Pickaxes are one of the most commonly used tools in the game, being required to mine all ores and many other types of block. Different qualities of pickaxe are required to successfully harvest certain ores and blocks. For example, while coal ore can be mined with any pickaxe, gold ore must be mined with an iron pickaxe or better, or else the player will harvest no ore. Better pickaxes also mine many materials faster (see the Speed and Durability table below).
Uses
A pickaxe is used for obtaining "stone" resources. Some of these resources are:
- Stone
- Cobblestone
- Coal blocks (resource)1
- Gold blocks (resource)1
- Diamond blocks (resource)1
- Redstone blocks (resource)1
- Iron blocks (resource)1
- Gold blocks (solid)2
- Diamond blocks (solid)2
- Iron blocks (solid)2
- Glowstone
A pickaxe is only required to actually be able to pick up these blocks or the things that they drop after they have been mined. You can break all of these blocks by hand, but you will not be able to pick up the block or the drop. The only reason for the different kinds of pickaxes is so that you have to have a certain pickaxe in order to obtain things like diamonds. This means that if you have a wooden pickaxe and you mine a diamond block, you will not be able to pick up the diamonds that would come out of the block had you used a stone, iron or diamond pick.
Footnotes: 1= This block is the ore block, not the solid block made with ingots 2= This block is the solid block which can only be obtained through crafting a number of ingots together. This is NOT referring to the ore block.
Crafting
Pickaxes are crafted using 2 sticks and 3 units of a tool material:
| Ingredients | Input » Output | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sticks + Wooden Planks or Cobblestone or Iron Ingots or Gold Ingots or Diamond Gems |
Template:Grid/Crafting Table | Required to mine stone-related blocks and ore. |
Speed and Durability
The following table shows the time it takes to break each type of block. Values marked with an asterisk and a red background indicate that it cannot be harvested by that quality of tool. (Note that some blocks, like Ice, don't drop anything even when they are "harvested.") If there is no tool that helps speed up mining the block, the row will have a grey background.
| Pickaxes | Nothing | Wood | Stone | Iron | Diamond | Gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durability | ∞ | 60 | 132 | 251 | 1562 | 33 |
| Obsidian | 50 secs* | 50 secs* | 50 secs* | 50 secs* | 15 secs | 50 secs* |
| Iron Door | 25 secs* | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs |
| Diamond Block | 25 secs* | 25 secs* | 25 secs* | 1.25 secs | 0.95 secs | 25 secs* |
| Iron Block | 25 secs* | 25 secs* | 25 secs* | 1.25 secs | 0.95 secs | 25 secs* |
| Monster Spawner | 25 secs* | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs | 7.5 secs |
| Dispenser | 17.5 secs* | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs |
| Furnace | 17.5 secs* | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs | 5.25 secs |
| Coal Ore | 15 secs* | 2.25 secs | 1.15 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 0.4 secs |
| Diamond Ore | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 15 secs* |
| Gold Ore | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 15 secs* |
| Iron Ore | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 1.15 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 15 secs* |
| Lapis Lazuli Ore | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 1.15 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 15 secs* |
| Redstone Ore | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 4.5 secs | 4.5 secs | 15 secs* |
| Gold Block | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 15 secs* |
| Lapis Lazuli Block | 15 secs* | 15 secs* | 1.15 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.6 secs | 15 secs* |
| Brick | 10 secs* | 3 secs | 3 secs | 3 secs | 3 secs | 3 secs |
| Cobblestone | 10 secs* | 1.5 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.5 secs | 0.4 secs | 0.25 secs |
| Moss Stone | 10 secs* | 1.5 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.5 secs | 0.4 secs | 0.25 secs |
| Slab | 10 secs* | 1.5 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.5 secs | 0.4 secs | 0.25 secs |
| Stone Stairs | 10 secs* | 3 secs | 3 secs | 3 secs | 3 secs | 3 secs |
| Stone | 7.5 secs* | 1.15 secs | 0.6 secs | 0.4 secs | 0.3 secs | 0.2 secs |
| Sandstone | 4 secs* | 0.6 secs | 0.3 secs | 0.2 secs | 0.15 secs | 0.1 secs |
| Ice | 1 secs* | 0.4 secs | 0.2 secs | 0.15 secs | 0.1 secs | 0.1 secs |
| Pressure Plate | 2.5 secs* | 0.75 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.75 secs | 0.75 secs |
| Netherrack | 2 secs* | 0.3 secs | 0.15 secs | 0.1 secs | 0.1 secs | 0.05 secs |
| Glowstone (Block) | 7.5 secs* | 1.15 secs | 0.6 secs | 0.4 secs | 0.3 secs | 0.2 sec |
Trivia
- Before Beta 1.2 , the pickaxe had less durability and gold pickaxes acted like wooden ones.
- Notch said pigmen would hold iron pickaxes in the future, alongside Iron Swords.[citation needed]
- The Pickaxe is featured in the "Time to Mine!" and the "Getting an Upgrade" achievements.
- Before Beta 1.6.6 , Glowstone acted like a glass type block but now it has been changed to a stone type block requiring a pickaxe.[1]