How to Repair Tools in Minecraft (Bow, Trident, Armor and More)

Every tool, weapon and piece of armor in Minecraft wears out. When its durability bar runs down, it breaks and disappears, along with any enchantments on it. Repairing keeps your best gear alive, especially enchanted diamond and netherite items that took a long time to make. This guide explains every way to repair tools in Minecraft, which material repairs which item, how to repair a bow and a trident, and how to avoid the anvil’s Too Expensive limit.

Quick answer: ways to repair tools

Method 1: Repair with an anvil

1. Craft or find an anvil: 3 blocks of iron and 4 iron ingots. See how to make an anvil.
2. Put the damaged item in the first slot.
3. Put the repair material or a second item of the same type in the second slot.
4. Pay the experience cost shown and take the repaired item.

Each unit of material restores a quarter of the item’s maximum durability, so up to four materials can fully repair it. An anvil also lets you rename items for a small cost.

Repair materials

Method 2: Grindstone

Put two damaged items of the same type in a grindstone. They merge into one with their combined durability plus a 5 percent bonus. The grindstone removes all enchantments except curses and gives you some experience back. It is free and perfect for plain tools. See how to make and use a grindstone.

Method 3: Crafting grid

Put two damaged items of the same type anywhere in a crafting grid. The result has their combined durability plus a 5 percent bonus, but loses all enchantments. It is the quickest fix in the early game when you do not have a grindstone yet.

Method 4: Mending

Mending repairs an item with the experience orbs you pick up while you hold or wear it. Each experience point repairs 2 durability. It is the best long-term solution because it costs nothing and never hits an anvil limit. Get it from librarian villagers, fishing or chest loot. See what Mending does.

How to repair a bow in Minecraft

Bows do not have a material repair, so you cannot fix them with string or sticks. Your options are:

• Anvil with a second bow: combine two bows to merge durability. Enchantments from both are combined where possible, which can upgrade your bow.
• Grindstone or crafting grid: combine two bows for free, but enchantments are lost.
• Mending: the best option for an enchanted bow. Remember that Mending and Infinity cannot both be on the same bow.

Crossbows are repaired the same way: with another crossbow, a grindstone or Mending. See how to make a bow.

How to repair a trident in Minecraft

Tridents cannot be crafted and have no repair material, so they are repaired only by:

• Anvil with a second trident: drowned sometimes drop tridents, so collect spares.
• Mending: the best choice. A trident with Mending, Loyalty and Unbreaking lasts forever and returns to you after every throw.
• Grindstone: merges two tridents but removes their enchantments.

Tridents are not repaired by prismarine or any other block. See what Loyalty does and what Channeling does.

How to avoid Too Expensive

Every time an item goes through an anvil, its prior work penalty rises, making the next repair more expensive. In Survival, any anvil job that costs 40 levels or more shows Too Expensive and cannot be done.

• Add Mending early so you never need anvil repairs again.
• Combine enchanted books with each other first, then put the combined book on the item in one step.
• Repair with raw materials rather than a second enchanted item when you only need durability.
• Avoid renaming items repeatedly, since every anvil use adds to the penalty.

Repairing in Java vs Bedrock

The repair methods are the same in both editions. Bedrock calculates anvil costs and prior work penalties slightly differently, so the same repair can cost a different number of levels. Grindstones and crafting-grid repairs behave the same way, removing enchantments in both editions.

Tips

• Repair before an item is nearly broken, so it does not snap in the middle of a fight or a mine.
• Keep a stack of repair materials near your anvil.
• Anvils get damaged with use. Craft a spare before a big repair session.

Which material repairs which item

On an anvil, every item has a repair material that restores a quarter of its maximum durability per unit. Wooden tools are repaired with any planks, stone tools with cobblestone, cobbled deepslate or blackstone, and iron, gold and copper tools and armor with ingots of the same metal. Diamond gear takes diamonds and netherite gear takes netherite ingots. Leather armor is repaired with leather, a turtle shell with turtle scutes, wolf armor with armadillo scutes, an elytra with phantom membranes, a shield with planks and a mace with breeze rods. Bows, crossbows, fishing rods, tridents, shears and flint and steel have no repair material, so they can only be repaired by combining two of the same item or with Mending.

Knowing the material saves you a lot of experience, because one cheap material repairs far more durability than its level cost suggests.

FAQ

How do you repair a bow in Minecraft?

Combine it with another bow in an anvil, grindstone or crafting grid, or put Mending on it. Bows have no material repair.

How do you repair a trident?

Combine two tridents in an anvil or grindstone, or use Mending. Tridents have no repair material.

How do you repair tools without losing enchantments?

Use an anvil with the tool’s material or a second item of the same type, or use Mending.

What repairs an elytra?

Phantom membranes in an anvil, or Mending.

Why does my anvil say Too Expensive?

The repair costs 40 levels or more because the item has been worked on many times. Use Mending instead.

Checked by the Game Respawned editorial team against the current Java and Bedrock versions. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.