How to repair a bow in Minecraft without losing enchantments

Is your bow slowly getting destroyed? Learn how to repair your bow in Minecraft without losing your enchantments with this simple guide.

What is a bow in Minecraft

The bow was firstly introduced in the early closed Minecraft Alpha 0.0.3 update falling under the category of ranged weapons.

With a bow in Minecraft, you can shoot arrows from 15 to 52 blocks of distance.

Depending on the enchantments of the bow, you can have different effects and appliances, which can further enhance the damage you deal.

Along with the bow, a crossbow was added in Minecraft 1.10, which is another ranged weapon with rapid shots, with a range of at least 30 blocks.

Can you repair a bow in Minecraft?

Repairing a bow in Minecraft will require you to have another bow in your inventory and one of the following:

• Crafting Table (you will lose your bow enchantments)
• Grindstone (you will lose your bow enchantments)
• Anvil (you keep your bow enchantments)

As you can see the only way to repair a bow in Minecraft without losing your enchantments is by using an Anvil.

Anvils are used to fix weapons and materials near breaking, without changing their enchantments or removing them.

On top of that with an anvil, you can apply more enchantments to your gears in Minecraft.

This simply means that you can further enchant your bow without losing any of the previous enchants.

But if you try to use a crafting table or a grindstone you will end up without enchants, but a repaired bow.

How many shots does a bow have in Minecraft?

Each item in Minecraft has durability. Enchanting the item with an unbreaking enchantment can increase the durability, but will depend if you are lucky enough to get it.

By default, a bow has 384 durabilities and each shot will cost you 1 point. If you enchant the bow with unbreaking 3, it can take up to 1536 shots.

Repairing a bow with a single anvil can happen 5 times, which gives you the opportunity to shoot 7680 arrows before it exhausts.

What materials do I need to repair a bow in Minecraft?

If you want to repair your bow, you will need to have another bow.

The durability of the other one doesn’t matter. You can add any broken or brand new bow and still get good durability as an end result.

However, if you have a brand new bow, you will be getting the max durability and will take 384 shots to break it.

From where can I get a bow?

If you want to get a bow in Minecraft, you will need to do one of the following:

• Loot chests
• Kill skeletons and get a bow as a drop
• Craft a bow

If you got for looting chests or killing skeletons, you have chances of acquiring an enchanted bow, which can receive further enchantments from books.

An already enchanted bow cannot be enchanted from the enchanting table, so crafting yourself a bow is the best you can do in such cases.

How to repair a bow in Minecraft without losing your enchantments

If you would like to repair your bow, you will need to have a crafting table, grindstone, or an anvil.

Each of them has a different way of repairing them but requires you to have another bow.

Repair a bow by using an anvil

The first thing you need to repair your bow is another one. If you are repairing an enchanted bow, it’s all good.

The way to make this happen is by placing both bows in the open slots.

It will require you to pay a certain amount of XP for repairing your item, but you will receive a fixed enchanted bow.

If you don’t have the XP needed, you can leave your bow and go grind mobs until you get to the point where you can repair it.

Other ways to repair your bow in Minecraft

If you would like to know the other ways to repair your bow, we will show you. However, using any of these methods will remove the enchants on your bow.

It doesn’t make sense to repair an enchanted bow using these methods, except if you are pulling a joke on someone or simply have too much money.

Repair a bow by using a grindstone

Grindstones are mainly used for cutting stones and using them for decoration, but did you know that they can fix bows and crossbows?

Yes, they can fix them.

The only problem is that it will fix the bow, but give you an unenchanted one.

By placing 2 bows in the grindstone you will get a new one.

Repair a bow by using a crafting table

If you want to get rid of duplicate bows and wish to keep only one durable, you can use a crafting table. It can repair a bow, but not keep the enchantments.

If you stand next to your crafting table, simply place two bows one next to the other, and it will take out a brand new bot for you.

If you try this with an enchanted bow, the enchantments will be lost and an ordinary bow will appear.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to fix your enchanted bow and keep it safe from losing its enchantments, you can safely play the game with no issues.

If you lose your enchanted bow in the process of repairing it with a grindstone or crafting table, the process is undoable.