Me and my friends play on a private server together. My friend has a very enchanted pickaxe with Efficiency 4 and Unbreaking 3 and no durability left. When he goes to an anvil to repair it using a diamond, he gets the message "Too expensive!" What can he do to make his pickaxe usable?
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I bought and started playing Minecraft on March 22nd, 2012, during 1.2.3.
Me and my friends play on a private server together. My friend has a very enchanted pickaxe with Efficiency 4 and Unbreaking 3 and no durability left. When he goes to an anvil to repair it using a diamond, he gets the message "Too expensive!" What can he do to make his pickaxe usable?
This seems to be due to levels. Go to an EXP grinder if there is one.
This seems to be due to levels. Go to an EXP grinder if there is one.
According to Minecraft wiki and our own testing, "Too expensive" is caused by having an enchantment level over 40, regardless of levels. I could have 45 levels for something that requires 41 and I would get the same message.
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I bought and started playing Minecraft on March 22nd, 2012, during 1.2.3.
Me and my friends play on a private server together. My friend has a very enchanted pickaxe with Efficiency 4 and Unbreaking 3 and no durability left. When he goes to an anvil to repair it using a diamond, he gets the message "Too expensive!" What can he do to make his pickaxe usable?
According to Minecraft wiki and our own testing, "Too expensive" is caused by having an enchantment level over 40, regardless of levels. I could have 45 levels for something that requires 41 and I would get the same message.
It sounds like you have pretty much figured this out on your own. What you may not have read on the wiki is how repair cost factors in any previous "work" that has been done to the pick. Any time it has been placed in an anvil and repaired, combined, renamed, etc., counts as being "worked". At a certain point, the tool will become too expensive to repair.
Off the top of my head, I feel like you should be able to combine the broken, enchanted pick onto a new, enchanted pick...I'll have to test this as for some reason I can't recall if this works.
You could also downgrade to 1.7 and rename it, then you can repair it however many times you like; by doing this I repaired an Efficiency V, Unbreaking III diamond pickaxe over 100 times in one world, with each repair costing 33 levels.
Actually, I do not recommend downgrading, which will corrupt your world (I'm assuming that you are in 1.8 since this is a commonly reported issue since then), but that pretty much sums up my opinion of the 1.8 repair mechanics (somebody is even using my "old anvil mechanics" mod on their server; note that they modified my source to make a server-compatible version). In fact, if I had simply upgraded to 1.8 without knowing about any of the changes I'd have downgraded after finding out about this, even if it meant going to a backup (I'd find out very soon and lose little progress). Then again, I'd have done the same after finding out what 1.7 did to the underground, assuming I didn't have any modding experience.
Also, you shouldn't repair anything except armor with diamonds in 1.8; it is cheaper to use a new item, especially for items made with less than 4 diamonds; a shovel only needs one diamond to make but when repairing with individual diamonds each one only restores 25% durability, so you need four for a full repair (the repair cost in 1.8 is 1 level per unit, 4 for 4 units, or 2 levels for a new item; because of how the prior work penalty is calculated, there is no difference in how many times you can repair an item either way).
I'm also pretty unhappy about the repair mechanics in 1.8. I liked feeling like I had a reason to rename my items aside from mere flavor. Now I only rename things on very rare occasions.
I also feel like it is somewhat bad design to punish non wiki-reading players for trying to repair shovels and such with single diamonds. You'd think a single diamond would repair a shovel by itself, but a pick or axe only 33% based on what the tools cost to build. The inverse is also true when you think about armour. Why is it a shovel and a chestplate are repaired the same amount via single diamonds?
I'm rarely disappointed in the direction Mojang decides to go, but it makes absolutely no sense that they took one broken repair system and turned it into a different broken repair system. If you are going to rework something, why not make it more uniform, intuitive and balanced? I've yet to hear a player talk about how much more awesome the no-point-in-renaming thing is. *rolls eyes*
I'm also pretty unhappy about the repair mechanics in 1.8. I liked feeling like I had a reason to rename my items aside from mere flavor. Now I only rename things on very rare occasions.
I also feel like it is somewhat bad design to punish non wiki-reading players for trying to repair shovels and such with single diamonds. You'd think a single diamond would repair a shovel by itself, but a pick or axe only 33% based on what the tools cost to build. The inverse is also true when you think about armour. Why is it a shovel and a chestplate are repaired the same amount via single diamonds?
I'm rarely disappointed in the direction Mojang decides to go, but it makes absolutely no sense that they took one broken repair system and turned it into a different broken repair system. If you are going to rework something, why not make it more uniform, intuitive and balanced? I've yet to hear a player talk about how much more awesome the no-point-in-renaming thing is. *rolls eyes*
One reason they likely had one diamond always restore 25% durability was for simplicity, and if you have Unbreaking III on an item you get four times the uses per unit of material, so one diamond effectively gives you a new tool even in the case of a shovel (though that would require having something like Efficiency V, Fortune III or Silk Touch I, Unbreaking III on it, which is rather impractical for a shovel, where I find even just Unbreaking III to be fine; a Silk Touch pickaxe is more useful and can mine grass and other Silk-Touchable blocks. Or even Silk Touch shears).
Also, in the case of armor, it helps offset the dismal durability; I mean, did you know that a diamond chestplate has less than half the durability of a diamond tool? That's with Unbreaking III on the chestplate and nothing on the tool... and only minor damage being received (armor durability loss depends on the damage it receives, unlike tools or weapons, which only lose more, just one extra point, when used in an unintended fashion. A single creeper explosion can knock a dozen or more points off). If you've ever watched or been in a PvP match you'll know what I mean by this.
One thing I did in a mod I was was rebalance armor; for diamond armor every piece has 1,500 durability, which is 1,562 x 241/251, the durability of diamond tools times the ratio of an iron chestplate to iron tools. Durability loss is a constant 1 point per hit (except for Thorns and falling anvils). Even with this I still repair my armor, with two diamonds at a time, as often as my sword, despite the latter effectively having 3,120 uses per repair, which requires individual diamonds due to the costs, also two in this case. Times three pieces and this means that my armor consumes three times the diamonds; in vanilla it would be an absurd 9 times more (still only about half the diamonds I use overall as my pickaxe gets far more use than anything else; Unbreaking III would reduce this to about 6.5 times). That said, I also lowered the protection per armor point from 4% to 3.5%, making full armor 50% weaker; i.e. you receive 30% of incoming damage, 50% more than vanilla's 20%; before this I only wore a chestplate and leggings, only putting on boots when I explored ravines; thus the increase in durability is partly offset by wearing another piece and spending more XP to repair them, with a Protection IV piece costing 23 levels for 2 diamonds, compared to 21 for vanilla armor with Unbreaking III added; without it vanilla armor only costs 11 levels.
That's not even considering my amethyst tools and armor, which all have triple the durability (4,686 for tools and 4,500 for armor), although that is offset by extreme repair costs; I even increased the anvil cap to 49 levels so I could repair items like the Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III sword that I use, which costs 47 levels for one unit, compared to 35 for two for the same diamond sword (which is otherwise the same, durability is the only difference for all items; the main reason I added these was to have something unique and suitably rare and expensive for my playstyle, which still sees me finding so many resources (amethyst is 8 times rarer than diamond, offsetting the durability gains, even for armor when compared to vanilla diamond, especially since I don't use Unbreaking on it; I've only used half of what I've found, without Fortune) and experience (thousands of XP per play session, up to 8,000+ before) that I've even considered increasing the cost and/or rarity, which is already well into the impractical range for most players).
When I used to get the "Too Expensive" I would just use the piece until it broke, then I had an idea:
When you repair/combine damaged tools, weapons, etc. in the crafting grid you get a 5% bonus in durability according to the wiki. For example if you have 2 picks, both with 10% durability left, when you repair them using your crafting grid you should get one with 25% durability (I don't know if my math is 100% accurate[I have a feeling I will be corrected] but you get a rough idea of where I'm going). It's almost like getting free diamonds, iron, or whatever. So now I save all my "Too Expensive" stuff. When I have enough, I'll repair them (combine them) in my crafting grid and get the 5% bonus. I like free stuff.
When I used to get the "Too Expensive" I would just use the piece until it broke, then I had an idea:
When you repair/combine damaged tools, weapons, etc. in the crafting grid you get a 5% bonus in durability according to the wiki. For example if you have 2 picks, both with 10% durability left, when you repair them using your crafting grid you should get one with 25% durability (I don't know if my math is 100% accurate[I have a feeling I will be corrected] but you get a rough idea of where I'm going). It's almost like getting free diamonds, iron, or whatever. So now I save all my "Too Expensive" stuff. When I have enough, I'll repair them (combine them) in my crafting grid and get the 5% bonus. I like free stuff.
This is the same with the pickaxe being broken as in both situations your friend will loose the enchants.
Yes, as others have said, the pickaxe (with its enchants) is effectively broken; you can no longer repair it.
What it is still good for, however, is for "removing" unwanted enchants from other diamond pickaxes. Say you enchant something and get Unbreaking III and Silk Touch and you happen to have a chest full of Silk picks already, so you'd like to re-enchant it, but you can't (normally). Not true! Just go to a crafting bench, and put your unwanted Silk Touch pick and combine it with the near-dead "Too Expensive!" one and you have yourself a shiny new unenchanted Diamond pickaxe, ready for another shot at enchanting.
This works for any piece of gear, such as swords where you get, say, Sharpness IV + ??? and the ??? turns out to be Bane of Arthropods.
Unfortunately enchanted tools can only be repaired for time before becoming too expensive to repair, so at that point you simply have to use your tool till it breaks.
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"The only way to do great work is to love what you do" - Steve Jobs
Hello,
Me and my friends play on a private server together. My friend has a very enchanted pickaxe with Efficiency 4 and Unbreaking 3 and no durability left. When he goes to an anvil to repair it using a diamond, he gets the message "Too expensive!" What can he do to make his pickaxe usable?
This seems to be due to levels. Go to an EXP grinder if there is one.
Before you even THINK about asking for crash help: Guide to fixing and avoiding crashes
According to Minecraft wiki and our own testing, "Too expensive" is caused by having an enchantment level over 40, regardless of levels. I could have 45 levels for something that requires 41 and I would get the same message.
It sounds like you have pretty much figured this out on your own. What you may not have read on the wiki is how repair cost factors in any previous "work" that has been done to the pick. Any time it has been placed in an anvil and repaired, combined, renamed, etc., counts as being "worked". At a certain point, the tool will become too expensive to repair.
Off the top of my head, I feel like you should be able to combine the broken, enchanted pick onto a new, enchanted pick...I'll have to test this as for some reason I can't recall if this works.
It doesn't look like you can combine with a bare pick to work around the "Too Expensive!" issue. I just tested it.
Enchant a new pick. Eff IV Unb III is a pretty basic enchantment anyway.
You could also downgrade to 1.7 and rename it, then you can repair it however many times you like; by doing this I repaired an Efficiency V, Unbreaking III diamond pickaxe over 100 times in one world, with each repair costing 33 levels.
Actually, I do not recommend downgrading, which will corrupt your world (I'm assuming that you are in 1.8 since this is a commonly reported issue since then), but that pretty much sums up my opinion of the 1.8 repair mechanics (somebody is even using my "old anvil mechanics" mod on their server; note that they modified my source to make a server-compatible version). In fact, if I had simply upgraded to 1.8 without knowing about any of the changes I'd have downgraded after finding out about this, even if it meant going to a backup (I'd find out very soon and lose little progress). Then again, I'd have done the same after finding out what 1.7 did to the underground, assuming I didn't have any modding experience.
Also, you shouldn't repair anything except armor with diamonds in 1.8; it is cheaper to use a new item, especially for items made with less than 4 diamonds; a shovel only needs one diamond to make but when repairing with individual diamonds each one only restores 25% durability, so you need four for a full repair (the repair cost in 1.8 is 1 level per unit, 4 for 4 units, or 2 levels for a new item; because of how the prior work penalty is calculated, there is no difference in how many times you can repair an item either way).
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?
I'm also pretty unhappy about the repair mechanics in 1.8. I liked feeling like I had a reason to rename my items aside from mere flavor. Now I only rename things on very rare occasions.
I also feel like it is somewhat bad design to punish non wiki-reading players for trying to repair shovels and such with single diamonds. You'd think a single diamond would repair a shovel by itself, but a pick or axe only 33% based on what the tools cost to build. The inverse is also true when you think about armour. Why is it a shovel and a chestplate are repaired the same amount via single diamonds?
I'm rarely disappointed in the direction Mojang decides to go, but it makes absolutely no sense that they took one broken repair system and turned it into a different broken repair system. If you are going to rework something, why not make it more uniform, intuitive and balanced? I've yet to hear a player talk about how much more awesome the no-point-in-renaming thing is. *rolls eyes*
One reason they likely had one diamond always restore 25% durability was for simplicity, and if you have Unbreaking III on an item you get four times the uses per unit of material, so one diamond effectively gives you a new tool even in the case of a shovel (though that would require having something like Efficiency V, Fortune III or Silk Touch I, Unbreaking III on it, which is rather impractical for a shovel, where I find even just Unbreaking III to be fine; a Silk Touch pickaxe is more useful and can mine grass and other Silk-Touchable blocks. Or even Silk Touch shears).
Also, in the case of armor, it helps offset the dismal durability; I mean, did you know that a diamond chestplate has less than half the durability of a diamond tool? That's with Unbreaking III on the chestplate and nothing on the tool... and only minor damage being received (armor durability loss depends on the damage it receives, unlike tools or weapons, which only lose more, just one extra point, when used in an unintended fashion. A single creeper explosion can knock a dozen or more points off). If you've ever watched or been in a PvP match you'll know what I mean by this.
One thing I did in a mod I was was rebalance armor; for diamond armor every piece has 1,500 durability, which is 1,562 x 241/251, the durability of diamond tools times the ratio of an iron chestplate to iron tools. Durability loss is a constant 1 point per hit (except for Thorns and falling anvils). Even with this I still repair my armor, with two diamonds at a time, as often as my sword, despite the latter effectively having 3,120 uses per repair, which requires individual diamonds due to the costs, also two in this case. Times three pieces and this means that my armor consumes three times the diamonds; in vanilla it would be an absurd 9 times more (still only about half the diamonds I use overall as my pickaxe gets far more use than anything else; Unbreaking III would reduce this to about 6.5 times). That said, I also lowered the protection per armor point from 4% to 3.5%, making full armor 50% weaker; i.e. you receive 30% of incoming damage, 50% more than vanilla's 20%; before this I only wore a chestplate and leggings, only putting on boots when I explored ravines; thus the increase in durability is partly offset by wearing another piece and spending more XP to repair them, with a Protection IV piece costing 23 levels for 2 diamonds, compared to 21 for vanilla armor with Unbreaking III added; without it vanilla armor only costs 11 levels.
That's not even considering my amethyst tools and armor, which all have triple the durability (4,686 for tools and 4,500 for armor), although that is offset by extreme repair costs; I even increased the anvil cap to 49 levels so I could repair items like the Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III sword that I use, which costs 47 levels for one unit, compared to 35 for two for the same diamond sword (which is otherwise the same, durability is the only difference for all items; the main reason I added these was to have something unique and suitably rare and expensive for my playstyle, which still sees me finding so many resources (amethyst is 8 times rarer than diamond, offsetting the durability gains, even for armor when compared to vanilla diamond, especially since I don't use Unbreaking on it; I've only used half of what I've found, without Fortune) and experience (thousands of XP per play session, up to 8,000+ before) that I've even considered increasing the cost and/or rarity, which is already well into the impractical range for most players).
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?
When I used to get the "Too Expensive" I would just use the piece until it broke, then I had an idea:
When you repair/combine damaged tools, weapons, etc. in the crafting grid you get a 5% bonus in durability according to the wiki. For example if you have 2 picks, both with 10% durability left, when you repair them using your crafting grid you should get one with 25% durability (I don't know if my math is 100% accurate[I have a feeling I will be corrected] but you get a rough idea of where I'm going). It's almost like getting free diamonds, iron, or whatever. So now I save all my "Too Expensive" stuff. When I have enough, I'll repair them (combine them) in my crafting grid and get the 5% bonus. I like free stuff.
This is the same with the pickaxe being broken as in both situations your friend will loose the enchants.
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Yes, as others have said, the pickaxe (with its enchants) is effectively broken; you can no longer repair it.
What it is still good for, however, is for "removing" unwanted enchants from other diamond pickaxes. Say you enchant something and get Unbreaking III and Silk Touch and you happen to have a chest full of Silk picks already, so you'd like to re-enchant it, but you can't (normally). Not true! Just go to a crafting bench, and put your unwanted Silk Touch pick and combine it with the near-dead "Too Expensive!" one and you have yourself a shiny new unenchanted Diamond pickaxe, ready for another shot at enchanting.
This works for any piece of gear, such as swords where you get, say, Sharpness IV + ??? and the ??? turns out to be Bane of Arthropods.
Unfortunately enchanted tools can only be repaired for time before becoming too expensive to repair, so at that point you simply have to use your tool till it breaks.
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do" - Steve Jobs