Last updated: 26 September 2026

How to Get Mending in Minecraft

Mending repairs your gear with the XP you collect, so it is the enchantment everybody wants and nobody finds on the enchanting table. It is a treasure enchantment: it only comes from villager trades, fishing, and loot. This guide ranks every source, and shows the librarian lectern-reset method step by step.

01Why You Can't Enchant Mending

Mending is a treasure enchantment. The enchanting table never offers it, no matter how many bookshelves surround it, so the only way to get it is as a finished enchanted book (or on an item found as loot) and then combine it at an anvil.

Per the Minecraft Wiki, it has a single level, conflicts with Infinity, and repairs 2 durability per XP point in each orb you collect. With several damaged Mending items, each orb picks one of them at random.

02Every Way to Get Mending, Ranked

1. Librarian villager (best): available in both editions from a librarian at any trade level. You control the outcome by resetting the trade before you buy anything.
2. Structure loot: enchanted books in several chests can roll treasure enchantments. Pure luck, but free.
3. Fishing: treasure catches can be enchanted books. Slow, and the odds are low.
4. Raids: the wiki lists raid drops as a source; on Bedrock, raiding Vindicators and Pillagers can drop enchanted books.

If you just want Mending and don't want to gamble, go straight to the librarian.

03Method 1: Librarian and the Lectern Reset

A librarian's job site block is the lectern. Trades are generated when the villager takes the job, and the key rule is: once you trade with a villager, it keeps its profession forever and its offers are locked. Until that first trade, you can reroll.

1. Build a lectern and a small cell for a villager with no profession (or one that will lose it), so it can't wander or be hit by mobs.
2. Place the lectern next to the villager. It becomes a librarian and rolls its trade list; open the trade menu and look at the enchanted book offers.
3. No Mending? Break the lectern. The now-unemployed librarian loses the profession. Place the lectern again and check the new list. Repeat.
4. When Mending shows up, make one trade immediately (the Mending book itself is best) to lock the list.
5. Buy the book. Treasure enchantments cost roughly double a normal book: the wiki's range for a level I treasure book is 10–38 emeralds.

Never trade with the villager "just to test" before you see Mending: that locks in whatever it had. If a librarian rolls something useless and you have already traded, there is no reset; leave it for another purpose and use a fresh villager.

04Making the Book Cheaper

Price is fixed when the trade is generated, but discounts stack on top of it. Curing a zombie villager and the Hero of the Village effect both lower prices; the details are in our Villager Trading Guide. Discounts from curing are permanent, so cure the villager before you lock the trade if you are farming the cheapest possible Mending.

05Method 2: Structure Loot

Some chests hold enchanted books that can roll treasure enchantments, including Mending. According to the wiki, the random-enchantment books in these places treat all enchantments as equally likely, treasure ones included:

• Monster rooms (dungeons) and mineshafts
• Ancient cities and woodland mansions
• Desert pyramids, pillager outposts and ocean ruins

Jungle pyramids and strongholds (storeroom, altar and library chests) hold books that follow level-30 rules, which can also apply treasure enchantments.

Because every enchantment is in the pool, any one chest is a long shot. Loot what you pass, but don't plan a Mending run around it.

06Method 3: Fishing

Fishing can catch an enchanted book only in the treasure category, and treasure catches require your bobber to sit in open water (a roughly 5×4×5 area of water). The wiki puts enchanted books at about 0.83% of catches without Luck of the Sea, rising to about 1.89% at Luck of the Sea III, and the book still has to roll Mending.

Fishing is best done AFK while you do something else, not as a dedicated Mending hunt.

07Villager Trade Rebalance (Experimental)

Mojang is testing a change that alters librarians. With the Villager Trade Rebalance experiment turned on (an experimental data pack in Java, an Experiments toggle in Bedrock), Mending becomes a fixed-level special book sold by Master-level librarians from swamp villages, and the ancient city loot table gets a higher chance of it.

Per the wiki, librarian and armorer changes are still experimental; only the cartographer and wandering trader changes have shipped in the base game. Check that page for your version before assuming the experiment is in a normal world.

08After You Have the Book

Combine the book with your tool, weapon or armor at an anvil. Mending and Unbreaking are a classic pair; Mending is not compatible with Infinity on a bow. Keep the item in your hand, off-hand or armor slots when you pick up XP, or the repair won't trigger. Our Enchanting Guide covers anvil costs and the Prior Work Penalty.