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Mending vs. Unbreaking: The Ultimate Minecraft Enchantment Showdown

Is Mending better than Unbreaking in Minecraft? In most cases, the answer is a resounding yes. While Unbreaking extends the lifespan of your tools and armor, Mending offers the potential for virtually infinite durability, making it the superior choice for valuable items made of diamonds or netherite. Let’s dive into the intricacies of each enchantment and explore why Mending reigns supreme.

Understanding Mending and Unbreaking

Before we delve deeper, it’s crucial to understand what these enchantments do.

What is Mending?

Mending is a unique enchantment that utilizes experience points (XP) to repair damaged items. When equipped, any XP you gain from activities like mining, defeating mobs, or completing trades will automatically repair your tools, weapons, and armor. Each point of XP restores two points of durability. This allows you to keep your gear in pristine condition indefinitely, as long as you continue to earn XP.

What is Unbreaking?

Unbreaking increases the durability of your items, effectively extending their lifespan before they require repair. The higher the level of Unbreaking (up to level III), the more durable the item becomes. Unbreaking I doubles the item’s lifespan, Unbreaking II triples it, and Unbreaking III quadruples it. While valuable, this enchantment only delays the inevitable need for repair, which can become costly with high-tier materials.

Why Mending Usually Wins

The main advantage of Mending is its potential for infinite durability. With a reliable source of XP, such as a mob farm or efficient mining techniques, you can essentially negate the need for traditional repairs altogether. This is especially critical for items crafted from rare materials like diamonds or netherite, where repairs can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. While Unbreaking III significantly extends an item’s lifespan, it doesn’t eliminate the need for repairs, making it a less sustainable solution in the long run.

Situations Where Unbreaking Still Matters

Despite the overwhelming advantages of Mending, there are specific situations where Unbreaking can still be valuable:

Early Game: When XP is scarce, and you haven’t yet established reliable XP farms, Unbreaking can provide a significant boost to the lifespan of your early-game tools and armor.
Specific Items: Certain items like Elytra, which are expensive to repair, benefit greatly from Mending.
Pairing with Mending: Using Unbreaking alongside Mending provides the best of both worlds. The Unbreaking enchantment decreases the rate in which your items lose durability while Mending lets you repair those items, maximizing the effectiveness of each XP point earned.

Practical Considerations

XP Efficiency: Maximizing your XP gains is essential for making the most of Mending. Consider building XP farms or utilizing efficient mining methods.
Repair Costs: Using both Unbreaking and Mending reduces the rate in which your items lose durability, resulting in lower repair costs.
Enchanting Strategies: Combine Mending with other useful enchantments like Efficiency, Fortune, and Sharpness to create powerful and long-lasting tools and weapons.

Mending vs. Infinity on Bows

One notable exception to the “Mending is superior” rule involves bows. The Infinity enchantment, which provides an unlimited supply of arrows, is mutually exclusive with Mending. In this case, the choice depends on your play style and resource availability.

Mending on Bows: Requires using actual arrows but allows the bow to be repaired with XP. This is a good choice if you have a reliable source of arrows and XP.
Infinity on Bows: Removes the need for arrows, simplifying combat. However, the bow will still eventually require repair using traditional methods.

Conclusion

While Unbreaking remains a useful enchantment for extending the life of your Minecraft gear, Mending provides a far more sustainable and cost-effective solution in the long run, especially for valuable items. By carefully managing your XP and combining Mending with other enchantments, you can create a set of tools and armor that will last indefinitely, allowing you to focus on other aspects of the game. Understanding the specific situations where Unbreaking can still be beneficial ensures you can make informed decisions and optimize your enchanting strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can you put Mending and Unbreaking together?

Yes, you can absolutely put Mending and Unbreaking together on the same item. This is generally the preferred approach for maximizing the lifespan of valuable tools and armor. Unbreaking will slow down durability loss, while Mending will repair the item using experience points.

2. Is Mending enchantment worth it?

For gear made from precious materials like diamonds or netherite, Mending is undeniably worth it. Repairing these items without Mending requires more of these valuable resources. Mending provides a sustainable, long-term solution for maintaining your most important equipment.

3. Does Unbreaking 3 increase durability significantly?

Yes, Unbreaking III significantly increases durability. On average, Unbreaking III will let your tools and armor last four times as long as they would without the enchantment.

4. Is Unbreaking 3 worth it if you have Mending?

Yes, Unbreaking III is still worth it even if you have Mending. The combination of both enchantments is ideal. Unbreaking slows down the rate of durability loss, making Mending even more efficient in repairing the item.

5. What’s better, Mending or Infinity on a bow?

The better enchantment for a bow depends on your play style and resource management. With Infinity, you only need one arrow, but the bow must be repaired conventionally. With Mending, you need to use arrows, but the bow repairs itself with XP. If you have a reliable source of arrows and XP, Mending is generally better.

6. Can I get Mending from fishing?

Yes, you can get Mending from fishing. While it’s a relatively rare catch, fishing is one of the ways to obtain Mending enchantment books. Using a fishing rod with the Luck of the Sea enchantment can increase your chances of finding enchanted books, including Mending.

7. Does Mending take away XP?

Yes, the Mending enchantment uses experience points to repair your tools, weapons, and armor. Each time you gain experience, it is automatically used to repair any damaged Mending-enchanted items that you have equipped.

8. Will Unbreaking and Mending make an item last forever?

With a sufficient XP source, yes, Unbreaking and Mending can effectively make an item last forever. Unbreaking reduces the rate of durability loss, and Mending repairs the item whenever you gain XP, creating a self-sustaining loop.

9. What enchantments are incompatible with Mending?

The only enchantment that is incompatible with Mending is Infinity. This means you cannot have both Mending and Infinity on the same item, particularly bows.

10. How rare is Mending from fishing?

The chance of getting a Mending enchantment book from fishing is relatively low, around 0.8% under normal conditions. This number can be increased by using a fishing rod with the Luck of the Sea enchantment.

11. What should I put Mending on first?

Mending is best applied to tools and armor that are expensive to repair or cannot be repaired by traditional means, such as the Elytra. Netherite and diamond gear are also excellent candidates for the Mending enchantment.

12. Is Mending 1 the maximum level?

Yes, Mending only has one level (Mending I), which is the maximum level for this enchantment.

13. Is Mending worth it on a fishing rod?

Yes, Mending is highly beneficial on a fishing rod. A fishing rod with Mending has virtually infinite durability if used primarily for fishing, as it repairs itself with the XP gained from catching fish.

14. Can you get Mending 2?

No, there is no Mending 2. Mending only exists at level 1 (Mending I).

15. How can I find a villager that sells Mending?

The easiest way to find a villager who sells Mending is to look for a Librarian. Swamp Villages can have these. You can also convert a regular villager into a Librarian by placing a Lectern near them. The trades offered by a Librarian are random, so you may need to cycle through trades or find a new Librarian to get the Mending enchantment.

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Is mending better than Unbreaking?