You likely cannot enchant your sword with an anvil because its repair or enchantment cost has become too high, resulting in the message "Too Expensive!"
In Minecraft, every time an item is used in an anvil – whether for repairing, combining enchantments, or renaming – it accumulates an "anvil use" count. With each additional use, the experience cost required for the operation increases. This escalating cost eventually reaches a cap, beyond which the game considers the operation prohibitively expensive for a survival player, displaying "Too Expensive!" and preventing any further modifications or repairs using an anvil.
Understanding the "Too Expensive!" Limit
This mechanic is in place to balance late-game item usage and encourage players to eventually create new tools and armor rather than infinitely maintaining a single set. Once an item hits this limit, it essentially becomes impossible to repair, enchant, or rename it further in survival mode.
Strategies to Avoid or Mitigate "Too Expensive!"
While an item reaching the "Too Expensive!" state is irreversible for that specific item in survival, there are several strategies to manage and prolong the usability of your gear:
- Strategic Enchantment Combining:
- Combine lower-level enchantments into higher-level ones on an anvil before applying them to your main gear. For example, combine two Efficiency III books into an Efficiency IV book, then apply the single Efficiency IV book to your pickaxe. This reduces the number of separate anvil operations on your main item.
- Always try to combine enchantments in the most efficient order, putting the most expensive operations on the least-used item (the one you are enchanting onto).
- Utilize Mending:
- The Mending enchantment is crucial. It allows your item to repair itself using experience orbs you collect (from mining, killing mobs, smelting, etc.), completely bypassing the need for anvil repairs. This significantly extends an item's lifespan without incurring "anvil use" costs.
- Grindstone for Fresh Starts:
- If an item has many unwanted enchantments or has accumulated high anvil costs, you can use a Grindstone to remove all enchantments and its "anvil use" history. This essentially resets the item's cost, allowing you to enchant it from scratch again. Be aware that this also removes all enchantments and returns a small amount of XP, so it's a trade-off.
- New Items Over Endless Repairs:
- In some cases, especially for common tools, it might be more resource-efficient and less costly in terms of experience to simply craft a new tool and enchant it, rather than continually repairing a highly used item with an anvil.
By understanding the experience cost escalation with anvil uses and employing these strategies, you can effectively manage your enchanted gear and minimize the chances of encountering the "Too Expensive!" roadblock.
