I think it repairs the tool you are holding when you get XP.
Also counts for items you're holding in the off hand. So if your using a sword in your primary hand to kill things, a pickaxe with mending in your other hand will get repaired.
I think this was a replacement for the pre-1.8 mechanic of renaming an item so you could repair it forever in an anvil - except you don't even need an anvil or additional resources and the XP cost is much lower in most cases (since each XP restores 2 durability 781 XP (1562 durability) will fully restore a diamond tool. By comparison, repairing a Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III diamond sword before 1.8 requires 35 levels (1205 XP) and 2 diamonds for a half-repair, or 2410 XP and 4 diamonds for a full repair (using a new sword is too expensive). Try adding any other enchantments and it is impossible to repair at all; IMO they should have made Mending just replace renaming in keeping the prior work penalty down, with the same repair costs as pre-1.8, to make it more balanced. Not that I'm complaining, as one who made a mod for 1.8 that reverts the anvil mechanics).
For another perspective of how easy it is to indefinitely maintain your gear with Mending, each mob you kill drops 5 XP (plus additional XP for armored mobs), which can restore a total of 10 durability to multiple items (e.g. weapon and armor), and with Unbreaking III you quadruple the uses restored to tools and add 43% to armor hits. Over the roughly 6248 uses an Unbreaking III diamond tool has you'll get as much as 62480 durability back in XP (one-hit kills) - no more standing at a mob grinder to get enough XP to repair your gear or enchant new gear (even if you do just use the sword or tool you want to repair to kill them, no more using stone swords or fists).
Note that surplus XP (no items to repair) goes towards your XP bar so you can still gain levels.
It will first repair the tool that you have in your hand.
When the "hand tool" is repaired, the other tools will start to repair.
Nope; the game selects any item at random, it doesn't matter what slot it is in; there is no mention of that anywhere on the Wiki, including on the Talk page where they mention the code:
When an item with the enchantment is held (main hand, offhand, or armor slots), XP orbs collected will repair the item at a rate of 2 durability per XP instead of adding the XP to the player's total. If multiple items have the enchantment, one will be chosen at random for each XP orb collected, and if the chosen item does not need repair, the XP will be added to the player's total as normal, rather than choosing another item. If no items need repair, the player will get the XP directly.
Yes. The fishing rod in the main hand has Mending, and I'm wearing a pair of enchanted elytra. Someone on the server asked the same question when I brought this up, so I'm guessing the code checks for any item with Mending regardless of durability and selects one randomly, falling back to the xp level for excess xp points. Can you confirm this? —Fenhl 13:51, 6 November 2015 (UTC)
Yes, that's exactly what it does. Anomie x (talk) 14:07, 6 November 2015 (UTC)
Nope; the game selects any item at random, it doesn't matter what slot it is in; there is no mention of that anywhere on the Wiki, including on the Talk page where they mention the code:
Exactly - there is no order, it only repairs the "equipped items" wherever slot they are (my armor is always repaired first than my sword - what breaks what this guy says). And I confirm this by experience repairing tools in a spawner trap - about three days ago I found a villager selling mending for 24 emeralds... so now I have every item possible with the enchant on.
Ok, so I might sound like a total doofus saying this because I haven't played minecraft in a while, but what does the Mending enchantment do?
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The Mending enchantment is a single level enchantment that can be applied to pretty much anything with durability.
It cannot be enchanted onto items with an enchanting table and needs to be found in chests, fished with a fishing rod or sold by librarian villagers.
When applied to an item every experience orb you pick up will repair items at a rate of 2 durability for 1 experience.
Once the item is fully repaired experience will be added to your levels as usual, but levels cannot be converted into durability.
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Also counts for items you're holding in the off hand. So if your using a sword in your primary hand to kill things, a pickaxe with mending in your other hand will get repaired.
I think this was a replacement for the pre-1.8 mechanic of renaming an item so you could repair it forever in an anvil - except you don't even need an anvil or additional resources and the XP cost is much lower in most cases (since each XP restores 2 durability 781 XP (1562 durability) will fully restore a diamond tool. By comparison, repairing a Sharpness V, Knockback II, Unbreaking III diamond sword before 1.8 requires 35 levels (1205 XP) and 2 diamonds for a half-repair, or 2410 XP and 4 diamonds for a full repair (using a new sword is too expensive). Try adding any other enchantments and it is impossible to repair at all; IMO they should have made Mending just replace renaming in keeping the prior work penalty down, with the same repair costs as pre-1.8, to make it more balanced. Not that I'm complaining, as one who made a mod for 1.8 that reverts the anvil mechanics).
For another perspective of how easy it is to indefinitely maintain your gear with Mending, each mob you kill drops 5 XP (plus additional XP for armored mobs), which can restore a total of 10 durability to multiple items (e.g. weapon and armor), and with Unbreaking III you quadruple the uses restored to tools and add 43% to armor hits. Over the roughly 6248 uses an Unbreaking III diamond tool has you'll get as much as 62480 durability back in XP (one-hit kills) - no more standing at a mob grinder to get enough XP to repair your gear or enchant new gear (even if you do just use the sword or tool you want to repair to kill them, no more using stone swords or fists).
Note that surplus XP (no items to repair) goes towards your XP bar so you can still gain levels.
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i found it out it repairs your item using exp you pick up! really true
Yes, but I think it repairs your armor to.
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Nope; the game selects any item at random, it doesn't matter what slot it is in; there is no mention of that anywhere on the Wiki, including on the Talk page where they mention the code:
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Exactly - there is no order, it only repairs the "equipped items" wherever slot they are (my armor is always repaired first than my sword - what breaks what this guy says). And I confirm this by experience repairing tools in a spawner trap - about three days ago I found a villager selling mending for 24 emeralds... so now I have every item possible with the enchant on.