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Alternatives for Mending on Equipment

The Mending enchantment has been in Minecraft for quite a long time and is by far the most sought-after endgame loot on par with Beacons, Conduits, and Totems of Undying. However, Mending in its current state creates a dilemma in that it forces items into a binary state; an item with Mending essentially has infinite uses while a normal item has a finite lifespan. Once Mending is acquired on an item, there is little reason to bother with ever replacing that item unless the player dies.

The solution that I propose the Mending problem is simple; equipment should never fully break and Mending should be used as a one-time use item to fully heal an enchanted item at no XP or material cost. 

This is a feature that already exists in the game on the Elytra. The Elytra can never be fully broken. When its durability reaches zero, it simply becomes a broken Elytra and must be repaired by the player. 

This property could be applied to every single item in the game that has durability to incentivize more mining and exploration to acquire resources for repairing enchanted items. Of course, this would also require that repair costs not increase after each repair. The cost to repair enchanted items would have to be much higher for the sake of balance.

For example, to repair a regular diamond pickaxe the player should have to use two diamonds and five experience levels at an anvil.

If the diamond pickaxe is enchanted with Efficiency V, Fortune III, and Unbreaking III, it should cost the player eight diamonds and ten experience levels to fully repair it at an anvil, and never increase.

Personally, after I acquired Mending on my pickaxe and sword, I found that diamonds quickly became useless and I haven't searched for them in months as I will never need to replace my gear unless I die or it is stolen. I believe that the solution I have proposed would increase the appeal of mining, as well as make Mending a more balanced enchantment.

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    I think Mojang has realized the full potential of Mending, and that is the reason Mending is mutually exclusive with some enchantments, such as Infinity on a bow.

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    Registered User commented
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    Mending is OP. It should be renamed to Fortitude and prevent the item from breaking so to allow it to be repaired via normal means.

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    Registered User commented
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    I half agree with this post. Now hear me out, I think mending is salvageable. Mostly mending needs to be fixed, it completely removes the necessity to mine and it is quite unfortunate. Though I do not think a "one time fix" is a particularly fun enchantment to get as you do everything to achieve it to loss it all at once. I also do not think they should remove the ability for your tools to break, mostly for early game clutter moving into late game consistency. And lastly I do not think enchanted items should cost more to repair as it should not be looked at as a detriment to have an enchantment.

    Here is what I suggest. Make it so the mending enchantment now solely removes the increasing repair costs. Super simple. We can keep most mechanisms in place, the mending enchantment is still the go-to, to keep your enchanted item around (especially if you find your enchantments from chests).  And it will bring meaning back to mining. This change would be an elegant fix to the problem and very intuitive for the player who has spent any time on an anvil with out compromising the current structure of the game.