Easy Anvils — a mod for adding convenient and useful anvil mechanics in Minecraft

Easy Anvils — a mod for adding convenient and useful anvil mechanics in Minecraft

Easy Anvils overhauls anvil mechanics in Minecraft: items remain in the interface after closing, and the prior work penalty grows slower. The mod doesn't add new blocks and doesn't change progression — it only tweaks the behavior of the anvil itself. The main problem it solves: it eliminates the "Too Expensive!" limit and the associated need to throw away a tool that has already been enchanted many times.

Keeping items in the interface 

After closing the anvil interface, items don't drop — they remain in the top two slots and are displayed directly on the block itself. You can walk away, see what's lying there, and return later. On a server, the behavior is the same: items are bound to the anvil until you take them out via the interface. 

If the anvil is destroyed, the contents will drop as regular loot — nothing is lost. The visual rendering of the contents can be disabled in the client config if you don't like the look of a block with items on top of it. 

Displaying items on an anvil

Prior work penalty 

In vanilla, every use of the anvil doubles the penalty, and after just 5-6 operations, normal repair becomes impossible — the game displays "Too Expensive!" and blocks the action. Easy Anvils replaces this limitation with linear growth: by default, each operation adds a fixed 4 levels of penalty, rather than doubling the previous value.

Renaming and pure repair without adding enchantments don't increase the penalty at all (penalty_free_renames_and_repairs). Combining two enchanted books with each other is also free thanks to penalty_free_enchants_for_books. If the cost of the operation still exceeds the maximum, the mod caps it at the permissible level by default instead of blocking it.

Repairing an anvil with an iron block

A chipped or damaged anvil is repaired by clicking an iron block directly on the block. Each click restores one stage: chipped → damaged → intact. 

The chance to break is reduced from the vanilla 0.12 to 0.05 per use. Plus, renaming cannot break the anvil at all — even if you're very unlucky.

Repairing an anvil with iron blocks

Text formatting in names

Minecraft formatting codes work in the name input field: §a — green color, §l — bold, §o — italic, §n — underline, §k — obfuscated ("matrix") text, §r — reset style. 

Example input in the renaming field: §6§lLegendary Sword — you will get golden bold text, and if it's a name tag on a mob — also above the mob.

Text formatting on the example of a diamond sword

Config 

Files are located in .minecraft/config/. 

easyanvils-client.toml 

easyanvils-server.toml 

Section [costs] — operation costs 

Section [miscellaneous] — auxiliary 

Section [prior_work_penalty] — prior work penalty 

Conclusion

Easy Anvils removes enchantment limitations in Minecraft — and allows you to push a single tool through dozens of anvil operations without throwing it away. The mod solves one task and does so through fine-grained config tweaks, with no new blocks or progression. It's suited for long survival campaigns where tools go through many iterations of enchanting and repair, and for technical modpacks where anvil repair needs to be automated.