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 |
| 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 |
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.