Mending is a treasure enchantment — it can never come from an enchanting table. That leaves three real sources: villager trading, fishing, and loot chests. One of them is dramatically faster than the others.
1. Villager Trading — The Fast Method
A librarian's trades are randomized once, the moment it's assigned its profession via a lectern — but only if it's never been traded with. That's the entire trick:
- Get an unemployed villager next to a lectern.
- Check its trades. No Mending? Break the lectern and place a new one — this fires the villager and re-rolls a brand new trade set.
- Repeat. Never trade with a villager before you've confirmed it offers Mending — a single completed trade locks its offers in permanently.
On average, expect somewhere around 10–20 resets to hit a Mending offer, though it varies widely. A small trading hall with several lecterns lets you check multiple villagers per minute, making this by far the fastest reliable method.
If You're Playing With "Villager Trade Rebalance"
This opt-in experimental world setting (available since 1.20.2) restructures trades by biome. Under it, Mending becomes a guaranteed trade from a Master-rank Swamp Librarian — no resetting required, just leveling one villager up. Check your world's experiments settings before assuming which rules apply.
2. Fishing — Slow but Passive
5% of catches are "Treasure," and only 1 of 6 possible treasure items is an enchanted book — so roughly 0.8% of catches yield any enchanted book, and only a fraction of those will be Mending specifically. Luck of the Sea III roughly doubles your treasure odds (up to ~11.3%), and Lure speeds up bite time without changing the odds themselves. Good as a background AFK activity, bad as a primary strategy.
3. Loot Chests — A Nice Bonus, Not a Plan
Mending books can appear in strongholds, ancient cities, bastions, desert and jungle pyramids, mineshafts, end cities, and trial chamber vaults. Ancient City loot in particular got a boost to book odds in a past update. Worth checking opportunistically on your way through — not worth detouring for.
The Myth to Retire
Piglin Bartering Does NOT Give Mending
Bartering gold with piglins can yield an enchanted book — but only with Soul Speed, never Mending, Swift Sneak, or Wind Burst. If you've been grinding gold ingots hoping for Mending, that's the wrong Nether activity entirely.
Recommended Order of Operations
- Build a small villager breeder and trading hall.
- Reset lecterns on unemployed villagers, checking trades before ever trading.
- Let an AFK fishing setup run in the background for supplemental treasure.
- Loot early-game structures opportunistically, but don't rely on them.