Mending in Minecraft: How It Works and How to Get It

What Mending does

Level	Effect	Book cost
I	each experience point you pick up repairs 2 durability	2

Book cost is the anvil cost of putting that book on a fresh item. However, already-used items add their prior work penalty: work it out in the calculator.

How Mending works

When you pick up an experience orb, Mending looks at your Mending items first. It checks the items in your hands and your armor slots. If one of them is damaged, the XP repairs it at 2 durability per experience point. Anything left over goes into your XP bar as normal.

If several items need repair, each orb picks one of the damaged ones at random. So a full set of worn gear gets repaired bit by bit, not one item at a time.

Items elsewhere in your inventory are not repaired. To fix a spare tool, hold it in your hand or off hand while you collect XP.

How much XP a repair takes

A netherite pickaxe has 2031 durability, so a full repair takes 1016 experience points. That is a little more than going from level 0 to level 26. A broken elytra needs 216 points, and a diamond chestplate needs 264.

In practice, gear rarely gets that low. A few minutes at an XP farm keeps a whole kit topped up.

The best XP sources for Mending

Mob farms and spawners, where mobs die in one place and the orbs land near you.
Enderman farms in the End, one of the fastest XP farms in the game.
Mining coal, lapis, redstone, quartz, diamond and emerald ores.
Smelting in a furnace, then collecting the output.
Trading with villagers, breeding animals and fishing.
Bottles o' enchanting, which cleric villagers sell.

Mending or the anvil?

An anvil repair also works, but each one raises the item's prior work penalty. After enough repairs the anvil shows Too Expensive and the item can't be repaired or enchanted any more. Mending has no limit at all, so a Mending item lasts forever. That is why it is the most wanted enchantment in the game.

Mending with Unbreaking

Unbreaking III means the item loses durability less often. So it needs fewer repairs, and Mending uses less of your XP. Together they let a max tool run for years of play.

Mending or Infinity on a bow

Mending excludes Infinity, so a bow carries one or the other. Mending keeps the bow alive forever. Infinity saves arrows. See Mending vs Infinity and Mending and Infinity on a bow.

What Mending goes on

Mending fits every item with durability, from armor and elytra to shields, fishing rods, brushes and flint and steel. See Mending on an elytra, Mending on a shield, Mending on a trident and Mending on a mace.

Common mistakes

Enchanting while your gear is damaged. Mending takes the XP first, so you level up more slowly.
Storing damaged Mending tools in a chest and expecting them to repair. Only held and worn items get repaired.
Grinding a Mending item at a grindstone to remove a curse. The grindstone keeps curses and removes Mending.

Which items take Mending

Mending goes on 22 kinds of gear in the calculator: helmet, chestplate, leggings, boots, elytra, sword, axe, spear, mace, trident, bow, crossbow, pickaxe, shovel, hoe, fishing rod, shears, brush, flint and steel, shield, carrot on a stick, warped fungus on a stick. It is a treasure enchantment, so on every item it comes from an enchanted book and an anvil, never from the enchanting table.

It can't share an item with Infinity. If an item already has one of those, the anvil skips the Mending book. Java still charges 1 level for it.

Anvil cost of Mending

Mending has an anvil multiplier of 4 from another item and 2 from a book. So the book costs 2 levels on a fresh item. That is a middling cost, so the order still matters once you combine several books.

Java charges the full resulting level every time, even when the item already has a lower level of it. Every step also adds the prior work penalty of both items. The enchantment calculator finds the cheapest order for your whole set of books.

Builds, questions and guides

More reading: How to get Mending, All treasure enchantments, Getting books from librarians, Every max enchantment level. You can make a Mending book with the command generator. The librarian price list shows what villagers charge for it.

How to get Mending

Librarian villagers Librarians can sell it as an enchanted book at a higher price, because it is a treasure enchantment. Level I costs 10–38 emeralds plus a book.
Trial chamber vaults This loot table names it directly, so it is one of the most reliable places to look.
Random enchanted books It is also in the pool for the random enchanted books and gear in many chests and in fishing loot.

Mending is a treasure enchantment, so the enchanting table never offers it. The best source is a librarian villager. A librarian's trades are set the first time you trade with it, so until then you can break and replace its lectern to reroll the offer. Keep doing that until Mending shows up.

You can also fish up Mending books, find them in chests that hold random enchanted books, and get them from trial chamber vaults. The how to get Mending guide covers every route, and the librarian trading hall guide shows how to set up a row of librarians.

Tips

It is a treasure enchantment: get it from librarian villagers, fishing, chest loot or trial chamber vaults.
Only damaged items in your hands or armor slots are repaired.

Commands

Give yourself a Mending book or enchant the item in your hand. These work in Java 26.3 once cheats are on.

/give @p enchanted_book[stored_enchantments={mending:1}] /enchant @s mending 1 /give @p netherite_helmet[enchantments={mending:1}]

Versions

Mending is in every Java version from 1.21 (when enchantments became data files) up to 26.3.

1.21.9: now goes on copper boots, copper leggings, copper chestplate, copper helmet, copper sword, copper axe, copper pickaxe, copper shovel, copper hoe.
1.21.11: now goes on diamond spear, stone spear, golden spear, netherite spear, wooden spear, iron spear, copper spear.

Also see the update log for every change, and how this data is checked. Bedrock player? See Mending on Bedrock.

Questions

How do you get Mending?

The easiest way is a librarian villager that sells Mending books. You can also fish for it, find it in chest loot or get it from trial chamber vaults. It never appears in an enchanting table.

Can you put Mending on a shield, elytra or trident?

Yes. Mending goes on anything with durability, including shields, elytra, tridents, maces, spears and fishing rods.

Does Mending work in your inventory?

No. Mending only repairs items in your hands and armor slots. Hold the item or wear it while you collect XP.

How much XP does Mending need?

Each experience point repairs 2 durability. A full repair of a netherite pickaxe takes 1016 points.

Why is my XP bar not going up?

Your Mending gear is soaking up the XP. Once it is fully repaired, experience goes back to your bar as normal.

Can you get Mending from an enchanting table?

No. Mending is a treasure enchantment. Librarians, fishing, chest loot and trial chamber vaults are the ways to get it.