:Anvil use.ogg	Anvil used	Blocks	?	block.anvil.use	subtitles.block.anvil.use	1.0	1.0	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Block tags (JE)	Item tags (JE)	Form	Translation key
Anvil	anvil	anvil	anvil	Block & Item	block.minecraft.anvil
Chipped Anvil	chipped_anvil	anvil	anvil	Block & Item	block.minecraft.chipped_anvil
Damaged Anvil	damaged_anvil	anvil	anvil	Block & Item	block.minecraft.damaged_anvil

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Anvil	anvil	145	Block & Item	tile.anvil.intact.name tile.anvil.slightlyDamaged.name tile.anvil.veryDamaged.name

Metadata

See also: Data values

In Bedrock Edition, anvils use the following data values:

Block states

See also: Block states

Falling block entity

Falling Block/Infobox

Main article: Falling Block

Falling Block/ED

History

Java Edition Indev
February 5, 2010					Anvils were mentioned by Notch.
Java Edition
October 7, 2012					Dinnerbone tweets the first images of the anvil's interface.
October 10, 2012					32px Dinnerbone tweets the first screenshot of the anvil.
1.4.2		12w41a			32px 32px 32px Added anvils.
					Anvils currently require one iron ingot and six blocks of iron: Ingredients Crafting recipe Block of Iron + Iron Ingot
		12w42a			Anvils now have an easier crafting recipe.
					It is now possible to repair tools using anvils, by using more of the material it is made of (such as adding diamonds to a nearly broken diamond pickaxe).
					Items that are renamed now have item names that appear as italic text.
					The # Levels information inside anvils has been renamed to Enchantment cost.
		1.4			Added new sounds for the anvil.
					The level cap for anvils for creative mode have been removed.
1.4.6		12w49a			Enchanted books have been added, which can be used only with the anvil.
		12w50a			Enchanting non-tools with enchanted books using the anvil now works only in creative mode.
					Silk Touch can now be applied to shears by using the anvil, meaning cobwebs can now be harvested.
1.5		13w02a			Mobs spawned from renamed spawn eggs, from using the anvil, have the name of their spawn egg, and their names appear in the death message of them killing a player.
					Mobs that are spawned from renamed spawn eggs, from using the anvil, can now display their custom name as nametag using an NBT tag.
					Brewing stands, chests, dispensers, enchantment tables, furnaces and trapped chests that are renamed using anvils now display their new name in their GUI where the normal name used to appear.
		13w04a			Mobs now show the name given to them (either by renaming their spawn egg using an anvil or by external editors) above their head when the player looks directly at them within hitting range.
1.6.1		1.6			Renaming a spawn egg "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" using an anvil now causes the mob to spawn upside down (this also works with renaming name tags).
1.7.4		13w48b			Renaming a sheep spawn egg to jeb_ using an anvil now causes the sheep to spawn with multicolored wool (this also works with renaming name tags).
1.8		14w02a			The costs of using anvils have been reduced to balance out with the new enchanting system.
					Renaming items using anvils now costs only 1 level.
					Repairing costs using anvils have been reduced, 1 level per raw material or sacrifice regardless of durability restored.
					Extra costs for repairing an enchanted tool using anvils have been eliminated. Costs for combining enchantments have been reduced.
					Repairing costs while using anvils can no longer be kept down by renaming items.
		14w04a			Prior work cost increase while using anvils has been changed from linear (1 per repair) to exponential (times 2 plus 1 per repair).
					Repairing with a "sacrifice" while using anvils now costs 2 levels rather than only 1.
		14w10a			32px 32px 32px The models of anvil have been changed.
1.9		15w42a			Renaming an item while using anvils no longer incurs a prior work penalty.
1.11		16w32a			Anvils now give sounds when they break.
		16w35a			Renamed items from anvils now keep their name when picked back up.
		16w39a			A damaged anvil now generates in woodland mansions.
1.11.1		?			Anvils no longer allow enchanted books to apply to items, if no change in enchantments would take effect. This can occur if all enchantments on the book are incompatible with existing enchantments on the item – or if the enchanted book has no enchantments.
1.13		17w47a			The different anvil damage block states for the anvil ID have been split up into their own IDs.
					"Slightly Damaged Anvil" and "Very Damaged Anvil" renamed to "Chipped Anvil" and "Damaged Anvil", respectively.
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 145.
1.14		18w43a			32px 32px 32px The textures of anvils have been changed.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.17		21w19a			The maximum length of names in the anvil UI has been increased from 35 to 50.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.12.1		build 1			32px 32px 32px Added anvils.
v0.14.0		build 1			Anvils are now needed to add the markers onto maps by putting a map and a compass in.
v0.15.0		build 1			Anvils can now be moved by pistons.
Pocket Edition
?					Renamed items using anvils now keep their name when picked back up.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Very damaged anvils now generate in woodland mansions.
Bedrock Edition
?					32px Added broken anvils.
1.2.13		beta 1.2.13.5			32px 32px 32px Changed models of anvils. The models of anvils now also use top texture on top face of the raised portion. Mirrored textures vertically on sides.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			32px 32px 32px 32px The textures of anvils have been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU14	CU1	1.05	Patch 1	1.0.1	32px 32px 32px Added anvils.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Anvil repairing has been rebalanced as per Java 1.8 changes.
		1.90			32px 32px 32px The textures of anvils have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					32px 32px 32px Added anvils.

• Anvil1.png

  A series of screenshots showing the item repair interface.

• Anvil2.png
• Anvil3.png
• Anvil4.png
• Anvil5.png
• Anvil6.png
• Anvil 1st image.png

  The first screenshot of the anvil.

Issues

Issues relating to "Anvil" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• If an item is renamed, such as diamonds, it cannot stack with unnamed or differently-named items.
• For unenchanted items, "unit repair" can easily cost more material than just crafting a new item or combining damaged items. The exception is armor, where players can use less material at the cost of experience levels.
• If placed on top of exploding TNT blocks, the explosion does not affect the surrounding area. This is because the anvil falls into the space the TNT entity is occupying, and since the TNT's explosion power is not high enough to destroy the anvil, no blocks are destroyed.
• In Java Edition, any item can be enchanted with the anvil in Creative mode.

Gallery

• PE Anvil GUI.png

  The Anvil GUI for Pocket Edition

• AnvilDamage.png

  Top down view of the three stages of anvils. From left to right: anvil, chipped anvil, damaged anvil

• Anvil levels.png

  3D view of the three stages of anvils. From left to right: anvil, chipped anvil, damaged anvil