You’ve spent hours grinding for XP. You finally landed that Sharpness V and Unbreaking III combo on your Netherite sword. Then, you look down at the durability bar. It’s a sliver of red. One more hit on a stray Creeper and that masterpiece is gone forever. It's a gut-wrenching feeling that every long-term player knows too well.
Learning how to repair weapons on Minecraft isn't just about keeping your gear functional; it’s about resource management and protecting your time investment. There are actually three distinct ways to fix your gear, and honestly, if you pick the wrong one, you might accidentally wipe out those expensive enchantments you worked so hard to get.
The Crafting Grid Method: The Quick and Dirty Fix
Let’s start with the most basic way. You can literally just open your inventory and throw two damaged swords into the 2x2 crafting square. This combines their durability. It’s fast. It’s free.
But there is a massive catch.
When you use the crafting grid or a grindstone to repair items, you lose every single enchantment on those items. If you have a plain iron sword you found in a shipwreck, sure, go for it. But never, ever do this with enchanted gear. You’re basically stripping the magic off the metal. The game gives you a 5% durability bonus when you combine items this way, which is a nice touch, but it rarely outweighs the cost of losing a high-level enchant.
I see new players make this mistake constantly. They think they're being efficient by "cleaning" their inventory, only to realize their "Looting III" blade is now just a regular stick of iron.
Why the Anvil is Your Best Friend (Mostly)
If you want to keep your enchantments, you need an Anvil. Period.
To craft one, you’ll need three blocks of iron and four iron ingots. It’s heavy on resources, but it’s the backbone of mid-game survival. When you use an Anvil to how to repair weapons on Minecraft, you have two choices. You can combine two of the same weapon (like two enchanted bows) or you can use the raw material the weapon is made of.
For example, if your diamond axe is chipping, you can put it in the first slot of the Anvil and a single Diamond in the second slot. This will fix a portion of the durability while keeping your enchantments intact.
Here is the "expert" nuance most people miss: The Prior Work Penalty.
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Minecraft tracks how many times an item has been through an anvil. Every time you repair it or add a book, the XP cost goes up. Eventually, the anvil will just say "Too Expensive!" and refuse to work. This is the game's way of telling you that the item is physically wearing out beyond repair. At that point, the item is basically a ticking time bomb. You can't fix it anymore.
The Mending Enchantment: The Only Permanent Solution
If you really want to know the secret to never worrying about how to repair weapons on Minecraft ever again, you need Mending.
Mending is a "treasure enchantment." You won't find it on a standard enchantment table. You have to find it in loot chests, through fishing, or—most reliably—by trading with a Librarian villager.
How it works is pretty clever. When you have a Mending weapon equipped (or in your off-hand), any Experience Orbs you collect will go toward repairing that item instead of filling your XP bar.
- Kill a zombie.
- Zombie drops XP.
- Your sword drinks that XP.
- Durability goes up.
It is essentially an infinite life cycle for your gear. If you pair Mending with Unbreaking III, your weapons become virtually indestructible. I’ve had the same Netherite pickaxe for three real-world years because of this mechanic.
The Grindstone Alternative
The Grindstone is often misunderstood. It’s not really for "repairing" in the way most people want, but it is excellent for "resetting."
If you find a bunch of enchanted gold swords from a Piglin farm that you don't want, you can run them through the grindstone. It repairs the item's durability by combining them, strips the enchantments, and actually gives you a bit of XP back. It’s a great way to recycle junk gear into raw materials and levels.
A Note on Netherite
Repairing Netherite is expensive. Using a Netherite Ingot to fix a sword is a waste of ancient debris. Seriously. Don't do it.
If you have Netherite gear, you should prioritize getting Mending immediately. Using an anvil to fix Netherite is a desperate move for when you're stuck in the End or the Nether and can't get back to a safe XP farm.
Specific Strategies for Different Gear
Bows are a special case. You can't have Mending and Infinity on the same bow. It’s one or the other. This creates a genuine tactical choice. Do you want a bow that has infinite arrows but will eventually break (Infinity), or a bow that you have to craft arrows for but will last forever (Mending)?
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Personally? I go with Mending. Arrows are easy to craft or farm from skeletons. A god-tier bow is hard to replace.
For Shields, don't bother with fancy repairs. They are cheap. Just craft a new one and move your banner pattern over if you have one.
Actionable Steps for Your Survival World
Stop using the crafting grid for anything you care about. It’s a trap for beginners.
Start by building a basic iron farm so you have a steady supply of iron for Anvils. They break after about 25 uses on average, so you'll need a lot of them.
Next, hunt for a Librarian villager. Trap him in a boat or a house and keep breaking and replacing his lectern until he offers a Mending book. It might take fifty tries. It might take two hundred. Do it anyway. It is the single most important upgrade in the game.
Once you have Mending on your primary weapon, build a simple mob grinder—even a basic dark room with water streams works—so you have a place to go and "heal" your gear after a long mining session.
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Keep an eye on that "Too Expensive!" cap. If you see your anvil costs hitting 30+ levels for a single repair, it's time to stop using the anvil and find that Mending book before the item snaps.
Check your durability bars after every major fight. It sounds simple, but most players lose their best gear because they simply weren't paying attention to the HUD.