What is most resource efficient way to repair enchanted stuff? I'm not worried about level cost, I want to know the cheapest way to repair in terms of items.
I recently found a golden helm with aqua affinity (amazing since I play a mostly ocean world) and I want to know if it would be more beneficial to repair it using gold bars or nuggets, or using 5 gold bars by making a new helmet and sacrificing it to repair the enchanted one.
Take it to the anvil and see how many gold bars it would take to fully repair the helmet. How many it takes will depend on how much health is left on it.
Don't wear a terrible gold helmet just because it has aqua affinity on it. You can get that on any helmet.
The most cost-efficient way to repair literally anything is to put the mending enchantment on it, then any time you gain exp, instead of it going to your level, it will repair your tool/armor. It takes 0 items and the exp is extremely fast using villager trading.
I agree with Dapper, mending is the way to go, it's also good to note that an item has an item edit limit on which is why each successive anvil repair is more costly in levels till you get the "too expensive to repair" message and the tool can no longer be repaired. Mending is great because you never have to use an anvil again to repair the item, just XP.
Also agree about gold armor/tools they are junk. Very low durability. I'd just make an iron or diamond helmet and throw it in an enchanting table and get Aqua affinity that way, or even fish a book out of the water or find a librarian villager who trades it. Aqua affinity is fairly easy to come by.
As you mentioned you mostly play in an ocean world you might want to check out some shipwrecks for treasure maps. Burried treasure chests pretty much always contain a heart of the sea, which you can use with nautilus shells to craft a conduit, then by surrounding it in a series of intersecting 5x5 rings prismarine blocks you can activate it and have unlimited water breathing and night vision while within range of the conduit which the range depends on the number of rings around it. That will help with water breathing (wouldn't need respiration).
Mending aside, it depends on how many resources it took to craft the item; repairing any item with individual resources always restores 25% of full durability per resource* so items that take less than 4 resources to make are better repaired with a new item while items that take more than 4 are better repaired with resources (for example, a chestplate takes 8 resources to make but 4 will fully repair it, a savings of 50%. Conversely, never repair a shovel with resources - you'll use 4 times as many, and it will also cost more because the resource cost is 1 per unit while an item costs 2 levels. Likewise, while boots are just as resource-efficient either way repairing them with new boots will cost less XP).
*Note that this is rounded down, e.g. iron is 251 / 4 = 62; 62 * 4 = 248 and diamond is 1561 / 4 = 390; 390 * 4 = 1560, so it might be slightly less than full after 4 resources but never use a 5th resource as 99%+ of it will be wasted.
What is most resource efficient way to repair enchanted stuff? I'm not worried about level cost, I want to know the cheapest way to repair in terms of items.
I recently found a golden helm with aqua affinity (amazing since I play a mostly ocean world) and I want to know if it would be more beneficial to repair it using gold bars or nuggets, or using 5 gold bars by making a new helmet and sacrificing it to repair the enchanted one.
Take it to the anvil and see how many gold bars it would take to fully repair the helmet. How many it takes will depend on how much health is left on it.
Don't wear a terrible gold helmet just because it has aqua affinity on it. You can get that on any helmet.
The most cost-efficient way to repair literally anything is to put the mending enchantment on it, then any time you gain exp, instead of it going to your level, it will repair your tool/armor. It takes 0 items and the exp is extremely fast using villager trading.
I agree with Dapper, mending is the way to go, it's also good to note that an item has an item edit limit on which is why each successive anvil repair is more costly in levels till you get the "too expensive to repair" message and the tool can no longer be repaired. Mending is great because you never have to use an anvil again to repair the item, just XP.
Also agree about gold armor/tools they are junk. Very low durability. I'd just make an iron or diamond helmet and throw it in an enchanting table and get Aqua affinity that way, or even fish a book out of the water or find a librarian villager who trades it. Aqua affinity is fairly easy to come by.
As you mentioned you mostly play in an ocean world you might want to check out some shipwrecks for treasure maps. Burried treasure chests pretty much always contain a heart of the sea, which you can use with nautilus shells to craft a conduit, then by surrounding it in a series of intersecting 5x5 rings prismarine blocks you can activate it and have unlimited water breathing and night vision while within range of the conduit which the range depends on the number of rings around it. That will help with water breathing (wouldn't need respiration).
Mending aside, it depends on how many resources it took to craft the item; repairing any item with individual resources always restores 25% of full durability per resource* so items that take less than 4 resources to make are better repaired with a new item while items that take more than 4 are better repaired with resources (for example, a chestplate takes 8 resources to make but 4 will fully repair it, a savings of 50%. Conversely, never repair a shovel with resources - you'll use 4 times as many, and it will also cost more because the resource cost is 1 per unit while an item costs 2 levels. Likewise, while boots are just as resource-efficient either way repairing them with new boots will cost less XP).
*Note that this is rounded down, e.g. iron is 251 / 4 = 62; 62 * 4 = 248 and diamond is 1561 / 4 = 390; 390 * 4 = 1560, so it might be slightly less than full after 4 resources but never use a 5th resource as 99%+ of it will be wasted.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?