Tools are items used by the player while held to perform actions faster, to gather materials not obtainable by hand, or to perform completely new actions.
List of Tools
Shovel
Shovels are used for removing dirt, sand, gravel, clay and snow faster.
Pickaxe
Pickaxes are used for removing stone, cobblestone, mossy cobblestone, coal, iron ore, gold ore, diamond, obsidian, and stairs faster.
Stone and coal can only be retrieved with a wooden pickaxe or better; iron ore with a stone pickaxe or better; redstone ore, gold ore and diamond with an iron pickaxe or better; and obsidian with a diamond pickaxe.
Axe
Axes are used for removing logs, planks, and chests faster.
Bucket
Buckets are used to hold water, lava, or milk for transport. They can only pick up "springs" blocks also known as infinite water or infinite lava blocks and not the "run off" from these blocks. Springs are easily identified by the texture as the top of a spring block will never be moving whereas non-spring blocks will always move.
Flint and Steel
Flint and Steel is used to light trees, grass, and mobs on fire.
Hoe
Hoes can be used to till Dirt blocks. Tilling Grass can cause Seeds to drop, which can then be grown on tilled ground that is near water.
Tool Material and Efficiency
The primary tools can be made out of four different materials: wood, stone, iron, and diamond. A fifth material, gold, is equal to wood. Each material has a limited amount of uses and a specific action time. The better the material used, the more uses it has and the shorter the action time. The following chart, courtesy of Crixnmix (http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15985), portrays the average time, in seconds, required to break a block depending on what material is used to craft a tool.
(*) These values represent tools which yield no block drops.
(**) There is double durability damage to weapons when they are used to break glass and leaves.
| SHOVELS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dirt | |||||
| Gravel | |||||
| Sand | |||||
| PICKAXES | |||||
| Smooth Stone | |||||
| Cobblestone | |||||
| Coal Ore | |||||
| Iron Ore | |||||
| Gold Ore | |||||
| Diamond Ore | |||||
| Iron Block | |||||
| Gold Block | |||||
| Diamond Block | |||||
| Obsidian | |||||
| Stair Block | |||||
| Steps | |||||
| Furnace | |||||
| AXES | |||||
| Log | |||||
| Plank | |||||
| Workbench | |||||
| Chest | |||||
| SWORDS (**) | |||||
| Glass | |||||
| Leaves |
Crafting recipes
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| 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. | |
| Fishing Rod | Stick + String |
||
| Fishing Rod | Damaged Fishing Rod | The durability of the two fishing rods is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. | |
| Compass | Iron Ingot + Redstone Dust |
||
| 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"] | |
| 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 |