How to Get Mending

1. Librarian villagers (best)

Librarians can sell Mending books for 10–38 emeralds plus a book, double the usual price because Mending is a treasure enchantment. Place a lectern next to an unemployed villager; if the first trades don't include Mending, break the lectern and place it again (only works before you trade). Once Mending shows up, trade once to lock it.

Cure a zombie villager first and its prices drop a lot, sometimes to a single emerald.

2. Fishing

Enchanted books are part of the fishing treasure, and Mending is in their pool. A rod with Luck of the Sea III and Lure III catches treasure much more often.

3. Chests and trial chambers

Mending can appear on random enchanted books in chests. Trial chamber vaults can also give a Mending book directly, as their loot table names it.

4. Put it on your gear

Combine the book with your item on an anvil: Mending costs 2 levels on a fresh item. If the item already has other books coming, let the calculator pick the order. Mending goes on anything with durability except a bow that has Infinity.

Which gear needs Mending first

Mending is worth the most on gear you use all day: the pickaxe, the sword and every armor piece. After that, the elytra, because gliding drains its durability every second. Tools you rarely use can wait. Once a few pieces have Mending, an XP farm keeps everything repaired while you work.

Mending fits on almost anything with durability, including shields, tridents, maces and spears. The only common clash is the bow, where Mending excludes Infinity. See Mending vs Infinity and the full Mending page.

How Mending actually repairs

Mending changes what happens when you pick up an experience orb. Instead of filling your XP bar, the orb repairs a damaged Mending item first, at 2 durability per experience point. Whatever is left over after the repair goes to your bar as normal.

Only items you are holding or wearing count: the main hand, the offhand and the four armor slots. A Mending pickaxe sitting in your hotbar gets nothing until you hold it. If several equipped items need repairs, the game picks one of them at random for each orb.

Any experience orb works. That includes mobs, mining coal or other ores, smelting, breeding animals, trading with villagers, fishing and bottles o' enchanting. So Mending keeps working during normal play, and an XP farm only speeds it up.

How much experience a full repair takes

A netherite pickaxe at zero durability needs about as much experience as going from level 0 to 26. In practice you never let it drop that low. A few minutes at a mob farm keeps a full set topped up.

Step by step: Mending from a librarian

This is the method most players use, and it works on day one of a new world if you find a village.

• Find an unemployed villager. It wears plain brown robes with no profession outfit. A nitwit (green coat) never takes a job, and a baby has to grow up first.
• Craft a lectern from wooden slabs and a bookshelf, and place it next to the villager. Green sparkles mean it took the job and became a librarian.
• Open its trades. A new librarian shows two trades. Look for an enchanted book.
• No Mending? Reroll. Break the lectern, wait until the villager loses its librarian outfit, then place the lectern again. An axe breaks it fastest.
• Repeat until Mending appears, then check the price. It can be anywhere from 10–38 emeralds plus a book, so a few extra rerolls for a cheap one can pay off.
• Trade once. The first trade locks the villager's trades for good, so Mending stays on offer forever.

Rerolls only work before your first trade with that villager. Also keep other free lecterns out of reach, or the villager may claim a different one and skip your reroll. For a full setup with many villagers, see the librarian trading hall guide.

Making it cheaper

Curing a zombie villager gives you a big, permanent discount with that villager. If you cure a zombie villager and then turn it into your Mending librarian, the book can drop to a single emerald. Trading with it often also raises your reputation, while hitting it raises prices. Winning a raid gives the Hero of the Village effect, which cuts prices for a while.

Fishing for Mending

Fishing is the slow, steady option, and it needs no village. Enchanted books are part of the treasure catch, and treasure books can carry Mending. Use a rod with Luck of the Sea III, which raises your treasure chance, and Lure III, which makes fish bite sooner.

In Java, treasure only appears when the bobber lands in open water. That means a pool of water at least a few blocks wide and deep, with nothing but water and air around the bobber. A tiny one-block pond only gives fish and junk. So if you build an AFK fishing spot, give it a proper open pool.

Fishing also hands you other treasure, like name tags, saddles and enchanted bows. If Mending is all you want, a librarian is much faster. However, fishing is a good way to get Mending on the side while you build up emeralds.

Mending from loot

Mending can show up on random enchanted books in structure chests. You can't target it, so treat it as a lucky bonus while exploring. Trial chamber vaults are the one place that can hand out a Mending book directly, because their loot table names it. Each vault rewards each player once, so you need to find several trial chambers to try your luck more than once.

When to put Mending on

Mending costs 2 levels from a book on a fresh item. However, the prior work penalty of the item gets added on top, so the same book costs much more on gear that has been through the anvil many times.

So add Mending early. The best way is to merge it into your other books first, or add it in one of the first anvil steps. If you found old gear with great enchantments but no Mending, check its penalty with the prior work penalty calculator before you spend anything. For a full build, the enchantment calculator places Mending in the cheapest step automatically.

Mending and Unbreaking together

They do different jobs, and they don't exclude each other. Unbreaking III gives tools a 3 in 4 chance to skip each point of durability loss, so they wear out about four times slower. Mending then repairs what does get lost. Together, a tool needs a quarter of the experience it would need with Mending alone.

That matters most on gear with fast wear, like the elytra. An elytra loses durability every second you glide, so a full repair takes 216 experience points. With Unbreaking III on top, a long flight costs much less XP to fix.

Common Mending mistakes

• Expecting it to repair stored items. Only equipped items get repairs. Hold the tool you want fixed while you collect XP.
• Wondering why you level up slowly. Damaged Mending gear uses XP for repairs. To focus repairs on one tool, hold it and remove other damaged Mending gear. Fully repaired items do not use repair XP.
• Using Infinity on the same bow. In Java the two exclude each other. See Mending vs Infinity and can you put both on a bow.
• Repairing on the anvil anyway. Every anvil repair raises the penalty. With Mending, you never need to repair there.
• Letting gear break. Mending can't save an item that has already broken. Keep an eye on the durability bar during long fights.

Mending fits on almost everything with durability, from the shield and trident to the mace, spear and fishing rod.

Mending vs repairing on an anvil

Without Mending, you repair gear with materials on an anvil. Each diamond restores a quarter of a diamond tool's durability, so four diamonds fix a broken pickaxe. That costs levels, and it also raises the prior work penalty every time. After a few repairs, the pickaxe can't take any more books.

Mending costs no levels and never touches the penalty. The only price is the experience you would have put in your bar. So once an item has Mending, stop repairing it on the anvil completely. If an important item has no Mending yet, add Mending first, then let it fix itself.

Where to get the XP

Mending only works if you collect experience. Some sources are better than others for keeping gear repaired.

• Mob farms: any farm that brings mobs to you while you hold your gear gives steady XP. Mob spawners in dungeons are an easy first farm.
• Mining: coal, lapis, redstone, diamond, emerald and nether quartz ores all drop experience. Mining with a Mending pickaxe repairs it as you go.
• Furnaces: smelting stores experience in the furnace. You get it when you take the output, so a big smelting batch repairs whatever you hold.
• Trading: every villager trade drops a few orbs. A busy trading hall keeps your armor topped up.
• Breeding: each pair of animals you breed drops a small amount of experience.
• Bottles o' enchanting: throw them at your feet for instant orbs, which is handy far from a farm.

Fill your hands with the right item before you collect. For example, hold your pickaxe in the main hand and your shield in the offhand, so both get repaired along with your armor.

How many Mending books you need

Mending goes on each item separately. A full kit, with 14 items from helmet, chestplate, leggings, boots to shield and fishing rod, needs 14 Mending books. At 10 to 38 emeralds each, that is 140 to 532 emeralds before discounts, plus 14 plain books.

That is why one Mending librarian is the best trade you can lock. It restocks up to twice a day, so you can buy a few books each day while you build your emerald farms. A cured librarian makes the whole kit cheap, sometimes a single emerald per book.

Start with the items you use most, as the section above explains. Then add Mending to the rest as you get to them. Don't forget utility items: shears, flint and steel and the brush can all take it.