Helmet Enchant Order

The order in words

Get all 6 books ready before you start, and keep at least 14 levels on hand. Then follow these steps on an anvil:

• Step 1: Put the helmet in the left slot and the Thorns III book in the right. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 12 levels.
• Step 2: Merge the Respiration III book with the Unbreaking III book, the first one on the left. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 3 levels.
• Step 3: Put the helmet (now with Thorns III) in the left slot and the Respiration III + Unbreaking III book in the right. You pay 9 levels for the enchantments plus 2 for prior work, so 11 in total.
• Step 4: Merge the Protection IV book with the Mending book, the first one on the left. Neither side has been on an anvil yet, so you only pay for the enchantments: 2 levels.
• Step 5: Merge the Protection IV + Mending book with the Aqua Affinity book, the first one on the left. You pay 2 levels for the enchantments plus 1 for prior work, so 3 in total.
• Step 6: Put the helmet (now with Respiration III + Thorns III + Unbreaking III) in the left slot and the Protection IV + Aqua Affinity + Mending book in the right. You pay 8 levels for the enchantments plus 6 for prior work, so 14 in total. That finishes the helmet.

Why this order is the cheapest

Each repair or enchantment combination increases prior work. Rename-only operations do not. So the order keeps the penalties low by merging books with each other in pairs. With 6 books, the helmet needs at least 3 rounds on the anvil, and this order uses exactly that many.

The first step puts Thorns III straight on the helmet for 12 levels. It is the dearest book in the build, so it goes on while the item has no penalty at all. The expensive books, Thorns III and Respiration III, cost 12 and 6 levels on their own, so the order adds them while their penalty is still low. Cheap books like Mending can ride along later, when the penalty has grown.

The helmet takes six books, so it is one of the dearer armor pieces to max. Thorns III is the main reason. Its anvil cost is high, so it goes onto the bare helmet before anything else. The cheap Aqua Affinity book then rides along with Protection and Mending instead of taking a step of its own.

If your helmet came from the table with Protection IV already, drop that book and let the calculator solve the rest. In that case you save the Protection step and a little penalty.

Levels and experience

The full order costs 45 levels. If you do each step as soon as you have its levels, you spend about 753 experience points. Saving up to level 45 first would take 4020 points, because each level costs more XP the higher you climb. So enchant in small batches and keep your levels low. The XP calculator converts any level into points.

After the last step the helmet has been on the anvil 3 times. Its prior work penalty is now 7, so a later repair or rename starts at that cost. Check a single step with the prior work penalty calculator.

If you skip a book

You don't need every book on day one. Leaving out Thorns III saves the most: the rest costs 27 levels instead of 45.

No Mending yet? Enchant the rest now for 38 levels, then add Mending later for 9 more. That is 47 levels in all, against 45 if you wait and do it in one go. The extra cost is small, so using the item early is usually worth it.

If your helmet was on an anvil before

A used helmet costs more, because the anvil adds its prior work penalty to every step it is in:

Many players start from a helmet that already has Unbreaking III from the enchanting table. In that case the other 5 books cost 36 levels in 5 steps, because a table enchant adds no prior work penalty.

Enter your own item's enchantments and uses in the calculator.

Java and Bedrock costs

Java charges the full resulting level of every enchantment a book brings. So if your helmet already has Protection III, adding a Protection IV book costs 4 levels here. Bedrock charges only the levels you gain, so the same step costs 1 there. Merging two Protection III books into one IV costs 4 in Java and 1 in Bedrock.

For a fresh helmet with one book per enchantment, no enchantment gains a level twice, so both rules give the same step costs. Java also charges 1 level for each clashing enchantment on a book, which Bedrock skips.

The books in this order

Protection IV, Respiration III, Aqua Affinity, Thorns III, Unbreaking III, Mending. Not sure which books to get? The best helmet enchantments page explains each one and where to find it. If the anvil refuses a step, read Too Expensive! for the fixes. The anvil guide covers repairs and renaming.