How Hard Is It to Get a Mending Book from a Villager?

The difficulty of obtaining a Mending book from a villager in Minecraft is largely dependent on luck and the player’s willingness to manipulate the game mechanics. In essence, it can range from surprisingly easy to incredibly time-consuming. While the base probability of a librarian villager offering a Mending book as one of their trades is relatively low, the ability to repeatedly reset a villager’s trades makes it a manageable, albeit potentially tedious, task. With persistence and a good strategy, most players can reliably acquire a Mending villager within a reasonable timeframe, often within an hour or two of dedicated effort.

Understanding the Mechanics of Villager Trading

Before diving into the strategies, it’s crucial to understand how villager trading works, specifically focusing on librarian villagers and their trade offers. Librarian villagers are the key to acquiring Mending books, as they are the only villager profession that can naturally offer enchanted books as part of their trade list. The mechanics are governed by several factors:

• Profession: Each villager profession (armorer, cleric, farmer, etc.) has a unique set of items they can trade. Only librarians can offer enchanted books.
• Trade Tiers: Villagers have multiple trade tiers that unlock as you trade with them. However, Mending can appear as a first-tier trade, eliminating the need to level up the villager.
• Trade Locking: A villager will permanently lock in their trade offers once you make a trade with them. This means you need to avoid trading with a librarian until they offer a Mending book.
• Lecterns: The lectern is the workstation block that defines a villager as a librarian. Removing and replacing the lectern will reset the villager’s trade offers.
• Villager Work Schedule: Villagers need to be able to work.

The Mending Book Probability

While exact probabilities can vary slightly depending on the Minecraft version, the general consensus is that the chance of a librarian villager offering a Mending book as one of their initial trades is relatively low. The commonly cited range is around 1 in 36 if the book trade slot is chosen. Some older sources suggest even lower odds, but the ability to repeatedly reset trades makes this less of a hurdle than it initially seems. There used to be a chance for a bookshelf instead of a book, but as of recent updates, that is no longer the case, increasing the odds of getting a mending book.

Strategies for Acquiring a Mending Villager

The most common and effective strategy for obtaining a Mending villager involves the following steps:

1. Find or Breed Villagers: You’ll need at least one villager to start. If you don’t have any nearby villages, you can transport villagers from another location using boats or minecarts, or cure zombie villagers. Breeding is another reliable option; ensure the villagers have access to beds and food.
2. Create a Librarian Station: Build a small, enclosed area for the villager. Place a lectern inside the enclosure. If the villager is unemployed (doesn’t have a profession), they should claim the lectern and become a librarian.
3. Check the Trades: Right-click on the villager to open the trading interface. Examine their first-tier trade offers. If Mending isn’t present, proceed to the next step.
4. Reset the Trades: Break the lectern, wait a few seconds (ensuring the villager loses their profession), and then replace the lectern. This will reset the villager’s trades.
5. Repeat: Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the villager offers a Mending book. This process can be time-consuming, but it’s the most reliable way to get a Mending villager.
6. Lock in the Trade: Once you find a villager offering a Mending book, trade with them at least once to lock in that trade offer.
7. Zombie Curing Strategy: This involves infecting a villager with zombie virus, then curing them to drastically reduce the price of their trades. This can make it much cheaper to acquire many mending books from that villager.

Tips for Efficiency

• Enclosed Space: Keep the villager in a small, enclosed space to prevent them from wandering off while you’re resetting their trades.
• Patience: Be prepared for some repetition. The process can take time, but persistence is key.
• Zombie Villager Conversion: Consider finding or creating a zombie villager to turn into a villager. Curing a zombie villager gives that villager a huge discount.
• Multiple Villagers: Set up multiple librarian stations to reset multiple villagers at the same time. This significantly increases your chances of finding a Mending villager quickly.
• Name Tag: Once you have the villager and the trade you want, assign them a name tag to prevent them from despawning.

Price Negotiation

The price of a Mending book from a villager can vary. The base price ranges from 10 to 38 emeralds plus one book. However, several factors can influence the price:

• Villager Reputation: Trading with villagers and successfully defending them from raids will improve your reputation, leading to lower prices.
• Curing Zombie Villagers: Curing a zombie villager will significantly reduce their prices, often to as low as one emerald for a Mending book.
• Bad Omen: Being afflicted with the Bad Omen status effect from pillagers can cause villagers to temporarily increase their prices.

Other Ways to Get Mending

While villager trading is the most reliable method, there are a few other ways to acquire Mending books, although they are generally less efficient:

• Fishing: Fishing has a very small chance of yielding an enchanted book, which could be Mending. Enchanting your fishing rod with Luck of the Sea increases the odds.
• Stronghold Chests: Stronghold chests have a chance of containing enchanted books, including Mending.
• Dungeon Chests: Similar to strongholds, dungeon chests can also contain enchanted books, although the odds are lower.
• Raid Farms: A well-designed raid farm can produce a large number of emeralds and enchanted books.

Acquiring a Mending book from a villager in Minecraft is not inherently difficult, but it requires patience and strategic manipulation of game mechanics. By understanding the probabilities and employing efficient resetting techniques, most players can reliably secure a Mending villager within a reasonable time frame. Don’t forget to explore the Games Learning Society for more insights into game mechanics and strategies, available at GamesLearningSociety.org.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are 15 frequently asked questions related to obtaining Mending books from villagers in Minecraft:

1. Can a level 1 villager have mending?
   Yes, Mending can be the first trade a Librarian villager has, so there’s no need to level up a villager to unlock Mending from a higher tier trade.

2. What is a good villager price for mending?
   When a villager does offer Mending, it will cost between 10 and 38 emeralds, plus a book. This trade can be made up to 12 times before it stops being offered. Curing the villager as a zombie villager can lower the price to even 1 emerald.

3. Why won’t my villager accept a job?
   Villagers need to have beds. You will need 1 bed per villager. They do not need to be able to access this bed though, they only need to be linked to it. So you could set up an area within a close distance to where your Villagers are and then set up Beds.

4. How do you get villagers to forgive you?
   Trade with them. Trade with others near-by (not as effective). Purposely get him/her infected by a zombie, and then cure him/her (hard but works best).

5. Is there mending 2?
   The maximum level for the Mending enchantment is Level 1. This means that you can only enchant an item with up to Mending I, and nothing higher for this enchantment.

6. Is mending 1 worth it?
   Mending is one of the most powerful enchantments in Minecraft that essentially allows the players to restore the durability of certain items and make them stronger with the help of EXP (experience) orbs.

7. What should I put mending 1 on?
   You can combine Mending with just about any tool or piece of armor, even the Trident and Elytra, which are both fairly good items to put Mending on since their repair costs are high or they cannot otherwise be repaired. However, keep in mind that Mending cannot be combined with a bow that has Infinity.

8. Do I need Unbreaking if I have mending?
   Unbreaking 3 and Mending are not mutually exclusive. In reality, you want both if you can get it.

9. Should I get mending or infinity?
   Since bows can only have either Mending or Infinity on them, it makes more sense from a purely logistical standpoint to use Infinity on the bow. This saves the player from having to endlessly craft arrows, and it works all the time, whereas mending only works when getting experience orbs.

10. Does mending cancel infinity?
    Mending and Infinity are mutually exclusive. However, if combined with commands, both enchantments function as normal.

11. Does mending fully repair?
    Any items with Mending in the player’s main hand, offhand, or armor slots that are not at maximum durability are repaired by experience orbs collected from any source. The rate of repair is two durability per point of experience contained in the orb.

12. Does mending work on axes?
    The mending enchantment takes your EXP and instantly repairs your damaged tool. Since this is an overpowered enchantment, there aren’t any levels to it. This is extremely helpful in almost any situation when using your axe.

13. How do you cure a zombie villager?
    Throw the Splash Potion of Weakness at the zombie villager. Feed the villager a Golden Apple – you can do this by approaching the zombie villager and pressing the ‘use’ button.

14. How do you know if a villager is mending?
    Place the lectern inside the house. The villager should walk up to it and become a librarian if all has been done as described. Now right-click the villager to open trade and see if they have mending!

15. Can Unbreaking and mending go together?
    Yes you can do that.