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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 (see below on the Speed and Durability table).

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* 1.15 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 2.5 secs* 0.4 secs 0.2 secs 0.15 secs 0.1 secs 0.1 secs
Netherrack 2 secs* 0.3 secs 0.15 secs 0.1 secs 0.1 secs 0.05 secs

Redstone and Obsidian take an unusually long time to harvest because the game does not consider pickaxes to be "good" at mining them; this is probably a bug.

Notes

  • Pickaxes are the only technically required wood tools in the game. This is because they can mine stone; a much better tool building material. Therefore, one only ever needs to have 1 wood pickaxe.
  • Since the Beta 1.2 update, tools have increased durability and gold tools destroy blocks faster, making them no longer completely useless.
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