Applying enchants

There are two ways to apply custom enchantments to items: via the Enchanting Altar GUI or via Enchant Books + Anvil. This page covers the enchant book + anvil workflow.

What are enchant books?

Enchant books are special items that store a single custom enchantment at a specific level. They look like vanilla enchanted books but are tracked via PDC rather than lore. When combined with a compatible item at an anvil, they transfer the enchantment.

Obtaining enchant books

Method 1 — Admin Command (give)

Admins can give enchant books directly to players:

# Give a Lifesteal III book to yourself
/enchant give lifesteal 3

# Give a Wings II book to a specific player
/enchant give wings 2 PlayerName

# Alias command
/enchantbook lifesteal 3 PlayerName

Note: Requires the enchantsforge.admin permission.

Method 2 — Craftable Books

Note: Check with your server's configuration — crafting recipes may be added through custom recipe plugins or future updates.

Method 3 — Enchanting Altar

You can also obtain enchanted items (not books) directly through the Enchanting Altar GUI.

Anvil workflow

Step 1 — Get Your Enchant Book

Obtain an enchant book for the desired enchantment and level using /enchant give or another method.

Step 2 — Open an Anvil

Right-click any anvil in the world to open it.

Step 3 — Place Your Items

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  [Your Item] + [Enchant Book]   │
│         ↓                       │
│    [Enchanted Item]             │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Left slot — The item you want to enchant (sword, pickaxe, chestplate, etc.)
Right slot — The enchant book

Step 4 — Check the Cost

The anvil will show the XP cost to combine. This cost is affected by the anvil.xp-cost-multiplier in config.yml.

Step 5 — Take the Result

Click the output slot to retrieve your enchanted item, paying the XP cost.

Anvil XP cost configuration

# config.yml
anvil:
  xp-cost-multiplier: 1.0  # Multiply all anvil combine costs
                            # 0.5 = half cost, 2.0 = double cost

Conflict checking

The anvil respects the conflict system. If you try to combine an item that has Enchant A with a book for Enchant B (and they conflict), the combination will be blocked — you will see no output item in the anvil.

Warning: Vanilla enchantment "Too Expensive" errors can block anvil operations at high levels. Consider using /gamerule anvil_damage_chance 0 or a plugin to disable this.

Quick reference

Method	Requires	Best For
Enchanting Altar GUI	Built altar, XP	Interactive enchanting
Anvil + Book	Enchant book, XP	Applying pre-obtained books
`/enchant give`	Admin permission	Server management, testing