Mending is easiest to obtain repeatedly through a librarian villager. Place a lectern beside an unemployed villager, inspect the first enchanted-book offer, and break the lectern if the offer is wrong. Replace it and repeat until the villager sells Mending. Buy the book before changing anything else, then combine it with the desired item on an anvil.
This method works because Mending is a treasure enchantment. It does not appear through an enchanting table, even at level 30. A normal librarian can offer an enchanted book at the first trade tier, so the job-site reroll avoids leveling several villagers before discovering the result.
Materials to prepare
- One lectern
- One unemployed villager
- One regular book
- Between 10 and 38 emeralds for the Mending trade
- An anvil and enough experience levels to apply the book
Keep extra emeralds if you plan to buy several copies. The quoted range applies to the base treasure-enchantment price before reputation, demand, or discounts alter the final amount shown by that villager.
Reroll the librarian safely
- Move an unemployed villager into a controlled area where it can reach one lectern.
- Place the lectern and wait for the villager to take the librarian profession.
- Open the trade screen and inspect the enchanted-book offer.
- If it is not Mending, close the screen and break the lectern before making any trade.
- Replace the lectern, confirm that the villager claims it again, and check the refreshed offer.
- When Mending appears, complete the trade. The purchase locks the profession and offer.
Do not trade for paper, bookshelves, or another item while searching. The first completed trade locks the villager’s profession, preventing the lectern cycle from changing its offers. If the offer will not reset, check working hours, lectern access, and whether another villager has claimed the block.
Apply Mending with an anvil
Put the equipment in the anvil’s first slot and the Mending book in the second. Confirm the experience cost, then take the result. The book is consumed. Mending has only one level, so combining two Mending I books will not create Mending II.
The enchantment repairs equipped or held gear when the player collects experience orbs. Each experience point in an orb restores two durability. If several damaged Mending items are eligible, the game chooses among them rather than repairing every item from the same orb.
Check the Trade Rebalance setting
The standard reroll method changes when the experimental Villager Trade Rebalance datapack is enabled. Under that experiment, Mending is tied to a master-level swamp librarian. Repeatedly resetting a novice librarian will not produce the normal result.
Check the world’s experiment settings before spending time on rerolls. Advice written for the experiment and advice for the normal trade system describe different rule sets, which is why two accurate guides can appear to contradict each other.
Other ways to find Mending
Mending books can also appear in non-village structure loot, fishing results, and raid drops. Those routes depend on random rewards and are less convenient when several tools or armor pieces need the enchantment. A locked librarian provides a renewable source as long as the villager remains safe and supplied.
Mending cannot be combined with Infinity on the same bow. Decide which enchantment matters more before paying the anvil cost. For most other eligible gear, the librarian route gives you enough control to repeat the purchase instead of waiting for another rare drop.
Protect the trade after unlocking it
Move the librarian away from zombies, lightning exposure, and open village paths once the offer is locked. Keep its lectern accessible if you want normal trade restocking. Write down the villager’s location or label the trading area so a valuable Mending source is not confused with another librarian later.
