Anvil
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.
Contents
Obtaining[edit]
Breaking[edit]
Anvils can be mined using any pickaxe. If mined without a pickaxe they drop nothing.
Block | Anvil | |
---|---|---|
Hardness | 5 | |
Tool | ||
Breaking time[A] | ||
Default | 25 | |
Wooden | 3.75 | |
Stone | 1.9 | |
Iron | 1.25 | |
Diamond | 0.95 | |
Netherite | 0.85 | |
Golden | 0.65 |
- ↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.
Natural generation[edit]
A damaged anvil generates in the "Forge room" of the woodland mansion.
Crafting[edit]
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[edit]
Repairing and renaming items[edit]
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[edit]
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 match in type. For example, a golden pickaxe cannot combine with an iron one.
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[edit]
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 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 weapon that kills another player causes the name to appear in the death message.
- 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[edit]
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[edit]
When there are air blocks 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. 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 or mob that it falls on. The damage amount depends on fall distance: 2 per block fallen after the first (e.g., an anvil that falls 4 blocks deals 6
damage). The damage is capped at 40
× 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 chat area displays the message: "*Player name* was squashed by a falling anvil." However, if a player is merely touched by an anvil entity or falling anvil, no damage occurs until the falling anvil becomes a solid anvil-block in the airspace where the player is located. Falling anvils can be manipulated by TNT cannons, passing through mobs or players without damaging them.
If an anvil falls onto a bed, a slab, or falls underwater, it breaks and drops for the player to pick up.
An anvil that falls on an item entity destroys the item.
Maps[edit]
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.
Name | Ingredients | Anvil usage | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Map or Locator Map (zoomed out) | Map or Locator Map + Paper |
Bedrock Edition only.
Supplying 8 sheets of paper results in a zoomed-out version of the input map. | |
Map or Locator Map (cloned) | Map or Locator Map + Empty Map |
Bedrock Edition only.
Only one copy can be made at a time. The input map must be a locator map for the output to be a locator map; an empty map has no effect. | |
Locator Map | Map + Compass |
Bedrock Edition only.
Maps crafted with only paper do not show the location marker; to add it, a compass must be added to the map. |
However, with the introduction of the cartography table, this feature became dispensable.
Becoming damaged[edit]
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[edit]
Sound | Subtitle | Source | Description | Namespaced ID | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Block breaking | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.hit | subtitles.block.generic.hit | 0.1625 | 0.5 | 16 | |
Block broken | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.break | subtitles.block.generic.break | 0.65 | 0.8 | 16 | |
Block placed | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.place | subtitles.block.generic.place | 0.65 | 0.8 | 16 | |
Footsteps | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.step | subtitles.block.generic.footsteps | 0.045 | 1.0 | 16 | |
None[sound 1] | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.fall | None[sound 1] | 0.15 | 0.75 | 16 | |
Anvil destroyed | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.destroy | subtitles.block.anvil.destroy | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
Anvil landed | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.land | subtitles.block.anvil.land | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
Anvil used | Blocks | ? | block.anvil.use | subtitles.block.anvil.use | 1.0 | 1.0 | 16 |
Data values[edit]
ID[edit]
Name | Namespaced ID | Block tags (JE) | Item tags (JE) | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anvil | anvil | anvil | anvil | block.minecraft.anvil |
Chipped Anvil | chipped_anvil | anvil | anvil | block.minecraft.chipped_anvil |
Damaged Anvil | damaged_anvil | anvil | anvil | block.minecraft.damaged_anvil |
Name | Namespaced ID | Numeric ID | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|
Anvil | anvil | 145 | tile.anvil.intact.name tile.anvil.slightlyDamaged.name tile.anvil.veryDamaged.name |
Block states[edit]
Name | Default value | Allowed values | Description |
---|---|---|---|
facing | north | east north south west | An anvil pointing north or south is aligned with its long dimension pointing north–south. An anvil pointing east or west is aligned with its long dimension pointing east–west. This value is 90° clockwise from the direction a player faces while placing an anvil. |
Name | Default value | Allowed values | Description |
---|---|---|---|
damage | undamaged
| broken | Broken Anvil (inaccessible, uses anvil base texture) |
slightly_damaged | Slightly Damaged Anvil. | ||
undamaged | Anvil. | ||
very_damaged | Very Damaged Anvil. | ||
direction | 0 | 0 1 2 3 | An anvil pointing north or south is aligned with its long dimension pointing north–south. An anvil pointing east or west is aligned with its long dimension pointing east–west. This value is 90° clockwise from the direction a player faces while placing an anvil. |
Block data[edit]
In Bedrock Edition, anvils use the following data values:
DV | Description | |
---|---|---|
0 | Anvil, facing West | |
1 | Anvil, facing North | |
2 | Anvil, facing East | |
3 | Anvil, facing South | |
4 | Slightly Damaged Anvil, facing West | |
5 | Slightly Damaged Anvil, facing North | |
6 | Slightly Damaged Anvil, facing East | |
7 | Slightly Damaged Anvil, facing South | |
8 | Very Damaged Anvil, facing West | |
9 | Very Damaged Anvil, facing North | |
10 | Very Damaged Anvil, facing East | |
11 | Very Damaged Anvil, facing South | |
12 | Broken Anvil, facing West | |
13 | Broken Anvil, facing North | |
14 | Broken Anvil, facing East | |
15 | Broken Anvil, facing South |
Falling block entity[edit]
- Dynamic block entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- TileEntityData: Optional. The tags of the block entity for this block.
- BlockState: The falling block represented by this entity.
- Name: The namespaced ID of the block.
- Properties: Optional. The block states of the block.
- Name: The block state name and its value.
- Time: The number of ticks the entity has existed. If set to 0, the moment it ticks to 1, it vanishes if the block at its location has a different ID than the entity's
TileID
. If the block at its location has the same ID as itsTileID
whenTime
ticks from 0 to 1, the block is deleted, and the entity continues to fall, having overwritten it. When Time goes above 600, or above 100 while the block is below Y=0, the entity is deleted. - DropItem: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should drop as an item when it breaks. Any block that does not have an item form with the same ID as the block does not drop even if this is set.
- HurtEntities: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should hurt entities it falls on.
- FallHurtMax: The maximum hit points of damage to inflict on entities that intersect this
falling_block
. For vanilla falling_block, always 40× 20.
- FallHurtAmount: Multiplied by the
FallDistance
to calculate the amount of damage to inflict. By default this value is always 2.
Achievements[edit]
Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Organizational Wizard | Name a Shulker Box with an Anvil | — | 30G | Bronze |
History[edit]
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 | ![]() | ||||
1.4.2 | 12w41a | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
Anvils currently require one iron ingot and six blocks of iron:
| |||||
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 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
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 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
v0.12.1 | build 1 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
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 | |||||
? | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
? | ![]() | ||||
1.2.13 | beta 1.2.13.5 | ![]() ![]() | |||
1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
Legacy Console Edition | |||||
TU14 | CU1 | 1.05 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Anvil repairing has been rebalanced as per Java 1.8 changes. | |
1.90 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
0.1.0 | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Issues[edit]
Issues relating to "Anvil" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[edit]
- 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.