A tool is an item used by the player while held to perform actions faster and more efficiently, to gather materials not obtainable by hand, to gain information, or to perform completely new actions. With the exception of the clock, compass, empty bucket, and lead, tools do not stack in the inventory. Tools can be repaired; see Item repair.
Obtaining[]
Mob loot[]
Some tools can be obtained by killing mobs that carry the equipment.
Crafting[]
Most tools can be obtained through crafting.
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flint and Steel | Iron Ingot + Flint |
||
| Flint and Steel | Damaged Flint and Steel | The durability of the two tools is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Axe | Any Planks or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick |
||
| Stone Axe | Any stone-tier block + Stick |
Can use cobblestone and its other variants interchangeably. | |
| Axe | Damaged Matching Axe | The durability of the two axes is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Hoe | Any Planks or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick |
||
| Stone Hoe | Any stone-tier block + Stick |
Can use cobblestone and its other variants interchangeably. | |
| Hoe | Damaged Matching Hoe | The durability of the two hoes is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Shovels | Any Planks or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick |
||
| Stone Shovel | Any stone-tier block + Stick |
Can use any variant of cobblestone | |
| Shovel | Damaged Matching Shovel | The durability of the two shovels is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Pickaxe | Any Planks or Iron Ingot or Gold Ingot or Diamond + Stick |
||
| Stone Pickaxe | Any stone-tier block + Stick |
Can use cobblestone and its other variants interchangeably. | |
| Pickaxe | Matching Damaged Pickaxes | The durability of the two pickaxes is added together, plus an extra 5% of the tool type's total durability. | |
| Compass | Iron Ingot + Redstone Dust |
||
| Fishing Rod | Stick + String |
||
| Fishing Rod | Damaged Fishing Rod | The durability of the two fishing rods is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Clock | Gold Ingot + Redstone Dust |
||
| Shears | Iron Ingot | ||
| Shears | Damaged Shears | The durability of the two shears is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Lead | String + Slimeball |
||
| Bundle | String + Rabbit Hide |
[only experimental "bundle"][until JE 1.21.2] | |
| Bundle | String + Leather |
[only experimental "bundle"][upcoming: JE 1.21.2] | |
| Brush | Feather + Copper Ingot + Stick |
||
| Brush | Damaged Brush | The durability of the two brushes is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Spyglass | Amethyst Shard + Copper Ingot |
||
| Recovery Compass | Echo Shard + Compass |
Upgrading[]
Netherite tools can be obtained only through upgrading.
Usage[]
Best tools[]
Many blocks have a preferred tool to break them. Some blocks can be broken only with certain tools. The tool's material also affects how fast a block is mined. Materials from worst to best in terms of mining speed are wooden, stone, iron, diamond, netherite, gold.
Item durability[]
Different tools have different amounts of durability. Some uses require more durability to be used than others. A tool's durability is also affected by its material. Materials from worst to best in terms of durability are gold, wooden, stone, iron, diamond, netherite.
Some tools are not block-breaking tools: This includes bows, fishing rods, carrots on sticks, flint & steel, and buckets. Such tools are no better than bare fists at breaking blocks, but they do not take damage from doing so—they take damage from being used in their own intended manners.
Item enchantability[]
Materials from worst to best in terms of enchantability are stone, diamond, iron, wooden/netherite, gold.
Smelting[]
Iron or golden tools can be smelted into nuggets.
| Ingredients | Smithing recipe |
|---|---|
| Netherite Upgrade + Diamond Hoe or Diamond Shovel or Diamond Pickaxe or Diamond Axe + Netherite Ingot |
| Name | Ingredients | Smelting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Iron Nugget | Any iron tools + Any fuel |
|
| Gold Nugget | Any golden tools + Any fuel |
- Fuel
- Wooden tools can be used as a fuel in furnaces, smelting 1 item per tool.
- A fishing rod can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5[JE only]/1[BE only] items per fishing rod.
History[]
| Java Edition Indev | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.31 | 20091231-2 | Added iron shovels. | |||
| 20100110 | Added iron axes and pickaxes. | ||||
| 20100128 | Added wooden, stone, and diamond tools. | ||||
| 20100129 | Added crafting recipes for wooden, stone, iron, and diamond tools. | ||||
| 20100130 | Added golden tools. | ||||
| 20100131 | A tier system for wooden, stone, iron, diamond, and gold tools is added. Each tier has a different mining speed multiplier and durability. | ||||
| 20100201-2 | Tools are now required to break blocks and ores. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | RC1 | Tools now make a breaking sound and have a breaking animation. | |||
| All tools now also have breaking animation. | |||||
| RC2 | Tools no longer break quickly after loading a world that was saved in RC1. | ||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w17a | Tools now have infinite durability in Creative mode. | |||
| 12w18a | Wooden tools became able to be used as fuel for furnaces in case players didn't want to repair them or finish using them. | ||||
| 12w24a | Breaking a block that can be instantly mined by hand (tall grass, torch, etc.) while holding a block-breaking tool no longer reduces the tool's durability. | ||||
| 1.6.1 | 13w21a | Instead of replacing the barehanded damage (1 ), pickaxes, shovels, axes and swords now add their damage onto the barehanded damage. | |||
| 1.11.1 | 16w50a | Golden and iron tools now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets. | |||
| 1.14 | 18w48a | Tools cannot be repaired by crafting. | |||
| 1.14.3 | Pre-Release 3 | Tools can be once again be repaired by crafting. | |||
| 1.16.2 | 20w29a | Tools have a new arrange in the Creative inventory. | |||
| 1.20 (Experimental) | 23w04a | Upgrading diamond tools to netherite tools now requires the netherite upgrade smithing template. | |||
| 23w07a | Added brushes. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.2.0 | Added stone tools and shears. | ||||
| v0.3.0 | Added wooden tools. | ||||
| v0.3.2 | Added iron, diamond, and golden tools. | ||||
| v0.3.3 | Added bows. | ||||
| v0.4.0 | Added flint and steel and all hoe types. | ||||
| v0.7.0 | Added buckets. | ||||
| v0.7.4 | Flint and steel now ignite creepers. | ||||
| v0.8.0 | build 1 | Added flint and steel to the Creative inventory. | |||
| build 3 | Added shears to the Creative inventory. | ||||
| v0.11.0 | build 1 | Added fishing rod. | |||
| v0.15.0 | build 1 | Added carrot on a stick and leads. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Golden and iron tools now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU53 | CU43 | 1.49 | Patch 23 | 1.0.3 | Golden and iron tools now smelt down into one of their respective nuggets. |
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Tool" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- Gold tools are actually ranked as superior to diamond tools on the Legacy Console Edition's crafting screen.
- Wooden tools can be burned in a furnace regardless of its durability; this means the player can burn a wooden tool that has only 1 use left.