Leggings Enchant Order

The order in words

Get all 5 books ready before you start, and keep at least 16 levels on hand. Then follow these steps on an anvil:

• Step 1: Put the leggings 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 Swift Sneak III 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 3: Put the leggings (now with Thorns III) in the left slot and the Swift Sneak III + Mending book in the right. You pay 14 levels for the enchantments plus 2 for prior work, so 16 in total.
• Step 4: Merge the Protection IV 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 5: Put the leggings (now with Swift Sneak III + Thorns III + Mending) in the left slot and the Protection IV + Unbreaking III book in the right. You pay 7 levels for the enchantments plus 4 for prior work, so 11 in total. That finishes the leggings.

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 5 books, the leggings need at least 3 rounds on the anvil, and this order uses exactly that many.

The first step puts Thorns III straight on the leggings 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, Swift Sneak III and Thorns III, cost 12 and 12 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.

Leggings carry two expensive books, Thorns III and Swift Sneak III, at 12 levels each on a fresh item. The order splits them up. Thorns goes on the bare leggings, while Swift Sneak first pairs with the cheap Mending book.

Protection and Unbreaking merge last as one book. They are cheap, so they can absorb the leggings' penalty at the end. If you are still waiting for Swift Sneak, see the skip table below before you start.

Levels and experience

The full order costs 44 levels. If you do each step as soon as you have its levels, you spend about 798 experience points. Saving up to level 44 first would take 3782 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 leggings 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 Swift Sneak III saves the most: the rest costs 28 levels instead of 44.

No Swift Sneak yet? Enchant the rest now for 28 levels, then add Swift Sneak III later for 19 more. That is 47 levels in all, against 44 if you wait and do it in one go. The extra cost is small, so using the item early is usually worth it.

No Mending yet? Enchant the rest now for 39 levels, then add Mending later for 9 more. That is 48 levels in all, against 44 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 leggings was on an anvil before

Used leggings costs more, because the anvil adds its prior work penalty to every step it is in:

Many players start from leggings that already has Unbreaking III from the enchanting table. In that case the other 4 books cost 37 levels in 4 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 leggings 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 fresh leggings 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, Swift Sneak III, Thorns III, Unbreaking III, Mending. Not sure which books to get? The best leggings 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.