How Repairing Tools in Minecraft Works

[Phoxtane]

As some of you may know, the ability to repair your tools in Minecraft was added in the Beta 1.9 Pre-Release 3 update, allowing you to place two worn-down tools of the same material in your personal crafting grid and have them merge together. I\'ve noticed that many people who play Minecraft don\'t actually know how to use this, or even how it works.

How does it work?

To repair a tool, you simply take two tools of the same type and material, such as two stone picks. After placing them in the crafting grid, the result would be one Stone Pick with slightly more uses left in it. The algorithm for determining the amount of uses in the repaired tool goes as such:

floor( Item A uses + Item B uses + (Max uses / 10) )

The game takes the amount of uses left in one tool, adds them to the amount of uses left in the other, and then adds 10% of the total amount of uses a tool of that type and material would get. Floor means it rounds that number down to the nearest integer.

That\'s cool, but how do I benefit from this?

To put it simply, you get a small amount of free uses for repairing tools!

Let\'s try this out. When I use tools, I wear them down until the last bit of the red usage bar has disappeared. On stone tools, that means you have six uses left. I\'ve now got two picks with 6 uses left on each.

floor( 6 + 6 + (Max uses /10) )

The amount of uses in a freshly crafted stone pick is 132.

floor( 6 + 6 + (132 /10) )

After some simple algebra, we get 25 uses - just over double the amount of uses that would have been left normally. You can keep repairing a worn-out tool until it reaches the full amount of uses that a tool of that material will give. Personally, I like to leave off repairing it to full usage, because that may eliminate a few uses. You can just start on another tool when you hit that cap.

[Nooblet68]

Can I just ask, is Repairing tools in Minecraft really that complex?

[Misterspork]

Can I just ask, is Repairing tools in Minecraft really that complex?

Um, that\'s really simple math...

6 + 6 + (132/10)?

[Nooblet68]

Um, that\'s really simple math...

6 + 6 + (132/10)?

No, I\'m just referring to the fact that he used so much space to describe something so simple.

[Phoxtane]

No, I\'m just referring to the fact that he used so much space to describe something so simple.

I just wanted to make sure there was no confusion with how to repair tools, or how the game decides the amount of uses left.

[cardgame]

I only have this to say: I hate the minecraft update numbers.

I still remember beta 1.8 and then they reverted it to 1.0 again on full release... headache.

[Polecat Industries]

I only have this to say: I hate the minecraft update numbers.

I still remember beta 1.8 and then they reverted it to 1.0 again on full release... headache.

And 1.9, the update that never officially existed.

[Phoxtane]

A side note: I managed to salvage about 2 and 1/4 picks from a starting set of 24.

[Nooblet68]

And 1.9, the update that never officially existed.

That\'s because 1.9 was 1.0 (full)

[Luigibro606]

Uhh... since when did this exist?

Also, I reverted to Alpha 1.0.15.

[Ydoow]

Wait this was built into MC? Why did I never read about this???

I remember it being a mod, but I thought it was kinda lame, and plus I hate keeping up with mods and their updates