A player enchanting their diamond shovel with mending at an anvil.

Minecraft: How to Get the Mending Enchantment


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Key Takeaway

The best way to find the Mending enchantment is to trade with Librarian Villagers. You can increase your odds of success by turning unemployed Villagers into Librarians by using a Lectern. Alternatively, you can also look for Enchanted Books by looting Chests, fishing, and killing enemies during raids.

The Mending enchantment in Minecraft is what’s known as a “treasure enchantment.” As such, it cannot be obtained from an Enchanting Table. To get the Mending enchantment, you’ll have to find it in an Enchanted Book through one of four methods.

Table Of Contents

    Find an Enchanted Book With Mending Through Villager Trading

    A librarian villager standing next to a leatherworker villager. The Librarian has a red hat and is wearing glasses.

    Librarian Villagers can sometimes have trade options for Enchanted Books. The higher the Librarian’s level, the more Enchanted Books they will have to trade. When such a Villager reaches expert-level, they will have 4 different Enchanted Books to sell you.

    Although, the more powerful enchantments will cost more. Librarian Villagers will sell Enchanted Books for anywhere between 5 Emeralds to 64 Emeralds. Although expensive, this is the best method for getting an Enchanted Book with Mending, as you can increase the odds of finding one.

    How to Force an Enchanted Book With Mending to Spawn

    Since you can create more Librarian Villagers, this method is the best for trying to get an Enchanted Book with Mending.

    You can turn an unemployed Villager into a Librarian by getting them to make contact with a Lectern. Place a Lectern down near an unemployed Villager, and, shortly, they will turn into a Librarian.

    Each Librarian will have unique trade options. Due to this, you can create more Librarians for more chances to find a trade option for an Enchanted Book with Mending.

    To make a Lectern, you’ll need 4 Wooden Slabs of any kind as well as 1 Bookshelf. On a Crafting Table, start by placing the Bookshelf in the centermost slot. Next, fill the top row with 3 Wooden Slabs. Lastly, place the final Wooden Slab directly under the Bookshelf. This recipe will give you 1 Lectern.

    Find an Enchanted Book With Mending as Chest Loot

    A chest in a minecraft that is on some rails within an underground mineshaft.

    There are 9 different structures within which you can find an Enchanted Book that has Mending:

    • Ancient City
    • Desert Temple
    • Dungeon
    • Jungle Temple
    • Mineshaft
    • Pillager Outpost
    • Stronghold
    • Underwater Ruin
    • Woodland Mansion

    With that said, the type of enchantment on Enchanted Books found in the Chests of the aforementioned structures is randomized. As such, you’ll need to be pretty lucky to find Mending from this method.

    Find an Enchanted Book With Mending by Fishing

    The player fishing while it is raining. The line of the rod extends to a red and white bobber floating on the water nearby.

    You have a small chance to reel in an Enchanted Book while fishing, though, the odds are quite low. Out of every cast, you’ll only have a 5% chance to pull up a treasure item. Within this 5% chance, there is only a 16.7% chance that the treasure item will be an Enchanted Book. This means that the overall chance for you to reel in an Enchanted Book while fishing is 0.8%.

    Furthermore, the enchantment you get on a fished-up Enchanted Book is random, so, again, you’ll need to get pretty lucky to find the Mending enchantment this way.

    Find an Enchanted Book With Mending During Raids

    The player shooting at an illager with a banner during a raid with an enchanted bow.

    While there is a raid happening, you can potentially get a high-level Enchanted Book when you kill Pillagers and Vindicators. Since plenty of these enemies will spawn during a raid, you have decent chances of getting at least a few Enchanted Books.

    Although, like with Chest loot and fishing, the type of Enchanted Book you’ll get is randomized. For this reason, relying on raid drops isn’t a great way to get the Mending enchantment.

    How to Use the Mending Enchantment

    Opening the anvil menu while hovering over an Enchanted Book with Mending on it.

    Before you can start using the Mending enchantment, you’ll have to get it on a piece of gear. To do so, you’ll have to use an Anvil. Place the item you want to enchant as well as the Enchanted Book possessing Mending on an Anvil. The end product will be the item you inserted gaining the Mending effect. Keep in mind that the Enchanted Book will be consumed in this process.

    To make an Anvil, you’ll need 3 Blocks of Iron and 4 Iron Ingots. On a Crafting Table, place the 3 Blocks of Iron in the top row. Afterward, fill all remaining slots with Iron Ingots except for the middle-left and middle-right ones.

    What the Mending Enchantment Does

    When you have a damaged item with Mending equipped to your person, or in your hand, it will restore its durability when you make contact with experience orbs. For every 1 point of XP, Mending will restore 2 points of durability.

    If you have multiple pieces of gear with the Mending enchantment, which one gets repaired will be random. There is no priority. If you want something repaired over something else, then unequip the damaged item that you don’t want to be repaired.

    Can You Duplicate Enchanted Books?

    You cannot create copies of Enchanted Books in vanilla Minecraft. If you need more Enchanted Books with Mending, you’ll have to buy more from a Librarian Villager (or find one in another way). In this regard, be careful of how you use your treasure enchantments.

    Does Mending Consume XP?

    If you have an equipped item with Mending that is repairing itself, your character won’t get XP. As such, this mechanic will make it take longer for you to level up.

    Is the Mending Enchantment Worth the Trouble?

    To put it simply, Mending is only a good enchantment in some scenarios. The best item to put Mending on is an Elytra, as these flying tools are very rare and cannot be crafted—only found. Furthermore, enchanting most of your valuable mining tools with Mending is also a good idea in order to prolong their use.

    However, you straight-up don’t want Mending on a Sword at all. If your slaying mobs for XP, your Sword will continuously lose durability. As such, a Sword with Mending will constantly be repairing itself. This will drastically reduce the amount of XP you gain. Even using an XP farm won’t be very efficient if you try to gather those green orbs while you have a Mending Sword.