Imagine going on a mining quest in the caves only to witness your pickaxe break at a key moment. This is common in Minecraft because of the game's strict durability system. But, what if your items could repair themselves while you are simply using them? That's exactly what the mending enchantment allows them to do. This enchantment lets all your equipment repair itself for free, restoring its durability. But getting your hands on mending isn't as easy as using it. So, let's jump in and learn how to get mending enchantment in Minecraft within no time.

How to Get Mending Enchantment in Minecraft

Mending is a highly sought-after and rare enchantment in top Minecraft survival servers. But it takes some extra effort to obtain. To ensure you don't make any mistakes, be sure to carefully follow our guide. 

What is Mending Enchantment in Minecraft

Mending is a powerful enchantment in Minecraft. It allows for automatic repair of your equipment while carrying or using it. It works by consuming experience points and using them to restore the durability of a damaged item.

Thanks to mending enchantment in Minecraft, you can forget about using blocks like Grindstone to repair your items. This can be game-changing in areas where you lose durability quite frequently. The Minecraft prison servers are prime candidates for the same.

What Items Can You Put Mending On

You can apply the mending enchantment on all items that support durability in Minecraft. The complete list includes:

• Axe
• Boots
• Bow
• Brush
• Carrot on a Stick
• Chestplate
• Crossbow
• Elytra
• Fishing Rod
• Flint and Steel
• Helmet
• Hoe
• Leggings
• Pickaxe
• Shield
• Shears
• Shovel
• Sword
• Trident
• Turtle Shell
• Warped Fungus on a Stick

Please keep in mind that bows that have infinity enchantment applied to them won't allow you to add mending. This is because the two enchantments are quite similar and having them on the same item would be a massive unfair advantage to the user.

How to Get Mending Enchantment in Minecraft

With its basics out of the way, let's figure out how to get mending enchantment in Minecraft. However, the journey isn't as simple as most other enchantments in the game. Since mending is a "treasure" enchantment, it doesn't appear on the Enchanting Table. Instead, the only way to apply mending to your tools is with the help of enchanted books of Minecraft.

Get Mending Enchanted Books

You can get the enchanted books for mending enchantment in Minecraft with the following methods:

• Trading with librarian villagers at novice, apprentice, journeyman, and expert levels.
• Chest loot in various structures across the overworld and the Nether dimension. The libraries in the stronghold have the best chances of generating chests with enchanted books.
• Fishing in the overworld, preferably with the Luck of Sea enchantment.
• Killing Vindicators and Pillagers during a raid on the Bedrock edition.

Furthermore, with Minecraft 1.20.2, you can also find mending enchanted books in Ancient Cities. They are the only structures that have a high chance of generating mending enchantment as chest loot. 

Command to Obtain Enchanted Book with Mending

If the traditional methods of obtaining an enchanted book in Minecraft yield no results then it's time to get additional help. By enabling cheats in your world, you can utilize the following command to acquire a mending enchanted book in the Java edition:

/give @p enchanted_book{StoredEnchantments:[{id:mending,lvl:1}]} 1

Furthermore, you can also obtain an item already equipped with the mending enchantment by using this command:

/give @p diamond_sword{Enchantments:[{id:mending,lvl:1}]} 1

Feel free to replace "diamond_sword" in the above command with any item of your preference. However, it's important to note that using either of these commands on popular Minecraft SMP servers may result in a ban. Exercise caution accordingly.

Can You Get Mending Enchantment Without Books

Without commands or books, the only way to obtain mending in Minecraft is by locating an item that is already enchanted with it. For that, your best options are the following:

• Finding and looting an End city in Minecraft, which often spawns with enchanted tools
• Killing zombies, husks, and other mobs that might carry enchanted weapons and tools

Though to keep things easy for yourself, highly suggest you stick with the enchanted books only.

How To Use Mending in Minecraft

Follow these simple steps to use an enchanted book to apply to mend enchantment in Minecraft:

1. First, make an anvil in Minecraft by combining three blocks of iron with three iron ingots.

2. Then, open up the anvil and place the item you want to enchant in its left slot. You can scroll up and check the earlier part of our guide to find a complete list of compatible items.

3. Finally, place the enchanted book in the middle slot and pick up your enchanted item from the anvil.

4. Once your item is enchanted with mending, you can go around using it freely in your adventure. Whenever you collect experience points, the equipped item consumes them to restore durability.

If you face any issues regarding enchanted books in Minecraft, you can use our linked guide to dive deeper and resolve all conflicts.

Basic Mechanics of Mending Enchantment

Much like every other powerful ability in Minecraft, mending comes with a set of rules and restrictions. You just need to learn the following principles to make the most out of it:

• This enchantment only works when your enchanted item is in your hands (main or off) or the armor slots.
• Mending enchantment in Minecraft automatically excludes items that are already at their maximum durability. If there are no items in need of repair, the experience orbs you gather are accumulated in your experience bar.
• The experience you have already collected cannot be used to repair items with the mending enchantment. You have to collect fresh experience orbs to restore durability.
• Every experience point you collect restores exactly two points of durability. This isn't affected by the amount of damage that an item has taken.

What Happens If You Have Multiple Items with Mending

The mending enchantment functions flawlessly when attempting to repair the item in your current hand. However, in certain situations, your off-hand item or even your armor may also possess the mending enchantment. In such scenarios, Minecraft randomly chooses one of the enchanted items to repair.

The selection process isn't affected by the extent of damage an item has sustained. But it does disregard items that have reached maximum durability. Furthermore, the selection once made is final. Any leftover experience after repairing the target item goes into your XP bar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does mending 1 last forever?

Unless your item breaks or you manually disenchant the item, the mending enchantment in Minecraft lasts forever.

Is mending better than unbreaking?

Even though the unbreaking enchantment significantly prolongs the life of an item, it cannot repair the item. The ability to auto-repair an item while it's being used makes mending the ultimate winner.

How rare is mending 1 in Minecraft?

Mending is one of the few treasure enchantments of Minecraft that can't be obtained with an Enchantment Table. This makes it quite hard to obtain.

Can you put mending on a bow?

You can add mending enchantment of a bow only if that bow doesn't have infinity on it. Both of these powerful enchantments are mutually exclusive.

How does mending work on Elytra?

While you can put mending on an Elytra in Minecraft, unlike other items, there is no way to obtain experience while using it. So, you will have to rely on other methods to obtain XP to repair your Elytra.

Use Mending Enchantment in Minecraft to Repair Your Items

Once you have unlocked mending enchantment in Minecraft, all your durability worries will go away, especially in the case of mining. But, this isn't the only enchantment that can help with your expedition. You can also get all the best Minecraft pickaxe enchantments to truly take your tool to the next level. As for the actual mining, our Minecraft 1.20 ore distribution guide will help you out. With that said, it's time to grab your gear and start your next adventure. Happy mining!