What enchantments can I put on a Brush in Minecraft?

A Brush accepts 4 enchantments: Efficiency, Unbreaking, Mending, Curse of Vanishing.

What is the maximum number of enchantments on a Brush?

You can stack up to 3 enchantments on a single brush via anvil combines. Conflicting enchantments such as Sharpness/Smite/Bane of Arthropods or Silk Touch/Fortune cannot share the same item.

Why does my brush say 'Too Expensive!' on the anvil?

Each anvil use raises the item's prior-work penalty (2^n - 1 XP levels). Combined with the per-level enchantment cost, hitting 40 total levels triggers the Too Expensive cap on survival mode. Use the calculator above to plan an order that stays under 40.

How do I repair a brush?

Brush doesn't have a vanilla repair material. The most reliable option is Mending plus a steady source of XP (fishing or villager trading).

ITEMS · TOOL

Best Brush Enchantments in Minecraft (2026)

Plan the optimal anvil order for your brush - avoid “Too Expensive!” and reach a 4-enchantment endgame loadout without burning a stack of XP bottles.

Anvil Calculator

Optimal order · XP cost · Too-Expensive guard

Item to enchantCurrent prior-work cost

0 = brand new. Every anvil use raises this by 1.

Pick the gear you want to enchant. Books you add below will be merged onto it in the cheapest order we can find.

Books / sacrifices (3)

Version

Optimize for

Least XP levelsCheapest total costLeast prior-workBest for future repairs / further enchanting

All Brush Enchantments

Enchantment	Max Level	Book Cost	Conflicts	Added
Efficiency	5	1/lvl	-	vanilla
Unbreaking	3	2/lvl	-	vanilla
Mending [treasure]	1	4/lvl	Infinity	vanilla
Curse of Vanishing [curse] [treasure]	1	8/lvl	-	vanilla

Best Brush Combos

The right combo depends on what you do with your brush. Below are three loadouts we tested in 1.20+ and Legacy worlds; the calculator above will give you the optimal order once you press Calculate.

Mining

Efficiency V
Fortune III
Unbreaking III
Mending

Triple ore yield without nuking emeralds. Default daily driver.

Silk Touch

Efficiency V
Silk Touch I
Unbreaking III
Mending

Preserve ore blocks for later refining; Fortune conflicts so keep them on separate tools.

Speedrun

Efficiency V
Unbreaking III

Cheaper to build mid-run before you secure Mending.

Step-by-step anvil order

Apply books in the order the calculator above prints. As a heuristic: the cheapest books first (Unbreaking, Mending), the per-level multiplier-1 enchants next (Sharpness, Efficiency, Power), then the high-cost ones (Looting, Fortune, Thorns, Silk Touch).

On 1.20+ the cap is still 40 levels and the prior-work penalty is still 2^n - 1. The relative savings of book-pairing versus item-pairing did shift, so toggle the version switch above to match your world.

How to get the best brush enchantments

Villager trading: Librarian villagers offer single enchanted books for emeralds; trap two villagers and reroll until you have one each of Mending and Unbreaking III.
Enchanting table: Build 15 bookshelves around a level 30 table for the strongest single enchant. Combine the result onto your brush via the anvil.
Loot & structures: Trial chambers, ancient cities, and bastions reliably drop high-level books.
Fishing: With a Luck of the Sea III rod you can pull enchanted books on roughly 1% of catches.

Bedrock vs Java differences

Bedrock anvil math closely tracks Java, but two quirks matter: Sweeping Edge does not exist on Bedrock, and Impaling deals bonus damage to all mobs in water rather than just aquatic mobs. The calculator above produces the same cost numbers for both editions because the underlying cost formula is identical; you may simply not be able to apply a Java-only enchantment on Bedrock.

FAQ

What enchantments can I put on a Brush in Minecraft?: A Brush accepts 4 enchantments: Efficiency, Unbreaking, Mending, Curse of Vanishing.
What is the maximum number of enchantments on a Brush?: You can stack up to 3 enchantments on a single brush via anvil combines. Conflicting enchantments such as Sharpness/Smite/Bane of Arthropods or Silk Touch/Fortune cannot share the same item.
Why does my brush say 'Too Expensive!' on the anvil?: Each anvil use raises the item's prior-work penalty (2^n - 1 XP levels). Combined with the per-level enchantment cost, hitting 40 total levels triggers the Too Expensive cap on survival mode. Use the calculator above to plan an order that stays under 40.
How do I repair a brush?: Brush doesn't have a vanilla repair material. The most reliable option is Mending plus a steady source of XP (fishing or villager trading).