Torch & Anvil

Calculators and planners for Minecraft builders

Minecraft math, done properly.

Torch & Anvil is a set of free calculators and planners for Minecraft builders. Every tool states exactly which game version its numbers were checked against, and every tool declares whether it models Java, Bedrock, or both — because the two editions genuinely differ, and averaging them would be lying.

Newest in the handbook ·

Minecraft Fishing Calculator

Treasure, junk and fish odds for any Luck of the Sea and Lure, from Java 26.3's own files: Luck III lifts treasure from 5% to 11.34%; a roof nearly doubles the wait.

Contents

30 tools in seven chapters, and the guides behind them. The right-hand column names the edition each tool models.

Mining and smelting

  1. Where each ore's attempts land, layer by layer, read from Java 26.3's own files: diamonds peak at Y -64 and -59 gets 95% of that, plus iron, gold and Nether ores.

  2. How long any tool takes to break a block, in seconds and game ticks, with Efficiency, Haste and the underwater penalties, and whether the block drops at all.

  3. Average and exact drops at every Fortune level for 17 blocks, from Java 26.3's loot tables: Fortune III averages 2.2 diamonds an ore, plus the odds for a vein.

  4. How much fuel any smelting job needs: coal, blocks of coal, lava buckets, kelp and wood compared, with honest furnace times and no wasted units.

  5. Spawn-proof spacing under the light-zero rule: 13-grid, 27-corridor, the simulation-verified 28 by 13 stagger, and a dark-spot checker for any layout.

Building and design

  1. Plot pixel-perfect Minecraft circles and ellipses on a block grid, with outline or filled modes, exact block counts, and a printable row-by-row build list.

  2. Walls, floors, and hollow boxes priced in blocks, stacks, and shulkers — with openings subtracted and raw-material conversions that follow real recipes.

  3. Convert item counts to stacks, shulker boxes, and double chests in both directions, for 64-stack, 16-stack, and unstackable items.

  4. Stack loom patterns in original vector previews: the six-layer limit, dye costs, which patterns need a pattern item, and the layer order that works.

  5. Generate Minecraft § color and format codes, JSON text components, and per-character hex gradients, with a live preview and the verified code table.

  6. Map zoom math: blocks covered at every scale from 1:1 to 1:16, blocks per pixel, grid snapping, and how many maps wall a given build.

Travel and the Nether

  1. Convert Overworld coordinates to Nether coordinates and back, measure 2D and 3D distances, and get a compass heading between any two Minecraft points.

  2. Compute exactly where to build a linked Nether portal, with the real portal-search ranges for Java and Bedrock and the 8x8 return-trip ambiguity.

  3. Any coordinate to its chunk, local position, borders, and Java region file — with correct floor math for negative coordinates.

Enchanting, brewing and beacons

  1. Find the cheapest anvil order for your enchanted books: exact Java costs, prior work penalties, the 39-level survival cap, and the true optimal plan.

  2. Convert Minecraft XP levels to points and back, price a climb between any two levels, and see why high levels cost so much more than low ones.

  3. Pick any Minecraft potion and get the exact brewing chain: awkward base, ingredient, corruption step, redstone or glowstone, splash and lingering.

  4. Beacon pyramid costs for every level: 9 to 164 blocks, the exact ingot bills, upgrade deltas, ranges, durations, and which powers each tier unlocks.

Survival

  1. The real Java armor formula: damage taken through any set, how toughness bends it, what Protection adds, and your effective HP against any hit size.

  2. Compute Minecraft fall damage from height, Feather Falling, Protection, and the landing block, plus the exact max survivable height for your setup.

  3. Price any Minecraft meal in the units that matter: hunger and saturation points, metres of sprinting, blocks broken, and health regenerated.

Farms and villagers

  1. The spawn-sphere math behind mob farms: the 24-block inner wall, the 128-block ceiling, AFK heights, and the 32-block despawn-timer band.

  2. Growth points, the roll they produce and the average time from seed to harvest for any crop, hydration and layout, with the rows-against-solid comparison.

  3. Bone meal per stack at every composting chance, the items any goal takes, and the formula behind them: 1 + 6/p, because the first layer is free.

  4. Hero of the Village prices computed exactly: 30% to 55% off by level with the real rounding rules, plus the honest facts on cure discounts and demand.

  5. Treasure, junk and fish odds for any Luck of the Sea and Lure, from Java 26.3's own files: Luck III lifts treasure from 5% to 11.34%; a roof nearly doubles the wait.

Redstone and time

  1. Game ticks, redstone ticks and seconds converted, the fewest repeaters for any delay, and how many repeaters a long line of dust needs.

  2. Read a container the way a comparator does: items to signal strength, the minimum items for every level 1 to 15, and both output modes.

  3. How long a hopper takes to move any item count: 2.5 items a second, 9,000 an hour, with chest and shulker fill times and parallel-line math.

  4. Convert Minecraft ticks to in-game clock time and real minutes, with the daylight phase, the bed window, and every /time set landmark.

Guides that stand alone

  1. Java vs Bedrock: differences that matter

    The verified split list — portal search boxes, anvil billing, color codes, light rules — and the table of what the editions genuinely share.

  2. How enchanting actually works

    Fifteen shelves, three slots, and the gate-versus-price fact most players never notice at the table.

  3. Nether hub networks

    When the 1:8 ratio pays, exit spacing, and a three-base network worked out to the block and the second.

Longer reads behind the tools — every number in them is asserted by the same test suite. Three of them stand on their own; the rest sit beside the calculator they explain, and the guide index lists all of them.

How this site works

Three rules, applied to every page.

Version stamps. Game mechanics drift. Each tool shows the version it was last verified against and gets re-checked when major updates land.

Java and Bedrock declared, never averaged. Where the editions differ, the tool says which one it models and what the other does differently.

Verifiable math only. These tools model geometry and documented formulas from the game. No drop-rate folklore, no seed lists, no guesses.