Table of Contents

Mending vs. Infinity: The Ultimate Bow Enchantment Showdown

The age-old Minecraft dilemma: mending or infinity on your bow? There’s no single right answer; it depends entirely on your play style, resource availability, and how you like to tackle the vast, blocky world. Let’s break down the pros and cons to help you make the best decision for your next bow enchantment.

In a nutshell: if you have reliable access to both arrows and experience, mending is the superior choice. It grants near-immortality to your bow, allowing it to repair itself continuously. However, if you struggle to maintain a steady arrow supply but have plenty of XP to spare, infinity is the better option, freeing you from the constant need to craft or collect arrows.

The Case for Mending: Immortality for Your Bow

Infinite Durability, With a Catch

Mending uses experience points to repair your bow’s durability. Every XP orb you collect while holding or wearing the item will repair it. This essentially makes your bow indestructible, as long as you continue to earn experience.

Synergies and Benefits

Excellent with XP Farms: If you have a well-established skeleton farm, enderman farm, or any other reliable source of XP, mending becomes incredibly powerful. Each arrow fired and mob defeated contributes to the bow’s longevity.
Works with Other Enchantments: Mending pairs perfectly with other enchantments like power V, punch II, and flame. You can build a truly devastating bow without sacrificing durability.
Reduces Resource Grinding: No more endlessly crafting arrows! While you still need that initial arrow for infinity, Mending eliminates the constant need for crafting and gathering materials for arrows.

The Drawbacks

Requires Active XP Collection: Mending only works when you are actively earning experience. During periods of exploration or building when you’re not actively farming XP, your bow’s durability will still decrease.
Opportunity Cost: You might want to put mending on other tools like pickaxes or armor, which gives you additional benefits than the single purpose of using it on a bow.
Can be Difficult to Obtain Early Game: Finding a mending enchantment book can be challenging in the early game, requiring luck with villager trades, loot chests, or fishing.

The Case for Infinity: Never Run Out of Arrows Again

The Power of a Single Arrow

Infinity allows you to fire an unlimited number of arrows from your bow, as long as you have at least one arrow in your inventory. This is a huge convenience, especially for players who dislike the constant arrow grind.

Benefits and Use Cases

Convenience and Simplicity: Never worrying about running out of arrows is a major quality-of-life improvement. You can focus on aiming and shooting without constantly checking your inventory.
Ideal for Explorers and Builders: If you spend a lot of time exploring or building, infinity is a great choice. You can defend yourself without worrying about arrow conservation.
Early Game Advantage: If you haven’t established reliable XP farms, infinity can be a lifesaver, allowing you to conserve resources and focus on building your base and infrastructure.

Limitations

Incompatible with Mending: The biggest downside is that infinity and mending are mutually exclusive. You can only choose one or the other.
Limited to Standard Arrows: Infinity only works with regular arrows. You cannot use tipped arrows or spectral arrows with an infinity bow.
Still Requires Arrow Crafting Initially: The initial arrow is still needed, which is a small task, but if resources are scarce for arrows, then infinity may be the better choice.

Making the Choice: A Flowchart

Here’s a simple flowchart to help you decide:

Do you have a reliable XP farm?
- Yes: Go to step 2.
- No: Go to step 3.
Do you have a reliable arrow source?
- Yes: Mending is likely better.
- No: Infinity may be better.
Are you constantly running out of arrows?
- Yes: Infinity is likely better.
- No: Mending may be better.
Do you prefer convenience over durability?
- Yes: Infinity is likely better.
- No: Mending may be better.

Considering Your Stage in the Game

Early Game: Infinity can be a fantastic early-game enchantment, especially if you’re struggling to gather resources.
Mid Game: As you establish farms and villager trading systems, mending becomes increasingly valuable.
Late Game: In the late game, with abundant resources and XP farms, mending is generally the preferred choice.

A Matter of Preference

Ultimately, the choice between mending and infinity comes down to personal preference. Some players value the convenience of unlimited arrows, while others prefer the long-term durability of a mending bow. There is no right or wrong answer, so experiment and see what works best for you. Remember, you can always have multiple bows with different enchantments for different situations!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can I put infinity and mending together?

No, you cannot. Infinity and mending are mutually exclusive enchantments, meaning they cannot be combined on the same bow. Mojang designed it this way to prevent players from having an overpowered, indestructible, and arrow-infinite bow.

2. Is mending or Unbreaking better?

Mending is generally considered better than Unbreaking for most items. While unbreaking extends an item’s lifespan, it will eventually break. Mending, on the other hand, effectively gives an item infinite durability as long as you continue to gain experience. Unbreaking III pairs extremely well with Mending as the bow will break much slower during times when you do not have XP.

3. What is infinity incompatible with?

Aside from mending, infinity is generally compatible with most bow enchantments. However, its limitation of not working with special arrows (tipped and spectral) is a notable drawback.

4. Does mending and infinity conflict?

Yes, mending and infinity are mutually exclusive, meaning they cannot be on the same bow. You must choose one or the other.

5. Can you have both Unbreaking and mending?

Yes, you can have both Unbreaking and mending on the same item, including a bow. Unbreaking will slow down the rate at which the item’s durability decreases, while mending will repair it using experience points.

6. Is Unbreaking 3 worth it if you have mending?

Yes, Unbreaking III is definitely worth it even if you have mending. It makes the item more durable in general, reducing the amount of experience needed to keep it fully repaired, or when in a situation where you can’t get xp.

7. Does mending 2 work?

There is no mending 2. The mending enchantment only has one level. Any claims of “mending 2” are usually due to mods, datapacks, or misunderstandings.

8. What is mending best for?

Mending is best for items you use frequently and want to keep in good repair, such as your bow, pickaxe, sword, armor, and elytra. It allows you to maintain these items indefinitely as long as you continue to collect experience.

9. Does Infinity cancel mending?

Yes, if you were to somehow combine infinity and mending through commands (which is normally impossible), they would likely conflict, and in normal gameplay, you can not put both on an item.

10. Can you put mending on a trident?

Yes, you can put mending on a trident. Mending is a highly desirable enchantment for tridents, especially since they can be difficult to repair otherwise.

11. Is mending 1 worth it?

Yes, mending 1 is absolutely worth it. Since mending only has one level, mending 1 is the maximum and only level possible. Any level of mending is extremely powerful.

12. How rare is mending 1?

Mending is a relatively rare enchantment. It can be found in loot chests, obtained through villager trading, or acquired through fishing. The exact rarity varies depending on the source.

13. Is mending only level 1?

Yes, the maximum and only level for the mending enchantment is level 1. There is no mending II or higher.

14. Can you put mending on armor?

Yes, you can put mending on armor. It is highly recommended to enchant your armor with mending to keep it in good repair, especially for valuable pieces like diamond or netherite armor.

15. Does mending take away XP?

Mending doesn’t exactly take away XP. Instead, it diverts a portion of the XP you earn towards repairing the enchanted item. Half of the earned XP goes to repairing the item at the rate of 2 durability per experience point, and the other half goes to the gamer’s level. Remember that the world of gaming extends beyond just playing; it also includes learning! To explore educational opportunities in gaming, check out the Games Learning Society at https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/.

Should I get mending or infinity?