How does enchantment combining with an anvil work?
Solution 1:
When combining enchantments, the enchantment caps out at a certain number. These are as follows:
Armor:
- Protection IV
- Fire Protection IV
- Explosion/Blast Protection IV
- Projectile Protection IV
- Feather Falling IV
- Respiration III
- Aqua Affinity 1
- Thorns III
- Depth Strider III
Swords/Axes:
- Sharpness V
- Smite V
- Bane of Arthropods V
- Knockback II
- Fire Aspect II
- Looting III
Bow:
- Power V
- Punch II
- Flame I
- Infinity I
Rod:
- Luck of the sea III
- Lure III
Other/Most/All:
- Unbreaking III
- Efficiency V
- Silk Touch I
- Fortune III
Enchantments of the same level can be combined to get an enchantment 1 level higher; combining enchantments of different levels always yields an item with the higher of the two levels, giving no increase.
Trying to combine any enchantment that would give you past the numbers above will just give you the cap, EX: Unbreaking III and another Unbreaking III would only give you Unbreaking III, instead of Unbreaking IV
You cannot put Silk Touch and Fortune on the same tool, you cannot put more then 1 different type of Protection on the same piece of Armor, and you can not have any combination of Sharpness, Bane of Arthropods, or Smite on a weapon. All these enchantments are standalone and may override another if put on an item.
Solution 2:
You need 2 enchantments of the same level to get an enchantment of the next level up. There is a cap to the max level enchant you can have. Every time you combine/repair an item in the anvil, the experience cost goes up, and when that goes past 39 levels, you cannot combine with that item again.You can only combine 2 of the same items to combine enchants, except for enchanted books.