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 (note that bows are exempted from durability). For armour it represents the amount of damage that can be absorbed before the armour is destroyed; in addition, it determines the fraction of damage received the armour will absorb.

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 colour from green to red. When the item has a single use left the durability bar is an empty grey line.

Tool and weapon durability
The maximum durability of weapons and tools is given by the formula D = 2k+1 , where D is the durability of the tool and k is a constant related to the material the tool is crafted from. The relevant durability values are tabulated below. For all weapons and tools, a useful action is:


 * The complete deconstruction of a block;
 * A single strike at a mob.

Incomplete attempts at block deconstruction do not qualify as a useful action.

Each appropriate use of a tool depletes one durability point. Each inappropriate use of a tool depletes two durability points. The table below lists the effectiveness (the property where the use of the tool expedites the listed action) and propriety of each tool and weapon for each possible useful action.


 * A red background indicates an inappropriate action, while a green background indicates an appropriate action. A yellow background indicated an effective but inappropriate action.
 * 'E' indicates an effective action, 'NE' indicates an ineffective action and 'N/A' indicates an action impossible to perform with the listed tool.

Armor durability
Armor absorbs damage based only on its remaining durability. The material from which armour is made does not affect its damage absorption. However, armour made from lower-grade materials with less durability will degrade more quickly and lose its protective properties sooner than higher-quality armour. A piece of armour loses one durability point every time minimal damage is taken. Damage will decrease the durability of all pieces of armor worn by the same amount; thus more armour does not last longer. It does, however, offer greater damage mitigation.

Consider this example:
 * After 25 hits (of minimal damage), a leather chest-plate has 49% durability remaining (24 points of 49), thus 49% of a chestplate's original damage protection. A diamond chestplate would have 93.5% of its durability left (360 points of 385), and hence 93.5% of its original damage absorption.

Thus it is evident that though the initial maximum damage absorption is the same for all materials, lower-grade armour must be replaced with much greater frequency to be useful.

Each type of armour item has a given maximum absorption, measured analogously to health points. A piece of maximum durability armour in every slot affords maximum protection (10 points). Individual pieces of armour at full durability fill out a number of armour points dependent on the variety of armour (helmet, chest-plate, etc.) only.

''As a note to the player, even the most minor of falling damage will incur a durability loss in armour. Thus the prudent player is advised not to wear his best armour when engaging in activity where some minor falls are likely but serious danger is absent.''

Durability tables

 * Below are listed the numbers of proper uses for each weapon and armor type. Armour values stand for the number of minimum-damage hits it can sustain.