Okey, so I got tired of using boring unenchanted tools and armor so I wanted to dive in more deeply into enchanting.
I figured out how it works, and I have some really awesome weapons and tools. But the problem is, how to repair them in a efficient way?
I already know that there is a limit on how much stuff you can do with the anvil, so I want to make my really good tools last as much as I can. In this case, I heard that Fortune 3 you can best obtain on a iron pickaxe. So I got 30 levels, and low and behold I got a Fortune 3, Unbreaking 3, Efficiency 4 pick!
I want to keep this pick and any other enchanted item I get for a really long time.
So can someone please help me here. I tried to figure out the Anvil Mechanics on the wiki, but it was all complicated mumbo-jumbo stuff to me. xD If you could point me to a good tutorial or post one here on how to efficiently repair items with an Anvil, I would be really grateful.
Use unenchanted versions of the same tool, and swap which one goes in which slot. Got with the lower combination.
Don't try to combine enchantments, that'll raise the levels required. You can only invest a grand total of 39 levels into an anvil interaction so if it says "Too Expensive" it means it would cost more than that.
Need anything else?
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Balance is the key. You need some time away and we understand that. But once that's done? We'll meet you on any server (yes, even factions) with a sword in one hand, and a pickaxe in the other.
Use unenchanted versions of the same tool, and swap which one goes in which slot. Got with the lower combination.
Thanks for the quick reply.
Sorry I didn't understand that. Can you please explain it in an other way? I also heard that renaming helps lower the cost. Should I rename my item before I start using it?
And the primary thing I'm confused about is WHEN to repair the item and with what. Should I go when it's nearly dead, or half way there? Should I make a new tool or use materials. I really don't understand how repair works.
Name the tool. It freezes the repair cost so you can repair it over and over.
I normally run my tools right down then (to nearly broken) and the repair them. I've noticed that in order to get a fully repaired item, say a pickaxe. It will take 4 items to repair it, not 3 to make a new one, so it is a little more expensive to repair an item. I don't really mind because I'm reusing the enchantments, and unbreaking is one of them anyway.
Big thing for me is my grinder/mob trap. Once I made the grinder repairing was easy as the grinder gives me access to experience quickly and with nearly no chance of getting hurt. And with 1.6.x and latter your mob grinder will produce better and better mob loot. So I've converted over to chain armor and use the drops off mobs to repair my armor. It has cut down on my iron use considerably.
Next thing I'm working on is a market with villagers. You can get Iron pickaxes, shoves, and axes off them.
If this works I may never have to dig a hole and look for Diamonds again!
Good vid for a mob trap (Not my design but I used it and it works pretty good 0 to Level 30 in 10 minutes or less)
Another thing to keep in mind: say you have an iron pickaxe you want to repair. You could use the anvil to combine it with 1 iron ingot and that will repair it 25% because each ingot = 25%. But you can make a new pick with 3 iron ingots and repair the enchanted one to 100%, so that's more efficient. Now say you want to repair an iron leggings. It takes 7 iron ingots to make a new one so instead using 4 ingots on the anvil for a repair is more efficient.
Use unenchanted versions of the same tool, and swap which one goes in which slot. Got with the lower combination.
There's 2 slots in the anvil. Put what you want to repair in the first one and put an unenchanted tool of the same kind in the other and see what the experience level cost is. Then switch the two tools around and see if the cost is lower. I don't think it will be though but I'm not sure.
As said above, name the items, preferably before you enchant them, and if you use enchanted books like me, rename when you put the first enchantment on (costs less the first time*). Also, if you have a pickaxe like Fortune III, Efficiency IV, Unbreaking III, don't wait until it is mostly depleted before repairing because you can only repair it with a single unit (however, with Unbreaking III you effectively make a new pickaxe with a single unit since durability is effectively 4x higher). Note also that diamond tools are more expensivve to repair but have 6x the durability of iron (whether such a pickaxe is good for your main/only pickaxe depends on how you use it; I have no trouble at all getting enough XP by caving because of all of the hostile mobs and mainly mining ores instead of stone but branch mining is another story).
Certain combinations of enchantments may also make it too expensive to repair no matter what; for example, my Power V, Flame I, Infinity I, Unbreaking III bow costs 39 levels to repair, adding Punch would push it well over (4/8 for the enchantment (level I/II) and 5 for another enchantment).
Don't put Unbreaking on armor either, since it only slightly increases durability while greatly increasing the cost. I also think Thorns is sort of pointless, wearing out armor faster and not doing a huge amount of damage.
*Also possible to name an item that is too expensive to repair because you repaired it without naming if you use a book because the base cost is lower, thus allowing you to repair it again.
Every time you work on an item in the anvil, it costs 2 more levels than it did the last time, even if nothing else has changed. To prevent this increasing cost, rename the item. This will cost some levels on its own, a one-time fee, and add 2 to the ongoing repair cost for future work, but will exempt the item from increasing costs each time you repair it.
Repairing with units of material is more expensive overall than repairing with whole tools, both in terms of resources required and levels spent, but, sometimes you can repair something piecewise that would be "Too Expensive" to do all at once.
Plan ahead! You may not want to enchant something so powerfully that you'll never be able to repair it. For example, a diamond sword with Sharp V, Looting III, Knockback II and Fire Aspect II seems like a really powerful sword, and it is, but with all those enchantments, it's too expensive to ever repair, even piecewise. Instead, maybe consider one with just Sharp V and Looting III; still has the (in my opinion) most important bits, and once renamed can be repaired using a fresh sword for exactly 39 levels, as many times as you want.
Figuring the cost can be tricky, but here's how I do it: First, I assume that I will want to repair the item with a fresh, unenchanted copy. Most of what I enchant are diamond tools and swords, which means this will cost 17 levels all by itself, per the chart on the wiki. Then I know I'm going to want to rename the item, so I can repair it indefinitely. That's another 2 levels, which puts the total at 19 so far and, since the cap is only 39, that means I have 20 levels to work with.
Okay, so I can spend 20 levels here, what does that mean? That's not the levels I spend to enchant the item originally, it's how much it's going to cost to repair. So I look at the chart on the wiki, and find what enchantments I want and how much they cost. Also, there's a "per-enchantment" cost where you have to pay some levels based only on how many enchantments the item has. So, the first enchantment costs one level, the second one costs two, the third one costs three, and so on. These are all added together. So an item with three enchantments costs 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 levels, plus the cost of the enchantments themselves.
Some of the combinations I have settled on:
Sword: Sharp V, Looting III
Sharpness V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Looting III: 4 per level x 3 levels = 12
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 12 + 3 = 20 Total Cost: 20 + 17 (to repair with a fresh sword) + 2 (for having been renamed) = 39, exactly at the level cap
Work pick for everyday digging: Efficiency V, Unbreaking III
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Unbreaking III: 2 per level x 3 levels = 6
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 6 + 3 = 14 Total Cost: 14 + 17 + 2 = 33 levels (You can put the exact same kit on an axe, too, for chopping trees and other woodwork.)
Silk Touch pick: Eff. V*, Silk Touch
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Silk Touch I: 8 per level x 1 level = 8
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 8 + 3 = 16 Total Cost: 16 + 17 + 2 = 35 levels
Fortune III pick: Eff. V**, Fortune III
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Fortune III: 4 per level x 3 levels = 12
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 12 + 3 = 20 Total Cost: 20 + 17 + 2 = 39 levels.
*, **: These picks aren't used nearly as much as the everyday work pick, so they're going to last plenty long enough as it is; therefore I prefer to have Efficiency here rather than Unbreaking, since you can't have both. If you choose to have Unbreaking instead, note that you can only get level II on the Fortune III pick or it becomes "Too Expensive." (Or, you could have Unbreaking at III and Fortune at only II, but that seems like a waste of resources, the whole point of Fortune is to get the most you can out of things.)
I find anything higher than Efficiency II on a shovel is too much. It works so fast you lose all precision, and it's almost impossible to dig just a single dirt block without also digging the one behind it, even with just a quick tap on the mouse button. If I need to level a hill or something, I'll use a higher enchant, but for everday digging I like to keep mine at just level II:
Efficiency II: 1 per level x 2 levels = 2
Unbreaking III: 2 per level x 3 levels = 6
# of enchamtnents: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 2 + 6 + 3 = 11 Total Cost: 11 + 17 + 2 = 30 levels.
You could also add Fortune I here, for 37 levels total, but that won't do you much good; the only thing Fortune on a shovel gets you is a higher chance to get flint when digging gravel. Or you could drop Unbreaking to level II and add Silk Touch, that should cost 39 exactly:
Efficiency II: 1 per level x 2 levels = 2
Unbreaking II: 2 per level x 2 levels = 4
Silk Touch: 8 per level x 1 level = 8
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 Base Value: 2 + 4 + 8 + 6 = 20 Total Cost: 20 + 17 + 2 = 39 levels
Other items besides diamond tools and swords (even diamond armor) cost much less to repair using a fresh item, so you can have much more room to work with. A bow, for example, only costs 4 levels to repair using a fresh bow, which means you can pack it with enchantments totalling up to 33 levels instead of only 20, meaning you can give it Power V, Punch II, and either Flame or Infinity (but not both.) Since arrows are never a problem for me, I'd probably go with Flame:
Power V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Punch II: 4 per level x 2 levels = 8
Flame I: 4 per level x 1 level = 4
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 Base Value: 5 + 8 + 4 + 6 = 23 Total Cost: 23 + 4 (for repair) + 2 (for rename) = 29 levels.
(Adding Infinity too would cost an additional 8, plus 4 for a fourth enchantment, totalling 41 levels which is too high, but if you really wanted all four you could drop Power down to level III or Punch down to level I.)
Thank you all for responding! I honestly didn't expect to receive so much help. I'm definitely going to copy all this tips into a text document, maybe even write it in a book in MC and then store it near my enchanting area.
@IronMagnus: Thank you very much for the quick tutorial, I think I understand things much better now. I just need to ask you one more question, and this may sound stupid, but how do you control which enchantments you get? Do you just sit near a grinder and enchant books? Because I heard that getting some of the enchants on a book is almost impossible.
@IronMagnus: Thank you very much for the quick tutorial, I think I understand things much better now. I just need to ask you one more question, and this may sound stupid, but how do you control which enchantments you get? Do you just sit near a grinder and enchant books? Because I heard that getting some of the enchants on a book is almost impossible.
Exactly, books. Once you're advanced in the game, an enderman farm in the end will get you to level 30 in roughly a minute, makes grinding loads of books much faster. Although there are still some that are pretty rare, like a 1% chance or so. When this is something like Silk Touch, there's nothing for it but to keep trying, but when you want a Sharpness IV book, for example (also 1.1%), you can simply take two Sharp III's (much more common) and combine them. Or you can take lower-level enchanted items and combine them, too (not wasteful, since they're completely renewable thanks to NPC trading.) These (either books, or combining items) are also the only ways you can get certain enchantments at the highest level; for example Sharpness and Efficiency can only reach level IV from the enchanting table, but by applying a book or combining two level IV items in an anvil, you can get up to level V, which is otherwise impossible.
Finally, you can just enchant items the old-fashioned way, and when you happen upon one with a combination that you like, rename it and keep it around instead of using it till it breaks.
Every time you work on an item in the anvil, it costs 2 more levels than it did the last time, even if nothing else has changed. To prevent this increasing cost, rename the item. This will cost some levels on its own, a one-time fee, and add 2 to the ongoing repair cost for future work, but will exempt the item from increasing costs each time you repair it.
Repairing with units of material is more expensive overall than repairing with whole tools, both in terms of resources required and levels spent, but, sometimes you can repair something piecewise that would be "Too Expensive" to do all at once.
Plan ahead! You may not want to enchant something so powerfully that you'll never be able to repair it. For example, a diamond sword with Sharp V, Looting III, Knockback II and Fire Aspect II seems like a really powerful sword, and it is, but with all those enchantments, it's too expensive to ever repair, even piecewise. Instead, maybe consider one with just Sharp V and Looting III; still has the (in my opinion) most important bits, and once renamed can be repaired using a fresh sword for exactly 39 levels, as many times as you want.
Figuring the cost can be tricky, but here's how I do it: First, I assume that I will want to repair the item with a fresh, unenchanted copy. Most of what I enchant are diamond tools and swords, which means this will cost 17 levels all by itself, per the chart on the wiki. Then I know I'm going to want to rename the item, so I can repair it indefinitely. That's another 2 levels, which puts the total at 19 so far and, since the cap is only 39, that means I have 20 levels to work with.
Okay, so I can spend 20 levels here, what does that mean? That's not the levels I spend to enchant the item originally, it's how much it's going to cost to repair. So I look at the chart on the wiki, and find what enchantments I want and how much they cost. Also, there's a "per-enchantment" cost where you have to pay some levels based only on how many enchantments the item has. So, the first enchantment costs one level, the second one costs two, the third one costs three, and so on. These are all added together. So an item with three enchantments costs 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 levels, plus the cost of the enchantments themselves.
Some of the combinations I have settled on:
Sword: Sharp V, Looting III
Sharpness V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Looting III: 4 per level x 3 levels = 12
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 12 + 3 = 20 Total Cost: 20 + 17 (to repair with a fresh sword) + 2 (for having been renamed) = 39, exactly at the level cap
Work pick for everyday digging: Efficiency V, Unbreaking III
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Unbreaking III: 2 per level x 3 levels = 6
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 6 + 3 = 14 Total Cost: 14 + 17 + 2 = 33 levels (You can put the exact same kit on an axe, too, for chopping trees and other woodwork.)
Silk Touch pick: Eff. V*, Silk Touch
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Silk Touch I: 8 per level x 1 level = 8
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 8 + 3 = 16 Total Cost: 16 + 17 + 2 = 35 levels
Fortune III pick: Eff. V**, Fortune III
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Fortune III: 4 per level x 3 levels = 12
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 5 + 12 + 3 = 20 Total Cost: 20 + 17 + 2 = 39 levels.
*, **: These picks aren't used nearly as much as the everyday work pick, so they're going to last plenty long enough as it is; therefore I prefer to have Efficiency here rather than Unbreaking, since you can't have both. If you choose to have Unbreaking instead, note that you can only get level II on the Fortune III pick or it becomes "Too Expensive." (Or, you could have Unbreaking at III and Fortune at only II, but that seems like a waste of resources, the whole point of Fortune is to get the most you can out of things.)
I find anything higher than Efficiency II on a shovel is too much. It works so fast you lose all precision, and it's almost impossible to dig just a single dirt block without also digging the one behind it, even with just a quick tap on the mouse button. If I need to level a hill or something, I'll use a higher enchant, but for everday digging I like to keep mine at just level II:
Efficiency II: 1 per level x 2 levels = 2
Unbreaking III: 2 per level x 3 levels = 6
# of enchamtnents: 1 + 2 = 3 Base Value: 2 + 6 + 3 = 11 Total Cost: 11 + 17 + 2 = 30 levels.
You could also add Fortune I here, for 37 levels total, but that won't do you much good; the only thing Fortune on a shovel gets you is a higher chance to get flint when digging gravel. Or you could drop Unbreaking to level II and add Silk Touch, that should cost 39 exactly:
Efficiency II: 1 per level x 2 levels = 2
Unbreaking II: 2 per level x 2 levels = 4
Silk Touch: 8 per level x 1 level = 8
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 Base Value: 2 + 4 + 8 + 6 = 20 Total Cost: 20 + 17 + 2 = 39 levels
Other items besides diamond tools and swords (even diamond armor) cost much less to repair using a fresh item, so you can have much more room to work with. A bow, for example, only costs 4 levels to repair using a fresh bow, which means you can pack it with enchantments totalling up to 33 levels instead of only 20, meaning you can give it Power V, Punch II, and either Flame or Infinity (but not both.) Since arrows are never a problem for me, I'd probably go with Flame:
Power V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Punch II: 4 per level x 2 levels = 8
Flame I: 4 per level x 1 level = 4
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 Base Value: 5 + 8 + 4 + 6 = 23 Total Cost: 23 + 4 (for repair) + 2 (for rename) = 29 levels.
(Adding Infinity too would cost an additional 8, plus 4 for a fourth enchantment, totalling 41 levels which is too high, but if you really wanted all four you could drop Power down to level III or Punch down to level I.)
Okey, thanks for the help. I guess it's time to look into mob grinders (another thing I never done in MC, but at least I can copy something off YouTube). I was very lucky to find 2 skeleton spawners on top of each other, so I think I can get lots of exp that way. Not that I'm planning to create that uber tool setup you mentioned yet, but it will get me started at least.
I figured out how it works, and I have some really awesome weapons and tools. But the problem is, how to repair them in a efficient way?
I already know that there is a limit on how much stuff you can do with the anvil, so I want to make my really good tools last as much as I can. In this case, I heard that Fortune 3 you can best obtain on a iron pickaxe. So I got 30 levels, and low and behold I got a Fortune 3, Unbreaking 3, Efficiency 4 pick!
I want to keep this pick and any other enchanted item I get for a really long time.
So can someone please help me here. I tried to figure out the Anvil Mechanics on the wiki, but it was all complicated mumbo-jumbo stuff to me. xD If you could point me to a good tutorial or post one here on how to efficiently repair items with an Anvil, I would be really grateful.
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealLordMJ
Don't try to combine enchantments, that'll raise the levels required. You can only invest a grand total of 39 levels into an anvil interaction so if it says "Too Expensive" it means it would cost more than that.
Need anything else?
Thanks for the quick reply.
Sorry I didn't understand that. Can you please explain it in an other way? I also heard that renaming helps lower the cost. Should I rename my item before I start using it?
And the primary thing I'm confused about is WHEN to repair the item and with what. Should I go when it's nearly dead, or half way there? Should I make a new tool or use materials. I really don't understand how repair works.
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealLordMJ
I normally run my tools right down then (to nearly broken) and the repair them. I've noticed that in order to get a fully repaired item, say a pickaxe. It will take 4 items to repair it, not 3 to make a new one, so it is a little more expensive to repair an item. I don't really mind because I'm reusing the enchantments, and unbreaking is one of them anyway.
Big thing for me is my grinder/mob trap. Once I made the grinder repairing was easy as the grinder gives me access to experience quickly and with nearly no chance of getting hurt. And with 1.6.x and latter your mob grinder will produce better and better mob loot. So I've converted over to chain armor and use the drops off mobs to repair my armor. It has cut down on my iron use considerably.
Next thing I'm working on is a market with villagers. You can get Iron pickaxes, shoves, and axes off them.
If this works I may never have to dig a hole and look for Diamonds again!
Good vid for a mob trap (Not my design but I used it and it works pretty good 0 to Level 30 in 10 minutes or less)
There's 2 slots in the anvil. Put what you want to repair in the first one and put an unenchanted tool of the same kind in the other and see what the experience level cost is. Then switch the two tools around and see if the cost is lower. I don't think it will be though but I'm not sure.
Certain combinations of enchantments may also make it too expensive to repair no matter what; for example, my Power V, Flame I, Infinity I, Unbreaking III bow costs 39 levels to repair, adding Punch would push it well over (4/8 for the enchantment (level I/II) and 5 for another enchantment).
Don't put Unbreaking on armor either, since it only slightly increases durability while greatly increasing the cost. I also think Thorns is sort of pointless, wearing out armor faster and not doing a huge amount of damage.
*Also possible to name an item that is too expensive to repair because you repaired it without naming if you use a book because the base cost is lower, thus allowing you to repair it again.
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?
Every time you work on an item in the anvil, it costs 2 more levels than it did the last time, even if nothing else has changed. To prevent this increasing cost, rename the item. This will cost some levels on its own, a one-time fee, and add 2 to the ongoing repair cost for future work, but will exempt the item from increasing costs each time you repair it.
Repairing with units of material is more expensive overall than repairing with whole tools, both in terms of resources required and levels spent, but, sometimes you can repair something piecewise that would be "Too Expensive" to do all at once.
Plan ahead! You may not want to enchant something so powerfully that you'll never be able to repair it. For example, a diamond sword with Sharp V, Looting III, Knockback II and Fire Aspect II seems like a really powerful sword, and it is, but with all those enchantments, it's too expensive to ever repair, even piecewise. Instead, maybe consider one with just Sharp V and Looting III; still has the (in my opinion) most important bits, and once renamed can be repaired using a fresh sword for exactly 39 levels, as many times as you want.
Figuring the cost can be tricky, but here's how I do it: First, I assume that I will want to repair the item with a fresh, unenchanted copy. Most of what I enchant are diamond tools and swords, which means this will cost 17 levels all by itself, per the chart on the wiki. Then I know I'm going to want to rename the item, so I can repair it indefinitely. That's another 2 levels, which puts the total at 19 so far and, since the cap is only 39, that means I have 20 levels to work with.
Okay, so I can spend 20 levels here, what does that mean? That's not the levels I spend to enchant the item originally, it's how much it's going to cost to repair. So I look at the chart on the wiki, and find what enchantments I want and how much they cost. Also, there's a "per-enchantment" cost where you have to pay some levels based only on how many enchantments the item has. So, the first enchantment costs one level, the second one costs two, the third one costs three, and so on. These are all added together. So an item with three enchantments costs 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 levels, plus the cost of the enchantments themselves.
Some of the combinations I have settled on:
Sword: Sharp V, Looting III
Sharpness V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Looting III: 4 per level x 3 levels = 12
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3
Base Value: 5 + 12 + 3 = 20
Total Cost: 20 + 17 (to repair with a fresh sword) + 2 (for having been renamed) = 39, exactly at the level cap
Work pick for everyday digging: Efficiency V, Unbreaking III
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Unbreaking III: 2 per level x 3 levels = 6
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3
Base Value: 5 + 6 + 3 = 14
Total Cost: 14 + 17 + 2 = 33 levels (You can put the exact same kit on an axe, too, for chopping trees and other woodwork.)
Silk Touch pick: Eff. V*, Silk Touch
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Silk Touch I: 8 per level x 1 level = 8
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3
Base Value: 5 + 8 + 3 = 16
Total Cost: 16 + 17 + 2 = 35 levels
Fortune III pick: Eff. V**, Fortune III
Efficiency V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Fortune III: 4 per level x 3 levels = 12
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 = 3
Base Value: 5 + 12 + 3 = 20
Total Cost: 20 + 17 + 2 = 39 levels.
*, **: These picks aren't used nearly as much as the everyday work pick, so they're going to last plenty long enough as it is; therefore I prefer to have Efficiency here rather than Unbreaking, since you can't have both. If you choose to have Unbreaking instead, note that you can only get level II on the Fortune III pick or it becomes "Too Expensive." (Or, you could have Unbreaking at III and Fortune at only II, but that seems like a waste of resources, the whole point of Fortune is to get the most you can out of things.)
I find anything higher than Efficiency II on a shovel is too much. It works so fast you lose all precision, and it's almost impossible to dig just a single dirt block without also digging the one behind it, even with just a quick tap on the mouse button. If I need to level a hill or something, I'll use a higher enchant, but for everday digging I like to keep mine at just level II:
Efficiency II: 1 per level x 2 levels = 2
Unbreaking III: 2 per level x 3 levels = 6
# of enchamtnents: 1 + 2 = 3
Base Value: 2 + 6 + 3 = 11
Total Cost: 11 + 17 + 2 = 30 levels.
You could also add Fortune I here, for 37 levels total, but that won't do you much good; the only thing Fortune on a shovel gets you is a higher chance to get flint when digging gravel. Or you could drop Unbreaking to level II and add Silk Touch, that should cost 39 exactly:
Efficiency II: 1 per level x 2 levels = 2
Unbreaking II: 2 per level x 2 levels = 4
Silk Touch: 8 per level x 1 level = 8
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6
Base Value: 2 + 4 + 8 + 6 = 20
Total Cost: 20 + 17 + 2 = 39 levels
Other items besides diamond tools and swords (even diamond armor) cost much less to repair using a fresh item, so you can have much more room to work with. A bow, for example, only costs 4 levels to repair using a fresh bow, which means you can pack it with enchantments totalling up to 33 levels instead of only 20, meaning you can give it Power V, Punch II, and either Flame or Infinity (but not both.) Since arrows are never a problem for me, I'd probably go with Flame:
Power V: 1 per level x 5 levels = 5
Punch II: 4 per level x 2 levels = 8
Flame I: 4 per level x 1 level = 4
# of enchantments: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6
Base Value: 5 + 8 + 4 + 6 = 23
Total Cost: 23 + 4 (for repair) + 2 (for rename) = 29 levels.
(Adding Infinity too would cost an additional 8, plus 4 for a fourth enchantment, totalling 41 levels which is too high, but if you really wanted all four you could drop Power down to level III or Punch down to level I.)
Village Mechanics: A not-so-brief guide - Update 2017! Now with 1.8 breeding mechanics! Long-overdue trading info, coming soon!
You think magic isn't real? Consider this: for every person, there is a sentence -- a series of words -- which has the power to destroy them.
@IronMagnus: Thank you very much for the quick tutorial, I think I understand things much better now. I just need to ask you one more question, and this may sound stupid, but how do you control which enchantments you get? Do you just sit near a grinder and enchant books? Because I heard that getting some of the enchants on a book is almost impossible.
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealLordMJ
Exactly, books. Once you're advanced in the game, an enderman farm in the end will get you to level 30 in roughly a minute, makes grinding loads of books much faster. Although there are still some that are pretty rare, like a 1% chance or so. When this is something like Silk Touch, there's nothing for it but to keep trying, but when you want a Sharpness IV book, for example (also 1.1%), you can simply take two Sharp III's (much more common) and combine them. Or you can take lower-level enchanted items and combine them, too (not wasteful, since they're completely renewable thanks to NPC trading.) These (either books, or combining items) are also the only ways you can get certain enchantments at the highest level; for example Sharpness and Efficiency can only reach level IV from the enchanting table, but by applying a book or combining two level IV items in an anvil, you can get up to level V, which is otherwise impossible.
Finally, you can just enchant items the old-fashioned way, and when you happen upon one with a combination that you like, rename it and keep it around instead of using it till it breaks.
Also, it's just "Magus"; no "n"
Village Mechanics: A not-so-brief guide - Update 2017! Now with 1.8 breeding mechanics! Long-overdue trading info, coming soon!
You think magic isn't real? Consider this: for every person, there is a sentence -- a series of words -- which has the power to destroy them.
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealLordMJ