It is perhaps impossible to argue that Mending is not the best enchantment in Minecraft. This enchantment makes players’ tools and weapons nearly indestructible, as once equipped, items will recover two durability for each experience point gained. As experience can be gained by farming, mining, mob killing, trading, gaining progress and just about everything else in the game, players will surely repair their tools faster than they can. break them.
Mending is a special type of enchantment known as a treasure enchantment, which means it can not be obtained by traditional enchantment. It requires an enchanted book to work, and the book can be applied to any tool or weapon in the game, from netherite swords to pairs of shears. The only restriction on the repair is that it cannot be applied to a bow that already has the Infinite enchantment.
How to Get the Repair Enchantment in Minecraft
Chest loot
In order to obtain a tool or weapon enchanted with Mending, players will need to locate an enchanted Mending book in the wild. These books can only produce especially chests from natural structures, but it is still possible to get them by other means. Repair books can be found in chests inside all of the following structures:
- Dungeons
- mine shafts
- ancient cities
- desert temples
- Woodland Mansions
- underwater ruins
- Pillage Outposts
Any chest in one of these structures has >10% chance of having an enchanted book, however, it is not necessarily a repair. This means that while players can find loads of enchanted books on their travels, repair is still quite rare. Underwater Ruins and Desert Temples both have higher than average chances of containing books, and Desert Temples are guaranteed to have four chests, making them two great options to seek out.
The best structures, however, have to be Ancient Cities. These underground cities are filled with chests, and each one has a 35.9% chance of containing a book; the best rating of any structure. Ancient cities are very hard to find, forming deep underground in deep, dark caves, and they are incredibly dangerous. Players should be well stocked with wool when entering, to avoid accidentally summoning a guardian.
Trader Villager
Luckily, random chest loot isn’t the only option for getting the repair enchantment, which means players who’ve exhausted all nearby structures are out of luck. Repair books can also be obtained through villager trade. Librarians can offer enchanted book trades at any level, and the type of enchanted book they offer is completely random, meaning it’s still extremely rare to be offered the repair.
When a villager offers mending, it will cost you between 10 and 38 emeralds, plus a book. This trade can be made up to 12 times before it stops being offered. It is possible for the villager to offer the trade again at a higher level, although players will need to complete additional trades in order to increase their level to see. Players can also get trade discounts if the villager is a recently healed zombie villager or was recently rescued from a raid.
Luckily, villagers can be leveled up infinitely, which means players can keep producing new villagers. By using a village farm to produce baby villagers, these villagers can be forced to become librarians quite easily. Villagers start out as unemployed when they mature and will start looking for work. When they do, they will try to find an unclaimed “yard block” within 48 blocks. They must be able to find a way at the block to make it work.
By enclosing the villagers in a small area with a desk (the librarian’s construction block), they will eventually accept their role as librarian. This will also work with villagers who already have a job, as they will give up their old jobs if they can’t reach their construction blocks. Each lectern can only be claimed by one villager at a time, so players will need to kill villagers who offer the wrong trades (or simply craft more lecterns).
Players should beware of idiots though. The Nitwits are villagers in green robes who refuse to work. As such, players shouldn’t bother locking them up with lecterns, as they’ll never convert to Librarians.
Fishing
If players don’t want to slaughter villagers until luck is on their side, they can opt for the much more soothing option of fishing. When fishing, players have a rare chance of catching treasure other than fish, and enchanted books are a possibility. There are three different categories of catchable items when fishing: fish, treasure, and junk. Treasure is the rarest, having a 5% chance to drop on any given grab.
When the treasure Is get caught, there is a 1 in 6 chance that this treasure is an enchanted book. When this book is fished it can be any enchantment except Swift Sneak or Soul Speed which means there is a very low, but not impossible chance of it being repaired. Overall, there is a 0.8% chance of getting an enchanted book, period. This can be increased if players enchant their fishing rods with Luck of the Sea, which increases rates to:
- 1.2% Sea Luck I
- 1.5% Sea Luck II
- 1.9% Sea Luck III
All in all, it will always be a incredibly rare find, but considering how powerful the enchantment is, it seems fair.
Raid Drops
Finally, repair can be obtained from rare drops during villager raids, but only for players playing on Bedrock Edition. Just like all of the aforementioned methods, almost any type of book can be removed, so repair is not only not guaranteed, but extremely rare. The two mobs that are likely to drop them are vindictive and looting.
These two monsters have a 2 in 39 chance of dropping an enchanted book, and that’s only during raids. Killing them at their outposts or in woodland mansions won’t do players any good. This method offers some of the worst chances of getting repair books, however, it can be done in conjunction with trading villagers, as defeating raids will give players discounts, and players will have to wait while villagers spawn in any event.
To trigger a raid, players must enter a village with the Bad Omen effect active. These can be either naturally-created or player-created villages, meaning they can be set up near looter outposts for convenience. To create a village, players must ensure that there is at least one villager and a bed, and these villagers must be protected from outside attacks. Then, to trigger a raid, players need to kill a Captain Illager, who spawns in a looting outpost.
Illager captains are identified by the sinister banners they display above their heads. After killing one, the player will be immediately hit by Bad Omen and will have to quickly rush to a village to start a raid. Players will lose their Bad Omen effect if they die or drink milk, or let an hour and 40 minutes pass.
The number of waves in a raid will depend on the player’s difficulty, so if players are trying to maximize the number of looters and vindictive, they should play on Hard for at least less the duration of the raid. Hard Raids will consist of seven waves featuring a total of 33 Raiders and Vindicators, meaning there’s a good chance of receiving an Enchanted Book each raid.
Pillagers will spawn in looter outposts indefinitely, provided the block they spawn on is light level eight or lower. Similar to dungeons, they can even spawn when players are inside the outpost. This means that players can, in theory, trigger an infinite number of raids with a single looter outpost, allowing them to search for books.
How to use the enchanted book
Once players finally get their hands on an Enchanted Book of Repair, they can apply it to any tool or weapon they want using an anvil. Simply place the item in the anvil next to the book and the player will need to pay an experience fee to add the enchantment to the item. The cost of the fee will depend on what enchantments the item already has.
Minecraft has a maximum price it can charge before it gets “too expensive,” and the game won’t let players realize that. This charge is 39 levels, which can happen if a player tries to attach a repair book to an item that already has enchantment charges on it. This shouldn’t be a problem under normal circumstances. For example, an Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, Fortune III diamond pickaxe costs only nine levels to add Mending, but in extreme cases over-enchanted items may not be allowed to have the enchantment.