Unbreaking Enchantment: How Much Longer Your Gear Lasts

Unbreaking gives your item a chance to skip losing durability when you use it. At level III, tools and weapons last about four times as long on average. It goes on almost everything that can break and conflicts with nothing, so it belongs on every piece of gear you care about.

The odds per level

Tools and weapons use one formula, armor another, and armor gets a much smaller boost.

Level	Tool/weapon: chance to skip	Tool lifetime	Armor: chance to skip	Armor lifetime
I	50%	2×	20%	~1.25×
II	66.7%	3×	26.7%	~1.36×
III	75%	4×	30%	~1.43×

A diamond pickaxe has 1,561 durability, so Unbreaking III gives it about 6,244 uses on average. Elytra lose one durability per second of gliding: 7 minutes 12 seconds plain, about 28 minutes 48 seconds with Unbreaking III. Our elytra enchantment guide covers that in more detail.

What it goes on

Unbreaking rolls on the enchanting table for pickaxes, shovels, axes, hoes, swords, spears, maces, bows, crossbows, tridents, fishing rods and all armor. Shears, shields, flint and steel, elytra, brushes and the “on a stick” items can only get it from a book on an anvil.

Getting Unbreaking III

The enchanting table hands out Unbreaking often, usually as a side enchantment next to something else. Books come from fishing, chests and librarians. Combining two Unbreaking II books on an anvil gives III.

Under the experimental Villager Trade Rebalance, Unbreaking III becomes the special book of jungle librarians, and desert and jungle temple chests carry Unbreaking books more often.

Unbreaking with Mending

These two are the standard pair. Mending repairs with XP; Unbreaking cuts how much repair is needed. A Mending pickaxe without Unbreaking works, but it eats four times as much XP. Put both on any tool you’ll use for hundreds of hours, along with Efficiency on tools and Protection on armor.