Durability

Item durability is a property to which certain crafted items, including all tools, weapons and armor, as well as certain other usable items, are subject. It represents the number of useful actions an item can perform and depletes upon item use. For tools and weapons, item durability represents the number of available uses before the tool is destroyed. For armor, it represents the amount of damage that can be absorbed before the armor is destroyed.

The remaining durability of any item can be seen by looking at the item's durability bar on the bottom of the item icon in the inventory and action bar. An item that has not once been used will not display a durability bar. As the item's durability decreases, the bar shortens right to left, changing color from green to red. When the item has only small number of uses left the durability bar is an empty gray line.

The numeric durability of your items can be displayed in game by pressing F3+H. (This enables various additional information in the tooltips for items in the player's inventory.) Note that the durability value displayed there is one less than the actual durability of the item: after the value hits 0, the item can be used one last time.

Only players can reduce the durability of items. Weapons or tools picked up by mobs that are used against a player will not lower in durability; it will remain the same as when the weapon or tool was first picked up by the mob.

Armor durability
Armor durability is based on the armor's type (head, torso, legs, feet) and material (leather, gold, iron, diamond). Any time you take damage, each piece of armor you are wearing loses one point of durability.

Armor durability only decreases when its wearer takes damage that the armor is capable of reducing. This includes:
 * Direct attacks from mobs and other players
 * Getting hit with an arrow, snowball or fireball (either Ghast or Blaze)
 * Touching a block of fire, lava, or cactus
 * Explosions
 * The Thorns enchantment

The following types of damage are not reduced by ordinary armor and have no effect on the armor's durability. Some enchantments can protect against them, but they still don't damage the armor.
 * Ongoing damage from being on fire
 * Suffocating inside a block
 * Drowning in water
 * Starvation
 * Fall damage
 * Falling into the Void
 * Poisoning e.g. from a Cave Spider bite or a Potion of Poison
 * Instant damage from a Potion of Harming

Values represent the number of points of durability damage this armor must take before it is destroyed.

Note that every time the player takes damage that armor is capable of reducing (see above), it counts as one point of durability damage for every worn armor piece. Armor with the Thorns enchantment automatically loses another point of durability, and two more (for a total of four) if it reflects damage to the attacker.

Tool durability
The values in this table are the number of useful actions that a tool can perform. Gold tools destroy most blocks faster than any other type of tool. However, they can only collect blocks that can be harvested with wooden tools.

The next table shows how many uses remain in a tool, at the first moment its durability bar appears empty.


 * Using a sword to mine blocks (including some for which they are the fast tool) counts as two uses.
 * Using a pickaxe, axe or shovel on the wrong type of block only counts as one use (but is slow), but attacking mobs counts as two.
 * A hoe does not lose durability either mining blocks nor attacking mobs (but in either case, it's no better than bare hands). Its durability applies only to tilling dirt.
 * Carrot on a Stick has a durability of 26, Flint and Steel and Fishing Rods have a durability of 65, Shears have a durability of 239, and Bows have a durability of 385.
 * Like a hoe, each of these use durability only when used in their normal fashions.
 * Successfully catching a fish counts as one use of a fishing rod, reeling in the line while it is stuck to a block counts as two uses, and reeling in any mob counts as three uses. Casting into water and reeling in an "empty hook" does not cost durability.
 * Shears are only damaged when shearing a sheep and when breaking cobweb, leaves, tall grass, tripwire, and vines blocks.
 * Items with an Unbreaking Enchantment do not always lose durability when used; for a given enchantment level, the chance that they will use durability is 1 in (1+level). The result is that they will last an extra level times their original durability, give or take a few.

Video
Note: The video states that "attacking with a pick, axe or shovel counts as one use". This is incorrect - using a pickaxe, axe or shovel on the wrong type of block only counts as one use, but attacking mobs counts as two.

Trivia

 * When a command or Command Block is used, Tools and Armor can be stacked.
 * In Indev, Wooden Tools had 33 uses, Stone Tools had 65, Iron Tools had 129, and Diamond Tools had 257.