How to Get Mending in Minecraft

Mending is the most important enchantment in Minecraft. It uses experience orbs to repair the item you are holding or wearing, effectively making your gear last forever. Unlike most enchantments, Mending cannot appear on the enchanting table, it is a treasure enchantment that you can only find through specific methods. This guide covers every way to obtain it and how to set up a reliable, repeatable source.

What Mending does

When you pick up experience orbs while holding or wearing a Mending item, 2 durability is restored per point of XP. The game randomly selects one equipped Mending item to repair each time you pick up XP. If the chosen item is already at full durability, the XP goes to your level bar instead.

This means a Mending pickaxe repairs itself as you mine ores. Mending armor repairs as you farm mobs. Combined with Unbreaking III, your gear essentially never breaks.

Method 1: Villager trading (best method)

The most reliable and repeatable source of Mending books is a Librarian villager. Here is how to set one up:

• Get a villager. Cure a zombie villager, breed two villagers, or transport one from a nearby village using a boat or minecart.
• Place a Lectern. Lecterns are the workstation block for Librarians. Craft one from 4 wooden slabs and a bookshelf. Place it near the villager.
• Check the trades. When the villager links to the lectern and becomes a Librarian, check its first-level trade. It will offer an enchanted book, this is random.
• Reroll if needed. If the book is not Mending, break the lectern and place it again. The villager loses its profession and re-links, generating a new random trade. Repeat until you see Mending.
• Lock the trade. Once you see Mending as a trade, buy the book (or trade anything with the villager). This locks their trades permanently, they will always offer Mending from that point on.

The base price for a Mending book from a Librarian is typically 10-38 emeralds. You can lower the price significantly by curing the villager from zombie villager form (discounts stack with multiple cures in Java Edition) or by completing a raid near the village for the Hero of the Village effect.

Optimizing the reroll process

Rerolling can take many attempts since Mending is one of dozens of possible book enchantments. Tips to speed it up:

• Place the lectern where you can break and replace it quickly without moving.
• Keep the villager trapped in a 1x1 space with the lectern adjacent. This prevents them from wandering to another workstation.
• Reroll during the villager's work hours (in-game daytime when they are standing and not sleeping). They link to workstations faster during work hours.
• On average, expect 30-60 rerolls to get Mending, though it can happen on the first try or take over 100 attempts.

Method 2: Fishing

Fishing with a Luck of the Sea III rod can produce enchanted books, and Mending is in the loot table. The odds are low since any enchantment can appear, but over long AFK fishing sessions you will eventually find Mending books.

On Java Edition 1.16+, you need to fish in open water (no blocks within a 5x4x5 area around the bobber) to receive treasure loot. On Bedrock, this restriction does not apply.

Fishing is not a reliable primary source of Mending, but it supplements your supply while also providing food and XP.

Method 3: Chest loot

Mending books can generate as loot in chests found in various structures:

• Dungeons (mob spawner rooms)
• Mineshafts (minecart chests)
• Woodland Mansions
• Strongholds
• Ancient Cities
• Pillager Outposts
• End Cities

The chance of finding Mending in any specific chest is low, but if you explore many structures, you will find some. Ancient Cities in particular have a decent chance of containing Mending books in their loot chests.

Method 4: Raid drops

On Java Edition, raid mobs occasionally drop enchanted books. This is a very rare source but worth noting if you have a raid farm running.

How to apply Mending to your gear

Use an anvil to combine the Mending book with your tool, weapon or armor piece. Place the item in the first slot and the book in the second slot. The cost varies but is usually 2-6 levels.

Important notes:

• Mending is mutually exclusive with Infinity on bows. You must choose one or the other.
• Mending works on all tools, weapons and armor, including shields, elytra, fishing rods, shears, and tridents.
• Apply Mending last when building a multi-enchant item on the anvil. Each anvil operation increases the item's repair cost, and you want Mending to be cheap to apply.

Building a Mending villager hall

For endgame setups, build a villager trading hall with multiple Librarians, each offering a different useful enchanted book:

• One Librarian for Mending.
• Others for Unbreaking III, Protection IV, Efficiency V, Fortune III, Silk Touch, Sharpness V, Power V, etc.
• House each villager in a separate cell with its own lectern and bed.
• Set up a zombie villager curing station nearby to get permanent discounts (Java Edition).

Looking for a server that nails this setup end-to-end? Try Astroworld MC, economy survival, custom bosses, full crossplay.

Mending is the foundation of any endgame gear setup. Without it, even Netherite tools eventually break and need to be re-enchanted from scratch. Set up a Librarian with Mending as one of your early priorities, and you will never lose a favorite tool to durability again.